Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 18

“There are weapons that are simply thoughts. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy.”-Rod Serling.

Chapter 18

-Victor-

“I’m sending you to the apartment.” I scoffed at Nathan. “Make sure you don’t go ballistic there too. I don’t want a tornado to pass my room.”

Nathan didn’t answer instead he kept staring a tree ahead.

“Shouldn’t you go with him?” Karen asked.

I frowned at her. “And what, babysit him?”

“That’s what a responsible brother would do,” Jon said rubbing his cheeks.

Oh, wow. Who was he exactly to tell me that?

“Don’t you two have a detention to take care of?” I tried to sound offhand.

“Nice try,” Jon rolled his eyes. “Do I really care about that?”

I couldn’t tell anyone how much I hated this guy. If Karen wasn’t so fond of him, I’m sure he wouldn’t be breathing the same air. The fact that he was going to turn into a fierce werewolf on the full moon made me hate him some more. 

Adding fuel to the fire never sounded so right.

Jon closed his eyes and muttered something. Not even my advanced vampire hearing could hear what he had said.

“What is he doing?” I asked Karen.

She lifted up her shoulders and shook her head.

“I’m thanking God for not having a brother like you,” Jon said.

“Someone needs to tell you that you aren’t funny.” I was annoyed to the point where I could just kill him. So, I shifted my attention to my brother. “Shall I send you, Nathan?”

“I can go. I don’t need your help.” He said. He lifted the locket to show me. “I have this locket too.”

“I know but whatever happened here can happen anywhere, so just try to contain the monster within.” I talked to him as if I was talking to a small kid. Or not. “I can’t come to save you every time you get yourself in trouble.”

“Victor, it’s not his fault that someone hypnotised him and made him do that,” Karen said, gazing at me intently. “We have to find the person who did it. And we can do that only if we work as a team.”

“I’m not teaming up with people who cannot defend themselves,” I clenched my jaw. “All of us will make a team of misfits. If I need to find out who did this, I can do it all on my own. I don’t need anyone.”

She was taken aback. Her eyebrows twitched together as she looked at me with confusion and despair. She wanted to reply but she didn’t speak. I couldn’t read her mind or I would have known what her thoughts were. Her face gave up most of her thoughts though.

Did I care? No. Okay, maybe I did…just a little.

“So, where are you going for the answers?” She asked at last.

I stared at her. When the wind passed her hair and it brushed her cheek, something made my hand jerk. I wanted to touch her cheeks, look her in the eyes, and tell her everything was going to be alright. I wanted to forget that Nathan and Jon were here with us. Well, actually I didn’t care about them at all.

Why did everyone become non-existent when I looked at her? 

“I don’t know where I’m going to begin,” I sighed. “But I know I need to gather as much as information I can about the whole werewolf and hunter thing.”

“I thought you’d be interested in finding the culprit,” Jon mumbled.

“And I thought you’d be keeping your mouth shut while two intelligent people talk.” I c****d my head to look at him. He gritted his teeth and looked away. I turned back to Karen. “You should go back to your school and I’ll catch you at your house if I found something important enough.”

“How does this work exactly?” Nathan asked, rubbing his locket. “Do I need to say magical words?”

I bet I wasn’t this stupid even when I was four years old. He had seen me making portals a thousand times. Hadn’t he heard of ‘watch and learn’?

“Just close your eyes and try to picture the place where you wanna go. Wait, I’ll do it.” I said. “I don’t want you to end up somewhere else. It needs a little practice.”

Before Nathan could cry in protest or give reasons to not intrude, I created the portal for him to the apartment. He just needed to go in.

He didn’t protest as the portal opened in the middle of the woods. I gestured him to go in with a smile on my face. I wanted him to get off my back. There was not a single reason for me to listen to his bickering.

“Can we go now?” Jon asked as soon as the portal disappeared behind Nathan.

“Of course, what’s holding you here?” I said with a fake grin. “Go back to your school lives again.”

“Can you walk with me to school?” Karen asked me.

“Why would you want him to walk with you?” Jon asked. “I can protect you if there’s an attack by some…creature.”

“I don’t need anyone to protect me, Jon,” Karen said softly, not sounding rude. I always sounded rude when I meant to be rude. “I can fight.”

“You had to see how she fought when we came to rescue you,” I chimed in. “It was awesome. She is faster than a vampire and she doesn’t even need to be close to her enemies to make them crawl on the floor.”

Jon raised his eyebrows.

“Did he just speak like a fangirl of yours?” He pointed at me and asked Karen. “Or am I hearing weird stuff?”

Son of a—

Karen cleared her throat. “Let’s go. I’m sure Chloe will extend our detention time now.”

Whistling, Jon started walking without looking back or saying anything. Good. Karen walked beside me. And until we reached the end of the woods, the silence was the most uncomfortable companion. She didn’t speak to me, which was surprising because she was the one who asked me to walk with her.

“You don’t have to put an image of me that is impossible to achieve,” Karen spoke as we entered the busy road.

“What, you did fight like a pro.” I let out a short laugh. “That’s an image never going to diminish.”

“I’m not talking about this image, Victor.” She bit her lip once and then licked it.

I held my breath, not that it affected me much. I had to stop watching her lips; it was what affected me the most. I had to start counting cars instead. Cars can be interesting. I bet you’d love to count passing cars when you were having an awkward situation.

“What you said that night is completely wrong. Even if I jump in front of people to protect them, it doesn’t make me strong. It’s what everyone does. When you see your loved ones in trouble, you just don’t think about yourself,” She said. “I don’t want you to have feelings for me that I can’t…respond to.”

“Then why do you care?” I asked, hoping she would take her words back. It was a wishful thinking. “What do you care if I get my heart broken?”

I heard the hitch in her breath.

“Did you say the same thing to Ember too?” She asked. “I’m sure it’s a catchy line.”

I stopped walking and so did Karen. She looked away, shoulders sinking and eyes lost. Damn! This was one of the most unfortunate events in my life. I could get any girl I wanted. Why was I drawn to this particular girl?

“Look, there are a lot of mistakes I’ve made. But mistakes make us understand where we were wrong. They teach us and show us the right way.” I said, hiding my frustration. “I’m a vampire, Karen. I’ve lived a long life. Every day it’s a battle between bloodlust and conscience. And bloodlust is what wins at the end of the day. I need to survive. Would you give up food for a conscience you can’t feed on?”

She looked at me. Her eyes turned soft as if she could look into my soul. Not that my soul was clean. It was way tainted.

“It’s not easy for a vampire to survive without blood,” I said finally. “The pain, weakness, and hunger eventually take over your thoughts, your mind. It will drive you insane. You’ll become a worse monster than you originally were.”

“Have you ever tried, you know, to live off blood?” She asked.

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

We started walking when Jon screamed some curse words directed towards me. I didn’t reply back because I was too occupied with our conversation.

“What I’m trying to say is can you not drink blood from girls. I mean you have those blood bags.” Karen shrugged. “You don’t have to hurt someone.”

“They won’t after I’m done drinking their blood,” I replied. “The girls mostly don’t remember.”

“Then how does Ember remember?”

“I told you it was a mistake.”

“A mistake that could cost a life,” Karen reminded me harshly. “She was broken, Victor. Didn’t you see that?”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked. “Go back to her?”

“No—of course not,” She replied quickly. “I just don’t want you to repeat that same chapter with me. Knowing that you’re trying to charm me since you saw me in the Escoffier mansion, doesn’t help your case.”

“Do you really like Nathan?” I asked. There was an icy hand gripping my heart, crushing it.

There was a pause. “I don’t know.”

“And do you hate me?”

“I don’t know.” That got a quick response from her.

“Have you ever been this indecisive?” I smiled.

“Never,” Karen rubbed her temple. “You both are my good friends and I can’t give anyone a higher place. You both are important to me.”

“Did you think that while kissing him?” I asked. I felt my voice getting firm.

“Victor, I thought we had sorted this drama.”

“Yeah, right, I need not meddle in your love life.” I grinned, “But you should stop having hots for your best friend.”

Her eyes opened wide and she punched me on the arm.

“I do not have hots for him,” She blushed hard. “Not anymore.”

“Ah, that’s relaxing to know.” I placed a hand on my chest, where my heart was supposed to be. One down. One left. “Green looks nice on you.”

“Why did my hair change color? Is it a witch thingy?” She asked.

“Yeah, most of the witches’ hair changes their color when they push the limits of their powers.” I glanced at her. Oh, how beautiful and brave she was, yet so fragile. “The fight with the werewolves certainly made your powers go boom!”

“Does that mean all of my hair will turn green?” She made a face. “My parents will hate me if I began to look like a tree.”

“It’s all in your hands,” I said, remembering how Valerie looked. She was one of the most powerful witches. She had grey hair but that was because of her age. “You can stop it if you meditate and learn how to control your powers. Don’t let them slip away.” 

 “Sounds easy,” She rolled her eyes.

I left Jon and Karen at the gates of their school.

After walking away from the school building I looked around for an empty space where I could create a portal. It was difficult to create a portal in the daylight because of so many people around me. And it was more difficult when some people didn’t mind their own business.

I passed two girls and smiled at them. They smiled back. Usually, the thoughts I heard in these situations made me happy but I didn’t feel happy. There was only guilt eating up my head.

Karen was right about me.

I walked to the woods again, found a quiet place, and made the portal. I had made the portal to my apartment. I needed to talk to Nathan before I embarked on my quest.

“You came back earlier than I thought,” Nathan said as I entered the room.

“I haven’t gone anywhere yet.” I replied, “I’m about to begin my great adventure soon. We need to talk before I leave you here.”

“You think I’m lying?”

 “You nearly killed that guy,” I said to Nathan who was sitting on the bed with a blank look on his face. He hadn’t changed his blood-drenched clothes. He had not even washed his face. The blood dried on his chin and lips. “Will you please do the honour of washing that face and changing those clothes? It’s depressing to see them.”

He looked up at me. As his eyes met mine, I suddenly felt bad for him.

“Do you think I would have killed him?” He asked.

I was rendered speechless. I opened my mouth for some awesome comeback but it never made to my mouth from my mind. Something told me that he was innocent. I didn’t want to ask him questions anymore. My work was done here.

“No,” I said at last. “I don’t think you’d have killed him.”

“I don’t have any idea how I got there. I remember nothing.” He held his head. “I wish I could remember who did this to me.”

“Whoever did this; has to be really powerful. It’s not an easy thing to hypnotise a vampire as high ranked as you. And of course, it can’t be a werewolf. They don’t have that power.” I licked my dry lips. “Why would a vampire do this to you while we’re at the edge of a war?”

“Maybe the hunters found a way to manipulate us,” He shrugged.

“Don’t be dumb,” I focused my gaze on him. “Witches may be able to do this deed but they’d never work for some werewolf or hunter. Unless…”

“Unless what?” He asked curiously.

“Unless they are threatened to do so,” I scratched my head. “I need to gather information before jumping to any conclusion.”

“I’m sorry,” Nathan sighed. “I’m not much of a help.”

“That’s true,” I said. I could win an award for rudeness.

 I created the portal.

“Where are you going now?” Nathan asked as the green light lit up his face.

“Somewhere I can get answers,” I winked at him and stepped into the swirling light.