In Love With a Vampire

Chapter Twenty-Two

Donna



“s**t!”

“I cannot believe I hit her…”

“s**t s**t s**t!”

“But I could not stop myself…she was going on and on about Clarissa and I had just gobbled down this glass of wine…”

“s**t!”

“What was I supposed to do Pete? She came after our baby, she came after my Clarissa…Pete are you even listening to me?”

The car swerved dangerously against the wet ground. Apparently, it had been raining during all the chaos that had transpired earlier. None of us had heard the pattering of raindrops. I wondered if we had been too distracted by the mayhem around us or if the house we had been in was designed to shield us from the sky’s tears. I pressed my left hand on my right one. It was still trembling, still in shock. I let my eyes wander to the dimly lit streets, I let myself imagine that I was a raindrop, that I had just landed on this car’s windowpane and I was now sliding and sliding towards infinity.

“…For fucksakes Donna have you gone deaf?”

I emerged from my trivial thoughts to find Pete glaring at me on the small mirror lodged on the upper central part of his vehicle. I blinked when his glare softened.

“Are you okay princess?”

I smiled weakly at the moniker and bobbed my head. I then angled my head to the left and stretched my arm to retrieve the two knives. I stopped mid-way and yanked back my arm, as if I had stuck my finger into a wave of steam.

“Okay, that’s it! Clearly, you two had a worse night than me and I am the one who slapped my sister-in-law! What happened?”

Pete glanced at me in the mirror before averting his gaze back to the road. I sighed, knowing that the narrating role had just been passed to me. I cleared my throat but when I opened my mouth to speak, to relive the horrors I had endured, to confirm my fears, nothing came out but a soft croak.

“Pete, the girl is clearly shaken…You tell me what happened right this instant or you will lose all your wife privileges!”

Pete tightened his grip on the device that was shaped like a wheel and stared ahead. Minutes trickled by before the vehicle was filled with his gruff voice.

“You should not have stopped me…We should have taken him…”

“Him? Who is him?”

I finally found my voice, drawing strength from the act of kindness that I had just witnessed tonight.

“And done what with him? Tortured him? Killed him? If he knows he knows but I really do not think he is a danger to me-"

“He is Andrew’s son! I do not care if he has a crush on you or if you have a crush on him but this is family Donna! If it comes down to it, he will sell you out to his father!”

“He saved my life…That…that human would have killed me but Jimmy saved my life…I saw the panic in his eyes, the care…Jimmy is not my enemy…”

“Riddle me this Donna, what do you think Jimmy is going to tell his father after he wakes up with a huge lump at the back of his head? How is he going to explain the dead VA in the hallway? Even if the boy is not dangerous…He is still Andrew’s son, he still lives under Andrew’s roof…Do you really think the leader of the VA is simply going to let this matter slide? Donna if his son does not willingly recount tonight’s events, I assure you that Andrew will use any means necessary to get that information…”

I sucked in air through my teeth and blinked rapidly to keep my tears at bay. Pete was right, I had just endangered Jimmy’s life.

“But surely he would not hurt his son…He will maybe yell at him but he won’t actually hurt him would he?”

No one answered me. Lory had remained quiet throughout the argument. If anyone knew what this Andrew was capable of it had to be her.

“Lory…will this human hurt his son?”

Lory shifted her body weight so that she was staring right at me. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a large wine stain on her white dress. She looked sad, sadder than usual.

“My brother is an ambitious man who has always been driven by power. If Jim has something he wants, he will get it out of him.”

I ran a hand through my hair and silently screamed into my palms. Maria and Diana were still out there at the mercy of humans who believed their life’s mission was to destroy vampires and now I had somehow managed to jeopardize Jimmy’s wellbeing. In both situations, I appeared to be helpless. That was what I was right? A weak vampire who could not fight off one human. How was I meant to lead a whole tribe? How was I meant to protect a whole species if I could not even protect Maria or Diana or myself? I had spent the better part of the drive trying to suppress the fact that I had lost control yet again and that mere act had almost cost me my life. Whatever had been in that human’s blood was the same compound that had been in Lory’s knife.

“Jim is a good boy. He has always been kind and generous…Sure he has been through some heavy s**t but I believe that my ten-year-old nephew is still in there…I have always felt guilty that I had stopped seeing him as much but a part of me knew that he would turn out okay and he has…Trust me, if he had said something, we would be dead right now.”

“That’s the thing Lory…Eventually, he will say something, willingly or not and your brother will come after us…I am not losing you…I cannot bear another loss, I just can’t…”

Lory turned to face her husband. She placed her hand on his arm and squeezed it. Pete’s labored breathing evened. I had been so focused on Maria, Diana, Jimmy, and myself that I had forgotten about the two humans who had put everything on the line to help me.

“I do not know how I will ever thank you…I am very much aware that you both risked your lives to help me. Lory, you clearly did not want to go there but you did, and Pete…Pete you looked out for me tonight, and I appreciate it. When we reach home, I will pack my things and go back to the realm…Clearly, there are things my father and the council need to know…”

The car came to a sudden halt. The act was so aggressive that both Lory and I were violently pushed from our seats.

“So that’s it? You are going to abandon your friends? Abandon us just when I explicitly said Andrew is coming after us?”

“No…that is not what I meant-"

“And you think your father is okay with us failing to host you for one year? An agreement that Lory and I conceded to in good faith?

Don’t you think there will be repercussions from that as well?”

“I just want to protect you-"

“Well stop cause you are f*****g awful at it…”

With that, Pete forcefully opened his car door and vanished into the night. After her shock had worn off, Lory too shoved her door open and dashed after her husband. I remained in the car mulling over Pete’s words. This deal my father had with Lory and Pete was not just some long-standing tradition or an act of good faith as they would want me to believe. It was something more. Something that made Pete tolerate Maria and me staying with them even though he hated our kind. Something that made Lory engage with her estranged family.

A scream blared through the night air jolting me from my thoughts. I scooted over to the other window to examine our surroundings. I had thought that Pete had stopped in a random area to vent but no, we were actually outside their home. I frantically grabbed the two knives; one with a leathered hind and another that resembled Lory’s. A memory surfaced, the memory of the bleeding man dragging his weak feet towards me with his right arm up. I had seen the knife, I had recognized it, but I had been too frail to move. If Jimmy had not shown up…I shoved the thought away and pushed the door open. I heard the sound of hinges coming off and swallowed, Pete would have a fit. I then dashed towards the house using my heightened speed. The kitchen door was open and the lights were on. I stopped at the door and used my heightened hearing to gain a handle on the situation.

“…Two humans…they showed up as I was leaving school…”

I abandoned my post and rushed inside. Yes, my mind had not been playing tricks on me. Maria was here in the kitchen, alive.

“Mistress…”

Maria weakly stood, her red hair covering her ghoulish face. She was trembling; I instantly recognized her pain. She too had been a victim of that compound, that compound that had the power to reduce you to nothing, that compound that burned your flesh and twisted your insides.

“I am so sorry…I should have stayed at your side…I should have been a Hand and instead-"

I whizzed towards her and placed my arms around her. At first, she was stiff and unmoving but then she relaxed and wept on my shoulder.

“They are monsters, Mistress…Humans are monsters.”