Demonspawn (26 page)

Her face turned red. I was surprised.
“Because I was wrong. It happens. I've been through some craziness
myself. Trust is a hard thing to come by. And when you sense
something else that isn't human, your guard goes up.”

I didn't like how she kept saying I wasn't
human.

“Anyway,” she continued. “Bachner, Heins, and
his little puppet bastards would have torched me and left me to
daylight for sure. You'll always have my thanks.”

“Stakes in the heart don't do it?”

She shook her head. “Stop watching movies. If
something pierces our heart, we go into a coma. Only daylight and
fire can kill us.”

“Yeah, me and my damn movies.”

“There's something else I should apologize
for.” I waited for her to continue. “I've been keeping track of you
for a while, after that night we met. I'm the one that found your
adoption papers. I just put them in a spot your sister Alicia would
find.”

I absorbed that for a moment. “That means you
broke into our house.”

“Yeah, I did. I had to know what you were.
And once I knew you were adopted, I figured you'd do the rest for
me.”

“Couldn't go to wonderful Blossom
yourself?”

She smiled. “Traveling isn't that easy for
us. A simple trip can turn fatal if that sun pops up.”

I nodded. A part of me was still mad at her,
but I didn't think she was some evil creature.

I leaned forward. This was all just so much
to take in. I didn't see how it was all possible.

“Shit, it's the twenty-first century,” I
said. “How the hell have you kept this a secret? You trying to tell
me the government doesn't know?”

“Oh, of course they know about vampires.
They're just not going to tell the public anything about it. And I
don't blame them. Now as for secrets-”

She laughed and stood up. She walked over to
the computer in the corner and motioned for me to follow. She sat
down and started typing away.

“This is a video on YouTube that popped up a
year ago,” she told me. “Just watch.”

The video showed a woman lying naked on a
table. The angle was high and in a corner, like a security camera.
The footage was grainy, but wasn't terrible. A man appeared from
the side, dressed in a white coat. It looked like an autopsy, like
on TV. Sticking out of the woman's chest was a large wooden stake.
The man did some prep stuff, washed his hands, put on a pair of
gloves. Then he grabbed the stake and pulled it from the woman's
chest. She lunged up and grabbed the man by the hair. She clamped
her mouth to his neck. Blood shot and sprayed the wall. They both
fell to the ground, her still on top of him.

A minute later, she stood up, and he didn't
move.

She looked briefly into the camera. Her chest
rose up and down as she breathed hard. She almost looked like a
wild animal, her head quickly moving to the left and right. Then
she ran out of sight, very quickly.

After the video played I just stared at the
monitor.

“That was in France, two years ago. That was
a newborn vampire, fresh off a vicious attack that turned her. It's
all right there, on the Internet for the whole world to see. And
you know what? No one believes it. Everyone thinks it was a scene
filmed for a movie. We don't even
need
to keep secrets,
Alex. No one believes the truth when it's right in front of
them.”

I was stumped for words. “Wow.
Just...wow.”

Wild thoughts ran through my head. Victoria
was gorgeous. Were all vampires gorgeous? How old was she? Did she
know a lot of other vampires? How many of them were there? How did
she know the vampire killers, Bachner and Heins?

“You okay?” she asked. “You look a little
pale. And believe me, I know all about pale.”

“This is all unbelievable.”

She laughed. “You know what's unbelievable?
You. I've seen a lot of things. But you're one of a kind.”

I frowned. Now I was a freak to humans and
vampires.

“Okay, it's bedtime for me,” she said. She
pulled a business card out of a desk drawer. A
business
card. What the hell did a vampire do for a living? “Take this. Stop
by or give me a call sometime. I don't like making friends with
people. For a vampire, it doesn't make much sense. But you're
different, aren't you?”

“I guess so.”

“Your truck's outside. I'll open the gate for
you when you're ready.”

I nodded. I was very ready to go home.

“It's definitely been an interesting night,”
I said.

Victoria nodded and smiled. Again she quickly
took her shirt off, which signaled that it was time for me to
leave.

It was about a half hour drive home. I was
tired, confused, afraid of what was happening to me. I wanted to go
home and sleep. A part of me knew it was a terrible idea for me to
entertain the thought of becoming friends with Victoria, a fucking
vampire, but another part of me knew it would happen.

As I walked up my apartment steps like a
zombie, the door next to mine opened. Cindy stepped out wearing
tight shorts and a tank-top. Time for her morning jog.

Morning. I was out all night.

“Jesus. What time is it?”

She looked at her watch. “Almost seven.”

I shook my head. I really needed some
sleep.

“So, you
do
like her. Looks like you
got lucky. You and Red Hot have a good time? Where are your
clothes?”

“Who?”

“Red Hot. That's what I call her.”

I laughed. She got serious. “Look, Alex. I'm
glad you met someone that you're in to. I really am. But next time,
let us know before you disappear, okay? I walked around the club
for an hour looking for you. And I was worried.”

I looked into her eyes. She wasn't joking.
“Cindy, I can walk through walls. What do you think would happen to
me?”

“It doesn't matter. A woman still worries,
you know?”

I thought about telling her right then, on
the apartment steps.
Cindy, you are the one I have a thing for.
We should try a real date, and see if there could be something
there.
Yeah, real easy words to say. Also a very easy way to
ruin an eighteen-year-old friendship.

Luckily reality settled back in. Cindy was my
best friend, but she had no feelings for me. I had to keep thinking
that.

“Last night wasn't what you think,” I told
her, and left it at that. Cindy didn't need to hear about vampires
and vampire hunters. “But I won't do that again. Sorry about
that.”

She nodded and gave me that smile. I really
must have been out of it, because I almost melted.

“So, uh, you didn't get lucky last
night?”

“Nope.

She almost looked relieved. Weird. “Okay,
well, I got a run to get to. We're having a cookout over Grandma's
house in the afternoon. You know she'll beat your ass if you aren't
there.”

I didn't want to go to a cookout. But I
hadn't seen Grandma in months, and I missed her. She had this magic
about her that she could always make everyone around her happy.
Absolutely amazing woman. Cookouts at her house were always
fun.

“I'll be there.”

“Good. And I went easy on you. You should
have seen how mad I was last night.”

She passed me and left the apartment. I
watched her sexy figure bounce away as she started her jog. How she
could stay out late at night and jog in the morning was beyond
me.

Being in my apartment calmed me a little as I
lumbered past the living room and collapsed into bed. My bed never
felt so good. I was asleep in minutes. Too bad it didn't last
long.

*****

I had crazy nightmares. Visions of demons
surrounding me. Some looked human, while others didn't. They clawed
at me, begging me to let them leave the demon world. That part of
the dream was interrupted by a group of vampire killers trying to
kill me. Throughout the dream, I lost more and more of my humanity.
My skin was on fire, and the wings on my back were out. The demons
and vampire hunters fought each other, and I fought both of them,
clawing and ripping at their flesh with claws instead of hands.

I woke up in a cold sweat. My pillow was
soaked. I looked over at the clock to see it was only ten in the
morning. Three hours sleep. Wonderful. I knew I wouldn't be getting
any more for a while either.

I took a quick shower and tried to figure out
what I should get in to for the next few hours. I should have
probably called each of my friends and apologized for getting
kidnapped at the club. But then one thing crossed my mind as I
climbed out of the shower.

Wings.

I got dressed and went outside. There was a
thick area of trees just behind the apartment complex that
separated it from the highway. I strolled back there until I was
sure I couldn't be seen at all. Then I took my shirt off. If I
really did have a pair of wings inside me somehow, there was no
need to ruin a shirt.

I tried Victoria's technique from last night.
I closed my eyes and pictured myself, standing there normal. Then I
pictured a pair of wings growing from my back.

I didn't feel anything.

I felt silly. I was in the woods behind my
apartment trying to wings.

“God, you're a dumbass,” I told myself.

I turned to leave.

And my left wing clipped a tree.

I gasped as I looked left and right, and
there they were. I was aware of them, just like any other body
part. I reached my hand straight back to feel them. There were
little hairs across the skin. Like any tickled body part, they
reacted. My wings folded up close to my back, which scared the hell
out of me. I concentrated, and extended them back out fully. I
could see the bony fingers, four of them, running through the
skin.

I had wings, and I could control them.

I put a hand to my head. This was what I
wanted to see if I could do. And now that I knew, I was freaked
out.

I couldn't get a good idea in my head of what
I looked like. I couldn't see how they were coming out of my back,
but they felt about dead center. And I could do more than just
extend and fold them. The fingers and skin were very flexible, and
I could wrap the wings in front of me almost.

Very cool? Or utterly terrifying?

The question was answered for me after an
hour of examining them, moving them around, feeling them. I decided
to move them as fast as they could go. Instead of just extending
outward, they beat against the air a single time.

I lifted off the ground about four feet.

I lost my breath for a second, and grabbed a
tree as I landed. I folded my wings behind my back. It all hit me
like a train.

I could fly.

The wings weren't only for show. They didn't
just act as a parachute or glider. They worked.

I looked up through the trees to the blue
sky. People were so obsessed with flight that they built machines
that could do it. Every kid sometimes pretends he can fly. And
everyone's had a dream or two about it.

The first time my wings took me off the
ground, I knew I could fly.

It was a moment I'd never forget.

I knew as I stood there I'd be spending many
nights in the woods behind my apartment, learning how to use my new
wings. But not now. Baby steps first. I had a cookout to get
to.

I put my shirt back on and headed to the
apartment. I gently opened Cindy's door. The bathroom light was
on.

“Hey Cindy! You in here?”

“Yeah. What's up?”'

“You want to head up together?”

“Of course, stupid. I told Leese we'd pick
her up, but she said she was bringing a guy.”

“Really? It's been a while since Alicia had
an eye on any guys.”

“That's what I said. So don't give her a hard
time. I'll be ready to go soon.”

“Alright. Come get me when you're ready.”

It was thirty minutes later when I heard the
door to my apartment open. I was in the kitchen finishing up the
dishes. I poked my head out to say hi.

I froze.

Cindy had on a two-piece bathing suit, with a
pair of flowery shorts that didn't cover much. She wore one of
those white blouses that you could see through. I looked her up and
down. Slim legs, tone stomach. She had a pair of sunglasses resting
on top of her head. I stood there with my hands dripping water on
the carpet.

“Alex? You okay?”

I felt my face turning red, and quickly went
back to the kitchen. I was so frustrated. I hated feeling this way,
so out of control. Every weird thing I'd found about myself, I was
able to control. I had no doubt I would soon learn how to
completely control my wings. But I couldn't control how I felt
about Cindy, and it was pissing me off.

“Yeah, I'm good. Almost done the dishes, then
I'm ready. So, you trying to give everyone a heart attack?”

I heard her laugh in the living room. “You
remember Grandma has a pool, right? Take your trunks with you.”

I grabbed them and looked her up and down one
more time. I didn't make any effort to hide it. Strangely, she
didn't seem to mind. When our eyes met I just shook my head. A
sudden courage hit me.

“Cindy, how many people tell you a day how
hot you are?”

She smiled and shyly looked away. So modest.
“Sometimes I hear it,” she said. “But it sounds different coming
from you.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I actually believe it when you say
it.”

We stood there looking at each other. There
must have been a good ten seconds of eye contact before she finally
looked away. My heart was beating hard. Probably should have been
awkward, but it wasn't.

“You ready to go?”

“Yeah.”

Grandma's street was packed full of cars. I
knew most of them were probably for the cookout. It took a while to
find a spot near the end of the street. We saw Alicia's car. She
beat us there with her new guy.