The Turning (31 page)

“Yes, Kelly, please have a seat.” I complied, waiting for the shit to hit the fan. “I take it from the conversation you didn’t know Mr. Grady was on the board?”

“No, sir, Brian left that little detail out when we met,” I answered calmly, ready to chew nails on the inside.

“I figured that. I just wanted to make it perfectly clear we appreciate Mr. Grady’s donations and he is on the board. You are not. You are going to be treated the same as every other intern, so if you had any other ideas than that, you might want to quit now.”

“No, sir, I worked very hard to get here. I do
not
want any special treatment, and my career has nothing to do with how Brian donates his money. I honestly would hope we might be able to forget he even stopped by today?”

“Good, you have a lot of promise, and I think you will do very well here, Kelly. I don’t want anything to stand in the way of that. I’ll see you Saturday then?”

“Yes, sir, thank you, sir,” I gushed, getting up, but then I paused. There was something I just had to know. “Dr. Budding, I don’t want to push my luck, but can I ask you a question?” When he nodded I continued. “The board has nothing to do with selection of interns, do they? I mean I didn’t know Brian when I applied, but I guess he knew of me then. I got this internship on my own, right?”

“That’s a fair question and I understand why you would want to know that, Kelly. No, the board has nothing to do with the selection process. It is done entirely by me and the attendings. You were picked on your scores, your letters of recommendation, and your application. There was one phone call from a Dr. Warshak, but only as a reference. I hope this clears up your questions?” I nodded and let out a sigh of relief. “Good, see you Saturday night then, Kelly.”

“Thank you, sir, see you tomorrow night.” I got the hell out of there and closing the door behind me. Once I said goodbye to Mel, and no one was around, I ran at my vampire speed to the locker, put my stuff in, and ran out the door.

I looked at my phone, it was only twelve thirty but it was five o’clock somewhere and I hurried to the apartment to get drunk off my ass. I went to open the door but stopped as I heard Nicole’s voice.

“Do you have any idea what you have done to her?” she screamed and I could practically see her arms waving in the air like she did when she was really pissed. “That had to be horrible for her! How could you do that to her? She’ll be lucky to still have her job, Brian. She can’t have a board member show her special treatment!”

“I know how much her job means to her. I just did not want her to lose it. I figured with all the money I donate they owed me to take good care of her,” Brian placated. I took that time to unlock the door and enter.

“You son of a bitch! They may owe you, but I am not your property. You can’t use your favors to run my life,” I bellowed, steam practically coming out my ears. “That was one of the most humiliating moments of my life, Brian!” I turned back to Nicole. “Thank you, sweetie. I heard part of what you said, and I love you for that.”

“You love her for yelling at me, but you are mad at me for trying to help you?” Brian asked, his tone annoyed. I couldn’t help myself… I turned and decked him.

“Get the fuck out of my apartment, and don’t come back, Brian,” I yelled after he went down. “You weren’t trying to help me. You were trying to mark me as yours and it was humiliating! I worked really hard to get here, and you almost blew it in the matter of minutes. I got them to pretend that little stunt never happened, and don’t you dare retaliate on any of them. Now get out of my house.”

“Kelly, I just—” he started, his eyes wide as he reached out a shaky hand to me as he got to his feet.

“Save it and
get out
!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “Get out or I will make you get out. You’re not welcome here!” He hung his head down, and left without saying another word. After he left I collapsed on the floor and started crying. Shit, I was crying blood. I hurried and hid it before Nicole came over to me.

“It’s okay, Kelly, we’ll figure this out. It will be okay. Let me get you a drink,” she reassured me quietly. I nodded and she went to the kitchen to get me a drink. I could hear her open the fridge and open a pop. God love her, she was making me a Captain and Coke. That’s a true friend.

“Bring the bottle with you. I want some shots too,” I called out. She came back and I took a couple of shots from the bottle, chased it with my drink and made a decision. “Nicole, I want to tell you something, and maybe I shouldn’t. Or maybe I should have told you sooner, but you’re going to freak, and I haven’t lost my mind.” I was rambling. How do you tell your best friend that you’re a vampire?

“Okay, whatever it is, I know you’re not nuts, Kelly. No matter what it is, I love you,” she hedged.

“All right, remember that while I come clean,” I whispered as I took another swig from the bottle. “I still don’t remember what happened to me when I was taken, but I know the why. Brian was the one who took me, he changed me.”

“
He took you!
How can you still date him?”

“It’s complicated. I could try to explain it, or just show you then explain. You ready?” When she nodded I continued. “Brace yourself, okay? Try not to freak. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You would never hurt me, Kelly. What are you talking about?” she squeaked. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth and let my fangs come out. Nicole jumped up and ran across the room. “Holy shit! What the
fuck
, Kelly?”

“Brian took me and turned me. He turned me into a vampire, Nicole. Remember to breathe and I’m not going to hurt you,” I coaxed, and she walked back towards me as we went to sit. “He came to me the day after you called me and explained what had happened to me, but I had figured it out by then. I’d gone to Dr. Warshak, and we talked it through to figure out the basics.

“She got me some blood from the bank and sat with me to make sure I was all right. Come with me, this might help you believe.” She followed me into my closet and I showed her the hidden fridge and what was inside it.

She gasped and tried to form the words, finally she did. “You’re a vampire. You’re really a vampire!”

“Yes.” I paused. “There’s more, obviously so is Brian.”

“I kind of figured that when you said he turned you,” she snipped and grabbed the bottle of rum from me. She chugged it for several seconds. “Okay, I’m ready. Start from the beginning.” And I did, I told her about the day I woke up in the hallway through the first night I met Brian. She seemed to be taking it all pretty well, taking a swig of rum every so often. “Shit, my best friend is a vampire,
holy shit
! Okay, let me see the teeth again.”

I showed her. “I’ve got more to show you.” She nodded, and I ran to the kitchen and was back with more Coke in the blink of an eye.

“Wow, okay, what else?” I pulled out the knife I brought from the kitchen too and cut my arm. “Kelly, are you nuts?” She went to get up, but it started to heal already. “Oh my
god
! Well that’s pretty cool. Does it hurt?”

“Yeah, but not as bad as when I was a human. Want to see it again?”

“No, once was enough, thanks. What else can you do?”

“There’s the extra hearing. I can hear your heart, smell your blood,” I explained, waiting to see if she freaked. When she didn’t, I continued. “Extra strength, too. That’s why we were able to pack and move so quickly. There’s more—Julie’s one too and so are all of Brian’s friends.”

“Wow, okay, that I wasn’t ready for,” she muttered. “
Julie
, really?”

“You can’t tell anyone, Nic. I’m serious. I just couldn’t take keeping it from you anymore, and now with everything with Brian. I need you to know what’s going on. I’m sorry I hid it from you.”

“I understand why you kept it from me. Am I the only one who knows besides your doc?” she asked.

“Yes and I don’t even want Brian to know I told you. There’s kind of a hierarchy amongst vampires.” Then I filled her in on what Brian told me. “You still want to live with me?”

“Of course! Kelly, this doesn’t change the way I feel about you, honey,” she pledged quickly. “Okay, I know you, there’s more.”

“Yeah, when Brian called you and said I was sick, I wasn’t sick. I was kidnapped and tortured by Brian’s second in command, Dante,” I grumbled and told her the whole story, and all about the rescue. This was such a fucking mess.

“Wow, I mean,
wow
,” she gasped and took another swig of rum, passed it to me, and I did the same. With all the swigs we took and the drinks we had, I figured we were on about nine shots each, at least. “I love you, Kelly. I will keep your secret, and well, look at this way, you’ll always be twenty-six!”

“That’s one way to look at it. Are you okay? That was a lot to take in. I mean, I know it was for me, but it was happening to me.”

“It’s going to take a while to fully sink in. The booze is helping me tonight at least,” she snickered. “I gotta ask, what does it feel like? To drink from someone?”

“It feels kind of weird, like a secret. But when I feel the blood coming in, it’s kind of a turn on, or how your heart gets when you’re turned on. Not that my heart beats anymore or that I breathe, but you get the idea.”

“Would you bite me?” she whispered.

“Huh? No, I would never bite you, Nic, or do that mesmerize thing on you. I can’t do that yet. Brian was trying to teach my how, but I guess that’s out.”

“Mesmerize thing?”

“Vampires can mesmerize humans, like almost hypnotize them, into thinking they didn’t get bit, or whatever. I can’t do it yet, so I can’t hunt, at least without Brian, because they would remember. It was kind of awesome to interrupt the robbery and save that guy from getting beaten up,” I confessed to her.

“That’s pretty cool. But I meant I want you to bite me. I want to see what it feels like. Plus I want to know what I taste like.”

“Nicole, I don’t want to bite you. That’d be too weird. I only bit Julie because I was about to die. It would be weird biting you!”

“You don’t have to bite my neck. Bite my wrist,” she pushed.

“Are you serious? You really want me to?” I gaped at her. This was
not
the reaction I’d expected.

“Yes, I really want you to. I want to see what it’s like, and that healing saliva thing,” she declared as she held out her arm.

“Okay, but this might hurt,” I warned, letting my fangs come out and sinking them into her wrist. I drank for a few minutes and then licked the wound, and we both watched it close back up, right before our eyes. “You okay, Nicole?”

“Yeah, I get what you were saying about the sensual part. It wasn’t like I wanted to jump your bones, but more like after you shave your legs. How you feel every breeze or touch is so much more sensitive. It really only felt like a scratch and then it felt really cool when it was closing, like when you put on Ben-Gay or something.”

“Yeah, that’s a pretty accurate way to describe it. I can’t believe you’re not more freaked out,” I chuckled, taking another swig of rum.

“I am a little, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not like you’re a scary vampire from the movies. I’m glad to know the truth. I knew something was more with Brian than you were telling me, and I knew you were keeping something from me. I’ve spent all this time with you lately and we’ve been living together almost a week. Obviously I’m safe,” she mused, taking another drink.

“It’s not all positives. I mean I don’t use the bathroom anymore, but there has to be some way for my body to get rid of waste, so to speak. I still have to shave my legs, sweat, pluck my eyebrows, cut my hair, that kind of stuff. I don’t eat or drink, so no bathroom breaks. Just ingesting blood, so I have cells dying still that need to be rid of.”

“Well there are worse negatives that could have been,” she reasoned with a smirk. “I mean the big one that you can still go out in the sun is miraculous. So you still have to shave your legs? It all evens out in the end I guess. I would take that over having to use the washroom still.”

“Good point. I like the way you think.” We sat there quietly lost in thought a minute. “Now that you know the full story, what do you think I should do about Brian? I know I totally blew my lid, but Jesus, I can’t believe he did that. You were yelling at him too.” Then I had another drunken thought. “Oh, by the way, you taste like a ripe plum, very refreshing,” I giggled. Damn, I was giggling.

“A plum? That’s pretty funny, and good to know,” she teased. “I don’t know about Brian, this is way out of my realm of relationship knowledge. I think I would call Julie tomorrow and talk to her about it.”

“I don’t know if she’d be any help. She’s been around so long, and set in her old ways, I’m not thinking she would know much about today’s relationships. She forgot a long time ago how to be a human. Don’t get me wrong I adore her, but she’s kind of an elitist. Plus they take this maker and new vampire thing very seriously. I’ll think about that, though. She might at least have some insight as to what the hell Brian was thinking.

“What do I do about tomorrow night? He might be at the mixer. I just can’t believe he kept this from me. I feel so betrayed. At least I got Dr. Budding to tell me Brian wasn’t involved with how the interns are chosen, so I know they picked me based on merit.” I sighed heavily, tears burning in my eyes.

I just wanted one fucking normal day without drama, without feeling as if the ground was falling out from under me, and without some vampire shit fucking with my goals I’d worked so hard for. Was that too much to ask?

Nicole scooted over to me and put her arm around me. “Holy shit you’re bleeding! Where you are bleeding from?” she asked, tilting my head up. “Oh man, you cry blood?” I nodded, not about to talk yet. “Sorry, Kelly, but that is kind of creepy.” I nodded again. It creeped me out too, but like a true friend she still pulled me into her lap and stroked my hair.

“Oh crap, I forgot about what Brian told me about not drinking from humans that are drunk,” I groaned, realizing I was incredibly nauseous. “Do you mind getting me a couple of pints of blood? I’m afraid to move, I might puke.”