The Vampire Pirate's Daughter (3 page)

She cut a tiny slid in her wrist and then she
held her arm out toward me, her wrist only inches away from my lips
and although she said I had a choice, the feeling was too strong
for me. Nothing could have broken the urge, the overwhelming
feeling and from that day, blood was my weakness.

I grabbed onto her arm with both my hands
encircling her arm and her hand. I pulled her arm into my mouth and
greedily I drank from her. As I felt the first drop of blood over
my tongue, I felt like a different person. I could not stop and it
was as if my mind was on a leave of absence. I only realized what I
was doing when she pressed her palm gently against my forehead and
pushed my head away from her arm. I let her arm go reluctantly and
when the suction of my lips separated from her wrist, it made a
popping sound.

I felt better. The weakness had left me. I
sat up, while looking at Francois sadly. I felt a tear, my last
tear, run down my cheek. This would devastate him, I knew.

I swung my legs off the bed and quietly I
left the room and my life because I knew that I was different and I
would no longer be able to continue my life in the château. I could
no longer continue a normal life.

The moon outside was a bright crescent, there
was not a cloud in the sky. Once we were a distance away from the
château, walking into and then between the trees of the forest
surrounding the sculptured gardens, they started talking again.
They introduced themselves to me as Shayne and Amanda.

I asked them, “How did you know about
me?”

Amanda replied, with a smile playing across
her lips, “Shayne here is friends with Ethan. Ethan used to be a
pirate a long time ago and sailed with William.”

Shayne agreed pleasantly, “Ethan told me that
although they never knew your mother was a stow-away on the rigger,
stories have a way of surfacing. Your father, William, is a legend
within the vampire community.”

I asked uncertainly, “But how did you know I
was sick? How did you know to come tonight?”

Amanda laughed softly. “We have been keeping
an eye on you. I knew that you would develop the fever, because
your mother was human and William was a vampire. Boys develop the
fever at eighteen though and we could not be sure if it would be
the same for you. I have heard rumors that girls sometimes get the
fever when they are younger and so we stayed close to the château
just in case.”

Shayne added, “We heard the servants talking
amongst themselves that you were gravely ill and Amanda knew the
cause of your illness.”

At that very moment, I was not so sure if I
was just as happy that they were nearby, but I was glad that I did
not die.

Those years we lived only by night.

My father, William, was a pirate, so that
would explain my buccaneer spirit. I did not mind moving around. I
did not mind always living in a different place. I took to hunting
for the blood that sustained me eagerly and without any prejudice.
I never felt guilty taking what I needed.

I walk into the school grounds moments
before the bell goes. The school sprawls across an immense piece of
ground. It starts up on the hill in the pre-school grades and then
every year you work yourself down the hill toward the high school.
I walk past the garden in front of the administrative offices and
the wild, white roses are all in bloom. The branches of the large
trees reach out over me like a huge umbrella.

This morning I tied my long red hair high up
behind my head, so it swings every time I move my head. My navy
check-patterned school skirt comes mid-thigh, just long enough to
escape gossip, but short enough to expose my pale legs.

Decades ago being this pale drew curious
looks, but in recent times people are concerned about the damages
the sun may cause to their skin, so being white and insipid is in
fashion. All the students around me still have sun-kissed skin
though. You cannot live under the African sun and not tan. My body
however does not produce the necessary pigment, melanin that would
cause my skin to turn a caramel brown. I cannot even apply fake
tan, because my skin does not change with the pigmentation in the
coloring cream. It is only recently that I wished my skin were not
so pale. I look sickly compared to all the healthy-looking people
surrounding me.

The only reason I do not frizzle and
sizzle when sunlight touches my skin is because during the past
century, Joseph, a member of our internationally extended community
developed a serum. A serum if taken in pill form every single day,
builds immunity in us against the sun. Many vampires died during
the process of developing this life-changing medicine.

I smile as I remember the first morning
Amanda allowed me to walk into the dawn. I felt the sun on my skin
and it was refreshingly strange. It felt like little pinpricks, as
if I could feel the beads of light penetrating my skin.

I do not know where the notion comes from
that we, vampires, are murderous or cruel, because I can walk past
all these delicious people without even thinking about feeding.
When I feed and if it is a decent feed, a whole serving, I can go
for an entire month before having to feed again.

Being a student in high school is not good
for my self-confidence, because so many different insecurities
always inhibit me. I am usually self-assured and confident, but
when I walk onto a school ground, I inescapably become unsure of
myself.

I walk past the area where Andrew and his
friends always gather. The main reason for all my insecurities is
Andrew. I noticed him the very first day I started here at this
private school. The fact that he does not give me a second look,
makes me feel ugly, makes me think there must be something wrong
with me. I can feel my heart, or whatever that feeling is that
constitutes a heart, pull toward Andrew painfully whenever I see
him.

Classes are boring, because I have done it
all before. I never pay attention, yet when a teacher calls on me,
I know the answers because if I have not experienced it personally
I have heard it all previously. I doodle in my notebook all day
long. It is a repetitive cycle, bell rings - class - break. Seeing
Andrew breaks the monotony though.

Later that day, when the last bell echoes
through the corridors and I walk toward my car, I hear someone call
my name, “Susie.”

I turn toward the voice and see it is the
perky, bouncy Carmine. I stop and wait for her, wondering what she
wants.

She reaches me and then she says
breathlessly, “There is a party at Andrew’s house on Friday. Do you
wanna come?”

I frown briefly, and then smile friendly.
“Okay?” I might as well start integrating, or networking, as Amanda
likes to call it.

“You know where he lives, don’t you?” Her
curly blonde hair distracts me; she looks like a blonde Annie. Her
eyes are huge and blue, and she has freckles across her tanned
nose.

“No, I don’t know exactly where.” I do know
that he lives somewhere in the same security estate as me, because
I have seen him drive in through the security gates and I have seen
him race past on his red motorbike. I think it is a Firebird, but I
could not be sure. By now, I knew the sound of the thunderous
engine and I often saw it parked in front of Carmine’s house.

“I’ll make sure you get a formal invitation
then.”

“Okay. Thanks for inviting me.” I did not
really have anything else to say to her, so I turn to walk away,
but she falls in step next to me. She walks with me toward my car
and I remember that usually her parents collect her from school.
You cannot miss Carmine; she is always happy and bubbly. In a
crowd, you would always notice her first.

She asks suddenly, “Can I get a lift with
you?”

I turn back toward her and she starts to
explain, “My mom is too busy today to collect me. You are going in
my direction anyway, aren’t you?”

Briefly, I consider that I might have been
going to a mall before going home, but I agree friendly anyway.

I get into the car and then I wait for her
while she walks around to the passenger door and gets in. When I
start my car, the stereo automatically loads the CD player. Carmine
turns the volume louder and the base reverberates through the car.
I usually feel old in the company of young people, although I
myself am only sixteen as well. The youthfulness of Carmine rubs
off on me though and by the time I stop in front of her house, I
feel youthful again. I have a sense of childishness wrap itself
around me.

When she gets out of the car, she leans in
and asks, “Do you wanna come in?”

Impulsively I reply, “Ya, sure. I’ll go and
leave my car at home though and walk back.”

She sits down again. “I’ll come with
you.”

Laughing amused, and after she closes her
door, I drive down the hill toward my house on the other side of
the block.

I stop the car in the driveway in front of
the garage and then we both get out of the car.

Politely I ask, “Do you want to come in? I
have to change first.”

“Sure,” she agrees and follows me up to my
room. When we walk into my room, she looks impressed, but for some
peculiar reason I feel embarrassed at the blatant display of
wealth.

I walk toward my closet, while Carmine
immediately swoops down onto my music collection. I select an
outfit and then excusing myself, I walk to my en-suite bathroom to
change my clothes.

When I get back wearing a floral dress that
hugs my body tightly and then flares out over my hips, Carmine is
paging through my closet. She notices me walking in, smiling over
her shoulder and then she exclaims, “That’s a pretty dress you’re
wearing.”

I smile and say, “Thank you,” while looking
down at the soft material.

She turns back toward the cupboard, and she
asks, “Would you mind if I tried this on?”

I try to see what dress she is talking about,
but she is blocking my view, so I say, “No, I wouldn’t mind.” I
honestly did not mind what she wore from my cupboard, because just
like Amanda, most of the clothes in my cupboard I have never worn.
Boredom drives us to the shops, and then we buy things we think are
pretty, but never get the chance to wear.

She pulls the dress from the hanger and I
notice it is a simple mauve slip dress. She starts to dress in
front of me and I look away uncomfortably. After she slips it over
her head, she smoothes the dress over her hips with her hands and
the dress fits her perfectly. She decides to keep it on. The dress
looks nice on her and it almost matches the purple, blue color of
her eyes.

She turns toward me, her golden blonde
hair bouncing around her face. “Are you sure you don’t
mind?”

“No. I don’t think I have ever worn that
dress anyway.” It had a little shine to it and I did not like the
formal look of the dress. I liked to be comfortable.

She suggests, “I look so pretty and it
would be a waste if nobody saw me in it. Let’s go to the
mall.”

I am not usually this impulsive, but I need
to make friends. Even though the dramas of people bore me, I like
to be surrounded by their excitement and enthusiasm, because it
sometimes rubs off onto me and I find a glimmer of exhilaration
myself - living through them.

We walk out toward my car again and then
we drive the short distance out of the estate toward the mall. The
music is loud and Carmine sings along at the top of her voice. Some
of the words, especially the hip-hop songs, she does not know, but
she makes them up as she goes along and I cannot help smiling
amused.

At the mall, she leads me toward a café. The
café is in the middle of this lifestyle mall. The restaurants and
cafés surround the centre square, with a fountain in the middle.
Trees line the perimeter of the square, so it does not feel as if
you are in the middle of a bustling mall. Someone wrapped Christmas
lights around the trunks of the trees, so at night they light up
and make it fairy magical.

When I walk into the café, the first thing I
notice is Andrew.

Carmine looks across her shoulder at me,
as she says, “Andrew is always here. He might as well have shares
in the franchise.”

I smile nervously.

He is sitting with his back turned toward
us. I am hoping to avoid them, but Carmine takes me by the hand and
then she leads me toward that specific table. We reach the table
and Carmine blurts, “Hey.”

I am standing close to her and I see Andrew
notice me, but then just as quickly he looks toward Carmine and a
smile lights up his face. My stomach drops. I feel a weird sense of
loss, a feeling I last experienced leaving Francois behind. A
feeling I have forgotten.

Carmine slides into the booth across from
Andrew and I slide in after her. I am sitting in front of Andrew
and for me time stops. His hands are resting on the table mere
centimeters from mine. It feels weird, all these feelings rushing
through me. I have never felt like this before, this total
awareness of my entire body of another person that I did not want
to feed on.

I hear Andrew talk to me from a distance and
clearing my mind, I hear him say, “You are Susie?”

I smile. “And you are Andrew?”

He nods and smiles. “I have seen you in
class. You are new?”

I am a fool or crazy, or both, because I move
my hand away from his. Although his hand does not touch mine, I
still feel a weird magnetism between us. To get away from the
feeling that seems to take over all of me, I bump against the glass
of orange juice standing near the edge of the table accidentally.
We both go for it and obviously, I am faster. With lightening speed
my hand folds around the glass and without the contents even being
disturbed, I place it back on the table.