The Vampire Pirate's Daughter (9 page)

He smiles slowly. “How long do you think it
will take for Amanda to get us out of here?”

“Your first question is that? You don’t want
to know why I cannot go up into the sun, or how I managed to hold
an entire house on my back.”

He is still smiling amused. “I already know.
Before Amanda told me, I had my suspicions anyway.”

I laugh derisively. “Suspicions! Obviously
you read too much fiction.”

“She needed my help and when she realized I
thought I knew, she enlightened me completely.”

“What do you mean, you thought you knew. How
could you?”

“
That day at the café, I realized nobody
has reflexes like that, besides I have never noticed you being
clumsy ever, so your excuse was feeble. Then while I was in the
hospital, it all came back to me slowly. Initially I only had
flashes of you helping me out of the car, pulling my door off its
frame and then also the cherry on top … lifting the car up
single-handedly. I dismissed it, but then when I left the hospital
and Duncan completed his community service, we got talking. The
rare meat, your pale skin, your extremely fast reflexes and then
you must remember that Carmine and Duncan was completely awake. I
suppose Carmine knew better of what was happening around her than
Duncan. So, although at the time Duncan thought it was a drunken
hallucination, it became clear when we spoke of it.”

“Yes, but these are only speculation, a wild
guess. To be honest, I think it could have been only wishful
thinking that you would know a … somebody like me. It is all
explainable anyway, adrenaline, reflexes, fears of skin cancer,
preference in eating habits – Lionel also ate his meat near-rare.”
I grab desperately at excuses.

He laughs softly. “Then Amanda phoned me a
few days ago and asked to meet me. I wanted to see you and I
thought you were avoiding me, locking yourself away in your house.
I went and I have to admit I was nervous going into the lair of
vampires, so I asked Duncan and Carmine to go with me. Duncan and I
hid wooden stakes under our shirts - just in case.”

I inhale insulted.

He puts his arms around my shoulders and then
he shuffles me closer toward him. He holds my head against his
chest and his heartbeat is thunderous. His heartbeat is so loud, so
close up that it feels as if it could have been my own heartbeat.
It reverberates through my body and for a moment I remember the
sensation of a living body, of being mortal, the feeling of being
so small in this enormous universe. I close my eyes for a short
moment, because it feels blissfully good.

“Amanda told us you were kidnapped and you
were being held for ransom. I insisted immediately we should phone
the police, but Amanda was adamant that we could not phone the
police. We were going to leave, and then pleadingly she told us why
we could not involve the police. I didn’t understand then that
Amanda would really be as strong as they say, until I saw her in
action with my own two eyes before she ordered me to come and free
you.”

“Aren’t you revolted?” I ask uncertainly.

“No. I actually think it’s cool, unless you
are feeling hungry.” He laughs, “Are you hungry?”

Offended I murmur, “No.”

“Don’t worry. Amanda explained everything.
How you eat and how you are more civilized than the bedtime stories
always describe you.” I feel him laugh and the sound escapes his
mouth, “Although you hate garlic.”

I do not think it is funny. I am still in
shock that I am sitting here cuddled into him, the boy I have a
serious crush on. He knows who I am and he does not think of me as
hideous, an aberration of nature.

I hear scarping above us and I say, “She is
digging us out.”

“That is a pity; I would have liked to sit
here with you for a while longer. Amanda did not explain how are
you able to usually walk in sunlight, but just now when we were
getting out, you hesitated?”

“We drink these big yellow pills and it
builds up a resistance to the sun in us. The only thing is we have
to drink it religiously every single day and I have not had any
since I was brought here.” I suddenly ask panicked, “What if Ethan
comes back. He will kill us.”

Softly he says, “Ethan cannot hurt you
anymore, he is dead.” He adds dismissively, “Amanda killed him.”
Andrew kisses me softly on the top of my head. “I cannot believe
how soft you feel though, I always thought vampires were as hard as
rock.”

“
I am a half-breed. My dad was a vampire
and my mother was normal, so I suppose that is why I am more …
flesh-like.”

He says jokingly, “I am not saying you are as
pudgy as me. I can feel you are solid, but you still have a
softness about you.”

My hand is resting on his chest and I say,
“You are not pudgy at all.” When the words leave my mouth, I feel
mortified.

I feel his lips rest on the crown of my head
and he says softly, “Here in the pitch-black dark and with you
unable to turn yourself around and look at me, I need to tell you
something. When we are rescued, I might never have the courage to
say it again.”

I do not tell him that I can see in the dark.
I can see every stone wedged around us. I can see the muscles in
his arm in front of my face and I can see every tiny hair.

He says hesitantly, “Since that day in the
café I have liked you. I never stop thinking about you and at
first, it was only curiosity because you seemed so different from
everyone else, so aloof and then the way you light up when you
laugh, I couldn’t help liking you more and more.”

“
You like me?” I ask
skeptically.

I try to turn toward him, but he holds me
steady in his arms. “Sit still, Susie. Just now you dislodge
something and bury us permanently.”

“But you always look at me so disapprovingly.
Before the accident you hardly ever spoke to me and then at the
hospital, I was unsure and I thought it was only because you banged
your head so hard.”

He continues quietly, “I do not know what it
is. You would think with people having so little time really, that
we would try harder at being happy. We should be pulling those we
love closer, yet inevitably, we always achieve the opposite.”

I want to tell him that I have also liked
him since the first time I saw him, but a torch light is shining
down on me brightly. A gush of fresh air blows into the hole and I
hear Andrew take a deep breath.

Moments later Amanda pulls me up out of the
ground and I climb up over the cement rocks, bricks and wood toward
the top of the hole in the ground.

The night air is refreshing. I feel free
and liberated. I am so happy and I forget to be apprehensive when
Carmine rushes toward me.

She stops in front of me for a second and
then her hands are around my waist. She holds me close to her,
saying repeatedly, “I am so glad you are okay.”

I notice Andrew as he climbs up over the
edge, with Amanda closely behind him. I want to rush toward him,
but I feel inhibited and then when Duncan takes me in his arms, I
sink into him inexplicably.

Amanda takes us home and I sit in the back
wedged between Duncan and Carmine. Carmine leans into me and she
rests her head on my shoulder. She says again relieved, “I am so
glad you are safe, Susie.”

Duncan nudges me from the other side and I
look at him, smiling relieved that there is no awkwardness between
us.

Andrew does not say anything and he stares
out of the window ahead of him.

When we get home, I assume Andrew will
come in, but he says goodbye to Amanda and then he walks away by
himself. My eyes follow him confused. When we were trapped under
the house, he told me he liked me and now he is back to ignoring me
again.

I do not have time to ponder him too long,
because Carmine starts to chatter again. She tells me how she could
not believe I am a vampire and she never suspected anything. After
the accident, she did wonder a little, but she had the same excuses
I had - adrenaline and shock. There are many stories of mothers who
have done amazing things to rescue their children, and if I recall
correctly, I think one of those stories included a woman who lifted
a car to free her child from under it.

Amanda goes upstairs and Carmine, Duncan and
I talk late into the night. They ask me question after question,
but I only answer those I know would not shock them. When they ask
about my feeding habits, I lie and tell them we do not kill people
for blood. They are amazed when I tell them how many vampires have
integrated with the human race and how we live with them every day.
Some have managed to integrate better than others.

I do not go to school the following day. I
have to stay in the basement for two weeks during the day and drink
my pill dutifully every morning. We are not sure how long the pill
takes before it starts working, because we started drinking it so
long ago and Amanda can only vaguely remember that it took about a
week. She does not want to take any chances, so she decides and I
agree that to be absolutely safe, I would stay in the basement for
two weeks.

*

It has been a week already and one night
after dusk, I come upstairs and go to the kitchen where I know I
will find Amanda.

I ask her the same question I have asked for
the last seven nights, “Is there any messages for me?”

She shakes her head distractedly and says, “I
did phone the school though and explained that you have a bad flu
and would only be back at school next week.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I hesitate, but then ask, “Andrew didn’t
phone?” I quickly add, “Or Carmine?”

“Carmine phoned and I am sure she will be
here any second now.” It is as if Amanda foretold it, because the
door bell rings just as she finishes her sentence.

Getting up from the chair, I say, “Don’t
worry. I’ll get it.”

I open the door smiling widely, because it
has been a long, long boring day and even Carmine’s incessant
babble will shorten the night.

It is not Carmine though, but Andrew. I look
at him uncertain and he smiles bashfully. I force myself to smile
friendly.

He says, “Hey.” He looks unsure of himself
and he looks at me questioningly.

“Hello, Andrew.” I am still upset, because he
told me how much he liked me, or I thought he did, and then he just
ignored me again.

“Can I come in?”

“
Why?” Besides the lies he told me, when he
thought he was dying, we had nothing to discuss. Admittedly, I did
want to see him, but I have played this very conversation in my
mind repeatedly and have concluded that I must forget Andrew
completely. How stupid can one vampire be, falling in love with a
plain, weak and frail human, I chastise myself - again.

He sighs exasperated. “Can I just come in,
Susie?”

I exhale noisily. “Why, Andrew?”

“Look, I am sorry I did not come sooner, but
I have my reasons.”

I step backwards, my hand on the door, ready
to close it in his face.

He steps forward. “Don’t close the door.”

“What do you want, Andrew? Where is
Carmine?”

He pushes into me and he takes me by surprise
so I step backwards. He pushes the door closed behind him with a
backward sweep of his hand, while he mumbles, “I convinced Carmine
not to come.”

I turn toward him and look at him
disbelievingly. He looks back at me and I cannot stop the words
when they rush from my lips, “I thought you said you liked me? You
just walked off after we got home, so are you confused now and not
sure you could like someone like me?”

He steps toward me, but I start walking
past him toward the lounge. He turns to follow me and as I walk
into the room, picking up the television remote from the coffee
table, he says suddenly, unwaveringly, “It could be that hug you
and Duncan shared, because when I climbed over the lip of that
chasm, it looked very heartrending.”

I turn to look at him, unable to hide the
surprise on my face. “It meant nothing and you could have asked me
then, not sulk off and leave me wondering what is wrong with
you!”

He frowns briefly and then he steps toward
me.

Sitting down on the couch, I ask
nonchalantly, “So? Do you want to play a game? I am seriously
bored.”

He sits down next to me on the couch and then
he turns toward me. “Okay. I am sorry for just walking off and not
saying anything. If I said anything, you would have thought of me
as jealous and I did not want that. I had to process it first.”

“It really didn’t mean anything. I was just
so relieved to be out of that basement and to feel accepted. It
felt as if a great burden fell from my shoulders, because I
wondered what everybody would say or was thinking after the night
of the accident.”

He smiles understandingly and then he leans
into me, just as I stand up. I will regret that moment, when I did
not stay sitting still and I would have felt his lips on mine, but
I let that moment pass unfortunately.

I ask, not wanting him to see the regret in
my face, “Do you want to play Urbz?”

“Okay, that sounds like fun - no senseless
killing game for you today?”

Casually I answer, feeling offended, “No,
I keep killing to the real world. Are you honestly going to
continue trying to offend me?”

“Once again, sorry. I am being spiteful,
because it feels that after I confessed how I feel about you, there
is this awkwardness between us. Not that we spoke much before the
rescue, but I felt comfortable with you then, now it just feels
embarrassing.”

Silently I put the disc into the gaming
console and I hand him his gaming control. Sitting down on the
floor and leaning back into the couch, I say pleasantly, “Let’s
just play. I’ll choose my character first.”