The Week I Was A Vampire (6 page)

             
“I know,” she said.  “I’m Mafe.  I’m Daniel’s grandsire.”

             
“Grandsire?” Jude said as she allowed herself to be ushered into what was a large library.

             
“My sire,” Daniel said, “was sired by Mafe.  It’s like she’s my grandmother, but in vampire terms.”

             
“Which makes you,” Mafe said, turning around sharply and smiling at Jude, “my great-grandchild.  I must say, you’re quite beautiful.  Daphne will be pleased.”

             
Daniel escorted Jude to a plush chair upholstered in a vintage material.  He sat in the chair beside her, keeping a hand on her arm as Mafe settled onto the love seat across from them.

             
“Is Daphne your sire?” Jude asked Mafe, who shook her head.  Jude was surprised when not a single strand of hair shifted as if Mafe hadn’t moved at all.

             
“Daphne is my child,” Mafe said.  “I turned her quite a long time ago and then, after a couple hundred years, she turned Daniel and Jemima.  And now, a couple hundred years later, Daniel has turned you.  I’m sensing a pattern.”

             
Jude turned to gape at Daniel who looked no more than twenty at the most, yet was, apparently, ten times that age.

             
“Try not to think about age,” Daniel said.  “There will be plenty of time for backstories later.  Right now, though, you need to finish the transition and learn how to be a vampire.”

             
“But I don’t want to be a vampire,” Jude restated.  “If I’m transitioning, like you say, then can’t I transition back into a human?”

             
“I’m afraid not,” Mafe said, folding her delicate hands and resting them in her lap.  She was petite in build, like Jude, but taller and possessed a powerful, matriarchal aura that made Jude sit up straighter in her chair.  She felt like a child and, considering Mafe was approximately the better half of a thousand years old, she imagined she really was no more than an embryo in comparison to how old the vampire across from her was.

             
“Couldn’t you ask Tess?” Daniel said.  “If anyone would know about a possible cure, it would be her.”

             
Mafe shrugged, a delicate movement of her shoulder that seemed refined, despite the fact Jude was always reprimanded by her parents when she shrugged.  Oh gosh, her parents.

             
“What if my parents come home and find out I’m a vampire?” she said in a rush, throat constricting as panic set in.  “They can’t find out.  It would kill them.  Or they’d commit me to an asylum.”

             
“Which is why they don’t find out,” Mafe said calmly, as if this were an everyday occurrence.  Maybe it was.  “We stage your death and your parents never learn the truth.  Daniel, being your sire, could take you to one of our family homes and teach you there, just the two of you, unless he wanted Daphne to come along and help him.  I, personally, don’t go far from the area, but if you relocated to the city, I could certainly come visit and help with your vampire education.”

             
“No!” Jude said, jumping to her feet.  “What part of ‘I don’t want to be a vampire’ don’t you get?  I’m not made for this life!”

             
Suddenly, the air around Jude shifted and before she could blink, Mafe was there, standing a breath away from her, angling her head to look down at the slightly shorter girl.

             
“How would you know,” Mafe said, “if you’ve never tried?”

             
Daniel joined them, placing an arm around Jude and pulling her close to his side.  Mafe nodded respectfully to him before stepping back.

             
“I’ll make you a deal, Jude Carstairs,” Mafe said.  “I’ll ask Tess if she knows of any way to turn you back into a human.  If there is a cure, I ask you only allow myself and my family to show you what it means to be a vampire before you make your final decision.  I know your generation has some ridiculous notions about our kind, so allow us to show you what vampirism truly means.  We don’t sparkle, but if that disappoints you, I’m sure a healthy dose of body glitter could fix that.”  She smiled then, as if she were a long time friend and not some immortal creature of the night.  Jude felt every ounce of tension leave her body when Mafe smiled like that.

             
“Only,” Jude said, “if you promise no one will trick me into becoming a vampire.”

             
Mafe cocked her head to the side before nodding.

             
“Although,” the vampire said, “I doubt you’re very trusting of me.  Daniel?”

             
Jude felt herself being turned and found herself face to face with Daniel who clasped her hand between his.

             
“I promise, Jude,” he said, “no one will trick you.  No harm will come to you while I am here.  Trust me.”

             
Maybe it was his voice or the fact his blood was responsible for her being in transition.  Maybe it was the sincere look in his eyes or the fact Jude felt genuinely warm when he touched her.  Whatever the reason, Jude found herself turning to face Mafe who was carefully watching the exchange between her grandchild and the potential vampire.

             
“Alright,” Jude said.  “I agree to your deal.”

Tuesday Morning

Persuasion

Tuesday morning was more successful for Jude, but only because she didn’t wake up and die.  She simply woke up and was already dead.  And hungry, which was not aided by the fact someone was downstairs cooking something that smelled delicious.  Focusing her senses, Jude discovered it was Simon, up six hours before usual, cooking pancakes.  They weren’t exactly what her vampire side was craving, but the still human part of her wanted pancakes.  So, rolling out of bed and being mindful of the early morning light that seemed brighter today than yesterday, Jude padded downstairs in her pajamas and joined her brother in the kitchen.

              “Where were you last night?” Simon asked before sliding a plate of pancakes in front of Jude.  She forgot to thank him, surprised he was being so nice at such an early hour, but didn’t question the uncharacteristic display of kindness.

             
“With Daniel,” she said, because it was the truth, and when Simon frowned, she elaborated.

“He’s Jemima’s older brother.  You do know she’s sixteen, right?”

              Simon turned a faint shade of green as he turned away from the stove to look at his sister.

             
“She didn’t look sixteen,” he said.  “Are you sure?”

             
Jude nodded before shoving a forkful of syrup covered pancakes into her mouth.

             
“Daniel told me,” she said around the mouthful.  “Do you like her?”

             
Simon shrugged and then frowned at his sister.

             
“What’s up with your eyes?” he said.  “You start using colored contacts like Lux?”

             
Jude nodded.

             
“Thought I’d give them a try,” she said, “but you never answered my question.”

             
“She’s fun and easy on the eyes,” he said, “but not really my type.”

             
“I didn’t know you had a type,” Jude said and Simon glared at her.

             
“Everyone has a type,” he said.  “Whether or not they know it is another thing.”

             
He held up a carton of orange juice and she nodded when he pointed to it.  Simon slid the carton and an empty glass across the counter to her, the glass moving too fast for human Jude to catch.  But vampire Jude reached out and deftly caught it mid-air, earning herself a low whistle of approval from her brother.

             
“Nice catch,” he said.  “Since when do you have reflexes?”

             
“Guess it’s a perk of being eighteen,” she said and watched as Simon flushed.

             
“That was yesterday,” he said, “wasn’t it?”

             
Jude nodded as she poured herself a glass of orange juice.

             
Simon joined her at the island, his own plate of pancakes double the size of her own.

             
“I’m sorry kid,” he said.  “I totally forgot.”

             
“It’s fine,” said Jude, “really.  I wasn’t feeling all that well yesterday and we’re going to be celebrating when mom and dad get home anyways.” 

             
Simon nodded, relief evident on his face as he was off the hook, but Jude wasn’t done with him.

             
“There is something you could do for me, though,” Jude said and Simon looked apprehensive at the tone of her voice.

             
“And what’s that?” he said.

             
“Call the school and tell them I’m sick,” Jude said.  Her brother quickly protested, citing reasons such as being a responsible chaperone and how Jude was only allowed to skip class on her birthday.  His impassioned speech was causing his blood pressure to rise and Jude felt the familiar haze of bloodlust creeping in as her eyes, of their own violation, moved to Simon’s neck.  She forced herself to look at his eyes instead, and when she did, there was that sensation she’d felt the night before when looking at Tess in the dimness of the Ward house.  It was like something in her eyes was clicking together, only instead of zooming in on the fine details of her brother’s face, she saw his eyes go glossy and vacant the way Lux’s had last night.

             
“You’re going to call the school,” she said, imitating the calm of Daniel’s voice, “and you’re going to tell them I’ve had the stomach flu all weekend and won’t be in today.”

             
As soon as her order had been delivered, Simon rose from his seat talking about how unwell his sister had been lately and why didn’t she go back to bed while he called the school to let them know she was going to be staying home today?

             
With a smile on her face, Jude returned to her room and closed her curtains, hanging her comforter over the curtain rod to further block out the sunlight.  And then, feeling tired despite having just woken, she crawled back into bed and fell asleep.

Tuesday Afternoon

To Be Human

When Lux arrived at the Carstairs house, Jude was at the kitchen table with what looked to be the contents of the refrigerator spread on the counter.  She stood in the doorway, watching her friend plow through the mountain of food with a gusto she never imagined Jude possessed.

              “Why are you eating everything in sight?” Lux asked, causing Jude to pause mid-bite and lower the Twinkie from her mouth.

             
“Food helps the cravings,” she said, “and I’m starving.  Feel free to join me.”

             
Lux watched, mildly disgusted, as Jude crammed a Twinkie into her mouth and followed it up with spray cheese.  She kept her distance though, remaining in the doorway incase Jude decided to give into her cravings and make Lux a Happy Meal.

             
“So what happened last night?” Lux said.  “Daniel better have helped you since, you know, he totally wrecked our movie date.”

             
Jude’s appetite vanished with a speed that left her reeling.  Looking up at her friend, she realized Lux didn’t remember the part of the evening where she’d almost been turned into dinner.  Had Daniel made her forget the same way Jude made Simon call the school?

             
“Um, yeah,” Jude said, shoving a container of bologna away from her.  “He kind of helped, I guess.”

             
“You guess?” said Lux, entering the kitchen and leaning against the counter. 

             
Jude noticed she kept a good distance away, but was aware it would take less than a second to reach her friend if she wanted to harm her.  Which she didn’t, yet something inside her could think of nothing more than draining Lux Reading.

             
“He introduced me to his grandsire,” Jude said, “which is-”

             
“The sire of his sire,” Lux said and then smiled at Jude’s put-out expression.  “You forget, I’ve been obsessed with vampires since I was a kid.”

             
Jude smiled.

             
“Her name’s Mafe,” she said.  “She’s our age, or close to it.  Or, you know, she was before she was turned.  Daniel’s sire is a girl named Daphne, who I haven’t met, but apparently she’ll be pleased that I’m pretty.”

             
“Shallow vampire,” Lux said, “who’d of thunk it.”  The girls shared a laugh.

             
“I made a deal,” Jude said as she began to put the uneaten food back in the refrigerator.  “Mafe is going to ask Tess- that’s the mystery woman I told you about- if there’s any way to turn me back into a human.  If there is, I have to left Mafe and her family show me what it’s like to be a vampire before I make my decision.  Do you think I made the right call?”

             
“Yes,” said Lux before handing a carton of eggs to Jude.  “I hope you didn’t plan on eating these raw.”

             
Jude flushed.

             
“I wasn’t really thinking,” she said.  “I was just hungry.”

             
“Would it effect you,” said Lux, “if you had human blood?  Do you think that’d make you a vampire?  I mean, I know in books and movies it does, but we aren’t exactly in a movie right now.”

             
Jude shrugged.

             
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I’m not taking any chances.  I’m sticking to my routine until we figure out if there’s a cure or not.”

             
“So you weren’t in school why?”

             
Jude shut the refrigerator with a frown and looked at Lux.

             
“Look,” she said, “I know I said I wanted to be prom queen, but eating the competition hardly seems the way to go.”

             
Lux shrugged, not all that concerned with the idea of her best friend eating a few members of their graduating class.

             
“If winning through cannibalism is too much for your conscience to handle,” she said, “I know of a few cheerleaders who are fair game.  Please, you’d be doing me a favor.”

             
Jude laughed before tossing one of the colas on the counter to Lux, who caught it with the effortless ease of a girl who’d grown up dancing.

             
“I think you’d be better at this then me,” Jude confessed.  “You’ve got this unflappable calm and wit.  You’d make a great vampire.”

             
Lux reached across the counter and grabbed Jude’s hand. 

             
Jude did her best to ignore the pulse she felt beneath her fingertips and found it easy to do so when Lux smiled at her.

             
“We’ll fix this, Jude,” she said.  “I promise, you’ll be human again, no matter what.”