The Week I Was A Vampire (7 page)

Tuesday Night

Grigori

Sixteen minutes after sunset, Jude received a call from Daniel letting her know he had a lead and that she should be ready to go within the hour.  Lux, not wanting to be left out of the loop, had insisted upon tagging along.  When Daniel at last arrived at the Carstairs house, he had to hold in his laugh as he took in the outfit the gangly human was wearing today.

              With thigh high, platform boots and a dress Twiggy would’ve worn, Lux would’ve made Jude look painfully plain in her blazer and dark jeans, had it not been for the fact the transitioning girl possessed looks befitting of a vampire.  It also happened to be that vampires possessed a certain magnetism that drew attention to them.  Jude could stand with a horde of supermodels dressed in lingerie and all eyes would still be on her due to a sort of glamour she’d hadn’t learned how to suppress.

            
 
All in due time
,
Daniel thought and immediately chastised himself for delighting in this girl’s plight.  Teaching her to be a vampire would no doubt be a pleasure, but if she wasn’t willing to be a creature of the night, it wasn’t his place to convince her otherwise.  He’d been surprised when she’d agreed to Mafe’s deal.

             
“Hey, McVamp,” Lux said, jolting him from his reverie, “you’re cute to look at, but can we get this show on the road?  Some of us mortals have homework and a curfew to make and if I tell my parents I was out hanging with a vampire and my half-vampire friend, they may lock me up.  Well, my dad might.  Mom will probably just ground me, which is the same thing as being institutionalized.”

             
Beside Lux, Jude groaned before smiling apologetically at Daniel.

             
“Her mother was supposedly a witch back in the day and I think Lux inhaled too many herbs as a infant.  She’s never been the same.”  She pulled her jacket off the hook by the door and was thankful she couldn’t blush as Daniel helped her into it.  Even if she couldn’t blush, that didn’t stop Lux from leering at the two in a way that would’ve left Jude a nice shade of scarlet.

             
“Lux Reading,” Daniel said, rolling the name around in his mouth as though there were a memory attached to it.  “You wouldn’t happen to have a great-grandmother named Luciana, would you?”

             
Lux gaped at Daniel as she nodded.

             
“I’m named after her,” she said.  “Did you know her?”

             
“For almost her entire life,” he said.  “We helped her family relocate from Italy when she was just a child.  Her mother was a witch that served Mafe for years.  Good help is hard to come by, so vampires tend to invest heavily in witches and their lineage.”  He stared at Lux in a new light, examining her in a way that had Jude feeling uncomfortable as she stood there.

             
“You don’t possess any magic,” Daniel said, “do you?”

             
Lux shook her head.

             
“Not a speck,” she said.  “My mom didn’t have any either.  She could make potions and whatnot, but doing something as simple as lighting a candle with her mind took too much effort.”

             
Jude stood in the foyer staring blankly at Lux who shrugged.

             
“You’d have had me committed,” she said and Jude accepted that as a fact.  “Besides, it’s not like I have any magic, so what’s the point in bragging about some cool witchy heritage?”

             
“There is something supernatural about you, though,” Daniel said.  “I can sense it.  And don’t disregard your heritage just because you don’t possess magic.  Being the descendent of Luciana and her family would open many doors for you in the supernatural community.”

             
“We’re relocating,” Lux said to Jude as she pulled on her duster, “to this supernatural community where my dead nana’s name can open doors.  And if that doesn’t work, you can use your vamp skills to kick in the doors.  Or, you know, use your persuasion to make the doorman comply.”

             
“Persuasion?” Daniel said, obviously amused.  “You mean you’ve figured out how to bend people’s mind to your will?”

             
Jude shrugged sheepishly, but nodded nonetheless.

             
“My brother,” she said by way of explanation.

             
Daniel nodded and held open the door for the girls.

             
“Shall we?” he said and stepped out of the way as Lux took the lead, marching out the door and down the front steps as though she were a soldier marching into battle.  Before Jude could pass him though, Daniel caught her arm and smiled at her.

             
“Persuasion is a good name for it,” he said.  “Although Lux may have to think of something better than ‘vamp skills.’”

             
Jude laughed and the pair walked down the steps together, Daniel’s hand remaining on her arm until they reached his car.  He helped the two girls in before striding over to the driver’s side and slipping inside.

•§•

“So where are we going?” Jude asked from the passenger seat as Daniel turned down a road that would lead them out of Holden.  In the backseat, Lux had her feet propped up and was tapping her foot against the window in time to the song playing low on the radio.  The tapping was resembling a heartbeat and as the bloodlust started to bubble up inside Jude, she felt Daniel’s hand grip her with a force that would’ve broken her hand had she still been human.

            
 
I am still human
,
she reminded herself.
 
I am human until I decide to become a vampire.

            
 
“It helps if you stop breathing,” Daniel murmured low enough that Lux couldn’t hear them.  “If you listen to her heartbeat long enough, your breathing will start to match her pulse and it’ll drive you mad.  Just relax and focus on the road.”

             
Jude did as told, staring straight out the window and mentally reminding herself that she didn’t need to breathe.  It was strange at first and she found herself taking a few deep, unnecessary breaths at first, but eventually her mind agreed that she didn’t need to breathe and effectively stopped.

             
“Tess told Mafe about a man named Grigori,” Daniel said, coming back to her question.  “He is a bit like Lux in the sense he’s descended from a powerful line of witches, yet possesses no magic.  He’s a scholar, if you will, and apparently there is a text in his possession that Tess said should hold the answers we’re looking for.”

             
“And Tess knows about this text how?” Lux said, leaning against the back of Daniel’s seat as she leaned forward to join the conversation.

             
“How Tess knows a lot of things is a mystery,” Jude found herself answering.  She ducked her head when Daniel smiled at her and returned her attention to the road.

             
“If you two kiss,” Lux said, “I’m going to throw up.  I don’t think your keen sense of smell would appreciate that, so can we keep the flirting to a minimum?”

             
Jude may not be able to blush, but she was capable of turning around and persuading Lux to sit back and be quiet until they reached Grigori’s house.  When she turned back in her seat, she caught Daniel’s disapproving look and wilted.

             
“Do you ever forget yourself?” Jude said, glancing back at the silent Lux who was staring aimlessly out the window.  “Do you ever feel like you’re a different person?”

             
“Sometimes,” Daniel said, “at the beginning.  It’s easy to lose yourself when you become a vampire, and it’s made easier the younger someone is when they’re turned.  Teenagers often aren’t as mature as adults, and their personal identity is more likely to be altered when they’re turned.  For that reason, vampires try to avoid turning anyone who isn’t an adult.”

             
“But you and Jemima-” Jude said, but Daniel cut her off.

             
“We were adults in our time,” he said.  “Or at least I was.  I was twenty when I was turned and while Jemima was only sixteen, it was her choice.  Mafe didn’t approve of Daphne turning someone so young, but she understood and accepted Jemima.”

             
“Did Jemima change?” Jude asked and watched Daniel’s face break into a rueful smile.

             
“Is that your way of asking if my sister has always been a soul sucking harpy?”  At Jude’s shocked expression, he laughed.  “Yes, I heard you.  I wanted to make sure you were alright, so I followed you at the party and heard what you said to Lux.  I am sorry, though, that I couldn’t reach you sooner that night.  I was trying to find Jemima in the crowd, but Tess pulled me away and said you needed my help.”

             
“Yet again,” Jude said, “Tess knows things no one else does.”  She paused.  “I forgive you, by the way, for not showing up in time.  And also for giving me your blood.  You saved my life and it was my own stupidity that ended up with me being dead.  Or undead, as it is.  I hope you realize none of this is your fault.”

             
Daniel nodded before turning down a road that reminded Jude of the road leading to the lake house.

             
“Do you mind if I ask how you died?” he said.  “It’s usually planned, the creation of a vampire, so it’s the neck that’s usually broken.  Is that what happened to you?”

             
Jude laughed softly, wrapping her arms around herself as she did.

             
“You can’t laugh,” Jude said and when Daniel promised, she told him.  “I slipped on a bar of soap in the shower and cracked my head open.  Not exactly the most graceful way to die.”

             
“I don’t think there is a graceful way to die,” Daniel said.  “I should know; I’ve seen my fair share of it.  We’re here.”

             
Jude looked out the passenger window to see a house tucked away from the side of the road, surrounded by trees and almost invisible.  She imagined a human would be able to drive right by without ever noticing the house, a theory that was proved when Lux wondered why they had stopped in the middle of nowhere.

             
“You are talking,” Daniel said to her, “aren’t you?” 

             
Lux frowned, not understanding what he meant, but climbed out of the car nonetheless.

             
As Daniel helped Jude from the car, he pulled her close and quickly whispered into her ear.

             
“When you use persuasion,” he said, “it causes the mind to forget the most recent memory.  She won’t remember teasing you in the car.”

             
“Just like she won’t remember me almost biting her,” Jude said glumly and Daniel nodded.

             
“Even if she had,” he said, “I would’ve made her forget.  You are not yourself right now and she should not be afraid of you because of that.  You are a good person, Jude Carstairs, and I will not have anyone thinking otherwise.”

             
Jude started to thank him, but Lux’s shout for them to hurry up because “the human is freezing,” cut her thanks down to a simple nod.  That would have to be enough for now.

             
“So is this the part where you guys eat me?” Lux said.  “Because if it is, I’m sure we didn’t have to drive all the way out to the middle of nowhere for you to do that.”

             
Grinning devilishly, Daniel winked at Lux as he lead the way into the forest.

             
“This way,” he said, “no one will hear you scream.”

             
“Not funny, vamp-butt,” Lux said and then paused long enough to admire Daniel’s derriere.  “Not bad.”

             
“Come on, Lux,” Jude said, grabbing her friend’s arm and tugging her along until she started to willingly move.

             
“In my defense,” Lux said, “I was just admiring the finely formed scenery.”  At Jude’s glare and Daniel’s amused, backwards glance, Lux quickly changed topics.  “Jude, did you scream when Jemima attacked you?”

             
Jude stopped, as did Daniel, who turned around to watch as her face flashed through a myriad of emotions as her mind replayed the events of that fateful night.

             
“I don’t know,” she said.  “I don’t remember screaming.”  She looked to Daniel for the answer.  “Did I scream?”

             
He shook his head.

             
“It was surprising, really,” he said.  “Almost like you’d accepted your death.  You did thank me for saving you, though.”