CHAPTER SEVEN

"Annabeth, your sister here is out of control.  We found her smoking in the bathroom, we took away one pack of cigarettes, but then she wiped out another cigarette from her bra.  Is she getting these from you?” the principal asked.  They found me smoking.  Come on, who cares anymore?

It was after school hours now, and it was starting to get dark out.  Who has parent-teacher conferences this late?  Oh yeah, that’s right.  It’s a Friday, so they want to keep you from doing something fun.  I rolled my eyes at my balding principal.

“Yes, I know this.  It’s still a little hard trying to keep her from doing bad things when I go to nursing school, and then trying to balance the job that I have as well.  I’m thinking about hiring a babysitter for her,” my sister said as she gave me the evil eye.

“Is there something else that I should know?”  This guy obviously didn’t have kids.  I looked at his finger.  Huh, there was a wedding ring on there before Ann came in.

My sister hesitated, looking thoughtful.  Just for shits and giggles, I pulled out another cigarette.  She took it away from me, “God, what is wrong with you?  Exactly how many do you have on you?”

“None of your business,” I snapped at her.  That was actually my last one that she took.  Now I have to pay Thomas to get me more dammit.

My sister put her head in her hands.  “What happened to the little girl you used to be?  What happened to you Tammy?”

“I grew up and realized that life is a bitch,” I replied simply.

“Life is not ALWAYS a bitch,” my sister said.

“Well, with the fuck-head I know, it is,” I mumbled softly to myself.

My principal heard me and narrowed his eyes.  “Miss Armstrong, if you are referring to me, I suggest you watch your mouth,” Mr. Jones snapped at me.

“If I was talking about you, you’d be having a heart attack from all the foul language coming out of my mouth.”  My sister slowly raised her head at me, and seemed to understand what I was talking about.  This was impossible, because I was talking about Thomas.

“Tammy, who are you talking about,” she asked me quietly.  Before I had a chance to answer, and correct my mistake, Thomas came in through the door.  Imagine the surprise on my face when I saw him walk in.

“Sorry I’m late, Mr. Jones.  I got caught up in some paperwork that I had to do,” he said as he actually walked over to my principal and shook his hands.

“Not a problem, Thomas.”  Mr. Jones looked at me and Annabeth both.  “This is Thomas; he is a therapist for those with family troubles.  I looked him up today, and he came up highly recommended.  I figured you three could get to know each other very well,” he said satisfied.  Stunned, I looked at Thomas, then I looked over at my sister.  It seemed almost as if she did too!

“This is Tammy, our most troubled student by far and her sister Annabeth,” Mr. Jones said to Thomas.

Thomas shook our hands as I muttered, “I’m not troubled at all.”  Thomas asked my principal if he could have alone time with me since he wanted to understand my problems better.  The principal agreed and as Annabeth stood up she gave Thomas the most evil look of her life and she seemed to whisper something in his ear as she walked out with my principal.  Thomas acted as if nothing happened.

When we were alone I asked, “What was that about?”

“What was what about?”

“That right there.  My sister said something, didn’t she?  What was it?  More importantly, how do you guys know each other?”

“It’s nothing that concerns you,” he said.

“Doesn’t concern me?  You and my sister know each other?  How is that possible?  Why am I not getting any answers here?” I yelled.  

Thomas looked at me and all of sudden I looked at him, wondering why Thomas was here and how he was considered a therapist.  I never thought twice about what he did between meeting with me and other activities he enjoys.  Not to mention my curiosity was at an all-time high.  How does Thomas and my sister know each other?  What is it I’m not seeing here?  If there’s one huge pet peeve of mine, I can’t stand to be in the dark on things.  Curiosity killed the cat, though.  But in this case it was more like curiosity killed the vampire.

He set down the briefcase he had with him on the floor and sat next to me where my sister was once sitting.  His dark brown hair was smoothed down and perfect like it always was, and instead of wearing a sweatshirt and jeans like he normally does; he was wearing a business suit.  “Tammy, we need to talk.”

“What about?”

“The Vampire Council has summoned me.  I must waste no time in getting there, so I’m leaving tomorrow.  Darien has done me the greatest honor in…”

I held up a hand, “Whoa, what?  What exactly is going on?”  I crossed my arms and looked at him.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  “I lied to you Tammy, the Vampire Council didn’t know about you at first.  But thanks to an anonymous tip a while back, they know about you now.  I’ve just been putting it off on you meeting with them.  And that’s not the only thing either…. Since you’re so young, they want to impregnate you...”

“Well, they can just go ahead and find themselves another one, because no way in HELL I’m having a kid right now.”

“Tammy, trust me, I’ve tried putting this off as long as I could, but they are insistent.  Unfortunately, there is no way around this.  I’m sorry,” he said quietly.  “And if there is no way that your body can support a Vampire baby, they’ll kill you and your family.”

I sat there, numb.  They would kill me just because I possibly couldn’t do what they wanted me to do?  Wow, talk about setting your expectations high?  Thomas stood up and pulled me in his arms for a hug good-bye, and when he went to kiss me he hissed and pulled back. 

“You reek,” he said simply.

“Um, thanks?  You don’t exactly smell the best either.  That cologne smells awful…”

“That’s not it.”  He breathed in deeply and looked at me, “have you been around a werewolf lately?  I swear the stench is all over you.  When the hell did you come across one?”

“This morning.  His father answered the door when I offered to give Paul a ride to school.  I actually should correct myself, his STEP-father.”

“And why would you offer that insolet human a ride?”

“I figured after all the schock that came to him this week, he’d like to be able to talk it out.  It was just quite a load to drop on him, don’t cha think?”  I also couldn’t seem to shake this feeling of wanting to protect Paul.  I always thought he was a bit nerdy, also a bit weird at times too.  But for someone odd reason I thought of him being my only friend and it was… nice to say the least.

Disgusted, Thomas pulled away from me and grabbed his suitcase.

“I’m sorry, okay?  I was only thinking about how sorry I felt for the little bugger,” I tried explaining to him.  Why was I panicking about this so much?

Thomas was facing the door when he turned around to me.  Completely ignoring what I just told him he said to me, “I’m leaving now.  Darien will be your supplier…”

“DARIEN?  I barely know the guy though!”

“During which time also, he will be training you on how to fight.  No doubt the Council will want to know if you can fight or not,” he sighed again.  For some odd reason, I started crying.  I had no idea why, and it scared me.  I hardly ever cried, I guess it was because Thomas –my only supplier that I knew of –was leaving me.  Sure, I didn’t want to be lovers with the guy, but he’s the only vampire I’ve known.  I didn’t want to be pawned off to some random guy supplying me with blood.

His gaze softened at me and he came over and kissed my tears away, “my sweet love, do not despair.  I shall return, and I’m sorry for the way I acted.  I should be grateful that you let your thoughts be known.  Maybe it will make our relationship stronger.”  And with that, he left me alone trying to fight back the tears on my face…

So Darien is more than a little upset with me, to say the least.  Since I haven’t invited him inside, he just stares at me through my window and stays there until the morning sun comes up.  I’ve basically refused to talk to him face to face and after a while he ends up leaving a few blood bags for me on the back porch.  I wasn’t really prepared to start a “friendship” with this guy.  I wanted Thomas back, someone that I knew and trusted.  So what was my brilliant solution?  Refuse to drink any sort of blood.

One night when Darien was outside doing his thing, and I was doing mine, he tapped on my window.  At first I ignored him, and started on my schoolwork.  But then he kept knocking insistently and I didn’t want my sister to hear, she was already losing her mind with me acting out more than usual.  With an exasperated sigh, I finally looked at Darien and my eyes widened.

On his smartphone screen I could make out who was on the phone; it was Thomas.

I opened up my window, and tried taking the cellphone from Darien.  He leaned backwards and shook his head.  I knew what the bastard wanted.  I was tempted to not even take the cellphone since Thomas just up and left me.

But it was for a good reason.  Quit being such a bitch, my conscience snapped.

I blew hot air out my nose at him and mumbled a quick invitation under my breath.  Darien grinned and leapt gracefully into my bedroom, without making a sound.  Up close I forget how tall he is to me.  But then again it’s not like I stand at a significant height either.  I’m only five feet, four inches tall.  Sometimes reaching for the tall cupboard was a bitch and a half.  Darien offered me the phone again, and I snatched it.

“Hello?” I said.

“Tammy…  Just what exactly do you think you are doing?  Did you think Darien would not keep me informed as to how my pupil is doing?  Why are you not drinking blood?  Do you not realize that you are putting your life in jeapodary by doing something so stupid?”

Again, there was that feeling of feeling so alone.  So desperate for his touch, his scent even.  I shook my head, disgusted.  Why was I acting like this?  I didn’t act like this even when he was around me.

“Tammy, it is the bond that Thomas created when he turned you…  That is the sense of loneliness you are feeling,” Darien whispered.

My blood ran cold with shock.  I didn’t believe in that stupid bond.  I didn’t think it was a real thing.  To be honest, I always thought it was something Thomas made up because he had an unhealthy love obsession with me.

“Tammy, are you still there?” Thomas asked.

Numbly, I answered that I still was.  Thomas then demanded that I start drinking human blood again, or else my body would start shutting itself down.  I agreed to it.

I hung up the phone and returned it to Darien.  He then pulled out a bag of O positive and my stomach growled at the sight of it, and my instincts kicked in to just rip it open and drink every last drop of it.

Instead I looked Darien in his eyes and said, “get the fuck out of my house.”  His eyes widened at me and he curled his lip before forces of nature beyond our understanding flung him out my still opened windows.

“Tammy would you please-” 

I didn’t give him a chance to finish.  I slammed my windows shut, turned off my lamp, and crawled into bed underneath the sheets and began crying.

If this was the way out of the vampire world by starving myself to death, so be it.  I saw no reason to keep living if I was going to be like this forever.  I stand true to my words.

I wish I had never been turned.