Broken Glass and Bleeding Hearts

“Come on Ellie, it will be fun. From what everyone has been saying this will be the party of the year,” Star sat in the living room practically bouncing with excitement as she spoke. I could see the begging in her eyes as she looked at me, jutting her bottom lip out a little bit for extra affect.

“I’m not throwing it so I doubt it’ll be the party of the year,” Brian threw in as he returned from the kitchen with a bowl of popcorn. “but it is supposed to be one hell of a party. Your really should come with the rest of us.”

For the last fifteen minutes Star, Brian, and Jimmy were trying to convince Matt, Zacky, and I to attend the party that was supposed to happen tonight. Zacky had opted out with the excuse that he was going out of town with his family tomorrow and had to get up early. Matt didn’t give a reason and no one pushed while I had given the same exhausted excuse as yesterday.

“I’m just too tired guys,” I threw in a yawn for good measure.

“Okay. I’ve gotta go so I’ll be ready in time. See you Monday,” Star actually walked over and hugged me before she headed to the door.

“See ya then,” I waited the door closed before I spoke. “what in the hell just happened? She is usually pissed at me for something lately.”

“Who the hell knows? She is a chick and God knows you women change your emotions like you change your clothes,” Brian took another bite of his popcorn.

“Hello! Remember who you are talking to here Brian. Unless its PMS time my emotions stay on a normal track thank you very much,”

“Did you really just say PSM time? To me?”

“No I said it to the guy across the street! Yes I said it to you. Why, does that make you uncomfortable?” I leaned forward, looked directly at him, and raised one eyebrow.

“Yes actually it does.”

“Well if you like I can walk you through the hell of having a period.”

“Notice how this just went from funny and slightly awkward to hilarious and extremely awkward?” Zacky asked looking at Matt.

“Oh yeah,” Matt immediately turned his attention back to Brian.

“You are disgusting,” Brian wrinkled his nose and looked away from me.

“And you are such a girl,” I rested against the back of the couch again.

“Hey! I’m not a girl and you know it!”

Brian left soon after finishing his popcorn saying he had stuff to do before the party. Of course that left Matt, Zacky, and I sitting in the most uncomfortable silence we’ve ever experienced. I could sense that Matt wasn’t speaking because he was deep in thought about something. Zacky looked like he was debating saying something important or just keeping his mouth shut. I was just at a loss of words.

“Guys,” Zacky finally spoke. “there is something that I need to tell you.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out two bags filled with blood.

“What that you’ve been stealing from the council?” Matt asked, his voice heavily laced with amusement.

“No. Just smell it,” He tossed one bag to Matt and the other to me.

Without hesitation we made a tiny tear in each of the bags. I lifted mine to my nose and inhaled. Immediately my fangs grew out and instinct took over. So naturally when the bag was pulled away from me I hissed.

“Oh my God what is this?” Matt took another whiff from his bag. It was then when I noticed that his fangs had grown too.

“Give me that,” Zacky snatched the bag from Matt too. Much like I had done Matt hissed at Zacky.

“The council has been lying to us guys. They always said that human blood held no appeal to us and the blood of other vampires would sustain us better. But these bags were hidden in the back of their refrigerator and they are clearly marked human,” Zacky paused and moved the bags further away from himself, “and the real label was covered with a fake one. The name Jones was on it.”

“Why? Why to all of it?” I asked, scooting further away from the scent.

“I did my research on it and that was a pain in the ass. Human blood gives added strength and as a large part of a vampire’s diet it will provide immortality. As far as I can find the original council decided to outlaw human blood so that vampires will live a life equal to that of a human because they believed it would eliminate war. They only add enough to maintain vampiristic strengths after we complete the change and they mix it with vampire blood so we never know.”

“Those bastards! They must have put Angelica’s family in charge of it,” Matt concluded, trying not to breathe the lingering scent it.

My eyes met with Zacky’s and he gave a discreet nod. Thankfully Matt had come to his own conclusions about it. I knew exactly what Zacky was trying to say; Angelica was more than likely drinking straight human blood.

An hour or so later and Matt had to leave. For a few minutes Zacky and I just sat in silence, once again unsure of what to say. “It says that it has to be a major part of your diet for several months to begin the immortality process Ellie. I think that until we know when she is going to strike and what she is going to do when she does you should drink some occasionally. I think Matt should too,” Zacky finally said.

“If we tell Matt about that then he’ll know something is going on Zack,” I sighed, squeezing my eyes closed.

“Not necessarily. I also read that if one vampire drinks human blood within 24 hours before another vampire drinks from them most of human blood will have mixed in and be transferred with theirs. If you drink a bag before you have Matt drink yours he’ll get the same effect that you do without knowing,” Zacky handed me the first bag.

“But I’ll have to know for sure if he will. I mean it isn’t like you can get this stuff freely.”

“Actually I can. I’ve been watching Angelica really closely for the last few weeks. They get huge shipments of it in every week. Shipments so huge that they are starting to freeze most of it and they aren’t counting. You may not want to do this but it might be the only way for you two to beat her.”

“I’ll just have to get Matt to bite me tomorrow then,” I stated and stared at the bag. “bottoms up I guess.” I quickly made the tiny cut larger and began sucking.

“Once more thing. Be sure that you give me the empty bags to get rid of. We don’t need anyone else finding out about this,” Zacky reached out to take the now empty bag from my hands. “I gotta get going now. Do me a favor and read that second book tonight. It gives you history about your bloodline and everyone else’s bloodline too.”

After dinner with my mom, aunt, and uncle, I headed up to my bedroom. Something about they way Zacky had talked about the book this afternoon gave me a weird feeling. It was like there was something in the book that he knew was important but he didn’t know what. With each moment that passed the need to read that book increased.

Once in my bedroom, with the door closed of course, I sat down at my desk. “Here goes nothing. I’m not sure what you’re going to be about to tell me but here we go,” I opened the book and looked for my family’s name.

The list was composed of my ancestors and included brief descriptions of their accomplishments and gifts. Nothing particular really stood out. The gifts were pretty cool but nothing that could classify as helpful in the current situation. Until I came to someone named Camilla, my great-greatgrandmother.

Camilla Ainsworth was the first Ainsworth to have a gift of such extraordinary measures. Before her there was only one women in this particular bloodline that was physic. Camilla was both physic and a dream speaker, meaning she could make long distance contact to someone through her dreams.

The information about my great-grandmother wasn’t much different than those that came before my great-great-grandmother. When I came to my grandmother’s name I felt a twinge of pain.

Shelly Ainsworth was the second in the bloodline to possess the gift of dream speaking. It was first suspected that she was physic because of the magnitude of her gift. Later in her life it was discovered that she was not physic but still possessed the most powerful gift of dream speaking in history.”

Five hours later and I had yet to find anything else that was useful in the book. Sure there was a lot of interesting information but nothing that felt useful. As I was looking back through the book something caught my attention.

On of the empty pages that was left for my family there was an odd discoloration. It was like there was something written on the page and later erased or covered up. I held the book up to the light but there was no difference in the discoloration.

“Must just be my eyes,” I sighed and closed the book. Looking over at the picture of Matt, Star, and I from the summer before made a smile tug at my lips. It brought back the memories of when everything was easy, when Star would still spent time with us, and before Matt and I were on a hit list.

It was almost 2 am when I finally went to bed. After so many months of nightmares the only hope I had each night was to getaway without one. As soon as I was curled up underneath the covers I closed my eyes and forgot about everything.

Instantly I knew that this was not one of those nightmares. This place wasn’t dark, wet, or cold. Instead it was sunny, very sunny, and warm. It took a minute for me to realize where I was. “What is going on?”

“You subconsciously reached out for help sugar,” The familiar voice spoke.

“Nana?”

“Hi sweetie,” I finally saw my Nana just before she embraced me in a hug. “you’ve gotten so big. And you cut your hair, I like it. We have to hurry though because something could wake you up at any moment and we might not get this chance again. Sit down with me,” She motioned to the swinging bench that sat in her backyard.

“What is going on? Am I just dreaming?” We sat down and a gentle breeze, carrying the scent of roses, whipped around us.

“You are dreaming but it is a special dream. I’m controlling everything that is happening. You inherited my gift. You never knew because until today you haven’t had enough human blood to activate it. I’m here to help you understand why Angelica Jones is doing what she is doing,

“My grandmother had a vision when she was young. It was the first vision of its kind and the only one in history. It foretold that there would be a war between the Ainsworth, Sanders, and Jones families for power. She wasn’t able to make out any faces or get any names. All she could tell was that it would be a young Ainsworth woman, a young Sanders man, and a young Jones woman.

“There was no definite date that she could see, all she knew was that it would occur two years before or after the turn of a century. No one would know besides the three young people it involved and their friends. I’m afraid that the prophecy was referring to you, Matt, and Angelica.”

“Is there anyway to be sure?”

“She also saw that the Ainsworth involved would have some sort of gift, as would the Sanders, and the Jones. The Jones involved would have more helpers than anyone. The Ainsworth would have one friend helping her and the Sanders would have one helping him. She also saw that there would be a string of dreams that would occur between the three which would foretell what was coming. Sound familiar?”

“Oh my God. Did she see what was going to happen or how it was going to end?”

“No, it could go anyway. The only thing that I know is that you have to be careful. She is drinking at least two bags of human blood a week already. I want you to be careful, be cautious about who you trust, and prepare yourself. Zacky is doing a great job discovering everything and that gives you an advantage but she is still hiding things.

“Just be prepared sweetheart. I believe in you and I know that you can beat her. There is one more thing though. The vision showed that if you tell your mom great harm will come to her and it is the same with Matt’s parents. I wish you could tell them without fear but you have to know that part too.”

We spent the rest of the dream talking. I guess that we were sort of catching up while we could. She reminded me several times that when I woke up this would end. It would be a while if we ever spoke again and there was no guarantee that we would be able to.

Just as we were talking her face went pale. “Nana what is wrong?” I began to feel extremely worried.

“You are going to wake up in a few minutes sweetheart. It is morning already. Promise me that you’ll be strong because I know you can get through this. I love you,” She hugged me again and kissed my cheek.

“I love you too.”

Suddenly the scene disappeared. I was back in my bed with the sun shinning on the other side of my closed eyelids. After a few minutes I opened my eyes and looked at the clock. 8:50 in the morning already.

“Its okay Matt. I’ll tell her,” My mom’s voice was still a whisper downstairs.

I tuned in to hear the reply. They must have been talking about something important down there. Then I heard their footsteps coming up the stairs.

“I can do it if you don’t want to. It isn’t go to be good when she finds out no matter who tells her,” Matt’s statement worried me again.

“Maybe we should all be there when she finds out. Or at least both of you,” That was Mr. Sanders’ voice now.

“There is no easy way to tell her or anything that can make it better. This is just a horrible situation,” Now it was Mrs. Sanders speaking.

What the hell had happened? Why was everyone standing outside of bedroom door this early? None of it made any sense. Whenever something bad happened either my mom or Matt would tell me but they’d be alone.

“Matt and I will tell her. The sooner we do it the better,” My mom sighed.

“I agree.”

There was finally a knock at my door. “Yeah?” Even I was surprised at how sleepy my voice sounded.

“Sweetie,” My mom began as she and Matt both sat down. “I’m sorry to wake you up and I’m sorry we have to tell you this. We have some horrible news.”