Heart of Glass

"Oh my god!" I squeaked, my eyes bulging out of my head. I rushed over to where Annika was and pressed my fingers to the side of head neck, in the soft spot beneath her jaw. Her pulse felt stable, thankfully. Her eyes fluttered, then shot open.

"Wha-where? What happened? All I remember was the....text? And...er....black---oh. Oh. I blacked out. Right."

"Yeah." I said, " you were out for two minutes at least. There was a period of about forty-five seconds that we were all just shocked, just standing there. Dad carried you to your room, and then he and mom got out so the room wouldnt be too crowded. Then I felt your pulse and you started to regain consciousness. Annika processed this and nodded.

"Wait so how-" she started to say but was interrupted by my parents rushing in.

"Annika! Honey, are you okay? Your dad and I cleared out because we didn't want all that bad energy in the room while you were unconscious.

"Ah, I thought, "The wonderful superstitions of my overly-excitable mother."

"It's okay, Ms. Navarro, Annika's fine. She’s awake now."

"Thank you, Kyle." He obviously knew how to calm down my mother. That could be very useful in the future. With my mom all hysterical, who knew what could happen.

"Well..." She said, grappling for something to blame this on, "Do you know what prompted this?"

"We all thought that she might be really overwhelmed what with dad coming and everything...?" I offered. My mother raised an eyebrow, and then made a face. Eesh. Dad's really gonna get it now. Annika nodded her head, agreeing to the statement, and flashed a smile. Inside, my heart twisted knowing that that wasn’t the truth. My mom nodded, waked over kissed my forehead and walked out gracefully. She shot a look at my dad while going out. Yep. She was definitely pissed. Annika started to cry silently. She realized what her eyes had done without her knowing, and wiped them away furiously. Usually she wouldn’t cry at such a petty thing but everything was different! Our dad was here, she had a new mate, and someone was tracking us, watching us, and maybe eventually trying to kill us. Things were definitely not great right now. Annika directed her eyes at me and asked me,

“Are you still going to try to track the number?” I had mentioned doing so earlier and I guess she remembered. I nodded and grabbed her phone, and went to my room. Jason followed me and stood behind me as I hooked it up to my computer. I typed in a bunch of stuff but no results came up. This person had either blocked their number or used a disposable phone and destroyed it. On the other hand, it could have been both. I unplugged her phone and got back into Annika’s room to return it, nut walked back out. ”I could have totally lived my life without seeing that,” I shook my head and rolled my eyes. It was just like Annika to start viciously making out with her boyfriend. I mean they were practically doing it! I went back into my room and sat on Jason’s lap, knowing I was just about to eat my words. I twisted around and leaned my forehead against his.

“Babe,” he said, “ things are about to get really bad in the next couple days and I just wanna make it up to you right now if I’m going to be a really big asshole.”

I smiled. “Okay.”

* * *

“Dominic! I swear you are the cause of all of this!” Gisebelle screamed at her ex-husband. They were far enough away from the house that not even her daughters and her hopefully-son-in-laws could not hear her with their excellent hearing. And Gisebelle did have some extremely wonderful screaming vocals. Dominic visibly flinched.

Regaining his courage to speak he exclaimed, “All of what?! I didn’t do anything! You know how teenagers get! It’s probably just one of your female things,” he paused, “like a PMS, or whatever.” Now he was annoyed.

“PMS? Some girl thing?!” She rolled her eyes, “ Why don’t you say that to my ass, Dominic!” She swiveled and started to walk away but Dominic grabbed her forearm.

“What?,” she asked viciously with a venomous glare. He calmly asked, “Are you being grumpy just because I am here?” Gisebelle ripped at her hair. He realized she was never going to give up fighting him and softened up. He walked over and gave her an awkward hug.
“Gisebelle, baby, it’s going to be alright, whatever it is. Forgive me for maddening you?” She rolled her eyes, smiled and laughed.

“Sure. But I’m not your baby anymore.”

He grinned, “Is that a yes or a no?”

“You were always smooth with the ladies. It’s a maybe.” He held her at arms-length for a moment and looked her up and down. She blushed and looked into his icy blue-green eyes and smiled. She could always tell if he was lying by looking into his eyes. It was unfortunate, really. “Alright. I forgive you.” She said before rolling her eyes. He smiled and hugged her again. He sighed and put up a look of ecstasy, “I love it when you give up.”

“Yes it is truly a wonderful experience for me, too.” She let out a deep breath, “ It just shows how easily I can give up.” He didn’t want to say anything more or else she might get mad at him again, so he changed the subject. “We should get back to the house so the children don’t worry.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Want to race?” she grinned, “Ready, set, go!!!” She yelled and took off. ”Good thing I’m a fast runner!”, he thought. The trees were a blur, and Gisebelle heard Dominic catching up.

“Just...like...a...child!” He fake panted. He knew she could hear him, and sped up and laughed. About to pass her up, she laughed and kicked dirt into his face. He wiped his face and yelled,

“Foul!”

“Hey,” she replied, “I never said we were doing this fairly.” She sped up. The house was in sight and she leaped and tagged it. Dominic came into view right after and she inspected her nails.

“Took you long enough.” He leaned against the wall, not even breathing hard. Gisebelle slipped into the house and called from the kitchen, “Do you want anything to eat?” He was in the foyer, taking off his shoes.

“Sure, what do you have?”

“We have leftover spaghetti, stuffed mushrooms, steak...I could make grilled cheese for you I know you like those.”

“Grilled cheese,” he replied, walking into the kitchen.

“What cheese?”

“American” She got the supplies and started spreading butter onto the bread.

“So what are you doing with your life now? You look awfully skinny.” she noted.

“I’m a vampire. We’re all skinny.”

“You’re skinnier than the last time I saw you.”

“So? I’ve just trimmed down a bit.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes. Especially when I get grilled cheeses.” He grinned. Jason walked in with Ally and sniffed the air. “Yum. Grilled cheese. Can i have some?”

“Sure. If you make it yourself.” She smiled. His stomach rumbled. “Fine!” Gisebelle exclaimed, “I’ll make you one! Anyone else?” she asked sarcastically.

“Me!” Annika yelled from down the hall. There were two more, and she sighed and looked at the ceiling.

“That would be a grilled cheese for everyone, correct?” There was a chorus of yeses. “Great. This will be a long night.”