Trembling With the Strings

“Are you sure? You don’t have to do this,” I told Dray, holding his notebook gently in my hands.

“I want you to read it. Babe, I want you to understand just what happened to the sweet little Darius. Vampirism changed me a lot. I love you, and if we’re going to spend our lives together then you need to know me as well as I do. I can just read your thoughts whenever I want, but you can’t do that, now can you?” he teased, pulling me onto his lap as he sat on our bed. I kissed him softly.

“Well, I love you, too.”

“Yeah, and just so you know: I do know that you’ve already read around half of this blasted thing.” He smirked, rubbing my thigh. “I thought about getting mad, but Marcy talked me out of it.”

“I’m glad she did!” I told him with mock horror.

“Me, too. So any chance of us making love tonight?”

“Oh, so that’s why you’re being so nice!” I teased, rolling my eyes. “We’ll see.”

He kissed me gently before leaving me all alone in our empty bedroom. I heard the door next to ours slam and Martin shriek in delight. I giggled softly to myself, flipping open the journal. Dray had told me to read only one entry, so I quickly flipped to the date he’d told me to check.

“September 13, 1976
I’m a fucking disgrace! Great, so I had this bloody brilliant idea to be around someone other than my immediate family! Goddamn it! I’m such a prick! Listen and answer a question, please. Can vampires die? For I am certain that I deserve the most horrendous, excruciating death known to mankind! Well, if it’s impossible to kill a vampire I’m certain Drakken will find a way nonetheless.

“And I certainly wouldn’t blame him! I’m still not so good at controlling my bloodlust, but they had some company over. Marcy is in her room trembling right now, I know it. That’s just our twin connection telling me that she’s in trouble. But I surely can’t help her right now.

“Anyway, back to the company so I can tell you the story before I am brutally slaughtered in my own home! Drakken’s human brother decided to drop by for a visit. Apparently his wife recently died, so he and his son, Bryce were grieving and didn’t wish to be in solitude any longer.

“But that’s not the bad part. No, his son is probably around the age I was when I was human. He may be thirteen, at the oldest. But now he’s frozen in time! He was opening a letter from his mother to show us her dying wish as she lay fraught with meningitis. But he cut his finger on it. I didn’t notice until seconds later—when I smelled it. You know when a smell gets caught on your tongue and you can almost taste it? Well, I did. And I lost it!

“I lunged on the poor kid, trying to suck him dry! Marcy managed to control herself, and that stunted my pride a bit. But I could have lived with that. But I apparently took way too much blood. My uncle was going to lose the only family he had left! And it was my fault!

“But, no, it turns out that I didn’t kill him. I… I accidentally changed him. I feel wretched! I damned my own cousin! As if I wasn’t going to Hell already! Shit, Drakken is about to tear my door off its hinges!

“I had a horrible life, but at least now I’m going to fucking die. Yeah, I’ll die a monster, like I was meant to. Maybe I was born a monster, so it was inevitable that I would grow to be such a demon.

“Alright, so the Devil will have fun since I’m going to be the greatest sinner he’s ever had the pleasure of making miserable. Oh God. Hopefully there’s still hope for Marcy.

“…And for Bryce.”