Blood Isn't Always Thicker Than Water

Needless to say, I screamed. Loudly. A couple of weakened log-things and sticks broke under my weight. I sort of somersaulted, so my back was what broke my fall, and my head cracked against the stone bottom of the fireplace.

I grimaced as I waited for the avalanche of pain. And boy did it come. My neck seared, and my skull felt like it had been split in two. My eyes were scrunched shut. My back wasn’t as bad, but it really didn’t like being on extremely hot logs and splinters. And I still had the remnants of that sunburn.

But I didn’t feel the burning I thought I would. I opened my eyes—still wincing in pain—and saw Jeremy’s triumphant face smiling upside-downedly at me while he leaned against the mantel. “I knew you had powers!” he whispered excitedly.

I let go of a breath I didn’t realize I was holding and frowned at him. “Powers? What powers? What are you talking about?”

“See for yourself!”

Oh gee that didn’t sound good. But I obliged and tilted my head so I could
inspect myself. “Ah!” I immediately cried when I saw that my clothes were up in flames. And this was my best jacket!

But then I frowned. Why wasn’t…I burning?

“You would’ve been useful at the Salem witch trials,” Jeremy laughed out. “Oh, damn this is great.”

I, however, was staring in a horrified manner at my hand that was stubbornly not
lighting up in flames, no matter which bunch of blue flames I shoved it into. “So much for me being human-like,” I whispered, remembering how Samantha had said it was hard not to think of me as human.

“It’s always been too late for that, Cas,” Jeremy informed me. “Once a ‘vampire’, always a ‘vampire’. And you’ve been one since birth.”

“And, what, you haven’t?” I started to extract myself from the clutches of the burning twigs but stopped when I realized Jeremy hadn’t answered. Did he think it was rhetorical? Rhetorical or not, he usually answered with some smartass answer or a whole load of sarcasm. I’m talking bucketfuls. …But he didn’t.

I tilted my head back to see that even upside-down he looked torn.

“Sorry. Touchy subject? We can go back to—”

“No. No, it’s okay. It’s just that…I don’t even know if I’m a ‘vampire’.”

“What do you mean?” I then fell, devoid of any possible grace, right out of the fireplace. “Of course you’re a ‘vampire’. What else would you be?”

“I have no clue. But I can’t see myself with my powers. I can’t tell by essence or whatever what I am. The only memory I have of my childhood is a voice saying, “Good night, Jeremy’. Not a face, not a single color. Just a female voice.” He collapsed to the floor, next to where I was still sprawled out, smoldering and emitting ridiculously large puffs of smoke. “I think it’s my mom, but I don’t even know if I have a mom. What if I was created in a test tube by some crazed scientist tons of years ago and my memory regularly erases itself and I’ll stay at this age forever?”

I was speechless for a few seconds. “And I thought I had it bad…”

“You do—did. I just have it worse.”

Both of us were silent for a second. I turned to look back at him. At the same time, we said, “Cliché”.

Guess what? You never will. We found the pool table! It was behind the furnace, so no wonder I didn’t find it until Jeremy dragged me around the evil thing. The guy was so
lucky he could sense things like that. Me? Nope. All I get to do is not get burnt to a crisp, which really sounded like a fun way to die. Painful, maybe, but definitely fun. You know what? I shouldn’t be talking. I basically thing anything other than drowning would be a fun way to die. I’ve had bad experiences with the former.

“Okay,” Jeremy panted once we had dragged the fricken table up to the first floor and to its original place: a room that had no obvious use other than a pool room. “How do you play?”

I sighed. “I’ll teach you. Logan always called me his prodigy.”

“Caspian?”

“Yeah?”

“Why aren’t you off tearing apart Las Vegas in your search for Sam?” He asked it jokingly, but I could hear the sincerity behind his words.

But couldn’t he see I had only been happy in the past while because I had shoved the thought of her aside whenever it had come up in my head? Couldn’t he tell that asking me about her would result in me acting like I had Last Time?

I sighed again. “I’m not off looking for her because I don’t deserve her.”

Jeremy looked affronted. “And, what, your brother does?”

I broke the pool stick I was holding. Good thing it was one of the cheaper ones. “Can we please not talk about him?” Basically him plus Samantha equals mind chaos. Ooh, that’s a cool album it’s by Hockey. Never mind; back to reality.

“Okay, okay.” He gently pried the mangled stick out of my hands. “I know you probably don’t want me to ask this, but are you still scared that your presence will…kill her?” I was so glad he looked sincerely concerned. If he hadn’t, I might have gotten myself into another problematic situation, and I might not be so lucky as to figure out I had another power that could spare me from death again. I don’t think my luck is that efficient.

“Um, yeah, that’s not what I want to hear right now, but yeah. That’s why I’m
still here. Her happiness means more to me than mine. Do not even think about saying ‘cliché’.” I pointed a finger at him.

He put his hands up to show he hadn’t been thinking that after stowing the broken pieces of pool stick against the wall. “If that’s how you feel, I won’t call it cliché.” He walked around me and got a fresh stick, then used that special blue thing and rubbed it against the end. For a prodigy of a “vampire” master, I’m really behind on the names of what I’m working with.

I snatched a stick too and joined Jeremy as we both “chalked up” our sticks. “Hey Jer—”

“Ask away.”

That will take some getting used to. “Uh… Well, I was wondering… It’s been bothering me…ever since you explained all those peoples’ deaths and how they weren’t my fault…”

“Just get it out.”

“Okay. How…how did Fallen die?”

Jeremy froze. “So you did mean it when you thought that I was Fallen’s ghost?”

“Uh, yeah. Why would I lie about that?”

“I have no idea. But I didn’t know Fallen died.”

I froze. I was used to Jeremy knowing everything. How could he not know this? It was absurd, unthinkable. “Well, according to Sam, he did. At the Wentz house in L.A.”

Jeremy frowned, but when he spoke, it was like he hadn’t heard me. “No. Fallen can’t be dead. He just can’t. It’s…it’s…it’s impossible…” He looked like his filmy eyes were seeing something far away, something I had no hope of glimpsing. “Well, are we going to play or not?” Suddenly, Jeremy was perfectly fine, pulling out the pool balls and putting them in the special plastic triangular thing you line the balls up in before the game.

“It goes over here,” I told him, placing the triangle in the right spot, then fishing out the cue ball. At least, I think it was called that. And then I watched Jeremy closely as he worked. There was no doubt in my mind as to what had just happened. Jeremy had seen the future. And, apparently, things were going to turn out okay, by the look of his small smile.

So, right then, when Jeremy was least expecting it, I changed my mind.

Jeremy paled instantly. Then he slowly turned to look at me. “How did you figure it out?”

I tapped my head. “There’s more in here than you know.”