You Fight For All The Wrong Reasons

I checked myself over in the mirror.

Red skinny jeans, a black Bullet for My Valentine band tee, and black Converse. Red eye shadow and black mascara finished it off.

Five minutes until Cam would be here. I did a quick mirror check one more time, just incase my shirt was inside out or anything.

I was in high spirits, that is, until I saw the Post-It on the kitchen table:

Vacuum the floor of the truck as well as clean it’s windows before you go out.

Oh crap. That had completely slipped my mind. My dad was not going to be happy when he got home and saw the Chevy’s dirty, smudged windows.

I rushed outside, Windex in one hand and paper towels in the other, and started scrubbing the front windshield like a maniac. Come on Cam, be late, be late, be late I thought, trying to will him away. I would hate to delay him (and Stella) with my forgetfulness.

Ironically, a black Camry skidded to a stop at the end of the driveway. Cam jumped out, sporting an Avenged Sevenfold band tee and black skinnies.

Oh my God, he looked gorgeous.

Those jeans were really tight.

:]

He took one look at me and started laughing. “You look like you’re having fun.”

“Oh yes. Washing windows is my hobby. My passion.”

He grinned at me, flashing me a dazzlingly white Colgate smile.

Hmm. Did vampires even need to use toothpaste?

He wrapped his arm around my waist and started walking me towards the door. “What are you doing?” I asked him. “My parents aren’t home.”

“Oh. Riiiight. Do they know you’re going out with me?”

“Yup. And I was supposed to vacuum and clean the windows of this truck before you got here but…I got distracted.” I smiled.

“Well, I’ll help you, then. Don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“No, this is my job. I’ll be really fast.”

Cam reached for the paper towels in my hand with lightning speed, but I pulled them away just as fast. He looked at me, surprised. “Don’t mess with my supernatural forces!” I joked darkly.

“Please? You’ll get done even faster with me.”

I sighed. “Fine.” I nodded in the direction of the vacuum. “Have fun.”

Cam smiled, a huge grin of exaggerated excitement. He skipped towards the vacuum cleaner. I stared at him blankly for a moment, then doubled over in laughter.

He looked up at me. “What?” he asked, eyes playful.

“Just…you.” And because he was a vampire and it wouldn’t kill him, I spritzed Windex at his face.

He grinned, wiped the blue liquid off with his arm, and fired up the vacuum.

Within three minutes, I was kneeled on the backseat, scrubbing the inside of the back windshield. Almost done. I heard the vacuum shut off. Something bumped into me.

I turned around to find Cam’s also slightly startled face looking back at me. “Oh.” I giggled and touched his forehead to mine. A kinetic tingle went down my spine as I met his golden eyes.

Suddenly, his lips were on mine and he had me cradled in his arms. My fingers flowed through his dark hair. He had never kissed me this passionately before. My response was just as intense. I forgot about oxygen, and poured all of my love, affection, and fervor for him into this moment.

I had to breathe as soon as he saw the boundary lines approaching. He knew when to pull back. He knew his limits.

I hated that.

We opened our eyes, and found ourselves lying on the backseat, bodies intertwined. I smiled at him. “Hi.”

He smiled back. Kisses fell on my face like raindrops.

I snuck another kiss in on his perfect lips, slow and passionate.

“We have to go now,” the lips said, once freed from the kiss.

“Right.” I slid out of the Chevy, Cam following close behind. He shut the door, then scooped me up in his arms and carried me to where his Camry awaited.

************************************************************************

The tires slid over the gravel driveway, crackling under the Camry’s weight. “Here we are.”

I was gawking at the beauty of his house; it was so glorious I didn’t even notice him get out of the car.

The house was a beautiful blue and cream-white Victorian, with a wrap-around porch and large, showy windows. Several towers rose from the base, each one beautifully shaped.

The sound of the door being opened brought me back down to earth again. “Welcome to the Payne Residence, Miss Forthright,” Cam said in an over-the-top French accent. I grinned, then, playing along, composed myself and curtseyed.

Wow, we were stupid.

We both laughed at our silliness and returned to our normal selves. Arms wrapped around each other, Cam headed me in the complete opposite direction I was expecting – around the back of the house.

“Where are we going?” I asked, confused.

“Oh, we’re not going inside. Stella’s going to meet us outside.”

“Oh, okay, cool.”

He led me around the back. “Wow!” I gasped. “That’s really…pretty!” My eyes wandered the spacious meadow, tall grass and assorted wildflowers dancing in the breeze. On the edges of the horizon was a forest. “Is that all yours?”

“Yeah. Not the forest, though.”

“Are we the only ones here? You, me, and Stella?”

“Yeah. It worked out pretty conveniently. Everyone else is off hunting.”

“Oh.” I knew only too well what that meant. But as a werewolf, I couldn’t differ much from that.

He guided me towards a spot where the grass got thinner. There was a small pond. Shimmers of silver and orange darted around in the water.

“Cameron! Oh, hello, you must be Audrey!”

I turned around to meet the voice. A girl was walking towards us, her dress swishing as it skimmed past the grass. She was hands down, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Her thick, blonde hair had a slight wave to it that framed her pale face perfectly. She had full, pink lips, and eyes that were a dark shade of honey. She smiled at us, and moved through the field with a bubbly energy to meet us. “Hi, I’m Stella.” She held out her hand. I shook it, her cold fingers wrapping around my hand.

“I’m Audrey.” I felt so ugly standing in front of her.

She nodded. “Cam’s told me so much about you.” She sat down on the grass and dangled her bare feet in the pond. Cam and I followed her movements. “Figured we’d get acquainted, you know?”

“Yeah,” I said dumbly. Great, now I felt stupid, too. Why did she have to be so beautiful?

Suddenly, a question occurred to me. “I don’t mean to be rude…but, are you guys really related? Like, actual brothers and sisters at birth?”

Stella shook her head, flaxen waves swishing. “No, we were just all bitten by the same two vampires – Lark and Adalia, our “parents”,” she explained. “But don’t think of being bitten in a bad way. They actually saved us.” Seeing the perplexed look on my face, she went more in depth. “Like, what with happened to me.” She took a deep breath and began her story about how she became a vampire.

“Have you ever heard of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane?” I shook my head. “Well, obviously, it was 1935, and it was Labor Day. My family was living on the coast of Florida, and of course, we all knew that a storm was coming. Since we didn’t have the meteorology technology that we have in today’s day and age, we didn’t know how dangerous the hurricane was. We didn’t think that we would have to evacuate. It turns out,” she sighed, “that we did. A family friend of ours came rushing in, telling us to get as far away from the area as fast as we could. If we could get far enough away from the shore in time, none of us would get hurt.

“The way he worded it, it sounded like we had plenty of time to evacuate, even though the rain and wind were howling outside. But we listened to him and followed him outside into the storm. He had always struck us as a very smart man. He was a lawyer, after all.

“Outside, the rain pelted down so furiously that it stung your skin, the wind burning your face. We had to scream over the roar of the storm to hear each other. We were running down the street, when I slipped on the wet pavement and fell. When I looked up, my family was gone. The only person left in sight was our family’s friend.

“He told me, ‘Your family’s hiding under that shelter, over there.’ He pointed to a fragile looking house. The shutters dangled loosely from their original places, shingles were falling off the roof, and the siding looked weak and thin. I was wondering why they had stopped, and hid in a place that screamed “Collapsible!!!” all over it. I hadn’t been down for that long.

“Terrified, I peeked inside the doorway of the house and called for my parents and younger brother. No answer. Or maybe they had answered and I just couldn’t hear them above the wind. I ventured farther into the house, calling their names. I went at this for several minutes. Still, no answer. You think I would have heard them by then. But something felt wrong.

“That’s when I realized that he had tricked me. My family wasn’t in this building at all.

“Outraged, I searched for the door. I was so far back in the house, I didn’t know where I was in relation to any way out. There were no doors or windows in sight. I couldn’t believe he had betrayed me and my family like this. He had tricked me!” Stella’s voice cracked with tears that could no longer leak from her eyes. “In that same instant, I heard a terrible crack. There was an awful crash, and I looked up, trying to find the source. But I already knew what it was. The second floor came crashing down to meet me.”

Her pure, musical voice wavered and was shaky. “I remember screaming. Because I knew I was going to die.” A small smile then flickered across her face. “But I didn’t die. I don’t remember it, but apparently Lark saved me when I was on the brink of death. And I was then a part of the Payne family.”

I was so shocked by Stella’s story, I couldn’t respond.

“I’m fairly young compared to the rest of the Payne’s,” Stella continued. “Only Sean is younger than me. Cam, for example, became a Payne in 1900.” She smiled at him.

My attention turned to Cam. Cam nodded. “I guess it’s time to tell you, now, Audrey.” The way he said it scared me. It sounded like I had a horror story ahead of me.

Cam pointed a finger at a jagged line by the side of his left eye. “See that?” I nodded, wondering how I had never seen that scar before.

“Well, let me tell you how it got there…”