Chapter Twenty
“That’s disgusting,” I said, my face wrinkled to show how gross that really was.
Jessica didn’t officially answer me; she just brought me downstairs to their kitchen. They had remodeled their house to put in a meat freezer. The house was oddly bright, even though there was no sun in sight that day. Their kitchen was very open and still just as modern.
I was waiting for the coffins and skulls to pop up.
Jessica only shrugged. “It’s better than killing humans, don’t you think?” she smiled at me and closed the freezer door. “We usually eat the meat raw unless we have company. The blood is the best part.”
My face wrinkled again, but I tried my best to control my expressions.
I sat down on one of the bar stools and played with my hands. “I still can’t believe I missed it. How could I not have noticed that you guys were so different from humans?”
She smiled and stood opposite me. “We try very hard to blend in. We have been practicing it for many years.” She looked above my head as she continued. “For instance, humans breathe constantly. We have trained ourselves to do the same. Vampires don’t need to breath.”
I blinked. “At all?”
She shook her head. “We are remotely comfortable doing things that humans would find painful. We can sit or stand for hours on end without moving, and it would never bother us.”
My jaw dropped open. “Nigel never told me that.”
She shrugged. “My little brother only thinks about himself. He doesn’t realize how fragile your situation really is.”
I tilted my head to the side. “How fragile is my situation?” I asked.
She bit her lip and looked around. “I would say, on a scale from one to ten, your situation is a hundred and ten.” She giggled. “You are a lot braver than I would have expected. To be in a house with not only one vampire, but three! It’s so reckless!”
I sat back on the stool. “Well, you said you don’t kill humans.”
She didn’t let me continue before she burst out, “That doesn’t mean we aren’t dangerous, Genna. We could easily kill you without even giving it an ounce of thought. Never forget that we are predators. Our true purpose in life it so kill your kind. There are a hundred different ways I could kill you right now before you could even blink.” Her voice turned harsh. “The worst part is we aren’t the only dangerous things out there.”
I scoffed in disbelief. “What can be more dangerous then a coven of vampires?”
She recomposed her face to be completely serious. “A coven of witches.”
Onyx came bouncing down the stairs with Bailey on her heels and threw the cloths at me that Jessica had given me earlier. I had ended up changing in a bathroom into something that was a little baggy. Jessica gave me jeans and a navy blue sweater. I tugged at the waste band of the jeans, they were a size to big and I would be pulling them up all day. I sighed and walked out.
“Aren’t they done yet?” I asked both Jessica and Onyx.
They exchanged looks then Onyx closed her eyes. “Nigel is…” she trailed off then walked out of the room.
I sat there dumbstruck. “What was that?” I asked Jessica.
She shrugged, “How should I know?”
I gave her a skeptical look and she said, “Okay, okay, she heard Nigel’s car pulling into the driveway. She went to go beat some sense into him.”
“Literally?” I gasped.
Jessica only laughed and walked off in the same direction Onyx had gone. Bailey had plopped down in front of their television and started playing some video games. I followed Jessica down the hall.
She went outside and down the stone steps, faster than I’d ever seen anyone move before. Even Nigel’s flash movement couldn’t compare. It took me a second to recompose myself and hop down the stairs to meet with them.
By the time I made it to the bottom, any beatings had already happened. Onyx was standing above Nigel’s body on the ground. She nudged him with her foot and he quickly rose.
“No fair,” he complained. “I can’t hit a girl.”
Nigel was wearing torn jeans and a dark red sweater. Even with his hair messy and sticking to his damp forehead, he still looked hot.
He glanced at me, then turned to the girls. My heart started beating faster and faster at ever prolonged moment. My mind begged Nigel to just hurry and tell us how it went so we could get on with our lives. Move on.
“He’s gone,” Nigel said in a low monotone.
My mind didn’t get a chance to react before Jessica doubled over and started sobbing. “How—could—he just—leave?” She managed to blubber in between deep sobs.
I didn’t want to think about Jasper or how he could just leave me. I had to be strong if not for Bailey and my father, than because he asked me to. Jasper only asked that of me.
I wanted to break and let it all out. I wanted to cry into my pillow until all of my tears ran out. I wanted to get angry and throw something at Nigel.
No matter how much I want some of these things, I can’t do them. I promised.
Jessica broke out into hysterics then. She threw herself at Nigel and started punching him and swatting at him, her eyes shut tight.
Onyx tried to stop Jessica, but Onyx wasn’t strong enough. Jessica easily threw Onyx off of her back. Jessica seemed more controlled then. Her eyes were opened and blood brimmed over the lids and streaked down her cheeks. Her eyes were black and wide. Jessica’s lips curled over her teeth and it sounded as if she hissed at me.
“Jess,” Nigel warned.
For the first time ever, I saw my first vampire in their full vampiric form. Jessica’s face was drained of any color besides the blood. My body knew to be scared before my mind did.
“Jess!” Nigel exclaimed, making me yelp in shock. My scream echoed off the trees making me shudder.
Jessica tried to recompose herself, but it wasn’t working. She was struggling with something being bottled up.
“Just let it out!” Jessica pleaded at me.
