I leaned against the railing of the balcony when Fletcher came up. He put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me, but I didn’t catch his eye. He was probably wondering why I was up. I was wondering how he thought I could sleep.
“You should go back to sleep,” he told me, confirming my thoughts.
“Actually, I don’t sleep.” I meant it as a joke, but lately I hadn’t been sleeping. “Why are you awake, though? You don’t have an excuse, you’re seventeen.” Fletcher shrugged and jumped over the railing. I rolled my eyes at him as he landed on the stone veranda, but I jumped too. “Imagine how much fun you would have in New York City.”
“Too many cars,” he replied as if that was the only problem with jumping off skyscrapers. “The Eiffel Tower is much better. Come on, Anna. Let’s go do something else.” I shifted my gaze to the east side of the estate. Fletcher smiled and disappeared.
Fletcher leaned back in the passenger seat of the Audi Spyder as I shifted gears. I loved driving on the highways in Spain. We could go faster on the Autobahn, but the scenery was amazing near Valencia.
“Maybe you should slow down just a bit,” Fletcher said as the speedometer approached 90 miles-per-hour. He was gripping the door so tight his knuckles turned white.
“Fine,” I sighed as I eased off the gas. “If you are so uncomfortable, we could pull over and you could drive.”
“I think we’d better. Wouldn’t want you to break the car.” I scoffed. Fletcher knew there was no way I would get in an accident. While he may have better reflexes than me, mine were far above normal. “Where are you going?” I had taken a turn toward Valencia. It was the nearest major city and we typically went on trips there to hang out on the Spanish Riviera.
“I feel like swimming.”
“Turn around,” Fletcher said firmly. He put a hand on the bottom of the steering wheel and turned the car toward a different exit.
“Mean.”
* * * * * * * *
The food in front of me looked disgusting and unappetizing.
“You need to eat something,” Fletcher told me, sitting down across from me. I nodded and took a tiny bite of food. “I mean something that will actually fill your stomach.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t been hungry for weeks,” Charlotte added. She sat in the chair across from me at the breakfast table—even though we eat breakfast just after sunset.
“I don’t see you eating anything.”
“I don’t need to,” she replied and pointed at her glass of blood. Rachel glanced at the glass and pushed away her plate. She finger-combed her red hair and looked out the window behind me.
“I think we need to go somewhere,” Charlotte said suddenly. I glanced at Fletcher and hid a smile. “Let’s go to California!”
“You really think they’ll let us go to California?” Rachel, always practical, argued.
“Why don’t we just go to Valencia again?” Fletcher suggested. I gaped at him.
“Way to steal my idea!” I exclaimed while the girls exchanged confused looks. “I think we need to…acquire…a boat, though.”
“I am not stealing a boat that I’m going to have to sail. None of you ever help.”
“Well, sorry Fletcher. You are the one who refuses to teach us,” Charlotte replied sarcastically. “Wait a minute!” Charlotte exclaimed, a look of delight spreading over her face. “We get a party tonight!”
“You’re right,” I said, my mood brightening. Vampire classes—developing our abilities—wouldn’t be so bad today now that we had a party to look forward to. I sat on a black leather couch next to Fletcher in the study and we went through flickering images with María. María looked about fifty and kept her silver hair in a constant chignon. I think she lived in pantsuits.
“Cat, piano, car, train, yacht, another car, bat,” Charlotte said with a smug look on her face.
“What kind of cars?” María asked. Charlotte sighed and glanced around.
“Mercedes and Volkswagen,” I chimed in. María nodded and pressed the remote. More images flashed past on the plasma TV.
“Jet, motor boat, Ford truck…” The routine went on and on, training our senses and memory.
“Let’s go shopping!” Charlotte squealed when we finished.
“You girls go,” Fletcher said, “How many sport coats do I really need?” Charlotte didn’t wait for us to answer but instead pulled Rachel and me to the garage.
“You are not driving,” I said as Charlotte reached for the keys. She pouted but I slipped into the driver’s seat of the BMW convertible. “Nobody wants to relive what happened last time you drove.”
“It was only a little crash. Nobody was even hurt. I mean, except the tree, but it can’t feel anything anyways.” Rachel rolled her eyes at Char and got in the seat next to me. With the wind blowing in our faces and the music blaring on the radio Charlotte became her bubbly self again for the ride.
“It would have been faster if I flew,” Charlotte complained when we got to the mall after two hours. The hacienda isn’t exactly urban. I mean what would humans think if they saw a group of teenagers jump of the roof and basically turn into bats. That’s how the legends got started in the first place.
“Happy birthday, Char,” I whispered in Charlotte’s ear at the party later that night. She turned around and clinked glasses with me. I took a tiny sip from my glass while Charlotte drank half in one gulp.
“You already wished me happy birthday this evening.”
“So. This party isn’t just because we all need to hang out with hundred-year-old people once in a while.” Charlotte nodded and finished off her glass. She ran her fingers through her short hair and grabbed another glass off the table near us.
“Don’t remind me. People have been talking to me all night about the big things I can do. Why can’t we just keep doing this?” I looked at her and thought, because you’re sixteen now. Because nothing is going to stay the same. All of a sudden two hands covered my eyes.
“Rachel…?” I asked, but turned around to see a short, super-model thin blonde. “Ellie!” Elena was three years older than us and had already left the hacienda. Whenever she visited she acted like an older sister. Just as bossy and just as annoying.
“Hey! Happy birthday Charlotte!”
“Thanks Elena.”
“Let’s go downstairs,” Elena said. Charlotte grabbed my arm and Ellie looped hers through the other elbow. We passed other teenagers going downstairs and entering the billiards room. I snuck up behind Fletcher, who was sitting at the wet bar, and grabbed his glass. I tipped it back into my mouth and almost gagged.
“Ew! What is this?” I shrieked.
“It’s spiked with scotch,” Fletcher explained, raising his eyebrows.
“Gross. I just take my blood straight up.”
“I’ll have mine on the rocks!” Charlotte chimed in.
“Do I look like a bartender? Make it yourself,” Fletcher said and grabbed the bottle of scotch to refill his glass. It is physically impossible for a vampire to get drunk—we don’t absorb alcohol, it just passes through our system. Besides, blood can be intoxicating enough. “So Charlotte, what do you think of your party?”
“My party?” she asked. “Do I know half of these people?” There were almost a hundred people spread over the estate of the hacienda.
“At least now you’re a full-vampire. I still have another week. “Charlotte looked down when I finished speaking.
“And at least I’m done with that transformation,” she mumbled.
“Let’s dance,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. I saw Rachel across the room by the sound system and pulled Charlotte to join her. “You don’t look like you’re enjoying the party!” I shouted at Rachel over the booming music. Rachel shrugged.
“Ohmygosh! I love this song!” Ellie shouted as she joined us. I grabbed Charlotte’s and Rachel’s hands and we formed a circle, dancing in the moonlight.
* * * * * * * *
I ran my fingers over the leather spines of the books. Upstairs there was a library with first-editions and other valuable human books, but the basement held the vampire library. Texts documenting the first known vampires, journals of the early Spanish monarchs as they began their transformations, and huge scrolls charting the bloodlines of vampire families. I pulled out a book titled Age of Human Exploration and Vampire Retreat and opened to the first page.
At a time when the world was small, vampires controlled their portion of it. The current Reyes family was the Aragonese monarchs of Spain. They expanded and conquered to gain new sources of blood. When the Reconquista began, vampires retreated into the shadows. The Age of Exploration had no value to our kind. We continued to manipulate events in our favor. Most of the time human existence was repetitive and not worth participating in. When I first came to the hacienda, I would walk the grounds during the day or go upstairs and back down. It was a few weeks ago that I discovered that this library was different than the one upstairs. I started reading during the day; learning about the history and reality of vampires.
“Anna?” Fletcher called from the staircase. I closed the book and put it back on the shelf.
“Yeah,” I said and appeared beside him on the stairs. “Let’s go driving again.” Fletcher glanced between my face and the bookcases, but finally shrugged and followed me back upstairs.
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