Page 27 of Accidental Vampire

Jesus Christ. Vampire.

He finally threatened to put me in a straight jacket to stop me from cutting myself. The last time I woke up, I had gotten that knife off him and cut myself over and over just to watch it heal. Even faced with that evidence, it was all still too much. Even watching my skin knit back together over and over and over couldn’t instill this new reality.

And then there was all the blacking out to deal with. He said this was “normal”. Ab-so-fucking-lutely nothing about this was normal. I got tired of him sitting on me to so I kicked him out. Demanded he get out of this cell, get as far from me as possible. To my surprise, he did. Now we were talking from other sides of that dumb glass wall. All my people pleasing tendencies seemed to have completely died.

Died. Jesus. Was I dead?

“How long is this going to go on?” I asked. I was huddled in a corner. The corner made me feel safe. He was stretched out, his back against the wall, and his legs outstretched. Looking, well, bothered and bored.

“How long is what going to go on?” Was he whispering? I couldn’t tell anymore.

“This passing out thing?” He didn’t respond. “Is it that you don’t know or that you don’t want to tell me?”

Every time I came to, there was pain so intense that I forget everything that happened. Then I’d have to go through this process of figuring out what the fuck happened all over again. Which would then lead to abject terror setting in and we’d be trading punches. Well, I would be throwing punches and he ‘d end up basically shaking me by the scruff of the neck like I was some street cat that was getting bossy over the catnip.

I hugged my knees to me and hung my head. I was so tired right now. That meant I was going to pass out any second. And the fact that homeboy over there was being stingy with the information was even more exhausting.

“Who the fuck are you, anyway?”

“Pardon?”

I stood up and paced a small circle. I could feel sleep coming to get me and I didn’t want to go yet. It wasn’t sleep. It didn’t feel like sleep, it was justnothingness. I didn’t wake rested either.

“I said, who are you?” I said with dramatic exaggeration.

He seemed to think about that for a second. Like he had forgotten.

My skin was getting hyper sensitive again. The scratchy fabric was setting my nerves on fire.

“This isn’t an existential question. It’s not that hard.” I muttered.

Tingling brushed up my arms. I could feel the hair standing up and roughing up against the cotton. My arm pits itched. How embarrassing. The room was swaying again. I held on to a wall for balance but it didn’t really help. He tried to explain it was like driving a car. You have to build the muscle memory to move slow enough not to want to vomit all the time. Vampires. Super human speed, right? They never told you it made you sea sick.

I closed my eyes, hoping that would help. When I blinked them open, I was at the far wall, under the shower head. It made me feel like a comic book hero who had super speed. I looking up at the shower head with dread. The last thing I wanted was to get wet. A single drop of water had collected on the fixture and threatened to pounce on me. I jerked back. It wasn’t the half step I intended. I had flung myself across the room to smash into the far wall. Except I didn’t.

He was there. Faster than I moved. With a hand behind my head to cushion the wannabe concussion, his other hand was behind my shoulder blade, preventing contact with the concrete.

He looked down at me with those blue eyes. The swaying room settled. The pain lessened. My skin stopped crawling. Everything suddenly calmed, making my eyes flutter shut.

“Lachlan. I’m Lachlan.” His voice was soft as cashmere, and cozy, too.

I blinked slowly, that nothingness pulling at me. I felt his arms tighten, ready to catch me when my lights cut out. I struggled to keep my lids open, not wanting the blackness to take me. I wanted to stay here wrapped in all his blue. I sank into his arms and hated myself because it felt so good. Giving up, I rested my head on his shoulder.

“Fuck you, Lachlan.”

TWENTY-ONE

LACHLAN

Fuck you, Lachlan.

Brilliant.

Those words had been banging around my head for the last hour or so. I had her in my arms and it was like a chime went through me, everything harmonizing and falling into place. And then she put her head on my shoulder, relaxed into me, I had never felt that right, not even with Saint. ThenFuck you, Lachlanand my head’s been a mess since.

The white van bumped along the drive up to the cabin.Drivewas being generous. It was little more than wagon ruts carved into the dirt. The phone on the dash was lighting up the windscreen with a notification. They were never ending. Omar got constant messages from Reddit, updates on all sorts of news including, oddly enough, breaking news about secret CIA documents on UFOs that was recently released. Whatever helps you pass the day.

I had Omar give me his phone so I could find my way to the nearest hospital. Of course, I took some time to see who he’d been communicating with. Apparently, the vampire I stabbed was called Issac, and he was sufficiently scared now. Good. I killed time flicking through his phone while waiting for the right target to emerge from the hospital.

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