Scene Immortal Read online

  Right. To hear me out, and run screaming from the dumbass lunatic she'd been stupid enough to get back together with and whom she should have stayed away from in the first place. Yeah, sure babe, just hear me out. It'll all be smooth and you won't bat an eye, I'm sure.

  But then, a click.

  Maybe I shouldn't tell her. Maybe there was a better way than words. Maybe...

  "Kyle? Baby, come on! It's me. You're safe with me."

  Yeah, but will you feel safe with me when this truth comes out?

  Several cold, odd seconds passed. Maybe I was thinking too much.

  Dive in, right?

  “Jackie, kiss me."

  "What?"

  "Do it,” I quieted, "please."

  She did. The lip-lock of all lip-locks in my short-but-adventurous make-out career. And more, way more, because this was love, right? This wasn't kid's stuff, or some modern faux Moulin Rouge crap. No, I was in love with Jackie. She was it. She was all, everything to me, and in that moment she was the entirety of my existence. And then...right-on-time, and of course by that I mean as soon as the kiss deepened, so did my lust for my love's blood.

  I de-suctioned my mouth from hers, and began to kiss in long lip-strokes down her cheek, past her jutting cheekbone, then moving my way, feeling my way with my lips, to her neck.

  She gasped. Then... kinda moaned, or uttered, or said something. I was too wrapped-up in my hunger to make sense of everything that was going on.

  Details would not begin to truly sharpen until I tasted blood.

  Right now, the only thing that was clear as a cloudless sky at midnight was the honing-in, the mouth landing on the perfect place, the tender hot spot on my Jackie's neck.

  I opened my mouth wider, took a deep breath in, bared my teeth, and gently laid into the porcelain skin, making the most subtle pinprick possible with the tiny white weapons in my mouth.

  Jackie whispered, "oh, babe,” and threw her head back, making the musculature of her neck pop-out like the throat of the most-finely carved statue that had ever stood in any tired museum I'd ever been in...back in my other life. It was beautiful, vulnerable, and made my insides growl as my penetration went from subtle to slightly deeper, so careful now with every movement I made.

  Then I tasted her blood.

  The first few drops were sweet nectar, energy drink, blueberry smoothie with ginseng and sex all rolled into two or three salty-meaty bloody plip-plops on my tongue. Nothing against her twin brother, but Jackie had gotten the better deal in the blood department. But I knew that was nothing to do with genetics, really, or Jackie being superior to Josh. It was that I was already bound to Jackie in one way, so of course her blood, the ultimate bond, would taste better than anybody's. And while, yes, everything was crystal clear and beautiful, I started to swoon, and knew the flow had gone past a few droplets, and I had to stop. I did a little bit of backup action with my spit, cut the flow from the holes I'd made, and pulled away.

  She pulled away from me, gently though.

  "Okay, so that confirms it,” she smiled, looking a bit drunk.

  "Confirms it? Huh?" Clearly this was not the reaction I was expecting.

  "Yeah, I was an idiot to think anybody could be as hot a kisser as you,” she giggled.

  Great.

  "Jackie...” I was stumbling over thoughts and phrases in my head, making sure to oh-so-carefully choose the right words. "Babe, you don't get it? You... don't get it."

  "What? What am I missing? Why don'tcha show me, 'big boy'?"

  And with that rarest of actions from Jackie, a teasing goad, I lost all restraint and leapt onto her, knocking her to the soft earth, half-ripping off her shirt, exposing her neck to the waning moonlight. My teeth were aching, my blood was on fire, and I was engorged with lust, hunger and predatory drive. The love was still there, but it was buried, deep beneath my hormonal and vampiric craziness. I reared my head back, bared my teeth, which seemed practically erect, certainly larger than a few moments before, and plunged with all the love and desperation I had, into her neck.

  She screamed. It was equal parts horror, extreme pleasure, and love. I knew this, for certain, because in that moment, as her blood filled my mouth, I could read every thought in the forefront of her brain And amongst the many hundreds of things she was thinking, one was clarion and definitely signaled that I could stop: "Oh my God, my boyfriend's a vampire."

  I did the reverse-spit trick, inhaled her perfume, the scent of Jackie, the smell of my only love, raised myself up into a push-up position over her shocked and trembling body, and stared into her eyes.

  "So do you get it now?"

  A little insensitive, sure, but it was all I could say.

  She put her hand to the already-healing wound, blushed, and ten emotions crossed her face in five seconds. Then she reached up and smacked the shit outta me.

  "Oh my God,” she said. "You're...what the hell? How can...? You and Josh? Do you...? Is that what you were...? Oh Kyle… Kyle Ryan, I hate you."

  She sounded weak, strong as her words were.

  "You're a liar, and a deceiver, and a freak. A true freak. A real freak. You're shit. You're a devil, and I don't ever want you coming near me again!"

  She had picked up steam, and stood up, and now her face was fully fixed, rosy, and intense with hatred.

  "Don't ever come near me or my brother again!” and she spat in my face, turned and ran.

  When I caught up to her, she was sitting on a curb by the street that flanked the park's north side, and she was just closing her cell.

  "Jackie, what are you doing?"

  "Liz is picking me up. Don't fucking talk to me."

  "Who's Liz?"

  "I said don't talk to me! Look," She breathed and acted like she was shaking off the willies. "You and Josh's friendship, that's your business. Fine. I guess I have no right to try and dictate what he does. He's an adult, for all intents and purposes, and you're... whatever the hell you are, but I swear if you ever hurt him, I'll... get a wooden stake, or... a Vampire Hunter or whatever the hell gets rid of things like you! Wow... am I really having this conversation?" She laughed, and then spat out a disgusted breath.

  "Yes, it's all real. And the way it happened, and why it happened, and what my future holds, that all remains to be explained and seen, but—"

  "I don't care, Kyle! Look, all this Rocker, Goth, scene shit is really fun when it's about makeup, hair, gloomy comic books and mildly kinky sex. But, I'm sorry, if I'm not insane and what's happened to you has really happened, it's just too damn real for me. I'm sorry."

  Just then, a car appeared from around the corner, materializing out of nothingness, and pulled right up to where Jackie sat waiting.

  "That's Liz. I have to go. Goodbye, Kyle. Whatever you are."

  I just freakin' stood there.

  This was the second time she'd broken my heart, but this time, I couldn't hold it against her

  CHAPTER 15: REGROUPING AND PREPARING

  I got in my car and whipped out my own cell, and of course called Josh.

  He said he was out at the Bat Cove, an all ages Goth Dive that was featuring a Darkwave DJ on this particular night, and I told him I was coming to pick him up, we needed to talk, and to be waiting for me outside the club in twenty.

  Awesome, wonderful, OMG Josh, there he was, sitting right outside the front entrance when I pulled up to the corner of Non-Descript and Alternative Avenue, and he threw a goofy grin and wave at me before springing up and bounding over to the passenger's side door.

  He was in, and we were off. He cut one look at me, and probably saw just about everything in my face, 'cause he cut the music off and turned to me.

  "Spill it, bud,” he intoned, mocking jock-speak.

  "Okay. First, you should know you're gonna get an earful tonight, or tomorrow morning, or whenever, from your sister."

  "Oh crap. Did you guys have a fight?"

  "Um, no. No, we didn't."

  "Okay, well, Jackie, thankf
ully, doesn't discuss her sex life with me, so..."

  "No! Just, grr, listen for a second."

  "Hey, that's why I'm here, and not making out with Mr. Hot Blue Mohawk back at the Bat Cove!"

  "I know, I know. Sorry."

  "Don't be. This is actually perfect timing. We have things to discuss, and do, and not a hell of a lot of time to do them in."

  I wasn't sure what he was babbling about, but it almost threw me off track of why I needed to talk to him so desperately. "Josh, that's cool, I understand, sort of, but, look... Jackie knows."

  Silence. At least five long seconds of it. Then he nodded slowly.

  "Well, I guess it's about time that little secret was out of the vault. And actually it couldn't have happened on a better night. How did she find out? Did you just tell her?"

  "Nah, see, that would have been the smart thing to do, right?”

  "Oh Kyle, my best beautiful friend with two first names, what the hell did you do to my sister, man?"

  "I screwed up, Josh, that's what I did. I completely screwed up."

  He put a placating, but loving, hand on my knee. "Tell Dr. Joshy what stupid thing you've done, and he'll see what kind of prescription he can write to fix your fuck-up."

  "Okay. Well, we were making out, and—"

  "Whoah!... Okay, kidding, I'm not stupid, I know you guys don't hold hands and watch DVDs all the time. What happened?"

  "It took over, Josh. It just... took... over. And, it's like I was crazy, or at least very stupid with hunger, or lust, or some creepy combination of both, and I, well, I laid into her dude, I bit the hell out of her neck, she figured everything out, told me to bugger off and be gone, and called some friend to come pick her up."

  "Hmm." Josh was thinking, and I could tell he, like me not an hour before, was choosing his words very carefully. "First, my friend, were you not my friend, badass gorgeous vampire or no, I would kick your ass up and down the street for doing that to my twin sister. So there's that. But then there's the other. I'm actually jealous, and a little mad at Jackie. Because here she is, being presented with exactly what I want, and she's rejecting it. Granted, she's probably scared shitless, confused, and suspects you and I and herself of being insane, but still. So, you nearly drained my sister, and she's broken your heart again. You can see how this tears me."

  "I did not almost drain her! I have complete control over that function, and I would never have brought her anywhere near the brink. But yeah, I see how you would be torn. I know I would be."

  "Seriously, though, here's how it breaks down: You're who and what you are, and you can't change, at least as far as we know. And speaking of what we know, or don't know rather, that brings me to some other shit, but, as far as my sister goes, she's either going to deal with this, get past it, and accept, or she's not. Whether she does or not is up to her, and I'll still love both of you either way. I'm not taking sides, I'm not choosing. I love both of you for exactly who and what you are. I will, however, try to talk to her. Try, duh, being the operative word."

  My face was hot with embarrassment and gratitude. Nobody deserved a friend like Josh, much less a lecherous bloodsucker like me.

  "Thank you, Josh." There was nothing else I could say without sounding pandering, pathetic, or lame.

  "Shut up, douchebag, now take me somewhere fun, and we'll talk about what I've been learning about Andy and Vicky and the Alphatwyn Coven."

  "You good with burgers and shakes?"

  "Sounds about as good to me as my sister's neck seems to sound to you.” he smirked.

  "You are a sick and twisted fool!"

  "But you love me for it!"

  And I did.

  "Now would you please, for the love of hot guys and gorgeous gothness, turn on some damn music! And wipe that sullen, beautiful vampire frown off your face, or I'll be forced to test the heterosexual boundaries of our respectful friendship... or something."

  "Ha! Josh, you rule, my friend. You are the most epically cool gothic gay friend in the galaxy.'

  "Then I suppose you won't mind buying, right? I'm a little broke. Oh, and easy on the alliterative speech there, please!"

  "Anything for you, Josh, anything for you.”

  ~ * ~

  We pulled up to the aptly named Grease Pit, a faux 50s carhop fast food joint, with my system blaring some hot new Darkwave from London, while some of the normies stared and rolled their eyes. Josh blew a particularly obnoxious looking dude a kiss, and the guy just made a face and rolled up his window.

  Josh tore into his food in typical tall, skinny boi fashion, while I slowly nursed a strawberry shake, wishing, to my chagrin, it was something else.

  "So, I've found out tons,” Josh said, waggling his eyebrows at me like a conspiratorial corporate exec.

  "Alright, great, let's hear it, or do I want to?” I wondered out loud.

  "Oh you do. Most of it, anyway. It's not all great news, but, moreso than you'd think."

  "Hit me."

  "Kinky... But seriously, okay."

  It was hilarious to watch him talk through and over bites of greasy burger, fries, and vanilla shake, but he managed to spit it all out, along with about a tenth of his dinner.

  "So, let me see if this has all penetrated my brain. Alphatwyn was a coven started in the 80s, by a group of teens and twenty-somethings who had already thought about putting a band together, but Andy, after having been given the um, gift, decided to share with everybody else, except the second keyboardist, who was a vamp who actually found them, and therefore wasn't of their... "coven blood,” but begged to be a part of the band, and was let in anyway?"

  "Right, and he's the one who was sent to spy on you and gather info, but instead turned turtle in the process and tried to give you some heads-up info, which, obviously was a mistake, for him."

  "Yeah. So, okay, that's them. But about, well, vamps in general, I mean I'd really figured most of that out already, about being able to eat food, but just needing blood to truly thrive, and all that. But there's a lot you didn't tell me."

  "Unfortunately, that's because I don't know. I couldn't find much of anything out that I could tell you'd already learned on your own. So, that's why I've saved this last bit of information for the end, because it's the capper. We're going to find out all we need to know from the King Vamp himself, and I've figured out exactly how to do it."

  "Wait,” I interrupted, "hold up. We're going to ask Andrew Vandridge himself about the ins-and-outs of Vampiredom?"

  "Well shit yeah, who else?"

  "And just how—"

  "Exactly. Just how are we going to do that? Man, I'll tell ya, leave it to the Goths to figure everything out. I found this."

  And he presented me with a funky, old-looking book that was pretty worn, like something at the back of a small-town library that nobody ever checks out. It was a book of magic, lore, and spells of summoning. He had a page bookmarked: "Luring Your Bloodfather".

  "You're kidding me with this, right? Like, this is some kind of twisted... no, who am I kidding, of course this is real. Why is this any more effed up than anything else that's been going on for the past month? Okay, let's take a look."

  "Way to dive in, my friend! It's the only way we're gonna get you straightened out,” he smiled.

  "Oh really,” I said, "and how do you suppose we get you straightened out?"

  "Ha...ha... That, my fine hetero friend, I'm afraid, is a complete impossibility. Now what time is it?"

  "Ahh, 12:15, why?"

  "Take me to your house, and let's get to work."

  CHAPTER 16: A QUICK BRIEFING

  We got back to my place at 12:25 am. Shae was passed out on the couch in front of some B-grade Horror flick about killer clowns. No judgment from me, she was working so hard at her new job that she probably needed mindless entertainment to massage her brain to sleep. Of course Josh had heard of the film, and nearly woke Shae up with his excitement over the "re-worked box art" the company had used for the Ultimate DVD Release.


  "Josh!” I grabbed his arm. "Can we please go back to my room and get this thing started?!"

  "Oh wow, I thought you'd never ask!” he said, as he pulled me by the arm to my room.

  "Be for real man, seriously! We could be dealing with my, well, my eternity here."

  He stopped in the middle of the hall, halfway to my room.

  "I know, Kyle. But, like, I have to keep it light, or it all just gets too oogie and huge for me, ya know?"

  Of course I knew. And of course I didn't blame him.

  "Come on,” I said, "let's just go get done what needs getting done."

  My room was a wreck. It stayed in a pattern of disarray due to my many nights spent pondering, journaling, doing bad artwork by the little table next to my computer, which was the port where I docked after a particularly gnarly night of hunting.

  "Way to be organized, Scene Boi."

  "I know, it's a pit. But it's clean, it just happens to be messy-clean."

  "Alright, so, you've heard me babble before, about...Would you please sit down?"

  I didn't even notice, but Josh had parked himself at the foot of my bed, and I was so nervous and preoccupied with what the next couple of days would bring that I didn't even realize I was pacing through the rubble of my room until my best friend pointed it out.

  "Right. Sorry. Vampire lore, magic, ritual, let's go."

  "Thank you. Now. You've heard me talk about my Theory of All, way too much probably, I know, but the cool thing about this belief system I've formulated for myself is that it leaves my mind way open, and I don't feel limited by the dogma or teachings of any one Religion or Belief System, so you can bet that when I found a book on Ritual Magic relating specifically to vampires, I was, well, stoked."

  "I can only imagine. And I'm sure I'll share your enthusiasm as soon as you explain what the hell's going on."

  "Give me at least a little room for preamble, man."

  I finally let myself relax, and sank back into my bed, watching, with amusement, Josh check me out and turn a quick red before going on.