Unraveling Sarah Cresley by Marisa Maichel (best summer books .txt) 📕

When we got to the house, Grandfather and Uncle Soren were waiting outside. Grandfather's face was contorted into one of fury. If he had the ability to change color, his face would have been as red as his hair.

"I'll handle Eilief," Father told me. I glanced at him. It was unlike him to use his father's first name.

"How could you do this?!" Grandfather screamed at me when I got out.

"Father, it was an accident," Uncle Soren said.

"This is between me and him!"

"He's not going to die. Leave Reese alone!" Father cried, pulling Evan's body out of the van. He bit into his own wrist and squeezed it, the blood flowing into Evan's mouth, down his throat, and into his stomach. There are several ways of changing into a vampire.

One is the old-fashioned way of simply biting the carotid artery or any other major artery or vein, exposing your own artery or vein, and pressing them together. The most popular way to do it is the way Father just did it; which is biting the victim to stun him or her, biting or scratching yourself, and letting the blood flow into his or her mouth. Once it reaches the stomach it will spread like a nutrient. It's even more unsanitary than any other way simply because of disease and infection can be spread. (Although vampires do not get human diseases, there are several diseases unknown to humans which can affect vampires.)

Any way you choose to do it, the vampire blood must be inside a human in order for him to change.

I was starting to lose control of my emotions.

"He's not going to cry, is he?" Grandfather said in disgust.

"You mustn't be tough on him," Uncle Soren said. "You were only a new vampire when you changed your first human."

"But he's not a new vampire. And he's seventeen!" Grandfather then started yelling inaudibly at me. Eventually, I ran past him and hid in my closet. There, I kept bottling up my emotions until my heart nearly started beating.

I slowly let it all out. I smelled Grandfather coming before long.

"Reese, please open up," he said, standing in front of my closet. "I'm sorry I overreacted. These kinds of things happen, and I should not be angry with you. Please forgive me." I huffed at him furiously.

My father came in as Grandfather left.

"Evan's changing," he said. "I put him in one of the spare bedrooms. Reese, it's all right. We've all made mistakes. Every single one of us has unintentionally bitten a human. Personally, I think the little cur had it coming." I opened the door a crack. Father took that as an invitation to open it completely and hug me.

I tried to push him away, and he only tightened his arms like a vise.

"I need a cigarette," I said.

"You need no such thing. Go swimming in the pool or read in the library."

I ignored him and got out my emergency stash. I went out to the backyard and chainsmoked until I was out of cigarettes. In twenty four hours, Evan would awaken, and I would have another problem on my hands. I had to keep his vampirism a secret. His parents could not know. His mother is very religious. She was okay with him being gay, but if she knew about his new diet, she would disown him. His father is a little eccentric, and very much a conspiracy theorist.

Crap. I had nearly forgotten about them. They would be worried about him. He's their only child. And double crap, I had heard through the grapevine that his mom was pregnant again. I was suddenly angry with myself.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID!

I crushed the empty pack. I'm such an idiot. I should have controlled my anger.

"You're not an idiot," Father said.

"I didn't realize I was speaking out loud."

"Well, you were. Like I said, these things happen."

"What about his parents?"

"We'll keep him away for a while. They may report him missing, and if they do, we'll simply act like we don't know where he is. This is not the biggest problem in the world. In fact, I think it eliminated a problem. He still harasses you, correct? Once he's turned, he'll realize that you're not his true mate and move on."

"I hope so. I'm so done with him."

"As am I. I'm done hearing about all that he's doing to you. I admit I was surprised at first when you came out to me."

It was only a year ago. Father was in the kitchen chopping herbs and mixing them with dried petals to make a sleep potion when I approached him nervously. I was sixteen at the time, and it was just after October first, which is my birthday. I had decided that now was the time to tell him. I had known I was bisexual since middle school, when I realized that what it was that attracted me and that there was a name for it. (Before puberty, I cared for neither girls nor guys.)

My father had told me about the gay community, and explained that he saw nothing wrong with it, but Grandfather and Uncle Soren were not so accepting. My gut was twisted into the tightest knot I'd ever felt. He noticed me, and asked me if I was okay.

I said "Father...I'm bisexual." He stopped working, and hugged me tightly. He told me he loved me and he was proud of me. He told me that some parents would not accept such a confession and that I was lucky. I knew I was lucky to have such a loving and supportive parent. I knew a guy who had just come out, and his parents disowned him.

Right now, I was sitting in a chair outside. Uncle Soren had readily accepted my sexual orientation, while my father got a lecture from Grandfather. I felt guilty for that. Really, though, Father was the one that outed me to them. Most people at school knew it, too, though most of them thought I was gay at first because my first relationship was with Evan.

Even now, some of them still think I'm confused or simply want to play around, which is simply not true. I don't believe in playing the field; it causes much confusion and anguish. Only five months ago, Evan and I had broken up after a nasty fight. I ended it for good when I realized that my feelings were Sarah were not going to go away. I was thoroughly disgusted with myself.

I had played with his heart without realizing what I was doing. I hadn't known how deep his feelings were for me. I admit it: I was a terrible person. But there was nothing I could do about it now.

Either way, Evan's death would be completely my fault. Even if he lived through the change. It's not painful, I've heard it's more like an electrical current going through your blood vessels, reaching every part of your body like a strike of lightning.

"It's not your fault," Father told me. I looked at him.

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"It's...it's not important. What's important is, you must not beat yourself up over this mistake. He will live as one of us."

"He had no choice. The only other option was to let him die completely."

"He will still die, he will simply be undead like us."

It's important to note how complicated vampire biology is. Our infertility rates are high, if a vampire is born of two vampires, he or she is one of the lucky ones. My father and I are anomalies. So is Uncle Soren and Louis. My grandfather's wife and my grandmother Amalia had been human when she was bitten, and so was my grandfather.

Amalia has been missing now for nearly fourteen hundred years. She has been presumed dead. Father says that my grandfather changed when she went missing. He became even colder than usual and slowly began to lose his temper more often. When he nearly attacked Uncle Soren in a fit of rage, he stopped himself and secluded himself away for a while. When he came back, he apologized to his sons and became virtually lifeless until Louis was born.

The reason why I bring this up is because Amalia was considered somewhat infertile as a human. That is odd; because if a female human is infertile, she will be infertile as a vampire. And then came along my uncle's wife Alga. He fell in love with her almost immediately. They were stalking the same human at the same time, and came across each other.

According to my father, Alga was a royal pain in the ass. She hated my grandfather and wanted to be queen more she wanted to be married to my uncle. When she realized she wasn't getting that anytime soon, she up and left, but not before giving birth to Louis.

Six months later, my uncle received word that she had died. He was heartbroken. My father said that he wailed for days, which is the usual custom when a mate dies.

~~~~~~~~~~

Grandfather did something unexpected. He put his cheek against mine and hummed, which was something he had not done in ten years. I pulled him closer and buried my head in his chest.

"I'm sorry, little one," he purred. "I'm so sorry. It's my fault for not talking to you about this. You did the right thing by calling your father, although I wish you had called me instead." I tried to pull away, and failed. His arms are even more like a vise than my father's.

Speaking of which, when Father saw us, he roared. He ran toward us and knocked us over, causing Grandfather to go through the wall.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Grandfather asked my father. Father responded by growling, picking me up, and carrying me away.

"Father-" I began.

"Hush, my young one. He will hear you. He tried to take you from me."

"Father, we were just hugging-"

"I saw you try to pull away from him, and he refused to relinquish you. That means he planned on keeping you."

"He's your father!"

"His sons are grown up, and so is one of his grandsons. He wants the youngest one to take care of."

Since so few vampire children are made, I could kind of understand what his thought process was.

"Father, you're frightening me," I said. I tried to get out of his arms. He whined and held me more tightly. I noticed Grandfather behind him. He wrapped his arms around Father's waist and purred, trying to calm him. Father hissed and spun around, crouching. Grandfather laid on his stomach and started crawling away in a show of submission.

"Stay away from him," Father growled. I thought for a moment. I fought to get out of his grip and fell onto the floor. It got the reaction I wanted. Father's attention turned back to me. He picked me up again and ran to his bedroom, where he pushed most of the furniture in front of the door. He pushed his bed to the farthest wall.

He put me on the bed and covered me up.

"Cuddle with me," he said. We hadn't cuddled in quite some time. Father wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close. "It's not your fault, baby boy."

"It is my fault," I argued.

"Don't be a martyr. I despise martyrs. As for it being your fault, these things happen, as I've told you before."

I buried my head in his chest and started crying softly.

"Don't cry, baby. Daddy's here. I promised you when you were a baby that I would keep you safe, even from yourself. I'm starting to realize that there are some things I can't protect you from, and that scares me." He rolled over so he was on top of me, creating a barrier with his arms and legs.

"Why are you...why do you guard me so much?" I asked.

"Because you are a rarity. A child born between two vampires. And because you are young and fragile, and I love you more than the