Unraveling Soren by Marisa Maichel (books under 200 pages txt) 📕

necklace with a blue stone to go with it, and I whipped out my card, much to her protests. I told her to go find shoes to match. She came back with silver strappy heels.

While I paid, she investigated the cosmetics counter. I wasn’t paying attention, until I heard a crash. The salesgirl looked behind me, wide-eyed. Afraid of what I’d see, I turned around, and saw her sprawled on the floor, her eyes wide. I ran over her.

“Sarah?” I took off my jacket and put it under her head.

“Is she okay?” a woman asked.

“She fainted. I don’t-“

I watched, horrified, as she lifted her arm, then it fell back down.

“She’s having a seizure,” Chris said, stepping out into the shadows. I was stunned; I hadn’t known she was following us.

She tenderly took Sarah’s hand. “Sarah, can you hear me? It’s Chris. Reese is here, too. Do you want me to call your mom?”

But the other lady was already on the phone to 911.

A few minutes later, EMTs appeared. The female EMT leaned over her. I was surprised-She couldn’t have been much older than Sarah. (I know, I know, I’m not much older than Sarah.)

“What’s her name?” she asked.

“Her name is Sarah?”

“Sarah…okay, she’s waking up. Hello, Sarah? My name is Jodie. I’m an EMT. Do you know where you are?”

“JC Penney’s?”

“That’s right. You’re at JC Penney’s in the mall. Your boyfriend and mom are here. Do you remember their names?”

“Reese, and…Mom’s here?”

“I’m not her mom,” Chris corrected. “I’m just a friend. I’m Christine Sanderson.”

“Chris is here,” I told Sarah.

“Do you have her mom’s number?” the male EMT asked.

“I do. I’ll call her right now.”

“No,” Sarah breathed. “Don’t.”

“Sarah, she needs to know.”

I called her anyway.

“Hello? Reese?”

“Hello, Mom,” I said. I saw the EMTs give me a look. “Sarah had a seizure. They want to take her to the hospital.”

“Of course! How is she? Does she need me?”

“She’s fine, just confused.”

I was on the phone with Mom the whole ride to the hospital. I’d taken my car, and Chris followed in hers.

The hospital smelled like cleaners and medicine. I was on my phone for a long time, until Mother arrived. She found me and hugged me.

“Where is she?” she asked.

“She’s getting an MRI. She should be out soon.”

“I hope she’s okay.”

She sat down beside me. I opened my Kindle and started reading Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton. He wrote a lot of science fiction novels-it was interesting to see him write a book that he didn’t usually write. Mainly he wrote about technology gone wrong.

An hour later, Sarah was wheeled into the waiting room. She was sulking; they’d probably made her take the chair. She got up and was nearly squished when Mother rushed over and embraced her.

“Mom, I’m okay,” she said. “Just irritated. I’m fine.”

“Nonsense.”

“The store manager sent this over,” Chris said, walking into the room with a bag from JC Penney. “He refunded your money, Reese, and sent over some matching jewelry.”

“Did you thank him?” Sarah asked.

“Of course I did. He said he hopes you’re all right and you’ll recover well, which you appear to have done.”

“Can we go home?” Sarah asked.

“I’ll drive her,” Mother insisted. “Come, Sarah. We can get some tea for you.”

“Mango flavored?”

“Of course. Whatever you want. I will see you later, Reese,” she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It turned out to be a stress seizure. She’d be okay. She went back home to rest, refusing to tell me what was wrong. I smelled another vampire around when I walked around the perimeter of the house. It was strongest near Sabine’s room.

I wondered if Sabine knew another vampire. She’d briefly dated Jeremy, a young vampire I’d met the year before. He saw her when she and Sarah came over unexpectedly. It could have been him.

I went back home, only to see Father arguing with a vampire I didn’t recognize. The other vampire was slightly taller and broader than Father, although not as broad as Uncle Soren. He had short dark hair, and when he turned around, I could see that his irises were red, the pupils slitted.

“Who are you?” he demanded. “Oh, I recognize you. You’re the human chaser.”

“Don’t call him that!” Father roared.

“Father, who-“My eyes widened. “You!” I leaped at him and grabbed him by the throat. I felt someone grab me around the waist and pull me off. I pointed at the vampire angrily. “He’s the one who wanted to eat Sarah at the first Holiday Ball!”

“I know, son,” Father said, his voice terse. “Reese, meet Xavier Engles. Xavier, you know my son, Reese.”

“Of course I know the boy,” Engles said, his eyes slowly going back to dark brown. “He attacked me.”

“You tried to eat my girlfriend!”

“As was my right. Humans are made to be eaten by us. They are prey, we are the predators. That’s nature, boy.”

I fought to get out of Toby’s grip, but his arms tightened around my stomach.

“You did not have a right to claim her,” Father said firmly. “She was already claimed by Reese as his paramour and mate.”

“Mordecai-“

“I am your prince or you lord, Xavier, and you will address me as such.”

Xavier frowned. Father glared at him. “I’ve had enough of you. You assaulted my son, and tried to consume my future daughter-in-law. Technically, I should have killed you. We had every right to kill you then, but we didn’t. There are going to be future laws in place to prevent this from happening. We will fully reveal ourselves to humans, and we will be accepted. The President of the United States knows my father personally, as did his predecessor, and his predecessor, and so on, all the way back to the first unofficial president of the future United States. The queen of Denmark knows us, and she’s quite fond of Reese, actually.”

“She sent me a wooden pistol for my sixth birthday,” I said.

“There you go. You will respect us. You have no grounds for a complaint. And attacking me on my own territory, one that so few beings know about? I have cameras and guards, you know. And attacking us over a year later? That’s asinine. You were angry because we defended our own. You will stay away from Sarah, and you will stay away from Reese. Do I make myself clear?”

Xavier Engles glared at him. If looks could kill, my father would be dead. Then he stormed away, got into his car, and drove away, nearly mowing down me and Toby. Toby let me go, and I glared at Father, who glared back.

“You should have killed him,” I said.

“He did not physically attack me. And he’s powerful. Of course, we are more powerful, so of course we will win if he takes this further.” He paused, his vision glazing over. I watched, stunned. How long had it been since he’d had a vision?

My father doesn’t see the future, he sees the present. But he’s got amazing control over it and only uses it if necessary. It’s rare for him to lose control.

His eyes came back into focus, and then he started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I growled.

“Your girl is afraid you’ll discover something,” he said.

“She what?”

“Reese, don’t go barging off. You’ll only frighten her.”

“But she’s hiding something from me!”

“Do you want to scare her off?”

I sighed. “No, I don’t.”

“There you go. She will tell you when she’s ready. For now, give her some space.”

I was soaring through the air. No, she was. Her wings were out, and she was holding onto me. We were flying. The ocean below us was clear; I could see fish and dolphins and jellyfish. Then suddenly, the ocean turned red. She shrieked.

“My babies!”

Babies?! The babies were down there?!

We reached shore, and I saw two teens, a boy and a girl. Both of them had my yellow eyes, but the girl had brown curly hair and the boy had straight black hair in a razor-cut style.

“Mom! Dad!” they cried. The ocean was pulling them in.

Sarah swooped down and snatched up the girl while I snatched up the boy.

“What about Shadowfang?” he asked. I looked back. Shadow was in his cat form, meowing and howling against the powerful waves. I threw the boy as far as I could to safety, and then ran back for the feline. I picked him up, and he whined about his paws, which were bloody.

“What about Mishka?” the girl asked. I gave Shadowfang to her, and went back to save Mishka, which was being pulled in the same way as her mate. I picked her up and checked for more, then I realized that the kittens were trapped. I rescued them, two at a time, and threw all of them to safety, where my daughter watched over them and started healing their paws. Then I noticed her hands were bloody, and my son’s, too. Then I looked down and realized that my hands were bloody.

A big black tentacle grabbed my leg and started pulling me out to sea.

“Dad! The boy ran to me.

“No! Go back, Joseph!” I called out.

“Dad!” He grabbed my hands with his. The blood made them slippery, and I was slipping away. I was going to die.

Joseph started crying. His tears broke my heart.

“It’s all right,” I assured him. “I’ll either be in Heaven or Hell, or even Valhalla.”

“I don’t want to lose you!”

“It’s not your fault, Joseph. Tqke care of your mother and your siblings.”

“No! Dad!”

And then blackness.

I awoke with tears in my eyes. Father had crawled in next to me and was purring softly to me.

“I saw him,” I breathed. “My son. I saw him. And my daughter. But I only touched him. I touched him…”

“Hush, now,” Father soothed. “You were having a nightmare. It’s over now. He’s not conceived yet. Neither is she. Calm down.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I jumped as Mr. Chesney slammed the book down on the table. I was startled from my sleep.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Emerson,” he said.

“Sorry,” I said, running my hand over my hair.

“Apology accepted. Now, who is the Marquis de Sade?”

“A gay revolutionary.”

“Very good.”

He went to the front of the room.

“Mr. Chesney,” said a voice over the intercom, “Please send Reese Emerson to the office.”

Laughter rang in my ears as Mr. Chesney nodded to me and I grabbed my book and my backpack.

I went to the front office, and was surprised to see Mom and Selena.

“There’s been another death,” Selena said below human hearing. “A vampire this time. She was found with a stake in her heart. Two miles south of here.”

“I didn’t know there was another vampire here,” I said.

“Neither did I,” Mother said. “But they’re doing an investigation now, and it appears that she was pregnant. Her name was Verity Slaughterman.”

My thoughts went back two years, to an eighteen-year-old prostitute named Vanessa Slaughterman. My heart fell into my stomach. Was Vanessa a vampire? Was she related to Verity?

I was in the apartment, looking down at Verity. She’d been very beautiful. She had shoulder-length dark brown hair, open blue eyes, and she’d been big-breasted. She wore a light gray tank top and blue jeans. She was barefoot.

Father was going through her desk, and Ethan was flittering around, scouring the apartment for specimens. She’d kept her apartment clean and had feminine furniture and decorations. On one wall was a set of butterfly mirrors, and on one table was a vase of yellow daisies.

Whoever had done this, his sole goal was to kill her.

“So that makes a dead warlock, a dead witch, and now a dead vampire,” Louis said, counting them on his fingers.

“Two dead warlocks,” Father corrected. “I just got off the phone with Soren. He found another warlock. He’s calling Krauvas now, to see if he recognizes him. Meanwhile, does anyone recognize her?”

We all answered negative.

“I didn’t even know there was another vampire in North Hampton,” I said.

“Neither did I, but she’s still a fledgling,” Father said. “Louis, did you go through her purse?”

Louis nodded. “The girl’s got money. I counted