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

what he tries to tell us, loves you. My father loves you, and so does Louis, Uncle Soren, and my grandfather. Sabine loves you, too.”

“Reese, she’s been missing for almost two weeks now. I’m worried, especially with all the deaths.”

“We’ll find her, don’t worry about that. My mother called the police, and they’re searching for her now. My father has several dozen vampires looking for her, some of whom I’ve never met. We’ll find her.”

I set her coffee down on the stereo in front of her. She turned around and wrapped her arms around my waist. I hugged her around the shoulders and kissed her.

“You are loved, my lovely lover. You are so loved it isn’t even funny.”

I heard a knock at the door, and I snarled. Whoever is at the door had better have something important to say.

It was Louis. He opened the door, saw my face, and grimaced before speaking his part.

“Reese, we found Sabine. Chris has her now. Hello, Sarah. We found your sister. She’s home now.”

Sarah let out a sigh of relief and tightened her embrace around me.

Louis left us alone then, and I loaned Sarah a pair of black basketball shorts and she gathered up her things in a bag. I kissed her again, and she pulled away. Slightly hurt, I let her pull her heels on and sip her coffee. She looked a little bit silly with my clothes and a pair of stilettos.

She kissed me on the cheek, before she gathered her bag and coffee and went downstairs to her car.

I went into the kitchen and warmed a glass of B negative. I forced myself to down the blood, and then I swallowed some ibuprofen for my splitting headache. I checked Facebook. Tons of pictures of Prom Night, including a bunch of Sarah and her friends, and even a couple of me and my group of friends. There was even one of Mason and Elsa kissing, with Scarlett Hart looking furious in the background. I scoffed.

I looked through a bunch of the pictures, admiring them. The night really was a night to remember. Sarah had looked gorgeous. I hissed a bit when I saw a picture of Sarah’s friend Dante pecking her cheek. But then again, her gay friend Patrick was on the other side, pecking her other cheek.

I checked my e-mails next.

You shouldn’t have told the world about us.

I blinked. This was unusual. I didn’t tell the world anything. I thought back. What had I talked about? And then I remembered: Father had formally revealed the presence of vampires. This was a veiled threat because of that. I scoffed and deleted the e-mail.

I put on some music, checked YouTube for new bands, and played with a guitar app.

The doorbell rang. I quickly ran up and put some shorts and a shirt on before I went to answer it. A grey-haired woman was there. She wore a black business suit, and had pearl jewelry and thick glasses. Her eyes were silver, and she was as wrinkled as a raisin.

“Is this the home of Prince Mordecai Emerson?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said cautiously.

“My name is Mildred Whitehead. I am a member of God’s Friendship Evangelical Church,” she said, brandishing a business card. “I’m also a devout Christian. I want you to know that your lifestyle is against God’s Laws and that you should leave our town.”

I slammed the door in her face.

She rang the doorbell thrice more, and I answered it again.

“Lady, we don’t drink directly from humans,” I lied. “We drink donated blood.”

“It’s still a sin, and-is that a cat?!”

I looked around and saw Mishka sitting there.

“Um, yeah. It’s the most popular pet in America for a good reason. Cats are amazing.”

“Cats are messengers from the devil!”

“Mrs. Whitehead, I don’t know how you found our house, but you’d better leave now. Trust me.”

She gave me a disgusted look and left, her black pumps clopping on the cigarette-strewn porch.

Louis was in the kitchen now, staring at the odd woman with an annoyed look on his face.

“I really hate those religious types,” he said. I looked at the Thor’s hammer around his throat and sighed.

I quickly ran a brush through my hair and cleaned my teeth before settling down in front of the TV.

I watched some morning cartoons for a while and Louis worked on his laptop.

“I created a new website,” he said. “It’s called Real Vampires. I’ve already put up a video of myself cracking some really lame jokes.”

“You’re so stupid,” I told him. He flipped me off and continued to work on the website.

“And…there. There, I just added a video of you playing guitar.”

I looked at the computer screen. It was me, practicing Sarah’s Song.

“Thanks, Louis,” I said sarcastically.

“No problem, stretch.”

An hour later, as I watched Tom chase Jerry around the room and get his tail stuck in an electrical outlet, Louis whistled loudly.

“Seventeen views already,” he said. “You’re popular, little buddy. People like your guitar playing. Two comments. ‘Wow, he’s really talented. I didn’t know he could play.’ And this other one is random gibberish. I’ll add another one.”

He added another video of me playing “Evermore” from the 2017 version of Beauty and The Beast.

I texted Sarah and asked her how she was. She didn’t respond as rapidly as she normally does.

Sarah: Busy. Will talk to you later.

I sighed and played Candy Crush on my phone for an hour before I heard Uncle Soren’s motorcycle pull up. Louis looked out the window.

“He’s not wearing his helmet,” he noted. And then he called his own father a name that would have gotten him smacked if Uncle Soren had been in the same room. As it turned out, he did hear it, and it did get Louis smacked upside the head when my uncle came into the living room, smelling of gasoline and nicotine.

“Been doing some interviews, boys,” he said. “I spoke to Max and the Slaughterman family. The girl Verity had no known enemies, but of course, Max does. Evan had no known enemies, although he wasn’t particularly liked by Lockhart’s family. Apparently, Lockhart was emotionally and mentally abusive to Evan Byrd.”

I groaned. Uncle Soren looked at me.

“Reese, what Evan went through was not your fault. You tried to make his life better. Lockhart’s the one to blame for his abuse and his death.”

“I knew Reid was an asshole, I didn’t know he was abusive,” Louis said, rubbing his chin. “His last relationship was back in 1937 and it was with a woman who worked at a circus as an acrobat. She dressed like a cat and walked on the high wire.”

“What’s the point, dingbat?” Uncle Soren asked.

“No point,” Louis replied, shrugging. “Just an interesting tidbit of information. Reid came out as gay two years after he broke up with her.”

“Shut up, Louis,” I snapped. He tweaked my nose, hard.

“I also spoke to Rabbi Weinstein,” Uncle Soren said. “He says he found that vampire boy early in the morning. It was around eleven when we arrived to check out the scene. And Shadowfang says the cat that was killed was an ordinary street cat. Any thoughts, boys?”

“It’s my fault,” I muttered. “Evan’s dead and it’s all my fault.”

“Shut up, Reese,” Louis said. I yanked on his ponytail, and he grabbed my wrist and started using my own hand to hit me.

“Enough, boys,” Uncle Soren said firmly. Louis let me go, and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“That’s it,” Louis said, slamming the computer lid shut. “I challenge you to a wrestling match. Loser has to give the winner five hundred dollars.”

“Shut up, Louis,” Uncle Soren griped.

“If you tell me to shut up one more time- “

“Shut up, Louis,” I repeated. He glared at me. If I’d been anyone else, he would have beaten me to a pulp by now.

“Dad, did you see the crazy lady who came by?” Louis finally asked his father.

“I saw it on the security camera,” Uncle Soren answered him. “What’s it called? Ring? Quite a clever invention. Extra safety for our little one.” He ruffled my hair.

“What about me?” Louis whined.

“You’re a big boy. You can take care of yourself.”

Louis frowned and opened his computer back up.

“Did you save your work?” I teased.

“Hush, Reese.”

He ignored me and started typing again on his laptop when I noticed something.

“Hey, your camera light is on,” I said.

“It is?” He looked up and saw the green light. “Shit. Someone’s watching us.”

He reached into a drawer and pulled out some duct tape. He put some tape over the camera, and did something that made a bunch of data appear on the screen.

“I got you, you son of a bitch,” Louis teased. “Shit, he’s not on anymore. I can’t track him.”

“Or her,” I corrected. He grabbed me around the neck and gave me a noogie. I shoved him off of me and gave him a purple nurple. He laughed out loud and grabbed me around the neck.

“Take it outside, boys,” Father said, coming into the room with a lit cigarette in his hand.

“You too, Mordecai,” Uncle Soren said. “When you smoke in here, it stinks for days.”

Louis dragged me out to the front lawn, where we proceeded to have a truly short wrestling match in which he won. He pinned me to the grass, laughing evilly. I turned and saw an ant watching us. I blew it, and it flew several yards back.

Louis’ fangs extended, and he nipped my cheek. I bared my teeth at him, and I rolled him around. I heard laughing, and someone saying, “They’re not fighting, they’re playing!”

I looked up and saw my friends Mason and Ariella, the former of whom looked concerned.

“Are you here to pick up Frodo?” I asked, briefly relaxing and getting kicked off.

“Yeah,” she said. “Is he ready?”

“He’s excited,” I told her. “He’s sick of us.”

I went back inside and told the cat his new owner was ready for him. He flicked his tail, and if cats could smile, he would have been smiling. He greeted her as she entered the room, followed closely by Mason. My goth friend still looked worried, as if he had a stomachache.

Frodo jumped into Ariella’s arms, and I gathered his toys and some food into a large baggie and gave it to her.

“Why did you park on the road?” I asked. “My driveway’s open.”

“No reason,” she said, shrugging. “Do you need to say goodbye, Frodo?”

“Goodbye, losers,” Frodo said to the general room. His siblings and parents looked miffed, and Louis and Uncle Soren laughed. Uncle Soren and Ariella made eye contact, and she blushed. I knew she felt bad for how she’d treated him. Despite the fact that he looked like he was in his late thirties or early forties, they’d had a real relationship and had fallen in love.

There was an awkward silence for a few moments. Uncle Soren turned and started petting Catniss. Her rear end shot up, and she started purring. Louis played with his belly button. Father stared at the TV. Ariella just stared at my uncle with a heartbroken look on her face, and then she turned around and walked out the front door, slamming it in the process.

“Why are you here, Mason?” I asked.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call first, but I don’t know what to do, and Noah’s acting like an ass,” he admitted.

“What’s going on?” I asked, gesturing for him to take a seat in the living room. Immediately, Anakin jumped up and started rubbing against Mason.

“I feel so guilty,” he said. “Something is happening to me. I don’t know what to do,” he repeated. He put his face in his hands.

“Are you going to beat around the bush?” Louis interrupted. I glared at him, and he shrugged.

“Do you mind?” I snapped.

“Let’s go, Louis,” Uncle Soren said.

“No, stay. I need advice, and my father is no help,” Mason said.

“What’s going on? Does it involve Elsa?” I asked.

He nodded. “It also involves Scarlett.”

“Hart?”

“Do we know any other Scarlett?”

“I’ve known plenty of Scarletts,” Louis said. Uncle Soren pinched him.

“Mason, she’s bad news,”