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

then, and I realized she had a massive wound in her side. She pulled out a gun and aimed it at Alicia. Father went around to Alicia’s other side, and I stood beside Mother.

“You kill her, you’ll be shot,” Chris warned. “You’re surrounded, Alicia. Leave, now.”

“We must discuss the girls’ futures,” Alicia said.

“They’ve already been decided,” I said. “Sarah will be turned into a vampire and marry me. We will have lots of babies and lots of cats.”

“And dogs,” Sarah added.

Alicia looked betrayed. “Fine. I will leave today, but I warn you, I won’t give up until the girls are with me again. And this time they’ll stay with me.”

Alicia turned to leave, and then her eyes widened. “Beckett?”

All our eyes turned to where she was looking, and I saw Beckett Cresley. I’d briefly met him in zombie form, but now…well, he was truly alive again.

“Hello, Alicia,” he said dryly. “I’m here to check on the girls.”

“I’m okay, Daddy,” Sarah said. “But Sabine ran away, and we can’t find her.”

Beckett sighed and rubbed his face. “I die for two years, and one of my girls gets pregnant, and the other one runs away, and both of them have vampire boyfriends. What next?”

Sarah ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. He squeezed her back, kissing the top of her head.

“I missed you, my French belle.”

“I missed you too, Daddy. A lot’s happened, and I don’t really know how to handle it.”

Beckett looked up at me. “If it’s any consolation, I approve of your boyfriend. He seems to make you happy, and he would never hurt you on purpose. I’ve been watching.”

“What’s Heaven like, Daddy?”

“It’s amazing, but that’s beside the point.”

“I just realized…your glasses. You’re not wearing them!”

“I don’t need them anymore, baby. My vision is perfect. Thanks to the vampire who created me.”

“Vampire?”

“Goes by the name of Samuel. Gave me a weird feeling, but he showed me how to be a vampire.”

“Samuel?” My eyes widened. “Dad, Dad, I know who’s behind all this!”

“So do I, Reese,” Father growled. “Beckett, you’ve given us an unexpected source of information that we needed. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to have a talk with my daughter.”

“She’s my daughter!” Mother roared.

“She’s mine, too,” Alicia snarked. “I’m the one who carried her in my body my whole life!”

“Daddy, don’t let Mom take me!” Sarah begged, holding him.

“I won’t, honey, I promise. Alicia, you and I need to talk.”

“I know what you’re going to say, and no, I won’t marry you again.”

“That’s not what I was going to say at all, you witch! I needed to tell you that I’m taking the girls with me to France.”

“You can’t take them from me! You’re legally dead!”

“So are you!”

“Actually, my husband and I have custody of the girls,” Mother said. “Legal custody. And we already said they can go to France this summer to see their family. We already went and met them a few months ago, and we get along fine. Meanwhile, Alicia, your niece nearly killed Sarah when she put belladonna in her drink!”

“Belladonna?”

“Deadly nightshade. And they say they are from an ancient race of humans as old as vampires. That was interesting to learn.”

“It’s a fact, Marina.”

“Daddy, I got my wings,” Sarah interrupted.

“Baby, that’s wonderful! Did it hurt?”

“On a scale of one to ten…eleven. But I’m glad I’m not ordinary.”

“Sarah, you never were ordinary.”

“I’m learning to pull them in and push them out. Grandma said she’d teach me how to use them this summer.”

“That’s great, hon. How did Grandma react when she saw them?”

“She was thrilled. She thought none of her grandchildren would have them, and I’m not even the oldest!”

“It’s because you deserve them, dear, not because of your age.”

“Enough about the Cresley curse!” Alicia shouted. “God, I hate you, Beckett.”

“Ditto, Alicia. Sarah, why don’t you go inside, while your mother and I talk?”

“Okay, Daddy.”

She went inside, and I followed her. I followed her past the living room, where Zie was listening to the drama outside and watching Cirino, past Spunk and Coffee, who both barked and jumped on us, and I grabbed her and carried her upstairs and placed her on the bed, where I closed the blinds and covered her body with my own.

We started kissing. We made out for nearly ten minutes, until Coffee started licking Sarah’s face.

“Hey, girl,” she said. The little brown Chihuahua ran back and forth, as if she couldn’t decide what she wanted to do. I knew why-Sarah had told me before that Coffee hates all men, but she particularly doesn’t like me. She licked Sarah’s face, then growled at me from a safe distance.

“She likes the taste of your lipstick,” I teased. “As do I.”

“It’s the shade Apple Butter, but it tastes more like cement than apple.”

“If you didn’t insist on wearing red lipstick-“

“Hush, you. Or I’ll tell Mordecai to take your stereo away.”

I gave her a look of mock horror. “No, not my stereo! Although he did threaten to do that one time, because the music was so loud.”

I bent down and tried to kiss her, but Coffee bit my nose.

I recoiled and held my nose, which was smarting.

“Coffee! Bad girl!” Sarah scolded. Coffee’s tail went between her legs, and she rolled onto her back, trying to look cute.

“Fucking bitch,” I cursed.

“She didn’t mean to hurt you, Reese!”

“Give it up, Sarah, she totally meant to hurt me. I’d smack her myself, but I’m afraid I’ll kill her by accident, and you won’t like me anymore.”

“That’s probably true. Did you know dogs can sense pregnancy? They can smell it, and so can cats. Coffee was super protective of me when I was pregnant with Cirino.”

“She’s still protective of you, apparently.”

“And him as well.”

Sarah put Coffee on the floor, and Coffee left the room, tail wagging nervously. I bent down to kiss Sarah again. I moved down to her neck, then her chest, before I heard a cough behind me.

Embarrassed, Sarah and I broke apart, to see all five of our parents standing in the room.

“I’m glad you two are getting along better, but needs must and such,” Mother said.

“Meaning?” I probed.

Alexander sighed. “We’ve decided to let Sarah decide what she wants to do. Would you rather go with your biological parents or stay with us? The same applies to you, Reese. Do you want to go with Blondie here or do you choose us?”

“I mean, there’s not really a house anymore,” Sarah said.

“I suspended escrow,” Alicia. “The house is still ours.”

“And I mean, Bubbe and Zayde haven’t exactly been treating me and Sabine well lately.”

Beckett sighed. “Is that your decision?”

“Yes, it’s my decision.”

“Very well, then. You do seem happier here, especially with him. When you’re around each other, the whole room brightens. Anyone can see how much you two love and adore each other.”

“We belong together,” I insisted.

“Yes, well, good for you. We’ll see you later, Sarah.”

“Bye, Daddy. Oh, wait! What about your beds and stuff?”

“Alexander gave us the key to the storage unit with our things in it. Don’t worry about that.”

He came into the room and kissed her on the top of the head before Alicia came forward with her arms outstretched. Sarah looked away and pointedly ignored her. Alicia gave her a betrayed look and went out with Beckett.

Sarah and I started kissing again, and Father cleared his throat.

“Reese, you still need to make a decision.”

“I mean, I’m already spending half my time here and the other half there. There’s no reason for anything else to change.”

“If you insist,” Alexander said.

They finally left, closing the door behind them, and I kept up the kissing with Sarah. We kissed for a few more minutes before she ended it and suggested we watch a movie.

We looked through her selection and chose Who Framed Roger Rabbit, a good choice because it had comedy and cartoons and Jessica Rabbit.

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

The first day of exams was a big deal. I’d been studying my butt off for weeks, along with doing everything else. My first class, Psychology, was, surprisingly, a simple genius test. The teacher said he wouldn’t grade these, he just wanted to test our test-taking skills.

In Senior English, I had to write an essay about all the books and stories we’d read this year, starting with The Crucible. I took my sweet time writing about the girls who accused the townsfolk of witchcraft. I knew what real witchcraft looked like.

The last exam of the day was in Advanced Physics. I wrote down everything I remembered about whatever we’d studied, and then the bell ran to set the students free.

“How’d you do?” I asked Mason as he came out of the next science room.

“I know I sucked,” he sighed. “My dad’s not going to be happy.”

“Have you given any more thought to your girl problem?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I have-you’re right, Reese. Scarlett is poison. Elsa is the better choice. I could use some water in my fire.”

I chuckled, and then grew silent. “What about Sarah?”

“She’s your girl. I will always like her to an extent, but you’re what she needs. Besides, I’m not her type.”

“Her type?”

“You know, vampire. I’m a lowly warlock.”

I chuckled again, and we met Noah and Amara at the front doors.

“How’d you guys do?” I asked.

“I know I failed Senior English,” Amara sighed.

“How is that possible? You speak it every day.”

“Yeah, but still...”

“Noah?”

“I failed. Happy?”

“No. What did you fail?”

“Everything. I just know I failed. I screwed up. I’m not going to graduate. I’m going to stay here forever.” He sighed.

Just then, a vision hit me.

I was running. I was out of breath. Out of breath? I didn’t need to breathe. My stomach pumping with the exertion, my long black hair smacking my face. I realized that I wasn’t Reese anymore. I was Mason. And then I saw a vampire with short blond hair, and everything went black.

“Yo, Reese?”

“Is he broken?”

“He must be. He’s not responding.”

“I had a vision.” My words surprised even me.

“A vision? Like fire and brimstone?” Duke laughed. I hadn’t realized he’d arrived.

“No, you idiot, a vision of the future.”

“Whoa! You get those?”

“I’ve been getting them off and on for a while. This time, I saw through the eyes of someone else.”

“Who?”

“I won’t say who, but it was one of you.”

They all looked at each other, then up at me.

“Is it about me?” Mason croaked. I stayed silent.

“Did you see a dark, mysterious girl in white?” Amara teased.

“No. I won’t say what I saw, but it affects you, Mason.”

“Now I want to know!”

“Dude, you are rude,” Duke laughed.

“Shut up, Duke,” Noah snapped. “I’m sure he’s got a good reason for not telling us. You do, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. Humans are not supposed to know the future.”

“I’m not human, though, I’m a warlock.”

“You’re closer to a human than I am. What I saw was truly scary. I don’t want to affect the future.”

“Tell me!”

“Okay, fine. I saw your death.”

Silence, then Duke started laughing.

“That is too funny!” he shouted, wiping at his eyes.

“It’s because I’m trying to save someone, isn’t it?” Mason asked dryly. “You know, Reese, you can be a real asshole sometimes.”

My eyes narrowed and I growled lowly. “First of all, you wanted to know. You pressured me into telling you. Secondly, I could kill you at any time just because I can. I haven’t eaten since yesterday, and I’m feeling peckish. Especially for a rival’s blood.”

Mason turned white and practically ran to his car. Noah gave me a dirty look, Duke burst out laughing again, and Amara shook her head.

“Real nice, Reese,” she said, before following after Mason.

Feeling huffy, I went to my Nissan and waited for Sarah, who was still talking to her friends. Soon enough, I heard shouting that sounded like Amara and Noah.

Yeah, I could see them three cars away, yelling in each other’s faces.

“If you don’t like it, don’t be such a little bitch about it!” Amara shouted.

“You would know about being a bitch!”

“It’s simple, isn’t it? Ask me out when I’m single, and not when