Into Death's Arms (10 page)

    The priest smiled slowly.
He’d looked as pleased as punch.
“I thought you’d feel that way. Deanna will arrive at ten tom
orrow we can do the ritual then,” h
e smiled brightly. “My luggage is in the sedan I borrowed.” He held out the keys.
They jingled in his hand.
Just like that, I was going to go through the ascension ritual
in one day
. I felt sick.

      Pop looked pointedly at me then at the keys. Great tomorrow we’re
going to
try to kill you but today
,
could you please play
bellboy
?
I grabbed them and headed outside.
I
stomped
my feet like an angry child but the carpet was so thick it didn’t make any sound.
My cell rang as soon as the sunshine hit my face.
The air smelled good crisp and clear.
“Mace
,
” I answered.

   “Spill,
” Laurna’s voice was harsh. Damn I was hoping the
Vamp
s had mind wiped her but no such luck.
I was kind of surprise but I guess they were serious about the whole let’s tell everybody we’re monsters thing.

   
I frowned at the phone.
“Huh,
” I said noncommittally.

     “Damn it Macyn there are real live fucking
Vamp
ires
in the world and you fucking knew it. I gave one of them my
cell
number, oh my God! I’ve got to change my number.” She
was breathing
hard probably pacing, she was a pacer.
It was
funny because Laurna wa
s one of those people who believes swearing is a sign of low intelligence. I always grunt
and tell
her,
‘
me
no smart like blond girl
’
.  She gave up trying to change me a couple of years ago.

      “Oh, yeah,” I said softly and started moving toward the car again.

      
I heard
her come to a halt on the other side. “Oh yeah, Oh
.
Fucking
.
Yeah, that’s al
l you have to say to me,
” she screamed
furiously damaging my hearing
.  

    I sighed and popped the trunk to
Mike
’
s sedan. “You want to come over?
” I asked
I didn’t want to talk about this over the phone
. I was going to break
the rules but
,
what the
hell;
the
Vamp
s had already broken the rules
,
right? Besides what
were
they going to do de
ny me my birthright?  That wasn’
t likely and I needed some support.

      She huffed, “Yeah I’m coming,
” I heard her keys scrap her dresser as she grabbed them.

   I took Father
Mike
’s
suitcase
and two garment bags out of the trunk. How many outfits does a catholic priest need anyway? No
,
that wa
s not the beginning of a bad joke
. “
Bring me a Red Bull,” I asked
I was going to need it.

     I heard the sharp boop boop sound as her car
alarm click
ed
off
. “K
,
” she responded and hung up. I guess she didn’t hate me.
Woo
H
oo
!
I wondered if she’d still feel that way in an hour when she learned just how long I’d been lying to her.

   I carried the Father’s luggage in
to the house. The man was in our
kitchen
he hummed
ha
ppily.
He was also cooking
. Yay
,
I loved it when other
people
cooked
.
I burned toast I mean how hard is it
? Y
ou put it in the toaster and it toasts right. Not for me, for me it turned black
and smoked and the fire department had to be called
.
My dad said it was a gift. He wa
s not funny.
“Dad, which room do I put F
ather
Mike
’
s belonging in?”
The whole house was starting to smell like bacon, woo hoo! I liked bacon.
Crisp, warm, crunchy bacon, yeah, I know I sounded like an advertisement for pork product.

      “The blue room,” he responded from the gym. It was a joke, when we
’d
first mov
ed
in,
I had
been three and
had asked how I would know all the rooms apart. He’d spent the next year painting each room a different color. Our
house was ginormous you know the kind of place featured in lifestyles only we didn’t live like it. No help to do the clean
up, no gardeners
, Laurna said it was a waste. I had told her we were private people. Now I had to tell her the truth. Those people
,
the people who make other
peoples’
lives run more smoothly were a liability
. 

     
I
f I was
honest,
she was a liability. I was going to w
atch her grow old and die j
ust as my father had done with everyone he’d ever cared for. In all
honesty,
my dad had seen a couple of centuries
when good old wrinkled up, worn down, Father
Mike
in there had been born. If I
were
lucky, I’d find another Ao to spend my life with. If I wasn’t I’d be alone.

    
If I
were
real unlucky, I’d be lik
e my dad. A
Dream-walker
had taken my mom out when I was three. He waited centuri
es for her. He
’d
had her for so little time.

    
Sometimes late at night or early in the morning I would hear him talking to her, or worse praying for her.
He seemed to think he’d done something
wrong
, something terrible that had condemned her. I didn’t want that kind of pain, ever!
I wasn’t sure that anything was worth that.
I lugged Father
Mike
’s stuff into the blue room and hung up the garment bags for him.

  
  “The white one’s for you dear,
” I jumped out of my skin, holy crap, ninja priest snuck up on me.

     
I s
quelch
ed
the panicked expression on my face,
then
turned to the sneak
y little crypt keeper and asked, “f
or me?”

     He smiled mildly. “Yes
,
dear,
it’s
fo
r the ceremony tomorrow.
”
 

  Dear
, did
I look like Bambi to him? Okay I was a little angry that someone
whose
bones actually creaked when he moved had gotten the jump on me. I wasn’t mad at him
.
I was mad at me. What kind of Ao was I going to be if someone on a first name basis with every member of the geriatric clinic
could blindside me, crap! Self-doubts a bitch, I had something special I was supposed to wear, “for the ceremony?”  I was so confused.
I felt so out of my depth. I was supposed to be prepared for this. I was supposed to have two more months to discuss the individual aspects of the ritual with my dad but
apparently,
I wasn’t getting that extra time.

       He patted my arm like he was my grandpa, “It is normal to be afraid, but you’ll be fine. 
Two Ao for parents
,
”
h
e smiled brilliantly. “Doesn’t happen often you know, most of them are just half breeds or less who get lucky.”

     That
was suppo
sed to make me feel better? He
sucked at this.
Weren’t priests supposed to be good at making people feel better?

     I took the garment bag. “Have you done it before?” I asked I wanted to say I knew I’d be fine
.
I wanted to seem tough but hell,
but
he was a priest
,
right? They are experts on helping people get over their fears
,
right?

      He nodded sagely, “Oh yes dear,” dear again, ugh.

      I had a ton of questions but none of them seemed to make it past the rising knot of fear in my throat. I had never heard of anyone doing the ritual early. It was always done on the twenty first birthday. Before then most were
too
weak to surv
ive it. Please, oh please I whispered
in silent prayer let me be strong enough. 
I patted his hand and wandered away without another word.
I walked numbly back to my room. I suddenly felt like chanting “I think I can, I think I can.” How’s that for juvenile. I tossed the garment bag on the bed. Deep breath
s I told myself, deep breaths, except I was feeling dizzy from all the deep breathing.

     I don’t know how long I sat the
re like that.  Laurna came in, looked at me. Put the red bull down on my d
resser then she sank down to the floor next to me with the grace of a ballerina
. “
That bad huh,
” she asked
her voice soft like she hadn’t recently been screaming at me
. I nodded
feeling better enveloped in the familiar scent of honeysuckle
. She just sat there
and waited
for my next move.

    
I pulled the garment bag to me and slowly unzipped it. She looked over my shoulder bu
t stayed silent.  The dress
was white silk. The sleeves were split from the elbow down, the back and a good portion over the abdomen
was cut out.  “Getting married,
” Laurna asked
when I turned to look at her those blond eyebrows were raised in question
.
Vaguely aware she’d asked a question
I shook my head no.

  
The front was embroidered with a cross.  I ra
n my finger along the
icon;
i
t gave me strength, corny huh?

     “I am going to be remade,
” I said softly
and hoped my fear didn’t carry in my voice
.

     She frowned, “Okay
no more obscure answers today.
I need some truth.” Her blond hair fell into her face.  Her blue eyes were sad. They reminded me of rain.
I felt
bad for being so dishonest with her.

      I took a deep breath.
I was going to break the rules. I wondered
briefly,
what the punishment for that was. Then I thought do I really care? The answer was a resounding ‘No’ I did not.
“I should have told you before. I know that, but
it’s
not like it’s one of those things
you just blurt out.” I sat back sinking into the soft mattress.
“Hey Laurna, guess what? I’m not human, well not really.  Oh, and I can see monsters. You know
Vamp
ires
, werewolves, well were-
anything they call the
mselves
Shifters
,
Dream-walkers
, demons of all shapes and sizes,
hell any of those nightmare creatures from your fairy tale books
, hope you don’t mind
.” I had stood and I
paced
back and forth.  Her mouth had fallen open.

        She stood too. “What do you mean you’re not human?” she practically yelled
, t
hrowing her hands into the air in frustration.

      I stopped, shrugged, and made a kind of scrunchy face at her. “That’s the part that worries you the most?” I started to laugh.
Vamp
ire
s
existed
,
one was real interested in her
in
particular and she was mad I wasn’t exactly human. She looked at me for a minute like
I‘d
lost my damn mind, the look was so funny I just laughed more. I laughed hard.
Then
s
he did too. We both fell to the floor laughing helplessly. It was what you did when too much happened too fast you either cried or laughed.
I preferred laughing.