Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 14

Crystal, Chapter 14:

 

 

Johnny's passport came through while we were still waiting for my brothers', so Johnny made the decision not to put off our trip any longer. “Lisa, you and Kenny stay here with the boys. Crystal and I will go.”

 

My mother stared at Johnny in shock.

 

“What?” he asked, noting her stricken expression. “I'll bring her back.”

 

I had wondered. If Johnny found his roots, would he want to stay there? A part of me was relieved that he'd said we were coming back.

 

“When are you leaving?” Kenny asked. I think he was just as glad his sons would be kept away from all this vampire business. Did he know what my mother had done—offering up the boys to Johnny? I don't think he would have objected, considering what had happened, but my mother had a habit of not mentioning things she thought might stir up trouble. Unlike me, unlike Johnny, whose forthrightness got us into all kinds of trouble.

 

“Paul is making the arrangements. In the next few days,” Johnny said.

 

He and Paul had been talking to each other all of a sudden, and I wasn't sure I liked it. I know Michael didn't like it that his brother had become friendly with a vampire. According to everything they had been taught, the blood drinkers were supposed to be held in high esteem by those who served them. Uncle Robert had acted that way too when he first met Johnny. It was probably my fault that Paul had lost his healthy respect for Johnny, since I had made such a point about Johnny being exactly like us. Maybe not, though. Johnny didn't tolerate bowing and scraping any more than he tolerated outright hostility.

 

“I have my driver's test this Saturday morning,” I said. “Can we wait until after that?”

 

 

Kenny brought me to take my driver's test, which I passed on the first try. Our flight was leaving from Boston on Monday afternoon, and so we were going to stay overnight at Uncle Robert's Boston apartment, mainly so Johnny did not have to travel such a long way in the car during the day. I was glad I got to get my driver's license first. Kenny let me drive back home.

 

“You realize,” he said conversationally as he buckled and then made a show of tightening his seatbelt, “once you go through with the change, and you stop aging, you won't be able to keep your license.”

 

“That's okay,” I replied, “I can just get a fake one made. Johnny knows how to get them.” As long as I got the real thing once myself, I would be content with fakes later on down the road. “And I saw that,” I added, motioning towards his seatbelt. “You don't have to worry. I'm a safe driver.”

 

“Both hands on the wheel, please,” Kenny said drily. Then, more seriously, “So you're really going to go through with it? Your mother is afraid you'll make the change when you are in Scotland and she'll never see you again.”

 

“That's silly. Of course she'll see me again. Even if Johnny changes me while we're there, I'll still be me. This is still my home.”

 

“I know. She's your mother. She's worried. Especially since she won't be going with you.”

 

I sighed. “It will be all right. I want to go. Johnny needs to go, for both of our sakes, and for Kevin and Ian too. We have to go.”

 

Kenny squeezed my arm. “I understand, kiddo. Just don't forget your mother and I love you no matter what. I'm not too worried since Johnny will be with you, but remember that you two belong to us now, too. It works both ways. He'd better bring you back.”

 

I smiled as Kenny repeated virtually the same thing Kevin had said to Johnny the other day. “I'll tell him,” I promised.

 

“You don't have to, I already did,” Kenny said with a grin.

 

 

On the way to Boston, Johnny sat in back with me and Paul. Uncle Robert wouldn't let me drive. We planned to leave the car at Uncle Robert's apartment and take the T to the airport the following afternoon. Our flight left at 3:15.

 

I sat sandwiched between the two boys, a buffer in case tempers flared. Paul wanted to know why he couldn't just tell his mother the truth, now that we were on our way. She was bound to find out as soon as we got there that Johnny was a vampire.

 

“Not yet,” was all Johnny would say, but I could see the smoldering in his eyes. Michael kept casting anxious glances back at us. He at least knew better than to push the vampire too far.

 

“What harm could it do now?” Paul persisted.

 

Finally, Johnny leaned across me so he could pin Paul with a dark stare. “Tell me about the blood-drinker in your loch,” he countered softly, then mockingly echoed, “What harm could it do now?”

 

Paul stopped talking after that.

 

Uncle Robert's tiny apartment had one bedroom which I appropriated as the only girl. The men bunked down in the open area, which was a combination living room and kitchenette. Johnny declined to stay.

 

“Where will you go during the daylight hours? I thought the whole point was to keep you out of the sun until we have to leave,” Paul said.

 

Johnny grinned, a flash of sharp teeth. “I can take care of myself,” he said. “I'll be there at the right time.”

 

It didn't take long for Johnny to wind his way around the building and find my window. I could hear the Brown boys, father and sons, murmuring quietly in the other room as they settled down for the night. I was surprised they hadn't figured out that Johnny would come to me.

 

“We're going out, right?” I whispered as Johnny climbed through the window. For him, even the recalcitrant screens remained silent. Ordinarily, they would have shrieked on their metal tracks if someone tried to open them wide enough to climb through.

 

Johnny lifted me to the edge, kissing me behind my ear and whispering back, “Of course.”

 

He helped me climb down to the street below, and we took off for the bright lights of the city, what was left of them at this late hour. We walked hand in hand through the deserted business district, and finally found some signs of life, bars and restaurants, college kids and businessmen waiting for last call. But we didn't stop. Johnny pulled me along with him past the more respectable places to ones that would have made me nervous if he hadn't been with me. Instead, all I felt was excitement—and anticipation.

 

Nobody suspected that the two teenage kids who looked like they belonged in the suburbs were in fact the predators, not the seedy-looking men on the street corners who watched us with flat expressions as we walked by. A few made some comments.

 

“Hey, you lost?”

 

“You looking for something?”

 

We kept on walking, and soon passed them by. I wasn't sure what, or who, Johnny was looking for, but I was getting hungry. We looped around by the waterfront, then back up towards a section with pretty brownstone apartments where groups of young men, and a few young women, hung out, continuing their partying after the bars had closed. They were older than us—college kids. It turns out they gave us a harder time than the rough looking men we passed earlier.

 

“What do we have here? Do your mommy and daddy know you're out so late?”

 

“You can go,” one kid remarked to Johnny. “Your girlfriend is welcome to stay.”

 

They all laughed, and most of the college kids drifted off in their own little groups, but the one who had addressed Johnny continued to taunt him, the beer in his hand slopping all over his shoes as he gestured. “What? Did you think you were going partying?”

 

Johnny moved deliberately down the sidewalk, the inebriated college student following along so he could hurl more insults. He didn't realize that none of his friends were paying attention to him anymore. “Not partying,” Johnny said softly. “Dining.”

 

We had turned the corner into a dark driveway between two buildings. The college kid blinked in confusion. “Dining?”

 

He learned soon enough what Johnny meant, although he would forget it by morning. Johnny took him down and drank his fill, and let me drink too before the wound closed up. Who knew when the next time we would be able to find blood would be? It was going to be a long flight, and neither one of us knew what to expect when we got to the other side of the ocean.

 

We laughed as we ran back through the silent streets to Uncle Robert's apartment. Johnny lifted me up and we climbed back through the window and cuddled in my narrow bed until morning. I left Johnny sleeping there when I finally woke up around mid-morning and tiptoed out to take a quick shower and get ready for our trip.

 

Paul's mouth dropped open when, about a half-hour before we were supposed to take the subway, Johnny walked out of the bedroom, yawning, and went to take his shower. Really, he should have figured it out. Boyfriend. I shook my head.

 

 

The blood helped Johnny get through the worst of the daylight until we were safely on the plane. He sat in the middle this time, between me and Paul, in an aisle seat, where we could keep the window shade down. Michael sat in the row in front of us and made sure his shade was down also.

 

Johnny hunched down in his seat, his baseball cap pulled over his face as he pretended to sleep. Being awake during the day took a lot out of him, although he refused to admit it. We would arrive in Edinburgh in the morning, their time, and Johnny would have no choice but to go out in the sun. We all tried to get some sleep as the lights were turned down on the plane, hoping to adjust to the time difference that way. Shortly before the lights came back on, signaling `morning,' Paul leaned over to whisper something to Johnny, who hadn't moved in the last several hours. It was still dark, but I saw Paul offer his wrist. Johnny bit down, and when he finished, Paul stared in wonder at the slight redness on his wrist. “That didn't hurt,” he said, amazed.

 

Johnny just smiled. He didn't hurt his friends.

 

Michael nudged his brother and the two exchanged places. “Blood of my blood,” he murmured, offering his own wrist. A little later, Uncle Robert did the same thing. Johnny looked better already. The infusion of family blood would help him to get through the coming daylight hours.

 

Just then, the lights flickered back on. Paul took back his seat as the smell of coffee permeated the cabin. I wouldn't have minded a little blood myself, but I didn't really need it. And the coffee smelled heavenly. I put down my tray and prepared for breakfast.