Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Vampire Summer ❯ Making Babies ( Chapter 28 )

 

 

A book landed on my chest, waking me up. Johnny stood over my bed and waited for me to notice him. “Put this somewhere safe,” he said.

 

“Where were you?” I whispered, struggling to sit up without disturbing Crystal. It wasn't a book, I realized. It was the folder of names I had copied for him in Rhode Island. I got out of bed and lifted the edge of the mattress so I could slide the folder in next to the photo of the Crews and my two notebooks, which I had taken to keeping there since I found out the truth about Kenny. My side of the bed was getting lumpy from all the `evidence' hidden between the mattresses. “You said you would meet me at the cottage,” I said with a hint of reproach.

 

“And here I am,” Johnnny said, grinning. “I had a stop to make first.” He pulled me onto the back porch so we could talk. “While you entertained the grandson, I visited Charles Lovall's house.” He caught my worried look. “I didn't hurt his family; they're safe,” he assured me. “I can't say the same for the grandson.”

 

“Bill Lovall? But he was at Cara's house with us,” I said. Then it dawned on me that Johnny hadn't come home for hours and hours. “But why?” I asked.

 

Johnny scowled. “You know why. He was one of them. He was the one who used the knife on me. He told your boyfriend what I am.”

 

“Are you sure? I mean, how can you be sure it was Bill Lovall and not Betty? I never even met Bill before tonight.”

 

“The list,” Johnny explained patiently. “There are names on the list of certain people who have been handed down information about us from generation to generation. He was the one selected for this time and this place, according to the list. Probably because of what happened to Amelia, the hunter chose one of her descendants to carry the knowledge with the understanding that he would alert the hunters if someone like me ever surfaced in Lockwood again. Betty, or maybe Cara, must have mentioned something to make Bill Lovall suspicious, and then he called in the hunter.”

 

I swallowed the lump in my throat when I realized that Kenny's interest in me was contrived from the beginning. He didn't care about me as a person—only as his source to the vampire, and maybe a little bit because my family carried a strain of their precious blood. “What is that list?” I asked. “I saw my name on it—and my father and brother and our kids. How did the hunters know about us?”

 

“The list shows who carries the blood,” Johnny replied, although I had already guessed that part. “Who can have children and who cannot. Ask your boyfriend if he will make a child with you. He will have to refuse.”

 

I wished Johnny would stop calling him that. “I'm still married, remember?” I said sourly. “It's a little early to start thinking of having babies with somebody else—anybody else. Tell me what you did to Bill.”

 

“I remembered the Lovall house. It hadn't changed much in sixty years, and after I put his family to sleep, I—“

 

“Wait a minute. You put his family to sleep? You drank their blood? I thought you said you didn't hurt them!”

 

Johnny smiled maliciously. “I didn't kill them. I needed to taste their blood.”

 

“And if it had been that kind, would you have killed them then?”

 

Johnny shrugged. “I didn't kill them,” he repeated.

 

Maybe I was rubbing off on Johnny just a little.

 

His eyes shifted to black. “The grandson had Amelia's blood. His name was on the list. And he enjoyed watching my blood spill. I waited for him at his kitchen table. You would have laughed to see his face, Lisa. He was terrified.”

 

I doubted I would have laughed. “You let him see you?” I gasped. I thought the whole point was not to let any of them know Johnny was still alive. “Is he okay?”

 

“No,” Johnny said shortly. “He knew his fate the moment he stepped into the room. I let him feel the pain when I took his blood, each bite, as many times as he stabbed me. He screamed in agony.” Johnny closed his eyes, almost as if he were savoring the memory. “I haven't done that in a long time.”

 

I finally realized that Johnny must have killed Bill Lovall, which, from his point of view, was just retribution since Bill Lovall had killed him. The poor man must have suffered thinking that his wife and children lay murdered too. Something Johnny said came back to me. He had let Bill Lovall feel the pain of his attacks. I remembered that time in the woods, after Aunt Beth's funeral, when Johnny had let me feel the pain from his bite. It was excruciating, although it never left a mark!

 

“But Johnny, now they'll know you're still alive!” I said anxiously, proving to myself where my loyalties lay. A human had just been murdered, and I was worried about the vampire.

 

He smiled. “Bill Lovall had a car accident on the way home from his cousin Cara's house. He fell asleep at the wheel and hit a tree. Unfortunately, the car burst into flames and he had to be identified through dental records because there was little left except ashes.” The gleam didn't leave Johnny's eyes as he spoke, but the black slowly seeped away until they shone an earnest brown again. “You'll probably get a phone call in the morning from your boyfriend with all the sad details.”

 

Just retribution. Johnny had carried out the same sentence on Bill Lovall that the hunter had carried out on him.

 

The sun tinged the morning sky red. Johnny would soon have to go wherever it was he went to rest during the day. “You killed Bill, but you spared Kenny. Why?” I asked.

 

Johnny's grin came back in full force. “You like him,” he replied, standing up to leave. “I just thought you should know what happened tonight,” he added, “so you wouldn't be surprised.”

 

 

Johnny was right. Kenny called about ten in the morning to break the tragic news to me. Cara was understandably upset, since it had happened after he left her house, but the authorities estimated the time of the accident to be hours later and concluded Bill Lovall must have stopped somewhere else on his way home, possibly at a bar, although there was not enough evidence left to determine whether or not he had been drinking. His family had been well provided for. Bill had plenty of life insurance.

 

The funeral was scheduled for later in the week, and Kenny's parents were staying longer so they could attend. Although they didn't know the family all that well, they belonged to the same `Historical Society' group with Bill.

 

I had to admire Johnny's audacity. In one fell swoop he had proven that not only could he function right under the hunter's noses, but he could target one of their own without them being any the wiser.

 

Kenny wanted to see me. We postponed the farewell lunch with his parents since they would be here a few extra days, and Kenny took time off work and drove out to the cottage so we could talk. We walked up to the cemetery with Crystal running ahead of us, then running back every few minutes to make sure we were coming.

 

“Kenny?” I asked. He had taken my hand as we walked. “Are we serious?”

 

He stopped, and pulled me around in the middle of the road to face him. “I would like to be,” he said. “Lisa, I think I'm falling in love with you.”

 

I wished I could believe him. “Even with all my baggage?” I asked, as we resumed walking. “I'm not even divorced yet. I'm leaving in a week. What's going to happen with us?” I asked plaintively, hating the desperation in my voice. Despite everything, Johnny was right. I still liked Kenny.

 

“I'll wait,” Kenny said, in an echo of Johnny's words when I had told him Crystal and I would be leaving soon. “Lisa, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I'll wait however long it takes for you to realize that and come back to me.”

 

“There's so much we don't know about each other,” I said, thinking of what Johnny had told me about our bloodlines. “For instance, I never wanted Crystal to be an only child. If we're serious about having a future together, we should talk about having children. I want lots of kids.”

 

Kenny paled. We had reached the rusted iron gate at the entrance to the cemetery. “Is it really that important to you, Lisa?” he asked, his voice strained. “I would love to have kids with you—but I can't.”

 

I let go of his hand. “Can't?” I questioned him. “Is it a medical condition?”

 

To his credit, Kenny didn't lie to me. “No,” he replied. “It has more to do with our family history, even though we aren't that closely related. My father keeps track of that sort of thing, and I always knew that I would have to marry outside of the family if I wanted to have kids—like you did when you had Crystal,” he said. He smiled sadly. “Who knew I would fall in love with my beautiful cousin Lisa Summerfield? I'd trade all my future children for the chance to be with you. I was hoping Crystal would be enough for us.”

 

Beautiful? Me? I ducked my head so he wouldn't see my pleased smile. “I'm not sure I understand,” I said.

 

“I wish I could tell you more,” he said, as we strolled among the tombstones. Crystal had already run ahead to say hello to Emily Crew, and Kenny and I found ourselves in front of Jonathan Price's empty grave.

 

“I wish you could, too,” I said sadly. I lowered my eyes and read the inscription, although I knew it by heart. I had come here so many times lately that I knew every blade of grass, so when I noticed an odd depression right behind the grave marker, it caught my eye. I surreptitiously poked it with my toe, and something shifted slightly. “Kenny, will you get Crystal for me? I've got a rock in my shoe.” I bent down and pretended to fix my shoe.

 

When Kenny was far enough away, I dug my fingertips along the edge of the depression and felt something move. Just beneath the grass was another flat stone close to the back of Jonathan Price's headstone. I pushed, and revealed a narrow opening built right underneath the stone which extended back under the grass for about six inches. Inside was a small wooden box. That Johnny. I had found his secret hiding place. So this was the reason he was in the cemetery the night I first saw him. This was why he had kept coming back here—not because of some sentimentality towards his lost loves. I should have known. Nothing was ever what it seemed with Johnny. I wondered what he kept in there. It was a really small box. Quickly I realigned the stone and pressed the grass back down over it before I joined Kenny and Crystal at the gate. Nothing was settled between Kenny and me, except now I knew Johnny had told me the truth when he said Kenny would not give me children. What was it about our blood that everyone was so afraid of?

 

I sat with Kenny and his parents at Bill Lovall's funeral. Crystal had gone to sit next to Ellie. Neither girl seemed to grasp the finality of Bill's death, which was probably just as well. Crystal had only gotten very quiet when I told her Mr. Lovall had died in an accident. She went off to draw in her little sketchbook shortly afterward. I didn't have the courage to look at the picture she drew.

 

Later we went to dinner with Kenny's parents, who were leaving in the morning. “Are you sure you won't stay in Lakewood?” Kenny's father asked during dessert.

 

“No, Crystal is starting school next Tuesday,” I replied. “I have to go home. But I'll keep in touch. Maybe, once things are settled, I can think about what I want to do.”

 

“Come back soon,” Mrs. Brown said, giving me a hug. “You're always welcome at our home in Rhode Island.”

 

I felt a little guilty, since I had just been there when she wasn't home, but I smiled and nodded. “I'd like to find out more about our Scottish heritage,” I said. “It's always nice to know where your roots are.”

 

Mr. Brown smiled approvingly at me. “I'd be glad to show you. Our family can trace its roots back to the ancient Picts.”

 

Kenny looked up in surprise. “I didn't know that,” he said. “I thought the Picts had all died out.”

 

“Not died out. They were absorbed by the Gaels, but the old blood still runs strong in our family.”

 

Kenny nodded thoughtfully as he realized what his father meant. Neither one of them realized that I had immediately picked up on the reference to old blood, too. Was that where the Smythes got their special blood that was so attractive to vampires? “Then I'd really be interested in finding out more,” I said. “It's a shame you won't be here over the long weekend. My Dad is coming out to help me close up the cottage. I'm sure he would have liked to meet you. He doesn't know much about his heritage, either. None of us do. My grandfather never told us.”

 

“Your grandfather probably never knew. Most people among the extended family don't,” Mr. Brown assured me. “There's really not much to it, except for the fact that we like to keep up on our family histories. Since he moved away when he was young, he didn't even do that.”

 

“But he came back,” I pointed out.

 

Kenny smiled, and squeezed my hand. “Lucky for me,” he said. “Or I might never have found you.”

 

I blushed.

 

Later I asked Johnny about the Picts. He didn't know the term, barely remembered Scotland at all. “I've forgotten so much,” he murmured. “Seeing the list helped me remember some things from my past, but not everything.”

 

“The list, the list,” I said in irritation. “I still don't know why it's so important.”

 

“The list is to make sure that something like me doesn't happen again,” Johnny said quietly.

 

“What do you mean?” I asked. I swallowed, and asked the question I had been dreading to ask Johnny. “Do you mean because you're one of them too? You have the blood, don't you?” I had seen Jonathan Price's name on the list. “Were you a Smythe before you were—changed?”

 

Johnny laughed sharply. “You don't get it, do you?” he asked. “I wasn't changed. I was born this way.”

 

I stared at Johnny in shock. Born? That was impossible, wasn't it? Vampires were aberrations of nature, parasites. There was nothing natural about them! Or so all the stories said. “But—John Price—he wasn't your creator?”

 

“He was my caretaker,” Johnny said. “Something happened, and I was gone for a long, long time. When I woke up, we were on a ship and I didn't remember much from before. John was there, and he helped me through the first few years. He only let me touch certain people, and not others, and now I know why. He didn't want me to taste the blood—our blood.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“I don't know,” Johnny smiled at me bleakly. “I can guess some of it now that I've seen the list, and now that I know I am one of you. Our blood is potent. In some combinations it can produce offspring like Elizabeth Smythe, like Emily and Amelia and Crystal. I can taste it in them. Why do you think your grandfather left Lockwood so suddenly after Amelia's mother found them together? They were first cousins, and more than that, they both carried the bloodline.”

 

“I'm not sure I understand,” I said. “If the family carries the blood—your blood—why are they trying to kill you?”

 

“To be fair, I've been trying to kill them too,” Johnny pointed out.

 

“But why? What is the blood?” I imagined clans of vampire Picts in the hills of Scotland. What had turned them against each other?

 

“It was forbidden,” Johnny said. “From the beginning only certain bloodlines were allowed to exist, and we were strictly forbidden to touch the blood of any other lines, except those who had no trace of our blood at all. That's what I had forgotten, in the aftermath of whatever happened to me before we came to this country. John tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen.”

 

“But John wasn't born like you? He was made?”

 

“He had the potential,” Johnny agreed. “I didn't do it—one of the older ones changed him. In the confusion, when many of my family were murdered, John got me out and onto a ship bound for the New World. He saved my life.” Johnny paused. “I regret that I left him to die alone. There was so much I didn't understand back then.”

 

“So you were what? Like royalty? Shouldn't the Smythes have been happy to have you?”

 

“I killed them, Lisa. I drank forbidden blood. Just like now, very few of the family knew of our existence. It was a well kept secret from the beginning. I suppose, just like anything else, that over time the ones who knew our secret forgot that they were our protectors and only became our regulators. Hunters.”

 

Whenever Johnny started sharing information with me, I started to worry. He showed me he was vulnerable, and that meant he was more likely to kill me at some point down the road to protect his secret. I hadn't thought about dying for a while now. I thought we were past that. “Why are you telling me all this, Johnny?” I asked bluntly.

 

“You made Crystal,” he replied just as bluntly. “She, like the first Elizabeth and a handful of others, can be changed like John Price was. Your boyfriend is like you. If he had a child with an outsider, there is a possibility his child would have the blood, too.” Johnny grinned savagely. “But if you and Kenny have a child together, there would be no need for me to initiate the change. There is a strong possibility that a child born of the two of you would be like me.”

 

I sat down heavily on the floor. Here was the real reason Johnny had not killed Kenny yet. He wanted us to get together! “You mean our baby would be a vampire?” I squeaked. “And Crystal? Say, just for the sake of argument that you are able to turn her when she's old enough, would you two be able to have babies too? Vampire babies?”

 

Johnny nodded, watching the expressions flit across my face with narrowed eyes. He was waiting for the inevitable explosion. I didn't disappoint him.

 

“Not happening!” I snapped. “Go find someone else to create your vampire dynasty! I'm done!” I stalked off to the sound of Johnny's laughter. I suppose it was better than his wrath.