Chapter 44
“Well,” Melanie stated, looking down at Camille, “it doesn’t look to me like he hurt you or anything. God, when I heard you…” she shook her head.
Camille sat up, “He would have!” she cried.
Sonya rolled her eyes and looked over at Taylor’s brothers, noticing the fear on their faces, “I’m sorry you had to see that.” She said. “But, it’s not like you don’t know what he is.”
Isaac just looked away, his eyes landing on a vase of flowers on a pedestal beside the elevator. Zac looked up for a moment, blinking away his emotions, “Yeah, we know what he is.” He said softly, looking back at her again. “I guess sometimes, we just forget. Sometimes, it still feels like he’s one of us.”
They looked up to see Beatriz and Taylor walking into the room. Taylor plopped down on the couch next to Zac and ran his hand through his hair. With a sigh, he turned to his brothers, “Y’all ready? Did you decide which movie to see?” He asked. When neither of them answered, he noticed the looks he was getting from everyone in the room. “What’s up?” He asked, looking at Sonya.
“Um, well, actually, I think you may have shocked everyone a bit. We’re not accustomed to you being quite so…hungry.” She said.
Taylor wrinkled up his face and looked over at Camille, “What is she talking about?” He asked.
Camille stood up and walked away from him, then turned back, “We’re not accustomed to him being an asshole, you mean.” She said.
Now Taylor stood as well, “What the fuck are you talking about? Are you pissed cuz I didn’t give you some? Jesus Christ, don’t do me any favors anymore, okay?” He went to the closet and grabbed his jacket, and picked up his brothers’ as well. He turned back in time to see Camille give him the finger and head back down the hall towards her room. “Hey, don’t you do anything to her!” He called. “I’m gonna take her back home once she gets some sleep, and I want her heart beating if you don’t mind!”
Beatriz looked over at Sonya, “I’m getting too old for this…” she said pushing her hair out of her face. She then looked at Kirk, “What are you sitting there for? I told you to go with them.”
Kirk stood and walked over to Taylor, taking Zac and Isaac’s jackets from him and handing them to the two boys as they stood up. “So, where are we going?” He asked, pulling on his own as well.
Zac looked at Isaac for a moment, then at Taylor, “Well,” he started timidly, “I guess we better stay away from the big places. Don’t want to see us on CNN again so soon.” He pulled his ponytail out of his collar, “What about the Waverly? Don’t they have old movies and stuff? Artsy fartsy stuff? Nobody that knows anything about Hanson is gonna be there.”
Isaac shook his head and the three of them headed for the elevators, “Why wouldn’t an art fart like Hanson?” He said as the four of them got in and the doors closed.
“Good luck, my darlings.” Beatriz said softly, and she stood and picked up the phone and began to take stock of her responsibilities for the evening and to return calls Mr. Jones had taken for her during the day.
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The taxi driver pulled to a stop in front of the old theater and Taylor handed him more than enough to cover the ride. “Thanks, man.” He said, and followed his brothers and Kirk out onto the street. He pulled the hood up on the old purple sweatshirt he wore under his jacket and smiled, still able to smell the girl who’d left it in his possession. Looking up, he read the marquee, “Harold and Maude” was showing and it looked to be a pretty popular draw as people crowded the sidewalk to buy tickets and get in line to enter the theater.
Isaac smiled, “Oh man, this movie kicks ass. I saw it with Kelly last year. You’ll love the music in it, Tay.” He said.
“Have you seen it, Zac?” Taylor asked, turning to his little brother.
“Nope, I’m not cool enough to hang with Ike and Kel.” He said, a playful hurt in his voice. “Besides, I heard there was nude shots of an old lady—not exactly my cup of tea.”
Taylor smiled again, “Beatriz is about five hundred years old or some shit like that.” He said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Now Zac smiled for the first time since seeing his brother drink blood from a red haired girl on clean, white sheets. Isaac raised his eyebrows, “Have you seen her? Like, seen her nude?” He asked. Kirk leaned in to listen.
“Well, no.” Taylor stated, stepping into the warm lobby. “But, you can just tell that she’s built. And not like those bean poles out in Hollyweird, either.”
“Isn’t she like, royalty or something? They might execute you for having bad thoughts about her.” Zac nudged his brother in the ribs.
“Well, it’s not like I can hide my thoughts from them, anyway.” Taylor said.
“Ahhh, so you do have evil thoughts about her!” Isaac teased.
They stood in line at the concession stand and Taylor was becoming envious of the people around him, munching on buttery popcorn and chocolate candy—but not so envious that he would risk another stomach ache like the one he’d endured at Thanksgiving. It was a lesson he’d learned thoroughly. “Well, yeah.” He said, wrinkling his eyebrows, “Wouldn’t you?”
The girl behind the counter barked at him, “Can I help you?”
“Oh, yeah. Gimme a pack of that grape BubbleYum.” He turned to his brothers, “What’d you guys want?”
“Two large popcorns, a box of SnoCaps, two large Cokes, and some…” Zac looked at Isaac.
“Raisinettes.” Isaac replied, pulling money out of his pocket.
Zac rolled his eyes, “Leave it to you to ruin perfectly good chocolate by sticking some dried up old grapes in it.”
“Whatever.” He said, handing him his money, “Just pay for it, we don’t want to miss the beginning. This movie is hysterical.”
Zac turned and looked around the room, “Hey, where’s Kirk?” He asked.
“Don’t worry, he’s around.” Taylor said. “We sort of have a deal, he sort of stays back, but not so far that I can’t call him if I need him. If he’s close enough, I can just think to him and he’ll hear me.” He looked back toward the door they’d come through, and sure enough, Kirk leaned up against the wall, watching people as they stepped through the entrance. “Watch.” Taylor said, and Isaac and Zac watched him as he looked over. Presently, Kirk’s head shot up and he barely managed to catch the pack of gum as Taylor threw it across the lobby, into his outstretched hand. “See? He knows what’s up.” He said, and he then stuck the large chunk of gum in his mouth, stuffing the wrapper into his pocket. “C’mon, let’s be on time for once.” He grinned. And the three boys went into the darkened theatre and sat down to wait for the movie to begin, carelessly scoping out girls and commenting that it was nowhere as good as one of their shows as there wasn’t a spaghetti strap in the place. Kirk stood against the back wall, watching, having already seen the movie when it was released some thirty or so years earlier.
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Sonya sat on the sofa, sewing up a rip in the seat of the old pair of jeans Taylor loved so much. Mr. Jones had bought him plenty of clothes, but none of them really suited him. Beatriz hung up the phone with a sigh and joined her there. “What did we do before we had telephones, do you remember?” She asked.
Sonya shook her head and bit a piece of thread to break it. “I certainly do. I think I liked things better then.” She said. “By the time you learned about bad news, there was nothing you could do about it, and you just got over it. No stress involved.”
“Well, less anyway.” Beatriz agreed, picking up one of the legs of the jeans and fingering the fringy threads around the hem. “What do you think about what happened tonight?”
Looking up from her work, she looked into Beatriz’ eyes and saw worry there. “Frankly, I don’t understand what all the excitement was about. Nothing he did tonight was odd for a vampire. Perhaps he’s just losing some of that humanity we’ve all been trying so hard to cure him of. I think we’re seeing results.” She said, a tiny note of sarcasm in her voice.
Beatriz looked back at her, “Yes, well, his humanity is not going to save his life when the elders find out he has powers equal to their own.”
Without looking up from her work, Sonya replied, “True. Then we’ve done our job, haven’t we?”
“Why do you make it sound so bad?” Beatriz asked.
“Isn’t that what you want?” Sonya asked, “Someone to rule beside you?”
“I don’t rule, Sonya.” Beatriz protested. “I keep things in order. There’s a difference.”
“If you say so.” Sonya allowed. She then held up the pants, the hole now covered by a square of plaid flannel. “I guess that’ll do.” She said, folding them and placing them on the arm of the couch. She then looked again at Beatriz, “I just don’t think Taylor is a very orderly person. He was a little…sketchy, as Kirk would say, even before you made his brain liquefy and run out his ears.”
“Sonya! I had no choice!” Beatriz spat.
Sonya held up her hands, “I know! But still, fact is fact. He hasn’t been the same since then, and you know it.”
Beatriz looked away from her and to the flowers on the table in front of her, “I know.” She said softly. “It’s a very delicate thing, the mind of a human.”
“Don’t forget, Beatriz. He is no longer human.” Sonya said. “He is one of us now.”
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Taylor watched the movie with his brothers, laughing when they laughed, his eyes widening at each absurd thing that happened to the characters up on the screen. His musical sense firing at the beauty of the soundtrack; Cat Stevens’ voice and lyrics amazed him always, and somehow it fit the story perfectly, making the experience even more sublime. But something else had his senses firing as well. He turned around, watching Kirk, watching for some sign from him that he sensed something as well, but as far as he could tell, the man was satisfied that his charges were in no danger. Shaking his head, Taylor always turned back to the movie and tried to push whatever it was out of his head. But he couldn’t shake the feeling, that something was just not quite right.
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“Do you think we should just allow his powers to develop naturally? At his own pace?” Beatriz asked, a serious look on her face.
“I have no advice in this matter, it’s out of my area of expertise.” Sonya answered.
“Now you’re being technical.” Beatriz huffed. “If you have some thoughts on this, I’d like to know. You are his sire after all, and I’ve not exactly had a great deal of experience with this sort of thing either.”
Sonya sat, reading Beatriz’ face for a moment before answering. “I’d love to just send him back home to his family—“
Beatriz interrupted, “That is not an option.”
“Let me finish.” Sonya said, holding her hand up.
“I’m sorry,” Beatriz smiled, “I asked and then I didn’t let you answer. Go on, please.”
Sonya smiled back at her, “Alright. He’s still young, even in human years and he’s been spoiled and doted upon…” she shook her head, “if my children had had the things that are so commonplace among today’s youth…these children of today live better than royalty did in my youth.”
“I agree.” Beatriz smiled, “Of course, in my youth, royalty didn’t even have inside toilets, let alone PlayStations and DVD’s.” She rolled her eyes.
Sonya chuckled, “No, they didn’t. Now, back to my point,” she chided herself, “Taylor is even more a child of this century than Melanie or Camille. He’s never known hunger, or fear, or real discomfort even. He’s worked hard, yet he’s never done hard labour in his life. I just don’t know that he is hard or tough enough to be capable of what you are asking of him.”
Beatriz bit her lip, thinking over what Sonya had just said to her.
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As the credits rolled, Taylor, Isaac and Zac slumped down in their seats, out of habit, more than anything else. “Damn, you didn’t tell me it was gonna end like that!” Zac muttered.
“You didn’t ask.” Isaac retorted, “Besides, it’s not really a sad ending…It’s almost sort of…” he tried to find the words to describe his thoughts.
“Hopeful.” Taylor said. “In a strange sort of way.”
“Hmm, I guess so.” Zac agreed begrudgingly.
“Death is not always an ending, Zac. I mean, look at me!” Taylor said, sarcasm dripping from the words. “I’ve died twice in the last three or four months, and you don’t see me crying about it.” He grinned at his brother, but Zac didn’t return the smile.
“Maybe not, but I’ve seen plenty of other people crying about it.” He groused, standing up and placing his feet in his seat, facing his brothers, “And I know you and I know you’ve shed a few tears over all this too, so don’t even act like I’m a wimp.”
Taylor suddenly reached over and hugged Zac around the legs, “God, I’ve missed you guys so much.” He lamented. Zac’s eyes went wide and he looked at Isaac, who was smiling despite himself.
“Dude! Somebody might be watching, you need to chill…” He then looked around the theatre. All the seats were empty, save an older couple in the back and he and his brothers. “Hey, where’s Kirk?” He asked.
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“I just don’t want him to be caught out there ill-equipped to deal with those who’d like to see him fall.” Beatriz said, a sour look on her face. “Jealousy is quite the motivator.”
“Most of them don’t realize there’s anything special about him. Why would they be jealous?” Sonya reasoned.
Beatriz stood up, “Sonya, don’t be absurd. You and I both know it’s very obvious that he’s different. Roberto sensed it and so could everyone else.”
“Roberto is nearly as old as you, that’s why he could tell. And you said so yourself—he’s like the boy who cried wolf—no one is going to believe him. They just think he hates Taylor because he’s got you.”
Beatriz looked at her a moment, “I hope you’re right.” She said. She moved over to the vase of flowers on the table, fingering the delicate petals, “Daniel didn’t see it.” She turned back to her friend, “At least, he didn’t seem to. I’ve never trusted him, nor underestimated him. And I’m not going to start now.”
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Taylor turned his head toward the back of the theatre where Kirk had been standing the last hour and a half. “I don’t know.” He said softly, standing. He listened intently then, hearing the murmur of the couple at the back and the chirp of a cricket somewhere in the building. He searched his mind for Kirk’s presence; the sound of his thoughts or his voice and he heard nothing. “Shit.” He said. Isaac looked up at his brother and watched his pupils dilate, giving his eyes a scary quality in the dark. As he looked back and forth, the light caught in them and a quick glint of green would show up.
“What’s wrong?” Isaac asked, now standing as well. “Maybe he went to the bathroom or something.” He reasoned, but he was met then with two pair of dark eyes.
“They don’t piss, Ike. They don’t eat. Where would he need to go?” Zac hissed, suddenly feeling the need to be quiet.
“Maybe he went off to have sex.” Taylor stated.
“I thought you couldn’t do that.” Isaac whispered.
“I can’t, but he can.” Taylor said, pulling on his jacket and handing Zac his.
Isaac picked up his own coat and what was left of his drink and looked at Taylor, “Why’s that? Is there something wrong with you? I mean, you know…”
Taylor shook his head, “No, it must be pretty rare, ‘cause they make a big deal out of it. They call ‘em ‘lucky ones’. Guess that tells you I’m not very lucky, huh?” Taylor snorted. “Story of my life; damned fucking unlucky.” He said bitterly, then with one more look around the room, he took both his brothers by the arm and said, “C’mon, let’s go, but keep your eye out for anything weird.”