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Ophelia plucked her old Nintendo DS off her desk and handed it to Brandon. “Here, you play my old SuperMario game while I open my term paper research file.”
He held the pink rectangular bit of technology. It was covered in puppy stickers. His eyes widened at the little words and images passing over the upper and lower screens.
“Here’s the stylus. You just touch it to what you want it to do, once you get to the little games. Push the buttons. You’ll figure it out after you die a few times.” She pulled up on her chair.
“I cannot die.”
“It’s just a game.”
“Ah, like chess.” He studied the stylus tip closely.
Ophelia turned to her computer. “Uh, yeah. Do you know what happened to Adrian?”
Brandon pushed buttons with both thumbs. “After he finished kissing you so much?”
“You watched us kissing?” She wheeled around.
If Brandon wasn’t so pale, he probably would’ve blushed scarlet. His eyes got very big. “Well...”
Ophelia smacked her hand to her forehead. “Was that the last you saw of him tonight?”
“He and some of his friends distracted Martin.”
“His friends? You mean the wolves? Adrian has a psychic connection to animals.”
“There is no outright telepathic communication. There may be an empathic connection. I am uncertain, and I do not believe he is aware.”
“Hmm.”
Kiska curled up and rested his head on Brandon’s knee.
Brandon’s blue eyes shone ever more brilliantly as he tapped the Nintendo screen repeatedly with the stylus, not realizing he didn’t need to just yet. “I’m on Level One.”
“That’s really good.”
“Only you could addict a vampire to Nintendo DS.” Adrian’s voice brought her attention to the doorway.
“You’re all right.” She came out of her chair to meet him halfway with a kiss and a warm hug. “I couldn’t leave Brandon out in the tree and he doesn’t sleep.”
“I’m on Level Two.” Brandon sat with his back to the wall, punching the Nintendo buttons in a blur of speed.
“Whoa, I’ve never heard of anyone advancing that fast.” Ophelia pushed a pile of papers off her bed and sat down.
“Guess your ‘mad scientist’ tendency finally won out over your OCD gene.” Adrian surveyed the damage and sat beside her.
“You’d be surprised how much science fiction has become science fact.”
“We need to talk, but first I need to get the exit supplies in order.” Adrian ran his fingers through his hair.
“Exit supplies?”
Adrian yawned. “This won’t be a simple plane ride. The Brynners are on to us. They haven’t identified me yet, but they know there’s a diabecracker around. And they know all about Brandon. That’s why they sped up their plans. They want to clear out of here before more Oldbloods show up.”
“I get the feeling the Newbloods are physically more powerful than Oldbloods.”
“They are, but there’s only three of ‘em here. They won’t risk any other Newbloods finding out about you because they want you all to themselves. And they don’t know how many Oldbloods might come. We need to go on like nothing’s happening and then sneak out when we can, before they can move on us.” He stood, rubbing his legs like they ached. “When I come back, we’ll take the exit supplies to my truck. We still have a lot to talk about.”
Ophelia had never seen Adrian drive a vehicle of any kind. “You have a truck? What are ‘exit supplies’?”
“Stuff we’ll need to get you safely out of this town. As soon as your mom wakes up, ask if I can come to lunch. We need to tell her everything now because things could get nasty fast.”
“You haven’t been home all night, have you?”
“I haven’t been home in four years.” Adrian released a weary groan.
“Brandon’s homeless too.”
“That’s usually what happens to the survivors when Newbloods attack a family.” He stepped into the doorway.
“I’m going to the crash site as soon as it gets light enough. I need to see where my father died.”
Adrian gripped the doorway. “Like hell. I thought you realized the danger you’re in.”
“Brandon will protect me.”
“From Martin, maybe, but what about his parents? And what if Brandon’s big brothers show up? Believe me, most of them are not at all sweet and cute, and they love swiping a lollypop from the Newbloods when the opportunity presents itself. You’re not going.” Adrian stepped out and shut the door, hard.
Don’t tell me what to do. He didn’t even kiss me good-bye. She threw a paperback at the door.
Sniffing away the pout, Ophelia forced observation on Brandon.
He sat there playing Nintendo like nothing else existed around him, eyes shining, thumbs a blur of speed.
“Brandon, how did you become a vampire?”
“Pardon?”
Ophelia went down on her knees, shuffled over, and pressed the pause button. “How did you become a vampire?”
Brandon winced. “After I was diagnosed with cancer, my father sought out the Elders and asked for me to be turned. He told them I was eighteen and they believed him.”
“Because you’re so tall?”
He nodded once. “But they wouldn’t turn me because I didn’t want it. They did turn my father, however.” He rubbed his leg and the Nintendo DS shook in his hands. “I went in for my first cancer treatment and afterwards he brought me home. It was exhausting and painful. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was a vampire.”
“He turned you? Your own father turned you even though you didn’t want it?”
Brandon nodded. “He said he couldn’t bear to lose me like my mother.”
Ophelia draped an arm around his back, feeling his anger, his hurt. “I am so sorry.”
“You have not offended me.”
“I know, it’s just...” She licked her dry lips. “When I know I deserve an apology, it makes me feel better to hear someone say they’re sorry, even if it’s not the person who mistreated me.”
“Dad said I ought to be grateful.” Brandon’s face tensed.
“He robbed you of the right to decide your own fate. That was wrong, and he shouldn’t have done it.” Ophelia hugged Brandon and pushed the Nintendo DS play button. “You have some fun now. You deserve it.”
“Thanks.”
Leaving him to enjoy his rightful boyhood, Ophelia returned to her desk and opened her term paper file. “Mirrors.” She rolled her lips, reading all about how vampires were supposed to hate mirrors.
The first light of morning glistened on Ophelia’s tree when she awoke, slumped over her keyboard. She drew a deep breath and turned to see Brandon still playing Nintendo, but he had moved over a few inches to avoid the dawn.
“I’m on Level Six.”
“Brandon.” She glanced at the window. “Can you go out in the sunlight?” There was only a few hours of light during the day. Even so, the sky had been overcast since his arrival.
Brandon shook his head. “It hurts too much.”
“Photosensitivity.” Ophelia studied her computer screen and checked her silver mirror, the one her grandmother had given her; the one Bianca was so envious of. “Hmm, light, energy.”
She hauled her tired body out of the chair and took Brandon by the elbow. “Come on, Gameboy. Let me introduce you to PlayStation.” She led him down the stairs as he continued to play. “Mom. Forgot to tell you. Brandon popped in for a visit and got addicted to Nintendo.”
Mom peeked sleepily around the archway. The scent of peppermint tea surrounded her.
Ophelia led him off the bottom step. “It was really cold, and he didn’t have a ride home. When did you start drinking peppermint tea?”
“I...I don’t know. I just had a craving. I love it with honey.” Mom took a sip. “Want some breakfast, Brandon?”
“I’m on Level Seven.”
“He already ate.” Ophelia trudged back up the stairs. “I got back together with Adrian last night. He wants to come over and do the family thing. Can we make him a big lunch?
“Of course, baby.” Mom filled her coffee cup. “Brandon, you have five minutes and then you need to take out the garbage and bring in the firewood. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Mum.”
“I’m setting the timer. Five minutes.” Mom knew how to deal with gaming addicts.
“I’m on Level Eight.”
***
ONCE DAYLIGHT FULLY illuminated her bedroom window, Ophelia pulled a large duffle bag out of her closet. “Brandon. Can you come up here, please?”
A couple minutes later, Brandon wandered through, still playing Nintendo. “I’m on Level Nine.”
“That’s really good.” Ophelia stuffed her mini-laptop and camera into a suitcase. “My dad has some night-vision goggles he bought at an army surplus last time he went to Anchorage. We’re going to the crash site and check things out.” She dug a tool kit from under her bed and grabbed the Nintendo DS away from Brandon. “Let’s roll.” She tossed it over her shoulder and shoved her bags into his arms.
“Oh, okay.”
Ophelia slung a backpack over her shoulder and made for the door. “Mom. I’m going to the store. Need anything?”
“Soy sauce.”
“Right.” Ophelia loped down the stairs and led the way out to her father’s tool shed. “So, explain to me how I can hear you talking in my head sometimes.”
Brandon followed her like a loyal puppy. “Vampires are telepathic, though some are very good at it and others are not. I was judged average, which surprised my instructor who thought I was an imbecile.”
“Jerk. He just didn’t take the time to get to know you.”
“You’re a natural empath.”
“Explain that, please.” She glanced back at him as she stepped off the kitchen porch.
“You sense the true emotions of others and communicate easily with my kind. Empaths are rare. My kind turns any they encounter because their natural ability is enhanced and useful to the Elders. Those of your lineage are especially desirable.”
“Why?”
“Well...because... Don’t you know?” Brandon kept his eyes on her as they walked along.
“Uh, know? What?”
“You’re an elf.”
Ophelia laughed, as images from The Lord of the Rings movies filled her thoughts. “My grandma says J.R.R. Tolkien was a nice boy who wrote cute little books.”
“Not Tolkien elves. Real elves. From the Borean Realm”
“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Okay, I’ll talk to my mom about it.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe in your sincerity.” Ophelia shoved the key into the shed’s padlock and turned, but it wouldn’t budge. “Frozen.” She stepped aside. “You’re a big powerful vampire, right? Rip it off.”
Brandon shifted the suitcase under his other arm and easily ripped the lock off.
“I don’t believe you’re really a vampire either, by the way.” Ophelia stepped into the cold darkness and studied the neatly ordered shelves.
“Why not?”
“I believe your species founded the vampire myth, but I don’t believe in the myth itself. Dig deep enough and there’s a scientific explanation for everything.” She reached down a box and handed it to Brandon. Spotting another box, she turned it around on the rough board bench.
“What is it?” Brandon shifted the growing stack in his arms.
“A sound system my dad and I built to listen to animals communicate. Can you hear better than regular humans?” Ophelia led the way out.
“Yes.”
“Interesting.” She trudged through the snow to her little white car. “Newbloods don’t hear better than humans, but I think maybe they hear differently. Martin used to love music, but he’s hardly noticed it in the last couple of months. And the fire alarm always sent Mrs. Brynner into a rage.”
“Why are we doing this?” Brandon waited while she opened her car’s trunk.
“Something my dad used to do when I was little and had nightmares.” Ophelia watched him put her things in. “He’d flip on the lights and we’d go searching for everything that I was afraid of, like branches scratching the window. He called it ‘dismantling the boogieman.’” She got into the driver’s seat and shoved the key into ignition. “Worked every time.”
“I am a vampire.” Brandon got into the passenger’s seat.
“Why aren’t you attacking me right now?” Ophelia backed out of her parking spot.
“Some have committed themselves to never preying on humans.”
“A grizzly bear could not make the same conscious decision.” She gripped the steering wheel in white knuckles. “According to mythology, humans are the natural prey of vampires, just as baby moose are the natural prey of grizzly bears. So, why are vampires able to make the conscious decision, but bears are not?”
“Intelligence?”
“No. Bears are extremely smart. They figure things out, remember, and formulate strategy. So, why can’t they make a conscious moral decision?” Ophelia drove away, passing the little houses and playground she’d known all her life.
“I do not know.”
“No soul.” But that struck a cord inside Ophelia, like now maybe it wasn’t as true as she’d once believed.
“No soul?”
“According to mythology, vampires do not have souls. But you do have a soul, Brandon. I know you do. You are not a vampire.”
“I’m not?”
“No. You’re not.” She turned on the first switchback leading up the mountain to Hatchet Pass. “Oh, good, the road’s been freshly plowed and graveled.”
A few minutes later and halfway up the mountain, she parked right on the road, as there was no room on the side. “I’ll start with the night vision goggles.” She opened the trunk and lifted them out of the case.
“What do you hope to accomplish?”
“Not sure. I just want to see if there are any traces left, anything at all, I guess. I’m on the second step of the Scientific Method, which is research.” Ophelia climbed the snow berm and fell off the other side with a little cry. She landed right in Brandon’s arms. “Hey. How’d you do that?”
“I jumped.” He looked up at the steep berm.
“Oh. Thanks. You can set me down now.” As he did, she scanned the area.
She could only distinguish splintered trees and dredged up earth beneath the blanket of snow. Dad’s Toyota had been hauled out and taken to the dump, a total wreck. She’d heard it’d been smashed into scrap metal soon afterwards. “Not many clues could survive that.”
A flash of black and three creatures swooped down in Ophelia’s memory and she pressed her fingers to her forehead. “Ooh, no, what a time to get a migraine.”
“It isn’t a migraine. You’re remembering the moment your father was murdered,” said Brandon.
“But, I didn’t...” She opened her eyes on the splintered trees.
“Yes, you were there in spirit. The Elder says your kind have an empathic bond between family members. The shriek we heard was your grandmother’s Death Cry upon severance of that bond.” Brandon’s lower lip quivered. “Felt like it really hurt too.”
“Like...physically...hurt?” The image of her mother screaming, grabbing up her father’s stiff, snow-covered body sent waves of pain through her.
Brandon nodded. “I remember when my father was destroyed as well, although in a different way of course.”
Ophelia drew a deep breath, smoothing both hands over her wet face. “I must stay focused. It’s the only way through this nightmare.” She swallowed hard and lifted the night vision goggles to her eyes. “I was thinking about how sharks sense the electro-magnetic fields of other living creatures and... Whoa.” She adjusted the sights and zeroed in on two ghostly white humanoid figures approaching. “White? Humans are too warm to appear as white on these things.”
Brandon suddenly stepped in front of her and pinned her to his back with one hand. “I was charged with protecting the Ice Princess.”
Ophelia had never heard him speak so boldly. She pushed off the night vision goggles and peered around his arm.
The Elder stepped out from behind a tree, glasses gone, eyes black, and wearing a black suit without an overcoat. He bowed, as before. “Greetings, Princess. May I introduce you to Brandon’s replacement, Jean-Pierre?”
“Replacement?” Ophelia scarcely had time to wonder about the princess crap.
“You didn’t really think we’d leave your care to a mere infant?” Jean-Pierre’s thin lips slid into a smile. His age was impossible to judge, older than Brandon, still young enough to blend in with humans. His eyes were gray, and his blond hair was short and slicked back. “After all, you’re being cultivated by Newbloods. We can’t have that, now can we?”