B. Larson - Creatures

“Yeah,” she answered slowly. “There’s my Uncle Bobby. I think he forged checks or something.”

“Well, it’s the same way for us. There are bad cousins in every family. We don’t associate with their sort. We might have some distant connection, but we don’t get along and haven’t for centuries.”

Her mouth hung open while she flicked her eyes back and forth between the two of us. “Let me get this straight now, you guys are talking about vampires aren’t you? Because Vlad the Impaler, a real guy in history, was thought by some to be a vampire.”

I felt like clamping my hand over her mouth. Instead I reached over and grabbed her shoulder and pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Don’t use that word out loud, not ever. That’s not a good word around here.”

“What? Vampire?”

I winced.

“That’s a very rude word,” said Jake. “It’s like a dirty word for us.”

She looked at me with wide eyes, an open mouth and curled lips. She was very pretty even when alarmed, and she smelled good up close to me like that.

“Okay…” she said.

I felt eyes on us and turned to see Sarah two tables away. She had been watching Beth and me closely. From her point of view, it might have looked like I’d grabbed Beth and kissed her cheek. I felt a flush of red go up my face and gave Sarah a weak smile and a nod. I let go of Beth and took up another piece of bacon, even though eating was the very last thing on my mind. Sarah gave me a frosty stare in return. She tossed her head and her ponytail-like spray of hair flipped behind her head. I thought I saw a blue feather float away from her head, a sure sign she was upset.

“Okay,” said Beth finally. “Maybe that explains why there were searches about, um, Vlad on the computer.”

Neither one of us looked at her. We’d learned the history of Vlad Dracula, a lord who lived in the 1400s in Europe. He’d been an evil and terrible man.

“But you guys aren’t telling me the whole story, are you?” asked Beth, leaning close so that only the three of us could hear. “He’s related to you somehow… So that’s why you feel the moonlight. That’s why it almost burns your skin.”

I took this moment to look up at Sarah again. Sarah jerked her eyes away from me the moment I looked up, pretending she hadn’t been staring.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I put as much innocence in the question as I could.

“Because you guys are like werewolves or something.”

Jake dropped his fork.

It was all I could do to not grab Beth’s pretty little head again. I leaned close to her instead, and whispered. “The word werewolf is even more offensive to us than the word vampire.”

She nodded and gave me a tiny smile. “Okay. Makes sense, I suppose. No one likes to be reminded of distant relatives that did very bad things.”

My eyes slid back to Sarah, who was staring back, but trying not to look like she was staring back.

I realized right then that having two girlfriends was worse than having just one and probably worse than having none at all.

We were finishing up breakfast when a chime went off and Urdo walked into the dining room. Everyone stopped their chatter. She hopped onto the table and walked calmly to the middle of it, her boots causing plates to slide and clatter.

“There will be an assembly to meet the lord of the house in the great hall at ten am sharp. Do not be late, children,” she said.

She hopped from the table to the floor with a single flap of her arms, which I noticed for the first time had become folded wings under her cloak. Everyone gasped, it was rare to see any adult shift in front of us.

Urdo walked out of the dining room without giving us so much as a nod. When she had gone, everyone fell to whisperings and wild speculation.

“I’ve heard he’s a bird-type too,” said one voice, I thought it was Sarah’s. “She’s showing off her wings to impress him later.”

“They’ve rounded us all up here for a reason,” said another voice. “We’re all to get awards. We’re the best crop of shifters Vater’s ever seen.”

One word kept coming up in a constant, bubbling fashion, always spoken with reverence and in a hushed tone: “ Vater. ”

Beth and I exchanged glances. Jake caught the gesture.

“What do you guys think will happen?” he asked.

“He said something about a purge,” said Beth.

“A purge? ” questioned Jake. “That doesn’t sound positive.”

We agreed. By the time lunch had ended we were all in a tight huddle, discussing what we could do about it. Really, there wasn’t much to be said. We did determine we should be among the early birds at the meeting.

When the assembly time approached, all of us were there ten minutes early. Even Danny and Thomas looked concerned and attentive, although Danny took the occasion to rub his nose with his middle finger after catching my eye. I returned the subtle gesture with one of my own.

“I taught him that one,” I said to Beth, who watched our interplay. “He’s a slow learner, but he shows promise.”

Beth grimaced at me, unimpressed. Jake gave a hoot of laughter.

All of our messing about was cut off suddenly, as Urdo entered the room followed by Waldheim, who flipped at his clothes and wrapped his hands together as if he didn’t know what to do with them. It had to be the first time I’d ever seen Waldheim look nervous about anything.

The last figure strode in behind the other two. He was tall with broad shoulders. His hair was dark and wild-looking. I’d expected an old man, but he didn’t look particularly old. There was an odd light in his eyes as he slid them over the group. Those glinting, intelligent eyes seemed unusual. They were the eyes of a nocturnal animal, the eyes of a creature you might see watching your campfire in the woods at night.

He stood while everyone else was seated. He put his hands on his hips like I’d seen Urdo do countless times. Perhaps this was part of the family heritage, a swaggering posture.

“Children,” he said a deep, resonating voice. I heard his accent from the very first word. “Your principal has told me everything about you. And I do mean, everything,” he eyed us all to let that sink in. We shifted in our seats. Somehow, he didn’t make you feel at ease. It was like watching a tiger behind glass at the zoo. He made you feel as though he might be hungry, and you might just look like dinner.

“At this moment you are to be judged. By me. I will warn you, that most fail to meet my standards. Many of you might be thinking of how to explain yourselves. Excuses for mistakes, guilty secrets and other nonsense. Strike those thoughts bubbling in your minds! Excuses are worse than nothing on this day.”

Jake looked at me and I gave him the tiniest shrug. Whatever we’d both expected, this wasn’t it.

We turned our attention back to Vater, and were shocked to see him approaching us. There was an angry hunch to his shoulders. His brows beetled and his teeth showed in a snarl.

“You boys!” he said. With two incredibly long arms that ended in strong overly-large hands, he reached out and took us each by a shoulder. He drew us forward into the center of the floor. “Exactly, just so,” he said, as if speaking to himself.

He lowered his face to look at each of us in turn. His voice and demeanor softened suddenly, becoming almost gentle, but I knew he wasn’t in a gentle mood.

“Perhaps, boys, I’ve bored you?” he asked. His breath puffed out into my face smelling faintly of coffee. “Perhaps I owe you two an apology?”

“No sir,” we both stammered out at the same moment.

“No?” he asked, almost sweetly. The large hand on my shoulder became very heavy and the fingers sunk into my flesh. He looked first into my eyes, then Jake’s. Jake winced. I stood firm, staring back at him.