Blood Land, J.R. Lawson [electric book reader .txt] 📗

to change her and you wouldn’t.  And you killed families….kids in a car…and turned their mother….”

“What are you talking about?” Kale asked, interrupting her.

“Who are you?!” Nora now looked up at him with a tear streaked face. “I don’t know….I thought I knew.  But I don’t.  You let your mom die…you killed innocent families…you only left Dagon for a girl…”

“Woah, wait a minute, let me just stop you right there,” Kale then interjected again, “I told you before, I wasn’t a good person when I was working for Dagon.  I did a lot of horrible stuff when I did.  I never told you any of it because…I didn’t think you needed to know it.  I didn’t want you to be scared of me.  I don’t do that stuff anymore.  You know that.  Or at least you should by now.  Especially with all that we’ve been through so far.”

Nora just sighed.  She nodded slightly as she looked back down in her lap.

“Nora, you’ve got to know what kind of person I am now.  Whatever else Caroline told you, its lies.  She’s trying to get you worked up.  She doesn’t know who I am now.  You do.  O.k.?”

Nora nodded again silently.

“Look I…I came up here because I wanted to show you something…” Kale then said.  Nora didn’t look up. “Would you please come with me?” he kindly asked.

Nora now lifted her head and wiped the tears from her face with her hands.  She then took in a deep breath and let it out. “O.k.” she finally agreed.

Kale then led Nora all the way to the front door and outside to the lawn.  “Here it is,” he then said as he stood to the side so she could see, “Surprise.”

Nora gasped.  A smile instantly found its way across her face as she stared at the beautiful rocking chair that sat in the grass in front of her.

“The chair!” she happily stated, “You got it?  How?”

“I bought it back on the day that you took me to that shop.  I just went back and got it today…when ya know, the store owner wasn’t there.  The employee that sold it to me didn’t seem to have as much prejudice as his boss so he had no problem following through with the sale.”

Nora just grinned widely as she stared at the chair and then eventually looked up at Kale.  She wiped her face again for new tears were forming in her eyes; happy ones.  She couldn’t believe that for a minute she doubted anything about Kale.  He was right.  She knew who he was.  She did.  Caroline was the one who was wrong.  And she was determined not to let her into her head.

Kale smiled back at Nora who he was so glad to see was happy again.  He then took a moment to glance back at the front door of the house where he saw Caroline lurking; a very upset and angry look on her face.

CHAPTER 32

IT WAS ONLY a few moments later that Nora was up in her room admiring her new rocking chair as Kale headed back down the stairs and approached Caroline who was now in the kitchen.

“Oh, she seems happy again.  Looks like you got that little human wrapped around your finger, eh Kaley?” Caroline slyly stated as she leaned her back against the counter.

“We need to have a serious talk,” Kale sternly stated as he now stood right in front of her.

“Oh, she tattled on me did she?” Caroline smugly smiled.

“No she didn’t,” Kale responded, “It was just that she was telling me things that she knew about me that she shouldn’t know.  Things I never told her about.”

“So what, are you gonna punish me now or something?” Caroline rolled her eyes.

“Caroline, damn it this is serious!” Kale now yelled, “I told you that you were not allowed to fucking talk to her!”

“I was just giving her some valuable information is all,” Caroline responded to his yelling with a strange calmness. “That fake friendship bullshit you’ve got going on with her has really sunken in.  She needed to know the real you…”

“You had no fucking right to tell her any of the stuff you did. Especially about my mother!”

“Oh get over it!” Caroline now shouted back.

“You listen to me and listen good,” Kale now severely stated through almost gritted teeth, “I don’t want you uttering another fucking word to her.  Do you understand me?”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a child, Kale!” Caroline contended.

“I’ll talk to you any god damn way I want to!”

“You act all self-righteous around that stupid human girl but I’m not stupid!  I’ve heard things about you while I was away!” Caroline then angrily exposed.

“You don’t know anything,” Kale rebutted.

“Everyone around here keeps saying that to me but you’re wrong.  I probably know more than you think I do!” Caroline paused for a moment as she stared at Kale.  When he didn’t seem to want to say anything back, she continued, “I know the reason Dagon tried to have you killed.  I heard you formed a Vinculum with a human girl.  Could there be a coincidence that you have a human girl living with you right now? Hm?”

“You shut up!” Kale threatened.

“I saw her foot, Kale!  It’s been healed by a vampire I can tell that kind of scar!”

“You cannot!  And I never healed her foot!” Kale argued back.

“Whatever.  You can make up all the lies you want to her but I know what that looks like.”

“How do you know?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Look, fuck this shit!  I don’t have to explain jack shit to you!  You can think whatever the hell you want about me.  That doesn’t change the fact that you talked to her when I told you not to!  And I don’t want you talking to her again!  If I ever find out that Nora has cried because of you again, you will be out on your ass!  Do you hear me?!”

“Aw…she cried did she?” Caroline now stood face to face with Kale, her arms crossed in front of her and the smuggest smile across her face.  Kale stared back at her with absolute anger as he then grabbed her forcefully by the arm. “Ow!” Caroline shouted, “You’re hurting me!”

“I want to hear you say that you understand every god damn word I just said to you,” Kale strictly asked.

“Yes! Yes, o.k. I won’t talk to her anymore, god!  Now let me go damn it!” Caroline surrendered.

Kale then let go of her and rolled his shoulders as if to calm himself down. “We’re going tomorrow.  To get those damn papers signed.  And get this divorce over with.  So you can leave,” Kale then calmly stated.

Caroline, however, said nothing back.  Kale didn’t wait but then turned and headed back up the stairs, leaving Caroline to pout alone in the kitchen.

It was a moment later that Kale had ended up in Nora’s room with her.  He sat on her bed while she sat nearby in her new rocking chair.

“Hey, I wanted to talk to you,” Kale then said.

“O.k.” Nora responded as she rocked back and forth and looked over at him.

“It’s about my mom…” Kale then started.

“Kale,” Nora tried to interrupt as she sat forward a bit but Kale held up a hand to silence her.

“No, Nora, I want to tell you about this, o.k.?  Since Caroline took it upon herself to tell you about it, I want you have a better understanding of it.  You need to hear it.”

Nora leaned back in her chair and just nodded in compliance.

“O.k. see,” Kale began, “My mom left me when I was really little.  Like, a baby.  My dad told me when they were married that she had a lot of problems with smoking and drinking too much.  Some drugs too if I remember correctly.  Anyway, when I came into the world, I hadn’t been planned.  And my dad said that my mom was afraid of being a mother because of all her problems.  My dad tried to convince her that she would be fine and that she could get help, but she never really agreed.  Eventually she left.  Left me and my dad, with nothing but a note saying that she could never be a fit mother.”

“Kale, I’m sorry…” Nora interrupted for a moment.

Kale nervously chuckled. “It’s o.k.  My dad was a strong guy.  He raised me all by himself and I know I’m the person I am today because of that.  Of course, secretly I was angry with my mother for never letting me know her.  She never called, never wrote.  She never checked to see how I was or sent me a birthday card.  I felt abandoned by her, obviously and I was always bitter about it.  But then came my dad’s funeral.  She was there.  I saw her afterward when all of his friends and our relatives were visiting with one another.  She was talking with a few of her friends.  I wanted to approach her but I was too scared.  Not only was I not human anymore, but I was also the reason my dad was dead and the reason there was no body to bury.  I was already sick to my stomach just being there, trying to pay respects to my dad and I didn’t know what people had heard.  Besides, I hadn’t seen my mother in sixteen years.  What was I supposed to say?

“Well, I eventually got the courage and went over to her.  I approached her and cleared my throat to get her attention.  When she turned around to look at me all I could say was ‘hi’.  I didn’t know what else to say.  She, on the other hand, just stared at me, straight in the eye and then turned back around without a word.  The only thing I could think was that she just didn’t recognize me.  I mean, how could she?  So I started to turn to walk away and that’s when I heard one of her friends speak to her.  She said, ‘isn’t that you’re son?  Don’t you want to talk to him?’ of which she replied, ‘I have no son’.”

“That’s awful…” Nora commented.

“Well,” Kale continued, “It was about four years later that I was contacted by a local hospital in the human city.  It was a doctor saying that my mother was a patient there with lung cancer and she only had maybe a week at the most.  Apparently she wasn’t responding to any treatments and they were asked by her to contact me.  Apparently she wanted to see me.  Now, I was hesitant.  I wasn’t sure why she would want to see me now after all these years.  But I hoped deep down that it was because she felt guilty. That now that she was dying, she wanted to ask for forgiveness or something.  Still, I didn’t really want to go, but it was Caroline that convinced me to.

“So, I went to see her.  I expected lots of tears and groveling and saying she was sorry for all the years, etc.  And I got some of that...but what I found out was the real reason she had wanted me there was because she wanted something from me.  She wanted me to turn her.  To make her immortal; a vampire.