Blood Kisses, Amber Marshall-Nichols [summer reading list txt] 📗

trip, (It was more like a two day vacation!). The cabin was real sweet. There was a dark alder wood coating the floor, velvet red curtains to match the flower patterned gold and burgundy wallpaper, and a massive patio door that stretched across the width of the back wall, and overlooked the glistening lake. There were spot lights brightening the room to entwine the natural beauty of the Canadian style with the modern. A black phone even sat on a little table in the corner of the room, so that I almost felt like I was starring in an episode of Twin peaks.

We’d run most of the way here so my hair was a little frazzled, but I didn’t mind. Truth be told, dinner was going to be messy. I began to fold my hair with a brush anyway. My hair was that strange, though quite pretty colour that couldn’t decide whether it was blonde, brown or red. I swear there are twenty different tones running through it. It looks a bit like Cristina Ricchi’s just before she turned Brunette. However my locks are really long, travelling just past my breast; and no it’s not a vampire thing, and I actually had to wait years like any other girl for it to grow. It’s kind of wavy, with little knots and ringlets. Anyway, so I was combing my Blondie-brownie-red-curly hair; when there was a knock at the door. I pulled myself from the princess dresser in the cabin bedroom and twisted the key a few times in the lock before it swung open. A man stood there with a black cloak hauled around him and an axe in one hand. He looked like the grim reaper and a low growl was erupting from his chest. I should be scared. I’d told myself. Any normal girl would be scared. I wasn’t. A feeble little human was probably playing dress up. I’d thought. Or an employee playing a joke, I’d considered. Even if the bloke was a psycho I’d be able to defend myself in three seconds flat. I could snap his neck with my little finger, and his juicy pulse would disappear. Then I’d have to change him, throw him in a ditch or the river somewhere, or... Then he untied his cloak and his face was revealed. There was no pulse. Only grey skin, a face covered in scars, vibrant green eyes and a snarling mouth.
“Is... Grace Martinae here?” he spat.
“No, she’s...” Heck! I told myself. Where was she?
“I’ll be back in three days. Tell her to count the knocks, and count the debts.”
“I umm,” Before I could get the word’s out, the stranger, the vampire, had gone, leaving only a cold sting behind. I made my way back to the mirror though this time when I looked into it, my face was more chalky than before, my eyes a little less blue. I must have just sat there. Staring at myself because when mum finally came in, it was dark. She placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Anything the matter, love?”
“Mum we have to leave,” I swung round on the dresser stool to face her so she stood over me like a giant.
“Why?” she asked simply.
“I...”
“Don’t lie to me; I’ll make you tell the truth. Again” she reminded me.
“A man... A vampire, he... turned up at the door and asked for you,” I spluttered.
“What else did he say?” she asked calmly, she didn’t look at all worried. That bugged me.
“He asked for you... he was very aggressive about it too.”
“What did he look like?” she interrupted.
“He was exceptionally tall, slits for eyes; they were a phenomenal green- that’s how I guessed see. He had dark hair, a crooked smile, and a... scar travelling down his jaw line.”
“Ahh, carry on.”
” Once I said you weren’t here, he said he’d come back in three days.”
“Did he say anything about debts?” her face contained its placid carving. But her tone had been shaken up somewhat after my description. I nodded.
“Before I could ask who he was, he...”
“Vanished?” I nodded again. “He does that,” she sighed.
“Who is he?” I whispered. “I’ve not been that scared for a while,”
“He’s a,” she hesitated. “Friend... of the vampire who changed me,” she turned away from me.
“That Lorenzo guy?”
“Yes, there were three of them. Clarke and Gabe- the Cubante brothers; Gabe you just met. Lorenzo was in charge of the two when he found me.”
“Mum...what does he want?”
“Don’t fret honeybee, that’s a story for another time. I’m not ready to tell you yet. Nor are you to listen. Besides, we’ll be gone in three days and he’ll never find us in England, and I don’t want you to be listening to me rant about my past when you could be charging at some moose’s,” she smiled.
“Like I’ll be able to focus on the hunt now,” I muttered. Mum laughed a little then offered a hand to pull me up.
“Once you’re out there your instincts will take over and you’ll have nothing else on your mind,”
“What about when I’m done?”
“Then you have other things to think about,”
“Like what?” I frowned.
“Like school,” she laughed.
“Ugh,” I groaned. “I got away to forget about that! Way to dampen the mood even more mum!” She grinned like an angelic little girl at me then turned to leave.
“We better get feasting then,” she said turning to wink at me. When I stood in front of the stool and didn’t move she shimmied over and slapped my bum. “Come on Annie bear, smile then let’s get the heck out of this indoor forest”
“I like the cabin,” I objected.
“Anya...”
“Okay Okay,” I said brushing past her. “Race ya?”

We headed east of the cabin, the farthest forest away. This would allow us to retain our new blood thirstiness, having drunk six animals a piece, before coming in contact with the smell of humans. Having drunk only one tiny innocent fox that thought already had my mouth watering.
“I can’t pick up any decent scents mum,” I moaned.
“Nor can I, want to head a few miles further north this time?”
“Are we pitching it too close?”
“No I’m sure we’ll be fine, I trust you,”
“You’ve had more practice than me,” I frowned. “You can’t kill and bring me the blood anymore mum, I’ve got to do it myself, it’s just...I’ve slipped too many times. I don’t want to kill anymore. Even if those boys were just accidents,” My stomach churned. I suddenly wanted to settle with just the one fox.
“Anya if the opportunity rises and a human stands before you, in the split second before you bite them, consider their job, their family, their future. And use your own will power to let them have those things, and not to take them away.”
“I don’t want to take them away,”
“Then remind yourself that,”
“You think I’ll be okay?”
“I’m positive... but as your doubting yourself we’ll only head a little closer, just until we find something a little more decent than fox, nothing drastic, okay?”
“Thanks,”

We did find something decent in the end, some things awfully decent; Mouth-watering bears and wolves. You’d think it’d be hard to kill something so cute. The wolf with it’s fluffy grey coat and puppy dog eyes, little red tongue panting, and it’s squeal as you launch yourself at it and lunge at it’s tissue with your nails and fangs. Or the bear you imagine with a honey pot, its coal coloured fur shaking, ears prickling and the roar from its throat as you tackle it, snap its neck then eagerly plunge your mouth to it. But in all honesty, you just don’t think about it. You’re in your happy place, your favourite food is surrounding you in that restaurant buffet, and you can just eat and eat and eat if you have the table reserved. It just tastes so good. You want more and more and more and more, and then... you have to remember your humanity. Remember that you’re not a blood thirsty monster and you don’t want to be. It’s my facial expression when I remember that when my mum laughs. That hunting trip she definitely laughed.
“You okay there love?” she asked catching a drop of blood from the corner of her mouth with her tongue. “What’d you get?”
“Bear this time... kind of feel bad, they’re already endangered,”
“They just attack humans anyway, that’s why vampires used to kill them in the first place,”
“Bullshit mum, it’s because they taste so sickly sweet and god damn delicious,” I laughed and a hiccup elapsed my lips. I laughed again, a bubbling sound that echoed through the woodland. “Where’d you go?” I asked her remembering I’d done this hunt alone.
“There was a bear of my own calling my name,” she smiled.
“Hmm,” I studied her a moment. “You know I don’t understand how you manage to stay so clean?”
“You’re a child, you’ve no table manners,” she said.
“Thanks,” I snorted.
“One more for the road?” she suggested
“Sure,” I grinned. “What do you fancy?”
“We can cross over to the states... or Alaska? But it’d be a bit pointless?”
“I don’t think we should bother hunting anywhere else,”
“Alright then we’ll stay put...what about after? Are we going home or staying?”
“I would’ve said stay so that we could go for a swim and stuff, but I think we should go home, for your sake,”
“You don’t need to worry about me, he won’t be able to get anywhere near us,”
“He was standing two feet away from me,”
“He wouldn’t have gotten in,”
“What’d you mean?”
“Well you know in books it was told that a vampire had to be invited in to someone’s home?”
“Yeah,”
“Well that concept is kind of backwards. They can get in to your homes, but they can’t go in a place that isn’t yours,”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” I said wiping my mouth on my sleeve having realised there was a sticky blackcurrant like stain around my mouth, and that mum should be laughing.
“I know... it’s very complicated. More so for males than females,”
“I’m even more lost,”
“It’s about the tie between lust and blood. It’s very complex, when you reach the age I’ll have to explain,”
“Who explained to you?”
“No one, I found out the hard way,”
“Which was...”
“Another story,” she closed the topic. “So why don’t we take out another wolf or two then head home, we could be home by three o’clock tomorrow morning?”
“Sounds good to me,” I lied.

We ran north a few more miles towards town and I was afraid I’d be pushing it. But no butter-wouldn’t-melt scent whipped over me as I expected. “We’re not as close as you think, your paranoia is changing your distinction of distance,” Mum said.
“Really?” I asked.
“Barely moved,” she assured me. “Now let’s get a bite of the beautiful beasts before they scatter”
We prowled the forest a while before I heard the heavy ‘duh-dum’ of around three bear’s heartbeats. The sleuths were by stream behind the trees to the right of us. I could hear them gnawing their food and licking their paws innocently already. Mum looked at me and nodded, encouraging me to follow her. I stepped out on to the river bank and the bear made a humph sound before it turned to face us. When it did a big grin spread across its messy face and it stood up on its hind legs to bark a triumphant laugh. Then its face snapped as if to say ‘Now back to business’