Waxing Darkness Read online

Chapter Three: Feelings

  Leaves begin to change.

  Darkness falls across the land.

  Emotions rise high.

  The sun was about to rise on this now mid-September morning. In the dull darkness, something that resembled a lightly brown furred dog was running as fast as it possibly could. The wind flowed freely through the young creature’s fur as it ran towards its predetermined destination. Before the sun was able to rise above the horizon, to let out the smallest glimmer of light, the large coyote was able to make its way to the backyard of a white, two story house, not even needing to pant or catch its breath.

  With the last bit of darkness, the creature seemed to be transforming into something completely different. In a matter of just a few seconds, a young, naked girl was standing up, reaching for the bathrobe that she had placed there earlier in the night. Luna had run city patrol alone this night, seeing mainly what Antonio Solo was up to these days. She knew that he was the lowest of scum a human being can be, and she couldn’t wait for the vampires to just attack him and get it over with.

  Waiting by the sliding door was Luna’s mother, wearing teal pajamas and holding a warm mug of green tea. She sipped her tea as her daughter quickly got into the house. Luna entered the laundry room, frantically trying to pick out fresh clothes to wear for the day. It was now the weekend, but she was acting as if it were the middle of a school week.

  “Is everything okay, mom,” Luna asked as she made her way to the fridge.

  “Just making sure that you’re not over doing anything,” Emily said in a concerned voice. “Your dad thinks that just because your brothers Rick and Phil were able to do this kind of stuff when they were your age that you are able to do it as well. He doesn’t quite understand that you’re a young woman now, and not to mention a spell caster, who hasn’t had as much time at studying that part of her abilities as well.”

  “I’m fine mom, really,” Luna urged while pouring herself a small glass of orange juice. “I like patrolling the city at night by myself anyway. It gives me a lot of time to myself where I can just think about stuff.”

  These kinds of conversations between Luna and her mother happened regularly ever since Luna started her last year of high school. Luna just figured that her mother was scared that she was going to lose her daughter and she just wanted to hold on to her “little girl” for a while longer. Luna wouldn’t be leaving El Paso for some time though, that’s for sure.

  “Alright,” Emily told her daughter, now wanting to change the subject. “So, how’s that boy you just can’t stop talking about -- what’s his name again?”

  “Luis,” Luna said with a half-laugh. “He’s fine. I think I’ve almost got that kid out of his little shell. He’s completely terrified of the outside world. Ha-ha.”

  Luna had a small number of boyfriends in the past, but no one seemed to want to stay with her for too long. Sometimes, they thought that Luna was just too out there for them to handle. Other times, they caught a glimpse of her brother (or worse, her father) and ran for the hills without looking back. Usually, they were dared to ask her out on a date, which seemed to stop hurting her feelings after the first few times it happened.

  Luis was very different from all those other boys. Maybe it was simply due to the fact that the two of them developed a friendship with each other and had their feelings develop from there. It seemed like Luis wasn’t too much into anime or some of the other things she was madly interested in, but Luis at least listed to what she had to say and seemed interested in learning about all of Luna’s favorite things. He liked how weird Luna was, so that made Luna feel more comfortable with herself around him.

  “So, has he kissed you yet,” Emily asked, smiling at her daughter.

  “MOM!” Luna exclaimed in an appalling voice. “That is none of your business!”

  “I’m guessing that’s a ‘no’.” Emily thought out loud.

  It wasn’t Luna’s fault that Luis seemed too timid to even hold her hand most of the time. Their first date was at the movies, and whenever their fingers touched in the popcorn box, Luis’s entire arm would go into a sudden spasm. Ever since then, they would meet a lot in the library, mostly for working for school and studying. Nothing special ever happened in their relationship since the date at the movies, but it was very obvious that the two of them had feelings for each other.

  “He’s, er...a bit difficult.” Luna answered to her mother.

  “As are you,” Emily smartly returned. “Why don’t you make the first move instead of him? There’s no rule book out there that says you can’t. He who strikes first wins, right?”

  Luna gave her mother an evil glare, signaling that Emily had once again won the conversation. She slammed down the rest of her juice and climbed upstairs to get ready. Today, she was going to be meeting Luis again.

  It was now noon and Luis was starting to panic. Every few seconds, he would walk to the front door, hoping for the doorbell to ring just as he passed by it. Luna wasn’t supposed to arrive for another half-hour, but he couldn’t control his patience. Besides a few blind dates that were set up by his parents and their buddies from work, Luna was Luis’s first real girlfriend. He at least hoped that she was his girlfriend -- he wasn’t quite sure what the criteria you had to meet in order to say that you are exclusively dating somebody.

  “Mom says for you to calm the hell down or you’re going to have an aneurysm,” Ashley said, grabbing a soda from the fridge.

  “Please, Ashley, just stay out of my hair today,” Luis groaned, collapsing his body onto the living room couch.

  “Not on your life, kid; there’s no way I’m going to be missing the show.” Ashley let out a squeal of a laugh. “Plus, I’m interested in seeing what kind of a girl you have coming over. How out there did you have to go to find someone who would actually want to go out with you anyway?”

  “GET OUT OF HERE NOW!” Luis barked!

  The doorbell chimed, causing Luis to jump into the air, his stomach now in knots. He got off the couch and hurried to answer the door. He allowed a sigh of relief when he saw no one else was opening the door. He leveled his breathing and opened up the door for Luna.

  “You’re early,” Luis said, his eyes fixated on Luna’s lovely smile.

  “Mom had some stuff she needed to do in town today, so she just decided to drop me off a bit early,” Luna answered.

  “You don’t have a car,” Luis asked in a curious tone, welcoming her inside.

  “No, I, er, failed the test three times.” She let off a small laugh and began to blush.

  Luis was a bit surprised to what Luna had said. Although he was walking mostly everywhere, it was only because all the places that he wanted to go to were in walking distance. He had acquired his driver's license before they had left Los Angeles but didn’t have much practice since they moved to El Paso. It was good to have it, in case there was some kind of emergency that called for it. He escorted Luna to the living room, where an array of junk food was spread out and a number of DVD’s lied scatted on the table. This had been a weekend that Luis had been dreaming of for a while, and he wanted it to be just right.

  Alexander was going over the preparations throughout his mind over and over again, playing it back in his head like it was a movie. If every detail wasn’t perfectly planned out and in place, then everything he had been working on for the past few weeks would have been absolutely for nothing. He wasn’t going to risk being killed because of a serial murderer.

  He even hat to “recruit” a new member of his family in order to make sure that they had enough members to make sure that everything would be done perfectly. On days like today, he would sit alone in his dark room, avoiding any and all distractions.

  Somewhere else in the vampire’s hideout, Drake was coming up with his own little plan. He had grown far too tired of playing Alexander’s little minion, pretended to understand what he stood for. Drake had known, even when he was human, that he was a natural born leader. His trust in Alexa
nder’s leadership and grown far too thin for him to follow anymore.

  He couldn’t possibly keep this going, Drake thought in his room. He had to know that one day Alexander was going to hit a brick wall. Sorry Alexander, but -- no, wait. I am not sorry, Alexander. You were weak, believing that this little noble act could go on forever. You protected these scum human beings, so that makes you just as guilty as well. You have to go away!

  There was a knock at his door, Alexis entering through the doorway without waiting for Drake’s approval. Drake didn’t mind at all though; in fact, it seemed like perfect timing. He needed to make sure that she would be a good companion to him, or if she would have to be killed like he would Alexander. Thus far, his findings were very inconclusive. She wasn’t as straight forward as Drake had hoped she’d be. It wasn’t exactly Alexis that he wanted to have, but it was her strength and abilities that made her valuable.

  “What is it, Alexis,” Drake asked in a relaxed voice

  “She’s woken up,” Alexis said, her voice sounding eager. She seemed to be like a kid ready to open her presents on Christmas morning.

  When a human being is bitten by a vampire, and is, medically speaking, still alive, their body shuts down completely for a short while. The time varies from person to person. In that time, their entire body goes through a series of transformations. As long as there is at least a pint of original blood in the human’s system, they will, in the end, become a vampire. It was Drake who drew the new girl in, just as he had done when he transformed Alexis into what he was.

  As the two of them walked over to the room where their new addition had been sleeping, Drake was scheming. There was only one way he was going to discover whether or not Alexis would be to be loyal to him or Alexander.

  “Drake, what are you doing?”

  Drake was pinning Alexis against the solid wall, staring intensely into her glowing red eyes. He wanted this to be as convincing as possible; it had to work the first time or not at all. Their bodies were forced against each other, one of Drake’s hands placed over Alexis’s cold cheek.

  Well, in this form, at least she’s cute.

  Drake pressed his lips against hers for a mere second. Alexis felt as if she were sucked into a marvelous euphoria, almost as if she was able to walk into the direct sunlight without the fear of her existence coming to an end. She had feared an end to this kiss with Drake -- it was the only thing that felt real to her at that moment. All Drake could think about was the bloody taste of Alexis’s lips: cancerous.

  “That was...unexpected,” Alexis said, shyly. This was a time where Alexis hoped she could blush.

  “Let’s go,” Drake told her. “We have to make sure the new girl doesn’t do anything stupid like open the blinds.”

  Now much later into the afternoon, Luna was growing very impatient with Luis. It was obvious that he really did like her in a romantic way and she was trying her best to make as many advances as she could on him. Luis seemed to like her so much, that he was obviously afraid that he would do or say something so stupid that she would break up with him before the end of the day. Luna, when she was with Luis, felt (for lack of a better word) human. It was a great kind of feeling and she didn’t want to let him go.

  In the dully lit room, Luna’s phone suddenly went off on the couch. Inside the room’s atmosphere, it was quiet, causing the two of them to jump. After both of their hearts skipped a few beats, Luna made her way to the phone. Her eyes widened at the caller ID. Her father would rarely call her for anything.

  “Where are you,” Victor immediately asked his daughter.

  “I’m at a friend’s house,” She answered quickly. “Mom dropped me off earlier today, remember? What’s going on, dad?”

  “Your mother is on her way right now to get you. Be ready for her when she gets there so she doesn’t have to wait for you.” His voice was stern; trying to get Luna to understand what was going on.

  “But, dad, I--”

  “Do what I say, LUNA!”

  The phone line suddenly went dead. Luna slammed her phone shut and swore under her breath.

  “What’s going on,” Luis asked as he slowly approached her with a puzzled look on his face. He was afraid that Luna wasn’t allowed to be with him anymore.

  Just simply be seeing how worried Luis was, Luna was able to calm down almost instantaneously. She was frustrated mostly because her father wasn’t trying to explain what was going on. She knew that it had something to do with the abnormal half of her life, the piece of her life that none of her friends knew anything about. Maybe a vampire just suddenly went bad, meaning that they would have to exterminate them before they could do any more harm. The bad feeling in the pit of Luna’s stomach had suddenly returned.

  “Everything’s fine,” Luna answered in an uneven voice. She hugged him, clutching onto his shoulders. “There’s an emergency with my parents, so I’ll have to leave soon. Thank you Luis for a wonderful day; I really enjoyed myself.”

  “But, all we did was just watch movies and eat cold pizza. I feel kind of stupid; I didn’t say a lot to you today.” Luna didn’t like the tone Luis was taking.

  “Ha-ha, silly boy. I had a wonderful time with you, even if you think we really did nothing.” Part of her wished that she could do something like this with him every day.

  “I had a wonderful day, too.” He tightened around her waist, seemingly happier.

  “I’m glad, Luis.” She pulled away from the hug.

  Luna acted without thinking once again. Before she knew it, she was kissing Luis, whose breath tasted of cold pepperoni pizza, buttered popcorn, and an array of sodas. The odd taste didn’t matter to Luna though. Nothing else seemed to exist for that moment. There was no vampires, no werewolves, and no more secrets to hide.

  No other words were uttered between them.