Bite Shift

15

"What the fuck did you just say?" It was out of my mouth before I could stop it. My hand flew up to my mouth and covered it. My head dropped and I looked hard at my lap. You moron. You just used the F-word to the one guy that can get you canned. I started to scan the job possibilities in my head. It would have to be night shift. Stripper? Uber driver? Walmart cashier?

I was yanked out of my job search by the kind of laughter that only comes from your belly and makes your whole body shake. My hand left my mouth and I looked at Rhys. He was wiping a bloody tear from his cheek with a napkin. He looked like a man that was watching a montage of roller-skating mishaps on America's Funniest Home Videos. I turned my attention to Dr. Kitchner, who was still looking at me like he had never seen me before.

"Kate," Rhys managed to say through his guffaws. "Alex knows about us. He is the only human I have ever told my secret to. You can trust him. He is going to help you."

Alex? I guess the A stands for Alex and not asshole.

"Can we start again, Kate?" Dr. Kitchner held his hand out to me. I puzzled over it for a second and then took it in mine. I expected a firm handshake. Just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore, he lifted my hand to his mouth and lightly touched the back of it to his lips. Then, he brought it to the table and left his hand on mine while it rested on the linoleum and, what I think, was dried ketchup. "Rhys told me what happened to you outside the hospital and what he had to do. I don't know what to say. I am so sorry I couldn't have stopped it. I was only five floors up and had no idea you were dying violently. I will never forgive myself."

With that, he pulled his hand from mine and laid it on his brown, leather journal, which was now closed. Then, he continued to stare. What do I say to that? My head was spinning. I had just gotten used to the idea that I needed to live a double life, hiding in the shadows and only having the man next to me to talk to about this alter-ego of mine. Now, I find out that, nope, the other person who knows is your arch enemy.... Dr. Dick.

"Thank you," I answered. It was more like a question than a statement. "I'm sorry, I need to wrap my head around all of this. How, exactly, are you going to help me?"

That question ended the staring and he slid his reading glasses off his face. He took a deep breath. I knew something big was coming. What could be a bigger revelation than 'your dead, Kate'. Well, it turns out, he did have a mighty big story to unload.

"My sister is a vampire."

There is it. Out of all the things I have had to hear and digest in the last day.... Dr. Kitchner won the "WTF" prize.

"I am not sure what to say, Dr. Kitchner."

"Please," his head tilted to the right slightly and his eyes softened. "Call me Alex. After everything you have gone through and survived, you don't need to be formal with me.

"Alex." It was going to take some time for that to feel right on my tongue. "Is that bad news?"

"That is a complicated answer, Kate. She was only 17. I was 10. I never really got to know her and she never really got to live. She was always so rebellious. Her and my parents fought constantly. She skipped school and drank and dated boys they hated. But, to me, she was everything. She introduced me to Aerosmith and horoscopes. She would sneak me out of my room at night and teach my what each star was named. She told me stories about powerful witches and dragons and princesses trapped in castles or under an evil spell. She wasn't bad. She was just too big for that little town and our little home. My parents were never going to understand her. Not just because they didn't listen but because they had never left that town and didn't know how big the world was. One day, she skipped school and, this time, she didn't come home for dinner and a lecture. We called all her friends. No one knew where she was. Finally, a boyfriend told us she had hitchhiked to a concert in the next state. He said she would be back. Two days turned into two weeks. The police told us to give up."