Fangtown

Family

The bullet hits her shoulder and she doesn't flinch. Granny walks towards me looking motherly.

"Sweetie, the more you fight the more Kazimir will hurt him more," It sounds like a threat and I stop fighting before dropping the gun. "Good, now follow me and you can see him at the Masquerade later." She leads me away and I look at Dante one more time. There's blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and he looks defeated. We lock eyes and he smiles sadly at me.

"See you in a couple hours, okay?" He says and I nod before looking forward again. I'm not paying attention to anything until I feel a hand on my shoulder and I see Kat with tears in her eyes. I put my arm around her shoulders and she does the same. I remember Ruby's eyes lose their light and her tanned skin look pale like death. I start crying again and Kat comforts me.

"At least she got her wish," I look at her confused. "She got to see you again. She had nightmares since that night and she always yelled your name when she woke up because you were usually there." We stop in front of a door and Granny opens it. It's big with four beds all looking slept in. I know which one was Ruby's because of the pink bunny in it. I walk over to it and pick it up. I feel something in it and find a picture of me, Ruby, mom and dad in Italy. I hear the door close and I break again. I fall to the ground and cry hard. Kat and Bec know to leave me alone until I cried less but I feel an arm around my shoulders. I turn and look into Maria's eyes which look exactly like Dante's.

"I had a little sister as well and they killed her in front of us," She looks lost in her memories. "We were, are like you, we know deep inside she would want us to avenge her death and the only way to do that is to kill Kazimir which is why we are going to help."

"Thank you," I say calming down and look at the picture. "We were in Italy for mom's birthday, dad surprised her and we went back to where she grew up." I touch the patch I bought there to remind me of Italy and smile sadly.

"Didn't we go too?" Bec asks and I remember that I needed to tell her about her uncle. I nod and try to think of a way to tell her about his death gently.

"Bec, there's something I need to tell you about your uncle," She looks happy until she scans my face. "My m-, someone killed him claiming to be my mom." I lie because knowing I still had family would break her.

"Did you find any of the others' family?" Bec as always mourned through seeing if others were okay.

"Lillian tried to kill me by showing what life would've been if the vampires never came, she was a vampire," I try not to think about her head in the tree. "Isis is alive and in the old station, not sure about any of Blue's family," Something is nagging at me and I turn to Maria. "Is there any type of vampire that can bring back the dead as vampire?"

"Yes but there is only one known, Kazimir," She examines me carefully and she knows. "He brought back people who were dead that you love." I nod and touch my Lion King badge. Kat covers her mouth and Bec figures it out.

"Your uncle Mark," She snaps her fingers figuring something else out. "The guards are the guys who died in that fire on First and Second and your first kill," She stares at me and I kinda remember the vampire. "She was our teacher in first grade who killed herself before being found by us...We have seriously fucked up lives. First that, then we lose parents, find out that we're adopted, get attacked by vampires and watch a girl who was everyone's little sister get shot." I agree with her but she forgot the getting betrayed by my Granny, shooting family, falling for a vampire and rejecting a friend. What Bec said about Ruby sticks with me and I look at Maria.

"Ruby reminded you of your little sister, didn't she?" Maria nods and touches a bracelet on her wrist. It's old with an engraving in Italian on it. I read it and feel a kin in her. To Maria, happy eighteenth from Anna.

"We all have our ghosts," Kat says touching the ring that her real parents gave her before that car accident and Bec tugs at her mom's chain which has her dad's ring on it. "Especially us."

"Be happy that you are not a vampire," Maria sounds bitter and I can understand why. "Watching the ones you love grow old while you stay the same." She looks in pain and I don't know what to do. Bec looks at her and I know what's coming.

"At least they weren't vegetables that you had to take care of," Bec seems to be lost in the past. "At least they knew who the fuck you were and treated you like a child not an adult." I sit down beside her and hug her remembering having to help her feed her parents when her uncle was sleeping one off until we were twelve. Kat doesn't understand because she wasn't allowed to hang out with us after school until she finished her homework at home and Bec had lived in a bad part of town. Maria looks hard in thought and reaches into her pocket. She pulls out the last thing I would've expected, she's holding one of the necklaces that Bec used to give people she trusted and she offers it to Bec who looked confused.

"Dante tried to help but could not, neither could I except putting money into the mailbox for you to buy food with," Bec takes it, looking at it with tears. "You caught me once, gave me this, hugged me, thanked me and ran away which confuses me to this day but I kinda got it." Something she said bugs me so I voice my question.

"How could Dante help?" I remember when Dante said every vampire had powers and seemed to hold something back. Maria looks at me with indecision written on her face and she decides.

"Dante can heal people," She smiles sadly. "Physically, mentally and emotionally. It has a small toll, it makes him do things impulsively and that is due to the emotions of the person he's healing." Impulsive, like kissing me, beating up Patrick, ripping Lillian's head off. He doesn't like me that way, it's all me and my emotions because he healed the piece of me that was broken. Healing made me smile, laugh and feel something. None of it is real.