A Monster's Heart

Part 9: Citizenship and Romance

How on earth does all this crazy stuff happen to me? I mean for awhile my biggest problem was just trying to recover from seeing a brutal blood draining. Now, Jimmy has ghosted me all day and I couldn't find him anywhere on campus the next day. I don't want to have to choose between my abnormally weirdly wonderful monster family and my boyfriend. I know. If he loves, he'll accept me but that's just a fairy tale, isn't it? Then again, several months ago Frankenstein, Count Dracula and the loch ness were all fairy tales too.

I knew my mother. And I could tell from the tantalizing smells coming from the kitchen that there was no way I was going to get out of her little dinner party. Anyways, my grandparents were coming and I adore Grandma and Grand-Pop. So in general, there was just no way that I was going to miss this dinner party. With a heavy heart, I found one of my favorite outfits and created one of Jimmy's favorite looks: hair down and natural, the hoop earrings, the pink tube top that showed off only a little midriff, and the pretty faded jeans. I was applying the last of the makeup when there was a knock on the door.

"No Chaney," I shouted with an assumption from earlier that evening. "I am not wearing your dress. It's too small for me and my skin is not pale enough to look good in it."

"Rainy, it's me."

Oops. "You can come in."

Danny let himself in. He had his nice black pants on and a red shirt to show off all his hair. He smelled rather musky which hinted that he had used some sort of Transylvanian cologne. He sat down on the bed and I felt at ease seeing his reflection in the mirror.

"Rain," Danny said somberly. "If it's my fault that you never see Jimmy again, I want you to know that I am truly sorry."

I put my mascara brush back in the tube and turned around to face my brother.

"We've been through this, Danny," I told him gently. "It's okay." I got up from the vanity stool and plopped down on my bed next to my brother.

"But it's not." Danny told me. "We...I am just so excited that you're back that I just want to see you happy and I am afraid I might have taken that happiness away from you."

I held on to both my brother's hands. "Dan, the only time I have felt as happy as I did with Jimmy was when I came home here. I feel like part of a family and my only disappointment with my family is that I wasn't a part of it sooner. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't stop staring at you guys because I couldn't believe I was related to Transylvanians."

Danny chuckled. "I know. I caught on to that pretty quick the way you first reacted to Max."

"But Max is such a sweetie!"

"Exactly! But that's not the point. Do you know why Transylvanians are fairly accepting of each other and humans, even though we some of us could hurt each other? Like how Mom and I are potentially death-threatening to Chaney and vice-versa? It's because we all faced persecutions for being different. It was Sir Vladimir Dracul who figured out first that fighting each other simply because we're different was stupid. So he opened up his rather large estate as a shelter for other unique beings and Transylvania just grew and grew.  At one point, in the centuries, Transylvanians began to show that thinking to others. We have been known to hide Jews throughout history and rescued a lot of children when different soldiers came through and killed their parents. Those who did come through our doors helped construct stories to keep us in hiding so we have become nothing but 'monster lore.' That's why we are able to integrate into human society so well. Humans are a lot more closed-minded than they care to admit. That's why I am worried I hurt your relationship with Jimmy in the end. Most humans are very afraid when they think of monsters, with the exception of people who just find the literature fascinating or are part of some silly monster cult."

I took a deep breath to help me digest the history lesson I had just been given. "Danny, I can understand why other people might be afraid of us. But there was something that Jimmy once told me was that no matter what happened he would never stop loving me."

"I hope that still holds true, Rainy," Danny said gravely. "If he proves that to you tonight, I will know that he is a human of integrity and that is something any Transylvanian can respect. If he doesn't, so help me..." His voice may have trailed off, but his golden eyes glowed brighter as if he was thinking about going full werewolf.

We were interrupted by the door flying open and a blurb of red and black flying racing toward the bed screeching as it did so. Danny threw himself between me and the blurb half-howling, half-shouting, "FANGS! FANGS!"

Chaney stopped suddenly, perched on the footboard and tucked her maturing fangs beneath her lips. "Sorry, guys. I just saw people outside our house. Danny, Meredith is SO pretty! Is she a dancer? A model? Has she had dinner with Count Dracula?"

"Chaney! Fangs!" Danny and I both caught the excitement getting the better of her. If a vampire with maturing fangs lets them grow too far at a young age, they may develop a threatening bloodlust later in life. Dad had instructed us to keep a close eye on her fangs since they started really maturing about a week and a half ago.

"You know you need to control how excited you get," I said trying to curb how harsh I had sounded. Thankfully, my little vampire sister adores me and once again paused to tuck her fangs beneath her lips. "Deep. Breaths. Can you do that for like three seconds?" I asked holding onto her shoulders.

Chaney took three very deep breaths. "Sorry Rainy. I just got so excited to see Meredith is an actual pretty genie and not some fat, greasy sea creature. I wish I could say the same about your boyfriend. He's kinda ugly with his human skin and brown hair-"

I didn't let her finish. I dashed out of my room and flew down the stairs and flung open the front door to see – "You came!"

For a long time, I didn't even look at him. I was too busy relishing his embrace and breathing in his cologne. I recognized the scent right away. It was my favorite scent and one that I had actually picked out for him. I backed away. He was clean-shaven and smiling that adorable lop-sided smile. He had on a gray shirt and had layered it with a light blue dress shirt that he had left open but rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. He was wearing one of my favorite outfits. He had dressed up for me.

"Didn't I tell you that I loved you no matter what?" he asked me softly.

"You did." I whispered. "You did." His lips met mine in a gentle kiss.

"Really?!?" a voice screeched behind me.

"I did not need to see that! I'm glad both my brother and sister are in love but don't make out in front of me!" Chaney whined in the doorway. I laughed realizing that Danny had just kissed the hand of his new girlfriend as I was sharing a moment with Jimmy.

The rest of the evening was like something out of a dream. Jimmy had brought pink carnations for me (my favorite flower), and black roses for both Chaney and Mom. He ate everything Mom had made despite its weirdness. Meredith was the sweetest genie, even offering to help Mom clean up dishes. I felt confident that she was a good choice for my big brother. At the end of the evening, Jimmy and I stole a few moments to ourselves on the front porch.

"Jimmy, thank you. Have I told you lately that you're wonderful and I love you?"

"You have," He said smiling. "But it's good to be reminded every once in a while."

"How did you get yourself to come?"

"Because you were here. I told myself that it would be like going to a Halloween party and at some point I stopped thinking like that and just started enjoying myself. You're with a good family, Rainy. And I think we are in for a lot of adventures."

We? "Does this mean you'll stay? That you're mine for life?"

"What do you think?"