Braced to Bite (Book 1: Half-blood vampire series)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

“But you’re obviously not dead, or you wouldn’t be walking around and talking. So you must be undead. My guess is a vampire.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed incredulously. Surely ol’ Aunt Chloe had lost it.

“Nope. Seen it before. In the war. We’d get those boys in with a toe tag but when we tried to move them they would sit up and grab the nearest person and have themselves a drink.”

Mom and I gaped at her.

“Course, we couldn’t have our dead lads feeding on our orderlies so we would have to, uh, make the toe tag official, so to speak.”

“You mean you had to kill them? Again?”

“Stake through the heart. Wasn’t an easy decision to make but when you have so many men who are alive that need you and one who is beyond your help that could hurt them, well, the decision is obvious.”

“Were there a lot of vampires?” I asked somewhat sarcastically, still not sold on this hypothesis. Sure, Aunt Chloe’s stories were entertaining when I was a kid, but they were stories.  Vampires weren’t real.

“No,” she continued, ignoring my sarcasm. “I only came across three in my war days. Of course other units may have seen more. Some things we all understood but didn’t talk about. I mean, back in the States, who would believe one of our soldiers had turned vampire?”

We both nodded our agreement. After all, it was far-fetched to me, and I was supposed to be one.

“I thought vampires couldn’t go out in the sunlight.”

“They can’t. Them toe-tagged boys arrived covered in a sheet, and we didn’t just get wounded during office hours. It was war, Colby. People killing each other at all hours of the day and night.”

My aunt looked so ferocious at that moment I could easily see a younger version, snapping out orders and operating on fallen soldiers. It didn’t take much of a stretch to see this younger version breaking a chair leg and staking an undead vampire either. Her job was to protect the soldiers and she’d done it.

“But I was out all day, in the sunlight, while I was in the ravine. Okay, maybe not the sunlight ’cause it was cloudy but it was definitely daytime.”

Aunt Chloe nodded thoughtfully.

“And fangs? What about fangs? I don’t have any.” I opened my mouth wide to prove my perfect smile was fang-free.

“What about feeding on your mother?” she countered.

I closed my mouth and looked down at my lap, ashamed. Good question. How was I going to defend that action?

My mom spoke up. “It’s okay, honey. You didn’t hurt me. If anything, you saved me from getting stitches. That cut was very deep and you healed it. I don’t think you drank my blood at all. I’m not woozy—I feel fine.”

I was grateful for her defense but couldn’t let her minimize what I’d done.

“Mom, I may not have any fangs but I drank your blood. I just couldn’t help myself. I smelled the blood and wanted it. I was just so thirsty. I didn’t drink much,” I assured her when I saw the look on her face. “As quick as the thirst came on, it went away. I was full pretty quick.”

My mom stared at me in shock and horror. I’d never seen that look before—like she was afraid of me—and I couldn’t bear it.

I dropped down to my knees in front of her and laid my head in her lap.