HE SMELLS WEIRD...

HE SMELLS WEIRD...
March 14th, 2013
They all laughed. They didn't believe me. How could they not?! How often do I joke? (Never.) How often do you hear of a vampire that sees things that aren't really there?! (You don't.)
The only one who believed me was Jordan, you could tell cause she got really still and she didn't laugh.
Rhoan also sort of believed me but he laughed with everyone else.
"Daddy? What's everyone laughing at?" Sophia asks as she crawls into his lap. Vera takes her position snuggled by Lottie and Bastien.
"Your Uncle Gabriel is being very silly and he's making some insane jokes."
The group laughs again.
"Hey, is this the wine? Or the blood?" Rhoan asks studying the bottles on the counter.
"Wine is on the right." Demetri replies.
"Great," Rhoan goes to pour himself a glass, "Wait, your right? Or mine?" He asks.
"Mine." Demetri says.
Rhoan grabs the other bottle and pours himself some.
"What is that, Uncle Rhoan?" Vera and Sophia ask.
They are too cute, and also a little creepy. The should just be sisters since they always end up saying the same thing at the same time!
"Wine. Would you two like some?" He says.
The little girls nod their heads.
I panic a little, surely Rhoan isn't so twisted as to give little girls alcohol?!
But I saw him wink at us as he went to get 2 wine glasses and quickly fill them with grape juice.
"Wine is usually for adults but you two are so well behaved and so grown up that I think you can have a little." He says while placing the glasses in front of them.
"Mommy! I'm just like you and Daddy!" Sophia squeals in delight.
We all smile and then laugh at how sophisticated Vera looks holding her glass.
"Have fun with your werewolves, Gabriel." Lottie and Bastien laugh as they leave.
Josh gets up to leave too but Jordan wants to hear more so she kisses Sophia goodnight and waits to hear more about the werewolves.
"Yeah. We better go to before it gets to dark," Demetri says, "After all, we don't want Gabriel's werewolves to come get us."
He and Valentina laugh as they walk out the door. Now I have Faine and Alec and Chelsea and Afton. But Chelsea isn't really paying attention, she's doing girly girl stuff and Alec doesn't look like he believes any of it!
"Faine, YOU have to believe me! Cause if you believe me then everyone else will." I plead to her.
"Well, its there in your mind, I can see it, and it does look as hideous as you said. But, what if its just a dream or something? What if you decided to turn human standing on that hill and then you tripped and fell and hit your head? And what if you just imagined it all?"
"Don't dreams look different to you though?" I ask looking between Faine and Jordan, "Don't they seem, I don't know, fuzzy? Or something?"
"Not always. Usually we can tell if its a dream by what happens in it." Jordan replies.
I'm out of points to argue. All I know is that I saw the damn werewolf! It was ugly! And it was DEFINITLY a werewolf!
"Rhoan, you believe me, right?" I plead. He's my last defense.
He shrugs and stands up, "I'm still here because I live here." Then he gets up to start rinsing his glass and Vera's and Sophia's.
Faine gives me a 'you-heard-it-from-the-expert' look.
"Besides," Rhoan continues while innocently washing glasses, "Werewolves prefer London."
I return Faine's look.
In my mind I tell Jordan and Faine 'Its only a short trip for humans, an even shorter trip for vampires, and who knows how short of a trip for werewolves.'
Jordan seems completely captivated and Faine looks like she's starting to really accept the fact that Ireland might really be infested with werewolves.
"Rhoan?" He looks up as he finishes putting the glasses away, "Could you show us what you know about werewolves?" Faine asks.
Jordan believes me, I know that, she doesn't need statistics or anything. But Faine does. We're vampires, so I don't understand why this seems so impossible to her.
"Some people in this household, no matter how awesome they are," he says referring to himself, "are not vampires and DO need sleep. Besides, I'm not recovered from waking up at 6 the other day." We're prepared to have to wait, "HOWEVER I will show you."
He takes out the wine glass again and pours himself another glass.
We laugh as he goes to get his "secret" book. Even though we all know about it, and it definitely is not a secret.
Two glasses of wine later, Rhoan is saying goodnight and we don't know much more than we did an hour ago. Werewolves, believe it or not, prefer more populated areas, in order for a thrill and to create trouble when they kill someone. We learned nothing except that they are nothing like the shy creatures from novels, they don't play games, they like creating trouble and grabbing people out of alleys....nobody lives long enough to tell the tale. Whether they die from injury...or the wolves come after them on the rare occasion they get away.
"Don't expect to see me until at least noon." Rhoan warns.
I smile a little, Rhoan sleeps like the dead anyway, but he still isn't recovered from when I woke him up at 6 on the day of Johanna's graduation. He was so grumpy! And I'm more than sure that he doesn't remember anything that happened that morning, he was so out of it and I never heard him curse so much in all the time that I knew him.
Rhoan is gone now. Just me, Faine and Jordan are still sitting in the kitchen.
"Is this really happening?" Jordan whispers, "Can Ireland really be full of werewolves?"
We look at Faine.
"I've never seen, heard, or smelt a werewolf here in all the amount of time that I've been here."
"Do you think Sophia's father sent them? To take care of her? Or us?" Jordan asks.
"I don't know. But these are definitely not Jacob Black kinds of wolves. These have to be the real thing. As in, the kinds that ate Little Red Riding Hood." I reply.
"Little Red Riding Hood didn't get eaten." Faine and Jordan say confused.
"Well, I don't know what stories you've been reading but in mine she gets eaten."
And with that, the girls are done talking to me for the night.

That was three days ago...
Every free minute that I had was spent trying to learn more about these horrific creatures. But I also had to entertain Susan and Richard and I had to pretend to Johanna that everything was alright. I'm about to bring her into this dark world where everything goes bump in the night...no way in Hell am I going to make it even harder for her by telling her werewolves are real.
That evening Johanna came to me and said, "I need you to do me a favor."
And I said, "Of course."
I didn't realize it then but I had just said the words that drove the final nail into my coffin.
"Take Ryder and go out to dinner." She commands.
To say that I was surprised would be an understatement. I was shocked, and furious, and dumbfounded!
"You two are going to be brother-in-laws in 4 days! I need you to like him, or at least not mind him."
"But he's a-" I was going to say drug addict. But I thought about and I really didn't want to have a fight with her again, "He's impossible!"
"I'm paying for it. Just take him to the grill and bar in town, they have live music and beer, be nice and talk with him. I'm sure it will be fine."
Fine. What a word. But I won't give anything away just now.
So I unfortunately had the "great pleasure" of dining with Him tonight.
It was almost time for dinner so I was going downstairs to look for the little jerk.
But, as usual, I passed the bathroom. The light was on, the door was slightly open. I open it up and lo and behold! There is Ryder jamming a needle into his arm.
"What the Hell?! I thought I told you I better not ever catch you doing that in Faine's house ever again!"
"So stop coming in here all the time then! By the way, nice blue hair." He says with a smirk.
That- what an extremely impossible, sniveling, piece of shit of a human being!
"You put blue dye in my shampoo?" I was pissed.
"No shit Sherlock. Who else do you think would have done it?"
That little punk ass.
"God, your such a vampire!" He says.
I paused. A vampire? How could he have known? I-i was panicking.
"Why would you say something like that?" I ask calmly, not letting my facade slip.
"Because you suck the fun out of everything! Your no fun, your like a bajillion years older than my sister and your way to serious, to quiet."
Very observant. I am not serious! I might be the most lively person ever!
I look at the needle again, "We're about to go out to dinner."
"Well, I gotta get through it somehow." He replies and shoves past me.
I quickly find Johanna and tell her I won't do it. I will not go out to dinner with him.
"Why not?" She asks.
"He smells weird." I reply.
She gives me this blank stare, a stare that says 'are-you-kidding-me'.
"I will never let you forget this if you don't do it." She replies slowly. Each word is filled with rage.
"Fine." I grumble as I leave.
Ryder is sitting on his motorcycle, I have the keys to the car. I didn't ask him if he wanted to ride in the car. I wasn't going to. And even if I did, I knew he wouldn't accept my offer.
So I led him to the bar Johanna suggested. We sat by the stage and music was being blasted into our ears.
Ryder orders a beer. I ask for a glass of water and receive a weird look from the waitress.
The waitress comes back with our drinks and then takes our order. He orders like three deluxe cheeseburgers and I order a plain salad. Again, I receive a weird look from the waitress. I'm a vampire. I couldn't just eat nothing! So I had to order the smallest, plainest thing possible.
After she is gone I lean close to him and ask, "Should you be drinking after you...you know?"
I was referring to the drugs but I didn't want to say it out loud.
He laughed like I was stupid or something and ignored my question.
All I could think was that if something happens I was not going to put my fangs into his blood and ingest his drug and alcohol filled blood. I don't care if he's Johanna's favorite sibling, I WOULD NOT do it.
Our food came. Ryder finished all three of his burgers as if they were nothing. So then he orders a rack of ribs and then hot wings.
Now, he's a skinny kid and I was starting to wonder where all this food was going. But, Johanna also ate like that so I wasn't too worried.
He was finally done with all that food, I had been done with my salad for a while, and we were just listening to the music.
I don't know how to describe the mixture of thoughts and feelings that I had next...
A new waitress walked by to a different table and Ryder was watching her. As she walked past us again.....he howled. Not a lazy kind of raunchy kid howl. A real howl. Like he'd been doing it for years.
"Ryder?" I ask.
"Gabriel." He replies with a glint of fun in his eyes.
"We need to talk. Meet me out back in five minutes."
I left the table and walked around back. It was dark out and I was waiting to find out if Johanna's brother was a werewolf. And if he was...I was easy prey waiting for him in the alley.
-Gabriel