Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (top ten ebook reader TXT) 📖

 KALE THEN SHIFTED a bit in his seat as he turned to Caroline and spoke again, “There’s just one more thing I don’t get…”

“Yeah?” Caroline responded.

“If Dagon has been doing this whole ‘take over the world with hybrids’ thing, where did I fit into all of it?”

“What do you mean?” Caroline had a bit of hesitation to her voice as she answered.

“Well, I’m not a hybrid.  Jay, and Aaron, and basically everyone in his brood are hybrids except I wasn’t.  Why is that?  If I was someone he was training to basically be his protégé, why wasn’t I a hybrid too?”  There was a long pause after Kale asked his question.  Nora looked over at Caroline who was now looking down at her lap and wringing her hands.

“Caroline?” Kale attempted to get her attention again.

Finally Caroline looked up but she had a small amount of sadness written across her face. “Kale…I don’t really know how to say this…”

“So just say it,” Kale demanded.

“Maybe we should talk about this privately…”

“No,” Kale commanded again, “Whatever you have to tell me you can say in front of Nora.”

“But, Kale…”

“You can say it in front of Nora,” he angrily repeated.

It was then that Caroline let out a huge sigh and looked away for a moment as she nervously rubbed her arm.  It was quiet for a few beats again and then Kale angrily shouted, “Caroline, tell me!”

“O.k.!” Caroline shouted back. “Look…the thing is…” she then anxiously started before she then blurted out, “You were supposed to be a hybrid.”

Kale had a look of confusion on his face.  “What?” he asked.

“You were supposed to be a hybrid, Kale,” Caroline repeated, “That was always the plan.  Dagon sought you out.  He found you, like he finds all his candidates that he heals.  You seemed like an individual who had the potential to have a unique hybrid ability and he wanted you for his brood.  So he did what he does for all his hybrids.  He sends some of his expendable vampire lackeys out to attack the person, injure them, and then he conveniently shows up to ‘save’ them.  He tells them he’s going to save their life.  As long as they promise to do everything he asks of them.”

Nora immediately thought back to when she had been confronted with Dagon just the night before as she listened to Caroline’s words.  She had remembered how charming Dagon had been, and how easy it almost was for her to believe him; probably because he’d said that speech so many times before.

“Except this time,” Caroline continued on, “His minions fucked up and accidentally turned you.  One of them was a fledgling I think.  He couldn’t control himself.  So…instead of completely giving up on you, Dagon decided to still recruit you.  He saw potential in you and even though you weren’t a hybrid like he wanted, he still planned to use you.”  Caroline looked over at Kale who was no longer looking at her but looking down at the ground in front of him. “I think that’s why Dagon was always so mad about you leaving…” she then added, “Because you were the only one he couldn’t completely control.  And I think that’s always really bugged him.”

It was quiet for what seemed like ages as Caroline and Nora looked over at Kale who continued to sit in complete silence.  Caroline then got up the courage to say something. “Kale?” she asked him sympathetically.

“So…what you’re saying…” Kale then responded in a somewhat sharp tone, “Is that my dad died…because of some plan that Dagon had?  That it was all just some elaborate set up to get me to join him?  And that’s why he was torn to pieces by some vampire?  Is that what you’re telling me?”

Caroline swallowed nervously as she then responded softly, “Yes.”

Kale sat for a few more quiet seconds.  Nora noticed his left food tapping nervously on the floor as he sat, not looking at either of them still.

“Kale…” Nora now decided to say, but instead of a verbal response, Kale decided to jump up and swing his right arm around and forcefully knock the lamp that was sitting on the table next to him to the floor, causing it to crash.  It also made Nora and Caroline jump.

“God damn it!!!” Kale screamed as he then ran his hands through his hair in frustration.

“Kale!” Caroline declared.

“Is anything I do not decided for me?!” he shouted again, looking back and forth at both Nora and Caroline.  Neither of them knew how to respond so they didn’t. “Am I just some kind of fucking puppet?!” Kale then continued to angrily yell, “Are any of my actions or what I choose to do not apart of some fucking plan?!  Can I even do anything without it being pre-determined by Dagon?!!  Or is it true that he just has complete control over my life and I can’t do a fucking thing about it?!!”  He paced back and forth in the living room as Nora and Caroline just kept sitting and looking up at him quietly.

“I can’t be in here,” he suddenly stated as he then quickly began to walk out of the room.

“Kale, wait!” Nora then shouted after him but he ignored her and after he hastened up the stairs all she and Caroline then heard was the slamming of a door.

Nora didn’t hesitate but stood up from the couch. “I need to go talk to him,” she stated.

“He’s not going to want to talk,” Caroline responded.

“I know.  But he needs to,” Nora said as she then also went up the stairs and eventually made it to Kale’s room door.  She then wasted no time in knocking. “Kale?  It’s me, Nora,” she specified.

“Go away,” was the angry response she heard from behind the door.  She, however, ignored it and opened the door anyway.

“Come on, you need to talk about this,” Nora instructed as she entered.

“No I really don’t,” Kale sat on his bed with his back facing her.

“Yes, you do,” Nora now demanded.

“Get out of here, Nora.”

Nora sighed as she sat next to him on the couch. “Of all the times I didn’t want to talk about something and you made me, it’s now my turn to make you.  Talk to me.”

However, Kale said nothing.  He just continued to sit, not looking at her, an angry frown on his face.

“I promise you I can help.  I understand how you feel,” Nora then comfortingly tried to coax, “I know what it’s like to find something out that turns your whole world upside down.  To find out that someone you thought you knew wasn’t who you knew at all.  And how it can make you feel insignificant…”

“How could you possibly know how that feels?” Kale begrudgingly responded.

Nora sighed. “You want to know the real reason I don’t talk about my parents at all?”

Kale now perked up just a small bit and looked over at Nora.  Once she saw he was giving her attention, she continued, “It’s because they didn’t love me.”

“Nora…” Kale now said to her, “Just because they weren’t around because of work…”

“No,” Nora shot him down, “No.  It wasn’t because of work.  They really didn’t love me.” She looked at Kale’s face which seemed to still be showing interest and so she kept going. “I found out when I was eight.  I had been at Will’s house again, while my parents were still working on his mom; trying to find a cure for her.  They had come up from the basement and we were about to go home so I was told to get my stuff so we could leave.  I had gotten my shoes on and everything and on my way back I heard Will’s dad yelling.  I thought maybe I had gotten in trouble for something so I waited in the hallway behind a corner while I listened.

“Basically, he was tearing into my parents about neglecting me and not spending time with me.  How I was their only daughter and I was growing up without them, etc.  They tried to respond with excuses about work and other things but Will’s dad just kept getting onto them.  Finally, they came out with it; with the truth.  They said it wasn’t their fault that they were dropped this accident.  How I wasn’t planned and what were they supposed to do when they had such important work to be done?  Also went on to say that since adoption now a days wasn’t really in operation any more, they were doing what they could with the bad situation they were given.  Will’s dad went on to chastise them for saying such things about their only daughter and how I didn’t deserve parents like them and so on.  I didn’t really listen much past that because my world had just been turned around.” Nora now looked down at her lap and fiddled with her own hands.  She could feel Kale looking at her the whole time.

“For years I had this fantasy that my parents were these…heroes.  That they couldn’t do any wrong and they were these perfect people who loved me so much but their duties to saving the world were just more important and I was always o.k. with being pushed to the wayside because of it.  I guess every kid thinks they’re parents are super heroes at some point.  But then I was hit with the ultimate realization that that wasn’t true.  That what was real was that they didn’t love me.  And they didn’t want me.  And they were just…putting up with me because I was there.” She now decided to look up at Kale who she noticed had a slight sympathetic look on his face as he looked back at her.

“When I turned ten and they died…” Nora continued, “I didn’t care at all.  I felt nothing.  I sat through their whole funeral not shedding a single tear.  In all honestly I was glad they were gone.  And the vampire that killed them…I couldn’t be mad at.  I can never be mad at.  That vampire gave me a life.  It took away parents that hated me and gave me ones that loved me.  Now that my parents were gone I was free to be with Will and his dad; with people who actually cared about me.”

“Nora…I’m so sorry…” Kale started to quietly say.

“It’s o.k.” Nora reassured, “But I want you to know that I get it.  Dagon used you.  You kind of always knew that but you found out he used you even more than you ever could have known.  That he was pulling your strings even before he had met you.  And that’s terrifying.  Everything you thought you knew is wrong.  You’re dad’s death, you becoming a vampire, everything.  I get it…I know how that must feel.  I really do.”

Kale sighed and shook his head frustratingly. “I just can’t believe it.  That all that, even what happened with me and Caroline was all just part of his plan.  He planned my dad’s death, he made Caroline leave me.  He’s done so many things to try to manipulate me and have me do exactly what he wants me to do.”

“But he hasn’t succeeded,” Nora then interjected.  Kale looked back at her interestedly. “He messed up,” she continued, “He didn’t get to make you a hybrid like he wanted.  It’s like Caroline said, you are the one thing he hasn’t been able to control.  No matter how hard he’s tried he hasn’t been able to get you to do what he wants.  And that infuriates him!  You have to use that, Kale.  Use that to get back at him for all the shit he’s done.”

Kale then let out a small smile and lightly chuckled under his breath.  “Thanks Nora,” he then spoke.

“This is why I’m here,” Nora responded, giving