Howl by Brieanna Boyce (chrome ebook reader txt) 📖

me close and kissed my head, “Love Skylar, can hold the deepest of pain.” I sighed knowing this to be true.

Jessica sighed and grabbed my arm gently, “come with me I will make you a bath.” She led me gently to a large luxurious bathroom much like the one that was in Tristan’s home. I looked to Jessica as she filled up the tub with hot water and bubbles. I waited for her to leave but she didn’t she sat quietly on the toilet lid. I blushed, “uh….” Jessica sighed, “I’ll close my eyes if you like but I need to tell you something and I can only tell you in the privacy of the bathroom.”

“Can you please close your eyes than?” I said biting my lip, I never liked changing in front of others, even when I went to school and we would have to change in gym class I would take my clothes into the bathrooms and change in a stall, no sense of stripping in front of strangers if I didn’t have to.

She smiled and closed her eyes shutting the door simultaneously, “most vampires are not so modest.”

“I’m not most vampires,” I said hesitantly sinking into the searing hot water clumping the bubbles around my body. I wasn’t sure if being different was something I reveled in or something I loathed. Now that I thought about it I decided it wasn’t being different that I hated, I was quite proud of my individuality in my human years, in a way I still appreciated that quality, but the loneliness that individuality had cost me was a lofty price. It made it so that I couldn’t get close to anyone, I would always be forced away from those I’d cared for.

“Yes,” Jesse said smiling, interrupting my silent self evaluation. “You are quite different from other vampires, very different.”

I sank myself deeper into the water getting accustomed to the punishing water wanting to revel in it, wanting to disappear behind each bubble letting my muscles and my brain untwine until the very double helix of my DNA was disassembled so that I may forever float invisible in the water, so that I may break down and become a part of it.

“Lestat and I are not partners as he has claimed.” Jesse blurted out.

I sat up in surprise than blushed, relieved she still kept her eyes closed, “but you two seem so…”

“Close?” she said, “yes well we are in a way, we are getting closer, it is just that the wounds in Lestat’s soul have not completely healed.”

“What do you mean?” I inquired, curiosity prickling every fiber of my being.

“Well,” Jessica sighed, “That old queen we were just talking about, the Egyptian one, Akasha was her name, Lestat fell in love with her. She was killed.”

“Why’d you kill her?” I asked curiously.

“I didn’t kill her,” Jesse said, “I couldn’t do anything, it’s a little too complex to explain how she died, but she needed to die because she wanted to kill off 90% of the male population and ration how many there were from there on out. She thought it would create a Utopia.”

I couldn’t help it I burst into loud uncontrollable laughter, “What an idiot!” My speech was interrupted by another uncontrollable wave of giggles and Jesse looked at me in confusion. “If she thinks the extermination of men would make the world better than she is a moron, she obviously never went to high school! Women can be some of the most spiteful, vindictive creatures on the planet.”

Jesse smiled, “yes I suppose you’re right but don’t let Lestat hear that. He’s very sensitive about her; he still cannot bear to utter her name.”

I sighed more seriously, “I’m sorry you’re right it’s just…” I paused to more accurately collect my thoughts. “There’s this religion called Taoism which has a lot of ideals that I value, in fact I wouldn’t call it a religion so much as I would call it a principle, a possible philosophy if you will. It is based off the Chinese belief of yin and yang, the male and female energy which must be balance or the result is chaos.” I dipped my hair back in the water reveling in its warmth and comfort, “Now whether I believe there actually is a specific male and female energy at work in everything or not I do believe life is somewhat of a balancing act, that societies in general need balance to maintain order and if a balance cannot be maintain the result is chaos.”

“Chaos is unavoidable than,” she said her chin propped on her hand, her elbow leaning on her knee which was crossed over the opposite leg, the gesture very human. She looked at me in fascination which only excited me more into continuing the conversation.

“Perhaps,” I shrugged, “but chaos itself is a bringer of change and sometimes acts in bringing about balance. Balance will however always be shown, every action has an opposite and opposing reaction. For example every single movement has supporters and people who are against it. That is part of the balance. Somewhat like the balance an optimist and a pessimist bring to one another, I find that a lot of people try to shove optimism into our faces, however I find that without a pessimist optimists often get far too unrealistic and idyllic.”

Jesse smiled, “I see that’s quite fascinating, I wish the queen had been as open minded as you are.”

I sighed, “What was she like?”
“Oh,” Jesse frowned, “I am not the one to ask. I saw her but… I had just been changed, she… she had black fathomless eyes and raven black hair, her skin was a deep brown. She was the embodiment of beauty. Hers was a timeless beauty and her strength was astounding. Yet… it seemed she had a weakness for Lestat,” she smiled bitterly than, “most do, she cried as did he… they seemed to share a special bond. I never asked about it though, for fear of hurting him.”

I thought about it, “She must have been attracted to his ambition,” I said.

Jesse smiled, “and why would you say that?”

“Two reasons,” I said, “1 it’s an admirable quality and 2 if you can’t love his ambition than you could not love him, he’s the embodiment of hunger and ambition.”

Jesse laughed, “Both are very true.”

I looked at her and frowned, “but you two care about each other I know you do. You should be together.”

Jesse smiled, “We are both still healing and growing, someday maybe we will be but for now we are just going to go slow and heal over old wounds.”

I huffed, “I don’t even see how you can love a woman like that.”

Jesse shrugged, “I’m sure he had a reason, I think they were kindred spirits, two souls yearning. Besides ultimately what split them apart were morals. She was going one way and he could not follow that path, something I am very thankful for.”

I sighed and thought of Tristan, I think that was our ultimate issue too, I got out of the tub and wrapped a towel around me, too distracted by my own thoughts to be embarrassed. I pulled on the lever which activated the drain then I stepped out of the tub and sighed, “Thank you Jesse for confiding in me.”

Jesse smiled, her eyes glittering, “I could say the very same.”

I got up and left the room into my own and then when I walked into my bedroom the smell of earth and forest mingled the scent I associated with Kale. I looked around my room hopefully and for the third time today I was disappointed, perhaps slipping into insanity. Then I looked on my bed and I felt a small smile spread over my face. Folded there was my mother’s pink oversized sweater; I’d forgotten it at the apartment. I put on undergarments and then slipped on my mother’s sweater, I grabbed the collar bringing it to my nose and inhaling deeply. The scent was of lilacs, which was the scent of my mother, and the scent of forest and earth which was Kale. I collapsed on my bed and curled on my side, figuring that I would need a nap if I was to leave New York tonight. Somehow the sweatshirt made the separation from yet another home easier and soon I receded into a deep sleep.


Kale
I was relieved to find that Skylar still had the same morals; in fact in a lot of ways she was the same. I saw it in the way she walked, the expressions on her face, I could tell right away. She wasn’t turning her back on not drinking humans, in fact she reacted very much the same.

Something that did change was her relationship with that vampire Tristan. She was moving on from him, turning her back on him. However selfish it was of me to feel good, I couldn’t help it. I knew Skylar was suffering; she seemed to be anyway but when I brought her the pink sweatshirt to her she seemed pleased with that and as I was walking back to the factory I think I heard her mutter my name. I felt butterflies flutter in my stomach, and a grin spread slowly over my face.

However, I had to put that smile away, I had to head back to the factory, running at top speed I made it back in moments to see the whole pack standing at a circle, all of them a bit too leisurely for my liking.

Derek’s head immediately shot up, alert and focused. “Did you find who it was?” The rest of the pack looked at me all searching, their eyes always were.

I shook my head, “No my lead was wrong.” Everyone looked at each other in silence and in disbelief. They apparently thought it was impossible for me to mess up, before they could bombard me with questions I cleared my throat. “We have to leave now.” I looked around, 3 vampires killed and a human, even though usually killings like this in New York are common especially with vampires fighting over territory and prey. Usually however the disputes are of a more personal nature, with a touch for the dramatic, words written with blood, bodies hacked, things like that. Lately, (due to Skylar’s handy work) bodies of vampires are being destroyed or buried with a human finesse. Also vampires aren’t used to being so vulnerable, with this new “killer” that didn’t seem to care which vampire they killed whether they were boy or girl, whether they were 30 or 3,000. They would get a whiff of the death soon and we had to be far, far away by the time they got here.

I turned and ran the others following my lead back to the apartment we all sat down until I noticed something was wrong, we didn’t have everyone. Derek whipped his head around his dark eyes examining the room, “Jason?!” He called his voice full of alarm. Derek immediately moved faster than I’d ever seen him move circling the apartment searching desperately.

“Don’t panic,” I told Derek grabbing his arm, “we’ll find him I promise.”

“Shut up!” Derek shouted shrugging off my grip and retracing our steps back to the factory.

I followed behind him completely shocked, I had never seen this kind of behavior from him, and he was so focused his dark eyes intense. His features growing hard, it was now that I realized how little I