Caylee's Confessions (Caylee's Confessions Series) Read online

  Before I knew it, my feet started running towards them—before my brain could even process what I was about to do. I just knew I couldn’t watch as this thing killed them. What I was thinking? It was too late now to go back, for as soon as I took those first steps, the thing heard me and snapped its attention my way, making me come to a halt. When its eyes met mine, I froze as I felt a shiver run up my spine. What the fuck was I going to do? The plan had been for me to just go and watch.

  “HAHAHAHHA,” I heard the thing laugh again. “I can see from your face that I’m the first vampire you have ever met. Pity for you—your stupid friends shouldn’t have brought you here. They at least knew what they were getting into, but the look on your face tells me you did not.”

  “No, I didn’t,” came out of my mouth. Was I really talking to this thing?

  “I’m surprised you can even speak…bravery, maybe? Entertaining, I’ll admit. Maybe I’ll even let you become my blood slave, since you dare to speak to me like you have the right to stand before me. Yes, that sounds good. I think I’ll kill your friends and make you my slave.” He laughed.

  “I’m not really good at house chores, so I don’t think I’d make a good slave,” I said, still without thinking. But I somehow knew I had to keep him distracted while my brain rambled on for a solution.

  “So I’ve not only found a brave fool, but a smartass as well?” the thing asked, and I watched him slightly bring up his left foot, indicating he was done with my distractions, and was about to pounce. I felt my fingers tighten around my stake, and watched as he ran at me at a speed that I barely processed. I screamed the whole time he came at me, but made my eyes focus on his chest. It was actually the only thing I focused on. Something I would never do now, but that was all I could think about. When he was a foot from me, I threw up my stake, putting it into his chest that I had been so heavily concentrating on, and I felt his body crash into mine. My head slammed into the cement behind me, and everything went black.

  Chapter 3

  Altered

  I awoke to Kevin screaming my name and shaking my body. “What…What…” creaked out of my mouth. I then, slowly, forced my eyes open and saw all of the book club members staring at me in shock. “How long was I out?” I asked.

  “About ten minutes.” Kevin laughed. “Is that really all you’re concerned about?” he asked, smiling from ear to ear. “Caylee, you just saved all of our lives…”

  “I, what?” I asked as my lovely memories of what just transpired flashed back to me, and informed me of why I was on the ground. “What the fuck was that?” I mumbled as I slowly lifted my body to stand. My head was throbbing from the knot that had just been placed in the back of my skull.

  “That was your first vampire killing!” shouted Alice from my left.

  “So you weren’t kidding about this not being a book club?” I asked.

  “No, definitely not,” she said.

  “Well, that’s good, because I don’t really like reading…” I said as I tried rubbing my temples to make the headache go away.

  “I’m so sorry, Caylee. You weren’t supposed to be involved just yet. I just wanted you to be there so you would believe. I underestimated this vampire. I didn’t know he was an empyreal. I would have never brought anyone if I had known,” Kevin rambled.

  “What is an empyreal?” I wanted to know.

  “Yeah, well, we hadn’t had the time to explain that part, but there are different kinds of vamps. This one was one of the worst to face,” Kevin explained.

  “You can tell by their eyes what kind they are,” Stacy said as she flashed Kevin an accusing look. They then enlightened me on how vampires, depending on age and skill, were ranked. The lowest rank was the amateur level. These were freshly made or born vampires. They had little skill, but still had super strength, and other things that were superb to human abilities. The next levels, in order of rank, were: rookie, knight, judicial, empyreal, and royal. Empyreals and royals were the “top dogs.” They told me that I should never face an empyreal alone, and if I ever saw a royal, run the fuck away, as they were near impossible to kill.

  “I’m so sorry,” he pleaded to Stacy. “The lighting had to have been funky. I thought he was an amateur. You know I would have never…”

  “She knows that…” Alice chimed in.

  “It doesn’t change the fact that my wrist—and now Scott’s arm—is broken,” Stacy shouted. “It’ll take months before we can go out full-force again.”

  “More time to train Caylee,” said Scott softly, trying to mediate the situation.

  “Yes, Scott is right. Let’s look at it like that. This was definitely scary, but we’ll learn from it. What a good first kill for Caylee to have on her record.” She didn’t bring up the fact that it only happened out of sheer dumb luck, and the vampire way underestimated me. But, hey, I was alive and the vampire was not. One point for Caylee, zero for the vampire.

  Things carried on like this for four years. They taught me everything there was to know about undeads. Like our vows said, we really all did become a family—a naïve, stupid family, thinking we could remain a large group and successfully take on the undead. We trained, studied, and even came up with a sweet hunting party name: ‘The Dukes.’

  Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter. We probably would have been better off to break apart and hunt on our own, but we thought the group unity made us stronger. In the end, it would be our demise.

  Chapter 4

  Graduation Present

  It was the Friday after the day I finally graduated from college. How did I do it? I didn’t know, for I was so busy the past four years hunting the undead, that I barely made half my classes. Kevin insisted I have a backup plan though.

  Killing undeads didn’t bring in any cash, so I chose to get a degree in Communications with a minor in Marketing. Kevin said the communications part would help me to better read people, so I would be able to tell if they were a vampire, since vamps only showed their eye color while in distress or while feeding—or so they thought.

  This was somewhat correct, but some vamps, especially the higher levels, showed it all the time, because they were proud.

  Anyway, I had graduated, and the family decided we should all take a night off from the hunt to celebrate. We all went out to dinner and got pretty wasted, laughing and re-telling our favorite ‘book club’ stories.

  I barely remember getting in the taxi for the ride home. I awoke in my bed, hoping everyone had made it home safe. I dialed Kevin’s number but got no answer. He must have gotten a worse hangover than me, which was usually the case. As I recalled from the night before, we were fumbling our address to the taxi driver, but he seemed to understand drunk talk quite well.

  Not thinking anything more of it, I went back to sleep with the thought of how Kevin liked to lie in bed awhile, after a night of drinking.

  When I woke up later that night, I checked my phone to see if Kevin had called back. There were no missed calls from anyone. I remember feeling a slight ping in my gut, but I ignored it as I tried dialing Kevin again and again. After seven calls, I finally got through.

  “Hello?” answered a faint- and weak-sounding Kevin. Phew, crossed my mind as I waited for the sick feeling in my gut to go away, but it didn’t.

  “Are you okay?” I asked him.

  “Not really, not feeling like myself. I’m going to be in all night. I think I’m sick, like not just hangover sick, maybe mono or something,” said Kevin’s weak voice.

  “Do you want me to come over and take care of you?” I offered as I got up, phone in hand. He loved it when I took care of him while he was hung-over. In earlier times in our relationship, after a long night, we would spend the whole next day just lounging around, ordering movies and greasy delivery food.

  “No,” he said abruptly, stopping me as I was putting my shoes on.

  “What?” I stuttered out, being completely thrown back by his answer.

  “No, I just seriously feel really awf
ul. I can’t come out today, and probably not tomorrow either. I think it’s more than a hangover. I just feel awful.” I remember thinking I had heard a slight chuckle in the background, but I brushed it off. There was no possible way he would have anyone over if he didn’t even want me over.

  “Okay…” I paused, still unsure of what to say. “Call me when you feel better, I guess.”

  “Oh I will, definitely. I can promise you that,” he said, sounding not as sick as he previously had, but his voice was still off—more cold actually, and he hung up without a ‘bye.’

  The way he was acting was so weird, but I eventually convinced myself we had just had way too much to drink. I made a self-note to never do it again, because it wasn’t fun waiting for your boyfriend to recover from a hangover.

  For two days, I just sat on my couch and waited, watching anything that was on HBO, until I got his call. It came on Monday night around six. I picked up the phone after its first ring. Pathetic really, but I was so into Kevin that I didn’t even care.

  “Hi,” I said eagerly, so happy he’d finally called.

  “Hello, Caylee,” he said, sounding still a little deeper and edgier. He must still have a slight cold, I thought.

  “Are you feeling better? I’ve missed you,” I said.

  “Yes, actually. The best I’ve ever felt. I’m sorry I haven’t called. I just was feeling so weak, but all the weakness is gone from my body now.” He chuckled.

  “Okay,” I said, unsure of what he meant. I was upset that he hadn’t said he had missed me back.

  “Yes, anyway…” He paused. “I’m calling a meeting tonight. I’ve already let everyone else know, and we’re going to meet at Alice’s new place again,” he ordered.

  “Did you want to drive together?” I asked, more like begged. I wanted to see him. “I could swing by your house and take us both there.” I really wanted a pre-meeting that involved only the two of us.

  “Uh, I can’t. I’ve got to get things prepared. See, I’ve found out something so awesome that, well, I don’t want to say too much.” He laughed. “It’ll ruin the surprise, but I’ll see you at eight.”

  He again hung up on me without a ‘goodbye,’ like the other day. The surprise he had planned better be worth his shortness to me, because it was making the pit of my stomach twist in small knots.

  Well, surely after the meeting, he would want to come over to make it up to me, I thought. It only took a few glances around to realize my apartment was kind of messy. I didn’t have much stuff, so it didn’t take long to straighten up. I’d always vowed I would go to the store and find cute stuff to make it look girly, but that never happened, so that left my apartment with the bare necessities: a black, wrap-around couch, a big-screen TV, and a king size bed in the bedroom. I didn’t bother painting either, as if I did, I was told I’d have to repaint it when I left, so I left it in the eggshell-white it had come in. For a dining table, I used TV dinner trays, figuring I’d never host fancy dinner parties there. The only really personal item I had, besides my clothes, was a picture of my grandmother on the TV stand. It was always embarrassing when I brought my fellow hunters over, as it always looked like I’d ‘just moved in,’ but I was over it, and in situations like this, it was a quick and easy clean up. So, as fast as possible, I vacuumed and did a quick wash-up of the place. When I finished, I remember looking up at the clock. It was seven-ten and I still had to get ready. I hadn’t seen him in three days; I wanted to look at least halfway decent.

  I took a quick, fifteen-minute shower, blew dry my hair, splashed his favorite perfume on me, threw on my face, and walked out the door. I practically ran to my car, knowing that I was probably running late. The car clock on my radio verified this. It was eight-fifteen. Good thing the place was so close. I would only be like a half-hour late.

  I arrived at Alice’s place to see everyone’s car in the parking lot. Great—I was the last to arrive. Oh well, they would all expect it from me; I made it a habit of coming in casually late.

  Alice’s new home wasn’t huge but definitely gave us more room to work with than her dorm had. I walked up the cracked, concrete steps and was about to knock on the door, but it was already cracked open, which was strange. I normally would give a slight knock and then just walk in, but, well, I guess someone had forgotten to close the door. My gut began to tingle as I slowly creaked open the door more, hoping I wouldn’t break up an intense convo, if they were having one.

  One step inside and I saw no one. It was actually pitch-black. From memory, I knew I was in her hallway. They had to be upstairs, because I couldn’t hear anything. As I went to reach for the lights, I felt my shoe step into something sticky. Ewe, gross. I figured it must have been from her new pug puppy. I slid my hand along the left side of the hallway, for I knew the main set of lights for the whole downstairs was at the end of the hallway, before you entered the kitchen. My fingers finally found the switches in the darkness. I flipped on the lights and immediately looked down to observe what I had stepped in. It was not brown like I’d expected, but a deep, dark-red—blood red. My eyes wandered back to the door, and it was then that I witnessed the worse sight my eyes, still to this day, had seen. The dog poo I thought I had stepped in was blood—all over the hallway floor and walls.

  “What the hell?” I murmured out loud, grabbing my stake from my waist band, before turning to the kitchen. I screamed as I saw Alice’s lifeless body sprawled out on the kitchen island. Her eyes were wide open in horror but still and motionless.

  The blood dripping from her body covered the side of the island, making it look cherry-red. I crept further into the kitchen, stake in hand, and moved slowly towards the island she lay on, opening my ears to listen for any movement of whoever had done this. I gently placed my hand over her neck, when I reached her body, and felt two marks that I knew would be there.

  Where was everyone else? It took one more step into the kitchen to see into the living room, where Stacy sat on the loveseat, almost as if she were watching TV. That was, until you saw that her own stake lay in her heart, and the slit at the base of her throat had stained her white blouse.

  At the base of the loveseat was Scott, who appeared to have suffered the quickest death. His head was at Stacy’s feet, while his torso and arms were coming out of the fireplace. The other half of him had probably already burned.

  I was so shocked, and I began hyperventilating as my breaths became shorter and shorter, when a thought flashed in my mind. Where were Carrie and Kevin? Oh god, if Kevin, oh god. The thought made me grip my stake tighter as I then proceeded in the other direction, toward the dining room.

  There was nothing there but broken glass from a struggle. I then came back to the hallway. They had to be upstairs.

  I took deep, quick breaths with each step, and it felt as if time seemed to stop. It wasn’t until I reached the top of the stairs that I heard a familiar gulping sound. It was still here. How hadn’t it heard my scream?

  My question was answered as I opened the door to see a naked Carrie, pinned to the bed, with a blond vampire at her neck, drinking as it pile drived her center.

  “WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!” I screamed. This thing was fucking and drinking, from a definitely dead Carrie, at the same time. It looked up at me, being temporarily thrown off by my scream. I fainted at the sight of its face.

  I awoke to a familiar voice calling my name.

  “Caylee, Caylee. Awaken, please.”

  I knew this voice. I opened my eyes to see Kevin, with his back turned towards me.

  “Thank god.” I let out a sigh.

  “You’ll never guess what dream I just…” And I was interrupted as he turned around to show me his beautiful face that always made me stir, but this was not his normal face. He had additions, like bright-red rimmed eyes, and fangs. His new dentistry made my mind flash to the events I had just seen. This was no dream.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” I screamed, and as fast as I could, ran for the door. I tried to turn the handle
, when I felt Kevin slam his body onto mine, pushing me into the door.

  “No, no, no, no, no.” I was hysterical, balling, and not able to process what was really happening. He grabbed my hands and forcefully turned me around so fast, I thought I would suffer from whiplash. I made my watery eyes stare at the ground. He couldn’t have…he wasn’t….this was not possible… kept running over and over in my mind.

  “Not looking at me doesn’t change the reality of this,” Kevin said. “Now, look at me and what I’ve become. Observe how strong I am now—no longer with human weakness or error,” he said proudly.

  “No,” I cried.

  “LOOK AT ME,” he screamed, and I felt a smack across my face so hard that my skin broke and began to bleed. I looked up to see his eyes glaring at me.

  “Sorry I had to do that. You know I don’t like hurting you, my love,” he said, making bile rise in my stomach. “You’re not mad about Carrie, are you? You see, it’s not my fault. I wanted to only fuck you while I fed, but you were late. I couldn’t fight the urge. She was practically dead seconds into it, anyway.” The bile rose to my throat.

  “Why…?” I stuttered out.

  “Why, what? Oh, the whole vamp thing? Well, on my taxi ride home the other night, I saw a stirring going on down an alley, so I told the cabby to stop. Best thing I’d ever done really…” He paused. “As you can see though, it turned out not to be a ruckus at all, just two vampires arguing. I tried to fight them at first, and they were so impressed with my fighting that they decided to give me life, Caylee. They said they had some new war coming up and I could become a part of it. I could fight with them!” he said with excitement. “You can’t imagine how wonderful this feels—to not be of weak human blood any longer. My senses are triple what they used to be. It’s amazing.” He smiled, letting his fangs fully hang out, making me lose my mind. I needed to get my head straight, or I’d die, I thought, as he continued rambling on about how great it was to be a vampire. I knew I needed to distract him and find out what he was going to do with me, so I could at least try to get away, or kill him. No… I couldn’t even ponder doing that. I thought of how I could kill him, since I loved him.