A/N: Sorry for missing yesterday's chapter, I had an appointment with the doc, and the medication he gave me, left me groggy for the whole day.
[Blood Diary Entry]
As I lie quietly in the backseat, I think back to the last couple of days.
After leaving the ghoul-infested city behind, things have been suspiciously very quiet. Of course, I could chalk it up to good luck… But after the red flag that Rebekah graciously gave us, I'm not inclined to do it.
There is an almost imperceptible feeling—like a pin prick on the back of my neck—that won't go away.
We spent the last couple of days on the road, and no aberrations of any sort have come to bother us.
This is exactly a 'calm before the storm' scenario, if I have ever seen one.
Or maybe I am just being paranoid…
Rebekah and Mother are cheerfully discussing fashion and other topics that I can't help but find dreadfully boring. Yet I am happy they are getting along, as I had never seen my mom have any 'friends' in my eight years of life.
Rebekah is probably the same, now that I think about it.
Behind the steering wheel, Rebekah notices me watching and smiles. "Sweet dreams?" She asks.
I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders as I felt them a bit stiff. "It was a good rest," I answer somewhat awkwardly.
Rebekah tilts her head, and my mother looks at me curiously.
"Where are we?" I ask.
"About thirty or twenty minutes away from Philadelphia," Rebekah replies.
"Do you have anything to do in the city?"
She shrugs. "Not really… It's just that we are running low on fuel, and we need to fill up the tank."
"Should be quick enough…" I mutter underneath my breath.
Rebekah nods and gets her full attention back towards the road.
I sit up and go to the left side of the car, resting my head against the door.
The scenery blurs and blends as we speed towards yet another city.
Absentmindedly, I raise my hand and start playing with my flames. As a white blaze twirls and coils around my fingers.
Mother scowls. "Darian, no fire inside the car!"
I flinch a little bit, and I clench my hand tightly, extinguishing the flame in the process. "Sorry."
She nods and goes back to chatting with Rebekah.
I smirk inwardly and raise my hand again.
Only this time, darkness and shadows dance in my palms, with no shape in particular.
"Darian…" My mother narrowed her eyes.
I tilt my head innocently. "What? This is not fire, is it?"
Mother raises her hand and shakes her head.
I chuckle and keep twirling the darkness in my hand in a playful manner.
The black mass starts taking the most varied shapes as I let my thoughts wander.
A snake, then an eagle, a plane, a lion, and finally a bat. Ironically, it's the bat shape that lingers the longest.
Mother—though still annoyed—watches with curious fascination. Her eyes twinkle with every new shape.
Minutes pass by, as we get closer and closer to our final stop—before reaching New York. The pleasant hum of the car soothes my nerves and makes the wait a bit more bearable.
Rebekah drums her fingers on the steering wheel, at times looking at me through the rear-view mirror, before turning her gaze away in the next second.
This oddly cute and strange behavior persists for a minute or so before I hear her melodious voice again. "Darian…" She trails off, her voice a mixture of curiosity and shyness.
'Why the hell is she being shy?' I wonder to myself.
"Yes?"
"Before, when I asked if you had 'sweet dreams', you answered evasively. Why is that?"
I blink a couple of times. "That's what has you all shy?" I ask incredulously.
Rebekah looks away. "It's- It's just strange to notice these things, no?"
Mother giggles, and I shake my head a bit before resting it on my palms. "It just means you're paying attention. I guess."
Mother interjects with a teasing tone. "That's an oddly cute side for the scary Original Vampire," her smile grows a bit. "You're not living up to your family's reputation right now." She quips.
Rebekah looks away. "You didn't answer my question, Darian."
Mother leans closer to her. "Running away, are we?"
I chuckle. "Yeah, I answered that way intentionally."
Mother stops her teasing as her attention perks up.
"And why is that?" Rebekah asks, all the while she gives me a thankful look for having spared her from my mother's teasing.
"It's because of what you said."
"Hm? What do you mean? I said something wrong?" She tilts her head, and a cute frown runs across her face.
"No. Nothing like that. It's just that you asked," I raise my hands and make quotation marks in the air. "If I had 'sweet dreams'."
"And what's the problem with that?"
"I can't dream."
The car dives into stunned silence.
"What do you mean, you can't dream?" Mother asks carefully.
"I mean, I am physically incapable of having dreams," I answer.
"But you can sleep." Rebekah points out.
"Indeed, I can."
During our conversation, the city of Philadelphia draws closer.
"Then why can't you dream? What does that even mean?" Mother asks worriedly.
"It's just how my kind works," I reply. "We can't actually get to the state of sleep where the mind starts to produce dreams."
"Why?" Rebekah questions.
"Because of a sort of defense mechanism. Our brain doesn't go into 'REM sleep' so that we can remain vigilant even as we are asleep."
"Why? You're immensely powerful, and almost nothing can harm you. Why do you even need that?"
I shrug. "I don't really have an answer for that… other than my species was sort of 'designed' to be the apex of evolution. Thus, we sort of cover all of the basis we possibly could. Though that also isn't an exactly accurate answer, it is ultimately the best answer I can offer."
"Weird…" Rebekah mutters.
"I know," I reply, before my tone eases into a more playful one. "I'm afraid I have ruined any plans to prank me in my sleep by default. Sorry to be a bummer."
She giggles. "Who says I need you to be asleep?"
"We are here," Mother says as we enter the city. "Any particular gas station you want to go to?"
"No. Any gas station will do." Rebekah answers.
I lean over towards the window, watching the city.
Before long, we find a gas station, and Rebekah drives towards it.
"I'll handle the refilling, if you want." Mother offers.
Rebekah looks over and shrugs. "If that's what you want."
As we all got out of the car, the smell immediately hit me.
My mouth starts salivating, and a rumbling growl echoes inside my chest.
Mother looks at me worriedly. "What is it, Darian? Another ghost? A monster?" She asks nervously.
Rebekah, though, understands perfectly what was happening to me. Yet she seemed unaffected—oddly enough. "No, Isolde. There is no monster… we are in the middle of the day."
"Then what's happening?"
"Blood. Darian is smelling blood." Rebekah answered somberly.
Mother looks over to me, and with great difficulty, I barely turn away from the direction of the scent to nod in agreement with Rebekah's words.
The smell was sickly sweet, utterly entrancing. Like nothing I had ever smelled before.
My hand was shivering, and I could barely hold myself back from running towards the scent.
My vision is overwhelmed by red hues, and I feel my teeth elongating into sharp fangs.
There was only one word I could use to describe what I was smelling.
"Divine…"