Hey Everyone,
So this is the completely edited version of
So, I'm Not a Vampire?
Thank you searchingforperfection for helping me edit the entire
So I'm Not a Vampire?
novellette. Thank you to my beta tester, Fanfare, for reading the entire Peaches series. Without you, I wouldn't have been able to work out those rough edges in the story. Thanks :)
Alright, last chapter everyone. Hope you like it!
-Rosi
***
Chapter Twelve: My Life In A Furry Nutshell
Five days. One work week. It was hardly any time in the grand scheme of it all. But in that time, my life and my death flipped 180. I couldn't even say I was Georgia Kent anymore. I guess she was the one who'd really died. No, I was just Peaches. Most times crazy, at times gullible, quick-to-anger Peaches. Now I'm Peaches the mystery girl with a vampire husband named Bane. Wow does that sound ... right.
Though I should probably add that I can read vampires' thoughts and spit acid. Just something new I've learned about myself. Well, that isn't true. I'd learned plenty: not to judge a book by its cover, stop thinking my life was a movie, and trust people.
I've never really trusted anyone. Not my family, not my ex-boyfriend, and not my co-workers. It's because at one point or another they screw up. But wasn't that all a part of it? Life and death, screwing up and making up.
My friend Karey says that life was a chapter in a big book. Just one. See, she believes in reincarnation and that every life is a new chapter, and death just means that you've graduated and learned whatever lesson was in that piece of your life.
I'd never believed her before. Partly because she'd said it when we were high as kites on some pretty solid weed. But that isn't the point. The point is she's right. This is a new chapter with new lessons I'm going to have to learn. It's an adventure, one that I'll grow and change on.
Look at me, sounding all adult and stuff. It almost makes me want to laugh.
Wait, why don't I laugh? Oh! I know why. It's because I'm still asle—
"
Habibi
, wake up." Bane's voice pulled me away from my self-realization dream and into warm arms.
I could still smell mold and sea, but it wasn't as overwhelming. I twisted my head and looked around. There were families around us and the sun was starting to set. I was curled up on Bane's lap, and to everyone else we probably looked like a couple cozying up.
I tried to sit up, but he held me down. I looked up and got another unguarded expression from Bane. His lids were lowered, his lips a straight line, and his skin was pale like he might have been sick. I stared for a second longer than smiled reassuringly. "I'm fine, Bane."
He leaned down and kissed my forehead, lingering for a second. "I know you are. I could hear your dreams."
Oh. "Is that another vampire talent?"
He shook his head. I could see the answer as clear as day in his brown eyes: it was a Peaches talent.
I didn't ask how he'd gotten to me or how I looked. I didn't over-analyze the tenderness I felt in his arms. I knew I'd deal with that later. In the meantime, I decided to make a mental list of all the things I'd been shoving into one mental box or another because I wasn't ready, or didn't want to deal with them. Marrying Bane was high on that list, partly because he'd said that he could've found another way to get me out of there. And I'd been wondering why he wouldn't have a contingency plan if I ended up fucking everything up like I did. Or was marriage to me that contingency plan? I found it hard to believe that a—I paused. Frowned. How was it that I still didn't know how old Bane was?—bunch-of-years-old vampire didn't expect humans to mess things up and therefore have back-up plans for his back-up plans.
Which pretty much brought me to the next thing on my list: figuring out who Bane was and what he wanted. My list was pretty much about Bane with the occasional "see if other supernatural beings exist" and "find out who was trying to collect me" thrown in there. Further down the massive list that even Santa Claus would have blanched at was finding out more about my genealogy and what my parents were, or still are. Could my mom spit acid? Could my dad read vampire minds?
I snuggled closer to Bane and realized I was covered with one of his jackets. It was nice, kept me grounded in the moment. "One of these days, we're going to sit down and make a list of vampire powers and my powers, and than we're going to talk about
everything
that's happened."
He kissed my head, neither a yes or a no. I let it slide because one, I was still kind of freaked out by the whole near-death-again thing, and two, we had plenty of time to talk about it in the future; we were leg-shackled together, after all. We sat in silence for awhile, enjoying the fading warm breeze. My cheek still stung from Ariel's slaps, and I was a little miffed that my new powers didn't include super healing. Thank goodness she hadn't broken a bone.
"You're healing much faster than a normal person, Peaches."
Was I? Didn't feel like it. But then again, I wondered if Ariel had slapped me with her vamp strength or toned it down. From the look on Bane's face, it was the former. As an afterthought, I asked, "What happened to Ariel?"
His arms tightened around me. "Ariel is dead."
I sighed softly against his chest as I ran my hands over the soft cotton of Bane's button-down. This time I wasn't surprised. I could see Bane murdering anyone who tried to hurt me. I was his wife, and from what I've seen—and yes, read—vampires were territorial creatures. Still, I wondered if him killing the vamp bitch had really been the best course of action.
"Aren't you going to get in some kind of trouble for killing her?" I asked, more out of curiosity and concern for Bane than anything else.
I didn't assume there was a vampire rulebook, because, well, me and preconceptions weren't doing so well together. Bane was silent for a second before he spoke through his teeth. "
