Chapter 9

Tabatha watched while Lisa sat on the floor with Ethan. At the ripe old age of four, Lisa was only a year older than Tabatha’s son. But she wasn’t the same species. The vampire species evidently matured, at least physically, at around five years of age. Lisa looked (and acted) like a bratty fifteen-year-old girl.

Tabatha had figured out how to get Béla’s daughter to behave while she babysat her. She’d bring Ethan with her and just let Lisa take care of him. Lisa loved little Ethan like he was her favorite doll. Right now, Lisa was mind-linked with Ethan, teaching him numbers.

There was a sound upstairs. Tabatha cast out with her mind. ‘Béla? Is that you?’

“Lisa,” Tabatha said, trying to remain calm. “Watch Ethan for me, will you? Guard him. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“You think I can’t hear you two talk? Mom’s not that good at focusing her thoughts...”

“‘Stay here with Ethan. Please?”

Lisa paused.

‘Please? I worry about him.’

‘Okay, ‘ Lisa thought into Tabatha’s mind, putting a lot of sullen attitude into that simple thought.

Tabatha closed her eyes and vanished, teleporting directly to Jake and Béla’s bedroom instead of taking the time to run her body up the staircase. Holding her body in the teleportation zone for a second, she quickly scanned the room to make sure she didn’t materialize where Béla or Tanya might be located, then she was there.

“Holy K-rap! What happened to her?” Tabatha whispered, staring down at Tanya.

Tanya was lying naked on the bed. There was dried blood between her legs and a partially healed gash in the top of her shoulder right next to her neck. The image appeared directly from Tanya’s subconscious mind of what had made it. Tanya seemed to think the rod was still in there.

“How did it change direction like that?” Tabatha asked, looking at the image in Tanya’s unconscious mind and at the damage inside her body.

“I diverted it,” Béla told her. “It would’ve gone right up through her neck and out the top of her head otherwise. It happened so fast that she didn’t even realize she was being killed. I’m making some changes in her anatomy so that if something like this happens again and I’m not around, it won’t kill her.”

“What kind of changes?” Tabatha wanted to know.

“Well, the main change I’m making is in that big artery that goes up the center of her body. When that gets sliced open, you can die rather quickly. Tanya’s managed to damage hers twice, now. I’m ‘rerouting’ her a little bit so it won’t happen again.”

“What a way to go,” Tabatha mused. “She seems to be healing all right. I’d better get back downstairs to the kids before I start thinking of trying that skewer-bot thing myself.” She went down the staircase taking the steps two at a time. Lisa looked up and watched her come down.

Tabatha stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

‘What? I didn’t do anything!’ Lisa broadcast at her.

“I didn’t say you did,” Tabatha replied, out loud. Silently, she added, ‘I know you snooped. It’s okay.’

“I know why she did it,” Lisa said, cryptically.

“Why who did what?” Tabatha asked, momentarily confused.

“Tanya,” Lisa clarified. “She wanted that thing between her legs.”

‘Whoa! She’s growing up way too fast!’ Tabatha realized, fearfully astonished.

“Ooo-kay,” Tabatha replied carefully. “Do you have any questions about that?” ‘That’s not fair! I shouldn’t have to instruct Béla’s child about sex!’ she thought to herself. ‘Christ! She’s only four!’

Feeling relieved, she watched Lisa shake her head. Then she was suddenly more anxious that before when she heard Lisa’s thoughts.

‘I usually skewer myself on the bedpost. It doesn’t go as deep as what Tanya was humping, but it’s safer... ‘

Tabatha stared wide-eyed at Lisa. Lisa was looking at her with absolutely no expression on her face at all. Surprisingly, Tabatha realized that her own numbed mind wasn’t broadcasting right now, either.

Béla’s appearance at the top of the stairs seemed to cause time to start moving again. “Well, Tanya’ll be fine by tomorrow night,” Béla said as she came down the stairs. “I teleported her home to her own bed. She’ll rest more comfortably there. “Thanks for coming over. I owe you one,” she grinned at Tabatha, not seeming to notice her friend’s numbed state of mind.

“Uh, sure, no problem,” Tabatha said, her body suddenly working again. She picked up Ethan and started for the door.

“I want to stay,” Ethan told her. “We aren’t done yet.”

“We have to go now,” Tabatha told him. “Daddy’s waiting for us.”

Ethan started to protest, then Tabatha heard Lisa in her mind, talking to Ethan in his head. ‘Go ahead, sweetie. Go with your Mommy. I’ll see you again.’

“Thanks,” Tabatha told her, surprised that Lisa’s surly teenage attitude was suddenly so civil.

Béla hugged her goodbye and kissed her on the cheek. As Tabatha turned away, Lisa was suddenly there, hugging her, too. She kissed Tabatha directly on the mouth and broadcast an image of them naked together into her mind. Tabatha felt her body respond strongly. ‘Don’t do that!’ Tabatha admonished her, shocked. ‘Your Mom will notice!’

‘She won’t notice; we’re shielded. I remember you! I think about you when I’m in my room... ‘ – Image of two naked, playful females splashing in a Jacuzzi. With sex – and biting!

Then she was gone back into the room with her mom, leaving Tabatha on the walkway by herself, holding Ethan. As she rode it down the street toward the bus stop, she tried to understand what had happened in the last few minutes.

‘What does she mean, ‘She remembers me’? Were we lovers or something in a past life? Béla helped me remember Tanya was once my mother, and I even remember Béla when we lived together in the Gypsy camp. But ... who is Lisa in all this? How could I have known her if she’s just a child? Is it possible she’s lived before, too? How would I recognize who she used to be? I didn’t see the face of the girl in the Jacuzzi – I only tasted the blood – and the heat of her thigh between my legs ... wet, slippery, wonderful...

The bus landed with an exuberant blast of heated air and flying grit, and extended its vacant seats. Trying to ignore the dampness between her legs, Tabatha sat down on one and strapped herself and Ethan in. Then the bus retracted its seats and blasted into the air toward the next stop.

Tabatha stared thoughtlessly out at the panoramic skyline, allowing her body to settle down from Lisa’s surprising invasion of her nervous system as the bus jostled her and Ethan through the next three stops. After that, a short ride on the walkway brought her home.

As she walked in the door, Jake, her husband greeted her, grinned at Ethan and lifted him out of her arms. “I’m glad you’re home,” he said, kissing her lightly on the lips. “We have company.”

She followed her husband into the greeting room. She recognized her mother-in-law, and... ‘Who are you? You look familiar... ‘

“I know you,” Tabatha said, feeling a little confused and suddenly dizzy. A name came into her mind from more than a thousand years ago. “Jackie?” She didn’t understand why her eyes were suddenly welling with tears.

“You’re right, Mom,” Jackie said to Alicia. “It is her.”

Jackie and Tabatha hugged each other. “I’m glad you’re back,” Jackie told her. “I really missed you.”

“Me, too,” Tabatha lied. ‘How can I tell her I barely remember her name? Were we close once? My mind’s not working right – too many confusing memories... ‘

Frank Junior came into the room from the kitchen. “You guys don’t have much to eat in there,” he exclaimed. Then he noticed Tabatha and grinned, “Hi, Bug, how ya been?”

“Fine, Frankfurter,” Tabatha said automatically. She looked around the room, surprised that the whole family was here. “What’re you guys all doing here? Not that I’m not glad to see you ... I’m just... surprised! Are we having a family forum or something? Da ... Gramps should be here.” ‘How did I know that?’

“I am,” Frank said cheerfully, following his son out of the kitchen.

“She remembers the family forums, too!” Alicia stated, as if to prove this was really her kid sister, Katie, reborn.

“Well, I guess I should order some...” Tabatha began.

“It’s okay,” her husband said. “I made reservations. We have the Troubadour Room all to ourselves tonight.”

Tabatha blinked several times, trying to wrap her mind around an impromptu Tabor family reunion. ‘What could be that important? Usually these things are planned months in advance. Everyone here is at least the head of one corporation – that is, except for me and Hot Dog... ‘

“Aren’t we going to wait for Mom?” Alicia asked as everyone prepared to leave.

“No, sweetheart, we’re not,” explained Frank. “She had a bit of an accident at the some convention this afternoon, and she’s resting at home.”

“Really?” Frank Junior said. “What could hurt Mom? She’s, like, invincible!”

“Well,” Frank grinned helplessly, “She met her match, today...” He didn’t explain it any further than that. It was, he decided, none of the kids’ damned business.

Dinner was lobster, filet mignon, and a very tender butterflied flank with baked potato shells filled with whipped potato and cream, chives and soft bits of smoked pork – not bacon, the maitre-de insisted as Tabatha displayed her lack of high-class table manners. In addition, there was creamed corn, creamed spinach, and green beans with thin slices of tasty little nuts that Tabatha had never seen before. There were other things she didn’t recognize and she didn’t try them.

Surprisingly, there was no bread. Tabatha almost asked for some garlic toast to go with her lobster, but decided it would somehow be improper.

“I ate too much,” Tabatha groaned after the plates were taken away. She sat with her odd family as they sipped red or white wine, depending on whether they had lobster or steak. To play it safe, she drank water. The lemon ruined it, but she drank it anyway, and tried not to grimace. She seemed to recall that there was a time when she drank out of rivers.

Also, she wasn’t about to try that jiggly, sweet-smelling thing in the middle of the table. The last time she was with her husband at some high-class event and she tried something that looked like that, it tasted like the most god-awful creamed liver and she impulsively spat it out. She was still embarrassed about that, and much more careful about what she put in her mouth in public, now.