16. Death & Taxes

Chapter sixteen

Death “He's in the pool. He'll come out when he's ready.”

“In the pool? It's really cold out.”

“As long as the pool isn't ice cold, then he's perfectly in his element. But I do warn you never go outside when he is out there in the pool. He will drag you under, he can't help it. Even if you're at the back door and he's in the pool, he'll still find a way to drag you under.”

“I've been given the Kane and water warning. I will do my best to avoid it at all costs.” I smile at Seth. I do love that he is trying his best to warn me about things. I wonder how much about my future he knows. I thought occurs to me if he does know my future, that should mean that he knows about my past as well, right? He looks at me with a smirk on his face. “What, do you know what I'm thinking now too?”

“Sort of.”

“Amelia,” Nolan catches my attention, “, don't play mind games with a psychic. You'll never make it out alive.”

“Don't pay attention to him, Amelia, he's just salty because he can't beat me at chess.”

“You cheat.”

“How is knowing what you're gonna do next, cheating?”

“Can you just turn it off for one game?”

“It doesn't work like that, dude.”

“Okay, well you have to answer us at least one thing then.”

“I told you I can't just tell you the future.”

“Sure, well, then don't, but can you at least suggest something?” Seth stops eating completely and turns towards where Nolan is sitting. “Do you know the reason none of our abilities work on Amelia?” Rather than answering, he turns back to his food and takes a long drink before eating again. “You're a dick.” I smile, but I'm starting to get a little bit concerned myself.

“Exactly how many of you have tried using your abilities on me? Without me knowing?” I ask.

“For those of us who have abilities to be used on you?” Valentine speaks, “All of us.” My mouth drops open almost in a playful version of disgust.

“I feel violated.” I comment, but it's just met with laughter around the table. “But I really don't understand it. If your abilities work on other people, why aren't they working on me?”

“Ask the psychic…who won't answer you.” Hunter scoffs.

Seth throws his hands up in the air, “I can't just tell you the future! You'll behave differently, and then it won't happen.”

“You intervene with the future all the time.” Valentine sighs.

“There are small changes that you can make to the future, granted, but telling you guys that Amelia was bringing pizza for dinner is very different to telling you why your powers don't work on her.” Valentine might not be giving up anytime soon, but I certainly am. That's when I hear something. Everyone else around the table starts to hear it too and decides to start being quiet. Is that a piano? I recall that Oliver does have a baby grand up in his room, but I haven't heard in play it since I've been here.

“Wow.” Echo breaks the silence around the table, “He hasn't played that in like a year .”

“For context,” Seth turns to me, “, he stopped playing when he became a little bit depressed and stopped going outside. But since you've been here, he's gone out quite a few times. He even went back to drama club.” The fact that Oliver is going outside because of me, required him to do something terrible yesterday. I want to ask Seth if he knew that was going to happen. “The answer is yes, by the way. To the question that you were about to ask me. I also knew that you were going to be fine, so I hope you don't hold that against me.” The truth is I can't hold it against him, just because he has the gift of foresight doesn't mean he has to use it. It also doesn't mean that he owes me anything. The truth is, I technically…am fine. It was someone else that got the worst of what happened. If anything, it just solidified the fact that I probably can trust Oliver even though he is a vampire.

I bid everyone good night before heading upstairs. I had intended to go to bed early to shake off as much as possible of what happened this weekend, but as I climb the stairs, I hear the piano more prominently. Drama club also meets on Mondays, which means Oliver would be asked to showcase his skills for his role. Based on what he said, Mr. Fasoli values preparedness, and that could spell trouble if Oliver had to perform with someone else because I wasn't there, or worse, if we were asked to perform together and he wasn't prepared. I owe him at least that much.

I close my eyes, but I can still see the green eyes I once saw when I was a child. They remind me so much of Oliver's, but they can't be his. Surely, like other vampires, their eyes also change from green to brown, just like Oliver's do.

I turn to make my way up the narrow steps. As I stop outside the door, I can finally hear what song he's playing on the piano. It's his own musical rendition of "Teenage Dream." To be honest, I didn't quite expect that, but what really surprises me is hearing him sing along with it. Instead of knocking, I take a seat on the top step outside his door and listen for a while. He just seems so perfect. I mean, his music seems perfect. As the song comes to a close, I stand up and knock on the door. He invites me in, and I close the door firmly behind me.

He seems a little surprised to see me. “Hey. Sorry, I was expecting Nolan.”

“Oh, did you want me to go?”

“No, not at all. Did you need something?”

“We have a drama club meeting tomorrow. You said Mr. Fasoli tends to go into the romance quite a bit, and that he likes to rehearse his favorite scenes more often than any of the others. I'm a little worried that we're not really prepared for that.” He stands up and walks towards me with his hands in his pockets.

“At this moment Amelia, I think you're the one that's less prepared than I am.” I raise my eyebrows at him.

“Excuse me, you're the one that can't come anywhere near me without wanting to bite my face off.”

“That's wolves. I just want the neck.” My heart pounds twice as he says that. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“No, I really need to get used to it.”

“So you're conceding that you're the one that needs to get used to it then?”

“I concede to no such thing.”

“Please, I saw you the other night. You couldn't even kiss a human .”

“When it comes to the stage, a kiss is just a kiss, Oliver.”

“Not to you, it's not.”

“It absolutely is!” I'm starting to get annoyed at his insinuation.

“Amelia, I'm still gonna give you an out here. I'm happy to quit the drama club. I'm pretty sure the last person you wanna be kissing is someone that killed somebody.” He was being genuine the whole time. I understand where he's coming from and I can see why he thinks that I would want to turn away or to run away from this whole situation. But the truth is, without him, something bad would have happened to me, and the fact that somebody died because of it wasn't necessarily his fault. He's told me many times before that he is a demon and that demons kill. He didn’t intend to kill anybody. He was just trying to protect me. I take a deep breath and close the space between us, grabbing on to his face and kissing him on the lips. They’re softer and warmer than I imagined, for some reason I assumed that vampires would be cold. I'm surprised when he grabs the back of my neck and pulls me into it closer. As the kiss begins to deepen, he uses his tongue to request access and I relent, giving it to him. His taste is utterly addictive. As my hands go up the back of his neck and into his hair, he pushes into me further. His free hands go down my back and I feel a moan escape me, one I didn't mean to let out. Same instance, he pulls back away from me and takes a few steps back. He seems to be really struggling with this one. His eyes are closed and he’s rubbing the back of his head as much as he can. I don't know what he's thinking about, and I need to come up with something fast.

“Ketchup was once sold as a medicine.” I blurt out.

“What?” He questions,

“I don’t know. I got it out of a random fact fortune cookie.”

“Fortune cookies apparently originate in Japan.” I laugh although I'm not sure why, but I can’t seem to be able to stop. He ends up joining me in an awkward laughing session.

“By the way, I’m pretty sure there's no tongue in Snow White.”

“You didn't exactly deny me.”

“I was caught in the moment.”

“Yeah, me too, I think. Sorry about that.”

“You don't have to be sorry. How are you holding up?”

“Surprisingly, okay. But we can't have that kind of repeat in front of the drama club.”

“Right, of course. So just keep it clean. Keep it simple, right?”

“Right. Do you wanna help me work on the song for a little bit? I'm sorry I don't think I can try the other thing again too quickly.”

“I understand. And sure, I'd love to help.” He nods and goes towards the piano. I follow suit, but I don't want to overstep my bounds and sit too close to him. I'm surprised when he moves over on the seat and suggests that I do. I accept the position next to him, but I still sit right at the edge of the seat. I want to make sure that I don't touch him and put him in an unusual state.

“After kissing, I don't think you sitting next to me is going to bother me that much.”

“Oh. Sorry, I just don't know how it works.”

“It's a bit new for me too.”

“Is this the same effect with other vampires?”

“No, vampire blood isn't attractive to each other. It kinda smells a bit like a rotting corpse.”

“That's kind of disgusting.”

“Yeah, but I suppose that's why there are so many vampire kids compared to human and vampire kids. It's very hard to be with a human. That being said, not impossible. My mother was half human-vampire, don’t get me wrong there my father hates humans and I wasn’t exactly meant to happen.” I'm a little surprised to hear that. “In most myths, vampires are immortal, ageless creatures. But that's actually not the case. Most of us have too much human blood in us, which means that just like humans, we grow old and we eventually die. The only benefit to being a vampire really is that we have strength and speed on our side, and we have a remarkable ability to heal ourselves. The only thing that can really kill us is old age.”

“What about a stake to the heart?”

“I'm not likely to test that theory anytime soon.” I chuckle as he brings forward some papers that he has been scribbling on. “So Mr. Fasoli said that the duet at the end has to be not only romantic but a little bit pop, since it's a modern age take. So I figure if I can get the lyrics down with a bass melody then I could work on the rest of it easier.”

“How are the lyrics so far?”

“They're okay, but they're missing something.”

“Do you mind if I take a look?” He nods and hands the sheets over to me so I can glance over them. The lyrics certainly stood out, but they weren't complete. He seems to be missing the big bridge that comes right before the final chorus. “How about you start playing the melody and I'll see where we can fix this?”