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  Nina

  The Friendly Vampire

  Book 6

  Family Ties

  Katrina Kahler & John Zakour

  Copyright © KC Global Enterprises Pty Ltd

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: The Dream

  Chapter 2: The Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter 3: The Meeting

  Chapter 4: Another Visitor

  Chapter 5: Saving the Day

  Chapter 6: Meeting the Cousins

  Chapter 7: Roommates

  Chapter 8: Using my Power

  Chapter 9: The Game

  Chapter 10: A Dream Come True

  Chapter 11: The Battle

  Chapter 12: The Search

  Chapter 13: Superpowers in Action

  Chapter 14: The Request

  Chapter 1: The Dream

  I felt myself falling and falling and falling. Man, I thought to myself, I’ve been falling for a really long time. Looking up, I only saw black. Looking down, I simply saw more of the same black emptiness. Not very inviting. I actually had no idea how long I’d been falling for. I had it narrowed down to somewhere between one minute and forever. I felt fairly confident it was much closer to one minute than forever. Still, you never know about these things. Right?

  “I’ve gotta be dreaming!” I said out loud. I saw the words form in front of my face in a comic balloon.

  “That’s weird!” I said.

  Another comic balloon appeared before me.

  “This is really, really, really, really freaky!” I said and saw the words appear in a comic balloon coming out of my mouth.

  I didn’t really know what to think. Though at the same time, part of me thought that this was cool. Suddenly a thought cloud appeared above my head.

  I sighed. A cartoon sigh appeared next to my mouth. I then noticed a little gray rain cloud appear above my head. It started to rain on me. Now I was getting soaked while I fell through nothingness.

  Okay, what’s going on here, I thought. A big giant question mark started pulsating around my head. I have had a lot of weird dreams in my days... well, nights. When you are part vampire and part werewolf, weird comes with the territory. Once I dreamed about pies that ate themselves. I had no idea how that would actually work, but I did know that I dreamt it. In my dream, a pie appeared. A mouth appeared at the end of the pie. The mouth consumed the pie then ate itself. Now that I think about it, maybe it was just an invisible person eating a pie? Whatever it was, it was very strange, but this was even stranger.

  Another thought bubble appeared above my head. This time the words were in a different font.

  Yeah, I had to admit that this may very well have been the strangest dream I had ever had. Stranger than the time I thought I was eating a giant marshmallow and I woke up, and my pillow was gone. Of course, it turned out I had just knocked my pillow onto the floor. But man, was I nervous for a minute there.

  The image of chattering teeth appeared over my head.

  “Okay, I’m nervous about that now!” I said, apparently talking to myself. An image of myself appeared next to me, also falling.

  “Are you sure?” that image of me asked.

  “Yes, I’m just falling,” I told myself. “And I am sure this is a dream.” Those words appeared next to me in an animated word bubble. They started flashing.

  The other me put a hand on her hip and smirked. “You seem pretty confident about this…”

  I looked at her. She did look exactly like me. Because this was a dream, it shouldn’t have been all that surprising. But then I noticed a difference in her. Rather than having one brown eye and one blue eye, like me, her eyes were both blue.

  “Why are your eyes both blue?” I asked. Once again, my words appeared, spelled out, each word in a different bigger font.

  “I guess you always wanted both your eyes to be blue,” my dream self said to my dreaming self. My dream self’s eyes popped out and enlarged so I could see they were definitely blue. The eyes batted themselves at me. “You gotta admit, blue is prettier. More gentle…” my dream self said to me.

  I held a finger up and pushed the bulging eyes back. “Uh, not when they pop out like that!”

  For once, I didn’t see my words. I took that as a good sign. Still, I kept falling. The only problem was that now I saw what I was falling towards. Below me, growing closer and closer, were a million pointy metal spikes. They flickered brightly, even though it was dark.

  The other me pointed down. “Are you sure this is a dream? Maybe it’s a spell, or something completely different?”

  “You’re just trying to make me doubt myself!” I scoffed loudly. The words doubt myself echoed over and over and over.

  “It’s kind of what I do,” my other self said. “After all, I am hidden under the confidence that you have. Everybody has doubts, but you’re a teenage girl, so you have more than most. Even though you do hide them fairly well!”

  I thought about her words. I didn’t hide my doubts; I fought them. I pressed them down. I beat them back. I was Nina. I had confidence in my brain and also in my abilities. I could handle almost any situation. If I couldn’t, then I had a family and friends who could and would rush to my side. I had my mom, my dad, Ruby, Grandma, Mumford, Jimmy, and Aunt Mika. We could handle anything which life or the supernatural life threw at us. Might we face a challenge or two? Sure! But challenges made life interesting. Life would be boring without them.

  I looked down at the metal spikes. I laughed. “Ha! You can’t hurt me!” I told them.

  “Are you sure?” my other dream self questioned me. Now I saw her words appear in cartoon bubbles. The words echoed and were followed by a bunch of growing question marks.

  “Yep,” I told her. “I am!”

  My dream self smiled. “You’re confident that you’re dreaming?” she asked. Or I asked myself. Truthfully, this was all very confusing. It’s weird how the sleeping mind wanders and works.

  “You sure, you’re sure?” myself asked me. Once again the words echoed through the air and my head. I felt my head vibrate about a million times. The spikes grew closer. I knew this was it. I was going to hit them and wake up. I’d be in my bed, and I’d be fine.

  I stopped falling, maybe an inch from the spikes. I reached down and touched them, pricking my finger. A drop of blood formed on that finger. It healed. I realized I shouldn’t have stopped so suddenly. I felt myself being pulled upwards. Looking up, I saw what could only be described as an older looking Saint Bernard with wings and fangs. The big flying dog thing had caught my pajama top in its mouth and pulled me away from the spikes.

  “Okay, this is not how I thought this dream would end…” I said.

  The dog thing looked at me. “You call this a dream? I call this a nightmare!” it said without opening its mouth. The dog was transmitting its thoughts to me.

  “It’s all perspective!” I said. “The falling is actually kind of fun and refreshing. You can’t fall like that in real life.”

  The dog thing smiled. “You are as weird as they say.”

  “Yes, coming from a fly dog with vampire teeth, I can see where I would be the weird one,” I told him.

  “I dream of chasing bunnies and delivering mail!�
� the dog thing said. His smile grew. “I’d love to deliver mail. The wings make me a natural. Don't you think?” He asked, still pulling me up.

  “Yes, I guess so,” I told him. “Ah, why are you in my dream?”

  “How do you know you’re not in my dream?” the dog thing asked.

  I thought about it. I didn’t know. “Why are we in the same dream?” I asked.

  The dog thing stopped pulling me upwards. “This should be high enough,” he said. “You know, if you flap your arms, you can probably hover!”

  “Really?”

  “Why would I make that up?” he scoffed. “I didn’t save you from waking up just so that you could drop!” the dog thing thought to me. He opened his mouth. I started to drop. I started waving my arms frantically like I was trying to catch air. I actually stabilized.

  “Okay, this is kind of fun,” I said.

  The dog thing licked his lips with his big tongue. “Man, my mouth was getting dry holding you like that!” he said. “Oh, and BTW, thanks for not farting when I was holding you.”

  “I don’t fart in my dreams,” I told him.

  “You do fart in your sleep. Right?” the dog thing asked me.

  “Look, I don’t think you popped into my head to talk about farts!” I shouted.

  “I do like to fart, being a dog,” he said. “But no, I have more important things to talk about besides farts. You know, some studies have shown that farts are good for your health!” he added.

  “Enough about farts!” I shouted, still flapping my arms wildly and hanging in the air.

  “Right, no more fart-talk,” he said. He smiled at me. “You are probably wondering why I’m here...”

  Rolling my eyes while still flapping my arms, I said, “Yes, yes I am.”

  “My name is Rowf. I used to be a vampire, but a certain royal vampire turned me into a dog…”

  “Let me guess, it was Mom,” I replied.

  He shook his head. “Close, it was your grandma Jasmine.”

  I nodded, still flapping. “I assume she turned a lot of men into dogs. She does that; it’s her thing. Sorry, but I can’t change that. You have to deal with her, yourself.”

  Rowf shuddered. “Oh no, that’s okay. I like being a vampire dog. It makes me way more unique and much friendlier. Except to squirrels; I hate those little creatures. I just want to bite them!” he said, his eyes turning red.

  “Dog dude, focus,” I said. “Why are you in my dreams?”

  “Because you are young and powerful, but your mind is more open than other vampires in your family,” Rowf told me.

  “I wouldn’t doubt that,” I said. “Still doesn’t really answer my question,” I kept flapping. “I can’t keep flapping forever. When I stop, I’ll fall and wake up.”

  “Right,” Rowf said slowly. He started scratching his ears with his back legs.

  “The point, man!” I said.

  “I’m not a man. Though I am male…. there is a difference. Man implies human which I am not and haven’t been for centuries.”

  “Dog dude! Why are you here in my head, in my dreams?” I shouted.

  “Sorry, I’m kind of enjoying this…talking to you. After all, you are a legend here. The girl that’s part royal vampire and part were-tiger. And you live amongst humans like one of them.” Rowf smiled. “That is just so nifty.” He paused. “Do people still say nifty?”

  I nodded, still flapping my arms. “They do. I think. Mostly nerds.” I smiled. “Please get to the point though…” I asked, begging with my eyes. “I really can’t keep flapping like this much longer.”

  “Yeah, and I don’t want to hold you up by your PJ’s again because well, when was the last time you washed those?” he stuck out his tongue. “They left a nasty aftertaste in my brain.”

  I pointed at him. “Look, I don’t know…” I started to fall. I started flapping desperately. I slowed my descent.

  Rowf flew down next to me. “Yeah, sorry, I shouldn’t distract you. Just want you to know you’re going to be needed soon in Transylvania or T-Van as we like to call it. Sounds more hip right?”

  “Say what?” I asked. I stopped flapping my arms. I started falling toward the spikes. The spikes melted away. I guess that was good.

  I woke up in bed.

  I heard a voice echo in my head. “Don’t be scared when we meet…” Rowf said. “I’m on your side; most of us are…”

  The voice faded away. I looked at my clock. It showed 6:45 am. Time to get up and get rolling.

  Nina Note: Okay, that was one of my weirder dreams. But the weirdest part of the dream was the part that I was pretty sure was real. The part that had Rowf in it. I would have to ask my family if they knew of him.

  Chapter 2: The Unexpected Visitor

  Downstairs at breakfast, I joined Mom, Dad, and my brother Frank at the dining table. Mumford, our mummy butler, had just served Frank a giant stack of pancakes. Frank buried them in butter and syrup. Frank sure could eat.

  Mom looked at me. “What’s wrong, Nina? You look paler than normal.”

  Dad pointed to a pitcher of freshly squeezed orange juice. “Drink some OJ, that will help.”

  “I had a weird dream last night,” I said, sitting down.

  “Was it the pies that eat themselves dream?” Frank asked. He laughed. “I love that one.”

  “Nina, dear, you are part vampire and part were-tiger, you are bound to have some interesting dreams. Roll with them. You should be able to control their flow. Vampires are masters of the dream world.” Mom smiled. “At least I was.”

  “Oh, I have pretty good control, mostly,” I told her.

  “What does ‘pretty good mostly’ mean?” Dad asked. “I expect you to make more precise statements than that.”

  “The first part of the dream, I was in total control. I was falling and falling, which I found to be relaxing,” I said.

  “You are definitely different, sis!” Frank said, chomping on some toast.

  “Thanks,” I replied. “I mostly like being different.”

  “You’re using that ‘mostly’ word again,” Dad said.

  I hesitated. “But then this flying vampire Saint Bernard appeared…”

  Frank laughed, spilling juice out of his nose. “Now that is crazy! A vampire dog?”

  “Was his name Rowf?” Mom asked, even more serious than normal.

  “Yes,” I answered. “I take it you know him?”

  Mom hesitated. “We dated about a hundred years ago before I met your father.”

  “Ha!” I said. “So Grandma Jasmine did turn him into a dog!”

  Mom shook her head. “No, that was me. Trust me. The man was a jerk; he didn’t know that no meant no. So, I dogged him.”

  Dad smiled. “That’s why I love her. She’s a strong woman.”

  “It was only going to be for a month or so, until he learned his lesson,” Mom insisted.

  Dad grinned. “That’s another reason why I love you so much,” he told her. “You have such compassion.”

  Mom continued, “But turns out Rowf loved being a dog. He said as a dog he could finally help people and bring joy to their lives. So I left him that way. I gave him wings to make it easier for him to get around and to make him unique.”

  “That’s why I love your mom,” Dad said. “She’s creative.”

  “Yeah, because there are SO many flying vampire dogs around,” I said.

  “You’d be surprised,” Mumford said, putting a plate of fruit and a couple of slices of bacon in front of me.

  “Actually, not much surprises me these days,” I replied.

  My best friend, Ruby walked into the room. Even though Ruby was a completely normal girl (a really smart and pretty one), my family had totally accepted her at our breakfast table. She preferred to eat breakfast at our house because her mom, a busy working mom, always prepared oatmeal. Like Ruby would say, oatmeal is fine, but it grows old after two or three times in the same week.

  “What hasn’t surprised yo
u now?” Ruby asked me.

  “Rowf,” I said.

  “Bless you,” Ruby said with a grin.

  “She didn’t really sneeze,” Frank told her. “That’s a name…”

  “I know, I was just joking,” Ruby grinned, smiling at the plate of food Mumford put down in front of her. “I know Rowf is a vampire flying dog. Mostly friendly from what I’ve read.”

  I sat back in my chair. “Wait, how do you know that?”

  “The supernatural web Google,” Ruby told me.

  “What did Rowf tell you, Nina?” Mom asked.

  “He said we’d be needed in Transylvania, or T-Van as they are trying to call it now,” I explained.

  “Nice!” Frank said.

  “Catchy,” Dad said.

  Mom sighed. “Oh, I hope he’s wrong. I’m not a fan of the old country. It’s cold and damp, and the internet is slow. Plus, the food. They eat a lot of cabbage there. Cabbage is all well and good, but every single day… it gets to you. It even makes me gassy. Believe me…you don’t want to be around a gassy me!” Mom told us.

  “True that,” Dad said. “Another reason why I love her. You gotta love a woman who can drop a room with a….”

  “Honey, I love that you love me, but that’s enough info for now,” Mom told Dad.

  “Right,” Dad said. “I will drink my OJ now,” he said picking up a glass.

  “Just to be clear, I love Romania. The land is beautiful, and the people are strong, smart, and friendly. But in the Transylvania part of Romania…it’s like some of them, especially the ones in the special being section of town, take pride in keeping things the old way. The old way wasn’t that great. Hence the reason we got the new ways!” Mom said.

  “I’ve never been there,” I said.

  “I’ve never been either,” Dad said.

  “Actually, honey you have visited. We went for our first honeymoon there because you insisted,” Mom said.