Family Ties Read online

“Why don’t I remember that? I seem to remember Alaska being our first honeymoon. We looked at the northern lights,” Dad said, confused.

  “Yeah, a lot of older relatives didn’t appreciate me marrying a were-person. There is still some bad blood between vamps and weres in the old country. I just erased those memories from your mind. Then we went on a second first honeymoon, a better one.”

  Dad looked down. He shook his head. “Dear, I love you for who you are, warts, evil family members, and all!” he said firmly.

  “I don’t have warts!” Mom said.

  “But you should not have erased my memory!” Dad said.

  Mom lowered her head. “I’m sorry. We had just married, I didn’t want to start out showing you the worst of my kind…”

  Dad smiled at her. He got up, walked over to her and kissed her on the lips.

  “Oh, gross, Dad! We’re eating here!” I said, covering my eyes.

  Ruby smiled. “I think it’s sweet!”

  “I do too!” Frank added.

  I actually thought it was sweet too, but I didn’t want my parents knowing that. I didn’t need to encourage that type of behavior all the time.

  “I love everything that makes you, you!” Dad told Mom.

  Mom smiled at him. “I love that you love that about me. That’s what I love about you; you are so understanding!”

  “Eating here!” I repeated.

  The doorbell rang. Phew, I thought. I just got literally saved by the bell.

  Mumford looked up and touched an earpiece I just noticed he was wearing. “The security gnomes tell me it’s that Jimmy Chaser lad and he looks concerned.”

  “Yeah, he’d have to be, to ring our doorbell,” I said, looking at mom. “He’s scared of you.”

  Mom grinned contently. “Good, I like that.”

  “She doesn’t mean that,” Dad said.

  “Yes, yes I do,” Mom insisted.

  The doorbell rang again.

  “Can I let him in?” I asked Mom.

  “I am sure you are capable of letting him in,” Mom told me.

  “May I let him in?” I asked.

  Mom stared at me, thinking.

  “Yes, of course, he is your friend. He is welcome in our house,” Dad said. Glancing at Mom, he added, “Correct, my love?”

  Mom sighed. “You know this is hard for me right? He is a vampire hunter!”

  “His mom is a vampire hunter. He isn’t!” Frank said, helping me out.

  “Still he’s got the blood in him,” Mom replied adamantly.

  “But the brain is stronger than the blood,” I said. “He can control his feelings and actions. We all can.”

  Mom nodded. “Well, of course we can, we are superior beings. But he and his kind are more at the mercy of their lower brain functions. The stuff your dad would call the reptilian brain. After all, regular humans are creatures of emotions.”

  “So are we!” I told Mom as I stood up.

  “But we are more advanced, so we can control our emotions and let them out when it's appropriate,” Mom insisted.

  I headed towards the door. “I’m letting him in!” I pointed at Mom. “And you’d better be nice to him!” I gave her my LOOK. That’s a look that can paralyze a trained ninja. Mom just shrugged. “Please!” I begged, clasping my hands together.

  Mom rolled her eyes. “Fine!” she finally said.

  I raced to the door before Jimmy could press the doorbell again. Opening the door, I found Jimmy, arm raised, getting ready to knock. He actually followed through with the knock. He fell forward. I caught him. I straightened him out.

  Jimmy looked red in the face; he was covered in sweat. “Something is wrong,” he gasped. “Mom didn’t come home last night. She went on a mission for the company. It was supposed to be for three days, but now it’s been four. I haven’t heard anything from her. That’s not like her. I need your help. I need your family to help.”

  Mom walked up to us. She glanced at Jimmy. She then glanced sideways at me. “What’s going on?”

  “Something is wrong,” Jimmy replied, not showing any of his normal fear or caution around her. “My mom is missing. She hasn’t contacted me. That’s not like her!”

  Mom looked at him. I believe I saw compassion in her eyes. She sniffed him. “You’re scared, and your fear is not of me!” she said. “This is serious!”

  “Of course it’s serious!” Jimmy replied. “Why else do you think I would come here? The agency my mom works for won’t help me! They won’t even tell me where she is.”

  Something told me his mom had to be in Transylvania. But maybe not. Right? That would have been freaky, but that was the way my life went.

  “What do you mean they won’t tell you?” Mom asked.

  “It’s kind of obvious. Isn’t it?” Jimmy said, showing way more guts and bravado than he ever had around my mom before.

  Mom crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Your heart rate and cortisone levels are all high. I can tell you are stressed and nervous. I will let your tone and your words pass.”

  “Will you help me?” Jimmy asked, pleading with his voice.

  I didn’t know what to say. My family and I weren’t exactly popular at his mom’s agency. But the agency leader, Ms. Elena had been helpful before; I could only hope she’d be willing to help once again. Though, if she wouldn’t help Jimmy why would she help us? Like I said, I really didn’t know what to think.

  “Of course we will help you!” Dad said.

  I glanced at Mom to see how she’d react. Mom smiled, she put a hand on Jimmy’s shoulder. “Look, kid who is Nina’s friend,” she said.

  “His name is Jimmy!” I said, even though I thought she knew that.

  “Look, Jim,” Mom said, refusing to say Jimmy. “As much as I don’t like that your mom is a vampire hunter, I understand she is a mom, and you are her kid, and you are scared for her. Therefore, my daughter and I will talk to the agency leaders. We will get answers. We will make sure your mom comes back to you,” my mom assured him.

  “You’ll help me?” Jimmy asked.

  Mom sighed. “Yes, of course. If what’s happening is what I think is happening, Ms. Elena wants our help. In fact, we may be the only ones who can help.”

  “Wait, do you think this has something to do with my dream?” I asked my mom.

  “What dream?” Jimmy asked.

  “Yes,” Mom said. “Well, at least the Rowf part of that dream.”

  “I had a dream about us going to Transylvania,” I told Jimmy. “Actually, a vampire Saint Bernard that flies told me that, and Transylvania is called T-Van now for short.”

  Jimmy nodded. “Of course it is.”

  “I’ll drive,” Dad said.

  “Honey, are you sure you want to be involved in this?” Mom asked. “It could get nasty.”

  “That’s why I’m going. I’m a scientist; the agency is full of scientists. We all speak science. I am sure they will see the wisdom of sending us to bring back Jimmy’s mom, Pam.”

  “Wait, you know her name?” Mom gasped.

  “Yes, I’m a scientist. I like to know things!” Dad said.

  Nina Note: I loved the idea of my family working to help Jimmy’s mom. Vampires working to help a vampire hunter…this could be really good for me! Of course, if it didn’t work out… But I couldn’t think that way. I had to be positive. I had to use positive thinking! Think good things and good things will happen.

  Chapter 3: The Meeting

  We took Dad’s truck to the agency’s secret headquarters. The agency is tip-top secret; they change their HQ and what they call themselves on a regular basis. The only things that stay constant are their goals: they protect the world from strange things, and their leader is Ms. Elena. Ms. Elena always seemed to like me. I hoped that would work to our advantage. Of course, her daughter, Sasha seemed to despise me, which certainly wouldn’t be to our advantage. I’m still not sure what Sasha has against me.

  Okay, I am a vampire, and a weretiger an
d Sasha works for a group whose role it is to protect the world from strange things like vampires and werepeople and such. But surely Sasha knows I’m a good person. I try to do good. Yeah, I have a temper. But everybody has a temper. Right?

  “For this month, the base is located south of the city by the old amusement park,” Jimmy explained. “It’s right next to where the dark mummies hang out. Ms. Elena loves this place because nobody goes near there and she gets to keep an eye on the mummies.”

  “The dark mummies are mostly harmless,” Dad said.

  “True, that’s why she likes them. It’s like they’re doing something, but it’s something easy, and they’re still kind of getting things done,” Mom said. “Looks good in a progress report.”

  “That’s exactly what Ms. Elena says!” Jimmy said.

  Mom sighed. “It’s kind of sad that I, one of the greatest most powerful vampires that ever lived, thinks like an administrator.”

  “I think it’s great!” Dad said winking at Mom.

  “Gross. Oh gross!” I said.

  We pulled into the old amusement park. Since it was morning, none of the dark mummies could be seen. Getting out of the car, Jimmy pointed to the old funhouse. “The door is through the fun house!” he said.

  Walking towards the fun house, Mom sniffed the air. I did too. Dad did as well. “That’s weird,” the three of us said.

  “What?” Jimmy asked.

  “We smell dark mummies,” I told him.

  “Well, they do live here,” Jimmy said.

  “Yes, but they smell active,” Mom added. “Please don’t ask me what smelling active smells like. It is gross, and well, you wouldn’t understand.”

  We entered the funhouse. A net dropped over us.

  About a dozen dark mummies appeared out of the shadows. They sniffed us.

  “Oh, this is bad,” one of the mummies said.

  “Oh, we don’t get paid enough for this,” another said.

  “Look, guys, we’re getting paid in marshmallows and cotton candy to do a job, and we will do the job!” another mummy stated firmly.

  “I’m a girl!” one of the mummies said.

  “I’m talking generally,” the lead mummy replied.

  I interrupted them. “Dudes, why are you netting us?”

  The lead mummy walked up to us. I could see his (or her) eyes roll from under the bandages. “It’s our job. We are now useful members of society, well…secret society, by keeping normal people who don’t work for the agency or the company or whatever the heck they call themselves, away.”

  “We’re not really normal people,” Dad said. He turned into a weretiger. “See!” he growled.

  Mom let her fangs down. “Yes, we are much better than normal!”

  She waved at the net, it lifted off us and dropped over the mummies, pinning about half of them.

  The mummies exchanged glances. A few of them curled their fingers into fists.

  “Guys, is getting beat up really worth some marshmallows and cotton candy?” Jimmy asked them.

  “They throw in some popcorn!” one of the mummies stated.

  “With real melted butter!” another mummy added.

  “I think it’s soy!” a different mummy announced.

  “Still, it’s tasty and better for us,” a mummy in the middle of the group said.

  “We’re undead. Why do we care about better for us?” one more mummy asked.

  I shook my head. I walked up to the mummy standing in front of the non-netted mummies. I put a finger under his chin; it felt dry yet gooey at the same time. I lifted him off the ground with that finger. “Trust me; you really don’t want to mess with us!”

  The mummy shrugged and nodded. “Of course we don’t WANT to mess with you. But it’s kind of our job to stop people from getting past us. And just because we don’t like a job, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still do the job. I mean, come on, if everybody didn’t do the jobs they didn’t like, nothing would get done.”

  “Wow, you used a lot of negative words in that sentence,” I said.

  “We’re dark mummies, we’re deep and dark!” the mummy told me.

  Dad showed the mummies his claws.

  Mom showed them her fangs and her claws.

  “Your point is a good one, though I do like to believe that most people enjoy some aspects of their work,” Dad noted. “But most people’s work does not involve having to deal with a vampire, a weretiger, and a girl who is a mix of both.”

  Dad noticed they didn’t react to that line of reasoning, so he went another way. “Plus, your job is to keep out normal people. As you can plainly see, we are not normal people!”

  The vampire I held suspended in the air nodded. “That is a good point.”

  I lowered him to the ground. “So you’re going to let us pass.”

  The wall of mummies moved to the side, revealing a door just behind them. “Yes, please pass and have a pleasant day!” the mummy said.

  Walking through the door, we went from the low tech, beat up, old fun house to the high tech shining walls and floors of the agency. Two guards in blue suits drew their weapons and pointed them at us. “Freeze!” they ordered.

  “No, you freeze!” Mom ordered in return.

  The two guards froze in place. In fact, all the people in the hallway also stopped moving. Mom walked by the guards and simply squished the weapons in their hands. She smiled. “Good, I like humans much better when they just stand there nice and quiet.”

  “It will make our trip to Ms. Elena easier,” Dad said.

  I turned to Jimmy. “Do you know where her office is?”

  “Follow me!” Jimmy said, leading us down the hallway. We took a right onto another hallway. Mom used her voice to freeze the people there as well. We continued down the hallway towards a large gold door.

  “Typical that her door is gold,” Mom said. “That woman has such an ego.”

  Jimmy stepped on the floor panel right before the door. Electricity surged through the floor, shocking Jimmy, Mom, Dad, and I. Jimmy shook and quivered in pain.

  “N o w t h i s i s d i f f e r e n t…” he shivered.

  Dad’s fur stood up on end. He growled. “It does pack quite the sting!”

  Mom just smiled. “I kind of like it,” she said. “It’s refreshing!”

  I felt the electric energy crackling through me. I didn’t really know quite what to make of the feeling. It certainly didn’t hurt; it felt more like a tingle, one that I kind of liked but it also seemed like the type of experience I wouldn’t want to repeat too often.

  “This gets boring fast!” I said. I sniffed. I smelled smoke. Some of Dad’s fur had caught on fire.

  Dad patted the fire out with his paws. “Agreed!” Dad said.

  Mom simply smiled. “I kind of enjoy it. If this is the best of what the humans have to hurt us with, they are so lucky we really don’t want to hurt …theeeeeeeeemmmm!!”

  Mom’s last word became elongated as the floor beneath us gave way, dropping us down a slick and cold metal slide. We flung down the slide and went crashing into a big office. We rolled across the floor to a desk. Ms. Elena sat at the desk with her legs up. She sipped a glass of tea.

  “Nice of you to drop in!” Ms. Elena said with a grin. She laughed. “I crack myself up.”

  I got up and blurred to the desk. I lifted Ms. Elena up. “What’s the big idea?” I said. “You could have killed Jimmy!”

  Ms. Elena remained calm like always. “Please place me gently back in my seat.”

  I shook her a bit. “How could you do that to Jimmy? First, you send his mother away, and now you shock him almost to death?”

  Ms. Elena groaned. “My floor panel shock is calibrated only to shock a person to make them easier to deal with. He was never in any physical danger. He will be fine in a couple of minutes.” She pointed to her chair. “Now, if you wish to talk like civilized beings, I suggest you place my firm butt down gently in my very expensive chair.”

  “Do it!�
�� Mom ordered me. I got the feeling she may have been less than thrilled about me showing such emotion over Jimmy.

  I lowered Ms. Elena back into her chair. She sat up and straightened her suit. “I’m so glad you are here.”

  “You have a funny way of showing it!” I told her.

  Ms. Elena rolled her eyes. “I had to make it hard for you to make sure you are up for the challenge. I believe you are.”

  Jimmy stood up. He steadied himself. “Where’s my mom?” he demanded. “What are you going to do to help her?”

  Ms. Elena sat back in her seat. “Technically, since she is in another country, I can’t do anything. That’s why I needed your friends to help me. They can bring her back and at the same time assess the situation.”

  “Wait, what? Why?” Jimmy asked.

  Ms. Elena looked him in the eyes. “I got word from a vampire group that the vampires might be interested in coming to terms with regular humans. They want peace. So I sent your mom to Transylvania to talk peace with the vampires. I figured she’d be a perfect representative. I lost contact with her the moment she stepped off the plane. I contacted the vampire group and received no reply from them.”

  Mom glared at her. “Therefore, since you represent the government and this dealing with another country, you don’t want to send any more of your people in?”

  Elena smiled. “Brilliant, as always, Doctor Thorn!”

  “You want us to do your dirty work,” Mom said.

  “No, I want you to do the clean work. Fly in; I’ll even supply the plane. Find James’ Mom and then determine if the vampires there really do want peace with us,” Elena said. “Who better than one from the original vampire family and her brilliant husband, plus her amazing daughter.”

  “I want to go too!” Jimmy said. “It’s my mom who needs to be rescued.”

  Elena shrugged her shoulders. “Fine, that can be arranged.”

  “We haven’t agreed to do any of this!” Mom said.

  Dad walked forward. “But of course, you know we will,” he told Elena. He turned to Mom. “We have to find this boy’s mother. Plus, if we can improve relationships between humans and vampires, that would be amazing.”