Jacob couldn’t wait for another time.
Charlie and I were sitting in the living-room, watching TV and talking, when someone knocked on the door.
“Will you get that, Kayla,” Charlie said. He was smiling. I didn’t like that smile. He knew something that I didn’t. I hated that.
I opened the door and almost had a heart attack. Standing there, grinning crazily, was Jacob.
“Jacob!” I said, utterly shocked.
His grin vanished when he saw me. His eyes went from shining happily, to blazing angrily. His hands balled up into fists and he started shaking. I grabbed one of his shaking arms and dragged him into the house. I felt him flinch under my cold touch.
“It’s Jacob,” I called to Charlie. “We’re going upstairs!”
I didn’t wait for a reply. I dragged Jacob up to my room. I shut the door, rather loudly but intentionally. I wish I had a lock on my door so I made sure that Charlie wouldn’t walk in.
Jacob jerked his arm out of my grasp and turned away from me.
“Calm down,” I said to Jacob’s back. “It’s not what you think.”
“You said you were fine,” Jacob said, his voice shaking.
“I am fine,” I argued.
“No you’re not!” Jacob shouted. He turned round to face me. “You’re one of them!”
“Shush!” I glanced at my door. “Charlie will hear!”
“So he doesn’t know?”
“I haven’t told him yet.”
“You would think he’d know that his daughter’s a vampire!”
I watched Jacob carefully. I didn’t want him phasing into a wolf and trashing the place. What would I tell Charlie?
“I am not a vampire!”
“Then what are you?!” Jacob looked ready to explode. Would he attack me? Would he kill me?
“I don’t know.” I sat heavily on my bed. “I don’t have a clue what I am but I know for sure I am not a vampire.”
“How do you know that?”
“I am not craving blood, that’s why.”
Jacob’s shaking subsided. He sat down next to me. Close but distant at the same time. Like Jasper had today.
“What happened?” he asked.
“One of the vampires bit me. If the venom spread to my heart I would die. I wouldn’t change into a vampire, I would die. Jasper sucked the venom out of my arm and saved me.”
I showed him the crescent scar on my wrist.
“But that means he would have drank your blood,” Jacob said, looking at the scar.
“Yes, he did. But he didn’t bite me, Jacob. None of the Cullens did.”
“Then why are you so cold?” he asked me. He touched my arm softly but then pulled away quickly. “And your skin looks pale too.”
“There’s still venom in my blood,” I explained. “It isn’t changing me or anything. It’s just attached to my blood cells, travelling round my body. It’s the venom that’s made me different. It’s keeping me alive, repairing any damage to my organs and stopping me from ageing.”
“So you won’t get old?”
“I won’t die.”
“So you’re, like, a half vampire?” he looked confused.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I called myself a Vampzi. I’m still an Azdi because I have all my abilities still. But now I have the venom in me, I’m kind of a vampire. So I’m a Vampzi.”
“That makes vampires sound cute,” Jacob laughed.
“It does, yeah,” I smiled.
A silence fell upon us. Neither of us knew what to say. What do you say to your friend who’s just found out you’re almost his enemy? You’re almost one of the creatures he hates with a passion? I brought my knees up and hugged them to my chest, resting my chin on them. I wanted to speak to him, tell him that I was sorry I couldn’t have fought my way out of this. Sorry that I had let Jared bite me. I wanted him to understand that it was my own fault. If I hadn’t been so stupid as to think I could fool vampires into believing I was one of them, I wouldn’t be sitting here, wondering if I had just lost my friend.
It was Jacob who broke the silence first.
“So you’re still you?” he asked me. His deep brown eyes looked frightened. Was he scared that I wasn’t who he thought I was anymore?
“I’m still me,” I said to him. “Just a little whiter and colder.”
“You don’t bite, do you?” he asked, smiling.
“Only if you bite first.”
He laughed and I wanted to hug him. I wanted to assure him I hadn’t change at all on the inside. I was still the Kayla that I was years ago. The Kayla that I said was just for him. But I wasn’t sure that he would want me to touch him, now that I was colder.
He moved a little closer to me and his arm touched mine. He didn’t flinch this time.
“Do I smell different to you?” I asked him.
“Just a little,” he wrinkled his nose. “You smell a little sweetly. Like them.”
“That’s what Jasper said.”
I looked down at my hands. Would Jacob still like me? Would he still want me to be his friend? Or would he shun me, not speak to me ever again?
Jacob seemed to read my mind. His warm arms wrapped around me.
“I still like you,” he said.
“You do?” I looked up into his eyes which were no longer blazing.
He nodded.
“You’re my best friend. You accepted me for what I became so I’m accepting you for what you’ve become.”
Knowing that my best friend had accepted me didn’t make telling Charlie any easier. I would tell him. But not right now. I would tell him at the end of school, after graduation. Because it was then that I would have to start worrying. Could I stay in Forks even though people would notice that I wasn’t getting any older? Would I have to move away from Charlie, to the next place that the Cullens decided to go to?
I would leave these questions until the time comes for them to be answered. I just hope I could survive that long without slipping up and revealing my secret.






This is the final chapter of the Kayla series. Do not be alarmed! There will be a sequel!