Chapter 17: Chapter 17 THE GIRL

The next morning Kayla slipped out of the house. She headed straight for the shack, she expected the girl to be up by now. Kayla knew that she would be confused, so she wanted to get there before she panicked.

Kayla found her seated up staring into nothing, a spaced look on her face. “Hi, I’m Kayla.”

“What am I doing here?” The girl moved away from Kayla.

“I found you in an alley, so I brought you here. How are you feeling?”

“Still high I guess. I can see everything so clearly and I seem to be hearing things.” She scrubbed her face.

“You aren’t high. You are dead.” Kayla didn’t know any other way to put it.

“I wish. I wouldn’t have to go back to that shit hole they call home.”

“You are dead, but you don’t have to go back home.”

“So I guess this is the land of the dead, and this hot crib is where I am going to spend eternity.” She rapped sarcastically.

“Not exactly. Why do you hate your foster parents so much? And why you want to die that much?” Kayla decided to drop the dead part and focus on the root cause of her addiction.

“I don’t know you or owe you any explanations, but you did help me. So I am going to give you the short version, my foster father is a pervert and my mother a drunk.” She stood up, but the speed in which she did so knocked her off balance.

“Whoa what was that?”

“Maybe you should sit down.” Kayla helped her back to the ground, “Remember when I said you were dead, I wasn’t joking. But you are more like a living dead.”

“Whatever drugs you are taking is meaner than what I’m shooting up.” She snorted.

“I don’t think anything is as toxic as what you are doing. I could taste it, and it is not easy for me to taste anything these days.”

“Denial, I get that.” she nodded as she chewed on her lower lip.

“You are just a little girl, you shouldn’t be throwing your life away.”

“According to you, I’m dead so don’t worry about it.”

“What’s your name?”

“Jade. Just Jade.” She went only by one name, the orphanage that she came from didn’t have any records of the last name.

Jade, this was fate.

“Well Jade, I am a vampire and last night when you were dying I turned you.” Kayla rolled her name off her tongue. It held more value to her than she could ever imagine.

“Huh, you did? That’s awesome.” Jade rolled back her eyes.

Kayla took her hand then put it in her chest. The shock on her face told her she got the point. Kayla then put her hand on her chest.

“Notice the similarities?”

“Nothing, no beat, no anything.” Jade put her fingers on the usual pressure points looking for a pulse. “I’m dead.”

“You are a vampire.” Kayla smiled at her.

“Cool!” she said excitedly.

It wasn’t the reaction Kayla was expecting, but she would take it. It was better than her first reaction when she works up in her new body and new world.

“Kayla?” Solara put her hands on her shoulders, “What are you thinking about.”

She snapped back to the present fearing that she had given it all away to her mind-reading husband. “Did you-,”

“No, you have a right to some private thoughts. But I’m hoping that you will let me in.”

Kayla snuggled into his arms and lay her head on his chest, “You will be sooner than you think.”

Two days later Kayla returned from her walk her face beaming with joy. “Hey, guys can I talk to you about something?”

She went to the TV room where they were all seated watching American Idols. “It’s something that I should be talking over with Solara alone, but I have a feeling he will say no. So here I am before the multitude.”

“How do you know I’m going to say no?” Solara asked, worried.

“Because even though you do your best to give me everything I want, you tend to decide what is right for me and what’s not. Besides I know the twins and Eric love me too much to say no. Scarlet will always support me and Stephan will do what she wants, and SJ... his opinion doesn’t count because he is three years old, but he loves making his Aunty K happy.”

They all looked around at each other, she was right on every single account. Solara was the only one who could try and refuse her. But most of the time he ended up giving in.

“What’s this about my love? What is it that you are sure I would not want that I would go to the extent of denying you your happiness?” Solara was hurt by her comment, but he knew that she was right.

“Solara honey... I want a baby.”

They all stared at her like she had lost every single logical cell in her brain.

“Excuse me?” Solara chocked out.

“You are right Aunt K, my opinion doesn’t matter. My presence is not needed.” SJ started to stand up.

“You may be as tall as I am, but SJ if you move your butt from that chair I will spank you.” She threatened.

SJ dropped back into the seat his disbelief shared by everyone in the room.

“Everyone needs to be on board with this, considering we are all living in the same house.”

“Kayla you can’t have a baby and neither can I. I explained this to you when I turned you. Don’t you remember?” Solara was concerned. Vampires were immune to all diseases especially mental ones but Kayla was losing her grip.

“We are going to adopt.” She chirped.

“There isn’t an adopting agency that will just hand you a baby. They need to do a background and credit check. It’s a long and complicated process.” Scarlet informed her.

“I know that and besides I am not interested in a baby, I already went through that phase with SJ. No offense kid but I’m not crazy enough to go through it again. She is a teenager.”

“She... so you already found her?” Scarlet was stunned. It wasn’t normal for her best friend to keep a decision of this magnitude from her.

“You could say that she found me.”

“Kayla you already turned her.” Solara was furious. He was sure that the girl had a family somewhere and now Kayla had taken their child from them.

“I had to she was dying.” Kayla defended herself. “Her name is Jade-,”

“Jade. Are you sure you didn’t go looking for her?” Scarlet asked.

“No, I didn’t it was pure coincidence.” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Her name isn’t the issue Scarlet.” Solara put in.

“Yes, it is. Jade is her grandmother’s middle name.” Scarlet put in.

Solara finally understood what it was about, and he felt sorry for her. “Babe I know you miss your grandmother, but you can not replace her with someone else’s child.”

“I did not adopt her because she has the same name as my grandmother. Sure that factored in at some point, but she is alone. She has no one. Her parents abandoned her when she was a baby, she grew up in a foster home where she was abused, and then she turned to drugs.”

“Why didn’t you just drop her in a facility, so that she could get over her addiction or something?” Solara barked.

“She had taken an overdose and she was dying. I saw her life flash in my mind and I couldn’t let her die. She had given up on everything good. She couldn’t die not knowing whether or not she could have had a better life.”

“Someone, say something. This isn’t right. Stephan, say something.”

Stephan had remained quiet, he didn’t think it was his place to deny Kayla anything or make decisions about her life.

“You are not going to like what I’m going to say, my friend. When you changed Kayla you did it without asking her, even though she was healthy and happy with her life. You did it why shouldn’t she. Besides this girl doesn’t have anyone else.”

“Thank you, Stephan.”

“You are no help, Stephan. I don’t agree with this.” Solara put in.

“I just came here to inform you, not to ask for your permission. I am bringing my new daughter here whether you like it or not.”

“Fine, I don’t want any part in this. When it blows up in your face you are on your own.”

“No, I’m not. When you married me, it was for better and worse. The insane and sane times were also implied in those vows. You are going to be a father to her.” She challenged him.

“You are not giving me a choice are you?”

“No my love.” Kayla kissed him then walked out of the room.

“Now I see how this works. The women give the orders and we follow.” SJ snickered.

“That’s right and the sooner you make your peace with it the better.” Stephan chuckled.

“What’s that supposed to mean.” Scarlet turned on him.

“It just means that even if I didn’t see reason in Kayla’s actions, if you agreed with it I would have to.”