New Blood

Short Synopsis: A short story for a personal project of mine called "I was adopted by a vampire". The main character is a young human girl named Tabitha (she goes by "Tabby") who is...well, adopted by a vampire named Kristof. Of course, the foster care system that she came from is wary of this arrangement for the obvious reasons, but Kristof seems to be completely genuine about the whole thing - he really just wants a daughter. Of course, a story with no conflict is not a very interesting story, but none of the story's "real" conflict is going to be present here. This is more of a one-off for this little universe, mainly focused on Tabby and the friends she makes in a monster-heavy neighborhood. (This isn't my best work, I was sort of going through something while writing this. Please don't be too harsh if it sucks.)

"Do you like your room? I vasn't sure vhat colors you'd like, so I'm sorry if it's a bit...vell, stark." Tabby glanced around the room. "It's...spacey." "Is that bad? Do you vant a smaller room?" she blew a strand of hair out of her face with a small laugh before letting herself in, flopping face down onto the big soft mattress in the middle of the room, giggling happily. "Of course not. I don't know any kid at Little Wanderer's who dreamed about having a small room. It's perfect." The happy sounding voice muffled by the downy comforter made a smile twist across the pale man's face, his two sharp incisors still visible even with his mouth closed. "That's good. You deserve perfect." The vampire watched the umber-toned child as she turned onto her back and propped herself up to keep looking around the room, seemingly contemplating how she might decorate it in the near future. The idea would have brought warmth to his heart if he was still capable of feeling it. "Are you tired? You did travel a long vay to get here. You can sleep now if you'd like." Tabby got off her bed and walked back to the bedroom door where her adoptive father was standing. "Sleep? It's still the middle of the day. Besides, I just arrived. I want to explore more of this place." "Oh, right. Human children don't normally sleep during the day. Vell, ummm...I can show you the remainder of the castle. I'm not sure how fascinating an old vine cellar or a billiards room is for a child, but-" "Take me to see the neighborhood!" Tabby declared dramatically, a playful grin on her face as she pointed triumphantly at the only window in her bedroom. Kristof blinked as he stared at his daughter's unmoving pose for a prolonged moment of silence. "Like...right now?" "Yes, right now!" And with that, the tween girl dashed out of the room, the sound of her shoes pounding against the stone steps they had just ascended reverberating through the spiral along with her laughter. The vampire simply let out a sigh. "I'll go fetch my 3000 SPF sunblock. Vait for me downstairs!"

---

"Come on, dad! Come on, come on, come on!" Tabby didn't actually realize that her new home had gargoyles on the side until she actually looked up at the statues perched around the front entrance. In a way, it did make sense. The castle was probably hundreds of years old. She assumed it was some sort of aesthetic choice on the vampire's behalf, since they certainly weren't in any position to be serving as rain spouts for the castle. They were just a little too...19th century gothic for her tastes. "I'm gonna get you guys some sunglasses and...maybe Hawaiian shirts. Spiff you up a bit." She giggled to herself as she sat on the front steps outside the house to wait. "Jus' so long as you don't pick anything that's pastel pinky or baby blue. Not my colors." Tabby did such an extreme double-take that she nearly tumbled down the front step as the gargoyle to her left turned its head toward her with a wide cheeky smile. The gargoyle behind her erupted into a hearty laugh. "Quill, we talked about this. You nearly frightened the poor girl to death." "Oh, c'mon, Dagger, ain't no harm done. Look, the girl's barely even fazed!" Tabby glanced back and forth between the two stone faces peering down at her. "Ummm...hello?" They were alive. She hadn't expected that. "Ignore them. They're meant to protect the property, but more often than not, they slack off. If I could fire them, I vould, but it's not like I really pay them anyways." The tall, pale man sighed as he ambled out the front door slowly, a large brightly colored umbrella hat sharply contrasting with the cool tones of his usual clothing so much Tabby had to cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. "Well, if you won' a security report, Mr. Laurent, we got some thievssies going through the garbage right now." The vampire's yellow eyes suddenly narrowed dangerously at this. "Hazel! Sweetbriar!" As he sprinted towards the front gate of the house, Tabby chased after him. Two orange tabby cats were scavenging through the bags left on the curb, and took off yowling when Kristof approached them. "Get lost, you fleabags!" he sighed in exasperation as he rearranged the bags properly, then turned back to his daughter with a very strained smile. "Right then. Shall we go explore the neighborhood?"

"Are there other monsters here?" The pale man's pointed bat ears twitched as he redirected his gaze to his daughter, who appeared to be quite anxious. "Vould it be more comfortable for you to meet some of the human neighbors first? Ve could visit the Kennedys' home, or the Veatherspoons. Or...vell, the Carrolls don't have any young children. And the Kesslers don't really like me..." Tabby was distracted while her father was talking, though. "There's a river here?" Realizing that the little human was no longer following him, Kristof turned back and followed her along the small path in the grass that she had taken. "It's actually a creek. Sugarfoot Creek is vhat it's called, I believe. Please don't get too close. I don't vant you to fall in." Tabby crouched closer to the water's edge to examine what was underneath the surface more closely. She could spot a group of small fish swimming just under the murky water; trout, minnows, chubs, and - whoa, a largemouth bass! She had only seen one before in pictures from books at Little Wanderer's! Well...she did see one. It sort of just...suddenly disappeared. There was a new shadow in the water where it had been. Bigger, longer, its presence scared away all the other little fish. Something that was quickly surfacing, something with webbed hands and a long finned tail that-"hi!" this was the second time today she backed away from a sudden introduction. The being in the creek turned out to be a boy. Well, not a human boy...unless purple skin and green hair were the natural side effects of swimming in the creek. "I'm Finnegan! Call me 'Finn'! What's your name?" "I'm Tabitha. Call me 'Tabby'." She watched as the boy's large fish tail swayed back and forth below the water. "Are you a fish person?" Finn dropped backwards into the creek's water, disappearing beneath its surface for a brief moment before resurfacing again with a tiny fish's tail hanging from his mouth, which he promptly slurped up. "I guess you could say that. We're lake monsters. Well, creek monsters, but it still works!" "We?" She felt almost nervously trying to look below the creek's murky waters. There were...more? Were they looking at her right now? Finn seemed nice enough, but...

"Sure! There's lots of us! There's my older brother Logan, my sister Morgan, my mum, my uncle Porter, my aunt Pearl...oh, hi, Mr. Laurent!" the vampire flinched away when the semiaquatic kid's tail splashed him as he approached the two kids. "Yes, hello, Finnegan O'Malley. Glad to see you and my daughter are getting along so vell." Finn's tail swished again as he span in a little excited circle, more water splashing towards the vampire and his daughter as the lake monster child spoke. "Mr. Laurent adopted you? So that means you're new to the neighborhood! Oh, you have to meet the rest of the study group! We haven't had a new member in so long!" "Study group?" oh, great. She met the local school's academic stars before she even knew there was a local school. Finn hoisted himself up out of the water to lean a little closer so he could whisper in her ear, and only then did Tabby realize he was wearing a blue full body swimsuit. "Well, we call ourselves the 'Monster Mash', but we pretend to be a study group at school so the teachers let us hang out. Because we're hooligans." Oh, okay. That was more her speed. "So, come on, let's go meet them! It's faster to swim!" "No, no, no. No swimming. No swimsuit, no swimming, Tabitha!" Before either kid could protest, another figure raised from the creek's waters. Someone taller and more elegant than the young boy.

"Kris, how nice to see you out at this hour of the day." Kristof's bat ears twitched as he redirected his attention to the purple skinned woman who had just appeared. "Nessa! It's, uhhh...been too long, hasn't it?" "Too long, dear, much too long. Nice hat, by the way." Finn chuckled a short of gurgled chuckle as Tabby watched her father fumble clumsily with the goofy looking umbrella hat until he got it off. He cleared his throat rather exaggeratedly before placing a hand on his kid's head. "Ness, I'd like you to meet Tabitha. She's my daughter, I adopted her today. Ve vere just touring the neighborhood." The older lake monster glided closer, a soft and sweet smile on her face as she rested her arms on the creek's grassy banks. "It's nice to meet you, sweetheart. I do hope you'll like it here in Nightshade Row. You'll be starting school in about two weeks, you excited?" "Nope." Nessa giggled at the child's rather blunt answer. "Don't be too worried, your father teaches at the school. I'm sure you'll do fine." Finn pulled himself up out of the water and shook himself dry like a dog, Tabby only being saved in time by her father dropping the discarded umbrella onto her head. "Mum, can I take Tabby down to the old creek cabin to meet the others? We'll be back before dark, I promise!" "As long as it's okay with her father," Tabby turned to Kristof, ready to put on her best puppy dog eyes, only for her father to say "Your curfew is 10:15, okay? No sooner, no later. I don't vant you out at night, strange...things happen at night." "Stranger things? Than this?" "Please be careful, Tabitha." She gave him a quick hug. "I'll be okay, dad. And I'll be back, I promise."

"Okay. Have fun."

"I will."

"Don't be out too late."

"I won't."

"Make lots of friends. Also please eat something."

"Kris, let her go." Nessa sighed, shaking her head in amusement as the two children ran off down the side of the creek together.

---

"Oooh, this place is creepy." The creek cabin looked rickety, old, abandoned, probably haunted. And it was the absolute coolest. "I know, right? Vesper found the place last year before school started, and we've been coming here to hang out after school and on the weekend ever since. During the summer, most everyone's here all the time, so let's go see who's there right now!" He took off on all fours with a stride that was faster than the human's, but she managed to keep up with him all the way to the door of the cabin, which he pushed up before standing back up again and looking around. "Roxanne! Lysander! Vesper! Hey, Monster Mash! Anybody here?" the boy's call was almost immediately answered by a super-speedy ball of fur practically bouncing off of his head to tackle Tabby, a black fluffy tail wagging happily as a wet nose pressed to Tabby's face and then her hair. "New person! New person, new person! Different, different creature, not monster!" another series of sniffs against her face made Tabby giggle and push the big fluffy face away. "Human? Human scented! Definitely human scented! Friend scented? Not sure yet! But possibly!" "Lysander, quit it, man! We already discussed that this isn't an appropriate way to greet people!" The mass of black fur was pulled off of her, and only now could she see that it was a werewolf. Well, more a weredog? Werepup? He couldn't have been any younger than her, but the floppy ears and big bright eyes certainly weren't intimidating. She also noticed the vine that had wrapped around one of the wolf's paws to pull him away, and the girl with vibrant green hair covered in all sorts of flowers stepped forward with a sigh. "Hello there. Looks like Finn found new blood for the group. I'm Roxanne." "It's nice to meet you. I'm Tabby. I'm new to the neighborhood, I was adopted by a vampire." The vine holding Lysander down released him, allowing the wolf to prowl off towards a table in the center of the cabin that appeared to have plates of food on it. "You must be talking about Mr. Laurent. He teaches political history at our local school. He's one of the nicer teachers there. I know you'll like living with him." "Well, so far, I am loving my life with him. My bedroom is huge!" A slightly older girl sat at the table where Lysander had retreated to, her eyes hidden behind a pair of thick shades. She regarded Tabby with a polite nod, and when the human girl stepped closer to see the food on the table, she noticed four bright green snakes sway towards her from the girl's head. Well...that explains the sunglasses indoors.

"And I assume you're Vesper?" "Yup." "You found this cabin?" "Yup." "Are you a gorgon?" "Yup." "Okay...and it doesn't bother you that I'm a human, right?" "Nope." Alright, cool. "You wanna try one of these?" Lysander held up a plate of skull shaped cookies with heavy amounts of green frosting towards Tabby. "They're pumpkin cookies with strawberry puree! Roxy's grandma made them!" The cookie was soft and rich with a tart center, and it had so much frosting that Finn dropped a napkin onto her shoulder so she could wipe her face. "Ish ghud." Roxanne seemed very happy to hear this, and Lysander...just seemed happy no matter what, as he stuffed his own overly frosted cookie into his mouth. "Tabby's gonna be joining our grade this year. And she's going to be hanging out with us, if she wants to, of course. That cool, Vesper?" "Yup." The gorgon shot a casual thumbs up, and Finn grinned with fangs. "Great! Then it's settled!"

Tabby had barely been in this cabin for ten minutes; heck, she'd barely been in this neighborhood for two hours, but...I feel more comfortable here than I ever did at Little Wanderer's. They did their best to care for the kid that nobody wanted. The oldest kid and the one who had lived in that shelter the longest, she had witnessed countless children come and go, happily taken in by families while she stayed behind. Was ignored by other kids for being older. A long time of being passed over for adoption, or even short-term fostering, could dim the spark in anyone's eyes, even that of the brightest spirits. Maybe she was just desperate for friends. Maybe monsters were just easier to get along with than other human kids. Maybe they're just less judgmental by nature. Or maybe you're overthinking and you need another cookie. So she grabbed one. She could angst later, at home. She was happy now. These kids clearly didn't mind the out-of-place human girl here. And that was good enough for her.