Previously: Deidre drives with Aleigha to pick up a new outfit. Venturing onward with Aleigha's plans. He calls a number supposedly tied Lynn, a friend of Deidre.
I could fall asleep in this truck. Aleigha already has, I'm astonished that Seamus is still driving. The magic doesn't stop working and I want to wake him to ask about this magic he's using.
I'm impressed, to say the least. He stole a man's car using it, plus got us free phones. I wish I could use it. I'm a vampire, but that raises questions.
Why am I albino? Who am I? Why did I run from home? What mansion in Virginia, he hasn't spoken about that? "It was a raid."
"Raid?" As in someone broke into our house? "Yep." God, let me have a piece of mind. He chuckles and the small sound of laughter from him is cute. "You gay as hell, mam used to say that a lot. As a joke," he smiles. Pulling his arms out the coat, he grips a locket. "You wanna see mom?"
"Yeah, I don't know why you asked." I lean over enough to see her picture. "I'm her son?" I have big lips in my opinion, her smile is wide and elegant, her eyes an almond shape whilst hiding an evil motive. "Ranaan?"
"Yeah..." Aleigha pouts and stuffs the locket in his coat again. "She married a butch of dudes. Different color. So, we have a dozen half siblings."
I flick on the car roof light. Aleigha looks invisible in this darkness. "Nigga fuck you, I'm beautiful."
I guess. "What was mom like?" I asked.
"Ooo," he coos. "Black blooded queen. Good head on her shoulders, said grandma. Lovely strong woman, said uncle Iarius. Ma'am first husband."
"Why so many?"
"It just happened like that. Though, in the hood back in Virginia, It was like a rule." He sniffles and looks at the light. "Why you turn this on?"
"It's dark." I titter. "Oh, I get it, you don't want to cry in front of your little brother?"
"Now you wanna get brotherly? What happened to trying to fuck me?" he smiles with his full teeth showing. I back into the door handle, thinking he might bite. "Why do you eat other vamps?"
"Because that's what mama used to do." He puts his chin in his palm looking at the night road. "Mama was a cannibal; she did it to leave because Virginia was like, you can be a vampire but only if we set the rules."
"Are you taking me back to Virginia?" I wouldn't mind but I would also be leaving a lot behind. Like poorness.
"Oh, hell no." he jolts, looking at me widely. "I'm not taking you back to Virginia. Just to lose you again. And I still need an army." What could I possibly provide? So far, all I do is scream. "I don't know what you need me for."
"Family." He says. "I want my family back. In Virginia Vampires get lynched and that's what they did to mom. That was a fucking day."
My view flipped. Aleigha isn't that bad, I need to be patient. He still robbed people. How did he get into the fucking apartment in the first—magic, fuck it. "Aleigha, can you teach me magic?"
He blinks his eyes, "You mean Triks?"
"Go on..."
"Triks is a made-up tradition. It started in Africa, went through the middle east and to India. Then around some unfortune event, it landed in Greece." He describes. "so, after the Greece trip, this black Greek Vassilios Mousata started looking at the language."
"Is there going to be a quiz on this later?" I jest. Aleigha flashes a small smile, "Nah, just pay attention little brother. You know... skip that. I took care of you when you were little. I remember when mom gave birth... on a fucking coffin, I don't if that's a coffin, mind you. Around the time you were four, you saw mama get shot."
Pause.
"I saw my mom get shot?" That's not a thing you tell just anybody. My mouth sort of hangs open, "What happened?"
"The DOHRCC in Virginia hate my mom for speaking out. Though, she's one of the most gifted Vampires. That provided for the sick and human. She was like a civil rights activist for Vamps." He takes a breath. "Ranaan used to be a pet."
"A pet? Just call it as it sounds. A slave. I'm not that stupid. "Don't get me wrong." Aleigha shifts in his seat, staring at me and I can't stop thinking about of pretty he is. A healthy glow, pink orbs, attractive Nubian nose. "White vampires exist, and they are caught in this wicked fight. I don't mean to make it about dark versus light. But it came from us."
So, they blame us? For what exactly? Aleigha collects himself to begin explaining a load of shit that would piss me off. "Vampires, want to live. For years we thought it was blood we needed but then our mother found the real secret. Vampires don't suck blood. They eat bones."
"That's crazy. You always hear about bloodsucking monsters."
"True. But the cure is in the bones. Black vampires can be tranced back to the Obayifo in Africa, Lamia in the East and the Vetala." He becomes animated moving his hands about in his lesson. "We come from Vampire worshippers. Back in 1809, Jewish occultist Ehud Ben-Hadad found that vampires had home in the Black countries."
A Black country? They teach that "Aboriginals in Australia count, too. The Muslims crucified Hibat Okadigbo for feeding. The Indians kept one of the most powerful vamps that found home in Africa."
"Who's that?"
"Fucking Changany." Aleigha snorts. "Changany isn't talked about because he's kind of a murderer. At first Africa practiced this act of voodoo, no should use."
This isn't a scary story. I'm not spooked. "Recycle, it's the act of summoning a spirit or—dare, a nigga would—a God. In an empty body. Once the soul leaves, another spirit can take the body and this what a village believed in. The body was forever immortal as long as a soul was in."
"That's..." What's the word of looking for? Hardcore spiritualist? I'm not a religious man myself, I don't have a care in the world. It also sounds like devil magic.
"It's not." Aleigha contorts. "some souls willingly occupy a body without being summoned."
"How do you know all this?"
"Probably because I have like seven inside of me."