West Coast Review

When friends, or others, discover we are Vampires the reactions vary from shock to horror to fascination. But, that said, they rarely find out we’re Vampires.

I had to meet with my friend Adam, Werewolf and brilliant photographer. Until a year ago I didn’t know he was a Werewolf and he didn’t know I was a Vampire. We kept our secrets better than most, for sometimes we CAN tell when folks aren’t regular humans. When we found out each others secret it wasn’t pretty. We both were feeling a bit violent and betrayed and out of sorts.

He touched my neck where he’d tried to rip out my throat a year ago. A faint scar still lingered. “I’m surprised I didn’t kill you.”

I shrugged it off then stepped back out of his reach.

He continued to talk. “You must have taken 50 gallons of blood out of me over…

I can piece together parts of a life and figure out anything. There are no secrets. All is revealed.

Years of observation and thinking and knowing what is a lie and what is a truth and what is a half truth has made me see things for what they are.

Most people are horrible liars. Their stories change over the years. Photos and documents don’t add up. Confusion layered with bull crap. I can figure it out. What really happens in the real world. Truth is stranger than fiction, but even strange truth has some real truth to it.

The statement “He died at sea,” in reality means “he had another family in another country and went back to them. That is why he is gone. That is why they know nothing of me or our child. That is why I say I am a widow rather than an unwed mother.”

A reminder that Halloween will be here sooner than later.

Juliette’s Halloween Posts. Don’t forget those pesky Halloween creatures will be here soon.

Maxwell drove down the coastal highway, roof open under the stars and the cool night air, thinking about his life as a top of the heap alpha male Vampire. It was a good time to ponder.

He didn’t have personal friendships with humans, the way some other Vampires did. He would protect them when necessary but he wouldn’t be their friend – at least not a close friend, not for a long time.

Of course he had human lovers, but that was pure physical need for their touch and their blood.

Vampire woman were another matter. He tended to be a freak magnet when it came to them. The normal ones were out there but they were always involved or off-limits in some way or another.  Or they were too strong and independent. Or in rare moments, years ago, he’d used bad judgement and not seen the big picture. Screw…

When you hear a lot of yelling and banging around under the house you know A) the dog has a skunk or B) the dog has a raccoon.

Clara had down outside to get something from under the house. We call it a basement. It is sort of a basement room where we store things like camping gear and gardening stuff. We live on a hill so we go down out the back sliding glass door to the deck, down about 20 stairs to the next deck and then a few steps down underneath the stairs to a door that goes into “the basement”.

Garrett and I ran out to see what it was. Thank goodness I didn’t smell skunk (the dog has already been sprayed 4 times.)

“What the Effing Fudge is that?” My 16-year-old Garrett said as he ran in behind me. (yes, my kids were taught not…

Halloween is coming up but the real world is filled with horrors that can rival any horror story or ghostly activity.

My friend and neighbor Kelly told me a story the other day that still sits in the pit of my stomach.

From Kelly:

With all of the news about child abuse I thought about a woman I knew who beat her child.

She joyfully told anyone who would listen, and she was the type who demanded an audience, that she had books on the subject.

Let me go back a bit…

She had never intended to have children but found herself pregnant. She was a triple A type personality, aggressive and always the center of attention. She was an expert at all things.

So into her life came a daughter. Unlike her aggressive mother, the child was quiet and meek.

That did not please the woman one bit. She…

Dogs. My house was full of dogs. Three dogs but their total weight comes to about 350 pounds. 45 of that is my mongeral husky mix, the rest of the dog mass is my brother Max’s two wolfhounds. As soon as I came through the door they were all over me. No aggression, just massive sentiments “I love you more than anything and I’ve never been so excited.”

After the dogs my two cats came running out screaming for food.

My husband Teddy and Max were lounging in front of the TV watching baseball.

Clara was upstairs doing homework with her friends Jasper and Ellie.

In the kitchen I poured a glass of wine and listened in on bits of conversation over the sound of the game.

I noticed Max had let his hair grow longer, a bit over his collar, almost to his shoulders. The women love that. They…