Chapter 25

I love going to the clubs. And human clubs are better than the vampire clubs most of the time. The rest of my family would disagree, but I like humans, I find them interesting.

The club was dark, almost pitch black. There was a faint blue glow coming from the walls. Where most of the clubs around here use black lights, this one was vampire friendly and used soft blue lights. Black lights would hurt our eyes too much unless we were wearing sunglasses. But sunglasses would make us stand out and we want to blend in.

“We should go camping this weekend and invite Scott.”

“Okay, where did you want to go?”

“I don’t know. I was thinking Mount Greylock in the Berkshire Hills or maybe the Green Mountains of the Appalachians.”I watched as he mulled over the two options. Both were good options, no trouble foreseen at either location. I guess it would be up to Scott to tell us where we would be going.

“Hey Ben, isn’t that Mike Cavenaugh over there?”

“Yeah, I believe it is.” Ben replied. “But it’s supposed to be just us, remember?”

“I know, but I just want to say hi. I’ll be right back.”

“Hey, Mike. How were your classes today? I see you felt the need to get out tonight. Where’s the rest of the gang?”

“Classes sucked big. I always hate the first day of the semester. All we get is info on what the class is about and maybe a reading assignment or something. The rest of them are studying or playing video games. I just needed to chill for a minute, you know.”

“Yeah I know. I needed to be free tonight too. Life Skills, Logic, and English were very boring. I hope they become interesting fast, or I’m going to sleep through the semester.”

“Yeah, me too. So where is Ben, Rose, and Jason?”

“Oh, Rose and Jason stayed home; I kinda promised Ben it would be just us tonight. In fact, I’m going to have to let you drink alone or whatever, so Ben doesn’t get upset with me. Talk later.”

“Okay, late.”

“So what did Mike have to say?”

“He’s just chillin’.”

“Okay, so what are we going to do besides drink?”

“That’s pretty much it; I mean I just want to relax.”

“Whatever, sounds good to me, I guess.”

**********

Mount Greylock is so beautiful. Plenty of trees and rocks. The wildlife here is amazing. From the plants to the animals, this place is spectacular. No wonder Scott chose it. It’s so peaceful. This is going to be fun.

It was Friday night, Scott and Ben were setting up the tents while I went to gather firewood. We didn’t really need it, but just in case humans stumbled upon us we needed to be… human.

We preferred to sleep under the stars rather than the tents, well except for Scott- he didn’t sleep. He didn’t need to sleep, ever. Ben and I are basically half vampire and we need to sleep, though we don’t need much. We only need four hours of sleep once every forty-eight days. We would sleep tonight and play tomorrow.

Of course there were things to do during the day too. We brought a hackie sack, Frisbee, and our paintball guns with plenty of paintballs. This was going to be a terrific weekend.

I’d found about ninety pounds of wood for our weekend long fire and I wondered what the boys were doing now. I had about ten miles to go to get back to camp. I saw a lone wolf and got distracted on my search for wood and went farther than intended following it. I wasn’t thirsty so there was no need or want to kill. Besides when we went camping in the past, we hunted before so that we could enjoy the wildlife while camping. And in preparation for this weekend, we hunted last night.

When I got close enough to camp, I could hear the guys hacking. I hurried back to join them racing through the trees without a care.

As soon as I got there, I started the fire. It smelled wonderful. Then I joined Scott and Ben. We hacked for about an hour before we went for a swim.

The water would have been cold for a human but it was perfect to us. The fish swam around us trying to get away. We just watched them as we swam too. Nature was moving all around us. I looked to the trees where I heard an eagle. When I saw it, it was coasting through the trees gracefully. It always amazed me to watch the animals when I wasn’t hunting them. They weren’t as predictable.

Strix. Ben called me mentally and interrupted me.

What? I replied. Scott was watching what Ben had undoubtedly seen already and I watched too. Some wolves would be passing through our little campsite shortly.

I didn’t want you caught unaware. I know how you like wolves. Ben replied.

Thanks.

I watched them enter our camp. They were cautious. I saw the lone wolf from earlier. He must have been the wolf equivalent of a scout. The wolves watched us too as they passed by. They were magnificent creatures. I was curious about where they were going and why. But I knew my cousin would not allow me to follow them, not tonight.

We finished with our swim and Ben and I went to sleep. Scott would wake us if any problems emerged. He would most likely go hiking while we slept. He was the outdoors type. One with nature and all that. No doubt he would find some small animal to play with for a while. For some reason animals loved him. I could see why. He was gentle and friendly. He handled this way of life better than most, including our family.

It was about five a.m. when we woke. Ben first, and then me. I was usually up first, but I was rather enjoying my dream and didn’t want it to end. But today we were hunting each other. Scott got the lay of the land while we slept and showed us where the boundaries were to be.

We chose our paint colors. Mine was blue, Scott chose green, and Ben got orange. There were no teams or alliances to be formed. It was each for their own.

I ran west across the water to circle around. Ben went south and Scott north. We had to keep in constant motion or we were out. We knew each others’ moves and this made things more interesting. Who ever went out first was the ref for the other two. This was so there would not be any cheating. This game could last the rest of the weekend with no winner ever being declared. In fact, we rarely had a winner. But it was fun just trying to win.