The Beast within

Chapter 19 what another book

Katherine's P.O.V 

  Casey had no idea how perfect her present for Becky really was, I mean come on wolves, I thought laughing to myself. She would love it. We put all the stuff we had brought back in the bags, just as my mom walked out of the kitchen. 

  "Are you girls hungry, everyone else already ate. I fixed hot dogs tonight." My mom said and we both nodded, following her into the kitchen. 

  "I didn't feel like washing all those dishes, so it was easier to cook hotdogs, the buns are here." My mom said, chuckling, I knew Casey didn't feel like eating, but she at least had one, while I ate two.

  "Well, I'm going to go up to my room and take a long hot bath. Thank you for taking me shopping for Becky's gift." Casey said, wiping her mouth and standing up.

  "Anytime and I mean that." I replied and Casey left heading to her room. I waited to make sure she was out of ear shot, before talking to my mom.

  "She invited Jake, dad said it was ok." I said, after I heard Casey's bedroom door close. 

  "Well, if he said it was ok, then I guess it will be okay. He seems like a nice boy and at least he doesn't feed on humans. Is Becky ready to shift tomorrow night, I know some of the warriors and guards are going with us to help." My mom replied, I knew she wouldn't mind Jake coming and like she said at least he doesn't feed on humans, which is always a plus.

  "I think she is, she's scared, which is normal, but other than that she's ready. Right, I'm heading upstairs, I need a shower after my busy day of shopping." I said, laughing while my mom just smiled and playfully rolled her eyes at me. I hugged my mom and ran upstairs to my room. I walked in and dropped my bags on the floor, when I heard that my mate was already in the shower. I smirked, took off my clothes and walked into the bathroom, opening the shower door.

  "So, is there room for two?" I asked, he smirked and pulled me inside. 

  Casey's P.O.V

  I was enjoying soaking in a hot bath and it was helping to relax all my muscles, which after shopping with Katherine I desperately needed. I got out when the water started to go cold and dried myself off, putting my pyjamas on. I sat on my bed and looked over at the last remaining boxes I still had to sort through. I decided to just finish going through everything and get it all over and done with, that way I don't have to think about them anymore. I opened up the first box and there was a book resting on the top entitled The History Of Vampires. I was a little taken back by this, first a book on werewolves and now a book on vampires. Why were my parents reading all of this? I opened the book and began to read through the first couple of pages.

  According to legend, Vlad Dracula enjoyed dining amongst his dying victims and dipping his bread in their blood, whether those gory tales are true is unknown. Many people believe these stories sparked Stoker’s imagination to create Count Dracula, who was also from Transylvania, sucked his victim’s blood and could be killed by driving a wooden stake through his heart, but, according to Dracula expert Elizabeth Miller, Stoker didn’t base Count Dracula’s life on Vlad Dracula. Nonetheless, the similarities between the two Draculas are intriguing.

  It wasn’t common for anyone with an unfamiliar physical or emotional illness to be labeled a vampire. Many researchers have pointed to porphyria, a blood disorder that can cause severe blisters on skin that’s exposed to sunlight, as a disease that may have been linked to the vampire legend. Some symptoms of porphyria can be temporarily relieved by ingesting blood. Other diseases blamed for promoting the vampire myth include rabies or goiter.

  When a suspected vampire died, their bodies were often disinterred to search for signs of vampirism. In some cases, a stake was thrust through the corpse’s heart to make sure they stayed dead. Other accounts describe the decapitation and burning of the corpses of suspected vampires well into the nineteenth century.

  This is so stupid, I got tired of reading it and threw the book in the trash with the one on werewolves. I carried on looking in the box and there was a small jewellery box, inside it was a necklace, a couple of rings and a few pairs of earrings, I put the jewellery back inside the jewellery box and placed it on my night stand. I picked up the next box and opened it, finding old papers,  I looked through them and there was nothing of importance there. I was now down to the last box, which I was glad of, I opened it and found yet another letter and more money in an envelope. I opened the letter first and all it said was 'this is for you to buy whatever you want to buy, but remember college', I folded the letter up and counted the money, there was a total of six hundred dollars here. I put the money back in the envelope and placed the letter in the shoe box with the others. Maybe Katherine would be up for another shopping trip, but next weekend my feet still need time to recover from today's shopping trip. There was still so much left for us to do, school finishes in a week and we still have our graduation.

  "Crap! Graduation, that reminds me. College!" I said, turning my computer on and sitting down to start filling in college application forms. I applied for a couple of local colleges as I didn't want to go far and one in Mississippi, but that was just as a last resort, I really wanted to stay in Callahan.