Andrew's Library

Introduction

 

It was a beautiful morning this mid-summer day. The sky was clear of clouds allowing the sun to beam onto the ground below. The blazing red ball sat high in the sky, still acting as if it were a spotlight directed at the main characters of a theatre play. The sound of waves crashing echoed softly through the still air as a young woman sat like a statue in front of a garden filled with different coloured Roses. Sitting on her legs, she had her arms resting on her thighs, taping gently along with the tune she was sub-consciously singing. Her long dark blue hair was neatly done up into a French Braid. Her skin was pale, despite sitting in direct view of the sun. It was almost as if the sun didn’t reach her skin, like there was an invisible barrier surrounding her that protected her from the sun, for whatever reason she needed to be protected from the sun’s rays. She stared aimlessly into the garden in front of her with her bright blue eyes, as blue as the sky above her. She was wearing a black tank top with dark blue patterns scattered across it. On her shoulder was a tattoo of a blue rose, just like the roses that grew in the garden in front of her. Her pants were black as black could be with blue trimming at the ankles.

The garden in which she sat in front of lay out before a massive building. The three story stone mansion stood taller than the tree’s that surrounded it. Despite having been destroyed twice before, hundreds of years prior to the present day, the mansion kept its Roman Catholic exterior. Arched windows, pointed towers, and other features made it stand out from everything else that stood around it. Situated in the center of the garden was a pond that stretched just as long as the garden did. A few different species of birds floated peacefully across the water’s surface, pecking at the bugs and plant life that they passed by. The silence was soon broken as a younger girl bounded across the stone walkway that encompassed the garden and pond.

“Mom!” shouted the girl as she jumped over the corner of the garden and came to a complete stop in front of her mother.  Rose, ironically being the older woman’s name, snapped from her daze and turned from her garden to her daughter.

“What is it sweetheart?” Rose asked as she rested her arms on her daughter’s shoulders.

“Blake’s being a butthead again,” Aslyin whined and looked over the pond at the Mansion where a boy about the same age as she stood, waiting just outside the large double doors; a paintball gun in his hand.

“What’s he doing this time?” Rose asked as she followed her daughters gaze and saw Blake standing by the doors with his paintball gun. She sighed. “How many times do we have to tell him not to fire that thing at people?” Rose asked, more so to herself, before she stood up and faced Blake. “Blake, come here,” she ordered her son. Despite him being half a football field away, he heard her like she was standing right beside him. He lowered his gun and quickly hurried down the stone walk-path. Aslyin stood behind Rose, trying to hide herself from her brother.

“What is it mother?” Blake asked casually, as if he didn’t know he was in trouble, let alone the tone of his mother’s voice.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to fire that thing at people?” Rose asked, her hands on her hips, her eyes digging into Blake’s burning red eyes.

Blake’s eyes shifted to Aslyin for a split second and then returned to his mother’s. “I wasn’t shooting it at her,” Blake protested with a groan. He knew he wouldn’t get out of it, he never could. He wasn’t much of a debater.

Rose held her hand out in a motion for Blake to give the gun to her, but he resisted and turned away. “Blake, give me the gun,” Rose ordered, standing still with her arm still out-stretched, waiting for him to hand it over to her. He continued to disobey.

“I didn’t shoot her, you have no proof that I did,” he debated. He was going to attempt and wiggle his way out of it.

Rose placed her hand back on her waist and looked down at Aslyin who stood behind her. “Did he actually fire at you sweetheart?” she asked calmly, her tone of voice changing so instantly you’d never know she was frustrated with her other child.

Aslyin shook her head, but didn’t say anything in response.

Rose sighed and looked back to Blake. “Then what did you do? Because obviously you did something, she wouldn’t come running to me for any reason,” Rose asked, her tone staying calm.

“I didn’t do anything, I swear,” Blake answered. He held his Paintball gun behind his back, reluctant to hand it over to his mother.

Rose stared at him, disbelieving what he was saying, but he had a pretty good argument, for once; there was no proof, at least Aslyin hadn’t given any that could prove that Blake had fired at her. She sighed and stared into the clear blue sky. “Go play, but I don’t want to see you teasing your sister anymore, alright?” she asked. She had come to the conclusion that he hadn’t fired at Aslyin, he had simply pointed it at her and provoked her to the point where she thought he was going to shoot her with it.

“Yes mom,” Blake said as he turned and bounded off quickly into the forest. He had set up a fortress from old knocked down trees and leaves. It was his club house. His red hair lashed out wickedly behind him as he disappeared into the forest. He let out a sigh as he came to a stop at the entrance to his fortress. “You’re always ruining my fun Aslyin, why do you have to be such a brat?” he asked aloud, not that anyone was near to hear him, and he doubted trees could talk, let alone hear what he was saying. He pushed open the large wooden door to his fortress and disappeared inside.

 

“Don’t let him get to you Aslyin, he’s just being a boy,” Rose said as she turned to face her daughter, kneeling down and placing her hands on her shoulders. “What do you say we go see what daddy’s up to?” she asked with a bright smile on her face. Aslyin’s face lit up and nodded.

“Alright!” she exclaimed and clapped her hands together.

Rose smiled. Aslyin and Brandon had gotten along since the day she was born and it didn’t look like their relationship would ever die. Blake, on the other hand, had always disobeyed his orders and, though they both still loved him, got very annoyed at him as well. She stood up and took Aslyin’s hand and they began to walk towards the beach where a large boat waited, tied to the dock that rocked back and forth in the waves.

Rose and Brandon had taken over the small Cottage Resort that Rose’s father, Eivan, had owned at the time they met 10 years ago. That entire event was a totally different story, one that has been already told, too many times. Aslyin was constantly asking how she met Brandon, and every time she heard the story she found it more exciting how Brandon had saved her life after Eivan had tried to kill her. It put a smile on Roses face that something good came out of that whole ordeal, but every time she told it, it hurt inside to remember the event.

 

~

 

Brandon was sitting behind the counter; his dark eyes were focused on the group of teenagers that sat on the opposite side. He was wearing a simple white buttoned shirt, leaving the top button undone, of course, revealing his collarbone. On the counter in front of him were four sets of keys, a sheet of paper, and a single pen. The four teenagers standing on the other side of the counter were reading over the paper quietly. The paper simply told them the rules, curfews, etc…

The basic rules hadn’t changed much from when Brandon and his friends first came here 10 years ago for their week of fun, until it turned into a nightmare for himself, however ended fairly well; at least that’s how he looked at it. He ended up getting married to the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on, had two children with them; what more could he possibly ask for? His eyes shifted slightly as the female that stood at the front of the group picked up the pen and scribbled her name onto the dotted line at the bottom of the form. “There you are Mr. Conley,” said the female as she placed the pen down and looked up from the sheet to Brandon, who smiled softly at her, revealing his bright white smile. “I’ll come by in a few to make sure you guys are all set up and like your cabin. We have a few empty ones around the park so if you don’t like the one you got, we could fit you into one that hasn’t been reserved yet,” Brandon said, still smiling. He took the paper from the counter and tore off the bottom and handing the top half back to the girl. “That’s for you, just in case you want to keep yourselves well informed about the rules,” Brandon said as he placed the bottom half of the form into a drawer under the counter. A few other pieces of paper littered the inside of the drawer, obviously other forms; a few other family’s had already arrived to start their week.

“Thank you,” said the girl as she took the sheet. The rest of her group were already waiting for her by the doorway when it opened causing them to jump.

Brandon glanced toward the door and spotted Rose and Aslyin walking in. His smile grew brighter. “What are you two doing here?” he asked as they walked past the group of teenagers and stepped behind the counter. The teenagers shrugged and left the building, got in their cars and made their way to their cottage.

“We decided to see how you were holding up, were they the kids?” Rose asked.

Brandon nodded his head. It was their 10 year anniversary, which was good and bad. They got married 10 years ago and were still married, but 10 years ago was also the day Brandon’s life was flipped upside down and inside out. He still thinks about the events that lead up to where he is now. On this very day he arrived with his friends Tyler, Katie, and Jasmine; and now that another group of teenagers arrived and just happened to reserve the same cottage that he stayed in 10 years ago, he began to get paranoid that something was going to happen with those teenagers that might not be good.

He wrapped his arms around Aslyin and kissed her cheek before taking Rose into his arms and placing his lips gently against hers. “Yes, that was them. I think I’m just being paranoid. They seem innocent enough,” Brandon said as he looked out the window in front of him at the group of teenagers as they unpacked their luggage from their vehicles.

Rose placed her hands on his cheek and turned him to look at her, a smile on her face. “You are just being paranoid, don’t worry about it. Nothing’s going to happen, you’ll see,” she said as she kissed him again.

“Thank you, Rose,” he said as he returned the kiss before looking down at Aslyin who had made a ‘yuck’ and turned around to face away from them. “What’s wrong honey?” Brandon asked as he knelt to her.

“Kissing is so gross!” Aslyin cried as she turned to Brandon with a funny face.

Brandon laughed and kissed her on the nose. “I just kissed you, isn’t that gross?” he asked with a smile.

Aslyin shook her head. “No, that’s different. You’re my daddy, it’s not gross for your daddy to kiss you,” she said, her face making another funny face, like if she was going to teach him the difference between a husband kissing his wife, and a father kissing his daughter.

Brandon couldn’t help but smile and laugh.

Rose was leaning against the counter, smiling and laughing as well.

“What I mean is kissing on the lips is gross, all those germs! Eww!” she cried and made another funny face.

Brandon smiled widely and stood up and leaned on the counter next to Rose. “So, if I kiss your mother here –” Brandon leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek, “that’s not gross?” he asked, still smiling.

Aslyin shook her head.

“What about here?” he asked as he kissed Rose under the chin.

She shook her head again.

“Here?” he continued asking as he kissed Rose in multiple different spots only to learn that none of them were as gross as kissing on the lips.

Rose giggled and wiggled around as he kissed around her collarbone, tickling her a little bit.

“So, if I kissed you on the lips that would be gross, even if you’re my daughter?” Brandon asked as he knelt down.

Aslyin backed away from Brandon and nodded her head. “Yeah, that’s why I’m not going to let you kiss me on the lips,” she said with a wicked grin on her face.

Brandon grinned in return before standing up again. “Alright, well I didn’t know that, did you?” he asked as he turned to Rose.

“I certainly did not,” Rose said with a laugh.

“Guess we’ll have to be more careful not to kiss like that anymore, wouldn’t want to give you cooties or anything,” Brandon said with a laugh.

“See, now you’ve got the hang of it!” Aslyin said with a clap of her hands. Then she stopped and stared off into space for a moment. “I’m hungry,” she finally said.

Brandon looked to Rose with a smile. “Think she’s ready for her first hunt?” he asked.

Aslyin’s face lit up as she heard this and immediately began bouncing around clapping her hands again. “Please mommy!?” she asked as she bounced around in front of Rose.

Rose smiled and nodded her head. “Don’t tell your brother though. He won’t be too happy to hear I took you hunting, but not him,” she said as she took Aslyin’s hand and walked toward the door. “Brandon,” she said, looking back over her shoulder. “Don’t think about it too much. You’ve got to just relax, why don’t you come with us? Let out some steam,” Rose suggested.

Brandon looked down at the sheet in front of him. No one was supposed to be showing up till the next morning. “Alright,” he said with a smile.

Aslyin’s face lit up even more. “Yay, Daddy’s coming too!” she couldn’t sit still now.

 

For the first 10 years of Aslyin and Blake’s life, they had been too young to go hunting with Rose and Brandon. They had always stayed at home with one of their parents while the other went out and hunted. Normally Brandon stayed at home, or at least in the office making sure everything was running smoothly at the resort, but on some days he would go and Rose would stay and watch the kids. They took turns.

Aslyin had shown a great deal of maturity over the past few months, or at least she was pretending to be mature, and Brandon had noticed. Seeing as Aslyin spent a lot of her time around him, she liked him a lot. She loved both of her parents, but Brandon had taken care of her since she was born, and that father/daughter relationship has stuck between them since then.

Locking the door behind him, Brandon took Aslyin’s free hand and the three of them walked away from the Cottage Resort to go hunting.

Chapter 1
The Hunt

 

Stars twinkled beautifully in the clear dark sky, hanging next to the large full moon that beamed onto the Earth. Every night when the Sun treaded to the other side of the Earth to beam on them like a spotlight; the moon replaced it. The moon however didn’t emit its own source of bright light. The moon’s light was a simple reflection of the Sun as it rotated around Earth, and Earth rotated around the Sun. The soft white luminescent light that hit the Earth gave just enough light for Brandon and Rose to see one another; they were sitting quietly together just outside of their house, the large mansion located just off of the cottage resort they owned.

The only sound that filled the night air was the music the crickets made as they jumped around the lawn, trying to find one another; and the sound of the waves crashing against the beach. It was a very peaceful night, nothing out of place. Brandon sat on a black lawn chair facing toward the brilliant rose garden Rose tended to every morning. The reflection of the moon bounced off the pond that took up the inside of the garden, making the garden look even more beautiful than it already did. Rose sat on the identical lawn chair to his right, their hands intertwined with one another as they both sat quietly and watched the sky. There had been rumours amongst the Campers that there was going to be a meteor shower at exactly midnight; and looking at his watch; Brandon noted that in approximately thirty seconds, it would begin.

Across the lake, at the Cottage Resort, lights began to appear on the beach as the Campers gathered in the sand to watch the meteor shower as well. Tiny orbs of light scattered the beach as kids ran around aimlessly with flashlights, playing Jedi with one another as they waited. It was a long thirty seconds, but as soon as Brandon’s watch beeped 12:00 A.M. a small twinkling orb began to descend from the heavens, soaring across the perfectly clear night sky.

 

“Look, Brandon, there it is,” Rose said as she pointed her free hand into the sky, her index finger following the falling orb of light as it raced through the Earth’s gravitational field. Seconds later another one appeared, then another and another until it seemed like every star in the sky was falling toward Earth.

Brandon leaned over and kissed Rose on the cheek before watching the stars fall from the sky. The crowd that had gathered across the lake at the resort were astounded at the beauty of the meteor shower. Their ‘Oooos’ and ‘Ahhhhs’ reached across the lake to Brandon and Rose, however sounded almost like a whisper by the time it reached their ears.

It seemed like forever that the brilliant orbs of light fell from the sky, but when the last one disappeared behind the trees in the horizon; Brandon looked at his watch and was surprised that only five minutes had passed by. “Do you want to stay out here longer?” he asked Rose, but kept his attention on the sky, watching for any late falling shards of light.

Rose turned and looked at Brandon and smiled, though normally her smile wouldn’t have been seen at this time of night, but Brandon saw it as clearly as he could see her smiling during the day. “I think I’m going to head inside, check on the kids, and then get some rest,” she said as she leaned over and placed her lips against his before standing up. “Good night,” she said before heading up the stairs behind their chairs toward the front doors.

“Good night, I’ll be in shortly,” he called over his shoulder before looking back to the sky in time to catch one last falling star. He smiled.

 

~

 

Rose climbed the right partial-spiral staircase that was attached to the wall until she reached the second floor of the house. The main hall of their mansion had two of these partial-spiral staircases; one on the right side that lead to the second floor, and one on the left side that lead to the third floor. Aslyin and Blake’s bedroom was on the second floor along with the a few other unused rooms that were just filled with the old artefacts that had been in the mansion when Rose’s father, Eivan, had owned it, and when Brandon’s Great Grandfather, Alexander, the Vampire Lord, had owned it before that. A lot of the rooms remained unused and only a few were actually occupied by something they found useful. The two bedrooms for Aslyin and Blake, the master bedroom for Rose and Brandon, Brandon’s office, and the living room; other than that the house was fairly empty and spacious. That was partially the reason no one was allowed inside: It was kind of embarrassing having a mansion of this size and not have it filled to the roof with expensive statues and art.

Coming to a stop at one of the doors branching off of the second floor hallway, Rose knocked gently on it before opening it. Blake’s room was once again in a mess. He had gone back and forth between the Resort and the City a few miles from their location and purchased quite a few new accessories to add to his arsenal of weapons. He spent most of the weekends at the City’s local Paintball Arena, destroying his competition. He had been asked to join their National Team to play as their new leader for the Championship Tournament that started in a few months, but he was picky when it came to the Humans he called his friends or companions.

Blake was lying on his bed tossing darts at a Dart Board that was attached to the ceiling above him when Rose stepped in. His bright red hair fanned out behind him. He tossed another dart at the Dart Board and cursed under his breath when it missed the Bull’s Eye by half an inch, or less.

“Blake, are you planning on coming hunting with us in the morning?” Rose asked quietly. She knew Blake didn’t like her too much. He didn’t like anyone in the family at all. Though, because he was her son, he was bound to her and could potentially be controlled by his mother, but she chose not to use that method of behaviour modification and let him decide what he thought was best for him. She had long given up trying to order him around; ever since he was a child he had disobeyed her orders, he’d always been the odd dog in the group that did everything alone and didn’t pay any attention to the rest of the family. One thing Rose was happy about how he grew up, was that he didn’t seem to bother Aslyin anymore. When they were younger he’d constantly tease her and make her cry, now he barely even said hello to her when they passed one another in the hallway.

Blake looked to her as he stood up and pulled the darts out of the Board before flopping back down and beginning to throw them up at the Board again. “I don’t know, maybe, why?” he asked.

“Was just going to suggest resting up so you’re not missing out if you do come,” Rose said as she continued to stand in the doorway to his room. She also knew that he didn’t like people in his room, and she didn’t want to take a step over the threshold. The floor was completely covered by junk, and you’d never know if you were walking on the ground or not, for all she knew he had bodies under all that junk.

“I guess I should come. I’m sure you and Dad are getting tired of getting my meals for me,” Blake said as he tossed another dart at the Board, nailing his third Bull’s Eye, before turning his attention to his mother. “What time guys heading out?” he asked.

Rose thought for a moment. “I don’t really know. I’ll talk to your Dad about that when he comes inside, just be up before the sun does, you know how hard it is to get a decent meal when half the City’s bustling around,” she said with a grin.

Blake nodded and grinned in return. It was the first time she had seen him grin in a long time. Maybe they could have a decent family bonding time together, at least she hoped. “Alright, I’ll see you guys bright an early then,” he said as he turned his attention back to the Dart Board and once again continued to toss the remainder of the darts in his hand at the Board.

“Good night, love you,” Rose said as she closed his bedroom door, she wasn’t expecting him to say anything in return, he never did. She knew he did love her, somewhere inside his hardly beating heart; he just was too much of a tough guy to admit that he loved his own mother. The next door on Roses tour through the second floor hallway was quite a while away from Blake’s bedroom. Aslyin and Blake didn’t get along too well, they never did. She had spent most of her childhood running from him and his Paintball Guns because he had so much fun torturing her until she snapped. Now she tried to keep her distance from him, despite the fact he rarely paid attention to her anymore.

Rose knocked gently on Aslyin’s bedroom door before opening it.

Aslyin’s room was the exact opposite of Blake’s. Hers was nice and tidy and didn’t look like a cluster bomb went off in every square inch of the room. Across from the door, Aslyin sat in front of a mirror. It seemed kind of pointless to be looking into a mirror seeing as she didn’t cast a reflection back at herself. Her hair reached just below her shoulders and was combed to cover the right side of her face, parting just below her right eye. When she was younger her hair was almost pure white, like snow, but then as she got older it darkened a lot until it was black. Aslyin had begged Brandon to let her get her hair dyed for her birthday, and because her relationship with her father hadn’t changed since the day she was born 18 years ago, he agreed to. So now her hair is black with strands of light purple flowing through it.

“Aslyin, are you getting ready for bed?” Rose asked as she leaned against the doorframe and watched her daughter comb her hair with an invisible reflection of herself.

Aslyin spun around on her swivel chair and faced her mother, a bright smile on her face. “Yup! Just getting these knots out of my hair before I get some rest,” she answered as she continued to run the comb through her hair. She then turned back to the mirror and stared at the invisible reflection of herself.

Rose turned to leave, but turned back to Aslyin. “Why are you looking at a mirror? You don’t have a reflection,” she said, a confused tone to her voice.

Aslyin spun around to face her mother again. “I like to feel normal once and a while,” she said with a smile before placing the comb down and bouncing across the room and wrapping her arms around Rose and kissing her gently on the cheek. “Good night mom, see you in the morning,” she said.

“Good night sweetheart,” Rose said as she returned the kiss before leaving the room to let Aslyin get some rest before the big hunt in the morning.

 

~

 

The night had fallen silent again as Brandon made his way inside. The meteor shower had ended, had been over for a few minutes now, but he wanted to make sure the campers weren’t going to be breaking any rules. The major rule that he paid the most attention to was the first rule on the list: No loud noises past midnight. He understood that some kids came up here by themselves with their friends, just as he had done 10 years ago, and the rule still existed then. The Family’s that camped here also had once complained that the kids in the Cottage next to them were making too much noise. He assumed that’s why Eivan had created the rule, he couldn’t think of any other reason.

So before heading inside to rest up for the night, Brandon took to the skies to make sure that everyone was asleep, and was pleased to see that they were.

Once back inside, he climbed the staircase to the left of the main hall to the third floor, where their bedroom was. He opened the door and stepped into the darkroom. The chandelier hanging from the ceiling held a dozen candles, each of them lit giving the room some light, not that either of them needed any. Brandon closed the door behind him and stepped into the room. He could smell Rose already in the room, but couldn’t see her. “Rose?” he asked as he looked around, but was surprised as she wrapper her arms around his neck and kissed under his ear. Her cold lips sent a tingle through his body and he intertwined his fingers with hers. “Excited tonight, are we?” he asked with a grin as he turned in her arms and placed his lips against hers.

She smiled and nodded. Didn’t look like they’d be getting much rest tonight.

 

~

 

The next morning was plagued with a thunderstorm, but at least it wasn’t sunny. Brandon dashed at the head of his family, his short black hair waving slightly as he dodged around trees on the way to his destination. He was wearing, what looked to be, the same clothes as he had been wearing the day before. Next to him was Rose, she had let her long hair down and it lashed around behind her as she ran, easily keeping up with Brandon. She didn’t look like she had changed her clothes either.

Aslyin was right behind Brandon, her shoulder long black and purple hair didn’t seem to be effected by the wind as they ran at speeds faster than most cars could reach. She was wearing a black skirt that reached just below her knees with purple lacing at the waist and a simple black tank-top like her mother. Blake ran next to her, but she didn’t seem to worry as much as she used to about being around him. He didn’t seem to care that she was within arm’s length from him. His red hair, which always seemed to be different lengths every time you saw him, was tied into a pony tail. He was wearing a loose pair of black jeans with a flaming skull on the back right pocket and a plain black sweater.

“So where are we going, Dad?” Blake asked as he stepped up a bit and was now running next to Brandon, who hadn’t taken his eyes off of what was in front of him. “The Cities in the other direction, isn’t it?” he asked.

Brandon nodded his head as he stepped over a large rock and then dodged around a tree. “They’ve gotten a little suspicious lately,” Brandon began to explain. “We’ve been hunting there for quite a while now, so I thought we’d try a more remote place,” he added with a grin as he looked at Blake for a quick second before returning his gaze to the landscape that was flying past him.

“Alright,” Blake said as he too dodged around a tree, but never fell back to Aslyin’s side for the remainder of the run.

“Before we get there though, I want to make sure you remember our rules,” Brandon said.

Blake groaned. “Before you attack, make sure no one else is around to witness, no matter how good someone might smell, if there are other people around, don’t try to get the person; If someone happens to walk by while you’re feeding, quickly take your victim into the nearest shadowy area and wait for the by-passer to leave, if you can’t find anywhere to hide the body, take to the skies and leave the body; Remember to fill the packages with the remainder of your victim’s blood after you get your fill; and don’t, under any circumstance, let your victim live,” Brandon rehearsed the rules that he had been taught the first time he’d ever gone hunting with Brandon or Rose.  

“Very good,” Brandon said with a grin as he came to a stop at the side of a road. The storm had whipped up a wicket cloud of fog, which worked perfectly in their favour. A truck drove by, but obviously didn’t see Brandon or his family standing at the side of the road as it passed. The driver was too busy trying to stay on the fog covered road. On the other side of the road, was a farm. “I’ve been watching this family for a while now. Regardless of the weather, they come out and tend to their crops,” Brandon said.

“Is there a female?” Blake interrupted.

Brandon shot him a glance before returning his eyes to the farm. “Yes, you can have her; just don’t keep her alive like you did the last teenage girl you attacked last time you came with us,” Brandon said as he walked across the street. “I’m sure you’ll sniff her out soon enough.”

Blake grinned. He had a thing for human females; no one quite understood why he liked to feed off of them. Every time Brandon or Rose went hunting for him, he’d always ask that they kill a young teenage female for him. No one questioned why he loved them. As soon as they were hidden under the tall stalks of corn, Blake’s nostrils flared and he quickly headed away from the group. “Found her,” he said and then was gone.

Aslyin rolled her eyes as she walked silently next to her parents. “He’s such a pervert,” she said quietly. It seemed the family was already at work in the fields and she didn’t want to alert them of their presence. “Guess that leaves me with their son?” she asked. She had come with Brandon on one of his recon missions to the farm to gather information about them so he knew what to expect when he finally decided to come feed off of them. The family consisted of the two parents, around the age of forty; they had a nine-teen year old daughter and a 15 year old son.

Brandon nodded. “Unless you want to trade with your mother,” he said with a grin.

Rose grunted. “No fifteen year old kid will fill me.”

Aslyin giggled and then took off into the corn field.

The foggy morning was once again silent as Brandon and Rose stalked their prey from under the corn stalks. A low rumbling could be heard as the Husband of the family drove his farm equipment through the field. His wife was on the back of the machine, making sure that it was working properly. Brandon grinned as the giant machine turned and headed in their direction. He intertwined his fingers with Rose’s and kissed her gently on the lips before he lowered himself to the ground and then pounced at the farmer’s wife. He wrapped his arms around her waist and knocked her against the ground on the opposite side of the machine. Her scream filled the cold morning air for a split second before she collided with the hard ground and was knocked unconscious.

Hearing the scream, the farmer turned off the machine and quickly climbed out and looked around. “Celia!” he called as he looked around the field from the top of his machine. She was nowhere to be seen. “Celia!” he called again, but there was no response.

Brandon had already dug his fangs into Celia’s tender skin and was sucking the blood from her system. He had a few packages in his pocket with needles attached to the end of them. He had built them in order to suck the remainder of his victim’s blood from their system. Then they put the packages into the fridge at home, this way they didn’t have to feed every morning. Only on the weekends. Once he was satisfied, he yanked one of the packages from his pocket and jabbed the needle end into one of the teeth marks on her neck and let her blood fill the package.

Rose was sitting on top of the large machine, just above the farmer, watching as he continued to call for his wife to no success. She watched as tears slowly built up in his eyes. “God damn it!” he shouted and just then Rose leaned over and dug her fangs into his unsuspecting flesh. His eyes widened as he looked over his shoulder and saw Rose clinging to him. He screamed, but she quickly wrapped her arms around his head, twisted, and then he fell limp into her arms. She too then dug the needle end of one of her packages into his neck and watched it fill with his blood.

 

~

 

Blake kept himself hidden in the stalks of corn as he watched his prey pace back and forth in front of the barn house. She had heard her parents screaming, but was too afraid to go into the corn and find out what happened. Blake couldn’t help but grin. She had no idea that her stalker was right in front of her; all she had to do was look hard enough.

“Mom! Dad!” the girl shouted with her hands cupped over her mouth in a hope to be heard, but there was no response. Her eyes instantly targeted Blake as he emerged from the corn field. Her eyes widened as he stepped closer to her. She wanted to run, but her muscles had locked up in fear. She didn’t know who or what he was, but she knew right away that he wanted her. “Don’t come any closer! I’ll kick your ass if you try anything!” she shouted at him.

To her, Blake didn’t seem to hear her, but he did, he just chose not to listen, wouldn’t be the first time he disobeyed orders. He continued to walk closer to her, flashing a wicked grin at her. Soon he was standing directly in front of her and she still didn’t seem capable of running away, of even fighting back as she promised she would if he tried anything. He reached out and ran a finger over her lips. “Such a waste of potentially great beauty,” he said as he sniffed her hair and licked her neck. She shuttered and attempted to slap him, but he quickly caught her hand and bent it and began to lick her wrist. A few cuts were on her wrist. “You’ve been cutting yourself? Naughty girl,” he said as he smelt the wounds on her skin. He loved every moment of this. She squirmed to release herself from his grasp, but he didn’t seem to notice her attempts to escape. He traced his finger up her arm and slipped it under her shirt, ripping his nail through the fabric. She squealed and attempted to slap him with her free hand, but he caught that one too, now holding both her wrists in one of his hands. He grinned as he continued to rip his claws through her shirt until it fell to the ground in ribbons. She then kicked him between the legs and he stumbled back, but laughed out and quickly slapped his hand across her face, sending her spiralling to the ground. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said as he pressed his knee against her stomach, crushing her ribs. She began to scream in pain as he licked just above her breasts, tracing his tongue around her curves before he moved up to her neck and then dug his fangs into her neck. Her scream was muffled, barely heard to even him as he sucked the blood from her body.

 

Aslyin stepped up beside her brother and rolled her eyes. “Do you always have to play with your food?” she asked as she knelt and played with the girl’s hair with one hand.

Blake looked up and growled at her. “You do what you want with your food; I’ll do what I want with mine,” he said as he then dug the needle end of his package into the girls neck.

Aslyin stood up and turned to look at the corn field as Blake sniffed the dead girl’s body again. I guess that’s why he likes to hunt female’s his age she thought to herself as she looked back down at him and sighed. “Well when you’re done being a pervert, I’m sure mom and dad are waiting for us back by the road,” she said as she walked toward the corn field after hearing him growl at her again.

Once his package was filled with the girl’s blood, he placed his cold lips against hers that were slowly turning purple as she no longer had any blood left in her system. He then stood up and followed Aslyin through the corn field to meet up with their parents.

 

~

 

Brandon and Rose stood just inside the forest on the other side of the road. The fog was slowly clearing from the ground, taking with it their protection from witnesses. Another truck drove by and they quickly ducked behind a tree as to not be seen by the diver, now no longer needing to pay attention to the road as much as he had to half an hour ago. After the truck disappeared behind the trees Aslyin and Blake appeared from out of the corn field and quickly ran across the street to meet up with Brandon and Rose. “How was that, easier than trying to find someone in a City?” Brandon asked with a grin.

Aslyin nodded with a smile. “Took me a while to figure out the kid was inside the stupid house though. Could’ve sworn he was outside when I first smelt him,” she said with a frown, but then pulled out her package to show that she had gotten her prey.

Brandon smiled and then turned his eyes to Blake who pulled out his package and then put it away again. “Very good,” Brandon said as he turned and took off into the forest; Rose, Aslyin, and Blake all close behind him. He hoped to be home before it started to rain again.

Aslyin kept her distance from Blake now. She had never heard him growl at her before. She was surprised that he had been running so close to her earlier, but now he seemed to remember how much he hated her and kept her distance from him. She wished they got along better, but he had always been the loner, and she knew she wasn’t able to change him, so had stopped bothering. When they reached the Resort they quickly headed back across the lake to their house before any of the campers saw them, luckily no one had woken up yet. Once they were back at the mansion, Brandon took the packages and stored them in the fridge for when they were hungry next.

Chapter 2
Uncomfortable

 

The rain had started falling shortly after they arrived back at their house. The wind picked up and threw the water pellets roughly against the side of the buildings, causing soft ‘thuds’ to echo throughout the mansion. Thunder rolled overhead like great waves crashing against a beach, sending light tremors through the ground. The sky lit up every now and then as a fork of lightning would stretch across it and collided with a tree or other tall structure. The two pointed cathedral tips of the mansion were tall enough and every now and then a bolt of lightning would strike the towers tip. Brandon had made sure to ground the building effectively, cause he knew that the tower points would attract lightning. When lightning did strike the tower points, the mansion seemed unaffected and unnoticed.

Everyone had gone their separate way after returning home from their hunt. Blake had gone straight to his bedroom. He tossed the ripped shirt from his victim onto the floor, adding it to his collection of other articles of clothing taken from his female victims. Rose wasn’t too far off when she was afraid he might have people under the mess on his floor, he had the clothing his victims were wearing when he attacked them, and that was close enough to keep her from stepping over the threshold. He scribbled something into a notepad hanging on the wall before flopping onto his bed again and once again tossing darts at the Dart Board hanging above him. His room was pitch black except for the occasional flash of lightning that came through his window, but he was still able to see his Dart Board and get Bull’s Eyes each time. After throwing the last dart he rolled over and stared out the window. “Why do I have to be locked up in this house? Why can’t I just roam free like the rest of our kind? It’s not fair,” he muttered to himself as he watched the rain drizzle down the glass. He grabbed a remote off of the night stand next to his bed and flicked on his stereo system, playing “Root of all Evil” by Dream Theatre really loud.

Aslyin followed Brandon into the kitchen and helped him store the packages of blood in the fridge. She basically followed him everywhere he went. She always wanted to be by his side. If she wasn’t his daughter, and Rose wasn’t her mother; his wife, she’d want to be his wife even if that did seem a little sick. “So, where are you planning on hunting next?” she asked as she climbed the ladder in the fridge and stored the packs of blood as Brandon handed them to her.

“I don’t know, I’ll find somewhere else,” he said as he tossed another package up to her before turning and sorting through some other contents of their large walk-in fridge.

“Can I scout with you again?” she asked, as she climbed down the ladder and stood next to him.

Brandon smiled and kissed her cheek. “You’ll always be welcomed to come with me,” he said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hugged her close. “You know I love your company,” he added as he turned and walked out of the fridge with her.

 

Rose stayed outside, sitting on the front porch under an umbrella. She wasn’t concerned about the storm that raged through the sky above her, or about the dangers of being outside during a thunderstorm. She had already gone through the worst form of pain, when she was almost killed by her father 10 years ago on the day that Brandon became one of them and completely consumed her life, and then again when she gave birth to Aslyin and Blake. Being stuck by lightning wasn’t that menacing as it once might have been.

The rain splashed against the stones beneath and around her, creating a soft rhythmical beat to echo through the air. It calmed her down, cooled the blood in her veins, at which always boiled after a hunt as successful as that one had been. She hadn’t felt like this for such a long time, they hadn’t hunted as a family in such a long time either. Normally Brandon and Aslyin went out to hunt while she stayed home to watch the Campers, while Blake just stayed in his room doing God only knows.

Had she been this full of energy during the night when Aslyin and Blake normally went out to do something in Town, her and Brandon would have a little fun, but because it was barely past sunrise, this would have to be her way to calm herself down. The calm rhythmic sounds of the rain did the job just as well.

She then noticed a boat in the water, it wasn’t their boat, it had to be one of the campers going for a boat ride, but in this weather? She stood from the lawn chair and walked across the lawn, still paying no attention to the storm. Her hair hanging heavily against her back as the rain rinsed through it. The boat was carrying four people, she couldn’t quite tell their age from this distance, but they were heading straight for the island that was restricted for the campers to visit. Before the passengers of the boat noticed her watching them, she turned and ran into the house. “Brandon!” she called as she stumbled through the front doors.

Within a second, Brandon was standing in front of her, her hand in his, her eyes on his. “What is it?” he asked her as he looked at her. He could see her emotions in her eyes and could tell that something was bothering her.

“There’s a group of people heading for the island,” she answered, her eyes frantically searching for an answer within his eyes.

He watched her for a moment, trying to figure out why anyone would actually want to visit the island. It was obvious that when you told someone they couldn’t do something, they would only want to do it more, but they had never had a problem with that rule, everyone followed it, until now. Brandon opened the front door and looked across the lawn, and sure enough there was the boat crashing against the dock at the shore. The four passengers were almost at the garden that lay in front of the mansion. What could they possibly want? Was it worth risking their lives? He sure hoped it was, cause once they were on the island he couldn’t guarantee their safety. Before Brandon could even figure out how old the four strangers were, Blake was standing beside them, watching the strangers as well.

“Awesome, delivery!” he cheered with a wicked grin spreading across his face. The strangers hadn’t noticed that they were being watched yet.

“Don’t even think about it Blake,” Brandon said as he eyed his son, waiting for him to take off towards the four strangers.

“Come on, you told us if anyone trespassed on the island we could do what we wanted with them,” Blake argued, keeping his eyes on the strangers, particularly the female of the group.

“I don’t care what I said, Blake, they’re Campers, if they go missing, word will get out and we’ll loose business,” Brandon argued back. “Then we’ll need to find another way to keep ourselves hidden from their kind,” he finished. The strangers were now aware that they were being watched, and had quickened their pace so they could get out of the rain. Aslyin was watching now as well.

 

~

 

“Can we help you?” Brandon asked as the four strangers now stood directly in front of them. He tried to keep any paranoia, fear, hatred, or concern from showing in his voice as he spoke to them. At the time being, he didn’t know what they wanted. For all he knew they were Vampire Hunters and had followed them home from their Farm Hunt earlier in the morning.

The eldest of the group spoke up, clearing his throat first. “Can we come in?” he asked.

Rose watched Brandon out of the corner of her eye. This was the first time they’d ever really come into contact with Humans outside of Hunting and Work. She wasn’t sure how he was going to handle this. She had only been able to deal with Humans years ago when she first met Brandon because from the moment they entered the office building to get the keys for their cottage, she smelt him, and knew she wanted him. She originally only contacted him while he was alone, as a reflection in the water that seemed, to him, to be something from his imagination, and then again at night while the rest of the Campers were asleep. Only after she knew she wanted him, did she actually interact with his friends by inviting them to Brunch that one morning, and even then, she didn’t spend a whole lot of time with his friends.

Brandon kept eye contact with the male that spoke, as he contemplated the consequences of letting them into their house. It seemed like hours that they stood there, quietly staring at one another, but the stillness only spanned a few moments before Brandon responded. Stepping away from the door, he allowed the four strangers to step into the forum of their house. He hoped that wasn’t his first mistake.

“Thank you,” said the same man as he and his three other companions stepped through the doorway.

Aslyin slid around them and closed the door, before disappearing behind Brandon. Despite being eighteen years old, she wasn’t accustomed to interacting with Humans at all.

Blake kept his distance; he knew he wasn’t allowed to cause any chaos, but he never took his eyes off of the female of the group, licking his lips every now and then.

“You have such a wonderful home,” said the man, almost as if he were ignoring Brandon’s initial question.

Brandon continued to watch them carefully, trying to figure out what it was they wanted without them actually telling him, but their eyes told him nothing. They didn’t seem at all suspicious of the danger that Brandon and his family posed to them, but as long as they didn’t want to stay in the mansion, he wouldn’t have much of a problem dealing with them. “Thank you,” he responded, a small smile appearing on his face. He wasn’t actually flattered that the man liked their home, it was just a guise.

“What is it? Late seventeenth century?” the man asked, his eyes darting around the main forum, sparkling in amazement of the well being of the house.

Brandon raised an eyebrow as he watched the man. He didn’t really know anything about the mansion, other than that his Great Grandfather, Lord Alexander, lived here thousands of years ago. The building had been standing since long before the medieval age, but he wasn’t sure of the exact year it had been constructed. He looked to Rose; she would know the answer to that question. She was alive when it was built, a few thousand years before he was even born.

Rose returned his gaze and then smiled to the man. “Yes, it is,” she answered. It wouldn’t have been such a good idea to let them know that the building was older than either of them even knew, let alone that the people who inhabited it were just as old.

“It looks brand new!” the man exclaimed as his eyes focused on Rose now. “You must tell me how you keep it so beautiful,” the suggested. Pure excitement erupted through his words as they spilled out of his mouth. He still didn’t seem like he was interested in answering Brandon’s question. “I’m sure it just feeds off of your beauty. You’ve got more than enough to spare!” the man exclaimed again, meaning to be a compliment.

It may have worked on any Human female, but Rose wasn’t all that flattered by it. It wasn’t mean, she just didn’t like the fact that he was here, inside her house. She too played a smile on her face, just to make the man feel good. “Thank you,” she said. She thought about pretending to blush, but that might have been a little too much.

 

The female of their group had noticed Blake watching her by this point, and was staring back at him, amazed that anyone could be as attractive as he was. She was finding it hard to look away from him, to pay attention to Brandon and Rose as they were the ones talking, not this mysteriously attractive young man that stood in front of her, watching her as intently as she was watching him.

Blake grinned before turning to Brandon, who was looking back at him, watching him carefully as Rose talked with the man now. He was quite aware of what Blake was thinking, of what he wanted to do. Letting out a sigh, Brandon turned to face the man. This is going to be a huge mistake he thought to himself. “Would any of you like anything to eat?” he interrupted the man’s conversation with Rose.

Rose eyed him, but understood what he was trying to accomplish.

“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble,” answered the man, his eyes focusing on Brandon now.

“Right this way,” Brandon instructed as he turned and headed toward the Kitchen. The man and two of his companions followed behind Brandon while the female remained where she was standing, eyes still locked with Blake’s.

“What’s Dad doing?” Aslyin asked so quiet that only Rose would be able to hear it. Far too quiet for Human ears to pick up.

Rose shrugged her shoulders and turned to face Aslyin. “I don’t know, but I hope he knows what he’s getting us all into,” she answered. She eyed Blake and the Human female for a brief moment before she too headed toward the Kitchen. Aslyin following beside her.

 

“Hi,” the female said once Rose and Aslyin had joined the others in the Kitchen.

Blake kept his grin spread across his face as he continued to watch the girl, trying hard not to show his fangs and destroy their cover. He nodded his head, in her direction, instead of actually saying anything in return.

“My name’s Marcie, what’s yours?” she asked, still watching him.

“Blake,” he answered quickly, hoping she wouldn’t hear any of his emotions of thoughts hidden within his voice.

Marcie smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with the same excitement as the other man’s had been. “Is that your natural hair colour?” she asked, eying his flaming red strands of hair that he had neatly in a pony tail.

He nodded his head. Her hair wasn’t as interesting as she thought his was. Hers was plain, curly, dark brown, and was about the same length as Aslyin’s was.

“It’s very beautiful,” she said, her eyes returning to his.

It seemed like the only way to deal with Humans was to pretend to like them, despite feeling the exact opposite toward them. Blake smiled, just as his parents had done in return to the compliments given to them, a guise, to keep their true self hidden under their skin. “You aren’t that bad looking either, you know?” he said, grinning again. He wanted so badly to pull her into his bedroom and suck her completely dry of her blood, but until they figured out whom these people where, if they were Campers or not, he wouldn’t be allowed to do anything to her.

Marcie’s face flushed almost as red as Blake’s hair was. She lowered her gaze and stared at her feet, trying to remember how to breathe properly. “Thank you,” she said shyly.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked, his grin disappearing off of his face, playing the polite card now. He knew that Human’s couldn’t survive like he did, off of Blood, and when they were invited into someone’s home, or were there for some other reason, they normally enjoyed being asked if they wanted anything, rather than having to ask for it.

Marcie looked up from the floor and smiled at him again. “I’d like a drink,” she said shyly. His compliment completely shattered her barrier she normally hid behind.

Blake smiled in return, the first time he was actually being somewhat normal. He turned to face the Kitchen. “I’m sure we could find you something, come,” he said as he held his hand out to her, inviting her to take his hand, though he didn’t even think about physical contact with her. She would feel the ice cold temperature of his skin, the absence of a pulse within his veins; he just hoped that it wouldn’t give anything away. The last thing he wanted was his father fighting with him. He knew he would lose that battle, no matter how hard he tried; Brandon was far more powerful than Blake could ever hope to be.

He felt her warm hand in his and quickly turned to look away from her, toward the Kitchen as he began to walk. He didn’t want to see her face when she realized that the source of the intense chill that was crawling through her bones was from him, not because she was nervous about holding a complete stranger’s hand.

 

Brandon had seated the strangers at the kitchen table while he and Rose leaned against the counter. Even though they didn’t need to eat Human food, they kept some in their kitchen, just in case something like this ever happened and they were required to act Human. They wouldn’t eat the food; however, just had it to make it look like they did eat it, when they were hungry. Brandon watched as Blake entered the Kitchen with Marcie trailing behind him, their hands intertwined, which caused him to raise an eyebrow. Why did he always have to disobey? Was it that hard for him to do something that he was asked to do, for once?

“What do we have to drink, Dad?” Blake asked as he walked over to the fridge, but didn’t open it.

“Water,” Brandon answered as his eyes continued to follow Blake and Marcie as they walked across the Kitchen.  He was a little more uncomfortable about what Blake was doing than what he was doing with the rest of the group of strangers.

“Is water alright?” Blake asked as he turned to face Marcie, who nodded in return. Opening the fridge he was surprised to see how much Human food they actually had lying around the house for no reason. The bottom shelf on the door was lined with bottles of water, which was the only drinkable fluid in the fridge, at least that Humans would enjoy drinking. Grabbing one of the bottles, he closed the fridge and handed it to Marcie.

“Thank you,” she said as he cracked the lid and took a drink. She watched the rest of her group as she drank her water.

Brandon let out a sigh; he knew this was a bad idea, the moment he heard they were heading toward the island he knew this would be happening. “Excuse us for a moment,” Brandon said with a slight bow as he disappeared into the next room. Blake, Rose, and Aslyin right behind him.

 

“What the hell are you doing Blake?” Brandon barked once they were out of the Kitchen. Luckily they could talk however loud of quiet they wanted and wouldn’t have to worry about the strangers hearing any of it.

Blake raised an eyebrow, unaware of why he was in trouble. “What did I do this time?” he asked.

“I told you not to do anything. We don’t know who these people are, what they want, where they come from,” Brandon answered, outraged by these turn of events.

“I haven’t done anything, yet,” Blake protested, angry as well.

“You’re forming a relationship with that girl!” Brandon barked back, pointing his finger in the direction of the Kitchen. “Even if it doesn’t mean anything to you, it does for her.”

“That’s not my fault,” Blake answered as he looked away. He thought he was doing something right, for once. He thought that if he at least made Marcie feel like she was in a house full of normal Humans, they’d be able to figure out what they wanted quicker, but Brandon’s plans had been different. “Her name’s Marcie,” Blake added with a grunt before heading back into the Kitchen.

“I don’t give a—” Brandon began, but Blake was gone before he could finish his sentence. “It’s always something with that kid,” he said with a grunt as he turned to face Aslyin. He calmed himself down quickly before talking to his daughter. “Sweetheart, can I ask you a favour?” he asked her.

“Of course, anything, Dad, what is it?” she asked in return.

“Take the boat back to the main land and see if these people are Campers here,” Brandon ordered.

“Sure thing,” she said and pivoted on her heel and bounced out the front door.

Rose turned to face Brandon was Aslyin was outside. “What are you thinking?” she asked him.

“If they’re Campers, we can’t do anything to them. As I said before, we’d end up ruining ourselves by feeding off of them,” he began to explain, turning his gaze in the direction of the Kitchen once again. “But if they’re not campers, if they just somehow managed to get one of the Resort’s boats to come up here, in the middle of this storm…” he trailed off as he looked back to Rose, “We’ll be having a lunch time snack,” he finished.

Rose smiled, leaned up, and kissed him gently on the lips. “But what if they are Campers? What will you do?” she asked, keeping her lips close to his.

“I don’t know yet,” he said with a small smile, pecking her lips in return. “We’ll figure that out if that situation arises,” he answered.

 

~

 

Aslyin had been with her father for so long that she had been taught everything he knew about Humans, everything about their behaviours, personalities, everything he learned while he was a Human. It didn’t really make sense to her, in the beginning; she didn’t think she’d ever have any contact with them outside of when they were Hunting, but she wasn’t one to play with her food like Blake seemed to enjoy so much.

The family’s boat revved wickedly as it crashed through the waves on the way to the main land. The heavy rain pellets hammered against the windshield of the boat, but her hair seemed unaffected by these conditions either. Once she was docked at the Resort, she quickly climbed out and raced toward the Office. She knew that if these strangers were Campers, they’d have filled out a form, with each of their signatures on it. All she needed to see was Marcie’s signature granted that was her real name. Unlocking the Office, she quickly jumped over the counter, opened the drawer, and dug through the forms, but none of them produced the name she was looking for.

Maybe she had signed under a different name that could have been a possibility, couldn’t it? By the looks of the forms, five out of the eight cottages were being used. If these strangers were Campers, one of these Cottages had to be theirs. Grabbing the master keys she once again ventured out into the rain to check each of the Cottages for anything, grabbing an umbrella on her way out.

 

The first Cottage was occupied by an elderly couple who were surprised to see Aslyin at their door this early in the morning. “What seems to be the problem, young lady?” asked the old man.

“Oh, nothing, just making sure there’s no leaks,” she answered with the most innocent little lie she could think of. “Last time we got rain like this, one of the Cottages had a small leak, nothing serious though,” she added, playing a bright smile across her face.

“Well we don’t have any leaks here, we’ll let you know if we do,” said the man, smiling back at her.

This is where knowing how Human’s acted came in handy, she guessed. Normally this was her father’s job, but he was busy with more important matters, and she knew he would never trust Blake with this job. “Alright, you have a great day,” she said with a bow before she headed toward the next occupied cottage. After she had played the same card for all five of the occupied Cottages, she quickly returned to the island to inform her father of her findings.

 

~

 

Before Aslyin had even made it to the front steps of the mansion, Brandon had once again excused himself from the Kitchen and confronted his daughter to find out what she learned.

“They’re not Campers; all five of the Cottages that are occupied are occupied by the people who reserved them,” Aslyin said as she stepped up to her father, letting out a sigh.

Brandon smiled and turned to head back in side. “You hungry?” he asked her, a wicked grin spreading across his face.

“But we just ate, can’t we keep them as prisoners or something?” she asked playfully as she walked beside her father.

“I’m sure Blake would enjoy that,” Brandon answered with a roll of his eyes. “If we kept them, we’d risk being found out. I’m sure they’d find a way to escape or communicate with the mainland,” he added, “I don’t want to take any chances.”

The Kitchen had gone quiet once Brandon and Aslyin entered again. Rose and Blake seemed to already know what was about to happen. “You never did answer my question, Mr.” Brandon said as he leaned against the counter next to Rose.

“What was that?” he asked.

“What it was you wanted from us,” Brandon repeated his initial question that had gone ignored.

“Oh,” said the man as he raised a finger to his chin and thought for a moment. He’d forgotten his answer to the question he had pretended to not hear. “We’re looking to build a house one of the island around you,” the man finally answered, “and we just wanted to get to know our new neighbours.”

Aslyin laughed softly at the man’s response. She was going to enjoy her father’s come back even more, she knew it. The man watched her, wondering what was so funny.

“This isn’t a very safe neighbourhood,” Brandon answered, his face staying serious, despite how much he wanted to laugh at the strangers.

“Neighbourhood?” asked the man, confused.

Brandon rolled his eyes as he walked over to the man and put his face right in front of the man’s, grinned and revealed his wicked fangs. “No one lives out here, because they’re afraid of us,” he said as he licked his lips before standing straight again, eying the rest of the group.

Blake had shown his fangs to Marcie, as well, who screamed and tried to run out of the Kitchen, but Blake got ahead of her faster than she could get out of her seated position, and held her by the neck.

“What are you!?” she screamed as she kicked at him, trying to get out of his grasp.

“Let go of my daughter!” demanded the man as he attempted to stand as well, but was forced back into his chair by a swift knee to his gut.

“We’re your worst nightmares,” Brandon answered as the lights flickered out and the morning air was filled with their screams.

Chapter 3

The Mistake

 

The rain slowly died down by the time noon rolled around, the thick black clouds that hovered in the sky slowly drifted into the horizon to terrorize some other location. The sun had once again regained the sky, burning brightly onto the wet ground below, quickly drying it out.

Now that the rain had dispersed, Rose was free to tend to her rose garden in front of the house; she needed something to calm herself down with, seeing as Brandon was busy on the mainland fixing a leak that was caused by the torrential downpour. He was also returning the boat keys to the actual campers who rented it out. For some reason they had given the keys to those four strangers that had just become her and her family’s lunch time snack.

Aslyin, of course, had followed her father to help out in any way she could. Rose was happy with that, she was glad Aslyin was doing something almost all the time, unlike Blake who only seemed interested in doing something when it involved being around teenage girls. She was perfectly fine tending to her garden alone; she did so every morning before the rest of her family arose from their slumber.

Though, she was startled on this particular morning, for the first time in what seemed like since Blake was born, she spotted him walking down the stone path from the house toward her. She watched him intently; curious as to what exactly he wanted that he’d break from his own routine.

“Hey, Mom,” he said as he stopped next to Rose, looking down at her.

Rose raised an eyebrow as he spoke to her like he was the angel child instead of Aslyin. “What is it, Blake?” she asked as she stood up and looked him in the eyes, a tone of curiosity was in her voice that she hoped Blake wouldn’t notice, but was sure he had.

“Was just wondering, that while I was in the City today, if there was anything you’d like me to pick up,” he asked.

That sent a jolt through her body; he actually wanted to help her for once? She wanted to laugh at that thought, but he looked so serious, he wasn’t joking. “Really?” she asked, her eyebrow still raised high on her forehead. It was almost as hard for her to believe as it was for Human’s to believe their kind existed all around them.

He nodded his head. “Figured you could use a break,” he said, with what looked to be a genuine smile on his face.

Another jolt of electricity surged through Rose’s veins as he continued to astonish her. “No, I don’t need anything…” she trailed off. “Thank you, though,” she added, never taking her eyes off of his; trying to find some hidden meaning behind his words.

Blake smiled again and then walked off toward the shore when he realized that his father had taken the boat to the main land. He frowned before turning to face his mother again. “Is there any other way across the lake?” he asked.

Rose was still watching him as he asked this; causing her to think for a moment. There was a way to get across the lake, her and Brandon made sure of it in case there was an emergency on the mainland that would require all four of them to be there. They had gone out into the lake and collected a bunch of large rocks that they placed between their island and the mainland, creating a makeshift bridge just in case one of those emergencies arose. They had to place it far enough away from their own dock so that they would never crash into it while going back and forth.

Blake smiled when he heard about the makeshift bridge of rocks they had created. He didn’t mind getting a little wet either, so it would work perfectly fine. He quickly turned and headed across the lake via the rock bridge and as soon as he reached the mainland climbed into his Lexus LX 570 and disappeared toward the city.

Rose knelt in front of her garden and began to tend to her flowers again, though her mind raced around trying to figure out why Blake had acted so different than he normally did just then.

 

~

 

“Where do you think Blake’s going?” Aslyin asked as she watched Blake’s SUV pull out of the parking lot in front of the Office building.

Brandon shrugged as he removed a ceiling tile that had been ruined by the leak. The tile had been turned a dark brownish colour and was throwing off the rest of the ceiling tile’s appearances. “Here,” Brandon said as he handed the destroyed tile to Aslyin who was standing at the bottom of the latter he was standing on. A very small whole could be seen in the wooden roof from the inside, directly above where the tile had been. “One set back about leaving these buildings as wood,” he said as he grabbed a tool from the toolbox that sat on the top step of the latter.

Aslyin stood on the ground below, craning her neck so she could see what Brandon was doing. She hoped to take over this Resort when the time came around when her parents no longer wished to do it, so she needed to know everything she could about maintaining the place, as well as dealing with Human’s on a daily basis and not trying to kill them on first sight. Putting the destroyed tile against the counter, next to the new tile that would be replacing it, she imagined what it would be like to do what Brandon did for a living. “What’s it like being around Human’s so much?” she asked as she continued to watch him.

Brandon pulled his head out of the hole where the tile had been and looked down at her, an eyebrow raised in a slight bit of confusion. “Why?” he asked as he returned to his work; repairing the hole in the roof.

“Well I wanted to be able to do something like this, when I’m old enough to have my own life,” she answered. “I can’t expect you and mom to feed and shelter me for the rest of my life,” she added with a small smile. Luckily the group of campers that had reserved this Cottage had gone out for lunch, leaving them to talk about this.

Brandon laughed slightly as he placed the tool back into the toolbox before taking another one out. “You know you’re more than welcomed to stay with us as long as you like,” Brandon stated.

“I know, but how am I going to ever become such an amazing Vampire like you if I don’t get out and learn?” she asked, smiling slyly.

Brandon laughed again as he climbed down the latter and rested his hands on his daughters shoulders. “You already are a wonderful Vampire,” he said as he pressed his lips against her forehead. “You’ve got your mother’s looks, giving you the ability to do and get whatever you want; all you have to do is smile,” he began, smiling at her, “and spending so much time with me, you’ve learned a hell of a lot more than I knew at your age,” he added as he grabbed the new ceiling tile and climbed the latter again.

“I can only learn so much from you, Dad,” she said as she looked to the floor for a moment, flattered from what he had just said.

“Well, when the time comes for you to venture out into this world on your own, I hope that I’ve taught you everything you’ll need to know to survive by yourself,” he said as he closed his toolbox and descended the latter again before folding it up and resting it against the counter as well. “The only reason I’m capable of dealing with Human’s so well, is because I used to be one, don’t forget, or at least half of one,” he added with a slight smile.

“I know, but I want to be able to do that too, I don’t want to fall victim to those urges every time I see one,” she said with a sigh and a shake of her head, still looking at the floor.

“The more time you spend with me, the easier it’ll get for you. Believe me though, when I first turned, I had a hell of a hard time dealing with it. Your mother took me to live with more of our own kind, over in Europe where I learned to deal with all of it,” Brandon explained, his eyes flickering slightly as his mind played back the memories of his time in Europe with Rose, learning to be a Vampire.

“You had troubles with the urges too?” Aslyin asked as she looked up from the floor to her father.

“No body’s perfect, sweetheart,” Brandon said with a slight smile. He had enjoyed those months in Europe, as painful as they had been for him, he enjoyed every minute of it. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead again. “You’ll get used to it, trust me,” he said as he took the latter under one arm and the toolbox in the other and headed outside.

Aslyin grabbed the destroyed ceiling tile and followed him out, placing a note on the door letting the campers who reserved that cottage that the roof leak had been fixed, and shouldn’t cause a problem anymore.

 

~

 

The City was receiving the last little bit of storm that was passing by when Blake arrived at the outskirts. His windshield wipers worked effortlessly to keep what was left or the rain from obstructing his view. He wasn’t too sure where he wanted to go first, but he would need to stop at the bank regardless where he went first, so he quickly decided that the bank would be the first place on his list.

The bank was in the center of the City and he had been there time and time again when he was in need of some cash for whatever reasons, so knew exactly where to go. Once he arrived he quickly parked the car in the lot and stepped out. Immediately he got a strange feeling as he stood in the parking lot; the sidewalks were empty, but the street was crowded with vehicles like it normally was at this time during the day, but the sidewalks normally had many pedestrians on it, which struck him as odd, but he didn’t pay much attention to it once he entered the bank.

Upon entering the bank, Blake, was surprised that everyone quickly turned to look at him like their lives depended on it. One of the men who were standing beside the door backed away from him as if Blake was going to bust out a machine gun and start firing at him. One of his eyebrows rose as he took in the faces of everyone, but didn’t quite figure out what was going on.

The teller stood behind the desk, her eyes wide, just like the rest of the people. “I’d like to make a withdrawal,” Black stated as he leaned against the counter like nothing was going on in his life, which seemed to be completely the opposite from the look the lady was giving him. He eyed her for a moment when she didn’t respond right away, her name tag told him that her name was Ashley, not that he really cared.

“Do you have an account Sir?” she asked, her voice trembling, cracking, weak. Her eyes were focused on his, still opened wide as if she too was expecting him to do something he wasn’t aware he was going to do.

“Yes,” he said as he reached into his pocket for his wallet, but stopped when Ashley shrieked, causing him to look up, only to be faced with the barrel of a shotgun. He raised an eyebrow again as he looked over the barrel at the man in the ski mask that was holding the weapon.

“Swipe the card!” the man ordered as he pulled the pump back and got a barrage of bullets ready to be fired if Blake didn’t comply.

Blake laughed, but didn’t move.

The man reached out and grabbed Blake’s wallet and took his debit card and swiped it himself, “Now punch in your password!” the man demanded, but Blake still didn’t seem to want to listen, which was nothing new; for him at least. The man pushed the barrel of the gun into Blake’s cheek and asked him one more time to punch in his combination so that he could withdraw all his money.

Blake kept his eyes on the man with the gun; he didn’t want to have to do what he was about to do, but if he wanted to live there was no other way. He leant into the barrel, forcing it to press against his cheek a little harder. “I dare you,” he said with a grin plastered on his face.

The man in the ski mask looked like he was about to explode. His eyes were wide with anger and his breathing picked up frantically as if he was a child throwing a temper tantrum. He did as he was told, however, and pulled the trigger, sending an array of bullets into the wall next to the front door. His temper calmed for a moment as he looked over the counter, but it spiked when he didn’t see a corpse. “What the hell?” he barked as he turned around, only to receive a fist to his face.

Blake’s grin was still plastered on his face as he climbed over the counter and walked casually toward the man in the ski mask that was now lying on the floor, frantically trying to get to his feet so he could fight back. “You missed,” Blake chuckled, provoking the man further.

The man’s temper rose off the chart as he pumped his shotgun again and fired another wall of bullets at where Blake had been standing. Blake’s disappearance caused his temper to rise even higher.

Blake wrapped his arms around the man’s neck. “You have really shitty aim,” he said with another chuckle before twisting the man’s head in a half circle, causing a loud snap to echo through the room as the man collapsed to the floor. Blake kicked the man, making sure he was dead before returning the counter, punching in his combination into the keypad. “Hundred dollars please,” he stated as he once again leaned against the counter casually, ignoring the dead body behind him and the questions that filled the air from the witnesses.

Ashley very cautiously handed him one hundred dollars in twenties. “How, did you do that?” she whispered as she leaned toward him, eyes still wide.

“Do what?” he asked in return, like he didn’t know what she was talking about.

Ashley looked over his shoulder at the corpse on the floor before returning her gaze to him.

Blake looked over his shoulder. “Oh, that was easy,” he said with a grin as he put the money into his wallet, along with his debit card, before walking toward the front door, stepping over the corpse on the way.

Ashley watched him as he left before she quickly followed after him. Once she caught up to him in the parking lot, she grabbed his arm and forced him to look at her. “No Human could possibly move that fast,” she stated, her blond hair stuck to her back as the rain fell onto them, though it didn’t seem to effect Blake’s hair.

He shrugged his shoulders, released his arm from her grasp, and continued toward his car, but she insisted on bugging him until he told her something. He let a sigh escape his lips as he turned to face her again. “Of course not,” he replied to her assumption that Human’s couldn’t move that fast. It was true, they couldn’t, nor would they ever be able to. He had easily dodged two shotgun shots, moving so fast it was like he had frozen time, walked around the assailant, and returned time to its normal flow before the bullets even escaped the barrel of the shotgun.

“So what are you then?” she asked. She no longer looked like she was in panic. She had calmed down the instant she stepped outside and was away from the body. She hoped one of the witnesses, or one of the other workers, had called the Police, and she was attempting to keep Blake here for as long as she could so that when the Police did arrive, they could talk to him about what happened. She was sure everyone would tell them he had something to do with the body, there was no way he could escape being questioned.

“What’s it look like I am?” he responded as he leaned against his car and looked at her. His thoughts were jumping around; he knew he shouldn’t have provoked that man to fire at him. He was pretty certain, as well, that everyone who had witnessed his little show of inhuman speed would direct the Police in his direction as soon as they arrived, but this Ashley girl was holding him up. He allowed another sigh to escape his lips as he climbed into the driver’s seat of his vehicle.

“You can’t leave!” she shrieked as she attempted to pull him out of the car.

“Why’s that?” he asked as he easily released himself from her grip and shut the door.

“You need to talk to the Police!” she stated as she hit her palms against his window, which caused him to roll it down.

“Just tell them you did it,” Blake suggested with a groan. This was getting worse by the minute. Out of all the things he could have done first this morning, he decided to do the one thing that would cause him the most trouble. Of course he didn’t know it was going to cause this trouble when he had decided to do it. He was just, unfortunately, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“Like they’re going to hear the same story from all of the witnesses,” Ashley countered with a sigh of her own. Obviously she hadn’t expected her day to be this hectic either, but Blake didn’t really care.

“They never do,” he said as he continued to look out the windshield at the traffic on the street, paying no real attention to Ashley or what she was saying. When he did look over to her, he was surprised when she wasn’t standing there anymore. He then heard the passenger door open and looked over to see her sitting in the seat next to him.

“Well then I’m coming with you,” she demanded. When the Police arrived to find out that one of the employee’s had disappeared, they’d end up getting her cell-phone number, call her, and triangulate the signal to find where she was, and then they’d have their red haired mystery man who left a masked mans corpse lying on the floor in the middle of the bank.

Blake raised an eyebrow as she said this. This couldn’t get any worse, could it?

“You look Human, but you couldn’t have moved that fast if you were,” she stated as she buckled her seatbelt, expecting him to drive with her sitting in his car. He hadn’t even put the keys in the ignition and she was jumping to conclusions.

“I didn’t move any faster than any normal Human can,” he lied, “You just didn’t see me walk around the counter while Mr. Robber in there was swiping my card.”

“He had the gun pressed against your face on instant, and then as he soon as he pulled the trigger you were behind him with your fist in his face,” Ashley countered his lie. She was determined to figure out what had happened in there, and she was getting closer, she could feel it.

 

Blake let yet another sigh escape through his lips as he continued to sit in his vehicle staring at the traffic passing by on the street in front of them. He had dug himself into this hole and the only way he could think of getting himself out of it would be to tell her the truth and get her off his back. It seemed like a long shot and unlikely to work, but it was the only thing he could think of. He had considered just ditching the Ashley, leave her in the parking lot with his and head back home, but then the Police would get their hands on his car and somehow manage to find where he was and reveal his whole family, but if he just told her the truth about himself and not about his family, maybe they’d still be able to live a normal life, as normal as their lives were.

He looked over to Ashley who was still sitting next to him with her seatbelt buckled, still expecting him to put the keys into the ignition and drive away. “Well?” she asked when she noticed he was looking at her again.

She reminded him of his sister, Aslyin; always complaining about something, if it wasn’t going the way she wanted it to go. A growl resonated deep in his throat as his sister’s name drifted through his mind. He still disliked her, even now. She had always been the favourite child, from the very moment they were born, Brandon and Rose had taken a liking to her over him and he was just pushed aside like he wasn’t special at all. His eyes focused on the street in front of him again, he could hear sirens now, if he wanted to get out of this, he would have to act fast.

The thought of his sister still burned in his mind. Maybe this was why he was so up tight, so angry all of the time. His parents had never been shown any love, Aslyin got it all and he never received any. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as he continued to search his mind for the answers he didn’t know were there.

Maybe if Aslyin hadn’t been born and he had been an only child he would feel different, but there wasn’t much he could do about that, or was there? What if he killed his sister, would they treat him differently then? He smiled for a moment.

He stepped out of the car and into the rain and stared at the sky. That’s what he would do, he’d kill Aslyin, and then his parents would treat him differently, give him the love he’d been neglected since he was born. To any sane person this idea would sound ridiculous. Killing off your own sister wouldn’t make your family love you more, unless they hated her too, it would make them hate you if anything. “What are you doing?” Ashley asked as she leaned over in her seat, still buckled up, and watched him stand in the rain.

He didn’t answer; he wasn’t capable of answering, not anymore. His mind wasn’t right anymore; he believed that if he killed his own sister that he would be loved by his parents, and that’s what he was planning on doing. He looked back at Ashley and then out to the street where three Police officers stood pointing their guns at him. A grin spread across his face as he watched them; nothing was going to get in his way now. He took a few steps forward and was answered with their bullets as they fired at him, taking his advancement as a threat to their safety.

Their bullets impacted his skin, but he didn’t seem to feel them. He continued to walk forward, causing them to fire some more at him, but couldn’t force him to stop advancing on their positions. They backed up as he got closer until they couldn’t move any further; backs against the traffic. His grin was still on his face as his eyes began to burn out of control, his hair rising like a flame in the night and he quickly disposed of the Police Officers before turning his attention back to Ashley who was still in his car, watching him in horror. She knew now that he wasn’t Human.

He raised a hand and motioned her to come forward with his index finger. She did as she was told, surprisingly enough to her. Once she was standing in front of him, her eyes wide like they had been back in the bank when she had first witnessed his inhumanness.

His fangs hung over his lips while he licked them. She would hopefully now know what he was, now that she had seen his true self, not just his pretty face he hid behind. His eyes continued to burn with anger while his hair whipped at the air like a hungry flame on a windy night. He wouldn’t hurt her; no, she hadn’t done anything to him, nothing serious though. She had just reminded him so much of his sister that the emotions he bottled up inside finally overflowed their containment, causing him to completely loose his mind, but he didn’t blame her, that wasn’t her fault.

Chapter 4

Blake’s Rebellion

 

The storm had finally let up by the time Blake had reached the city limits again. He was on his way back home to pay his sister a visit, finally have a heart to heart talk with her after all these years of hatred between the two of them. Once he was outside of the city and no longer restricted by their speed limits, he pressed down the gas pedal hurdled down the street toward the Cottage Resort where he lived. His eyes still burned with his intense anger, but his hair was no longer a living flame; it had relaxed back to its normal self as he drove.

 

~

 

Rose sat in the kitchen of their mansion, with a book in her hand, her eyes skimming across the words, fingers flicking the pages as she finished them, when a chill ran through her body, distracting her for a moment from her book. She looked around the kitchen for the brief moment she was distracted, only to find that nothing was out of place, nothing that could have caused the chill she had felt. She shrugged and returned to the book she was holding.

It was one of Taylor’s books, one of her favourite books. Taylor was Rose’s sister, her twin sister, the exact opposite of Rose in every way, but they still got along well. Rose had developed small powers over Ice and Water while they were growing up, where as Taylor developed powers over Fire. They would have made a great tag team if they hadn’t been separated during the one and only fight they had even gotten into, which was with their father. He had ruthlessly killed Taylor, not even caring that she was his own child and then proceeded to hunt down Rose and Brandon, who was his initial target, before Taylor and Rose intervened.

She wasn’t much of a reader, never had been, but she had picked up this book a while ago one day and had been reading it ever since. She could easily tell why Taylor had been so fond of the book. The main character almost perfectly resembled her and her sister, only she was Human, not a Vampire. It wasn’t a fantasy, a horror, or a thriller; it was a simple romance drama that followed a seventeen year old girl through a year in her life, her struggles and her emotions. It appealed to Rose for reasons she couldn’t quite place.

 

Her eyes once again began to skim over the words that cluttered each page as her fingers flipped past them. She read at an alarming speed that wasn’t matched by anyone she had ever met. The sound of the fridge behind her and the pages being turned was all that filled the air until a loud crash echoed through the main forum. Rose dropped her book on the table and quickly went to see what had caused the sound, but was confronted by Blake, whose eyes were still burning with his anger and hatred. “Blake?” she asked as she looked him up and down. That same chill she had felt before ran down her spine again and she now knew what it had been from.

Because Blake was her son, part of her, she could sense something disturbing before it happened. She had received those chills as a warning about this, though she wouldn’t have guessed it at the time. “What happened to you?” she asked. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing, not that he had to; he was just standing in front of the destroyed front door, staring at her, with burning intensity. She began to back into the kitchen, but this caused him to react. She quickly pivoted on her heel and ran through the kitchen as Blake blurred past her and cut her off. He was too fast to outrun, she knew that.

Before she could realize that he was in front of her, his fist connected with her chest, sending her through the air back into the main forum, crashing through a wall; causing debris to litter the floor around her. Her head was spinning from the force of his punch, but she quickly got to her feet and was ready to make another run for it when he appeared beside her again and crushed another blow into her chest, sending her directly out the front door and onto the front yard. “Where’s Aslyin, mother!?” he barked.

Rose spun around in mid air and managed to land on her feet, skidding to a halt just at the bottom of the steps leading to their mansion. She looked up to see him standing in the doorway, his hair licking at the air like a flame once again. “Why?” she asked in response.

“I want to talk to her,” he answered as he casually descended the stairs toward his mother. “I’ve got a very important message to tell her,” he added once he was at the bottom of the stairs, a few feet from his mother.

Rose slowly stepped away from him as he continued to move toward her. He was forcing her somewhere, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off of him. He was too fast, if she took her eyes off of him he’d take the split second he needed as an opportunity to strike her again. He stopped, however, and smelt the air around him, which gave Rose the split second she needed to glance over her shoulder, only to see that her rose garden was behind her; nothing more, nothing less. “She went out with your father, scouting,” she answered as she focused her attention back on Blake, who was once again looking at her.

“That’s too bad, this was very important,” he stated as he began to walk toward her again.

Rose took another few steps back until she was at the edge of her garden. She didn’t want to ruin her flowers, so stopped there. Blake blurred toward her with speed that she couldn’t comprehend and crushed his fist into her chest again with such force that she couldn’t block it, no matter how hard she tried. She was sent airborne again and landed in the pond that was centered in her garden. As soon as she felt the water surround her, she got an idea. Her eyes turned a pale white as the surface of the pond froze over, placing a protective barrier of ice between her and her son.

Blake was standing directly above her within an instant, his eyes still burning along with his hair as he stared through the thick ice below him at his mother beneath. He immediately began to pound his fist relentlessly against the ice in an attempt to crush it beneath him, but his attempts failed. The ice cracked beneath his blows, but it healed itself faster than he could attack it. Blake growled angrily as the ice seemed to be unaffected by his attacks.

Rose watched in horror as he managed to crack the ice she had put up as fortifications to stop him. Even though the ice was freezing over faster than he could break through it, she was still amazed that he was causing it to crack under his blows. The water under the ice remained unfrozen, allowing her to move freely under the ice. She didn’t need to breathe, so she could stay in the water as long as she needed to, and that’s when it hit her.

 

She remembered that she and Taylor were the opposite of one another. Taylor had unmatched speed while she was on solid ground, just like Blake had shown a moment ago. He must have received that from Eivan, just like Taylor had. However, Rose, had unmatched speed when it came to non-solid ground. She could have been an Olympic swimmer had she wanted. The only thing stopping her from using her own speed to escape was that the pond didn’t go anywhere. It was just a rectangle, but if she could somehow manage to get into the lake without him catching her, she’d easily be able to outrun him until Brandon and Aslyin returned.

She thought, for a few minutes while Blake stared down at her, no longer pummelling the ice barrier with his fists. She could create a walkway to the lake made of ice that she could travel through, as long as it was thick enough that he couldn’t shatter it with a single punch. That could work, but with his speed on land, he’d make it to the lake before she could, find the exit of her ice tunnel, and come in after her. She floated there for a second, eyes focused on Blake’s as she decided what she was going to do.

The wall of ice began to grow out of its place and toward the lake. The front end was a solid wall, but Rose was able to walk through the corridor she had created, still protected from Blake’s attacks. She watched Blake, walking next to her, watching her angrily. For whatever reason he wanted to speak with Aslyin, he was ready to take his anger out on his own mother, who had always loved him, but had never been able to show him because he was never around for her to tell him that she did. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she watched her son struggle with his pain, with the feelings he had bottled up for so long because he thought he wasn’t loved, wasn’t wanted, wasn’t needed. He didn’t seem too worried when the corridor of ice descended into the lake, but as soon as Rose’s body was under water she took off like a dolphin, disappearing into the depths of the lake faster than Blake was able to realize what had happened.

He growled again and attempted to swim after her, but after a few minutes he returned to the surface and treaded water for a moment or two, sniffing the air still. He was trying to pick up the scent of his sister, but with so many Humans on the mainland living their own lives, he wasn’t able to focus on Aslyin’s as much as he’d like to.

 

~

 

The fresh air that surrounded the small town of Archer Ville smelt good. It was a nice change from the normal Human stench filled air that normally surrounded Brandon and Aslyin. Brandon had agreed to take Aslyin scouting with him again and that was what they were doing. They had ventured in the opposite direction of the farm they had attacked earlier that morning so that they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves. Eventually they were bound to draw attention of the locals in their general direction. If they kept hunting around their home the Police Detectives would end up triangulating the location in the middle of all the murder scenes and be directed at their home. Brandon didn’t seem too worried about that, however, so Aslyin didn’t pay any attention to that thought that swam around her mind.

They stood together at the edge of the small town watching as cars drove down the streets unaware that they were being watched by two Vampires. They would never know that either, not even after their family snuck in during the morning hours and removed a few of their citizens and make it look like any normal murder would. They weren’t going to enter the small town, not during the day hours at least. If they were to do that, they’d risk revealing what they were. They would have a hard time sneaking past them during these hours; the shadows were limited to alleyways and backyards, where as during the night they could freely move around the town without causing any kind of commotion.

Brandon turned to look at Aslyin; she knew right away that he did want to scout through the town via what shadows they could stay in. She rolled her eyes and focused her attention back onto the town in front of them when a car pulled to a stop in front of them and the window rolled down, revealing a young man, looked to be in his late twenties. “You folks lost?” the man asked as he eyed Aslyin like she was a piece of meat and he was looking to buy.

Brandon responded with a warm smile, “Nope, just enjoying the fresh air.” The man’s eyes looked to Brandon when he responded, but returned to Aslyin in an instant.

Aslyin rolled her eyes. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” she said with a tone of annoyance.

Brandon laughed lightly, but watched the man for his response.

The man didn’t say anything, just liked his lips and drove off. “What a freak,” Aslyin said once the vehicle had disappeared down the road. “I hope all Human males aren’t like him, just think every girl they see is some form of candy they want to eat,” she growled as she stomped toward the town.

Brandon laughed loudly and followed behind her. “No, just the idiot ones are,” he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder and lead her toward the nearest shadowy area to their location. “I wouldn’t let any of them get their hands on you anyways, not that kind,” he said with another hearty laugh as they sunk into the darkness of the shadows.

“Thanks,” Aslyin muttered as she followed her father as they stalked through the shadows cast by a building.

There was a family in the house they were hiding near and Brandon quickly began to watch them, taking mental notes on their behaviour. They could be possible meals for the next time that they needed to Hunt. “Sweetheart, look,” he said as he took Aslyin’s hand and pulled her toward the window he was looking in.

She stood next to him and watched the four teenagers’ scavenge for food in the kitchen, completely oblivious to their stalkers. “What are they doing?” she asked as she watched them attempt to prepare some form of meal for the four of them.

“Cooking it looks like,” Brandon answered as his eyes followed the oldest looking one of their group.

“Doesn’t look like they have any idea what they’re doing, though,” she said with a laugh.

Brandon laughed as well as he continued to watch them.

In the end the group of teenagers didn’t conjure up anything worth waiting that long, to eat. The oldest male ended up placing a pot of Kraft Dinner on the table and began to eat, after all his hard work in preparing a decent meal for his group, he only managed to make Kraft Dinner.

Once the sun had changed its position in the sky, the moved around the house toward the next patch of shadows where they watched another family pleasantly watch some television. They did this for a while, bouncing around through the shadows, spying on the citizens of the town, deciding which they would remove when they came back for their next Hunt, which would probably occur sometime during the coming weekend.

 

The air around the Cottage Resort was much different than the fresh air that surrounded Archer Ville; much different than it normally felt. Brandon came to a halt as they entered the Resort’s properties, his nose scrunching up as the air flowed through his nostrils, not because he knew the smell, but because he was confused as to what had happened while they were gone. “Aslyin, stop!” he called to Aslyin, his eyes frantically scanning through the forest ahead of them, expecting some enemy to jump out from the behind a tree in an attempt to ambush them, but nothing approached.

“What is it, Dad?” Aslyin asked as she walked up beside her father again, looking around curiously.

“Can’t you smell that?” Brandon asked as his nostrils continued to flare.

Aslyin raised her nose to the air and took a long whiff before her eyes snapped open and widened. She hadn’t smelt it before because she had taken the fresh air smell of Archer Ville with her when they left; holding onto that beautiful smell, but now it was gone, replaced with the stench of death and blood. Her head quickly turned to look in the direction of their home. “What happened?” she asked.

Brandon didn’t answer; he just took off toward the home. He didn’t smell the same stench that she smelt. What he smelt was something different, something that was more important to him than the shed blood of the campers, something that meant the world to him. His assumptions were quickly answered correctly when he broke through the trees and found Rose lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. “Rose!” Brandon called as he quickly fell to his knees in front of his fallen wife and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. “Rose, can you hear me?”

Aslyin stood on the other side of her mother’s body, tears welling in her eyes. She frantically looked around for who ever did this, but all she could see were the corpses of the campers, their blood splattered over the trees and buildings. “What – what happened here?” she asked. She put her hand over her nose so she didn’t have to smell the blood, so she didn’t have to fight the urges to drink all of the spilt blood, so she could focus her attention on helping her mother, who had awaken from her unconsciousness.

“Rose! You’re awake!” Brandon exclaimed as Rose’s eyes opened slowly and looked at him. “What happened?” he asked as he placed his lips against her forehead.

She didn’t answer right away, her eyes closed while his lips were against her forehead and then she opened her eyes again and pointed toward the beach.

Brandon glanced in the direction she was pointing to see that she wasn’t pointing at the beach, but at Blake who now stood a few feet from where they sat. “Welcome home,” Blake said with an evil grin on his face. His eyes still burned with his anger, but his hair had once again settled down, for the moment at least.

“What did you do?” Brandon barked at Blake as he placed Rose into Aslyin’s arms and stood to face his son. His eyes stayed focused on his sons while Blake stepped forward, focused on Aslyin and Rose on the ground. “Stay there!” Brandon ordered as he stepped forward to block Blake’s vision, forcing him to look at him. Blake’s eyes snapped up to Brandon’s and he growled, he growled like something he deserved was being taken from him; his hair began to lick at the air again.

“I just want to talk to my sister,” Blake answered innocently and casually. His eyes burned into Brandon’s as he watched for any openings in his defence.

“You’ll get no closer to my family, Blake,” Brandon stated in the most serious tone he’d ever used; his eyes burning back into Blake’s.

“But I am your family?” Blake asked, confused by the words that had been chosen.

“If you were the one who hurt Rose, then you’re no longer part of this family, and never will be again!” Brandon exclaimed as he stepped toward Blake. “Were you the one who hurt her?” he asked his tone still as serious as it had been the moment this conversation started.

“Yes,” Rose whispered from behind. That was all he needed to hear, he trusted the love of his life far more than he trusted the son of which would never listen to what he was told to do.

“Hang on, sweetheart,” Brandon said, his tone switching to a sensitive one, a loving, caring, full of sadness tone that was new to both him and the rest of his family. Any mortal having to sit through these events would have gone completely mad, almost as mad as Blake, if not worse, but Brandon was wasn’t mortal anymore, their rules didn’t apply to him anymore, he was going to kill his son tonight, he didn’t care that Blake was his own flesh and blood; his own flesh and blood had harmed the flesh and blood that he loved more than anything else in the world, and it had to be punished. Pain flashed across Brandon’s face as he listened to Rose cough behind him, a single tear bubbled in the corner of his eyes as he tore his face from Blake’s and knelt beside his wife again.

 

Aslyin stood this time, facing Blake. She knew that he wanted her more than he wanted their parents, more than he had wanted to hurt their mother, but she had been a substitute to a game she didn’t know was being played. If she had just came home when they were supposed to and not bribing her father into to taking her scouting with him again, she’d be the one lying on the ground in a puddle of her own blood, not her mother. Tears trickled down her cheek as she stared at the anger that burned inside of Blake’s. “Why?” was all she was capable of getting through her teeth as she grinded them, full of anger as well.

It wasn’t fair that her mother who loved both of them equally had to pay for whatever grudges her brother held for her; they should have been taken out on her, he should have waited for her to return, it would have been better for him if he hadn’t wasted all his fun on someone who wasn’t even his target. Her hands balled into fists and she stepped forward, closing the gap between her and her brother. She was ready to throw as many punches into his face that were needed to cause him to die, but she knew it wouldn’t be that easy. She growled in her throat in return to his growl, she wanted to ask her question again, she wanted to know why he had done what he had done to their mother, but she knew he had heard her ask it the first time.

“This is entirely your fault,” he finally answered, pointing one finger in her direction. The anger and the hatred in his eyes burned even more intensively as they burned into the eyes of the one he hated the most, than they had when he stared into his own parent’s eyes. He didn’t blame them for what they did, they weren’t thinking properly. Their minds had been corrupted by this succubus of a sister, into believing that she was the only important thing in their lives, that they hadn’t had a son, that she didn’t have a brother, so she would get all their love, where as he wouldn’t get any. He growled again as she took another step toward him, which confused him. He hated her, he wanted to kill her, taste her blood pass through his lips, feel her body go limp in his body as she cursed him for ruining her plans, but at the same time, deep inside of his body, where the Blake that didn’t hate her existence existed, he felt like he was doing the wrong thing, but the rest of him, the angry him that was full of pain, that burned with hatred toward her, overshadowed that little voice that echoed in the back of his head; he forced it to stop so he could focus on what was about to happen, what he wanted to happen, no matter how much his other self disliked what it was.

“My fault?” she asked, as she stopped advancing on his position when the growls in his throat intensified, taking them the wrong way, like he was angry at her – for whatever reason he had to be angry at her – rather than it actually being his other self trying to stop her from getting hurt. She would never figure this out though. The time that passed between their conversations felt like hours, the shadows of the trees looked darker than they were, like the sun was setting in the distance, like they had been standing here, locked eye to eye, for several hours with only having said three things. Her mind ran around in circles in her head, what could she possibly have done to force this on him? She hadn’t done anything that she was aware of, that she could have controlled, and that could have caused him to do this. Doubt filled her eyes; he must be lying, he had no reason to hate her like this, he was being silly. He was just being a boy. She remembered her mother telling her that many years ago, back when Blake used to tease her with his paintball guns, back when he didn’t look at her like she was a black hole, destroying everything around him that was precious to him.

Could this be a reaction to something only boys felt? Was this something that was out of both of their hands that he felt like blaming her for, rather than wonder why he felt that way? Was there such an emotion for boys that could cause this? She quickly glanced over her shoulder at her parents; was there an emotion for boys that could cause him to do that? When she looked back at Blake, he had stepped forward; the voice in his head had been silenced, never to interfere again.

“Yes, you did this to me, you did this to them,” he answered as he nodded his head in Rose’s direction, “you selfish bitch,” he growled when his eyed focused on hers again. He was standing only a couple feet in front of her when he stopped again, watching her, anticipating her reaction to what he had just told her, anticipating the question that would follow.

Her eyes widened quickly and she looked over her shoulder at her mother again. This is my fault? She asked herself, her tears began to fall from her eyes faster now. She believed what he told her, but she didn’t know why. She hadn’t done anything to them, ever, she loved them both more than she loved anything else in the world, more than she loved hunting with them, more than she loved to see them holding one another; in love – as much as she disgusted the whole lip action they gave one another, – she couldn’t think of any reason to want so much pain and suffering to be inflicted on her parents.

Brandon looked up at her when he felt her eyes on him; a soft smile was on his face, a reassuring smile that was meant to tell her that Blake was wrong. Though it didn’t stay there for long, it disappeared as Rose coughed again and his attention snapped back to his wife.

The smile worked though. In the current situation, he wouldn’t have taken his attention from Rose to let her know that she hadn’t done anything if she hadn’t done anything. Aslyin smiled back at him before turning her attention back to her brother. Whatever it was that was making him act like this wasn’t her fault; it was something she couldn’t control, and that calmed her down. Then it occurred to her that he hadn’t answered her question yet, he hadn’t told them why he had done what he had done, but he only accused her for being behind his motives. “Why?” she asked again, hoping this time he would answer.

Chapter 5

Sibling Rivalry

 

The short distance between Aslyin and her brother resonated with Blake’s anger, his hatred, his loathing, and his prejudice for her. He had yet to explain why these emotions leaked out of him, but she knew he was going to, if she asked him enough times. He probably thought she was trying to play with his mind, force him into doing what she wanted him to do, distract him so that she could kill him instead. With another growl from his throat, he finally informed them of why he was doing this.

His eyes never left hers, he never moved, while he explained, despite how much he wanted to lung at her unexpectedly and tear her to pieces before she could act against him. “Since we’ve been born, Aslyin, you have drawn all the attention to yourself, like a magnet,” he began, talking through his teeth, his eyes intensifying as he told his story. “Even at that age, barely out of the womb, you were capable of controlling our parents’ minds like they were puppets, like they were characters in a game, in which all you cared about was winning. From that moment, everything I did meant nothing, no matter how hard I tried, they were too occupied with taking you Hunting, teaching you how to be a Vampire, teaching you how to live, while all I could do was sit in my room and cry.

“Not like it mattered much to you, from the very beginning you hated me, you despised me. I only complicated your plans and if only our parents hadn’t loved me deep down, you would have disposed of me yourself, but you loved them too much to hurt them like that. So you kept them from saying and showing that to me, that they loved me, so that they only paid attention to you, no matter what I did, it was like I didn’t exist, and that’s the way you wanted it, isn’t it?” he asked. He continued before she could answer the question.

“You wondered why I tortured you when we were littler, still, don’t you?” he asked, this time he let her answer.

Aslyin was glad he paused for a moment, waiting for her input before he continued. She needed a moment to let what he had set sink it. It sounded so far-fetched, like she was a fairy tale creature that could control minds. She blinked a few times though, maybe she was? Could she have the power to control minds and just not realize it? It could be possible, after all, they were Vampires, and they weren’t supposed to exist, but here they were. She nodded her head in response to his question; she couldn’t find the part of her brain that told her how to speak, she was too confused, too shocked, to be able to think properly.

“Because that was the only way I’d get them to pay attention to me. You needed to let them act like parents for once so they could protect you from me. It worked, a little bit; I was able to get some attention out of them, even if it was just them yelling at me for hurting you, it was better than nothing.

“No one wondered why I stopped doing that as we got older. You all just assumed I had matured, which I did, and found other ways to have fun instead of torturing you, but I didn’t stop because I was tired of it, I was having so much fun ruining your plans, much like I am now. I stopped because the attention I got out of it wasn’t the kind I wanted anymore, it was good in the beginning, when I learned how to get some attention, but as we got older I got tired of always being yelled at, so I did my best to just stay out of your way, let you do whatever it was you were doing with their minds.

“So here I am, torturing you again so I can get some of the attention I deserve, the attention that you’ve sucked out of them so that I couldn’t get any,” he finished, growling again. These growls weren’t from the Blake that was buried inside of him; these growls were from him, out of pure hatred.

“We always loved you, Blake, we tried to include you in all of our plans, but you refused to be any part of them, as long as Aslyin was there,” Rose stated, her voice was pained and she coughed painfully after she finished. Brandon quickly, softly, hugged her closer, in an attempt to stop her pain. She smiled at him.

“There you go again, controlling them, telling them to say that so that maybe you won’t get hurt, but it won’t work this time. You can’t hide behind them anymore, never again,” he said with a growl and then he was a blur. The distance between him and Aslyin wasn’t very big, but he cleared it in less than a second and had his hand to her throat. “You’ve had your fun for too long, now it’s time I get to enjoy myself,” he said as they both blurred toward a tree as he forced her against the trunk of the tree, his claws digging into the bark, pinning her there.

 

It was lucky that Vampires didn’t need to breath; otherwise he would have been choking her, but all he was doing was pinning her to a tree. She was strong enough that the force of his hand wouldn’t crush her neck, though she knew that’s what he was hoping. He may have had an easy fight against Rose, only because he was stronger than she was. He was stronger because he was younger. Rose, as skilled as she is, isn’t that strong in her age. Had she actually been eighteen like Blake, during their fight, there was no doubt in Aslyin’s mind that Blake would have lost.

Because both her and Blake were exactly the same age, having been born at exactly the same time, not a second between them, she was equally as strong as he was. His speed was his only advantage in this fight. She blew a strand of her black hair from her face and looked deep into his eyes, searching for someone she hoped was still in there, but there wasn’t a single trace of her brother, all that was left was what stood in front of her, pinning her to a tree. This was still her brother, but he had been consumed by his emotions, by his thoughts, he wasn’t himself anymore, and she feared that he never would be himself again.

She didn’t want to do this, not one bit, but he was going to kill her if she didn’t do something to fight back. With all her strength, she forced her knee between his legs. His eyes, as angry as they were, displayed a tiny hint of pain as he quickly released her from his grip and backed away, wobbling slightly. “I’m sorry,” she apologized as she crushed her fist into his face, flipping him backwards through the air and into one of the cottages. Her eyes flickered to her parents and she knelt beside them. “Are you okay, Mom?” she asked, but before Rose could answer, Blake had returned from what was left of the cottage and connected his fist into Aslyin’s cheek, spiralling her back toward the tree, snapping through the trunk, causing it to fall toward Brandon and Rose. She stood to her feet and looked where her parents had been a moment ago. She was glad they had gotten out of the way.

Brandon held onto Rose as tightly as he could without causing her any physical harm as they soared above the fight in the forest below. His thick black wings flapped silently as he watched his two children fight. He had faith that Aslyin was going to be victorious; she spent so much time with him that she had learned more about fighting than she knew. As long as she remembered the things he did teach her, she would be able to apply that to this fight, and win. “How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Brandon asked Rose when her eyes opened again.

She smiled up at him and kissed his chin before looking down at the ground to watch her children fight as well. She wanted Aslyin to win, of course, she was the favourite child, but not because she mind controlled them to believe so, but because she was normal, she didn’t do anything to get attention, she didn’t need to. Rose had always wanted a daughter, someone she could raise the way she had wanted to be raised. That’s all they both wanted. Brandon knew how much she wanted a daughter, and when they had found out that they were having a girl, they were ecstatic. As the date of her birth moved closer, the doctor had told them something they hadn’t expected to hear, something that made them just as happy as having a girl had made them. They were having twins. Blake’s assumptions had been completely off. They loved him just as much as they loved Aslyin, only he was distant, and they now knew why. She wanted to talk to Blake, tell him that he was wrong, that Aslyin had only earned their positive attention, where as the things he did responded with negative attention. He didn’t listen, he broke the rules, and he threw tantrums. Aslyin on the other hand had been an angel, doing everything she was asked to do.

“Do you think either of them will actually kill the other?” she asked Brandon as her eyes looked to his.

Brandon didn’t say anything for a moment; his eyes were focused on the fast moving blurs of colours on the ground below them. After a few minutes his eyes looked into Roses and he kissed her forehead. “I’m not worried about Aslyin hurting him; I’m more worried about him hurting her. He’s convinced that she’s been trying to hurt him her whole life, that she hates him like he hates her now, that it’s blinded him from the truth.”

 

A single bead of sweat trickled down the back of Aslyin’s neck as she stepped from side to side, barley dodging Blake’s speeding attacks. Her black hair was waving from side to side with her movements, unaffected by any other force that pressed against her. A few more trees lay shattered on the ground around her from when one of their attacks connected and sent the other spiralling through the air into one of them, most of the cottages had been destroyed in the same fashion as well.

She stepped to the left quickly as Blake lunged at her again, his claws barely scratching her skin as he blurred past her in a block of colour. When he came to a stop a foot in front of her, she quickly pivoted on one heel and smashed her other into his back. A loud crunch cracked through the forest like thunder as Blake flew into an already destroyed tree in the distance. Before he had got to his feet, Aslyin took the time to look into the sky to see her parents floating safely in the air above them. Her mother looked like she was getting better, she hoped she was. She didn’t want her father to be broke and shattered if he lost her.

She didn’t have much time to think about that before Blake was on his feet and advancing quickly on her once again. She attempted to step out of his way again, but this time he moved with her, not jumping at her like before. He moved right into her, body checking her with his broad shoulders, forcing her into a wall that remained standing from one of the cottages. The force of his attack shook the wooden wall and brought it down, once the wall had fallen, he forced her through the wall across from it, and then into a tree before he once again pinned her to the tree by her neck. This time pressed his knee against her stomach so that she wouldn’t be able to knee him in the crotch again.

“You’ve put up quite the fight,” Blake said with a grin. “It was entertaining,” he added. He had enjoyed the fight more than she did, he knew that much. She didn’t want to fight him, but he wanted to fight her. He wanted her to fight him; he wanted her to hate him so that his story that he was continuously playing out in his head didn’t seem so stupid after all.

Aslyin stared into his eyes that were still burning with his anger. His hair was still licking at the air like it was a camp fire in the night. He truly was scary. She knew that the only way to make him stop what he was doing was going to have to be to kill him, as much as she didn’t want to do that. A single tear trickled down her cheek as she watched him struggle with the anger that swelled inside of him, with the pain that he had suppressed for so long for no reason whatsoever. If he had just acted normal, done what he had been told to do while he was a kid, he would have received just as much attention as she had, but it was too late to try to reason with him. He was convinced.

She looked up to her parents again, almost like she was waiting for them to give her the okay to finish this fight, she knew she could, but she also knew if she waited too long to do so, Blake would only get more furious that he hadn’t killed her yet, and try harder, making it harder for her to finish him off.

Both Brandon and Rose’s eyes returned to the battle on the ground like they knew Aslyin was looking up at them. They both nodded down to her. That was the hardest decision either of them had to make. They didn’t want either of their children to have to die, but Aslyin was right, it was the only way this would stop now.

While Blake was occupied with the fact that he was close to his victory, close to his justice, Aslyin placed her hand on his chest, which snapped him to reality for a brief moment. He looked down at her hand in confusion, but it was suddenly replaced with pain as her nails dug into his chest. Her other hand curled into a fist and she pummelled it into the bottom of his chin, sending him into a full black flip and landing face first on the ground. She flexed her hand and then cracked her knuckles; that punch had felt good, for some reason. Once her feet were firmly on the ground again she slowly walked towards Blake’s body, expecting him to jump to his feet and attack her again, but he didn’t. He didn’t move an inch as she knelt in front of him and pressed two fingers to his neck.

He was still alive, very much alive, and angrier than he had been since this all began, but he couldn’t move. Her punch had paralyzed him, which was what she had planned for it to do; now she was freely able to finish him without him putting up a fight. “I’m sorry, brother, but you’re wrong,” she began as she lifted his head up so he was looking at her. His hair tangled and weaved through the air like it was trying to tear her hands from her arms. His eyes burned so intensely that it almost burned for her to look into them. “But this wasn’t my fault,” she said softly as she leaned in, kissed his forehead, and then dug her nails into his neck, prying his head from his shoulders.

The sound of his skin tearing apart and the shattering of his bones, send shivers through her body. She had to close her eyes while she tore his head from his shoulders so that she wouldn’t be sick from the sight of it. The sounds were already making her nauseous. Once his head had been removed from his shoulders his hair dyed, turned into a thick black tangled mess rather than its beautiful red flame. His eyes turned cold, freezing over and the twitching in his body halted immediately. He was dead. She had saved him from his peril the only way that was possible and saved her and her family from suffering anymore from his corruptive mind.

~

 

The sun had finally set beyond the horizon taking with it the bloody scene that had been left by Blake. It wasn’t fair to those Humans; they didn’t do anything, didn’t know anything, but then, neither did those they hunted when they were hungry. The way they were slaughtered, just for the sheer thought of killing them, was what made it unfair. Blake had gone mad looking for Rose once she had reached the lake and managed to get away from him, so mad that he went onto the mainland and slaughtered the Humans just so he would have something to take his anger out on.

There weren’t any bodies, no sign that there had ever been bodies other than the blood that soaked the ground around the wrecked Cottages. This meant that Brandon and his family were no longer able to live where they did, it would draw too much attention to their secret if anything was found that could link them to what happened. Brandon’s first idea was to make up a lie, tell the Detectives, who he was sure were bound to come looking when this many people mysteriously vanished off of the face of the Earth, that one of the mass murderers they were chasing had come in and destroyed everything, but then as he thought about it, the idea seemed flawed. There wasn’t a murderer who anyone knew about that dealt this kind of damage and didn’t even leave any bodies, any sign that he had been there, a fingerprint or a lock of hair.

His second idea was to clean the mess and lead the Detectives away, but that one was flawed also. Those that had gone missing – slaughtered – had last talked with their friends about coming to their Cottage Resort for a week of relaxation. This would be the first place the Detectives would come to look, and when they found that there were no longer any Cottages on the property, they would get suspicious and then begin asking questions to Brandon and his family.

His third idea, which was the one they all decided on, was an easier choice for all three of them. They would move, far away from here and begin a new life elsewhere. Take all of their possessions from the mansion and place them into another house, that was fairly large of course, and live there. When the Detectives did show up, they would inevitably search the mansion, and when nothing was found inside, not a single piece of furniture, just an old empty stone mansion, they would be forced to search elsewhere. None of them left fingerprints, or anything that could be linked to them, not that Rose or Aslyin was in their databank.

It seemed like the only thing they could do, so that’s what they did. Rose hadn’t fully healed yet, so wasn’t able to help much with the moving, but Brandon and Aslyin handled it with ease. Brandon had borrowed a large boat from the city, without permission, so they could easily carry everything they owned at once to their new home, which they didn’t have, yet.

Without any trouble, Brandon heaved the large objects from the house, like beds and dressers, and placed them on the boat. He had taken the biggest one he could find at the dock, so moving would be made so much easier. He might have to return and get the rest of the stuff that he couldn’t fit onto the boat, but he would be able to do that by himself with ease. As much as Aslyin would beg to come with him, he was going to leave her with Rose to make sure that she was feeling alright, which she happily agreed to doing when the time came for Brandon to return to their mansion to retrieve what was left of their belongings.

“Is there anything you need, Mom?” Aslyin asked as she sat quietly on the front steps of an apartment building. The building wasn’t split into multiple different apartments; it was just one large house, which fit their needs perfectly. Most of their belongings were put in place, the rest just sat randomly throughout the building, awaiting their turn to find their new resting place.

Rose had been quiet since they arrived here. She gave orders on how to organize everything nicely into the boat so that it would all fit and still leave room for the three of them, but as soon as they had hit the mainland she stopped talking. She hadn’t even given orders on how to decorate the house, she just nodded every time Brandon asked if the piece of furniture he was putting somewhere, was in the right spot. If it wasn’t in the right spot, she shook her head, but wouldn’t say anything to either Brandon or Aslyin. So it was a shock to Aslyin when she finally did speak, “I’m good, Aslyin, thank you.” Her voice was soft and quiet. Aslyin wouldn’t have been able to hear it if she hadn’t been sitting so close.

“Are you sure?” Aslyin asked, her voice was quiet and soft as well.

Rose simply nodded her head before resting it against Aslyin’s shoulder. Her mind was more focused on Blake, her son, who she had just watched get killed by her daughter. She wasn’t upset with Aslyin, not at all; it was the only way they could stop him from hurting anyone else, especially himself. It still surprised her that this had all been caused from a very complicated form of sibling rivalry. She hoped that Aslyin would never have to deal with that if she ever had children.

The night air grew silent as the two of them sat there watching the stars twinkling in the dark sky. The only sound that could be heard was the crickets calling one another. It was a beautiful night to end an exhausting day.

 

 

 

The End