Chapter One
Just yesterday a young girl age of sixteen went missing; Denver police claimed to have only found a gold locket half buried in the dirt. Grandfather of Sulis Silver notified that it was the necklace he had given her for her third birthday and had a picture of him in it to prove it. Now finding out that a park ranger found blood and the shirt Sulis was wearing the night she went missing, draped over a bush a ways from the trail…
I glared at the first paragraph of the newspaper about ready to ball it up and throw it to the paper waist basket just beside my bedroom door. But I thought better; Mathew would just love to see this, and even if he had already I'm sure his reaction the second time would be even better than the first, mainly because I would be there to see it. His short temper would make my day and then I'd be there to watch as he slit the throat of Daniel Victors for making the front page of today's Denver post. Daniel knew the rules-a little too well I think, so it gave him no excuse to do something stupid; but still he continued to be the reckless fool he was ever sense he was nine and go killing some sixteen year old girl in Lakewood.
Smirking I sat up with the newspaper still in hand and reached to the side of my bed, grabbing a pair of scissors off of my nightstand that I kept there from the previous evening. I cut out the small article on Sulis Silvers death making sure not to forget the picture of the young girl and jumped off the bed leaving the rest of the mess laying there.
I didn't walk quickly to Mathew's office, I wasn't at all that eager; I needed to give him at least some time so he could cool off again. I wanted to see a new reaction out of him when I shoved the article in his face instead of an old one. The red carpeted floor muted my footsteps as I passed several rooms of the mansion and a set of stairs just to get to the second floor where Mathew's was. His sliding glass office doors were wide open and I could see the shadow of his figure pacing back and forwards before I entered making him pause to look at me.
Probably seeing my humorous face he rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window behind his desk. You could see the front yard from here, not that it mattered. It was the back yard that had the view. I chuckled. "I'm guessing you read the paper already?" I wondered knowing the answer. When he didn't respond I went on. "Shoot and I already had a whole list of things to do today that would just climb under your skin. Oh well, tomorrow I still have all day." I joked smiling at him.
His icy glare was one that I no longer feared, but to others it would have stopped them in their tracks and caused them to step back. For me I just smiled my childish smile and laughed. "Look, I don't need the bull shit right now, Aisling."
I snorted. "What's with you?"
Mathew gave me a look of disbelief. "You know I read the newspaper but did you?" he questioned. "I don't know if you relies what this means or not." Matt turned looking back out the square window.
Shrugging I walked the little ways to a chair and sat down in it. "So you have to kill one more person on your squadron. It's never bothered you before." I crossed my legs and crumpled the article into a ball like I wanted to do in the beginning and threw it at Matt so it hit his shoulder and bounced off landing on the flour next to him. He turned to look at me raising an eyebrow. His lip ring caught the light from the morning sun and shimmered as did the gold chain around his neck hanging over his black t-shirt. "Are you going to respond or just stand there giving me a stare of death?" I interrogated.
His sigh brought silence until he answered. "You don't understand. Daniel is like a brother to me, Aisling. We grew up together."
I nodded. "Yes, and you became leader and he was left behind which is probably the reason why he's going out and just begging for his death sentence. He's waiting for you to say the words and dreading getting slaughtered. If you like Daniel so much then I would much rather suggest you send him away-and fast before the elders come and find out you hadn't killed him yet. Send him somewhere where he might actually learn not to be a criminal, somewhere where humans aren't a problem."
Matt rolled his eyes and bent down to retrieve the crumpled up article laying on the ground and tossed it in the trashcan right next to his desk. "He would never go," he decided. "And hypothetically speaking, if he went, there would be no place on earth where humans weren't a problem, they are like gremlins-all over the place thinking that we don't even exist. They run all around forests shooting things at random-and sometimes they just might shoot a werewolf and I'm not saying that I argue with that but what I'm saying is that they think they own everything and anything that breathes."
Starting to laugh I shook my head. "They do not, they just have their boundary lines and we have ours-"
"You mean the little piece of paper that says By the order of the seven elders you may not break any of the following rules?" he asked cutting me off and mocking the words of the seven great ones even though he himself was working to be the eighth elder of the biggest vampire council all over the world. "I know what my boundary lines are but do they?" he asked me not really expecting an answer.
I shrugged anyway and replied. "Does it matter?" I snorted making him shoot a frown over at me. "So what if they have a little more freedom than we do, we still can't change that no matter if you're an elder or not, if you kill a human you will be prosecuted just like the sixth elder was back in the 1970's, and that was because he fell into temptation. What even makes you so sure that Daniel deserves to live any how?"
"Daniel doesn't deserve anything." Matt snapped at me hitting his hand down on his wooden desk making the sound of something hollow.
I stood from my seat. "To hell if he doesn't." I glared. "If you don't send him away now and I mean going up to his room and telling him to get the hell out of here he's going to be killed. And if you're not the one to kill him its going to be the seven you are most fond of. Whether you would like to face it or not your so called brother is a killer that killed a sixteen year old girl back in 1999, and just because we found out about if today doesn't mean he's off the hook alright?" Mathew just glared at me not saying anything. "For gods sake, Matt you're the damn leader of these young vampires so you need to start acting like it or your face isn't going to appear in that picture of your seven great ones."
He sighed and walked around the desk to come directly in front of me leaning against the desk while crossing his pale arms over his chest. "You're right." He murmured shaking his head.
I nodded. "Of course I am. So what are you going to do?" I asked curious if he was going to kill him or send him away like I suggested for him to do.
"There's a family just north from here," he took one of my hands playing with my fingers. "I'd send him there-they would do anything for me, but he would never go. That is alone at least." He said looking down at my hand in his.
I shrugged. "So send someone else with him. I'm sure it wouldn't be a bad idea," I thought about it for a second looking at him and his distressing face feeling bad for him having a screwed up friend such as Daniel.
Before I could tell him myself that it wouldn't work he was already shaking his head. "No one else can know." He muttered to me closing his eyes. "The only person who can go with him is you, and as painful that is for me to have to let you. It's the only way. And it would only be for a couple of months to where everybody thinks he's dead. Then we'll figure something out." He opened his eyes seeing my reaction and winced.
"Oh hell no, I'm not leaving here-I can't believe your asking me to go with a perverted guy such as Daniel." I complained. "There is no telling what he'd do to me when I'm sleeping." I pointed out rolling my eyes in complete disgust.
Mathew brought my hand up to his mouth kissing it gently and holding it to his chest. "He knows your mine," His other hand went to my waist pulling my body to his and resting the side of his face next to mine. "He wouldn't dare touch you knowing he was already on a death penalty."
"What about the rest of this family?" I asked. "They don't have guys that are as perverted and childish as Daniel, do they?"
"Again, they know your mine, so they wouldn't dare to touch you." He chuckled. I assumed it was a yes sense he didn't really answer my question and just repeated himself instead.
I sighed. "But we don't get along," I told him pulling back so I could see his face then continued. "Knowing Daniel and knowing me, Daniel wouldn't be Daniel for to much longer. We would tare ourselves apart both mentally and physically trying to ruin each others lives. I can hardly stand an hour alone with him on missions you send us both on together, what makes you think I'll be able to stand him for a couple of months, Matt?"
He smirked. "Well its settling to know you won't be cheating on me." he chuckled getting life back into his eyes. "But, this family, they will take care of him and they own a big and nice enough house for you both to have your own rooms, you'll feel right at home, I swear. You wont even have to see him if choose so."
I rolled my eyes. "I would never cheat on you," I smiled. "At least with him, I mean come on I can do so much better."
Daniel frowned. "Don't worry me please. I dread every moment you spend away from me, I don't need the thought of you betraying me, especially at the time I need you." He said completely serious.
Smiling wider I leaned forward and kissed him gently pulling away quickly so it wouldn't turn into something else, which he was known for doing. "Don't stress about it, but if I don't even have to speak to him on this," I paused thinking for the appropriate word without being to mean. "Outing, then why even go?"
"Someone has to keep Daniel in check if he does something wrong, right?" he smiled adorably taking his hand away from my waist and reaching up to stroke my cheek bone ever so lightly. "I'll only be able to visit, once a week maybe less if at all possible." He said sadly watching as I got a disappointed look on my face. "But don't worry; when I do I'll make sure you get what you need alright?" He winked and leaned forward kissing me again only for so long until he pulled back again.
I was sad for leaving. I had never been away from him for so long before, it was going to be weird and a little depressing I had to admit. "Does this mean I should go pack?" I asked already missing him.
He just nodded and smiled for my benefit. "And while you do that, I'll work on telling Daniel the news. Meet us down stairs in the front when you're ready, alright?" he wondered.
I nodded, again not very happy with his choice. "Alright," I said then at an immortal speed was out of his office and into my own room in half a second already having my suitcase out on the bed and it half full with only the things that I needed. My fighting gear was important and same with the rest of my clothes. I only had two suitcases full of things when I was done. I didn't know this family that Daniel and I were going to stay with but as long as Matt knew them, it was alright.
I dragged my suitcases down the steps getting looks and smiles from other vampires in this house that I knew. I ignored most of them not in the mood for friendly gestures at the moment and just continued down the steps of the house and to the front door where only the butler and Mathew were waiting for me. I came to a halt watching as the butler took my things away from me and out to my black Mercedes that was already pulled out in front of the mansion so I could just get in and drive away. I looked at Matt and smiled faintly not doing a very good job at showing I was alright with any of this.
Mathew grabbed me by the waist and slowly pulled me to him kissing my softly before pressing his lips to my shoulder squeezing me to his body. One of my hands was gripping his belt while the other was wrapped around him. "I'll be there next week to check up on you, alright?" he said pulling back to see my face. "Call me tonight; I'll be up. Just follow Daniel he's at the top of the driveway. He knows where to go." He tried to smile.
I didn't return the smile and just nodding looking up at him and standing on my tip toes to kiss him once more before backing away from him and going out the door to where the butler was just finishing putting my stuff in the car and shutting the trunk. "Have nice trip, Miss. Aisling." He said before jogging away from my car.
I got in on the drivers side and started my engine hearing the low rumble of the car come from its sleeping slumbers and put the car in gear quickly speeding up the driveway to where another black car was. I assumed it was Daniel and honked drawing his attention and making him look back at me through his mirror and smile showing all of his white teeth. "Little pest, don't you smile at me. It's your fault I'm here." I mumbled knowing her could hear me just fine.
I saw him laugh shaking his head making his long sandy blond hair shake. He pressed on the gas and lurched forward releasing me from the strong urge to rear end him and bust one of his tail light out. I chased him down the dirt road dodging cars as we came near and near to the place we needed to be. It was still in Colorado for the sake of my mind but it was an hour away from home FYI Mathew. The trees came more crowded and the houses more further apart. The hills turned form baby to giant, the road turned from highways to deserted thin pathways and the rocks turned to boulders that looked as if they were about to fall at any given moment they sat there without anything to break their fall except for the road and/or my car. I could nearly feel the rocks aiming at my car in particular. It was pretty up here in the mountains-I guess, but I would much rather the noise of raucous teenaged vamps in one mansion better. It was what I grew up with and what I'd dealt with all my life.
I was so busy trying to stay on the dirt road so I wouldn't smash my car into a hill of rocks that I hardly noticed when Daniel turned onto another abandoned road that turned out to be a driveway instead. I raised my eyebrows to see that the house was medium sized, with three flours above ground and a walk out basement. It was nice, like Mathew had mentioned to me but I still wasn't sure how well off I'd be with feeling at home here as he had also mentioned. I looked at the wooden house that looked like it was made from actual tree trunks and sighed. Although the house was big and same with the beautiful yard that was filled with a river running through and flowers all over I couldn't help but notice only one care in the two open garages.
Maybe the others weren't old enough to drive yet? I guessed and parked my car beside Daniels getting out and not paying any attention to when he came around his car to come stand by me. "This is nice." He said nodding and looking around the two of us at their yard.
I rolled my eyes. "It would be better if you weren't here." I said harshly and looked around for myself.
I heard the front door open and smelt something I knew was to familiar. Her heart still beat to the sound of its own drum, she moved only as fast as her legs would let her, she still blushed and was fragile. She was human. Having noticed to Daniel and I both whipped our heads around to see a human woman beautiful as mortal would allow her to be walk out on the front porch. Daniel and I both looked at her with wide eyes and what as I thought, the same thoughts running through our heads. Mathew didn't say that they were vampires, but I hadn't thought he needed to, I just assumed. But she was human, did this mean that they were all human?
3
