This is chapter one as an edit.
I've recently been editing all my stories and decided that the first couple of chapters needed a face lift.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Drake Chronicles. Alyxandra Harvey does.
Lucy's POV
"Oh, Nicky. Why can't we just go back to Violet Hill?"
Sometimes being the best friend to a sixteen year old vampire-princess-to-be had its down sides. Most of the time the glamorous part didn't even come into the picture. Ninety-nine percent of it was the sitting-at-home-worrying-when-the-hell-it-was-safe-to-go-outside and the other one percent was the actual action; the butt-kicking, vampire staking action.
This was one of those horrible days. Not because I was sitting at home, though. My small environmentally friendly house I shared with my parents was thousands of miles away in my equally environmentally friendly town.
Because of Solange's crazy lifestyle, and because she's always being stalked by mental vampires that've always had this crazy notion that she, my level-headed best friend, would want to be perused by them, we had to, in total secrecy, hop on a private plane and fly over an ocean to get away from them.
Initially, they didn't want me to come. As I'm totally human, and apparently vulnerable, they thought it in everyone's' best interest to leave me at home.
And because I'm stubborn at heart, I argued against them, saying that my home wasn't my home without them. Naturally, that hadn't been enough but I kept persisting, casually dropping hints into conversations and sometimes just down right begging.
I finally had a breakthrough. They all agreed, though reluctantly, to let me accompany them on their move.
Nicholas, who's one of Solange's seven older brothers and has a tendency to want to argue with me over stupidly small things, had gone with me on the first plane, saying that it'd be safer if we didn't all go together. His family had seen the logic and that had been what had happened.
Quite a few hours later, we'd arrived in a dingy part of the new town. Luggage that we'd haled in through the gate had been dropped carelessly at our side on cracked concrete. Night is the only time we can travel, and it hangs on us like a wet blanket.
We are waiting restlessly out in the yard for the rest of his family to arrive. They have the key so we can't look inside.
"Oh God, Lucy. You know why," sighs Nicholas, annoyed.
Of course I know why but that won't stop me whining about it.
"It's just," I sigh back.
The weight of what I've done finally sits itself on my shoulders, cruelly taunting me with the knowledge that maybe, if I ask with enough respect, I could go home. I won't, though, because Solange is important to me and whatever is her problem is my problem and it won't help if I run away form it.
"It's just," I continue. "They're vampires, Nicholas. The problem's not just centred on Violet Hill, is it? There're bound to be Vampires somewhere around this area, right?"
"Yes." He runs a hand through his hair, agitated. "No. Maybe. But, Lucy, there won't be as many and they probably won't know about Solange in as much detail as the ones do back home. Plus, it's the only plan we've got to keep her safe."
I clench my jaw when I hear his voice crack slightly. Nicholas is normally the strong one in the family, apart from Quinn. If not strong, then persistent, and he hasn't been that in a while.
I'm starting to worry about him. About the whole family, actually.
"I can see that," I smile softly.
There's a pause in our conversation. Crickets chirp at a safe distance from us, watching from the shadows of hedges and the trees lining one of the high fences sealing us in.
The yard is separated by another small low fence running across the middle, with a broken gate the only gap for us to get to the bottom. It's long and darkness engulfs the end, swallowing the reminisce of a patchy lawn and the start of a shattered green-house.
Home sweet home, I guess.
"When are your family getting here?" I ask finally when it feels as if the silence has stretched on long enough and the idea of monsters strolling out of that darkness gets too much for me to think about alone.
"Soon, I hope." He looks at me with an odd expression. "Oh, and Lucy?"
"Yeah?"
"What're you doing?" He looks me up and down, an eyebrow rising in a sort of amused way.
I look down to where he's staring, find nothing odd about myself. "Nothing, I don't think."
"You're jigging."
"I am?"
I look down again, see that I'm hopping from foot to foot, hunched in a painful way. I make an effort to relax my muscles and concentrate on breathing. Because I'm now paying attention, I realise wind licks our bodies, hard and fast, shaking the trees until the leaves shake together in a beautiful melody. And that I'm getting cold, freezing actually, goose-bumps rising on my arms under my coat.
I huddle further into my jacket, wishing fruitlessly for a little metal key that's currently flying over miles of ocean.
"Are you cold?" Nicholas's brow creases in concern.
"A little," I admit.
"Here." Nicholas shrugs out of his own coat and walks to me, handing it to me with a slight smile playing on his lips.
Grateful, I take it form him, slipping it over my own. It's warm and smells like him; a comforting mix of peppermint and sunshine and something that's just Nicholas. And then I scold myself, giving myself a mental slap on the head.
Why do you even know what he smells like? I ask myself. It's Nicholas, it's not like you've been looking out for it.
But even though I tell myself not to react to it, I can't help it. I melt into its warmth, its safety and tranquillity with a wildly beating heart. It's then that I notice that he hasn't moved away, and that he's only a few agonizing inches from me.
His eyes are pale and gentle. It feels as if I'm falling, falling forever into them. There's no time for the confusion I'm feeling, and I push away the small part of my brain that screams that it's Nicholas and I should step away before something happens.
Maybe I don't want to step away, which is of course is completely mad.
"I'm sorry," he breathes.
"For what?" I whisper back.
Almost subconsciously, his arms wrap themselves around my waist, pulling me closer. I don't protest; almost welcome the coldness his embrace brings. His breath ghosts over my face.
His eyes are sad. "For everything, really."
"I'm sorry, too," I hear myself saying, and realise that I have been for a long time.
I wind my arms around his neck. My heart is racing so fast he must be able to see it. He starts to lean in slowly, giving me time to pull away if I want to.
This is crazy, I think quietly as I lean in too.
I want him to kiss me, to feel his lips on mine, even if it's only for a second. It's crazy, it's mad.
I can't believe this has never crossed my mind before.
He comes closer and some of his tousled brown hair tickles my forehead. Lips come closer, closer, so close, closer still until there's just a whisper of space between us. And the gap is closing even at that moment.
And then—
And then…
I fall backward, the weight supporting me suddenly gone. Mud and cold concrete greet my face instead of the lips I was so longing for. Behind my fallen form, I hear a gate swing open and muted muttering and a quiet complaining accompany a pair of feet.
"Oh, my God, Lucy!" Exclaims the familiar voice of my best friend.
There's a thump as Solange drops something like a suitcase or a bag, and the pounding of her feet becomes louder as she runs over to me. She crouches down beside me and I look up to her, smiling apologetically.
"Sorry about this," I say, trying to shrug.
"What did Nicholas do this time?" Her choppy black fringe falls in her eyes as she spears a look over my shoulder, presumably where Nicholas is standing. "What did you do?"
"N-Nothing."
Solange offers a hand to help me up and I take it, pulling myself up and spinning to stare my own set of daggers at Nicholas. He avoids my gaze quite successfully, rubbing the back of his neck in an awkward way that really doesn't help our situation at all.
"I just fell, is all. Nothing really," I offer.
Solange looks at me, suspicion burning in her eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Yep."
The rest of the brothers pile into the yard then like ants or cockroaches on a mission. They're all carrying cases on their shoulders like they weigh nothing at all. Sometimes not having vampire super strength can really leave a girl feeling like the odd one out.
"What's been happening?" Drawls Quinn, setting down his load and coming to join his brothers in the tight circle they've made around me like I'm some injured bird that needs rescuing.
"Nothing. Can we look at the house now?" I ask impatiently, not really wanting the topic to swing around and hit me in the face again.
Marcus looks between Nicholas and I as we all shuffle of to the front door of the house. A bead of sweat instantly forms on my brow. Marcus has always been the most observant of the entire clan, noticing things that most people generally overlooked. Normally, it was useful, especially when you'd lost your keys or phone and was in a hurry, not useful when you were trying to hide something.
Sebastian digs around in his pocket, producing a shiny little key that fit the lock of the particularly ugly eye sore of a house. It barely stands upright on its own, paint peeling and damp growing in a dark patch around the door.
As I said, home sweet home.
Sebastian jiggles the key in the lock and the door creaks open to reveal a yawning dark abyss of nothing.
I'm the first to step inside.