Attack

A few days passed without me seeing Lucas; he spent his time locked up in his room, refusing to even see me or Isaac. I knew the reason behind his strange behaviour; the ring was still placed on my finger, although I'd tried to talk to Isaac about it. Although I'd never liked Lucas, I didn't want to be the one upsetting him.

Isaac, though, seemed to pretend that he didn't notice his brother's absence. Everytime I tried to talk him into going up to Lucas' room, he started talking about something else – a distraction that never failed.

It was not until a whole week had passed that I caught a glimpse of Lucas. He was on his way down to the room where I knew the blood was stored, and so I decided to take my chance to talk to him.

"I'll be right back," I mumbled to Isaac who was sitting beside me on the couch in one of the many rooms, before I hurried out to the hallway where I'd seen Lucas.

I could feel Isaac's curious eyes bore into my back as I walked out of the room, but he didn't raise his voice to ask me where I was going.

Just as I'd expected, Lucas soon showed up with a plastic bag in his hand, and I moved to stand in front of the stairs, blocking his escape.

"Look, I know you probably hate me right now, but it's not fair. If someone should be mad, then it should be me. After all you've done…"

He started walking before I was finished, but I kept my feet planted to the floor – refusing to let him past me.

"I can take it off if it bothers you that much," I said while I started pulling the ring off my finger.

He stopped me by leaning closer so that his face was only two inches away from mine, and his breath blew over my face as he nearly shouted out his words.

"It's not the ring. It's you."

With that, he pushed me slightly aside and flew up the stairs, leaving me standing in the hallway.

"Are you sure you want to go?" Isaac asked for the thousand of times.

I sighed quietly. For over half an hour I'd tried to convince him to let me go to town alone. I knew he was right to be so protective, though I'd never admit that to him.

"Yes, I'm sure," I assured him.

"I still think it's better if I come with you, Jessica. Don't you remember what happened last time?"

"I'll keep a safe distance. Besides, no one will be out now."

"Jessica…" he started, but I interrupted him.

"I have to go alone."

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because…"

I couldn't tell him that the actual reason why I wanted to go was because I wanted him to have a ring, too. Receiving gifts without giving any back was not something I liked.

"It's a secret," I finished.

He raised his eyebrow at me and gave me a doubting look.

"Please," I begged. "I won't take long."

"It's not that I'm concerned about," he sighed. "I'm worried about you. What if Zac shows up again?"

I winced at the memory of my last meeting with my ex-boyfriend, but kept my face smooth.

"It's important for me, Isaac."

He sighed again. "Please make sure that you're safe."

"Safe?" I asked while hiding the smugness I felt inside for winning the argument.

"We don't know if there are any other vampires in town now. If you think about how the one Lucas caught reacted, then I think you can understand why I'm worried."

"Right."

He smiled at me; a tiny movement with his lips. I leaned towards him to give him a quick kiss, but he caught a grip on me and pulled me closer. Like the last time he'd done that, my breathing was ragged when he let go of me.

I walked down the porch steps with hesitant steps, while I felt Isaac's eyes bore into my back. I continued walking, hoping that he wouldn't regret the decision to let me go.

"Jessica," he called after me just when I'd walked a few meters away from the house.

I turned around with a begging expression on my face, but he surprised me by holding up a key and a pair of dark sunglasses, which he then threw at me so quickly that they blistered through the air towards me. My hand instinctively flew up and caught the items before they passed by me.

"What's the key for?" I asked, my voice in normal volume – I knew he could hear me.

"The car," he said with a smile on his lips.

"Oh."

After putting on the sunglasses, I turned to the left and walked over to where the glossy, black Mercedes was parked. I unlocked the door to the driver's seat and got inside hesitantly. Not only had I never used this car; I didn't even have a driver's license. But the idea of sitting inside the safety of a car instead of walking around and risking to run into someone was comforting, so I kept silent.

My mum had learned me enough about driving when I'd just turned sixteen to make me feel at least a bit confident as I started the engine and turned the car around slowly, making sure not to hit anything. With a last glance at Isaac – who was still standing in the doorway, watching me with amused eyes – I drove away from the house.

I kept a low speed as I drove through the town, although it wasn't exactly necessary; only one other car passed by me. Still, I was exaggeratedly cautious as I drove around – searching for the only jewelry shop I knew existed in town. As I finally parked the car just outside the shop, I felt strangely exhausted and a tiny voice in my head screamed to stay inside the car.

I pulled in a deep breath before I hesitantly got out of the car after glancing around – making sure that no humans were too close. Of course the streets were deserted; the police's order was still as strict as before. I hurried to the door to the shop, and opened it quickly. Only one person was there inside – the shop-keeper, who was a gray-haired male. I nodded at him and went to stand in front of the disk, where almost 30 rings were layered in rows.

"Looking for anything in particular?" the man asked politely.

"Not really," I mumbled.

I could feel his eyes on me as I examined the many rings, and the irritation started spreading inside of me. I kept my lips sealed, though, and continued to watch the jewelry. None of them could even be compared to the ring I wore on my finger, but I'd known that before I'd entered the shop. My ring was an antique, something special.

"That's a beautiful ring you've got there," the man said as politely as before.

I looked up from my hand to give him a smile.

"Thank you."

He smiled back at me, which made him look twenty years younger than he had to be.

"I recognize it, though. Where did you get it?"

I hesitated before I answered. "My boyfriend gave it to me."

"Where did he get it from then?"

I wasn't sure what to answer, so I just glanced away from him to try to find a distraction.

"Oh, I'm sorry if I'm asking too much," he apologized as he noticed how uncomfortable I looked. "It's just that I could have sworn that I've had exactly that ring in my shop before."

"Really?" I asked.

The curiosity was so strong in my voice that the man chuckled once before he spoke.

"Yes. It was almost 40 years ago, though."

I gaped at him, knowing exactly who had bought the ring in the first place. Still, I felt the need to ask him, to make sure that I was right.

"Do you remember who bought it then?"

"I'll never forget that ring," he said with a meaningful glance at my hand, where the jewelry glittered beautifully in dark blue and silver. "I believe it was a young man who bought it. He kind of looked like you; dark hair, pale skin. And very beautiful."

I glanced down at the rings, giving me an excuse to look away from him again. Although I was flattered, I was definitely embarrassed, too.

"Any of those rings look good?" the man asked, deciding to change the subject.

I studied them closely for a minute, ignoring his stare and the scent of his blood which reached to me from where he stood behind the disk.

There was one ring that caught my eye; a silver one with beautiful carvings in it, looking manlier than the other ones there.

"I'll take that one," I murmured, pointing at the ring with my finger.

"That's a nice one," he said approvingly.

I smiled brightly at him, forgetting that I'd feared to meet any humans. This man was more than just kindly; he was one of the friendliest persons I'd ever met before.

Although I'd never been very rich, I'd never been much of a spender, either. The ring wasn't extremely expensive, so it was easy to give him the amount of money he wanted.

"It was very nice meeting you," I said as a farewell, and turned around to walk out of the shop.

"Wait, wait," he called after me, making me skid to a halt and throw a glance over my shoulder at him.

"Can I please take a look at the ring?" he begged, his eyes turning slightly pleading.

"Uhm…sure," I mumbled and walked back to the disk where he stood.

I pulled the ring off my finger and handed it to him, forgetting about my changed features. As my cold skin touched his, he flinched back slightly.

"Sorry," I muttered.

He pretended not to bother about his own reaction, and started studying the ring carefully. After five minutes of waiting while he examined the ring, I glanced around me – taking in how his little shop was. Everything looked much darker when I had my sunglasses on, so – without thinking – I pulled them off.

"Your…eyes," he gasped.

My whole body stiffened as I realized what I'd done, and I quickly put the glasses back on – hiding my ice blue eyes. The man reached back the ring towards me then, obviously feeling uncomfortable by my strange behaviour. I opened my palm so that he could drop the ring there, preventing him from touching my skin again.

"Is it the ring you had here before?" I asked, my tone a bit too edgy to sound calm.

My distraction worked, though.

"It has to be. The handcraft, the jewelry…everything is exactly the same as the one I had."

"Oh," I said, trying to sound more shocked than I was.

He didn't say anything else, so I glanced out the window as I tried to avoid thinking about how awkward the silence was turning. The sun had almost set now, which surprised me. Had the time really gone that quick?

"I better get going," I said quickly.

The man blinked once as he heard my new tone, but nodded and smiled politely at me.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, young lady. Not many people dare to go out at the moment."

I smiled back at him, not sure what to say. I turned around and walked as normally as I could out the door, feeling the need to sprint home to Isaac again. I hadn't been away from him for weeks, and the separation made my heart ache with longing.

"Make sure you get home safe," the man called after me, before the door closed behind me.

I glanced around before I hurried to the car again and opened the door to it quickly. Just as I'd put on the seatbelt and was about to start the engine, something blurred by me so quickly that I wasn't sure if I'd just imagined it. An involuntary shiver trembled down my spine, and I started the car hastily and drove away in a higher speed than before.

I walked quickly up the stairs, feeling slightly paranoid. It felt like someone was hiding in every shadow, behind every tree that surrounded me. I shook my head to get rid of those thoughts, and hurried my steps.

I was just about to open the door, when it suddenly flung open so that it almost hit me in the face. Isaac was standing in the doorway with a bewildered expression on his face.

"Wh—" I started, but I was cut off when Isaac nearly jumped at me and pulled me in for an unexpected hug.

"Thank God," he mumbled to himself.

"Uhm…hi to you, too," I replied in a breathless voice.

He held me close to him for a long moment of silence, before he leaned back slightly to look at me. His eyes were unfairly strict as he gazed at me, and my lower lip pouted out in a frown.

"Where have you been?" he asked, his tone matching the rest of his features.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a secret anymore," I replied in a much calmer tone than his.

"I don't care. You have no idea how worried I've been," he growled, sounding utterly dangerous.

"What's with you?" I asked.

He pulled in a deep breath and closed his eyes before he spoke.

"Someone else is out there. A vampire."

"What?"

"It must be the brother to the vampire Lucas killed. He's obviously seeking for revenge…"

"Seeking for revenge?" I interrupted in a shocked tone.

Isaac nodded. "You'll see what I mean."

He grabbed my arm a little tighter than he usually did, and led me into the house and right to the living room, where he skidded to a halt. His eyes were fixed at something in the corner of the room, and so I followed his gaze.

Lucas sat half-hidden by the shadow of the walls, his hand clutched tightly on his shoulder. His expression was beyond furious; his lip was pulled back over his teeth and his eyes were filled with a shockingly strong loathing as he glared at me.

"Wh-what happened to you?" I stuttered, shocked by his fierce expression.

He got to his feet slowly, keeping his hand on his shoulder as he did. When he was finally standing, he stalked over to where I and Isaac stood.

"Where the hell have you been?" he roared.

I gave Isaac a confused glance, but he wasn't looking at me – his eyes were still fixed on Lucas.

"Why are you both acting like this? I was just in town."

"Well, maybe that wasn't the brightest idea when we have another vampire there," Lucas spitted out through his teeth.

I stared at him with a perplexed expression on my face.

"Are you sure there's someone else?" I asked after a long moment of tense silence.

Lucas pulled away his hand from his shoulder before I'd finished my sentence. His whole arm pointed out strangely, as if the bone had jumped out of its socket.

"Yes, I'm sure," he said in the same fierce tone as before.

"A vampire did this to you?" I gasped.

He only looked at me with furious eyes.

"But how?" I asked.

It was Isaac who answered me.

"Vampires can only get hurt by other vampires. No human has the strength to hurt us."

"But how?" I asked again, too shocked to come up with anything else.

"I got worried when you took so long, and so I asked Lucas to come with me to look for you. We were just a mile outside town when someone attacked us…"

"Attacked?" I gasped.

My eyes ran over Isaac's body, making sure that no part of him was hurt.

"I'm fine," he murmured to me when he saw what I was doing. "The vampire left quickly, and since Lucas was hurt I couldn't run after him."

I shuddered at the thought of Isaac hunting the other vampire, but he didn't seem to notice my reaction to his words. I glanced back at Lucas, who was still glaring at me.

"We can fix your arm, right?" I asked, trying to ignore his murderous expression.

"Of course we can," Isaac answered, although the question had been for Lucas. "If he would let us."

I raised my eyebrows as I heard this, but lowered them quickly again as I saw how it seemed to upset Lucas even more.

"I told you I can do it myself," Lucas muttered to Isaac.

"Then do it now," Isaac replied in a more or less bored voice, as if he'd repeated the words many times.

Lucas' eyes didn't leave my face as he gripped his shoulder again, and with a horrifying crack re-jointed his arm. As he removed his hand a second later, his arm looked perfectly normal again.

"How did you…how did you do that?" I stuttered.

His eyes narrowed before he spun around and marched out of the room. I sighed quietly as I stared after him, feeling quite relieved to be freed from his angry glare.

"Jessica?" Isaac asked, his tone almost back to normal.

I turned my gaze to him, and smiled a little as I saw how the anger had drained from his face.

"I didn't mean to overreact," he apologized. "I was just so…worried. I couldn't even imagine the possibility that you'd been hurt…"

His expression turned pained, so I laid my arms around him and leaned my head against his chest.

"It's okay," I mumbled.

He put his arms around me, too, and we stood like that for a little while.

"Will you tell me where you were now?" Isaac suddenly asked, leaning back slightly to look at me.

"Oh, right," I said. I'd all but forgotten about my visit to town.

I kept one arm around him while the other one pulled up the ring I'd bought from my pocket.

"Jessica, you shouldn't have…"

I interrupted him quickly. "You gave me one, so now I'm giving you one."

He sighed, but it was more a sound of happiness than of irritation. I grabbed his hand from my back and placed the silver ring on his finger before he could object.

"It's yours now. Forever," I said, repeating his words.

He flashed a smile at me, which I returned. Lucas' anger didn't matter to me at all as I watched Isaac's marvellous face. But just as the thought of Lucas came up in my head, I remembered my talk with the friendly man.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

Isaac's smile vanished as he heard my new tone, and his arm – which still lay around my back – tightened slightly.

"What?" he asked hesitantly.

"I went to the jewelry shop in town. The shop-keeper seemed to recognize this ring," – I held up my hand to show the beautiful ring as I spoke – "and he wanted to examine it. Turns out that it belonged to him 40 years ago."

Isaac's eyebrows furrowed together over his eyes as he heard this, which confused me slightly. I'd already jumped to the conclusion that he'd known where Lucas had gotten it from.

"I didn't know you'd been in this town before," I said slowly, still confused by his reaction.

"I haven't," Isaac said defensibly, as if I'd accused him for anything.

"Well, I have," a voice interrupted from across the room.

I turned to see Lucas standing in the doorway to the room, looking perfectly at ease. His mood swings were much too confusing to me.

"What?" Isaac asked, sounding more upset now. "You've never told me that."

Lucas took a small step into the room, but kept his distance from me and Isaac.

"I can explain it."

Wow, this is actually the longest chapter I've ever written :D

Anyways, you guys are really great but I would really appreciate more reviews for this chapter ;)

And I know the end sucked, but my inspiration sort of faded there x)