So this chapter is almost 3,000 words! Easily the longest chapter I've written for this so far. I hope you all enjoy it and be sure to let me know what you think (good or bad) in the reviews!

Chapter 7

Sera wasn't in school on Monday. She wasn't in school on Tuesday. When she didn't answer his texts Gregory called her on Wednesday but she didn't answer. When he called Renee on Thursday she said Sera hadn't been feeling well. On Friday he snuck over and found no one home. He pulled out his spare key and let himself into the loft. It looked normal enough, nothing out of place – except Sera was nowhere to be found. As he looked around he saw Sera's bedside drawer was open a crack. He didn't know what compelled him to look inside but when he pulled out a carved stone his hand almost began to shake. The engraved symbol was the same one Bree had been drawing weeks ago. Why did Sera have a stone with the same marks? Then he heard a car pull up to the house and when he looked out the window he saw Sera getting out of an old jeep with another boy. He had black shaggy hair he kept pushing out of his face and was smiling at her. They seemed to be having a good time. Why was she avoiding him and hanging out with another guy behind his back? He looked down at the stone in his hand, it seemed she was keeping a lot from him.

SERA P.O.V.

Sera and James had spent the past week with the wolf pack planning and practicing. Within that week their alliance had grown stronger as one by one they realized they all shared an enemy. The Brotherhood didn't just hunt vampires but all supernatural creatures they believed posed a threat to the perfect world they were trying to maintain. Sera found she wasn't as nervous, as on edge as she had been before and she had her brother to thank for that. James knew how to cheer her up in a way only a sibling could and she was so grateful to him for it. But when she opened the loft door and saw Gregory leaning against the bedroom doorframe, his arms crossed and a sour look on his face she knew her lying had finally caught up with her.

She'd been so focused on planning for the arrival of the Brotherhood she'd neglected to come up with a reason for why she hadn't been in school and not answering his calls. Hell she hadn't even had her phone on her at all that week! Luckily, James stepped around her and into the room, doing his best to diffuse the tension.

"Hey, you're Gregory right?" he asked crossing the room and holding his hand out, "I'm James."

Gregory unfolded his arms and shook Jay's hand warily.

"I've heard a lot about you." Her brother continued.

"Wish I could say the same. Sera hasn't said a word about you." He said stiffly turning to her with accusation in his eyes. Her own gaze fell to the floor as her stomach turned in knots. Jay didn't take the bait though and kept his calm composure.

"Well I only got to town Sunday." He shrugged putting his hands in his pockets, "And we've been doing a lot of sibling bonding since then."

That threw Gregory for a loop and he turned back to James with confusion. "I didn't know Sera had any siblings." He stuttered in shock from the sudden change in conversation.

"Well technically, I'm only her half-brother." Jay said taking a seat on the couch and putting his feet up.

"Half -?"

"Rookery was his father too." Sera said finally getting the courage to look back at Gregory. "Jay can you give us a minute?" Sera asked as she walked over to Gregory, grabbed his hand and pulled him into the bedroom. She closed the French doors behind her so they could have some privacy. She took a deep breath preparing her explanation, if all she had to do was talk about her extended family then she'd gotten off pretty lucky. When she turned to Gregory he was leaning against her desk with his arms crossed and had an empty look in his eyes. She'd known him long enough to know that he'd slipped under his usual mask when he didn't want to show any emotion. It wasn't a good sign, she knew he'd feel betrayed and lied to, he'd be hurt and angry and she struggled to find where she could begin – luckily Gregory started before she did.

"I didn't know you had a brother." He said and she gave an exasperated sigh as she plopped onto the bed.

"I didn't know how you would take it." She said before she gave an empty chuckle, "I didn't take it well, at first."

"When did you find out James was your half brother?" he asked sitting beside her his icy stare softening.

"Shortly after my mother died." She took a deep breath, "My father thought it would be good for me." She paused collecting her thoughts, "I remember how much I hated them, James for existing, his mother Tanya for being the other woman, and my father for abandoning my mother and replacing her like she was nothing. Even though he'd met Tanya first, gotten her pregnant first, I was still mad about all of it."

"What changed that?"

"They apologized." She shrugged, "They were sorry for everything I'd been put through, my mother's death, being pulled away from my aunt. I could tell they were genuinely concerned for me, they knew my father wasn't a good man. Tanya had been played the same way my mom had."

They were both quiet for a long time after Sera's explanation, finally Gregory couldn't take the silence any longer.

"In the village where I grew up, men who abandoned their wife and children were shunned. The other men would run them out of town and never allowed them back." Sera turned to him with fascination, he never talked much about his old life.

"They'd house the abandoned women and children in a house together where they could help each other. I remember the people in church would pray for them, give them food, offer them work so they could afford things for their children. I remember how happy they looked when I was walking Anna and Rudolph home from school and I gave them an apple from Anna's basket. It was just an apple but you could tell it meant the world to them, just knowing other people cared."

"I thought bastard children back then were shunned?"

"In most places, but our village understood that the children weren't to blame for circumstances they couldn't control. They believed children were precious. They became more precious once the plague hit." Sera noticed the far away look in Gregory's eyes and realized his mind had pulled him back into his memory of his old home.

vVv vVv vVv

"I remember mother and father not letting us go into a blocked off part of the village because it was where they were taking the sick. They couldn't treat them, they only put them there while they waited to die."

Walking down the old dirt path Gregory turned when he heard a woman sobbing. In front of one of the houses a woman was on her knees next to a person lying in the dirt. She kept crying harder as two men pulled a white sheet over the person and carried the body into the quarantined part of town. Anna had turned and was trying to get a better look when Gregory roughly grabbed her shoulder and practically dragged her back home. A small voice in his head told him he couldn't keep her safe, not even in their house. This disease wouldn't be stopped by shut windows and locked doors, if it found it's way to you, you died, it was that simple.

"That's what led the vampire to our village. The easiest way for their kind to feed without being noticed is to go wherever there is death, and our village reeked of it"

One night after super Gregory heard a pair passing the house, they were talking about one of the children from the house for the abandoned, the boy had fallen ill and they'd taken him from his mother's arms to be quarantined. It was one of those nights where Gregory's rebellious nature had taken over and he decided to sneak in to see the boy. He didn't know why, the only contact they'd had was when Gregory gave him an apple, but something inside him said that if the boy knew there was someone who cared his face would light up with that same bright smile and he'd find the strength to pull through, find the strength to live.

Gregory wove his way through the shadows until he came to where they were keeping the sick. He was blown away by the stench of the place and used his sleeve to cover his nose. He peered through an old grimy window and couldn't believe how many people were inside. They were all lying on old tattered blankets, some were coughing, some were tossing in their sleep and some already had white sheets pulled over them. Before Gregory could find the boy he was pulled back by his collar and felt something sharp pierce his neck.

"It felt like pure agony, I couldn't even scream because it hurt so much."

Then his attacker was pulled off of him and he fell to the ground.

"You idiot!" the second man scolded in a harsh whisper, "Can you not smell it? Not taste it? His blood is clean!"

"I'm tired of feeding on the dead and dying! They taste like horse dung!"

The second man looked Gregory over as blood flowed from the wound in his neck and shook his head, "He's the aristocrats boy. We have to return him, if he disappears or is found dead with a wound to the neck there'll be a hunt for us."

"There'll be a hunt anyway if he turns."

"But while they're dealing with him we can flee."

"I remember one of them carrying me through the air. It was hard to think through the pain. When mother saw me in a heap on the front steps she thought I'd caught the plague. Father was the first to notice the bite. Back then people believed the stories about vampires, I remember hearing their muddled voices debating what they should do. They finally decided to lock me in the basement and hope for the best. Sometimes I wished they had just staked me themselves."

"Frederich, he's our son! We can't just sit back while they kill him." Freda begged.

"Believe me my love, sending our son to his death is the last thing I want but what other choice is there? When he wakes he'll need blood. Someone else will either die or turn as well. It will start a chain of events worse than the plague we're fighting now! And we have two other children to worry about as well."

Freda opened her mouth to protest but Gregory's body heaved as he coughed and fell back into unconsciousness. Freda hurried to her eldest's side and gently rubbed his back trying to both comfort him and let him know he was not alone. Frederich couldn't stand to see the great sadness in his wife's eyes and he gave a heavy sigh.

"We'll lock him in the cellar. No daylight can reach him there and he'll be safe until we can figure out what to do."

"When you first wake your mind hasn't fully turned. Everything you do is based purely on instinct, you have no conscious thought until later. You're like an animal – a very hungry animal."

He heard tiny footsteps creaking against the floorboards above him. He lifted himself off the dirt floor of the cellar and made his way to the door. There was a heavy metal lock that he crushed with one bare hand as he proceeded into the hall. The house was dark, the only light came from a few embers still hot in the fireplace. In the kitchen was a small figure digging through the cabinets for a midnight snack, they didn't hear the predator's silent footsteps as they approached. There was a faint snarl and they turned from their search as the vampire's hand grabbed their throat and sank his fangs into the tender flesh of their neck.

"Who was first?"

…

…

…

"Rudolph."

He dropped his brother's body to the floor, his pulse still faint, trying to pump the remaining drops of blood through his veins.

"There must have been some part of me that held onto restraint. That knew to keep some blood left in him and not drain him dry. That's the difference between turning and death. . . but Rudolph was only nine and still small, his blood wasn't enough to sate the beast that had been born inside me that night."

"Rudolph?" came a small voice from the hallway and the vampire turned to the sound, his brother's blood still warm and dripping from his chin, his red eyes now locked on his next meal.

"I remember how Anna's eyes widened in fear when she saw me standing over Rudolph's body. How she clutched her straw stuffed doll and tried to run. But running only made the animal more eager as her heart rate increased and her blood pumped faster."

The small girl let out a tiny shriek before her airway was cut off by her brother's sharp teeth. The tiny sound echoed through the house and woke her parents. Freda and Frederich knew something must have happened with Gregory.

"Wait here darling." Frederich told his wife as he went to investigate. He took the lantern from their bedside, lit it and made his way into the hall. He found the crumpled figure of sweet Anna at the top of the stairs, pale as the moon except for the blood that was drying on her neck, her tiny hands still clutching her doll. He put the lantern beside her and rested his hand against his chin, after a moment he slowly stood.

"I know your still there Gregory." He said as the vampire stepped out of the shadows behind him.

"When I attacked him he tried to fend me off. But even a grown man is no match for a vampire."

Freda sat on the edge of the bed as the bedroom door creaked open. The shadowy figure was too small to be her husband but to tall to be Anna or Rudolph. Out of all of them his mother was the strongest when facing the monster her son had become. She sat on the edge of the bed and never took her eyes off him. She didn't fight like Frederich, she didn't try to scream like Anna, instead she talked to him, just talked.

"I know this isn't you Gregory." She said as the vampire stalked toward her, eager for more blood. "I hope you can hear me from whatever dark crevice your mind is stuck in right now." She spoke calmly as her son came just a few steps from her side, "When you come out of this bloodlust I want you to remember, we're your family, and we forgive you." Then he lunged for her throat.

vVv vVv vVv

"My family were luckier than I was. When they woke the sun had already risen and we were all trapped inside. They had moved to the basement while I stayed in the attic. It wasn't because they didn't want me there, it was because I couldn't look at them, I couldn't bear to see what I'd forced them to become. After we hadn't been heard from the entire day my Uncle Von came looking for us, he was worried we might have caught the illness and he wanted to check on us. When he entered our home my family pounced on him, having sated their hunger they could now think clearly. They decided to chain him up so he wouldn't go on a rampage through the village that night. When the sun had set they took him to the nearest barn so he could feed on a cow."

"That's how your family started existing without killing people?"

Gregory nodded, "But it wasn't long after that our absence from society had been noted and the other townsfolk feared we were suffering the plague outside of the quarantined. We had to leave our home or die." He turned to Sera, "That's when our family's path crossed with yours. Rumors of what had happened spread and soon we had a vampire hunter trailing us."

"I hate that my family caused yours so much trouble."

He shrugged, "It wasn't all bad. In the end, I got to know you."