Hey, sorry I haven't updated for a while .. School is killin' me :/ . Before we start, I'd like you guys to know that I probably won't be able to update until my next break from school. I believe that is in either 2 or 3 weeks? Not too sure though. Again, sorry for the late update. Enjoy !
Chapter 10:
The Test ~ Nick's P.O.V.
I rolled over, pressing my face deeper into Rose's hair and groaned when I realized the incessant knocking wouldn't stop. I reluctantly got out of bed, flinging the door open with a growl.
"What?" I barked at the surprised Ry, "Oh, it's you," I scowled, looking at the clock on the wall; it was 6 in the morning.
"You used to get up much earlier than this. Is it because of Rose that you now feel the need to spend all day in bed?" he asked amused.
"Why'd you come here?" I asked, stepping out of the room so we wouldn't wake Rose.
"Oh, I found Quinn," my eyes snapped to him and I urged him to continue, "He's about twenty miles off from here. He lives in a secluded place in the woods. His house is pretty big though. When I was there though, he wasn't. Didn't look like he'd been there in five years or so," Ry shrugged his shoulders and looked at me expectantly, "Now will you tell me what's going on?" he asked impatiently. I paced the long hall, unknowingly at vampire speed.
"5 years," I murmured to myself, "Has he lived anywhere else since then?"
"Not to my knowledge," Ry looked thoughtful and shook his head, "No, I'm sure he didn't move anywhere."
"Then where can he be? He can't just live on the streets and not be noticed, right?"
"Didn't you say that he could change his appearance and aura? What if he's right in front of us and we have no idea?" I looked up startled at Rose standing in the doorway.
"I think she's right, Nick. What if he's been right in front of us this whole time? He may even already know that we're looking for him," Ry stated looking at the two of us.
"If that's the case, then I think we should have everyone in this house checked. Make everyone pass a test of sorts?" I suggested and cast a quick look around us to make sure no one was listening in on us.
"Everyone?" Ry raised an eyebrow, "That could take forever. Also, if others know that they're being tested, the real guy may just end up fleeing during the whole thing." I scowled at Ry, but knew he was right.
"What if we did it one at a time and made them swear not to tell anyone. If they do, we'll assume they're working for Quinn and have them killed," Rose jumped in.
"Maybe, we could have Rose, Nick, Cal, and me doing it? Maybe we could also have Catherine help us?" I nodded at the idea, but grimaced at the thought of getting Rose involved. I voiced my opinion of Rose being in on it and was cut off by said person.
"I'm already in this, Nick. Besides, wasn't the reason you wanted me here in the first place to help figure all this shit out?" She stated smugly.
"I think it would be good if Rose asked the servants questions. They'll just think she's curious. We could tell her what to ask and let her ask the least threatening servants, you know?" Ry looked at me for approval and I grudgingly agreed.
"The least threatening?" Rose scoffed, "Please, remember when I sparred nearly every trained vampire with you? Including yourself and beat all of you. I can take care of myself." Ry rolled his eyes, but agreed that she did indeed kick everyone's asses. Okay, so he didn't say that exactly... I glanced at the clock again and realized we had been talking for two and a half hours.
"Let's finish talking at breakfast. We'll tell Cal what we think," I told them.
"I know this sounds bad, but how can we trust each other?" Rose asked abruptly. That got all of us to freeze because she was right. How would we know if we could trust each other? What if we just gave this information to the enemy? I glanced at Ry and then at Rose.
"Should we start the test now?" I asked quietly, looking at both of them steadily.
"But how do I know that you guys are the same people from the beginning!" Rose cried out frantically, her eyes moving between us quickly.
"Ry and I will test each other. We've known each other for a long time now. Vampires have impeccable memory so we'll ask something that happened a long time ago," I suggested.
"I don't know about this, but okay," Rose agreed hesitantly, "Are you going to ask something now?" I nodded and thought of something that could confirm her identity. I know it was bad that we couldn't automatically trust each other, but we had to take precautions. I winced at what I was going to ask Rose, but reluctantly voiced my question.
"What happened to your mother?" I recalled her telling me her story perfectly and knew that this was probably the only way to find out if she's who she claims to be. In all honesty, I believe this is Rose, but Rose's suggestion to test each other made a very valid point. I watched her flinch at the question.
"Does Ry have to be here?" she asked, glancing at Ry," No offense," she added quickly.
"Rose, I think we should have him here. I don't want us to leave each other's sight for this." She nodded and continued to tell her story to a shocked Ry and me.
Once she finished, I nodded and smiled, knowing that this was my Rose.
"Ah, who's next?" Rose asked, effectively changing the subject of her tragic story. Ry finally composed himself and looked at me.
"Nick," he paused, "tell me all about the first pet you had. How old you were, what type of pet, how it died, it's name, all of that," Rose looked at me incredulously.
"You had a pet?" she gaped at me, shocked and I nodded, grinning.
"Alright, my first pet. I was five years old in human years and sixty-five in vampire years. He was a pet duck named Alfredo. Uhm, he was white-ish grey-ish and fat with a bit of purple on the chest..." I trailed off, watching the amused Rose.
"A pet duck, hm?" she cocked a brow at me, stifling her laughter.
"You passed," Ry said, equally amused.
"Your turn. When you were sixteen in human years and three-hundred-and-sixty-nine years old, it was on June 26th, what were you doing that caused me to take a photo to show to Cal?" Ry groaned, glaring at me dangerously.
"I refuse to answer that," he declared, still glaring murderously at me.
"You have to answer, or else we'll assume that you're not who you say you are," I smirked at him. It was clear that he already passed the test just with his reaction, but still what's life without a little torture?
"I'll tell you after Rose is gone. She already passed the test so it doesn't matter," he reasoned desperately.
"No," Rose said, "I wanna know," she whined playfully.
"You heard the lady," I said, encircling Rose's waist and resting my chin on her head.
"You caught me jerking off with a stuffed elephant in front of me and moaning out his name, Sir Peanuts. Along with that, I was wearing a tutu and coconut bra and for some reason, there was a dead cat on the floor to my right.
"When you came in, I didn't notice you and continued doing... What I was doing and when I came, I was, by then screaming Sir Peanuts with all my might. Once I noticed someone was in the room with me, I tried to jump out the window, but my tutu got stuck on the ledge. I didn't know it was you and thought you were someone trying to kill me. So, I called to Sir Peanuts to rescue me," he muttered the ending and by then, Rose was on the floor laughing hysterically, tears streaming down her face. I, myself, let out some chuckles remembering the incident with perfect clarity.
"You passed," I declared with a giant smirk on my face. He scowled at me and glared down at Rose who was still trying to catch her breath.
"What? Like you've never masturbated in a tutu with an elephant before?" Ry accused Rose pathetically, but cracked a small smile when she started laughing harder.
"Let's go," I picked up the still giggling Rose and headed down to the dining room. Before going down, I kicked lightly at Cal's door, hoping he would come out and join us so we could discuss the issue at hand.
We all sat down at the table and Cal was looking at Rose curiously, seeing as how she had yet to calm down. Every time her eyes landed on Ry, she burst out into uncontrollable fits of laughter.
"Are any of you gonna tell me what's so funny?" Cal sighed, becoming annoyed with the constant giggling courtesy of Rose. Without a second thought, I flashed up into my room and came back, holding four different photos, all of which had Ry starring in them. Cal's eyes widened comically, remembering the day I first showed them to him and soon joined Rose.
"Will you all shut up!" Ry snapped at us, half-heartedly. Even he found it to be somewhat amusing.
After fifteen minutes, we all sobered up and got down to business. We relayed to Cal what we were thinking and proceeded to tell him that we were planning on testing him as well, right now. He nodded, but gulped nervously, remembering what I had made Ry tell us.
"You're not gonna make me answer something like that are you?" he glanced at me nervously and smiled weakly, "We're brothers, right? You wouldn't do something like that to me would you?" I rolled my eyes at him and looked at Ry.
"Would you like to do the honors?" Ry nodded eagerly, while Cal slumped in his seat and groaned. Rose sat up straight immediately, leaning towards the two to hear what Ry asked and what Cal answered.
Cal passed the test with flying colors. When Ry had asked Cal his question, he was dismayed to find that Cal was eager to share the answer. Rose was most likely scarred for the rest of her life and I had growled threateningly at him when he decided to pull down his pants and show us some more proof. The flaw with Quinn's gift was that he could only transform into someone that he's seen. In addition, he can't replicate anything of the person he hasn't seen. For example, if there was a scar on someone's back and he never saw it, his form would take on that person's, but wouldn't have a scar on the back. Also, he didn't have access to our memories so we were safe there. Unfortunately, Quinn was very good at finding out information that he wanted. Thankfully, we were excellent at keeping our lives as private and secure as possible.
"Now what?" Rose murmured, climbing into my lap, "We'll have to keep track of each other, no? I hate the thought of not being able to trust each other."
"Well, then I guess we'll have to stay within touchin' distance," I grinned at the thought. Always touching Rose seemed like a good idea in my book, "We'll get to the bottom of this," I promised, nuzzling the side of her neck.
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