Nestor POV

"Aaahhh!"

Poor Albert. Every month he has to suffer the same pain. When he phases to wolf it's easier because he's pumped by adrenaline. The way back is the one that hurts. It was a good thing this cave-hole was hidden in the woods, otherwise his screams would alert someone of our presence.

I took a peek inside the cave, to see if he was completely back to human. There were times when I got him out too early and he bit me and tried to run. Yep, he was almost there, his head was always the last one to get back to normal.

"Come on, cry baby! I'm waiting for you." I loved to taunt him when he was changing back, he always answered with the funniest string of profanities, but it was when I knew he was back.

He growled. Nah, it will take more time.

Well, it gave me time to think. Anette told me that a new coven came to town; I was sure they would go away in a few days, because they always do, but Anette told me she had a hunch it would be different this time. It was funny, because Anette isn't the seer in the family, that's little Greta. Too bad that Greta needs to touch you to know your future, but I think her gift was awesome. The two women in our family were gifted, because Anette had a certain way to lure man towards her; if she wanted to drink from humans that would be golden, but she eats from animals like us. She never had killed a human, and she's the only one with a clean record.

Little Greta and my brother Adrian however... they proved to be great warriors when opportunity arose, but usually they are the quiet ones from the family. Albert is the social one and well, I think I'm the leader though this family tends to do whatever they want.

"You motherfucker! Stop wanking and give me a hand!" Albert was back to normal so I jumped inside the cave.

"I'm sure you want to cover up now, right? Before dear Anette comes and take a look at your cock...tail wiener." He took the clothes from my hands and dressed quickly. I helped him to clean the hole, because Jesus! Who would have thought that changing to a raging gigantic wolf would cause diarrhea.

"Miss Anette never had taken a look at my nether regions in more than two hundred years, thank you very much. It would be weird, she's like my mother." Albert scrunched his nose.

It took us two hours to leave the hole clean and ready for our next visit in twenty-eight days.

When we jumped out, Anette was waiting for us.

"Here, I brought you your favorite. Double cheese burger with an extra order of fries. I don't know how you could eat so much. Have you ever thought that if you were a human you would be dead by a heart attack by now."

"yummy! Don't get envious that I could eat whatever I want and never gain a pound." Albert said between bites.

"I'll never gain a pound either, sucker. So guess what did I find yesterday at night when I went to the hospital for more fentanyl"

We always doped Albert when he phased back, it hurt that much.

"I'm glad you went, because this was the last dose we had." I said to her.

She elbowed me. "It's important! Turns out that one of the new vampires is a doctor at the hospital."

Albert choked with his burger. "A vampire working in a clinic specialized in blood! That's rich!"

"It isn't like that. From what I heard, the nurses thinks so highly of him, they said he had shown great patience and kindness for the patients."

"Yeah, before he eats them." Albert laughed.

"Did you see him? Did he see you? Did you pick up his essence?" This could complicate things.

"It was faint, because he only had been there for a week. I told you this time would be different."

She was so hopeful, she always wished to meet more vampires who lived like us. So when Alistair came to check upon us not so long ago, he told us about a coven that shared some of our beliefs. They were sort of a family, living from animals and apparently they're mated; and they coexist with humans. But to become a doctor... this guy is tempting fate, if they were the ones Alistair told us.

I prefer to investigate first before Anette gets her hopes high.

"Where are the kids?" Albert asked. That's the way we call them when they're not around. They were changed before leaving their teen years, Greta at sixteen and Adrian at eighteen; so for us they are the kids, though in reality Greta is older than me.

"Hunting. I told him about the new vampires and to get ready to hide for a few days. But now that we know these vampires plan to stay around..." Anette said smiling.

We live in caves, and had done it for hundreds of years. The founder of our coven, Jerome, came to America in 1542 in an effort to distance himself from the depraved way Europeans vampires lived. He heard from another vampire that some of the native cultures were highly advanced, and his insatiable thirst of knowledge guided him here. He came to Mexico first, where he spent at least a hundred years until he met Anette inside an underground river. The poor Anette was terribly scared because the vampire who changed her was killed and he never had the chance to explain how it was to be a vampire, so she went back home and tried to eat her daughter. Horrified, she ran and she thought it was better to live hiding there. Jerome was shocked by the excellent condition Anette was, because she only hunted once in a month. She told him how she felt so thirsty sometimes that she drank water from the river. That's how he found the minerals from this river had certain properties. They let us feel satisfied with less blood for more time, they hide our essence, but the more important is that the water enhance our senses for a short time after we drink it.

Sadly, he knew what this knowledge could cause in the wrong hands. So he and Anette tried to hide the river from other vampires.

With time, humans destroyed the cave that led to the river and Jerome and Anette had to go underground and explore the vast extension of the river. It took them another hundred years more to find the perfect place to establish a home where they could investigate the river without the intrusion from humans or vampires. Which led to meeting Albert.

Albert fell on the cave by mistake, and he broke his legs. Without anyone helping him, his legs mended wrong so he couldn't walk. He was already cursed so it took too much time for Jerome to fix his legs. He was so grateful that he helped Jerome to investigate. For years they lived happily as a family, until Anette found another man dying from the attack of a vampire. He was already changing and he was alone; so her kind heart made her take him to the house where Jerome accepted him. Albert never trusted him. He was so right. Lets just say that, with time he proved to be a traitor and it took us the life of a couple of our family members including my dad, to get rid of him. His name was Francis and we never talk about him. Except when we remember Greta who brought her to our family when her first coven abandoned her.

He,he. The story of my family is curious. My father was a geologist who came around here by mistake. He met Jerome, who was used to be around humans by then. Jerome never let the humans get close, but he found in my father a kindred spirit, always thriving for knowledge. So Jerome changed him and offered him a place in his family. Dad accepted only if he could bring us. Mom didn't survive the transformation because she was so sick; but Adrian, my brother, and me didn't have a problem. Since then, we keep the existence of our family and the river hidden to the rest of the world; well, except the couple of friends we found. But it really take a lot for us to trust someone.

So I was worried about a coven moving near. It was our standard procedure to hunt and hide in our caves, but it only worked for a few days, if this coven would be around for more time, we needed to know their intentions. No matter what Alistair said, we had to check on them.

"Ok, we'll have to follow them. What else did you find?" I really didn't want Anette to get so excited.

"He's married, I guess it's his mate; and they have a lot of foster kids. So maybe one of us could go around school to check the kids." Anette's eyes were shinning.

"Right. Adrian and you can go tomorrow to the school. Albert, we need to find where they are living, and how many of them are around here. Listen Anette, if they are the ones Alistair mentioned, they won't have a problem with Albert. But..."She turned to look at me, "They are friends with a tribe of shape-shifters. I hope you understand what that mean."

"Not all the shape-shifter are bad." She said. Even Albert was glaring at her now.

"Ok, some of them aren't bad and don't hate us. And if we are their supposedly enemies, then how did they get to be their friends?" She looked at me, daring me to answer.

"Another reason to look at them before we try to get closer. At least we have the vantage of elusiveness. But Anette, if we find we can trust them, then we could be friends."

She was beaming at me. She was the sweetest member of our family and we always fought to protect her gentle heart.