This is a fairly long vampire based Hanson story that I first began writing in the summer of 2001. The vampire mythology used here (which I created years before ever reading Twilight) has nothing to do with the amazing and complex Universe created by Stephenie Meyer, I'm sad to say. Also I don't really believe Taylor Hanson chows down on the necks of fandom fans. Though if any of you disagree, and know how I might reach him to volunteer… Consider yourself disclaimed.

------

Chapter 14

At 4:31 a.m. Walker and Diana heard a soft knock on the door. They looked at each other, then Walker stood up and went to the door, looking out the peephole. He opened the door to reveal Taylor standing there. "I forgot my key." He said softly.

"Well, come on in." His father said and he stepped aside so his son could enter.

Taylor walked in slowly, looking at both his parents' faces. Diana stood and walked towards him. "You didn't even take your coat." She said.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Well, it wasn't that cold."

She was looking at him now, at his eyes and his hair and his lips. She put her hand to his face, "Well, your cheeks are awfully pink. Baby?" Her full question was silent.

He looked away from her.

"Taylor," his father spoke up, but then he didn't say anything. He just shook his head.

Taylor stepped away from his mother and sat down on the couch. He looked at the clock, it was almost sunrise and his body had already told him that. Both his parents joined him, "I'm sorry about everything earlier." His mother said, putting her hand over his. She furrowed her brow. "You're warm. Are you alright?" She asked, knowing her son's hands were always cold, even in summer.

"Yeah Mom, I'm fine." He said, but he was beginning to feel sleep coming on him. His eyesight was starting to go in and out of focus.

"Taylor," his father began again, "your brothers told us something so... unbelievable... that it just... well, it's insane."

"It's true." He said back bluntly.

Diana smiled and shook her head. "Taylor, if you don't know what happened, I can accept that, but please, don't lie to us."

"Mom, it's not a lie. Now, I am just like the people who did this to me, that killed me. And there's not a damned thing I or anyone else can do about it. I can't eat food anymore, and I can't go out in the sun." He said, leaning forward and putting his chin on his hand. It was the only way he could keep his head up.

Both his parents just stared at him with their mouths hanging open. "But... that's ridiculous." Walker stated. His tone turned more severe, "Jordan Taylor-"

Taylor's eyes were beginning to shut. It was all he could do to stay upright. "Yes, it is, Dad." He mumbled, cutting his father off, and then his head slipped off his hand and for a moment, he was jolted awake.

"Have you been drinking?" His mother asked seriously.

Taylor couldn't help the smile that crossed his face, "Uh, yeah Mom, but not what you think…" and then he just fell over onto the couch.

"I knew it." She said. She stood up and grabbed his arm, attempting to pull him up into a sitting position, but he was limp and heavy. "Taylor, wake up! We need to talk about this!" She said, "Walker, help me." Her efforts seemed to be in vain though, as her son flopped back down on the couch.

Taylor was slumped over on the couch and his father took his shoulders and sat him up. "Tay!" He said, patting his cheek, but Taylor remained motionless. "Di, is he alright?" He said, holding him there with his hand on his chest. She stepped back over and pushed his bangs out of his face.

"Taylor!" She said louder, and she smacked him harder than before, but still, he didn't respond.

Avery could hear her parents in the other room, "Jess!" She shook her sister. "Jess!" She said louder. "Get up! Tay's back!" She wanted to see what was going on, but she didn't want to go alone.

Jessica was hearing her, but it just hadn't registered yet. "What?" She asked sleepily.

"Tay's back." Avery repeated.

Now Jessica's eyes flew open, "He is?!" She said, and she threw off the covers and jumped out of the bed, "Come on!" she said, and both the girls ran out to join the reunion. As they entered the room, though, Jessica didn't see the happy scene she'd expected. It was more reminiscent of a similar one a few nights before. Avery sunk to the floor, thinking about what had happened earlier. She'd known nothing would be changed, but she thought with Jessica there beside her, that she'd be able to deal with it all. She pulled her blanket up around her and began to rock back and forth.

"Go get your brothers!" Walker told Jessica.

In a few moments, Isaac and Zac joined the group as well, but instead of panicking as their parents had, Isaac looked at the clock and Zac peeped out of the blinds. "The sun's almost up." Zac yawned.

"Yeah," Isaac said, "it's almost five, Mom. You're not gonna be able to get him up. He then stepped over and looked at Taylor. "Yep, he's out."

Zac had picked Avery up. "He's ok, Avie. It's just… weird now, he can't stay awake in the daytime now. But he's ok." She was hugging him and peeping out from under her blanket at the scene before her.

As Diana and Walker tried to comprehend everything, Mackenzie and Zoe came out, rubbing their eyes. "What's going on?" Mackenzie asked.

Jessica looked down at them, "Tay's home."

"Cool!" Mackenzie said, and he ran over to see him. "Oh, he's sleepin'." He turned and whispered to Isaac.

Isaac ruffled his hair, "Yeah, he's sleeping, but he'll see you tomorrow, ok?"

"Okay, Ike." The little boy said, and he put his arms around his brother's waist. "Glad you guys are back. Mom missed you lots and she kept cryin' and stuff."

"I know." Isaac said, looking over at his mother, "but we're all back now and everything's gonna be alright." Zac smiled and began to hum the familiar song and to rock his little sister back and forth to the beat of Bob Marley, causing her to smile through her tears.

"This is real, isn't it?" Diana said as Zoe climbed up on the couch next to Taylor.

"Yeah Mom, I swear it. It's real. We wouldn't lie about it." Isaac said. "I coulda thought up a much better lie than that." He smiled at his mother.

Walker let Taylor sink back onto the couch, and then he turned to his family, "Alright. Jess, Avie, Mack and Zoe, it's too early to be up yet. Go back to bed and you can see your brother tomorrow." And he picked up Zoe, once she'd leaned over and kissed Taylor on the cheek. "C'mon Baby, time for bed."

"Night night, Tay." She called back and then she lay her head on her father's shoulder as he took her back to her bedroom, followed by Mackenzie. Jessica watched for a moment trying to figure out what had just happened, but giving up and following when Zac turned to take Avery in with Zoe.

Isaac looked at Taylor and then at his mother. She looked like she was in shock. "Mom, you alright?" He said, stooping down in front of her.

She was staring at Taylor but then finally she turned her eyes to her oldest. "How did it happen?" She asked.

"Mom," he said, shaking his head, "it's so complicated, I don't know if I really know."

Zac and Walker came back and joined them, Zac grabbing Taylor's feet and sitting them in his lap and Walker taking the chair next to Diana. Isaac began again, "As far as I can tell, this girl that kept hanging around backstage and stuff, Camille is her name, well, she's one of 'em and she's like, in love with Tay, or something."

"She's the one that made him space out on stage the night of the concert, remember?" Zac added, looking at his parents.

Diana spoke. "So, how long has this been going on? Did you two know about this?"

Isaac and Zac knew a loaded question when they heard one. Being the best at skirting the truth, Zac spoke up. "We just thought she was a fan, Mom. I mean, she wasn't chomping on him in front of us! But it must've been going on longer than any of us noticed, because Sonya said he was turning already when she bit him."

"So, he was bitten by more than one?! What, are we surrounded by vampires?" Walker asked, aghast.

Isaac spoke again, "Um, there were three of them. All girls."

"Yeah," Zac said, "and I think all three got him. But the one that actually killed him, Sonya, she was trying to keep him from becoming one of them. It wasn't 'til she killed him that she found out he was changed."

"So, she killed him to save him." Diana said, looking over at Taylor again. "I'll have to thank her when I see her." She said bitterly.

Zac and Isaac looked at each other, wondering if they should tell their parents they'd seen her just an hour or so ago.

Diana stood up and sat on the edge of the couch next to Taylor. "Why didn't we notice?" She said, running her fingers through his hair.

"Well, we all just thought he was tired and stuff, or getting a cold or something. And besides, they don't want you to know, Taylor said the bite heals up almost right away," Zac said, "and they don't take so much to make the person really sick or die or anything." He looked at the faces of Isaac and his parents. "I mean, not usually anyway."

Walker stood up. "Has Taylor ever… done that?" He asked.

Isaac looked at Zac. "Uh, well, yeah." Zac said.

"I don't want to know!" Diana interrupted. She looked closer at her son. "He's not breathing." She said and she covered her mouth with her hand. Zac got up and put his arm around her.

"I know it's freaky Mom, but if you watch really close, he is... and his heart's beating… just like always."

"Really," Isaac said, standing up and stretching, "he acts pretty much the same. You just gotta make sure when the sun comes up, he's somewhere out of it and where he can just pass out, 'cause there is no waking him 'til time. As a matter of fact, I'm praying we can get him up in time to be on TRL tomorrow. Or later today, or whatever you want to call it."

"Well, why don't you all go back to bed. At least you two can be rested. We'll figure this out when the time comes." Walker said, reaching over and flipping off the lamp.

"Okay, Dad." Zac said. "Hey, Ike, you think we oughta get him away from the windows?"

Isaac looked back and sighed. "Yeah, I guess so. God, tomorrow, can we just make sure he gets in bed when he starts to get tired. I've carried him around more the past couple days than I did when he was a freakin baby."

"I hope Mom didn't let you carry him around much when you were three. Hey, maybe that's why he's the way he is… bet you dropped him a bunch..." Zac said as the two once more dragged their increasingly heavy brother into the bedroom they would share that night under the disbelieving eyes of their parents.

------

Camille and Melanie had survived their meeting with the Lady Beatriz Lopez de Albra. At five feet ten inches, she towered over the two girls and her dark hair and eyes added to her powerful presence. Her apartment was on the top floor of a forty-seven story building, it's art deco styling still intact. The rooms were furnished in priceless antiques of the same period and she had servants always at her beck and call. "How did you let this boy drink from you?" She had asked.

"He was starving." Camille reasoned. "I let him do it. He didn't attack me."

"Why didn't you go and bring something back to him?" She spat. "You never allow one already changed to drink from you. It makes their powers greater, powers he didn't want to begin with."

Melanie was silent, hoping the lecture was for the both of them and that she would be spared any more of the Lady's looks and withering comments. But it wasn't to be.

Beatriz stood, rising to her full height. She wore a simple, but obviously expensive black dress, low cut and fitted, showing off a lean, yet womanly body. Around her neck she wore a silver cross with a tear shaped ruby hanging from it. She leaned in toward Melanie and looked her in the eye. "You are her sire. Why did you let her do these things?"

"I can't control her..." She started.

"Of course you can, and you should have! This boy is no average high school teenager! He is famous. And loved obviously by women who would rather die than live without him! And how, pray tell, did he manage to drink from you? You are fifty-three years old if I count the twenty you lived as a human, she is only eighteen counting her three as a vampire. You should have known better."

"But he's strong..." Melanie reasoned.

"And now he is stronger!" Beatriz walked away from her and tapped on the cage of a very exotic looking bird which walked closer to her as she made a cooing sound to it. She then turned back to both the girls. "You will bring him to me. Alive. By dawn tomorrow. Or I will take care of all of you myself."

------

When Sonya entered the apartment at sunrise, Beatriz was sitting with a book in her lap on a velvety soft couch. Approaching her, she bowed her head. "Good Morning, Lady Beatriz." She said.

"Good Morning to you, Sonya." Beatriz said back. "Sit with me." She said, moving her feet. Sonya dropped her bag to the floor and sat next to her. Beatriz raised her head and looked carefully at her. "And who have you been with this morning?"

Sonya looked down. "Taylor Hanson." She said quietly.

Beatriz' eyes flashed, but her voice was even. "And why isn't he here with me now?" She asked.

Sonya looked at her. "He was with his family when I found him." She said.

Beatriz sighed, "Sonya, I'm very uncomfortable with this situation. This boy has a charm and a talent that he can cast even over the strong, like yourself. Though he doesn't know it, his powers are great. In a weakened state he nearly drained the young one and it appears he was able to subdue our Melanie with ease afterward. And that was before he took her blood."

"Yes, I realize that," Sonya said, "but his brothers, they love him so much..."

"Of course they do! Familia. But that doesn't matter now. He is one of us, those ties must be broken. Now. For the good of the clan." Beatriz stated emphatically. Seeing the sadness in Sonya's eyes, she softened. "Sonya, your family loved you, as my family loved me. But you know what happens. Vampires can't live among humans. It just isn't done. The old ones won't stand for it. The sooner he understands that, the better."

"Yes, Lady." Sonya said gazing out the window as the sun began to rise over the city.