We exited the plane along with the crowd and looked for our family. Before I had a decent chance to look I was attacked with a hug from Layla from behind. I turned around and returned the hug then proceeded to hug Emily. Once we were done Daemon and Craig, who had been talking with Tony, hugged me tightly in a brotherly way. Melissa and Paul however kept there distance from all of us. Once everyone was reunited we walked over to Melissa and Paul. I was mad at Melissa, but would save my rage for a different place. She looked at me for a brief moment then turned and walked off towards the parking lot. We followed silently until we reached her black SUV. We then got in and were silent until we reached out new house.
I didn't take the time to notice its features and just followed Melissa into the house and into the first room on the left from the foyer which I think was the living room. It was dark, and painted a burnt orange, a subtle lime green and a nice charcoal black. The couch was black leather and there was a huge TV on the wall. Beside both sides of the TV was a rack of DVD's that had already been placed into the slots. There were stereos placed throughout the room as well as lights in the ceiling. The drapes on the windows in the front varied from green to orange and in the back there was a large window just like the castle. The view, also just like the castle, was gorgeous.
There was a forest, covered in snow and way in the background was a snow covered mountain. It almost made moving a bit better. Almost.
Melissa sat on the couch which smelt of new leather and everyone followed. I stared at her intently waiting. She seemed to be contemplating something.
"What am I going to tell them? The truth is terrible…I… o shit. You heard all that didn't you." Melissa thought. She had snapped her head up and stared at me. I nodded.
"The truth Melissa. I believe we deserve the truth." I said to her aloud. Everyone looked from Melissa to me. She sighed.
"What if we just kept running? Maybe it will stop soon." She thought forgetting everything we had said and continued to think. Her thoughts echoed in my head.
"What does she mean?" I thought.
"What does who mean?" Tony asked me with his thoughts.
"Never mind" I thought back to him. "No Melissa, tell us what's going on. We can keep running and we won't, especially when we don't know what were running from." He said. He had read my mind and figured out what was going on. He could only read my mind, no one else's. That was added to the list of things we still didn't understand, not even Melissa.
"Vincent Vitorio is a vampire. He is a vicious, malicious, murderous, killer of the innocent. He is what you would call the king of all vampires. If a vampire exposes themselves or even thinks about it he destroys them. If a human stumbles onto one of his many illegal operations he would torture them then kill them, and with pleasure." She paused. We urged her to continue but she just sat there. Minutes passed and I was about to read her thoughts but she finally continued. "He also kills for the sport. He is the oldest vampire in the world and the most manipulative. He is the essence of what we think of when we hear the word vampire. A true vampire he would call himself." She said. I sat and listened. The name Vitorio was also familiar but I couldn't think of it, then it hit me.
"That was his castle wasn't it." I said amazed. "He owned that castle. That's why we had to leave, because he found out we were there. He is your-your-your- husband." I stuttered. She looked down at her feet ashamed.
"Yes he was my husband. And yes that is his castle and yes that is why we had to leave. Someone triggered a security system I hadn't found and disabled, at the front door. He used that to find me. I have been hiding from him for years and years on end and then when I finally found this place I figured he wouldn't suspect that I was under his nose the whole time, and I was right. I stayed there for years and was never bothered. Years and he didn't even cross my mind. I had truly believed he had given up on me, but I was wrong, now more than ever he is going to want to find me. To find me and make me Queen again and nothing will stop him." She said. I frowned. Melissa was a coward. She didn't want to face him.
"Why are you hiding from him? Why does he want you back? What happened?" I asked. She sobbed slightly.
"Well believe it or not I used to be in love with him and he with me but, I ruined him. I being the queen had a reputation for being married to a "real vampire", we were "Real vampires.", and we took the meaning of the word to its truest. We ruled the underworld and no one would have stopped us. And then there was a human. He was small, puny, and over all pathetic but he said something. Something that to this day I can't remember but I wish so badly I could. It changed everything. From that day on I vowed to be a vegetarian and to never slip. Vincent, not liking my new diet tried to convince me otherwise for a little while and when he saw it just wasn't working he had me locked up and told anyone who asked about me that I was sick. For a year he locked me up and fed me only humans, which I had to eat. Once he decided I was finally 'normal' again he put me back on the thrown with him. I remained at his side for months and watched as innocent people were killed and he just sat there and laughed. I however did not find it amusing. One day I got so sick of it I stormed off in the middle of one of his torture sessions. I went into the vault that was in the castle and took a book out. It was the book of Aramond, the book of the living dead and used old magi to place a curse on all the vampires who drank human blood. The curses made all those who drank humans have to live a life of eternal hell and were cursed with powers. Mine was a lucky one. Some were horribly vicious. The curse wasn't much of a curse for most people really. One of the servants on the castle had a power that if he stared at someone for more than a second there whole body would shut down, organs and all and then some were cursed with random explosions of cuts or flames all over. The worst for all humanity and by far the most powerful was Vincent's. He had them all. Every power there was at the palm of his hands. And with all that power he went insane. He lost all sense of humanity and compassion, including his love for me." She said. I was stunned. Before I had a chance to recover she continued.
"I told him I was going to leave, which was a mistake. He reminded me of the day I was changed. He changed me on sacred grounds. I was bound to him for eternity and still am." She said now sobbing. Paul hugged her to comfort her and shared the same look of sorrow as everyone else did. Everyone expect Layla and me.
Layla and I were the least compassionate of all of us. I was highly insensitive, to a point where it would be considered cruel. Layla lacked compassion for a lot of this because of her mother's tragic death. Her mother was shot eleven times and stabbed 16 by her father and her father's girlfriend. They were sentenced to life for first degree murder and possession of narcotics but killed themselves before the case was taken to court. My reason was because my dad didn't give a shit about me, my grandmother who I loved dearly died of pneumonia and of coarse my brother's death had a great affect on me as well. I think I also was bron without a lot of hope, that was probably Vincents fault.
"This is ridiculous. An insane vampire ruler is trying to kill us. No body ever tells me anything unless I have to know it! I am so sick of that! Can this get any more frustrating?" I yelled to no one in particular.
"This is critical. He is trying to kill us just to get to you. We would have fought already. We are strong Melissa, you know that. Is something else, something important?" Layla said hotly.
"There is nothing more. I have to keep running and now that you all have been seen with me you must too. I am sorry but this must happen." Melissa said still sobbing. I had had it.
"Are you serious!?" I shrieked. Melissa nodded slightly. I had finally blown it. I sped out of the room, leaving a trail of fire behind me. I needed to calm down. I needed to go somewhere cold. Somewhere to calm my thoughts.
I ran out of the house and into the backyard where the forest was. I feed on two deer then ran into the distance, fire slowly dying down. Once I reached the mountain I was covered in soot but back to my normal non-flaming self. I lay in the snow until my thoughts cleared, which must have taken hours if not days, and then I heard a voice.
"She's gorgeous." It said. There was a baby, big bright blue-green eyes, soft dirty blonde hair, tiny yet strong features, quietly laying in its sleeping mothers arms. "She is destined to do great things." The Velvety, hypnotic voice said with his mild Italian accent.
"When?" Another voice asked.
"Fifteen. She must be fifteen. No earlier. She will be damned soon enough, let her have her fun while it lasts." The first voice said. Then the voiced stopped and a new set of voiced started
"You imbecile, it'll be your head for this you count on it. Vincent does not tolerate mistakes especially ones as large as this. You better-" The voice was cut off by another, a familiar one.
"I do not tolerate mistakes this is true but what, I may ask, has happened to make say you such a thing?" the man with the Italian accent, Vincent, said. The other men did not reply and he became angry, his finger tip inflaming slightly. "The consequences of your actions will be dire if not death if you do not answer me this instant." He said in a soft, yet horrifyingly deadly voice.
"Forgive me sire. A horrible mistake was made. The girl, she, she was bitten earlier this morning by one of our men. He would have killed her had another vampire not removed him from her." The other man said shakily. Vincent's voice was strangely calm, an eerie calm.
"Was this other vampire one of ours?" He asked softly. The other man nodded. "Was it a woman?" He asked.
"I am unsure sire I will be looking into that." He said softly then trotted away, at human speed. Then the voices changed again.
"The girl is a vampire. Who changed her and where. I need information immediately. Who was the vampire who removed our changer from the girl?" Vincent said. This time it was an image. It was a large room with a table stretching from wall to wall, seats decorated like a throne and table with details dating back to the 1300's. Vincent was striding slowly across the room and then back again. The people or for lack of a better word beings, staring intently at him, eyes never leaving him for a moment, awaiting his next direction or movement. Then a small wrinkled old man stood and spoke.
"Jack Mahoney sir. Changed the girl exactly one week ago to this day in a dark alley. The vampire who saved her from death is… someone who you might want to take care of personally." The old man said. Vincent stopped in his tracks. He about faced to look at the old man; with his striking features and cold black eyes and stared intently. The old man nodded as if answering an unsaid question.
"Then why isn't anyone following them! I want them to be watched. Especially her. Where is she? Where is the moron who didn't tell me this sooner so that I can kill him and where is my wife!" Vincent boomed though out the room. Suddenly people were scurrying and working and the whole room was at chaos. Chaos at which Vincent did not tolerate. "SIT!" He yelled. Faster than he could have said it again everyone was seated and the chaos was controlled. "Find her and bring her to me. Bring the girl too, she is key to everything and do it quickly. In fact bring them all!" He said in his regular deadly hypnotic tone. At his final statement everyone exited the room and all was quiet again. The vision or memory ended and I was once again aware of the mountain scenery around me.
Before I could find myself thinking about what I had just seen and heard I was running back towards the house. I ran in though the front door where everyone was generally in the same positions as they were when I left.
"You knew." I said directing my statement at Melissa. "You knew he was after me and you ran. You let me change into a monster in that room in the castle, right were he would find me and once I was done you explained the whole vampire thing then ran away from him as you had been doing for years and still are. He wanted me from birth. I was marked for death at fifteen and you didn't do anything to stop it. And Jack Mahoney. Its his fault they are vampires. He knew we would be at that audition and he knew where to find me because he had been tracking me even since I was born, which means Vincent has been tracking me since birth too." I said in a rage. The something came to me
"But it didn't go according to Vincent's plan now did it? He thought he would have me from the beginning and that I would take over as queen someday. You ruined his plan. Twice. But that curse that you placed on all those vampires still lives today. And it wasn't much of a curse. He is unstoppable." I said quickly. Surprisingly my power was controlled and I had no burning sensation anywhere. Melissa looked at me, eyes ranging from confused to scared.
"What?" Tony said, speaking for the first time in a while.
"I was marked for this. They expect all this to happen. Everything, or at least most of it. They planned to have Melissa and me forever. And still do. We are marked. But what I don't understand is the relation between us. You two were human before and were changed at different times so unless you aren't telling me something again this doesn't make sense." I said then something connected in my brain "You married him while he was a vampire but didn't know. He tricked you onto sacred grounds and changed you didn't he?" I asked. She nodded solemnly, "But who changed him? Melissa a little help!" I said suddenly exhausted.
"I don't know." She said after a few minutes of silence. "But maybe…, but then again maybe not. Or maybe…" She trailed off them picked back up again "Maybe the answer lies…" Melissa said looking as thought she was having an epiphany. She ran out of the room faster than I would have thought even a vampire possible. I was about to get up and follow her but she came back. "Come with me. Everyone. We have some unpacking to do, and quick." She said in Spanish then ran out of the room. I translated then we followed.
We followed behind her quickly, hoping she could answer the problem ahead of us. We ended up down the three mile driveway where the moving van was parked. She opened the back and began throwing boxes out of the van. We all caught them as she tossed them and ran them up to the house, only to return and do the same. After almost the whole van was empty Melissa stopped. With a rapid movement she picked up the box lying in front of her and ran back into the house. We all shrugged then followed. After we found her again, which was a matter of seconds we sat down on the floor next to her. We were on the third level of the five level house where the library was.
It was large and had an old fashioned style to it with new age furniture. She had opened the box and began spreading books all over the floor. The books were not average books, they were… old. There were large hard cover leather ones and there were flimsy dusty ones. There were some in Spanish, others Latin, Greek, lots in Italian and some in languages I couldn't even begin to make out. There was one book however that caught my eye. It was in Latin. From what I could make out it said The Living and the Breathing's Guide to the Life of the Undead by…No I couldn't have read that right. Dracula? He's just a superstition. Isn't he?
"At this rate ill believe anything." Tony thought to me. I nodded but still couldn't speak. Melissa had opened different many books in different languages to different pages and pictures. It was almost enough to make you dizzy. Melissa's eyes were speeding across the page rapidly, going from page to page and book to book, speaking softly switching from language to language; looking for something I hoped was going to help us. Days passed or so it felt like it and Melissa hadn't moved. Everyone else got bored and anxious so decided to unpack the essentials. We unpacked the library which felt like it took days alone because there were so many books.
Every once in a while we were unpacking Melissa would mumble or grunt indicating for us to give her the book we were putting away or that she had found something interesting. Over the quickly growing days I grew bored and eventually decided to look for something that might help. I picked up The Living and the Breathing's Guide to the Life of the Undead and began to read it and took it to mine and Tony's plain room on the third floor.
I plopped down on the couch facing the window and read. It was generally a biography of Dracula's life and habits but also had facts about the life of regular vampires. I on the other hand was not a regular vampire and grew bored after a few of the complicatedly worded small printed chapters. Then I reached a chapter that intrigued my curiosity. It read:
As a child I dreamt about vampires frequently. When I told my parents of the dreams they would look at me in disgust. However there was perfect reason to the worry in there actions. At the age of twenty I found myself unmarried, uneducated, and living in my parents basement only to come out on those nights. One night I came across something, more like someone oddly familiar. In my dreams was a man, six feet four, two-hundred lbs. , jet black hair, long black over coat and blackish red eyes. His name was Vincent I believe, and he was the town 'vampire'. He only came out at night therefore earning his strangely accurate nickname. And there before me he was taking a night stroll. He had been out longer than usual that night and then I knew my longly awaited fate was about to some true.
After he was a good hundred feet away I whispered "I know what you are, I'll tell everyone. Unless you do one simple thing for me." With that he then turned around ran toward me at his inhuman speed and stood inches away from my face. "What do you want kid?" He whispered roughly at me. I smiled devilishly. "Bite me." I had said. He had smiled then sunk his retracted venom coated teeth into my neck. I smiled then it was all dark. Sadly to this day I can not remember what had happened directly after that. I learned that now I had a problem as a human man that had caused me to go insane and obsessive about vampires. Now I live the life I had always dreamed of, the life I always wanted it to be. I never regretted my decision.
And to this day I do not regret it. After that fateful night I realized I was reported missing and was to leave the town at once. I searched for the vampire called Vincent for months to never find him. Eventually I had to move on so ran to a town I can not remember the name of in Quebec where I lived for centuries moving generally from place to place every decade. Slowly I learned and recorded the abnormal differences of vampire and human such as diet, speed, strength, need of breath, and many others of which if you are reading this book you already know.
As I aged I learned. Around the 1800's all the creatures of the world relocated to the underworld where we wouldn't be bothered. The vampires lived under Antarctica and Canada where the other creatures spread through out the rest of the underworld. It was much more comfortable than the upperworld, much more space you know? Point being if somehow this book ends up in the upperworld and you are a vampire reading it come down to the underworld, we have cookies!
I then began to wonder. Could it have been the same Vincent trying to kill me right now? It was possible wasn't it? He was the oldest vampire in the world and underworld though. I was about to continue but was interrupted by rather distracting image.
Tony had walked in the room after his shower with only a towel on and he looked amazingly hot. His muscles were prominent all over and I found myself transfixed. He shined after taking his shower and his facial were features slightly dopey. He looked over at me then smiled and I smiled back embarrassed. Neither one of us knew what to say, so we said nothing. He walked into the closet and got dressed. He was dressed in a black muscle shirt I bought for him, baggy jeans, black DC's and a belt with the Rise Against logo on it. He also was wearing his usual bracelets and wristbands but he wasn't wearing his cross around his neck like he used to when he was human. I didn't blame him, I stopped believing in anything after the transformation.
"Hey can I cut your hair?" I asked him. He looked at me confused. "Can I?" I asked him with puppy-dog eyes.
"Will it grow back?" He asked me. I smiled.
"Yes it will grow back." I told him.
It would grow back. Even though when the venom spread through his body all his other systems stopped the one that makes his hair grow, which I really don't know the name of because I skipped health class all the time, still works. I was happy about that because I could cut my hair really short and it would grow back the next day.
I took a scissors out of the desk that was next to the closet. "I can believe how stupidly arranged this room is. Why is the desk all the way over here" I muttered to myself. I took the leather desk chair and placed it in front of the mirror it the bathroom.
"Sit." I said to him. He began to mosey over to me but I grew impatient so I ran behind him and pushed him into the chair. I turned the chair around so he couldn't see what I was doing then quickly cut his hair to look like Matt Damon's in The Bourne Identity or like Dylan Bruno's in my old favorite TV show NUMB3RS. I then stood back to admire my work then smiled. "Exactly how I wanted it, no I am going to dye it a medium brown so hold still." I told him. Before he could object I ran into our closet, got the dye and ran back into the bathroom. I put on some rubber gloves I found in the bathroom sink's drawer then ran the dye through his hair. I, being my impatient self didn't want to wait for the dye to work and then wash it out so I bought a new brand where you put it in for a few seconds then you wash it right out. So I did, and again I smiled because it looked exactly like I wanted it to look like. Now all I had to do was spike up the top. I grabbed the gel and ran it through the hair on the top of his head. Finally I was finished and I spun him around so he could see it. He smiled.
"Matt Damon meets Dylan Bruno?" He asked. I smiled.
"You look even better than both of them and that's saying something." I told him. He smiled then pulled me down on to of him and kissed me. I smiled beneath his kiss then he broke away. Once we got up he walked back into our closet and rummaged around for a while. I went back to the window and held the book, about to read again but he found what he was looking for. He had pulled out two pairs of shoes that looked like roller skates without the wheels. I looked at them questioningly then it dawned on me. I nodded then smiled and placed the book down on the bed.
"Don't be such a chicken Emily we can't die anymore so you won't break something if you hit something."I said. She nodded nervously then jumped off the lift with Craig and began to speed down the deserted mountain. Emily and Craig took the bunny slope because they had never gone snowboarding before, unlike Layla, Daemon, Tony and I.
"Why is there no one here?" Layla asked stupidly. Sometimes she was so slow.
"One because its," I looked at my sweatband watch, "Two am on a Wednesday," I said "and two because this is a banned area, too many obstacles." Tony said then grinned. He loved breaking the rules. We grew higher and higher and I suddenly remembered my fear of heights. It was a weird thing to be afraid of seeing as though no matter how high the fall I couldn't die from it.
"LOL Nik I can't believe you are still afraid of heights." Isaiah said. I made a face at him then looked down. I gulped. We had to be more than 600ft in the air. Tony's arm tightened around me.
"I won't let you fall" Tony said to me. I smiled faintly.
"On three. One, Two, Three!" Layla said. She placed her goggles on and jumped down with Daemon. I looked at Tony and him at me and we jumped, it seemed like forever before landing directly on the soft snow. I let go of Tony's hand. This was the part I could do better than all my friends. We boarded on down the hill quickly enjoying the cool air and the adrenaline rush. There was an upcoming ramp that everyone was avoiding by swerving to the right but I had no intention in doing so. Tony looked behind him, noticing I was not following.
"Nikki no!" he yelled at me, but it was too late. I bent my knees far down, lowering my body and holding my arms out low to gain speed and breathed. After a few anticipating moments I reached the ramp and flew off it. I felt the air, sweet and fresh against my already cold face. I bent my knees further then twisted my body doing a 360 while placing my right hand on the side of the board then tried something I had never tired to do in my past snowboarding experience. I leaned forward quickly, tucking my body in further and pushed until I felt myself go upright again. I began rapidly approaching the ground so I stayed put and focused on my landing. I landed with perfect uncharacteristic grace and flew down the mountain. I flew past Tony, Daemon and Layla and reached the bottom at record speed. I then stood impatiently for the others, hands on my hips.
"What took you your so long? I've been waiting here for like ever!" I said in my best valley girl voice. Layla and Daemon laughed. Tony however looked mad.
"Don't do that ever again you gave me a heart attack." He said. I laughed. Stupid overprotective, Tony.
"Whatever." I said.
That was my response to him whenever he told me not to do something because it's dangerous. I remember that one time when we were snow tubing and I was going just a bit too fast for his comfort and he made me slowdown by cutting in front of me. Its like I was a vampire then and he a human, how could he have helped?
He was about to reply but his cell phone rang. He made a few grunts and OK's and then hung up. We all looked at him curiously.
"Melissa found something" He said in a monotone. Before he could say another word I ran to the car, the others following behind. I jumped into the drivers seat and put the key in the ignition.