Chapter 8

Back to The Past

As soon as we had parked the car, Claude was at the door instantly. Max was going to say something on my theory, but his door was being opened by Lukas, who looked like he could kill someone right now. I opened my door and Claude grabbed my arm and pulled me out. The other guys were next to us in a flash.

"Where the hell have you-"

Claude froze and looked at my cheek. I narrowed my eyes, remembering how the blood had just barely dried from the psycho's claws. Then Lukas pulled Max around beside me and when he saw my cheek, he stepped back away from Max and I. It was time to prove my theory now. "Does my blood bother you?" I demanded seriously, touching Claude's arm. He pulled back and stared at me.

"What happen to your face?" Alec asked. He stood behind Claude. First hint, they were staying a few feet away from me and Max. I could feel Max shaking beside me, slightly scared still from the aftermath of being attacked. I only frowned and stepped forward to Claude again.

"Is there something wrong with my face?" I asked, reaching up and touching the wet part of my blood. I brought my hand back and showed it to Claude and Alec. Claude's face twisted and immediately his hand covered his nose. Alec's lips turned into a sneer and he grabbed my wrist. I gasped in shock as he shoved me back against the car, trapping my wrist between his hand and the hood as he leered down at me.

"Are you trying to prove something? That or the fact you smell like…" he trailed off and leaned down to my cheek. My eyes went wide and my breath caught in my throat. Instead of hurting me, I heard him sniff me. Then he looked back at Claude. "The nightwalkers are back."

Claude's face darkened. In a commotion of movement, Alec clutched me brutally to his side as he led me to the house quickly. Max was forced after us by Lukas and Brent, and Claude was in the house first, shutting the door after us. "What's going on!?" I demanded as Alec and Lukas shoved Max and I onto the living room loveseat. Rylan and Lukas sat down on the opposite couch, and Claude yanked his cell phone out of his jacket and dialed a number. Alec was walking around the living room, slamming shut all the windows and locking them.

Nobody had yet to answer me. I looked over at Max, and he looked ashen, as if he'd just seen a ghost. Brent suddenly appeared in front of me with a wet washcloth. He kneeled down and began wiping my cheek free of crusted blood. "Are you okay?" he asked me quietly. I nodded.

"I'll feel better if I know what the hell attacked us and what is happening right now!"

Brent paused and looked back at Claude, who now put the phone to his ear. They shared a curious look. Brent turned back to me. "What happened after you left?" he demanded, dropping hand from my cheek. I unconsciously rubbed the welts and sighed.

I was about to explain when Claude began talking. We all looked at him at the same time Alec walked back into the living room. He leaned against the couch arm and waited patiently.

"Yes. Our new house maid witnessed an attack…Nightwalker. It had to have been." Claude paused for a long moment. "She came back smelling like one with claw marks on her face. Of course it was a nightwalker! There's no doubt!"

I looked back at Max, and he was watching me just as surprised as I was. Had I been correct? What was going on? Claude began talking again. "I don't care if you send Cassidy. Just send someone!" he hissed into the phone. Then he snapped it shut and his furious glare landed on me. It almost sent shivers down my spine. I'd never seen him mad before.

"What were you thinking?!" he hissed, pushing past Brent. He grabbed me by the shoulders and I winced. His grip was painful.

"Claude!" Brent hissed. Claude ignored him. Instead he shook me once.

"Maybe if you'd tell me what was going on I wouldn't be so rebellious!" I retorted. Claude tightened his fingers. I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

"Father!" Brent snarled. Immediately, Claude let go of me and stepped back. Running a hand through his messy, un-gelled hair, he sighed.

"Explain the problem to her, Brent." he muttered, and sat down in the armchair. Max gently touched my shoulder and I rubbed my other one, glaring at Claude.

"You're wondering what attacked you…" Brent guessed, turning back to me. He sat on the arm of the loveseat and looked down at me.

"I already know what it was…" I murmured in response, looking straight at Rylan. He looked back at me, knowing in his eyes. "And I'm pretty sure both Rylan and you know what I know."

Rylan's eyes widened a bit, and I glared over at Brent. He looked surprised. "Why do you say that?"

I stood up and waved my hands in the air. "Oh, I'm wondering!" I replied sarcastically. "How did you," I pointed to Brent, "know I hadn't set my alarm clock?! And you!" I turned on Rylan, "How did you know I wanted a fast car to go where I was going? How the hell did you even know what I was doing?!"

"Well, I already know she knows how to pay attention to the basics." Alec muttered sarcastically. I glared at him.

Brent shrugged. "Okay, so we can mentally climb into your mind, so what?" he asked, leaning forward. "So then, what are we? What was that thing that attacked you?" He was testing me.

I stared at him in shock. Then I took a deep breath and answered, "Vampires."

The room went quiet. Alec interrupted it with another smartass comment, "But I never expected her to be smart."

Brent chuckled. I threw my hands into the air again. "Is it true?! Vampires?!" I demanded.

"Yes. Except there are two different types of vampires." Brent explained.

"I-I don't feel good… Where's your bathroom?!" Max asked weakly, holding his stomach. Alec raised an eyebrow at him and pointed down the hall. We watched as Max fled from the living room. I winced and turned back to Brent. He didn't look very happy.

"Anyway?" I motioned for him to continue.

"We're the daywalkers. The vampires who can walk in the sunlight. The vampire you witnessed is a-"

"Nightwalker. Yeah, I heard that." I interrupted, collapsing against the loveseat again. "Ughh… This is all too much to take in…" I muttered into my hands.

"Usually. But as for the dog," Alec jutted a thumb towards the bathroom, causing me to glare at him, "sometimes it's a lot to get rid of."

"His name is Max and he's human and normal unlike you." I growled. Alec raised an eyebrow.

"Harsh." Lukas muttered beside him. I rolled my eyes.

"So now what? Isn't it usually illegal that humans know about you?" I asked. Claude finally leaned forward and shook his head.

"I don't know where you got that thought from…but no, it isn't illegal. It doesn't matter that you know, because you live with us for now. Rebecca and Joshua have been our friends for sixteen years, and they've known about us ever since then."

"What about Max?" I asked.

"He might be a problem. We can't have either of you spreading word about us." Claude told me.

"No way! He wouldn't tell anyone!" I gasped, horrified.

Brent stood up then. "I'm going to go check on him." he said, and disappeared down the hall. I sighed again.

"So… are you guys going to eat me in my sleep or something?" I asked. Claude let out a belt of laughter.

"No. We get given blood from the hospital in New Jersey. It's full of vampire employees. The humans don't even know that when they donate their blood, it's going straight to the daywalkers in the world. But besides that, we have worse matters at hand. We thought we had killed of the nightwalkers fifty years ago-"

"Fifty?! Holy shit! How old are you guys?!" I asked, bewildered.

"Alec is the oldest out of all of us." Claude replied. I raised an eyebrow.

"But aren't you the father?"

"Yes, but I was changed by Alec after he was changed by Cassidy."

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm confused. Start from the beginning, with your guys' story first." I ordered, leaning back. Claude smiled and nodded.

"It began in 1746, in Kent, England. Cassidy and I met at a local bread stand, but I won't go into details." Claude grinned, and I couldn't help but smile back. "Anyway, we had children together two years later. Brent was born first, and then we had Rylan. Two years afterwards, we had fraternal twins: Alec and Lukas. It wasn't until sixteen years later, in 1767, that strange things were happening to Cassidy. She worked late at night, and when she came home, she was always sickly looking. When the boys were schooling one day and I was taking care of Cassidy, I saw the bite marks on her throat. When I asked her what was wrong, she tried to attack me."

I stared at him in horror. Claude looked at Alec then. "By then, Alec arrived home first. He saved me by blocking one of her attacks. Instead, she bit him. To keep him from dying, she fed him her blood, all the while apologizing. For another year, we had to live with two vampires, until Alec changed me when I fell ill with tuberculosis. And Cassidy changed the rest of our boys."

"Which is why they had stayed in Jersey with her while Alec goes everywhere with you, right?" I asked. Claude nodded.

"The daywalker that had changed Cassidy was one of the first among daywalkers. He was the one who created the nightwalkers by accident."

"What is a nightwalker?" I demanded.

"They're the type of vampire who dies before they're changed. They're brought back to life from hell, giving into their thirst. They can only control it if they've been alive for over three centuries."

I stared down at my hands; they still had some dried blood on them. "So the only difference between you and them is their psychotic blood need and they can't walk in the sunlight? Why is that?"

Claude shrugged. "Has to do with traveling into the darkness." he replied.

"The darkness?"

"Death. When you die, you die in darkness. Not light." Claude explained. At that moment, Max and Brent walked back into the room. Max looked embarrassed as he sat back down next to me.

"I already told him everything." Brent said, sitting down next to Rylan.

"I was just about to get to the part of the nightwalkers." Claude said. Brent nodded for us to continue. I quickly refocused my attention on Claude. "Since we were among the first few daywalkers, we vowed to kill off the nightwalkers. They're vicious, selfish and disgusting vampires. When they kill, they murder. Fifty years ago, we assumed we had killed off the last of the nightwalkers…but now…" he pointed to my cheek. "There's another one, and it doesn't look like he's messing around. Do you remember what he looked like?"

I squinted at the floor, trying to think back to the malevolent, psychotic creature.

"Black eyes…dark hair…narrow, skinny face and a crooked nose. He had a scar above his right eyebrow. He was also tall…really tall." Max suddenly said faintly. We all looked at him in surprise. He gave us a sheepish smile. "Sorry… I have a great memory…especially of scary things."

Claude thought a moment before standing up. "Okay. None of you are leaving this house until tomorrow. You won't mind staying here, will you?" he asked Max. Max looked at me and then blushed and looked away.

Brent grinned. "Nah, I don't think he'll mind."

Max glared at him. "Stay out of my thoughts!"

Then I remembered. "Oh yeah! What about your powers?!" I asked. "How did that happen?"

Claude paused a moment. "The only ones who have powers are Brent and Rylan. I believe it's just an opt of the mind, since they were already both extremely smart before they were vampires. The mind powers they achieved were probably just power boosts."

I nodded in understanding. "So they can…climb into our minds?" I wondered out loud.

"Only humans. Climbing into your minds as in…well…sometimes we can read your thoughts, sometimes we can see through your eyes…and other times we can see into your past. Such as when I found out you didn't set your alarm clock. I hadn't seen you doing it at all." Brent said to me. I grimaced.

That meant he knew what had happened with my biological father all those times. That was a definite invasion of privacy... "But then… why did you wonder so much about me when we first met?"

Brent smiled. "Because I'd rather trust your voice over your mind." he told me.

Before I could respond, Claude said, "Cassidy will be here in three days." he told his sons. I saw Alec stiffen.

"Lovely." he breathed darkly, and then left the living room.

"What's his problem?" I asked.

"Grudges. He doesn't know when to get rid of them." Brent filled in. I stared after Alec where he had just been and felt sad. No, he had all the right to not forgive his mother. Who would want to live for all eternity? Who would want to have to drink blood constantly? Despite that, I still hadn't forgiven my father for what he had done.

"Well, I'm going to sleep." Claude muttered. "You guys should be safe for school tomorrow."

Then I remembered something. On Friday, Alec would be going on a date with Elly. But did I feel comfortable enough with that? Especially since there was a cold-blooded killer on the loose? And not to mention on that same day, their mother would be flying in.

"Why is your mother coming all the way over here?" I asked Brent, dismissing my negative thoughts.

"She can track the nightwalkers easier than any of us."

I sighed. "Okay… I think my brain is holding enough info for now. I'm exhausted." I said, standing up. Max caught my wrist. I looked down at him in surprise.

"W-where can I sleep?"

"On the floor." Lukas said, smirking. Max glared at him. I sighed and looked to Brent.

"Can he get a room near mine? I don't trust that Lukas and Alec won't try something."

Brent raised an eyebrow. "How about a room between Rylan's and mine? You're a girl and he's a boy." Brent pointed out. I scrutinized him.

"Fine. But if anything happens to him, you'll have to deal with the wrath of Ellyria."

Brent looked astonished for a moment. "Your friend? What can a mere human do? I think you'd be more of a threat than her. I mean… you escaped a nightwalker."

"With my help." Max added.

A/N: Sorry this chapter went by so fast! I wanted to get the majority of the past said and done with.