by G. K. DeRosa
Roman looked to Nico, but he shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine, but just remember, you asked for this.”
Roman focused on Celeste’s neck. He could feel the rhythmic thumping of blood pulsing through her carotid artery, and his fangs popped out instinctively. Celeste stared in horror. Before she could cry out, he used his vamp speed to dash out of the room and return with a glass of water.
“I figured you’d need this.” He handed her the glass as Celeste looked at him slack-jawed.
“You really are a vampire?” Her voice cracked, struggling to form the words. Abruptly she stood up, getting ready to make a run for it if necessary.
“Yes.”
Celeste’s mind began to race and was flooded with images of all the recent events. “What about Patrick? Is he a vampire? Was that why he tried to kidnap me – so he could drink my blood?”
“Well, yes, he was a vampire, but there is more to that story than just blood lust. But you don’t have to worry about him anymore. I took care of it,” Roman said.
“What do you mean ‘you took care of it’?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Roman, you said you would tell me everything.” She stared at him point blank.
“Fine. I killed him and buried his body in the woods behind the school,” he admitted coldly.
All the color drained out of Celeste’s face, and she looked at Roman horrified. “You killed him?”
“Celeste, he was already dead. And anyway, we are vampires and that is what we do. My brother and I are different than most, but the majority are evil beings with no sense of morality and a blinding predatory nature. I did what I had to do to keep you safe.”
“I need to get out of here.” Celeste’s heart raced as she sprang toward the door.
“I’ll take you home,” offered Nico.
“No, I can’t even look at either one of you right now. I just need to leave.” She pushed past Nico and rushed out.
The warm sun was just starting to come up, and as Celeste walked her head spun with everything Roman and Nico had told her. It couldn’t be true. As her mind fought to make sense of the inexplicable, she thought of the dream and her father’s words.
No, it can’t be. There are no such things as vampires and witches and sorcerers…
She reached into her purse to call the only person she really wanted to see right now.
Brian pulled up in his Mustang just minutes after hanging up with Celeste. His bloodshot eyes and tousled hair confirmed he must have been out late last night.
“What are you doing walking way out here at this time of the morning?” Brian made sure Celeste was buckled in before revving the engine.
“I ended up spending the night at Nico’s last night.” Brian shot her a sidelong glance. “Don’t look at me like that, nothing happened. After the dance, we were hungry so they brought me back to their place to eat, and I passed out in their spare bedroom.” Celeste hated lying, but there was no way she was going to tell him about the crazy night she had.
“So why are you walking home by yourself at this hour?” He narrowed his eyes.
“I wanted to get home before my mom did, but I didn’t want to wake Nico up. So I snuck out thinking I could walk home, but it ended up being a lot further than I thought. Thanks for coming to get me.”
Brian looked skeptical. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little tired and hung over.”
They drove back the rest of the way in a comfortable silence. With the top down, the fresh morning air blowing through Celeste’s curls was just what she needed to clear her head. As they pulled into Brian’s driveway, she leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Thank you for always being there for me, Brian.”
“Always,” he said.
“Well that went well,” said Nico bitterly as he slammed the door and found Roman in the kitchen. “Brian picked her up down the street, in case you were wondering.”
“She needs some time to process it all,” said Roman who was sipping on a big cup of black coffee. “Just imagine what a shock this must be to her. Yesterday morning she woke up a normal high school girl, excited about going to her senior prom, and by the end of the night she had been kidnapped, knocked out, and told of the existence of vampires, witches, sorcerers and everything in between.”
“I understand all that, I just wish we could have found a better way to tell her so that she wouldn’t have run scared. We had each other and our family when this happened to us. She doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it.”
“We’ll be there for her, Nico. Remember, we only just told her half of the story. Right now we need to figure out who sent Patrick after Celeste. He certainly wasn’t putting her in the trunk of his car for an afternoon snack, and I definitely don’t believe he was acting alone.”
“Why did you have to kill him?” Nico glared at his brother. “We needed him alive to question. How are we going to find anything out now?”
Roman threw his hands in the air and grunted. “Don’t you think I know that?”
“So why did you do it?”
“I lost it. I was so furious, I completely lost control,” growled Roman.
“You do feel something for her,” said Nico with a puzzled expression. Roman cut him off with another growl and stomped off to his room, slamming the door shut behind him.
Roman sat in his room brooding as he gulped down a bottle of blood. He wasn’t even sure why he had gotten so mad at Nico and that bothered him. He was never like this. He was always in control. Roman didn’t understand what had come over him, and he certainly didn’t like it. Why did Celeste have such power over him? She drove him crazy. Now was not the time to fight with his brother. They needed to work together to determine what they could about Patrick’s appearance in Oak Bluffs. As much as Roman dreaded it, he decided it was time to let Stellan in on last night’s events.
He trudged back downstairs to face the music.
“You did what?” yelled Stellan over the speakerphone. Stellan, normally calm and collected, shouted as though he might come through the phone and strangle Roman with his bare hands.
“How could you tell her about the supernatural world? What were you two thinking?”
Roman and Nico sat huddled around the speakerphone with guilty looks on their faces. “There was no other choice, Stellan,” said Roman. “How were we going to explain Patrick’s attempt to abduct her? And if this is her destiny, what is the point of lying to her? She will have to learn about it all soon enough. I thought maybe if it came from us, she would handle it better. I was obviously mistaken.”
“Roman, it wasn’t your place to tell her. Guardians are chosen at the age of eighteen, and when they are, the truth is revealed to them in the appropriate manner,” continued Stellan.
“But she doesn’t have her father,” insisted Roman, “so who will teach her and guide her in the ways of a hunter?”
Nico shook his head and interjected, “Stellan, what is done is done, we cannot take back what we told her. What’s important now is to find out who sent Patrick, and if more will be coming for Celeste.”
Stellan exhaled a long breath, and Roman stopped pacing like a caged animal.
“I’ve been doing some research since you boys paid me a visit, and it seems as though there has been a large amount of dark magic in use in the area,” said Stellan. “I can’t be sure of the exact location or source, but there is something in the air that has the supernatural community in a commotion.”
“What does that mean exactly?” asked Nico.
“I’m not sure yet. Sometimes when a new guardian is chosen, it disturbs the balance between good and evil. An oversimplified explanation would be that evil could be trying to compensate for it.”
“And could Fabian be the cause of this?” Roman’s jaw clenched.
“It is certainly possible.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Nico.
<
br /> “I have contacted a few of my more powerful and well-connected friends to see if they can give us more information. Until then we have to wait. If Fabian did send Patrick to find Celeste, and he knows who she is, I’m afraid that we will all be in serious peril.”
Celeste awoke the next morning to a rough slobbery tongue across her face. “Hi Rocky.” She smiled. As she wiped the drool off her cheek, images from last night came rushing back. She was absolutely positive that everything had been a bad dream. Sluggishly, she pushed the covers aside and slipped her aching feet into her fuzzy slippers. Strewn on the floor was her beautiful prom dress. She picked it up for closer examination only to find bloodstains and frayed material all along the back from her fall on the rough asphalt. The dress was ruined.
This isn’t happening! Nico and Roman are vampires. They drink blood and kill people…
Celeste rubbed her throbbing head. This was too much for her to wrap her head around without at least a cup of coffee. She went downstairs and was surprised to find her mother in the kitchen reading the paper in her pink scrubs.
“Good morning, sweetie!” she said cheerily. “How was your night?”
Celeste attempted to plaster a convincing smile on her face. “It was awesome, Mom! We had a great time, danced, took lots of pictures, and made tons of memories…”
She went on to tell her mother about the highlights of the evening, making sure to leave out her near abduction and the fact that her new friends were vampires. Or maybe that she was just going crazy. She suddenly remembered the dream she had about her father while she was unconscious, and wanted to share this bit of truth with her mother.
“I dreamt about Dad last night,” she began, “and it was pretty strange, but it seemed so real.”
Mrs. Wilder put down the paper and glanced at her expectantly. “Tell me about it, Celeste, I know how rarely you ever dream of him.”
Celeste poured herself a big mug of coffee, filled it with sugar and cream and sat down at the table. “It was so great to see him, but what he said, it was all so strange. He told me that I had to learn to be a hunter, to protect humans against bad things. He said that I had been called for a greater purpose to be a force of good against evil in the world. He told me that all the scary monsters we thought were imaginary are actually real.” Celeste hadn’t taken a breath, but when she finished she looked up to gauge her mom’s expression. Surely, she would think she had gone completely insane.
Instead of the comforting look Celeste expected, her mother had paled. She tried to compose herself, but it was too late; Celeste had already seen her reaction.
“What is it Mom?”
“Oh nothing. Don’t mind me, I have other things on my mind. I’m sorry, sweetie, but I have to get to work,” she said, looking at her watch. “It’s getting late and I have so many patients to see.” She stood up abruptly, leaving her unfinished breakfast and darted for the door.
“Mom, wait!” Celeste called out, but it was to no avail. The front door had already slammed shut and her mom was gone.
Climbing up the stairs to her bedroom, Celeste’s thoughts were solely focused on her mother’s strange reaction to the dream. She had never seen her so upset, not for a very long time anyway. She sat on her bed and stared longingly at the picture of her and her parents on the nightstand. She wished that her father were here right now. She needed to talk to him about all of the crazy things that had happened in the past few weeks. He would know exactly what to say to comfort her. Instead, utter loneliness filled her chest.
Celeste’s buzzing phone interrupted her thoughts. Nico—again. This was the fourth time this morning, but she wasn’t ready to talk to him yet. She still hadn’t been able to accept the notion that he and Roman were vampires, and she couldn’t help but wonder how the dream about her father might tie into all of this. What she did know was that it was all too much of a coincidence for it not to. Roman’s story did mention his mother being a witch and some terrible sorcerer cursing their family, but did that mean that everything she had dreamt was true? She didn’t want to believe that those horrible monsters she saw in her nightmare could actually be real.
As Celeste sat on her bed questioning reality as she knew it, a knock at the door startled her. Rocky barked menacingly and ran downstairs. She hurried down behind him and could just make out a tall shadow at the door. She peeked through the window and was surprised to see Roman pacing on her front porch. A chill went through her at the sight of him.
“Come on, Celeste, please open the door. I know you’re there, I can hear you breathing.” He leaned closer to the glass.
Celeste unlocked the door and opened it a crack. “What do you want, Roman?”
“We need to talk. Please let me in. Or if you don’t trust me, you can come out here and we can talk out on the porch where you will be perfectly safe,” he said with a scowl.
Celeste thought about it for a moment and reasoned that she had been alone with both Roman and Nico on a couple of occasions, and they had never hurt her before. Also she wanted to make sure that Brian didn’t see the two of them talking and decide to come over. It was important to protect Brian, and she didn’t want him to have anything to do with this. She opened the door all the way and signaled for Roman to enter, but he just stood there frozen.
“You have to invite me in,” he said.
“Seriously? I thought that was just in the movies,” She suppressed a chuckle.
“No, it’s a real thing, and a very important thing at that. You must always be careful about who you invite into your house, Celeste.”
“Once you let a vampire in, can you take back the invitation?”
“No, unfortunately not.”
“Well then, I’m going to have to think about this.” She rubbed her chin as she considered.
Roman tapped his foot on the ground impatiently. He looked so good, she wondered if it was a vampire thing. His black hair was a bit disheveled, but in a sexy way and his strong jaw had a trace of stubble on it. She could almost imagine what it would feel like against her skin. Stop that!
“Okay, I invite you in, I guess,” she said finally.
As if an invisible barrier had been removed, Roman gracefully crossed the threshold. Celeste led him into the sunlit living room and sat on the couch across from him, cautiously keeping her distance. “I thought vampires couldn’t come out in the day time.”
“I imagine you must have a lot of questions for me,” Roman responded, “but first I want to apologize about how my brother and I handled everything last night. I never should have told you about us. It really would have been better if I hadn’t.”
“And what, you two would have just kept lying to me?” Celeste glared at him.
“Yes, because it would have been safer for you that way.”
“Safer? That’s doubtful since Patrick came after me even when I didn’t know anything about you,” she retorted. Then she paused for a second, realization setting in, “Is that why he came after me? Because of you?”
A pained expression crossed his face. “We don’t know, but we are trying to find out. We have a friend, Stellan, who is a sorcerer, a good one. He’s helping us.”
“Okay, should I be worried or something?” She moved to the edge of her seat.
“No, don’t be. Nico and I will take care of everything. We will watch over you and protect you. If Patrick did come after you because of us, I promise I won’t stop until I find the person behind this.”
“And kill them?”
“If that’s what needs to be done to keep you safe, then yes, unquestionably.” The tendons in his jaw clenched.
There was something about the intensity in Roman’s voice that sent another chill down her spine. The fact that he would go through such lengths to protect her filled her with nervous excitement.
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “You think there is someone else behind this? Like someone sent Patrick for me? I just don’t understand why anyone would come aft
er me.”
Hesitantly, Roman reached across the table and covered her hand with his, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Everything is going to be fine, Celeste. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Celeste’s phone buzzed again. She glanced at it. “It’s Nico. He’s been calling me all morning.”
“My little brother is certainly persistent, I’ll give him that.”
Celeste finally answered the phone and assured Nico that she was fine. She was surprised that he had no idea Roman was with her. After a quick chat, she turned back to Roman who was sitting pensively on the couch.
“So a vampire, huh?” she asked.
“For over a hundred years now.” He ran his hand through his dark hair and huffed. “And the reason that sunlight doesn’t affect me is that I did not become a vampire in the normal way.”
“Oh, right the normal way…” Celeste mused.
“What I mean is … weren’t you listening to the story?” He looked flustered. “Fabian turned us through a spell, so a lot of the rules that constrain other vampires don’t apply to us. Walking in the sun just happens to be one of them.”
“But you still drink people’s blood?” she asked awkwardly.
“I do, but not from humans directly. My brother and I are able to maintain a healthy diet of blood, mostly from donor banks and hospitals.”
Celeste took a deep breath. “Tell me more about your life, about when you first became a vampire.”
“It was very difficult at first. All of the impulses, the surge of power, it was very overwhelming. I’ve tried very hard to forget that time in my life.” He grimaced.
“I’m sorry. It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.”
“It wasn’t all bad.” His eyes glazed over as if he were brought back to another time. “As we grew to accept our new lives, I remember when we were actually happy. Nico and I were eternal twenty-year-olds, and we spent decades attending universities around the globe. Because of the spell, we weren’t condemned to living in the shadows like other vampires. We were able to walk freely in the sun, so we could assimilate fairly well into the human world, for short periods of time anyway. This was especially true for Nico, as he always seemed right at home wherever he went. He was charmingly relentless with the ladies, popular with the guys and seemed to fit into the human world much more easily than I ever did.”