A Billion Secrets: Vampire Romance Novel

by Angela Foxxe

  Isla wouldn’t be hurt, he told himself. She was bait. A bait that both brothers couldn’t resist. Isaac’s sudden love for Lily had bordered on obsession, and Isla was next. He began the five-mile walk to the manor, his feet trudging heavily. He was weak, and his shoulder still bled, but he told himself he could make it.

  There were no lights as he walked to the manor, only a few stars shone dimly in the sky. The thought of Isla made him amble forward.

  He heard faint rustling a few meters away. It was a mammal. A deer or fox. Blood. His eyes narrowed and he saw a large deer behind a row of ash trees. Ash. Lily and the ash trees that become synonymous to their name. It was a sign. He crept slowly, knowing he had one chance to pounce, so as not to waste his remaining energy.

  The deer never heard him, until Gabriel’s nails dug onto its neck.

  *

  He was looking at her like she meant the world to him. She knew she was his world. From across them, her parents were standing, smiling in approval. This was where she truly belonged, and they had accepted her choice, despite her lineage, despite the half-dead curse nightwalkers brought.

  She looked back at Gabriel and suddenly his face warped into Isaac’s. Isaac’s face contorted, his cheeks hollowed and his eyes blackened. In the blink of an eye, he was behind her parents now, and without warning, he thrust his hands into their bodies.

  Her parents fell to the snowy ground and Isaac licked his fingers dripping with blood.

  She backed away in horror.

  “What does Aidan have that I don’t?” Isaac asked her.

  Isla wildly looked around for Gabriel. She wanted to scream but her heart was up her throat. From the fog, she saw someone else. Someone who was a mirror image of her, down to the grey eyes.

  Lily walked for her, her dress sloshing on the snow and mud. She smiled, blood pouring from her chest. “Trust Aidan,” she told her. “Turn, Isla. Turn…”

  Isla bolted awake, her heart hammering erratically. She took a deep breath, realizing it was a dream, and that she was still trapped in the room with the creepy four poster bed across from her. She slowly stood up from the carpeted floor, nervous from the dream. Trust in Gabriel and turn? What did it mean?

  He had specifically told her to scrap the idea of becoming a nightwalker altogether, but it was Lily who had spoken this time, Lily her ancestor, and her doppelganger. Lily, who saved Gabriel from certain death, Lily who had kept the red diamond safe. The red diamond that has been exposed to Gabriel. She had to find him, she thought.

  Isla had begun trying to pry the window’s heavily barricaded shutters open, when she heard the faintest footsteps. It was the humming that gave Anna away.

  Anna entered the room, looking happy and refreshed, like she had just taken a bath. Her lips were rose red, her hair looked fuller, and her eyes looked brighter. Was this how they looked like when they had just fed? She suddenly looked beautiful, and Isla could imagine she was a pretty woman back then, even if she had said she worked as a prostitute.

  “Were you trying to escape?” Anna asked, leaning against the door frame.

  Isla said nothing.

  Anna tsked and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her down to the study where Isaac was waiting. Isaac was drinking brandy in front of a roaring fire.

  “Isla, did you rest well?” Isaac asked her as the grandfather clock in the hallway resonated throughout the first floor. It had just turned two in the morning.

  “Would you care for some brandy, Anna?”

  “I’m more of a whisky person,” Anna replied with smile, forcefully dumping Isla on a chair. She hoped Isaac wouldn’t say anything. She found Isla insufferable, and she couldn’t wait to kill this whiny human off.

  Isaac looked at Isla. “And you, my dear?”

  Isla said nothing, looking at the fire instead.

  “I hope you aren’t getting any ideas,” Isaac grinned. “What you did in my father’s tomb was rather damaging… oh wait, you don’t have the silver with you. But I have a feeling Aidan has it. He doesn’t want a repeat of his sins.”

  Isla’s eyes flickered and Isaac saw this.

  “What?” he began. “You don’t know that he was far more brutal than I ever was? My fodder back then was tame compared to his exploits. That’s the man you think you’d like to stay with?” He laughed.

  Snow swirled outside and occasionally, Isla could hear the wind howl, it almost sounded like a woman crying, it almost sounded like the voice that she heard from the locket.

  “Anytime now,” Isaac suddenly muttered, his head looking out at the window.

  Isla wildly looked at each open window. She could see no sign of Gabriel anywhere. Maybe Isaac was bluffing, maybe he really was dead, and Anna had killed him off. No, it couldn’t be. He made a promise to be with her, to never leave her. He had to be alive, Gabriel wasn’t going down without a fight…

  Isaac looked up at the ceiling and smiled, and then he looked back again at the window. “He’s here, Anna.”

  Isla’s heart leaped, and she knew Isaac heard this, as he briefly looked her way.

  “He won’t last long,” he told Isla apathetically.

  Anna smiled her way. Of course Aidan wouldn’t. He had signed himself a death warrant, and there was no escaping from it this time, there was no second half-life for him. She felt a surge of pride, knowing her sire was a thousand times better than the titled and spoiled heir of Blackwell Hall.

  “I’d like to welcome him, properly,” he said. Then he nodded at Anna and Anna nodded back at him.

  Anna walked to the human, her hunger had been satiated earlier, but she found herself salivating at the thought of doing a few things to Isla. Isla looked up at her, her eyes alarmed. Without warning, she grabbed Isla by the throat and punctured her skin with her nails.

  Isla gave a bloodcurdling scream, blood drawing from the hole.

  “Here he comes,” Isaac said with glee, “here he comes running for her.” Isaac stood up and walked for the main door, opening it as soon as Gabriel stood in front of the large oak entrance.

  Gabriel stopped, noticing the silver door handle was gone. Isaac stepped out into the cold night, standing four steps above him. He glared at his older brother.

  “Ah, you’ve finally decided to join us,” Isaac greeted him. “How are you healing? I can smell deer on you.”

  Anna smirked hearing this. She saw Gabriel’s shoulder was still bleeding. Animal blood was a far cry from human blood.

  “What did you do to her?” Gabriel asked Isaac, taking another step forward.

  Anna stood beside Isaac, holding Isla roughly by the arm. Gabriel’s eyes widened, seeing Isla’s neck bleeding. For a moment, he panicked, thinking she was bitten. It wasn’t too deep, he assessed, but it was still a bad wound that required stitching.

  “Theatrics, still, brother?” Gabriel began, looking at Isaac. “So we fight to the death at our father’s house?”

  “It’s supposed to be mine now, if you only had died when you were supposed to.”

  “I died once as a human, I don’t plan on dying again by your hands,” Gabriel told him. “How about we finish this without including anyone else?”

  “Anna already hurt you enough?” Isaac smiled, looking at his protégé. She smiled back at him as her grip on Isla tightened even more.

  “Isla has nothing to do with the conflict between us,” Gabriel said. “She doesn’t even have the diamond.”

  “Because you don’t want a repeat of the past? Killing someone because you wanted the gemstone safe? You truly were the selfish one, and it’s something that has to stop.”

  “You keep telling me this, yet you have no conscience for your own actions over the last hundred years.”

  “I did what I had to do to survive,” Isaac told him. “I did it to feel alive, when we all know we’re almost dead, not quite there, but almost. You’re the same as I am, and yet you don’t even empathize. Do you know how difficult it is for me to keep in the dark, while you—yo
u saunter about in the sunlight, enjoying years of affluent breathing?

  “I suffered for years as a human, I suffered because of you. You never got it in that thick skull of yours. You didn’t deserve it. You didn’t deserve anything the world gave to you. I had to work hard to get father’s attention, and your antics took my victories away.”

  “Don’t you already have what you want? You could have done so much with your life. You were brilliant, I admired you for pulling through medical school, and yet, you never once shared a kind word to me.”

  “Because the great Aidan Blackwell ne’er had the time of the day for silly things. Things that didn’t involve liquor, women and mayhem just weren’t your thing. Responsibility wasn’t. I was the true Blackwell heir. I was the one father wanted to leave all of this to.”

  “You could have contested it. I wouldn’t have cared,” Gabriel replied. “It’s true I was selfish and irresponsible, but it was my choice and I cleaned up my act after what befell me.”

  “The losses are far greater than the money and power you have now? I don’t think so. This is who we are. We’re animals, we’re primal. We’re hungry for power and we’re greedy for everything, even the smallest amount of warmth, we covet it. I’ve waited a hundred and twenty-five years for this, Aidan.”

  Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. “So have I.”

  Isaac snarled and then bashed Gabriel to the snowy ground. His sudden blows immediately made Gabriel’s jaw bleed. Gabriel narrowed his eyes and then retaliated, punching his brother’s face as Isaac fell to the earth. Isaac went for Gabriel’s neck, his hands trying to break his throat apart.

  With a heave, Gabriel flung Isaac away from him. Isaac stumbled but then he stood up again and rammed his body against Gabriel and Gabriel collapsed once more.

  “You think you’ve got the upper hand?” Isaac hissed at him.

  Gabriel’s eyes darkened and he gathered his strength, punched him in the face, and kicked Isaac away. Isaac landed on the snow with a thud and he scrambled away from Gabriel’s consecutive attacks. Gabriel swung into the air, missing Isaac and Isaac succeeded in hitting Gabriel’s chest.

  “You really were a masochist weren’t you?” Isaac taunted him. “You loved seeing people die. You loved seeing father die, your family, and Lily. You loved the pain it caused you!”

  Gabriel’s hand clenched, and he swung his arm for Isaac’s face, sending Isaac reeling a few feet away. Gabriel stood up, his eyes darker than before and full of anger, but he said nothing.

  Isaac shook his head, trying to come to his senses as quickly as possible. That was a strong one, he thought, my brother is pretty hyped up. Good. Isaac wanted this to be a battle to the death. Only one could emerge from this…

  Isaac ran for Gabriel, his long nails bared and ready to tear his brother’s face apart. Gabriel swerved to the left to avoid the attack and Isaac ended up digging his hand onto cold soil. Isaac looked up to see Gabriel bringing down a fist to his face. Isaac staggered, with the unexpected ferocity of Gabriel’s punch. He found himself streaking a few feet away.

  Gabriel looked at his brother on the ground, his chest heaving from the sudden exertion. He almost wanted to breathe to feel calmer. “It shouldn’t have to end this way.”

  Isaac stood up and spat blood on the snow. He licked the remaining blood away. “You still don’t get it, do you? You took everything from me, and I want it back.”

  “I can’t bring the past back, Isaac.”

  “You can’t, but I can make a good future out of this,” he said, eyeing Isla who was standing in front of Anna. Anna’s nails were ready to dig into Isla at any time.

  Gabriel shook his head. “You want money? I can give you money. Just don’t hurt her.”

  “But she’s the pièce de résistance,” Isaac told his younger brother, “she’s the reason why I’m actually here, wanting and needing to kill you.”

  Anna listened to every word he said. The truth came out under pressure, the truth came out under Isaac’s bravado. So Gabriel was right. She was only his subservient, after all. There was a part of her that refused to believe it. He cared for her. He didn’t say it, but he loved her. Right?

  Gabriel noticed the flicker of emotion on Anna’s face. Isaac’s ruse for her was up. Then, he looked at Isla, who looked almost calm, one hand holding onto the pendant her parents had given her many years ago. She looked at him with fire in her eyes. He looked back at Isaac who took a step toward him.

  “A hundred and twenty-five years of human sentiment does you no good, brother.”

  “You actually acknowledged me as your brother?” Gabriel retorted.

  “Of course I do. I just want you dead.”

  “That’s what was wrong with you, why father found it hard to believe in you, even if I was the wayward son to everyone’s eyes. You were erratic, you were a thin line away from insanity, and our father’s instincts were right.”

  Isaac snarled at him and ran to Gabriel, knocking him down, snow and soil flying into the air. Then he grabbed the silver dagger hidden in Gabriel’s coat pocket and stabbed him on his side. Gabriel groaned aloud. Isla choked on a cry.

  Isaac then let go of the dagger which burned his hand and then he pummelled Gabriel with punch after punch.

  “Stop it!” Isla screamed.

  Gabriel received the blows, the pain of the dagger still far greater than his bloodied face. He saw the dagger from the corner of his eyes, inches away from his hand. As soon as Isaac raised another hand to beat him, Gabriel grabbed the dagger and it dug deep onto Isaac’s wrist.

  Isaac howled in pain, collapsing as he held his hand.

  “Aidan, you bastard!” he screamed.

  Gabriel tried to get up, and he succeeded in sitting down, clutching his abdomen as he looked at his brother. Isaac squirmed in the snow, his eyes closed and in near tears.

  Isla felt Anna’s grip on her release slowly. She looked at Anna’s eyes and Anna nodded, letting go of her completely. Isla ran for Gabriel, embracing him.

  “Gabriel,” Isla breathed out, closing her eyes.

  Gabriel inhaled her familiar, comforting scent, embracing her with a good hand, albeit awkwardly. “Get out while you still can,” Gabriel whispered to her.

  “No, I’m not leaving you,” she cried softly.

  There was the shuffling of feet and Isaac stumbled twice, trying to stand up. He saw Isla embracing Gabriel and he gave a short, bitter laugh.

  “Bravo, Aidan. You’re turning this into a familiar scene, aren’t you? What happened a century ago? It’s coming back again. Although, I wish you wouldn’t kill her.”

  Isaac then deftly took out the dagger from his wrist, wincing as he did so. Isla shut her eyes for a moment.

  Gabriel stood up with Isla’s help, hobbling from the wound on his right ribcage. “You’re not killing her.”

  Isaac’s head snapped up, realizing Anna was no longer there. Without warning, Anna crept up to his back, ready to snap his neck. Isaac whirled around and quickly held Anna’s throat, thrusting her high up, her feet dangling inches from the ground.

  Anna’s eyes bulged out as Isaac’s nails dug into her skin.

  “Stop! Stop it!” Isla pleaded.

  “You betrayed me,” Isaac told Anna, as Anna struggled under his grip. She beat onto his hand and face, kicked him as hard as she could, but he would not be swayed.

  Anna choked and blood came from her eyes and her nose.

  “You betrayed me,” Isaac continued, “and to think I almost cared for you.”

  Anna’s eyes darkened and her hand reached out for his face, swiping her nails at him. Isaac yelped from the scratch and proceeded to break her throat apart.

  Isla gasped in horror as Isaac’s face turned menacing. His cheeks hollowed out, and his eyes blackened completely. He dropped Anna to the ground, the snow mingling with her blood. Bits of tissue and muscle were the only things that held her head to her neck.

  Isaac stared at her body for a moment, a few memori
es with her flooding his thoughts. She was fun and useful, but truly dispensable in the end. Isaac rolled his head, attempting to crack his neck.

  “Well, that was a crick in the neck, don’t you think?” he said with a smile.

  “You’re a monster!” Isla cried out.

  “So is that man beside you,” Isaac replied. Then he walked to the both of them and casually flung Isla, sending her twenty feet away.

  “Isla!”

  “Just me and you now, brother,” Isaac said, raising a hand to strike Gabriel down. “No one else to interrupt us.”

  Gabriel swiftly stood, and he gripped Isaac’s arms apart before Isaac could launch an attack on him. Isaac brought up his knee, jutting it onto Gabriel’s stomach. Gabriel continued to parry blow after blow from Isaac despite his brother’s relentlessness. Gabriel saw an opening and hit Isaac’s jaw, sending him reeling to the ground.

  Isaac’s lower lip was bleeding heavily this time, and his eyes filled with even more rage, the irises were red and the pupils blackened. He felt the cold soil underneath his palms and he took a fistful, throwing this at Gabriel’s face.

  Blinded momentarily, Gabriel did not see Isaac hitting him squarely on his chest with a leg, knocking him down. Gabriel blinked, trying to focus, just as Isaac held in his hand the dagger that Anna had returned to him, the same dagger she used to stab Gabriel earlier.

  The silver glinted despite the dimness and snow, and Gabriel avoided the aim, swiftly moving sideways just as Isaac tried to stab it in his heart. It hit the ground instead. Isaac raised it again, and Gabriel scrambled just mere inches away from the next attempt.

  “You’re a damned soul, to kill someone who was loyal to you,” Isla screamed, surprised she had that much empathy for someone who had wanted her dead a mere few moments ago.

  Isaac looked up to her temporarily, as his brother inched away from his reach. “My dear, I’m already damned. This life is already damned. And that’s why I need company.”

  “You’re not touching her,” Gabriel muttered, swiping his brother from underneath.

  The silver dagger fell to the snow and Gabriel began to assault his brother with a series of punches.