The Blood Will Run

by E. A. Abel

  Devin was offended. “I promise you Chace that I only felt Alivias’ presence after you left. So instead of wasting valuable time and stopping by the shop to get you, I rushed straight here.”

  “Don’t kid yourself brother. When this is all over, you and I will have a serious discussion about what really happened. Is that understood?”

  Devin wondered if he should make a run for it. He knew what that wild blazed look in Chaces’ eyes meant. He watched Chace clench his jaw and thought for sure Chace was going to beat the crap out of him. But to his surprise, Chace did nothing.

  Instead, Chace looked past Devin and fixed his gaze on Alivia, who was now sitting on the bed.

  He sensed Chaces’ temper boil even higher when he noticed Devins’ blood on Alivias’ lips.

  Then Chace drew in a few deep breaths. “Whatever possessed you to give her your blood?”

  Before Devin could answer, Miles was on all four paws in the opening of the wall, growling and baring his teeth.

  In that same moment, the moonstone ring slid off Alivias’ finger and a blinding light filled the room. Heaps of plaster and wooden planks fell down around them.

  When the light finally disappeared, a white Panther as tall as the roof, with black speckles and big blue eyes stood in the path of the werewolf.

  “Alivia are you okay?” Chace shouted.

  “I’m fine,” answered Alivia.

  The wolf snarled and showed his teeth. The panther let out a ferocious wild hissing sound and rendered its own razor sharp teeth. Miles growled with his mouth dripping saliva. He was as tall as the panther but much wider.

  Devin eyed Chace who eyed him right back. Then Devin caught the distinctive aroma of blood in the air, but he wasn’t exactly sure where it was coming from.

  There was no time to find out either because when Devin looked over, he saw that the wolf was already in a battling stance. The wolf lifted up his head, let out a deafening howl before he swung his paw, and hit the panther hard in the mouth. The panther launched himself at the wolf and hit him with its head in the chest. The wolf flew back and landed outside the cabin on all four paws. The two of them circled one another a few times before the wolf flung himself at the panther.

  The panther lifted his paw and cracked him in the nose before the wolf even had a chance to get near him. Blood erupted from his nose. The wolf growled fiercely. The yellow of his eyes lit up with a hatred that was ready to kill. He launched himself toward the panther again with his claws spread out wide and long. The panther opened his mouth wide and grabbed a hold of the wolfs’ paw.

  Then he bit down hard as he crushed the bones inside of his mouth. An awful howl shrieked from the wolfs’ throat.

  He struggled to pull out his paw but the more he struggled, the harder the panther chomped down. The panther then lifted its claw and shoved its razor sharp nails into his eye. It twisted its claw further and further until it ripped the socket out of his eye. The wolf howled out in horror.

  Within a matter of seconds, he brought his paw up and smashed the panther hard against its head. Then another blow from the wolf, this time he hit it in the side. Then there was another chain of hard blows, one right after the other, until the panther finally let go of his paw. The wolf limped back, licked his wounded paw and launched himself at the panther again, this time leaping into the air and landing on top of his back. He bit down hard into his neck and yanked as he ripped out a chunk of skin and fur. The wolf bit him again and tore out another chunk from his back.

  The panther whipped back and forth in every which direction it could trying to get him off. That’s when the wolf slipped off his back and flew against a tree. The tree split and splintered onto the ground as it crashed into another tree.

  Chace sped out of the cabin and stood beside the injured panther. The wolf caught his bearings and headed at him again.

  The panther leaped up and landed on the other side of the wolf.

  The wolf whipped around and stared at the panther. Then he turned and stared at Chace and leaped on top of his chest. Chace fell to the ground, grabbed the wolf by the mouth, and began to stretch it open. The wolf managed to break free from his grip and bit Chace hard in the neck.

  The panther was on top of the wolf before Devin could get there. The wolf lifted his paw and dug his razor sharp nails into Devins’ side just as he arrived next to Chace. When he let go, Devin fell onto the ground. With a blazing determination the panther wrapped its paw around the wolfs’ stomach, lifted him into the air and together they fell back.

  As they scuffled around the woods, the trees exploded down around them. In an instant, Chace was back up on his feet and sped to help the panther. Devin followed.

  The panther and the wolf stopped in a clearing in the woods and circled one another again. Chace didn’t hesitate, he leaped up onto the wolfs’ back while Devin sped to the back of the wolf and gripped its tail. He pulled as hard as he could while Chace jammed his hands into his wounded eye and began to rip his eye socket apart.

  Suddenly, the wolf began to jump about. Chace held on until his hands slipped away from the wolfs’ eye and he was thrown against a tree. Devin held onto its tail. The wolf swung around and crunched down on Devins’ hand. Devin let go of its tail and screamed out in pain. The wolf glanced around as the blood spilled out of his eye and in a flash, he disappeared into the woods.

  ☼

  Alivia was dizzy. She wiped off the wetness that was dripping down from her head to the tip of her nose. She glanced down. Thick, red blood covered her hand. Her head was throbbing.

  “I thought Alivia was the Shayvan,” Devin said as he walked back through the opening with Chace.

  Shayvan? What the hell is a Shayvan, she thought. The room around her began to spin out of control.

  “I thought she was the Shayvan as well,” The voice said.

  She was certain that the voice belonged to someone she knew. She tried to sit up, but fell back onto the bed.

  “Alivia what’s wrong?” Chace asked bending down over her.

  “I’m…I’m not…sure,” Alivia stammered before she slipped into the darkness.

  It couldn’t have been longer than a few minutes when Alivia came to. She felt much better. She raised her hand to where the throbbing pain once was and realized there was nothing there.

  She shivered inwardly as her heart steadied itself. Chace was leaning over her.

  “Feeling any better?” he asked.

  His eyes revealed the worry. He bent toward her and brushed his soft lips to hers.

  Alivia pushed him away. “Get away from me!” she screamed and flew frantically back against the bed.

  Chace jumped back, startled by her reaction.

  “Alivia everything is fine now. Miles is gone,” Devin said and moved toward her.

  “Don’t you come near me either!” Alivia screamed.

  She grabbed the shackle off the bed in front of her and whipped it into the air as a warning.

  “Liv calm down. No one here is going to hurt you.” She couldn't believe what she was seeing, standing in front of her was the physical body of her dead brother.

  Alivia closed her eyes and then opened them again. The person who looked and sounded like her brother was still there.

  “Stay away from me, I’m warning you. I don’t know who the hell you are or why you look like my brother, but you are not my brother.”

  “Liv it’s me, I promise you it’s me, Lawson. I can prove it to you,” Lawson said.

  Alivia glanced around the room. “Where’s my phone?”

  Devin pulled his cell out and dialed her number. Her phone rang under the debris of the fallen roof. Devin set aside the logs and bricks to get to the phone.

  “Just toss it onto the bed.” Alivia said.

  Devin did as she asked and tossed it directly below her.

  “Where is this place?” Alivia asked.

  “We’re in a cabin not too far from the Whaling Bridge,”

  Chace
answered.

  With her available right hand, she picked up the phone and texted Erica.

  in danger in a cabin by whaling bridge come asap.

  “Come on Livy let me try and convince you it’s really me,” said

  Lawson.

  “Shut up,” Alivia said.

  “I bet I know who you sent a text to. It was Erica, am I right?”

  Alivia shut her eyes and shook her head.

  “Remember when Polarbear went missing? The three of us searched for that stupid dog in these very woods for days. On the fourth day, you told me you wouldn’t shed another tear. You told me that you would find that stupid dog if it was the last thing you ever did. Erica and I followed you to the Whaling Bridge and that’s when you heard Polarbear whining. He was stuck in a drainpipe. Erica ran back to town for help. You sat with Polarbear the whole time and rubbed his nose so he would stop whimpering.” Alivia opened her eyes just as Lawson started to come toward her.

  She raised her hand up and he stopped. Lawson nodded and then continued. “Not long after that, the fire department came and cut him out. He had broken ribs and was hungry, but he survived. Then a year later, that idiot dog attacked the wolf, or at least what we thought was a wolf, here in the same woods when we were on our way home from the creek. Remember how he jumped in front of Erica as the wolf leaped into the air to attack her. He put up a good fight and hurt the wolf that ended up running off into the woods. Polarbear died right after the attack, but he saved our lives that day.”

  She saw the pain in his eyes. Lawson loved that dog just as much as she did.

  Very slowly, she drew in a deep breath and then released it. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here. But let me tell you what I do know. Today has been a damn nightmare. First, I’m abducted by Miles who turns into a freaking werewolf. Then someone claiming to be my dead brother is standing right in front of me with my brothers’ memories. And then, as if that’s not enough to make me believe I’m losing my freaking mind, Miles tells me that Chace and Devin are vampires. So, excuse me if I'm a little freaking freaked out from all of this crazy shit that’s taken place today.”

  “Chace and Devin are vampires?” asked Erica. She climbed through the opening of the cabin and over the fallen debris.

  When Erica saw Lawson standing in the room, she froze.

  There was a long silence before Chace spoke.

  “This morning when I sent you the text message, it was about all of this. I wanted to break it to you gently and give you a chance to wrap your head around all of this before you were put in danger.”

  Chace knew he had to keep his distance.

  His earlier fear of Alivia hating him appeared to be coming true. Chace half-expected Alivia to make a run for it and drag

  Erica along with her, but she didn’t.

  Instead, she slid to the edge of the bed and dropped the shackle onto the ground.

  Alivia shook her head. “I kind of knew that something was up.

  The both of you don’t act like the other guys around here. You seem to be much older. There were also a few little clues along the way but I shrugged them off. Like the night, we were dancing at the creek and I felt like I was floating. We were really floating. Now I know.”

  Everyone stared at Alivia.

  She wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

  She thought about what they were talking about earlier. That name Shayvan was familiar to her. She had heard the name in a dream once before. In the dream, Chace and Devin were talking to Lawson about someone named Vanstrauss. They were saying that Vanstrauss was trying to break through to the physical realm.

  Alivia shook her head and straightened up. Nothing made any sense to her anymore.

  And Chace, he never thought to tell her about what he was. But really, how could she hold it against him? It’s not like he could've just walked up to her and blurted out that he was a vampire. Still, she couldn’t help but feel angry.

  She stood up, placed her hand on her hip and glared at Chace. “You could have told me the truth.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Chace approached her slowly. “I am a vampire and Devin is a sunvamp.”

  “I know what a vampire is, but what is a sunvamp?” Alivia asked.

  Chace reached for Alivias’ hand and held it.

  “A sunvamp is a vampire who walks only in the sunlight.”

  Alivia laughed.

  “No seriously, Devin cannot walk in the moonlight or he turns to ash.”

  Alivia fell back on the bed laughing in hysterics and seconds later Erica joined in.

  Chace and Devin looked back and forth at each girl.

  “Come…on…” Alivia said holding her stomach as she tried to breathe, “Devin is standing in the moonlight right now.” Alivia pointed to the opening where the roof once was at the moon.

  “Yes, thanks to Mercy English. She’s the witch that performed a spell that turned our birthmarks into the symbol of the sun and moon. Before Mercy, Devin couldn’t walk in the moonlight and I couldn’t walk in the sunlight.”

  Alivia was serious now. “Okay, wait a minute. If you are a vampire shouldn’t Devin be a vampire too. You guys are twins right?”

  Chace nodded.

  “Then how is Devin a sunvamp and you are a nightvamp?”

  “It’s a long story,” Devin said.

  “Well I got time, let’s hear it,” Alivia said.

  “Let’s all head over to the Casa De Luca. We can explain everything you want to know over a few drinks. Besides, I am suddenly feeling thirsty,” said Chace.

  Alivia nodded.

  “As long as I’m not what you drink from, then lead the way,” Erica said.

  Chace laughed and Devin said, “We consider ourselves bloodetarians. Chace and I don’t drink directly from the vein. We haven’t for a very long time.”

  Chace cleared his throat.

  “Well at least I haven’t. I drink blood bags that we get from the blood bank,” Devin said.

  Alivia stood up and grabbed Chaces’ arm as the rest of them went through the opening of the cabin.

  “Is that really Lawson?” she asked.

  “As far as I know it is,” Chace said.

  “Being what you are, will you ever hurt me or drink my blood?” she asked.

  Chace stared into her eyes. “I would never hurt you. I have never loved anyone the way I love you, I swear.”

  Chace could tell by the calm expression on her face that she didn’t fear him anymore.

  He leaned toward her needing to feel her warm lips against his own. He could taste his blood in her mouth as his tongue found its way inside her mouth. Earlier when she passed out, he gave her his blood and then healed her. He couldn't resist and had to kiss her cheek. That's when he realized he had her blood on his lips. He couldn't help himself and licked her blood. He knew at that moment that blood wasn’t what he wanted from her. He wanted her love and nothing else. Not even all the blood he could consume in the entire world mattered to him as long as he had her.

  ☼

  Devin entered the living room with a tray with four glasses filled with iced tea on top of it. He handed each person a glass and sat down beside Erica on the long sofa lounge. Chace was standing at the bar. He grabbed a bottle of bourbon and poured himself a glass.

  “Have you ever heard about the curse Artemis gave to Orion, I curse the sun, I draw the moon, the blood will run?” Devin asked.

  “Yes, it’s written in the Greek mythology if I’m not mistaken,” said Alivia.

  “Right, so the creation of the very first vampire began with Orion. Orion was Artemis’ one true love. When Orion was on the verge of dying, after a giant serpent tried to kill him, Artemis cursed Orion with many gifts and granted him immortality. Then she hid him in a cave south of her Temple in Ephesus.”

  Alivia nodded and Chace continued.

  “Now this is where the story gets interesting. Apollo went to Firenze to kill Orion, but he was not there. Inst
ead, Apollo found Demeetrie who was in the early stages of transitioning into a vampire. Apollo was pleased with his discovery and cursed Demeetrie, I curse the moon, I draw the sun, the blood will run. He granted Demeetrie all the same powers that Artemis had given Orion, but with a few exceptions. One being, Demeetrie would only be able to walk in the sunlight. If he were to walk in the moonlight, he would turn to ash. Two being, if Demeetrie or any of his descendants happened to meet their soul mate, Apollos’ curse would guide them toward eventually conceiving twins. Lastly, he granted Demeetrie the ability to shift into a bird of his choice. With every shift, he would receive a new power or he would be left with some sort of disadvantage.”

  “So, there are more sunvamps walking the Earth?” Erica asked.

  “There are many sunvamps,” Chace said.

  “Are they living in Newgrave too?” Erica asked.

  “No, we only know they exist because of the Sollecular. In the book, it says, the Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton sent several of the sunvamps to Hellsgrave. The other existing sunvamps were cloaked to shield their identities,” Chace said.

  “What is the Sollecular?” Erica asked.

  “It’s a book Apollo created to document everything about the sunvamps. Demeetrie had the book right up until the witches staked him in the heart with the hollow cross. That’s when the Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton got their hands on the book and began documenting secrets about vampires,” Devin said.

  “Then our parents stole the book and Zio Sandino has had it ever since,” Chace said.

  “The book contains information on sunvamps, vampires and witches amongst other supernatural beings. It also holds the names of the most powerful of them all. In the wrong hands, this book could wipe out certain supernatural beings, including the Shayvan,” Devin said and nodded toward Lawson.

  “So I am assuming that Demeetrie is the most powerful sunvamp?” Erica asked.

  Chace nodded. “Yes.”