Astoria: Secrets, Lies and Vampires

by Theiler, Donna

  “I’m right here Emma.” The voice coming from the corner of the room, my eyes searched the room, finding Evan standing looking out of the window out into the woods behind the house. The day looked to be cloudy as usual, Astoria seemed to have a routine of cloudy and rainy days, which I was grateful for. Evan and his family wouldn’t be able to come outside if it was sunny for very long during the day without it causing them to grow weak, and eventually causing their demise.

  “I thought you left.” I said as I put my hand over my heart in relief. Evan was walking over to me sitting next to me on the bed.

  “I would never leave you, no matter what baby.” He said as he leaned in to kiss me good morning, which I was getting use to since I had been here the past few days. I kissed him back and gave a small smile in return. “C’mon, let’s get you some breakfast.” He said as he helped me up.

  As we walked from my room Evan and I was now sharing, I noticed how eerily quiet the house was. I didn’t hear the normal beating and banging in the kitchen I had over the weekend, with Grace cooking breakfast for her half Vampire children, and now her newly found adopted human, which was me. Evan must have noticed the same quiet as me because now he was holding on to my arm a little too tightly and holding me back. “Mom, Payton?” he called, as we walked towards the kitchen. As we got closer Evan’s gripped got tighter and I yelped. “Ouch.” Evan turned and let go quickly and as he did he apologize.

  “Sorry.” He said.

  “I’m okay.” I assured him. Once we got to the kitchen we could tell no one had even been stirring in the kitchen this morning. The kitchen looked as though no one had even been there since last night, the blinds on the back door were still closed shut, there were no dishes in the sink, or even the slightest smell that anyone had even cooked anything this morning. Then I noticed a note on the counter. “Evan.” I said as I pointed to the note. The handwriting was in elegant script. Evan walked over to the note and picked it up and began to read it aloud.

  “Evan,

  Had an emergency at the office, be back soon. Payton and Everett went to hunt. Make sure you and Emma stays inside until I return.

  Love Mom”

  My whole body relaxed as Evan read the note. They were just out for awhile. Destiny hadn’t gotten to them while we were sleeping and she hadn’t slaughtered his whole family. She hadn’t been here at all. We were still safe. I looked at Evan and smiled. “So we have the whole house to ourselves.” I said as I looked at Evan with a devilish grin. He smiled shyly at me and I reached out for his hand as I led him back up to my room. Once we reached the guest room I made sure to shut the bedroom door and locked it. This didn’t go unnoticed by Evan as he turned to look at me with a look of confusion.

  “Emma, what are you doing?” he asked as I walked closer to him not taking my eyes off of him. Not saying a word I leaned in to kiss him. Evan returned my kisses for a moment but once he realized what was on my mind he stopped me. “Emma, no!” he said pushing me away softly.

  “Why?” I asked, with a look of rejection on my face. “I want to.” I added, leaning in to kiss him again.

  “The time isn’t right.” He said as he took my hand guiding me over to sit on the bed. “Our first time should be special, and this.” He said raising his hand around the room I had been sleeping in. “This isn’t my ideal of special. And we should be married first.” He said as he reached out his hand and started to rub my ring finger.

  “That’s old school.” I said smiling back at him.

  “True. But I am old school” He said with a laugh. “You are special to me Emma. I don’t want to mess this up. If I ever done anything to hurt you, I could never forgive myself, this is a big deal. I want the time to be right, that’s all.”

  “Okay, when the time is right.” I replied as I leaned in and kissed his lips. He smiled at me and tugged at my hand “So, can we eat now?” was all he replied.

  “Sure.”

  As we walked back down to the kitchen I wasn’t as nervous as I had been now that I knew where all of The Blake’s were. As we turned the corner I noticed there was a slight breeze blowing through the hallway. At first, this went unnoticed to me, but when we walked into the kitchen I saw that the backdoor was slightly ajar, I held tight to Evan’s arms as we walked cautiously together towards it, locking it once we reached it. “Is your mom back?” I asked, knowing the answer wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

  “It’s her. She’s here.” My heart began to race as I started to look around the room franticly.

  “Who is here?” I asked, knowing the answer as I asked the question.

  “Destiny.” He replied.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “I can smell her?” my head was spinning. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He could smell her? Like a dog could smell a scent I was guessing? I didn’t know, all I knew was the crazy Vampire chick was here in the same house as me and I needed to survive somehow, although I didn’t know how with it being only Evan and I in the house. Destiny was stronger than Evan and I put together. Evan quickly pulled out his phone and sent a quick text to his mother.

  ‘Destiny is here in the house’

  Pressing send and then he slipped his phone in his pocket. We walked slowly through the house. I stayed close to Evan’s side holding tight to his arm. As we walked through to the family room past the large picture window I could see that the clouds were parting and the sun was starting to peek out. I wasn’t sure why I noticed this at this very particular moment, but at the same time Evan noticed it also. “We need to get out of the house.” He said as he pulled me along as fast as he could. As we reached the foyer, with the front door right before us, Destiny walked out of the sitting room. The first thing I noticed was she was holding one of Evan’s sketches in her hand, I quickly realized it was one that Evan drew of me. The one from Cannon Beach, from our first kiss, the second thing was how beautiful she was. Destiny was thin and tall, with long blond hair that flowed freely around her shoulders in thick curly waves. Her facial features were delicate. I could see why Evan fell for her. As she stared down looking at the drawing I thought I could hear a low hissing noise coming from her, then her eyes looked up to gaze at me. Her eyes weren’t like Evan’s or Payton’s. Or even Grace’s or Neville’s. Destiny’s eyes were a bright red, a blood red. As she stood looking at me, then Evan and then back to me, the look on her face grew from hateful to evil in seconds as she could tell Evan’s feeling for me. As her anger grew she began to shake, showing her teeth she began to let out a loud hissing sound. Without saying a word she lunged at me. Evan instinctively grabbed me, throwing me out of the way as he threw himself in front of Destiny’s assault she intended for me. I fell in to the wall, hitting my shoulder hard as I hit the ground. Evan and Destiny thrashed to the ground, crashing into a table that sat next to the door, breaking it into a million pieces, wood flying across the floor. Destiny grabbed Evan by the shoulders and began to smash his head into the marble floor. I let out a scream as Evan fought hard to keep Destiny from winning. Evan screamed out to me “Emma, run outside, now!” I stood in horror at first not knowing what to do. I wanted to help him, but then I remembered there would be nothing I could do, her strengths were too much for me. She could kill me in a second. As she continued to smash Evan’s head into the floor, he continued to scream at me to run outside. “Go, outside. Stay in the sun.” he yelled. He was being murdered and his only thought’s was my safety. My head was spinning on what to do. At first I thought if Evan was going to die, I wanted to too! But then I thought of Gran and how I was all she had left and that I couldn’t do that to her. Then it seemed as in a flash two blurs come running past me, pushing Destiny off of Evan. It was Payton and Everett. Everett ran into Destiny head first and crashed into her knocking her off of Evan and into the wall. He picked her up with ease and threw her into the next room, I could hear crashing and breaking of glass and furniture. Payton ran into the room to check on Evan, and then I heard Payton
yell at Evan. “Get Emma out of here now Evan.” Before I knew it Evan was grabbing me by the arm and we were out of the house, and we were running. As we ran out of the house I could still hear the thrashing and banging in the house. The growling and hissing was loud. I was trying my best to keep up with Evan, but it seemed as though he was dragging me more than I was running. I fell down the stairs as we ran out, and several more times before Evan put me on his back and we were running at a fast pace that made my head spin. I was too afraid to look back to see if Destiny was behind us, so I put my head between Evan’s shoulder blades and just let him carry me to our destination. It seemed like hours when Evan came to a stop but in reality it was probably only a few minutes. He slowly put me down off his back and I had to bend down putting my head between my legs to get my head to stop spinning, everything had happen so fast I felt like I was going to pass out. After several seconds after my head stopped spinning I found we were at the Lighthouse. I looked franticly around for any signs of Destiny. “She didn’t follow us.” He said as he looked me over to make sure I was okay. I looked up at the sun and noticed it was shinning bright in the sky.

  “We need to get inside.” I said with urgency. As we walked towards the door to the Lighthouse his phone rang.

  “Payton?” he answered.

  “Evan she’s gone. She ran off.” Payton said on the other end. Evan quickly hung up the phone and looked around our surroundings. Evan began to struggle to get the lock undone, before we could even make another move Destiny walked out around the side of the Lighthouse. She was soaking wet, as though she had to swim to get to the Lighthouse. As she paced around she stared at us with her evil red eyes.

  “So, this is who you replace me with?” she said as she pointed at me looking me up and down. Evan protectively hid me behind him. She scowled at me as I looked out from around Evan. “Um” was all she added before she was in mid air coming towards Evan and me. Evan let lose a growl and jumped up to meet her head on. As Evan jumped I ran in behind a rock to hide. They both meet in the air, crashing into one another and then came crashing down on the hard rocks, landing hard. Evan got the advantage as he fell atop of her and started to smash her head on the sharp rocks. Destiny growled and kicked him off of her and Evan went flying high in the air, hitting the window of the lantern room of the Lighthouse before he came crashing to the ground like a ragdoll. When Evan didn’t move, Destiny’s gaze and rage turned towards me. I ran towards Evan as fast as I could before she made her way to us. “Wake up Evan.” I screamed as I shook him. Destiny walked over top of us, circling us like we were her pry, as she did she smiled the whole time. Right before she spoke she kneeled down and took her hand and cupped my chin and raised my head to meet he gaze. “His mine, always has been, always will be. If I can’t have him, no one will.” She lifted her hand and slapped me hard across the face, sending me flying in the air as I came crashing down and sliding into a large rock, crashing head first into it. Blood gushed from my forehead, as it ran into my eyes, blurring my vision. I could only make out that Evan was still not moving as Destiny was now walking my way. Now she was stalking me with a hunger growl, as she was on top of me she leaned over me and whispered in my ear “I was going to just kill you before, but now that I smelled your blood-” before she could say her last word, I could see two figures behind her as they grabbed her by the arms. It didn’t take me long to notice who it was, it was Neville and Cameron. Destiny thrashed in their arms as they dragged her along the rough rocky terrain. Grace came rushing to Evan’s side, who was still not moving, I ran to be next to him as I begged her to help him.”Please, you have got to help him.” I screamed. She pushed me down to look at my head, when I protested and screamed at her to help Evan, she turned her attention back to him. All of The Blake’s were now there. Payton and Everett was helping Neville and Cameron hold Destiny still as I watched Neville placing his hands on Destiny’s head. My gaze was more on Evan and why he wasn’t moving. Grace was assuring me that Evan was going to be fine. He was a Vampire, Vampire’s are strong she kept saying. I wasn’t so sure, Destiny tossed him like a ragdoll through the air and he landed hard, all I could do was cry. After a few moments Evan began to moan, I could hear the sigh of relief in Grace. I let out a sigh as well as Evan tried to sit up, Grace was being over protective and made him lay still for a few more minutes. Now that Evan was awake the mumbled voices were becoming clear, I could hear Payton screaming to Grace asking if her brother and I was okay, Everett was screaming at Destiny, that she wouldn’t ever hurt his family again. And Destiny was screaming at me to stay away from Evan, and then to Neville. Telling him, no, begging him not to erase her memory. As she was screaming she was looking straight at me, I had to look away, wondering if it was painful. Evan sat up and reached out to me, with a worried look on his face when he saw the blood on my forehead. “You’re hurt!” he said as he began to wipe the blood off my head with his hands. I pulled away not wanting to make things uncomfortable for him with all the blood.

  “No, I am fine.” I assured him. As I leaned in hugged him tighter than I had ever hug him before, as we hugged Evan pulled away from me and checked me over again and I had to assure him again that I was fine. “I’m okay. Really, but look at you.” I said as I touch his face, even though there were no visible marks on his body. Vampires heal remarkably fast, my memory was reliving the assault Destiny had done to Evan. I turned my head to see what was going on now with Neville and Destiny and now Destiny was passed out, not moving. “So what will happen now?” I asked as I pointed to Destiny as she lay lifelessly on the ground.

  “Neville will take her far away, and she will never try to hurt you again.” Grace said as she helped Evan off the ground. I nodded as I looked over towards were Neville sat with Destiny. I thought I noticed a look of remorse on Neville’s face. Almost as though he felt sorry for the girl as he picked her lifeless body up of the hard rocky surface. Now Grace’s attention was on me, looking me over to see how much damage Destiny had done to me. “Sit still Emma.” she demanded as I moved about as she looked at my head. I was worried about Evan and wanted to be next to him. “We will have to stitch this up back at the house.” She said. I looked at Evan with a look of concern. I didn’t know how I would explain this to Gran, and why I didn’t tell her I even went to the hospital. “Don’t worry. This will be healed before you go home Sunday evening.” Grace added with a smile. Relief washed over me. Thankful that I wasn’t going to have to explain a cut that needed stitches to Gran, and even more grateful that I made it through this nightmare, so I could spend the rest of my life with Evan Blake.

  Chapter 20

  As we stood around the woman that just tried to kill me as she lay motionless on the hard ground, the dark clouds began to roll in as thunder started clapping in the distance. “It looks like a storm is coming.” Evan said as we all looked towards the sky, the rain was just starting to fall. I shuddered at the thought of having to be in the rain on our return trip back to The Blake’s home. Grace was comforting Neville who was sitting next to Destiny, I could tell he was having a hard time with what he had to do to protect me and his family from Destiny and her rage she intended to inflict on anyone who got in her way. We all kept our eyes on the sky as the storm moved closer. It moved in so fast that we got caught out in the storm.

  “At least it’ll make getting off this rock easier with the rain. No humans will be out in this mess.” Payton said as the rain was now pouring down. “Come on. Let’s get Emma home before she catches cold.” She added as she ushered me off towards were Grace and Neville was standing, which was by Cameron’s side. Who was now holding Destiny as she lay limp in his arms. “Everett and Cameron is going with father .” Payton said. Evan nodded as though he knew where she meant. As Cameron held Destiny in his arms getting ready to leave for their destination unknown, he walked past Evan and me. Just as he passed us, Destiny’s eyes popped open and she reached out and grabbed my arm. I screamed out as I fought to break free of her gras
p. And then just like that, she let loose and passed back out again. My heart raced as I ran over to the other side of the Lighthouse far away from where Destiny was at. Evan ran to my side and reassured me she was only having a reflex from her memory being erased. And it wasn’t until I watched Everett, Cameron and Neville disappear into the ocean with Destiny that I finally relaxed. Grace and Payton left before Evan and I did, disappearing into the ocean. Since I couldn’t stay under water as long as they could Evan had no choice but to run on top of the water as he had done before with me. Making it especially dangerous in case we were seen by any humans, so Evan made a quick run onto the beach alone, swimming under water before he attempted to carry me on his back on top of the water. Making sure no humans were along the beach when Evan was carrying me in. After making sure the coast was clear, Evan came back for me putting me on his back and running fast over the ocean water till we reached the sandy beach. Sitting me down softly I was able to stand without becoming dizzy this time, Evan grabbed my hand and began to walk swiftly towards the wooded area that would lead us away from any human civilization so Evan could carry me on his back and run with me, making our trip speedy back to his house. Once Evan felt we were safe and deep enough into the forest he reached for my arm and slung me on his back and began to run, picking up pace so that we was at his house within minutes. Once inside the house Grace handed me dry clothes and lead me to her office to stitch up my head.

  As I walked in the large room I look around at the beautiful art work on the walls. The paintings no doubt were expensive by famous artist. One in particular caught my gaze, although it didn’t seem to fit with the others and didn’t seem nearly as expensive as the others in the room, but it stood out from the rest. It was of a woman, who looked a lot like Grace sitting looking out over a pond as the sun was just starting to set. I stared at it for a long moment. After Grace finished setting up the instruments on the stainless steel table she walked over and pointed at the picture “That’s me, Evan made that for my birthday 100th birthday.” She said as she guided me over towards the table where she would stitch me up.