by Dawn Gray
I walked over to the refrigerator and watched Isaac walk over. He stopped and looked at me with those blue eyes, then grabbed my arm as I turned to walk away. I looked up at him, slowly, and then when I caught his stare, I wrapped my arms around him, and he held me. He knew what I had done, that I had taken blood from Jason.
"If he ever hurts you, Angel." Isaac said softly in my ear as he held me tightly. "I'll kill him."
"He told me he loved me." I whispered, in a confused voice. Isaac pushed me away and looked down at me.
"Do you love him?" He questioned. I looked at him, my eyes showing the confusion that I held. "Do you think you might love him?"
"I don't know." I replied and pushed my hair back from my face. "What I feel for him is different than what I feel for you and I know I love you."
"Yeah, but, Angel. There's a difference between our love, and the love between a man and a woman."
"So, you’re not a man?" I smiled at him.
"That's not what I meant. We're friends, family, that's a completely different thing that what Jason has for you and what you have for him." Isaac replied and shook his head. "If you didn't love him, Angel, you wouldn't have spent the night with him."
"How do you know what went on in there?" I asked him.
"Let's just say, I have really good hearing and Jason's not the world's quietest man." He laughed and I rolled my eyes. "By the way, are you okay?"
"How many times does it take to be one?" I asked him.
"Three, usually, but of you taking from him, not him taking from you. His blood is what you need in your bloodstream."
"What about the exchange we did, when we were younger, does that count as a time?" I questioned as we walked back towards the bedroom door.
"I don't know, at the time I had vampire blood in me, from what Jacob gave me, so it might and it might not, you may have to do three just in case." Isaac smiled. "Remember, that the usual rule is that you have to take mortal blood after to make it complete, that's the rule, but since you're always the exception, you may not need that rule to begin to feel it."
"Isaac." I said softly, looking at him. I was going to finish what I wanted to say, but he stopped me.
"Don't be afraid, Angel. You were born for this." He whispered to me and kissed my cheek.
I watched him walk away, and I walked into the bedroom, closing the door softly behind me. Jason wasn't in the bed when I looked at it, but I heard the water running in the bathroom.
I stepped into the room, which was filled with steam and walked over to the shower. I slid the door open and Jason looked at me. He smiled, finished washing his hair and turned off the water. I stepped back as he came out of the shower, wrapping a towel around himself.
"Are you okay?" He asked me. I nodded, but lied as my vision seemed to change and all I could see was colors, bright neon colors. Everything became iridescent and shiny and I looked at Jason as he came closer. "You have your vampire eyes."
"My what?" I asked him. I followed his movement as he walked over and shut off the light. I could see perfectly then, no shine or bright colors, it just looked as though the room had a small night light going, but I could see it perfectly. "Vampire eyes." I smiled and the sniffed the air. "I can smell the steam."
"Yeah, what's it smell like?" Jason laughed.
"Kind of, well, steamy, and light." I replied and looked at him. I suddenly saw him in a completely new way. He seemed to glow; stand out from the rest of the room. Every drop of water on his body glistened as if he were standing in the sunlight and every curve and ripple in his body seemed outlined by a light. "Amazing!"
"I wouldn't go that far, you haven't looked at yourself yet." He replied and smiled. I didn't want to look at myself, I was too involved at looking at him. "Would you like to go back into the bedroom?"
I nodded and took his outstretched hand as he lead me back in to the room. I smiled as I watched him dress, but slowly the light disappeared from him. When he had put on his shirt and jeans, they covered up the light that his skin naturally reflected.
"Could you go naked from now on?" I asked him. He laughed at me.
"You're eyes will adjust to the regular light. These are your night eyes." He smiled as he flicked on the light and stepped closer to me. "Do you want me to explain anything about a normal crossover to you? I'm sure that yours will be different, maybe easier, but you might also have a hard time with other things, seeing how you already have some powers. They might enhance, which might make it more difficult for you."
"If you think that it might help me, sure, but, I don't think anything will be easy for me." I replied. Jason grabbed my hand and we walked out into the living room. He looked at Quinn, who sat up on the couch, and then at Isaac, who made himself comfortable standing behind the love seat, leaning against it. I sat down in a recliner and crossed my legs in front of me as Jason stood and walked back and forth across the room.
"Okay, where to start." He smiled and sighed. "Normally it takes three exchanges to transform you completely, but it all gets sealed when you take blood from a mortal, if you don't you get what Jacob has, a nice body with a bunch of vampiric weaknesses and a bunch of mortal ones. If you don't either take from a vampire or mortal within a couple of months, your body will usually start to decompose right before your eyes, once that starts you’re doomed to walk the Earth eating flesh to keep your own body in one piece."
"Great, I'll be a zombie." I replied.
"We usually get rid of people like that before it gets to that point." Quinn said and looked at the ceiling. "We don't let our fledglings out of our sights until they take mortal blood or we take them out that first night and help them complete the transformation."
"Most mortals usually experience a period of several days when their bodies shut down and basically refuse to work. What that is, is the body's way of reacting to the vampire cells in its blood. Like a virus, it takes over the red and white blood cells in a person's body and makes it vampiric in nature, always looking for new ones to take over." Jason said and walked around with his hands in his pockets. "After it finally has all of the cells turned the body goes through a period of ‘dying’, which is basically where the heart stops beating until new blood can be brought into the system. You're heart will beat at least a week and a half on new blood, provided that you had taken enough from your victim to make it start pumping again.
"Your best bet is to never let it stop. Feed at least every seven days, so that, if it ever comes down to it, when a doctor tests you're blood, it won't come up dead and you won't end up in a lab somewhere, on a dissecting table." He sat down across from me and smiled as I took this all in. "Now, here's the thing, after the "dying" period is over, the person gets what is known as their vampire eyes, which you all ready have."
"You already have them?" Quinn asked, sitting forward. He looked at Jason. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I saw them myself." He replied and looked at him, then back at me. "It usually takes the average new vampire about a week to attempt to see normally in the light, like you're doing now. This is where the old myth of stalking at night comes from. When you're new, you can't see in the light so total blackness is your only way of hunting. People who sleep in the dark, in the old days, were more prone to vampire attacks than those who slept by the fire light. We couldn't go into the room, because of the fire.
"The five senses seem to enhance slowly over the course of a month or so, until this period is over, the new fledgling usually stays out of harm’s way and the sire brings him or her food. Your sense of smell takes the shortest amount of time, usually a few days, but then you’re hearing takes the longest. Long-range hearing develops over the course of the entire month. It takes that long to be able to hear little noises in the next room without any problem, such as breathing."
"Or moaning." Isaac smiled. Jason looked at him quickly as I smiled and he shrugged. "I'm only telling by example."
"You're taste is the last thing to enhance, because you really do
n't need it for much, except to know what kind of blood you're drinking. You can tell types with your taste buds, you can also tell if the person has had any alcohol. At the end of two months a new vampire can pretty much taste if the person has done any drugs, even if they did it over five months before, and not a single time after that." Jason got up and fixed a drink then walked over and sat on the seat diagonal to me. He thought for a moment, probably trying to find anything he missed, and then he sat forward. "Your sixth sense, your ability to read minds and see things might be a little jumbled for the time being. The thing is that you can't hear Isaac’s or Quinn's mind anymore, not even if they initiate it. You can only hear and talk to me."
"Wait, how did Julian read Isaac's mind in the house then the other day?" I asked him.
"Emotions." Quinn said and looked at his own drink then at me. "Julian links with the person's mind and even though he can't read it-read it, he can read the emotions that come from it."
"He's like his own little medium, a link to the emotions of the human body." Isaac said and laughed. "Something like that."
"Anyway, I don't know about your strength or your speed yet, but I assume it will only get more powerful, your ability to manipulate will definitely get fast and take less out of you when you use it." Jason sighed and closed his eyes. I looked at him, feeling suddenly as if we had just gone from lovers to teacher and student. I stood up and walked over to the window.
"So, how did Ashley do it?" I asked Quinn.
"Do what?"
"The transformation, I mean did she have any problems?"
"Not really, except she broke about eight complete dinner settings when she first learned how to levitate things." Quinn said and smiled. "She could also read our minds, not just ours but any vampires; she wasn't limited to just one."
"Wow, she really is queen, isn't she?" I smiled and walked back over to the seat. "I want to know about Larado's Prophecy."
"You'd have to talk to Julian about that." Quinn said and sighed. "I know nothing about it."
There was a small knock on the door and Isaac got up quickly and walked over to it. "Who is it?" He asked in a high-pitched voice.
"Get away from the door before I break your skull." A man said though the door. Isaac backed up as the door opened and a couple of large men walked in. It seemed that all there was here was large men.
"What is everyone here on steroids?" I asked. Isaac walked up to the man and shook his hand, then came down and grabbed me by the hand. Jason stood up quickly and stood in front of him.
"If you want to get out of here, I suggest we go now." Isaac said to him and then looked at one of the men, a blonde haired man with a crew cut. "This is Joshua, and he and I are friends. You don't think I protected her by myself for six years did you, come on, let’s go!"
We made our way, quickly, through the hallways and out the back door to a small cove, where a black Lincoln was waiting. Isaac pushed me in the back and closed the door, and then I watched as Jason, slide in beside me, Quinn stepped into the front passenger’s seat, and, Isaac, after shaking Joshua's hand, got in the driver's seat and gunned the car out of the port. We sailed down the road, picking up speed and putting distance between us, and Jacob.
As we drove on, I became fully aware of the feeling that was coming up from the pit of my stomach. I looked at Jason as he pulled me close and held me tightly. It was a form of the "dying" period, he whispered to me. I had gone through a bit of it the night before in the bathtub, which is how I got my new eyes, and now, since I took the second exchange from him, I was finishing what had begun before. I really felt like I was dying, or that I wanted to die. Pain lurched in my stomach as all my muscles cramped and my body went into convulsions.
By the time we were almost to the mansion, I couldn't even move, my body went into a shut down and even didn't move as the cramps went on. I was staring out the window, my head on Jason's lap, feeling this enormous pain, but unable to move from it.
It’s almost over, Angel. His voice whispered to me.
Do you still love me like you said you did? I asked him, my breathing was more of a quick swallow of air than a breath and I felt him put a hand on my stomach. Please tell me that this hasn’t changed things that I haven’t lost you.
Of course, it changes things. I love you more. Were linked now, intimately connected. You didn’t honestly believe I would tell you that and then leave you, did you? He smiled down at me. My head nodded the best it could and he brushed my hair from my face. Please, don’t ever think that way again, Angel, and know from this moment on that I will always be with you. Not always physically, but if you need me, and I’m not there, I will be, as soon as possible, and you’ll know if I need you, because of this link.
I don’t think I can hold out much longer. My body really is shutting down. I whispered to him. He touched my head and ran his finger around my ear.
Just go to sleep, we’ll be there soon. He replied and I let my eyes slowly close. Sleep was exactly what I needed.
When my eyes opened, I stared at the wall for what seemed like a half an hour, before I tossed the covers off from myself and headed downstairs. No one seemed to be around, but, as I walked through the house, into the dining room, I found Julian sitting there with a pile of books in front of him. I pulled up a seat across from him and I folded my hands on the table. He smiled at me as he looked up from the books he was looking at.
"Where's everyone?" I asked him. He shook his head, and shrugged, and then looked down at the book. "Julian?" I said softly, he looked up at me again as I rested my head on my hands. "What's Larado's Prophecy?"
"Which one?" He asked. I looked at him and rolled my eyes.
"You know which one." I replied. He grabbed his books and got up. "No, wait. I'm sorry. The one about me, or supposedly about me."
"Come with me." He said and stuck out his hand. I took it and he lead me up to the second floor, down the left hallway and through an open pair of white double doors. I stepped into this doorway and almost fell over, as if it had been taken right out of my head, there in front of me, was the library from my endless dreams.
Three walls were covered in books, and to the back was the two spiraling staircases, and the catwalk, for this was a full two-story room. The ceiling seemed to stretch on forever. I turned and looked at Julian, as he walked towards the back of the room, then I followed him. He started to climb the staircase on the left and he looked at me.
"This one doesn't collapse."
"Oh, and the other one does?" I asked. He smiled at me and shook his head. "Good, now let's see." I climbed up to the third step and it started moving. "What the hell?" I said and looked up at my uncle. "I thought you said it doesn't collapse."
"It doesn't collapse, but, it does move." He smiled as he pushed a button and the stairway brought us around to the left side of the room. He stopped it near the middle of the left wall then climbed up a few more steps and looked at the books there. I glanced around at all of the titles in front of me and started to get dizzy.
"Who's this?" I asked, pulling out a book from the wall beside me tucked into the "O" category. "Caitlyn O'Neal?" I asked and looked at Julian. "Who is she?"
"She is a very good author and a very good friend of mine." Julian smiled. "She's a contact to the mortal side of things."
"So, how come I've never heard of her?" I asked him.
"Low profile." Julian smiled. I could tell by the way his eyes twinkled that she was special to him. He went back to looking, then stopped and pulled out a book. "Here we go." He replied and stepped down to me. "Larado's Prophecy."
I looked over the blue cloth cover of the book and the two of us walked over to the table in the middle of the room. He sat across from me and flipped through this thick book, until he came to a page he liked, and then he passed it over to me. I looked at the page, at the picture of the two interlocked rings and the Roman numeral VII under it. I looked back at the tattoo on my hand and smiled.
"Find somethi
ng interesting?"
"Actually, yes," I replied and held out my hand, showing him the rings on the book and on my hand. "Isaac has a set like it on his hand too. We did it when we were younger."
"As a symbol of your unique bond to one another," Julian said. I looked at him, smiled oddly, and nodded. "Does the number have any special meaning to you?"
"Seven?" I asked him. He nodded and I thought for a few minutes. "Not off the top of my head."
"It's a symbol of you and Jason. Seven life times together, this being the seventh." Julian replied. "You see; everything happens in your life for a reason. You and Isaac, your bond happened for the same reason you and Jason have been happening for the last two centuries. It's been prophesized, put in motion a long time before either of you three were born, and it became obvious to me that it was meant to be when Isaac told us that he had once been Jason's sister.”
"So, what does he say, this Larado guy?" I asked and turned the page. "I mean, does he tell you how it ends, or how it will all start, or just the small meaningless things?" I looked up at him as he smiled at me. "Is it just like a fortune, kind of, you know, vague, so you put whatever you want into it?"
"No, he's pretty specific."
"Who is he, anyway? What's his history?" I questioned.
"I didn't know you were the inquisitive sort. I thought you just took whatever you were handed and worked with it." Julian smiled at me.
"Well, hell if I'm going to save my neck, I might as well get the whole low down on it. I mean, what if he says that I die?" I asked him,
"You can always change things, Angel. Nothing is set in stone." Julian looked down at the book in front of me. "You wish to know who Larado was, or is, then I shall tell you."
We moved to the large chairs at the back of the library and sat facing each other. They felt like recliners, but looked just like regular parlor chairs. I put my legs over the arm of the chair and got comfortable as Julian sat in the one across from me. He moved his head from side to side, cracking his joints as he went. I laughed at him as he did this, his green eyes smiled back as his face remained relaxed.
