Sebastian
The worn-out Jeep had seen its better days. The few times I filled up with gas, I had to put oil in it as well. I was surprised it was still running after the hundreds of miles that were already put on the jeep before I received it. The transmission was failing and my lack of knowledge of vehicles in this realm made me cringe to try and fix it if I landed on the side of the road.
If all else fails, I’ll just walk.
I had continued north, going with my gut as I traveled across the country. The further north I went, the daylight fleeted far quicker than in the south, which was for the best. The sun was different here than in Bergarian, much harsher on a vampire’s skin. I hope that it did matter much, I was old and used to the many hours in the light sources of home.
I wasn’t some noble back in the realm of Bergarian, I was nothing but a commoner. I worked hard as a merchant, buying produce from those that farmed the land, small trinkets from humble witches and warlocks. My wagon was filled with nothing but random rare oddities from all over. Building a name for myself all over the land for my fairness, rare oddities and even greater tails of better times. I often spent nights in front of high alphas, elders, and the like of various species.
Not anymore though, now I was really nothing.
What was I even doing? Going out to find my mate and offer her nothing? I had made my coin; I was rather well off at home but my gold wasn’t here with me now. How would I convince my second chance that I would take care and provide for her with nothing but my beating heart that will spring to life at the sight of her?
Hold that thought.
Darkness fell around me as the Jeep rattled over another pothole. How could I even think I had a second chance? Second chances were rare, I didn’t even know of any vampire to have one. My hands tightened on the steering wheel, gritting my teeth until the tip of my fang pierced my lip.
Because she said I would, the whisper of my subconscious still gripped to that hope.
The map that laid in the Jeep after I left Princess Clara’s mating ceremony had already had areas circled where to go. All these red circles were close to nearby towns and slightly off the grid. This was where a coven must lay. Clara really thought of everything, she had that much hope for me in my own search.
Letting my fanged smile rise slightly, I turned off to a graveled road. The grated road wasn’t used often; the potholes were sure to tell me that. The smell of pine, spruce, and sap hit me like a battering ram making me sneeze.
So much damn pollen.
The branches hit the Jeep, not worried in the slightest that I scratched the hunk of metal, I pulled up to the back of the coven territory. This region was certainly different than the other covens that I had already visited.
This was an abnormally bright area for territory with nothing but vampires. The sun shined clear overhead as the large white plantation house with black shutters came to view at the top of the hill. It still had rod-iron fences, some of the classic gothic styles that most vampires appreciated, but the bright yellow, pink and white roses that littered the property came in as a shock. Flowers were usually deep red around my homeland, but nothing as bright as these.
Houses were lined up in perfect little rows of the classic 1950s earth decade had me raising my brow. Continuing to drive past, kids sprang from houses, running into the backyards. The fountains that lay in the front yard, the patios filled with vampires, humans, and pets. They all mingled with each other, without a care in the world.
It was surprising, pleasantly surprising to see humans mingle with our kind. But damn if I wasn’t confused as hell about it.
As soon as I drove up to the white gravel round-about driveway I pushed the Jeep into park. The cranking, pushing of the gears forward to keep it steady squealed and I shut the Jeep off as quickly as I could. This would have to be my last stop with this junker, don’t think I’d make another few miles out in this thing.
Leaning over the wheel, I stared up at the out-of-place plantation-style home. Pretty sure homes like these belonged in the southern part of America. Reaching over to the side of the door, my fingers wrapped around the handle until a head popped up into view. “Hello!”
“FUCKING ZUES!” Slapping my chest where my unbeating heart lay, I took heavy breaths in.
“Damn, you’re jumpy.” The male’s head cocked to the side. He was sporting short blonde hair, a slim build, and an overly eager grin on his face. His eyes blazing red from feeding recently on human blood.
“What do you expect?” A breath left me as I finally step foot out. The crunching gravel echoed through the unsettled silence as we both studied each other.
“Do you have an appointment?” He crossed his arms. Looking around me, seeing other vampires watching our interaction as they went along with their business had me shifting uncomfortably.
“No, should I?” I asked.
“No,” he shrugged his shoulders, still staring.
What the hell?
“Suron! Stop scaring him!” The gentleman sporting a black suit and red tie walked out. He straightened his vest underneath his jacket, holding out his hand to me. “Sorry about him, he’s a troublemaker,” he narrowed his eyes at him. “I’m Elder Rowan.”
“Nice to meet you Elder—”
“I’m just seeing if he had a sense of humor. He doesn’t,” Suron interrupted, holding out his hand to now shake mine. “I’m Suron, I’ll see you around?...”
“Sebastian,” Suron continued shaking my hand, smirking until I pulled it away forcefully.
“Suron,” Elder Rowan barked. “Aren’t you supposed to be playing hide and seek with the children?” Suron shook his head. “Oh bollocks, I knew I was supposed to be doing something.” Without another word, Suron took off, climbing a distant tree and grabbing a child. “Found you!” he sang as the human boy squealed in delight.
The boy isn’t scared?
“He’s different,” Elder Rowan stated, “but he’s great with the kids. Come, I had heard through the grapevine you might end up here. Rowan patted me on the back and led me into the house. The house was unusually warm, definitely meeting the rest of the ambiance of the entire 1950s-looking theme outside.
Floral. That was what could be summed up of the living room. White doilies, pictures of flowers, actual flowers in vases, and a large collection of tiny figurines of glass and books on white covered shelves. It was all old-looking, but with a modern twist of the new century.
A tea set sat in between two couches, and a lovely woman rose, smiling at Rowan. The human women that accompanied her all giggled, walking to the other side of the room. Whispers that would make a kinky fae blush hit my ears until they shut the door. Rubbing my face, I looked away from the door, flabbergasted.
“You will have to excuse them, some of them are new to understanding vampires and their excellent hearing. I’m Adaline,” she held out her hand. Taking it with my hand I bowed, kissing the top of her hand. “So the rumors must be true, you are from Bergarian,” she blushed.
Rowan rubbed his mate’s arms up and down, smiling at her. “We’ve heard of your tales dealing with King Darius and being forced to fight in an unjust cause. I’m happy to hear that Alpha Kane spared you.” Clearing my throat, I pulled on the collar of my dress shirt.
“Uh, yes, very lucky.” We did not need to get into that.
Rowan cleared his throat, tapping his mate’s shoulder. She bowed and walked out of the living room and had me sit on the cream-colored couches. Cream couches seemed odd to have in a vampire’s home considering we drink blood and blood stains like a bitch.
“As you can tell, we are a different type of coven compared to the other covens of earth.” Glancing around the room, I only mumbled in agreement.
“Humans find nature soothing; the classic looks bring back a better time for them to help settle their souls about being around vampires. Many believe in the dark shadows, and the hunter to prey vibe that vampires supposedly represent which they find disturbing. This whole coven area has been decorated to help with the transition, get to know who we really are instead of the human folklore.”
Adaline put down a tray of clear glasses, and a special teapot I haven’t seen since I was a boy in the middle. It was made of a type of Bergarian clay in the lands of Vermillion. It could keep the blood warm for hours without it spoiling. Her delicate hands held on to the top, as she poured the blood into low-level glasses, handing one to Rowan and one to me.
I hesitated, gripping it with my shaky hand. Rowan studied me, sipping his glass, his wife sat beside him, putting her hand on his knee. I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t bring the glass to my lips and drink it down.
It had been a long time since I had drunk human blood, hell, I wasn’t even sure what it tasted like anymore. Vermillion had been free of humans for a long time, the only blood we could drink was from willing supernaturals and that came in short supply. Animals were a specialty for me, even though they can barely satisfy my thirst. I just had to feed more often.
The few times I had human blood; it was when I was a child. My parents had lived on Earth, they had stored it in the clay pots and brought them when they moved back to Bergarian before the portal had been closed to humans so long ago. I drank blood on special occasions because my parents didn’t’ need it. Vampires feed off their beloveds, it was to taste far better than any human blood that vampires could drink.
That didn’t mean that vampires only drank from their beloveds, their mates. They could do it for the taste, the social interaction with the unmated, possibly to revel in what it was like before beloveds were introduced to vampires by the goddess. Those that still drank human blood were done by the cruel vampires, the dark ones that took it without asking. My stomach churned, setting the glass down.
I couldn’t do it, not when I wasn’t sure where this blood came from. King Darius, the whole reason why I was here. He wanted to conquer humans and bring them back as blood slaves. What if Rowan was the same?
Rowan gazed at me inquisitively. His mouth came into a giddy smile. “I see you aren’t like the dark ones; the other Elders were right.” Setting his glass down, he rubbed his hands together. “You are more than welcome to stay here as long as you like.” Wrinkling my nose in confusion, he barked a laugh.
“Just wanted to make sure you weren’t one of those vampires that still followed Darius,” his look grew hard. “The other covens you have visited didn’t have humans running rampant around and here we do.” If the children running around with Suron, and the tea Adaline drunk with the girl was any indication, I could have guessed that myself.
“This is a sanctuary, Sebastian,” Adaline muttered. “A sanctuary for humans that have been paired with humans.” My eyes widened. There had not been that many pairings between species, not that I would know much since Vermillion’s take over from the darkened king. We were isolated, we knew nothing.
“It’s true,” Adaline nodded. “Humans and Vampires are finding soulmates in each other. You had a small glimpse of that already, no?” Rubbing my head, I remembered Kyler and Dean. Both mated to werewolves before I arrived, but they were supernaturals, not humans.
“But humans—” Rowan shook his head, chuckling. “They are tougher than they look, Sebastian. They take the bonding well and the change.”
“T-they change? Change to what?” Rowan gave an incredulous look. “What the hell do you think boy? Their human DNA changes once bitten, to make their bodies take on the likeness of their mate. They become one of us.”
SebastianHoly hell.“T-that’s amazing,” I muttered. Rowan’s grin widened, his arm sleeking around his mate. “It is, it has given us the opportunity to have this coven grow, making it one of the only covens in the world that help specifically with human transformations into their new lives.”I let out a bark of laughter, rubbing my hands up and down my thighs. This was insane, never had I thought this would be possible. The opportunities to mate with another species here on Earth? For humans to become like us? Unreal.There had been rumors, long ago that vampires could force a chosen mate, usually done with humans. It was a practice outlawed before my parents were even born and never thought of again. Now that the Goddess had something to do with the pairing it made it more beautiful.“And they are successful, changing their mate.” Rowan nodded, looking out the enormous windows that let the natural light filter into the room. “There is the bite of bonding and a bite of changing. The b
“There was trial and error,” Rowan lifted his hand, waving it about. “He had to learn how to take in her life that she created before him. The children she had, the husband she left, she basically had an affair on the poor bastard, but she knew the bond she felt. It was meant to be.” Rowan smiled, waving at Adaline who blew a kiss his way. Certainly, she was born from a different era, the way she dresses, how she carries herself, and the delicate ways she had placed the tea cups on a sterling silver tray. Single human women, laid out on the lawn, tanning their skin. Not caring if the sun reeked damage on their bodies. Humans, vampires, and children sat on blankets and ate lunches being held by their biological parent. Everyone was happy, at least the younger ones were.“That is why I created this place.” Rowan interrupted. “That poor soul put himself to all that trouble, worried because his mate was to be fragile, not feel a bond, but she was far from it. She was strong.” he humm
Christine:"I'm sorry, Chrissy. You can't come into today." I ground my teeth together, wanting to stomp around like an adolescent child. This was insane. Less than two days after moving here, mom was bitten, and I haven't seen her since.A whole week had gone by, and I could only stare at them through the window if I was lucky. Apparently, my human blood reeked, and it could make her unmanageable. Justin said she was fighting it, that the thought of drinking blood was grotesque. Who can blame her? It sounded gross, but that is who she was now. She had to drink, but the human part of her mind was still there."Can I just give her a hug?" I almost pleaded. He stood at the door, blocking the way for me to catch a glimpse of her. On occasion, she slipped by the window, and I saw changes in her appearance. She looked… good. Her hair had more bounce, her wrinkles had gone, hell, she looked almost just like me. Except I was a darker blonde and had some of my sperm donor's height.My pleadi
"Now, now, I know you are afraid." My head perked up, my heart racing. "Yeah, I know about your problem." "Can you read my mind?" I squinted my eyes at him. He threw his head back and laughed, patting me on the shoulder. I was given a crash course on vampires on the drive up here, and I know Justin couldn't tell me everything. Maybe some could read minds? "Oh no, but I can read people really well." Right, so he doesn't really know about my problem then. "I got these amazing eyes, you see, I can notice when people are in distress. Every time I mention the word, 'blood," he gave the word a creepy ghostly feel like Dracula said it himself, "you wince." "Oh," I shrung my shoulders. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about," Sauron scoffed, leading me into the cafeteria. "Plus, it is kinda my job to help you out. Elder Rowan usually puts me in charge of the kids, but now he has me watching you." Great, a babysitter. "I'm an awesome babysitter," he mentioned. I swear if he can read mind
ChristineAfter some gentle coaxing, Suron left and went on with his other 'duties.' I had to promise, cross my heart and hope to die, pinky swear, and do some obscene booty shake to let me go on my own. Suron wasn't kidding when he said he was supposed to watch me. Justin wanted me far away from mom, and sitting on the front lawn wasn't even to be tolerated.I guess it was kind of lame that I would sit there, staring at the picturesque light blue 1950's style house, but it wasn't like I had tons of friends to talk to. I uprooted my life because I was worried for my mom, but Justin thought it would be an excellent idea for me to move here. In fact, he insisted. This makes me wonder if this is because mates, soulmates, and beloveds were all genetic.The problem was, I didn't believe in it. I thought Wyatt was my soul mate. I thought he was the one I was to spend my life with. I was head over heels in love with him, or so I thought. It was all one-sided, I painted him to be the perfect
"You bitch, you're cut off. Don't expect a damn dime from me in your account," he yelled again. I'm sure his phone was swimming in his spittle as he spoke. I never had the balls to talk to dad like this before, and I must say, it was pretty invigorating. Maybe it was because I was surrounded by a bunch of vampires that now hold a picture of my father's face to ensure he would never be let in.Not that he would find us, anyway."You hear me?! Not a damn dime!" I cut the call and tossed the phone on the bed. Little did he know I moved all my money to a new bank account. Justin was pretty savvy in that department. It was like he had everything planned out before I even arrived. He forced mom to not take one single dime from her now ex-husband. Justin was supposedly rich anyway and said he would take care of us.I mean, who ever heard of a poor vampire anyway? They were all rich. If I met a poor vampire, I think I might choke on my own spit. This place was oozing with money. Many of them
SebastianI wasn’t expecting to find her this quickly, far from it. I thought I had a few more decades at least before I saw her but I didn’t. The smell of her O-negative blood had the wind shift around me. If the whisps of Bergarian dared to come to the Earth realm I swear they would have led me to her. My body moved with its own motivation to wander off the gravel path to get closer to the hooded figure that at on the bench by the lake.I had taken it upon myself to go explore on my own. As much as Rowan was being a great host, showing my room, giving me this thing called a cell phone, it was all too much. Too much electronics, televisions all the fancy stuff that humans had come up with since the last time I had been here some one hundred and fifty years ago.That was all behind me, however, as I stared at the dark hooded figure that overlooked the lake. She was in deep thought, her hand going over the screen of bright colors. A picture, a picture of a girl and a boy smashed agains
“Want to hear my last name?” she purred. Dear goddess almighty. When she isn’t talking like I’m going to eat her she had the most captivating deep, feminine voice. Luckily my hands were in my pockets.“S-sure,” I stuttered.“Business,” she winked throwing her hair over her shoulder, and continued the graveled path.“Nunya Business? Nunya Business.” I repeated over and over. I smiled widely, my fangs overshadowing my lower lip as I barked out a laugh. Slapping my knee my laughter roared over the lake, echoing into the not-to-distant woods. Vampires from afar watched me in amusement, some snorting at my ridiculousness. I don’t remember if I have ever laughed that hard in my life, it felt surprisingly refreshing, it felt right. My heart did summersaults, feeling the soaring eagles run through me.I was too busy laughing to pay attention where my beloved was going until the smell of her intoxicating scent filled my lungs. Different, her blood was different than any other human’s that I ha