The Vampire's PA

“We’re going what?” I asked, sounding as horrified as I felt.

Alexander eyed my tight skinny jeans for another moment before he dragged his eyes back up to my face and threw me with a pillow, “We’re going hunting.”

My wide eyes must have given away the fact that I wasn’t too keen on going hunting with eight vampires because Alexander laughed. “Oh don’t worry your pretty little head Ashira, you and Cherise will just watch. She doesn’t really find hunting all that fun.”

I scrunched up my nose, “I don’t hate you or anything, but I really have no interest in watching you drink someone else’s blood.”

He tilted his head, “You want me to drink your blood then?”

The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them, “I won’t mind.”

Alexander’s eyes widened and then he frowned disapprovingly, “You shouldn’t tempt me like that.”

I blushed and looked away, I really hadn’t mean to say that.

“And you really shouldn’t blush, it makes me want to devour you on the spot.”

I turned away from him and cleared my throat, “We should get going, we should have been downstairs ten minutes ago.”

“It’s not like they’re getting any older.” Alexander muttered.

I couldn’t help but smile. So that was the kind or ironic jokes that were made in a family of vampires.

When we walked downstairs all the others were already gathered in the foyer and had exceptionally bored expressions on their faces.

Norabo who’d been leaning against the wall straightened himself, “Finally.” He muttered, “I mean if the two of you were up there making out that would have been fine but you were just talking. Boring!” Question marks must have been flying around my head because he added, “Vampire, remember? We have super hearing.”

“Oh.” There wasn’t much else I could say to that that didn’t include me yelling at him for listening in on our conversation.

Viktor clapped his hands together, “So, where will we go hunting today? Personally I like the mountain area.”

Alexander shot me a terrifying grin before he aimed his words towards his brother, “You’ll have to wait and see.” He opened his arms for me.

With a dramatic sigh I put my arms around his neck and wrapped my legs around him, “Don’t drop me.” I warned him, something I always did when he carried me.

He securely took hold of my legs and his eyes glinted mysteriously, “You’re going to kill me when you see where we’re going.”

I narrowed my eyes at the vampire, “Just don’t drop me and I promise I won’t kill you.”

He nodded seriously, “It’s a deal then.”

I looked away from his handsome face to find his brothers staring at us and Cherise looking up at Oberon expectantly, “Please?”

He frowned as he looked down on her, “I’m not carrying you like that.”

“Come on!” she cried and pointed towards me and Alexander, “Relationship goals! Please!” she took his hand gently in hers, “Please?” She pouted.

Oberon sighed, “Fine.” He opened his arms and she jumped right into them without hesitation. Oberon didn’t look happy, “This is stupid.” He looked down at her, “We look stupid.”

“We look awesome.” She countered contently.

“Follow me.” Alexander instructed his brothers and gently pressed my head into his shoulder “Wouldn’t want you to lose your head from being so close to me now love.”

“Hardy har-har.” I told him plainly and shut my eyes.

The wind that was suddenly whipping past me at deadly speeds was the only indication I had that Alexander had started running. Other than an occasional curse he muttered and a snarl that escaped is throat when one of his brothers came too close he was silent. Everything was so peaceful in Alexander’s arms, I just wanted to stay there forever. I pressed my nose against his neck and breathed him in. He smelled like home, what a strange think to think. The son of a demon was home to me.

“You are such a peculiar girl, Ashira.” Alexander muttered against my ear and I smiled.

“You’re a vampire so I guess that makes us even.” I whispered back to him.

His grip around me tightened so I wouldn’t shoot out of his arms when he stopped- been there done that. Luckily he’d managed to grab me before I’d fallen flat on my face at that speed. Needless to say I had absolutely no need to ever experience something like that again.

I opened my eyes slowly when we stopped and six blurs suddenly stopped behind us. “Well,” I said as I hopped out of Alexander’s arms, “Wasn’t that fun.”

I pulled my shirt down and looked around with a frown. “This place looks familiar. Isn’t this…” I glared at Alexander, “You did not just bring me back here!”

He laughed, “I told you you’d kill me.”

Feeling frustrated I stomped away from him as threw my hands into the air, “The nerve!”

Cherise brushed off her expensive looking pants, “Bad memories?” she questioned.

“He- The- I can’t even-” I rubbed my temples, “There are huge lions here. And when I say huge I mean massive. They’ll kill us!”

Cherise looked at me pityingly, “You should know that these demons have never felt fear before, Ash. They don’t know what it means to be afraid, unlike you and I. As far as they’re concerned lions aren’t a threat.”

I grumbled something under my breath, “What are you guys going to hunt anyway? There aren’t any humans here.”

“Why do you think I brought them here?” Alexander asked me, “We’re hunting lions today, enough of a challenge for us and then you won’t have to be afraid of them anymore. Two flies with one shot.” He told me happily.

I crossed my arms, “You’re crazy.”

“Only about you.” He winked and turned and walked away, “Be good while I’m gone.” As then he and all six his brothers vanished into thin air.

“What-” I reached out into empty space, “They’re gone.” I stated disbelievingly.

“Yeah,” Cherise said from behind me, “Give them about an hour, it usually takes them about that long to suck every living creature in a hundred mile radius dry.”

I did a double take, “They can eat that much?”

“Sure,” Cherise said, “Everything is easy when you’re a vampire.” She hesitated, “Have you seen Alex feeding before?”

“No. Well, only when he fed on me.”

“Oh,” she said almost sounding disappointed, “Then you haven’t really seen his vampire side before. Just… just don’t stare too much when they come back, he might not want you to see him like that.”

“What do you mean?”

She sighed, “Let’s face it Ash, he is still a vampire no matter how nice he is to you or how much he loves you. He is a demon that uses other creatures’ life force to live. The only time the Redmourn brothers can truly be themselves is among each other so when they’re together they tend to… let go.”

“Let go?” repeated the words unsurely, “So you’re saying that when Alexander gets back he’s going to go full out blood thirsty vampire on me?”

Cherise smiled, “Exactly.”

“I’m sure I can deal with that.”

“That’s what you think now, but when he gets here… you might change your mind.”

I looked at her challengingly, “Are trying to scare me off? Because I can assure you that it will not work.”

She smiled knowingly, “I’m just warning you.” She looked off into the distance and the way her eyes were focussed I knew she was looking at Oberon with her vampire eyes, “The first time I saw Oberon hunting I was terrified. I refused to see him for weeks after that.”

I was surprised, “Really? Why did you go back to him then?”

“I didn’t.” She said, “He broke down my parents house’s door, stormed in and kissed me and I just couldn’t stay mad or afraid of him.” She looked at me, “I can see you understand that as well. It is impossible to say mad at Alex when he holds you, isn’t it?”

I sighed dejectedly and colour flitted onto my cheeks, “Yeah.”

Cherise almost looked relieved, “Good, I was afraid I was the only one who felt like that because honestly it sounds silly to everyone else.” She watched me for a moment, “You and Alex have kissed before, right?”

I swallowed nervously and my cheeks became warm, “Yeah, but only twice.”

“Interesting.” She commented.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she said nonchalantly, “I was just thinking about the way he looks at you the whole time.”

“What about it?”

“He looks like he’s about to pounce on you.”

My slightly tinted cheeks busted out all the colour they possessed, “He does not look at me like that!”

Cherise laughed at me, “He really does, Ash. He looks at you like a blind man seeing the light for the first time.”

“I’m glad I can be his light.” I said softly, “I’m sure he needs it.”

“Ok, I retract my previous statement about the blind man, it’s not a good comparison. He looks at you like he’s about to pin you to the floor and take you right then and there.”

More heat flooded me and I was shocked into a silence, “He did say something similar to that this morning.” I finally muttered.

Cerise smiled at me like she was glad she finally had someone to share her knowledge about the brothers with, “Another thing you should know about them is that they stopped aging at twenty. So right now their hormones are that of basically that of teenagers, you can be glad Alex hasn’t taken you already.”

I nearly choked, “Alright-y then, can we maybe not talk about this right now? I don’t think we’re far enough from their ears and keen hearing to have this conversation.”

“Sure, Ash, I mean you’re only… what? Sixteen?”

“Seventeen.” I corrected her when I realised she was wrong. Sometimes I forgot how old I was, it was embarrassing really.

She nodded understandingly, “Well, then we still have plenty of time to talk about it in the future.”

We were both silent for a few minutes and when I started getting tired of standing I sat down on a huge rock that was baked warm by the sun. I laid backwards and put my hands behind my head “Does Oberon have magic healing spit as well?” I suddenly found myself asking.

“Yes, I think all of them have, as you say ‘magic healing spit’.” Cherise answered kindly, “They just don’t really use it.”

I sat up, suddenly feeling guilty about borrowing her clothes, “I’m sorry I borrowed you clothes without asking.”

Her eyes widened and she waved me off, “We’re like sisters, Ash, you can borrow my clothes any time you want.”

“Thanks, but I’ll ask first in the future.”

She looked away again, “You and Alex haven’t talked about you becoming a vampire yet, have you?”

I was silent.

“Do you want to be a vampire?” Cherise asked.

That seemed to be the question, didn’t it? “I don’t know.” I said finally, “I mean, I have concluded so far that I don’t hate Alexander and I might even like him but… to turn vampire to be with him forever? I don’t think I want that. I would hate him if he turned me into a vampire and although I’ve never told him I think he knows it.”

“I see.” She said, “If you change your mind though, I would love to have you as a sister, as a vampire.”

I didn’t know how to reply to her. I hated vampires. I hated them because of what they were and what they did to humans. I hated vampires because they killed my mother, father and my sister. I hated vampires because they killed so many people I used to know, but… This side to them that I’d seen over the past month and a half… I could see that they were only creatures that wanted to live as well. They weren’t soulless beasts that killed just because they could and Alexander… Oh Alexander… I didn’t even know what to make of him anymore.

I sighed heavily, “Why is life so hard? Did you want to be a vampire when you were human?” I asked Cherise.

“Yes,” she told me with a smile, “but back then things were very different. A lot of people died every day because of things that can today easily be cured by medicine, everyone wanted to live forever and since there were only three vampires at the time they were treated like gods. Everyone wanted to be vampires.”

I frowned, “Three vampires? What about the rest of the royals?”

“They didn’t exist yet, they hadn’t been born. Do you know why the demon didn’t just have all even of his sons with the same woman?”

“It wasn’t because he was a creep?”

She laughed, “No. He didn’t even know about Oberon’s existence until he turned eighteen and he’d drunk a human’s blood for the first time. No other human had ever mothered demon spawn before so the demon realised that she must be the only compatible one. The demon, seeing the wonderful blood thirsty creature that he’d created wanted to make another one, but Oberon’s mother had been human and she’d aged like a human. She was close to her fifties and why pick an old woman when there’s a young sister?”

“So… Alexander is eighteen years younger than Oberon?”

“Yes, as Neculai is eighteen years younger than Alex and so on and so forth.”

I frowned, “So… you’re older than the four youngest brothers?”

“Yeah, it’s embarrassing actually, I mean, I had to watch them grow up.”

I groaned, “That must have been a pain.”

“I’d like to think I helped them turn out better than they would have without me.” She said with a wink.

“Why did the demon kill their sisters?”

Cherise frowned, “He hated them, to him they were weak females. They weren’t vampires, they were just normal humans.”

I was about to say something else when the terrifying Redmourn brothers returned in a flurry of laughs and dangerously coloured eyes, pupils thin slits. Their clothes were covered in dripping blood.

My breath was knocked away when I saw them coming right for us and my eyes scanned over them until they landed on Alexander. Like the others his clothes were bloody and he had a wild smirk on his face. He smirked at me and flashed his fangs, his eyes were a bright yellow colour. Instead of backing away as he came right for me I stood my ground, I wasn’t about to start being afraid of him now. He pulled me against him and the warm wet blood on him soaked my clothes. He growled and pressed his face into my neck, “You smell delicious.” He muttered and he licked my neck, “And you taste even better.”

His fangs sunk into a soft spot of my neck and my eyes widened slightly. It didn’t hurt at all it was just…

He was drinking my blood.

Alexander was drinking my blood.

He was-

Suddenly he shoved me away from him like I was poison and I watched him with a shocked expression on my face. His breath was ragged and he looked away from me, ashamed of what he’d done. “I’m sorry Ashira, I didn’t mean to-“

I threw my arms around him and hugged him tightly, “I told you it was alright, didn’t I?” I couldn’t help it I smiled at him and gently pressed my hand against the side of his face.

“It’s not supposed to be alright.” He told me, “You don’t understand, I could have killed you.”

I looked down and after I’d gathered all my courage I said, “Can I just say that you look even hotter than usual with the whole fangs and eyes thing going on.”

Alexander’s eyes widened and the yellow slowly faded back to green. “I love you so much.” He said and he picked me up and held me tightly to him. “But please stab me the next time I do that.”

I smiled, “Like I could do that.”

Oberon nudged Cherise in the ribs, “Why couldn’t you have reacted like that the first time you saw my vampire side?” he whispered to her.

“Because I’m not crazy!” she hissed at him. Then she very boldly marched over to me and Alexander and pulled me out of his arms, “You are crazy girl!” she scolded me, “He could have killed you!” she sighed when I looked down with a small innocent smile. “I’m taking you back, there’s no way I’m letting you be close to him again any time soon.”

She actually picked me up and before I could say anything else she was running away with me. When she ran I didn’t feel comforted and safe like I felt in Alexander’s arms, I just felt like I was about to die.

When she stopped in front of Alexander’s house a few minutes later I fell to the ground and gasped for air. “What did you do that for?” I asked her, “We were having a moment!”

“Right after you told him it was ok for him to drink your blood and it most certainly is not ok. Not while you’re still human.” She told me firmly but her face softened when she saw how terrible I looked, “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up. You look like you were murdered and brought back to life.”

I reluctantly followed her up the steps of the house but stopped when Alexander was suddenly standing in our way looking absolutely murderous, “Cherise. Don’t you dare ever take my Ashira away from me ever again.”

Cherise took a step backwards in fear and said nothing for a moment, “The two of you have been spending far too much time together. She needs other people in her life besides you Alex.”

He hissed, “Fine, I’ll take her to visit her friends for the day tomorrow.”

“Better make that two days.” Cherise stated stubbornly and she crossed her arms.

“Fine.” Alexander snapped angrily, “But right now she’s coming with me.” Then he took hold of my arm and pulled me upstairs.

He shut the bedroom door behind him and cupped my face in his hands, “Are you alright Ashira?”

I stared up at him, “Alexander?”

His eyes softened, “What is it my love?”

“I think I’m falling for you.”

There was no way of stopping his hungry lips from engulfing my own.