Night Realm (24 page)

“You have to get rid of them,” she said, her tone icy.

“No!” he snapped. “They’re mine!”

Selena stopped pacing and fixed Michael with a hard stare. “I’ve told you before. No pets. The more of us there are, the harder it will be to stay under the radar.”

He smirked. “Is that why you insist on running a night club?” he scoffed. “To stay under the radar? That gig doesn’t exactly keep
you
out of the spotlight.”

“It helps me to feel normal.”

“And feeding on humans does that for me,” he retorted.

Selena stood in front of him, hands on hips. “And look where that’s got you. Now you’re forced to hide out because you have the police on your tail. Your behaviour threatens to bring us all down.”

“You can’t keep telling me what to do, Selena.”

“Yes, I can. I’m older than you.”

“So what? You’re not my boss. Jeez, Sis, you’ve gotten so boring lately. We used to go hunting together.”

“That was a long time ago, Michael
. Things have changed. I want a more normal life now, a peaceful existence. Can’t you understand that?”

“Actually, no
. I can’t. You are a vampire, or have you forgotten that significant little fact?”

She lifted her head high
and proud. “I haven’t forgotten, but I’m not like you.”

Michael grinned, his eyes burning with an intense fire. “That’s right. You’re not like me. So far I’ve only listened to you out of respect for my older sibling, but things are changing, big sister. I’m growing bored with your ways. I’m looking for excitement
. A rush. After all, what’s the point in having all these wonderful powers if I’m not going to take full advantage of them?”

“I know how powerful you are, Michael,” Selena conceded. “You have more gifts than Travis or myself. But I’m not afraid of you
and I never will be.”

Michael leaped out of his seat, blood red burning in his eyes now, replacing the stark blue. He moved up close to his sister until his face was only inches from hers. The pair were virtually the same height and were glaring at each other eye to eye.

“Well, maybe you
should
be afraid of me. I can take you down any time I want to,” he challenged.

“Don’t be so sure of that.” Selena’s gaze didn’t falter. Her black eyes burned into her brother’s until the red vanished
from them and they’d returned to their usual intense blue colour. “You may have more strength and power than me, you may be able to fly, but my mind will always be stronger than yours.” She poked a gloved finger into his chest with such strength that he staggered back a pace. “That’s why I lead and always will.” She raised her head high again.

“Your days just might be numbered, Sis,” Michael threatened, his voice taking on a low and deeper tone.

Selena shrugged that last comment off. She had to leave for work. She pointed at the floor. “Get rid of those two down there. We can’t have them here.”

*  *  *

Emma rang while Chelsea and Travis were driving south along the M1.

“You wanna catch up tonight?” Emma asked.

“Maybe later,” Chelsea said, sounding noncommittal. “I’m with Travis right now. We’re just going for a drive.”

“O
...kay,” Emma said slowly. “Sounds like things must be going well between you two. We’ll have to get together and you can tell me all about it.”

“Sure. I’ll call you later.”

Chelsea hung up and tossed her mobile into the back seat. Right now she was feeling carefree with the wind in her hair and her unique man behind the wheel. She didn’t care about much else and wasn’t in any hurry to ditch Travis and meet up with her best friend. After all, this was new and exciting. She could see Emma anytime.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked Travis.

“I don’t know. I’m just driving wherever.”

“Do you mind if I smoke in your car?”

He shook his head. “I don’t care. Go for it.” When he saw her struggling to light her cigarette with the wind billowing around them, he added, “If you can get the thing lit.”

After much frustration, Chelsea managed to light her smoke after bending forward
in her seat. She exhaled smoke into the night and smiled. She felt like she was high on something, but she wasn’t. Just life. It was the most buoyant feeling she’d experienced since before her parents died.

Fuck Ryan, fuck Emma and fuck the rest of the world
! She was about to embark on a new life and she didn’t need anyone but Travis.

Twenty minutes later they
ascended a hill and ended up at Point Danger. It was a grassy headland with footpaths and lookouts that had fantastic views of the ocean. Travis brought the car to a stop right at the edge so they had an uninterrupted view of the water. It was dark, but Chelsea could still see the waves crashing against the rocks down below, and the sound of the surf reached her ears. There was a light breeze that was enough to keep the night air pleasant. A few other cars were parked about the place, but not many of them. Light poles were positioned here and there along the pathways, casting a subtle glow to see by without being overpowering.

Chelsea lit another cigarette and got out of the car. She walked over and leaned against the railing of a lookout. Travis joined her and slipped an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s a beautiful night,” she commented idly as she smoked and took in the view.

“The night’s not the only thing that’s beautiful,” Travis said, offering her one of his most charming smiles. She returned
the smile, but at the same time her expression was dubious. “You’re right,” he said. “That sounded a bit lame.”

“But I liked it anyway,” she assured him. “You always say and do the right things, Travis.”

The breeze picked up and she shivered a little. It made her think of something.

“Do you feel the cold or the heat?” she asked him.

“I do, but not really. If that makes any sense.”

“You mean you sense the temperature
, but you’re neither uncomfortable whether it’s cold or hot?”

He nodded. “That’s pretty spot on.”

“So.” She faced him. “Are you ready to bite me and turn me yet?”

“No. You haven’t really made up your mind.”

“How do you know?”

“I can tell.”

“By reading my mind?”

“No. I said I wouldn’t do that again.”

“Then how do you know I’m not ready?”

“My instincts tell me you’re not. Trust me, when you’re really, truly ready, I’ll know.”

“Okay.” Chelsea flicked her cigarette down the cliff and watched it float all the way to the rocks below. “If you won’t turn me tonight, will you be willing to tell me how you became a vampire?”

Travis pondered that request long and hard. Eventually he nodded.

“There’s not that much to tell,” he said. “But I guess it’s only natural that you want to know. After all, you
are
my girlfriend.”

Chelsea was stunned by that last admission. “Am I?”

“If you want to be.”

“Yeah,” she said
eagerly.

She kissed him and used her tongue for the first time with him. Travis reciprocated and it took her a moment to get used to his tongue being so cold. It was an unusual sensation to say the least, but somehow she really liked it. She was a bit weird, she knew, and always was attracted to people and things that were different.

“That was nice,” he whispered when the kiss finally ended.

“Yep.” Chelsea smiled and drew her pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She lit one and said to Travis, “You were about to tell me a story. Remember?”

“Okay. It happened about ten years ago when we were living in Melbourne. We were out on a camping trip with our parents north-west of the city. I was going to uni at the time, Selena was managing a popular night club and Michael was busy spending our parent’s money living the lifestyle of rich kid and playboy. Nothing much has changed, really.

“Our parents made a lot of money from some very successful investments in Australia and overseas. All during the tech boom.
They retired on the money and shared a lot of it between us kids.”

“When I met you at the party that night,” Chelsea cut in, “you said you were going to night school studying medicine or something. Was that true?”

“To a point. I do study a bit of medicine and genetic engineering, but not officially.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I’m studying for my own benefit, looking for some answers to some things that I won’t get into tonight.”

“Okay, continue with your story. Sorry to interrupt.” Chelsea lit yet another smoke and waited
for Travis to pick up where he’d left off. She was chain smoking tonight, but she didn’t really care. And Travis didn’t seem to mind at all.

“It was a fairly remote area. We thought there was no one around for miles
. And there wasn’t, as far as people were concerned. But there was something else lurking in the forest out there. Actually, there were two of them.

“They came for us in the middle of the night when we were sleeping. I think they attacked our parents first, but I can’t be sure. Michael, Selena and I were sharing a tent while Mum and Dad slept in their own tent. All I recall of that night is waking up with someone hunched over me, someone very cold and incredibly strong. I tried to get free, but there was no way. The thing opened its mouth and let out this nasty hiss.
It scared the hell out of me. Then it latched onto my neck and I felt two sharp pricks of pain as its teeth sank into my flesh. I didn’t know they were fangs at the time. It was only later I realized that.”

Chelsea had barely puffed on her smoke. She was too busy staring intently at Travis while he related his tale.

“I felt the creature sucking the life out of me. I could literally feel the blood leaving my veins. The other one was attacking Selena at the same time. Michael was going from one to the other, trying desperately to get them off us, but they were way too strong for him. I passed out pretty quickly and I guess they set upon Michael then.”

“So, they hadn’t wanted to kill you three. They’d wanted to turn you,” Chelsea said. “But what about your parents?”

“They were dead.” Travis’ eyes took on a distant look as he recalled the sad memory of that fateful night. “We only found that out a few days later after we’d turned. They had us holed up in this old farm house with all the windows blacked out and boarded up. After we’d come through the turn, none of us knew what had happened to us. It was all really confusing and just didn’t seem real at the time.

“The vampires explained to us what they were and what we’d now become. They were two young guys, maybe late twenties. They wanted to expand their coven so they used us as recruits. They took us out to feed on animal blood the next night. Hunting seemed to come natural and none of us
had any qualms about killing an animal and drinking its blood. It was like we’d been doing it all our lives.”

“So,” Chelsea said, dropping her expended cigarette butt onto the nearby grass. “How did you find out about your parents?”

“We asked about them. They lied and told us our parents were still alive and staying in another house not far from there. We presumed they’d been turned into vampires as well. The next time we went out hunting, which was about a week after we were first attacked, Michael stumbled across their bodies. They’d been bled dry, dragged well away from the campsite and left to rot in a ravine.

“Michael found Selena and I in the woods and told us what he’d discovered. He was furious. We all were. These guys had murdered our Mum and Dad. We all swore vengeance that night, but even though there were three of us against two of them, we knew they had more developed abilities than we did. Or so we thought. Michael didn’t seem fazed by that. He was quickly adapting to the lifestyle and fast becoming extremely confident. I don’t know, it was weird. Michael had always been a confident, outgoing guy, but this was different. It was like he was taking on a Superman persona and believed he was invincible.
”

While Travis paused to suck in some fresh night air, Chelsea sullied it by lighting up yet another
smoke.

“Did you kill them?” she asked.

Travis shook his head. “I mean, yes, but I didn’t. It was Michael and Selena that did the damage, but mostly Michael.

“The three of us confronted them back at the farm house after we’d fed on kangaroos and renewed our energy. At first they both denied it, but they couldn’t keep up the ruse for long. After a few minutes they admitted to killing them. They wanted young blood in their coven,
they said, not middle-aged. I was just standing there in the centre of the room when both Michael and Selena went for them. Michael had unbelievable strength. He grabbed one of the vampires, literally threw him through a wooden wall into the next room, went in after him, had him pinned on the floor and ripped off his head. Selena was struggling with the other one and couldn’t overpower him. Michael came to her aid and did to him what he’d done to the first one.”