The Blood Will Run (8 page)

Suddenly, the wolf began to jump about. Chace held on until his hands slipped away from the wolfs’ eye and he was thrown against a tree. Devin held onto its tail. The wolf swung around and crunched down on Devins’ hand. Devin let go of its tail and screamed out in pain. The wolf glanced around as the blood spilled out of his eye and in a flash, he disappeared into the woods.

☼

Alivia was dizzy. She wiped off the wetness that was dripping down from her head to the tip of her nose. She glanced down. Thick, red blood covered her hand. Her head was throbbing.

“I thought Alivia was the Shayvan,” Devin said as he walked back through the opening with Chace.

Shayvan? What the hell is a Shayvan, she thought. The room around her began to spin out of control.

“I thought she was the Shayvan as well,” The voice said.

She was certain that the voice belonged to someone she knew. She tried to sit up, but fell back onto the bed.

“Alivia what’s wrong?” Chace asked bending down over her.

“I’m…I’m not…sure,” Alivia stammered before she slipped into the darkness.

It couldn’t have been longer than a few minutes when Alivia came to. She felt much better. She raised her hand to where the throbbing pain once was and realized there was nothing there.

She shivered inwardly as her heart steadied itself. Chace was leaning over her.

“Feeling any better?” he asked.

His eyes revealed the worry. He bent toward her and brushed his soft lips to hers.

Alivia pushed him away. “Get away from me!” she screamed and flew frantically back against the bed.

Chace jumped back, startled by her reaction.

“Alivia everything is fine now. Miles is gone,” Devin said and moved toward her.

“Don’t you come near me either!” Alivia screamed.

She grabbed the shackle off the bed in front of her and whipped it into the air as a warning.

“Liv calm down. No one here is going to hurt you.” She couldn't believe what she was seeing, standing in front of her was the physical body of her dead brother.

Alivia closed her eyes and then opened them again. The person who looked and sounded like her brother was still there.

“Stay away from me, I’m warning you. I don’t know who the hell you are or why you look like my brother, but you are not my brother.”

“Liv it’s me, I promise you it’s me, Lawson. I can prove it to you,” Lawson said.

Alivia glanced around the room. “Where’s my phone?”

Devin pulled his cell out and dialed her number. Her phone rang under the debris of the fallen roof. Devin set aside the logs and bricks to get to the phone.

“Just toss it onto the bed.” Alivia said.

Devin did as she asked and tossed it directly below her.

“Where is this place?” Alivia asked.

“We’re in a cabin not too far from the Whaling Bridge,”

Chace answered.

With her available right hand, she picked up the phone and texted Erica.

in danger in a cabin by whaling bridge come asap.

“Come on Livy let me try and convince you it’s really me,” said

Lawson.

“Shut up,” Alivia said.

“I bet I know who you sent a text to. It was Erica, am I right?”

Alivia shut her eyes and shook her head.

“Remember when Polarbear went missing? The three of us searched for that stupid dog in these very woods for days. On the fourth day, you told me you wouldn’t shed another tear. You told me that you would find that stupid dog if it was the last thing you ever did. Erica and I followed you to the Whaling Bridge and that’s when you heard Polarbear whining. He was stuck in a drainpipe. Erica ran back to town for help. You sat with Polarbear the whole time and rubbed his nose so he would stop whimpering.” Alivia opened her eyes just as Lawson started to come toward her.

She raised her hand up and he stopped. Lawson nodded and then continued. “Not long after that, the fire department came and cut him out. He had broken ribs and was hungry, but he survived. Then a year later, that idiot dog attacked the wolf, or at least what we thought was a wolf, here in the same woods when we were on our way home from the creek. Remember how he jumped in front of Erica as the wolf leaped into the air to attack her. He put up a good fight and hurt the wolf that ended up running off into the woods. Polarbear died right after the attack, but he saved our lives that day.”

She saw the pain in his eyes. Lawson loved that dog just as much as she did.

Very slowly, she drew in a deep breath and then released it. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here. But let me tell you what I do know. Today has been a damn nightmare. First, I’m abducted by Miles who turns into a freaking werewolf. Then someone claiming to be my dead brother is standing right in front of me with my brothers’ memories. And then, as if that’s not enough to make me believe I’m losing my freaking mind, Miles tells me that Chace and Devin are vampires. So, excuse me if I'm a little freaking freaked out from all of this crazy shit that’s taken place today.”

“Chace and Devin are vampires?” asked Erica. She climbed through the opening of the cabin and over the fallen debris.

When Erica saw Lawson standing in the room, she froze.

There was a long silence before Chace spoke.

“This morning when I sent you the text message, it was about all of this. I wanted to break it to you gently and give you a chance to wrap your head around all of this before you were put in danger.”

Chace knew he had to keep his distance.

His earlier fear of Alivia hating him appeared to be coming true. Chace half-expected Alivia to make a run for it and drag

Erica along with her, but she didn’t.

Instead, she slid to the edge of the bed and dropped the shackle onto the ground.

Alivia shook her head. “I kind of knew that something was up.

The both of you don’t act like the other guys around here. You seem to be much older. There were also a few little clues along the way but I shrugged them off. Like the night, we were dancing at the creek and I felt like I was floating. We were really floating. Now I know.”

Everyone stared at Alivia.

She wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

She thought about what they were talking about earlier. That name Shayvan was familiar to her. She had heard the name in a dream once before. In the dream, Chace and Devin were talking to Lawson about someone named Vanstrauss.  They were saying that Vanstrauss was trying to break through to the physical realm. 

Alivia shook her head and straightened up. Nothing made any sense to her anymore.

And Chace, he never thought to tell her about what he was. But really, how could she hold it against him? It’s not like he could've just walked up to her and blurted out that he was a vampire. Still, she couldn’t help but feel angry.

She stood up, placed her hand on her hip and glared at Chace. “You could have told me the truth.”

CHAPTER NINE

C
hace
approached her slowly. “I am a vampire and Devin is a sunvamp.”

“I know what a vampire is, but what is a sunvamp?”  Alivia asked.

Chace reached for Alivias’ hand and held it.

“A sunvamp is a vampire who walks only in the sunlight.”

Alivia laughed.

“No seriously, Devin cannot walk in the moonlight or he turns to ash.”

Alivia fell back on the bed laughing in hysterics and seconds later Erica joined in.

Chace and Devin looked back and forth at each girl.

“Come…on…” Alivia said holding her stomach as she tried to breathe, “Devin is standing in the moonlight right now.” Alivia pointed to the opening where the roof once was at the moon.

“Yes, thanks to Mercy English. She’s the witch that performed a spell that turned our birthmarks into the symbol of the sun and moon. Before Mercy, Devin couldn’t walk in the moonlight and I couldn’t walk in the sunlight.”

Alivia was serious now. “Okay, wait a minute. If you are a vampire shouldn’t Devin be a vampire too. You guys are twins right?”

Chace nodded.

“Then how is Devin a sunvamp and you are a nightvamp?”

“It’s a long story,” Devin said.

“Well I got time, let’s hear it,” Alivia said.

“Let’s all head over to the Casa De Luca. We can explain everything you want to know over a few drinks. Besides, I am suddenly feeling thirsty,” said Chace.

Alivia nodded.

“As long as I’m not what you drink from, then lead the way,” Erica said.

Chace laughed and Devin said, “We consider ourselves bloodetarians. Chace and I don’t drink directly from the vein. We haven’t for a very long time.”

Chace cleared his throat.

“Well at least I haven’t. I drink blood bags that we get from the blood bank,” Devin said.

Alivia stood up and grabbed Chaces’ arm as the rest of them went through the opening of the cabin.

“Is that really Lawson?” she asked.

“As far as I know it is,” Chace said.

“Being what you are, will you ever hurt me or drink my blood?” she asked.

Chace stared into her eyes. “I would never hurt you. I have never loved anyone the way I love you, I swear.”

Chace could tell by the calm expression on her face that she didn’t fear him anymore.

He leaned toward her needing to feel her warm lips against his own. He could taste his blood in her mouth as his tongue found its way inside her mouth. Earlier when she passed out, he gave her his blood and then healed her. He couldn't resist and had to kiss her cheek. That's when he realized he had her blood on his lips. He couldn't help himself and licked her blood. He knew at that moment that blood wasn’t what he wanted from her. He wanted her love and nothing else. Not even all the blood he could consume in the entire world mattered to him as long as he had her.

☼

Devin entered the living room with a tray with four glasses filled with iced tea on top of it. He handed each person a glass and sat down beside Erica on the long sofa lounge. Chace was standing at the bar. He grabbed a bottle of bourbon and poured himself a glass.

“Have you ever heard about the curse Artemis gave to Orion, I curse the sun, I draw the moon, the blood will run?” Devin asked.

“Yes, it’s written in the Greek mythology if I’m not mistaken,” said Alivia.

“Right, so the creation of the very first vampire began with Orion. Orion was Artemis’ one true love. When Orion was on the verge of dying, after a giant serpent tried to kill him, Artemis cursed Orion with many gifts and granted him immortality. Then she hid him in a cave south of her Temple in Ephesus.”

Alivia nodded and Chace continued.

“Now this is where the story gets interesting. Apollo went to Firenze to kill Orion, but he was not there. Instead, Apollo found Demeetrie who was in the early stages of transitioning into a vampire. Apollo was pleased with his discovery and cursed Demeetrie, I curse the moon, I draw the sun, the blood will run. He granted Demeetrie all the same powers that Artemis had given Orion, but with a few exceptions. One being, Demeetrie would only be able to walk in the sunlight. If he were to walk in the moonlight, he would turn to ash. Two being, if Demeetrie or any of his descendants happened to meet their soul mate, Apollos’ curse would guide them toward eventually conceiving twins. Lastly, he granted Demeetrie the ability to shift into a bird of his choice. With every shift, he would receive a new power or he would be left with some sort of disadvantage.”

“So, there are more sunvamps walking the Earth?” Erica asked.

“There are many sunvamps,” Chace said.

“Are they living in Newgrave too?” Erica asked.

“No, we only know they exist because of the Sollecular. In the book, it says, the Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton sent several of the sunvamps to Hellsgrave. The other existing sunvamps were cloaked to shield their identities,” Chace said.

“What is the Sollecular?” Erica asked.

“It’s a book Apollo created to document everything about the sunvamps. Demeetrie had the book right up until the witches staked him in the heart with the hollow cross. That’s when the Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton got their hands on the book and began documenting secrets about vampires,” Devin said.

“Then our parents stole the book and Zio Sandino has had it ever since,” Chace said.

“The book contains information on sunvamps, vampires and witches amongst other supernatural beings. It also holds the names of the most powerful of them all.  In the wrong hands, this book could wipe out certain supernatural beings, including the Shayvan,” Devin said and nodded toward Lawson.

“So I am assuming that Demeetrie is the most powerful sunvamp?” Erica asked.

Chace nodded. “Yes.”

“But that doesn’t explain how Devin is a sunvamp and you are a vampire,” Alivia said.

Devin crossed one leg over the other and said, “To answer your question, my mother Dahlia was a human right up until the night my father Danzanelli went away on a business trip to Italy.  Constantine the vampire and a very old friend of my fathers’ was supposed to watch over our mother because she was pregnant with the two of us, but Constantine left our mother alone and went to hunt in the woods. A vampire clan that made its way from New Orleans happened to be searching for a trader of theirs. When the clan of vampires broke into the Casa De Luca, they went crazy and destroyed almost everything in the house searching for the trader. One of them opened my mothers’ bedroom door and saw her in her bed sleeping. They thought that because she was human they could kill her and no one would care. When Constantine came back from his hunt, our mother was dying. Constantine was afraid of what our father would do to him if Dahlia had died so he offered her his blood hoping to heal her. But it was too late. Dahlia was all ready dead. Minutes later, Constantine delivered us by cutting open our mothers’ stomach. Danzanelli was enraged when he came home to find his wife was a transitioning vampire. He went psycho when he found out that Chace was born a vampire and I was born a sunvamp. He ripped out Constantines’ heart and hunted and killed every single member of the clan that broke into the house.” 

Chace then spoke. “That’s around the same time Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton discovered our parents had stolen the Sollecular.”

“Who are the Vamprincessa and the Vamprinceton?” Alivia asked.

Chace eyed Devin and Devin said, “They’re teenage clan rulers. Orion created Vamprincessa and Vamprinceton, after Demeetrie. They have ruled vampires since the beginning of time as per Orions’ orders. They’re wild and unpredictable. They’re savage killers.”

Alivia thought for a moment and then asked, “So where is Demeetrie?”

“Demeetrie is asleep forever in an ebony coffin below Tarantino ruins. Devin and I discovered that tidbit of information from Mercy not too long ago. We’re working on a plan to free him because Mercys’ family sealed the coffin with a spell and we can’t open it.” Chace took a sip of his drink and continued. “Mercy’s ancestors sealed the coffin because of the curse from Apollo that made these sunvamps’ extremely powerful. Right up until this day, no one has found a way to kill the sunvamps’ once they mature into a full pledged sunvamp at the age of nineteen.”

“And where are your parents?” Alivia asked.

“Orion became involved and permitted Vamprincessa to exile our parents to Hellsgrave for stealing the Sollecular. No one was able to stop the vampire clan because Demeetrie was all ready trapped in the coffin.” Devin said.

“Hellsgrave? I had a dream about Hellsgrave. You, Devin and Lawson were talking about someone named Vanstrauss,” Alivia said.

“That’s right. Vanstrauss is a vampdiamones,” Chace said and narrowed his eyes.

“So is Vanstrauss still in Hellsgrave?” Alivia asked.

“From the looks of it,” Devin said waving his hand in Lawsons’ direction. “If Lawson is in his human form, then that means Vanstrauss is here in Newgrave. The Shayvan is activated when someone comes through the door to the physical world.”

“But not just Vanstrauss has escaped, Evony the witch has escaped as well,” Lawson added.

Alivia stared at Lawson. “Explain to me how Lawson is the Shayvan.

From what I remember from my dream you and Devin said that I was the Shayvan.”

Alivia shifted her gaze to Chace.

“That’s what we thought. But it turns out that Lawsons’ half soul found yours and for a good reason,” Devin explained.

“Half-soul?” Alivia asked.

“Twins share one soul. It begins before the time of conception in the realm of God.  The soul splits in half. Because of the shared soul, twins have a unique bond that unites them for eternity. In the case of death, where one-half of the soul lives and one half of the soul dies, the missing half begins to search for the soul until it becomes one again.  In the case of you and Lawson, Lawson had a higher purpose. Instead of your souls becoming one again and Lawson moving on, Lawson used your body to host his soul until the Shayvan was awakened.”“But how is Lawsons’ physical body here?” asked Erica.

“He died.”

“Right, I read about this in the Sollecular. The reason Lawsons' physical body was resurrected was because someone came through the door to the physical realm. Now Lawson has no choice but to remain in the physical world until the spirits or souls go back through.” Devin said.

“But Vanstrauss is a vampire and Evony is a witch. They are not spirits or souls,” Erica said and looked puzzled.

“You do have a valid point but nonetheless the door to the physical realm has been opened. The physical realm door is what the Shayvan protects. It’s not important who or what goes in or comes out,” Devin said.

Erica nodded.

Lawson stood up from the sofa lounge and walked to where Alivia sat on the leather love-seat holding Chaces’ hand.

He knelt down and stared into her eyes. “Are you still afraid of me?” he asked and reached for her free hand.

Alivia shook her head.

“I’m so sorry that this happened. I know how hard it’s been these last few months for you. I know how much you’ve missed having mom around,” he said

Alivia lowered her head and stared at her mothers’ moonstone ring that Lawson was now wearing on his right hand. When Lawson lifted her face up to meet his gaze, she was crying.