Venom (The Reawakening Series Book 1) (2 page)

I feel like I’ve been punched on the chest. Only one person ever called me Nick, especially like this. That pushes me over the edge.

I lose my mind and with that, the glamour is gone. She is suddenly very aware of what is happening and she freaks out.

Her hand moves straight to her neck. Surprisingly, she doesn’t scream, but she looks terrified.

“
What happened? Why does my neck hurt so much?”

I fake a confused look. “Maybe you had too much to drink,” I say, not bothering to compel her again. “Look, maybe it’s best if you just go back to work or to your home, but I think I should go.”

“
Bu—but my neck,” she pulls down the visor and looks in the mirror. “These look like—”

UGH! I have no time or patience for this. “Let me see it.”

When she turns back around, we make eye contact long enough for her to be glamoured again. At least that is what should have happened. The glamour doesn’t work, probably because I can’t focus. “I don’t know what happened to your neck, Love, but you are sounding a bit crazy right now. Hopefully just because of the alcohol… I think you should go.”

She gives me a look of disbelief.

“
Jerk,” she says as she gets out of the car and slams the door shut.

She runs back toward the bar and I get the hell out of there.

I speed the entire way home, where I practically jump out of the car and rush in through the front door.

I find Harvey sitting in the living room, reading a book.

Once he hears me, he puts the book down.

“
What is wrong with you?” he asks.

“
Where is Sarah?”

“
Sleeping.”

“
We have a problem.”

He laughs. “I don’t have a problem. You might. In fact, you have more than just one problem, but please, go on.”

“
Man, just… I’m not in the mood, okay?”

I guess at that point, he realizes I’m serious and that something really is wrong.

“
What happened?”

“
We have to move and I need you to do something for me.”

His tone changes immediately. “Why the hell do we have to move and what do you need?”

“
I kind of bit someone and couldn’t compel her into forgetting it.”

“
Why the hell not?”

“
It doesn’t matter. Telling you what happened won’t change anything. Now, I’m going to ask you this once and I don’t want to talk about it. You either do this for me or you don’t.”

He gives me a puzzled look.

“
I want you to compel me into forgetting Lexi. I want to forget everything about her.

CHAPTER TWO

“
I don’t like this,” says Harvey.

I roll my eyes at him. “You don’t have to like it. Look, this will be good for all of us. I will forget and we can all move on. Just do it.”

Harvey paces around the living room and I know he is contemplating it. I honestly don’t know why he even has to think about this.

He finally stops and looks at me. “Fine. I’ll do it.”

“
Damn right you will. Let’s get this over with.”

“
Right now?” he asks.

“
Might as well.”

Harvey shakes his head. “I’m going to give you a few minutes to yourself before we do this.”

Before I can even say anything, he turns around and leaves the room.

I relax back on the couch, close my eyes, and let my mind wander one last time and think about her. Within seconds, I can picture her face, her eyes, her smile… the sound of her heartbeat from when she was human and the sweet taste of her blood from both before and after she was turned.

I sigh and open my eyes. I know this will be good in so many ways.

“
Come on, man, I don’t have all night,” I yell at Harvey.

He walks silently into the living room and sits across from me.

I ignore the look of pity in his eyes.

“
I have a bad feeling about this.”

I roll my eyes at him. “Do I need to compel you into compelling me?” I laugh.

He gives me a puzzled look. “Would that even work?”

I shrug. “Who cares.”

Harvey shakes his head. “Let’s get this over with.”

HARVEY

His willingness to be compelled makes things easier. In a matter of seconds, he is in a trance like state. I hate doing this. It’s one thing to compel people into forgetting memories that lasted seconds or minutes, but this… this is messing with a lifetime of memories and something is bound to go wrong.

I’m stressed out wondering how I’m even going to do this and know that I have to act quickly before the compulsion is lost.

I sigh.

“
Nicholas, I want you to forget everything about Lexi… everything about having a romantic relationship over the last few decades.”

I stop there. I know there are so many things that will make no sense to him without those memories of Lexi, one being how Sarah is human again. Ugh. “About your sister… you know she is human again and you know that we are hiding from others. I was the one who gave you both the angel blood. That is all you need to know. As for being accused of hunting and destroying vampires, you are clueless. You didn’t do it and you know nothing about it.”

Knowing that I need to get rid of pictures and whatever else might remind him of Lexi, I say, “Now I want you to help Sarah get her things ready to leave town. We’re done here. I’ll make sure your stuff is ready to go soon. Understood?”

He nods and as soon as the compulsion is gone, he just sits there for a minute with an empty look in his eyes.

“
You okay, man?” I ask.

He nods. “Yeah, I—I’m just going to go help Sarah get things ready to go.”

CHAPTER THREE

FOUR YEARS LATER

SARAH

I look at my brother and all I see is sadness. He has been like this for a while now… four years to be exact. He can’t remember her, but he knows that something is missing. Several times throughout the day, I catch him staring at things for a while as if his brain is trying to make a connection. Harvey says that it had to be done. He says that Nicholas’ love for Lexi was like venom and that it was only a matter of time before he let that love destroy him. I’m just afraid of what will happen if he ever remembers anything.

I always thought that it was my fault, but Harvey says it isn’t. I should have no reason to doubt him. He is older than Nicholas and insists that he is the only sane person, or should I say, vampire, in the house. He says that Nick… I mean, Nicholas…he hates being called Nick, even though he doesn’t remember it’s because only Lexi ever called him that. Anyway, he is the way he is because of a choice that he made and Harvey insists that his choice didn’t have to be that way.

I just don’t see how that is possible though. Looking at Nicholas and knowing what Harvey told me… there is no way he would have willingly chosen to leave her or to forget her.

Yes, as Harvey seems to remind me of whenever I say that, is that I’m only fourteen years old, and that is true, but he seems to forget that I’ve been around since the early 1700s and I know more than he gives me credit for.

I know why we started running. That was mostly because my blood is special and would attract other vampires, but also because Nicholas took the blame for a lot of bad things so that other vampires would stop hunting her.

As we moved, Nicholas taught me a lot as far as computers and modern technology are involved. He spent countless hours showing me how much computers and phones changed over the years. He showed me things about the human world and how humans are able to go to school, work, and shop without leaving their homes. He said it started out as being convenient but over the years, humans started to feel safer that way. He did mention that some towns kept their old ways and people still leave their homes to go to school and to buy groceries. Harvey taught me all other subjects, which gave Nicholas more time to be depressed. Really, he only ever left the house to feed, and that was only because Harvey chewed him out, saying that bringing random girls to the house was a bad example for me.

Now, things have changed. That special scent from my blood faded more and more and Harvey says we should be able to stay at our next home for a longer period of time and I can’t wait!

Tonight we have our family meeting… the one where we, and by we, I mean Harvey, decides where we are going to go next. My input isn’t usually considered at all, and Nicholas just doesn’t care.

Harvey and I watch TV in our house in New Orleans and as soon as Nicholas walks in and flops down on the couch next to me, he looks at Harvey and says, “Just tell us where to now.”

“
Gloucester, Virginia.”

Nicholas just rolls his eyes.

He gets up, but Harvey stops him.

“
Wait a minute. We have more to talk about.”

Nicholas flops back down and gives him the look.

Harvey looks at me and smiles.

“
Well, that scent that gives away Sarah’s blood has faded a lot since the last move, and I think she should be able to experience going to school and living her life outside of the confinement of our house.”

Harvey looks at me and we smile at one another. I can barely contain myself. I have been trying to get them to send me to a real school for at least two years now.

“
Not a chance,” says Nicholas.

Harvey stands up. “Look, you seem to forget that Sarah is no longer immortal. She has one life to live and she needs to live it.”

Nicholas rolls his eyes. “Fine! But if she is going to school, so am I.”

“
Don’t be pathetic. There is no need for that. You can find better things to do with your existence other than go back to high school again.”

Nicholas crosses his arms. “I’ve been to high school… I know what it can be like, especially for a kid who has no experience in the real world.”

“
Do I get a say in all of this?” I ask.

“
No!” they both say at the same time. Yeah… usual response. At least this time, Harvey is sticking up for me.

“
Nicholas, she will be going in as a freshman, at the beginning of the school year. She will be as lost as all of the other kids. She will blend in. It will be perfect!”

“
I don’t know why you call these family meetings when all of the decisions are already made,” Nicholas says in a sarcastic tone.

Harvey shrugs. “You could be part of the decision making if you ever made reasonable decisions.”

“
Fine,” says Nicholas. “But if I notice anything that I don’t like, I will pull her out of school.”

I’m grinning from ear to ear. At least that is a start.

CHAPTER FOUR

It takes a few days for us to move to Gloucester, Virginia. As always, our house is distant from the others. School will start in one week, and Nicholas has endless rules. He is worried about my lack of protection during daylight, especially during summer time, when the sun will definitely weaken him and Harvey. In our world, vampires react differently to sunlight. Certain bloodlines will burn to their true deaths if they step outside during the day, others, like Nicholas and Harvey, come from special bloodlines. They can go out during the day and although direct sunlight won’t kill them, it could weaken them to the point where they might wish they were dead… I mean, really dead.

Harvey has rules of his own. He insists that I change my name in case vampires were looking for Sarah Taylor, even though Taylor is such a common name and I had used my caretaker, Eliza’s, last name for the centuries that I spent with her. I didn’t think so at the time, because all I had to compare her to was a mother who neglected me, but… Eliza was just as awful, if not more.

“
She’s not changing her name,” says Nicholas. “It’s a part of who she is and there is just no way.”

I can tell Harvey is already losing his patience. “How about she uses her middle name?”

Finally, Nicholas agrees.

I don’t particularly love my middle name, but if that is what I have to do to get to school, I don’t care. From this point on, I will be Noelle Taylor.

Once that is settled, we get into the routine rules; the ones that Harvey reminds Nicholas of every time we move.

“
So,” says Harvey. “As a reminder, don’t feed on the neighbors.”

Nicholas laughs.

“
I’m serious,” warns Harvey.

“
Yeah, yeah… I know. You might as well put one of those signs on the kitchen wall that lists the kitchen’s rules… ‘Don’t feed on thy neighbors.’”

Harvey sighs and shakes his head and then turns his attention back to me.