Why are we here?" I whispered to Adrian in confusion, surprised that he didn't take me back home so I could get the shouting of a lifetime.
It has been at least a half hour since Adrian saw my burnt hand and I thought for sure that he would take me to my dad.
"Are you saying you would rather go back home?" Adrian teased from beside me. "I don't think you realize it, but dad's pretty angry that you and Ayden went to play hide and seek in the middle of the night."
I was about to open my mouth and tell him that I would rather stay here, but Adrian continued to talk without waiting for my reply.
"Not to mention you burnt your hand again using your fire ability. I don't know about you, but if I was dad, I would probably ground both you and Ayden for a month at least."
I huffed and stuck my tongue out at him, hating him for his teasing and knowing for a fact that he was right. Adrian chuckled softly before wrapping his hand around my wrist and leading me to the top of the tree house. "Now is that any way to act to the person who just saved you from possible grounding?"
When we reached inside the treehouse, I turned my gaze at him but still narrowed my eyes. "Possible grounding?! Daddy's going to ground me even if he doesn't see my burnt hand."
Adrian put his hand on his chin and pretended to think deeply. I grumbled out when he let out a smug smile. "You're totally right, sister. You'll probably be grounded for two weeks. But look on the bright side." His voice was too chirpy for my liking.
"What bright side?" I moaned, knowing for a fact that there was no bright side.
"Well there's no bright side for you, little sister. But at least I don't have to listen to your stupid shows for two whole weeks!" He started laughing at the end, and I stomped my foot on the ground childishly.
"I hate you," I whined out, completely upset that I can't watch my favourite show anymore.
Adrian continued to chuckle but slowly stopped and let out a sigh when he saw that my hands were still clenched at my side. "No you don't Ariel, but enough of that." His voice turned solemn in an instant while he started searching for the first aid kit in the treehouse. "We need to get you fixed up, before the bleeding gets worse."
I raised an eyebrow when he took out the kit, and started rummaging inside of it. "Um, do you even know what you're doing Adrian?"
Adrian's eyes snapped towards me, when he picked up a gauze and a bottle filled with clear liquid. "Of course I know what I'm doing. I saw mom and the Luna do it so many times. How hard can it be?"
I looked uneasily at him, and then returned my gaze back to the first-aid equipment. "B-but, are you-"
"Look Ariel," Adrian mumbled out, his voice catching my attention, making me look up at him. "If you don't want me to do it, then we'll just go home and let the Luna do it herself. And then after you're cleaned up, I guess you'll have the honour of explaining to dad how exactly you got your hand burnt."
I immediately shoved my burnt hand towards him and he grabbed it with a smirk, without making a sound. Slowly he unscrewed the bottle and I gulped audibly, knowing that the medicine was going to sting my hand. I never was good with those type of pain.
"Relax," Adrian whispered comfortingly from beside me, and I took a deep breath when he held my shaking hand in a firm grip. "You trust me, don't you?" He spoke in such a serious tone that I instantly nodded.
"Always," I murmured out and as soon as those words left my mouth, he gave me a small smile.
"And you know I'll always protect you, wherever you are?" Adrian asked me in a serious tone, and I nodded my head slowly, knowing that it was the truth. .
"I know that," I murmured, sending my brother a wide grin, knowing that he'll always be there for me.
"Orion?" I mumbled, looking up into his dark blue eyes which was filled with nothing but concern and worry for me. I realized that my head was on his lap, and that his hand was slowly stroking my hair.
As soon as he heard my voice, a huge smile appeared on his face before he placed a soft hand on my cheek. "Oh, thank the Moon Goddess." He was murmuring to me in a soft tone, while he continued to caress my cheek.
I tried to lift myself off his lap, when I felt a sharp pain on my neck. I moaned in agony and dropped my head right back onto his lap.
"Ow!" I cried, placing a hand around my neck, while trying to figure out the source of the problem. When I felt a weird dented bump on my neck, I released my hand in shock. "What happened?"
Orion was peering down at me with a solemn expression; his face filled with sadness, pain and- guilt?
"What happened?" I whispered again, voicing my thoughts out confusion.
Orion looked at me with grief and opened his mouth to say something, before he was abruptly cut off in a rude manner.
"This is all your fault, you disgusting leech!" a familiar voice shouted and immediately ignoring the pain on my neck, I lifted my head off his lap to see who was making the ruckus.
Scott.
He was standing in front of Leon, who was at least a good inch taller than him, and screaming profanities at him that made my ears want to bleed. Leon in turn looked down at Scotty with a blank expression, and didn't even try to stop him when he screamed vulgar words at him.
"I knew you blood-suckers were disgusting, but feeding on a child? Let alone a girl?" Scotty sneered and shook his head in disgust. "Even for a blood-sucker like you, that's pitiful and disgusting, Leon. Do you even own a fucking heart or even have a speck of morality?"
With those hateful words, like a light switch, my memories came flooding back into my mind.
Leon coughing out in pain...
Me taking a step toward him...
His need for blood...
And him using me as his food source.
"Oh," I said in a louder tone, wincing when five heads abruptly turned their heads toward me. All five pair of eyes analyzed me from head to toe, before letting out a relieved smile.
"How are you feeling?" Cameron asked, before taking a step closer and reaching his hand toward my face. He gently tilted my face to the side, before examining my bitten neck. "Oh shit! That looks like it hur-"
He didn't manage to finish his sentence, before he was pushed hard to the side and I was left to face Scott's brilliant green eyes.
"Hey- you idiot!" Cameron shouted in shock, but Scott ignored him easily and bombarded me with a load of questions.
"How are you? Are you alright? Should I kill that bloodsucker for you? You know I would. Just say the word and he's as good as-
"Oh pu-lease. You... kill me?" Leon sneered, effectively cutting off Scotty's rant. "You won't even be able to land a single finger on me before I break your neck in two."
Scotty growled and stood up so fast, that I flinched back to the wall. He didn't seem to notice, as he growled viciously at Leon while taking quick steps towards him. "You think you can hurt me, fang- boy?"
Leon rolled his eyes at him, and pushed him away like he was a bug. He ignored Scott's protest and growl, and walked toward me in a leisurely pace. When he was in front of me, he slowly crouched down on the floor so he was at eye level with me, and the expression that he wore on his face shocked me immensely. It no longer showed a face of a cocky and confident individual.
"Leon?" I tilted my head to the side, astonished that tears were forming in his eyes. He didn't let any of them drop though, as he gazed at me with a broken face.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his lips trembling in sadness. The hurt and pain in his eyes nearly killed me, and immediately I knew that he regretted his actions from before. "I didn't mean to lose control."
"It's alright," I whispered, but it seemed that Leon did not hear me and continued to ramble on
"I couldn't help it, Ariel. I need blood at least once every few days and I tried so hard to ignore my blood lust." His body shook and he kept shaking his head, and I can tell that he was truly disappointed in himself. "But then it was too much. And I tried to stay away from you but you just kept coming closer and before I knew it, I-"
I didn't let him finish his sentence as I placed my hand over his mouth to stop him abruptly. His eyes widened, but he didn't move his mouth away from me to which I smiled gently to.
"It's alright," I murmured to him, seeing a tear fall down his cheek. I slowly wiped the tear away from his cheek, keeping eye contact with him the entire time. "I forgive you."
And I was speaking the truth. He didn't mean it. It was simple as that.
I looked into Leon's eyes and I can see the guilt and pain there slowly turn to relief and happiness. He's not an enemy.
"You're so kind," Leon murmured after a while, looking at me with a dazed expression etched onto his beautiful face. Before I can say anything else, Leon wrapped his arms around me in a soft embrace.
Sounds of protest- especially coming from Scotty- immediately filled the room, but Leon ignored them and moved his mouth near my ear.
"Do you really forgive me?" Leon murmured in my ear, and I let out a small sigh. I felt warm in his embrace but deep inside me, I was happy to have some sort of physical comfort again.
"I do," I whispered to him again, before closing my eyes in his embrace. "And Leon?"
"Hmm?" he murmured, while slowly stroking my hair from behind me.
"If you ever need blood again, all you have to do is ask me and I can give you some from my wrist. I don't want you to torture yourself." The hand that was stroking my hair immediately stilled, before he pushed me out of his embrace. He held me at arm's lengths, while scowling deeply at my words.
"Out of the question," he gritted out, and I heard Scotty for once, agreeing with him from the background.
"But-" I murmured quickly, knowing that he was being unreasonable. He quickly placed a finger on my lip, and shushed me.
"No Ariel, it was a mistake," he pleaded softly, hoping I would understand. "And it hurts me so much to see you with my bite on your neck. I can't do that to you again." As soon as he said the word "bite", I was again reminded of the raw and sensitive pain on my neck.
"But you’re a vampire," I murmured against his finger, but he gave me a quick shake of his head.
"No, means no Ariel," he said in a voice, that left no room for discussion. He dropped his finger away from my mouth and when I opened my mouth to speak again, he gave me a pointed look. "I'll find another way to lessen my bloodlust."
I let out a shaky breath out of irritation, and ignored the stabbing pain that it brought around my neck area. "Fine. We'll see how it goes."
Leon gave me a stern gaze, but I saw his mouth twitching upward. "I guess we will."
We were staring at each other intensely, before a voice cut in sounding amused.
"We're sorry to disturb the moment, but we have more pressing matters to worry about," Orion murmured from beside me and I jumped, forgetting all about him.
My cheeks flushed, realizing that everyone was listening to us the entire time.
"You're right," Leon nodded, before turning his head towards Arlo who was making his way towards us. In his hand was a plate that was covered with tin foil.
"What is this?" I murmured, when Arlo pushed the plate in my hand. I accepted into my hand, without even knowing what it was.
"Food," Arlo answered, before taking a seat in front of me.
I tentatively took the tin foil off, and what I saw caused my stomach to growl. Even though the plate just held a piece of bread with some slices of fruits in the corner, the smell of it made my mouth water. How long has it been since I last ate anything? By the sound of my empty stomach, it must have been a while.
I was just about ready to shove down the food in my mouth, when a sudden thought occurred to me.
"Wait, what about you guys?" I asked, feeling bad that I was about to eat without sharing it with the rest of them.
"Don't worry about us," Scotty said from across the room, gesturing me to eat the food. "We ate some yesterday."
"Yesterday?" I asked in surprised, wondering how many days we were in this wretched basement.
"Three days," Arlo answered my unspoken question. Lucius's dad brought us food yesterday, telling us that we look like a bunch of pack rats." Arlo's words came out as a frown at the end.
"I just want to kill him already," Scotty murmured in anger, and brought down a fist on the wall. "Why can't they just leave us alone?"
I was wondering that too as I stared down at my food. Instantly, images of my mom cooking burnt food came into my mind, and I felt tears cloud down my vision.
My dad was the cook in the family but whenever my mom made us something, we ate it like it was the most delicious food in the world. After all, we didn't want to make her sad and it soon became a private joke among our family.
I sniffled, staring down hard at the food. I miss them so much.
"Ariel," a hand was placed on my shoulder, and I desperately tried to get rid of my tears so I didn't seem weak in front of everybody. I turned my head to the side to see Leon look at me with a concerned expression.
"Eat," he ordered softly, and I nodded before taking grabbing the plastic fork.
Unfortunately, before I was even able to grab anything on the plate, I felt the plate leave my hands on its own. My eyes widened and I heard the others gasp, when I saw the plate dangling in mid-air before it flew across the room and smashed into Trenton's head.
"Ow, what the fuck!" Trenton screamed, and seeing the blood roll down his head made my heart clench and my stomach ache. I felt the need to throw up, but there was nothing in my stomach to even throw up.
"Language Trenton," a voice mocked, making all heads turn towards the sound of the voice. I inhaled sharply, forgetting all about my hunger pains when I realized who it was.
Lucius.
He walked towards my crouched form in a slow pace and I couldn't help but feel intimidated when I saw the sick smirk plastered on his face. I leaned my head back against the wall and I felt Orion or Leon, I didn't know who, take my shaky hand in his.
The others in the room were shouting at him to leave me alone, but none of them made a move to stop him. I came to a dreadful realization that the others were paralyzed once again, by whatever power Lucius possessed.
I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing that I was once step closer into a complete breakdown.
Someone please help me!
The dream I had before came rushing back to me, and I started to remember what Adrian have told me in a serious but sincere voice.
"You trust me, don't you?" He spoke in such a serious tone that I instantly nodded.
Lucius stood in front of me and like a coward, I cowered away from his intimidating height.
"Always," I murmured out and as soon as those words left my mouth, he gave me a small smile.
"Ariiiieel," Lucius sang my name in a high pitch tone, sending shivers all over me. Please go away.
"And you know I'll always protect you, wherever you are?" Adrian asked me, and I nodded my head slowly, knowing that it was the truth.
"I think it's time we have a special lunch date upstairs," Lucius stated to which I cried out loud too. Like what Leon did before, Lucius crouched down to where I was sitting and played with a piece of my hair. This time I felt no comfort or happiness whatsoever.
"I know that," I murmured back.
"You know what the best part of this lunch date is?" Lucius asked, catching one of my tears in his hand. He didn't wait for me to reply and instead spoke the answer softly into my ear. "You're dessert."
And just like that I realized, that the promise that my brother made to me was going to be broken.
ns 15.158.61.48da2
