Fan Fiction ❯ Illicit Angels-Caught between heaven and hell ❯ chapter 4 ( Chapter 5 )

Kelly shifted once more to get comfortable as she sat precariously in the tree. But her attention never left the window she'd been staring into for the last three hours. Beyond the windowpane, Tawny lay on her bed, reading, completely absorbed in her book. As she watched the mortal girl, Kelly was struck again by the similarities between Tawny and Kelly's deceased sister Lilly. She really didn't look anything like Lilly. It was more in the way that Tawny moved. The way that she held her self. The way she smiled and spoke. It stirred up so many memories…

Kelly wasn't really sure why she was watching Tawny. Maybe to find something about her that would dispel the unnerving feeling of familiarity. Or maybe just to find out more about the girl. In either case, there she was, sitting in the tree looking into Tawny's bedroom. Over her shoulder, Kelly could see into the bedroom that Taylor and Peter shared.

As she was glancing into their darkened, empty room, the light switched on and she watched as Taylor walked into the room wearing nothing but a plain white towel. She could see the way his skin glistened with moisture and his hair lay in a disarray of wet tangles nearly reaching his shoulders. She could see droplets of water dripping from the wet locks onto his back, rolling lazily down the smooth skin, only to disappear as they were absorbed by the plush towel around Taylor's narrow hips.

Kelly could feel her cheeks flush with excess heat when she watched as Taylor rifled through a drawer and pulled out a pair of black boxers and a black t-shirt, his back to the window. Then, before Kelly could even think about turning her gaze away, Taylor dropped the towel to the floor and bent slightly to pull on his boxers. Kelly's eyes widened in shock. She cocked an eyebrow in appreciation as she took in the new view she had of Taylor.

As he was pulling on his shirt, however, Kelly could see the muscles in Taylor's back tense as he turned to face the window, as though he could feel Kelly's eyes on him. Kelly quickly turned away, counting on her black clothing and black hair to camouflage her in the tree. She held perfectly still as she turned her gaze back to Tawny. She was still sprawled out on her bed, wearing a lime green tank top and a pair of pajama bottoms that were white with frogs all over them. She'd look better in red, Kelly through distractedly to her self as she played absently with her bracelet, grazing the pad of her finger over the single crimson bead that hung from the black chain wrapped around her wrist. Lilly looked so pretty in red…

* * *

Tawny was laying on her stomach on her bed, reading The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause. It had never really been one of her favorite books because it was about vampires. The thought of vampires still freaked her out but, for some reason, she felt compelled to read it and she couldn't find the will to put it down. She was at the part when Simon, the hauntingly beautiful vampire, tells Zoë, who is human, about how he became a vampire, though she still isn't sure whether she should believe Simon or not.

"Believe this," he whispered, and kissed her neck softly. "And this, and this." Then he kissed her with the sharp, sleek kiss, the sliver kiss, so swift and true, and razor sharp…"

Tawny sighed, absently stroking the bandage covering the cut on her wrist. Why did that passage hold her so spellbound? She read further until another passage trapped her attention with unexplainable familiarity.

She barely noticed it when his fangs pierced her throat; except when it felt like silver bubbles started to rise from her breast and burst with in her head like champagne…

Why did she suddenly feel as though she'd felt the same way before? Tawny shook her head and continued reading, caught up in the web that the story was tangling around her…

A loud knock shattered the web, startling Tawny and she jumped. She shot an angry glare at the door. "Who is it?" she called out, not bothering to mask her annoyance. She wanted to get back to her book. She had been completely under the book's spell, enjoying it, and someone had the nerve to knock on her door! Who dared to disturb her? What foul, evil creature had the audacity to shake her from the dreamy realm fashioned by her book?

"Honey, can I come in?" Her mother's voice was muffled through the door. Oh. Thatfoul, evil creature, Tawny thought, shaking the last threads that the story had bound her with from her mind.

"Sure." she sat up mumbling. "Why not? You'd come in anyways." Her mother opened her door and came to sit with Tawny on her bed. "What do you want, mom?" Tawny looked expectantly at her.

"Honey, I know that you've been kind of alone lately...and you probably miss our old home back in Tampa and your friends...so I arranged for Skylar to come visit you for the rest of the summer!"

Tawny expressed a look of pure shock and happiness. "No way! Skylar is coming here?" Tawny sat with her mouth hanging open for a few seconds. The she jumped forward, throwing her arms around her mother's neck. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Her mother laughed as she gently pried her daughter's arms from around her neck, allowing the blood to flow to her brain once more.

"Tawny, calm down!! Calm down for heaven sakes!" Finally Tawny sat tensely on her comforter in front of her mother waiting for her to finish speaking. "So she's is going to be here in two days and I expect this room to be ABSOLUTELY spotless!" Tawny rolled her eyes.

"Yes ma'am," she said dejectedly. Tawny's mother grinned at her daughter's predictable reaction to the statement.

"Alright then. I guess that I'll leave..." she scanned the room. "Considering how much work you have to do and only two days to do it in."

"Okay! Okay! I get the hint already! Jeez! I'll clean!" Tawny cringed as she said the word `clean'. "Are you happy now? You just made me say a bad word." Tawny pulled the hair band from her ponytail and let her hair tumble onto her shoulders.

"What...clean?" her mother looked at her daughter with curiosity and amusement.

"Shh!...be careful what you say in my room mother...it's very rude to curse in someone else's living space." Tawny put her finger up to her lips to indicate quiet. Now it was her mother's turn to roll her eyes.

"Yes, dear." she said, mocking Tawny the best she could. Tawny smiled back.

"Okay.... now leave....off with you. Shoo!" She motioned with her hands as if waving her mother out of the room. Her mother shook her head as she closed the door after her.

Tawny surveyed her room. It was not a pretty site. Clothes and boxes were strewn everywhere. Her CD's lay all over the floor and her bed wasn't made. "This'll take me forever," she groaned. Throwing one last look of disgust to her floor she plopped back down on her stomach and continued reading.

* * *

"Sammie, get in here please!" Sam flinched at her father's voice as it echoed through their large home. He didn't sound too happy.

"Oo, Sammie, sounds like you're in trouble," her younger brother, three year old Alex, twittered. She rolled eyes as she stood up from the living room couch.

"I'm always in trouble, puissant."

"Yeah, but Dad sounds madder than usual," Alex pointed out as he sharpened his knife absently. Sam sighed and shrugged her shoulders before turning and walking out of the living room to find her father. She found him sitting at the kitchen table. "Yeah, dad?" He looked up at her as she walked into the kitchen.

"Sit down, Sammie." Sam took a seat across the table. "Samantha…I know you really want to be a hunter…but…it just doesn't seem to be working out. You get too easily distracted and-"

"Dad, I already told you that it's impossible to hunt with you watching over me; judging me. Its nerve wracking and it makes me screw up. If you'd just let me patrol once, by my self, I could prove to you that I'm just as good as you and mom and uncle Daryk and Sheila and-"

"Sam," her father said warningly. Sam considered continuing her argument but thought better of it and waited for what her father had to say. He didn't speak for a long time, just staring at her as if considering in his mind what his options were. Sam inwardly prayed that her father would agree to give her a chance. She knew that she could prove that she was as good a Hunter as any one else in her family. If she only had the chance. If her father told her no…Sam didn't know how she would take such a devastating blow.

She had been training since she was three to fight, recognize, track, and kill vampires. It was all she dreamed about, all she learned about…it was all she knew. It was all her friends and she could talk about. She'd grown up with it. Every one in her immediate and extended family was a Hunter. Even the ones that had ventured out and become businessmen and lawyers were trained as Hunters at one point. All her friends were hunters, most of them descendents of the Atreus, the line that she herself belonged to. Some were of lesser Hunter blood, like the Reyla line or Kedo. But the fact remained that they were all Hunters.

There were undeniable signs that she was meant to be a hunter. She was born on the same day, two thousand years later, that Tjei Atreus died. The Elders claimed that she was the mirror image of the legendary huntress. There were also signs that made the elders nervous. She had more vampiric energy than most hunters ands she was born under the same Blood Sign that Apexis, the first and most evil of the vampire race, had been turned; the night of the Hunter's Moon. It was a night that happened once every seven hundred years when the sun eclipsed a blood red moon.

"Let me sleep on it Sammie," her father finally replied. Sam sighed. At least he didn't say no. "Sam," her father called as she stood to leave. She turned to look at him, her face expressionless. "I've already buried three children because of those leeches…I don't want to have to bury a fourth. Not when I can prevent it."

"Dad…I'm a product of my training. A direct descendant of Atreus; bred and raised as a hunter. My dreams are filled with blood spilled by the vampires I will kill. I can spot a vampire quicker than any one else my age and quicker than most adults. I've always gotten superior marks in battle strategies and there's not one person with in this and the neighboring states that can beat me in hand to hand combat. I killed my first vampire when I was seven. That can't be all for nothing. Surely after all that I cannot be destined to be a teacher or a lawyer."

"Let me sleep on it, Sammie," her father repeated, his weariness showing in his once handsome features, weathered by years of fighting and stress. Sam nodded and walked out of the kitchen, heading to her room instead of going back to the living room to watch the rest of the movie she had been watching with her brother. Once she reached her room that she shared with her older sister Sheila, Sam flopped onto her bed, burying her face in a pillow.

"I don't care what his decision is," Sam muttered into her pillow. "I will hunt. I have to. I…need to."

* * *

Aaron gave Brianna a sly smile. "Wanna go find somewhere that isn't so…crowded?" She smiled wickedly, knowing exactly what he meant.

"Sure!" Aaron flinched. Brianna talked very much like a peppy cheerleader. This wasn't necessarily bad...other than the fact that it was right in his ear. He grabbed her hand and led her away from the bon fire. Seconds later found them walking in the woods behind the park, away from all the other people.

Aaron suddenly shoved Brianna up against a tree and roughly pressed his mouth against hers. She tried to kiss back with all the force he was using, but couldn't. His tongue quickly found hers as she felt his hands move under her skirt. Her body temperature rose sharply with her excitement. She moaned slightly in anticipation.

Aaron could hear her pulse beating faster and faster, the blood rushing through her veins with more and more speed. He could feel his own pulse quicken with his eagerness. Brianna encircled his neck with her arms. It wasn't long before his hand found its way inside of her panties.

She cried out against his mouth. Aaron pulled back from the hard kiss, watching Brianna's face. Her eyes closed and her tipped head back against the tree, exposing her soft, pale neck. Aaron brought her leg up and draped it over his hip.

Her dark curly hair flowed down her back as her body pressed into his. Her neck was open to him. Her cries of pleasure became muffled in his mind by her pounding heartbeat. Aaron couldn't stand it any longer. He felt his fangs growing longer, pressing against the inside of his lips.

In one fluid motion, he pulled his fingers out of her and bent down, baring his white teeth and sinking his fangs into the soft flesh her neck. He was too hungry to remember to lull her mind and calm her down so that she wouldn't be in pain. He reveled in the pained cry that reached his hypersensitive hearing before the taste of her blood carried his thoughts adrift. Brianna's body curled around him as gasping sounds escaped from her mouth. Aaron felt his own heartbeat increase at the wonderful taste of her.

When Aaron finally pulled back everything was drained from Brianna. Aaron leaned his body against her now lifeless form, breathing heavily. He caught his breath, and then brought his head back up to look at Brianna's pale face. He gathered Brianna up in his arms and found some nearby bushes that would cover her.

There was nothing Aaron enjoyed more than the taste of blood that he stole from his unwilling victims. The sound of their fear and pain only sweetened the experience. Every night, he hunted, luring some unsuspecting girl away to a secluded place under the pretense of the opportunity for a bit of physical pleasure. Every night, he fed, mercilessly killing his victims.

For a second, his brother's warnings to be more careful, not to kill as often, show some kind of mercy, not to make their deaths so frightening and painful floated into his mind. Aaron shook his head, clearing the unwanted thoughts away.

Once he had set her down he took the knife from his pocket and savagely gouged the same spot that bared his bite with the sharp blade. It was a trick he had learned to disguise the actual cause of his many victims. The last thing he needed was a hunter catching on to him and following him…or any of his brothers.

He moved the branches around to make sure her body was completely hidden away. He knew he couldn't keep hunting that way forever. He didn't want to get his brothers into some kind of trouble that might get them killed. After all, even though he took after his father more than anything, he wasn't exactly like him.

Scott had tried so hard to keep himself and his younger brothers from taking after their father, who had been the one to turn Scott, after killing their mother. Scott had never forgiven himself for losing control and turning his brothers. But Aaron knew that the only way he could stop hunting and killing would be if he found his soul mate. At that point in time, however, Aaron had no interest in searching for her. He didn't believe in the old rite anyways. The hunger will never go away... Aaron quickly walked out of the woods and into the semi-crowded park. Blood is the only thing that can comfort demons.

* * *

Lily and Ariel laughed. Scott and Taylor were wrestling again. Scott was winning, of course. Finally, he pinned Taylor, sitting on top of him.

"Had enough?" he asked sweetly, his fangs peeking from the corners of his devious smile due to the wrestling. Even through Taylor's defiant glare, Scott could see the laughter in his eyes. He finally stood up and helped Taylor to his feet.

"What were you fighting about this time?" Ben asked as Scott and Taylor brushed the dirt and grass off of their clothes. Taylor looked up at Scott, who met his gaze. Both burst out laughing.

"I don't remember," Scott told his brother. Ben smiled and shook his head….

"What have I done?" Scott looked at the blood that coated his hands. He looked down at Lily's face. It was pale. Scott shook his head in disbelief. He saw her torn shirt, her ripped skirt and panties, the slash on her neck and the slash across her stomach. Blood was everywhere. It splattered the ground. It puddled around Lily, as she lay very still and very dead…

"What have I done?"

"Shit. Ben, man, wake up…" Scott begged his youngest brother. "Please?" Ben groaned and opened his eyes.

"Ben!" Clint cried in relief. Seventeen-year old Ben opened his mouth to talk but the only sound he made was the gurgling of the blood in his lungs. Ben's eyes began to glaze over. Scott looked at him, pained to see his brother's broken body. His shirt had been torn to pieces. Ben had two broken ribs, one of which had pierced his lung…he was bleeding from his nose and his ears. There was a deep slash across his chest that was still bleeding profusely. Scott knew that his youngest brother was dying. Blood was leaking out the corner of his mouth now.

"Ben," Scott said through his tears. "Ben, you can't die." In true Ben fashion, Ben managed a small smile and grabbed Scott's hand. Scott made a split second decision. Scott felt his fangs elongate and he quickly raised his wrist to his mouth. He tore open the flesh of his wrist, spilling his blood down his own face.

Gently, he placed his wrist over the slash on Ben's chest. Ben grimaced as the vampiric blood entered his system; feeling like pure hydrochloric acid was shooting through his veins. Suddenly, Ben cried out in pain. Scott's blood was destroying what blood was left in Ben's body, trying to assert its self in its new host. Scott prayed that his brother would survive the change…

"What have I done?"

Scott sat straight up in his bed. He was tangled in his covers and his body was drenched with sweat. He gasped for breath, his heart pounding. Scott was still shaking, trying to rid himself of the last remnants of the dream. He brought his hands to his face and tried to calm himself down. He ran his hands through his hair as his breathing and heart rate began to return to normal.

"Holy shit," Scott whispered. It wasn't the first time he'd had that dream…but never had it been so vivid. Must be because we're back in this town…so many memories, Scott reflected. Scott looked down at his hands, remembering the blood that had coated them. He saw a drop of blood on his palm. Scott suddenly felt a strange tickle at his nose. He brought his hand up to touch it and when he looked at his hand again, his fingers were covered with blood.

"Crap, not again," Scott growled as he stood up and walked out of his room and into the bathroom. When Scott flicked on the light in the bathroom he blinked in pain. His vampire eyes took a few milliseconds to adjust to light.

Scott saw in the mirror that his nose was bleeding heavily. He grabbed a tissue and held it to his nose for a few minutes, hoping the bleeding would stop soon.

Finally he took the tissue away from his nose. No more blood was trickling down from his nostril. Scott sighed and threw away the tissue. Once more, he looked down at his hands. There was more blood on them from his nose. Flashes of the dream returned to him. Would he never escape his past? "Shit, I feel like Lady Macbeth, for fuck's sake," Scott muttered. He turned on the faucet in the sink and began to wash away the blood. Then he splashed some water on his face to remove what blood was still there. When he was done, he turned out the light and went back into his bedroom.

As he lay back down on his bed he felt a pang of hunger. He growled to himself as he rolled onto his side, ignoring his hunger…for now.

A/N okay, now you've met the opposition…more chapters are coming, so be patient. This story is already finished but I will be fixing mistakes as I post so it may take a small while. Thank you for reading this far!!!