Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 18

Crystal, Chapter 18:

 

 

Night couldn't come soon enough. Johnny disappeared for most of the day, leaving me alone with the Brown family, who were so nervous over the impending confrontation that it made my teeth ache. On top of that, I was ravenous for blood. It didn't help matters that Johnny left me to sort things out on my own.

 

I wandered down to the loch after lunch and put my feet in the water.

 

“I wouldn't recommend that.” Paul had followed me down. “The water drops off suddenly here. It's not a place for swimming.”

 

I turned to look at him. “I wasn't going to,” I said, sitting down on the bank. “I just wanted to feel the water.”

 

He sat down beside me. “I thought you might want to try and follow Johnny,” he said, staring across the water. It was as black and impenetrable as ink.

 

I sighed. “I don't know how,” I said. “Or I would.”

 

Paul fell silent. “Crystal, you don't have to, you know. Follow him. You're still human. You could change your mind.”

 

I got to my feet, brushing imaginary sand away as I stood. “I don't want to,” I said flatly. But it bothered me that Johnny had left me alone with them in this unfamiliar place. Why was he distancing himself from me now, when he was about to finally meet his vampire brother?

 

I walked back to the house by myself, and took a bath while I waited for the time to hurry up and go by. Afterward, I ate some scones that Mrs. Brown put out for me, but nothing could ease my hunger for blood. I told myself it was all in my head, want, not need, and tried to ignore it.

 

At dusk, Johnny reappeared, and he hugged me as if he hadn't abandoned me for the entire day. Rationally, I understood that he needed to rest, however, I was worried about tonight, too. “I'm hungry,” I whispered quickly. “Will you take me hunting?”

 

Johnny drew me away from the gathered family until we stood outside in the gloom. Dark fell fast in this place. “Not yet,” he murmured, stroking my hair and holding me close. “I can't touch any of the villagers until I speak to my brother.”

 

I pulled away and stared at him. Since when? When did Johnny start caring about rules and traditions? My shoulders sagged. If not this village, there were no other people for miles and miles. “I'm not talking about hurting anyone,” I argued, keeping my voice low. “Just a taste.”

 

“I can't.” Johnny offered me his own wrist instead. “Drink,” he said. “It will hold you over.”

 

My eyes filled with tears, but I drank. I don't think Johnny saw me cry. He might not have understood. It wasn't the blood—Johnny's blood was infinitely better than any other I had tasted. It was the notion that he was worried what his brother might think, and that notion scared me because it meant he was considering returning to the old ways. If Johnny became again the creature he once used to be, would I still know him? Would he still want me? Stupid notions, but I couldn't help thinking them. I wished we had never come.

 

Johnny didn't take my blood. I almost cried again, but I didn't. When the time came, near midnight when the moon was high, Johnny held me back with him and Uncle Robert, and let the Brown siblings, along with their mother, walk down the path to the water's edge. From the top of the bluff, we watched as all three knelt and cut their palms over the water, allowing their blood to drip into the deep, black water. I couldn't hear what they said, but the words were burned into my brain, blood of my blood.

 

We waited a long time. Johnny stiffened a moment before I noticed a movement on the surface of the lake, a swirling, of mist and water and darkness. A figure emerged, naked. Michael offered it a robe of some sort, and the creature donned it, a concession to their human sensibilities perhaps, as Michael resumed his kneeling position and all three Browns offered their cupped palms to their resident vampire.

 

“Did you find the children?” The vampire's voice carried, clear and strong.

 

Michael, obviously the spokesman, murmured something and the vampire's eyes flashed to the cliff. Johnny stepped back, leaving me and Uncle Robert limned in moonlight.

 

“Come down,” the vampire called.

 

We made our way carefully down the path to the loch, careful because we couldn't see very clearly, and Johnny was nowhere to be found. What was his game now? When we got close, I got a good look at Paul's vampire. He appeared older than Johnny, about Paul's age, with black hair and eyes. The eyes were dark with need, as dark as Johnny's could become when he was angry or in danger—or very, very hungry. He smiled, and revealed the tips of very sharp teeth.

 

“Good. You're not afraid,” he said, when I didn't gasp or fall to the ground. Uncle Robert, having been broken in by Johnny, didn't panic either, although I felt him trembling next to me. Better the devil you know, as they say.

 

Michael murmured something again, and whatever he said had the vampire stepping away quickly. I looked to the left and saw Johnny standing at the bottom of the path. He held his hands loosely by his sides, and he regarded this long-lost brother with a half-smile.

 

“Hello, Lachlan,” he said.

 

Lachlan stared, then shook himself. “Eoin?”

 

Johnny grinned.

 

“Eoin!” With a shout, Lachlan strode forward and grasped Johnny's forearms. Johnny did the same to him. It was the equivalent of a hug in man-terms, I suppose. “I thought you were dead.”

 

“I nearly was,” Johnny said, his accent thickening to match his brother's. “We have a lot to talk about.” His glance seared everyone on the lake shore, hesitated a fraction over me, then skipped over as if I hadn't registered.

 

Lachlan followed his glance. “Wait for me at the house,” he instructed Michael, and by proxy, all of us. “I owe you a debt of thanks for bringing me my brother. We will return before dawn.” He grasped Johnny's arm. “Come. Let's hunt.”

 

Johnny grinned and followed his brother up the hill, faster than I could follow with my eyes. He had left me. Again.

 

“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked plaintively.

 

“We wait.” Mrs. Brown, Rose, accepted Uncle Robert's help in standing, then started back up towards the house.

 

I followed, with Paul behind me and Michael bringing up the rear. “Lachlan,” he said thoughtfully. “I never knew his name. Eoin? That's Johnny?”

 

“Mmm.”

 

“You knew?”

 

I shrugged. “Yeah. That's his name. Why? Does it make a difference? Do you know the name Eoin?”

 

“No, it's just . . . more than I knew a couple of hours ago. He's old, then.”

 

My heart pinged. “Yeah, he's old.” And I felt very, very young right at that moment.

 

I went directly to my room and curled up on the bed. I wasn't tired. The hunger gnawed at my stomach until I finally went downstairs where Mrs. Brown had made a second supper, since we were all waiting up for our vampires to return. I wondered what Michael's new wife down in the village thought of his prolonged absence, but I didn't ask. I didn't care that much.

 

“I'm going for a walk.” I pushed my way up and headed for the front door.

 

“You can't!”

 

“It's dark. It's dangerous.”

 

“We're to wait.” That, predictably, from Mrs. Brown.

 

“I'll go with you.” Paul's voice cut through the chorus of protests. He followed me out the door and around the corner where I leaned, arms crossed, on Michael's car. The dark pulsed down all around us, unbroken except for the faint glow from the front window.

 

“What is it?” He asked quietly, a few inches away from me so we could see each other.

 

“I'm hungry,” I muttered sullenly. He knew what I meant. He'd just seen me eat a plateful of his mother's cooking. It wasn't that kind of hunger.

 

“Is it that bad already?” He moved in the dark, a shadow against the darker shadow of the car.

 

“No,” I lied.

 

I heard his chuckle. “And they left to go hunting without you.”

 

There was the crux of the matter. Johnny had refused to take me hunting, yet he went off with his brother to drink blood without me. I tightened my arms around my stomach.

 

Paul sighed. I heard him move again. “Blood of my blood,” he said softly, and I felt rather than saw his hands just inches from my face, warm with his spilled blood. “Drink, Crystal.”

 

I accepted his offering, because that's what it was—an offering, like Ellie had made once when I really needed blood. Like hers, Paul's was family, and in knowing it was offered freely, I could take it without guilt, without violating any stupid pact. I sighed in contentment as I finished, and Paul flexed his hand a few times to make sure the bleeding had stopped. “Mine,” I said ritually in the old language. He was mine. I smiled.

 

We went inside to wait for Johnny and Lachlan to return. I wasn't as restless now that I'd had Paul's blood, and I settled on the small sofa by the fireplace, sleepy at last. Uncle Robert and Michael both gave me strange looks, as if they'd guessed what Paul had done. I smiled at them, too. Only Rose Brown watched me warily, which was to be expected—she wasn't one of mine. She belonged to the vampire of the loch.

 

We all jumped when the vampires returned. It was near dawn. The sky had lightened considerably. Somewhere along the line, the vampire Lachlan had acquired modern clothes and stood next to Johnny in jeans and a t-shirt. He was barefoot, though.

 

Johnny glanced at me, curled up on the sofa next to Paul, and his lips curved up. I quickly sat straighter. He didn't move away from the door, but watched curiously as all of the Browns save Uncle Robert knelt quickly on the floor in front of Lachlan. The vampire nodded, and they stood up.

 

“My brother tells me you found him in your father's homeland,” Lachlan said, addressing Michael again. “And you offered him your blood.” The words were spoken without inflection, and I couldn't tell if the vampire was angry or indifferent about it. If he was angry, it wasn't at Johnny, who grinned in the background, enjoying the awkwardness of the moment.

 

“It wasn't like that—we didn't—“ Michael started to say. The vampire cut him off with a wave of his arm.

 

“I know what happened,” he said airily. “It doesn't matter. You brought him back to us. For that I owe you at least our shared allegiance. And you brought back new family blood.” Lachlan's eyes sought out me and Uncle Robert. “You did well.”

 

Mrs. Brown spoke up. “Did he tell you the girl and Robert both belong to him?”

 

Lachlan turned towards her. “I would expect no less. The family connections are—interesting.” He grinned, and I saw a resemblance to Johnny in his smile, that same wild joy. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. “Perhaps they will choose to make the blood offering to me as well.”

 

I darted a quick look at Johnny, who had pulled away from the wall. The smile faded from his face, but still he didn't say anything to contradict his brother. Mrs. Brown, however, did. “But she's his girlfriend!” she said. “Or at least, that's what they call it.”

 

Lachlan regarded Johnny. “Is she?” He glanced back at Paul and me on the sofa. “You know that never works out well, brother.”

 

Johnny finally moved. He glided over to the sofa and gently pulled me upright. “Crystal is mine,” he said firmly. “In every way.” Without taking his eyes from his brother, he casually bent to my throat and bit down, taking my blood in the most intimate manner he could in front of all these people. No wonder he hadn't taken from me earlier. He had planned this. I felt myself go woozy as he continued to drink.

 

Everyone except Lachlan looked on in horror. He looked on in envy, I think. Then I passed out.