Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 21

Crystal, Chapter 21:

 

 

Lachlan came to the house nightly now, and sat with Johnny in front of the TV for hours in the evenings. He was greatly interested in the news, especially world events. Strange, for a vampire who had slept away most of the last few centuries.

 

If Lachlan didn't know what to make of me, a human with vampire tendencies, neither did the rest of the Brown clan know quite what to make of this new Lachlan. Rose Brown, especially, was out of her depth. She had been raised to revere the blood-drinker in their loch, and could count on her fingers the number of times she had actually had contact with him in her lifetime. Until now. Now, not only did she see Lachlan on a daily—nightly—basis, but he spoke to her about other things than family and blood and obligation. He liked her garden, as it turned out, and asked her questions about it that she struggled to answer. `What is that flower used for? What does it look like in sunlight? Is it edible?'

 

To be fair to Lachlan, it wasn't easy for him, either. He made an effort to interact, in imitation of how Johnny behaved with the rest of us. Johnny didn't say a word, although I could see the amusement glinting in his eyes. Johnny had never bothered to interact with us. He just did whatever he wanted, and if we were there too, then fine. Lachlan didn't get the distinction.

 

Sitting in front of the fire, I watched Lachlan and Johnny talk to each other. They were alike in many ways, both slender, tall, young, although Johnny looked younger than his brother by several years. Lachlan was darker; Johnny had the coloring that ran in the Brown family, brown hair that tended to curl, warm brown eyes except when they clouded over in anger or hunger. When they both had their need upon them, then their darkened eyes looked identical. I wondered what my blue eyes looked like when I felt the hunger for blood rise in me—were they black or just a darker shade of blue? Did they even change at all?

 

I stood up, intending to go upstairs and look in a mirror. I felt a twinge of hunger already. Who was I kidding? I was always hungry for blood. Did Johnny and Lachlan feel like this all the time, too? I glanced back. They were laughing softly, reminiscing about something or someone from their past. They didn't look hungry.

 

“Where are you going?” Johnny had caught my glance.

 

“Upstairs. I'll be back in a minute,” I hedged. He went back to his conversation with his brother. Over at the other end of the room, Uncle Robert and Rose were finishing up dessert. My stomach lurched at the sight of the shortcake, piled high with fruit. I hurried upstairs.

 

In the bathroom mirror my reflected eyes remained an ordinary blue. I sighed, and bumped into Johnny as I turned. He had followed me upstairs. “Hungry?” he asked softly.

 

“Yeah,” I said. Always. How did he stand it?

 

Johnny put his hands on my shoulders. “Won't you at least try to eat a little something first?”

 

We had this same conversation almost every night. “I can't,” I said, holding my stomach. Just the thought of regular food made me sick. Johnny still insisted I should be able to eat, but I saw his face as he choked down some ice cream to prove his point. Being able to and wanting to are two different things.

 

“Then we'd better get you some blood,” he said, smiling a little, although I could tell he still felt uneasy.

 

Lachlan rose from the couch as we came downstairs, and met us at the door.

 

“Crystal is coming with us,” Johnny said. Across the room, Rose Brown gasped. Lachlan stared at me for a long minute before he nodded and went out ahead of us.

 

“Down the road?” Johnny asked cryptically. Lachlan nodded again. Without explaining further, Johnny took my arm and pulled me after them as they took off, literally following the narrow road which led towards town. I assumed we would hunt there, but apparently “down the road” meant down the road from town.

 

I hadn't realized there were other villages up in these hills. It had been dark the night we arrived, or maybe they were off the beaten path and that's why I hadn't noticed them. We certainly didn't take any beaten path to get to the little town nestled in the hollow of three steep mountains. I smelled it before I saw it. Animals. Sheep, I think, although it was too dark to see much. I hoped we weren't dining on sheep tonight.

 

“Johnny—“ I wiggled, and he set me down. Up until the first village, I had managed to keep up, but after that Johnny had needed to carry me so I wouldn't slow them down.

 

“Shh.” Lachlan shushed me, glancing sharply at Johnny. He wasn't happy that I had come along.

 

It was late. No lights shone from the handful of windows in this tiny hamlet. Johnny and Lachlan easily opened the first door we came to—it hadn't even been locked—and moved silently through the house, seeking life. I followed Johnny into a bedroom, and let him make the first cut for me. I took the wife while Johnny took the husband.

 

A noise behind me made me look up. Lachlan stood in the doorway watching me.

 

I wiped my mouth and stood up so Johnny could come over and seal the wife's wound. He frowned, then touched one finger to the red spot on the woman's neck. That's all that was visible—a red rash. “Let's go,” he said shortly, and I couldn't help grinning. The wound had sealed itself—I had sealed the wound!

 

Lachlan didn't say a word until we were some distance away from the little hamlet. Then he motioned for Johnny to stop and he confronted me. “You drank the woman's blood,” he said, his voice oddly flat.

 

“Yes, you knew that I would,” I replied, holding one arm against Johnny's chest. This was between me and his brother. “Didn't you believe us?”

 

“Family is one thing. . .” he said, his voice dropping off. “I didn't realize you—I should have.” He glanced at Johnny and spoke rapidly in some language I couldn't follow—Gaelic, I think. Johnny replied in the same language.

 

“Hey!” I said, fairly loudly. They both stopped and looked at me. “I'm right here.”

 

Johnny laughed softly, and stepped back, letting his brother take the field, so to speak. Lachlan asked, “Who is your father? What line does he come from that you are so,” he hesitated, “so powerful?”

 

So like a true vampire, he meant. Now I wished I had let Johnny explain. “I don't know,” I admitted. “We only found out my father had the family blood a few years ago. He doesn't even know he has our blood himself. Why? Does that matter?”

 

“It might.” Lachlan sat down. Johnny and I sat across from him. I snuggled against Johnny because it felt good, not because I was cold. The wind had picked up, and with it, the temperature dropped, but I didn't feel cold yet. Probably because I was still warmed from the blood I had just taken. Lachlan looked at the two of us, then quickly looked away. He spoke in English for my sake. “Eoin, I think you must take her under the water sooner rather than later. She cannot go on as she is.”

 

I loved that he called Johnny Eoin. Johnny liked it, too. However, now he came to full attention. “Why?” he growled.

 

“Do you remember when you were a child? When did the bloodlust come upon you?” He didn't wait for Johnny's reply, but answered his own question. “When you were summoned from your loch. Before then, the only blood any of us took were the offerings from family.” He fixed Johnny with a stern gaze. “When did Crystal start drinking other blood?”

 

Johnny and I glanced guiltily at each other. I remembered exactly when. It was the night Ellie had made the offering to me. I was eleven, nearly twelve. I had begged Johnny to take me with him so I could taste human blood, and he had. Ever since then, he had taken me occasionally, very occasionally, with much begging on my part and much lecturing on his on how I didn't need it. But my desire for blood had gotten worse since Johnny left me a few weeks ago. Even after he came back, I couldn't shake the cravings.

 

“About four years ago,” I said in a tiny voice, and Lachlan's eyes widened.

 

“You should have taken her under the water then!” he said.

 

Johnny grimaced. “I couldn't,” he said. “I didn't remember enough—I still don't.” He pinned Lachlan with a dark look. “You don't, either,” he said. “That's why we left to find the others.”

 

We sat, the three of us, suddenly companions. I should have been glad. Lachlan finally accepted me. But I realized what it meant. Nobody knew the process. It had been too long. “Why can't we just do it—tonight?” I asked. I thought it would work. I was more than ready.

 

Lachlan surprised me. “No,” he said. “You might not survive the change. We can't take that chance.”

 

We? I wasn't sure if I should be pleased or not. Johnny's expression showed that I had made another conquest. I hadn't meant to, really, but I was glad Lachlan finally liked me.

 

“We need to find out who your father is,” Lachlan said abruptly.

 

“I know who my father is. Sam Porter,” I mumbled under my breath. What would that prove? Even my Dad didn't know about any of this.

 

“He must come here. We need to find out where his bloodline is from. Can you contact him? Will he come for you?”

 

That would go over well with my parents. “Why?” I asked. “What does it matter what bloodline he has? I am what I am. Can't we just accept it and go from there?”

 

Lachlan shook his head. “I don't know,” he said. “If we had him here, we could taste his blood and see—“

 

“I tasted his blood.” Johnny spoke up. “I knew him for family, nothing more.”

 

“You said yourself that you cannot remember all of your life before you nearly died,” Lachlan said. “One of us might be able to determine more.”

 

I disagreed. “You tasted my blood, Lachlan,” I reminded him. I had made him the offering out of friendship a few nights ago. “Shouldn't you have been able to tell?”

 

From his face, I realized that I was right. Lachlan didn't know any more than Johnny did, and he was grasping at straws. “We have the word out,” he said quietly. “To any of our brothers and sisters who can still respond. They will come here. Perhaps our father will come here as well, if he is still on this earth. One of them will be able to tell.”

 

Or not. I wasn't quite as believing, but that's what Johnny was hoping for. Surely someone among the blood-drinkers would know what to do about me, would help me into my new life without killing me. “Okay,” I relented. “I'll try to contact my father, but I don't think he will come all the way to Scotland just because I ask him to.”

 

Lachlan nodded, satisfied.

 

I still didn't see what the fuss was about. What did my bloodline have to do with me going under the water? “So, we're going to get other vampire visitors?” I asked cautiously.

 

“With any luck,” Lachlan replied, speaking more easily to me now that he had more or less accepted me as one of them. “They will want to see you for themselves.”

 

Great. I craned my neck so I could see Johnny's face. He smiled at me and held me tighter. Mine. He didn't have to say it.

 

Lachlan regarded us for a moment, then, moving swiftly, he knelt in front of us and slashed his hand. He held it out to me, not Johnny, and raised his eyebrows at my surprise. “Blood of my blood,” he said in the old language. What could I do? I sipped, then raised my eyes to meet his.

 

“Mine,” I replied in the same language. It was the first time he had heard me speak it. His eyes gleamed, and he grinned widely.