It's what a Big Brother Does.

Plan Twenty-One: Romeo

“BEAST!” I hollered out as I slammed the front door. I was fuming. “You were supposed to wait for me at the front of the school! How dare you run off like that-”

There was no answer. Instead, a silence swallowed and oozed through the walls of the house making it seem darker and emptier than normal.

“Mountain gorilla?” I called out for the witch again. “Mom, Dad? Twins?” Still no response. Suddenly, it hit me. “Shit! She ran off with them!” I freaked out, dropping all of my things and sprinting out the front door again. But I was stopped on the porch by a dark smirk.

“Hey there, Jeraud-me-boy.” Claire smirked as James opened up the door to the limo behind him. “Come on in.” he joked, raising a hand towards the opened door.

Angrily, I marched straight towards Claire, not letting my fear show through. “Where is she, Claire? Do you know?!”

“I sure do!” Claire smiled back calmly, not even fazed by my initial anger. “Why don’t you take a seat in the limo and we’ll take you to the building.”

“The building?”

“That’s where she is!~” Claire sang as he himself took a back seat in the car.

With an annoyed huff, I sat down in the limo as James closed the door behind me. “Why is she at the building?” I turned towards Claire as soon as the car began to move.

The man was sitting there singing as if he hadn’t a worry in the world. It was as if he wasn’t even hurt the other day. It was as if yesterday hardly even happened.

“Claire!” I hissed, trying to get his attention from the window.

Surprised, he turned to me wide eyed. That’s when I noticed it. His eyes had changed, too.

“Your eyes, Claire… All of you… You’ve all changed; both you and Romeo!” I gasped at the realization. “What happened?!”

Claire smirked wider. “You’ll find out when you’re older, Jeraud-me-boy.” He teased, ruffling my hair.

I raised a brow at him, shoving his awkward hand off of me. Claire was weird yesterday, but he’s even odder today. Did… Did he eat? My heart skipped at the thought of him feeding. I knew he was a vampire now, but does he know that I know that? Maybe I wasn’t supposed to know it. Maybe it was supposed to be some big secret like how the beast being an actual beast was some huge secret. Maybe if I tell him I know he’ll think I know too much and will kill me…

Then my mind wandered to Romeo… Romeo is part of the Sr. Ellik, too, right? He knows what I know and then some… I shivered at the last thing he had told me. What was the Sr. Ellik backwards? What did he mean by that? What did they not stand for? I don’t know what he meant…

Suddenly, the car jerked to a stop and Claire jumped out as if he were a young boy again. I followed out after him, slowly and carefully. He was a one-man-killing-machine, I bet! I couldn’t ever be too careful around him.

“Jeraud.” A solemn voice called out at the steps of the building.

I turned towards the familiar voice too willingly. “Romeo?”

“What do you want, cel Frumos?” Claire took the question right out of my lips, his hands on his hips childishly.

“I need to talk to Jeraud. Stay out of my way, Claire.” Romeo coldly dismissed him as if he were a servant, shooing him off with a wave of his hand.