Vampires Rule // Colby Brock

~| 46 |~

We figure everything out in one small meeting at the coven house. We sit around a dining table to talk, each of us respectful when someone has a point. Whilst none of us are the leader, Lilly easily keeps us in check during the meeting, since she's the mediator and that's her speciality.

Tyler sits next to me the whole time but we don't touch at all. It's a stark contrast to the way Andy has his arm draped over Lilly's shoulders, his eyes on her any time she's speaking. It looks like he can't get enough of her face; like he's drowning in her and there's nowhere else he'd rather be.

That's the kind of love and connection I have never had, and am starting to think I never will have. Tyler and I work right now because it's easy: we're in the same coven, we have similar senses of humour, and we're both attractive, but I can't imagine ever spending my entire life with him. Certainly not a witch's life, which is eternal from the day you become mature in your abilities.

By the time our meeting has finished, we've come to the conclusion that whilst we will help Colby's clan should they need it, only a select few of us will be sent depending on the situation. If they need a defender or attacker, we'll send Andy and myself. We don't expect them to come running to a bunch of witches, though, considering vampires have never liked us for our superiority over them. Even as an attacker, I can still heal a person. We're all strong in all aspects and fields of our abilities, and the only thing that differs between us is the amount of power we have. My coven are convinced I have the most.

Tyler, careful not to touch me, pulls me up from the dining table and into the living room, where Lilly and Andy have already made their way to. They look up at us with a smile and I feel like I'm looking at a pair of parents welcoming us home.

"Are you guys staying?" Lilly asks, just as Eliza shuts the front door behind herself.

Glancing at Tyler, I say, "I'm not really sure."

"I just wanted to see how you're doing," Tyler tells them. He smiles charmingly, but I can tell he doesn't actually want to be here. Something's bothering him.

"Oh, we're doing fine." Lilly frowns at him. "Are you? I can sense some tension."

"Just anxious about working with vampires, is all. We don't do it very often and that was a huge clan. If they were ever to go against us, they might have a chance at winning."

I scoff. "That's cute, babe. As if that'd ever happen." I pull my sleeve over my hand in the same move that has my clothed palm pressed to his face, a small smile on my lips. "You know you're stronger than all of them."

Except he doesn't because he isn't. I don't agree with my coven over my own powers, but we all know that Tyler's one of the weakest of us all. Even when he heals, which he's particularly good at, he channels the energy of the person he's healing just to have enough to complete the job.

But I can sit here and pretend that he would be able to face all of those vampires and still come out alive.

"Thanks, babe," Tyler mutters as he leans forward to kiss me.

When his lips brush mine, I let out a shriek of pain, my mind flashing with that blue shade. Without realising it, I'm suddenly on the floor, scratching into the wood with my nails as I scramble for any kind of sanity.

The sound of voices surrounds me as my senses come back, and I have to blink a few times before I can see again. Tyler is hovering next to me looking worried while Lilly and Andy have stood up to watch. As I come to be, Tyler carefully manoeuvres me onto his lap. "Shit," he breathes, "you scared me."

"Sorry," I whisper as I force myself to sit upright. Then it processes what just happened and I stare at Tyler in realisation, my entire body aching from hitting the floor so suddenly. This new development hits us like a truck.