Blood Ties

40

The teenaged vampire offered Lycus a leery smirk that looked grim. She wore clothing that reminded him of the nineteen-hundreds, a long skirt that brushed by her ankles and a button-up sleeve shirt.

Insufferable times.

"Good evening, Lycus," Alexene greeted promptly, tipping her head as a flicker of sarcasm crossed her haunting features. "And I have no intention of leaving, your brother contacted me on Cole's arrival, have you forgotten the Alpha's correlation to a vampire? I need to know why that is."

Lycus blinked at the vampire. She hadn't been here for five minutes and her presence was already intolerable. He didn't forget such pieces of information, especially when it involved the very kind he tried to wipe out decades ago.

"What's it to you?" Lycus spat.

Alexene traced her footing silently, taking in the sight around her as she acted unbothered by Lycus's staggering glares.

"My kind is older than yours but we are rarer. You don't cross paths with a vampire these days, you made a point in that, Lycus." Alexene clipped.

Lycus would typically make a jab or at least relish in his triumphs, but instead he said, "Your point?"

Alexene paused and laced her fingers together. "Vampires don't randomly connect with lycans, hardly even the diabolical species, werewolves. Some vampire did with Cole and that raises questions — especially with the very few vampires I know."

Lycus understood that. It was the same with lycans and hunters. That was what ignited fights and mayhem these recent months. Two polar opposite beings interconnected at random. Unions such as these were never encouraged.

"You randomly connected with Rexton," Lycus recalled, dismissing his thoughts.

He remembered seeing Rexton and Alexene in the woods for the first time. The pale skin and her spill of black hair danced along the wind as Rexton watched her in the night.

"Rexton was and is different, I knew that from the moment I first met him. It wasn't every day you see a lycan feed on a human like a vampire."

Lycus recoiled, rolling his neck at the distant memory. It wasn't a pleasant sight to see that night. Watching his brother feed on an innocent human girl that was nothing but a blood bag to him.

Lycus and Gabriel were at a loss, too welled in confusion on what was unravelling their little brother into bloodlust. Alexene came then, prying the hybrid off the limp girl and controlling him even as he appeared too far gone.

That was the first encounter Lycus and his brothers had with a vampire.

"And here we are," Lycus snapped coldly. "Just as before, you still helping my brother from himself and me trying to control what he is."

Alexene's face remained passive. "Stop controlling him, Lycus. Let him be."

Lycus couldn't possibly do that. He couldn't allow the hybrid to be what he is when no one knew what that entailed.

"You don't know ... do you?" Lycus mused, watching the calculated vampire shift uncomfortably beneath his gaze.

"Know what?"

Even though Lycus knew Rexton wanted his secret kept in the shadows, he at least expected his brother would tell Alexene, his dearest friend.

Lycus chuckled, wiping his mouth and didn't hide the amusement dancing across his eyes. He didn't have to hear her dead heartbeat to know she hadn't the faintest clue of where this conversation was heading.

"I value the number of decades you put into finding Rexton, Alexene. Truly admirable. I hid my brother so well, but you found him, with everything you had. I guess, where I'm trying to go with this is I think you should know I didn't just lock Rexton away because of what he is, I did it because something was after him."