Queen of Beasts: The Fallen Book One

Death

Nolan was right. By the time the overly expensive taxi drops me off a block away from the pier, the sun is already starting to set. I feel a little bit helpless right now. I don't really know what I'm going to do or say. All I know is that I have to convince them that they shouldn't hurt Oliver just because I know what they are. The bottom line is, it truly isn't Oliver's fault. I know Oliver is taking the brunt for Nolan. But I think if both of them knew the truth, neither would have said anything. This is what I get for keeping secrets to myself.

As I slowly start walking around the shipping yard, I look around for any sign of movement. It's possible that they would have gone to the house instead of here, but this is my only lead. My only other option is to figure out where the house is by perhaps breaking into a admin area and looking through some paperwork. That's when I start to hear mumbled voices. As I walk closer to where they're coming from, I can see that Oliver, his father, and several others are standing around him while they are having a discussion out in the open of the pier. I suppose with the sun so close to setting, it's comfortable for them to be outside now. I stand behind the closest shipping container. I wonder if they can hear my heartbeat like Oliver can sometimes. If they can, they'll hear it similar to a hummingbird. I couldn't quite hear the conversation until they started getting a little bit louder.

"You broke our laws, Oliver." Mr. Pierce exclaims.

"Your laws are stupid. Just because someone is a human doesn't make them untrustworthy. You know for a fact there are several vampires that have human mates."

"Those vampires have their own clans with their own rules. As a member of our clan, you follow our laws."

"Since when have I ever been a part of your clan? I've basically lived with Nolan my whole life."

"Day-Walking vampires should be something to be ashamed of. I still have no idea when or how you accumulated that ability. It's a disgrace to our kind."

"Whatever. I already know the sentence you are going to pass down to me, so why not just get it over with?"

"So I assume that means you came here without either killing or turning that girl then?"

"The others are working on erasing her memory. But no, I refuse to do either of the other options."

"Regardless of whether or not her memory gets erased, you still must suffer the consequences for your actions. You revealed who you were to a human. That in turn revealed the rest of the household as demons. Actions such as that are punishable by death, but it didn't have to be your own if you just got rid of her." As Oliver stands there with his hands shoved in his pockets, one of the vampires from behind him comes forward grabbing onto his shoulder and slicing a clawed hand along his back. Oliver screams out, but doesn't collapse, and my feet finally moved.

"Wait!" I shout as I push through the ring of guys and stand in front of Oliver. I'm pretty sure I just brushed past vampires, which is not a good thing.

"Amelia!" Oliver shouts at me.

"You can't hurt him or punish him for something that he didn't do." He grabs my elbow and spins me around.

"Amelia, the person that dies, is the person that revealed themselves to you, which was me." I know he's trying really hard to protect Nolan right now, but I need to tell them the truth, otherwise I can't protect either of them.

"No look, I've been keeping a secret from you guys for ages now. None of you revealed yourself to me in any way. I knew what you were the second I saw you."

"What are you talking about, girl?" Mr. Pierce asks me. Oliver loosens the grip on my arm and lets me turn around to face his father.

"I didn't tell anyone at the house because I didn't want them to think I was afraid of them." I peered backwards over my shoulder at Oliver's confused expression. "The truth is, when I was eight years old, my parents and I lived here in San Francisco. Our house was backed up onto a park and I knew that my aunt lived across the park. I was upset because I had found out that I was adopted, so I went to go find my aunt." I can see Mr. Pierce's expression start to change. "While I was walking through that park, I was attacked. The creature that attacked me was only a little bit older than myself and it had pasty white skin, bright eyes and very sharp fangs. It was just a boy, so I didn't think anything of it until he attacked me and bit me. That's when I knew vampires were real. I tried to tell people what happened to me, but they just thought I got attacked by a dog or something. I ended up in therapy for a couple of years until I eventually decided to tell people that I didn't get attacked by a vampire that it must have just been a dog. But the truth is, I've known that demons have existed for a very long time. I hadn't had the chance to understand them, so I wanted to do that so when I figured out that the boys in this house were in fact demons, I wanted to introduce myself and I wanted to make sure that I had a chance to get to know them. So if you need to punish anyone, you can punish me. But if you're looking to punish a demon for revealing themselves to me, then you're going to have a very hard time finding the vampire child that bit me. Either way, Oliver is not the one you need to be punishing." I stand there waiting for Mr. Pierce to react.