Blood Moon

Chapter 19: House of Draculesti

~ Friend or foe? ~

His blood red eyes calm my wolf, causing her to retreat and allowing me to take back control. Any anger, hurt and pain that she and I both feel subside under his gaze. His eyes are the same as Kali's, but he doesn't smell like a werewolf... 

I peer up at him, confused I furrow my eyebrows. Who is he? What is he? Many questions begin to flood my mind as we continue to stare at each other. "You're the new girl Sarah, right?" he smiles, offering me a hand. I hesitantly take his outstretched hand and he pulls me up so that we are now both standing. "I'm Julian" he beams. Julian. The guy that Abby wouldn't stop talking about...

He takes a seat on the fallen log and looks up at me expectantly. I sit down next to him, refusing to meet his gaze. "I was worried something had happened to you; you passed out in school a couple of weeks ago and then you just never came back" he mentions, causing me to freeze. I almost forgot about that. "Oh, yeah that..." I trail off, not quite sure how to respond, not quite sure how I'm going to ask him all the questions that I have. "If Hunter or any of those mutts try to bother you again just let me know, they don't take too well to our kind" he says. Our... kind? What does he mean by 'our kind'? 

"The town is full of humans and werewolves, the humans don't know but the werewolves are able to tell through scent who is one of them and who is not. Me and my older sister are the only ones in this town that don't belong to either group, well now I guess there's someone else" he continues, making me even more confused. What is going on?! "I got to say though you're doing a good job at pretending to be human; if it wasn't for your eyes I would never have found out" he notes, shuffling a little closer to me on the log.

"My eyes?" I mumble, struggling to understand what he is referring to about my eyes. "Oh, your contact lenses are gone and your eyes were red just then. I guess you didn't notice them falling out huh" he answers. Falling out? Is that what caused the burning sensation? 

I sigh, realising that I'm in way over my head. 'Be careful, Wanette... We shouldn't trust him just yet' Kali makes an appearance, warning me. 'Play along with him for now' she orders. Not wanting to start an argument I decide to just go along with Kali's suggestion. "Right, yeah. So it's just you and your older sister?" I ask, playing along. He nods. "Our parents moved away to British Columbia a few years back to be closer to family but me and my sister stayed to look after the store" he says, glancing over at me every now and then. "The store?" I inquire. "Monty's Bookshelf - my family owns it, the local bookstore" he replies. Bookstore. I finally meet his gaze, frozen still as I get lost in his bright green eyes. 

"Hey, why don't I show you around the shop!" he grins, an idea just popping into his head. He jumps up and urges me to follow him out of the woods. 'I'm not sure about this Wanette...' Kali utters, suspicious of Julian and his intentions. I'm not sure about this either Kali, but there's something about him. I need to find out what this bond between us is and besides I haven't read a book in over 3 weeks now, I could do with the escape. 

We head over to the town centre, making light conversation on our way there. "Do you like reading?" he asks, holding the door open for me. I nod, before walking into the vacant shop. "There's a secret section out back the common townsfolk don't get to see, come on I'll show it to you" he guides me through the store and to a room behind the front desk. Why is he so quick to just let me in like this and does he feel the pull too?

Rows and rows of old books line the dusty wooden shelves, almost as if they have been left untouched for quite some time. I quickly scan the books, wanting to see if there is anything that can pique my interest. That's when I see it. A blood red leather hardback titled 'The Crimson Stone'. Kali, who was taking a backseat and just observing until now stands alert in my mind. I slowly reach for the thick red book. I stare at the front cover, making sure that I'm not misreading anything.

"The Crimson Stone..." I whisper, my voice barely audible. "Ah! Good choice, I read that one years ago. Quite an interesting read if you ask me" he smiles, peering down at the book in my hands. "What's it about?" I query, trying to see what he knows about my old pack. 

"The Crimson Stone went missing centuries ago whilst it was in the possession of the House of Draculesti who were found dead not too long after it disappeared. Legend says that werewolves stole it to harness the power of the Blood Moon but that's just a myth, there's no evidence to suggest that the artefact was ever stolen or even existed in the first place" he explains, I gulp in response. Well... this is most certainly not what I expected to find out today.

"The House of Draculesti... who are they?" I ask. "They were royals, hailing from Romania. This myth is actually why the feud even began between us and the werewolves. We accused them of murdering the royal family and stealing a legendary artefact, then a war ensued" he says, his explanation causes my head to snap up in his direction. Feud? War? Only now have I realised just who exactly I am dealing with. He's a vampire. 

'We need to get out of here, Wanette. Vampires are dangerous; they hate us just as much as we hate them!' Kali barks in my mind, beginning to panic. "Uh... I just remembered my little sister is sick and I need to go and take care of her" I blurt out, any excuse I can think of, anything to get out of here. I rush out of the room, book still in hand and then out of the store. He hurries out after me but stops once we're both outside. 

I run in the direction of the safehouse, leaving Julian to watch my form disappear into the distance. So, Julian is a vampire. He thinks that I'm also a vampire. I'm assuming that Hunter thinks I'm a vampire as well. And to top all of that off my old pack has been in possession of a stolen vampire artefact for centuries? Just what the hell is going on?!

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Author's note

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. As of right now I plan to release 1-2 chapters every Friday. Any feedback both positive and negative will be greatly appreciated. This is my first time writing a story like this so I hope that it turned out alright.

Thank you for reading!

Yours,

xgwenux