After Midnight

8

"I didn't even know this room existed!" Brent said while jumping on the matress of the spare room we were in.

"We used to play hide-and-seek in here all the time when you were younger." I commented, a smile on my lips. When we were younger, Darren and I would always tell Brent we'd play hide-and-seek with him, and Brent always loved it because we seemed to never be able to find him.

That was because we weren't looking.

Being the mean older siblings that Darren and I were, we only played hide-and-seek with Brent just to get rid of him for a few hours.

Those were much simpler times.

My father walked into the room to check up on us, duster in hand.

"How's everything going in here?" He questioned, inspecting the room.

"We're almost done, just need to make the bed."

"Great." He smiled. "I can't believe we finished cleaning this place out so quickly."

"You think three hours was quick?" Darren whined making my dad roll his eyes.

"Boy, you whine way too much. And to think I was going to take you guys out for ice cream as a reward..."

"ICE CREAM" Brent yelled making us all laugh.

"C'mon, finish up making that bed and we can go to Frosty World to celebrate finally getting everything cleaned out."

Darren and I looked at each other, mouths wide open.

There were two ice cream places in town, Sal's Creamery and Frosty World. Sal's place was where we normally got our ice cream since it was cheaper and much closer to home. Frosty World was saved for special occasions, a place we only went to about twice a year.

And it was amazing.

Walking into the store, we were surrounded with rows of ice cream. Where Sal only had a handful of flavours, Frosty World proudly displayed it's famous thirty-eight flavours behind the counter.

After taking a few minutes to order we all sat down at one of the booths scattered about the shop. Considering it was already fall, I didn't expect there to be many people around. The place was practically empty except for us and another family.

Oh, and Aiden.

"You have got to be kidding me." I groaned. Aiden caught my gaze and gave me a wink, suggestively licking his fingers that were coated in some of the vanilla ice cream that had dripped from his cone.

"What's wrong?" My dad asked, and I just shook my head in response.

"It's nothing. Continue what you were saying."

"Alright then, well as i was explaining before, the Anderson's are coming in tomorrow. They'll probably be coming in rather late because it's a bit of a drive for them, so don't be alarmed if you hear someone coming into the house late tomorrow night."

All of us nodded at dad's words, and I made and mental note to have my baseball bat ready under my bed tomorrow.

Just in case they really were serial killers.

"Sorry to interrupt." Aiden's silky smooth voice sounded as he made his way towards us. Mentally, I cringed.

Why couldn't he just leave me alone?

"Would you mind if if steal Lily here for a minute? I need to talk to her about some stuff at work."

My family looked at Aiden like he had just grown three heads.

"Who the fuck is this?" Brent asked, earning him a kick from my dad from under the table.

"Language." He scolded. "I don't think we've ever met before though. You work with Lily?" He asked, turning his attention to Aiden.

"Yeah, we work together-"

"At the library." I finished, giving Aiden a warning glare. I wouldn't put it past the boy to say something stupid that would get me in trouble with my dad. "He's new, i'm training him right now."

"Yeah, I'm having some trouble and was hoping that I could go over a few things with Lily."

I sucked in a breath as my dad eyed up Aiden. My dad was over protective when it came to me with guys. It didn't matter if they were just friends or even co-workers, he still felt the need to intimidate them most of the time.

His gaze was anything but intimidating though. My dad only succeeded in looking like a teddy bear.

Deciding to end this awkward stare down, I stood up. "Yeah, I'll help you out Aiden." I said while throwing out the trash. I could tell my dad was going to protest so I put at hand on his shoulder and looked at him. "Don't worry, I'll only be a little while. Mrs. Deria will have my head if he's not trained properly. Plus he'll drive me home when we're done."

My dad nodded, keeping his scrutinizing stare on Aiden.

"If you even think about-"

"Bye dad!" I yelled while dragging Aiden away, saving him from a horrifying and boring two hour lecture about treating me right.

I crossed my hands around my chest as the two of us exited the ice cream shop, the cold wind nipping at my skin.

"Now what do you want this time?" I groaned out, turning to face Aiden.

But he wasn't there.

"Wha-"

"Sneak attack." His velvety voice whispered in my ear as I was suddenly pulled into an alleyway. Instinctively, my hands went to my left boot, pulling out a wooden stake that was concealed there. With a hard thrust it sank in to Aiden's flesh within seconds.

A sharp hiss followed and the hands that were tightly coiled around my body released. I watched as Aiden's figure slumped against a wall, panting and wincing in defeat.

"Damn." He breathed while pulling the stake from his shoulder. "You haven't lost your touch."

"What the hell was that for?!" I fumed.

"That was me testing your reflexes. And also making sure you're actually protecting yourself with the weapons I gave you."

I rolled my eyes but went over to check on Aiden anyway. I may not be fond of him right now, but i didn't need him dying on me. He took off his shirt to examine the wound that I had inflicted on him, his fingers tracing the gaping hole in his shoulder.

"You know, it's been a while since I've been staked. I almost forgot how painful it is."

"Well Let me remind you once again." I said and grabbed the stake from Aiden's hand, plowing it into his shoulder again.

"Ow! What was that for?!"

"That was for following me. And this-" I said while slapping his cheek "Is for being near my family. I told you to never go near them."

Aiden huffed and cursed for a little while as the both of us watched his wound close up and heal.

"Damn, love. You really are heartless after all." He said. I ignored his comment.

"So is that all you wanted me for? To come out here and stab you?"

"Well that was part of it." He said while putting his blood stained shirt back on. "I needed to test you, to make sure you were still capable of doing your job. I honestly wasn't sure if you'd still be able to keep up with all my vampy goodness." He grinned while flashing his fangs at me.

"Don't flatter yourself. A four year old could take your stupid ass down."

"Was that supposed to be an insult? Because your words are weak, love."

"Can we just get to the point." I sighed. "What else do you need me for?"

"So you know that meeting that all of us were planning on having on monday?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Yeah."

"Well, there's been a change of plans. It's kind of been pushed up. We're having it now."