Fear and Blood

Chapter 33

Rome went bright red, more in anger than in embarrassment. Without thinking her hand moved to her neck, hovering over the fang marks Ly had left there, which were still visible, but only just.

“You promised you wouldn't tell,” Rome hissed, turning on her eldest brother and standing up so she could look down on him. It wasn't often that she got into arguments with members of her family, but she wanted the advantage in this one.

“No,” Alex replied, his voice becoming heated now. “I promised I wouldn't tell mum and dad. You never said to keep it a secret from everyone. Besides, now that that...thing is gone I don't see the point in keeping it quiet. It's not like it really matters any more. He's probably going to get himself killed anyway.”

Lee and Rowen turned to stare at their sister, identical looks of shock and horror on their faces, but Rome ignored them both. She drew back her hand and punched Alex so hard in the jaw that he toppled off his seat and hit the floor. Now it was his turn to look shocked.

“Don't you ever say anything like that ever again Alexander Armida,” Rome spat as Alex gaped at her. No-one in the family had ever seen the normally placid girl lose it like this before. “You say one more word about Ly and I swear, you'd wish you had never been born.”

Rome's parents chose that exact moment to enter the dinning room. What they saw was the stunned twins staring at Rome who was towering over a shocked Alex. For a moment all eyes turned on Rome, who just shook her head and marched out of the room.

All right, the young woman thought as she ran upstairs and slammed her bedroom door behind her. Maybe I'm not as calm as I thought I was.

“Rome?” The red-head heard her mother call her name from the bottom of the stairs as she dumped herself onto her bed. When Rome failed to respond Mae walked up to her room and knocked softly on the door. “Rome? Are you all right?”

“You can come in mum,” Rome called with a small sigh. She had just punched her brother in the face and now her mother was asking her if she was all right. It would have made absolutely no sense in any other family, but Rome had never had an outburst like that before.

The door opened slowly and Mae stuck her head inside, looking concerned. When she saw her daughter wasn't bawling her eyes out, like she had expected, she came the rest of the way in and sat down on the end of her bed.

“I realise you're upset,” Mae began, eyeing Rome cautiously. “I understand that, but you know you can't go around beating up your brothers whenever something bad happens. Your father's worried you might have dislocated Alex's jaw. I'll have to check it out later to see if you've done any permanent damage.”

Rome suppressed a giggle, even though she was starting to feel pretty guilty. She hadn't meant to hit Alex quite so hard. “I'm sorry mum,” she said, trying her hardest not to smile, “but the things Alex was saying...I don't know, I just kind of lost it.”

“This is about Ly isn't it?” Rome hesitated, but Mae knew the answer and continued. “I don't know what I'm going to do with you Rome. I use to worry about you because you didn't have many friends, or because you never wanted to go out. When you left home for university I worried that you would find it too hard to be away from your family, but now I'm worried that you're going to get yourself killed for this boy. I know you don't want to hear this Rome, but you have to know that he's...”

“Gone,” Rome finished off her mothers sentence. She knew that Mae was just trying to help, but it annoyed her that she was trying to tell her things she already knew. “Unobtainable because of who and what he is. I know mum. I know he's probably not coming back and I know I'll probably never see him again, and even if I do see him I know who and what he is, but that doesn't give Alex the right to insult him, just because he's not here to defend himself.”