Fresh Blood (Book 1)

6. Expiration Dates

Cain jumped as a snarl ripped through the open space of the living room. For a moment, he thought that he had made the noise. He would have continued to think that if his brother’s head hadn’t whipped around to look at the dining room. Cain nearly fell over himself.

“Get your wrist out of her mouth.” Abel immediately retracted his wrist from Olivia’s mouth. Despite how fragile she looked at that moment, Virginia’s voice was strong. She sat up slowly, the world spun around her, like after being sick and lying on the bathroom floor for too long. Cain watched in amazement as the hole in the middle of her forehead closed. She still had the color of death on her skin. Virginia stretched, reaching as far as she could and twisting every which way.

“Mom?” Olivia said, she still hadn’t swallowed most of Abel’s blood.

“Spit.” Olivia did as ordered, even though her taste buds were screaming not to. She spat out Abel’s blood at her mother’s request.

“But you’re dead.” Virginia rolled off the table, landing on the balls of her feet. She crouched and tested her balance.

“I was dead,” Virginia said as she stood. She waivered slightly, Abel was there in less than a second to steady her. She was still weak. But she knew that it would only take minutes before her body was back at full capability. After all, most of her brain had been blown out. It needed to regenerate.

“I don’t understand,” Olivia said as she watched Abel lift her mother and place her on the couch. Virginia’s body twitched involuntarily as the part of her brain that controlled the majority of her motor controls restored fully. She held her hand out and flexed it.

“I can die. I just don’t stay dead very long,” Virginia said as she shook her hands out, “It was something that I was hoping to never have to show you.” Once she shook the death from her joints, she leaned forward and brushed her daughter’s cheek with her thumb.

“I was so scared,” Olivia said with a shaky voice.

“I’m sorry. I will try to never let that happen again.” Olivia threw herself onto her mother’s lap and cried. She cried from happiness and loss. She hadn’t even had time to process losing her mother before she came back. Her emotions were out of whack.

“What about Dad?” Olivia asked after crying for several minutes.

“He was chewy,” Abel said absentmindedly. Virginia whacked his chest hard. Olivia was wide-eyed.

“He’s not going to be coming to bother us again.”

“So he’s dead?”

“Yes.” Cain and Virginia held their breath, they weren’t sure how she would react.

“Good.” Virginia raised an eyebrow.

“Are you sure that’s how you feel about it?”

"Yes, he tested me. I’m his daughter. It shouldn’t matter what I am.” Virginia kissed the top of her daughter’s head.

“Smart and beautiful. Double threat,” Virginia joked. Olivia never thought she had appreciated the color of her mother’s eyes before, certainly not the almond shape they became when she really smiled. Though, she imagined, her mother didn’t genuinely smile much when she was married to her father.

“You hungry?” Abel asked Virginia with a nudge of his elbow.

“Yeah,” she responded. Abel nudged Olivia out of the way and knelt in front of Virginia, neck exposed. Virginia bore her fangs and leaned down to sink them into his neck.

“Mom!” Virginia paused in her motion, “I thought you were a Lycan.”

“She’d a Lycan-vampire hybrid,” Cain said to Olivia.

“I can survive on both human food as well as blood.” With that Virginia buried her teeth into Abel’s neck.

"But what about blood bonds?” Olivia asked.

"She and I have been bound for longer than you have been alive little girl,” Abel said. He barely moved his jaw when he spoke, he didn’t want to interrupt Virginia. Olivia tried, without much success, to look anywhere but Abel. He had started to lose himself in the feeling of being drunk from. Olivia looked pointedly at the ground when Abel moaned. Cain sat quietly watching Virginia feed from his brother. He didn’t know whether or not to be happy about her immortality. He had viewed her as a somewhat equal from the time he met her and found that he could not overpower her with sheer dominance. But this. This made her his equal. Made her one of the most powerful beings on the planet. Her presence would shift everything now. He wondered if his brother knew about her immortality and that was why he blood bound himself to her.

Olivia looked back and forth from Cain to Abel, trying to find some resemblance, something to make them look like brothers. Their eyes were the same shape and color, a warm chocolate brown. But other than that, she couldn’t see it. Abel looked more Nordic, like he would fit in near Sweden. Cain looked more Mediterranean. Their hair color was even different, Abel’s was a dark brown, almost black, and Cain’s a light sandy brown. Olivia wondered if they really did share a father. Perhaps Cain really was sired by the serpent.              

“Jesus Christ,” Olivia spat suddenly. Virginia’s eyes instinctively snapped to Olivia. Olivia stiffened, she never took the Lord’s name in vain.

“What?” Cain asked, worry played on his words.

“How old are you?” Abel chuckled, Virginia bit down hard on his neck and he became still again.

“Very, very old.”

“How are you still alive? I mean everything has an expiration date,” Olivia said, “And what are you exactly?” She looked at Abel for the last question. Abel gestured for Cain to go first.

“We cannot be killed. Not permanently anyway,” Cain replied. Virginia released Abel and collapsed back into the couch, eyes closed.

“Much like your mother,” Abel said as he touched Virginia’s thigh. Olivia didn’t care for the way he touched her. It wasn’t like how her father had touched her, or even Kaleb. It was all about possession with him.

“He’s the first werewolf right?” Cain nodded, “What does that make you?” Abel smirked and sat next to Virginia on the couch.

“Does it really need to be said little girl?” Abel asked, Olivia sat stoned faced, “The first vampire. I am the first vampire.” Olivia heard a bit of an accent on the word ‘vampire’. She wondered if she had gotten used to Cain’s accent, if he had one at all. Abel leaned back against the couch and pulled his dark chin length hair away from his face. His cheekbones stuck out like knife edges. Very suddenly Virginia’s eyes snapped open and she clumsily crawled over Abel and headed for the basement.

“Fucking mutt,” Abel hissed under his breath.

"Don’t be sore because her mate bond with Kaleb is stronger than your blood bond,” Cain said with a smirk.