Reminiscence {Book Two of the Vengeance Trilogy}

Chapter Fourteen: Apologies

"Tom knows how cruel they are. If he finds out that I've caught on, he'll throw me out without a second thought. Not only that, but Tom knows my record with the council isn't the cleanest. Honestly, turning me in for what I've already done plus what Tom will have me do for him would probably clear his name," I told Elliot in a stern voice, but he nodded in silence, looking away from me. I knew that he wouldn't let me leave any time soon. Not only that, but I knew that Elliot was hesitant about helping Peter. I knew the ins and outs of the Romanian Justice System, but he didn't. Peter would be completely defenseless, but something told me that I was the only one that would be willing to save him.

"I understand, but you need to play along just a little longer. Danny, please," Elliot begged, his eyes full of hope. I stared at him for a long while before letting out a long sigh.

"Yeah, fine. If you weren't my favorite little cousin, then I wouldn't be doing this," I said, causing Elliot to let out a small scoff with a smile. I took a moment to glance around the living room, remembering how full of life it was in the days when my aunt and uncle were around. When they weren't out running errands with the pack, they were like normal parents with Elliot and me. Some things were completely normal, like when Aunt Aileen brought home art supplies so that she could draw with Elliot and spend time with him, or when Uncle Daley taught him how to play guitar.

Other things had some kind of supernatural flare to them. Like when Elliot and I found out what our abilities were, not only did they have to teach us how to control them, but they had to break up fights when we were using them. Of course, once Elliot got to the age where he stopped sleeping, mine became kind of useless, but Elliot's stayed relevant. I would walk into a room and he would just give me a tap on the shoulder to make me forget why I was originally in there. It usually led to us fighting like normal brothers would, but that's when Aunt Aileen would teleport in between the two of us and break up the fight in seconds.

"Do you remember one of the first days you were here and it was a cloudy day outside? Mom and dad let us play out in the garden together for the first time?" Elliot asked with a lighthearted smile. I looked at him in shock for a few seconds, considering Elliot normally didn't talk to me about his parents. Normally if he did, he would start crying and then I would make fun of him (lovingly, of course). Still, I took this as a pleasant surprise and suppress the desire to ask about why he wanted to talk about it now.

"Yeah, I remember you had a toy jet to play with and I knocked it out of your hands."

"And I remember jumping on your back because I was so mad and I wanted to fight you."

"Do you remember how that went?"

"You had me pinned down in seconds, but that's because I was nine and you were fifteen," Elliot laughed. I chuckled along with him, remembering how seamless it was for me to flip him onto his back and hold him down. Sure, my aunt got mad at me for being mean to Elliot, but I knew she would be happy to see us laughing about it now. She probably would have loved this.

"God...I miss them," Elliot muttered to himself, looking down at the ground. Immediately, I thought about Aunt Aileen's grave and what would happen if I were to show it to him. I didn't want to open up old wounds and her grave was my place before Elliot was even born. I couldn't let go of that idea that it was the one part of her that was just mine. Finally, I decided to hold back on telling him, reminding myself that now wasn't the time.

"I know, I miss them too, but if it makes you feel any better..." my voice trailed off as I made my way over to Elliot, closing the gap between us. I placed my hand firmly on his shoulder and he looked up at me. I was surprised to see that his eyes were still dry. "Everyday I see more and more of my aunt in you. I see everything that made her wonderful in the things you do and that's what makes you, at least, somewhat tolerable, but it also makes you an amazing leader. They're proud of you, Elliot."

"Thanks," Elliot scoffed, then continued, "they're proud of you too."

I was immediately taken back by his words. There was never a time where Elliot told me that his parents were proud of me. And rightfully so; there were so many parts of my past that I wanted to erase because I knew for a fact that my aunt would be ashamed. She would be mortified to know that I hurt so many people. That's not even beginning to talk about Uncle Daley, who would skip out on feeling disappointed in me and just go right to kicking my ass. It was shocking to hear their only son say that they would be proud of me.

"Th-thanks," I said sheepishly, still having trouble believing him. "I should probably go. We can't have Tom getting suspicious, can we?"

"Yeah. Thanks for meeting with me and being on time. I'm going with half of the pack to train tomorrow night, but we'll still be meeting." I nodded, then walking past him towards the door that led to the back garden.

"We still have blood packs in the freezer down in the cellar, right?" I asked.

"I mean, they aren't fresh, but they're definitely down there," he told me and I continued to walk through the kitchen and towards the back door that led to the garden. I heard Elliot leave through the front door and I couldn't help but smile.

Once I was out in the fresh, crisp air of the outside, I made my way over to the cellar doors. I pulled them both up and carefully walked down the stairs. The area was dark as pitch and I recalled a time when Elliot was deathly terrified of this place. I also couldn't help but remember the time when I dared Elliot to let me lock him in here for a minute to prove that he was brave. I got in trouble when he started screaming at me to let him out and I sat on top of the doors laughing at him.

I climbed down into the dark cellar and glanced around for the freezer where we kept the blood packs. It was way in the back past the maze of boxes where no person without night vision could find it. My aunt and uncle knew that no one would be able to find it back there. They were smart like that. They also never let us down here because...well, we never really knew why. It wasn't until they had passed away that we came down here to snoop around to see what they might have been hiding. Still, when we searched every corner of the cellar, there was nothing to be found.

Once I was in front of the freezer, I opened it up and started rummaging through to find the freshest blood pack that was in here. Some of them had to have been here since my aunt and uncle were alive. A few were only a year or two old, others five or six, and a couple of them even went back ten years. Obviously Elliot never took the time to clean this thing out. I figured a year old would be the best I would find and took it from the freezer, shutting the door after putting it in my shoulder bag. One thing that my aunt had taught me was that drinking blood straight from the pack is something that an animal would do. We weren't human, but that didn't mean that we had to act like animals.

Before I could take my first steps back up to the surface, one of the opened boxes caught my eye. The moon was full and it shed little ribbons of silver light into parts of the cellar. Without a second thought, I made my way over to the open box and took a peek inside. It was one that had been hidden near the freezer, which was odd considering Elliot and I had looked all over this place, but I never remembered a box being in this spot.

Inside the box were photo albums that Aunt Aileen probably planned on filling. There were a few that she had kept up in the living room up on the mantel above the fireplace or on the coffee table, but she died before having a chance to fill all of them. One by one, I picked them up and looked through them, but all of the pages were blank. I wasn't sure what I was hoping to find, but I kept skimming through each and every one. Something told me to keep going even though I was pretty sure this was a waste of my time.

Yet, as I pulled out the last photo album, I noticed one photo on the front of it. It was one of Aunt Aileen and Uncle Daley, but my eyes went wide when I realized that in this picture, she was human. I couldn't remember the last time I saw a picture of her before she was turned. Her skin wasn't ashen and her eyes were their normal blue color, but Daley's had that glowing halo around them. Not only that, but Daley was holding the camera, and the photo was taken on thirty-five millimeter film. My aunt had never owned a camera like that before, so had to be his.

I quickly flipped through the pages of the album, trying to find anything else, hoping that there would be something here, but like all of the albums before it, the pages were empty. I shut the album and thought for a second before putting the album into my bag. I knew there had to be more to this and even if there wasn't, at least I got a nice photo out of it. I was really hoping for a secret treasure map or something, I thought to myself, thanks guys.