The dreary weather matched the car's atmosphere as Antonio, Francis, and I headed for Berlin by car, too emotionally exhausted to run there.
Our usually energetic spirits had all but drained when we discovered our fourth coven member was actually an assassin and had chosen to leave with her captors for reasons we can only theorize.
She cared a lot about her family and the three of us; I can only imagine we were used as a threat against her.
For so long, she'd been running from the truth of what she did and no longer wanted to do, but she never told us everything, and we were left to assume it was some silly human fear, something we vampires were above. But that wasn't the case.
Vampires were heavily involved with the experimentation she'd undergone and with the resulting manipulation of her newfound strength and near invulnerability.
We played off all the crazy things she could do as humans being unpredictable, but it was all because of venom. She'd been dosing herself with syringes full of altered vampiric venom that an unknown group of people gave her under the guise of a healing serum.
Only two people aside from the queen herself can alter venom. One of them is my sort of brother, Ludwig, and the other is the bastard who turned me into a monster, Vladimir.
My brother Ludwig couldn't be involved in the experiments; it wasn't in his nature to go against the law; he was a little too strict about following it. Besides, if he had any secrets, he would've spilled his guts about it as soon as he got drunk.
Vladimir is far more likely as he is someone who'd love to see the human world burn and doesn't care if vampires are affected in the process. He loves pushing limits, and he loves finding the most broken people and turning them into vampires to see what they'll do to change the world, even if it has drastic consequences. The most deranged of his creations had unwittingly been me, possessed by venom as my hatred for my enemies and my lust for life and the woman I'd loved blinded me and made me into a monster as my body moved on its own. At the same time, I remained unconscious, unaware of the atrocities my new body was unleashing on the world. In fact, this attracted so much attention that the queen herself had to intervene.
Vladimir was spared from death for two reasons. One of them was his power to see the future, which greatly helped the queen. The second was the queen found his exploits to be amusing, as were the vampires he made.
Instead of death, he was prohibited from staying in one place for too long so as not to manipulate the lives of humans who may make good vampires and to avoid arousing suspicion or making connections with other covens.
This clearly wasn't enough because somehow, he'd met my sort-of-girlfriend and made her into a sort-of-monster.
The first sign she wasn't human was her aura. A Venus flytrap—an aura that makes others believe they are innocent when the truth is the opposite. They are very dangerous people.
The second was how she seamlessly killed Dedrick, an intended of a lupus vampire, someone who shouldn't have died so easily.
The third was her unusual ability to retain knowledge; she could easily understand and remember the languages she heard after only learning a few words.
Fourth was the most obvious. She healed very quickly and from things she shouldn't have been able to. First, it was when she was stabbed in Croatia, and not even a week later, it was as if it had never happened; she wasn't even sore. The most obvious time was when she ingested uncoated venom. Our saliva is laced with venom, but we unconsciously coat this venom in a protective layer of non-venomous saliva to prevent humans that we play with from being killed. Venom can enter the bloodstream uncoated but not into the internal body like the throat and the stomach. It burns like acid, and heaven knows why ___ somehow didn't feel that when she scarfed down a pizza, I licked for the express purpose of her not eating it. Instead, she stumbled down the stairs and fountained blood; I'd never been so horrified in my life.
Not even twenty-four hours later, she was a little dazed, but she was completely fine. She should have died on the spot or at least been writhing in pain, but this wasn't the case.
Then again, after being marked, an excruciating experience with pain meant to last days, she recovered in minutes. This was so unusual everyone took note of it.
The fifth really should have told us something was wrong, and that was when we noticed the venom in her veins. We were always careful when drinking to only leave enough venom to seal her wounds shut, but she had enough venom it was as if we'd been drinking her blood every minute of every hour for her entire life. There was no other way venom could have been introduced to her system unless she was meant to be turned, and unless she was beyond saving, venom meant to transition you did not ever fail.
___ had her flaws, sure. We all do. But she didn't deserve to be a pawn in a vampire's scheme, no matter what that end goal may be.
Now that everything was out in the open, we should be able to work on our flaws together, but instead, we're separated by who knows how many miles. We have no idea where she could be, and we aren't even sure if visiting my brother in Berlin should be our first stop. We decided on this as my brother can analyze the serum __ was taking. While this makes sense scientifically, I'm not sure that this will help us emotionally in any way other than seeing my little brother makes me happy.
I clenched my hair in my fists, trying hard not to fall apart at all this new information and a sense of dread and guilt washed over me. No matter what, I had to keep it together. Francis was stressed enough as it is; he doesn't need me falling apart and needing his help too.
Antonio is another story. He hasn't spoken, and he won't really move, Francis has been holding his hand and gently stroking his leg from time to time, but Antonio doesn't respond.
I know he's angry about what happened to __, but I wonder if he feels a little betrayed too.
We didn't tell __ we were vampires until there was no other choice; it didn't bother me much that she chose to do the same, though in her case, she couldn't even tell us in person.
"Take a left." The GPS told Francis, who was distressed by its presence, he really hates technology.
"Oi, which one of you programmed this thing with a British accent!?" He demanded, and I snickered, but Antonio remained silent.
"How do I even use this thing," he complained, clearly not in the mood to deal with anything at the moment.
He snatched the GPS off the phone holder and threw it at me.
"Gilbert, do something, s'il te plaît!" He begged, his voice breaking, and I fiddled around with it, surprised it hadn't been broken.
"Hm...oh!" I chuckled.
"You fix it?"
"I can make it do my voice!"
"Non! I want a gentle woman's voice guiding me, not you!"
"What if I do an impression?"
"Non, you can't sound feminine if your life depended on it! You know what, just give it back to me!" He reached behind him and took it back. I didn't fight him on it; I didn't feel like it.
Francis set the GPS in Antonio's lap.
Antonio moved for the first time since getting into the car and looked at the GPS with dreary eyes. He rolled down the window as the GPS began to speak, "make a left at—" and he threw it out the car.
"Non! Toni! Make a left where!?"
Antonio didn't react, and Francis took a deep breath, trying not to lose it. He reached over Antonio's seat and rolled the window back up as it began to rain.
I usually loved a good summer thunderstorm, but this one just made me sad, not that I was in the mood for sunny skies either.
Francis looked for familiar signs as he navigated without the GPS in complete silence. I could tell he was struggling as I watched him grip the steering wheel a little too hard as he bit his lip.
"Stop the car," I demanded.
"Why?"
"Now," I said more firmly, and Francis rolled his eyes and stopped the car.
I stepped out of the car, and Francis began to argue.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"Nowhere, we're trading places. Get in the back."
"Non, I am not trusting you with this car."
"Too bad, I'm a better driver than you anyway, not step out before I pull you out."
Francis glared at me, staring for a few seconds before giving in, knowing I wasn't going to back down.
"Don't you dare dent this car."
"Wouldn't dream of it, Francy. Just relax, okay, you need it."
Francis looked at me with concern but eased into the back seat, trying to relax though he was finding it difficult.
I shut the back door and walked around to Toni's side.
I opened the door, leaned over Toni, and unbuckled him as Francis watched nervously.
"Oi, Gil, what are you—"
I threw Antonio over my shoulder, and he didn't put up a fight about it either as I tossed him into the back seat on top of Francis and shut the door behind him.
I got into the front seat and took control of the car for the first time in years.
Antonio lay his head on Francis's lap, and Francis stroked his hair as a means to calm both of them down, and I started the drive to Ludwig's.
I was more familiar with the streets of Berlin than Francis or Antonio, so it made more sense that I drive anyway. Besides, keeping my mind focused on the road and not denting Francis's prized car was a good way to keep my mind off of everything going wrong at the moment.
Only fifteen minutes after seizing control of the car, we pulled into the driveway, where Chlodwig watched from the window, having heard us coming.
I got out of the car and shut the door quietly, knowing Francis would complain if it were too loud.
I opened Francis's door like a chauffeur, and he stepped out and pulled Antonio out with him. He refused to carry Antonio, so Antonio trudged behind us silently.
August opened the door with a smile on his face and ushered us inside.
"Welcome! What are you doing out here, Gilbert?" He asked loudly to get the attention of everyone who hadn't come to greet us.
I saw the only two women of the clan, Monika and Julchen, peek out from the hallway but return to their rooms uninterested in the reunion.
I was slightly offended, but I decided to ignore them too and just get straight to the point.
"We need to talk with Ludwig."
"Why?" August asked, curious, leaning in too close to me.
I stared at him until he took the hint and stepped back.
Francis chose to take over as he was typically better at getting information, but my fellow Germans weren't prone to fall for the silver tongue of a French man and looked ready to ignore him before he even opened his mouth, so I cut him off and continued.
"This is a very serious matter. Ludwig is the only one who can help us right now."
The cousins gave each other looks, and Chlodwig sped down the hall and reemerged with Ludwig, who was covered in grease, working on something in the deep basement.
"Bruder? What brings you here?"
"It's about ___-" I was cut off by Francis, whose voice shook in panic.
"___'s been taken!"
Antonio flinched at the words, and his grip on Francis' shoulder made Francis twitch in pain.
Ludwig's eyes were wide with surprise, and for a moment, he didn't know how to respond.
He took a deep breath and responded completely seriously, with a hateful glare, "by who? We'll kill them."