Brad stepped forward, lowering to Niko as he pulled the hand away.
"Damn it, that doesn't look good."
"I'm afraid that you are right with that assessment. I'd like to offer a final gratitude to both of you. It has been a wonderful few days, and you might see it as terrible, but I don't. In you two, I can see that my beloved daughter survived longer than I thought she had."
Brad frowned, looking rather confused.
"You have shown me that there is goodness in this world that I thought was gone. Keep yourselves safe, and remember what I said. Search the past, search the house. Take back this town for the Corbin family and trust no one but each other."
Niko smiled, reaching out. The bloodied finger traced over my cheek.
"You look so much like her."
His firm grip faltered. I could feel the life fading as his hand slipped from mine.
"This is not fair," I whispered, full of hurt.
"Life is rarely fair."
Brad sat on the ground beside me, giving my shoulder a gentle nudge. He smiled gently when I looked at him.
"You wanna make them pay?"
"Absolutely."
"So, what's this thing about his daughter?"
"We're related to him, apparently. It's why I can wear this."
Brad looked at the necklace.
"Yeah, I wouldn't go announcing that too loudly at the moment. I think they're still out there."
Helping me off the ground, we looked at Niko's lifeless body.
"We should bury him."
"We should, but we don't have time for that. There's a cave nearby. It will do for the time being, which will save him from the sun. Tomorrow I'll find somewhere to dig a hole. You take his legs. It will be lighter."
We moved into position, ready to lift Niko. He didn't look heavy, but neither of us were fit, so this was going to take a lot of effort.
"Going somewhere?"
Brad gasped, dropping Niko's body. Glancing over my shoulder, I looked at the figure and knew it was Drakkus.
"He's dead. You've got what you wanted, so just go away."
Drakkus chuckled. Every part of it grated against me, anger boiling as I looked at what he'd done to Niko. He was such a nice person, and the creature behind me, he was a monster. I was sick of bullies, and that's what he clearly was.
Picking up the rifle that Brad had left on the ground, I stood and pointed it at Drakkus. He smiled mercilessly.
"Little girl, put the gun down and let the big boys talk."
Pressing the trigger, I watched as his body lifted into the air and thumped to the ground. The end of the gun pushed me back, but I dug my feet into the ground. It wasn't much help, though.
"Nope. Hades is Corbin territory, and I am the leader, as placed by the true leader of this town. You've officially been placed on notice. Each and every one of you have got until sunset tomorrow to leave this town. Otherwise, I'm coming for all of you."
Discarding the shell, I unzipped my pocket and put another bullet into the chamber.
"Who is next?"
They all gasped as I swung the rifle around. Within seconds, they were gone. Drakkus groaned as he sat up, then looked at the wound.
"You shot me."
"Yeah, and I'm going to do it again. This time, I'm going to give you a warning by counting to three. Three."
Pressing the trigger again, I shot the vampire. His body jerked and thumped to the ground. I gladly accepted the pushback from the rifle. I'd even take the bruising that was likely to appear. All were a mark of my strength.
"You stole something from me, and I will never forgive you for it. If there is even an ounce of strength in you, I would suggest that you run. I will hunt you, and I will kill you because I will make you pay for what you did to Niko."
"This isn't over." he hissed, struggling to his feet.
"The words of a villain who has lost the battle."
Unloading the chamber again, Drakkus watched in horror as I pulled another bullet from my pocket. He turned to run. I lifted the rifle, wondering how good my aim was at a distance. Brad's hand pressed to my shoulder.
"Enough. We do not shoot in the back. Only cowards do that."
"He will come for us again if I don't kill him."
"I'm sure he will, but we do what is right. Face our enemy in their death so that their last memory is seeing the supremacy on our face."
I looked at Brad.
"This is a new side of you. Dark, twisted. I think I like it."
Brad rolled his eyes, scoffing.
"Yeah, great. This is what happens when a vampire enters our life. I was a good boy before he turned up."
"But he was a good influence on me," I said softly. "Despite the bad things that we did."
"I do not want to know. Give me that."
Brad took the rifle from me, ensuring that it was safe to be slung over his back. With the strap tightened so that the rifle wouldn't move, we leaned down to pick up Niko.
It would not be an easy path, but I would walk it with Brad. Together, we'd bury a friend that we barely knew and mourn his loss alone. There would be no great fanfare, no masses to mourn his passing. Just two long-lost relatives saying goodbye to someone that cared.
Yet again, I'd lost a friend, a family member, and someone that meant a lot to me.
The cave was small, but Brad said that it was enough to put Niko in until tomorrow afternoon. He'd come out here, as he'd said, dig a hole and then move Niko's body once he was sure that the sun wouldn't burn his body to a crisp. I was going to tell him that Niko could walk in the light but refrained from it at the moment. It was sweet that even after he was gone, Brad was doing all that he could to be respectful of his body.
Brad went into the cave first, dragging Niko's body into it. When he emerged, we pulled the bushes over it to keep the sun out. Over the top of the hole, I scratched RIP into the rock face.
"This will be enough. We don't need to disturb his body anymore."
"Are you sure about that? Don't you want a grave to visit?"
"I can come here to see him."
"Well, if you're sure about it."
I nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist. For a moment, we stood there in silence, saying goodbye to someone that shouldn't be dead.
"I'll make a dedicated path that will lead me here, so there's no chance of getting lost. How's that?"
"That's a good idea."
We began to walk back to the house. I don't know why, but it seemed so much easier now. Maybe the vampires were making my mind fuddled. Was that possible? Surely Niko would have warned me if that were the case.
"What now?"
"Now?" Brad asked, sounding full of hope. "Now we figure out what to do if the vampires don't leave. So, you're the leader, eh?"
"I am. Did you want to be my second in charge?"
"Gee," he said, pretending to scratch his head. "Got a lot on my plate at the moment. You know, work, manage a house, and an unruly teenager."
I elbowed him in the ribs. Brad chuckled as he rubbed the sore spot.
"Sure. I'll be by your side to tell you that you're a terrible leader and that you're making poor decisions."
I knew he was joking, but it would be funny if he did that. I'm sure he could lighten a tense moment with some poorly timed remark.
"I don't want this, you know,' I admitted ruefully. "I'd rather Niko was here."
"This is life, Evie. We can't predict any part of it, and it sucks when these things happen. When your grandparents died, I had a girlfriend at the time who said that I was so lucky to be given a large inheritance. I said that I'd rather they were alive and that no amount of money would ever make it easier."
"Did you dump her gold-digging skank ass?"
"Sure did."
We looked at each other, then laughed. That was until I realized that my mother would have been given half of the estate. I guess that went to a drug dealer.
When we reached the edge of the forest, Brad and I stopped. There was not a sign of anything untoward going on or that anything bad had happened. Just a house that waited for our return. The houses on either side appeared to have residents who were still awake. Lights were on, and shadows moved over the curtains.
"How are we going to prove that we are Niko's descendants?"
"By finding the documents in the house. We will trace our family history, and we will prove that this house belongs to his family, not the heritage trust."
"Do you think that the vampires are members of the trust?"
"No doubt," I returned. "They wanted to lure family members out with the offer of this house as an inheritance. Well, he's got a family. I'm not prepared to take any of their nonsense. Niko said something that made me wonder about the vampires in this town. He basically suggested that our family was murdered. Do you know how my mother died?"
Brad shrugged uneasily.
"The coroner ruled it as a drug overdose. You know, I have spent the last three years wondering why I wasn't good enough for your mother, why she decided to keep me out of her life, and yours as well. This revelation makes me think that she knew more than what she let on. Maybe there was a reason that she kept us separate."
"To protect us?"
"Maybe to protect you. My life was erratic. I was always going out and doing stuff. I'd stay at girlfriends' houses. I'd party with friends and stay at their house or a hotel. Being at home happened, but not often. I now wonder if that saved my life. This job, moving around all the time, maybe it's what has kept us alive as well."
"That's possible."
I bet that if we researched every single family member between Niko and us, we'd find suspicious circumstances. My mother could have been drugged. My grandparents' plane might have had a deliberate malfunction. Maybe my great-grandparents died in a way that was far from ordinary. How far back would we go before we reached Niko?
"What are you going to do about your father?"
I shrugged as we crossed the lawn.
"I don't know where to begin with that. With no information and no one to ask, I'm left without direction. I guess I just have to accept that I will never know who he is."
"Well, maybe a clue might present itself in the future, and it will help you edge a little closer. In the meantime, I still want that promise out of you."
Looking at him curiously, I frowned.
"What promise?"
"School. You are to pass this year. Buckle down, get it done, and then you're free. No one wants a leader that hasn't finished high school."
"I'm sure they won't care."
Brad frowned at me as he opened the door.
"Yes, fine. I will do my best. Of course, if vampires threaten my life again, you can't expect me not to deal with it. Then there's the whole leader of a vampire family thing. I'm sure that's going to take up a lot of my time."
He shook his head, unimpressed. Deep down, I'm sure he knew that I would always try, but I liked to lace my days with humor and sarcasm.
The house was empty, not a hint that a vampire had been in here. Brad inspected the front door while I pushed the back door shut. As I turned, I looked over the kitchen counter and saw the purple-eyed boy again.
I gasped with fright, clutching my chest as my heart pounded heavily. The teen boy stared at me. Dressed in a plain blue suit, he looked approachable despite the lingering sensation floating around him that he was the exact opposite.
"They are coming for you."