"Look out!" George yelled.
Isabella yelped and moved her spaceship across the screen away from Ray's enemy spacecraft.
"Isabella, you're their new best friend," Emily said, looking up from the book she was reading in the bay window.
Emily laughed at the scene. George and Ray were teaching Isabella a new game and loving every minute of it. Not only had they found a new person to play their video games with, but it was a beautiful girl, who they were both enjoying being around.
Emily frowned as she saw someone walking up the drive. Not many people were brave enough to do so. She watched him climb the stairs. He looked familiar but she wasn't sure where she knew him from.
He rang the doorbell. Emily felt the vibration of him as if his soul ran through the house. And then she knew. Oh, no...no...no...no.
Emily started to shake as a thousand images of his life raced across her mind. She fell back into the window seat, sitting down with a hard thud as her legs gave out from under her.
Death. Grief. Rejection. Betrayal. Fire. Screams. Pain. Love. Joy. Pain. Blood. Desperation. Sadness. Loneliness. Depression. Guilt. Pain. Blood.
Emotions flooded her as fast as the images flashed before her eyes and through her body.
Emily took deep breaths and concentrated on the beep, beep, beeps coming from George and Ray's video game. Luckily, they hadn't turned around and noticed her having one of her "episodes".
Ever since Emily started having visions as a little girl it would affect her physically. And until she learned to control it, Emily usually ended up passed out on the floor or the pavement or wherever she happened to be at the time.
It still happened, every now and again when she had a powerful vision, but it had happened all the time when she was young. It wasn't until high school when she really managed to control her visions that she was able to start having a relatively normal life.
She really wanted that normal life she always dreamed about right now. Because the guy that just walked up to the door was going to bring all of them some of those emotions and images she just felt and saw. And none of them were ready for it. Not even him.
*******************************
"I'll get it!" Raven called from the hallway.
Raven opened the door to reveal a gorgeous Italian looking guy. His skin was tan; his curly black hair came past his ears. He wore black sunglasses and his clothes were all black. He wore black jeans, black boots and a black tee-shirt showing off a spectacular upper body.
He grinned at her approvingly, when she opened the door. He pulled down his shades to reveal gorgeous light brown eyes.
Raven felt her heart in her throat and stared in admiration.
"Hello," he said to her in a deep voice.
"Hi," Raven answered, leaning on the door for support.
"I'm here to see Isabella. Is she in?" He asked with a slight Italian accent. His eyes looked behind her before returning to her face.
"Isabella?" she asked her mind numb. She couldn't take her eyes or her mind off of his incredible face. Pure perfection. "Oh, yeah. She's here. Just a sec," she said, turning from the door absently. She turned back to him. "I'm sorry, you are..."
He lifted her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. "Trey."
"Trey," Raven repeated with an intake of breath.
"Would you wait here a minute?" Raven asked, taking her hand away, but not wanting to let go.
Trey smiled, nodded, and sat down on the white wicker swing on the porch next to the door.
Raven turned and went into the family room and finally let her jaw drop to the floor.
"Isabella. There is an absolutely gorgeous, and when I say gorgeous, I mean, GORGEOUS guy on the porch looking for you."
Isabella looked from Ray to George seeing the jealously cross their faces as she got up off the floor.
"Did he tell you his name?" Isabella asked as Raven and Emily peered through the bay window at the visitor.
"Trey, I think," Raven said, peering through the side of the curtain.
Isabella put a hand to her forehead."Trey? Here?" Isabella asked, puzzled that he'd come.
"I think that's what he said. But my mind went to mush," Raven replied, smiling as she admired his profile.
Isabella rolled her eyes."That'd be him."
She left the room and went to the front door. Isabella stopped in the doorway and looked at her visitor. He looked too comfortable sitting on the porch swing. What game was he playing now?
"Hello, Isabella," He said rising when he saw her.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded in Italian, while stepping onto the porch and closing the front door behind her.
"Someone turned off her phone," Trey responded, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He tucked her under his arm, and walked her down the front stairs.
"I haven't been here even a day," Isabella told him defensively.
"But you know we want to hear your lovely voice."
"No, you want to control my every move and I won't allow it," Isabella said firmly, pulling away.
"You won't allow it?!" Trey repeated, his face changing from being playful to anger.
"No. I told you we do it my way or no way."
Trey laughed. "You suddenly got some nerve in you, didn't you?" He crossed his arms.
"I won't put up with him bossing me around anymore."
Trey towered over her and glared. "This is our deal. Not his. But I'm in charge here, not you, and not him. Get that straight. I want what is mine, Isabella, and I want it soon."
"The items weren't in the house in Italy. Give me some time. I haven't been alone in this house yet. But they will all be gone for school tomorrow and I'll have the house to myself to look."
"Good," Trey answered pleased.
*******************************
"What do you think they're talking about?" Raven asked, watching them by the window. "Do you think he's her boyfriend?" she asked, when no one answered.
"Raven, get away from the window." Emily pulled her away.
She looked herself at the guy outside and fought back some tears. The only thought in her mind was Why?
"But he's so gorgeous," Raven pouted, sitting down on the window seat next to her.
"I got to get a look at this guy." George said, getting up. He pushed past Raven to pull back the curtain. "What's so great about him?" he asked with a scoff.
Ray appeared next to him to peer over his shoulder.
"Are you blind, man?!" Raven exclaimed, pulling back the curtain. "Look at him!" She shook her palm out towards his figure.
"I'm looking," George said grumpily as he watched the guy kiss Isabella's cheek. He walked back down the driveway and Isabella turned to walk back up the drive.
George and Ray rushed back over to their seats on the floor. Raven sat next to Emily, looking over her shoulder at her book.
Isabella came into the room and sat back down between George and Ray as if nothing happened.
"Who's the guy, Isabella?" Raven asked excitedly, and got up from the window seat to sit on the couch near Isabella.
"Someone from Italy. He just came to say hello," Isabella replied, not looking away from the game.
"He's gorgeous." Raven sighed.
"I suppose," Isabella said nonchalantly.
"You're not interested in him?" Raven asked eagerly.
Isabella frowned. "Not the way you mean."
George grinned absently at that and quickly wiped it from his face when he realized he had done so.
"Does he have a girlfriend?"
"Raven!" Emily exclaimed from the window seat.
"What? It's a perfectly natural question to ask," Raven answered.
"He goes through girls like he changes shirts," Isabella said disdainfully, still not looking away from the game.
"Oh."
"I would not express more interest in him, Raven," Isabella told her.
"Oh. Okay," Raven got up from the couch, disappointed she was unable to get more out of Isabella.
"Sounds like a good idea," Emily said and shut her book. "If Isabella says stay away, stay away."
Raven frowned looking at Emily thoughtfully. "Why? What did you see?"
Emily set her book down. "It's nothing. Excuse me, I'm going to go upstairs," she said, standing up.
"Are you okay, Em?" Raven asked with a frown. Emily looked like she was going to be sick.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Emily said with a weak smile. "It's just one of my episodes."
"Why didn't you say?! Here, let me help you," Raven said, taking her by the arm.
"I suppose story time should continue," Tony announced, coming into the room with Jake following behind him.
"You will tell us more, then?" Isabella asked excitedly.
Tony nodded and sat in an arm chair.
"I'm okay," Emily said, waving Raven away and sat back down.
"You sure?" Raven asked concerned.
Emily nodded.
Raven sat down next to her. "Should I tell Ja..."
"No," Emily glared at her.
"Ton..."
"No!" Emily snapped.
"O-k," Raven said, putting her hands up.
"Sorry," Emily put her head down and ran her hands through her hair. She glanced around the room. Tony and Jake were helping Ray and George clean up the game controls and turning off the TV and game console, while Isabella watched amused. "It was just a bad one. I'm okay now."
"Will you tell me later?"
Emily shook her head, "Not yet. I need to figure out something first."
"I told Raven and Jake that I would tell them about their parents," Tony said as everyone settled down into a seat.
"I should have realized it when I met you, but I didn't. Yeah, Raven looked....I thought she looked like Molly. But I pushed the thought away. I'm sorry for that. But you have to understand, I've met so many different people over the past five hundred years, even those very dear to me are just a distant memory now. Their faces, their voices, their laughter are so hard to bring back. Because...I, well, honestly, I try make myself forget. It's... easier," Tony said, his voice softening. He took a deep breath.
"I met your parents in Boston. I'd been living there pretty much since the Revolution. I've traveled all over the U.S and lived in many places, but I always seemed to come back to Boston," he said, pacing the room.
"I suppose it was the mid-nineteen seventies when we met. They were just married and moved into the brownstone next to mine. I didn't pay attention to them much at first except to admire your mother's beauty from time to time," Tony said with a smile to Raven as she looked similar to her mother.
"Your mother was a nurse and worked at the local hospital. She worked a lot of night shifts and we often bumped into each other on the street. I would walk her home.
Your father was a history professor at the university. He was a kind man. He appreciated my walking your mother home every night. I claimed I worked a night-shift, as well, except my night-shift was really hunting for blood.
They started inviting me over for dinner, for weekend barbecues, which your father was great at, might I add. Your mother had a great sense of humor like Raven. She was fun to joke around with. Your father was more serious, like you, Jake. But he and I got along great. We were best of friends."
He paused and took a breath. "Later, things started happening. I'd find your mother outside sleep-walking at three in the morning. Sometimes we'd found her in dangerous situations, like walking actually out in the middle of the street.
We didn't think too much of it at first, just normal sleep walking. Then the black fog started appearing. It tried to strangle your father one night. Your parents had powers like you do. They tried using their powers against the demon as you call it. We called it The Fog back then.
They didn't know what to do and neither did I. I'd seen it before over the years, not as aggressively though. It never caused that much trouble, although, I still claim that it forced us to throw that tea in the Boston Harbor," Tony said, finishing with a slight smile.
"Were you involved in that?" Raven asked excitedly.
Tony laughed slightly and scratched the side of his face trying to decide whether or not to admit to it. "I take the fifth."
"You didn't!" Raven laughed.
"Can we get back to the part about the demon trying to kill our parents, please?" Jake demanded.
"There wasn't anyone we knew like Brian to help them figure out what they were or what we could do against this thing," Tony said. "Your parents wouldn't touch dark magic and that's the only place I knew where to start looking."
"So the demon won," Jake said.
"That round." Tony nodded. "And then one night, when I got back home from hunting for blood, their house was burning and mine with it. I ran into their house and found them already dead in the living room.
Then I ran up the stairs, where the two of you were crying in your cribs, and I grabbed you and carried you out of the house to safety. I called the fire department and then left you with another neighbor. I went in and brought your parents out. There was nothing that could be done for them."
"And you didn't want to raise two babies?" Raven asked.
Tony scoffed. "I couldn't have handled that. Anyways, you ended up where you should be."
"What is this demon?" Isabella asked.
"Don't worry about him. He's no longer around," Jake told her.
"What happened?" Isabella asked.
Emily spoke up. "The demon, he hunted myself and my parents for years. Probably Jake, too, it was giving him nightmares. Last year, it killed my parents and nearly killed me and my biological father, Brian. For the past several months, it was trying to kill Jake."
Isabella frowned. "And it's gone now?"
"Yes, we managed to kill it," Jake said.
"Where did the demon come from?"
Tony cleared his throat. "It's a messenger. I know only little about them. They are forces of evil that are called up by someone to do their dirty work."
"What is the message?" Isabella asked frowning.
Tony shrugged. "That someone wants us all killed."
"Why?"
"That I don't know."
Emily leaned forward. "Brian thinks it's because we use our powers for good and that we can defeat whatever or whoever it is sending this thing."
Isabella shook her head in confusion. "But who is sending such an evil thing?"
"We don't know," Tony said.
"Have they tried again to hurt you?"
"No, not yet," Jake answered. "We only killed the demon yesterday before you came."
"Will they try again?" Isabella asked worried.
"Hopefully not," Tony answered. He sighed, "But probably so,"
"What will you do?"
"We will have to just deal with them as we dealt with the demon." Emily told her.
"And you all have magic powers?"
"Yes, my main powers are that I can read minds or send my thoughts into someone else's mind. I can also heal."
"I can control the weather and create fire," Raven spoke up.
"I can move objects with my mind," Ray smiled.
"And I can control the weather and talk to animals," George explained.
"How interesting," Isabella said thoughtfully.
George grinned. "Yeah, never a dull moment in this house."
"And this Brian, who is he? You say your father?" Isabella asked Emily.
"Yes. Brian is my biological father. He is a professor at the university. He teaches parapsychology and is the best in the field. He tries to help people with gifts learn to use them for good."
"That is... nice." Isabella said thoughtfully.
"And you two are brother and sister?" Isabella asked, pointing to Raven and Jake.
"Yes. We just found out actually. We were both adopted separately when we were babies. We never knew until a few days ago when Ray found our adoption papers," Raven explained.
"Isn't technology great?" Ray said sarcastically.
"We're happy you found out," Raven said, throwing an arm around Jake.
"Isn't that right, bro?" she asked Jake, kissing his cheek.
"You've been bickering like brother and sister since you found out," Ray complained.
"We're working on that," Jake replied.
"I'll bet," Ray responded sarcastically.
"Is that all there is to tell?" Isabella asked disappointed.
"What more do you want?" Tony asked.
Isabella sighed. "I don't know," she threw up her hands. "I thought there would be more to your life's story."
Tony ran a hand through his hair. "I've got five hundred years of life. What do you want to know?"
"I don't know," Isabella replied, looking down at her hands.
"Hey! Tell us about the Boston Tea Party!" Raven said excitedly.
"I saw it happen. I didn't do it. It stank up the harbor like tea for months," Tony said remembering.
"Did you know George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and all those guys?" Jake asked.
"Not really. Everyone knew who they were, of course, and I ran into Thomas Jefferson once and we had beers, or ale, as it was called then. We discussed politics mostly. He was interested in the Italian government and the Roman Empire. He was an interesting guy."
"That's pretty cool," Ray said.
"Maybe in another three hundred years someone will be telling me that about you, Ray," Tony said with a smile.
"Nah, the best hackers never get caught. So there's no story to tell," Ray said with a conceited grin. "They'll be talking about what happened but never me."
George gave him a high five. The rest of the group laughed.
"Just what exactly do you hack, Ray?"
Ray smiled again. "Everything."
"He keeps the government on their toes."
Ray shrugged, "Hey, someone has to keep our country safe. And thanks to me, it is. Do you know how much security they've added since I've been breaking in?"
Isabella gasped, "But you could go to prison for that!"
Ray shook his head, "For a day maybe. Then they'd hire me on the spot, they'd have to."
"Have you ever seen White Collar, idiot?" Raven exclaimed. "I keep telling you to watch the damn show!"
She turned to Isabella. "It's about this art thief, right? He gets busted by the FBI, and after being in prison for a few years, they hire him to help solve cases. But he's still a prisoner. He doesn't get paid. He just works for them. And he has to wear an ankle tracking device and if he goes within a few miles of his house, wham, he's back in jail!"
"I think eventually, they let him go free, didn't they?" Ray asked with a frown. "I don't remember...I stopped watching."
"The point is, you're an idiot," Raven told him. "You're going to get caught and you're going to jail. You need to just stop," she said angrily. "Go work for the government if you want to protect the country!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the window and the world outside. "But don't be doing illegal stuff to get you thrown in jail!"
"Where's the fun in that?" Ray asked her, frowning.
"Augggghhh!" Raven threw a couch cushion at him. "Idiot!"
"I highly doubt you can call a genius an idiot. Isn't that an oxy-moron?"George asked.
"You're a moron," Raven told him.
"Raven!" Emily admonished.
"He's a moron for letting his best friend hack the army, the navy, the marines, the Pentagon and let's not forget The White House," Raven ticked them off her fingers.
Ray shook his head sadly, "You forgot the coast guard and the air force."
"Someone gave Ray too much sugar today," Jake said with a laugh. "Man, I haven't seen you this sarcastic."
"I support my best friend," George told Raven, "because I've seen what he can do. And he's saved my dad's butt, more than once, because of it. So, if that means he, or we, end up in jail, so be it."
"We?" Jake asked, his forehead wrinkling in confusion. "What do you mean we?"
"Accessories," Raven told him. "We'll most likely go to the joint with him. Since we live with him and know what he's been doing."
"Great..." Jake muttered.
"Would you tell us about your family," Isabella asked, looking back at Tony, who was leaning against a wall of bookshelves, patiently waiting for Ray and Raven to finish interrupting his storytelling.
"Are you done?" Tony asked, looking from Ray, to George to Raven. They nodded.
"Absolutely. You go on with you bad self," Ray told him.
George hooted with laugher. Jake and Raven groaned. Emily was looking out the window. And Isabella was still waiting for Tony to speak.
"Ignore them," Tony told her. "What do you want to know?"
"Just tell us about them."
"I don't know what more I can say. Demetrio and Eliana they were my life and when they were taken away from me- so was my life. I know I have a life now and it is pretty good. But, god, when you love someone that much...when you lose your child..." he trailed off, losing his voice. He turned away from them not wanting them to see his pain.
Emily crossed the room and sat down next to him to take his hand. He squeezed her hand reassuringly but then pulled away.
They were quiet a few minutes while Tony sniffled and pulled himself together.
"When you lose someone you love it's the worst thing you'll ever go through. And I lost my whole family in days of each other. My parents, my wife, my child, even my in-laws, for god's sake. God's sake?" he laughed.
"I still believe in God but I don't know why for all he's done for me. Why would God do that to a man? Take his whole family right before his eyes? And then give him eternal life!" he exclaimed and started pacing the room again.
"Life? More like eternal damnation. I've paid for my sins a thousand times over! What good has it done me?" Tony demanded angrily.
"You've done a lot of good for us, Tony," Raven insisted. "That's why you're here. If you weren't a vampire, you wouldn't have lived long enough to help us."
"Maybe you wouldn't be in harms way, if it wasn't for me," he said angrily.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked.
"As I said, this demon has been around a lot longer than all of you. Maybe it wasn't after you all this time. Maybe it was after me."