Well its been awhile, but now I'm out of school for the summer and I will probably have more time to update and post new chapters!! :) As always thanks to everyone who has read and commented on it, your feedback is greatly appreciated!
My heart was still pounding and at any second it felt like it was going to fly through my chest. I barely felt Dominic's arms around me as he carried me back to my room. I still couldn't believe or process what had happened. It had been frightening and strange. My throat stung from where Jacob had bitten me and I felt drained and weak. I closed my eyes briefly and the next time I opened them, we were back in what I now liked to call my "prison".
Instead of just setting me back down on the ground, I was dropped by Dominic, who appeared like he wanted to get away from me as soon as possible. I stared up at him from where I had fallen on the carpet. His eyes had turned black again,but they were hardly focused on me. They darted around the room and his jaw was tightened. He hated me as much as Jacob did and I felt humiliated for thinking that he would help me. He was right outside of the door the whole time and he had stayed there doing nothing, true to his word. I started to climb to my feet, feeling tears start to form. He was watching me, but I didn't meet his eyes. Slowly I turned and walked towards the bathroom I heard him saying my name, but I didn't respond.
"Alice don't walk away from me when I'm talking to you." he continued to demand, but I ignored him and as soon as I started to hear his footsteps behind me, I ran the last few feet into the bathroom and slammed the door shut,managing to lock it behind me in time.
A few seconds later there was a loud boom that echoed loudly in the bathroom, as I assumed he had smashed his fist into the door. I could hear him outside still talking, even yelling somewhat, trying to get me to come out, but I ignored him and sat curled up in the farthest corner of the bathroom. He didn't try to break in and he didn't threaten to, but he continued to demand that I open the door. Eventually I didn't hear his voice and I assumed that he had left. I stayed in there for maybe another five minutes, trying to stop crying. This whole thing was a bad dream and I wished more than anything that I would wake up.
After drying my eyes, I stood up and made my way back to the door. I was certain he had left, but after opening the door I saw he was sitting on the bed with a melancholy expression on his face as he stared at the wall. It must have been at least three a.m. and I was exhausted, but still somehow highly alert. I was prepared for almost anything to happen. Even though he seemed calmer then he had been moments ago,I had a feeling he was someone whose emotions changed as quick as lightning. So when he suddenly spoke to me, in a quiet voice I wasn't surprised.
"You know things weren't always like this," he paused momentarily before continuing, "a very long time ago things were different. Jacob, before he became...well what we are now, he was a boy that everyone looked up to, including me. I suppose he would have done great things if everything had turned out differently. If our uncle hadn't held him back, if he had never met Franchesca and if he had never left Whitby that night, yes I am sure he would have done great things."
Already I had many questions. For one thing who was Franchesca? But Dominic continued before I could ask anything. I had a feeling he wouldn't answer very many questions of mine anyway.
"I was only six years old when Jacob left. You see Jacob and I are half-brothers. He married my mother several years after Jacob's had passed away. Our father was never home with us. He was always traveling abroad, I never actually met him until I was eight years old. My own mother died a few weeks after giving birth to me, so our uncle raised both of us." He spoke slow and cautiously as if he was trying to remember everything exactly as it had been.
"Jacob hated our uncle as much as our uncle hated him. Our uncle was a priest you see, he was a very devout and religious man and he clashed with Jacob's rebellious nature. I never completely understood why he tormented Jacob so much, Jacob knows why, but he won't tell me and I'm sure he never will. But like I said earlier, things would have been different that night if he had never left Whitby."
I was now sitting on the floor with my back against the chair seated directly across from Dominic, staring up at him listening intently to his story. I don't know why, but I wanted to learn everything I could about their past. I must have had a confused look on my face after Dominic had mentioned Whitby again because he stopped again.
"Whitby is a town located in Northern England," he explained, "Jacob and I both grew up there outside of the town on a small estate in the late seventeen hundreds."
Seventeen hundreds? I felt my eyes widen, that meant that they were both over two hundred years old. Which then again explained why they both talked as if they were from a different era, but it had never really dawned on me until now.
He smiled quickly for a moment at my surprise. "Yes over two hundred years ago on Christmas, was the night that Jacob was turned. He never told me exactly what had happened, but I know that the vampire that turned him was far more cruel than Jacob could ever be and taught him everything that made him what he is today."
Anyone crueler then Jacob? I almost laughed out loud. Jacob is a psychopath.
"Twelve years later Jacob found me again. This time I was living in London with a cousin. Already at only eighteen years old I thought my life was over. In the last year I had gambled everything away that I had owned, my own father had disinherited me,telling me that I had become a disgrace to the family and my uncle had personally thrown me off of the estate telling me that if I was going to live a sinner's life I'd better do it in somewhere else."
I watched his knuckles tighten as he gripped the comforter on the bed. I didn't know if he was angry or terrified of what he was going to tell me.
"Imagine my surprise the night that Jacob walked into that filthy tavern on Fleet Street and sat down next to me by the bar. I thought my brother had been dead for over twelve years and here he was sitting next to me and looking like he had the night he had left. He later showed me his secret by killing some drunk man in the back alley. As you can imagine I was terrified at what he had become and ran away. But the next night he found me again just before I had the chance to put a bullet in my head. I had truly thought I had gone insane and I would rather be dead then be put into an asylum. Jacob saved my life that night believe it or not. That was the night he changed me. I hated him for it at first and more then anything I wanted to die. I came to realize though eventually, that this curse, can actually be at times a blessing in disguise. For that I owe Jacob everything he gave me a second chance. He gave me immortality."
"Is that why my parents captured Jacob? To see if he really cannot be killed,I mean?" I finally asked the one question I needed an answer for.
"Yes and no. We can be killed and the ways to do it have been told in stories for centuries. A wooden stake through the heart,being beheaded and being thrown into fire, all of those things will kill us. Crosses, holy water, garlic, those things can hurt us while protecting you." he answered.
"What about sunlight?"I continued, now more curious then ever.
"We can actually go out in sunlight, but only for a few hours at a time or it will make us very weak but it won't kill us. Most of us sleep during the day even though we don't need to, it just replenishes our energy faster instead of waiting for the next kill."
That explained why I had never heard any noise from the basement during the day. He was probably asleep.
"Now back to your original question. Have you ever heard of a corporation by the name of V.E.O.?"he asked.
I shook my head. The name drew a blank but at the same time sounded slightly familiar.
"Well for as long as there have been vampires there have been vampire hunters. The V.E.O. stands for Vampire Exterminating Organization. Its a very secretive company that to this day continues to hunt and kill us whenever possible. But thats not all they do now. Whenever they can they hire top doctors and scientists alike to experiment on us and develop new ways to kill us faster and more efficiently. Your parents were recently admitted into the V.E.O. Alice."
"S-so you're saying that my parents are part of a secret society of v-vampire hunters?" Even after all that I had been through everything still sounded so unreal and insane. But then again it explained why my dad had the crossbow and was going for the Van Helsing look.
"As far as I know yes. They had been hired along with a Dr. Zedler to track down a vampire and capture it for what they call the good of science. They found Jacob and for about the past month have been experimenting on him. I looked for him whenever I could, but he had disappeared without a trace,until he showed up late last night with you." he gestured towards me.
There was a moment of silence before either of us spoke. "He said he was going to kill me you know." I told him,feeling an icy chill creep down my spine and wrap around me like a blanket.
For a moment he didn't answer me and stared for the longest time at the cuffs on that fancy suit he wore.
"You're a smart girl Alice, I can tell." he finally spoke. " Look, I know something happened back there, I know you saw something you should not have seen even though I still don't have an explanation for how you did . Thats why I told you about our past so you could understand who we were and what made us the way we are now. Jacob likes to play games, you have to play along and use whatever you can to your advantage."He stood up suddenly and walked over to where I was sitting and knelt down so that his eyes met mine.
"Thats what can keep you alive the longest more than I can. Jacob has always been stronger than me both mentally and physically. He's lost inside of his own madness and I don't know if anything can bring him back. He's beyond the point of caring whether or not he kills me or anyone else for that matter. He is still my brother whether I want to accept that fact or not, and I still owe him. If I leave he will hunt me down and destroy me." He paused and for a moment he started laughing almost to himself. "You see even after centuries of cheating death, I still don't have enough courage to face it."
That was the moment I felt sorry for him. He was about as trapped as I was and even if he didn't show it, he was scared too. But for different reasons. I was scared for my parents and losing my life while he was scared of losing his brother. For a second I forgot about everything, but the mutual fear that we both shared and I reached out and touched the top of his hand that rested on the carpet close to mine. He jerked back instantly and in a flash was back up on his feet. He looked bewildered as he stared down at me with wide eyes.
"You shouldn't do that." His voice was slightly shaky and confused. His eyes started to focus on me as if he was studying something. Then I realized that he was staring at my neck,as if he had noticed it for the first time. Dried blood was most likely still smeared around it from where Jacob had bitten me. Without hesitating I pulled my hair around and covered the puncture wounds. He was starting to lose whatever composure he had and I must have made the right choice because his eyes started to lose the predatory look they had held seconds earlier.
"Don't ever do that again." His voice had gone back to normal now and had regained whatever composure he had temporarily lost. "Go to bed and get some rest," he walked to the door, "From now on...never mind."And with that he left, the click of the lock turning behind him.
You're on your own. The words rang through my mind. I had a feeling that's what he would have said. Maybe he didn't because he didn't want to sound too cruel. Or maybe he thought you were smart enough to know already. Those thoughts kept running through my mind over and over. When I was in the bathroom cleaning the dried blood off of my neck. You're on your own. As I tore off the dress that I hated. You should be smart enough to know that you're on your own. It kept replaying in my head like lyrics to a song. When I finally started to drift off into sleep that was the last thing that I thought of. You're on your own Alice. On your own.