Blood Ties
Helene rummaged through the boxes, dust filtering through the air and causing her to cough.
She was the only one in the library—or office—or whatever her great aunt wanted to call it.
She hadn’t been back in years—ever since her mother and Aunt Eleanora had gotten into some sort of quarrel over what to do with her great grandfather’s estate.
Aunt Eleanora had not gotten along with anyone in the family, had no children, but seemed to take great interest in Helene.
She had been a force to be reckoned with, but Helene adored her aunt—until her mother kept her away.
The years rolled by, her own mother disowned her for various reasons that weren’t even worth mentioning and that’s when Helene figured out that her mother had kept Eleanora from her.
With that information, Helene struck out on her own, leaving behind everything she knew once her aunt was gone.
She was going to be a nurse—a good one—and with the summer upon her, Helene wanted nothing more than to go to the country and get away from it all.
“When was the last time this place was cleaned? I am sure Eleanora had money for a housekeeper..”
A noise startled her, but it was just the wind.
The New England fall had arrived and even though the scenery was absolutely breathtaking in Vermont, Helene felt a shiver run through her.
The wind rattled the windows and she saw some clouds glowering at her in the distance.
She’d always loved the storms, but her whole life had been a storm.
She was trying to make the best of things when Eleanora died.
Helene’s mother told her very flippantly that the woman had passed and—even though Margot was not friendly towards Eleanora—she seemed very upset that nothing was left to her.
Margot even tried to swindle Helene out of the fortunes.
Helene wasn’t having it.
She’d been an outcast in the family ever since Eleanora had taken a great liking to her as a child and she just assumed it was because of the bizarre animosity they harbored for the older woman.
“This room will take forever,” Helene sighed and glanced around her and then to the bookshelves, “But I cannot wait to read all of you..”
Another cloud rolled through, causing darkness to overpower more of the room than before.
“Well, I guess I can take a little break..” Helene said, “With a nice cup of tea and this...” She grabbed a dusty book off the shelf and wiped it off, “Let’s get downstairs and have an uneventful afternoon.”
She took leave of the study not knowing that he’d been behind a fake bookshelf, eyeing her the whole time.
“That...is Helene..” His undead heart thudded wildly in his chest, “Oh, Eleanora told me so much about you, sweet petals...”
He waited until she was quite a bit away before making his way back down into his world underneath the manor.
Rushing back down to his level of the manor, Abel smiled.
“She’s quite the catch..” he said, “Eleanora had to have told her about me, yes?”
There was no way she did—unless Helene had not yet found her aunt’s diary.
Abel thought about that.
Eleanora’s diary was even a mystery to him, but it should have been in the cedar chest he’d made for the woman when she was alive.
She never wanted to be a vampire.
She hunted them, just like Helene would eventually.
But they never hunted Abel—he was last of his bloodline and protected by the Brewster family for generations.
Eleanora swore up and down no one knew about him.
She was a wonderful woman, but not one who wanted a relationship with the man.
She wasn’t into men—she had her heart set on Penny, a woman who’d passed years before.
Penny had known about Abel, but never told a soul.
She took knowledge of his existence to her grave.
“She’ll take care of you..” Eleanora had told him as she lay dying in her warm bed, “My niece is an exceptional woman and bears the mark of a hunter.”
Abel wasn’t nervous.
He could have easily destroyed the entire family, but his blood lust ended when he met Eleanora and made the promise to not hunt humans ever again.
“You...won’t kill me?” Abel asked after hours of fighting, “You’re strong for a human.”
Eleanora, young at the time, knew her place.
She knew of the other shifters and black magic users who could easily take Abel away from the life he so loved to live.
“I can feed you transfusions and animals, but no humans..”
“No humans?”
Eleanora had smirked and placed her daggers back into her coat pocket, “Well, you can suck the enemy dry for all I care, Abel, but no innocent lives. Come...I will take you home with me and you can live in peace.”
