Blood Ties

Focus was all I could think to myself as I tensed in preparation for a fight. He faked to the left, putting me on the defensive, which opened my right side to an attack. Quickly realizing this, I tried to block his punch, but I failed… miserably. I was then sent flailing to the ground by a roundhouse kick from none other than my friendly opponent.

“C’mon, Bell! Kick his ass!” the shout came out of James, from the other side of the room. I had to grit my teeth as I started to try and sit up through the pain in both, my side and head. Luckily for me, Justin thought the fight had ended, and he turned away towards the audience on the other side.

“Hey, Thompson. Whose side are you on?” he called jokingly with his usual smirk on his face. Moving swiftly, I caught his legs in between my shins, before rolling towards him. Taking him out at the knees, and sending him to the ground before popping back up to my feet. My gaze narrowed as I faced off with him once again. Ready, and definitely more focused this time.

“You still haven’t had enough yet, Abella? Really?” He asked his mouth forming a cocky grin only adding to his smug expression. Blocking that out, that I attacked, surprising him with a swiftness as I brought him to the ground. We both landed with a hard thud on the mat. I heard him grunt as he took the brunt of the impact on his back. He grunted as he attempted to maneuver me into a roll that would give him the upper hand. I was only half aware of the people around us, Emorey-Justin’s little sister, and James- our long time friend.

I was pulled back to the fight, as I felt his grip slacken around my wrists and I jumped at the chance. Jerking my wrists out of his grasp, I managed to get a punch to his face. Then I felt his hands slide down to my waist, and our positions were changing again. He had the upper hand now that I was pinned below him. I cried out in frustration at that fact as I tried to buck my body upwards to throw him off of me. He grinned down at me cockily.

“Give up yet?” He asked in a joking tone.

“No!” I shouted at him angry now.

“Aww… is someone being a poor sport about losing?” he mocked.

“I haven’t lost yet, sweetheart,” I informed him through gritted teeth. I managed to wriggle one of my legs out from under his and sufficiently knee him in the side. He groaned in pain, his response was to release my wrists as he rolled off of me. I chuckled, quickly sliding out my knife from its spring loaded sheath at my wrist, catching it swiftly and holding it threateningly to his throat.

“You’re dead.” I told him with a smile. The only way to ‘kill’ a vampire really is cutting their head off or stabbing them in the heart. It’s easiest to do it with a silver knife, considering that once silver breaks the skin of a vampire, they’re stuck healing as slow as a human would.

“Alright, alright” he replied his hands held up in a defenseless gesture. His breathing was erratic, like he’d had the wind knocked out of him, “You win, Abella.” His black hair was tousled from the rough fighting; however his emerald eyes were always alight with renewed life whenever I looked at him. His normally, fair yet sun-kissed face was tinged with dark pink blotches from the energy we exerted in the practice fight.

I smirked at that. “I know. I usually do.” I hastily replaced the knife and was quickly pulled to my own two feet by a grinning James.

“Oh ho, yeah right,” Justin replied as his sister helped him to his feet, Justin was about 5 ’9 and on the fitter side.

“I practically let you win.” he finished as he faced me. James congratulated me with a one armed hug; his tanned arm was slung over my shoulder, knocking me against his oversized body. His chocolate brown eyes sparkled playfully. His mousey brown hair was being thrown around by the fan in the top corner of the room. We were using his father’s karate studio.

Emorey smirked excitedly. “My turn,” she said, turning her round face up to her brother. Her own stormy gray-green eyes took on a gleam of exhilaration, and her pixie-cut chin-length black hair moved in the slight breeze as well.

“Nuh-uh. No way. I can’t do another round. Bell and I have been going at it for hours. I’m sorry Em, but no.” Em then looked to James with her puppy-dog eyes, “Please?” she asked him. It was amusing to watch as big, bad football player James caved the minute the puppy-dog eyes came out.

“My dad’s got a karate class in a half hour. We gotta be done by then,” Was all he said, then looking to Justin he grinned.

“So, you’ve been going at it for hours, huh? Wow, I didn’t know you could last that long, Anderson.” James chuckled, removing his arm as he stepped toward the middle of the room.

“Ha ha. Real funny,” Justin replied lamely as he and I stepped back toward the far wall, and watched as James and Emorey sparred.

James was a bit bigger than Justin’s 5′9” frame, so it would be a slight struggle for Emorey to win in this match. Emorey was a slim girl, but she was all legs. At mere inches shorter than her older brother, she always towered over the guys in her sophomore class. I can’t remember a time I wasn’t inwardly jealous of her height. At 17, I’m still stuck at 5′3”. My own body was trim and fit– what with the training we had to put ourselves through. Training to fight superhumans is never easy.

I sighed tiredly as my muscles relaxed and slid down the wall to rest on the floor. Justin was by my side a second later.

“How’re things with Brent?” Justin asked suddenly, catching me off guard.“Oh. Uh, good. He’s good. We’re still going through our parents’ things. There was so much we had to go through.”“Yeah, I can imagine. I remember your mom being a bit of a packrat,” Justin laughed out. “How’s your search coming along?” he added, the subject changing to one of serious undertones.I bit my lip at that question as I glanced to the pair fighting in the middle of the room.

“It’s not like they’re paying any attention to us, Bell,” Justin pointed out. I nodded and looked back to him taking in his long, angular features. He had a well-defined jaw that I knew would be slightly swollen tomorrow from the punches he took in our sparring. My eyes trailed over his slightly opened mouth. I’d always had a thing for Justin, ever since we were younger. His cupid’s bow was pretty defined against his wide-set mouth. His smile was always broad and captivating; I’d spent countless daydreams imagining what his mouth would feel like against my own. At his mouth suddenly setting in a smirk, I could tell he was noticing my lingering stare. I quickly pulled myself from my current daydream slipping my lower lip out from between my teeth and was quick to answer his question.

“It’s going... I mean, we’re not coming up with a whole lot. You know how vampires are. If they don’t want to be found it is hell trying to get to them– even if it is family.”

“You know after all this time, there’s a big chance he won’t be… him. You know?”

“I know.” I cut him off quickly. Brent had taken to that idea much faster than I had. Even if we did find Don, how would he react? It’s not as if we could cure him, or bring him home. Would we have to kill him?

He scoffed, pulling me out of my head and back into the present as he just nodded in agreement, backing off of the subject now. Although I noted his emerald eyes had subconsciously flickered in Emorey’s direction.

“I hope you and your brother find him, you know, before any other hunter does.” I let out a breath in a sigh as a memory suddenly flashed swiftly through my mind. Justin and I were finishing up our last hunt. We’d just killed the big, bad vampire– one that ran in the same social circle as him, my brother. It dawned on me then to make him promise that he wouldn’t kill him, if he found him.

“Don doesn’t want to be found. He’s hidden himself well enough to the point where we can’t even find him. I’m sure no other hunter is going to be able to either,” I replied, my voice taking on a slight tone of fierceness from the memory.

“Have you been able to hear anything on Wilmont?” I asked him, breaking the awkward pause in conversation.

“Not since last week.” Justin replied.

Wilmont is the most evil vampire out there or at least in my eyes considering he was the one who turned my brother. My brother had been a normal teenager; he was really still trying to navigate adulthood. At 18, his life had ended, and he became a vampire. Our parents were very wealthy, and with wealth came a lot of enemies– and Wilmont was far from an ally to my father. After a business deal had gone south with our dad, Wilmont turned my brother, and purposely left him for us to find.

He became our family’s dark secret. Not knowing what else to do, we kept him in the house- for months. Until one day, Adonis couldn’t take it anymore. He snapped. He wanted out– nearly killing our entire family in the process and that’s where Justin and his family come in. If it weren’t for them, we’d be dead. There’d be no more Hales on this earth; our family line would’ve ended with us.

Phillip Anderson is Justin’s father; he had seen Don running out of the house that night. He and Justin came over to find all of us near death. They’d stayed with us the whole night in the hospital. Thankfully, Don hadn’t known anything about vampirism then, otherwise he probably would have turned us all that fateful night.

Justin’s family and mine unfortunately weren’t close. My parents had always accused Phillip of being nosy, and instead of thanking the people who had saved us, blamed them for Adonis running away. Although, he and I had always kept up our bond though –going to school together for the last 12 grades would do that, I suppose.

“Hey, Bell,” Justin said as I felt the warmth of his hand on my arm, dragging me out from the past. “I said, how’re you getting home?” Justin eyed me curiously.

“My brother,” I answered coolly, playing it off as though the sparring before us had me interested.

“Brent? So, he’s coming to pick you up?” he asked.

I nodded, my eyes flicking toward the scuffle in the middle of the room. James had Emorey pinned on her back, and she was fighting him off tooth and nail.

“It’s kind of funny, how we were so evenly matched,” I told him, my mind drifting away from the darker thoughts of my family’s past.

“Ha! Yeah, right. I let you win. I totally could’ve ‘killed’ you if I really wanted to.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you say so, Anderson.” Justin laughed as he sent a light punch in my direction.

“You know, it’s a good thing we’ve been friends forever. Otherwise, I’d be pretty pissed about losing… to a girl, no less.” Justin said with an eye roll in my direction.

“Hey, you should be pissed. I mean, a girl did just kick your ass.” I laughed out loud.

“Yeah, yeah.. shut up.” he grumbled. I couldn’t hise my amusement as I heard Emorey and James’s fight come to an end.

“You suck,” James grumbled as Emorey danced out of his reach, giddy and light on her feet.

“No, I believe I just proved you do…” Her face now alight with pride at besting James. It would have been a feat for her if they had been evenly matched, but Emorey was like Justin. They’d been raised as hunters by their father. She had years of training over him.

“So, Thompson– only 20 minutes, huh?” Justin asked, laughing as he came up and slung an arm around James nonchalantly. “Eh, not real impressive.”

“Yeah, whatever dude. You and your sister have been trained to fight since you could walk. Not a very fair match-up.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself,” Emorey said with a wink in my direction as she waltzed out past James’s dad, Nick.

“Alright kids, I’m gonna be needing this space, so I’ve got to throw you out.” James and Justin gathered up their things and followed Em and me outside. I was pleasantly surprised to find my dad’s old black 69 Chevy Chevelle parked out front.

Brent waved from the car. His long, lean frame was leaning against the hood. I recognized the suit he wore– it was one of our father’s. Which, I suppose, was fitting given that someone had to take over the family firm after our parents’ deaths. They’d ended up dying in a rather suspicious car accident almost three years ago. Brenton, at that point, was the only logical choice to step up in place of our father. He’d made the tough choice of having to fire some employees recently due to a dispute over money missing from certain accounts. He never really spoke about work though– not with me anyway.

Brent suddenly hung up his phone, jabbing it sharply with an annoyed poke of his finger. He never got out much. If he wasn’t at work or out hunting, then he was home. His off-time was mostly spent living like a nocturnal creature. He had always been slightly crazed about hunting. I wondered how he ever balanced out sleeping. His hair had grown at the front over the summer, giving him the option of spiking it now. Its cool brown tones shone in the fall sunlight. His light blue eyes caught mine, and with a seriousness in them that told me something was up.

“Brent,” Justin nodded in his direction as a way of greeting. James and Emorey politely waved back as they headed for Justin’s car. Brent and Justin didn’t always see eye to eye. He’s never really been a fan of Justin’s- what with him and I always finding trouble. I guess I can’t fully blame him, but the two were cordial enough.

Getting into Brenton’s car, I had already figured out something was wrong. He maintained his silence until we were far enough away from the studio. “What’s the matter?” I finally asked him a few minutes after leaving.

“It’s nothing.” he replied shortly, not looking away from the road. I sighed, staring out my window as the rain began to fall, and watched the droplets slip down the glass on the outside. Brent had also been the sole inheritor of all our parents’ possessions, including our dad’s car —along with basically everything else.

It was now Brent’s prized possession. He was never allowed to drive it without Dad; at least, back when Dad was alive. It must’ve been weird for him to drive it when they first passed that night. We had family members come and go for the first few years, but it wasn’t the same as having our parents. The vast majority of them were in it thinking they could inherit the wealth. Our parents were smarter than that, though; their will stated that their children would inherit their share of the fortune once we turned 18. With me being the youngest and about to turn 18, I was eligible for my share —not that it mattered much. I didn’t have any big plans for college.

My brother and I were determined to find Adonis, and either help him or put him out of his misery. It hit Brent hard when our parents passed on. Me, being as young as I was, didn’t help any. Once he turned 18, he became my legal guardian. We’d only been without our parents for a year when he tried to fill that role. Dad’s side of the family pretty much ended with his death, and our mom’s closest relative lived down in New Jersey. So, if it weren’t for him, I’d have had to move and change schools. Although he tried his best, he was winging it the majority of the time, with him only being three years older than me. He wasn’t exactly well-equipped to handle the problems of my then 15-year-old self. Still, he did what he was capable of.

Suddenly, I heard Brent sigh, breaking me from my train of thought. I watched as he slowly shook his head, seeming rattled, which was out of character for him. Next, he uttered words that I could hardly believe. “I—I think I found him. Adonis, I mean. I think I know where he’s been hiding.” He glanced my way anxiously. What? was all I could think. I had to remind myself to breathe,—in and then out. It was a breathing trick I’d picked up from our mentor. “We haven’t seen or heard from him since the night he took off. We’ve been desperately searching for him for what? —two years now? How did you suddenly find him?” I asked, astounded.

“Why are you questioning this?” Brent asked sharply, his tone rather on the unpleasant side. “You should be grateful that we even found him… I’m not questioning it, and neither should you,” he finished curtly.

“Where did you get this information? From another vampire?” At the small stretch of silence between us, I knew that was exactly where he got it from. I sucked in a sharp breath before glaring his way. “Are you kidding me?” I sighed at him, exasperated. “You should know better than to trust anything they say, Brent. There’s no way a vampire would tell you the truth.”

“I know that Abella, thank you.” he replied with a glare in my direction, his tone clipped, “Which is why I went and checked out the address myself, and I saw him there.”

“Are you certain it was him?” I asked hesitantly, after a heavy silence permeated the car.

“Positive. He may be a vampire, but he’s still related to us. Even something as nasty as vampirism can’t change your DNA.” With that, we both fell silent. “We’ll go and storm the house tonight,” Brent said his tone clearly saying don’t argue with me.

“Just the two of us?” I pressed softly. He nodded in answer, wordless.

“I’m taking Justin with us,” I stated more than asked, as I turned and met his gaze briefly before he looked back at the road.

I stared at my brother, waiting for him to open his mouth in protest, but I cut him off quickly. “Look, Brent, I understand that you think we can do this ourselves, and that we shouldn’t involve other people in our family business, but right now we could use all the help we can get. On top of it, Justin’s really, really, good. You’ve seen him on hunts. He even saved you a couple of times,” I paused, then swiftly added, “Plus, we have no idea what we’re stepping into, and he’s got like a lifetime of training on us. We’re going to need him, and you know that as well as I do.” I finished turning my gaze back to the front window.

“I get it,” was all Brent said shortly in response. An awkward silence passed over us as we continued driving through the rain.

“So, um. Where’re we going?”

“Well, I mean we do have to go home,” he answered.

“Right, I’ll just give Justin a call when we’re home,” I replied, nodding.

“No,” Brent began. I opened my mouth to argue why it would be beneficial to bring Justin along when Brent cut me off. “We have to wait until nightfall, and I already shot Aden a call anyways.”

“But I’ve been practicing all afternoon. I won’t be able to handle Aden now,” I grumbled as Brent pulled into the drive and cut the engine.

“Too bad. You’ll have to fight through the pain,” he replied without empathy as he got out, closing the driver’s side door on my parting lips. I groaned, annoyed now.

Brent and I inherited our parents’ house when they passed away. Brenton had been seventeen, so the deed was placed under his name. We tried not to change too much of it –except for the rooms we claimed. I ended up moving into our parent’s old bedroom, seeking solace among their bed and belongings in the short time after their passing. It being the master bedroom is what made me stay there. My brother, of course, was quick to move into my old room.

Walking through the oversized front door and into the main hall, I glanced around, noticing something felt slightly off. The shoes on the floor were still in the usual disarray they were left in. The chandelier still gleamed the same way it had earlier. The photos along the the wall by the twisting stairwell hadn’t moved, but I could still sense something wasn’t right. I stepped in further, continuing to search for what felt off, but nothing came to me. I started toward the doorway directly across from the front entryway, which led into the kitchen –but I was tackled from behind.

The person managed to flip me onto my back, but I took over from there, throwing him over me, and onto his back behind me. With a swift backward summersault, I crouched over him, ready to throw a punch– until he caught my fist mid-air. That’s when I realized it was Aden.

“You are an awful trainer,” I said in a way of greeting him hopping up pointedly not offering him a hand. Brent stood at the kitchen island, watching us through the open doorway. “Oh,” he said his eyes flickering between Aden and me, “you’re here. That was fast.”

“And unexpected,” I added crossing my arms.

Aden grinned as he stood up the full six feet. He had left his shaggy dark hair down, so his bangs half-covered his brown eyes. His skin still tanned from his recent trip to visit his family in Hawaii two weeks ago. His size alone was intimidating, but that wasn’t the only thing. He was solidly built, a direct result of being a physical trainer by day and a vampire hunter by night.

“Jerk. Way to scare me half to death,” I accused darkly.

“Hey, you’re supposed to always be on alert. Suppose I had a vampire.” He may have tried to sound serious, his eyes sparkled with playfulness belaying his words. His strong features were as always lit up with a mischievous grin.

“No offense, but if you were a vampire, I highly doubt you’d be taking the time to lecture me on being more alert,’” I shot back. He only laughed in response.

Brent cut in then. “Maybe we should start training now, huh? I haven’t had the time today, given how busy the company was. Let me get into some workout clothes, though.” he added tugging at his tie with a grimace.

I just nodded and followed Aden down the stairs from the kitchen to our recently renovated training room in the basement. Back when our parents were been alive, the basement had been as cluttered as ever– we had known nothing about vampires in those days. But once they died everything changed. Brent quickly became obsessed with fighting them and saving whatever people he could. Probably his way of dealing with the loss we were both going through, he met Aden while going to the gym. After a few sessions, Brent had told him the real reason he was there –thus creating their bromance that lasted to this day.