Eternal (chapter 1)

“If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
(The Merchant of Venice)
(Act 3, Scene 1)

Chapter I

I opened my eyes coming out of my slumber. I stare up at the ceiling, another day of eternity.
I rolled over, kissed Damen lightly on the cheek, and jumped out of bed landing gently on my toes. I stretched quickly and flexed my muscles stiff from not using them in hours.
I walked to my closet, striping out of my nightclothes, and grabbing a pair of black skinny jeans and t-shirt. I grabbed my black belt and slide my feet into a pair of red Converse. I ran a brush through my hair and winced at the few tangles there were.
A quick glance at the clock, 6:30 am, perfect.
I cracked open the door an inch and peered through. It was cooler in the hall, when I opened the door the draft chilled my skin and gave me a rush of goose bumps. I listened hard, in the distance I heard the strong pounding beat of someone in his or her car on the highway playing music. The highway was at least 3 miles away at the end of our ever so long driveway. I ignored it and concentrated on closer things such as what was behind three doors I was now staring at. Six different people’s heartbeats and quiet breaths filled my ears and ensured that it was safe.
I pushed the door carefully biting my lip preying for no sound to come from the rusty hinges on the old door.
None did.
I ran out of my room quickly, slid down the spiral staircase, and jumped across the hall to the sliding glass door without making even the tiniest sound.
It opened slowly and carefully and I closed it behind me with a sigh. Not a peep made. I hopped up on the patio railing happily and tensed to jump the two floors to the ground.
“Where do you think you’re going?” A voice startled me. I froze mid jump and stumbled to stay up. I regained my balance and turned carefully on my heels. Nevar was sitting in one of the patio chairs hidden in the corner. “Oh, um… I was just going for a quick run,” I said.
“When will you be back?” she smiled.
“By 7:00 I promise,” I answered with a reassuring smile.
“You better, you have school today, no more skipping.”
I nodded, spun back around and dove into the air. The ground seemed to move toward me so slowly that it was nothing to place my feet exactly right so that landing was no different from stepping one foot forward on a flat surface.
I absorbed the impact in the balls of my feet. The sound of my landing was very low- a muted thud that could have been a door softly closed, or a book gently laid on a table.
Above me, I heard Nevar complain, “I wish you would take the stairs like everyone else.”
“Not a chance,” I murmured to myself.
“I can hear you,” She said as I took off running toward the tree line that bordered the end of the yard.
I ran and dodged through the trees and greenery to Lake Lestat, which sat in the middle of the forest on our 20 acres of land. I slowed to a stop at the waters edge.
The water was clear and the sun shined down on it, creating a sparkle that you could only find in a fairy tale.
I looked around checking for any company even though I knew there was no one. I undressed quickly and dove down into the water. I swam all the way to the bottom and felt along the hard rock floor. Finally, I found what I was looking for, a hole just wide enough for me to squeeze through. On the other side was a cave. Air was trapped inside the cave and rocks jutted out of the walls. It was my sanctuary, my safe haven and I only knew of its existence.
I laid down on the smooth nature made rock bench and pressed my naked back against it.
After about an hour in the cave, I decided it was time to leave. I sighed deeply and swam out of the cave. I retrieved my clothes from the branch where I had hung them quickly and slipped into them. I dried my long, raven black hair the best I could and tried to put it back in place.
I glanced at my phone, 6:50.
The sun had just peaked over the horizon on the early October morning creating an orange, red and yellow mess.
I ran back to the house and jumped back up on the patio.
Nevar had left the patio and I could here her talking down stairs.
I slid in through the glass door and walked the length of the hall.
At the end, Mourning’s door was open so I paid him a visit.
“Good morning, Mourning,” I said cheerfully.
“Hey Rayne,” he said smiling his usual crooked smile.
He was on his bed tying his shoes. He had his shinny dark brown hair parted on the side. His bangs ran over his right eye. He was wearing a pair of ripped up jeans and a black t-shirt.
         “Do you think that saying will ever get old?” I asked.
“Hmm, maybe in a century or two,” He answered smiling. As he stood up his muscles rolled in his arms.
“Yeah.” I stood, “Bye brother.”
“See you later.”
I walked out of his room and ran down the steps to the first floor. Stefan was playing the black grand piano to my left and I heard the TV chatter away.
I turned to my right and walked into the kitchen. As I passed the dinning room, I saw Selene, Jack, Grey, and Echo talking and sipping on their red breakfast, complementary of Dr. Steven Jones. He was Grey’s old friend whom he met in his 57th year in graduate school. Dr. Jones knows about us and only wants to help. He has studied us and documented it all in a vault kept hidden in his office.
Damen and Dusk were sitting at the bar and Nevar stood in the middle of the kitchen as she talked to them.
“You’re back,” She said and turned to me.
“Yeah,” I grabbed a glass. “Do we have any type +A?”
“I’m pretty sure,” she said as she walked past me to the living room.
The blood closet is where we store all of our supplies that we do not want our human guests to see, when they’re over. I pulled open the door and found the bottle. I cracked it open and poured most of its contents into my cup.
There is one rule to follow in the vampire world, discreetness. However, in our coven, we follow one other rule only three glasses of blood a day; it helps to preserve our supplies and keep everyone in line.
There are 16 of us all together. Some of us have been together longer than the others, so there were different groups that clung together most of the time.
At the head of the coven was Grey, the oldest and most skilled of us all, and Nevar, Dusk’s and my mother. Then there was me, the fastest and strongest female, and Damen, my mate, the fastest male. Dusk, my sister, and Stefan, her mate, tended to hang out with Damen and I. Kaiden and Adrian, were the best hunters, tended to hang out with Mourning, my brother, along with Vladimir, who was Adrian’s cousin, and Echo, the youngest of all of us. There’s also Solomon, the smartest, and Autumn, his mate, who were usually seen with Jack, the strongest, and Selene, his mate.
Each one of us was different from the other. We all had mates except for Vladimir, Mourning and Echo. We might hang out in different groups but we were all one big family at heart.
With my breakfast in hand I sat next to Damen on one of the bar stools.
A blur flue past us into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of +O, and sat next to Dusk at the bar. Once it was still I realized it was Mourning.
Seconds later Kaiden jumped the stairs and dashed into the kitchen.
Adrian appeared right behind her and placed his right hand on the small of her back.
Kaiden wore her favorite black top and jeans.  Her long white hair was down and curled to perfection.
Adrian wore a black t-shirt and jeans. His icy blue eyes peaked out from his shaggy jet-black hair.
“Good morning Kaiden,” I said as her purple tinted eyes flickered to my bright silver ones.
“Good morning Rayne,” She said walking to the blood pantry, she grabbed two glasses and a bottle of –B. She pops open the microwave door and starts warming her breakfast. “How can you drink that cold?”
I shrugged and took another sip out of my cup.
The microwave sounded and Kaiden pulled it out. She then poured it generously in her and Adrian’s glasses. “I personally like mine at 98.3°F.”
“You will never change will you Kaiden,” I said laughing.
When I was finished, I grabbed Damen’s hand and we ran down the steps to the garage. With my bag and coat, we got into Damen’s black 1969 Dodge Charger. I had bought it for him for his 246 birthday.
He revved the engine and it purred softly like a cat.
As we rolled down the long three mile driveway, that lead us out of the thick woods that our house was perched in the middle of, deer and squirrels flit from our presence. We crossed the Anne River at the end of the driveway, turned left, and went into town. We were stuck behind an Elementary school bus and we quickly passed it. A million tiny hands and faces plastered themselves to the windows.
This was a daily occurrence, you would think after years of this they’d become accustomed to the parade of expensive cars before and after school.
We turned the corner and pulled into the student parking section of Georgetown High School.
Beside us were four other cars. The black and yellow 2010 Chevrolet Camaro beside us cut its engine and out stepped Dusk, Stefan, and Mourning. A red Hummer pulled up beside them and Selene, Vladimir, and Jack got out. A silver 2010 Dodge Viper contained Autumn, Solomon, and Echo. At the far end of the line of cars was a blue Dodge Ram 1500 with Kaiden and Adrian.
We walked inside the building to our lockers.
When the bell rang, I kissed Damen goodbye and headed to first period, Ms. Roman’s Town History class. Thankfully, I had that class with Kaiden.
Ms. Roman rambled endlessly about the founding fathers, some of which I met in person years ago.
When she turned around to write something on the board Kaiden flicked a note at me.
I opened it,

I think we should skip next period.

I wrote back,

Sure sounds great.

I flicked it back to her and she gave me a thumbs up.
The bell rang and we walked to the nearest exit. I look both ways and checked for teachers, we dashed out the door and down the road.
“God, it’s so good to get out of that place,” I said laughing.
“I know, um where do you want to go?” She asked.
“How about City Park?”
“Sounds good to me,” she said and we dashed across the road and down the street.
Not many people were there. Two people were having a picnic and some people walked their dogs. Other kids from our school hung out inconspicuously under various trees. This was the place to go when you skipped.
We sat on the swings and started talking.
A man nearby was selling newspapers, so I bought one.
The headline caught my eye,

Two People found dead

I nudged Kaiden, “Listen to this,” I said, she leaned closer.
I read,

“Last night two missing people were found dead next to Shayde River.  30 year old, Brenda Hynes, and 41 year old, George Hynes, were reported missing Thursday October 19 by a neighbor and close friend. The two bodies were found on Bourbon street right next to the Shayde River. Doctors reported that an animal, such as a mountain lion or bear, had attacked these people, due to the bite marks, located on the arms and neck. There death was caused by blood loss from the wounds. Authorities are advising people to not go out at night and travel in groups larger than 3. They also are advising the purchase of some pepper spray.”

“Do you know what animal that sounds like?” I asked her.
“Sounds like a newborn you know what,” She said whispering.
“Exactly,” I nodded.
“Should we tell Grey?”
“Later today, not now, if Nevar finds out you and I skipped class, I will be grounded for eternity, literally.”
“Yeah, your mom is really cracking down on you,” She said.
“I would blame it on pms but seeing as that’s no longer accurate I would say she’s just getting old. Tired of it all she’ll be fine in a century or so, the flame will ignite.”
“Yeah, how old is she now?”
“272.”
“Wow, almost an ancient.”
“She isn’t 300 yet.”
“We should get back to school, class is almost over,” she said dashing off across the street.
I followed close behind her, then beside her, then in front. Before she knew it I had beaten her to the school.
“How can you be that fast,” she said out of breath.
“I don’t know how you can write so well,” I said looking at her.
She written 211 bestselling books that she had published under different names throughout time.
“I don’t know,” She said, “It just comes easy to me.”
“Well that’s how I can run so fast. It just comes easy to me.”
“Whatever,” She said and walked inside.
The third period bell rang and people flooded the halls. I ran through the hallway and scanned it searching for Damen. I spotted his silver eyes and locked onto them. He met my eyes and I motioned for him to follow me. I had to tell him the news.
I dashed outside again and he followed silently, Kaiden had already gone to class.
“Hey,” he said. He pulled my chin up and gently kissed me,” What’s
wrong.” He said noting my worried expression. His searched my face for an answer.
“Read this,” I said and pulled the newspaper out from my messenger bag.
He scanned it and looked at me, “That doesn’t sound good.”
“That’s what I said, we need to find it.”
“Yeah have you told Grey yet?” he said.
“No, I will later when he gets home from work.”
“It sounds like it was turned and it’s maker isn’t supervising it.”
“If we don’t take care of it the Royals are going to, I want them down here as much as anyone. We could take it in, train it, teach it the vampire ways and it could join our coven.”
“Rayne, I don’t think he… or she will be able to stay. We don’t have enough room or supplies.” He said gently.
I shook my head. “Our supplies are just fine and we have a guest room. It’s almost time to move any way.” My voice raised an octave.
“Listen to me, and don’t be mad. It’s not up to you or me it’s up to Grey,” he said, his silver eyes stared straight into mine, as if looking deep down into my soul.
“I’ll tell the others, if you see someone before me then go ahead,” I said breaking out of his trance.
“Ok,” He agreed. I gave him a peck on the cheek and then I dashed off to the art room.
I slipped in the door and headed to my seat beside Kaiden. I knew I was late.
Ms. Goodman glanced my way, “Ms. Vigée Lebrun glad you could finally bless us with your presence, Ms. Winter here was just explaining that you were helping Beckie Louis.”
“Yes ma’am, Beckie had gotten sick in the restroom and I was helping her to the nurse.” The lie came out smooth even though it was unrehearsed and unplanned.
“That was very kind of you,” She said and turned to the board.
Thankfully she fell for it. I smiled a small unnoticeable smile and pretended to listen to the discussion.
“I talked to Damen, I’m going to tell the others,” I said under my breath to Kaiden.
When class ended, I hurried to the lunchroom. I found Echo sitting with her mortal friends at the “Cool” table. Echo was the only one in the house who looked young enough to pretend to be a freshman, so unfortunately she had to pretend to be friends with mortals or suffer lunch alone. All of her friends think they’re in our little “gang”.
The 21st generation and their stereotypes. There are the Jocks, Preps, us (they really didn’t have a classification for us vamps. We were just the really hot, perfect teenagers . Everyone thinks we are all in some kind of secret gang.), Emo people, and Nerds.
I hurried over to her and whispered the news quickly into her ear. I didn’t want the humans to hear this. She nodded.
I sat near the back inconspicuously and waited.
When the bell rang again and students filed out of the cafeteria, 10th grade students took their places.
Mourning, Selene, and Vladimir walked up to me with questioning looks.
I showed them the news paper and they all thought the same.
The bell rang yet again and it was finally 11th grade lunch, a class I was supposed to be in.
Kaiden ran up to me with Autumn and Jack. We took a table away from other people before we started the private discussion.
“Did you tell the others,” Kaiden asked.
“Yeah, they have no idea who it could be either,” I said deep in my thoughts. I chewed my lower lip slowly.
“I told Autumn and Jack,” she said and they nodded in agreement.
“Autumn, do you know of any neighboring vampires in the area that might do something like this,” I asked her.
“No, not that I can recall. It must have been a nomad that did it.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out a red canteen filled with blood. Kaiden, Autumn, and Jack did the same.
“Do you guys think there is any chance Grey would let the newborn stay with us if we trained it,” I asked looking around.
“Not a chance, we are already feeding 15,” Autumn said and took a sip from her pink canteen.
Kaiden laughed, sat her black canteen down, and said, “Seriously, only you would know that Rayne, he is your dad remember, what do you think?”
“I’m not sure, we are oddly numbered. That means someone doesn’t have a mate. That will be either Mourning or Vladimir. One of them is going to be with Echo…,” I faded out. Jack had distracted me.
He had his green canteen in hand, and took sips occasionally, while he tensed his biceps and looked at them fondly.
He noticed us watching and looked up. “What?” He asked stupidly.
“Ok then…” I said returning to my conversation.
After lunch, the day passed quickly.
French with Kaiden, Math, and finally English with Autumn and Kaiden.
We walked out of the school into the brilliant sunlight. The sun warmed my cold face and I sighed at the feeling.
I glanced quickly at the ring resting on my third finger of my left hand.  The sapphire stone was set in a petite silver base, while a thin strand of jet black obsidian weaved itself around the band. Everyone in the Cainon coven wore these rings to protect him or herself from sunlight. You take the ring off in the sun and it doesn’t feel too pleasant. It has an inscription on the inside “il dio del sole be è andato” it is an ancient language that roughly translates to ‘God of the sun be gone’.
Damen appeared beside me and wrapped his arm around my waist.
He opened the car door and smiled.“My lady.”
“Thank you kind sir.” I returned the smile and a memory came to me. Many centuries ago the same exact event had taken place in Europe.
I was awaken from my day dream when Mourning appeared out of nowhere and climbed into the back seat.
“What do you think you are doing?” I asked him quite rudely. Excuse me for being mad when I got woken up out of a very pleasant day dream.
“I’m riding home with you and Damen,” he said flashing me a grin.
“Why can’t you ride with Dusk and Stefan?”
“Because I want to ride with my big sister, and besides Dusk has volleyball practice till 4:00.”
“Ugh,” I grunted and plopped down in the front seat. I grabbed Damen’s hand once he climbed inside.
I glanced back at Mourning; he was staring out the window with his mouth hanging open. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
“Better close your mouth Mourning or your fangs might fall out,” I said laughing.
Damen gave a faint smile then returned to his grim emotionless face.
“What’s wrong,” I asked gently squeezing his hand.
He looked at me and sighed, “I just don’t want you to get hurt when, if Grey says the newborn can’t stay.”
“Damen du Coudray, you know better than that, I will be perfectly fine if he says no.”
“Right and by perfectly fine you mean, you will throw a fit, not get your way, and go against his orders until you find a better solution.”
“Yeah, pretty much,” I said smiling at him. I extended my fangs out making sure they showed.
“Wow, that’s cute,” he said as his teeth slipped out to. He leaned over and kissed me lightly. This is why I loved him so much I could be myself around him and have not a care in the world.
Mourning passed out on the back seat behind us did nothing, he was out cold. He could sleep through an atomic war, I’m pretty sure sleeping was his skill.
“Ah, should we wake him up,” he asked looking over his shoulder at Mourning now drooling on the car’s seat. “I really don’t want him to ruin my seats. Venomous drool isn’t very forgiving.”
“Yeah, the question is how,” I said grinning.
“He sleeps like a rock,” he said. “If we were careful we could probably move him.”
“I’ve got an idea, pull over. Do you still have those chains in your trunk, from when we had to pull Jack’s truck out of the ditch?” I asked.
“Yeah I never took them out.”
“Pick him up but make sure he stays asleep.”
I popped the trunk and grabbed the chains and the padlock attacked to it. I looked around, woods were on both sides and no cars were in sight. Damen had Mourning thrown over his shoulder in firefighters’ carry.
“Ready,” he asked.
“Yeah, follow me,” I replied and I took off running deep into the woods.
About a mile in we stopped. I walked to the thickest tree I could find, “Hold him against it.”
I wrapped the chains around his chest and arms twice. Then with the remainder of the chain, I tied and locked him to the tree.
“Perfect,” I said wiping the dirt from my hands. I admired my work Mourning was still asleep after all of that.
“Let’s go before he wakes up,” Damen said and laughed.
“Ha, like that will ever happen,” I said. “Race you to the car.”
“Definitely.”
I beat him, being the fastest really pays off sometimes.
We got back into Damen’s car and drove off down the long windy road, leaving Mourning to sleep. We crossed back over the bridge at the Anne River and started down our driveway.
We finally pulled into the garage; Kaiden and Adrian were home along with Solomon, Autumn, Jack, Selene, Vladimir, and Echo. Dusk was still at volleyball practice with Stefan.
We went up stairs into the living room. Selene was searching the web for recent disappearances, while Autumn and Solomon watched the news intently. Echo was flitting from room to room dusting and sweeping (clean freak). I heard weights clicking; Jack must be working out again.
“Where’s Mourning?” Autumn asked.
I glanced at Damen; he was grinning, and said with a smug smile, "He’s just out enjoying the outdoors.”
“He was tired, really stressed out,” Damen said and we ran up the stairs laughing.
We passed Jack and headed up to the third floor. Vladimir had his stereo at full blast playing, Blood Brothers by Papa Roach.
I dropped my bag in my room and headed out to the sunroom, it was my favorite room, it had glass walls and a glass ceiling.
Tap, tap, tap I heard from above. I looked up and saw Kaiden standing on the roof. She was smiling from ear to ear and waving for me to come up.
I grinned, dashed out of the sunroom and climbed out of my bedroom window scaling up the side of the house to the roof.
“Hey,” I said once I reached the top.
“What’s up,” she said walking over to the warn down couch.
This was our hang out and it was awesome. We had successfully put two couches, three lay-z-boy recliners, a table with four chairs, a blanket, and a trampoline up here and we had built a spiral staircase leading up here but I
liked to use the window.
I looked around; Adrian was doing flips on the trampoline. I walked over to the ledge and looked down our driveway. Grey and Nevar in Grey’s black Bugatti Veyron were rolling down the driveway.
“They’re here,” I gasped jumping off the ledge three stories to the ground.
Kaiden followed silently beside me as we headed back inside to the living room.
“They’re home,” I yelled to Echo, Solomon, Selene, and Autumn.
I flitted up the stairs, grabbed Damen’s hand, and told the others. Once we were all downstairs, we waited patently for them to come up the stairs.
“Grey we need to talk,” I said as he put his coat on the hanger.
“What’s the matter,” He said his liquid gold eyes flickering from one person to the next seeing nothing but worried faces.
His eyes finally came to a rest on mine. “There’s a newborn in town,” I said.


~Well I hope you enjoyed it the next chapters will be published (fingers crossed)~
^^Song inspiration- All around me by Flyleaf^^