Bound By Blood Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

 

Darius ran a shaky hand through his hair, leaning back into his chair, trying to conjure up the will power to get up. A knock at his door made him growl with frustration as he barked at the unwanted visitor to come in. A young man walked in, carrying a vial of purple liquid.

“Here’s your potion, Master, for your next transformation,” the man said, placing the vial into Darius’ outstretched hand.

“Thank you, you may go,” Darius mumbled, waving the man off. He stood up, grabbed the vial and walked towards the window, staring out across the landscape.

“Oh, the wicked ways of my world,” he whispered, his breath fogging up the window.

“So, you’re back to recruiting little kids again, huh?” Lara’s voice broke Darius away from his world and he spun around, slipping the vial into his pocket.

“Who? Oh, the new one? What’s her name?” Darius said quickly, flicking his wrist as he spoke.

“What’s her name happens to be Caitlin. Where did you get her?” Lara asked, playing with a strand of her hair, leaning back in Darius’ chair. Darius stared at her, idly watching her with longing eyes.

“Found her at a bus stop, all by herself. You’d think parents would be more responsible,” Darius muttered. Lara snapped her head up to look at Darius through squinted eyes.

“Don’t you dare talk about parents that way, it is men like you that give parents a bad rep, breaking into homes, kidnapping innocent children, and murdering innocent civilians. How do you sleep at night?” Lara asked, staring a hole through Darius.

“Quite simple, really, I take two really large sleeping pills,” Darius answered smugly. Lara stood up from her seat and walked around the desk, her finger sliding along the cool wood.

“Well, I’m going to leave you now. I’m going to hang out with what’s her name,” she strolled towards the door, conscious of eyes watching her.

“Stop staring at my butt,” Lara growled over her shoulder. Darius whipped his head back towards the window, cursing when he actually hit it. Lara smiled and slipped out of the door, draping an arm over Caitlin’s shoulder.

“You’re so bad,” Caitlin giggled, clinging onto Lara’s side. Lara smiled down at the girl and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“I know, I learned from the best,” Lara smiled, casting a glance at Darius’ door. Caitlin snickered, leaning her head onto Lara’s shoulder. Lara looked down at the top of Caitlin’s head and smiled.

“You know, you remind me a lot of my younger sister,” Lara said quietly, averting her eyes to look straight ahead.

“You have a younger sister?” Caitlin asked, staring up at Lara.

“Yep, she’s about your age, maybe a little older,”

“What’s her name?” Caitlin asked quietly.

“Lauren. I haven’t seen her in what seems like forever,” Lara mumbled, lightly squeezing Caitlin’s shoulder. Caitlin fell silent and just walked beside Lara, wondering why Lara hadn’t seen her sister in forever. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and continued to walk with Lara down the hallways.

“Come on, I want to show you something,” Lara’s voice broke Caitlin’s mental musings. They walked down three flights of stairs and walked out huge oak doors and into the sunshine.

“Where are we going?” Caitlin inquired, looking around at her surroundings.

“Just wait,” Lara answered, laughter bubbling in her voice. Lara parted the leaves of two odd looking bushes and revealed a small door. Caitlin gaped at the door and then at Lara.

“Well go on, open it,” Lara laughed, motioning Caitlin to the door. Caitlin slowly opened, cringing when it squawked open. Lara laughed again and followed Caitlin inside the door way. She lightly smacked Caitlin on the butt when she ran into her and snorted quite loudly. Caitlin growled and continued forward, groping blindly in the dark along the walls. Lara extended her hand and made a fist. Light penetrated Caitlin’s squinted eyes and tears started to form.

“How’d you do that?” Caitlin asked wiping away the tears and pointing towards Lara’s outstretched arm.

“When you become a vampire, you obtain a power. In my sister’s case and some other guy’s, the received two, this makes them Fusions. One power is for their vampire body and the other is for their dragon body,” Lara stated while moving around Caitlin to take a seat at the many seats around the small underground cavern.

“Their dragon body? Can they turn into a dragon too?” Caitlin asked while taking Lara’s lead and sitting down across from her. Rows and rows of shelves lined the wall, covered in trinkets and dried roses. Caitlin looked around, noticing some sort of fang on a silver chain dangling from a nail in the wall.

“Yeah, whenever they wish too. I’ve never seen it done but I heard it was a fearsome thing to behold,” Lara said, fingering a rose hanging beside her head.

“So where are we?”

“My home away from home. I found it when I was probably about seven and I’ve been coming here ever since. Like whenever I find something, I bring it here and add onto my collection,” Lara said, motioning towards the shelves. Caitlin looked around with amazed eyes, taking in every crook and every crack.

“This reminds me of the Little Mermaid,” Caitlin giggled, tinkering with a black rock.

“Yeah, but not so wet,” Lara laughed at her own joke and Caitlin caught on quickly, snorting into her hand.

 

“Damien, stop, please,” Lauren begged breathlessly, trying to shove Damien away from her. He had her pinned to the floor of Lauren’s living room as his fingers poked and tickled her sides.

“Make me, Fusion,” Damien whispered, his breath tickling Lauren’s ear. A pillow unseated Damien and he toppled three feet way from Lauren. She looked over at the hallway and saw Roxanne leaning against the doorframe, smirking while her other hand held another pillow.

“Nice shot, my love!” Lauren said while getting up. Arms circled her waist and she was brought back down to the floor with Damien on her back, pinning her down. She rolled underneath him and hooked her leg behind his knees and brought herself up, forcing him down, until she was on top. She grinned malevolently at Damien, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Good try, but you’re going to have to try harder than that, Fusion,” She mocked his words and rolled off of him. She stood back up and Damien jumped to his feet and ran in front of her before she could take a step.

“We’re not finished, Fusion,” Damien growled as he picked Lauren up and hoisted her over his shoulder. Roxanne chunked another pillow at Damien but hit Lauren in the head instead.

“Ow! You got a wicked arm! This is not fair; you’re using your power!” Lauren cried as she hit the floor rolling, having slithered out of Damien’s grip. He whipped around to see her disappearing while waving at him. He lunged at her and fell onto his stomach. Invisible hands ran up his back and stopped at the base of his neck, lightly squeezing. Damien flipped onto his stomach and snatched at the air, catching nothing. He growled in frustration and jumped to his feet. An arm snaked around his waist and one slid over his mouth. The hand around his mouth started to pull him backwards and he fell to the ground again, a weight settling on his stomach.

“Run, run as fast as you can, you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man,” Lauren giggled and she jumped off of Damien’s stomach and ran behind Roxanne.

“Knock it off you two,” Roxanne growled as she groped behind her and grabbed Lauren’s wrist and flipped her over. Lauren came into view again and started to rub her lower back.

“Jesus Christ, you could nice about it,” Lauren whined. Damien snapped his head towards Lauren and tackled her. Lauren yelped and tried to push him off of her as he started a new wave of tickling torture. Lauren brought her knee up into his stomach and squirmed out from underneath him and bolted up the stairs, squealing when she heard his thundering steps close behind her. Roxanne sighed and plopped down into a couch.

“Teenagers,” Roxanne sighed as she started to read a magazine. Lauren’s screams could be heard as she bolted down the stairs and cleared the back of the couch, landing beside Roxanne.

“Hi!” Lauren cried breathlessly. Roxanne looked at her and smiled.

“Hi there, having fun?” Roxanne asked with a sarcastic happy tone. Lauren missed the sarcasm and smiled at Roxanne.

“This is a workout, oops got to go, bye!” Lauren gave a small wave before dissolving into thin air and crawling into Roxanne’s lap, snickering.

“Thought you were leaving?” Roxanne questioned, groaning under the unexpected weight. Lauren elbowed her in the ribs and Roxanne grew quite. Damien jumped over the couch and almost ran into the coffee table.

“Have you seen-?” Damien started but was cut off by Roxanne.

“Nope, haven’t seen her,” Roxanne said in a bored voice, reading through Lauren’s body, trying to turn the page. She could feel Lauren shake with silent giggles and Roxanne hit something on her and Lauren grew still. There was a knock at the door and Roxanne stood up, sending Lauren toppling to the floor. Lauren cried out with surprise and Damien ran towards the scream and clumsily pinned her down.

“Ok, I won, I’m tired now,”

“No! It was a tie!” Lauren rebuked, kneeing Damien in the thigh.

“Fine! It was a tie, stop hitting me!” Damien whined, helping a now visible Lauren up to her feet.

“Aw, but I like hitting on you,” Lauren said, winking at him as she plopped onto the couch. Roxanne came back into the room and settled herself down on the couch too.

“Hey Roxula, how was your date with Roarke?” Lauren asked.

“It was good, we went out to dinner and then to a movie,” she answered.

“Ooh, a dark movie theatre and two teenagers, we can only imagine how that went,” Damien piped in, smiling at Roxanne.

“By the way, there is a package for a Miss Lauren Goodrich, wonder who that filthy skank is?” Roxanne asked, glaring, throwing the package at Lauren’s head. Lauren stuck her tongue out at Roxanne and started to open the package. A vial of a blue thick liquid fell into her lap and note glided after it. Roxanne picked up the note and started to read.

“Use this against your enemies? I’d hate to piss you off,” Roxanne said while handing the letter to Lauren. She read over the letter and stopped short when she noticed the insignia at the foot of the letter. She folded the letter up and stuck it in the back pocket of her jeans.

“Who’s it from?” Roxanne asked, sitting next to Lauren, stretching her legs out on Lauren's lap. Lauren picked up the vial and rested her arms on Roxanne’s legs.

“I don’t know,” Lauren lied, fingering the vial. Damien looked at Lauren with a worried look.

“Was there any sort of symbol at the end?” Damien asked, clearly seeing through Lauren's wall.

“Nope, nothing,” Lauren said, looking at the envelope in her hands.

“Can I see the letter?” Damien asked, reaching for Lauren.

“No, it’s not addressed to you,” Lauren snapped, slapping at Damien’s hand.

“Chill out ice princess, he was only asking,” Roxanne said, smacking Lauren in the shoulder. Lauren reached a hand out towards Damien’s leg and splayed her fingers on his thigh.

“Sorry, still a bit worked up, I suppose,” Lauren said softly, looking Damien in the eye.

“Yeah, losing to the Fusion will do that to you,” Damien said, winking at Lauren. Lauren elbowed him in the ribs, smiling despite herself. Roxanne picked up a piece of paper and crumbled it into a ball, tossing it in her hand. She threw it into the heart of the fire burning before them. Lauren watched the paper whither away before her and she reached back into her pocket and crumpled the letter in her hand and chunked into the flames. Embers swallowed the paper, burping up smoke and ashes.

“Well that was smart. Are you sure there wasn’t anything on there?” Damien muttered, staring at Lauren. She gave him a stern look, crossing her arms over chest.

“Do honestly think I’m so stupid that I would throw away that letter if there was anything on there? Especially if they sent me something like this death potion, or whatever it is,” Lauren growled, staring at Damien. Roxanne stared at the two before getting off the couch.

“Well, I’m hungry, who wants to go eat?” Roxanne asked, patting her stomach while grabbing her cloak of the hat rack. Lauren proceeded to follow Roxanne’s lead and stood up and retrieved her own cloak. She turned to Damien who was still seated on the couch.

“Are you coming love?”

“If it will make you happy,” Damien groaned as he hoisted himself up off the couch.

“You always do,” Lauren said, smiling at him as he slipped into his cloak.