Friday morning, I was awoken by rocks getting thrown at my bedroom
window.
Groaning, I looked over at my alarm clock and saw that I didn’t have
to be up for another two hours. Whoever it was must have had a death
wish from waking me up so early and I was happy to oblige if it came
down to that matter. I stayed still for five minutes, hoping that they
would leave, but they didn’t. The noise only got worse and I worried
that it would end up waking up mum and she would automatically freak
out, thinking that someone was trying to break in by smashing our win-
dows, leaving me with no choice but to leave my bed.
I walked over to my window and pulled my curtain back in anger and
frustration, seeing Nathaniel standing there with James, looking intimi-
dated and so they should have been. They both should have known that
I hated being woken up when it wasn’t time for my body to be awake
and they were both going to know about this.
“What are you both doing here so early for? You both do realise that
most people would still be asleep at this hour, right? Don’t you remem-
ber that I hate being woken up this early or did you do this on pur-
pose?” I asked when I opened my window, rubbing my eyes to try and
get some of the sleep out and trying not to snap at them.
“I just wanted to ask if you wanted to sleep over tonight,” Nathaniel
said, smiling.
“And you couldn’t have asked me at school because?” I asked, not
feeling happy.
“Because I am not going to be there today and won’t be back in For-
rest until this evening.”
“Where are you going?”
“Melbourne again; Bethany wants to take me there to look at furni-
ture for houses and to have a look at a few places.”
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“Then don’t you think I should be coming as well?” I asked.
“Yeah Nathaniel; don’t you think your own girlfriend should see
where you could be living?” James asked, hinting at something.
“I said that you could only come here if you didn’t say anything,” Na-
thaniel hissed, looking over towards James.
“Boys, I would love to stand here and watch the sunrise again for the
second time in my life, but I do have school this morning and would love
a few more hours sleep so I will be alert and with it for the day.”
“So will you stay overnight?”
“I will ask mum and will let Amylia know at school. Will she be there
or is she going to Melbourne with you and Beth?” I asked.
“She will be there today. She wants to spend some time with her
best friend.”
“Best friend?” I asked.
“You Brianna; you are her best friend,” Nathaniel replied, giving me a
half smile.
“Let’s go Nathaniel. I can hear Bethany getting restless and Augusta’s
thoughts from around the corner for the school day,” James said and
took a few steps back.
Nathaniel nodded and walked away with him. I shut the window and
made my way back to bed, knowing in my mind that I wouldn’t get any
more sleep. Sitting on my bed, I glared over to my window, cursing the
fact Nathaniel and his brother had decided to wake me up. I stayed
there for half an hour before I decided to make my way down into the
living room. Before I got out my bedroom door, I noticed that the flow-
ers I got before Nathaniel and I became a couple hadn’t died.
I walked over to them and grabbed one out of the water and felt the
petals. They felt real, but still alive. I made a mental note to ask Amylia
about them at school. Placing it back in its spot, I walked out of the
room. I walked into the living room and went straight for the window,
looking out of it and making sure that there was no one standing out
the front of my home.
The past couple of incidents had freaked me out and I was now par-
anoid on checking all the time and making sure that no one was there,
looking at me. Twenty minutes later, mum came down into the kitchen.
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“What are you doing up so early for?” she asked as she flicked on the
hallway light.
“Got an early wake up call,” I muttered and tried not to yawn.
“Who woke you up so early?” mum asked.
“Nathaniel and James,” I said, looking at her. “They decided to throw
rocks at my window to wake me up. They are lucky that they are immor-
tal or they might not be alive right now because I was really tempted to
kill them.”
“What did they want?”
“Nate wants me to spend the night at his place.”
“And why couldn’t he ask you at school like a normal person
would?”
“He won’t be there. He is going to Melbourne with Bethany and
won’t be back until this evening,” I muttered, looking down at my hands
before looking up at her. “And since when is Nathaniel normal?”
Mum looked deep in thought. I knew that she would let me spend
the night there, but I couldn’t understand the look on her face.
“Is the whole family going to be there?” she finally asked.
“I believe so,” I replied, confused to where she was going.
“Then I am not stopping you from going,” mum said and walked into
the kitchen.
“Is everything alright?” I asked, following her.
“What makes you think that something is wrong?” she asked, forcing
a smile.
That’s when I knew something was bothering her. I crossed my arms
and raised my eyebrows, waiting for her to answer me. She had never
asked if the whole family would be there so this was a first for both of
us.
“I just want to know if Nathaniel has any plans for when you go
there tonight,” she finally said.
“He usually does have plans for us when I do arrive,” I told her, won-
dering why she wanted to know this.
“That isn’t what I meant Brianna.”
“Then what do you mean? If you don’t tell me, then I won’t be able
to give you the answer that you want. I am not a mind reader, and even
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if I was, I would leave that to Nathaniel.”
“So you and Nathaniel haven’t...” she trailed off.
“Mum!” I exclaimed, my face going hot. “No we haven’t done any-
thing like that. Nathaniel is a gentleman.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. Did she think I would rush into some-
thing that big? I knew that Nathaniel had done...that before, but I
wasn’t sure if he knew that I was still pure. I was sure that things would
come out into the open tonight.
The rest of the morning had gone fast and when mum pulled up out
the front of the school, Amylia was waiting out the front with a bored
expression on her face. When she saw the car, she stood upright and
smiled a warm, welcoming smile. I grabbed my school bag from the
backseat and got out of the car. To save myself from going back home
before making my way to the Pryor’s, I packed everything in my school
bag and planned on going with Amylia back to their place.
“Are you staying tonight? Nathaniel has been hounding me since
they left an hour ago. That boy is so impatient. I am hoping they will
teach him some at university and make him put it to use for exams and
such,” Amylia said as I walked over to where she was standing.
“It is fine with mum so you can let him know,” I replied, looking
around to make sure that the two people I didn’t want to see were
around.
Amylia clapped her hands in glee and pulled out her phone, messag-
ing Nathaniel at a faster pace than most humans, but they did have to
keep up with appearances. I started walking when I felt someone brush
up against my hand, making me look up. The one person I didn’t want to
see had to be standing there.
“What do you want Jason?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“I don’t see Nathaniel here today with Chase and Amylia. Where is
he today?” he asked, a glint in his eyes.
“He is in Melbourne with his mother,” I replied, trying not to snap at
him.
“And he didn’t take you? I know that if I was your boyfriend, I would
take you everywhere with me,” he said and started to rub my arm with
his hand.
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“If you know what is good for you Jason, you would stop that,” I said
slowly.
“Just admit Brianna; you want me just as much as I want you,” he
breathed and moved in closer.
“What are you doing?” Amylia asked from behind us.
Jason turned around and glared at Amylia. She crossed her arms and
smirked at him, knowing that she had interrupted him and basically sav-
ing me from doing some sort of injury. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“What do you want Amylia? Shouldn’t you be making sure that you
look like a Barbie doll?” he asked.
“Not when you are harassing my friend,” she retorted.
“Maybe Brianna wants to hang around me and doesn’t want you
controlling her like you have been lately. I don’t see her hanging around
anyone else but all of you and sometimes her cousin and Hudson. What
sort of spell have you got her under Amylia? What lies did you tell her to
make her hate me?” he spat.
“We haven’t got her under anything. She just has good taste and
knows not to hang around you. I mean, you are friends with Augusta
and that would be enough to turn anyone off dating you. you and I both
know she is a total bitch and will scare off anybody when she feels
threatened by someone who is way better so I think you are gonna
spend the rest of your life alone,” she taunted.
Jason lifted up his hand and tried to slap Amylia, but a hand grabbed
his wrist, making him stop and look over.
“First you injure Brianna and now you are trying to hurt Amylia.
Didn’t your father teach you it is wrong to hit a woman?” Chase asked in
an eerily calm voice.
“Can you let go of me?” he asked.
“Give me one reason why I should?” Chase asked, tightening his grip
on Jason, but not enough to crush the bones in his wrist.
“Brianna, can you tell Nathaniel that he is crap at basketball and he
shouldn’t even be on the team,” Jason said and looked over at me.
“He knows where you live,” Chase whispered. “I hope you are ready
for some disfigurement once Nathaniel knows what you just said about
him.”
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Chase let go of his wrist and wrapped his arms around Amylia and
me, leading us away from Jason. The anger and tension was coming off
his body in waves and I glanced over to Amylia. She had a grim look on
her face.
“Why doesn’t he get the hint?” I finally asked.
“Because he wants the lifestyle Nathaniel has. He only went to hit
Amylia because she said what was true. He has trouble finding a girl-
friend because of Augusta and he didn’t want you knowing that because
he still has it locked in his head that he has a chance with dating you,”
Chase replied, looking down at me.
“Then he must be delusional or something thinking that he has a
chance with me. I have made my disinterest to date him clear since day
one. With his bleached blonde hair and greasy stare, he gave me the
creeps and the fact he was in the same spot that I was in at the same
time made me feel like he was stalking me,” I admitted, looking down at
my beat up ballet flats
“We read his thoughts not long ago and he was stalking you, hoping
that he would get to know you better than we would so he had some-
thing to rub in our faces but that backfired as we all know,” Amylia said.
I didn’t say anything. I walked into my first class late, making every-
one look up at me. Mrs. Franklin opened her mouth, but didn’t say any-
thing. She knew that this day was going to be hell on me without Na-
thaniel by my side. I knew that I should be able to cope without him, but
there was the doubt in my mind that he would leave me due to the dis-
tance that was going to be between us come next year.
“Brianna, are you okay?” Mrs. Franklin asked while everyone else
was busy with their school work.
“I think I am,” I replied. “It is just weird without Nathaniel by my
side, but I guess I will have to get used to it with him leaving next year. I
can class this as good practice.”
“I knew that Nathaniel had plans on going to Melbourne for school,
but I thought that he wouldn’t have followed through with them once
you entered his life,” she told me.
“Mrs. Franklin, I plan on supporting Nathaniel on anything he does,
and I will be supporting him on this one as well, even though it is slowly
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killing me on the inside with the fact that he will be leaving me.”
“You are a strong girl Brianna and I am sure that whatever happens
between you and Nathaniel will make both of you even stronger,” she
whispered and walked back over to her desk.
Mrs. Franklin was a wise woman and no doubt a couple of hundred
years old and not taking her advice to heart would have been the crazi-
est thing I could ever do in my life. That would be one stupid mistake.
Turning around, I caught Hudson’s stare.
“Are you alright?” she mouthed.
I nodded and turned back around, going back in my thoughts. I was
not liking the way I was feeling without Nathaniel next to me and I had
to learn to stop being like this. My life couldn’t revolve around him.
The bell rang and I was packing everything in my bag when Hudson
came over to me. I looked at her and smiled.
“Is Nathaniel in Melbourne?” she asked.
“Yeah he is,” I replied.
“Then why aren’t you with him?”
“I don’t have an answer for that. I guess I will have to ask Nathaniel
when I see him tonight at his place,” I said and flung my school bag over
my shoulder.
“You mean that you are staying at his place tonight with the whole
family? Don’t you think that they might cramp his style or something?”
she asked and started walking with me.
I looked at her and shook my head. It didn’t bother me that his fami-
ly was going to be there with us and I wasn’t ready to take things to the
next level, so that gave me a sense of calm.
“I am actually glad that his family will be there tonight because I
know that it won’t give Nathaniel the incentive to try something with
me.”
“You mean sex?”
I just looked at her, not liking the fact she was right. I wasn’t ready
for something like that. “Yes, that,” I said.
“I know Nate and he would never rush you into anything. He loves
you too much to do something stupid.”
“Well, I now know that, but he is a man and we all know what urges
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that they can get.”
After that talk with Hudson, I felt better and started to look forward
to spending the night there. When the final bell rang, Amylia and Chase
were leaning against the car, waiting for me.
“Are you ready to go and pack?” Chase asked as I approached.
“I already have everything. I packed this morning to save me going
back home,” I told them, earning a smile off Amylia.
“Talk about a time saver. I have so much planned for us to do while
we are waiting for Nathaniel to return from his trip and knowing Betha-
ny, she would have forced him to buy things for an apartment that he
doesn’t even have yet,” she said, wrapping her arm around my shoul-
der.
“She likes to be prepared for any case possible,” Chase added, a
slight smile starting to grace his face.
“Where the hell is Nathaniel?” a voice said from behind us.
My blood ran cold at that voice. The whole day I had avoided Augus-
ta and now she had found me. I turned around to see her arms crossed
and an icy stare at me.
“He wasn’t here today,” I replied.
“I can see that, red. Why wasn’t he here is what I want to know!”
she demanded and grabbed my top by the collar.
“Let her go Augusta,” Chase said, catching her attention.
“Chase darling, I heard about your break up with Dakota. I had a
feeling that your relationship with her would end since Brianna had en-
tered your lives. Do you need any sort of cheering up as I am available
tonight?”
“I am fine thank you,” he replied and took my school bag off me.
“Is there a reason why you are here?” Amylia asked looking at her
like the piece of trash she was.
“I just wanted to know where Nate was and I still haven’t got my an-
swer,” she said, turning her icy stare back on me.
“Well good luck with getting that information out of me as I am not
telling you a single thing. I think Nathaniel has had enough of you stalk-
ing him and trying to make my life a living hell. Oh by the way, thank
you for sending my father back in town. My mother really is grateful
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towards you right now with making her life a living hell also. Your funer-
al will be in a week once she sees you and tears you apart with her bare
hands,” I said in a cold voice and got in the car before rolling down the
window to say a bit more. “You really need to learn the consequences
for your mistakes that you have now made. You are a sickening piece of
street trash that will never make it anywhere in life as you are the cold
hearted bitch your mother raised you to be! No one will ever want you,
unless they are that desperate that they pick you out of the rest. Enjoy
smoking on the truth Augusta and now try to destroy my life now as you
already have done so and countless others.”
Augusta’s mouth dropped open and didn’t have anything to say after
I finished saying what she was to her face. I felt...lighter after getting all
that off my chest. It was like something had snapped inside of me. Both
Chase and Amylia got into the car without saying a word to me. I looked
out the back window and saw that Augusta was in the same spot I had
left her in, but in a heap on the ground. I usually would have felt some
sort of regret from being that cruel, but I couldn’t find it in me to care.
“I have never heard you speak that way before,” Amylia said after a
while.
“I had needed to say that for a long time now, but have always
stopped myself from doing so. Today I just couldn’t do it. With Na-
thaniel leaving and with everything else that is happening in my life, I
snapped.”
“Nate is going to be so pissed that he missed that. His sweet, inno-
cent Brianna snapping and telling the resident witch what she really is
to her face,” Chase said.
“I’m pretty sure that we can show him in our minds Chase,” Amylia
said and looked over at him.
“But it still won’t be the same Amylia. Nathaniel likes to see people
that cause trouble fall on their knees by hearing the truth about them
from the one person they least expect and this time, it happened to be
Brianna that did damage control to Augusta and made her fall to her
knees.”
“Well he missed out for a change. That teaches him for going to
Melbourne and not staying here today with us.”
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It sounded like they didn’t support what Nathaniel had decided on. I
mean, the new school year had only started and I couldn’t understand
why he had been accepted so early for, but I didn’t want to ask any
questions.
“You are quiet Brianna,” Amylia said and looked over at me.
“I’m fine,” I replied and smiled at her.
“I know that Nathaniel has given you a glimpse into the beauty
room, but I can’t wait to show you everything up close and the same
goes with my closet. We are going to have so much fun playing dress up
and everything else I have planned for us when you come around for
sleepovers.”
Every time she said those words, my blood ran cold. I didn’t want to
do those things, but something told me that I wouldn’t have a say in
what would happen. Amylia could be very persuasive when she wants
to be and I was going to be no expectation.
“Amy, did you think that maybe that Brianna might just want to
spend time with Nathaniel and no one else?” Chase asked.
“I did think of that, but why should she spend all her time with him
when she can spend time with me as well.”
“I think that is a fight that you will need to have with Nathaniel on
sharing Brianna. We all know that he can be possessive when it comes
to something that he loves,” Chase said, slowing down and turning
down a dirt path half way to Forrest. “We are going a different way this
time.”
“Brianna, can you please try and convince Nathaniel to share you
with me?” Amylia asked.
“Since when do I win fights with Nathaniel?” I asked back, already
knowing the answer to that question.
“Just use some sort of human charm that Nathaniel was telling me
about the other night,” Chase said, glancing at me in the revision mirror.
“He loves your warmth so just threaten him that he can’t touch you or
something. That should get the ball moving somehow.”
I was shaking my head at their crazy suggestions. For vampires, they
sometimes sounded just like humans. I wasn’t worried about getting
Nathaniel to let me spend time with Amylia. I was more worried about
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Jason doing something to me in front of Nathaniel and making him slip,
revealing that he’s a vampire.
Fifteen minutes later, Chase pulled into the garage and turned off
the car. I grabbed my school bag and got out, making my way into the
kitchen. Jack was on a laptop and looked up when I walked into the
room.
“Ah Brianna, it is nice to see you again,” he said, smiling at me.
“Hello Jack. I wasn’t expecting to see you here today,” I told him and
placed my bag on the floor out of the way.
“I am taking a well-earned day off work for a change and leaving my
assistant to take charge and hopefully put Erica in her place plus Betha-
ny wanted me to keep an eye on Chase and Amylia as well since she will
be shopping up a storm with her credit card and not sure when she and
Nathaniel will be back.”
“I heard that,” Amylia said, walking into the room with Chase behind
her.
“You both might be vampires, but sometimes you both act like little
kids. Now what do you have planned to keep Brianna occupied while
Nathaniel isn’t home?” Jack asked, like the parent he was.
“I plan on showing her the beauty room and my room. Where is
Jay?” Amylia asked, suddenly looking around the room for her partner,
but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
“Fetching blood for us somewhere in Victoria but he will be back
sometime tonight and hopefully not in too much of a mess,” Jack re-
plied, looking at me the whole time. “We don’t want to scare Brianna
with our lifestyle and I don’t think a human would want to see what we
look like after a hunt to stop us from attacking.”
“You haven’t scared me yet,” I said.
“It isn’t a pretty sight when we come back. We have to fight animals
to get the blood, which I hate doing so I refuse to go and get the blood.
Our clothes are ripped and blood laces our skin, but we do get most of it
in the bags jack gets from his vampire friend at the hospital,” Amylia
said, shuddering at the end.
I didn’t want to hear anymore. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty living as
a vampire, but I didn’t think that it would be that gruesome. Nathaniel
250
had never told me how they got the blood and seemed like he would
never tell me, and Amylia had just done so.
“Well I think that would be enough to give