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Daniel explains the shocking family history he learnt from the Bryxx council to me during supper. As it turns out, our great something grandma and grandpa on dad’s side were human Bryxx who gave up one of their twin daughters to demons in order to guarantee the other’s protection from the vampires and the wrath of the Bryxx.
When the Bryxx heard of the deal their family made with the demons, they enacted their own deal with the demons, knowing how important the family was to them. The Bryxx offered to protect the family alongside the demons if in return the demons continued to keep humans in the dark about the supernatural world.
Each generation then on would give their life, blood, and soul to the demons as a sacrifice for their children, ending with my and Daniel’s own father. The demons could come at any time and take them away, meaning that our father didn’t die of a heart attack, instead he’d given up his soul for us to be protected and able to live long, normal lives. I can’t help but wonder if our father knew what happened to Daniel.
“Where was this protection when you died?” I squeak in shock.
Daniel bows his head. “Mayflower, Dad wasn’t my biological father, so I wasn’t protected under the agreement. He thought I was protected, but somewhere in the fine writing I wasn’t, and I didn’t really need any protection since I didn’t have the Bryxx blood. If I did have the blood, I probably would’ve died rather than made the change to Bryxx. Those with Bryxx blood rarely make the change, remember? Our mom had me before her and dad got together. I don’t know my biological dad and I probably will never know who he was.”
My jaw drops. I never would’ve guessed that Daniel entirely biologically related to me. We look so similar. “How long have you known that you weren’t dad’s?!”
“Since yesterday,” he admits quietly. “The council told me.”
“Oh my gosh, Daniel!” I blurt. “Are you okay?”
He shrugs. “It doesn’t change anything, May. You’re still my sister.”
I’m about to argue but I decide against it when Kai covertly shakes his head at me behind Daniel’s back.
Kade gathers up everyone’s sandwich dishes and places them neatly in the dishwasher.
“You’d make a good housewife,” Kai teases, lightening the mood, a thin smirk on his lips.
Kade doesn’t seem bothered. “I don’t like clutter.”
“What do you guys do for fun around here?” Kai wonders while wandering around the kitchen like he’s bored out of his mind. “Kind of boring out here.”
Daniel rolls his eyes. “We’re on vacation. Relax a little, please, Kai.”
“Vacation? I was hoping we’d get to kick some vampire ass,” Kai retorts and picks up a flipper from the utensil vase, flipping it in the air and then catching it. “What kind of vacation is this?”
“Yeah?” Kade goads. “Try it. Let’s see how many times I can pin your ass to the ground before you give up.” Kade’s tone is cocky and rightfully so. I’ve seen the guy fight.
Kai grins. “You’re on, vamp!”
“Take it outside,” I groan and point to the door. I know just how much of a wreck these people can cause in a fight. It’s like having two bulls in a china shop for heaven’s sake.
Kade zips out the door and Kai follows him. Daniel waits for me to make it out the door before he follows and closes it behind him.
The scrapple has already started and ended by the time we get outside. Kai is pinned to the ground groaning in pain.
“Vampires are faster and stronger than you. Use that you your advantage by using it against them. Use surprise by implanting an uncommon fighting style or move. Don’t stick to the basics. It’s predictable. Up. Let’s go again,” Kade demands and backs away from Kai quickly.
Kai immediately lunges at Kade who grabs his wrist, twists it back, then manages to flip Kai onto his back with a thump.
I can’t help but wince. That’s gotta hurt.
Daniel takes a seat on the front steps, so I sit beside him.
“Why is Kade so much better than Kai? He can’t even get the upper hand for one second.” I hope that Kai is too into the fighting to hear me.
Daniel snorts, “Kade is a legend. He was the best Bryxx guard they’d ever had.”
“Why would they give him up so easily if he was the best? They accused him of a crime he didn’t commit. If he was so important to them, then why not take it to trial?”
Daniel pulls out his phone and lights up the screen before returning it back to his pocket. “Well, when he was attacked by a whole herd of vampires, he stood little chance. They turned him, but that also meant that the Bryxx lost their best fighter. It normally wouldn’t come down to a vote. Bryxx turned vamp, are to be killed. No matter what. If it had been anyone else, they would’ve been killed on the spot then and there, but with his talent and his royalty status... Well, one councilman stood up for him and thought that he should be kept with the Bryxx but controlled closely. This lead to a vote. It was a close vote, but it ended up that he was allowed to stay under a long list of conditions, and if he were to slip up even once, they’d banish, or more likely, kill him. His royal title was stripped to top it all off. It was a shit deal, but he took it over death. Even as a vampire, he hated vampires and it wasn’t like he had anywhere to go. He got to do what he loved most and I think that’s why he stayed. Without his royal status, and with the fact that he was now disposable, they let him go on missions that could actually use his advanced skills rather than have him be stuck guarding the Bryxx walls which really doesn’t take much talent. He lost a lot, but he also gained a little.”
I watch as Kai attempts to leap onto Kade’s back, but Kade whips around, jumps, and kicks him in the side. Kai gets sent rolling through the air until he hits the ground ten feet away. I gasp hoping that he’s okay. Kai springs right back up, ready to go again and Daniel chuckles easily. For the first time since I found out that Daniel was still alive, he’s relaxed.
“Aren’t you scared he will get hurt?” I ask Daniel, although I know Kade would never seriously hurt him.
Daniel shakes his head and smiles warmly. “We get tossed around a lot in our job. In our level of work, Kai is used to being one of the best. It’s kind of funny to see him getting repeatedly knocked on his ass for once. It reminds him that he’s only a level blue.”
“Level blue?” I ask, crinkling my nose.
Daniel explains, “There are ten levels of fight skill. Each skill has a different job set. In order from lowest to highest rank there is: white, yellow, green, purple, blue, orange, brown, red, grey, and black.”
“Kade is a black level?” I ask for reassurance, though I’m already convinced.
Daniel nods. “Not very many people have that kind of skill. Some of the lower Bryxx are white, yellow or green, mostly kids in training. Usually by the time you’re eighteen you’re a purple, but some people just aren’t good at fighting, so they get shuffled into other jobs at eighteen rather than continue physical training. If you make it to purple by eighteen, you keep training and you go into guard work. You start as basically an errand boy and you continue your training until you get to blue level. At that point you actually start guarding the walls. You get lots of action with the smaller demons that the higher defenses let through to focus on higher threats.”
“You and Kai are blue?” I ask to make sure I’m following.
“Yes. Every year you’re tested against the level higher, and if you fair well, then you move up. Orange and brown are the next line of defense. The middle, I suppose. They take anything that gets through the main line of defense and filter through the small stuff and send it towards the blue. Then there is the main line of defense which is the red and grey. They basically just take down the big bad guys and let everything else pass through. Their main worry is to get the things that are the biggest threats. There are tons of different types of demons, part of the job is knowing which are which and knowing how to kill them, which isn’t easy. We can innately sense demons if they’re in their true form, except vampires. We also learn how to point out a demon in another body and how to pick out a vampire from a crowd.”
“I thought you told me you were a combat trainer, not a guard?” I recall vaguely as I focus on trying to depict the motions of the sparring men in the yard, but they’re far too quick for me to catch everything. I catch a move here and there but I miss most of it.
Daniel grins. “You remembered that? I’m a combat trainer for level purple but only three days a week. The other four I’m on guard duty. Being a trainer is a well-respected position, even if it’s for one of the lower levels. It means I am giving up time I could be using to do what I was born to do, kill demons. I’m also giving up me time to learn and strengthen my skills to teach the next generation of fighters.”
So, if those are all the defense lines, then what does level black do?” I wonder as Kade throws Kai into a tree, sending a large branch timbering to the ground. I wince, but of course Kai gets up again.
“Level black gets sent out on missions around the world to take down demons in problem areas. They also help guard when they’re around, usually running a larger perimeter around the community to stop demons before they even hit our defenses. They’re like our form of special agents.”
“Okay, Dan, you’re up, I need a break,” Kai calls from the ground about twenty feet away where he lies on his back.
Daniel stands and removes his black jacket, handing it to me. Kai slowly saunters over to me and takes a slow seat beside me on the opposite side that Daniel was just on. He moves carefully as if he’s stiff. I can’t imagine why. I glance at the broken tree.
“Alright, vamp, let’s get my beating over with,” Daniel mutters as Kade moves the fallen tree branch out of the way.
Kade grumbles an amused laugh. “Never doubt your skill, kid. You’ll never improve if you do.”
Kade using the work ‘kid’ to refer to my adult brother confuses me for a moment until I remember just how old Kade is compared to Daniel, Kade, and myself. He’s old enough to be my great something grandfather. The thought feels strange in my mind. Humans Kade’s age have been dead for centuries.
Kai groans and lifts his hand in front of my face. “Does my pinky look broken to you?” he asks with a smile behind his playful grimace.
I look at the bluish, reddish, purplish appendage and can’t help but gag when I see its position. Definitely broken.
He laughs and then uses his free hand to bend it back into place.
“Ewww,” I squeal when I hear it crack and crunch. I cringe away from him.
His laughter only gets louder. “It’ll heal in a minute or so. You better get used to being queasy if your soulmate is a vampire.”
I can’t help but think he’s right. I recall the cow. Kade literally drinks people’s blood. The thought makes me gag.
Kai wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in for a hug. “You’ll get used to it darling.”
“Easy for you to say. You were born into this, so was Kade, and Daniel’s been around this since he was a kid,” I complain.
Kai shrugs. “Daniel cried every night for the first six months he was away from his family. He was a nine-year-old kid that died, came back to life as a supernatural being, and was told he wasn’t going to ever see his family again; and he didn’t until the day Kade found you after your car accident. As soon as he saw you, there was a part of him that died that day in the woods that came back to life. He sent you away and that was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to watch him do, but it was for your safety.” Kai rubs his hands together roughly. “Then we get called into a meeting with the council after finding out you’re dead, and they give us his whole family history. Councilman Henry meets us outside just as Daniel is about to go into complete meltdown mode and pulls us aside, out of reach, and gives Daniel a note, tucks it in his pocket and tells him to open it when he’s home and alone. The note said that you were alive but in hiding and that no one else could know about it for your safety. It said to call your cell phone.”
I gape. “What?” I ask. “How did this Henry guy know where I was?”
Kai shrugs. “That’s what we’d like to know. Someone obviously trusts the senile bastard, someone who knows him very well which not many people do.” Kai’s eyes wander to Kade who is on top of Daniel pinning him down.
Kade glances over to us and jumps off of Daniel. “I told Henry,” he admits. “I trust him, and I knew word would get out about her death, and when that happened, I wanted Daniel’s reaction to her death to be authentic so people didn’t grow suspicious, but I also didn’t want him thinking May was truly dead.”
“You trust councilman Henry?” Daniel asks vehemently.
Kade nods. “More than you can possibly imagine. We have much in common.”
Daniel and Kai appear confused, their faces crinkled. Kai mutters, “I’ve only ever seen the guy be a dick to you.”
“He’s a dick alright, but he’s a trustworthy dick, one that I trust immensely. He’s done a lot for me over the years believe it or not,” Kade clarifies and straightens his clothes. Not a speck of dirt on his plain t-shirt and sweats. I wish I could say the same for Kai and Daniel who are both covered head to toe in dirt and rips.
The next few days pass quickly as I get reacquainted with my brother and get to know his best friend and boyfriend Kai. When it’s time for them to leave, in order to keep appearances up and keep their places in the Bryxx community, I am sad to see them go, but at least this time I know I will see them again. I am now part of their world, even if the reasoning why isn’t so pleasant.
They pull out of the driveway in a rented red suburban and I watch them go until they’re out of sight. Kade stands behind me on the porch quietly. Because the other two have been around the last few days keeping him busy with combat training, I haven’t had much time with him, which has been good since it’s given me time to think about everything that’s happened lately.
I eventually turn around and smile softly at Kade. “I’m actually surprised they left me with you,” I tell him honestly.
He smirks sexily. “They didn’t really have much of a choice,” he replies, then his expression becomes serious. “They don’t trust me, but they trust that I’ll do whatever I have to in order to keep you safe.”
“I think they like you more than they let on,” I admit truthfully.
Kade shrugs. “They have the instinct to hate vampires and it’s drilled into them their whole lives. I know I loathed vampires when I was Bryxx, even now I loathe them still. I can’t blame them for hating me or not trusting me, because if we switched places, and they were the vampires, I’d hate them.”
I think he’s wrong about them hating him, but I don’t argue, truth is, he knows them better than I do.
“Thank you,” I say, and wrap my arms around him tightly.
“For what?” he asks, a smirk appearing on his lips. He hugs me back.
“For keeping me safe and for letting my brother and Kai lock you up and...” I trail off recalling Kade’s behavior, the sight of him almost losing control. A demon, yes. Terrifying but that’s not the emotion that’s strongest when I think about that situation. I feel sad for him. A small sob escapes me before I can stop it.
He holds me tighter. “No need to thank me. I’m sorry you had to see that, but you needed to none the less.”
I have to agree but I stay quiet.
“Did it scare you?” he asks absentmindedly.
I debate lying but instead I state, “Yes, it did.”
“Are you afraid of me?” he asks, his grip loosening on me slightly.
I shake my head into his chest. “No.”
“Good, because I’ll never hurt you,” he promises.
“Checkers?” I ask simply, a few days ago he promised to show me some new tricks after he beat me in a matter of only a few moves.
He lets out a grisly laugh. “Alright. You set up while I grab some whiskey from the pantry. I need a drink now that those two are finally gone.”
“They annoyed you that much?” I ask in amusement.
Kade sighs. “No, I enjoyed kicking their asses over and over again actually, but I do like to be alone with you more.”
“Why don’t you set up the checker board while I get the whiskey? You’ll probably have the board done up by the time I get to the pantry,” I remind him and release him from the hug.
“Deal,” he agrees and then he’s gone.
I roll my eyes. I wish I could do that.
After playing four rounds of checkers, all in his favor, I’m thoroughly unimpressed with my skill level which is strongly lacking. He doesn’t seem to get bored of kicking my ass though, much like how he found beating up Daniel and Kai amusing. I decide he either likes teaching or he likes winning or maybe both.
“You’re getting better,” he reassures me to no avail.
“I think I’m getting worse,” I inform him and flick a checker across the board at him. He stops it mid slide with his index finger and then takes a sip of his whiskey.
“Donna should be here soon.” His voice is casual, but I sense a hint of hope in it. I realize that he must be getting hungry. He hasn’t had anything to drink since the cow, which he says barely touched his thirst, and before that the last he had was when he left the Bryxx community.
I swallow and take a sip of my own whiskey to think about my words. I reply. “How are you feeling?”
He bristles. “I’m getting edgy.” He takes another gulp then swirls his glass around. “This helps take the edge off.”
“When is she supposed to come?” I question him, trying not to sound concerned.
He glances to the calendar on the wall. “She was supposed to start yesterday.”
I raise my brows in surprise. “What if she doesn’t come?”
He sighs. “If she doesn’t come before tomorrow morning I will have to figure something out. Maybe we will take a drive to town tomorrow morning and do our own grocery shopping, or we will take a backroad drive to a neighbor’s.”
I smile softly even though the thought is a bit sickening. He’s going to drive to the neighbors, knock on their door and bite them? “Alright. Did you try calling her?”
“No answer,” he heaves and taps his fingers on the table.
“Did you do a background check on this lady?” I wonder curiously.
He nods. “Yes, but she has terminal cancer and now I’m afraid something bad might have happened to her.”
My eyes bulge. “You hired a lady with terminal cancer to feed from?”
“It’s not quite what you think. I hired her because of her cancer because I thought if she came around every couple days and I took a little from her then healed her, I might be able to cure her cancer over time.”
“Your blood can heal diseases?” I’m not sure why I’m surprised by this.
He gets up and pours himself another full glass of whiskey. “I don’t know. I thought it was worth a try though.”
“Why do you care about her cancer?” I hope I don’t sound rude.
Kade sits back down and leans against the back of his chair. “I’ve never not cared about others. It doesn’t matter what species they are. If they’re good people, they have my acceptance. I am not prejudiced. Henry once told me that even bad people should be greatly respected in some way because they are the protagonists of their own stories. No one is born bad. Life makes us swing that way sometimes.”
I don’t respond but instead I finish my drink slowly and we sit in a comfortable silence for a while.
“Will you tell me more about how you became a vampire? I know Daniel said you were attacked by whole group of them, but is there more?” I’m not sure why I find myself thinking about this but ever since Daniel skimmed over it it’s been on my mind.
Kade sets his glass down with a clunk. “I was out guarding as usual. Although I had the skill to be a level black, my father wouldn’t let me do anything higher than an orange and that was only on occasion. Usually, I was a blue. On that particular day, I was working as an orange level though. Vampires don’t usually make it past the first line of defense, but they do now and again and it’s not usually a big deal. This time though, it was the biggest vampire attack we’ve ever had, a lot got through and they were after me, specifically. I’d killed a lot of vampires and in some ways, I was famous—royalty that wasn’t protected within the walls of the Bryxx community. All the vampires wanted to kill me as a sort of scapegoat for all the shit the Bryxx has ever done to them or I don’t know why exactly, but they all came at me before the others even noticed they were around. No one had been radioed that vampires got through because the first line of defense was still fighting more. By the time my colleagues got to me, the vampires had torn me apart, drained me dry, then one of them forced me to drink her blood as a final fuck you. Why wouldn’t they turn me, a royal Bryxx, into what I loathed and let my own people kill me? It sent a message alright,” he relays to me solemnly. He takes a big gulp before continuing. “My colleagues were trained to kill the infected on the spot, but because I was who I was, they hesitated and informed the council first. My dad wasn’t in, and thankfully so, or he would’ve been the first contacted and I know he’d have ordered them to kill me right there.”
I grit my teeth, my mind escaping into his story.
“Instead, it was Henry who took the call for my dad. He ordered two black levels to bring me into the cell room under the courthouse. Henry met me down there but everything that happened in those next few hours is a blur. I was in pain from the transformation and my thirst was increasing. When the transformation was done, Henry gave me a bag of Bryxx blood. I wouldn’t drink it even though every part of me wanted to devour it. I forced myself to throw it back at him.” He chuckles sadly. “Eventually my will power snapped, and I drank the blood which made me feel a lot better, but I was still in so much pain, overwhelmed by the new thirst I had. It never fully goes away. Henry told me that I’d be going to trial which surprised me because I was pretty sure I was a dead man, and to be honest, I wanted to die.”
Kade rubs his hand over his prickly chin. “I went to trial and after taking some pointers from Henry, who saved my life, the council voted, and I wasn’t killed...as you know. Henry promised that within a year he’d train my self-control so well that I could be sent out to fight demons for the Bryxx. I was forced to live in a dungeon-like place near Henry’s home with shackles and the whole bit for two months while guarded by four black levels. Now and again he’d release the black levels and come in and teach me control. He thought it’d take me a year to leave the dungeon and be able to be around the Bryxx again without incident, but within two months he let me out of the dungeon and presented my self-control to the council. I passed, and the council was surprised by the lack of encouragement I needed to go off and fight for them. They bribed me with Bryxx blood. When I completed a mission, I could drink.”
He seems to become frustrated suddenly. “I continued to live with Henry when I was around, and he let me start staying in his home with him unbeknownst to the rest of the council. I helped take care of his farm and I did whatever they asked of me, but I was miserable and as soon as I was alone, with no one to stop me, I went out to the dungeon with one of Henry’s guns and I shot myself in the head. It didn’t kill me because it wasn’t a silver bullet. Henry had known I would try to kill myself somehow and left fake silver bullets out in his house. He found me soon after and shackled me again so I wouldn’t hurt myself. He spent an entire night telling me all the reasons that I should keep fighting. He saved my life a second time.”
Instead of being too shocked to speak like I normally get, I gasp and my hand flies up to cover my gaping mouth. “You tried to commit suicide?” I ask for clarification, not believing his words.
He nods. “I’d become the very thing I spent my whole life killing. Henry gave me a new perspective and shared some of his own experiences. Henry taught me how to sense vampires instinctively, a trait that I’d repressed along with my ability to move quicker than Bryxx speed. I wanted so much to not be a vampire that I repressed my nature and only caused myself more pain. I practiced sensing vampires for two weeks before I got the hang of it. I returned to Henry’s after a mission and I realized why Henry was so quick to lend me a hand. I sensed what he was, and I didn’t believe it at first, but I learnt that Henry was a vampire too, he’s been masquerading as a Bryxx for centuries unnoticed.”
“The councilman?” I ask in disbelief.
He nods with a small smile on his lips. “In the years since, he’s taught me much more than my father did my whole life. He is to me, my true dad. The dad I never had. As a boy, Henry was always abrupt with me, but once he learnt I’d been secretly training, and once I saved my dad’s life and I started working in the guard, he grew softer with me. I think he thought I was just another entitled royal brat but later he learnt that I was nothing like the other royals. If Henry hadn’t been there for me, I’d have been killed, there’s no doubt about it. I wouldn’t have even made it off the ground that day I was attacked.”
“And that’s why you trust him so much.” It’s not a question. It’s obvious.
Kade finishes his drink and is about to pour another when his gaze moves quickly from the near empty bottle to the window next to the table. It’s dark outside and I can’t even see across the yard. My heart races. Is something out there? Should I duck down? What is it?
“What is it?” I ask in a rush, realizing that I’ve been holding my breath.
His gaze flicks back to me, looking unconcerned. “Probably nothing.”
“Probably?” I ask him, my voice cracking.
“I’m probably just hungry and imagining things. I thought I smelt blood come through the window with that gust of wind, Bryxx blood.”
Bryxx? What Bryxx would be out here? The wind blows again, harder this time. A storm must be coming.
Kade draws his eye brows together.
“Is it from the barn, Kai’s blood?” I ask hopefully.
“It’s not old, dried up blood. It’s fresh.”
Not good, I tell myself. I let him feel the situation out, not wanting to distract him.
“Stay here,” he instructs and leaves through the back door in a blur.
My first instinct is to move away from the window. I don’t know why, maybe I’m concerned someone will watch me through it or maybe that someone will leap through it, though why wouldn’t they just use the front door? Really, the window shouldn’t be a concern right now, but I move away from it anyway and stand up from my chair, pacing the kitchen.
When Kade returns only a few seconds later, he sets a medium sized black cooler on the table and opens it. Then he pulls out not one, but ten bags of blood surrounded by ice. Then he pulls out a plastic bag with a piece of paper in it. He opens it and unfolds it. He reads it out loud, a harsh wrinkle forming on his forehead. “Kade, for taking care of my sister. We knew you wouldn’t accept it if we offered it before we left, so we compelled the nurse at the hospital to drive it after work to the edge of the farm where you would find it. In case you don’t see us for a while. I hope this helps you not eat my sister, vamp. It’s the least we could do. Thanks again, Daniel and Kai.”
Kade unblinkingly sets the letter down and then slowly sits down in his chair at the table. He almost looks as if he’s shocked. He rests his forehead in his hands.
“I told you they don’t hate you,” I remind him. “They didn’t have to do this.”
He lifts his head up and I almost think I see tears forming in his eyes before he blinks them away. “I know.” His voice cracks. “I never would’ve expected this.”
I lift up one of the bags carefully in my hands, knowing how precious it is to him and not wanting to break the bag open somehow. I inspect it momentarily before getting queasy and then I hand it to him, placing it in front of him on the table.
“How long will this last?” I ask him, unsure.
He swallows and clears his throat before answering. “I can freeze it, if you don’t mind it being in the freezer. This is enough for three months at least, maybe even four.”
The reality of how much this helps him really sets in when I remember him telling me how much more satiating Bryxx blood is and how it numbs the pain from the thirst longer and more fully. This will also save him from having to find someone to feed from every day or two in the future.
“You can definitely put it in the freezer,” I assure him, did he really think I’d oppose that?
He picks up the bag I set in front of him and lifts it up, the thankfulness of the gift pushing into the back of his mind as his thirst starts to take over. I see it in his eyes as they flicker red like that day in the barn. His breathing catches and then he closes his eyes and gathers himself also like I watched him do in the barn.
“Aren’t you going to have it? You’ve been tense all afternoon and don’t think I haven’t noticed it’s been getting worse quickly, you’ve been drinking alcohol like it’s water.”
“Not near you,” he answers sternly. “I will do it outside in the barn.”
As much as I really don’t want to see him drink blood and as much as it disturbs me, I need to get used to it and I want him to feel comfortable around m