7.7 – Because she’s family

James’ POV

We all waited nervously as Nixanne’s fingers sped across the keyboard, Alec supervising over her shoulder. I still wasn’t sure if this was the best idea, but at this point I was following my siblings’ lead.

Raphaele called a ‘family meeting’ the day after her boyfriend’s ex was found dead. Once we were all painstakingly gathered she stood up and declared;

“It’s Carla.”

“What did I tell you?” Alec had chipped in almost immediately.

“You’re just saying that because you blame her for being dumped.” Lance had countered, already searching for flaws. If it’d been anyone else he’d probably have agreed.

“I’m with Raphaele on this one.” Surprisingly enough, Nixanne had agreed almost as quickly as Alec. Me, who’d dismissed Raph’s accusation for the same reason as Lance, had suddenly begun to have doubts.

“You’re all so quick to judge her! Where’s your proof?” Aliska exclaimed, surprising most of us. She’d looked really shaken up about it.

“It’s not a quick judgement, well not for me. If you put all the clues together it makes sense.” Nixanne had countered. Aliska had slumped back onto the sofa.

“Nix is right. First clue, vampire. She fits that part, next-” Lance had started to enumerate.

“The victims never showed any sign of struggle.” Nix had interrupted.

“Which means they let themselves be drunk to death, which means they were influenced!” Alec chipped in excitedly.

“And there aren’t that many people who can do that, and even less in this school. In fact there are total of three here…” Raphaele had said, continuing the group reasoning.

“Two of which are in this room.” Alec had finished.

“It is Carla.” Lance had said.

Even though the ‘decision’ had been made, Aliska wasn’t quite satisfied.

“So that’s it? We’ve decided it’s her without even thinking about why she would do something like this?”

“No offense guys, but she’s a vampire. She’s got a taste for blood and you saw it yourself sis, she tried to drink dad to death.” Lance countered.

“Exactly, maybe she can’t help it. So then it’s not entirely her fault.”

“Alis, it’s not like we’ll punish her or anything.” Raphaele had said. Aliska had calmed down after that.

“No, but we still need to stop her.” Nix had declared.

At that point I had needed to speak out. I’d flat out asked ‘Why? Why is it our problem?’. Now that I’d discovered it was Carla, I didn’t want to get involved any more than I already was.

“Because she’s family.” Alec had declared in a way that made me feel like I should’ve known. I had looked around at my siblings faces and I had seen the same resolve. Apparently I was the only one who hadn’t inherited that gene.

“I can find her using the library’s computers.” Nixanne had said, as if the matter had been closed with that simple sentence. Because she’s family.

And now here we were, Nixanne working hard on the computer to pull up the school cameras and me still mulling over that simple phrase.

I felt the emotion, the responsibility, the weight my brother had put behind it, but I couldn’t relate, I couldn’t understand it. Was family important to that point? All my older siblings had done was complain about her, but here they were, determined to find our Aunt. Not to turn her in to the authorities, but to talk some sense into her. All because, since we shared blood, she was our responsibility.

I tapped my brother’s shoulder so he’d look at me.

‘I know what you guys said, but I’d like to take some precautions.’ I signed to him.

“What kind of precautions?”

‘If Carla gets angry, we need to protect ourselves against her power.’ I explained.

“Yeah, okay. Maybe you’ve gotten in touch with your power, but I haven’t.” Alec countered.

“Well here. You can practice on me.” Raphaele volunteered.

Alec looked at me a bit uncertainly. “How do you do it?”

‘Just concentrate on what you want her to do.’ I told him.

Nodding Alec turned to Raphaele and concentrated. Unfortunately nothing happened.

“I’ve got her!” Nixanne exclaimed. “She’s outside.”

A worrying stillness drooped over our heads. This was it. We had to confront Carla now.

“Well, it’s useless to waste time. Let’s go.” Lance finally declared, leaving the library. It broke everyone out of their trances.

I held Alec back temporarily as my sisters followed Lance.

‘If something happens, just follow my lead.’ I told him. Alec nodded.

***

Here we are. Standing outside just as the sun starts to rise from the horizon. All seven of us should have been in our rooms preparing for our first class, or eating an early breakfast in the cafeteria. But, instead of being good little students, we were outside in the cold morning air, trying to resolve what we though was purely a family issue.

“It’s you isn’t it?” Raphaele asked. “You’re the one who killed those three people.”

As usual, she did just like she always did when we tried to talk to her these days. Carla looked away and refused to answer.

“There’s no point in denying it, all the evidence is against you.” Lance declared.

“We just want to know why…” Aliska murmured.

Carla finally looked at us with a sigh.

“I’m not denying it.” She stated boldly.

That was it. That was her confession. It really was her.

“Why then? You’re scaring everyone in school.” Alec demanded to know.

“You’ll understand when you’re older.” She patronized. “It’s a vampire thing.”

I couldn’t tell if she felt guilty or not. She looked just so…nonchalant about the whole thing. She killed three people! How can she act like it’s no big deal?

“You’ll stop now right?” Aliska asked, a slight pleading tone to her voice.

“If I’m hungry again, I’ll do it again.” She stated, a small satisfied smile appearing on her mouth.

“You’ll get caught.” Nix declared.

“I doubt it. I’ve got this remember?” She smirked, pointing to her eyes.

“But if you continue, the school will close and we won’t be able to come back.” Aliska pleaded again.

“I didn’t want to come here in the first place.” Carla snapped angrily.

“We want you to stop Carla. If you’re hungry you can just drink plasma juice.” Raphaele countered, but it was obvious she didn’t believe the argument would work.

“Oh yeah! Good old plasma juice!” Carla exclaimed sarcastically. “You don’t understand Raphaele, you’re not a vampire. Drinking plasma juice is like forcing you to eat broccoli when there is a nice big pile of junk food healthy for you right on the table. Zyla kept saying drinking from people is bad, bla bla bla, but uncle Kord says otherwise. He’s taught me what it really means to be a vampire.”

“Yeah? Well now that we know it’s you, we’ll tell the authorities and they’ll stop you from killing people just because you prefer junkfood.” Lance snapped.

Carla let out a quick laugh. “Then I’ll just make you forget it was me. Yeah, you heard me right, if I concentrate hard enough I can make you want to forget it. And then you do, and I can continue on till graduation comes along.”

“After all Raphaele,” Carla began, her voice suddenly sounding different. “Don’t you want to forget the horrible things?”

Raphaele groaned as she held her head.

“What are you- Stop that!” Lance shouted angrily, already curling his hands into fists.

Feeling equally protective and on instinct I brought my hand up and focused on countering the control Carla was trying to have over Raph.

And just as I’d told him, Alec followed my lead. Even though his ‘contribution’ would do nothing at all, it might seem more intimidating to Carla.

It didn’t take long before Carla lost control and it was my turn to try and take a grip on her mind.

“You won’t be getting away Carla. We’re going to hand you over to mom and dad.” Lance said as he understood what was going on.

“Then, maybe they’ll be able to help you.” Raphaele said as Carla struggled to defend against my mental attacks.

It felt weirdly invigorating to be able to beat someone older than me, because there was no doubt, a little more and I would have control. I didn’t want to abuse of it because mom told me not to, but – a smirk tried to fight its way onto my face as I felt my Aunt’s last defenses start to crumble – if I use it for things like this, it can’t be bad a thing.

“This is unfair! Why…I thought I was stronger…” Carla complained.

“It’s funny you even thought you could go against us six.” Nix said.

“I must say, this really is unfair.” A dark sinister low voice said from behind us. The chill that was sent down my back as I felt another mind take Carla’s defense was enough to break my concentration. “Six against one…I think it’s about time we evened the odds.”

We all whirled around to face the newcomer.

“Well, aren’t you kids looking a bit tense.” The man said. He wore a somewhat friendly face, but his eyes were enough to discourage me of thinking he could be a friendly person.

His eyes…completely golden. Just like mine, and Alec’s and mom’s and Carla’s. There were only six vampires in this world who had those eyes. Mom, me, Alec, Carla, Kord, and my grandfather. Mom and Carla’s dad. The man dad had told us stories about, how he was an evil man. Sure, I believed him, but I never realized what he meant by evil.

Since I was still open-minded from going against Carla, I could easily feel his mind as it scanned me and my siblings brains. I knew he wasn’t going to try and control us. No, it felt more like he was getting a feel for things, for any cracks in our mental walls. Almost as if he was peeking into them…but he’s not a mind reader right?

He was standing so casually…how come I felt this overwhelming heavy aura emanating from him? He hadn’t done anything, yet I was already starting to feel afraid of him.

“What’s with that face?” The man asked me, smirking a little.

Sure I was starting to feel afraid, but I’d already looked pathetic once, and this time I had my siblings right next to me. This man was evil, and even though he looked really strong, if he tried to attack my siblings for whatever reason I was going to fight back.

“Father…” Carla’s voice choked disbelieving.

“Ah, daughter of mine. Come over here.” The man said, waving Carla over.

Hesitantly she made her way past us.

“Who are you?” Lance demanded. The man ignored him.

“I was just passing through, looking for some people, and well you can tag along if you wish.” The man told Carla.

“I…” Carla started, her voice quivering with confusion and a little bit of anger.

“We’ll talk about it on the road.” He said. Carla seemed more frustrated than anything else. “Now you kiddos take care. I’ll look forward to when we meet again.” He said, the smirk never leaving his face.

I clenched my fists, getting angrier by the second. The way he’d said that…as if he was flat out saying he could’ve killed us, but he won’t so he’ll have some entertainment in the future.

With that last goodbye, he left with our Aunt.

I can’t explain it. How angry I am. He didn’t say anything wrong. All he did was come and make Carla go with him. He never said or did anything that would justify this anger. Yet the feeling this man lets out, the feeling he left in the school’s playground…it felt like all we’d done was stand around and watch as he played around.

As if we’d been mice in a cage.

Dun dun duuunnnn. Velor made a comeback.

And thus ends what I like to call an ‘arc’. So what you’ve just seen is Arc 1. Next up I have an intermission and then we’re back to Arc 2…Its really just a method so it’s easier for me to plan.

Alright! This chapter was a lot longer than I anticipated! I was very excited for this chapter…i’ve missed writing about Velor XD

And for some reason, during this whole chapter, James kept making faces like these;

It took me a while to figure out he had the grumpy trait XD. Foreseeing several picture taking problems in the future, I changed that trait for something else, but when Velor came around, James went back to be unhappy, angry and grumpy. It fit so well I added it in the story.

Good job James, in a video game, your mental fight against Carla counts as a leveling up!