Chapter Two #2
Ambrose gave a dark snicker in response. “We come from a place like that,” he said. “Isa decided to take a trip to visit our grandmother, and here we are. Hopefully we’ll get out of there before we find ourselves trapped like she is.”
Jeremy laughed, oblivious to the darkness that tinged Ambrose’s laugh, and pulled back onto the road.
Small talk filled the car from there. Stories about places Isadora barely understood and events she had no context for.
It was so tediously drawn out that Ambrose quickly lost all interest in it.
He remained silently brooding about it in the back.
His gums ached with hunger as he wished he could drain the man just to shut him up.
Deciding it was better to endure unconsciousness than conversation, Ambrose leaned his head back into the fabric seats and closed his eyes. Within seconds, his body went still, slackening into the unmistakable stillness of death.
Isadora stiffened when she glanced at the rearview mirror and swallowed hard. Humans didn’t react well to the sight of a sleeping vampire. Quick to divert attention, she leaned further into the conversation, turning her attention full to Jeremy to ensure he did not look back at Ambrose.
When pureblood vampires slept, they appeared dead.
Their breathing ceased. Their bodies cooled.
All of this caused humans to often mistake them for corpses when discovering them at rest in tombs or hidden places.
When they woke, their warmth and movement returned.
But if a human were to take the risk of opening the eyelid of a sleeping vampire, they would still be able to see the gilded hue that adorned their eyes
That color was everything to born vampires in Shadowhaven.
The gold in their eyes appeared more vibrant depending on their power.
Isadora had come into her power at the age of ten.
This was the age that most vampire children began learning of their powers, their responsibilities and their role in the coven.
Though, it had taken years for her eyes to gain their gilded brilliance they had now.
Ambrose’s awakening had been far more abrupt.
Though he had siphoned his twin sister’s magic in the womb, his power had only spiked recently—earning him the vibrant gold eyes he now had.
There were few with gold eyes, a rarity that marked them as powerful and extraordinary.
Birthing vampires was also becoming increasingly more difficult every century that passed.
Those who were born with awakened magic became the leaders of their coven and signaled the curtain close for their current leader.
Her brother, Lucien, had been born with eyes of pure gold, so auric that they believed he could seize power at any moment.
This put fear in their father’s heart, causing him to hate Lucien and take his anger out on him as soon as he turned ten. Lucien eventually took to using glamour magic to dim the gold in his eyes so they were dull, hoping to protect himself from their father
Isadora didn’t like her brother, but even she had to step in a few times to stop their father’s beatings for fear that he was going to kill Lucien.
Memories of recent events took root in her mind, forcing her to face the window and wipe away the tears that welled in her eyes.
Jeremy noticed her distress, but remained silent to the situation in his passenger seat.
As she was composing herself, he continued with his story of winning his first football game by tripping over a squirrel. Something he had intended to make her laugh, but Isadora’s lack of mortal understanding kept her from identifying the humor.
They had made it an hour into the drive before Ambrose let out an audible yawn. Let’s just kill him and get there through his blood? If I hear another mundane story tumble off his prosaic tongue then I may just pull it out. Ambrose’s words rang in Isadora’s mind as he shared them with her.
Vampires like them were able to communicate to one another through their minds, much like telepathy.
Made vampires only inherited their maker’s immortality, speed and heightened senses with the drawback of a bottomless hunger.
This made purebloods top of the food chain and made the others as no more than a nuisance to the food chain.
If we kill him, you’ll take the blame when the family finds out, Isadora’s response came delayed as she felt a pinch of guilt. This man had seemed really sweet and now they were discussing draining and ditching him on the side of the road like road kill.
The family would deem this a mercy killing, Ambrose chuckled.
“Excuse me for saying, but this seems to be the wrong way," Isadora spoke up after she noticed the awkward turn they took.
The man remained silent, which was opposite of how he had been.
She thought he had become upset about something, but as she spotted a familiar white wooden object in his jacket, she realized what was happening.
Lunging first, she bared her fangs, but the man was unfazed as he plunged a different stake into her stomach before she had the chance to sink her fangs in him.
“Who sent you?” Ambrose demanded while Isadora wailed in pain.
It was a stake that was etched into by hunters to help subdue vampires before they decapitated or properly staked the vampire.
Jeremy remained silent. “Silence means nothing to us. I can easily get the answers I seek from where I’m sitting, but it won’t be painless. ”
A pause.
“Your brother paid me to find you,” Jeremy finally answered, looking in Isadora’s direction.
She glared at him venomously, making sure he knew how furious she was by the look alone.
He swallowed hard as he looked at that fire in her eyes.
She resembled her brother in that moment, the true purpose behind his fear.
“I have a family and this money will help my little cousin get out of this town that you two are so bent on going to. She doesn’t need to be weighed down by family burdens. I did this for her.”
“What if we pay you more to say you never saw us,” Ambrose questioned.
“And you tell us how to get to town. You are one of us, I can tell. Your werewolf blood reeks from back here, but we care not about that if you don’t take my offer.
I haven’t sunk my teeth into something that wasn’t an animal in days, so take my offer and live. ”
The man hesitated. It was a hell of a deal and he’d be a fool to turn it down, “Give me your word that neither of you will hurt me, kill me or retaliate in any way. Do that and I will take your offer.”
Ambrose gave a hum of approval after taking a moment to confirm the deal with Isadora, “Smart man. Very well, Isadora and I will vow not to come after you or harm you in any way for cooperating with us. I will also make sure that your mind believes you have never seen us to give you a better chance of survival should Lucien seek you out.”
Jeremy let out a sigh of relief, glad that at least one was being reasonable.
Isadora finally pulled the stake from her stomach, making sure it caught on fire in her hands before she threw the dust to the ground at Jeremy’s feet.
He flinched despite the vow of no harm coming his way having just been agreed upon.
“How much did he pay you?” she hissed through the pain of her wound healing. Jeremy shifted, uncomfortable with saying such a large amount. “Well?”
“Ten grand.”
The vampires were unfazed as Ambrose let out a sigh, “I will give you another ten grand and you will point us in the direction of our destination.”
Jeremy did just that, not wanting to risk the amount going lower. Little did he know; their bank accounts individually held more zeros than his mundane brain could fathom.
Once they had their path mapped out, Ambrose took care of his memories and left him abandoned on that gravel road inside his beat-up sedan.