AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I scramble to the bathroom, and my lips part.
I love Charlee.
She listened when I said, “Not too much,” and went with a natural look. Light brown shadow to give me depth, with a bit of golden shimmer for some pizazz. Cherry blush gives my skin just a kiss of color, and I don’t remember her coming at me with lipstick, but there is a gentle stain of red with a slight sheen of gloss. The brown mascara and eyeliner keep my eyes from looking too harsh, and whatever she does to my eyebrows makes them look fantastic. She used a bit of everything, but it doesn’t feel like my skin is suffocating.
“Charlee, I’m beautiful!” I credit everything to her handy work.
“Shush, you were already gorgeous. I just helped bolster it.”
I hug her again. It feels good to have someone help me do these things. Maybe I will find that I loved doing them before, but until that day comes, I will take all the help I can get to feel normal.
It turns out Charlee wants to “show me off” to the rest of the coven. It is embarrassing, but she assures me I have nothing to be embarrassed about. So what if I had been in a horrific car crash, I am part of the family now. She also informs me that most of the coven had worse death stories than mine, and many, if not most, had been rescued on the brink of death.
I discover the house is a big modern home tucked into a bunch of tree cover. Large windows in the living space give a fantastic view of the mountains rolling around us, and the other direction has a nice view of Callery. An open concept lets the entryway, living room, kitchen, and dining area flow nicely into one another. There are two staircases, each leading to a landing with several doors lining the wall.
It seems like an odd amount of bedrooms, but I remind myself this is a coven that probably had the house custom-built for their needs. All the furniture is mismatched, blending the different personalities of this family. “The boys,” Charlee called her brothers. There were Oz and six other vampires.
Introductions are made, and I try hard to remember everyone’s names. Rolando, who Oz also turned into a vampire. He has kind eyes and seems bookish. When he smiles at me, though, I think I catch a flick of his eyes to Oz. Does he know something I don’t?
Rolando is making a digital archive of all of the coven member journals to have a detailed history. He shows me the crates of leather-bound books he is hoarding like a dragon in the study that has become his cave. I’m immediately intrigued, and my mind drifts back to the business card I found in my things. Maybe I can be helpful here?
“Right now I’m transcribing this old journal of Leland’s” He shows me a book that is centuries old with faded writing. Even with vampire sight, I can barely make out the lettering. No wonder he wants to preserve all of this history.
In walk two men, one tall and lean with short brown hair and kind eyes. Rolando calls him Zach. The other man has dark tan skin, and short black wavy hair, and despite his baggy clothing, I can tell he has a fair amount of compact muscle beneath. His name is Chandra.
Rolando explains that Zach was found being slowly compressed to death in a silo after a mishap led to him falling into his grain. It turns out, Chandra had been passing by that day and used his strength to tear the silo apart and get Zach out. The pair is pretty clearly an item.
Zach is quiet but has a warm smile that he offers me when Oz gestures to him in turn. Chandra, it turns out, is the mouthpiece of the relationship. He takes my hands in his and stares deeply into my eyes. Dark brown, rich in their color, and filled with a serene sincerity that is captivating. A hint of danger lies behind it all, and when he gives my hands a gentle squeeze, I realize I have tensed and force myself immediately to relax.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Wren.” He says, and each word sounds rich in my ears. He tells me about his life in India, but before he can get to the part where he became a vampire, three more of the family tumble in.
Alex, Raymond, and Derek are referred to almost as a unit, and just as I’m wondering if they’re brothers, Oz sidles up beside me, nudging my shoulder with his, and murmurs, “Triplets. Fraternal, of course.” I see small differences between the brothers, but they all share the same crooked smile.
Alex, who seems good-natured and joyful, throws his arms around me in a big bear hug, fully lifting me off the ground before setting me back down. “Welcome to the family,” he all but shouts, ruffling my hair.
Quickly, I try to smooth it back out, but Raymond takes his turn to also hug me, much more gently than his brother had. “It’s nice to meet you, Wren,” he said, his voice softer.
Derek brought up the rear, and approached with his hands shoved in his pockets. “Yeah, welcome to the land of the dead.” Morbid, but there is a hint of a smirk on his face.
I smile back. “Pretty limber for a dead girl, huh?”
His smirk broadened into an actual smile and he clapped me on the shoulder. “Quite a pistol, you’ll fit right in!”
The atmosphere is friendly and communal. My focus is split between watching everyone and speaking with them. I am amazed at their effortless existence with one another. Everyone in harmony while they each did their own distinct hobby or activity. Zach and Chandra excuse themselves to go spar outside. Charlee left to check on her shop in Callery for the night, and Rolando returns to his work. The triplets take off after Charlee to spend the night out, leaving me alone with Oz and Rolando.
Oz lightly takes my arm and says, “They were in pretty bad shape when Leland found them about a century ago.” He gestures at the door they just left through.
Leland.
The leader.
Apparently, he is away on some important business, so I won’t meet him until later.
“Strange to have three brothers all turned, or are blood relations common?” I turn to look at him. An involuntary gasp escapes as I take him in. I don’t know if it is all the confusion of being new, but I couldn’t see him clearly when we were upstairs. Here though, I can see the light tan of his skin, and the angles and planes of his face are sharp. I almost miss his response.
Is it the haze of being new that did it? I thought he was attractive before, but this is different. Something in my brain screams at me to focus my attention on Oz.
“No, they are unique.”
