Lurking in the Shadows (Completed)

Chapter 3

Nyx (Mina’s twin sister, during the ball)

Willow and I stayed inside while Mina went off to hide somewhere. She’d rather be our little wildflower. I smell the most intoxicating scent. It smelled of a birch tree, moss, and… lilacs? I search the room until I find a handsome stranger by the food table. He has dark brunette short almost black hair, a beard coming in nicely, the most piercing cognac brown eyes, and is handsome in his tux.

“Why hello there?” I blush at the handsome stranger. I brush out my ballgown hoping that it looks good.

“Hello…” he sniffs the surrounding air, probably smelling my scent. “ You smell of blood-red strawberries, midnight bloom jasmine, and dark Transylvanian plum. It smells divine.” He inhales me like I’m the most heavenly piece of food.

“Thank you? I think?” I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear out of nervousness.

“I’m Edward Moldark.” He sticks his hand out to me and I can’t help but smile.

“Nyx Mortem. I am one daughter of your host tonight.” I shake his hand and he kisses it.

“Would you like to dance with me, Miss Nyx?” I blush so hard I probably matched the flowers in the room.

“Sure..” The waltz plays and thank gosh I took lessons. The song plays and I feel like we’re the only ones in the room. I wish Mina was here. She'd be so happy for me. She was always the more girly twin out of the two of us and I’m not as elegant as Mina, but when it came to our monthly balls I went all out. Dress, heels, makeup, hair. All of it. Mostly I’d just wear a casual and simple day dress instead of this. We continue to dance through multiple songs before I hear a faint scream.

“What was that?” I looked towards the garden hoping that it wasn't Mina.

“I heard that too.” Edward looks at me worriedly. “Is someone outside?”

“Mina!” I grab my dress and run as fast as I can to the garden. When I find her it just horrifies me. Her beautiful dress is stained with blood, the snow stained with her blood, I look around to see boot prints in the snow, but I’ll make a note of that later. “MINA!” I pull her onto my lap and see that she’s been bitten... “FATHER! FATHER!!” I scream as loud as I can and my parents run up to us.

“Let’s get her inside NOW!” I try to carry her in my arms, but her darn skirt is in the way. “I’ll take her.” Father takes her into his arms and we take her to the infirmary.

“What do we do, Father?!” I’m on the verge of tears. I can't lose my sister!

“I’m gonna have to suck the venom out before it completely changes her. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t feed on you girls, but I have no choice in this matter!” He goes to where the bite mark is and does as he said. He’s careful not to drink too much from her and doesn’t turn her. When he is done, it looks as if she’s asleep.

“The venom is gone… but she’ll sleep for a couple of days. What do we know of her attacker?” I’ve never seen father so angry before.

“There were boot prints in the snow! I saw them walking away from her probably when we started running as Mina screamed.”

“That’s a good lead. We’ll start with that. Willow, can you draw the prints with as much detail as you can?” Willow has been our artist of the family, and she’s getting great at it. Many tutors have wanted to be the one to take credit for her skill, but she’s mostly self-taught from books, and just practiced by herself.

“Sure father, I can try. It’ll be hard because of the darkness and snow.” She scurries off back to where we found Mina and does whatever she needs to.

“How do we know what the venom has done to her?” I look at my father worriedly.

“It didn’t look like it had done too much to her. Maybe her skin is a little pale, but it had just barely begun the transformation. You did well screaming for help. Another 10 seconds and she would've gotten too far into the transformation…”

“Well, at least I could be of some help.” I feel a hand on my shoulder and I look up to see Edward smiling at me. I had almost forgotten he was with us.

“Oh father, I almost forgot. This is Edward Moldark, my mate.”

“Oh, wonderful! Glad the ball was a success for someone. Nice to meet you, young man. Human or vampire?” Father gives his hand to shake and Edward smiles at him, he gladly shakes it and it makes me happy.

“Vampire, fledgling. I was recently turned by my parents.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Sometimes if it takes a while for a vampire to find their mate, their parents will do it. I haven’t done it to our girls since I wanted to give them a chance to find their own love before we could do it. Unfortunately for Mina…” We all look down at my sleeping sister... “That was taken away from her… I hate to think what would’ve happened if we didn’t get to her in time.” I don’t want to think about it either.

“Why would someone do such a thing??”

“Desperation… if they haven’t fed in a long time and see a random person just sitting out in the open of course they’d take the opportunity.” Father seems to look sad as if he speaks from experience.

“Father? Do you know what that’s like?”

“Course I do… it was the day I found your mother…” He smirks at her and if she could blush she probably would. “I wasn’t too old for a vampire, but not really a fledgling either, and I haven’t found my mate yet. One day I was really thirsty… so I followed this delicious scent of a meadow breeze and wildflowers. It led me to your mother. You know your mother was human before you were born?” I nodded my head yes since she had told me their love story before, but dad hadn’t told me from his side. “It was so hard for me not to mark her for as long as I did, but we did some human traditions that helped with my… impatience.” My father smirked at my mother as she brushed away his long, wavy, platinum blonde hair.

“I’ll stay with Mina if you want to go back to the ball.” I give them a small smile as I had almost forgotten about it.

“We’ll be more than happy to stay by her side.” Edward squeezes my shoulder in comfort and my father smiles at us.

“Thank you, that’s very kind of you. I’ll let the guests know what has happened.” They walk towards the door and for now, Mina is just still. So still that I thought she was dead if it wasn’t for all the blood… I hold her hand hoping she can feel my comfort.

“Don’t leave me, Mina! We wanted to change together… remember? Find our mates together… well guess that didn’t happen, but I know you’d be happy for me. Willow may have found hers too, but I haven’t met him yet. Please come back to us Min… we love you…” I lay next to her on her small bed. I never in my wildest dreams would’ve thought this would happen to her. She’s always the soft and sweet sister… who’d want to hurt her!? I must’ve cried until I fell asleep. I climbed in bed with her, which is something I haven’t done since I was a child. We’re now in our early 20s and yet right now I may as well be a child wanting my sister… By the time I can feel the warmth of the room there’s a blanket over us and Edward has gone. I see some clothes for Mina and myself on the side table with a note.

My dearest Nyx,

You looked so peaceful next to your sister, and she needed you more than I. I asked your mother if I could stay in a guest room, and she gladly said yes. I’ll be more than happy to wait for you. Your mother picked the clothes, but I brought them down for you. I’m so sorry about your sister. No one should ever go through this! Biting someone without consent is just as bad as physically harming a human. It’s a huge no-no in the vampire world. So either this person is arrogant or just doesn’t value human life. Which is sad since what you’ve told me about your lovely Mina I can’t wait to meet her properly. I’ll wait for you whenever you’re ready.

Edward.

I smile at the lovely sentiment he left and I change into my simple long sleeve, red velvet dress with some black lace on the forearms and some black strings to tie in the front. A black choker, a simple black ring, and some black tights and boots. I gave Mina a peck on the forehead as I was leaving the infirmary in the nurse’s care.

“I’ll be back dear sister… I will find out what happened to you.” I leave the room before the tears fall on my face again, and find the rest of my family. “Did we find out anything about the person who attacked Mina?” I ask no one in particular just hoping that someone would answer.

“Well, according to the boot prints it was a male. If it was a lady, there’d be heel prints in the snow, but there’s not.” She showed me the sketch she made of the boot prints in the snow and for trying to draw in the dark with little light it was impressive.

“Good work Will! Well, that means we question all the guys from the party last night, right?” I look to my parents on what to do since this has never happened before.

“Yeah, we can round up all the guys that were invited and see what they have to say,” Father tells us with such a serious expression. We hear the clicking of heels coming from the hall and we all turn to see what the noise is hoping that it’s Mina, but it was just the maid…

“Yes, how can we help you?” Father asks the scared maid.

“The gentlemen you asked for are here, sire.” She curtseys and goes back to her work.

“Well, that was easy. I’ll go see to those gentlemen in my study.” Mother and father head towards the door and for someone so angry he’s also so calm.

“Well, I guess it’s just you and me today, Willow.”

“Father asked for the sketch of the boots so I’ll go give that to him.” She heads towards the study too, but Edwards passes by her and kisses her hand. It makes me blush that he’s so kind to my family.

“I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone. Shall we go for a walk in the garden? Maybe we can find something now that the sun is out?”

“Do you take a sun potion like my mother? Our cook, Juniper, can make you one.”

“Yes, I do, and thank you I’d like one.” I lead the way to the kitchen and we start our search in the garden.