What You Are
816 Words
Chapter Five
We don’t make it far down the pier. The car headlights cut through the fog like knives. Elias swears under his breath.
“That’s too fast,” he mutters. “They shouldn’t have found us yet.”
“They?” I ask. But then I see him, Kevin, stepping out of the driver’s side not hunched not awkward not “food poisoning. Confident and cold.
The version of Kevin I’ve known for three years, the one who forgets to stock the cider taps and complains about darts night, vanishes. He looks… older somehow. Sharper.
“Evening, Bella,” he calls casually over the wind.
I stare at him.
“You were meant to stay behind the bar.”
My stomach drops.
“What?”
Elias moves slightly in front of me.
“You said she didn’t know,” Kevin says to him.
“She doesn’t,” Elias replies.
“Doesn’t know what?” My voice shakes now. Kevin’s eyes flick to me.
“Oh, Bella,” he says softly. “You really should have asked about your mother.”
The world tilts.
“My mother died when I was ten.”
Kevin’s smile fades.
“No. She was killed.”
The wind stills. The sea goes unnaturally quiet and Elias whispers, almost to himself.
“They told me the bloodline ended.”
Kevin laughs.
“They were wrong.”
The taller man from the pub steps out of the shadows beside the car. But something is different. His eyes. They aren’t human anymore. They reflect silver in the dark. And when he smiles... There are fangs. Not theatrical not costume, real fangs. My body goes ice cold.
“Vampires don’t exist,” I whisper.
Kevin tilts his head.
“Not the way stories tell it.”
The tall man steps forward.
His movements are too fast too smooth, predatory. Elias moves before I can even process it.
He’s in front of me then suddenly he’s not. He’s there ten feet away. Hand at the vampire’s throat. And his eyes.
They glow not silver but gold.
“What… are you?” I breathe. Elias doesn’t look at me.
“I was trying to tell you slowly.”
The vampire snarls and throws him back like he weighs nothing. Elias slams into the pier railing, wood splintering under impact. Kevin walks toward me. And I realise something horrifying. I’m not scared of him. Not in the way I should be. There’s something humming under my skin. Like heat. Like recognition.
“You’ve been feeling it, haven’t you?” Kevin says gently. “The dreams. The cold water. The whispering when you’re near the sea.”
My heart stops because yes he's right i have since I was a child. The tide used to pull toward me instead of away. Objects move sometimes when I’m upset. Small things, glass cracking candles flaring.
“You’re not human, Bella,” Kevin says quietly. “Not entirely.”
The vampire behind him wipes blood from his lip.
“She’s a witch?” he asks.
Kevin shakes his head.
“Worse.”
He looks at me like I’m something ancient.
“Her mother was the last Sea Warden.”
The air shifts. Elias rises slowly behind them.
“You said the Wardens were extinct.”
“They were,” Kevin replies. “Until her.”
I shake my head.
“No. No, I work in a pub. I barely passed my GCSEs. I am not—”
The sea explodes. Not metaphorically. Literally. A wave crashes against the pier though the tide is too low for it. Water rushes around the wooden beams but doesn’t touch me. It circles my feet.
Alive. Listening.
Kevin smiles softly.
“You were never meant to serve drinks, Bella Rose.”
He steps closer.
“You were meant to command the sea.”
Silence.
Then Elias’ voice strained, urgent:
“They need you because you can kill them.”
I look at him.
“What?”
Kevin sighs.
“Sea Wardens were the only witches powerful enough to destroy the First Bloodline.”
The vampire’s expression darkens.
“Careful.”
Kevin ignores him.
“You see, Bella… Elias didn’t run from us because he stole something.”
He looks at Elias.
“He ran because he is something.”
My heart pounds so violently it hurts. Kevin’s voice drops.
“He’s the last heir of the First Bloodline.”
My breath leaves my body. The vampire behind him kneels slightly in respect and Elias finally says it.
“I’m not just a vampire.”
His golden eyes meet mine.
“I’m their king.”
Bella Rose. Witch-blooded daughter of the sea standing between a vampire king who might destroy the world and a boy you thought was harmless. Your entire life was a lie and the ocean has been waiting for you to wake up.
- Writer
