Never the Lone Moon

Chapter- 5

Norri

“Harvey? If she steps out of this house without your supervision—” Harvey didn’t even let him finish. “Don’t worry, sir. I will take care of her.”

Harvey looked at me. “Miss Elenor, you should not be seen around—”

Alaric cut him off. “Don’t bother, Harvey. Liam told her everything.”

Harvey’s eyes widened when he heard Liam. “But, but—”

“Not everything. Maybe the parts of it they believe were true,” he added.

“What do you mean by parts of it?” I asked.

He stopped in his tracks. “Xavier may be ruthless and cold-hearted, but he was never at fault back then; neither is he now.”

“Are you f*****g kidding me?”

“LANGUAGE,” he yelled. “He may be a hybrid vampire who kills, but he is never the coward who betrays or goes behind their backs.”

“You still back your friend? Don’t you trust your own pack?” I said.

“They were never my pack. I was a loner back then, so it is the same now.” He turned to leave, but stopped again and tilted his head.

“I am a hybrid that belongs nowhere.”

His eyes started to turn red. I could see the grey veins around his eyes and his fangs when he spoke. “I was abandoned.”

“Holy s**t, you’re a vampire?” I said as my eyes widened, my mouth wide open.

He sighed, shook his head, and walked into his room.

“What the actual f**k is going on?” I said out loud.

“Ahem.” Harvey cleared his throat. “Miss Elenor?”

“Harvey, you should stop calling me that. You need to stop. Norri is fine.”

“But—” I cut him off. “Ah, no more.”

He smiled, shook his head, and left the living room. I followed him. “Harvey, how did this all happen? Do you know anything? How did they turn into werewolves?”

“It was inherited from your grandparents, and before their parents, but—” He tilted his head to look at me. “No one had the pure original blood, but you and your siblings were the only ones.”

“How did Alaric turn into a hybrid?” I asked.

He sighed. “He was bitten by a vampire in a fight and…” He sighed again. “Mr. Lennox made him drink vampire blood. He was going to die either way, so Mr. Lennox thought, why not experiment with something? They were good friends, although…”

He tilted his head.

“Although what?” I asked. “It worked, right? He’s still alive, so it worked.”

He shook his head. “It didn’t. They had to—” He sighed again. “Story time is over, Miss. It’s his part of the story, and only he can share it with whomever he wants. I should not invade his privacy.”

-----------------

I was in my room, thinking about all the things we used to do when my family was alive. Ever since they had died, I couldn’t even shed a tear anymore. I didn’t know why, but I missed them. I missed being with them, but all this felt like a fever dream, and I was waiting to be awakened at any time.

But day after day, I was waking up in this lifeless room and seeing the same two faces at the dining table. I didn’t want to be here, yet I couldn’t leave. I wished Mom was here; she knew best. She always had the solution for everything.

I got dressed and went downstairs. Harvey was in the living room, searching for something, and Alaric was nowhere to be seen.

“Need help?” I asked Harvey.

“AH, found it.” He held the car keys and showed them to me.

“I was searching for this.” He smiled at me and walked out the door. I followed him.

Alaric was standing in the front yard near his car. I walked towards them.

“Where are you going? To see Xavier?”

He glared at me. “Harvey, get this kid out of my face.”

Harvey sighed and signaled for me to get inside. I cursed under my breath. “I can’t just sit in the house and wait for you to catch up with your long-lost friend. I need to find the bastard who killed my family,” I said.

Alaric slammed the car door. “Look, kid, I have no beef with you, but you annoy me way too much. I don’t care if you’re seventeen or whatever.”

He looked at Harvey, stepped into the car, and drove away.

“Let’s go in, Miss,” Harvey said. “Harvey? How many times should I tell you? Call me Norrie. No Miss Elenor anymore.”

He smiled. “Do you know how werewolves age, Norrie?”

I shook my head. “Are they like immortals or something?”

“They stop aging when they reach twenty, and your uncle right there is a hundred and ninety years old,” he said.

“He WHAT?”

Harvey nodded. “Yes. Your mom and dad were almost two hundred years old.”

“No way. Werewolves are immortal.”

“Yes, you could say that.”

“Harvey?” He tilted his head.

“Do you think Xavier killed my family?”

“I don’t know, Miss. We— I am sorry.” He sighed and walked into the study.

I slowly slipped out of the house and made my way to find where Alaric went. After walking for a few miles, I realised I couldn’t find him if I kept walking like this. I stopped for a while near a cemetery that had a road down the street.

I didn’t know it, but something in me pulled me to take that route. I walked into it and found astonishingly well-sculpted statues all over the place. At a glance, I wouldn’t have even noticed it was a cemetery.

There was no one there, just the sounds of birds singing and the wind brushing against my hair.

I opened my Maps app and walked down the lane to get to the other side, but it was glitching. I had no reception—a useless app when you didn’t have a signal.

As I walked down the lane, I saw someone standing and looking at the grave, but it looked like a private one, the kind you have for your family for generations.

I didn’t want to get caught by anyone, of all places, in the cemetery, so I turned around to leave, but I heard him clear his throat.

“Why are you leaving?” he asked.

Dammit, how would he know I was here?

I turned to see him. He was already facing towards me, and he looked familiar. Those ocean-blue eyes I could never forget.

He was the one who saved me from that guy in the woods.

What was he doing here?

Was he following me?

Why would he, when I was the one who interrupted his mourning or whatever he was doing here?

Was he with those guys?

Was he sent by them to kill me?

Was he one of the clan that was trying to kill me?

All those questions were spiralling in my head.