The Immortals of Sumer

Chapter Four

“Never will I leave you willingly,” he said so solemnly that I froze. He felt it and chuckled, nuzzling against my collarbone. I stayed very still as he nibbled on my throat where he had already bitten and then he moved back a little to look me in the eyes again. “You’re going to come with me as we make our move. Bogdan says we go to Atlanta, Georgia then into Washington, D.C. before crossing the river to Virginia. Three spots and the country is mine.”

“I told you before: I don’t care; I’m not helping you. I will not help you be a monster. I will not help you cause harm. I don’t care what you do to me!” I repeated to him again and he growled down at me so loudly I looked away, off to the side. He instantly lean down and licked my throat again and I gasped, tensing. “D-Don’t-!”

He growled again, whispering, “Stop telling me what to do, woman! Behave!” I whimpered a bit as he bit down on my neck again, clenching my waist with both his hands as his body pressed mine back into the bed. I gasped again as I felt him break my skin and I felt me being drained again. I clenched my hands into his back, digging my nails in, and I felt him tense in pain. I hated how helpless I felt right now!

“I will hate you forever for this, for making me have to go with you to see you be a monster,” I said into his ear and he bit down harder, snarling. I swallowed back a cry, swearing to my mom and dad that I wouldn’t go down without fighting. He didn’t get to just make me a puppet and kill me whenever the whim hit him. I was gonna fight to get free from him.

He stayed where he was but pulled away from my collarbone, finally, as my ears were beginning to hear my own pulse. He licked my bite and then nibbled my ear, eliciting an excited gasp from me. He chuckled, inhaling my scent as his hand traced back up my waist along side my bralette and up my throat. He grabbed my chin as he lean away and told me to behave again.

I nodded weakly and he smirked down at me as we were suddenly moving again. He stood up and pulled me up with him, pressing me against his side. I needed his warmth anyway at this point. He smirked down at me and said, “I hear a new arrival. So I expect you to get cleaned up and dressed in something not covered in alcohol. Then you will come downstairs to meet the family, Elena.” Ugh! This bossy motherfu….

I took a deep breath to calm down and then I nodded. Fine, hope they like goth s**t, b***h. He caressed my bottom lip again before smirking down at me and leaving. As soon as he left, I wanted to fall apart and scream or throw something but-could he still hear? Did vampire myths have vampires right? The speed? The super human hearing? Clearly, not the sunlight myth, as I remembered him carrying me across the back yard to the woods to unearth the blonde, Radu.

I shook it off as I heard a car pull up. Okay, if he knew someone was coming but they just pulled up then the odds were that he could hear very well. Fine! I went to my closet and got dressed in a black tank top with a skeleton hand holding up the middle finger and a red and black tartan skirt with my black leather platform Demonia heels with buckles coming all the way up to my knees.

I grabbed a spiked choker to try and get that son of a b***h to stop biting me. I relined my black eyeliner very quickly and then slapped on my permanent black lipstick like I always do. I saw some rave glitter here and there still but I couldn’t do anything about that unless I showered and there’s no time for that.

Instead, I shook out my black hair and gave it a quick finger through before going out my bedroom door, excited to see Vlad’s irritated look. I heard deep male voices downstairs and descended the grand spiral staircase. As I got closer to the bottom steps, the men cut off their conversation and turned to look at me. I recognized Vlad, Radu, and Bogdan but there was another man now standing beside them, confused.

Bogdan was impressed, being used to the rave scene, and Radu was incredulous at what I was wearing. Vlad looked me up and down slowly and then smirked again, making me rage inside. This motherfuc- I held up my middle finger right next to my shirt and Bogdan chuckled, stepping forward to touch the man’s shoulder as he began making introductions.

Vlad vanished and reappeared beside me, making me step away, until he took my hand in a tight grip and pulled me forward towards the men. Bogdan was still saying, “Mircea, meet Vlad’s very own little witch, Elena. She resurrected him for us. Elena Velden, this is Vlad’s older brother, Mircea.” Mircea was staring at me so intently that I almost actually blushed.

What the hell is it with this family and weirdly intent looks?! Eventually, when we were closer, he offered his hand. I hesitated before going to shake his hand but he startled me when he brought my hand to his lips, all gentlemanly. “Welcome, witch,” he said and I wanted to roll my eyes between all the nymph and witch nicknames like dammit I have a name! We just got introduced; you just heard my name.

Mircea looked around the house and I took a moment to do the same. You could smell the fresh paint and chemical cleaners. It didn’t look like it had been ransacked at all, having been swept and painted. It was simply missing things like the broken lamps and the stolen TVs and Uncle. Weird…Vlad seemed to know I was having a moment because he actually rubbed his hand across my back for a moment.

I bit my lip and put my hair behind my ear as Mircea asked, “Whose manor is this?” Vlad spoke for me, thank goodness because I couldn’t find my voice. ‘My Uncle’s’. Two words, come on, girl! Get it together. Then I got a slap of reality again.

“It belongs to Elena now,” Vlad said and I sighed. His hand snaked from my back to my waist and pulled me closer to him. Okay, too personal! Personal bubble, dude! I was about to freak out on everyone when they all got serious and looked at the door. What’s going on?

“Someone is pulling in,” Radu said, more for my benefit than anything, and then Bogdan asked, “Oh, is this that Lanie lady that is incessant?” I scowled back at him before stepping away from Vlad to go to Lanie. However, I didn’t even get to the door before Vlad appeared in front of me, putting his arms around me.

“I said it before and I’ll say it again. You don’t get to leave my side; I cannot protect you from afar,” he repeated and I tried to shove him away.

“I don’t want your protection. I want you to piss off!” I said to his face and then I ducked under him. He didn’t expect that and I ran out the door with a chuckle.

“Have fun catching up with your family, asshole!” I gave a peace sign over my shoulder as I ran. I got to Lanie’s car and hopped in, saying: “Go! Just go!” Like any night we were sneaking out, she didn’t need to be told a third time. She put the car in gear and took off out the driveway.

We wound up just driving for over an hour as we talked about last night. She met a guy with tattoos and went to his car to lick them. Okay… “What happened to you last night?” She asked and I sighed. Oh, what do I tell her? What do I lie about? I had to think fast…Uncle wasn’t coming back. She’s going to notice eventually. This was serious talk, she even pulled off to the shoulder to look at me.

“So I brought my Uncles’ business guy back here…and it was so f*****g awkward. We beat Uncle back to the house so we were just waiting…and waiting…and we waited until the dude gave up and went home. My Uncle hasn’t answered any of my phone calls since like 8 PM last night and the construction and all that-the paint smell-I needed to get the f**k out of there to think of what I’m gonna do…”

“Wait so Uncle Velden is missing…?” She hesitantly asked me and I sighed, looking her in the eyes. She was shocked for me and I was thinking to myself: how shocked is everyone gonna be to find out Uncle is dead? How is everyone going to find out? What did they do with my Uncles’ body? I finally asked the hard question and wanted to cry.

Lanie must’ve seen that because she hugged me. She was telling me it was going to be okay and that he will show up eventually with a broken phone and a funny story. But he wouldn’t…. Lanie’s phone beep-beeped and we pulled apart to see a text message from Alexis.

If I thought Lanie was out there then Alexis could only be described as crazy. But it made us a great trio of girlfriends here in this small town. Lanie smiled at me, practically bouncing with excitement as she said, “I know exactly how to get your mind off this for a moment…”

And that was how we wound up at the Harrison’s lake house party, getting handed a lit joint and two red plastic cups of beer. Lanie laughed, dancing to the music with each hand full. She took a hit of the joint and then handed it to me. I hesitated but I didn’t want to care anymore-just let go, for a moment-so I took a huge inhale and held it in for a moment as I passed it off.

I started coughing and Alexis came up beside me, laughing. We stayed by the bonfire, dancing together to the music until a keg got brought down to the sandy beach area. As everyone went off to do keg stands and count, I saw Seth lingering by the fire still. I walked over to him, smiling, and took his hand. He looked down at me over the rim of his flask and said, “Hey, love.”

With red hair, piercings, and dimples, Seth was the only guy in town that held my interest. Not that I was interested in anything serious but, on nights like this, we tended to pair off by the end of the night.

He handed me his flask after a swig and I laughed, saying, ”Thank god, I hate-”

“Beer,” Seth finished for me and I laughed more. He chuckled, adding, “I know; you say this every time, love.” I took a deep chug of the flask once I stopped laughing and then handed it back. We looked up in time to see Alexis doing a keg stand and I gasped as her skirt went up with her red faced giggle.

I shoved Seth over there, saying, “I can’t do a crowd so high. Go save her!” I laughed harder as I stumbled a bit before someone walking past me handed me another joint. The good girl in me said it was stupid to smoke something just randomly put in your hand but…it’s weed…oh, well. If I die, I die having fun!

I toked on it so it didn’t go out and then sat down in the sand to enjoy some peace and quiet for a moment. I was getting sand in my leather platforms but, oh well, I usually did down here. See, this is what I love about weed. It’s not dammit anymore, it’s oh well…I smiled out at the lake at my own thought until someone kicked sand at me.

I gasped before I looked up to see a standard Abercrombie and Fitch walking mannequin drunkenly grinning at me with his buddies chortling behind him. I flicked some sand off the joint and hit it anyway as he still carried on, “Hey, freak, Halloween was months ago. Wait, I heard about you…Goth girl in the weird hospital house, right? You ever even been with a normal guy?”

I stood up, ready to fight, as I said, “No, I haven’t. There isn’t a normie around here that could handle me so don’t bother.” He scowled as he and his two buddies walked towards me. I raised my fists, ready for this, looking forward to this moment to get my anger out. They stopped as Seth stepped around them, hands up already too but in a hold-up motion.

“Now, now, lads, let’s walk it off,” Seth’s Irish accent coming out a bit more with the alcohol. I chuckled, putting my finger through his belt loop. He grinned down at it and then looked at the mannequins, saying: “Oi, f**k off! She’s not interested.” They walked away mumbling as Seth turned towards me. He was pulling out his flask from his back pocket again.

“Not a normie around here, huh? Good thing, I’m imported, love,” he said and I burst out laughing as I stole the flask from him. I took a drink before he took it back from me, taking my hand and pulling me close. “Come over to my place; we can watch the whole Wednesday series, love. You and I could actually try the whole Netflix and chill.”

“Hmm, I actually just might. You know it’s my favorite TV series and I don’t want to go home…But I came with Lanie-” I was explaining but he said:

“Lanie is fine; she’s a big girl,” and I laughed at his eagerness.

“I have ditched her once this weekend already and it’s only Saturday, handsome,” I mumbled and he started playing with my choker. I had a flashback of Vlad biting and kissing my neck and I looked around at the tree line, suddenly serious about him again. Oh s**t, I drank too much…where is he? I came back to myself a bit to definitely feel like I was being watched but part of me debated if it was just the alcohol now.

Seth could sense my change in mood and looked around too. “It’s ok, luv, its jess us,” his Irish accent slurred. He kissed me and, for a moment, I forgot what the problem was. I lean into him until we were interrupted. Lanie was standing over us and I laughed.

“I told ya, handsome,” I said, kissing him again quickly as I stood up. Lanie took my hand and smacked him over the head at the same time.

“God damn it, Seth! She’s stressed out, she hasn’t had a girls night without something interrupting us in a month, and you think you can jus-” she started a rant and he chuckled, giving a weak two fingered wave at us in the sand as I dragged her away from the shore.

“Okay! Okay! I hear you. Where is the third musketeer, then?” I asked and Lanie did actually stop ranting to look around for Alexis. I took a moment to look for Vlad or some sign of him. Nothing…he had followed me to Lanie’s, showed himself at the edge of the field, and I was sure I saw him as we walked to Bogdan’s night club too.

This would be a third time he followed me. He has the past two times; so if pattern persisted he would be here now. But it was different now because I had connected him to the important people he needed so maybe…I didn’t realize Lanie was talking to me until she yanked on my arm. “Where is your head at, girly?” She asked and I looked at her, my gut in knots.

“I think I messed up. I think I drank too much,” I muttered, only a half truth and not the whole story. Oh boy, my stomach was revolting as Lanie started to pull me by the wrist into the crowd. I cringed at the bodies randomly touching me and just put my head down and let her lead the way. Alexis was at the heart of the keg stand, of course, counting now.

I startled as she tried to introduce us to Mircea, her new friend. Mircea grinned evilly at me and I knew I had messed up for sure…oh, god. I tried to look around for Vlad but got bumped into as the guy currently going his keg stand came down and people parted for him. I was shoved again, this time into Mircea, and he gripped my upper arm, pulling me close as he lean down.

“We don’t have time for partying, darling; we have a war to plan,” he said over the music as he began dragging me out of the crowd. I could suddenly pick out Radu at the edge of the crowd, waiting for us, and he turned around and walked beside me as soon as I was free of the crowd of bodies. Goddammit! Bogdan was at the Escalade, scrolling on his phone and leaning against the SUV.

Where was Vlad? I looked around and then stumbled. Mircea chuckled and I scowled up at him, yanking my arm out of his grip. “God, I didn’t know another one of you meant another manhandling prick!” I muttered up to Mircea. I was high and drunk so my sass was going a mile a minute. “Get the f**k off me. Just because I don’t have a d**k, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to walk, even drunk! Thank you!”

All three of them shared a dark look with each other and I used the opportunity to look for Vlad. Curiosity finally won out and I asked, “Wait, where’s the original prick?” They shared another dark look and Bogdan motioned for me to get into the car. “Where’s Vlad?” I persisted and Radu sighed.

“Taking care of business; now move your ass,” Radu hissed down at me and my drunken self panicked and did actually get in the car without much fight. I had a barb to poke in these bastards…

“I knew he would be too busy to ‘protect me’ but, damn, to send his cronies to do it is low. Do you feel used, Bogdan,” I asked and he glared back at me from the mirror.

“Vlad was there too, honey, he is simply staying behind to take care of your business,” he said and I was confused. My head spun at what that could possibly mean…Before I knew it, we were already pulling into my driveway. Damn. I really didn’t want to be back here and dealing with Vlad yet. Especially since I was drunk and seeming to still be getting more drunk.

I grumbled about not wanting to be here anymore, dead people were buried under my house, it was probably haunted and I was gonna start seeing ghosts with my luck. Mircea burst out laughing, finally saying, “Well, at least she is entertaining.” He pulled me from the car and shoved me to Radu. I was too drunk for that and stumbled, totally about to eat it when Radu picked me and carried me into the house.

The house was empty and being aired out so the paint smell was fighting with the fresh natural air coming in through the windows. We entered the foyer and Radu set me down. “Okay, seriously, where’s Vlad?” I asked, anxiety eating at me.

Radu leaned down to me and I wanted to back up but didn’t trust myself to in my inebriated state. I could barely walk forward. “Worried about him, little one?” I scoffed.

More like worried about what he was doing? Why did I have so much anxiety over this? “Never,” I muttered and Radu growled.

“You will do well to respect your future King. You’re lucky as you’re on his sweet side, because to be on his bad side is to have a death sentence. He will have much stress in the coming days and you running off to f**k around is not a stress our brother needs. He needs to be focusing on his future reign.”

“You fuckers really think America could become a monarchy? That these annoying, loud, small minded people would give up their rights to vote like that?” I asked, drunk but still serious. “The poor already hate how voting options in politics stays within the rich candidates and you think they’d let one family hold a whole throne, a whole government?”

The men in the room looked at me and all nodded. Radu said, “Vlad, in battle, is something everyone should fear. He is a calm man but I think it is because his anger and strength and power all go into battle. He will be the same now as he was then. If he could hold off the Turks for 8 years, he can take over a population of phone-propaganda mind-controlled, fast-food-loving people who have never been to war in a lot less time.”

But some of us Americans did serve, have been to war, and I was sure these pricks would have another thing coming if they were serious about taking over the United States government. Suddenly, the front door opened and I jumped. I looked to see a very bloody Vlad entering the house and I gasped. “Oh my god, what happened to you?” I asked, partly concerned until I realized…”That’s not your blood, is it?” Oh no!

He shook his head, walking towards me with so much intensity that I did try to back up this time. He caught me by the waist and pulled me against him, not even giving me a chance to orient myself, when he lean down and kissed me. I gasped at the surprise contact and he deepened the kiss, tightening his arms around me until I was pressed against him!

I was so startled that I barely had the consciousness to try and push him away! When he broke the kiss, he smirked down at me and said, “Don’t ever make me do that again, Beautiful.” My gut clenched; I wanted to throw up now. I tried to slap him but he had my wrist before I could even get close to his face.

“Do what? What have you done?” I asked him, even more annoyed, and he let my hand go to brush some of my hair behind my ear, seeming to be checking out the piercings I had going up my whole ear.

“Never mind that now,” he said as he kept me close to him. I looked over the blood on him, terrified, as he spoke over my head at his brothers.

“If her friends come for her again, bring them inside,” he said darkly to them and I gasped up at him before trying to turning to them. He kept me pressed against him so me turning was more me turning my head over my shoulder to the others!

“Please! They haven’t done anything wrong.” I turned back to him to look deep into his eyes, ignoring the blood splatter on his face, pleading. He growled.

“They come over here again, they come inside, you do not leave,” he repeated and my heart raced, “However, they won’t be harmed.” I sighed at that.

“Fine, I won’t leave again,” I said up to him and he nodded, releasing me. I wasn’t quite expecting that and clenched his arm to steady myself. He grinned down at me and I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Behave,” he whispered into my ear and I shivered.

I took a deep breath and asked, “What did you do, Vlad?”