The Immortals of Sumer

Chapter Six

Needless to say, when I woke up in a pile of bodies on the couch, I was surprised it was just Lanie, Alexis, and I. I looked around the room but didn’t see the guys anywhere, much less heard them speaking. I slowly and carefully unraveled myself from the blankets and limbs to stretch. My neck and right shoulder suddenly disagreed with me and I groaned as I stomped into the kitchen for a Monster energy drink. I stood at the kitchen island when there was a notification on my phone.

I hadn’t looked at it in yet and was blown away at the amount of texts, messages, and mentions I had on my wallpaper. I only looked at the top notification of my Ring Doorbell literally a second before the doorbell went off in the house. I looked down at my phone to see the cops standing outside and my gut churned with nervousness. Was this about Seth? Maybe someone found my Uncle’s body?

No, maybe they just have questions about the party…but should I mention my Uncles disappearance now or will that seem suspicious? Cops just made me nervous, man, because normally I’d have a more level head to think this through more as I walked towards the front door with a cold sweat breaking out over my back. However, Bogdan was suddenly there, pulling the door open. Hopefully, that meant I wouldn’t have to say much.

“Good morning, Miss Velden, is your Uncle home?” Well, s**t!

“No, unfortunately my Uncle hasn’t come home or responded to calls since Thursday. I’m hoping he is in a bad service area and will be back home in no time with a silly story about it all. Should I leave a note for him about your visit?” Please, let this go…

“That’s alright, we are actually here to ask you some questions about your trip to the lake-not last night-but the night before last. What were you doing Friday night?”

“My friends and I went to a beach party at the Harrison’s lake house. I didn’t stay long; my boyfriend and I left to go meet up with his brothers.” They were now my alibi even though I didn’t do a damn thing wrong here.

“What’s the boyfriends name?” The female officer asked.

“His name is Vlad,” I said and the male sighed, shifting his stance to his other police uniform issued boot.

“He got a last name, hun?” I don’t actually know his last name or what he is going by in this century! Weird to think about.

“My nephews name is Vlad Tsepesh. I am Bogdan Tsepesh, his Uncle and Mr. Velden’s newest business partner. Once I wasn’t getting anything from her Uncle, I came out here to talk in person, but she explained the situation so now I’m just trying to take care of the business end of things while we look for him. Meanwhile, they’ve struck up some puppy love. Is there a problem?”

“We were wondering if you know a Seth Brennan by any chance?” They asked blatantly finally and I nodded.

“Yeah, I do. He and I used to hook up at parties like that one but things changed since I had a boyfriend this time around. He flirted and we shared a drink of whiskey from his flask but, once he got handsy, I walked off to find my girlfriends and call Vlad. I didn’t actually get around to calling him though, as he was already there and I had found him again, so he gave me the ride back to my place.” I secretly hoped that I wasn’t hurting Seth’s feelings with all these half truths.

Regardless, the cop started to shift again a sun I looked back at the female to see her move her weight over her feet too. What made them so uncomfortable just now?

“What happened to your friends?” The female officer asked and, suddenly, the door was yanked open further behind me. I jumped a bit as Alexia, who was still yawning, and Lanie stood behind me.

“Is this about the lake murders?” Lanie instantly asked and the cops had to rein us back in. They were here to ask the questions, not us asking them.

“We’re you ladies at the party?” they asked and the girls nodded.

“Yeah, we stayed until the party got broken up but this one bolted with her boy toy before that,” Alexis said, shoulder checking me a bit.

“So then, did you ladies see anything particular before or after Miss Velden left?” The officers asked them and, suddenly, they seemed much more interested in Alexis and Lanie than me. Cool, I’m fine with that. I looked up at Bogdan for a quick moment while they were all talking and Bogdan seemed very openly concerned.

“Okay, well, that will be it for now but we will come back with more questions maybe at a later time,” the female said as the male started walking away.

“Ah, no, we will have a lawyer here then. Anything you want to ask, you can ask through them. May we step out and speak privately as I walk you to your vehicles?” Even as Bogdan says it, I realize that two police cruisers were in my driveway. The officers seemed kinda confused by Bogdan but went with it and nodded. Bogdan left and started guiding them away.

“I didn’t want to say this in front of her, the poor thing, but is it possible that whatever happened to the lake victims, maybe her Uncle is included in the violence somehow…I don’t know the man personally but for him to go silent, and to not speak to even her, is suspicious to me now that this also happened so close to her too. Since I am not-.” He was out of range for me to hear now.

Wow, way to put my Uncle under the bus…unless he was saying that Uncle was a victim too, then good job throwing an innocent man under the bus! I closed the door slowly and turned to Alexis and Lanie, who were busy gossiping about the officers visit. All of a sudden, I noticed that Vlad and his brothers were standing at the foot of the steps, just observing and quietly talking back and forth. I sighed and it made the girls look back at me.

“Are you okay? At first, I thought you had called them for your Uncle’s like whole missing persons case but…I’m sorry…that blows,” Alexis said and I laughed.

“That did suck but it could be worse. Once they clear out, let’s go out to the porch and get high because I don’t want them ruining my…is it Sunday already?” I just cut off to ask and they laughed.

“Nope, the lake house party was Saturday, and Sunday was movie day in, so it’s gotta be Monday and that means we all just missed school so…fuck it, let’s go get high!” Lanie said.

“Yeah, if the police know your Uncle is missing that means the whole town will know by the end of tonight, so all I have to do is say that I was with you as support while you tried to report your Uncle missing and my parents will gobble that s**t right up. They probably wouldn’t even think about asking me about the party and whether we were there. They would only think as far as the fact the we were fellow students with them so they would feel like it’s a sensitive topic anyway.” Alexis added and I shrugged.

“Let’s get dressed and meet back up out on the porch in like five minutes?” I asked and they both nodded.

“Sounds like a plan,” they said as they turned to the stairs to go back to the room. I was confused as to where the guys went to now but I shrugged it off to go back into he kitchen for my energy drink. No one was in the hallway and no one was in the kitchen but when I turned around, drink in my hand, Vlad was there in my way.

He grinned down at me as he said, “I like hearing you say that we are together. Good job handling yourself with the authorities. Uncle Bogdan will make sure your Uncle’s death is slid in with everything else going on around here so it doesn’t raise any real questions. As fo-”

“I think you killing three boys is raising some serious questions,” I cut him off and he growled softly down at me.

“Listen well, my dear, you and I will leave once the suspicions of your Uncle are investigated. Only they’re left with only questions can we leave for Virginia and the like,” Vlad said and I sighed, randomly wanting to crush my pop can in a rare fit of anger. I ignored it, took a deep breath, and nodded as I tried to walk past him. I just wanted to get dressed and get high. This weekend sucked….and it got worse when he pinned me against the wall as I got the closest to him in passing. He snarled down at me before he himself took a deep breath and sighed.

“You are mine now and I am yours, bonded by blood,” he whispered down to me before he kissed me and, despite the fact that everything in me wanted to shudder, I managed to try to make my lips move against his enough to believe that I am trying here. He grinned down at me when we broke apart and I smiled up at him, completely pretending like I was talking to my biology teacher, trying to be as casual as I would be then. Otherwise, I might freak out that this serial killer is trying to claim me. Otherwise, I would be terrified of my fate…

He turned and sauntered away while I waited and gathered my wits. Moving on, I said to myself as I took the stairs two at a time to get upstairs to get dressed. Lanie was already in a black sweater dress and my black leather knee high boots of mine. Alexis was jumping into some of my red and black tartan leggings and a black off the shoulders sweatshirt and black seude boots.

“I forgot I even owned those,” I chuckled as I ran into my closet and shut the door behind me. The light was already on so I set my drink down on my dresser and grabbed a Mandela moon design on a black t-shirt with leather pants and my platform batty boots.

They were leather platforms with bat wings on either side of the shoes, making them flap as I stepped. These boots also matched my coffin bat purse with bat wings on either side of that but, since we were just going out on the porch, I didn’t need my purse yet. I actually agreed to stay around the house with Vlad so I wasn’t going to need my purse for awhile…how was I going to go to school? I’d have to throw that logic in the killers face.

Until then, the girls and I chatted about f*******: and what was being said all over our feeds as we walked outside. We passed a bong with ice cubes in it around a couple of times, coughing, as we started laughing at the fact that we completely missed school because we had passed out, curling up with the guys. But the guys were gone by the time we had woken up, which got us onto the topic of them, and the floodgate of curiosity.

The accents, did that mean they were foreign, maybe Ukrainian? They definitely don’t concern themselves with school so we’re they in college?

“They’re not in school, that’s for sure, and why pay for college when the whole family seems neck deep in businesses like Uncle’s so they probably already work or are loaded and don’t need to.” I tried to reason so we would stop delving deep into the mysterious men.

The girls couldn’t learn that dead doesn’t always stay dead or that the dead walked amongst us, curled up on the couch with us….I was going down a scary tangent in my mind as the girls went off to do their own things real quick, texting back people and posting updates and whatnot. I just walked through my house, looking at the photos on my Uncle’s desk of his sister, my aunt, and his brother, my dad.

A family photo of us all was framed and glaring back at me, mocking me that I was all that was left. I started going through the desk impulsively since I didn’t know a damn thing about our fortune, our duty to the hospital, or anything else, I guess I needed to find somewhere to start learning. I remember coming into Uncle’s study out of curiosity, trying to figure out the family business was that the old people were always going on about. How I would be lucky one day to own it all..but own what?

“Selena, dearie, you can’t be in here. You remember that my study is off limits, yes?” Uncle asked and I nodded, my lip pouting anyway.

“Uncle, what do you do in here?” I asked anyways and he smiled.

“When you are older, once you have a diploma in your hand, you may enter my study and look over anything you wish. For it will all be under your watchful eye after I leave this world,” he said almost woefully. But as a child, I was sure I was mishearing his tone and now that I’m older I wondered if it was the financial burden of our lineage that made him sound so stressed.

I was looking at the bills and other papers, so many numbers. The papers seemed to continue forever, from the bottom drawer, in a filing system of folders after folders. There were bills from hospitals, libraries, invoices from societies and associations and the like. Some of the numbers I could make sense of such as ten digit numbers and local seven digit numbers were probably phone numbers. There were 12 digit numbers that maybe were bank accounts or something.

So many numbers…it was so overwhelming that I set it all back down and sat back with a sigh. Maybe I would do this later, I thought as I pushed off of the desk and stood up from the chair. Maybe I needed a financial advisor to help me get started…

The girls came upstairs, searching for me, and we all went to my room to chill and talk until Bogdan came to see me. He asked to speak to me privately in the study and I nodded, Joplin yup from the bed to follow him across the foyer and into the library. Connected to the library was Uncle’s study and there he gave it to me straight.

“The authorities are most likely going to put your Uncle’s disappearance and the boy’s deaths all as one happenstance. Now, I’m told you want to hire a lawyer to help prove they have no evidence besides proximity to the victims and prior dealings. This will be done as well, however, I need to know that your alliance is with our family now that we are about to go to war.”

No, I hoped you all fall, I thought personally but then I smiled and nodded, stepping closer. I smiled and said, “You helped me. Your whole family has. Vlad saved me from thieves, you helped get the house organized, and all the while I’ve been useless. It’s like I can’t even process that…so much has happened. I’m probably not the most grateful seeming person right now and I do apologize. Like I said, I’m just struggling to wrap my head around all this,” I said and he nodded.

Seeming to have bought it, Bogdan nodded and said, “Completely understandable. You’re doing fine. Of course, I’ll be here to help you adjust to the rest of what is coming. As you are a part of the family now, I am your advisor now too. For now, I’ll let you process this some more as the remaining family members come around. Then we will settle your finances and future expenses as we ready to leave the state.” Bogdan concluded my fate for me and I nodded against the anger choking me.

Curse this Tsepesh m whole family. If there was any magick in my blood, I wished with every fiber of my being, that this family would be cursed! Damn each and every male of this stupid Tepes or Tsepesh family! I’ll smile at them while I will try everything I can to destroy them! I nodded and left the study to go find the girls. By then, their moms or dads were calling to check on them, having heard the news about everything happening.

If their parents had heard about the murders and my Uncles’ disappearance, then I should have realized who else would have heard about it. Needless to say, their parents had no problems with them staying with me for support and Alexis’s dad even promised to stop by tomorrow after work with pizza for all us girls. Lanie’s mom said she would left Lanie stay as long as I need! She even offered to let me stay at the farm until my Uncle was found safe and sound but I played it off that I needed to take care of a lot of phone calls and things here.

Everyone seemed to be treating me like I was made of glass all the while I was raging inside like a storm of lightning that makes the glass on the shores. So, needless to say, when my stalker ex came onto the property, I didn’t handle it well. Vlad, Radu, Mircea, and Bogdan were readying for the arrival of Alexandru and Ruxandra or whoever. I was even less impressed with the idea of more creatures being in my family home but I smiled like I was excited to meet the chick, oh, a female, finally! Whatever.

They were believing it and that was all that mattered. However, it left them slightly distracted at first. They didn’t realize someone was walking up the driveway, probably in a silent stalker like way, and there was a knock at the door that no one warned me was coming.

I hesitated in the hallway, having a horrible flashback of how bloody the white front door had once been…and something in me was nervous, the hairs on the back of my neck raising. I opened the door quickly and then gasped at the sight of Ryan standing there. He had black roses for me in his hands and a sheepish look. “What in the f**k are you doing here?” I asked seething and he held up the flowers.

“Hey, babe, don’t get mad! Wait! I heard your Uncle is miss-” he began and I lurched forward, swinging with my everything! Ooh! My knuckles cracked as I punched him right in his jaw and cheekbone area. Whoops. I had been aiming right at his nose but my lurch put me closer by an inch and I felt it. He felt it too as he groaned, stumbling back a step.

“How dare you!” I hissed out and he started to back up. I ran up to him at the edge of the porch and kicked him in his chest. He flew backwards off the porch, onto his back on the grass with a heavy groan. “Who the f**k do you think you are? Coming here in the middle of this s**t storm! How f*****g dare you?!” I shrieked and he tried to speak but, all of a sudden, I noticed his eyes shifted behind me and he sneered. He usually only held that sneer in reserve for me in private and my friends publicly. Sure enough, my friends had my back.

“What the hell are you doing here, you sick f**k?” Lanie asked and he scowled at her even deeper. It was when he shifted his eyes to Alexis that I noticed him look even further behind him. I finally turned around to see Vlad and his brothers’ standing at the porch steps. I actually grinned at the sight of him for once and meant it. I turned around with a perk in my step and practically skipped right up to Vlad and took his hand. I stepped up on one foot, onto my tippy toes, and kissed him on his cheek.

“Bye, dumbass,” I said over my shoulder. I walked back into my house as my friends, confused as hell, followed me.

“Wait! Babe, who the hell are these guys? What are they doing in your house?’ I heard him ask and I giggled.

“That’s my boyfriend, who I haven’t had to mention you to. He wouldn’t have been fond of knowing about my stalker ex and yet here you are. Like I just said, goodbye, dumbass,” I said as I closed the door. Lanie and Alexis peered out the window panels that ran alongside both sides of the door. I couldn’t care what they were seeing but Alexis gave me a play-by-play.

“Oooh, those delicious protective hunks are dragging his creepy ass right off the property! Thanks so hot! How he just swoops in for you,” she said as I started to walk back into the kitchen for another energy drink.

Bogdan was there, stirring a cup of tea daintily, at the kitchen island. He sighed at me and then said, “After this is dealt with, once our family and closest friends are here, we will find you some adequate protection. You and our dearest, Ruxandra, will both need guards as we continue on our way to ruling. I also have my lawyers and one of my financial advisors coming over tomorrow to begin making sure your estate and duties are cared for here. Is that something that is okay to have gone ahead and scheduled for you?”

I respected that he was even asking me and nodded. He nodded back with an easy smile. “Thank you, I was looking over some paper sun my Uncle’s study today and, wow, the bank accounts alone were a lot to try to follow, like the coming and goings of them all. The hospital invoices and library wings donations being collected from the family trust like yikes…I need to take an extra Econ and Finances class or something,” I said with a chuckled and he was nodding along.

“When it all shifts to you, suddenly, it seems overwhelming but, in days, you’ll have it all under control like your predecessors before you did.”

“Thanks, that helps me feel a bit better. Sounds like you are speaking from experience,” I said, digging a bit for information on the family.

“I am speaking from experience, my dear, And my experience goes on to tell me that you will do fine amongst our family. Vlad chose well and I know he intends you keep you close, keep you near him, but I do so worry. Forgive me for being so plain but you might be a distraction to him in battle now that I am aware of how deeply bonded you two are.”

“He said that too, bonded by blood, he had said,” I repeated and then I got nervous. It was not a good nervous; that was not a good thing to be bonded to him. Something told me no, no, everything was telling me it was wrong! But I had to bite down on my anger and hatred. Deal with my Uncle’s death and Seth’s injustices, then I would figure out a way to get some distance between him and I.

Until then, I needed to say whatever these demons needed to hear, “I don’t know what exactly that means but I do hear your concerns for your family. I don’t know enough to agree to do anything right now but, please, let me know if there is anything I can do to help protect us all in the future if I must.” He seemed to like hearing that because he nodded and smiled.

“I knew you had a strong survival instinct in you, Beautiful. Let us talk about it later, I’ll go clean up after the boys, and you go entertain your ladies. In an hours time, the rest of the family should be here,” Bogdan said succinctly and I nodded, taking my drink with me to let him go figure out what else Vlad has done now. If he did kill Ryan, then I wouldn’t be so upset at him this time. At least this time, he killed an accused pedophile and a woman beater-that I can attest to!

I went to the theater room to find the girls filling a bong and holding a bowl of popcorn at the ready. When I asked, “What are you doing?”