Twilight In Babylon

Twilight In Babylon The Vampire Gabriel The Vampire Saga by Julien Gregg

Introduction To Twilight in Babylon

This story is the introduction to Twilight In Babylon. That is a book of the The Vampire Saga -- Twilight hybrid story. Many of you have asked for it and I finally figured out how to do it. This story will be long and it might will be very quick and probably have fewer descriptions. This is the back story of Gabriel and how his family came together before they were in Babylon, Texas to start the Twilight section of this part of the saga.

I have changed names, places, and people in the story to fit the Vampire Saga. Rules had to be followed so females became males to keep them in the rules of the Vampire Saga. If you like it please let me know. If you don't, well find something else to read. THIS WILL NOT BE A CARBON COPY OF TWILIGHT. This is a stand alone series that is based loosely on Twilight and will never be anything more. My hat is off to Stephenie Meyer for her tale of strange vampires and shapeshifters. I will keep the shapeshifters as they were an integral part of the story line.

In this story universe there is no Volturi. I had to create one. With Eric asleep and Brendan in charge this was very easy to do. This part of the series unites The Vampire Saga, The Moreau Witches, and the Tales of Vampires series. This is also something that people have asked me to do. I'm killing two birds with one stone. I will try to go through each of the books as they happened.

Some of the characters you will remember from my own Vampire Saga. Some will be based on characters that were created by Stephenie Meyer. I don't want to take over her stories but I want to salute her. I hope she reads this and I hope she likes it. I don't know that she'll ever read this but here we go.

Remember, this is not a carbon copy. That's plagiarism. The story had to breathe in the Vampire Saga universe. I could have placed it in the Tales of Vampires universe but that was not what was asked of me. I had to put them together a little earlier than I wanted to do this so here they are. Please read it in fun and enjoy.

The night was wet but not cold. Of course it wouldn't be cold to one of us, but for New York it was a nice seventy degrees. I walked through the rain pelted streets just out to enjoy the rain. I picked up scents of this and that all over the city. I was in Manhattan and it was a bit more beautiful than I remembered it.

I enjoyed the stonework buildings as I walked among them. I walked down a narrow street with the stonework buildings on either side of me. These were apartment units in neat little rows on either side of the street. Various scents tiptoed across my senses as I walked down this street. All of them innocent so far. That was fine with me. I wasn't all that hungry.

Now that the restriction from the sun had been lifted once again, vampires could roam the cities during the day with other mortals. I liked the nights myself. There was something about the moonlit streets of Manhattan that really captivated me.

As I walked I thought about my life of darkness. It started when I was young enough to pass for a teenager. I still could, but sometimes people saw the agelessness that I tried to hide under a baseball cap and sunglasses.

There were four of us in the beginning. Brendan, Holden, Andrew and myself. I sighed as I thought of Andrew who was now dead. Holden was changed beyond anything I could fathom, the change brought about by tiny nano computers. He couldn't walk among humans anymore.

It was Brendan who suffered the most of the four of us. His birth to darkness was so unlike any other. He woke starved and in isolation. He'd starved for days and to a vampire that had to have been an eternity in pain and suffering. It had changed him from the young looking dirty blonde haired boy that had come from the orphanage with me. Now he was chalk white, flaxen blond, and a bit lethal.

Brendan currently sat on the throne as the proxy to the King of Immortals. He'd changed House Maxwell into a veritable castle. It was now a four-story gray stone building with black slate for a roof. The coat of arms was on both of the double doors at the entrance. I hadn't been there much since the changes had taken place.

I'd been out in the world, my tryst with the Vampire Jessup had stung so I had fled. Now I was out in the world with no drone and no fledglings. This was a fact that needled Brendan but I had gotten along in the world without either for many years now. Jessup was now in Chicago with the boy he'd rescued, Perrin, Miguel, and a host of Forsaken drones. I didn't tell anyone but Jessup rescuing a boy really did a number on my black little heart. Still I couldn't go to him. It was too painful to be rejected.

I thought of all of this as I walked the streets of Manhattan. I supposed I should have gone to San Juan and taken a Forsaken drone like Brendan wanted, but I was stalling that for some reason. Perhaps it was the streak ingrained in me to save the tortured or dying. It was the only way I'd make a vampire fledgling. I hadn't found that tortured, dying boy that cried out for me to make him mine. I hadn't been looking for him either. This angered Brendan, but as one of his brothers I was given a little pass for my bad behavior.

What could he say? Jessup had rescued a human child! That was unheard of. No, I dare say Brendan had his hands full. He had far more to keep him occupied than one errant brother who hadn't consented to take a drone or turn a fledgling.

But what you deny will certainly slap you in the face one day. My day of reckoning seemed to be tonight as I caught a sad, tortured scent as I walked. It was faint but getting stronger as the buildings around me turned to skyscrapers. Was someone tortured in one of these buildings? No. The scent wasn't coming from the buildings. It was further down the street.

Oh what suffering was happening down the street? Could no one sense it? Was I the only vampire in Manhattan? Surely some vampire had sensed this pain and sorrow and walked by it. I would not. It called to me, pulled me down the street toward the source of such utter despair.

Before I knew it I was standing in front of the building. It wasn't a building but a house. What it was doing among all of these skyscrapers was unknown to me. Yet here it was. A small one-story brick house in a sea of towering skyscrapers. The scent was strongest here. Oh how could no one sense it?

The house looked like a house that belonged in the suburbs. It was a ranch style house with a roof that extended over a carport. There was an SUV in the carport that looked newer than some on the street. Huge potted ferns were on the stoop at the front. People lived in this house.

I cast my senses out over the house and got what I needed. Evil blood. I could also sense that the tortured soul was a boy no older than sixteen who was chained to a wall in the basement. I entered the house silently. I stood on a hardwood floor with white plaster walls surrounding me. There was a door at the end of the hall I assumed opened on a bedroom. There were three on the adjacent wall to the extension of the house beyond the hall. These were probably bedrooms as well.

The archway that opened on the living room showed me another hardwood floor with blue painted plaster walls. There was a sofa against the outer wall where the bank of windows were. I walked into the room. A settee sat across from the sofa. These were floral print and new.

At the other end of the long living room was a television. It was a huge contraption with a very vivid picture of a boy on a mattress in a cinder block basement. A manacle was camped around his left ankle, keeping him from leaving the basement. A man was raping the boy as the boy cried. The man's face was not on camera. There were two men and a woman sitting in the living room watching the show on the television. They looked normal. The woman looked like a middle-aged soccer mom. She had honey blonde hair that was naturally curly. Her blue eyes were bright and wide with fear as she beheld me.

The first of the men, the one seated next to her was blonde with blue eyes and a mustache and goatee that were also blonde. He didn't look frightened by my presence. He looked angry.

The other man sitting on the settee hadn't seen me yet. He had a head full of dark hair and when he looked at me I saw his blue eyes. That these people could sit up here and watch this filth was unforgivable. That they could leave that boy in the basement chained to a wall was unthinkable.

My own human past came back to me as I stood there and beheld these three evil people. I knew a fraction of the suffering that the boy in the basement was going through. I had escaped it, but he had not.

The first man, the blonde got up and came toward me. I saw the gun in his hand and smiled. That seemed to piss him off even more. He fired at me, the bullet stinging as it hit me. Then I had him. I grabbed him roughly and held him against me.

"What the hell are you?" he demanded, breathing hard.

"Your end," I said before I bit him.

Oh the evil that washed over my pallet as the blood flowed. This man was so evil that he belonged in a cell under House Maxwell. His crimes were laid out for me to see as I slowly drank from him.

The other two sat stunned as they watched what was happening. They jumped when the body of their comrade burst into flame and was incinerated until it was nothing but ash at my feet.

The woman tried to run for the back door but I grabbed her and snapped her neck in one lunge. Then I turned as she fell to the floor and watched the second man, the dark haired one. He looked at me with utter terror on his face. I pulled him off the settee and drained him dry very quickly. I'd seen enough in the other man's blood to know I didn't want the onslaught from this one.

When he was ash at my feet I went to the television and got the DVD out of the machine. It was splinters in my hands in seconds. It didn't take much looking to find the others marked "Elfric". I destroyed them as well. I wanted no evidence that the boy had ever been here. I went through the house and tore apart everything, looking for evidence of the boy.

I found custody papers and a folder with his birth certificate, social security card, and school transcript. I folded this and put it in the pocket of the coat I was wearing.

Then I went to the basement. My heart broke at the sight of him. He was thin, so painfully thin with sores on his skin. He lifted his head and looked at me and moaned. I crossed the distance between us and stood before him.

"No more," he pleaded. "I'm sick."

"I've come to rescue you," I said.

"That's what they all say," he said and lost his grip on consciousness.

I ripped the manacle's chain from the wall and then pried the damned thing off his leg. I found a sheet to cover him with and lifted his frail body into my arms. I ran to the hotel and up the fire stairs to my room. I laid him on the bed and went back to the house. I burned it with gasoline and matches until there was nothing left.

Then I went to buy that special plastic sheeting with the handles. It was used for animal birthing. I went back to the hotel and moved him from the bed to the couch in the sitting room. He was so frail and sick. He radiated heat, and I knew that it was fever. Those bastards had let him lie in his own filth.

Once the plastic was in place I put him on it. Then I drank from him. Misery and suffering slammed into me as I drank. I cried for him as I saw all that had been done to him. When his heart got to that terrible rhythm I stopped. I bit the inside of my wrist and put it over his mouth. He latched onto my arm and held me in place as he drank my blood. Did he know? Did he realize what I was doing to him? I'd said I'd save him, but what I really meant was that I would turn him.

When he was safely asleep on the plastic sheeting, I went to shower and try to scrub off some of that misery that had come from him in his blood. Of course I couldn't shower it off, but I sure tried.

I spent the three nights coming and going from the room. Fledgling vampires who were turning usually expelled blood, shit, piss, and everything else that was human. He did as well, but there wasn't much of any of it.

He didn't wake on the third night. No not my Elfric. He woke on the fourth night. He sat up in his filth and looked around. I guided him off the bed and into the shower as I pulled the tabs and bundled the sheeting up. I put it in an air tight plastic bag while he showered.

I also got him some of my own clothing to wear once the shower was complete. I put them next to the towel in the bathroom. He didn't seem to care that I had entered. I went back to the sitting room and took a seat.

The rooms were carpeted with plush beige carpet. The walls had wallpaper and crown and kick molding. The sofa that I sat on was comfortable beige plush. The matching chairs across from me were the same. Lamps lit this room. They were on end tables at either end of sofa and between the two chairs. A television was in this room but I did not watch it. I waited for my fledgling.

"You turned me into a vampire," he said as he came into the sitting room wearing my clothes.

"I did," I said.

"I don't hurt anymore," he said. "My body is like nothing I had before. My mind can think of so many things, and my stomach seems to be turning inside out with hunger."

"We'll hunt," I said.

"Yes," he said simply.

It didn't take us long to find criminals in the streets surrounding Central Park. We took them into the park and Elfric did just fine with his own criminal. I had to tell him to stop when I heard the man's heartbeat change. He did so and burned his victim to ash. That seemed to amaze him as he stood gaping at the ash at his feet.

"You'll get used to that," I said as I incinerated my own victim.

"Can all vampires do that?" he asked.

"Not all of them," I said. "Some have to be a bit more savvy."

"Why did you do this to me?" he asked.

"Because you were dying," I said. "I couldn't let you die. Not when I wanted so desperately to save you."

"Why did you want to save me?" he asked.

I told him of my human past as we walked back to the hotel. I told him everything that had happened between me and my father, the beatings, the rapes, all of it. I told him more than I'd told anyone before and he listened to everything I said.

"That's why I did this to you," I said.

"We're kindred spirits almost," he said. "I love you for what you've done."

"I love you for who you are," I said.

Then I told him that I'd broken a rule by turning him. He asked about that. I told him that I was supposed to take on a Forsaken drone before I turned him. Then I explained the rules of the vampire. I told him that I had to contact Brendan and tell him what I'd done.

"Will you be in trouble?" he asked.

"No," I said. "Brendan is my brother in the blood. We were turned by the same maker."

"Ah," he said. "And when do we go to this San Juan."

"I'll call him first and see what he says," I said to this.

He had taken the news about Forsaken with aplomb. He listened to all I said about Brendan and Holden. He seemed intrigued by Holden and wanted to see him for himself. I promised that one day he would see him.

We got back to the hotel and I made my phone call to San Juan. Brendan wasn't surprised to learn that I'd sired a fledgling before I'd bonded a drone but that I'd sired a fledgling at all. He told me to fly to San Juan and we'd talk about the bonding of a Forsaken.

We shopped for clothes for him. He was amazed that we could walk in the sun. Everything he'd learned about vampires was fiction. I had to school him in the ways of a real vampire. He'd learned in school about the vampires of the nineteen seventies but also learned that it was a hoax. I told him that it wasn't a hoax and told him about what had happened later.

We boarded a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport with a direct flight to San Juan, South Texas. We were on the plane for three hours and then driven to the palace in an unmarked SUV. The driver was Forsaken but I could smell that he was bonded. His name was Royce and I wondered who he was bonded to.

We got to the palace and Elfric was amazed by its size. We went in the double dark-wood doors and Brendan met us in the foyer. Elfric didn't bat an eye at his appearance. Brendan's chalk white skin was exposed as he rarely wore a shirt. His leather pants and biker boots were what he usually wore. We followed him into the sitting room. Royce went to do other things.

"Gabriel," he said smiling and showing his fangs. "It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too," I said, smiling.

"And this is Elfric," he said, looking at my fledgling. "My but you do look a little elf like, don't you?"

"It's my ears," he said, pulling his hair back to let us see the tiny points at the tops of his ears.

"There's elf in you," Brendan said. "I can smell it. You're probably the first of your kind."

"I don't know about any elves," Elfric said. "I know that my family came from a heavily wooded area in upstate New York."

"Yes," Brendan said. "You make a fine vampire." He turned to me. "You didn't have him groomed before the transformation?"

"There wasn't time," I said. "He was dying."

"That's a shame," Brendan said. "To think what those people did to you."

"That's all over now," said Elfric.

"Yes," Brendan smiled. Then he turned to me again. "You need a drone."

"Yes," I agreed.

"I have just the one for you," he said. "His name is Nathan and we rescued him from a Forsaken den of fighting."

"Those are horrid places," I said.

"Yes, Nathan was one of the captive fighters," he said.

No doubt he was pushing on my love for the suffering. I was eager to meet Nathan and see what could be done with him. Most of those poor men were rabid after such a life. I hoped that Nathan wasn't. But then Brendan wouldn't give me a rabid Forsaken as my drone.

"His mind is in tact?" I asked.

"Oh yes," he said. "He wasn't a captive for long. Royce rescued him with the help of the other Forsaken in the palace."

"Good," I said. "I've explained to Elfric about drones and how they're bonded."

"Good," Brendan said. "Nathan will be with us in a moment."

This was all happening really fast. First there was Elfric and now there was Nathan. Just a month ago I was a lone vampire. Now it seemed I was about to be in a coven with folken aplenty. Brendan always moved fast though. He was righting my faux pas, so I'd let him move at his speed.

"Brendan, I've decided to go to medical school," I told him. It was something I'd been thinking about for a long time. I'd never age so it wasn't like I would get too old for school.

"That's a great idea," he said. "Nathan was a medical student before he was taken by the Forsaken."

"So he's a bitten Forsaken?" I asked.

"Of course he is," he said. "The men of the fighting dens are all bitten. You have an aversion to a bitten Forsaken?"

"No," I said. "He can control the change?"

"Yes," he said. "He'll have greater control once you bond him. He's looking forward to being bonded."

"That's different," I said.

"Quite," he said as a man came into the room.

The first thing I noticed about him were the scars on his arms. They were massive but that was a Forsaken trait. He had long curly dark hair and eyes the color of the sky on a clear day. He had the Forsaken essence of violence, but I assumed it was from his days as a fighting Forsaken. He was dressed in black jeans, a blue polo shirt, and biker boots.

"Nathan," Brendan said. "Meet Gabriel."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Gabriel," he said, his voice gruff.

I stood and shook his hand. "Nathan, it's really good to meet you, too. May I present Elfric, my fledgling?"

"Elfric," Nathan said with a smile. "You're beautiful."

"Thank you, Nathan," he said, smiling back at him.

"So this will go well," Brendan said as if he'd washed his hands of it.

"I think Nathan and I need to have a private word, Brendan," I said.

"Please do," he said. "I'll keep young Elfric company."

Nathan and I went into the dining room to sit at the table. He was really a big guy. I didn't know what it was going to be like to have sex with him. I'd only ever had sex with Jessup, and he was the same size as me. Maybe he was little smaller than me actually. He was a small boy when he was turned. This was no Jessup. This was a hulk of a man. He sat at the table and looked like he belonged there though.

"Tell me about you," he said.

"Well, I was turned by Eric Maxwell," I said. "I was one of four."

I told him all about the four of us and how Andrew was killed, how Brendan became Proxy to the King. He listened patiently until I got to the fact that I'd been in undergrad for four years and had just completed my bachelors in medicine.

"I would like to go back to medical school," he said. "I was in my first year, but then they attacked me and kept me at the compound."

"That's been shut down, right?" I asked.

"It has," he said with a smile. "Royce and the others took care of that."

"So tell me what your life was like before the bite," I said.

"I was a regular student," he said. "I liked to lift weights as you can see from my body. I went to class and dated regularly."

"So you plan to marry?" I asked.

"Eventually," he said. "I hear that my sons will become the drones of your fledglings."

"If I sire any more," I said. "I go for the last resort type of setting."

I then went on to tell him all about Elfric and what he'd gone through. He listened with tears in his eyes as I told him of his treatment at the hands of his aunt and her men. He smiled when I told him that I'd killed those three people and burned their house to the ground. Then I'd saved Elfric and turned him into a vampire. I told him that Elfric was dying when I turned him.

"So you're a do good kind of vampire?" he asked.

"Well to tell you the truth I didn't expect to ever sire fledglings," I said. "It was my decision to remain a solitary figure. That's all changed now that I have Elfric."

"And soon you'll have me," he said.

"Yes, I believe I will," I said with a smile. "Are you prepared to live your life as one of my drones?"

"Of course," he said. "After being bitten and forced to fight, you seem a much better way to go about life."

"You know that you'll have to be with me for the rest of your life," I said.

"Yes," he said. "Brendan explained all of that. I even know that I have to have sex with you to be bonded."

"And does that bother you?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I've had sex with a few guys before. It'll be fine with me. Do you expect me to be your sex partner?"

"No," I said. "One night is all we'll have. If we both decide to do that again that will happen when it happens."

"Well I'm prepared to be bonded then," he said with a smile.

"Then let's get this under way," I replied with a smile of my own.

We went up to one of the suites. We stripped and climbed into the bed. I took him in my arms and positioned him over me. When my lubricated dick entered his ass he sighed. Then I sank my fangs into his neck. I pulled slowly as I set up the mental link between us. His Forsaken blood was like the elixir of the Gods.

I saw his treatment at the compound as I drank. I also mentally prepared his mind for my invasion. That's what it seemed to me, an invasion of the vampire mind on the drone's. Once the initial set up was reached I climaxed inside of him.

We switched positions and he used his own fangs to bite my neck. I had to be careful and not let him pull too much. He seemed to know that he had to go slowly. He fucked me as I pushed myself into that little pocket of his mind. It wouldn't seal until he climaxed and his psyche was open. Soon enough that happened and the bond was complete.

Now I describe this in general terms and didn't get into the erotic nature of what we were doing. There was plenty of that. That I had the massive man in my arms and vulnerable was a huge turn on for me. To be dominated by him was also a turn on. When we were sated we stood. I took a shower while he took a bath. When we were clothed we went back downstairs.

I went to the basement to get a man from the pens to replenish the blood I'd lost. Nathan went in search of Elfric and Brendan while l did this. Here was Royce again as he was seated at the table in front of the cells. He smiled at me as I came in and went to fetch me a prisoner.

"You've bonded Nathan?" he asked.

"I have," I replied.

"Good," he said. "He's been waiting for a vampire to bond him since we rescued him."

"Well I'll take good care of him," I said. "We're going to medical school in Boston."

"Ah," he said with a nod.

He brought me a criminal and I wasted no time draining him and turning him to ash. Royce shocked me as he pulled out a small vacuum cleaner to clean up the ash. Then I went in search of my drone and my fledgling. Instead I found Brendan at his computer.

"They've gone to hunt," he said. "I assumed that this was all right with you."

"It is," I said. "I don't plan to rule Elfric. I want him to want to be with me instead of ordering him to be."

"He's in love with you," Brendan said.

"I know," I replied. "What are you doing?"

"Enrolling you and Nathan in Harvard Medical School," he said. "You'll leave at the end of the week. Of course you can't live in the dorms, so I've purchased a small townhouse for the three of you. Four bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen. All the things you need."

"That's small?" I asked. "I suppose it is compared to the palace."

"It will be a comfortable place for you, your fledgling and your drone," he said.

That was Brendan all right. He was efficient and quick. Nothing that needed done stayed undone around him long. He was very efficient with his computer, too. Jax had no doubt taught him everything he knew.

I sat in one of the chairs to wait for him to give me the details. Plenty of them were sure to come. He did finally telling me that we were enrolled in the upcoming semester at Harvard Medical School. He showed me a printout of the townhouse that was literally just off-campus. Then he told me that the keys would be in the lock box and gave me the code.

Elfric and Nathan came back and I told them what Brendan had done. Nathan was happy enough with all that he'd done. Elfric was amazed. I took him up to the rooms I used when I was there.

"So you and Nathan are going to medical school," he said. "What am I going to do?"

"Go to high school," I said. "Finish that and then we'll decide what you will do."

"Do I have to be a doctor?" he asked.

"Elfric, you can do whatever you choose to do," I said.

"What if after high school I want to just stay home and run the house?" he asked.

"Then that's what you'll do," I said, smiling at him. "I'm your family not your lord."

"I like the sound of that," he said.

Brendan had him enrolled in high school in Boston as well. It seemed we all had our marching orders. That was fine with me. Being in the palace brought back too many memories for me.

We flew to Boston and moved into the house. It wasn't furnished so during the time we had before term started we furnished it. I let Nathan pick out the furniture of his room. I picked out the furniture for the living and dining room with Elfric's input. We had the whole house furnished soon and were living comfortably in it. There was no pen in the house. We hunted for our criminals.

School started for the three of us and we all did very well. Our professors really liked our reports and the way we scored on tests. We spent four years there in Boston in that townhouse going to college and high school. Elfric graduated before us and I taught him all he needed to know about our finances and what needed to be done around the house. He knew that we'd never spend more than five or ten years in one place so he treated it like a vacation home.

Also after his graduation we returned to San Juan to become husbands. We had a ceremony at the palace with mostly vampires and Forsaken in attendance as he became my husband. The party was grand as Brendan planned it all. We had the mayor of San Juan and his wife, other politicians, and important people in attendance. It was much more than Elfric or I wanted but it was what we got.

Then I bought him an island. It was off the coast of Costa Rica in the Caribbean Sea. I named it Isle Elfric. We had a house built on the island that wasn't so big that a house didn't almost fill it up. We spent five glorious days and nights there before I had to go back to medical school and he had to get back to running the house for me and Nathan.

Of course we'd graduated from Medical School and were now Interns at Mass General in Boston. We didn't even have to move out of the townhouse. That was fine with Elfric. He had mastered running that house and was known to throw parties for doctors and lawyers and other important people to attend. None of them knew that Elfric and I were vampires or that Nathan was a Forsaken. They saw us as human.

It was in our final year at Mass General that I found my second fledgling. A strange fever had spread over the continent that they called Range Fever. The symptoms were a mild couch, then delirium, and then death for some. The elderly and the young were susceptible to this fever.

The hospital was overrun with patients of the fever. A family came in and was quickly put in the ICU. A man, woman, and their sixteen year old son. They were Moreau Witches. It seemed that the witches weren't immune to the fever.

Margot Moreau was just lucid enough to know that her husband and son were dying. What she didn't know was that her husband was already dead. The son, Edward Moreau was dying fast.

"Turn him," she whispered to me one morning. "I know what you are Dr. Maxwell. Turn my son so that he may live. I don't know where my daughter is. Laura wasn't with us when we got sick. Please turn my son so that he can live."

It was a request that was astounding on so many levels. No one dared turn a Moreau witch for fear of reprisals. I looked at Edward who was taken by the fever. He was near death. I took him from the hospital at great haste. I took him back to the house and Elfric looked at him and then at me.

"He's dying," he said. "I can smell it."

"Yes," I said. "His mother asked me to turn him."

"Then turn him," he said.

I took him to the bathroom of the fourth bedroom and placed him in the tub. I drank his blood and then gave him mine. He knew on some level just what was happening to him. He welcomed it. I had done the unthinkable. I'd turned a Moreau witch!

Edward was healed by the blood but he was a bit on the lean side for a Maxwell Vampire. He had a muscular frame, but it was more toned than buff and he moved gracefully like a cat.

"You turned me into a vampire," he said, looking at me with his amber eyes.

"Your mother asked me to," I said. "You would have died if I hadn't."

"It's there in your head," he said. "I can hear my mother's voice in your head asking you to turn me so that I could live."

"Yes, that's what she said exactly," I said. I did not yet know that Edward's mind reading ability would surpass even the strongest vampire. He was a witch after all.

"There are others in the house," he said. "One is a vampire but the other is something else."

"Forsaken," I said. "My drone."

"Yes," he said. "Forsaken. That's what I smell. Violence and determination."

"That's Nathan," I said.

"So you are to be my father now?" he asked.

"That's what we'll tell people," I said. "Though I don't look old enough to be your father. We'll say that you were my nephew and I was charged to take care of you after my sister died."

"It will fit," he said. "Will we be in Boston long?"

"Not much longer," I said. "Nathan and I are in our final year of Residency."

"Doctors?" he asked, smiling.

"Yes, both of us," I said. "I'm in neurosurgery and Nathan is cardio thoracic."

"Do you expect me to become a doctor?" he asked.

"No," I said. "You'll finish high school and be whatever you want."

We were in Boston a bit longer than I expected. Nathan had met a wonderful young lady named Anna Beth Porter. He fell in love with her and she with him. They had a bad night when he explained his situation to her. She required demonstrations. She watched me run from place to place and then Nathan turned for her. She accepted it after a long time of trying to come to grips with it.

They were married there in Boston. Nathan in a tux and Anna Beth in a very expensive gown with her strawberry blonde hair in an up do. Her veil and train trailed the floor behind her in the church. Her family was there, and I was surprised that Brendan, Royce, and a few other vampires showed up for the event.

I sent them to Isle Elfric for their honeymoon. Then we left Boston all together.

We arrived in Rhode Island early in the morning. The house that I bought was on the other side of the city that we've arrived in. Westerly was a decent city that we could mold into. The house was large but the yard was long before the front of the house. The house was large. Six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a living room, formal dining room, sun room, and a kitchen. There was also a little guest house just back behind the living house.

Movers had moved our furniture and boxes into the house. When we got in we had to unpack and arrange furniture. Elfric and Edward began to do this and Nathan and I waked to the guest house. He wanted to live in it with Anna. That was fine with me. He said he'd be our security officer. I laughed at that but agreed.

"Do you want a pen?" he asked as we walked back to the main house.

"I'm not sure that we have a place to put it in," I said. "Edward and Elfric like to hunt. I do as well, so I think that a pen is a place to put some in but I'm not worried about it. We'll be here for about ten years."

"You also told you to remind you that you need another drone," he said quietly.

"I will start looking around," I said. "I don't want a married man. I'm not turning anyone's children."

"Well you know that Anna is pregnant and she knows that our children will become drones," he said.

"Yes," I said. "That is if Elfric and Edward decide to bond them."

"Edward said it would be an honor for him," Nathan said. "Elfric just smiled at me."

"Elfric says he likes the way we are now," I said. "He's not exactly against me getting another drone, but he isn't in for it either."

"Ouch," he said. "Being husbands is different than any of the other vampires I know."

"Yes and it can be a bit uncomfortable at times," I said. "He said he wants another child. He thinks of Edward as his child and wants another. I told him that I can't take on a second fledgling without having another drone."

"Well if he wants more sons you could use that as a way to make him decide he would like you to have more drones," Nathan said.

"I only want three drones," I said. "Brendan now says we can have six but four are too much. I don't have enough blood to keep them all alive."

"I hear you," he said. "I'll think more of where to put a pen if you decide you want one."

Of course we were doctors at the local hospital as well. That took a lot of our time. We were on call most nights and that meant less sleep which for a vampire of the Maxwell line was no big deal.

Elfric went about stocking the house with artwork. He loved the local artists and paid them well for their paintings and sculptures. I never knew where these pieces came from but as long as he was happy so was I.

Anna was close to delivery as well. Though she couldn't go to the hospital to have her child there were two doctors on the grounds to help her with delivery. No Forsaken child had ever been born in the hospital for fear of what the child may look like when he was born. Some were quite a bit hairy and that would spark too many questions.

As luck would have it she went into labor while both Nathan and I were at work. We got no call that day so we didn't even know about the delivery. When we returned to the house Elfric told us that he had delivered Anna's twin boys while we were at work.

Nathan rushed off to the guest house to check on mother and sons. I went to change clothes and asked Elfric all about the delivery and how he had managed. It turned out that he was a natural at it and told me that he rather enjoyed the experience. That made me a bit happier but I was unhappy that he hadn't called to at least tell us that Anna was in labor.

And so we welcomed John and Jason Maxwell to the family. They were beautiful boys with no more hair than that on their head. A fine down of hair was all over their bodies but it wasn't visible to the naked eye. Of course to a vampire it was in full view.

Anna was happy with her boys and she did a lot with them. She fed, changed, burped, and played with her boys and wanted no help. That didn't sit well with Nathan but we had jobs to do anyway.

Edward was going to the local community college to study nursing. This was something sparked by the delivery of the twins no doubt. I told him that he looked young enough to go back to high school but he said he'd already graduated and though he knew he'd eventually have to matriculate again he wasn't ready to do it now. I had no choice but to accept that.

Ever thinking of what would come next I began to buy property in several different places. One was in the woods that surrounded what had been a ghost town but was now a small town in Texas called Babylon. I had commissioned the building of a house that was suitable for all of us.

Was I planning to go to Babylon in ten years? I didn't know. I also bought houses in Washington State, Arizona, and Illinois. I was planning ahead and making sure that we had somewhere to go when the time came.

Elfric joined Edward at the community college but he was studying accounting. This was odd for me because he knew all he needed to know to work with the finances of the family. He insisted so I didn't say anything. It did give him something to do that took him out of the house for more than hunting prey.

Some time in all of our living in plain sight, Brendan had formed a ruling council. He no longer wanted to be Proxy to the King. He wanted a council though these members weren't elected by the people of vampires, they were appointed. Holden was one of them and a new vampire named Caster was another. He informed me that Noah had been turned by Darian and Jessup was awake and furious with them both. So that meant that the council was Brendan, Holden, Caster, Jessup, and Darian.

I didn't know what it meant that they were the ruling council. Brendan told me what they'd come for any vampire for. It was simple, keep the secret, don't kill your own kind, make no super drones, and settle all disputes or they would. We were also back to three drones and four fledglings a piece. That sat fine with me as I didn't think I wanted a houseful of fledglings and drones to deal with.

All in all the council ruled on what Brendan alone had ruled on since Eric had gone to sleep. It wasn't much different, there were just five of them instead of one now. Plus it would be good to see Holden again if I ever went to San Juan.

I had two fledglings and one drone so far. I wasn't gallivanting around town telling people to look at the vampire, and I had no desire to impregnate some woman to have my super drone. I wasn't in dispute with any other vampires at present either.

So I figured we were safe from the council but Brendan wanted to meet Edward and he said he wanted us to come to San Juan. This was difficult with our schedules so I told him I'd get back to him. That seemed to piss him off but I told him with doctors our schedules weren't our own.

So we were there a year before we took two weeks paid vacation from work and traveled to San Juan to let Brendan see Edward. It was quite odd for me to have been summoned by the council. Brendan had made it sound ominous. I wasn't sure I wanted to go but we were on the plane and headed for South Texas anyway.

When we arrived a delegation from the council arrived at the airport to transport us. They were all Forsaken. I wondered just what so many Forsaken were doing at House Maxwell with this council. It worried me for reasons I couldn't fathom.

The palace was just as I'd left it. It looked more like a palace than a castle now that color had been added. It was the colors of the coat of arms that had been added to the place. They were in windows, around the doors, and in awnings that had been hung over all of the first floor windows.

We were taken into the house by the Forsaken and led to a room I'd never been inside of in all of the time I'd lived in the house. This was a long room with five seats at the end. On those seats sat the council. This was looking more and more like a summons for criminal activity. I was nervous.

Caster was a blonde haired sixteen year old boy with blue eyes and a porcelain complexion. Now that he was a vampire those blue eyes were ringed with black around the iris like all of the Maxwell vampires. The rings were the clue but the color depended on the vampire.

"Gabriel Maxwell," Brendan said. "You were summoned by the council a year ago. What kept you?"

"As I told you, Nathan and I are now surgeons and our time is not our own," I said.

"You were expected to drop everything and present your newest fledgling to the council," he said.

"I am sorry, Brendan, but I couldn't do it and keep my job," I said. "That job is crucial to our passing as human among the humans."

"So you live outwardly with humans?" asked Caster, his voice was that of a child's.

"Yes, I do," I said. "They have nothing to fear from me. I hunt the evil blood only. My coven does the same."

"Fear not," Caster said. "I bare you no ill will because you live among the humans. I just didn't know it was possible to do that."

"It's very possible," I said.

"So, this is Edward Maxwell," Brendan said, ignoring the conversation between me and Caster. "Step forward, young Edward and let us see you."

I could read Brendan's mind very well, and I knew that Edward could read it better than I could. So I knew that Brendan was going to take offense because Edward had been a Moreau Witch before he was turned. I also knew that he could read my mind to see that it had not been done under duress or without permission.

"He was a Moreau Witch before he was turned," said Holden, pissing me off. How dare Brendan use my favorite brother to damn me.

"There is a Moreau Witch sitting on the council," said Edward, shocking me. "Caster is my young cousin. He was just a baby when I was turned."

"And why were your turned?" Brendan asked.

"To save my life," he said. "My mother, Margot Moreau, who was at that time the Legacy asked Gabriel to turn me and save my life."

"Very well," said Holden.

"But your sister," Brendan went on and I saw that this wasn't about Edward at all.

"Laura is probably dead by now," Edward replied. "She had the fever, too."

"Your sister isn't dead," Brendan informed him. "She's the current Legacy of the Moreau Fortune."

This rocked Edward. I could tell. Laura Moreau was supposed have been dead by the time I turned Edward. Yet somehow she had survived the fever and gone on to be the Legacy of the Moreau Fortune.

"Thank you for telling me," Edward said. "But I'm no longer a Moreau witch. What happens in Moonlight Bay is of no consequence to me."

"Quite right," Brendan said. "And you make a fine vampire."

"Thank you," he said politely. He even bowed slightly to Brendan.

"A fine vampire indeed," said Brendan. "Your mind reading ability far surpasses that of most vampires."

"I was a mind reader before I was turned," said Edward. "The power was intensified when I was turned. It nearly drove me to madness."

"Yes, I imagine it could have," said Brendan. "Caster can read minds, too. However he has to touch someone to read their thoughts."

"There were others in the family that had to do that as well," Edward said. "I was lucky that I didn't have to use touch to hear the thoughts of others."

"Or unlucky," Brendan said with a smile.

I relaxed. This wasn't about punishment. This was about Laura Moreau. What was she doing that had Brendan up in arms? I didn't know but I was sure he'd get to the point before too much longer.

"How many has she killed?" Edward asked.

This had my attention. She'd killed vampires? How and why?

"Four," Brendan said. "She's quite powerful."

"Her ability was telekinesis," Edward said, shaking his head at the thoughts that were in Brendan's head. "Her power doesn't work that way. I've never known a power like that. It is said that Quinn Moreau had that power but he's been dead for a very long time."

"Nevertheless," Brendan said. "Your sister seems to have acquired that power and she's using it on vampires."

"I don't know what to say to this," Edward said. "There is no one who can stand up to her if she has this power, she could use it on any who come for her."

"I wasn't going to suggest that we go for her," Brendan said. "I'm issuing a law here. No one is to approach the Moreau Witches for any reason. If you do you will surely die at the hands of the Legacy of the Fortune."

"We will stay away," Edward said, bowing again.

"I thought I'd make that law to keep you from going after your sister," Brendan said. "You may have been a Moreau witch before you were turned, but you're a vampire now. This council was created to protect the vampires and keep the secret."

"Thank you, Brendan," Edward said. "But I have no desire to go anywhere near my human family. They won't accept a vampire among them."

"Ah, Nathan," he said, looking at the rest of us. "I see you have sons."

"Yes," Nathan said. "John and Jason Maxwell."

"Very exciting," Brendan said, smiling. "And Elfric, you look amazing."

"Thank you, Brendan," Elfric said.

After this we were allowed to talk privately with Holden and then Jessup. I got to see The Vampire Noah and had to admit he made a fine looking vampire. Jessup wouldn't even look at him. Darian however was exquisite. He shined with the vampire light as they say. His eyes were ringed in gold which surprised me. It was Edward who told me that Darian had been a witch before he was turned.

"You thought you were being summoned before the council as a criminal?" Holden asked me.

"It had that feel to it," I replied. I was happy to see my brother and hoped to have a good chat.

"We told Brendan it would feel that way, but he wants to keep everyone on their toes," he said. "I still can't think of how he convinced me to be a part of this council. My vampire gifts are enhanced because of the nanobites but they aren't all powerful."

"And Caster has to touch someone to read their mind?" I asked.

"Caster doesn't read your mind," he said, shocking me. "He reads every thought you've ever had."

"That's a bit scary," I said, looking at Holden with shock clearly plastered on my face.

"A Moreau Witch," he said, smiling and showing me his silver fangs. "You have one in your house."

"Edward is a gentle creature who loves humanity," I said. "His mind reading ability was intensified with the vampire blood but he doesn't use it to his advantage. Most of the time he tells me he ignores what he sees."

"That's probably for the best," he said. "My Caster tries not to touch anyone."

"Caster is your fledgling?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes," he said, smiling again. "I thought you knew that."

"I didn't know," I said. "The last I'd talked to you, you said you didn't think you could sire fledglings."

"I learned that I could," he said. "I even have a Forsaken drone. He's a bit different because my blood in inside him. Caster's different, too."

"I'll bet," I said with a smile. "It's so good to see you again.

"It's good to see you, too," he said. "It's good to see that you finally have fledglings."

"Well with Elfric it was just that all I could sense in the streets of New York was his suffering," I said. "I couldn't let that go. I had to save him. He was dying in that place, they were using him to make sexual movies, but they weren't feeding him properly, letting him bathe, or even go out of the basement. I killed the three of them and took him out of there and turned him."

"What about Edward?"

"Margot Moreau and her husband and Edward came into the hospital with the fever," I said. "The husband was dead, but Margot was alive. She knew me for what I was and asked me to save her son, to turn him to save him from the fever. She never mentioned a daughter. I didn't know he had a sister until he was already a vampire."

"So you go for the desperate," he said, smiling.

"So far," I said with a smile of my own.

"I've been planning to find another fledgling but I'm on the council now so I'm here all the time," he said.

"They don't give you time off?" I asked.

"I can go anywhere I want but not when I want," he said as Jessup walked up to us.

"Are you ignoring me?" he asked, smiling at me.

"Of course not," I said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm better," he said. He looked me up and down then smiled. "My beloved Gabriel."

"It's good to see you," I said. "It's been too long."

"Yes, it has been a long time," he said. "You left without telling any of us that you were leaving."

"I lost too much here, Jessup," I said, hoping he would believe that. It was true. I lost my brother and my father. Then Brendan changed and didn't act like a brother. I lost two and Holden left before me.

"I know that," he said. "I just wished that you would at least talk to me before you left."

"It was too hard to talk to you before I left," I said. "I knew you would talk me out of it. I was miserable here, Jessup."

"I'm not holding it against you," he said. "I soon found a child and had to protect him. I was sent to Chicago with Miguel, Perrin, and the drones."

"I heard about that," I said. "I think everyone heard about that."

"Probably," he said, smiling at me.

"Noah is a vampire now," I said.

"Yes," he said, looking pissed off. "Darian turned him while I was in slumber."

"Well he makes a fine vampire," I said, hoping that I wouldn't offend him.

"I never intended turn him," he said. "I wanted him to have a life that he never had."

"He did, Jessup," I said. "But he couldn't be around vampires for so long without wanting to be turned."

"That's what Darian said to me when I woke up and found out that Noah was a vampire," he said.

"That doesn't make it any less true, Jessup," I said.

"Now you have your Elfric," he said, changing the subject.

"Yes," I said, smiling. "I love him very much."

"Then I shall treasure him for loving you," he said. Then he walked away from me.

We spent two nights there with them all. I got to talk to Noah and found that he was a delightful vampire with no gifts at all. He couldn't even levitate. Somehow I was sure that Jessup thought that was fitting.

When we returned to Rhode Island there was much to do. Edward had to get back to his classes, Nathan and I had to return to work, and Elfric had many things he wanted to do now that we were home and out from under the shadow of the council.

Two days later we had another vampire among us. Noah had bought a ticket and come to find us. At least he could hunt by scent. He arrived with bags packed and expected to be one of us. I called San Juan to tell them where Noah was and Brendan told me to keep him with us for a while.

That meant that Noah was a member of my coven for now. I wasn't sure how much I liked that idea. Yet there was nothing to do but to house him and let him learn to hunt. He'd never hunted in his vampire life. He'd been fed from the livestock of the house in San Juan. I sent him out hunting with Edward.

Having Noah around wasn't a hardship. He was a beautiful vampire. His honey blonde hair and those dazzling icy blue eyes with the solid bar of black around the irises were adorable. He was physically fit but toned instead of buff. With his lack of vampire gifts it was like he was vampire lite.

I thought I knew how to give him his vampire gifts. Darian must not create powerful fledglings because of the way he was turned. I could give him a blood exchange and see what happened. If nothing else nothing would happen. Of course there was no saying that he wanted the vampire gifts. He could be happy just the way he was.

I didn't get the chance to talk to him about it for a while. He was very fond of Edward and spent most of his time with him. Edward liked him because he said his thoughts were so linear. He thought of Jessup most of the time and how upset he was that Jessup didn't accept him. I thought that was sad.

"Noah," I said when I finally got the chance to talk to him away from Edward. "You have no vampire gifts, but I'd like to try something to give you the gifts if you'll let me."

"What do you want to do?" he asked in his melodious voice.

"A blood exchange," I said. "A simple blood exchange between you and me."

"All right," he said. "I haven't hunted tonight so I'll have to after we're done."

"That's right," I said. "Come."

He stepped into my embrace and I sank my fangs into his neck and pulled. I pulled like I was going to turn him and then stopped. He wasted no time in biting my neck and pulling my blood back to replenish what I had taken from him. The effect was instant. He fell to the floor and moaned and writhed. Then he levitated off the floor and the nimbus surrounded him.

"I can hear you thoughts," he said softly when he stood. His body had not changed.

"I can hear yours, too," I said, smiling at him.

"I need to hunt," he said, turning from me and walking out the door to find Edward.

Well that was settled. I wasn't sure that Jessup would thank me for what I'd done but at least Noah was a complete vampire now. I turned to find Elfric watching. He smiled and came into the room.

"That was a great thing you did for Noah," he said. "I wasn't sure that you liked the fact that he was here."

"I didn't like the fact that Brendan told me to keep him for a while," I corrected. "Brendan thinks he can order all vampires around. Even Eric didn't do that and he was their king."

"Chaffing a little?" he asked, smiling.

"Something like that," I said. "You don't seem to mind."

"I like having Noah around," he said. "It gives me an idea how it would work with another fledgling in the house."

"You're warming up to the idea?" I asked.

"First you need another drone," he said.

"Yes, I do," I said.

"Then find one," he said. "We'll find a dying boy for you to turn later."

I laughed out loud at this and hugged him. He was my love all right. He knew exactly how to make me laugh when I wasn't in the mood to do so. He also knew how to calm me down when I was angry. That was a great trait for him to have.

We sat in the living room. He'd already hunted and I wasn't in the mood. I didn't need blood every night. I was one of Eric's fledglings after all. He told me that Edward and Noah were hunting and Nathan was playing with his boys. They were getting so big. Forsaken children grew a bit faster than human children. Nothing like a super drone but faster.

"You and Nathan will be going back to work soon," he said.

"Yes, Monday," I said. "He was looking forward to it."

"He still is," he said. "He keeps asking me when I'll let you have a drone."

"He needs to stay out of it," I said.

"He feels that he's in the middle of it because he's your first drone," he said, taking my hand.

"Well he is my first drone," I said. "And that's a special thing for any vampire, but he needs to let you and I have our discussions without his input."

"He's an extension of you," he said.

It was so amazing to me that he could say such things. How could he know without having a drone of his own that Nathan was an extension of me? How could he know that the relationship between a vampire and his first drone was different than that of his relationship with other drones?

"Yes, but with you I don't need that extension," I said softly.

"Maybe you do and maybe you don't," Elfric said. "But you have it. Nathan will be an extension of you in all things. There's no use fighting it. You schooled me well on what the bond entails, love."

"It seems I have," I said, kissing the side of his head. "What's on your agenda for the rest of the day?"

"Bills have to be paid," he said. "Food for the Forsaken and his wife and children has to be ordered, and clothes for Noah have to be bought. He didn't bring much."

"What, no parties?" I asked with a smile.

"Not with Noah new to the house," he said. "How would we explain him?"

"That's true," I said. "I plan to say he's my cousin from San Juan."

"That's not wise," he said. "Say he's your cousin from down south. That's better."

"What would I do without you?" I asked as I kissed his head again.

"Walk into a world of problems," he laughed.

While he took care of the house I decided to go and hunt. The sun had gone down and that's when I liked to do my hunting. I found a criminal and drained him dry before making him ash that the wind blew away very quickly. No one had seen so I just strolled through the park. I had much to think about.

A new drone. Where would I find such a man to be my new drone? I needed a capable man, a man who knew what he was doing most of the time. For this one I couldn't take the dying. I had to find a much alive man that I could see living in the house with us. I found that a bit hard to think about.

When I got home I met Edward and Noah as they were coming back from their hunt. Noah was telling Edward how different it was to hunt his prey than to have it brought up from the pens for him by a drone.

To keep Noah active and doing something we enrolled him in high school. He was just sixteen and could pass for a bit younger so we put him in at ninth grade and let him do his thing. That kept him busy all day. Edward had taken to teaching himself to play the piano, and he was getting rather good at it.

Elfric did what Elfric did and Nathan and I went back to work. There was always someone to operate on. For me it was falls, blows to the head, and a lot of crying spouses and children. For Nathan it was cardio vascular disease that he was correcting or heart attacks and such.

I found my second drone there in the hospital. He was a lab technician named Larz. He was six feet tall with blonde hair that he kept cut short. His blue eyes were bight and he seemed to like both me and Nathan. I took him to lunch one day and asked him about himself.

"I'm not married," he said. "Haven't found the right woman yet. She's out there, but she's hiding from me. I like my job and I do it well. I don't know that many people here because I moved here just a month ago. I have no family left. My parents died when I was in college and I have no siblings."

"Well I have a proposition for you," I told him and invited him to dinner at the house. He accepted.

That night we laid it all out for him and told him about all of the advantages of being a Vampire Drone. He liked the idea once he was certain that we weren't pulling his leg. I took him up to the spare room and stripped his clothing off of him. He seemed nervous and shy.

"I've never been with a man before," he said.

"I promise it's just this one time," I said. "If we want more we'll both decide that. But I have Elfric. This is only for the bonding."

"On one hand I don't really believe this will work," he laughed. "I mean I know it will, but I don't believe I'll have a family when it's done."

I took him into my arms and kissed him. He didn't respond at first but then he did. His mind told me that he'd decided that if he was going to do this he was going to do it right.

I moved us to the bed and he came willingly enough. When I sat him down and moved him until he was almost in my lap he became a bit nervous. I calmed him with mind control and let my lubricated dick touch his sphincter. I smoothed out his worry and apprehension as I slowly inserted my dick in his ass. He was tight, tighter than Nathan and Nathan had been tighter than anything I'd felt before.

I began to pull blood from him but not too much and not fast. I saw his life in his blood. This was a man who mourned the loss of his family and so wanted one of his own. I was giving him what he wanted in one way, and he was fully prepared to embrace it as it was given.

When I climaxed inside of him I switched positions and took him inside of me. I slit my neck with my fingernail and told him to latch on with his lips and pull slowly. I didn't want him getting too much and turning into a vampire. He was twenty-one and that was too old.

All while this was going on I'd been smoothing out a section in his mind for the bond to live in. Now that he was fucking me and pulling my blood I pushed myself into that spot in his mind. It would be sealed when he climaxed. For that was when the psyche was fully open. It would last for only a fraction of a second and then he would seal himself to me for the rest of his life.

When it was complete we showered together. I washed him and he washed me. He said nothing, but I could feel him in my head like I could feel Nathan. He was bonded. I did notice that his eyes had changed. They were still blue but they took on that darker almost black ring around the iris that marked him as a Maxwell drone.

We talked about what to do about his name. He'd been known as Larz Engal here in town. It wouldn't do to have him change his name to Maxwell suddenly. I told him to keep his name while we were still here. We'd change it when we moved on to the next city.

We came downstairs just in time to listen to Elfric explaining that we were having a party. He said it was to celebrate Larz's entry into the family, but no one would know that. He was going over the guest list with Edward as we came downstairs.

I knew it was no use in trying to stop him so I just let it go on. Edward told me later that Nathan was being drafted to decorate the house for the party. I laughed at this and told him that it would be Anna that decorated and not Nathan.

The party decorations began but Nathan and I along with Larz had to work at the hospital most days so we were not there to help Elfric plan and decorate. Still he was a force to be reckoned with and had ordered the food and liquor for the party, hired servers, and even got the place decorated.

The party was on a Saturday night. Everyone in town who was anyone was there. The Price family with their three sons, Roman, David, and Joseph were there. The kids looked like little Dresden Dolls. They all three had almost platinum blonde hair with the bluest eyes I'd ever seen. However I read from their minds that they lived in fear of the their father, Reece Price. I had no idea what Reece was doing to his children, but I knew that his wife had died under rather mysterious circumstances.

Those three children lived alone in the house with Reece. I thought I might have to investigate further. But the party kept me busy. I met with the Chief of Police, the Mayor, the Governor of Rhode Island, and many doctors, lawyers, and of course Reese Price who was a banker.

By the time the party was over I was ready for them all to get the hell out of my house. I felt that way at the end of every party. Edward and Noah began to clean up the party mess while I went to the study to think about what I'd read in the minds of the Price children. The oldest was fifteen years old, the second was twelve, and the last was just seven.

It was there in all of their minds. They were afraid of their father. Should I get involved? What gave me the right to step in when Social Service should be the ones to step in. Was Reece an evil man? Sure he was, but did I take away the only parent they had? Then what? What would I do with three children?

The choice was taken from me a few months later. Roman Price had turned sixteen and a party had been thrown. I was there at the party with Elfric. Edward played the piano and Larz, Nathan, and I circulated. We congratulated Roman and he smiled and thanked us, but his heart wasn't in it.

We didn't figure out what they were afraid of at the party. We went home afterward and I went out to stroll around and think. I was gone for about two hours before the scent of blood, desperation, and near death drew me to the waste management plant. There in the trash heap was Roman Price. He'd been stabbed three or four times in the chest and stomach and left here to die.

I picked him up and raced back to the house. I told Elfric to get the plastic sheeting on the bed in the spare room. Then I laid him out on the sheeting. He was still bleeding but wasn't conscious. I couldn't ask the question so I just set about turning him. I drank his blood and found it all. The rapes, the torture, the murders. I found it all there in his blood. He was a victim of all of that violence at the hands of his father.

I cut my wrist and let him drink my blood. He latched on and pulled. When he fell back on the sheeting with a wail I knew I had done it. I'd turned Roman Price. Edward was standing in the doorway watching me.

"Roman Price?" he asked. "We were just at his sixteenth birthday party, Gabriel. His father will come looking for him."

"No he won't," I said. "His father tried to kill him. Edward he left him on a trash heap in the waste management plant. He stabbed him five times. Oh, Edward he raped him and stabbed him. Reese is a murderer. He's killed four kids. The reason that they moved here from Atlanta is because there was too much notoriety surrounding the killing of the four kids there."

"Jesus wept," he said. "Why did he do this to his own son?"

"I don't know but I know that the other two aren't safe with him," I said. "I don't know what I'm going to do about it. We are not prepared to take care of a twelve and seven year old."

"No we're not," he agreed. "But something needs to be done."

When I got to the Price house I could smell the blood. I feared what I'd find inside that house but I entered. It was one of the nicest houses in town with white clapboard siding, a shingled roof, three-stories, a chimney at one end of the house, and a spacious yard.

Inside it was a mess. There was blood everywhere. I could hear a man muttering but I wasn't paying attention because right inside the door was seven year old Joseph. He was so little and there were so many stab wounds on his poor little body. Two steps into the foyer and there he was.

David Price was on the stairs. He was covered in blood and dead. I went in search of the man who did it. He was in the living room with a bottle of scotch in his hand. He was muttering about kids who didn't listen and how he'd shown them who was boss. I was about to show him who was boss.

I crossed the room and took the bottle from him. He looked at me in wonder. He asked something but my anger didn't let me hear it. I just stood there and looked at the man. His blonde hair was messed up, his glasses were crooked on his face, and he was covered in blood from his hands to his elbows.

"I said, what are you doing in my house?" he demanded.

"Witnessing what you've done to your children," I said. "You killed them."

"They deserved it," he said. "Sniveling brats!"

"They didn't deserve this," I said. I hadn't raised my voice, but I grabbed him and sank my fangs into his neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" he bellowed. "Hey that hurts. What are you doing?"

I just kept drinking his blood. I drank until his heart stopped. Then I burned him. I let the fire go so hot that he was just gone. There was no ash. I was so hurt and angry at what he'd done.

I left the house in a daze. He'd butchered his children. Why? What was the motivation? He was a child murderer but his own children? I couldn't believe it though I'd just seen the evidence. One of the children was currently in his death sleep in my house. It was just too much for me.

I got back to the house to find that Edward was packing. Noah was helping him and Nathan was talking to someone on the telephone. Larz was packing his stuff as well. I didn't know what was going on. Were they leaving me? I read minds and saw that we were all leaving. Turning Roman was the catalyst in the move. Nathan, Larz, and I would give our notice at the hospital. We'd keep Roman in the house until it was over.

Elfric had already decided where we were going. Babylon, Texas was where we were going. This time we'd stay out of society. We wouldn't go work at the hospital and we wouldn't put the kids in school. We'd just exist at the house and wait for the notoriety to die down. It could take years. I was prepared to go for years.

The house in Babylon had a pen in the basement. There were cells under that house and livestock could be captured and housed in them. Life was about to be very different for us, but this was necessary. We'd survive, but we'd be lonely. There was no telling what not being in public would do to us. How much of who we were was shaped by the people around us?

We packed up the house in the days that it took for Roman to wake up. When he did, he was not happy about being turned. He was unhappy with the way he'd died, he was in mourning over the loss of his brothers, and he hated his father. He told us that he never wanted to be a vampire. He asked me why I didn't let him die so he could be with his brothers.

"You were dying," I said. "I saved you."

"And turned me into a monster," he said.

"Is that what we seem to you?" I asked. "Monsters? You've been to parties in this house before. You've played with Nathan's children. Do we all look like monsters to you?"

"At least tell me you killed my father," he said, ignoring what I'd asked.

"Drained him dry and burned him into nothing," I said.

"Good," he said. "I hope he suffered."

We moved to Babylon when the notice was up. The house was three-stories tall with one whole wall at the back that was nothing but glass. The house was white with black window frames, a black front door with the coat of arms on it. It was a huge house. For that I was thankful, but the coat of arms? Why had Elfric had it put on the door?

Inside the house was furnished. That was good because we'd left all the furnishings behind in Rhode Island. We'd return there one day anyway. It wasn't like we left anywhere for good. This house was nice enough. Inside was all white walls and hardwood floors that were almost black.

There were rooms for everyone, and there was even a guest house for Nathan, Anna, and the boys to live in. Noah spent so much time with the boys that he moved to the guest house with them. In the main house it was just me, Edward, Roman, and Larz. Roman was still angry about his turning. I didn't know what to do for him.

Nathan, Larz, and Edward went out to hunt for livestock. They came back one day telling me that we had a meeting with a tribal chief in a few days. I didn't know what to think of this. What had they done to piss off a tribal chief.

The day of the meeting was overcast. It was sweltering hot in Texas but we didn't feel it. We were coolness itself as we waited for the chief and his entourage to come into the room.

The chief was all done up in Native American attire. He had on a headdress with so many feathers that they reached the floor behind him. The others were dressed in Native American robes and loin cloths. It was like stepping into history.

"You have invaded our lands," said the deep voice of the chief. "We will not condone what you do. You have no right to hunt our lands for your criminals."

"The town is your land?" I asked. "We weren't aware that the town was a reservation."

He sat back like I'd slapped him. "The land from the beach to the beginning of Babylon is our land," he said.

"We will stay off your land," I said. "We only hunt criminals. You know that, right?"

"I do," he said. "I will make a treaty with you here and now."

"What treaty is that?" I asked.

"Your hunters stay off our land and take no Native prisoners," he said. "You will turn no human here. We will not destroy you. I know you think you are invincible but there are ways and my people know them."

I thought about what he said for a moment. It wouldn't matter to me much where the criminals came from. If he wanted us to stay off his land we could do that. What he would probably do is try to expose us if we didn't.

"I agree to your terms," I said. "One of you will go with our party to show us where the landmarks mark your land."

This was done, too. We walked in broad daylight with seemed to shock the party that went with us. They pointed out that rock formation in the dirt and said that from there to the beach was their land. I told my people to stay off their land and never to touch a Native American.

That was that. Life went on, but Hiram Black had drawn a line in the sand for us. He was the Chief of the tribe. I didn't plan to be in public so I didn't plan to find a fledgling here. That was easy enough to say yes to as well. As for ways to destroy us, I didn't know if they knew ways or not. I just knew I didn't need a battle with a Native American tribe.

We settled into the house and the livestock settled into the cells beneath the house. We never heard from the tribe again, but hunting parties had seen Natives out and about while they hunted. It was a tense truce, but it was a truce.

Roman still complained about being a vampire. Why couldn't he go outside? Why couldn't he go to school? Why were we keeping him prisoner? All of those questions and so many more were what we put up with for weeks and months. It was a year before he stopped asking questions and just did was we told him to do. There was peace in the house once again. But how long would it last?

That was something I didn't know. Things happened all of the time to disturb the peace of my house. I didn't need to step outside for the disturbance to happen either.

Noah was used to this kind of life living in San Juan with the council. Edward and Elfric were not. Roman was not. Hell Nathan, Anna, and the boys were not. Larz hadn't said anything so far so I didn't know.

We stayed there for ten years. No one really saw much of us other than Nathan when he and Larz went food shopping for food to feed all of the humans in the house. They were known as a pair of brothers who kept to themselves and ate a lot of food. That was fine with me. As long as the tribe kept the word vampire from circulating through Babylon I'd be fine.

The Quileute tribe resides in LaPush just outside of Babylon. They are descended from shape shifters who transformed into wolves. The gene for transforming is only activated when in the presence of a vampire, thus only the younger generation can currently transform into wolves.

They were all huge men with muscles all over the place. There wasn't a man under six foot among them. Hiram himself was over six feet tall with long dark hair and dark eyes. He was all over muscle. He was young to be chief but he wore it well. I had to give him that.

We moved to Silverton, Colorado. Silverton was a statutory town governed by a Sheriff instead of a Police Chief. It was the county seat of San Juan County and located in the San Juan Mountains a range of the Rocky Mountains.

What we had there was a ranch style home with lots of land. The pen was underground just under the house that sat in the middle of the property. There were horses and cows there and we hired a ranch hand named Mark to take care of them. He employed a host of men to help him. None of them bothered with us much, but it made stocking the pen a bit tricky.

The house itself was a two-story five bedroom house. The siding was clapboard and brick. The brick was on sections of the house that extended beyond the huge covered porch. The window frames were all gleaming white and the roof was dark slate. There was another house not far from the first. This was a one-story three bedroom house that was there for the ranch hand but Nathan, Anna, and the boys moved in there. Noah went from one house to the other. He didn't seem to care which house he was in.

Roman, Edward, and Noah went to school. Edward and Noah did it just so it would look right. Nathan, Larz, and I went to work at the hospital in Montrose. We were part of the world again. Roman seemed to flourish as a high school student. He had many human friends and sometimes they came to the house.

We cautioned him not to get too involved with the humans. He promised to keep them at a safe distance. They were all innocent blood so there were no mistakes made. Our time in Silverton was good for us. We were all happy to be part of a community again.

Elfric went back to throwing parties for the upper crust of the society. We all pretended to enjoy them. It was on one of our camping trips that Roman insisted on that we found my fourth and final fledgling.

Roman had been out climbing trees and trying to scale the mountain side when he found a man being attacked by a black bear. He scared the bear off and then carried the young man all the way back to the campsite. He begged me to turn him as he held him out to me. He said he didn't know if he could without killing him.

I took them man into the tent and drank from him. He was a good young man who had been separated from a school group who had gotten lost on the mountain. They others had been rescued but he had not been with them when the rescue was mounted.

We took him back to our ranch and let him have his death sleep in the spare bedroom. It took three days and then Emit was among us. Of course this meant we had to move again, but I didn't care. I didn't really like life on the ranch. The animals stunk and there were too many humans to watch other for. I did bond my third done before we left. The ranch hand, Mark became my fourth.

I thought my family was complete when we arrived in Cripen, Illinois. The city was large enough to lose ourselves in but small enough to not be overwhelming. It was just the right size for my complete family. Edward, Roman, Emit, and Noah would go to high school. Nathan, Larz, and I would work at the hospital. Larz would watch over the pen and Mark would be on security while Nathan was at work. It was perfect.

We'd been in Cripen for a year when I figured out that Roman and Emit were together. They were all over each other most of the time but I allowed it because it was nice to see Roman happy.

Edward continued to be aloof. He played his piano and studied for school. Noah was beside himself trying to get Edward to notice him. When he couldn't he left us. It took a while for us to figure out that he'd gone. The school called to tell me that Noah wasn't in classes and then Brendan called to tell me that Noah had returned to San Juan, South Texas. I told the school that Noah had gone to live with relatives and picked up his school transcripts.

The house in Cripen was by far our largest. It was eight bedrooms, three-stories, with a formal dining room, living room, family room, kitchen, office, and mud room. It sat on a hill back from most of the city and had a waist high brick wall all the way around the property.

The walls in the house were treated with wallpaper in various shades of cream and blue. It was clear that Elfric had decorated the house himself. The furnishings were all modern and sleek. Even the pen down in the basement was modern. The livestock lived in semi-style.

We'd been there for two years when Edward went off on a school camping trip. Roman and Emit had declined to go and were home when I got off work. We were just sitting in the family room when a new pair of vampires walked into the house.

The small vampire had dark hair and icy blue eyes. He was toned but not buff and had dark rings around his eyes. I had no idea who he was or who the tall blonde was that was with him. The smaller one smiled at us.

"I've seen that we're going to be a great family," he said. "Where's my room?"

The pair went off in search of a room, leaving us to look at each other in silence. Nathan and Mark got up and followed them. Soon they were back with us and the smaller one, Archie it had turned out began to talk to us.

"My name is Archie Moreau," he said. "I was turned by a vampire and left as soon as I was in my death sleep. When I woke up I didn't know who I was or where I was. I was in a dingy motel room with rats and vermin. The only thing I had going for me was this extra sight. I can see versions of the future. Some come true and others are just shadows of what could be.

"I saw you all and knew that I would be with you, so when Jasper found me we set out to find you," he said. "You were gone a week from the ranch when we arrived. It took us a year of visions to find you."

"You don't know who turned you?" I asked, sitting forward.

"No," he said. "I was alone when I woke up with no memory. If it hadn't been for the sight I would have gone insane. I learned to hunt criminals and to burn my victims. I met Jasper in a human bar. He was sitting there at a table with a glass of wine in front of him. He wasn't drinking it, and I had seen that we would be together so I sat down across from him and told him that it had taken him long enough. He just smiled and told me that he was sorry to have kept me waiting."

"And you know who we are?" I asked.

"Sure," he said, grinning. "You're Gabriel Maxwell, fledgling of the King of Immortals. Your mate is Elfric Maxwell. Your Forsaken drone is Nathan Maxwell who is married to Anna and has twin sons named John and Jason. You have four fledglings, Elfric, Edward, Roman, and Emit. You have three drones, Nathan, Larz, and Mark. Noah was here with you until a few days ago. I can't see where he went but it looked like a castle."

It took a little talking but Archie and Jasper fit right in. Edward returned and found Archie but had read his mind and seemed to accept him. It was an adjustment for all of us but I now seemed to have five children to house and school. That wouldn't come before we moved again and when we did it wasn't to where I thought we were going.

Mikey, one of Jessup's fledglings called and asked us to come to San Francisco. We moved the family to his estate there in San Francisco and joined his family for a time. He had three fledglings of his own, a Forsaken drone and a human drone.

It was clear from the start that Mikey had a type. His fledglings were tall, blonde, and blue eyed. His Forsaken done, named Spike of all things was tall, muscular, blonde, and blue eyed. His human drone named Chris was tall, muscular, blonde, and blue eyed. His fledglings were Tommy, Kent, and Ian.

While we were with them, Tommy developed feelings for Edward, and I thought that perhaps he would return those feelings. He did not however and continued to be aloof and calm. I worried for Edward so much at times. I feared that I had made a mistake in his making. Had I damned him to a solo existence for eternity?

When Mikey and his drones left the estate, I was left with Tommy, Kent, Ian and their drones. It wasn't uncomfortable though. The estate was more like a compound with four houses, a pool, and a stable. Which was the pen. My own drones took over the running of the compound and we were there for a little more than fifteen years.

We left Tommy, Kent, and Ian and moved back to Rhode Island for fifteen years. We spent time in Paris, London, and of course North America. The most important thing was that we were happy for the most part.