Gregory’s P. O. V

‘Not again.’ I shook my head as Keily’s voice drifted from Ari’s kitchen to our ears.

I wanted to get up, to defend Ari, but it sounded like she already had the situation handled. Besides, my presence would probably do less good than bad.

We all winced at the sound of a plate shattering and Trevor and Hailey moved to get up. I held my hand up, making them pause.

This was Ari and Keily’s fight. Stopping them now would leave things even tenser than they were before. God knew I could barely handle things as they were.

The last thing Ari said before Keily left the kitchen caught my attention. It wasn’t her words but her voice. It came out in an almost genuine growl that sounded like two different voices towards the end. Hearing it sent shivers down my spine and it wasn’t even directed at me.

Trevor and I locked eyes – he’d heard it too.

Keily exited the kitchen only to face all our eyes on her. Why did she have to start things up with Ari? After all, she had a boyfriend and I wasn’t hers to be possessive over. And, judging by her expression, she hadn’t even been ready for the fact that Ari wasn’t a pushover. She’d probably thought that she could play the mean girl card and Ari would lay down, accepting it, just like all the previous girls that had shown interest in me. When that hadn’t worked, she’d switched to indignation at Ari’s comeback, trying to act innocent or at the very least, make Ari feel bad.

I didn’t ease up on my scowl as she stared at me, tears pooling in her eyes. She grabbed her bag and left the house in near tears. I shook my head; she needed a reality check every now and again. Things wouldn’t always go her way.

If she wasn’t careful, someone with far less self-control than Ari would retaliate harshly.

I looked at Hailey. She looked torn between going to check on her friend, the victim, and going to comfort her sister, the perpetrator. She finally settled on going to help Ari, probably figuring that her sister needed space to sulk.

“You heard that, right?” Trevor whispered once Hailey was out of sight.

I nodded and tapped my ear then pointed to the kitchen. If she really was a vampire, she could hear us. No matter how much I wanted it to be untrue, everything pointed towards it.

“Oh, my gosh! Trevor! Greg! Get over here!” Hailey yelled.

Trevor and I promptly made our way to the kitchen.

“Ari!”

“What happened?!”

There stood Ari who looked like she was struggling to get a grip on her anger. Drops of blood trailed from the tiles in front of the sink to the floor beneath her left hand. Blood dripped from her hand, forming a pool beneath it. In the blood by the sink lay pieces of the shattered plate we’d heard earlier. Some shards stuck to Ari’s hand, poking into of her wound.

Her eyes finally seemed to focus. She stared at her bloody hand then looked at the blood covered plate pieces. An ‘oh, shit!’ expression crossed her face so fast I almost didn’t notice it.

Almost.

“I just cleaned this kitchen.” She mumbled to herself, hiding her bloody hand from our view.

“You’re bleeding. What happened?” Hailey asked, taking a step towards her.

Ari took two steps back and let out a laugh. Because I was already suspicious, I could tell it was strained, “I’m so clumsy. After I dropped the plate, I went to pick it up but was distracted by Keily’s… words so I ended up cutting myself instead.”

‘A plausible excuse.’ I thought. If only I could believe it.

“I’m so sorry about Keily.” Hailey said, “I don’t know why she’s acting like this.”

The apology should have been from me. It was my fault.

Ari simply smiled forgivingly, “It’s fine. You’re not responsible for her.”

“Let’s get that cut patched up and cleaned.” Trevor spoke, taking a step towards her.

She took another two steps back, “I’m fine, it’s just a scratch, really. It’s not even that deep.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, stepping forward so she was cornered, “Let’s take a look at it.”

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“At least, let us help you clean up.” Hailey pleaded, probably feeling guilty for her sister’s actions.

“I’m fine. Actually, I’m kinda tired. I’ve had a long day. We all have. I’ll clean this up and go get some rest. You guys don’t need to worry about me. You should go check on Keily, see if she’s alright.” She looked pointedly at me.

Guilt washed through me. Keily had only started this because I wasn’t clear with her from the beginning. Sure, I’d told her that I wasn’t looking for a relationship at the time but to her, that probably meant she needed to wait for me to be ready.

While occupied by my thoughts, Ari deftly slid past me and out of the kitchen before anyone could stop her.

“I guess she’s right. Let’s go find Keily before she gets herself into trouble.” Hailey sighed and left the kitchen with Trevor and me trailing behind her.

In a three person single file, we let ourselves out in silence, having gotten the hidden message of dismissal in Ari’s words.

“Where do you think she could’ve gone?” Trevor asked a dazed looking Hailey as we sat in the car.

It took Hailey a good ten seconds to process the question, “I don’t know. I don’t think we should look for her.”

“What? Why?”

Hailey’s annoyance at her twin was evident in her voice, “Keily’s a big girl and knows her way around the city. Besides, I think she needs some time to herself. It’s been a long day for all of us. She’ll come home when she’s ready.”

She had a point. In silent agreement, I started the car and drove Hailey home. The ride went in total silence from us, the only sounds present being those outside the car and the music blaring from the radio. A few times, I looked in the rear view mirror at Hailey to catch her opening her mouth, as if wanting to say something, only to close it again with a look of deep contemplation on her face.

She’d probably heard the change in Ari’s voice too and was having a hard time believing what she’d heard. She looked reluctant to ask the questions poised on the tip of her tongue, desperate to be released.

That look stayed on her face as she waved goodbye while we drove away from her house. Trevor and I maintained the silence on our way home, both of us occupied by our own thoughts on the events of the day.

Our house came into view, quaint as ever. I sighed as I parked the car then locked it. Trevor and I let ourselves in to find Grams humming away in the kitchen. With mumbled greetings, we made our way upstairs and to my room, locking the door behind us.

I flopped onto the bed that, only a few hours ago, had held a passed out Keily. I smiled as I thought of the way Ari had immediately swung into action.

She was so smart and confident. Not to mention, hot as well. Despite that, she was also down to earth and kind. There was no way someone like that could be a vampire… could they?

“How did the plan go?” Trevor asked, knocking me out of my thoughts.

I sighed again, “I’m not sure myself. I didn’t make a sound when I cut my palm but she turned to me the moment I did even though there’s no way she could’ve known.”

“So, why aren’t you sure?”

I scratched an itch in my hair, “Other than that, there was no reaction. Her eyes didn’t get those black veins under them and they didn’t glow. I watched her mouth but didn’t see any fangs. She didn’t look hungry or anything.”

We sat in silent contemplation. The fact that she hadn’t reacted could mean she was a very old vampire that had mastered control.

“What about you? Did you find anything?” I asked.

He shook his head, “Nothing. No unusual old books in her library. No feeders. Not even an empty blood bag. I phased into her room while the twins were occupied and all I found was a recently used Jacuzzi in her bathroom. Maybe we need to check the freezer room in the-”

I perked up, “How recently do you think it was used?”

He blinked at me, “It looked like she’d just stepped out as we arrived. The place was still steamy and her hair was dripping wet when she opened the door, remember?”

“Yeah but she already had the cookies in the oven and was done cleaning the stuff she used to make the dough when I got into the kitchen.”

“So?”

I sat up, “So, she told me that she was already making the cookies before we arrived. She couldn’t have had time to use the Jacuzzi and make cookies ‘cause we left only a few minutes after her and she’d have had to walk out of the neighbourhood to catch a cab which would’ve taken a few minutes. Really, she shouldn’t have had time to do anything between when she got home and when we arrived.”

Realisation dawned on him, “Unless she vamped home.”

I nodded, “That’s probably how she got here to help Keily and how she made the cookies so fast.”

She hadn’t reacted to my blood and she was faster than a newbie vampire so that meant she probably had a few decades, ma]ybe centuries on her. But even older vampires reacted to the blood of those they found especially attractive or had feelings for. The fact that she hadn’t meant that she neither found me attractive nor did she have feelings for me. For some reason, despite her possibly being a vampire, that saddened me

Trevor, who had been pacing back and forth till now, paused, “What about her voice?”

That reminded me. Vampires couldn’t do what she’d done with her voice in her kitchen. They flashed their fangs and eyes and darkened the veins under them when they were angry or feeling intense emotion but it sounded like another person was rising up from inside her, drawn out by the intensity of what she was feeling at the moment.

“Maybe she’s been body snatched.” Trevor suggested thoughtfully.

The very thought made me want to kneel over. If she’d been body snatched, then it was possible that she’d been uprooted from her home against her will or, worse, the body snatcher could have done horrible things with control over her body.

“But if she’s body snatched, then she’s still a vampire just with someone else’s essence in her so when it comes down to it, we still have to do what we have to do.” Trevor concluded.

No! I wanted to yell. Body snatched or not, vampire or not, she was still Ari, “Let’s observe her for some time. We need more solid proof before we do anything about it.”

Trevor nodded in agreement, his eyes seeming to reflect my thoughts: we weren’t sure we were going to be able to complete our task as vampire hunters, not with Ari.