image [https://img.wattpad.com/dcf25945f98ad05170ec1478469939978d57a165/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f52514869325764447849336f6e513d3d2d313431383330383731342e313762353930316237313138313137343433363030393037393737352e6a7067?s=fit&w=1280&h=1280]

Despite being rather afraid of her impending first flying lesson, Alyssa managed to get some sleep after reading a few more chapters of the novel Gabriel gave her. After waking up just after the sun set, she had a light snack from leftovers from the previous night before heading the roof for her lesson. She wasn’t used to starting her day at the break of night, but that was something she was going to have to get used to. As she joined Gabriel and Cornelius on the roof of the building they were both waiting for her to join them. Alyssa had put on some jogging pants and a light shirt, afraid that if she wore something heavy it would affect the way she could be able to fly. It probably didn’t make a difference, but she was trying her best to stay calm before making her first attempt.

“Well,” Alyssa called out to them, “Here I am!”

“Good evening,” Cornelius called out, “I hope you managed to get some sleep.”

“I slept alright,” Alyssa answered, “I’m not used to the whole sleep by day, stay up all night part yet but I’m adjusting.”

“Wish the weather was better,” Gabriel said looking up.

“It matters not,” Cornelius said, “This time is as good as any other.”

“I agree,” Alyssa concurred, eager to get started. “No time like the present.”

“I’m glad to hear you’re willing to try,” Cornelius said, gesturing to the center of the roof. “But today we’re just going to see if you can levitate first, just to make sure you have the ability at all before we throw you off the building.”

“Ha ha,” Alyssa said as she walked over to where Cornelius had instructed, “You better not toss me off the roof. Don’t even dream about it, you hear?”

“Relax,” Gabriel said, “He’s just kidding. We don’t teach like that.”

“Just stand right here,” Cornelius continued, ignoring his brother. “And trying to gravitate just a foot off the roof for now.”

“How exactly does one gravitate?” Alyssa asked, since this was her first time.

“It’s not that hard,” Gabriel said, stepping in again. “You try to lift your feet without actually taking them off the ground. By flexing your leg muscles and making the urge to lift, your body will float up instead of raising your foot.”

“Okay, that doesn’t sound difficult” Alyssa admitted, as she planted both feet firmly down and then took a deep breath.

She stood there and did as she was told but nothing appeared to be happening. She stopped for a moment, took another deep breath, and tried again. This time she could feel a tingling in her legs. Alyssa closed her eyes to resist an urge to look over at Gabriel so she could keep concentrating on what she was doing.

“It’s not working, is it?” she asked.

“Open your eyes,” Cornelius ordered.

Alyssa slowly opened her eyes, and she was levitating two feet higher than where she had a started.

“Oh my!” Alyssa said, looking around. “Does this mean what I think it does?”

“It does,” Cornelius concurred, “We have ourselves a flyer. Well done.”

“No ease up the tension in your legs,” Gabriel instructed, “And you’ll slowly lower back down. Take it easy.”

Alyssa did as he asked and ease up the tension and watch with amazement as she lowered herself back to the roof, and softly landed upon it.

“That is amazing!” Alyssa said looking back at Gabriel, “Does it feel like this every time you go up there?”

“You were just levitating,” Gabriel replied, “Flying is much more exhilarating.”

“I can’t wait to give that a try,” Alyssa said excitedly.

“Like you said,” Cornelius said as he walked closer to her, “No time like the present. Off you go then.”

Without warning, the Dark Prince walked over and shoved Alyssa off the roof. Gabriel watched in stunned silence as Alyssa screamed and plummeted toward the ground. He was about to go after her, but his brother grabbed his arm and prevented him from going after her.

“This is how they learn, brother.” Cornelius said rather sternly.

“This is no better than tossing a child into the deep end,” Gabriel sniped back, “It’s wrong and not the right way to teach anything!”

“Are you sure about that?” Cornelius asked.

Before Gabriel had a chance to answer, Alyssa flew right past them both and far into the sky above them. Cornelius had a smile on his face as he let go of Gabriel’s arm as his brother’s help was never necessary in the first place.

“You need to trust my instincts, brother.” The Dark Prince said, “I’m one of the oldest vampires on the planet for a reason.”

“Fair enough,” Gabriel said, just before he launched into the sky after Alyssa.

He flew right into the clouds but kept going as he had feeling where to find Alyssa and those instincts were right. As he emerged from the top of the clouds, he could see her gravitating high above them and just looking at the full moon. Gabriel flew up to where she was and came up to within a few feet to gravitate with her.

“It’s a nice view, isn’t it?” Gabriel said, staring at the same moon.

“It’s so calm and peaceful up here.” Alyssa said, as she was a little surprised.

“It didn’t used to be that way,” Gabriel confessed, “Things up here have gotten a lot quieter since most of the air traffic came to a grinding halt a while back. Before that it was quite dangerous for some of us to fly up here unless we knew what we were doing. There used to be ten of thousands of planes in the sky on any given day, so only the best of us were able to navigate the skies and not get hurt from all the ariel congestion.”

“That sounds awful,” Alyssa said, rather disgusting.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“It was a different time,” Gabriel confessed, “And as you can see the times do change drastically quite often. I’ve seen it happen several times, and now you’re going to be around long enough to see it for yourself.”

“That sounds rather freaky,” Alyssa said.

“You’ll get used to it,” Gabriel said, “But hopefully the world gets better, and this whole undead thing will end sooner rather than later.”

“What if it never ends?” Alyssa asked.

“Everything ends eventually,” Gabriel answered, “The only things that live forever is us, and the planet itself.”

“Does this mean time will lose all value?” She asked, worried about it.

“Yes and no,” Gabriel said, at odds with how to respond. “There are times when you will not believe how quickly a century could pass. Then there will be single moments in history that stick with you forever.”

“I see,” Alyssa said, “What are your moments that you can’t forget?”

“There are a few,” Gabriel confessed, “But I’m not ready to talk about them.”

“Fair enough,” Alyssa said, “It appears I have time to be patient, just don’t make me wait too long… understood?”

“That’s fair,” Gabriel concurred, “Sorry that my brother pushed you off the roof. I thought he was kidding, but apparently not.”

“I am totally going to kick his ass for that,” Alyssa replied, feeling angered.

“As much as I would love to see that,” Gabriel said, smirking at the though, “You can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Alyssa asked.

“Because he’s your master,” Gabriel reminded her. “You cannot turn on him like that or your body will compel you to stand down.”

“How long will I have to tolerate this bullcrap?” Alyssa asked, as she didn’t relish the idea of being someone’s slave.

“Everyone that Cornelius has turned was set free,” Gabriel answered, “But he doesn’t let go of that control until he’s convinced that you’re ready and able to take care of yourself without his help. Once you prove to him that you don’t need him and are your own vampire, he will let you go. He doesn’t keep people under his control for his own amusement. Neither of us do.”

“Because you haven’t been let go,” Alyssa said, remembering what was said to hear earlier. “Your father still controls you both, right?”

“We are his children,” Gabriel explained, “One could suggest it’s harder for someone to let a child go, especially if he loves them a great deal. He also wants to keep us close since he wants one of us to one day take his place and rule.”

“He doesn’t want his heir to run off, does he?” Alyssa asked, but she liked the idea that Gabriel thought it was his father’s love that preventing him from letting go. She thought about Diane, and how controlling she was over her while caring for her all those years. That was just her sister, and she knew that if she had her own child that person would be ten times harder to let go, especially into a world this dangerous.

“Something like that,” Gabriel said, “Do you want to fly off somewhere and practice your flying a bit more?”

“I’m not sure I can,” Alyssa said, sounding a little nervous, “I seem to have mastered going up and down, but I’m not sure about moving forward and back.”

“Fair enough,” Gabriel said reaching out his hand. “I can teach you that, and it’s not as hard as going up and down.”

“Alright,” Alyssa said, taking his hand. “What do I do?”

“Instead of using your legs to force movement,” Gabriel started as he motioned to his own stomach. “Your spine and shoulders control your direction.”

Alyssa did as he instructed and her body moved forward a few feet, and Gabriel moved with her to keep a hold of her hand. After a few jolts forward, she bolted out of his grip and shot forward at a great speed. Gabriel was amused by this and quickly followed her, but he had to push himself just to keep up with her. She was floating above the clouds again when Gabriel finally caught up with her.

“What took you so long?” she asked him.

“You’re faster,” Gabriel explained, “You need to be mindful of that.”

“Sorry,” Alyssa said, “I had no idea.”

“Let’s land somewhere to talk,” Gabriel said, “Follow me.”

He led her back down through the clouds and into the darkened streets of Nashville. Alyssa was worried she’d lose sight of him, but she managed to keep up with him rather easily and make her first successful landing behind Gabriel on the roof of a different building.

“Why are we landing here?” She asked him.

“This is a backup I’ve been working on,” Gabriel said, gesturing to the door. “Walk down that staircase and I’ll give you a tour.”

As they walked down the stairs, it led to another marvelous looking penthouse that was just as nice as the one Gabriel lived in. Alyssa looking around and noticed that it was kept up and even stocked up in case there were visitors.

“How long were you working on this place?” Alyssa asked.

“For a few months,” Gabriel confessed, “I was making a place for you and your sister to reside in the event that we had to run from your town. I thought you two might like to have your own place and a little privacy away from the scary vampire.”

“You’re not that scary,” Alyssa reminded him, “Not to us at least.”

“True,” Gabriel concurred, “But my place would have been a bit crowded, so I decided to clear out a new place for you just in case.”

“I appreciate that,” Alyssa said, as she strolled around the kitchen. She looked in the fridge and noticed there were a few bags of blood in there.

“Can’t touch those,” Gabriel reminded her.

“Damn, these are mine too?” Alyssa said, slamming the door. “We need to label all of them to make sure there are no accidents.”

“I wouldn’t worry about my place,” Gabriel said, “I’m sure Cornelius is taking care of the supply at my house for us. He doesn’t know about this place, so I’ll keep that reserve just for myself.”

“Alright, give me the skinny,” Alyssa said as she emerged from the kitchen and walked up to him in the middle of the living room. “Why is there such a difference in powers between you and your brother?”

“Cornelius and I might be brothers,” Gabriel started, “But we are separated by a few thousand years. Another big difference is both of his parents were natural born vampires, where as my mother was turned before she gave birth to me.”

“Oh, and that makes a difference?” Alyssa asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Gabriel said, “Odds are you are a lot more powerful than I am, which is why Cornelius doesn’t turn people that often. He has to be careful, or he could risk spawning vampires that could challenge the council and even the crown.”

“So, why did he turn me instead of you?” Alyssa asked.

“It’s quite complicated,” Gabriel replied, “And while we may have ignored a few rules when we turned you, there are still a few that we followed. We were pushing our luck far enough to begin with, and Cornelius also didn’t have a choice in the matter. He was commanded to be the one who turned you by our master.”

“By your father?” Alyssa said, “I thought he was asleep.”

“He is,” Gabriel confirmed, “But for some reason he told Cornelius what to do before he went to sleep, hundreds of years before this happened.”

“How could he do that?” Alyssa asked.

“I really don’t know,” Gabriel answered, “But if you thought Cornelius was powerful, he’s truly got nothing on our father. He’s the oldest of us all for a reason, and it’s rumored that he had powers that are godly that makes him too powerful for anyone to challenge, even the council.”

“How long has he been asleep?” Alyssa inquired.

“According to historical records,” Gabriel started, “Vlad the third’s reign ended in the year 1497, but his alleged assassination was a total fabrication. Father went to sleep that year and allowed the humans to assume that he had perished. So, that means father has been sleeping for at least five hundred and fifty years. I personally think he picked a terrible time to rest, as he missed what might have been the peak of the human race. The invention of electricity, the industrial revolution, and the birth of America and the establishment of democracy.”

“And it’s downfall,” Alyssa added, “Via the undead brain munchers.”

“Trust me, that is what has kept the council up during the day.” Gabriel said, “They are all scared that father is going to wake up and lose his collective shit when he finds out what a state this planet is in.”

“How pissed is the old man gonna be?” Alyssa asked.

“Think about leaving your house to the kids for the weekend,” Gabriel compared, “And returning home at the end of said weekend to find out your home was burned to the ground. That doesn’t even cover a tenth of how furious Father is going to if he were to wake up soon.”

“Yikes,” Alyssa said, as she understood the metaphor. “He’s not going to be a happy camper.”

“Exactly,” Gabriel concurred, “And that’s why the council is investigating and looking into ways this zombie thing can be undone. The extinction of the human race will in turn lead to our own extinction because we can’t live without humans. I mean we could try, but I doubt we’d last that long.”

Alyssa was about to say something, but she paused as she heard something that caught her attention. She listened to it for a moment and then turned to face Gabriel for an explanation.

“Gabriel,” she started, “I am getting the impression that there might be a telepathic link between masters and their people.”

“Oh crap,” Gabriel said, trying not to laugh. “I knew that was a possibility since Cornelius was so old, but yes… some vampires can connect mentally to those they turn. I should have warned you that was possible. Is he talking to you now?”

“Yes, well… kind of,” Alyssa replied, “I’m not hearing anything, but I’m getting the impression that he needs to speak to us about something urgent that requires our immediate attention.”