I'll Justify My Reasons With Your Blood

*Jared’s POV*

“Jared? Shannon? What are you boys doing here?” Uncle Jack asked in a surprised voice as he opened the door to his cabin.

Shannon laughed a little, “Good one, uncle, but really you know why we’re here…”

“I do?”

“Well, yeah I mean you called us up earlier today and said it was important that we come down here,” Shannon continued to insist.

Something tells me that Uncle Jack honestly doesn’t know what’s going on. “I didn’t think I did,” he said slowly, scratching the back of his head recalling any events that happened today.

Shannon glanced at me with a nervous expression and I sighed, realizing the horrible truth. “We’ve been tricked,” I growled, slamming my fist into the coffee table, breaking it in half instantly. “Uh, sorry about that…” I quickly apologized.

“It’s alright. I’m more concerned about what’s going on here and who tricked you,” uncle said sipping on a mug of hot chocolate.

Shannon and I explained all the details about the phone call we received, and what this voice had said. “Those bastards – I’m almost certain that Shadows has something to do with this. He’s got a group of crazy friends, and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them could manipulate voices.”

I could slowly feel all the color draining from my face – how could we have fallen for that? What would be the point in getting us out of state like that…unless they were going for Nikki! “Oh shit what are we going to do about Nikki?” I asked, concerned.

Uncle Jack thought about it for a couple minutes and then said, “We can only hope that they will leave her out of the picture. I don’t see why they would need her for anything, seeing as she’s human.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that no one outside the family is aware of that fact! They could just assume that she’s like us and do something to her anyway,” Shannon pointed out.

We all got quiet for a brief moment, acknowledging the horrible reality of what Shannon just said. I tried calming myself down – Nikki’s always been a fighter, she’s got good reflexes and she knows where the safe room is. As long as she can get in there and wait patiently they can’t get to her. Yeah, that’s pretty realistic…right?

“Regardless of what’s going on, we have to act fast –,” Uncle Jack began to say.

An immense migraine suddenly crawled across my head, causing me to fall to the ground, clutching my head in pain. “What’s wrong?!” Shannon asked.

“M-my head is killing me all of the sudden. Ow fuck,” I shouted.

Suddenly, I couldn’t hear any of what they may or may not have been saying. All I could hear was…Nikki? She sounded so scared…and she was saying something along the lines of ‘I wish Jared and Shannon were here to protect me.’ Hell, I could feel her fear pulsing through me, that’s how strong of a feeling it was. But wait, how could I hear her voice if she’s not here?

“I think I know what’s going on,” uncle said calmly as the headache slowly left me and allowed me to hear the world around me again. “You heard Nikki’s voice right?” I nodded my head. “Then it’s just as I suspected, what you heard was her thoughts. Sometimes in a family of vampires, if one of the members is experiencing a strong feeling such as fear, happiness, love, depression, anger then the most experienced vampire who is closest to that person will hear their thoughts and sometimes even feel their feelings.”

“Well, I’m close to Nikki too, how come I didn’t feel anything?” Shannon whined.

“I’m more experienced than you, clearly,” I bragged.

“Boys, this isn’t the time to be discussing this! We have to make a plan to get back to California in time to stop whatever plan they’ve been executing.” A

fter hearing these words, realization reached me. Nikki was home alone – if she’s scared and wishes for our protection, then I’d say it’s obvious that they’ve found her and scared her. “No, we don’t have time for plans,” I said standing up suddenly, putting on my jacket. “We have to get there now or else they’ll just get away with her.”

Shannon agreed. “Yeah, we have to get there now.”

We began walking toward the door, but stopped short when we say that uncle wasn’t following us. “I understand how you boys feel, but you could just be walking into a trap if you don’t plan this out even a little bit.”

“Nikki’s mortal life is on the line here. That means that she could die or be hurt much easier than we can. I’m not going to allow those assholes to hurt her anymore! If there’s a trap, then we’ll get through it.”

Shannon and I stormed out of the cabin leaving Uncle Jack behind, shaking his head in disappointment. “I hope you’re right about that, Jared…”

I don’t care what he thinks of all this. He didn’t feel or hear what I did just a few moments ago. The thought of my baby sister being in their evil hands was ripping me to shreds. I will make them pay. We’re coming for you Nikki…just hold on.

*Zacky’s POV*

I swear, these people we’re fighting against are so completely stupid. Not only were we able to get the brothers out of the state but we were also able to sneak into the uncle’s cabin quite some time ago and install wire taps to listen in on all their conversations. Although I must say, tonight’s convo was by far the most entertaining.

“Oh shit what are we going to do about Nikki?” Jared asked.

Jack paused then said, “We can only hope that they will leave her out of the picture. I don’t see why they would need her for anything, seeing as she’s human.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that no one outside the family is aware of that fact! They could just assume that she’s like us and do something to her anyway,” Shannon added.

Well this was most unexpected – is Nikki really only a human? I mean, that would explain quite a bit of the occurrences that happened back at her house, but how could she be part of the Leto family if she isn’t a vampire. Was she adopted? No…all the blood samples and DNA I looked up matched up with all of the Leto’s that we had on record. She must just be a failed creation then. And it’s not like that really hurts us…actually, it hurts her more than anything because it makes it oh so much easier for us to inflict pain upon her.

“Shadows, I need you to come to the computer room,” I said into the cell phone before shutting it and waiting for his arrival.

“What’s up, Vengeance?” he asked, leaning against the door frame lazily. Obviously, he wouldn’t be all too prepared for what I get to tell him.

“Well, I was monitoring the Leto brothers at their uncle’s house and I caught wind of an interesting conversation. She’s human,” I told him, with amusement laced in my words.

His eyes widened for a brief moment and he took a step forward closer into the room. “You’re sure? Well shit that would explain lots of things. Well, I wasn’t expecting this, but I ain’t gonna lie…this is probably one of the best things you could’ve told me all day today. I think I’ll go pay our poor little human prisoner a visit,” he grinned evilly.

Oh these next few days are going to be all too much fun.

*Normal POV*

A chill crawled up and down my spine leaving behind goose bumps in the process. The cold draft woke me up from my safe slumber. I blinked my eyes a few times and was met with not so great surroundings. Since when did I end up in a room that looked so…wet? There was water dripping all over the place from the ceiling, creating countless drip, drip, drip noises. It was already driving me crazy and I had only been conscious for oh about 2 and a half minutes now?

“Aw well if that’s driving you crazy then I can’t wait to see how you’ll feel when you get to spend some time alone with me,” a voice said from the shadows.

I cringed, recognizing the voice to be that of the creeper from my balcony – Shadows. Slowly, he stepped forward until he was standing right before me, towering over me. Wondering why he was so tall, I glanced around to figure out how exactly they have me bound. Apparently, they used some kind of wires to keep me stuck to this really cold metal pole in the center of this forsaken dungeon.

“You look so scared, darling. Want to tell me why?” he grinned, crouching down next to me, the dim light reflecting off the grills he had put on his teeth.

“I’m not going to tell you shit,” I said defiantly, moving around subtly to get these damn wires off.

“Oh, if you want the wires off all you had to do was ask,” he said, pulling a knife out of his pocket and slicing through the metal wires.

My body fell forward, being free of those restraints. I felt a few areas of cool liquid breaking free now, and I knew those were the places where the wire had dug into the flesh…that’s how tight those were too me. Wobbly, I stood up a little and dusted myself off. It hurt to move my head from left to right because quite a large amount of blood had crusted and dried up on my neck and shoulders, making me feel stiff.

“Thanks for the help, but I really should be going,” I said stretching a bit before stepping over him, since he was still sitting on the floor.

He started chuckling a little. “You know Nikki, you are just so entertaining. You won’t be going anywhere.”

I rolled my eyes and continued walking toward the staircase. I almost reached the railing, when a muscular arm wrapped around my torso and pulled me back into his rock hard chest. “Nice try,” he whispered in my ear, his breath feeling cold against my skin. “But I’m sorry to say that your human body will never be able to keep up with me.”

He rested his hand over my heart and certainly heard my heart beating a million miles per second. “I-if I’m human, then what the hell does that make you?!” I shouted trying to get out of his grip, despite the fact that it was probably pointless.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” he laughed, suddenly letting me go.

I fell on my knees to the stone cold floor. He grabbed a hold of one of my arms and twisted it behind my back making me gasp in pain. “You think that hurts? Wait until you see this…”

He kicked between my shoulder blades, sending me face first down across the floor. I cried out as I felt the rough cement scrape away at my face. My body landed in a jumbled heap right back near that pole where I started. He pulled me up to his eye level by my hair and pushed me up against the pole. He stared at my face with what looked like a smile of enjoyment, which was creepy as all hell.

“I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out sooner! What I don’t understand though is how someone as mindless and naïve as Jared Leto could’ve possibly kept this secret away from the entire world for such a long time.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” I growled, getting mad at my evident confusion and his insults toward my brother.

Blood began dripping down my face in a thin trail that was right above my eye. I constantly kept blinking as the blood would somehow still manage to trickle into my eye, turning my vision red. I noticed that he was staring at it the entire time. What a creep. He suddenly grinned largely, exposing a set of pointy teeth.

He held my face in place as he licked the blood off my forehead. “Get the hell off of me,” I squirmed.

Suddenly, he gripped my neck, tightly. “Trust me, Nikki, you are in position to be telling me what to do. Maybe you should’ve tried to keep your secret a little longer. But now that I know the truth…you’re in for a world of pain,” he laughed sadistically.

It was then that I saw someone else walk out of the shadows behind him. How can I survive against two of them?! I felt tears involuntarily fall as my body shook gently with fear.