Eternal Rest

That night when she thought everyone was asleep Nia slipped from the bed she shared with Brian and went down the hall to the stairway and she slipped quietly into the library. She didn’t bother turning on a light since she could make out the words on the side of the books. She knew he had the book she wanted somewhere she just had to find it. She found it and walked over to the couch. She was wearing a pair of baggy pajama bottoms and a tank top and she tucked her feet under her as she sat. She flipped on the little light that was on the table by the end of the couch. She opened the book and began reading. After almost an hour she fell asleep with the book on her lap. In the morning when Brian woke she wasn’t by his side but he knew where he’d find her. It was her favorite room in his house. He walked into the library and there she was curled up asleep on the couch and whatever she had been reading was on the floor. He smiled and took the blanket that was barely covering her legs and pulled it over her and kissed her forehead before he picked up the book. He looked at the cover and smiled. It was one of the oldest books he had. His mother had used to read it to him. A book of fairytales. He placed it on the table beside the couch and turned the light out. He left the door open and started to go back upstairs but he stopped when he heard crying coming from the kitchen. He walked to the door and saw that his mom was sitting at the table with a book in her hands. Her cookbook, the one he had managed to recover from the charred remains of the house he had grown up in.

“Mom”

“Brian”

“It’s all I could find in the house after the flames died.” She stood and hugged him. “you okay mom?”

“I just can’t believe that you even kept it with the other cook books.”

“Nia actually found it a few days ago. I forgot I had put it there. I quit cooking things that required a recipe almost sixty years ago.”

“I could tell, your kitchen doesn’t look very used.”

“It’s been used a lot actually since Nia came into my life.”

“She’s a sweet girl.”

“We never got to explain anything to her really when she was turned, we had to leave and go out on the road. If there had been any sense in any of us at the time we would have told her more than we had.”

“So what’s the story behind her and Zack?”

“It has to do with me not explaining things to her. There was an attack when we were leaving a show and I kinda got my throat ripped open and Adele saved my life, there was nothing anyone could do to stop her because she had sliced her own wrist open and placed it to my lips before any one really knew what was going on. So I wasn’t the only one out Adele lost even more blood than she thought she would because they couldn’t get her wrist to stop bleeding. Nia stayed on the second bus with Zack that night because the other one was crowded with people trying to save my life and Adeles. Nia wanted to be alone because she thought that it was all her fault. She had been trying to get Zack to leave and go on the other bus but he wouldn’t he said something and she was being sarcastic when she told Zack to bite her and obviously you know the outcome of that.”

“Yeah, the question is do I even want to know your reaction?”

“You act like I beat the hell out of him.” Brian said looking at his mom. A grin in place on his face.

“Because you did.” Nia said walking in. She placed a kiss on Brian’s forehead. “Thanks for covering me up and turning the light out.”

“Your welcome and the bus beat him up thank you not me.”

“You tossed him through a window.” Nia said opening the fridge and pulling out a bag of blood. She offered one to the others as well they took them.

“So what happened?”

“They argued shouted, I missed most of it seeing as I was inside the bus, but I know Zack landed against the bus the first time second time he went through the window.”

“Zack bit you didn’t he?”

“Yeah Talia he did.”

“Then well Brian kinda walked away and next thing I remember was Brian biting me in the same spot which hurt like hell.”

“To get Zack’s saliva out of your system.”

“Yeah.”

“Then what happened?” that was Ari walking in. “Uhm blood?”

“Fridge bottom drawer.” Brian said automatically. “And what happened next was they took Zack to the ER and we waited around for someone to fix the window. Then we got delayed in leaving longer because the hospital got attacked which is why Laila is now with us, not like she minds really considering she and Zack fell in love.”

“You missed something…” Ari said glancing between Nia and Brian. “Between the removing saliva from her system and the hospital something happened.” Brian and Nia looked at one another.

“That’s not to important.” Nia said, she got slightly red in the face. “So tell us about you Ari.”

Zack woke with his arm around Laila and smiled to himself. He had found her and even he had to admit that he owed it to Brian and Nia. Oh god was he thankful for Laila. They all knew that they had started getting destructive and if they hadn’t have seen Marius that day and followed him when he went to that house, they would’ve never had the chance to meet the women that they all had now. He ran his hand up and down her arm as she lay there beside him. Her eyes slowly fluttered open and she looked up at him. A small smile played across her lips as she moved to kiss him.

Jimmy and Chryslyn were already awake and moving while everyone else was just waking up. They were dressed and had grabbed a quick breakfast on the way out the door. They were headed out to the camp already and expected chaos when they got there. Fifty kids ranging from three to eighteen were being taken to the Compound just outside of LA. It was safe and well guarded and basically an orphanage for children that lost family and had no one to take care of them. When they arrived at the camp most of the older kids were helping the Adults. Chrys joined in waking up the younger children and seeing to it that they got the proper amount of blood that they needed. She was a damn natural with the children. Jimmy walked over to her.

“You’re good with them.”

“Before we were turned Nevaeh and I actually took care of children who lost their families and had no one to turn to. We had lost our parents young so we always wanted to help others in the same situation.”

“I’m sorry, you know that you’ve been through a lot and seeing all of this is probably killing you.”

“To see so many parentless children, yeah, but what happened to me was a long time ago. I got over it.” She told him as she picked up the youngest of the children that had been orphaned. The only baby in the whole group a six month old little girl. Jimmy watched her and leaned down to place a kiss to her forehead and wondered just how he had gotten so lucky. He was falling in love and seeing her knowing that she would fight for what she believed in, knowing that she would fight with him not against him made it all the more harder to resist her, not that he wanted to. She looked up at him and smiled. Yep he was done for and he was definitely not letting her go.

Chryslyn watched him walk away to take care of another group of kids and smiled to herself. She had decided that she would let herself fall, because he was there to catch her. Even with the fact that it now seemed that they were at war she still knew that he was what she needed. The way he touched her, the way he smiled at her, she was happy when she was with him and when she wasn’t busy and had nothing to do she found her thoughts gravitated towards him. She didn’t mind at all. She loved working with children and that was usually a sign that told a guy it was time to walk away but he wasn’t.

Matt woke with a head on his shoulder and smiled. His arm was around Nevaeh and she was still asleep. He grinned to himself and moved carefully so he didn’t wake her up and stood to go to the bathroom. He came back in and noticed that she was starting to sit up in bed and she was reaching for him. He sat down on the edge of the bed and she moved to his arms. He kissed her and the way she responded to the kiss made him grin against her lips. He was suddenly glad that he hadn’t bothered to get dressed after he went to the bathroom. He lay her back on the bed and she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. He let his hands roam her body and the way that body reacted to his touch was enough to drive him crazy.

Talia, Ari, and Nia all stepped out of the SUV that they had driven to the camp and Brian rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the drivers side. Jimmy and Chryslyn were already there and it looked like everything was going smoothly. Nia looked around and smiled at Chrys who smiled back as she walked over with two of the older kids. Talia recognized none of the children but they all hugged her when they saw her. She was confused by that. Before they had left the house Brian had given his mom his dads blade. Nia had chosen one as well. Ari had her own. Nia also had a silver stake tucked in the back of her jeans. She grinned at him. She loved the little immunity to silver perk that she had. She also had a blade hidden under the leg of her jeans. One of the many reasons she loved flares. They were walking around the camp checking on things when Johnny, Adele, Zack and Laila showed up. The group met up in the middle of the camp and started making the rounds to check on all the kids. Jimmy never once let his hand leave Chrys’. Matt and Nevaeh were the last of them to show up and Brian rolled his eyes when he saw the tell tale bite on Matt’s neck.

They were making sure that all the kids got on the busses that were transporting them and glad that the older kids were helping out. Chrys said she would ride with them to make sure the baby was okay. Laila was helping with the child because there was a cut that was having trouble healing on her arm. Jimmy and Zack watched as the two women joined the kids on the bus and both shook their heads. Matt smacked his friends before sliding behind the wheel of the black SUV he and Nevaeh had arrived in. Jimmy watched as a his dad joined him and then slowly they all slipped into cars and were off to the compound that was built for orphans. It was on about ten acres of land and their was a school and playgrounds and dorms for all the kids. Very few of the children actually shared a room, because until now there hadn’t been so many orphans in the vampire world. Nia’s jaw hit the floor when she saw the magnificent building come into view and she looked at Brian.

“I’ve lived in LA my whole life and never knew that this was here.”

“Yeah, you can thank the vamps like my mom for that.” Brian said smiling at Nia. She grinned and got out. They had arrived before the busses. Nia watched as Jimmy pulled in and Talia and Ariana stepped out of his SUV. They had rode with him so that they could pry a little bit about Nia and Brian, and Brian shook his head in his mom and sisters direction he knew what they had been up to. They glanced up as a dark haired woman walked out and down the front steps of the building.

“That’s Jasmine, she has no last name and she’s the head of the Continental council. This was her pet project some three hundred years ago and she finally got everything worked out about fifty years ago. When the building was finally built. She spends most of her time here and considers it her home.” Brian told the others. Talia watched her for a moment.

“Welcome to Second Chances. I hope you find it to your liking.” Was all she said as she descended the steps.

“She’s beautiful…” Nia whispered.

“She was an orphan herself. Her parents died when she was five and she’s the last of one of the oldest bloodlines in the world.” Brian whispered to Nia as they watched Jasmine approach.

“Jasmine, this is Talia and Ariana Haner, my mother and sister, James Sullivan a hunter and a friend, and last but not least Elainia Matthews, my girlfriend.”

“So nice to meet all of you. I’m sure the house and facilities meet your requirements. I got a call from Andrew Sanders stating that one of the children was injured and they had to make a stop at a local hospital for a little more blood.”

“Ah okay, we’ll just have to wait on them then. You are prepared to take on fifty children?” Brian asked.

“Yes, we pulled it together as fast as possible when we were informed of the mass amount of children and got rooms set up for almost all of them. We have lists that were e-mailed with the names and ages of all children. Even the ones that are technically old enough to be out on their own by your basic human laws, seeing as we know that they won’t be ready to take on life on their own with out our help.”

“Okay.” Brian said. “and Talia will be helping out here four times a week, for the next few months, seeing as the whole situation…”

“Is my fault. I didn’t know when I blew the place up that their were children living there.” Talia finished. Jimmy rolled his eyes at his friends mother.

“I’d like to volunteer some time as well.” Ari said and Jasmine nodded. They talked a little while longer moving inside to the kitchens so that Nia could get the extra blood that she needed being pregnant and all. When the others finally arrived Jimmy watched as not only Chrys’ eyes lit up but so did Nevaeh’s. Matt looked at Nevaeh and shook his head. He had a feeling she was having too much fun at the moment. He saw her eyes search out her sister and both girls grinned. They had a chance to help kids again and they were going to take it. Jimmy watched Chrys carry the baby inside and bit his lower lip. He had a feeling she would be here every day just to make sure that the child was safe.