Double Trouble

While his aunt, uncle, and father knew the identities of the trio of men in front of them from experience, only Eli never had an encounter with these men. He only knew who these men were through the stories he heard over the years. More of the stories were of the two red-heads; the men who kidnapped his cousins: Jason and Justin Evermore. And, because of that—and his aunt’s dream—Eli intended on dealing with them. Between Uncle Toby, Aunt Savannah, and his father, they could handle Calarasi. Eli was quite sure of that fact.

Once Eli and the members of his family were brought inside the Evermore home—at Calarasi’s insistence—they were quickly separated into two groups; Eli went off to confront Jason and Justin about what they had done while his aunt, uncle, and father dealt with Calarasi. After everything that happened over the years to the people in the Meadowbrook family, Eli wished for nothing else to happen to those he loved, least of all his cousins. They deserved none of this, the most innocent of all. Eli glared at his uncle’s brothers. Both forever-seventeen year-olds stood there, small smiles tugging on their lips. Neither one seemed to care about the fact that they were scarring their niece and nephews for life by what they were doing. “Jason! Justin!” Eli yelled at them angrily. “Let my cousins go!”

“Eli, you’re not getting your cousins back!” Jason yelled. “After everything that your aunt did to us, we are not letting the three of them go. Justin, go make sure that they’re still back there. They could have escaped and we’d have no idea. Savannah’s children are to be destroyed. She destroyed us fifteen years ago and now we will get her back.”

Justin nodded and left. “Got it.”

Eli rolled his eyes. Any attempt these two jackasses made was done in vain. Neither one realized that they were putting themselves in danger by doing near the Evermore/Meadowbrook children. In fact, Eli figured that now would be as good a time as any to reveal the fact that Jason and Justin had come in close contact with their niece, who had the ability to destroy them; Dawn may not have hone that skill to its full intensity, but there was still a chance that his youngest cousin had eliminated any trace of their vampire heritage. Eli hoped this to be the case; it would make things so much funnier in the end. “Reuben! Keith! Dawn! You need to get out of there! You three are in extreme danger!”

“Dawn?” Jason asked. “But she said her name was Eve!”

Eli laughed. “Aunt Savannah told her to do that if she ever met any strangers, she was to tell people that her name was Eve, particularly if it was you two. Despite the fact that I was the only one ever told about you two, my youngest cousin was considering changing her name to Eve, something Aunt Savannah never wanted my cousin to do. Therefore, Dawn was only permitted to use the name Eve when around strangers; it was to protect her true identity and keep you assholes from learning the truth about who she was.”

The look of Jason’s face when he discovered that his niece was named Dawn, not Eve was absolutely priceless. He spent several days around a young girl with the power to eliminate him and his brother. It may not have been to the intensity that her mother’s power was at, but it would still affect the vampire within him. And, just knowing that this was the case made Eli smile. Jason and Justin were most likely weakened from their prolonged contact with their niece and they might not be capable of destroying their now mortal brother.

At that moment, Justin came in with Dawn on his hip. Reuben and Keith followed. “I have them. Fortunately, none of them had escaped, but Eve was trying to,” Justin replied.

Jason groaned. “Her name isn’t Eve.”

“It isn’t?” Justin asked.

“No,” Jason said shaking his head. “Apparently, Savannah actually named her daughter Dawn. You were right; she would never willing name her daughter Eve when she knew what that would do. If we ever came back, naming her daughter Eve would give us power, not take it away like the name Dawn would do. You remember what happened when we tried to make Toby kill Savannah; we discovered that her middle name was Dawn and that she was the one person in the world who could destroy us. As it appeared, her daughter now has even more power than her to destroy us. We’re going to have a lot of trouble getting our immortality to Calarasi if we can’t destroy every Meadowbrook and our brother.”

“True,” Justin said.

Eli groaned. “Let my cousin go!” Eli yelled angrily. “My cousin’s name is Dawn. You two are vampires! I know damn well what contact with someone named Dawn will do to you. So, let her go before you two are destroyed. Aunt Savannah and Uncle Toby made sure that their family would be protected from you. I don’t know how or why they knew that this needed to be done, but I do know that it was the right thing for them to do. If they didn’t, the two of you probably would have been able to destroy everyone in my family. Just as Aunt Savannah won’t let you destroy the ones she cares about, I will do the same and protect everyone I love.” Only half of what Eli told Jason and Justin was the truth; they didn’t need to know that Auntie V dreamt of this very exchange and that she seemed to be a visionary. His uncle’s brothers were monsters and didn’t need to know that their sister-in-law was even more powerful than they ever thought possible. The same held true for Reuben, Keith, and Dawn. Especially Dawn. And, that would be their downfall.

“I doubt you can do anything,” Jason mused.

“Why would you say that?” Eli yelled.

“Because of whom your mother is!” Justin called.

“My mother?” Eli wondered. There was nothing about his mother that could stop him from defending his cousins; Eli was quite sure of that. “What do you know about my mother?”

“Everything,” Jason smirked. “Thanks to Reuben and Keith.”

Eli eyed his male cousins. “Reuben? Keith? Did you? Did you guys inadvertently tell your bastard uncles about our home life?” The boys nodded shamefully. “Damn it! Boys! That was a really stupid idea. You guys might have thought you were okay talking about home, but you weren’t.” Eli groaned. It seemed as if his cousins would have to be told of their uncles’ situation. It seemed the only way that things could be understood. No matter what Uncle Toby and Aunt Savannah would have wanted, Jason and Justin kidnapping the Evermore/Meadowbrook children forced their hand. They could no longer hide the truth from the younger three kids. “Reuben, Keith, Dawn, this is something that no one ever wanted you to know. Even I was never supposed to know about this, but your mother pulled me into the loop. There was never any intention to tell the three of you; however, now I feel as if it is my obligation to warn you of the danger you’ve been put in.”

“Danger?” Dawn asked.

Eli nodded. “The most perilous of dangers.”

“No!” a voice called from the other side of the room. Eli glanced over and saw his father reacting to something that was going on over there. Calarasi had a sinister grin on his face—clearly pleased with something—and Eli could only wonder what he was reacting to.

“What’s going on over there?” Keith asked.

Justin grinned maliciously. “Your uncle’s just finding out the truth behind his marriage, a truth that has been concealed from him since his relationship with Iyana Cleary.” Eli held back his rage upon hearing his mother’s maiden name. The way Justin spoke of this made it seem as if he knew more than he was letting on. Justin laughed. “It seems as if you want to know what’s going on over there. Fine; I’ll tell you. Iyana Meadowbrook is Calarasi’s daughter, Jason’s thrice great granddaughter, and my thrice great grand-niece; the same goes for Toby, in fact. Consequently, Eli, that makes you related to us.”