The Beautiful Boy with a Brand New Toy

I stood near the fireplace gazing around each new and familiar faces watching me. I had finished explaining everything about Gregorio Giovanni and tried my best to ignore the haunting and frightened stare from Hunter, but it proved to be extremely diffcult. I had tried to put it as nicely as I could, but sometimes there is just no sugar-coating it. The expression and look in her eyes was I needed to know that she felt threatened. She clutched the hands of her friends she was closest to, including her cousin.

"Why?" she breathed, staring vacantly down at the carpeted floor. The colorful flames illuminated her face gravely; she was shocked, even surprised, but more confused than anything else. "Why would he want to hurt me?"

I ran a hand through my hair, and shoved my hands into my pockets. I had to be serious about this, to help her understand. "It's because you are once again a liability. With your strange gift for the unnatural for vampires, and being my future wife, you are the key to getting to me."

Her eyes grew wide as she began to realise what I was saying to her. She looked around at the faces of her friends, tears welling in her eyes and she sniffed. I could see she was trying to hold them back, not wanting to reveal her weakness to people she barely knew, excluding her friends. It was my family that she wanted to prove strong for. Internally, my heart ached at seeing her this upset and I walked over to kneel before her. I took her delicate hands into my own, and gazed into her eyes seriously.

"I won't let them hurt you," I vowed, my voice strong and true. She just stared back at me. "I promise that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. In return, I am going to train you with Elliot."

Her mouth opened with a pop and some of her friends gasped at the idea. "Train me? You mean how to fight?" She made it sound like it was impossible, but she had more strength than most of the vampires in the room put together.

I nodded. "If something happens and I can't be where you are, you need to know how to defend yourself. You will start training with me daily, and when I am busy you'll train with Elliot. I've already asked Andy and Michelle to help you work on your unique gift, to master it in case your strength fails."

She didn't say no more, and simply nodded. Her eyes seemed far away when she looked into the fire, not wanting to meet my gaze. I knew this was difficult for her, but it needed to be done. It pained me just to imagine what I would do if anything ever happened to her. I would most likely turn into a demon and kill any man on site. I prayed it never came down to that. I turned my attention to the others presently in the room.

"I ask that during your stay, the rest of you train as well. You've come in dangerous times, my friends," I said honestly with a worried frown. I watched the others chatter almost silently back and forth, while Andy walked over to stand with me.

"Do you really think they should stay? It isn't safe. I don't even feel comfortable having Michelle around, let alone all of Hunter's good friends," he said with concern, gazing at his wife with a forlorn expression as she comforted Hunter, who seemed dazed by it all.

"I have no choice. If they wish to stay with Hunter, that is what they will do. I won't just throw them out and risk any Giovanni bastard getting a hold of them and using them against us," I murmured with disgust at just the thought of something like that happening. Hunter would be devastated.

Savannah suddenly rose to her feet when she had finished consulting with the others. She had a hard, serious look to her that immediately told me I was right in their decision. She stood tall and proud while Hunter finally snapped out of it and stared at her in horror, as if already knowing they had made up their minds.

"Hunter is like my sister. She is family to me. I never leave behind my family, and I shall not start now. We've talked it over, and every single one of us is staying. We have all had practise in the art of Fighting and now the basics. We'll train with you so that we may be of some help, too."

I nodded, though I seriously though it was a bad idea. There were too many people to train, and nobody knew when Gregorio Giovanni would get serious. I felt sickened that all of this was happening, that I had dragged Hunter and her friends into this. It was something I should have dealt with alone with my family. It was cowardly to involve others.

"You are not a coward, Master Zack," Elliot whispered beside me, slightly leaning in. I turned to stare at him in surprise, and wondered out loud if I was truly that easy to read these days. His answer was a smile and a slow nod, his eyes knowing.

"It is the young lady that has made others able to read you like an open book," he murmured before his face settled seriously, his eyes flashing when he looked into mine harshly. "We'll have to work on that. There can be no weaknesses, Master. Especially no hints of any."

I nodded slowly, accepting the fact that he was right. I was a danger to us all because I seemed to have lost that piece of me that had a look that always said I didn't give a damn. Since Hunter, my stone barrier I shielded myself behind had begun to dwindle and now was barely there at all; it was hard to keep my emotions from my eyes these days and Gregorio would pick up that in an instant.

With a sigh, I lifted my hands to catch their attention and silence came over the room.

"Let the training begin."