Blanket of Fear

Matthew grimaced as Zack’s nightmare found a way into his thoughts. It was the night he’d murdered their parents and sister; the day he’d given them their salvation from the world of which he’d immersed himself in. He almost felt pain as the memory hit him; he really did. But he was incapable of that feeling. He’d shut it off a long time ago. He’d needed to, in order to survive as a vampire.

Zack had never understood why his older brother had kept him alive while killing the rest of them. And perhaps, Matthew thought to himself, if Zack hadn’t woken up that night, he’d be dead as well. That way he wouldn’t have had to look into his eyes—eyes identical to his own—and see the pain and betrayal in their depths. But life hadn’t worked out that way. Fate had woken Zachary up, and now, he was a vampire, the same as Matthew was.

He never regretted his decision in turning the younger boy. He’d known from the start that he would make a good vampire, even though he’d left the second he knew that Zachary would awake from the dead. Back then, he’d convinced himself he had left because he didn’t want the responsibility of dealing with a fledgling vampire; what one would call a mortal baby. But as time had gone on, he wondered if it hadn’t been out of guilt that he’d left.

He looked down at the woman in his arms, not dead, and scowled at her before placing her on the bed, taking in her features. Her neck was marred with vampire bites, dried blood clinging to her caramel-colored skin where he’d recently bitten her. Her eyes were half-closed in ecstasy, completely taken by the high the bite had given her. He almost wanted to be disgusted with her, but he realized that it wasn’t her fault she was addicted to the bite. He knew from experience that the bite hurt like hell—all vampires did—but he also knew how addictive that one bite could be. It was why most vampires shied away from being bitten by others. It would render them submissive, and in a world where you needed to be as strong as possible to survive, that wasn’t a very good thing to be.

Matthew caught another glimpse of the inside of Zack’s mind, but it was nothing he hadn’t already seen when he’d prodded into the younger boy’s head. He was thinking of the redheaded woman that Sean seemed so hellbent on destroying. He wondered what was so special about her that both his younger brother and his ‘ally’ were fighting over, but at the same time, he really couldn’t care less.

He could clearly see the adoration his brother had for the woman. There were no bad thoughts of her, only good ones. He thought of the way the feel of her skin calmed him, and the sound of her voice eased his hectic thoughts for just a few moments. He thought of how her hardheadedness both infuriated him and impassioned him, and he thought of the way her body made him feel complete in ways that no other woman ever had before. But he didn’t see anything in his brother’s head about true love; about wanting to spend eternity with the woman. He had never once seen his brother’s thoughts linger on the thought of turning her into a vampire; of having her join their dark world forever. And that was why he told Sean nothing. In a way, he was giving his younger brother a gift by doing this.

Did Matthew know that his little sibling loved the woman? Absolutely. There was no doubt in his mind. A coherent, logical vampire would have no room in his mind for such thoughts as the one Zachary was thinking about this woman. But he was clever about it, as well. And while Matthew had never seen eye to eye with Zack, he was an honest vampire in most aspects of the word. If his brother could hide the fact that he loved this woman—if he could shelter that thought out of his mind day and night, while he was both sleeping and awake—then he didn’t deserve for Matthew to use an unfair advantage. He wanted to take over Bat Country—not with Sean, mind you, but nonetheless he wanted it to himself—but he wasn’t going to do it in a dishonest way.

He sighed as he stood up and walked towards the door, leaving the whore asleep on the bed. Unlike his previous plans, he wasn’t going to kill her. He would let her live another day. He had no idea what was going on with him as of late. A few days ago, he’d have had no qualms of killing the woman. And now, he was going to let her live. It didn’t make sense to him, but at the same time, it made perfect sense.

And as he walked out of that small room, he made up his mind. Using Sean as a resource to take his brother’s country out was not an option. He wouldn’t let Sean know it just yet, but he would take him down as well.