Family Ties

Vincent Cross – Cross brother’s house, January 19th
I stood in my room in the darkness, just watching Haley sleep. Her beauty took my breath away. She stirred as if feeling me watching.
“Hey baby, what are you doing?” she asked groggily.
“Thinkin.” Was my only reply.
“What about?” She asked sitting up.
“How great of a mother you will be to our child.” I smiled at her and when she smiled back it broke my heart and mended it all at the same time. I was so in love with her it hurt.
“You say the sweetest things Vincent Cross, I am so glad I found you.” She gazed into my eyes and an errant thought crossed my mind and I chuckled. “What’s so funny?”
“Whatever happened to that guy, the one that said he was your boyfriend the night we met?” I asked.
“He was not my boyfriend at all, I had been going to that club for weeks because it was where I saw myself meeting you and every day I went he was there.” She shook her head and continued. “I guess he took an interest in me because he started buying me drinks and asking me to dance but I kept saying no, then just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore there you were, pushing your way through the crowd to me, I left him standing there in the middle of his sentence and went to you, drawn in like a magnet, I wanted you so bad in those moments and every moment since that its almost too much to take.” She finished and gazed into my eyes again, so deep that I felt like if I had a secret from her she would have found it there in the part of me that only she could reach.
“I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels like that all the time, how do we ever leave the bedroom?” I asked sliding next to her on the bed.
“Magic?” She replied and giggled at the irony. I laughed and she began to trace patterns on my chest grazing over my scars, first the one from Jayme’s window the day of the fire and finishing on one of the ones from my period of training in the spirit world. She kept her hand on that scar and remained silent for a few seconds. I took her silence as my cue.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked as I began playing with her hair.
“I’m afraid.” She whispered.
“You have nothing to be afraid of baby, I’m always going to be between you and whatever trouble comes our way.” I spoke confidently. She moved off my chest and propped herself up on her forearm.
“That’s what I’m afraid of, I’m afraid you are going to get yourself killed just trying to protect everybody, and I know you can’t not do it, it’s in your nature, I just can’t lose you, we can’t lose you.” She said pulling my hand to her stomach.
“Haley, I promise you I’m not going anywhere, I’m strong enough to handle whatever comes at us and it’s not just because of all of the training and power that I’ve gained it’s because of you and the baby that I know I will win, I can’t die knowing that you and the baby need me, nothing is going to beat me because I have something to fight for, to protect, I am always going to be there to protect you and our child Haley I promise you that.” We were both sitting up now and I pulled her into my lap.
“I love you so much.” She whispered and pulled me into a passionate kiss. I kissed back just as fiercely, pouring all of my want and longing into it. A knock at the door pull us both from our embrace. I mouthed I love you too and kissed her on the forehead before getting up to the door. I cracked it open and was faced with my brother.
“Hey, I didn’t wake Haley did I?” Micheal asked.
“No we were both up, is everything ready?” I nodded towards the stairs.
“Yeah, everyone is just waiting on us and Cray.” He gestured over towards Crays door.
“Let me get some clothes on, I will be right down.” Micheal nodded and headed down the hall. I shut my door and moved over to my dresser.
“Here, let me.” Haley spoke as she gracefully slid out of the bed and stepped up behind me. She reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a plain black tank top and slipped it over my head. She left me for a moment and began rifling inside her bedside table drawer. I was just finishing strapping my belt on my jeans when she came back over. She held a necklace in her hand, it was a simple thing, a leather cord and tied in the center of it was an amethyst crystal.
“What’s that?” I asked as she handed it to me.
“I spelled it to protect you and give you strength, so you can come back to me safe.” She smiled as I put it on.
“I love it baby, thank you.” I kissed her and then placed my hand on her stomach. “I love you both more than anything, I will be back late tonight.” She nodded.
“We love you too, be careful out there and try to bring everyone home safe.” She said as I walked to the door and opened it.
“Everyone is coming home fine, they got me as their secret weapon.” I winked at her as I walked out the door. As I walked down the hallway Cray exited his room and closed the door quietly. We nodded to each other and walked down the hall silently. At the top of the stairs we could see everyone waiting Robbie, Drake, Klaus and Micheal were engaged in idle talk as we descended the stairs.
“Is everything prepared?” Robbie asked as he moved away from the previous conversation.
“Yes, there are two vans outside one for your crew and the other for mine, wait to move in until I give you the signal that way it should be an easy time pulling them all out.” I said. He nodded and we all moved into the vans. The drive was a long one and it was filled with relative silence. We arrived and quickly got to work.
“Are we really going to do this?” Cray asked.
“We want people to fight for us against the council and their armies who better than the people that they themselves locked up.” I smiled my devilish smile and he sighed.
“They have some really bad vampires in there Vincent, if we let them out people will die.” Cray stated.
“Drake was locked up here for five hundred years, he knows most of the people in here and he assured me he was only going to let the ones who aren’t complete savages out, trust me Cray I have this all figured out, now let’s start the show.” With that I moved around Cray and stared at the side wall of the council’s prison. My eyes flashed their solid purple and I let out a massive lightning bolt at the wall. When it connected it shattered the wall into pieces of smoldering rubble and Cray, Micheal and I stepped inside. Hordes of council vampires flocked to the disturbance and found they were completely outmatched. The three of us went to work; Cray hacking and slashing his way down the hall, Micheal launching flames and sparks at whatever got in his path and myself, charging though the enemy with a sword made of pure lighting. Between waves of enemies I launched a single bolt of lightning through the ceiling and into the sky, the signal that Robbie needed to begin the breakout. The fighting raged on as we knew it would and as long as the attention remained on us this would be no trouble. No sooner than I thought this did I place my foot securely in my mouth. At the end of the hall a portal appeared and out of it stepped my father. He stared down the hallway with his milky white eyes and then set the whole hallway on fire. Cray launched himself back towards Micheal and I and I threw up a shield to protect us from the fire. All of the council’s vampires had been incinerated in the blast.
“Did he just help us?” Micheal asked and then out of the portal stepped Natalie, my little sister. My father then smiled and tapped her on the shoulder and she began to run towards us. She began to pick up incredible speed, by the end she seemed faster than a vampire and when she got close enough Cray stepped forward to intercept her. He missed by and inch as she ducked under him but when she came up from ducking it was too late. I had begun to blow the powder from my hand the second Cray had lunged. It was a knock out powder that would have been able to knock out even Sebastian. We had prepared this plan without knowing who would have been sent to deal with us and it worked like a charm. She fell towards the floor as her eyes closed and I reached out to catch her, scooping her up into my arms. The look on my father’s face began to change when he heard no screams of agony.
“What have you done, boy?” He spat from the other end of the hall. He lifted his hands to cast a spell and the three of us laughed.
“Forgetting something, old man, no magic when little sis is around.” Micheal taunted. I placed Natalie in Micheal’s arms and began to charge down the hallway at my father. With a look of disbelief on his face he jumped back into the portal and it closed behind him. I turned around and Rasmus flew through the hole we had created in the wall, he landed on my shoulder gently.
“The breakout is finished the others are on the move.” He spoke to my mind.
“Excellent, mission accomplished boys, lets head home. I said smiling.