These Are the Dark Days

The large black jeep pulled into the parking lot of Frank's old apartment building. The entire royal family plus Frank got out of the car and walked up several flights of stairs in silence, Frank leading the way.*

Frank stood outside his front door for a few seconds, not knowing how this would end. He opened the door and stepped into the small, dimly lit hallway.

"Mom? Dad? Are you guys home?" Frank called out, warning his parents he was home so they would not be as surprised by the group of vampires that had clustered behind him.

Frank's mother, Eve, walked out of the kitchen, looking down while she wiped her hands on her spattered apron. "Hello dear, I've made lasagna for dinn-" She looked up to see her son, who's skin had paled and teeth had lengthened into fangs. "James!" She called out in panic.

"Mom, it's okay. Just let me explain, we just need to talk." James walked into the room, he looked strangely calm at the situation.

"Welcome to our home, your highnesses." He began, "Why don't you come inside and have a seat" The group walked into the family room and sat down on the sofas and chairs. Gerard closed his eyes as he remembered last time he was there, there had been so much a Frankie's blood. He shivered.

"We knew this would happen someday." James started, "As you know, Frank is obviously not out biological son. The story we have told him was that we found him and brought him into our home. This is only half the story."

Frank was shocked at his father's statement.

"We found Frank in an auction house. We had just found out we could not have children and were devastated. We did not go to the auction house looking for a child, we didn't even know it was an auction house, we were just walking by one evening. There was a young woman, a vampire, standing on the corner holding a toddler wrapped in a blanket. She was crying. Not knowing she was a vampire, we asked her what was wrong."

The whole room was engrossed in James' story.

"The woman and her mate, like us, could not have children. They were so desperate for a child that they bought one. At this point Frank was already under the glamour's spell. The woman could see that Frank was in fact a fertile vampire and thought that she could save the child, be his mother until he found a mate to bit him.

He mate, on the other hand, did not believe that the child was under a glamour and he told the woman that she had to chose, him or the toddler she held in her arms. She was so distressed and by the time we had found her, her mate had left, telling her if she were to come home, she had to be alone."

The vampires in the room shuffled uneasily. Fights between mates, such as the one James was describing, were so rare and taboo that talking about them was uncomfortable. It was not how mates were meant to act.

James continued with his story. "The poor woman poured her heart out to us. We then had an idea. We told her that we would take the child off her hands. We could raise him in a safe environment and someday, he would find a mate to bite him. We could tell that the woman did not want to leave the child with humans, we know what you think of us.

We tried and tried to convince her that we would love the child with all of our hearts. How all we wanted was a child to raise well and protect him. The woman finally realized that she loved her mate and was bound to him, the idea of never seeing him again was unbearable. She said she would give us the child as long as she could name him. She named you Franklin after her father.

We then tried our best to keep you out of the way of vampires. We had two reasons. We did not know why he had been brought to the auction house and we feared someone recognizing him and taking him away or hurting him. The second reason? We have dreaded this day for years. They day we knew was coming. The day we lose out son."

Frank was incredibly heartbroken, he was torn. He was angry with his parents for not telling him all of this so he would have realized earlier that his fascination with the vampiric community was not the freaky thing everyone said it was. He was also filled with love for his parents, all they wanted to do was protect him from whomever had taken Frank from his original home.

Frank then became very aware of Gerard who was sitting next to him, fuming. Gerard's eyes had turned coal black, he stared daggers at James and Eve. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, reminding himself that the two did nothing but try to protect his Frankie. They were the ones who stopped Frank from being abandoned on the streets to most likely die. They had done nothing wrong.

"I need you," He said calmly to the two human who sat across from him, "to show me where the auction house is."

James nodded, knowing Gerards plan of action.