Music was playing faintly through the speakers of the Yin and Yang diner. If I'm correct, the song is called Giants by Dermot Kennedy.
I was sitting at my spot behind the counter and as you could guess, I was doodling some random tree on the top of a steep hill. It was pretty quiet at the diner tonight. We had only four groups of people sitting at tables. The people had already ordered so I had the perfect opportunity to keep myself busy.
My mind started rifting to the feeling of being able to touch someone without my mind being flooded with random images or just flashes.
"Alice, customers."
I popped my head up from aunt Barbara's words to be looking right up at the people walking in. They just so happen to be Aiden with what looks to be his family.
I grabbed four menus for the number of people that stood by the door waiting for me and walked over as I pressed my pencil into my messy bun so that I don't loose it, again.
I smiled at them as I walked over.
"Hi. Table for four ?" I asked politely.
"Hello Alice. Well, make that a table for ten actually. If that wouldn't be too much of a trouble." Bearn asked as he held onto the woman's hand who stood tall next to him.
I pulled two of our long family tables next to each other to create a big seating area. I can't help but wonder who else could be coming over to the diner. It's pretty strange, since none of them actually come here at all.
I quickly wiped off the table and put the placemats in order. I grabbed more menus to place on every placemat for the people to scan through. I stood aside for the people to scoot into their seats and gave them a minute to see what they would like to order.
I was about to go stand behind the counter and put away my drawing when I saw Damon, Luke and Harry walk in with three other men.
"Hi. Are you guys joining Bearn ?" I asked as I sped walked over to them.
"Hey, Alice. Are they here already ?" Damon asked.
I nodded as I lead them to the table. I grabbed my note pad from my pocket and my pencil from my bun as I stood waiting. It started to get a little awkward as no one had said a word yet. They were only randomly staring at each other for long periods of time. They were like concrete and never even blinked.
"Say Alice," Bearn began and broke the silence, "Tell me, how does it work that you keep your distance from people and keep them from ever reaching you ?"
"Uhm, most people believe that I have been diagnosed with Haphephobia. It's a close community, so everybody knows about it." I said.
People were staring at me. Every couple of eyes at the table were fixed on me and listening to every word I say. It looked as if they were waiting on me to say more.
"Mmm, smart girl." Bearn said.
"Do you guys know what you want to order ?" I asked.
Alexis was about to speak when his father cut him off.
"We'll get to that in a moment."
I tugged on my long sleeve of the black shirt I was wearing and pulled it over my hands.
"Isn't that particularly hard on you ?" Bearn continued.
"I'm used to it. It started at a young age, so..." I said shrugging my shoulders.
"Oh, I almost forgot. I'd like you to meet some very important people." he said, as if dismissing anything I just said. "These are Asmund, Erik and Clader. They are each the leaders of our other three clans."
There are three more ? So meaning, there are four vampire clans in total ?
"And this beauty, is my wife. Her name is Alva." Bearn continued.
"Nice to meet you." I said smiling.
They all eventually started giving me their orders and I wrote them down gratefully. I feel like I'm a dear caught in headlights with Bearn suddenly asking about my sight. No one ever bothers to ask about it.
In any case, what are a group of vampires doing at a diner ? As far as I understand, they live on blood and only blood. I know this menu by heart and I don't remember it ever mentioning 10$ for a pint of blood, enough to fil up one.
I gave in the order and sat down behind the counter. Rebecca came from the kitchen and curiously looked in the direction of the table where Twilight was sitting.
Her eyes snapped to me as I looked at her.
"I promise I did not know about this." she said quickly.
"Relax, I'm not roasting you or anything."
I came to an understanding that Rebecca and Luke started seeing each other. I'm not exactly fond of the idea, but strangely, I don't mind it. That, however, does not mean that I trust Luke.
I gather that the guys coming in are the fathers of Damon, Luke and Harry. Although I'm not sure.
I started with my sketch again. It's almost finished by this point. It only needs a few more tweaks then I'm satisfied with my work.
"Alice," I looked up to see Damon speaking, "I wanted to inform you." He said and handed me a piece of paper.
"Another assignment. You know, there is no harm in calling or sending me a text."
"I'll make a mental note of that."
He walked back to his table. I gave it a few seconds so it wouldn't look like I was following behind him. I walked over to take some of the finished orders to them. I balanced it all on a big round tray.
Rebecca followed with a tray filled with orders as well.
"Alice, would you mind if I had asked you something ?" Calder asked me.
I think that one is Damon's father.
I looked at Rebecca before looking back at the blue pair of eyes looking at my. Damon's eyes look just like them, but with more silver close to his pupil.
"Sure..."
"I heard that there are special occasions that you find someone who you can touch and see no vision. As if his mind is blocked from yours ?"
I immediately knew what this was all about. Rebecca must have said something to Luke when she found out that I couldn't read anything from Damon. I accidentally mentioned it from a painting I started. Rebecca was curious of what the idea behind the painting was and I ended up telling her. She was the only person who knew about that.
I looked over at Rebecca who stared at me with wide eyes. That only gave me more of the idea that it was Luke who found out and told the others. And the man said "his mind".
"Seriously Rebecca ?"
"Please, don't be mad at your friend. It's not something she could help." Calder said and waved his hand to Rebecca and Luke. "Does that happen often ?" he continued.
"Stop stalling, Calder. Just ask the girl what you really want to know." the woman next to Bearn said.
"Ask me what ?" I asked but everyone kept quiet again. "Listen, I don't mean to sound rude and I get that you're all mighty vampires or something, but I have customers and a job to do. So just ask me what you want to ask. I don't have eternity."
They all seemed shocked by what I said. I could hear a snicker coming from Harry.
"You're absolutely right, Bearn. She really is a fiery witch." Alexis said.
That almost brought a smile to my face with his bad joke. I do, in fact, master the fire element better than any of the other.
"We need your help." Asmund said, who I presume is Luke's father. "We have a prisoner who took something... very dear to us all. And we want you to find out who sent him."
So they just want to use me ? Yeah, that's a hard pass from my part. It's not that I'm being a brat or anything, most of the time the images haunt me and I can feel everything that person is feeling or felt for up to weeks, maybe months.
I swore that I would only use my sight if I only had to. After my brother died, I find it really hard to never feel the pain he felt with his last breath, since he grabbed hold of my hands before he plunged to the ground. Neither one of the members of my coven could ever figure out what really happened to him. They even performed some after death tests that would usually bring up a cause of death.
It all just basically disappeared into a bad memory, well, except for me. He still haunts my dreams on good nights.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you." I said quickly before walking away from the murmuring people.
I went to the locker room to change and put away my apron. I didn't just ditch work if that is what you were thinking, it was my turn to clock out.
I'm still upset with Rebecca, though I don't understand how Calder can say that it wasn't her fault for Luke finding out and telling the rest of his bloodsucking clan. My kind of pay back to Rebecca is to let her close the shop on her own.
I grabbed my bag and made my way to the door. I walked without the thought in my mind that they would all be staring at me.
A hand grabbed mine just as I was about to pull the door open.
"Alice, please wait. Just let me explain." Damon said holding my hand.
I looked down at his hand, you could see tiny blue veins popping out. I never let go, still wondering how all this is possible. How can he be the only person in my existence whom I can touch and not get any sense of a vision at all. I can't even take my mothers hand as he did mine.
I took a quick peek at the audience we had. Every single person at that table had their eyes fixed on us.
I tried letting go of his hand and escaping through the door, but Damon still held my hand that held me in place.
I looked at his eyes. It seemed as if there was a part of an ocean trapped within the orbs disguised as human eyes.
"You know, your eyes are misleading. You actually seem to innocent." I said and pulled Damon out of the diner. "Get in." I said as I unlocked my car and slid onto the leather seats.
"Where are we going ?" Damon asked as he got into the car.
"Far away so your buddies have no ideas for what you should say next."
"I don't..."
"It's hard not to catch onto, Damon. You can clearly communicate with each other on some brain wave level."
He was soundless the entire drive. He didn't even question where we were going. To be fair, it's not like he had anything to be afraid of. He's a vampire, one of the most dangerous creatures since time began. Sure, there are a lot of dangerous creatures out there, but none as misleading as a vampire. They seem human, kind, fragile. Yet they could kill you within a second.
I brought the car to a stop at a clearing before a cliff. I let the car idle for a few seconds before turning the ignition and getting out of the car. I walked closer to the edge and within a millisecond, Damon stood next to me.
"You're not thinking of jumping are you ?"
"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction." I said sitting down on the grass and crossing my legs.
This was one of my favorite places to come to and find an escape from the town. You could see everything from up here. All the lights and buildings were laid out in front of us. You could see the diner still open.
"First of all, I want to know how you all found out."
"About you not getting any visions from me ?" Damon asked and also sat down next to me. He pulled his knees to his chest. His leather jacket stretched out as he put his hands out over his knees. You could see scars around his wrists.
He glanced at me and saw that I was eyeing his wrists. It clearly made him uncomfortable and he shifted his potion to straighten his legs out and put his arms out behind him to hold him up.
"Rebecca and Luke are now connected."
"Connected ?" I asked quizzically.
He grunted before speaking again. "Rebecca and Luke... they drank from each other."
I sat motionless with an obvious frown on my forehead.
Damon shifted uncomfortably now as I said nothing.
"Whenever a vampire shares blood with someone, anyone... they create a mind link with one another. So whatever Rebecca thinks, Luke could hear. She has no control over her thoughts yet, that takes time."
"That's how you can all talk to each other without even saying a word."
Damon nodded his head.
"Wait, you all drank from each other ? That's vulgar and a total invasion of privacy."
"We all knew what we were doing."
"And what about Rebecca ? Did she know what she was getting herself into ?"
He didn't answer me this time and that only made me angrier. How could Luke take advantage of Rebecca like that ? He's only using her to his advantage. He only wants information.
"I'm going to kill him." I said calmer then I intended. I was furious by this.
I got up and trudged over to my car. I was planning in confronting Luke head on. I will not allow that anyone or anything will hurt Rebecca like this. She deserves better.
Well, that was my plan until Damon used his super speed to get to my car door before I could. He stood firmly and wasn't going to let me get in my car anytime soon.
I huffed in irritation of him manhandling me.
"We still need your help, Alice."
"Not after what you just told me."
He was noiseless again and I knew that he was communicating with the others again. This made me even more angry with them, all of them. I laughed sarcastically and pushed him out of the way while he was distracted. I got in and felt that the ignition had no key.
He now had a smug look on his face and swung the key between his fingers.
I sat in the seat and pressed my head against the steering wheel to avoid looking at his. He opened my door and crouched down before me.
"I know what you're doing." I said.
"And what's that ?"
"You're making yourself smaller to seem less of a threat."
"I wouldn't hurt you... I would never hurt you, Alice."
I still ignored him and held my head still in it's position.
"Whatever. Just get in. I'll help you with whatever."
I sat back and folded my arms in front of me over my chest and sighed aloud.
"We can't drive there."
"I'm not walking."
Damon laughed, "No, we can only portal. The castle is located in the Bermuda Triangle."
I got out of the car and practically had a major question mark painted on my face.
Damon smiled as he created a portal, but this time the portal was more of a white color then blue.
"How do you think we've been able to stay hidden for so long."
He took my hand and walked my through the portal.