Bandile had hidden his gifts carefully and for some nights he returned with good game which was quite unexpected for the 13year old. Kwanele was not one to doubt his son but as an experienced hunter he found the cuts of a dagger foreign to him on Bandile's recent game.
He would not question the boy for he feared to break the joy that had recently filled his heart at his son's improvement in the way of the hunter.
Somehow Gabriel and Samuel picked up familiar scents that was foreign and it reminded them of the danger they had escaped from. They spoke in the dark of the night but soon even the night was not safe to speak as they lived in the same cottage as Andile and Bandile did and they knew for a fact that one of the brothers was not to be trusted.
Sleep soon eluded them and their thoughts ran untamed and careworn until one night Gabriel heard his brother's voice in his head. It was light and almost silent at first but as he listened it grew louder until Gabriel heard Samuel clearly.
He tried to reach out to his brother and to his surprise it took little to no time for him to respond for Samuel had first discovered his gift of the mind.
"Samuel," Gabriel's voice rang in his head as he laid on the mat with his back to his brother.
"Gabriel," he responded and for the first time since they escaped the attack on their little village he felt delight for Gabriel's voice affirmed that he was not alone in this strange discovery of one's self.
Gabriel and he were not just twins but they were alike in more ways than he thought.
"I think they are here. I think they have come for us," Gabriel said, "I know. I smell them on Bandile. I think he has started talking with father's men," Samuel said.
"I saw him the other day with a man in armor. He was a foreigner. He gave him a knife. I suspect they are the ones responsible for Bandile's improvement in game," Gabriel said.
"We should leave before they come," Gabriel said.
That night the conversation was short as Gabriel thought their mental connection grew weak but in truth Samuel refused to respond as he was afraid of being alone.
He did not want to be away after losing his family to the attack on their village and he thought it best to make friends with Bandile so he would not betray them.
Little did the young sphinx know, they were already being betrayed.
Bandile had noticed Samuel advances towards a friendship and one morning invited him to a hunt but Andile decided to tag along.
The forests were thick as they always were and game was not forthcoming this day as Andile led the hunt, being the oldest of the boys.
"Let us change hunting grounds," Andile said but Bandile protested, "No, we should keep going forward. I know there is game here. I can feel it," he said.
"The tracks are faint. These track are from a previous hunt," Andile said. He looked at his brother suspiciously, "You should know since these track are those of the impala you brought home last night," he said.
"How do you know?" Bandile argued, "How do you not? The hooves match those of the impala and they are more than a day old. Two days at best," Andile said.
Samuel began to feel a presence that was not theirs. He could hear footsteps that seemed lighter than the air itself, he was confused and doubted if they were footsteps at all but their scent was something he never forgot.
The smell of death and blood.
Before the young hunters could make any sudden moves they found themselves at a disadvantage when two armored men appeared from the covers of the forest.
Andile vigilantly raised his bow at them as a warning but they were quicker than the wind and stronger than the earth.
One of them disarmed him and snapped his neck while the other grab Bandile and did something to him that Samuel could not quite understand, because Bandile stood still and quiet as his brother's lifeless body hit the ground.
Samuel tried to run but his feet could not outrun such monsters as they dragged and pressed him against the dry floor. Sand and dead leaves entered his nose as he breathed hard and his heart jumped with fear.
The man turned him over so he laid on his back and held him by the neck. His deep blue eyes stared into Samuel's, "Shut up and keep quiet," he commanded but instead these words aggravated the young boy. How would he die so quietly after his family was killed? And now he too was to be killed.
"No," he screamed loudly, his voice almost as loud as a lion's roar and his eyes were as bright as the evening moon.
The man laughed, "It doesn't work on him," his assailant said to his companion.
"I have an idea," the companion said, "Go to your father and your people. Summon them, tell them that your brother is dead and that this one and his brother are foul creatures of nightmares disguised as children," he commanded and Bandile ran off to do his bidding.
Samuel saw fangs in the man's mouth and in a few seconds he bit into Andile's broken neck, drinking his blood and in that moment he wondered what type of creature they were.
Was this how he was going to die?
Why was Bandile doing as the monster said?
Gabriel.
He thought of his brother and prayed for his safety under his weak breath as assailant's grip loosened around his neck.
His assailant smiled at his companion as he seemed to understand the idea, he carried the little boy and pressed his face against Andile's bleeding neck right after the monster had created a wound on it.
The blood rubbed against Samuel's cheek and nose. He shut his mouth tightly as it touch his lips.
"You are your father's son. Drink up boy," his crooked voice entered Samuel's ears in a whisper and suddenly the world went quiet. All the little boy could hear was his heartbeat. The men had no heartbeats, Andile had no heartbeat, only his heart played a rhythm he could not understand for a sense of euphoria began to grow in him.
Andile's blood smelled better than a garden of roses.
He licked his lips and the taste of blood was nothing short of fantastic. He had never tasted anything as sweet as blood. It was tastier than all the fruits the Ongoye forest had ever given him when he helped Khethiwe in her daily pickings.
He had all but lost himself when he heard the voices and shouts of the village hunters when they arrived and he raised his head to see Kwanele and his companions staring in shock.
They had not believed what Bandile had told them until they laid their eyes on this scene.
Samuel looked down at Andile's corpse and his hands, they were drenched in blood and his assailants were nowhere to be found.
He felt a shock he had never felt before and his thoughts and heart raced hard with no specific rhythm or direction.
Kwanele quickly mounted his bow and shot an arrow at the young boy, hitting him in the chest but the arrow broke against his tough skin and the hunter pulled out his knife from it's strap and charged towards the little monster that had fed on his first son.
Samuel ran away into the shelters of the forest where Vlad's men waited to grab him and take him away.
Kwanele cried as loud as the thunder of the skies as he held his dead son in his arms. His pride and heir, killed by a beast he had brought into his home. Gabriel was there, unmoving from the shock that plagued his heart at what he had just seen.
He began to recall his abnormal strength for a child, he and his brother's mental connection and the sight of his brother drenched in Andile's blood.
He wondered if that was why his mother was killed?
Were they really monsters, worst than the men that raided their village?
Kwanele laid his eyes on Gabriel and dashed to slit his throat his dagger but his hunting companions held him back, "Do not attack the spirits of the forest so we do not anger Unkulunkun," they said.
"Only he know why these things happens," they said.
Their eyes were warning enough and the little boy ran off into the forest and after his twin.
Samuel jerks to life as he feels Rachael hold on to him tightly as if she is scared for her life. She coughs and trashes her legs around until half her body is on the floor with the upper half holding on to Samuel as if to fear a great fall.
"Rachael," Elma shouts as the woman jerks on Samuel's body.
Samuel taps her but she doesn't wake up until Elma slaps her hard on the cheek and she screams in pain, opening her eyes to worried faces staring down at her as she cling to Samuel's body for her life.
Her cheek is red and Elma's palm is imprinted on her face. Samuel eyes her with a hint of anger in his eyes but he holds still for he knows not what would have happened to her if the vampire had not been so aggressive.
Rachael's face is wet with sweat and her heart beats fast as she pants for air.
"Rachael are you okay?" Elma is the first to ask the human. Rachael nods abruptly but her recent wakings from sleep does not convince them at all.
She is having nightmares.
They all think but none of them speaks.
The train stops and their minds are soon drifted from this and onto the Otherworld.
"We are here,".