CHAPTER 1.9: The vendetta

Jonny had left Jessica's apartment with her parting words ringing in his ears.


"You will be back."


The words sent a chill down his spine.


He decided not to tell Leila what happened.  She was  already unhappy that he wouldn't change her into a vampire and he didn't want to give her argument more weight.


A few days passed by with no word from Jessica, until......

Jonny nearly choked on his plasma juice when he noticed the shiny new sports car parked outside his house.


There was an envelope under the front wiper blade and Jonny tore it open, the note read.


Join me and I'll give you all you could desire.
                                                            J

Jonny furiously stuffed the note back in the envelope and checked that Leila had not seen the car, luckily she was in the shower so he jumped in the front seat and sped towards town.

Jessica buzzed him straight into her apartment but Jonny wasn't about to enter, he waited in the hall for her to come out.


"What the hell is this." He yelled throwing the car keys at her.


"Not the right colour?" She replied teasingly.


"I thought i made myself clear the other night, I'm not interested." He spat.


"Then how about a trade?" She proposed, "I know you need the money, so keep the car, sell it."


"And in return?" He asked.


She leaned in close to him, her scent was intoxicating.


"I want a child Jonny, your child."

Jessica tried to pull Jonny into an embrace, but he pulled away.


"I'm not for sale Jessica." He declared

As he pushed her away he saw the fury behind her eyes, she let out a guttural yell


"You dare to refuse me!" Her eyes flashed blood red and Jonny backed away in fear "You dare to choose that human wife over me!"


Jonny walked backwards never taking his eyes off her until he reached the elevator. 


"You will regret this day Jonny Traytor."  She hissed, and with that she disappeared in a flash of red.

Jonny walked over the bridge up to his hilltop home, on the way he mulled over Jessica and her threats. 


He had known she was a powerful vampire the instant he met her, he sensed it instinctively.  But he also saw that she was impetuous, almost child like stamping her feet when she could not have her way. 


He decided that she would soon turn her crazy attentions to something or someone else, he saw no need to worry Leila over this little spat.

Soon Jonny's mind became concerned with happier things as the youngest twins celebrated their birthday.


First up was Caleb who developed the virtuoso trait.

Then the baby of the family Casper, who developed the inappropriate trait!

Now that all of the Traytor kids were attending school, no one made fun of Audra.  She wasn't sure if it was because they were afraid of her brothers or if they had just stopped being afraid of her but she didn't contemplate it too much. 

Since it had happened she found that she had more friends than ever, even a new boyfriend!

His name was Tate Martin. 

Audra had been taken aback when he had approached her and asked her out, she still felt raw from the way Patrick had dumped her.  But she decided to give dating another go.

Tate was much more shy than Patrick so Audra had to do all the work at first, but after their first kiss he soon got the hang of it and they became inseparable.

Blake and Bobby had fared very differently at Bridgeport High.

Bobby had become instantly popular, all the guys thought it was cool to hang with a vamp, but Blake would just hang in the background alone.

Bobby would always try to include his twin and called him over whenever he was with his friends.

But Blake would usually start telling them about all the coupons he'd been clipping or complaining about being outdoors, and Bobby's friends would either leave or fix Blake with a bored stare.

Pretty soon Bobby gave up and stopped including Blake all together.

Besides he had more important things to attend to like hooking up with cheerleaders.


Blake found school tough, he hated being away from home.  He got on so well with his little brothers and loved helping his mom out around the house. 

At school everyone just ignored him.

Until one day, he was just standing alone minding his own business when a girl came over and started talking to him.  She was asking him all these questions, but all Blake could do was stare at her.

"Hello! Is anyone in there?" She asked jokingly, "Hey space cadet, you hear me?"

Blake shuffled his feet nervously and stared at the floor, what did she want with him anyway?

"W-what? I mean yes i can hear you." He struggled to get the words out, she was quite close to him and she was alarmingly pretty.

"I asked you if you were Blake Traytor, Audra's brother?" She paused but Blake could not find words "She's seeing my brother Tate?" She questioned as the boy just looked confused.

"Yeah i know Tate, i mean i don't know him, i've seen him before......" Blake started to ramble but trailed off as he saw her expression.

"Do you by any chance know how this whole conversation thing works?" She laughed but her face was soft and Blake realised she wasn't making fun of him.

"I'm sorry" he said "It's just that you're probably the only person to talk to me at this school except for my brother."

"Well i'm glad i could fix that." She smiled, "I'm Marissa by the way."

She held out her hand and Blake shook it.

Soon it was time for Audra's birthday and as she blew out her candles..........

she became a fully fledged vampire.  She also developed commitment issues.

Audra hated being a full vampire, she felt more alien now than ever before, she was determined to find a way to reverse the curse and decided she would study medicine in a bid to find it.

Meanwhile Blake and Marissa grew closer as their awkward start developed into a friendship.  Marissa always listened to Blake's ramblings with great affection, she would nod and then pull a funny face at him sending him into fits of laughter.

Bobby looked on this display and felt jealousy stir in him.  Marissa was so pretty, much prettier that Amber the cheerleader he had invited to the party. 

How did dumb old Blake get a prettier girl than he could?

He asked the guys at school if they knew where Marissa hung out and they told him to try the butterfly esplanade, apparantly Marissa loved bugs!

He found her there one day after school.

"Hey, excuse me miss could you help me?" He called, she turned to face him.  "I seem to have lost my butterfly you couldn't help me look for it could you?"

He tried to keep the smile from his face but failed "I'm sorry that was a terrible line." He confessed.

"That was a line!" she laughed.

But it had worked, Bobby had broken the ice and they spent the rest of the evening chatting and getting to know one another.

They were both so caught up in the conversation that neither one of them saw Blake arrive.

Nor did they see him leave.

Blake had tried to avoid Marissa after that night, he guessed that she wouldn't be interested in hanging with him when she could be with Bobby and his crew.

When she showed up at the house later that week Blake answered the door.

"Oh hey Marissa, i'll get Bobby for you." He offered.

"Wait Blake i want to talk to you." She grabbed his wrist and pulled him outside.  "I just wanted to let you know that Bobby has asked me to the dance."

"Erm, ok that's.......great." He replied half heartedly.

"I haven't said yes yet." She explained, "can you think of any reason i shouldn't go with him?"

Blake didn't know what she was trying to get from him, he knew Bobby had been seeing some cheerleader but he hadn't seen her around for a while so he just shook his head.

Marissa's shoulders sagged "Ok Blake, maybe we'll see you there?"

On the night of the dance Blake had got ready to go, but as he saw Bobby head out to pick up Marissa he felt so sad, he just couldn't figure out why.

"What's up son?" Jonny asked "You all dressed up with no where to go?"

"I was going to the dance but......." Blake started.

"Don't tell me!" Jonny exclaimed "this mopey expression on your face is about a girl right?"

Blake nodded.

"Well then what are you waiting for?  Go ask her to dance." Jonny encouraged, he knew Blake was a little awkward conversationally but there had to be some of his old man in there.

When Blake arrived at the dance Marissa was already dancing with Bobby. 

He decided he needed some courage and headed to the bar.

He had never tried to get served alcohol before let alone drank any of it, but he compelled the barman to bring him a cocktail and to his surprise it worked, just one of the benefits of being a vampire he thought.

A few drinks later and Blake was bolstered with false confidence.

He spotted Marissa alone on the dancefloor and made his way over.

He attempted his first romantic gesture and tried to wrap his arms around Marissa to pull her into a dance, but she pushed him away.

"Blake what do you think you're doing?" she yelled.

Bobby heard the commotion and rushed straight over.

"Blake just get the message, she's not into you!" he shouted.

A crowd started to gather around sensing a fight brewing.  "Marissa's here with me, why don't you just go home."

Blake turned and ran from the dance, he felt such humiliation at Marissa's rejection and his brothers harsh words.

Blake began to avoid Marissa totally and his relationship with his brother was so strained it seemed irreparable. 

But soon the brothers were going to need to pull together.

Jessica was not finished with the Traytors, she had been patient so far and waited for Jonny to realise his mistake. 

But it seemed he needed a little help to see what a weak link his wife was.

Jessica hadn't even needed to force her way in, the weak little human had invited her! 

Jessica steered her to the bedroom and compelled her to offer her wrist, this was too easy.

Leila didn't know why she had asked this stranger into her home, she couldn't think why she had allowed her to drink, but as the vampire drank and drank Leila felt her consciousness slip away.

As she lay on the floor her life flashed before her, her wedding day, the twins births, the day she met Audra.

She fought to hang on but the blood flowed so freely from her wrist and she slipped into unconsciousness.

Chapter1.8

Chapter1.10