THERE'S NO WAY TO know when the time is right until it's passed you by. However, the upside of having lived for over four thousand years is that you grow a sixth sense of that kind of thing, and, while it may not always be as accurate as you may like, it can still be pretty damn accurate.
With that in mind, Lena makes her way out of the sunken hotel while David, Michael, and Nikolay are still fast asleep, the sun having only just dipped low enough below the horizon to allow for the safe passage of denizens of the night. It's not too far from Santa Carla to Luna Bay, the seventy-seven kilometre distance lucky to be a five minute trip on a good day, and today could well be called such.
The moon is just beginning to rise by the time Lena slows to a walk outside an old beach house, the windows long since boarded and the house long since deemed to be abandoned when it really is home to two people. Opening the door, she is greeted by a human body hanging upside down in the doorway, their throat slit wide open and blood filling the tub below, still liquid enough to not have been hanging there for too long. Closing the door behind her, Lena makes her way up the stairs, knowing that the pair of miscreants aren't too far away if the warm corpse is anything to go by.
"Xander, Nadine, anyone lurking?" Lena calls, climbing off the top step. The hair on the back of her neck raises and she rolls her eyes. "Will you stop acting like stalkers and get off the ceiling?"
Nadine drops in front of Lena, laughing as she straightens her chaotically coloured shirt and rests her hands on her hips. "You should know better than the expect anything different from us. Well, from Xander anyway."
The male in question lands on a crouch atop the staircase railing, elbows resting on his knees and a cigarette hanging from his lips. "You wound me, little bird. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company, my lady?"
Lena smiles and pinches the cigarette, the nicotine filling her lungs. "I've come to call in one of the favours you both owe me. That is, if you're willing."
"Sounds like it could be fun. The past two decades have been just a little boring for my taste," Nadine says with a smile, taking the cigarette from Lena. "What do you think, raven?"
Xander grins and slides down the bannister, dropping to the ground in front of their kill and poking the corpse to see if there's any further blood to be siphoned. "My lady no doubt has something fun planned for us, so I'm game."
Descending the steps with Nadine behind her, Lena watches as the dark-haired boy bottles up the blood from the tub, humming her lullaby as he does so. Nadine begins to hum along, their voices creating a haunting melody that echoes throughout the beach house, and Lena cannot help but smile at their antics. This is why the people of Luna Bay believe this house to be haunted and refuse to knock it down in fear of retribution from the 'spirits' inside its walls.
Once the tub is empty and the corpse is dumped somewhere within the town, they are making their way back to Santa Carla, pure worry flooding the Bond between Lena, David, and Michael — and she has no doubt that Nikolay is worrying as well. Hudson's Bluffs come into view several minutes later, and Lena leads Nadine and Xander over the edge and down to the visitor entrance, the older girl's feet carrying her straight into the waiting arms of Michael Emerson, his hazel-blue eyes almost petrified as he tightly holds his Sire.
David worms his way into the hug, his gloveless hands latching onto Lena's jacket and Michael's shirt, uncaring if they rip beneath his touch. With their foreheads resting together, their panic begins to lessen and their thundering hearts begin to return to their normally-abnormal pace, the trembling of their bodies subsiding a few moments later once they're grounded. Gently pressing a kiss against David's lips first and then Michael's, Lena pulls herself out of the hug and step back towards Xander and Nadine.
Nikolay cheers and claps, arms raised into the air. "You brought the troublemakers with you, dear sister. What shit is about to hit the fan?"
Xander grins and pulls Nikolay into a hug, clapping him on the shoulder. "Talking from experience are you, Nik? After all, you and our lady taught us."
"Double Trouble are back, Lena," Nadine sighs, a wry smile on her face. "Well, more like the Trouble Quartet if we're included."
Michael instinctively reaches for Lena, wanting to hide her away from the strangers within their homes' walls. "Lena..."
David's hand latches onto Lena's and pulls her back over to his Sired. "Who the hell are these guys, doll?"
"They are Xander and Nadine," Lena replies, watching as recognition strikes both him and Michael. "Yes, the same Xander who helped my brothers rescue me. And this is his lover of two thousand years, who is also his Sired."
"Who's his Sire?"
Xander snickers and walks over to the lovers, his dark eyes staring into David's unnaturally blue ones in an attempt of dominance. "I see you've found yourself some tasty pets, Miss Kathleen."
Michael surges forward to catch David before the bleach-blond can deck the other vampire, arms hooked under David's and hands interlocked behind his elder's head, but the curly-haired brunet glares at Xander without caring that the cheeky male is much older than his twenty-seven years. Stepping between the trio, Lena keeps her back to her boys as she stares into Xander's soulful eyes, daring him to try assert his dominance over Lena and her Sired while she herself stands right in front of him.
Xander relents when a growl begins to grow in Lena's chest, baring his throat in submission and backing away, Nadine stepping up behind him with her own throat bared slightly. "I apologise, my lady. I did not think they were your Sired."
Lena raises an eyebrow and looks back at her Sired, David's eyes livid as they glare at Xander and Nadine. "You should have been able to tell simply by looking. You're old enough to know such things by now — and while I understand you did not have any time with your own Sire, the blame lies with you if you have not noticed Nadine's behaviour around you; a Sired at the beck and call of their Sire."
"I understand, my lady. I apologise."
Turning her attention back to David and Michael, the latter releases his Sire Brother at Lena's slight nod, the bleach-blond hissing across the distance at Xander. "To answer your question, dear one: Xander's Sire is Damyan. The one and only vampire Sired by our older brother."
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