Why Vampires Sleep With The Lights On

The House Of The Apocalypse

We walked out onto the quiet dancefloor. The music had stopped, the punters were all gone and the main lights had been switched on, dousing everything in sight, but the room wasn't empty.

Will Jackson stood, dressed in a navy hoodie and jeans, his beaten-up white trainers offsetting his look. His messy black hair made it look like he had just jumped out of bed, and his eyes were shining red.

"Will!" I said with a smile as we made our way over to him "Oh, am I glad that you're here."

"Alec. Kian... good to see you again after all these years." Will said, his voice as hard as stone.

"1927, wasn't it?" Kian replied with a wry smile "Paris?"

I had no fucking idea what they were going on about, but the tension between the two just seemed to get more uncomfortable the longer they stared at each other.

"So, uh, you guys really do know each other then?" I asked.

"Know him?" Will replied viciously "He's the prick who turned me."

What the fuck? Kian had been the one to turn Will into a vampire?

"I was a different person back then," Kian replied softly "That was a long time ago."

"Long enough for you to forget what you are, what you did to me?"

But, that wasn't right. Kian had never forgotten, he had just learned to accept. His demons were literal as well as being figurative, and he was the victim of bad choices. And bad people, namely Dracula and Carmilla.

"I'm sorry, for everything I did." Kian replied, "I truly am."

Will smiled then, but it wasn't friendly. It was a look of dark glee.

"Oh, you will be sorry." He said, "We are going to make sure of that."

What the hell?

"We?" I asked him "What do you mean?"

"I mean The House Of The Apocalypse," Will replied "Surely, you've worked it out by now? Did you speak to Kaicius? I'm sure that bloody idiot demon spilt the beans. I knew he was a fucking liability, but I needed to separate you two. I needed to get you alone, Alec."

What the actual fuck? Will was the one behind The House? I didn't know if I was going fucking mad, but I was seriously hoping that this was a dream, a nightmare even. Anything but having this be real. After everything, Will had betrayed me, lied to me... had me attacked.

"You... you're the one who ordered Jonathan to turn me?" I said, shock still reeling through my mind.

"Yes, and no," Will replied "I ordered him to kill you, but that didn't exactly go to plan."

Kian saved me...

"You ordered him to kill me?"

"I did. You were meant to be our sacrifice to open the final seal keeping Lucifer chained up in hell," Will replied "Nothing personal, but of course, Kian, you had to bloody interfere with the plan!"

I glanced at Kian, who had turned pale, his hands were shaking with barely contained rage.

"Why me?" I asked, "You could have picked anybody, why me?"

Will hesitated for a moment, taking in my question. His emotionless blood-red eyes flashed as he locked his gaze onto mine, and I felt a shiver go up my spine.

"Because you were an easy target," Will replied "After you appeared in my basement the following day I knew that Jonathan had messed up, so I kicked you out. I couldn't have you getting suspicious, not then, anyway. I sent Dorian Gray to collect your soul. I'll be honest, I was hoping that I could still use it to complete the sacrifice and when you turned up in the Church Of Dracul... we were so close to having you then that I could almost taste it, but you got away."