𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄|𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬

𝟹𝟷

ᴛʜᴇ ᴏʟᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴡ

A mix of panic and confusion painted my face as I stared down at the horrific sight before me. The boy who looked no older than 12 had dry tears around his red eyes. I looked back up at Bella my eyebrows furrowed together. "What happened?" I asked as thoughts of grief for the young boy filled my head, he was too young to face the supernatural world.

"They killed them." The boy hesitated his shaking hand rubbing at his closed eyes, the boy stayed sat on the floor next to his lifeless parents with his head down, too frightened to even look at us. "They were fast, they didn't even hesitate until they...killed them." He stuttered out and his breathing began to increase. The newborn vampires had attacked the young family and they cruelly turned the boy into a vampire. The air in the room was extremely tense, nobody dared to speak a word, and nobody wanted to scare the child more.

Suddenly I was pulled away from the scene and taken outside the house. Bella stood in front of me. "What do we do with him? We can't take him, it would look strange if the Cullens suddenly had a small child with them. Can we give him to an orphanage or something?" I was stunned "an orphanage? Are you joking? Bella, the kid is a vampire, I think it's going to be pretty bloody obvious when he suddenly starts eating the other children!"

"Yeah true. What about if he lived with you?" Bella asked. What about if he lived with us? I don't know If I can look after a child. I can barely look after myself half the time. What about dad? 'Oh hi, dad! By the way, a 12-year-old is going to be staying with me now, is that alright with you?' No way. I couldn't even imagine the look on his face. I can't just abandon the boy, he's alone, confused and defenceless.

"I'll talk to the kings about it. In the meantime, he can stay with the Cullens until everything is sorted out." I said turning on my heel and walking back into the house.

I crunched down to the boy's level and held my hand out "Hello. My name is Vera, once we take you home we'll explain everything that's happened and I promise we won't hurt you, we just want to help." The boy looked up and shook my hand. "Who were those people?" He asked looking at me with a tired expression on his face. "We'll tell you everything once we're home, okay," I said offering him a warm smile.

"My name is Joseph by the way. But you can call me Joe." The blonde-haired boy replied following me out of the house.

•••

"So I'm a vampire now?" Joe asked a smile appearing on his sad face, Carlisle nodded and the boy jumped up. "YES! That's so cool! Do I get magic powers?" Joe questioned looking around at us. "Some vampires do and some don't," Carlisle explained not expecting this reaction from the young boy.

I ushered the kings into the kitchen to discuss what Bella had suggested earlier. We all stood silently in the kitchen. I hadn't talked to the kings in a while because of the chaos that had erupted this morning.

"So, I was talking with Bella and the Cullens are unable to look after Joe and we can't just leave a child alone with no parents and we don't want to raise any suspicion so." I said sharing a smile between the three "I thought maybe we could look after him?" All three of them looked at one another, and each one of them had a different expression. Aro looked confused, Caius looked annoyed as per usual and Marcus looked amused.

"Why do we have to take care of it? Surely it should be the Cullens' responsibility?" Caius seethed his hand rubbing at his forehead. "I think this is a good idea. We could teach the child and who knows he might be very powerful one day." Marcus agreed turning to smile at me.

"Ugh, why should we have to look after it? The Cullens have thousands of adopted children surely they could deal with another?" The silver-haired vampire paced up and down.

"You know I can hear you right?" We all turned and looked to see Joe standing at the doorway. "I want to go with her, no offence but I don't particularly like you guys apart from her. She promised she wouldn't leave me." Caius chuckled "No offence taken." Caius remarked.

"Fine. The boy can stay, I will teach him to control and to use his powers if he has them." Aro said smiling down at the young boy.