Queen of Beasts: The Fallen Book One

A Fresh Start

It's Saturday and after last night I should be getting rest, but I hear that some of the guys are already up and downstairs. So, throwing on a white summer dress I had packed somewhere at the bottom of my suitcase, I skip down the stairs to join the voices in the kitchen.

As I enter, I can see Seth and Nolan having a discussion but they stop when they see me.

"Good morning." Nolan says, "Ice tea?" I nod and he turns to pour another cup like the one he was drinking from. Seth is sitting on the counter next to the window instead of on the stools. I'm not game enough to attempt jumping up without injuring myself so I take a seat and wait for Nolan to pass me a cup. "Oh, if you go out, go through the front, Kane went into the pool this morning."

"Noted." I smile, taking a sip. The weather was forecasted to be really hot today, and I'm not sure how good the air conditioning is in this house yet. Perhaps a trip to the mall was in order.

"Morning." Seth says. Glancing behind me, Oliver comes into the kitchen and sits down next to me, rubbing his face with his hands. "You look like shit."

Oliver just looks up and glares at him. "You look like someone about to be killed by a vampire."

"Please don't bite anyone today." Nolan sighs. I feel bad for him, always having to watch out for everyone. "You literally had to start your record over again the other week because of Kane. Let's try and make six months, if possible, I can't handle the stress." My body stills and the awkward tension in the kitchen escalates with the immediate silence. Nolan looks around at each of us, including Seth, but I don't think anyone is giving him direct eye contact. "Seriously? Why the fuck did nobody tell me? It's really hard to prepare stories when no one tells me anything!"

"You don't have to prepare anything. It wasn't public." Seth comments.

Nolan exhales and calms himself down. "Fine. Was it Hendrik again? I know he can be annoying but-" Nolan pauses as he sees Seth point at me. "Amelia?" He questions, looking at Oliver who is actively avoiding eye contact and rubbing the back of his neck. "Fuck, Oliver – why Amelia?" He yells, "Of all the bone-headed things you've done did you have the bite the one person we all agreed to leave alone?"

"It's not his fault." I begin, and Oliver tries to rebut as well.

"Exactly, it happened really fast and-"

"I was really worried about him because we had the play-" Our words started colliding over each other, but I needed to get my half of the story out.

"-we knew we had the play coming up-"

"And then I wasn't as afraid of him anymore because he really didn't want to-"

"She came into my room and keep in mind its worse when I haven't had anything in a while-"

"-bite me but I knew he had to because I thought something bad was going to happen-"

"Enough!" Nolan yells, cutting us both off.

"I told them to." Seth adds.

"What? Why?"

"Did you want an on-stage massacre?"

"Okay, I'm not that bad." Oliver argues.

"No, not normally. But did you notice one of your seven dorks cut his hand on the cardboard coffin before he ran off stage with the others?" I look over at Oliver with a curious glance. He contemplates his answer,

"No, I didn't."

"You're welcome." Nolan still doesn't look very convinced by the situation.

"I literally told you and half the guys here to stay a few feet away from Amelia at all times and you bite her. That's hardly keeping her safe." He huffs, walking off out of the kitchen. Out of concern, the three of us follow him into the living room where he collapses into one of the armchairs.