For a Thousand Years

6

Dad and Blake came home a little later. It was obvious that Blake had turned. He stopped in front of me while Mom and Dad snuck away. Cowards. I continued drawing and said, "Vampirism suits you."

He sat next to me. "Are you mad?"

"No. I didn't know you wanted to be one of us."

"My girlfriend is a vampire, why shouldn't I be?"

I smiled. "I was just curious. How do you like it?"

"It's...odd to be something I've always hunted."

"The hunter has become the hunted." I felt a slight shift in the house and sighed. "Mom's having the baby."

"That's what that was?" Blake asked.

"Yes."

"Wow."

I stood up. "Want to go for a walk?"

"Um, should I? I don't have the control that you do."

I smiled. "If you start hunting someone I'll hold you back."

He stood. "Okay." We started off after I made him drink two bags of blood. I told him if he was fed the urge to hunt won't be that strong.

We went to the park and we started walking the paths around it. I admit I just brought him here to get used to being around people. That and so I didn't have to hear my mom scream. I had him cloaked though. I didn't cloak myself because the hunters knew what I looked like. He kept pausing to watch someone and I'd elbow him or pull him away.

It was only thirty minutes before the hunters showed up. He froze. "It's fine. You're cloaked," I muttered.

"Are you?" He muttered back.

"Cloaking myself would be pointless since they know what I look like."

"Oh." A man and a woman walked towards him. "Mom. Dad," Blake said.

"You're walking. With a vampire," Mr. Hunt said.

"Pets need to be walked," he replied ignoring my twitch of irritation at being called that.

Mrs. Hunt looked at me. "What's your name?"

I blinked. She wants to talk? I thought to them vampires shouldn't talk. Or they shouldn't when they are pets. "Catherine," I said.

"Last name?"

"Bell."

"Catherine Bell?"

"Yes."

"Middle name?"

"I don't have one."

Mr. Hunt nodded. "Is your family the ones who call Lancaster your territory?"

I glanced at Blake and saw he was just as confused as I was. "Yes, but that doesn't mean other vampires don't pass through."

"I see. Will your family meet with us?"

I stiffened. "May I ask why?"

"We read Alice's diary. It said she wished we were friends with the vampires instead of enemies," Mrs, Hunt said.

"It had also said she wanted to be one and that she was friends with you. She wrote everything you told her about vampires down," Mr. Hunt added.

"If I told you Blake was one, what would you say?" I asked.

"Is he?"

I uncloaked him and they gasped. "Yeah, he is."

"Why, Blake?" Mrs. Hunt asked.

"Because Cat is my girlfriend," Blake replied. He looked a little surprised that I had told them but they were going to find out eventually.

She looked at me. "You are?"

"Yes," I answered.

"An alliance. That's what we need," Mr. Hunt announced.

I frowned "That would end up with you not killing vampires."

"We could hunt werewolves," Mrs. Hunt suggested.

I winced. "Um, no, you can't." I thought for a minute. "You could hunt witches."

Mr. Hunt frowned. "Witches are real?"

"Yes. Um, are you able to change your sensing to that?"

"Yes." He stayed still for a minute then looked at a certain person. "Found one."

I followed his gaze and sure enough, a witch was sitting there trying to teal a little boy. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt attacked and killed her in two seconds flat. They somehow made everyone forget they witnessed a murder too and the Hunts burned the body. "Wow," I said when that rejoined us. I didn't know they killed people that fast.

Mr. Hunt smiled. "So we leave vampires alone and you allow us to visit. Deal?"

I hesitated and then nodded. "Deal. Just call before you show up." Otherwise, Stephen would kill me.

"Okay."

I gave him the address and our number then we went home. We found everyone in the living room. Steph was holding the baby. "Did you name her Alice?" I asked. Because I could tell the doctors hadn't been wrong and the baby was a girl.

"We did," Mom said.

I sat and told them about the new alliance. "So now they kill witches," I finished.

"Better them than us," Steph muttered. We all hated witches.

"Agreed."

"I wonder why they wanted this," Dad said.

"Blake's sister. They read her diary and made the decision," I replied.

Mom smiled. "Then we have Alice to thank for our survival."

"Did you tell them where we live?" Mia asked.

I sighed. "Visiting was their condition so yes, I did."

"Okay."

"Why would they want to visit us?" Steph asked.

"Blake is their son and they love him."

"I guess that's true."

"They know where we live and my name. They know that, to vampires, Lancaster is our territory," I added.

Dad nodded. "Do they know that other vamps will pass through?"

"Yes."

Blake sat beside me and I leaned into him. "My parents won't break the deal," he said. Now he decided to enter the conversation? Humph.

"Are you sure?" Steph asked.

"Yes. They loved Alice and if she had told them vamps weren't evil they would have believed her."

"Now they're part of our family," I said.

"They are," Mom agreed. She gave the baby to me.

"I can't wait for them to meet baby Alice," Blake said.

"It's hard to believe we named our child after someone who changed everything for the better," Dad said.

I looked at the baby lovingly. "It's perfect."