END ROADS

CHAPTER 6: WHEN DEATH AND LIFE CORE-EXIST... CONFUSION

When Arianna brought in my lunch, I was sleeping on Grey’s bed feeling tired and scared at the same time. Anxiety was gnawing at me mercilessly She woke me up with a light tap and a smile on her face.
“Hey, you have been sleeping all this time?” she asked softly
Mm, there is nothing else to do in here” I rolled to the side and rose to my feet.
“Brought you some food, do you like the  taste of French meals?” she asked displaying the food on the tray.
“What is that?” I asked frowning.
“Chilli con carne with corn dumplings and a glass of shiraz wine” she gave a wide grin.
“You are treating me as if i'm on vacation” I was glad though
“Come on try some, you will love it” she gave me the fork as I settled on the chair by the study table. I dug into the food and tasted it, goodness it was lovely.
“This is wonderful, were you planning to become a chef before your life made a strange turn?” I asked still filling my stomach.
“Yeah, but I'm still a chef here, master likes my cooking” she was joking …obviously, I have never seen vampires take any food. We gave each other a knowing look.
“You mean Grey?” I asked raising my head to her.
“Yeah, you are lucky he hasn’t hit you hard for calling him by his name, nobody does except his sister and Jay” a matter of fact of course.
“He’s not my master though”
“He doesn’t care as long as you are sheltered in the Vines coven, he goes by the name master Dermot” she said.
“That name ‘Dermot’ doesn’t look like him” I said chewing slowly
“You noticed it really quick, it is his step brother’s name”
“Why does he use it then?”
“The real Dermot died, actually was killed by the Gala when he was travelling to Spikes coven. They were close, Grey and he, very close that you could think they are of the same mother. The act affected Grey the most and he planned to find the Gala all by himself and destroy them. He went missing for a  long time, he came back with two ladies and a man from the Gala. He tortured them for days and finally drunk from them until they died. He had no idea that those people had poisoned themselves, Grey fell sick for days, and we thought he would die"
She paused to look if I was listening “then, he ended up locking himself in his room binding it that no one could get in even with the vampire ability. That is when his dad asked Dermot’s mother to sermon his son’s spirit to heal him. Dermot came, he was happy, we do expected his spirit to be stubborn, but he wasn’t. Then he got well but he changed, he has been cold since then, never smiling and he declared his name Dermot. No one raised a voice, which has been it" She finished still watching me.
“I'm sorry for what happened, what is his real name then?” I asked sipping the wine.
“Adrian Grey, don’t mention it in front of him, he will be very mad at me and you also. Promise?”
“Promise” I said while my fingers were crossed beneath the table. I was to tet his patience a billion times as long as I was there.
“Tell me about your governance here” I asked just to keep myself busy.
“We have a king and a queen who are so many years old. Vamps live for  a very long time. They rule the Crowns coven which is occupied mostly by the royal families. There are several other covens, but the ones that are nearby are the Spike, Flames and Flakes coven. We are in good terms with all the three except the Flames coven, their master is mean and bloody. Simply a bad mouth, we keep off” she gave me a calculating look, she simply didn’t trust me that much.
“After the princes who are in charge of the covens except the Crowns coven, we have assistants then council of elders who are twelve in number. The council of elders are older they help the princes in ruling. Discuss critical matters and help in decision making. Then we have guards and soldiers who are responsible when it comes to security matters. Then some members are good in medicine, ancient magic, philosophy and vamp history. It is an interesting side of the world” she looked so pleased, she must be into the vamp world.
“It looks so interesting. So there is no school?”
“Younger vamps are taken to the Petal coven in Spain, they learn a lot about war, medicine and everything. When they are done studying, they return to their respective covens, there is no much to learn here. Everything is simple”
“Lovely, it is a lot of fun being born a vamp, minus the sun” I frowned at the words.
“Yeah, we’ll talk more tomorrow. I will also bring a vamp girl who has come from Spain just the other day. She’s chummy you will love her, if possible” she was smiling, and the way she looked at everything positively made me trust her a lot.
“Thanks Ari” she smiled and left.
So, Grey had a lot to deal with too, he was also having tough memories to deal with. He lost his brother and by the look of things he was not that close to his parents. No one seemed to be, did he cry when all this happened to him? Was he still lamenting till date? Maybe he had a painting of his brother down there he must have been good to him. If he was friendly and jovial back then, then the incidence had affected him a lot.
I tried to move towards the corner I had fallen through earlier but nothing happened. How did I do it? I was stupid though I would end up breaking my neck if I dared to jump down there. If I wouldn’t get hurt, Grey would have not followed me.
What would I do now to make the jack ass happy? I thought leaning against the closet that slid to the side. I ended up sitting on the floor surprised. I looked at the wall that had just been hidden, I noticed a narrow door. Wow, Grey’s room was full of surprises. I shot to my feet and inspected the door for quite some time and pushed it open. I was welcomed by a rich smell of lavender from a room filled white silky curtains hanging from the ceiling above. I stepped into the room with a mahogany tiles cool under my feet. I stepped deeper into the room, it was like walking in a beautiful no man’s land. I explored further till I came across a piano. Oh, my I loved playing pianos, I was tempted to sit down and try a few keys. It was awesome, settling on the bench in front of it I pressed some more keys before I was taken fully by a tune I loved to play when I was stressed out. I played the tune in my room back at home thinking of the bad and stressful things that happen to me. Here I was now playing it in Grey’s room, eyes shut, and fingers moving smoothly from one key to another. I let the slow tune flow in my mind, hit every string of my emotions and try to sooth me. I remembered everything now, every bad and hurting things that have happened to me lately. I lost my parents in a car crush, I ended up in the hands of a vamp prince who tortured me and I was still captive in his room. Tears trailed down my eyes, my cheeks then dripped on my naked arms. I stopped playing when I could no longer focus on the keys. Looking on the side I had come in through I saw a familiar male frame there. Grey! he must be angry.