Hidden Paths: Vampire Revenge

Prologue

Tony sat at the end of the dining room table, sipping his wine. His friends sat around at the table, looking at him expectantly. He feared this day. He didn't want to tell them about how he became what he was-- a vampire.

Granted, he believed he was a nice vampire. Well, at least, now. He wasn't in the beginning. No, in the beginning he was, dare he say, evil. How could he tell them that? He looked at each of them.

Jake, the newcomer, was especially intrigued by vampires. They'd already had a conversation about it. Jake knew already that Tony had killed before. And Tony knew that Jake didn't totally trust him. Not just because of the killings, Tony thought, but more because Tony was Emily's ex-boyfriend.

Jake's brown eyes studied Tony as a student did waiting for a teacher to speak. He scratched at his brown hair absently and flashed Tony a smile in support, dimples included.

Tony appreciated the support. From Jake, it meant a lot since they didn't get along as well as the others.

Jake would need time to know his ways as the others had learned and had accepted. He had learned. But acceptance was still taking time. And maybe Tony still needed some time to accept Jake, in the flesh, as well.

Emily's talk of the friend she had visited through astral projection clearly showed how much she had liked Jake all of her life. And not just as a friend.

Emily's beautiful sea green eyes were filled with concern. She knew, as well, what he was capable of. Tony had confided in her the most. He had thought at one time he was in love with her. But, over time, he realized it wasn't the kind of love he was really looking for. Craving for.

No, it was only a friendship love. And he could deal with that. Friendship was hard for him to come by. And Emily always accepted him fully. She loved him unconditionally.

Tony knew that he didn't treat her as well as she deserved for her to love him without condition, but hopefully, in time, he would learn how to earn her love.

Raven, his partner in crime, smiled at him. Her dimples were a mirror of Jake's. Since Jake and Raven had found out that they were twins, she wasn't self-conscious about her cute dimples anymore. She brought them out whenever she could as a symbol of her new found self.

Tony suspected that Raven knew more about him than she let on. She was wiser to the world than most. Raven didn't judge his darkness. She was someone with whom Tony could flirt with, have a great time, and know that was all that was expected in return.

Yes, he was attracted to her and Tony struggled with that. To get involved with another human... he didn't know if he could handle that again. He'd been hurt too many times.

His buddy, George, grinned at him. Tony desperately wanted to take a pair of scissors to George's shaggy brown hair or at least a comb. He'd only met George several months ago, but George had become a fast friend.

George was always in a good mood and was the jokester of the group. George would have them all in stitches within seconds of them expressing that they had a bad day. And Tony felt that he had plenty of those. George never failed to lift his spirits, whether or not Tony showed him that he had.

Tony worried how George would react to what he was about to say. George grimaced at the word blood. He knew George had an issue with that part of Tony's life. But as long as Tony didn't drink it in front of him, George didn't seem to mind. So, Tony drank it in secret... and in shame.

Ray, the technology guru of the group, waited patiently for Tony to start speaking. Tony worried sometimes that Ray, with his computer hacking skills, would discover all of Tony's past identities and what he had done in them. If Ray had found out, he'd never mentioned it to Tony. He respected Ray's keeping his secrets. Ray was the quiet member of the group, but he spoke up when he had an important opinion to express. Tony wasn't as close to him, but he considered Ray to be a close friend as well. He was the type of person that you could really rely on when it really mattered. And lately, with the demon hanging around, Tony needed true friends by his side.

Next to Ray sat Tony's great-granddaughter, Isabella. Tony still had doubts that she was even related to him. He'd never known any vampires that had children, at least, none had any after the transformation.

But Katarina, his past love, had said that Isabella was his great granddaughter. She had said that she'd given birth to a baby boy, Antonio, who was Tony's son. Katarina had withheld that information until her deathbed.

She was not one to outright lie, but Tony thought maybe the boy was her husband, Donato's. Because when Tony and Katarina were together, she and Donato were betrothed. It was an arranged marriage that Katarina had fought against her parents.

She had claimed to Tony she hadn't loved Donato, but she had loved him. Tony didn't like to think it, but it was possible that Katarina could have been with Donato, as well as him, during that time. Katarina was under a lot of pressure from her family to marry Donato, and she had eventually given in.

It had been hell for Tony to walk away. He had loved Katarina, but he knew that being with him was no life for her. He could not give her the life that she deserved. She would have wanted him to turn her and he would have never done so. He would never condemn anyone to the life of a vampire. ​

It was better that he had left. Had he known of Antonio, he didn't know what he would have done. Would it have been better for him to have stayed?

He knew that Donato was a good man. And whether or not Antonio was Tony's son or Donato's, the man would have raised Antonio as his own.

Tony glanced again at Isabella, looking for similarities of himself, and of what he remembered Donato had looked like. Would Antonio have looked like him?

He couldn't help but think of another little boy instead, one with curly black hair, just like Isabella's... He shook his head at the memory and looked away.

He was stalling for time, he knew. Where to begin? From the beginning? From the transformation?

It was hard for him to remember the transformation, not only because it was so long ago, but also because during the process he had not been himself.

It had been like a bad dream that he couldn't get out of. When he had finally come back to himself, it had been a haze of agony and memorizes of blood and violence.

Tony took another sip of wine and sighed. He really didn't want to remember. He had worked far too long to forget. It was impossible to forget, but they resided in the far corners of his memories, pushed away by the light that Katarina and Emily had brought into his life.

He looked around at the group. They all still looked at him, expectantly waiting for him to start talking. Tony owed it to them to tell them his story. It was about time that they knew who he was. Or rather, who he had been.

"Are you sure you want to know?" he asked them, almost desperately.

"Yes!" they shouted, losing their patience.