Black and White
Otis came down the stairs with an anxious Jonathan sitting on the couch. When Otis entered the room Jonathan seemed worried and distraught. Otis couldn't help but chuckle at what he had just seen.
"Is she okay?" Jonathan asked. "She just wasn't answering my calls, and I felt like something wasn't right."
"Mina is just fine." Otis spoke through a smile. "I knocked but when she didn't answer I walked in. I found her at her desk, hard at work with that book of hers. She hadn't noticed her phone for some time and hasn't slept at all during the night. She wanted to see you but I told her she should rest."
"Was it a thick black book?" Jonathan stood and faced the vampire. Otis nodded after a moment of thought. "She is filling out Epitomize....I'm really worried about her. All this...Dracula stuff is driving her crazy. It's all she talks about."
Otis placed a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Mina is a determined girl, she wants answers and she will find them. None of us should expect anything different from her."
"That's true but I-" Jonathan was cut off by the sound of the back screen door closing. Both Jon and Otis turned to see the visitor and saw Vladimir Tod standing just shy of the doorway. His black eyes looked around in an attempt to understand what was happening. When he didn't see Mina he slowly walked closer.
"Am I missing something?" Jon took a step away from Otis and remained quiet.
"Jon came by to check on Mina." Otis explained to his nephew who looked at Jon in question.
"Is something wrong with Mina?" Vlad asked and Jon scoffed slightly. "What?" Vlad snapped at him.
"If you would pay attention to your duties as her mate, you would have known." Jon told Vlad with as much of a calm tone as he could manage. "I myself relied on my connection to her as her drudge."
"How do you know that's not what I came for?" Vlad questioned while taking a step closer to the boy who dated Mina.
"Might be because you have no clue what's going on." Jon replied. "From what I hear this happens often." Vlad was about to take another step forward but Otis intervened, placing strong hands on their shoulders.
"Take it easy." He ordered. Ice blue stared calmly at furious black orbs but both relented. "Mina was up all night and day and Jon got worried when she wasn't answering any of his calls. She is resting now and I think in that time you two need to settle some issues. Maybe get to know a little about each other before you start fights."
Vlad turned to Otis. "I don't need to. I came to talk to you and Vikas." Otis huffed and crossed his arms.
"Talk to him first. You both obviously have some tension between you two." They both side glanced at each other. "I'll go make some lunch that we all can eat."
Otis walked around them and started to flit through the kitchen. The two teen boys watched him for some time before Vlad turned to Jon reluctantly. The white-haired boy watched Otis start lunch, seemingly amused by the fact that a vampire was preparing lunch.
"Look, he has a point, we can't be like this forever." Vlad started and Jon shifted his eyes to him.
"We already have been." Jon muttered, eyeing him as he walked out the door to sit on the back porch. "Have you forgotten...? We've hated each other for centuries." Vlad sat next to him and didn't quite understand what he meant. So he stayed silent to wait for Jon to continue. "I married your wife, and when you tried to take her back I sent a hunting party to kill you. Does that ring a bell?"
Vlad groaned loudly in frustration. "I'm not Dracula. We don't know if I am or not. But until we prove that, I'm not. Casimir thinks I am, you think I am, Mina thinks I am....But I don't think I am. I'm just...Vlad."
