Bite Me

[chapter seven]

[Ar • te • mis]

Juliet Butler was in the kitchen, busy chopping at some purple onions that brought tears to her eyes. Though she has done this enough times where it doesn't bother her that much anymore. Myles was sitting at the kitchen table, now eight years old. His raven hair wasn't slicked back, as his mother didn't want him doing the same thing his older brother does, so it was ruffled and messy. He had to wear glasses, but Juliet suspected that they were more for looks than anything.

He was writing into a notebook, most likely notes about his neck experiment that's potentially going to mess with Beckett or Artemis in one way or another. Juliet would have taken it away, but she enjoys the calm, normal family feeling even though the entire house was filled with vampires. Myles yawned slightly and rubbed his eyes from under his glasses, before looking at Juliet tiredly. His sapphire eyes dug into her soul but she has gotten use to that, too.

"What are you making?" He asked, until he yawned again.

"It's a secret."

Myles was not amused. "What is it?" He repeated, making his voice as firm as he could but he was still only eight, so it wasn't much.

Juliet snickered to herself and wiped her tearing up eyes. "I'm making an omelet for you and your brother, you small child. Now let me focus, you wouldn't want me to cut a finger, would you?" She asked the eight year old, who hesitated before he answered.

"... well... we could make into an experiment to see how much you bleed from the cut until it gets--"

"-- no, Myles, we don't use Juliet as a test subject." A tired Artemis said, entering the room. Or, at least, a mentally tired Artemis due to the fact that vampires don't need sleep. "Where's your brother?" He asked, sitting down at the table and rubbing his eyes. It was strange to see Artemis so natural and raw, still in sleeping attire and messy black hair, a very rare sight.

"He's somewhere."

"Where, Myles?"

"Somewhere in the premises." Myles responded cheekily, testing his older brother, seeing how far he could go with this. Artemis was no mood to jostled around with, but stayed calm nonetheless. He still is his little brother, whether he is annoying or not.

"Did you lock him up somewhere, Myles? Because you must remember how furious father was last time you did that." Artemis said, smirking slightly as the child eyes widened with fear. Quickly covering his small ears, he shook his head. Clearly, he got him there and with very minimal effort involved.

"I swear he wouldn't stop yelling, I was so happy when mom intervened! Dad was so mad with me, I must have apologized one thousand times!" Myles responded, stumbling over a few of his words. After he got all that out, his shoulders dropped. "He's still asleep..." A defeated sigh left his lip as Artemis nodded.

"Alright, thank you for the information. Now, was that so difficult?" The question was smug, and Myles opened his mouth to respond, but Juliet intention put a pan down loudly. Interrupting any sound that could have came out of either mouth's.

"Now, now boys. Let's all be friends and get along." Juliet said, a few strands of blonde hair in her face. "You're distracting the chef, and that is a very dangerous thing to do." Artemis knew that and decided to stay quiet, rubbing his temple as the headache that lingered on from yesterday slowly left him.

Dom didn't have enough time to go and get another meal for Artemis, so he did something forbidden and gave Artemis his blood. If there was another option, he would have opposed but the number one rule with blood is that you can drink blood that is directly related to you. In short, he couldn't drink any of his family members blood and it's not like he would want to, that would be disgusting. His last two options were Dom or Juliet, and he choose Dom since he knew him better. Artemis also did not want to feed on Dom's little sister, principal or not, that is a big no-no.

I should have fed on Holly and saved Dom some painstaking efforts which were just in vain in the long run. If I had done that, he wouldn't had to give me his blood-- something he greatly opposed to for many reasons. Artemis thought, his mind has been attached to Holly Short and it was starting to get on his nerves. It had only been a day after she left, and normally he would have exited her from his mind, but he can't. It's like she's stuck inside, there to just bother him.

He couldn't explain why the girl was on his mind, but it could be the reason that she was so fierce towards him. Even then, she wasn't the first one but no one has ever made him hesitate then not feed on them. That was a first, and it settled wrong in Artemis' gut. There was something... different about this girl, and he can't put his finger on it.

Come on, head, just forget about her by now. She isn't important, and you need to focus on other matters. He scolded himself, but to no avail. If he didn't get to know anything else about her soon, it would drive him crazy. This was worse than his desire to feed so badly yesterday.

"Artemis simple-toon." A quiet voice said, entering the room with a yawn. Ah, Beckett, finally awake. The blonde kid sat down next to his older brother and laid against him. His curly hair was all over the place, much worse than Myles' by a long run. "When is food ready?"

Juliet smiled affectionately at the little kid, "soon, Beckett, just wait a little longer. I'm almost done with Myle... your omelette." She said, earning a hard glance from eight year old kid. She mouthed back sorry and finished it up. Beckett smiled at her and yawned, rubbing his eyes again.

Artemis rested his head on his hand and looked at Myles notebook absentmindedly, not really focusing on it. He was far too curious about the girl he saw yesterday, but he didn't try to focus on it too much. Perhaps it was just the hormones now rushing through his body, a girl hasn't distracted him before in the same way. Still, the fire burning in her eyes when she talked back...

"Look! Look!" Beckett said excitedly, with a smile on his lips. His finger pointing at Artemis. "Artemis is blushing!"

His eyes widened as he looked at his brother, subconsciously a hand going to feel if his cheeks were warm. I can't actually be blushing, can I? He thought to himself, as it turned out to be evident his cheeks were rather warm. All he did was think about that girl again, Holly, and now he was flustered. What was it about her, and why can she do this to him?

Biting the inside of his cheek and attempting to block out the teasing from Beckett and Juliet, Artemis focused on his thoughts.

I will find out why I feel so weird about this. I always find out what I want to know.

[Fo • wl]