To be King...

Chpt 7: The Other Brother

 Sorry for the wait, work's been crazy this week, the High schools finally hit Spring Break and we've been seriously nuts.

 Above Tommy, descending the stairs, is a young man with familiar green eyes. The familiarity, however. stops there. His brown hair is styled up with a red gel, barely visible in his dark locks. The color of his eyes might be reminiscent of Nate's, but they seem almost... flat.

At his presence everyone seems to take a collective breath and step back. The new comer stands next to Nate, looking at Tommy with a calm mask. The boy, who towers over the vampire brothers, steps down from his puffed up appearance and walks out of the castle, no words spoken.

"Thanks Seff." Nate says, a blush lighting his face and a hard edge to his voice.

Adira is intrigued. She'd never met Seff before, or Darci. Will used to think about them all the time, wonder what they would be like, if they would be like Nate or his dad, if they would want to be friends. It feels almost... surreal to finally see him. Especially without Will by her side.

He heads over to the stereo and turns the music back up, everyone slowly breaking out of their daze and starting the party back up. Nate comes up to her side and rolls his eyes at his older brother, making Adira smirk.

"What were they fighting about?" Nate asks a furiously typing Becka.

"I'm not really sure, but couldn't care less to be honest." she replies, looking up once before turning around and heading into the hodgepodge of dancers. At this, Adira rolls her eyes and looks up to see where Seff has gone off to.

"Nate, introduce me to your friend here!" she hears from behind her. Instincts honed in hours of training make her hairs stand on end as he places a hand on her shoulder from behind her. She's not good with new people, and with Seff being a vampire... it's nothing personal, but her magic tingles in the tips of her fingers and she has to fight the urge to yank out of his grasp.

"Seff this is Adira, Adira this is a jackass." Nate mutters, pulling her away from Seff and underneath his own arm. It helps her relax, just a little, and she shakes Seff's hand with a small smile.

"Nice to meet you." Seff says, rolling his eyes at his brother, a good natured smirk on his lips.

"You too." Adira says. They stare at each other for half a second, and then Adira drops his hand, turning to Nate.

Nate says nothing, and just glares at his oldest brother for a minute.

  "Nate said that you weren't here tonight." Adira comments, and her breathing stutters because that just sounded stupid, it wasn't like she really  cared.

"I had a little meet and greet to go to today, wasn't really expecting to be here in time for all the fun." He tells her with a toothy smile that makes a girl behind her giggle. He seems to be full of charm tonight.

"Really? What for?" she asks, feeling a little bold.

"Oh nothing much, I was meeting one of the Council's family. I didn't out as much as our little traveler here." Seff tells her with a gesture to Nate who is absorbed in conversation with a football player whose name completely alluded her at the moment.

"What happened there?" he asks, gesturing to scars on her neck that were easily presented to him when she turned to look at Nate. Her head snaps harshly back to Seff, eyes narrowing. There is the barest, slimmest chance that he truly didn't know what had happened to her family. The look on his face positively screamed innocence, but she wasn't concerned about his face, his eyes sparkled.

"I was attacked." she says bluntly, arm jerking Nate back to their conversation. "My sister died. Wild animal, so I was told."

She was told, quite harshly, by two spokesmen from the Council. 

The first sat at her bedside before she could barely talk with the grief she felt. He was really nice, soft brown skin and sweet brown eyes. He laid out bare facts for her, promising the man who'd done this would be punished by their law. He told her that if she told others there would be a large upset against the vampires in the community, and that there would be loss of life on both sides that could easily be avoided. She would have believed him, if not for the man who came after. He demanded her to keep her mouth shut, telling her it was something she couldn't control, and that what had happened was a course of life. The man would be punished, but so would she if she dared open her mouth.

"Dangerous things. Need to be hunted down." he tells her, no smile on his face now. Her jaw clenches, and it's here and now she decides she hates him. Hates him with a fire in her belly and magic in her fingers. 

"Were going to go Seff, see you later." Nate says, walking off with Adira with a frown on his face.

"What was that all about?" she asks as they step back into the kitchen.

"Seff's... he's an ass." Nate tells her, running his fingers through his hair and dropping into a chair. He sighs heavily, head drooping almost apologetically. 

"I guess." He did come on strong, too many smiles, too cryptic with his words. She didn't want to disappoint Nate, make him think that she hated his brother even if she really did.

"Yeah. Just... don't hang out with him too much, alright? Were still trying to patch things up and I don't want him to ruin anything." Nate says so earnestly. He looks up at her with his big green eyes and it reminds her of a puppy. All she can do is smile at him and nod softly, it wasn't like what he was telling her would be much of a hardship.

"If you really want me to keep away from him, I promise I'll try." and she will try really fucking hard to keep away from him. 

"What else did you get up to in Europe?" she asks, and sits across from him at the kitchen Island, wanting to forget that Seff Cabot even existed.