World of Monsters

36. A New Guest

     When Gabriel woke up from his daylight sleeping, he arouse to the sounds of laughter, and it was coming from the living room. He quickly got to his feet and dressed but slowly strolled into the living room to act calm. What was waiting for him in the living room however was a large number of bags from the shopping mall. There was almost triple the supplies that they had gathered the last time they were in New Lycan and he could barely fly them and Alyssa back into town. He looked around the room and then at Alyssa who was grinning at him.

     "What?" Gabriel asked.

     "Your face looks quite amusing." She said, laughing again.

     "This is a lot of stuff," Gabriel admitted. "I can't carry this all back."

     "You won't have to." A voice boomed out.

     Cornelius emerged from the kitchen and he was carrying a bag of blood from the fridge. Gabriel seemed less impressed that he was drinking Alyssa's blood that they had stored the night before.

     "You shouldn't drink that without asking." Gabe informed his brother.

     "I did ask," Cornelius said, gesturing to the person who produced it.

     "There's still plenty left," Alyssa told him. "Cornelius was teaching me how to access other veins that are easier to hide from others. I can only poke my arms so many times before people start thinking I have a problem."

     "Fair enough," Gabriel said, knowing he was right. He had meant to teach her that, but hadn't had the time to get around to it.

     "I will help you carry all this back," his brother also added. "I want to see this little town that you've been residing in."

     "You do?" Gabriel said, rather surprised to hear it.

     "Yes, I do." Cornelius confirmed, "I also want to talk to the witch myself."

     "You told him about the witch?" Gabriel asked Alyssa, surprised to hear it.

     "We talked about it over breakfast," Alyssa said, "Turns out Cornelius has a rather interesting history with witches."

     "You do?" Gabriel asked his brother.

     "I've mingled with some over the last several hundred years." Cornelius admitted, "I haven't been to Salem, but I heard it's nice."

     "I didn't realize this," Alyssa continued, "But the witches were slowly claiming Salem long before the whole undead thing started."

     "Is that true?" Gabriel asked his brother.

     "It is," His brother confirmed, "They had been buying up large amounts of land and real estate one piece at a time. They were already unofficially in charge of that place when the undead thing started."

     "How do you know this?" Gabriel asked, curious about it.

     "One of the witches let me in on it," Cornelius answered, "She knew with father asleep that I had unlimited access to the family treasury and therefore had the means to financially back her. I liked her very much, so it made sense to help her claim a significant stake in Salem. It also doesn't hurt to have people that owe you favors, even if she's a witch."

     "Wow," Gabriel said, "I had no idea."

     "The sun is going down," Cornelius reminded him, "Let me know how much you can carry and I'll take the rest."

     "Show off," Gabriel chided back with a grin. He already decided to take less than he did last time just to make his brother do more work. He was ten times stronger so it was doubtful the big man was even going to break a sweat. Both vampires took to the roof and the departed New Lycan with relative ease. They had remained rather quiet until they were more than halfway back. The mood changed in both men and Alyssa could tell.