Being Undead

Chapter 4*

Laura had expected a commotion to break out at the sudden appearance of the man, especially with the threatening way he had screamed his lungs out like a beast with a buckshot to the stomach.

But to her utmost surprise, no one seemed to be bothered at all by his presence. The only evidence, in fact, to show that they even acknowledged his presence at all was that they all stopped long enough to stare at him at the door before looking away to continue whatever it was they were doing before he showed up.

The man shouted again, "Somebody tell me where he is right now or I swear that heads will start rolling!"

"Hey, Damian, I'm over here," Frederick called to him. "Please, drop the theatrics before you do something that we'll both regret later."

Damian walked fully into the room that they were and Laura quickly got down to observing him.

Damian was a man of great build; muscular unlike Frederick's slight frame. Unlike Frederick also, he had his own hair styled in a low cut that stopped just above the nape; Frederick's hair was all curls like a man who always forgot to comb every morning; and somehow, Laura figured that was the truth.

Damian was dressed in a black leather jacket, black t-shirt, and black trousers to match. He didn't keep a beard, but he grew a stubble which was barely noticeable; unless of course the onlooker was concentrating on him as much as Laura was in that moment. From his mere presence, it was obvious he wasn't someone to trifled with; Laura made a mental note to stay out of his way as long as her stay in the mansion might be.

Damian came to a stop just an inch from Frederick's face. "Earlier tonight, I received a text saying that you'd been in an accident," he said, "and being the good person that I am, I took the guys out to find you. But what do I get? Here you are, enjoying yourself without so much as the courtesy of remembering to tell me that you're okay."

Funny enough, Damian wasn't the older of the two; Laura could tell that by the deference he showed Frederick even as much as he was trying to make it look like he wasn't. Now, raving at a superior should be considered disrespect and it seemed that the whole house thought that too as they had all stopped whatever it was they were doing to watch Frederick's reaction.

But Frederick was only smiling like there was nothing else in the world he could do but that. "I'm sorry for worrying you like that, Damian," he said when it seemed like the other man was done raving. "Now, can we get to more important matters?"

"What's wrong?" Damian asked, immediately picking up on the vibe Frederick was putting down.

"We- I mean, I- have a problem." He pointed to Laura beside him.

Damian seemed to notice her for the first time then and his eyes went wide. "Brother!" he exclaimed. "You brought a mortal here."

"She's not mortal anymore, Damian, that's the problem."

Laura had never thought that Damian's eyes could go any wider but it did; the ramifications of what Frederick had said seemly dawning on him. "A newblood," he said. "An illegal newblood."

Now, Laura couldn't understand much of what they were saying but she did understand enough to realize that her presence in the mansion- and perhaps in the undead world for that matter- wasn't a cause for celebration like Frederick had made her feel earlier. Something was wrong; terribly.

"Well, in that case, brother, you have to fix it," Damian, deliberately emphasizing the word fix.

"I can't just kill her, Damian," Frederick returned, mortified. "It wasn't her fault. It was an accident at Grayson Medical's mortuary."