Darkness Falls

I waved my hand. "Come inside, quickly!" I whispered. Once they all funneled in, I closed and locked the door. I pointed to the couch. "Blake, lay your ass down on the couch, I need to see what the hell happened." I instructed him.

He complied, and laid down with difficulty.

I listened to his heartbeat, and found that it was beating very slowly, even for a werewolf. He was extremely pale, and had lost a lot of blood. I darted over to my fireplace, and lit it, placing the poker in the flames. After that, I returned to Blake. "Tell me what happened." I said softly.

Blake nodded. "I was out hunting when I got a call from Sarah. She said that Colton texted her, telling her that someone broke into their house and were armed with guns. When I arrived, there were three assailants dead, and the last one was holding Colton and Heather at gunpoint. I shape-shifted into the werewolf, thinking I could easily overpower him. He shot me, and I didn't heal. I am afraid to say what I think I was shot with." He replied.

The woman, who I was assuming was Heather, spoke up. "Wait a minute, are you telling me that you know these people? How the hell do you know a werewolf? Are they werewolves too?" She asked, pointing to me and Michael.

I shook my head. "No, I am better. I am a vampire." I told her in a matter-of-fact voice.

Heather threw her hands up in the air, and was more frustrated with my answer. "I am sick of this shit! I have been asking questions after I was nearly murdered, saved by a talking dog and am in Dracula's house! Not to mention there are four dead bodies currently in my house! Someone talk or I am calling the police." She shouted.

Colton tried to calm her down but she backed away.

I was quickly growing impatient. I had a werewolf bleeding on my couch, and wasn't sure if there were more threats to come. "Everybody calm down and sit down! I'm going to explain everything. And Heather, you will not call the police. I can either compel you to cooperate or you can do so of your own accord." I commanded.

Everyone was frightened by my outburst, and did as commanded. I turned my attention to Blake, which was the most urgent matter.

I kneeled down to Blake. "With these kinds of wounds, I am afraid you were shot by silver bullets. Silver is the only thing that can block your healing factor, so I am certain that is what made these wounds. You are not healing, and will die if something drastic is not done. I have never used vampire blood on a werewolf, so I don't know if it will help you or poison you. The only thing that I know will work is to cauterize the wound so that it has time to heal. Once the silver is out of your system, your healing factor will be restored and you will heal completely." I informed Blake.

He nodded. "How are you going to do that?" He asked, in a fearful tone.

I stood up, and walked over to the fireplace. I retrieved the fire poker, which was now red hot. I walked back over to Blake. "With this. I have to warn you, this is going to be extremely painful. You are also unable to shape-shift with silver in your blood. Do not fight me, no matter how painful it is. You will only damage yourself further." I informed him.

Sarah came over and took his hand.

I shook my head. "You must not touch him. He is still considerably stronger than you, and can easily lose control and break your arm or worse." I warned her.

Sarah kissed him on the cheek. "I am right here. I won't leave you." She told him.

When they were done, I placed the poker right in front of the wound. "I'm going to do it on the count of three. Do not move." I informed Blake, lying about the number. He would tense up on two, and I needed him to be relaxed.

Blake winced in pain and nodded.

I sighed, preparing for him to resist and fight me. "One." I told him, and plunged it carefully into his gunshot wound.

Blake screamed in agony, gripping the couch. His skin sizzled, and blood poured out of the wound. A sickening burning smell permeated the air, and Heather turned away in disgust.

I removed the poker when I saw the blood flow stop.

Blake breathed rapidly, his heartbeat rising to a more normal pace. "I thought you were going to go on three!" He shouted, gasping for air. Smoke was coming from the wound.

I nodded. "I did say that. I also knew you were going to tense up, which will end up hurting you more than it will help. "I'm going to cauterize your leg now. Do not, and I repeat, do not tense up." I told him.

Blake looked at me with pissed off eyes but did as instructed.

I inserted the poker into his gunshot wound in his leg.

Once again, Blake screamed in tortured pain. He shook his fists violently, and an animalistic scream emanated from his throat. He looked at me with pure rage and would have turned if he was capable.

I held Blake down by the chest and kept the poker in his leg.

Sarah saw what was happening, and tried to calm him down. "Blake, relax, I'm right here." She told him and rubbed his shoulder.

Blake was breathing rapidly, and wincing in agony. As Sarah soothed him, his breathing returned to normal and he relaxed, sweating profusely.

I pulled the fire poker out when I saw no more blood, and set it back in the fire. I looked over his wounds, until I was satisfied. "The bleeding has stopped. It's going to keep hurting until your healing factor is restored. Until then, you are vulnerable and should not exert yourself." I told him.

Sarah helped him sit up, and put her arm around him to comfort him.

I paced the room, looking at each face. Every single one of them were weary. They were broken and beat up, and it was clear that whoever had attacked them knew how to kill a werewolf. I folded my arms, and leaned against the fireplace. "I suppose we should start by getting to know who everybody is, and how they got here." I told everybody.

I looked at everyone before continuing. "This is my house, so I'll start. My name is Maggie, and I am a full-blood vampire. My backstory is not important, so let's move on." I said, looking at every face.

Michael, who was to my left, was the next to speak. "My name is Michael. I am a half-blood vampire, and was turned by Maggie. Do I have to tell everything?" He asked, looking at me.

I nodded, encouraging him to continue.

Michael took a deep breath. "I was at a bar one night, how and why I was there isn't important. I was going to kill myself, until I talked to Maggie. She took me back to her place and, erm, persuaded me into not killing myself. She then gave me the option of whether I wanted to be turned into a vampire or half vampire. I chose to be half." He told them, looking at me with mischievous eyes.

I let the faintest of smiles show on my lips. I remembered that night well. It was the start of our relationship. I motioned for him to keep going.

Michael nodded, his mood turning dark. "A little over a week ago I was trying to find a human to feed on. I had been resistant up until that point, but I knew that I needed to feed soon. So, I brought a woman home from the bar. I realized that once I got here, I couldn't go through with it. So, I let her go and drove her home. The next day I was bored and wanted to go get some lunch at a restaurant. I ended up meeting the same girl there." He told everybody.

"Vampires can eat human food?" Sarah asked in a curious tone.

Michael nodded. "Half-blood vampires can. I don't know about full-bloods though. Anyways, I was weak from blood starvation and went to the bathroom. A person came into the bathroom and drugged me, kidnapping me. When I came to, I was in an abandoned construction site and the woman from the bar, as well as another man were holding me captive. He tortured me, and told me that they were going to expose vampires, werewolves and supernatural creatures to the world with the evidence they had gathered. Not satisfied with that, the man tried to kill me. The woman from the bar stopped him, but almost died herself in the process. Maggie came at just the right moment and saved us." He said, then looked at Sarah.

Sarah looked around the room at each individual face. "My name is Sarah. I am human, and a nurse at the Salem hospital. I was Blake's personal nurse during the time he was in a coma, which lasted three days. He was in pretty bad shape when he was first admitted, and had huge claw and bite marks, as well as a fractured leg. I noticed something was different when he healed at impossibly fast rates." She explained, and then looked at Blake before continuing.

"I became, for a lack of a better word, romantically involved with Blake. When he told me about his lycanthropy I didn't believe him, until he impaled himself with a knife and healed instantly before my eyes. After that, I supported him, and helped him through the month-long transformation. He disappeared for a while, scared that he was going to end up hurting me. During that time, the werewolf that turned me kidnapped me and tried to get Blake to kill me." Sarah said, squeezing Blake's hand.

Blake was still exhausted but sat up straight. "My name is Blake. I think everyone knows here that I am a werewolf. What you don't know is how I became this way. I was on my way to a friend's house for a party. The news had been saying that there were animal attacks in the area, and that several people had already died. So, I carried a handgun on me that night." Blake said, breathing rapidly, and groaned in pain.

Blake sighed and groaned, clearly in pain. "While walking, I heard screaming in the woods, so I ran to see what was happening. When I arrived at the source of the noise I found a woman who was broken, and barely clinging to life. I called the police to try and help her but it was no use. Her injuries were fatal, but she had not yet died from them. She died in my arms, and there was nothing I could do. After that, the werewolf that had killed her attacked me. I shot it a bunch of times, but not before it bit me. It was unconscious long enough for me to escape." Blake said, close to tears.

Heather was really interested in Blake's story. "What happened after that?" She asked.

Blake gestured to Sarah. "She pretty much filled in the middle part. I'll resume where she left off. What she didn't tell you is I had made silver bullets and I intended on killing myself. I was about to do it when I got a text from her abductor, telling me to come meet him or he would kill her. When I met him, he told me he wanted to team up and rule or something like that." Blake said, waving his hand dismissively.

Michael looked really interested in Blake's story, as he had not heard it before.

Blake paused, balling his hand into a fist and gritting his teeth. "He told me that he was an alpha, and that I had to listen to him. He used some sort of mind control on me, and told me to kill Sarah and shed human attachments. I almost did, but managed to use all my strength to avoid a killing blow. After that, I have tried to lay low and only use my curse to protect people that need protecting." Blake said. He was silent for a while and stared at the floor after telling his story.

I felt sympathy for him. After I had attacked him, and he told me his story I regretted attacking him first without even asking questions.

Heather was next to speak, but she was nervous. "My-my name is Heather. I probably have the least amount of connection to anybody else here. I only know Colton because his mom set us up on a blind date before she, well." Heather told everybody. After that, she looked at Colton to hear his story.

As a matter of fact, all eyes were on Colton. Michael and I were the only ones who knew why he wasn't talking. He was looking directly at me for a way out of the situation. It was quite ironic, since I was the one who put him in the situation to begin with.

I nodded, encouraging him to continue. If Heather became a problem I would compel her to remain calm. "Go on, tell us everything." I instructed him, placing emphasis on 'everything'.

Colton closed his eyes and sighed. He then looked directly at Heather. "Heather, before I start my story, I need you to promise me, and I mean promise me that you will not say or do anything until my story is finished." He asked her.

Heather raised an eyebrow and looked at Colton with suspicion. "Why are you asking me to do that?" She asked.

Colton shook his head. "It doesn't matter, just please promise me that you won't." He pleaded.

Heather was hesitant but nodded. "Okay." She replied.

Colton avoided eye contact. "A little over two months ago I was looking to get a house to get out of my mother's house. I wanted a bit of independence, so I tried to find anything. I found a good looking house for a suspiciously low price. I met up with the landlord, and looked at it. I was magnetically drawn to the house, but I didn't understand why until later. I bought it, and moved in immediately. The next day I thought my house was robbed. Everything was ransacked, and I called the police." He said, still avoiding eye contact with Heather.

Heather looked shocked. "You never told me all of this. You told me a girl died in your house." She replied skeptically.

Colton looked down at the floor. "I did tell you that. I also wasn't lying, I was getting to that. I discovered that night that it wasn't a break in. When I went to sleep that night, a ghost of a woman appeared to me in my dreams. She told me her name, but I was skeptical about her being real, I thought it was a figment of my imagination." He told her.

Heather was visibly confused. "Are you saying that the ghost in your dreams is the same one that was murdered?" She asked.

Colton nodded. "I did some research the next day, and found her name from the year 1920. She had been raped and murdered in the house. The next night in my dreams I talked to her again. I discovered that she never found peace, as her parents moved out and her killer was never found. She had been trapped in that house for almost a hundred years. During that time, I started to fall in love with the ghost, as pathetic as that sounds." He told her.

Heather was silent, not speaking but was still listening.

Colton pleaded silently to me with his eyes to stop talking. "Her name is Annabelle. After I had talked to her that second night, she told me of a way to bring her into the real world. But, she needed a medium. That's when I met Maggie. She came over to our house, and did what's called an anchoring spell. With that, she bonded Annabelle permanently to me. She is only visible to me, but can affect physical objects." He continued.

Heather was shocked, and I could detect that she was getting agitated by his story.

I decided I would warn her to behave. "If any human creates a problem, I can end it by compulsion. You will have no choice but to listen to me." I said, looking directly at Heather.

Heather shot me a dirty look and subtly flipped me by crossing her arms.

I smirked, laughing on the inside. I may have started a more pacifist life, but Michael didn't make not being an occasional asshole part of his ultimatum.

Colton noticed the exchange and gave me a thankful look. "After that, my mom introduced me to Heather. I was reluctant to go out with her, but she won me over. I never got a chance to tell her how my date with Heather went, because I showed her Annabelle's grave. A car struck us on the way back, and killed my mom. I died briefly, but Sarah told me that I recovered after a blood transfusion." He concluded.

I was shocked by his revelation. Ever since he had arrived with Heather clinging to his arm I had been questioning how he broke free of my compulsion. Colton had briefly died, lifting the compulsion spell. I have heard stories about it happening before, but luckily most people don't die temporarily. Colton was an exception to that rule.

Michael crossed his arms. "I heard about this, but I don't believe it. I need proof. Make an object move in front of us." He told Colton.

Colton looked to his right, in between Blake and himself, and nodded. He pulled a gun out of his waistband, and set it on the coffee table. Immediately after, the gun started levitating. The magazine was seemingly removed from the gun and was set on the table. The gun was set right beside it.

Heather went through a flurry of emotions within a few seconds. She was shocked, amazed and looked like she wanted to argue and fight with Colton. Instead, she sighed. "We will talk about this in private later." She told him in a cold voice.

I cleared my throat, trying to focus every eye on me. When everybody was, I spoke. "Every single one of us has been affected by the Human Coalition, either directly or indirectly. I convinced one of the Human Coalition members to talk, and we know what their goal is. They plan on exposing vampires and werewolves to the world. They want the government to step in and exterminate them all. They are waiting for something before exposing us but we don't know what. They meet anonymously on the internet, and are difficult to track. We do have a former Coalition member in our ranks that has infiltrated them, so we're able to keep tabs on them. But, something has changed." I explained, gesturing to Colton, Blake, Michael and Heather.

Michael looked confused. "What are you pointing at us for?" He asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Isn't it obvious? All of you except for Sarah have been attacked by the Coalition, or at least rogue members of them. They aren't announcing it on the forums, and are still coordinated. We never knew about the last attack, and we haven't even heard a whisper about the aftermath of what happened to Michael. Either they are gathering somewhere else, or someone is contacting them in private and giving orders. Either way, they knew where Heather lived. We should assume that they know at least a general idea of who we are or where we live. I think this house is safe, so we should all stay here for now." I told everyone.

Blake raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think it could be the mole? Perhaps she is feeding them information." He asked.

I shook my head. "That's not possible. I compelled her not to talk or disclose anything about us, and I compel her to tell me if she has ratted us out every time she comes here. I think someone is behind these attacks, and giving information to people to try and kill us." I told him.

Colton stood up. "What the hell are we supposed to do? We're outnumbered from the sounds of it, sure as hell outgunned and they have the resources and the coordination to attack us without warning. How are we supposed to fight? I never asked for any of this shit, you threw me into it!" Colton shouted, pointing directly at me.

I wanted to be angry. Truth be told I wanted to rip his head off and feed on Heather. But, I was trying to not be that person anymore. Instead, I did something I have never done before- I apologized. "Look, I'm sorry, okay! I know I was a bitch when you first met me. What I did to you was child's play compared to what I have done to others! I have slaughtered innocent people without mercy, and killed wives as their husbands were powerless to resist. I've killed more people than the years I've walked this earth, and not once did I ever feel remorse for it before." I shouted back, in a defensive tone.

Colton was shocked at my confessions.

I took a deep breath and softened my tone. "What I did to you was wrong and unforgivable. I turned you into a quarter vampire, just to be able to survive the anchoring process. But, the vampire blood proved too strong and you progressed to a half-blood vampire. I compelled you to only love Annabelle, and I placed the death curse on your mom. If you want to blame somebody, blame me!" I told him.

Every mouth in the room hung open at the shocking revelation.

Colton became engaged and picked up the gun, and aimed it at me. "You fucking killed my mom? Why are you telling me this?" He asked, his voice full of malice.