The Last Protector

Chapter 5

Jasper Pov

    “What the bloody Hell are you looking at?” I asked, my patience waning. The trip was tiring. I drove as much as I could, but unfortunately, I couldn’t drive the car over the sea. So now I was on a cruise ship, shoved full with hundreds of bloody tourists, annoyed out of my mind. 

    “I was just curious as to why you’re wearing that, is all.” A teenage boy replied, eyeballing me. His accent was harsh, clipped, and I rolled my eyes at his attempt to speak English. 

    I looked down at my black shirt and blue jeans, casual, no holes or nothing, and frowned. What the hell was wrong with my clothes? “Why? Is it in the way? You’re not my type,” I muttered, raising my eyebrow at him. The boy blushed, holding his hands up and waving them in the air as he backed away. 

    “No! No, I mean, you are very beautiful, but that’s not what I meant! I meant that it’s cold! Don’t you see that you’re the only one here wearing short sleeves? Everyone else is wearing a thick coat with fur lining it.” He stammered, his face red as he breathed out, a thick white cloud forming in front of him. I rolled my eyes, sighing. Of course, Kalia had to pick one of the coldest islands there was to live in. 

    I didn’t feel cold like humans do, since vampires' skin was ice cold to begin with, so I hadn’t noticed when the temperature started to change. I raised my eyebrow at him, giving a pretend shiver. “Brrr,” I said, running my hands up and down my arms. “There, is that better?” I asked him. He stared at me, confused, as I rolled my eyes. I watched him go dull, his eyes turning lifeless as I took control of him. “Go get me some clothes so I can blend in better,” I said, watching as he nodded and turned away, walking down the hall. 

    I groaned, wishing it was dark so I could go out onto the deck. All of these people shoved in here was irritating, but at least the mouse outbreak down here was keeping me fed, otherwise, I’d have probably slipped and eaten someone by now. Ever since I drank Grayson’s blood the cravings for pure human blood were stronger again, it usually took a few decades to fade away again. My head was pounding around all of these bodies, and It was too strong for me to sleep it off. I considered more than once to drink the blood of one of the blokes drunk, so I could fall asleep in a drunken stupor, but I had to steel myself away from those thoughts, and away from their blood. 

    The soft twinkling Icelandic folk music was pouring through the speakers, and to my dismay quite a few of the humans down below were bunched together in the halls dancing and singing along, rapping their feet on the wooden floor and causing a pounding headache in my head as they danced and clapped along in time with the music. The boy came back as I was starting to walk back into my room and I grabbed the unappealing thick jacket and fur-filled pants, discarding the pants and pulling on the boots and the jacket. I would accept the boots and the jacket, but there was no way I’d pull pants on that had fur inside of them. Just the idea of it inside my pants made me cringe. Releasing the boy from his trance he soon left to join in with the other humans, draping his arm around a fairly pretty female that threw her head back when she laughed. I smiled watching them, seeing the long blond wavy hair as it tickled her legs, the way it moved as she laughed. I shook my head, frowning as I stepped into the room, shutting the door behind me. The past few nights I’ve woken from dreams of her again, dreams of memories that I’ve long since hidden deep inside of me. 

    I could still see it, when I closed my eyes. I could still hear her deep sultry voice, the sound of the tambourine as she danced. I shook my head, frustrated. I didn’t have time for these thoughts, or for her. I was here for a reason, and that’s all that mattered. I pulled out the piece of paper, a small piece that had been ripped off of a notebook and the corner of it had some blood on it that was now dried. I had to kill a man for this information, a vampire that dared to pretend to be nice only to think of telling my mother I was looking for Kalia afterward. He should have known I was still reading his mind, the moment he started to back away, the smile on his face as he wondered if Amari would like him more if he gave her the information he had. I hadn’t even given him a chance to try and contact her. Vampires were able to block werewolves from communicating with their minds, but they couldn’t block vampires from doing it. Only special vampires, the strongest ones, the ones that drank the pure blood of the daughters could do it. My father, my mother, and I. I blocked his mind before he could talk to her, grabbed the back of his head, and crushed his face into the wall. We fought for only a few minutes before I ended up ripping his head from his shoulders and chucking it into the fireplace beside us. It was annoying, since we had been meeting in a small twenty-four-hour cafe with a handful of customers inside, but I took control of all of their minds and made them forget what happened, after sweeping out the dust left behind from his body. In the end, I got what I needed, and from there I’ve been traveling to her since. 

    I opened my phone, feeling it vibrate, and frowned down at Jaiden’s name. I had him saved under ‘Mr. Sparkles,’ Now, an inside joke, and I chuckled to myself remembering how Lexi and I had teased him about the sparkling before as I opened the text. ‘Hey, how’s my favorite grumpy teddy bear with fangs? I just wanted to give you an update, wherever you are. Lexi had our baby this morning! Look! His name is Rhys, isn’t he adorable?’ The text said, following with a picture of a cute little baby boy with light brown hair and sky blue eyes, along with Jaiden’s mole under its right eye. He had Jaiden’s eye shape as well, and I smiled, seeing how perfectly combined his features were of both of them. 

    ‘Yes, he’s adorable, because he looks nothing like you. Did Lexi cheat? Understandable. I think I see some Zain in those features,’ I said back to him with a smirk. 

    The reply was fairly fast and I opened it, laughing at his remark. ‘There’s nothing of Zain here, Jasper. Though speaking of Zain, he got Rhys a small grill and a grill set, how inconsiderate is that?’ He asked, making me chuckle. 

    ‘Why on earth would he give your baby that crap?’ I asked, shaking my head. 

    ‘Because he calls me a flaming chicken, and now he’s calling Rhys a baby chicken. Told him to go grill himself.’ He replied. I laughed out loud, my shoulders shaking as I imagined Lexi and how she ripped the cigarette out of my mouth. There was no way she was fine with this gift or the nickname of baby chicken. 

    I sighed, looking down at my phone, thinking about Grayson. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him, I’ve been traveling since the wedding trying to find Kalia. I was worried about him, wondering how he was doing, with everything he was going through. ‘How’s Grayson?’ I texted Jaiden back. 

    I saw the dart of movement beside me and snaked my hand out fast, grabbing the rat by the tail and pulling it close to me as my phone went off. ‘He’s fine. Same as always, I guess. Zain just left to go get him. I could give you his number, you know.’ He texted me back. 

    I pulled the rat into the air and started to bounce it up and down like a yoyo, toying with it as it shrieked and squealed in my grasp. ‘No, it’s fine.’ I replied to him, putting the phone back in my pocket. I knew I should talk to him, but I didn’t know what to say or do. It could all have been temporary. The pale skin, the colder feel of his skin. It could be better now, and there could be nothing wrong with Grayson. I know it was his birthday in a month, and maybe I was waiting to see if he’d change into a wolf or not. Then again, a Vârcolac. Colette mentioned it, and I have been reading all of the books, all of the studies, everything I could find on this mythical creature that no one knows about. It’s just fairytales written by humans, but the more I researched it, the more I remembered the old saying. All of the stories are true. Of course, that’s to a degree. There’s no jolly fat man in red that slips down a chimney once a year leaving presents. If that actually happened, he’d be arrested for trespassing and who knows what else. No, I was starting to think there could be some truth in what Colette said. The possibility, but what could it be? I’ve lived longer than most, there was no such thing as a Vârcolac, was there? Father was the first vampire created, so if they were real, it would have happened when I was alive. Wouldn’t I have known about them? 

    I sighed, growing tired of playing with the rat and sinking my teeth into the side of it, ignoring the shrieks as I drank its dull blood, its body growing lifeless in my grasp as it died. I cringed, throwing the rat into the trash can with all the others. Dull, the blood of animals tasted dull compared to human blood. Even still, I had to get used to it, because I wasn’t going to drink human blood again. The engines of the cruise ship started to slow down as I felt the familiar tick of the sun setting and sighed, glad the landing was adjacent with the setting of the cursed sun so I wasn’t stuck on this rutted ship for longer than I needed to be. I could hear the others cheering for the next thirty minutes or so as the ship finally came to a stop, and the sound of it brushing against the piers and lowering the fancy steps for the tourists to step down. I stood up and stretched, grabbing the small bag I brought with me mostly for show since the tourists would think it’s weird if I came across the sea with nothing at all. I pulled out my cigarettes and lighter, lighting one and taking a few puffs as I lowered the flame to the trash can, setting it ablaze. I wasn’t too worried about it catching the ship on fire, the smoke would set off the sprinklers before anything spread, but it was better not to leave behind the trash can filled with dead rats for anyone to stumble across and see the holes from my teeth. As fun as it was leaving small hints of us for the humans to freak out about and write their silly books on us, most of us vampires tried to clean up the evidence we left behind. 

    I walked out onto the deck behind the others, ignoring their clipped accents as they spoke of many different things. I knew Kalia wouldn’t be here, she didn’t know I was coming, but I still scanned for her anyway, and I was surprised to see her hidden under an awning of a house not too far away. She was the same as always. She had been my mother’s best friend, and was turned right after she had been, so both of them looked around sixteen, the age they’d always be. Though, I could see how she had her makeup set to make her look older, she could easily pass for an eighteen to twenty-year-old if she was trying for it. Her long black hair was pulled back into tight braids hanging to the middle of her back, her dark honey-colored skin looked darker than usual in the shadows of the awning, but even still I knew it was her. I frowned, walking casually down the steps around the humans as they stared and gawked at me. It happened everywhere I went, I wasn’t very bothered by it anymore. I walked through the crowds, sometimes having to subtly push people that were gawking at me out of the way, and wished I had pulled the giant ridiculously fluffy hood over my head to hide myself just a little bit from the humans' gazes. Finally, I was standing in front of Kalia and she stepped forward, raising an eyebrow at me. “How did you know I was coming?” I asked her. 

    She clicked her tongue at me, turning around and curling her fingers in a come here motion, before starting to walk away. “Come with me to my house. We need to get away from the humans.” She replied softly as I started to follow her. 

    “That’s fine, but how did you know I was coming?” I asked her again as she walked further away from the crowd gathering to receive those coming off the ship. 

    She sighed, turning her head for a moment to look at me, her soft brown eyes lined with the centuries and centuries of pain and heartbreak common for vampires that lived forever. “One of the people you asked for my whereabouts tipped me off seconds before the communication link faded. I suppose they're dead, of course.” She said. 

    I shrugged, nodding. Only the last guy gave me the info I needed before I killed him, but a few of the others I asked were all killed as well. I couldn’t have them going around telling my parents I was looking for the woman my mother despised more than anyone else. “So, do you know why I’m here then?” I asked her. 

    I could hear the smile in her harsh accent without her even needing to turn around. “Come along, Jasper, all of your questions will be answered soon.” She said with a laugh.