Poison Orchid

Chapter 5

The car that picked them up from the airport was a heavily armoured SUV and it was tinted with dark glasses. The flight was pretty uneventful if you consider a man found unconscious in the men’s lavatory the next morning. Thankfully no one was suspicious of anything but Gabriel and Petrov exchanged meaningful looks. And they very well knew that no one else other than Regina would reckless enough to feed from a man in the plane. Despite of being warned several times not to do something of this sort, Regina took perverse pleasure in doing what was an unexpected behavior for any and everyone of their race.

Gabriel had felt like rebuking that tramp but then he remembered what Petrov had said. Sitting beside him Regina was faking all kinds of signs of discomfort in order to gain attention. Sometimes Gabriel thought that might be these many centuries long had been more than enough in order to develop all kinds of psychological disorders. But then he started thinking about what his grandmother had told him about his uncle and that woman. Why on earth would his father pay goons to kill a woman whom his brother liked. The story wasn’t complete. He could feel it in his bones, but that was true that if Electra thought the puzzle was complete then she wouldn’t have bothered to tell him. And would have dealt with his father himself. Something was amiss, and he could not understand what was that.

“You seem to be quite tired and exhausted darling?” purred Regina.

Despite his anger Gabriel smiled, this woman was relentless. He replied with a smile, ”After all mother, everyone did not have a chance to snack upon on the plane.”

Regina’s pale face paled a bit more. But immediately regaining her composure she said, “You could have told me earlier darling that you were hungry. I would have brought you a snack to feed. Don’t you trust your mother this much?”

“I trust my mother implicitly, but not the fake one,” retorted Gabriel.

In this conversation, Petrov was a silent spectator. When he saw the large house at the end of the road at the beginning of the woods he knew from the pictures he had seen that this was the house where they were supposed to live in during their stay. He cut in their relentless banter and said, ”My liege, we are here. Rudolf, drive in and park the car inside the garage.”

“This is the house?” asked Gabriel with disappointment in his voice.

“Why darling don’t you like it?” asked Regina in her trademark tramp voice.

“Only three of us will be staying here for sometime. Why the hell did you need to rent a house so large?” asked Gabriel with anger now palpable in his voice.

“Oh darling!! Wherever you live and how you live matters a lot. You have got to live in style, opulence and after all your father always says that I have an impeccable taste. You should trust my judgement for that score.”

The car entered the garage and Petrov got out immediately. He pushed the combination on the garage wall and the shutter opened with a whirring noise.

“That dog of yours is too nosy. One day I shall deal with him…”

Regina’s musing was interrupted suddenly because she could not find her voice anymore because a hand was at her throat choking her and opening her eyes she suddenly found looking at a pair of feral green eyes.

“If I ever find you ever trying to harm or touch any of my children, then I shall make sure that you are shredded by vultures while you are alive and then I myself will stake you and leave you in the midday sun. And your torture will be so damn painful, you w***e, that you will beg for death before you die,” said Gabriel in a voice slightly louder than a whisper. But it did not take Regina longer to understand that he had meant each and every word of it.

Gabriel slowly removed his hand from Regina’s throat but never breaking eye contact, and slowly got out of the car inside the opened door.

Petrov had already sauntered inside the house and found out that if the drapes and hangings were in place, so that no tinge of sunlight could come inside the house. As Gabriel entered from behind, he found that the house was truly impeccably chosen and furnished. He went upstairs over the mahogany floor, his boots making a slight tapping noise and found a master bedroom. It was furnished just as he liked, in dark shades of grey and black, the bedspread was of black satin. However Regina might have tried, bribing someone to make his bedroom in 24 hours was never her forte.

“My liege.”called Petrov from the door. As Gabriel turned back he found that Petrov was standing in the doorway with an icebox. Suddenly he felt very ravenous, Petrov had come at the right time. He had not fed for almost two days. As he beckoned Petrov inside, and flopped down on the bed very ungraciously. Petrov took out a bag of B+ and gave it to Gabriel. Taking the bag from his hand, Gabriel pierced one end of the plastic bag with his fangs and started taking long swigs from the bag and drained it in a few seconds. Petrov handed him another bag and it was also tossed in the trash can within a next few seconds.

“I didn’t understand that really needed to feed that much. What about the blood supply here Petrov?” asked Gabriel.

“We have a tacit understanding with the one of the male nurses in the local hospital, but, my liege, I think in this case we have to resort to the old measures. It won’t be quite difficult to erase their minds. And this place has quite a good population of teenagers.”

“I can understand that Petrov, but we should not forget the main purpose of why we have come here, we need to mingle with the people as soon as possible. And have you checked how to go to school and what are the timings and what are our schedules?”

“I have done that. I just have kept all the sports inside, giving the documents of medical reports stating that going out in the sun causes extreme infection for both of us. It is genetic, so they can’t force you or me to get out into rays,” said Petrov.

“Good thinking. Then when are we going o join the classes?”

“The sooner the better, my liege.”

“But you can’t call me , my liege, in high school. You have to call me by my name, or shorter forms or Bro. Anything you’re comfortable with.”

“I am not comfortable with any of them…”

“Petrov it is not something u for discussion. It is my order and you’ll follow it. Now what you will be calling that choice is yours and Regina…..standing outside the door spying to report my father will take you nowhere,” said Gabriel in a booming voice. Petrov started smiling despite the seriousness of the situation. A rough click of heels going to the other side of the corridor was heard.

“Pathetic spy,” muttered Petrov.

“Tell Rudolf to keep her within sights at all moments. And make sure that she doesn’t preys on helpless humans. Because I am pretty sure that once left to her own machinations she is no better than a rogue.”

“Your wish is my command, my brother,” said Petrov with a smile.

“Okay Pete then, let’s get ready for school and hit it. Black for me and blue for you.”

Gabriel laughed heartily looking at Petrov’s face, he was so looking crestfallen hearing he had to wear blue.

Rudolf drove them to the only school in the town. The car entered the gates and Gabriel and Petrov rushed forward into the school avoiding sunrays. They asked the guard the directions to the principal’s office.

As they knocked, a gravelly voice asked them to come in.

Gabriel and Petrov went inside the room to find the shortest man he had ever seen in his life. Gabriel did his best to not gawk at the little man.

“Take a seat, young men,” said Mr. Jonas as per the name plate on the table.

“Good morning Sir,” greeted Gabriel and Petrov repeated after him.

“Good morning. Your transfer request seems very unusual. But the amount of donation that your father has promised for the development of a new wing in our school has made me rethink of my decision. You may start your classes from today itself. “

“Sir, our classes…” tried Petrov but was interrupted with the flicker of a hand.

“Two lockers have been already assigned in your names. I must say you both have unusual names for boys of this century. Well, your routines and schedules all have been given in your lockers itself.”

“I must say, Sir, that we may be of this century but my grandfather is not,” replied Gabriel cheekily.

“Cocky, huh? Well good luck boys. I hope that you can catch up soon with the other children,”said the Principal shaking hands with both the boys.

Coming out of the room, Gabriel and Petrov found their respective lockers and saw that they had English literature for their first period taken by Andrea Simpsons. They found their way to the classroom and entered. No sooner than they had entered, twenty-five pairs of eyes moved towards them, except one.

Gabriel’s sight was immediately attracted to a profile of a female body with shining black hair, crowning her face like a halo who was scribbling something furiously in her notebook. The seat beside her was empty. Gabriel moved forward to the girl amidst hoots and cheers and asked,”Is this seat taken?”

The girl looked up and Gabriel felt somebody had punched him directly at his heart and he murmured,”Stake me.”

“Sorry?” the girl with the most mesmerizing pair of green eyes looked up at him as if he was a pest.

“I asked if this seat was taken by someone else.”

“If this seat had been taken then someone would have been seating on it, isn’t it?” replied the girl.

“May I have this seat then?” asked Gabriel shocked at her response.

“It is a free country. You may sit wherever you choose.” Saying this the breathtakingly beautiful girl went back to her notebook.

Gabriel took the seat and a series of hos arose from the class collectively. Petrov had found a seat amongst a few blonde girls, obviously the cheerleader team. He was talking to them but his eyes were flicking towards Gabriel.

Gabriel asked the girl, ”May I know your name please?”

As soon as he finished uttering this question the teacher entered the class and the class arose to greet her a good morning. An elderly lady with a peaceful look on her face, blue eyed. She greeted the class back and said,”So today, we have two new students with us. Would you both stand up and introduce yourself please?”

Petrov stood up and said, ”My name is Petrov. You can also call me Pete. I just have come to this town with my family. And today is my first day here.”

Gabriel went next,”I’m called Gabriel. We both are brothers and it has been so far so good. So I hope the next phase would be also as charming as ever.”

“Well that was a nice introduction boys. I’m sure that you both will love it here. We are going to start a new lesson today. Macbeth, one of the greatest tragedies of Shakespeare.”

The lesson started and finished but Gabriel could not even take his eyes of the girl sitting beside him. Never before in his life had he been affected to this extent by a youngster that too female. Looking carefully, he found that the word ICE PRINCESS has been scrawled on the back of her seat. But the centre of his attention was far more concerned with what the teacher was speaking.

The day passed by in a jiffy and Gabriel could not even think of anything else other than the girl. Is this what they call love at first sight?????