Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (21 page)

Marcus shrugged.
 
“True, but when it does work, you are stronger and faster than you should be.
 
Your strength and speed rivals vampires that have been around far longer.
 
That’s unheard of.
 
Just look at what happened at the pizza place.
 
You beat five vampires.
 
Any vampire would have trouble doing that, and a fledgling shouldn’t be able to do it at all.”

“I know,” Alec said, sighing.
 
“I’ve just never been good at anything and I want to be good at something.”
 
He laughed at how pathetic he sounded.

“Well, you might not have been good at anything before but now you have a brand new start.
 
You just have to put your mind to it and make it happen.”

Alec nodded at this.
 
“Easier said than done.”

“Come on, let’s go swimming.”
 
Marcus jumped up and sped off towards the pool with Alec in pursuit.
 
They entered the pool area, the warm, moist chlorinated air surrounding them as they entered.
 
It was a little warm for Alec, but he loved the heated water of the pool.

Both men stripped off their shirts and threw them in chairs as soon as they entered.
 
They sat as they untied and removed their shoes and socks.
 
Marcus remained seated as Alec stood and dropped his cargo pants, folding them carefully and placing them in the chair with his shirt.

“What are you waiting for?
 
Are you enjoying the view?” he asked laughing.

Marcus chuckled.
 
“Who wouldn’t?” and he winked at Alec.
 
He stood then and dropped his jeans, folding them.
 
Both men laughing jumped into the pool.

Marcus had Alec try to burn blood and swim laps back and forth across the large pool, but again it didn’t work.
 
Marcus wasn’t surprised but he was trying to get Alec comfortable with trying to burn blood on command so that it became easier.
 
Alec still couldn’t quite reach that feeling of time slowing down.
 
The only time it was easy to accomplish was when something dangerous happened and he did it subconsciously.
 
He was hoping it would get easier and he wouldn’t have to ‘try’.

“So, what did Jake think about all this?” Marcus asked as they were treading water in the deep end of the pool.

Alec sighed and shook his head.
 
“He is worried about me and what will happen.”

“What did he think about you being a vampire?”

“Well, he thought the physical changes in me were amazing.
 
He said he was jealous that I didn’t have to exercise and still looked…like this.”
 
Alec laughed out loud.
 
“When I met him at the park he didn’t even recognize me.
 
He nodded at me as he passed.
 
It wasn’t until I said something to him that he recognized it was me.”

Marcus laughed.
 
“Was he okay with all of it?
 
It didn’t freak him out or anything?”

Alec shrugged.
 
“Yeah he seemed to be okay with it.
 
Growing up the way we did, you got used to things being a certain way and you couldn’t change them no matter what.
 
I guess he just accepts it.”

Marcus nodded.
 
“I didn’t know if it would put a strain on your friendship.
 
You guys were close growing up?”

“Yeah,” Alec said smiling.
 
“He was my best friend.
 
He watched out for me when I got picked on.
 
He was like my older brother.
 
Neither one of us ever got adopted because of our age, and the foster system was shit, so we lived and worked at the orphanage.”

“Did you get picked on a lot?” Marcus asked frowning.

“After my parents died, I went into my shell and never came back out.
 
I was the quiet kid and that made me a target for the bullies.
 
I never took up for myself, but Jake was always there for me, keeping me from getting the crap beat out of me.
 
He’s a good guy.”

Marcus nodded.
 
“He seems to be.
 
At least you had someone there watching out for you.”

“We always helped each other out.
 
He kept me from getting beat up and I helped him with his homework.
 
I had to tutor him in math all through high school and he still barely passed.”
 
Alec laughed as he remembered all the nights trying to teach Jake geometry.
 
That had been a nightmare.

Marcus swam to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out, sitting on the side with his legs dangling in the water.
 
Alec swam over and joined him.
 
The air was cooler than the water and he shivered.

“Neither one of us had a family and we were all that the other had.”
 
He shrugged.

“Well, you have us now,” Marcus said squeezing his shoulder.
 
“We are your family.
 
Your slightly psychotic, immortal, blood-drinking family,” he said laughing.

“That’s great,” Alec said laughing and rolling his eyes.
 
He stood up and stretched.
 
Marcus sat there for a moment and then put his hand out, which Alec took and pulled him up.
 
There was a long moment where they stood there, chest to chest and just looked at one another, and then Alec broke it by looking away.
 
What is wrong with me?
he wondered.
 

They walked over to the towels and started drying off.
 
Alec jumped like he was guilty of something when the door to the swimming area opened and a guard peered in.
 
When he saw Alec and Marcus he entered and walked up to them, eyeing both of their naked forms.
 
Marcus just stood there, unembarrassed and let the man look.
 
Alec felt weird about being checked out but he refused to be ashamed and cover himself.

The guard was a young man, probably Alec’s age and human.
 
His red hair was cut short and looked military.
 
His blue eyes finally met the two men’s and flicked back and forth between them.

“Alec, Doctor Schubert would like to see you in his office when you are done and Marcus, Silas would like for you to join him in the sitting room.”
 
He looked like he was sweating from the humidity in his uniform and tactical vest.

“Thanks Max,” Marcus said while he finished drying himself.
 
“Please let them know we will be with them shortly.”

Max looked like he was going to salute but caught himself and nodded once.
 
He checked out both men once more before he exited.

Alec frowned.
 
“What was that about?
 
Him checking us out?”

Marcus laughed.
 
“He’s probably never seen a vampire naked and was curious.
 
It happens a lot.”

“Really?” Alec asked incredulously.

“Yeah, everything about us changes when we are turned.
 
We become stronger, more attractive and better built.
 
It makes us better predators and better able to feed.”

This stunned Alec.
 
“What do you mean?”

They walked over to their clothes and sat down.
 

“We change to make us more attractive, better built and uh…larger in many areas,” Marcus said delicately.
 
“It makes humans more attracted to us and therefore easier to draw in and feed on.
 
Well, back in the day, not these days obviously.
 
But back before the council, a vampire fed where he or she could.
 
Our bodies not only become stronger but more attractive and muscular.
 
We become better looking physically so that we could draw in a larger number of prey.”
 

He shrugged.
 
“It’s just the way it works.
 
Depending on your age when you are turned, determines the attributes that will be highlighted.”
 
Both men were still sitting in the chairs, Alec caught up in what Marcus was telling him.

“Such as?”

“Well, with young men like us, our looks and our bodies are accentuated.
 
With older people like Silas, it makes them more distinguished and notable.
 
Don’t get me wrong, Silas has muscles under those suits he wears.”
 
Marcus laughed then.
 
“With older people in their sixties or so, it makes them look like one of your grandparents on steroids.
 
It brings out the attributes that will make you most appealing and trustworthy to humans.
 
If we were plain looking or drab, it would make it harder for us to feed.”

Alec had never thought about it.
 
He just accepted that his looks had changed with no question as to why.
 
Vampires in stories were always more attractive than humans.
 
He looked down at his body.
 
It had definitely changed for the better.
 
He could see how his looks would draw people in making them easy prey.
 
Hell, he’d even been flirted with for the first time ever after he had started changing.

Marcus stood up and started dressing.
 
“Things have changed a lot for our kind, but being a vampire is all about feeding.
 
Everything about us is a weapon in that arsenal; strength, speed, agility, mind control, our looks, hell, even sex.
 
It seems brutal to put it that way but it’s the truth.”

Both men finished dressing and exited the pool area.
 
Something that Marcus said raised a question that Alec had been meaning to ask.

“About mind control, the whole ability to compel someone, how does that work?”

“Well, it’s a very limited ability and some are stronger than others and can do more with it.
 
We can compel a human to do what we want.
 
The simpler the command the better it works.
 
We can also use the ability to make someone forget something that happened in the last ten minutes, but you can’t wipe their memory completely, or erase a whole hour or day.”

“Why?” Alec asked frowning.

“I guess because the human mind wouldn’t be able to take it.
 
Leaving a huge blank space in someone’s memory like an hour or a day is just going to cause them to ask more questions and start searching for answers, but making them forget ten minutes or so, they assume they were daydreaming or just forgot something irrelevant.
 
You can compel someone not to reveal what they know to the rest of the world, but if it’s been over ten minutes you can’t make them forget it.”

Alec pondered this new piece of information.
 

“That’s why Jake was compelled not to reveal anything you had done or that we had discussed.
 
Everything that happened at the pizza place had taken place an hour or so before and he couldn’t be made to forget it.
 
Plus, Silas thought you might need someone from your past to talk to about everything going on.
 
As long as you’re careful that is.”
 
Marcus winked at Alec.
 

Alec and Marcus split and went different directions once they reached the main part of the mansion.
 
Alec headed to Doctor Schubert’s office and knocked on the door and was called inside.

“How have you been feeling Alec?” Schubert asked, and motioned for Alec to have a seat.

“I’m okay.
 
I’m adjusting to everything. I’m not used to sleeping all day and staying up all night.”
 

“I understand.
 
How is your appetite?
 
Any strange cravings or changes in taste or eating habits?”

Alec assumed he was being asked if he was craving human blood.
 
“No, no changes.
 
I eat the same, no cravings and nothing unusual going on there.”

“Good,” Schubert said making notes in Alec’s file.
 

“Any strange thoughts recently? Mood swings, or changes in your temper?”

Alec thought about it for a minute.
 
“Well, I hate to bring it up, yesterday at the pizza place with Jake I couldn’t use my abilities.
 
At first I was scared and couldn’t make them work but then I then I got furious and suddenly I was burning blood.”

Schubert turned to Alec and looked at him.
 
“Burning blood?”

Shit
, Alec thought to himself,
I wasn’t supposed to mention that Marcus has been helping me.

“It’s a term Marcus taught me.
 
Like burning calories.
 
I’ve been practicing trying to use my abilities and he explained to me what my body was doing.”
 

Schubert frowned a little.
 
“I’m well aware of Marcus’s terms for the act.
 
I just don’t like it.
 
It’s inaccurate.
 
Our bodies absorb the blood and convert it to pure energy which fuels our actions.”

Alec explained to Schubert that his abilities still didn’t work on command and that he had to consciously trigger his abilities to make them work. He also explained how fear prevented him from being able to do it.
 

Schubert turned back to his file and made more notes.

“I feel kind of ashamed to admit it but I really wanted to hurt Cassandra the other night after all that happened.
 
I wanted to smash the glass into her face repeatedly.”
 
He was afraid to meet the doctor’s eye.