The Hunter's Vampire {Re-writing}

Chapter 38 Brother Dear

Lexander's eyes widened and the deep hazel-green eyes that had joined him turned silver to match his. Vidaldus' thick smooth voice said as he smirked at Lexander's surprise. "Hello again, brother."

His shoulders fell, and his eyes could not believe the sight before it, surely it was some sort of delusion that he was suffering from due to his lack of sleep. "Vidaldus?"

"Lexander." His smirk grew into a fanged greeting, his dark pupils consuming the entirety of his eyes in obscurity, the veins under his eyes rimmed in black circles were visibly black against his soft olive skin. "It has been quite some years little brother."

"Two hundred," Lexander uttered eyes still hyper-focused on the face of the man he had not seen since he was a child.

"Two hundred thirty-seven years to be exact." He chuckled his eyes clearing and his face returning to normal.

"But, how?" Lexander's arms had fallen to his sides, forgotten was what he was doing before the sudden intrusion and shock, as he took a step towards his brother.

"Oh, well... mother and I had left after the attack from the Hunters. Father was against it, but she was not the kind who liked being controlled, especially with her range of powers and willful persuasive ways." Lexander hummed remembering the sweet and caring woman who mothered his brother. "She took me when she was leaving, refusing to leave her only child without a mother since our kind tends to be hostile without the proper mothering. We moved around a lot until we came to settle here in what seemed like a quaint home for us... we lived in the woods for many years without issue until trouble came looking for us."

"Wait," he halted his brother's words, "auntie Audre... is she dead?"

Vidaldus exhaled deeply. "She is as dead as a Witch can be."

"Was she burnt?" he asked going back to the topic of one of his father's wives. His brother did not answer right away. "Vidaldus!"

He pursed his lips, as he looked out over the trees, the forest he grew up roaming about as a young man while his mother worked. "She trusted a human with her healing mixtures that she was learning from aunt Waylynn and she was murdered for it... but her death was avenged by the Valliere Witches that she came to bond with over the years after we had settled into our cottage. Your mother, aunt Lehana had told her of her half-sister Waylynn, who had made her own Coven of Witches. After mother succumbed to her death they slaughtered those responsible for my mother's unjust death. Showing them the true ferocity of a Witch... I can still remember the smell of burning flesh."

"Brother... I am deeply sorry for your loss."

He shook his head, eyes glassy as he took a calming breath. "Mother went willingly, protecting me in the process. Had you heard of Waylynn before?"

Lexander shook his head from his stupor. "Uh yes, I remember mother speaking of her... she isn't a Vampire is she?"

He chuckled. "No, her father was a simple Witchdoctor, but she knew how to bend life energy and maintain a young life through her mother's bloodline."

"So, her Vampirism is dormant?"

He moved his head from left to right a little as he gestured with his hand that it was so-so. "Mostly, she aged very slow like a Vampire, but she isn't one. So, Lexi, I met your lover yesterday." Lexander narrowed his eyes. "Don't worry, Adam and I are well acquainted since I've known him for a few years." Lexander rose an eyebrow then. "If memory serves, you've met him before. My lover, that is, Kalson Thomal, rough exterior, thick voice and accent, scruffy beard?"

His eyes widened. "No." His lips pulled into a smile, then he laughed at the image of those two. "No Vida. Truly? That man? Oh Lord, he nearly tore Adam in two over me the night those filthy beasts attacked. Lexander joined his brother in the laughter.