People of Shadows

Chapter 7

Gabriella's head was spinning wildly, unable to fully process what had just transpired. Annalise's jaw was hanging open in shock. Sarah and Keith were staring at each other, sharing a silent conversation. Katie and Timothy were crying, being only seven, and eight years old. Dominic was trying to comfort his five-year-old adopted daughter, Lauren, who was wailing loudly, and Mateo was trying to put his newborn son, Nathan, back to sleep. Both Dominic and Mateo's partners were out, Dominic's wife running errands, while Mateo's husband was out of town for business.

The family sat in silence for hours, no one daring to say anything or to move from their seats. Four hours after the ordeal, there was a knock on their door.

They all turned to the front hall as a servant went to answer the door.

"Please leave," she said, simply. "The family doesn't want any solicitors or guests at this time."

"I'm afraid that isn't possible, as I am here with absolute urgency," the unknown voice stated.

"Sir, pardon my bluntness, but you must leave."

"Alright," the voice sighed. "If you won't let me in freely," the voice turned to a whisper, "then, I'm afraid your life ends here." The family heard the servant scream. Her body was tossed carelessly outside, as the family watched from the window. Her neck was broken. More servants surged towards the door, only to be killed in a similar fashion by the unknown threat. Dominic urged the children to move to behind the couch, keeping them out of sight from whatever was approaching. Mateo handed the sleeping baby Nathan to Gabriella, as the adults braced themselves.

"Stay silent," Dominic whispered to the children, "we'll deal with this." A man walked in, rubbing his hands together.

"That was much more difficult than it had to be," he muttered. He looked at the adults. "So you must be the Ortegas," he grinned, sharp canines becoming visible. "My name is Alastor Greyson. I believe it's time we had a talk."

"Who are you?" Mateo asked.

"Josette's father," Annalise muttered. Her brothers' eyes widened in realization.

"Oh." Mateo whispered. Edmund ran in, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"They wouldn't have hurt her!" He exclaimed, to which the vampire rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"I've heard what you had to say, Edmund Wells, but I don't believe it," he said, dismissively. "Where is my daughter?"

"She ran off," Dominic whispered.

"Lies! What did you do to my little girl?!" He snarled.

"We didn't do anything to her," Dominic shook his head. The vampire still clearly believed he was lying, even when the adults insisted that they weren't.

"How could you even believe that we'd want to harm our niece?!" Mateo exclaimed.

"Your sister, Isadora, wanted her dead. Why would you be any different?"

"Isadora would never dare try to kill someone, much less her own daughter!" Mateo said defensively.

"You're right," Alastor glared at him. "She's more clever than that. She tried to get me to kill her."

"No...no...no...she wouldn't do that!" Annalise shouted.

"She thought Josette was a monster, and raised her for eight months before she died, hating her, never even trying to love her own daughter."

FLASHBACK

Alastor had never planned to have children, and Josette had been a complete surprise to him. He had met Isadora at the park a few weeks before Josette was conceived, and she had been automatically charmed by the vampire. He had planned to use her for a feeding, but he had been quite lonely at the time, as Jim had severed contact, and never gave a reason for it. Isadora also enjoyed the company, for all her siblings were in happy relationships, and starting to have children, so she had been drifting apart from her brothers and sister. All she had was her sexually abusive husband.