Chapter Two

I fainted and resumed dreaming of my life at age 2, it was two months before I turned three.

Beck and Grant were outside with me playing the many games we always played and my bat Stefan joined in on some also.

I laid down on the ground and looked up at the stars, "Beck why is it that we have galaxies in our eye? I've seen a whole lot of pictures with people that have colors of eyes instead of galaxies like ours."

Stefan seemed to pull away and stiffen. "Well Blair we are special and because of our eyes we live here in the community," Beck said.

"So the government doesn't know that we exist, because I'm sure if they did it would mean we got studied on by scary guys in suits. Right?" Grant looked down at me. "Blair how do you even think this stuff up?"

"No! Grant you answer my questions. I no answer yours!" I said setting up and giving him my mean look.

"Well the government knows where we live and we pay taxes and they respect our privacy," Beck said to calm me down.

Age 3

It was my birthday and that was one night I could dress up and go outside with my whole family. I decided with my mom that I would be a witch that had a pet vampire bat because that's how I show witches.

I had been going door to door with my family most of the night till I saw Gale a boy a year older than me and was in my class at school, I went to ask him how much candy he had gotten.

"Gale!" I said

"Oh, Blair-Boo I thought that you would dress up as a ghost and say boo at people." He said in a feminine voice.

"No! It wouldn't have worked because I wanted to bring Stefan." I said looking up at Gale.

"Oh and who is this, Stefan?"

"My pet bat Stefan with an 'f'," I said petting Stefan so he was purring into my ear.

"May I pet your Stefan?" He said already moving his hand out to pet him. Stefan got all defensive for some reason and bite Gale. He fell to the ground spasming on the ground.

"Daddy," I said yelling on my way to him. He knelt down to my level, "What is it, sweets?"

"Daddy Stefan bite Gale and now he is having spasms." I sobbed into his chest, my father got up and helped Gale as I went and got more candy.

Later that night at home I was to give Stefan to my parents.

Age 4

I had been four for three months and this time we got so much snow there was no school for Beck and Grant.

I woke that morning to braking ice sickles from the wind chime that was right outside my window. I dressed warmly and ran downstairs to see Beck and Grant eating french toast and their fruit punch that I was never allowed to have. Stefan came and wormed his way up my coat and clung to my shirt and pecked out by my neck.

"Come on let's go outside and make snowmen!!" I said to them.

"Blair you need to eat your food before you go outside," my mom said pulling out my chair. I huffed and ate quickly.

Once outside with Beck and Grant and Stefan still stashed away in my coats, we all made ourselves as snow people, and then they helped me make a Stefan that we sat on my snow shoulder.

My father came out and watched as we made snow angels, "I got you guys some hot chocolate." I rushed inside past my father and my brothers came in shortly after. I shrugged out of my coats and held Stefan's small body to mine so I could help him get his claws out of my shirt.

We had our hot chocolate then played inside for the rest of the day.

Age 5

I woke with a jolt. I could tell that something was wrong. I ran into the hallway down to my parent's room but ended up falling on my butt. Looking up I saw a man, he had black with stars eyes and sharp canines and long black hair.

"Daddy!!" I screamed.

The man shushed me, "I'm not going to hurt you."

My dad came out of his room, "Blair-Boo this is the community president."

"Oh, hi mister. Daddy Stefan is missing can you look for him while I go back to bed?"

"Sure I'll search for Stefan. You go back to sleep." Dad said ignoring the man beside him.

I nodded and went back into my room. I hard them talk in hushed voices, I wanted to go closer to the door to hear them but the man felt off to me so I just went back to sleep and hoped daddy could find Stefan.

Age 6

My birthday this year was a more eventful one from the year I turned three. I had started first grade and all the kids seemed to not want to talk to me anymore. I didn't know if it was because of what happens with Stefan and Gale but I didn't have Stefan around for close to a year now and so when I went from door to door to get candy I didn't get as much as I had in the past years I felt like more and more people didn't like me.

"Blair-Boo," I turned to see Monica she moved into Gale's old house at the end of the block, "I hear the community president is going on a vacation. Does your daddy know where he's going?"

We had matching costumes, little bunnies, and I moved my bunny ears as I tried to search my memories to see if my dad had said anything about the President of the community.

"Sorry, Monica I don't know anything about it I just know that my pet bat Stefan went missing the night he came to my house. So I don't like him." I went back to my brothers and my parents since I had nothing else to say to Monica.

Monica did her shrike at how stupid I was being and stormed off to her house.

My dad was holding a bat in his hands when I got back to them. "Blair look who Grant and Beck found at their friend’s house."

I saw that it was Stefan, I grabbed his small body and held him close to me.

Present age 16

When I woke I was in a mansions master bedroom with my world still spinning. Stefan was the president of this secret community of vampires. My dear vampire bat was the man that I feared and hated when I was five.

My whole life had been built on lies. I followed the T.V. sound into the living room I found myself looking at them all and I just spilled out, "My life is a lie," I walked off to the kitchen to cut my wrist and bleed to death. Before I even got to the kitchen door, Stefan was in the way.

"Please Blair it's not the way it’s supposed to be." His voice was softer than when we were at school. He grabbed my wrist and the physical toll his grab had on me made me want to run away from him.

"Get your hands off of me!" I tried moving my hands out of what seemed like weak spots but instead his hands closed tighter in a vice grip the more I struggled the more they closed around my wrist. I could sense my bothers behind me now.

"Stefan, let go before you brake her wrist," Beck said softly. I knew my brothers would protect me but all I wanted was to end my life I'd been living off lies.

Stefan had a stair down with Beck and then looked me in the eyes and loosened his grip on my wrist. I rubbed my wrist a bit to help the blood circulate but his hands still hovered over mine.

"Sorry, but killing yourself is not the answer. Just because you were kept in the dark doesn't mean every part of it was a lie." Stefan was reasoning with me but his hands still had an effect over my body and I didn't want any of him touching me.

"Get. Your. Hands. Off. Of. Me. Now." I said putting as much anger and hatred as possible into each word and I gave him my angry eye look. He continued to stare at me and then just let his hands fall to his sides.

"Blair-Boo, I know that whatever Stefan told you reviled that you aren't entirely like us but your most differently not human either. Something in our family line was compromised and it ended up coming out in your genes making you less than a vampire...but more than human," Grant said drawing my attention to him sharply.

Grant suggested we go talk in the living room and he would explain the best he could the questions I had.

Once in the living room just with Grant I sat and thought about the most pressing question I had.

"Okay, 1)Who is Stefan really? 2)What am I? I want those answered first." I said folding my arms across my chest and leaning back against the chaise.

"Well Stefan is really an ancient royal vampire, and he runs the community we've lived in since you were born. Only the privilege gets to know his given name. As for what you are you're in-between. An in-between is less than a vampire but can easily blend with them because of the galaxy eyes we all have. However more than human, because you heal in half the time it takes for humans and your senses are heightened to protect you from vampires and humans." Grant said calmly.

"How old is Stefan and why did he say I'm his beloved," I asked.

"Well being an ancient royal vampire entails that he can turn into a bat and he can be whatever age he physically wants to be. Each of us vampires has a soul mate, most men call their girls beloveds. There are two chooses for a girl the first she can accept the man and be marked and stay by his side. The second is not to accept the man but still be marked and could be as far away from him as possible however she becomes a blood whore if she has sex and gives blood to any other male vampire." Grant seemed to be choosing each word carefully.

My body reacted to a present that was coming down the hall and once I realized that I was up in the corner of the room and Stefan was the one entering followed by Beck.

"Grant where did Blair go?" Beck asked looking around the room.

Stefan looked up and me and pointed it out to the boys. "Apparently she fears me enough to unknowingly climb up the wall."

I just held on and stared down at them all. Beck and Grant just looked at Stefan with anger. "Why would she do that!" Grant growled.

"Well we meet when she was five and since I had pressing issues to surface that my sister couldn't manage effectively I had to leave and so she went without her pet bat, Stefan. I was also my older self."

I slowly made my way down the wall and sat at the window seat. I horrible thought come to me and I started shaking uncontrollably.

"What's wrong Blair-Boo," Beck asked.

"I don't think I can be with him..." My body had to much stress and I started to throw up on the floor but ended up throwing up what little food I had into the master en suite toilet.

A soft deep voice asked in my ear, "Why couldn't you be with me."

My body shuddered and I throw up straight stomach acid. "Something in me wants to know your real name and how old you are but another part of me-" I throw up more stomach acid, "well is just not ready for any of this."

"What's wrong with her, you didn't do something to her did you!" Grant was getting mad with Stefan or whoever he was.

"Not that I know of, not a lot of in-betweens live this long or have their beloveds around to keep them alive. This is unknown territory. If you leave I'll fix it." the look on his face made me feel somehow a little better.

"It's fine Beck and Grant, let him take care of me," I said moving in between the president of the community and my brothers.

"Fine, but if he hurts you he'll pay with his life. It's how it works with us." Grant said and Beck went to leave the room. Grant left soon after.

"Let’s get you into bed and I'll tell you anything about me you want to know. If you’re going to ever be okay with being my beloved you'll want to know what you’re getting yourself into." He pulled me close to him in the bed and wrapped his arms over mine.

I sighed and tilted my head so I could see his face. Then I moved out of his arms and knelled in front of him and straddled his legs. "How old are you?"

"Well I'm 120,000 years old. When I was born and became a vampire it was during the peak of the Egyptian empire back then I was seen as a god but as time went on a monster and then a myth and now a secret."

I moved my fingers to his mouth, and made him open his mouth so I could see his four sharp pointed canines. He grabbed my hands and pushed them away when I got to close to the tips. "They’re as sharp as an exact-o-knife." His eyes held a level of sadness for some reason it was a look that was in my memories from when I meet him as an older man and as his vampire bat form.

"What's your real name and could I actually call you by it?" I moved my back to him again and pulled his arms around me. I felt the safest with him like this.

"My name hasn't been able to translate for a very long time, as President of the community my people call me Carden and since it's just the four of us in this mansion I don't see why you couldn't say my name. Although I do have to say if I'm in bat form I prefer Stefan since its the name my beloved gave me as her pet." He nuzzled my neck and kissed my cheek. My body was ignited with the feeling of white fire.

I pushed that feeling aside and went to my next question, "Why do your eyes look at me so sadly?"

"That might be because I'm so close to having my beloved but I can't because you’re not ready to be mine. As an in-between your my weakness in my ruling over the community and in taking over more territory to show power. I have to be harsh and do things that your sweetheart wouldn't like because as vampires we have an unwritten code we all have to live by. Before you ask I'm not able to tell you any of the code just that you wouldn't like a lot of it." Carden said making small circles on my forearm.

"I have a heavy question to ask and I'm not how sure you would react," he nodded his head so I would continue and ask, "So if you had just met me as your older self now what would you do?"

"First I would know right off that you were my beloved and I'd change anything about me within my limits. Such if you didn't feel comfortable being with my older age I would come to your age range you felt comfortable with. Then I would go about courting you, or make you also fall in love with me."

"I'd like to see your older age." He got up out of the bed and took off all his clothes, I was more mature than I thought I would be and only looked at his face.

He grunted as it started his joint bones snapping a little. His hair grows longer down to his mid-thigh. Having looked down I could see his none erected manhood was coming to its adult length which was scaring me with its sheer size. I moved my eyes back up to his and they were the same but his babyish features were gone and replaced with high bones and strong elegance. He was now 6 feet 6 inches.

"Do you like what you see," Carden's voice was slightly deeper if that was even possible.

"Honestly," I asked and he nodded, "your size scares me. However I have to admit your much more handsome this age."

"I'm sorry that I'm well endowed. Thank you for the compliment. I'll go get dressed and we'll go to sleep," He kissed my forehead and then walked into the walk-in his closest.

When he came out of the closest he really looked like a vampire in the movies with the four-piece suit, the pants, button shirt, vest, and long tailcoat. From the bed I could tell it was silk and velvet.

"Carden, are you really going to sleep in that?"

"Oh, no. Sorry I got called to go get my sister. Before I leave could I have you french braid my hair and tie this ribbon at the bottom?"

"Sure just sit at the end of the bed while I get a comb." I went into the en-suite and grabbed his comb.

After coming back and combing through Carden's hair I started to braid his really soft hair into tight stitching's. His mid-thigh length went to mid-back. Once I got it tied with an elastic and wrapped the ribbon around into a perfect bow fit for a gown or girl's hair.

"All done!" He turned around and kissed my forehead again.

"I'm really sorry I couldn't go to bed with you but I'll be here with some girl company for you in the morning."

"Who is this girl company going to be?" I asked getting under the blankets.

"My sister, but I'll let her introduce herself." He was about to leave when I said, "Is your sister as old as you or is she not an ancient royal vampire?"

"She is younger but still an ancient royal vampire. I do warn you she is not all there in the head at times."

"Okay," I yawned again and soon fell asleep.

"Wake up, wake up," a girl's voice said as she jumped on Carden's side of the bed, "Come on wake up."

"I'm awake and if you don't leave you'll get hurt, and if you've woken my beloved your died." The girl gasps and starts to run for the door when I notice Carden's weight is no longer in the bed. I set up and wiped the sleep from my eyes.

When I was done I saw Carden holding the girl over his shoulder, "Blair-Boo this is my sister," he turned around to let me her face, she had a heart-shaped face and her eyes were a bright supernova, her ears were slightly pointed and she had a bar on her left ear. I waved at her.

"Hi, I'm Blake," she said as she propped herself up on her elbows on her brothers back. The only thing I noticed was how her eyes where an exploding supernova and her cat-like nails also had exploding supernovas.

Carden shook his sister, "What should her punishment be for waking you up?" Blake gave out a gulp. "Well I think she should give me the great grand tour and divulge everything about Carden, because I know nothing about a vampire by that name, even though I know all about Stefan.

He growled and quickly turned to face me, "You look here Blair-Boo, you don't want my sister to tell you about me."

I shook my head, "I want her point of view of your life. Let her go so she can take her punishment!"

Once outside in the hall she started the grand tour as I stared in on the royal family history from her point of view she seemed to tense. "I really shouldn't tell you about Carden."

"I really need to know Blake, how angry Carden can get?"

"We all in the ancient royal vampire family have done ungodly things that no human can even begin to image. Think serial murder times like a million times worse."

"So, you’re telling me that I might get killed because my existence brakes a law."

"No, no way in our dark hell is your existence brake any law it's just that in-betweens have been known to end up being killed by both humans and vampires for a number of reasons. On the human side it's because they fear that you could kill them and in reality they are right to fear you because you are like a government genie pig superhuman on the loss. Vampires kill in-betweens because your kind gives away to much into our world if you live with them. Plus your Carden's beloved although we're not even sure how that works out."

"What happens if I don't want to be his beloved?"

"That is not a choice you are at liberty to make because there are people that are grabbing for power and to get that they want to hurt you to get at Carden. Carden would be weakened greatly if you were dead but the rage that would feel our whole family that we would destroy everyone that apposed us." Blake was still cheerful but I was guessing that it's just in her nature.

I decided to end the grand tour of the mansion that I'm now and probably forever a prisoner of. "So when do I get to leave, and what is evolved when beloveds commit?"

Blake laughed before even turning to face me, "Well with Carden it will probably be a big wedding, honeymoon, and of course a blood exchange."

"Oh there you ladies are, I hope you didn't get too much out of my sister," Carden said.

"Of course she got tons and tons out of me, all about how you used to dress up in girl clothes and go to the ball!!" She was off in a blink of an eye as Carden got angry and went to go after her but stopped when he heard me laughing.

"Why are you laughing?!" Carden looked at me questioningly.

"She didn't even tell me that until you were right here with us just to get you going." I smiled and then with all the excitement I fainted. . .

Carden caught me and took me to sleep in our room.