THREE | THE SUNSTONE CLAN

Kathrena and I sloped into the Clan house together, my bag slung over one shoulder while she wore hers properly, the straps tightened so that it sat high on her back. She looked crow-like, with her pointed chin stuck out and her elbows flapping, her back hunched from the heavy weight of her satchel.

I wanted nothing more than a hot shower, followed by a meal. We had two new humans staying at the moment, and I was curious to see how they tasted. Their scent had been hot and sweet, with a dark and fruity undercurrent. Falmer had sipped some of their blood from a wine glass, and commented jokingly on its rich bouquet.

I, however, preferred to drink directly from the source. I’d been turned into a monster; I may as well act like one. Sometimes the act felt amusing to me, above all else; I was living the fantasy that so many pre-teen girls swore they'd die for. But I had died for it, and their fantasy was my reality. It was not so beautiful as they had been led to believe.

My wishes of a peaceful evening were disrupted as soon as I pushed my way through the back door. Aradia was stood at the head of the kitchen table, her purple eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Even though I knew I was about to be bombarded with questions, I couldn’t help but find myself somewhat awe-struck by Aradia’s commanding presence. She looked by far the most immortal and otherworldly of us all, with her unnaturally coloured bright eyes, and the imprint of the sun emblazoned on her forehead. Its rays reached in waving lines, and it radiated raw energy and power.

As the Head of the Sunstone Clan, Aradia was forever marked by our emblem. It was her greatest source of power, but it also meant that she could not fit in amongst the humans so easily as the rest of us could. Even her nightmate, Ezrand, appeared more human than she did – though his power was almost as great as hers.

We were all vampires, but some were more powerful than others. Some were imbued with great power from the moment of their turning, but others garnered their magick over time. The drinking of blood was seen as spiritual, and a ritual of the most complex magick, performed in the simplest of ways. When we drank from a human, a part of their spirit, their soul, was shared with us.

The way that this magick, this spirit, was extracted played a part, too, in the wealth of power given from one living soul to the undead. Given graciously, the magick was lighter, and embodied the dawn, the sun, the morning, and the day. Taken unwillingly, the magick was dark, and as such it embodied the dusk, the moon, the twilight, and the night.

Aradia had built her Clan around these principles. Power was not worth having, she believed, it if was torn from a living soul. The emblem of her Clan became the sun, and the sunstone: a crystal that heightened one’s consciousness, one’s intuition, and brings forth their own hidden abilities and talents, letting them shine.

Aradia grinned as I slunk inside, and she gestured for me to take a seat beside her. She too sat down, and I spotted Ezrand peering around the doorway. He caught my gaze, and waggled his eyebrows at me. I sighed.

Ezrand, despite being a centuries-old vampire, was the textbook definition of a Proud Dad. He wore brightly patterned shirts, with an assortment of brown trousers in varying, but almost identical, shades. He danced in the mornings, pouring blood into a mug and microwaving it. “It reminds me of coffee,” he’d explained once, and I’d shrugged and left him to it. He was endlessly supportive, and from his position in the doorway he shot me a double-handed thumbs up.

I grinned despite myself. “If you’re going to eavesdrop, you may as well come in.”

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” he beamed, the faint crows feet around his dark eyes crinkling, and he took a seat beside Aradia, opposite me. His white-blonde hair ruffled in the breeze, blown back by his quick movements.

“And you, Kathrena,” said Aradia, beckoning for her to join us. She’d tried to creep upstairs, unnoticed, while the focus was on me. Fortunately, she’d been caught, and that meant that we could share in the play-by-play of our school day.

I sighed again. I really should have prepared a Frequently Asked Questions sheet, ready to hand out upon my arrival home.

Kathrena pulled out the chair beside me heavily, but she regained her composure and sat down gracefully in it. I wondered what had happened to her while she’d been in classes – she had seemed so jovial earlier, but now she too seemed to want nothing more than to slip upstairs unnoticed.

Perhaps a human had been following her around the school campus, too.

“So,” grinned Aradia, her purple eyes shining, “how was the first day at Aspen High?”

I shrugged. “A little boring, if anything. I thought the scent would be worse, more overpowering, but it all went smoothly.”

“Good, good,” she smiled. “And you, Kathrena?”

“Same for me,” Kathrena mumbled. “It seems nice.”

“And nothing out of the ordinary happened?”

“No,” said Kathrena and I, in perfect synchronicity. That settled it. Something unusual had happened to her today, too.

“Okay,” said Aradia, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms.

“You guys know you can tell us anything, right?” Ezrand chirped.

“I know,” I said, nodding quickly. “Thank you.”

“We just care about you guys so much,” he said, and he sounded choked up. I wanted to roll my eyes, but somewhere beneath my bravado I felt warmed that he cared so much. I was not his child by blood, after all. Neither he nor Aradia – nor any of the Clan, really – had any duty to protect me, or take me in.

“We really do,” added Aradia, her voice low, hushed. Her eyes burned with sincerity as she gazed upon Kathrena and I. “In our lives, Ellis, you’ve not been with us long. For an immortal, four years is but the blink of an eye. But you are special, and we have known that always. We hope that you do, too.”

“Thank you, Aradia,” I murmured. To my embarrassment I too was beginning to feel choked up – and on a Monday afternoon, no less.

“And you, Kathrena. You are our child in all but the papers of lineage. I know you have had to repeat school many, many times now. But we just wanted to thank you for continuing to go, for continuing to do right by the Clan. This is the safest option for all of us, and we do appreciate it. However boring it may be,” she added, with a quick, small smile.

After Kathrena and I had been subjected to another round of questioning, we both sloped off up the stairs. The staircase wound upwards between the floors, and each banister had been strung with glowing lights.

I’d been surprised upon my arrival here, four years ago, now, by how bright and airy the Clan house was. My awakening had been unpleasant, and as Aradia had sat on my bedside and explained all that had happened to me, I’d prepared myself to be living in a crypt, a tomb, or, at the very least, a dark and creepy castle.

In fact, quite the opposite was true. The Clan territory was set far from the rest of the town of Hawthorn, in the hopes that no humans would accidentally stumble upon it. We were housed deep into the rolling woodland and pine forests, and many of the Clan members lived in log cabins under the cover of the trees.

The Clan house itself, however, was large and light, with a surprising amount of windows for creatures who were supposed to be averse to it. I’d been shocked to find that I could, in fact, still walk outside during the day without burning to ash. Aradia and Ezrand had taught me a lot, in those early days.

I’d learnt that there were Dark and Light Vampires, and that they were the latter. The Light Vampires, the Daywind Vampyres, as they were known, were able to walk amongst the living. The Dark Vampires, however, or the Nighstar Vampyres, were confined to the night, the darkness.

I’d also learnt that vampires did not, in fact, live in crypts, nor tombs, nor castles. Not all of them, at least – and certainly not the Sunstone Clan. The kitchen was adjoined to a large living area, wherein there were sofas, bookshelves, houseplants, and candles lining almost every surface.

On the far side of the living area was a small library, which doubled as a workspace. As the only school-age vampires in the Clan currently, Kathrena and I used the library the most. It too was full of plants and candles, and lots of cosy window seats lined with blankets for reading well into the late hours, long after the purple of the evening dusk had faded into the inky dark of night.

Each of the other floors in the house was home to the some of the Clan vampires, those that chose to reside in the house itself. I shared my floor with Kathrena, our rooms separated by a shared bathroom and the curling staircase.

I’d always felt a little bad about my living situation. Though Kathrena had been welcomed into the Sunstone Clan many decades before I’d even been born, I’d somehow ended up with the nicer room out of the two of us. She always insisted that she preferred hers, and her view was more interesting, I supposed, and the room itself a little bigger. She looked out to the front of the house, whereas I looked out to the swathes of trees marching into the distance.

My bedroom, however, opened onto a small garden. I supposed that it was more of a balcony, but it sat atop the extension made to accommodate the library. As such, I had a small outdoor area of my own, which I’d filled with plants and lanterns. I found that I liked being out there alone, especially under the light of the moon. I'd pour through my worn poetry books, teasing out new meanings and symbols under the black swathe of the night sky.

It sometimes made me wonder if I was destined to be a Nightstar Vampyre, but I pushed the thought aside whenever it slithered its way to the forefront of my mind. I was a Light Vampire, a Daywind Vampyre, and no matter my urges I was sure that that would never change.

“Hey, Kathrena?” I asked, just as we were about to part ways. “What really happened today?”

“Nothing,” she said, her face clamming up. Without another word, she swung into her bedroom and slammed the door closed behind her.