Chapter 7: The Black Bag

Gabe almost dived off his horse before Jack pulled him back.

“Wait Gabe. We’ve got to make sure Landon’s in control.”

 Landon didn’t acknowledge the remark. He still paced back and forth shaking his head every now and then.

“He’s ok.” Andrew said. Andrew had just changed back to human and was walking towards me.

Gabe jumped off his horse and raced to me. He got to me before Andrew could. I was sitting on the ground, so he sat on my lap and wrapped his arms around my neck to hug me. That felt great. It almost felt like Robin in my arms again with smiles on our faces and the family still together. That was too much, so I concentrated on Gabe. He seemed worried.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re ok! What happened?” Gabe looked up at me.

I felt so content with Gabe in my arms that I forgot my frustration with Landon. There was so much to say and a lot to explain, but I wasn’t the one that was going to. Landon was the one that knew what just happened. I gently moved Gabe out of my arms and stood up.

Landon was still pacing until I walked to him. He stopped and turned around to face me. His face was covered in grief and confusion. I tried the best way I could not to yell at him. I didn’t know if he could cry or not and making someone cry was always wrong no matter who they were. Surprisingly, I wanted to comfort him instead of yell at him. I cradled his cheek in my hand, and he closed his eyes. His skin was colder than usual, but I didn’t care. Landon breathed deeply, but Andrew flinched a little and got closer. That was enough for me to slip my hand down and for Landon to look back up with his warm, gray eyes again. I backed away in awe, but still frustrated. I couldn’t stand him, but I still felt this sudden urge to comfort him. I felt drawn to him and that bothered me.  

There was nothing but the sound of the midnight crickets singing their last song before the sun rose. I guess that I wasn’t the only one waiting for an answer to Gabe’s question. Everyone was staring at Landon. Landon flinched at his thoughts and started to pace again.

“My old friends. Let’s just say that I didn’t believe in what they did. They are dangerous. I’m surprised they controlled themselves around Riley. Even I-,” He stopped himself and looked at Andrew.

He had his arms crossed beside me looking more frustrated than I was.

“Anyway, they want Riley. They won’t take her though,” He chuckled once and looked at Andrew again. “They are afraid of you. Ha, bunch of pansies!” A smile snuck on his face and Andrew growled.

“Good! They should be! They are smart unlike you.”       Landon laughed again and leaned against the tree behind him.

“They work for Logan. I have a bond with them since Lucas is my creator. We can hear each other’s minds and feelings, but it’s usually stronger between maker and the one you make. I can still hear Lucas right now because he’s still close. Sometimes I can’t hear any of the vampires I know, but our bond is always there. It can be stressful sometimes. You can’t hide anything unless you try very hard. Lucas knows that and since he created me, he thought that he would be able to convince me to give Riley to him. He failed at his attempt and now their plans have been corrupted and changed, but he has blocked that from my view.” He placed a finger at his temple and closed his eyes, but the look on his face proved that it wasn’t improving anything.

“It makes me mad that he can hide things from me. He’s always had that gift. That’s why he’s the leader. Mike’s his right-hand man.”

He looked at me and I shook a little. The thought of him looking at me with his fangs out waiting to kill me shook me a whole lot more than anything else. I didn’t have that problem with Landon. He really did prove that he didn’t want to kill any of us, but the craving thing that Lucas was talking about was making me anxious. I now must be careful with him if Lucas wasn’t lying.

“Anyway, the other two are pretty much lackeys. They do whatever Lucas says. Cody has a problem listening sometimes though. He has a mind of his own and makes trouble in the streets. Remember that murder?” Everybody nodded.

“That was Cody. He has some serious relapses but doesn’t like killing people too much.  He was always jealous of my control. Cody was the only one that I could talk to when I was with them. He has a heartbreaking story behind him. When I left them he was pretty sad, but he didn’t show it much. He doesn’t have control of himself. Lucas has this weird bond with him and can convince him to do anything even if he doesn’t want to. He has that bond with Jonas too, but doesn’t have it with Mike and me. We both had the power to exclude him, but Mike is too loyal to him to turn on him. It frustrated Lucas that I could do anything I wanted. When he tried to lure me to kill someone, all I could think about was how innocent that little child was. I walked away no matter how the blood smelled. It was burning my tongue and smelled amazing, but I couldn’t do it. Lucas raised a hand and Mike rushed to the child. The screaming was unbearable. I looked at him in disgust when he came back with the lifeless corpse in his hands. That child couldn’t even pull off five. His mouth and teeth were covered in the child’s bright red blood. When he smiled, I ran off. How could you get pleasure from that? Lucas found me in the woods curled up next to a tree and tried to explain that it was our nature to kill humans, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the lifeless look on that little girl’s face. I stayed with them, but I killed animals instead. Later, I left them when it got unbearable. They joined Logan as his bodyguards when he was about thirteen and I wasn’t going to do that. Lucas tried to convince me with his words that he used to be able to keep me with them when I was just made, but I got stronger, and I ran off. He was enraged, but never chased me. He knew that I had my own mind, and he would have to fight me to get me back. So, I think he believes that this is just a stage and I’ll get out of it. Like he said, my feelings are impossible for a vampire.” He smirked a little but chuckled nervously. Andrew growled softly to himself.

Jack seemed deep in thought after all Landon said. He was sitting on a tree stump while Gabe and Andrew set up the tents. I decided to help too since there was nothing else to do. All I really did was hold on to the sticks until Andrew asked for one. Gabe was keeping the tent up so he could hammer the sticks in. Andrew would sometimes flinch and swear to himself for reasons me and Gabe didn’t know. Marie was on Landon's shoulder talking to him. He was calmer than usual, which made me wonder if Marie had a special ability to calm emotions since she did the same thing to me and to Andrew when we met them. I will have to ask her when I get the chance to.

When the tenting was finished, Jack got up without a word and went straight to bed. He was too tired to stay up anymore, and I didn’t blame him. A few hours of sleep weren’t enough for this journey. After Marie whispered one more thing to Landon, she jumped down and went in the tent with Jack. Landon had his head down pacing again so I didn’t go talk to him. Gabe and I talked and laughed to brighten up my mood a little. He told me jokes and silly little impressions of different things that I wasn’t familiar with. Andrew joined in too but kept an eye on Landon. I didn’t blame Andrew for his suspicions, but he did have to give him credit. I ignored Andrew and kept laughing. It felt good to laugh.

Gabe finally got too tired to keep on with the joking, so Andrew carried him to the tent they were sharing. He was so protective with all of us. I could tell that he was getting close to Gabe with how he played with him. Andrew was like a big puppy, he liked to play with all of us. I laid back and watched the stars for a little bit. It has been forever since I was able to sit back and enjoy something without crying. The sun was rising a little, so the stars were starting to fade with the orange and yellow colors. It was a pretty sight. I sat up and looked at the horse I never rode. There was a black object tied to its back.

“Oh!” I jumped up and ran towards the horse. It was what I wanted it to be. It was the bag that I had been carrying around all this time and I forgot about it. I untied the knot and picked up the bag from his back. The horse never moved so it must have been sleeping. I walked back to where I was and opened it up to see all the items that my mom had given me over the years. I felt no sadness or anger, only an eagerness to look through it. The first thing that I noticed was the blue dress she had just given me maybe a week ago. It was a beautiful dress no matter how I felt about them. I put it aside and grabbed a picture of her and me at my sixth birthday party. There were no worries then. Mom had a smile on her face with her arms wrapped around me. I was pouting about something. Probably because of the dress I was wearing. The dress was blue velvet with lace on the arms. Even then I was not a girl. The picture was in front of the house. We always had my parties in the front yard so everyone and their mom could come. And they did. Publicity was always a problem with me. I sighed and put the picture on top of the dress. I picked up something that I didn’t remember putting in the bag. It was a silver necklace with a silver star as a charm.      

“When did I put this in here?” I thought out loud. I examined it and put it on my lap. I must have forgot about it, but then I noticed a folded piece of paper at the bottom of the bag. I moved pictures and an old teddy bear out of the way and grabbed the paper. It was from my mom, and I had never read it. I unfolded it and read it carefully like it was her last words.

“My dearest Riley,

I know how much you hate being a young lady, so I decided not to give this to you in public. This is a necklace that my mother gave me for my 17^th birthday, and I want you to have it. I put it in this black bag of yours because I knew that it would end up in here. This necklace was a very important piece of jewelry when I got it. I will explain everything when you change even more in life. I can promise you that. Happy 17^th birthday sweetie. I love you and I will always be here for you.

P.S. It will not kill you to be the young lady like you should be!

Love,

Mom”

I held the silver in my hands and the note to my chest. Tears streamed down my face. Mom was starting to understand and now it didn’t matter.      “I love you too mom,” I whispered to the note. I pressed my lips together to hold serious sobbing.

“Here, let me help.”

 I felt warm hands grab the necklace and put it around my neck. Obviously, it was Andrew.

I let him put it on me because I was going to wear it anyway. He walked back in front of me and wiped the tears that got away.

“Want to talk about it?”

 I really was ready to talk about it, but more tears streamed down my face. I nodded and he sat down next to me. He didn’t wait for me to say anything. The picture was in his hand, and he was looking at it.

“This is your mom? You look just like her except for your eyes. Did you get that from your dad’s side?”

 I thought about my dad and sobbed a little harder, but I stopped to think about what he said. My eyes were always unusual from the family. I didn’t get it from my dad’s side, but mom said that she had the same eye color when she was a child. I breathed in very deeply to hold back sobbing.

“No, my mom said her eyes were the same my age. It’s hard to explain. I wasn’t like her though. She was very energetic and girly. I was never like that. My dad always said that I got her temper from her though.” Which was kind of true.

 Andrew chuckled and nodded.

“I could see your temper with Landon. It was honestly really cute. Landon thought so too.” He flinched some and then looked at me and smiled.

I thought about the look he gave him in the room before he left and then his eyes of horror. It was like he knew everything Landon did. I decided to ask about it.

“How do you know that? Did he tell you or something?” I could hear Landon chuckle a little bit in the background but couldn’t see him. I even looked back to try to see him. From the way he sounded, he was calm and content. I liked to hear that he was ok but hated that he was back to his conceded self. Andrew started laughing and covered his ears.

 “Your emotions are always indecisive about him!”

 I quickly looked at him and was completely confused. “What? What did I do?”

He uncovered his ears and stopped laughing.

“I can hear you thinking all the time and half of the time it’s Landon this Landon that.”

 I could hear Landon laughing hysterically now. Dang it! Now he would never let me forget it.

Thanks Andrew! I appreciate it! 

Since he could hear me, I decided not to talk out loud. Landon wasn’t going to get any pleasure in it.

“Aww don’t be like that. I’m sorry. Let me explain then. I’m a mind reader. It was a gift that I was born with. It really does come in handy, but right now it’s driving me crazy. I’m not used to hearing someone’s mind twenty-for seven.”

 He was probably talking about Landon. He never slept so obviously he always had something in mind.    

“Yes, I am. It can be very annoying because he does it on purpose.”

 Landon came into view and chuckled a little.

“I do not, I just have a lot in mind!” It was noticeable he was being sarcastic.

I giggled a little bit because it was pretty funny. Andrew growled and stood up. Andrew was bigger than Landon. He was also taller and more muscular than him. Landon backed away in a sarcastic, scared attitude. We both knew that he wasn’t really scared. Andrew snarled.

“I’ll give you a reason to be scared you little leech!” He started shaking violently, then his skin shredded from his body. The oversized, surprisingly beautiful wolf jumped out of Andrew’s skin and charged at Landon.  He couldn’t control his anger at this point. I would be scared out of my mind to see that coming at me, a wolf that  was one-hundred times bigger than an ordinary wolf. But Landon just had this big smile planted on his pale face. I heard a violent crack and Andrew was on top of him. With ease, Landon slammed him to the ground and sat on him. With him struggling to get him off, Landon just sat there and kept smiling. 

“Stop it you bunch of animals! Landon, you are such a showoff!” I shouted at them and threw a spare rock at Landon. Of course, that was a bad idea. They both looked at me and laughed. Andrew grabbed him and threw him across the sight. Unfortunately, he was ok.

“Hey! Thanks for that, I needed some air!” He stood up brushing dust off his pants and laughing still. I wish he could get a bruise.

The warm breath of Andrew’s panting was on my neck. When I turned around to see him, he looked like he was satisfied and playful. I smiled and he bent down so I could scratch him behind his ears. The little incident I pulled off calmed him down. You could tell because he was getting a little smaller. I was ok with it, even though I made a complete fool of myself.

While Andrew and Landon argued about nothing, I looked at my necklace. I did feel bad that she had to put it in my bag because I would never wear it. It was beautiful though. It had some sort of shine that attached me to it. It was from my mom after all. I could see her smiling face in my head loud and clear. I flinched a little bit but kept thinking. It was nice to see it. The necklace grew brighter and brighter as I thought about her. It was strange because it felt like I could feel her.

“I’m here with you Riley.” A voice that seemed like it was coming from the necklace made me jump. I looked down to see that it wasn’t glowing anymore, and my mom’s face disappeared from my vision.

“Come back,” I whispered. That was the warmest I’ve ever felt in a while, and it was gone in a few seconds. I held my breath and stood up. The sun finally rose to the cold morning, and I could hear some birds in the distance. What a wonderful morning for a sad start.