Chapter Nine

(Reagan's POV)

My heart was pounding so hard. I held my breath, unable to believe what had just happened.

I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I couldn't swallow.

I closed my eyes and willed myself to take one big gulp of air and slowly opened my eyes, then let out a shaky breath.

I stared at the spot where the guy who attacked me once stood; now a pile of ashes. I couldn't quite understand why he would just burn like that. Last time I checked, I didn't carry a lighter or anything that would ignite a flame. No, I didn't. However, the stench of burning flesh still lingered in my nostrils and made feel a bit nauseous.

And my necklace.

How the hell did it glow all of a sudden? And the liquid inside of it? Was my necklace the cause of the guys combustion? This was all too creepy for me.

My eyes drifted back to the ashes. I sauntered towards it and stopped a few inches away, afraid that it might eat me alive or something. Could you really blame me for having a wild imagination? Of course not. A human mind was so fragile, one could think of the impossible.

I slowly lifted my foot a bit to kick the ashes and I recoiled. It floated everywhere like dust, making me cough.

After my cough died down, I came up with a conclusion. Derek was the one who gave me the necklace, then maybe he might enlighten me with answers.

With that determination, I left the park and got in my car. I started the engine making it roar to life. With one last rev, I gunned it out there, eager to go back to the mansion.

Derek better be thorough or I'll force it out of him.

******************************

The drive back was unnerving. What would Derek say when I'll tell him what had just happened? Would he freak out and reconsider putting me in a mental institution?

I thought otherwise. I mean I had just been attacked by some crazy hot dude, my freaking necklace went Harry Potter on me and he just burned into ashes.

I think Derek might be hiding something, considering my necklace glowed like a shining beacon, and that alone heightened my curiosity.

What if... OH MY GOD! What if Derek was Dumbledore's apprentice? Yeah! Think about it. Maybe he casted a spell on my necklace and whoever tried to hurt me would go kaboom. He said before that it would protect me whenever he was not there.

I groaned.

Mind out of the gutter, Reagan. Referencing this situation with Harry Potter was absurd. It would be impossible for Derek to do such a thing but ARGH! Whatever! I'm getting some answers.

Finally, I was parking my car on the driveway. I killed the engine and got out. I took a deep breath and walked to front door with my poker face on. I slammed it opened and yelled, "Derek!"

No answer.

I heard laughter in the kitchen so I headed there without a second thought.

The moment I entered the kitchen, I was about to speak but couldn't because of what I saw.

Derek was leaning on the fridge, laughing. He looked like he was having a good time. A girl was sitting on the kitchen counter, who was laughing too. She was really gorgeous with her raven black hair and stunning blue eyes. She had on a white blouse with cute ruffles on the middle and paired it off with high waist skirt that reach the middle of her thighs. The jewelry she had on gave her entire ensemble an elegant feel to it. I bet her pumps were Jimmy Choo's or a Manolo Blahnik.

All in all, she made me feel mediocre.

As if sensing my presence, Derek stopped laughing and whipped his head to me.

He unpropped himself from the fridge and spoke, "Sorry. Did we disturb you? We didn't realize we were that loud."

I shook my head, "No. You didn't." I curtly replied.

He frowned, "Then what?"
I sighed, "I just got home from the park."

He looked confused,"I thought you were going to do your homework?"

"No. I went out to clear my head." I folded my arms under chest.

"Oh." He lamely said then smiled, "Reagan, I would like you to meet Alexis." He turned to face her,"Alexis, this is Reagan."

She smiled brightly and gave me a wave.

I rolled my eyes out of impatience, "Yeah. Listen, I need to talk to you." I diverted my eyes to the girl, "alone."

His frowned deepened,"Is something the matter, little one?"

"Derek." I warned.

He sighed then turned to face her, "I'm sorry, Alexis. She's not usually like this."

She shrugged and hopped off the kitchen counter with grace,"It's okay. I'll see you tomorrow." She leaned in to peck his cheek. I felt something uncomfortable wriggling in the pit of my stomach, which was weird but chose to ignore it. There are other pressing matters to attend to than analyze that queasy feeling I had earlier.

She turned to face me, “It was nice meeting you, Reagan." She smiled then left the kitchen.

It was silent for a moment. My mind was raging on how I would start this off with extreme delicacy. Should I start this in a 'cut to the chase' way or in a 'Once upon a time' way? However, Derek had other plans.

"What's wrong with you? You aren't this snappy before. Why sudden attitude?" he said with disapproval in his voice. So now he was acting all fatherly. Just great.

I rolled my eyes, "So what? As if you'd care anyway." I said in my bitchiest tone. Why? I don't know.

"Don't use that tone on me, young lady." He warned. I didn't realize he was now standing a few inches away from me.

I glared, "You are not my father. Don't tell me what to do."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck then looked at me again,"I don't want to argue, so what is do you want to talk about?"

I unfolded my arms and lifted the pendant in the air,"This. I would like to talk about this."

He frowned, "What about it?

"It freaking glowed all of a sudden."I retorted.
"Glowed?" he asked confused, but his eyes said otherwise. There was panic, fear and most of all, frustration. But, from what?

I narrowed, "Yeah. It glowed like a shining beacon. Care to explain that? And oh! I was attacked, by the way, by some creepy dude who looked like he wanted to eat me!" I growled and looked away. My breathing was labored from all that ranting.

After awhile, I looked at Derek again. His jaw was clenched tight and his hand was balled into a fist.

He seemed to be thinking on what to say, so I waited and hoped that it wouldn't scare the living daylights out of me.

(Derek's POV)

Did she just say that she was attacked by someone who was about to eat her?

If my suspicions were correct, I surreptitiously sniffed and almost recoiled at the smell of burnt converted vampire flesh. Why didn't I notice that when she came in here? Maybe it was mixed with her perfume that was why the smell was slightly masked.

The pendant's power must have activated when that converted vampire attacked her with the intention of killing her off. The pendant could sense an attacker's intention and gauge for a decision. But why didn't I get a vision from our watchers? It was protocol when they sighted an attack, they would send images to us, Elders, so that we could issue an extermination for that converted vampire for violating the law. We were allowed to feed, but not kill. Any converted, or pure blood vampire, has this venom in their nails that once they are done feeding, they would inject the human's skin making them faint. When they awakened, they wouldn't remember a thing.

What confused me was that, why didn't the Elders alerted me? Especially Marcus?

I didn't notice Reagan was waving her hands in front of my face. She looked annoyed, so I put on my blank expression, not giving anything away,"You mentioned you were attacked."

She nodded, "Yeah. The dude looked predatory." She said then shuddered recounting the incident," He said I looked good enough to eat."
I guess the converted vampire was a newborn. Maybe the one who created him was a rogue and didn't educate the newborn the sacred laws of coexistence. They tend to create trouble for our kind, so I need to pay a visit to Aramis, leader of the rogues.

"What else did he do?" I asked, gritting my teeth.

She frowned, "He kept smelling me then all of a sudden he flung me to a tree. It was darn painful, if you ask me. Then he picked me up by the collar then this," holding up the pendant in the air to emphasize a point, “glowed then the dude touched it. What's weird though is that he burned to ashes."

I silently growled. How dare he hurt Reagan like that? I felt like a useless fool for not sensing it. It was a good thing I gave that necklace early, because I wanted her safe when she was outside the mansion where I couldn't protect her. I knew that things like this were bound to happen now that she was not home schooled.

Now the question was, could I tell her the truth? Would she get scared of me and run away and shout to the whole world about our existence? Imagining that horrified look on her face was something I couldn't bare to see, and if she does tell someone, The Pillars would have to intervene, and I couldn't have that happening. With that, I did the next worst thing to relieve my frustration.

Mind alteration.

I had to do it. I had no choice. I couldn't risk losing her in my life.

I took a deep breath and moved closer to her. She eyed me curiously, so I rolled my eyes and put my palm on her forehead, trying not to be obvious on what I'm about to do, "Maybe you have a fever, Reagan, that's why you're imagining things."

She glowered at me but didn't attempt to remove my hand, “No, I don't have a fever. And I know what I--" she was stop short and her face went blank, her eyes glazed over.

I sifted through every image like a PowerPoint. I found what I was looking for so I altered the image starting from where she went out for a drive up until the part where we were having the confrontation, and replaced it with her doing her homework instead. After a while, I removed my palm from her forehead and her eyes closed, collapsing into my arms. That was the after effect of the mind alteration. You would black out and woke up with a different memory.

I gently scooped her up in my arms bridal style. She felt warm, and her sleeping face looked so serene. I leaned in and kissed her forehead as I felt the slight guilt bubbling in the pit of my stomach, but it has to be done. I mustered all my energy teleporting to her room, then slowly, the surroundings became blurry and fuzzy then I was transported. After a few seconds, my surroundings started to morph into Reagan's room. I slowly walked to her bed and gently laid her down. I pulled the covers all the way to her chin and kissed her cheek and whispered, “I’m sorry, little one, but I can't afford losing you," then left her room.

I walked a few paces then stopped. I felt drained, angered so I leaned my back on the wall and closed my eyes.

What on earth have I done?

For the first time in my life, I was being selfish.