Chapter 1

“Dante, Dante?” Someone called as they walked down the street.

“Rafe, will you knock it off?” A green eyed brunette said leaning out of a small building.

“Sorry Vic.” Rafe apologized, scratching the back of his head.

“Let me guess, you went to go see my folks. Right?” Vic asked beckoning Rafe into the building.

The building was a two story shop that Vic ran. His parents got it form the owner who mysteriously vanished one day. Vic ran it for the Vampires, kept it open all day and all night. He worked during the day and Rafe took it over at night.

“Yeah, they want to talk to you now,” Rafe said stepping behind the counter.

“Oh, fun. Did they say what about?”

“Nope, sorry man.” Rafe shook his head, his blonde hair falling in front of his blue eyes.

Vic shrugged and stepped out of the store into the cool night air and started walking down the street. He waved to a group that called to him but didn’t smile. He never liked going to see his parents.

“My parents.” He laughed to himself. No, only his mother was his blood parent. His ‘father’ was the head vampire that adopted him only when he was five and the clan new for a fact that he was a rare breed. “I’m just doing his bidding.” Vic muttered to himself.

A blessing, they called him, only because there has never been a child born to a vampire. A vampire can’t bear children; they don’t even have the anatomy to even conceive a child, unlike the movies. Vic’s mother, Elena, was bitten before she knew she was pregnant, so having both human and vampire blood cursing through his veins made him known through the vampire world as Dante, since it is commonly used to describe hell or misery and death.

At age fifteen ‘Dante’ started to revolt against the ones who raised him and decided to be normal, be a human just like his blood father. He was already going to school, his mother saw to that, and so at the start of tenth grade he changed his name to Victor ‘Vic’ Olric. Olric being his dad’s last name. Vic never met his dad, it was forbidden, but that didn’t stop him from searching. And he did, always in the day time when he knew no one was around to watch his every move.

Vic was lost in thought that he didn’t hear someone approaching him from one of the alleyways. He looked up when he heard a noise behind him but was thrown against the grown, scraping his cheek on the asphalt, and was roughly turned around.

“Well hello there Dan-te.” A growl from above.

“Get off me Gerard.” Vice growled back, trying to throw the other man off.

Gerard laughed and grabbed Vic’s shirt, lifting him off the ground. “Oh, Dante boy. I changed my name. I am now called Lucifer.” He laughed again and raised his fist and made contact with Vic’s face.

---

“Dante? Is that you?” A female voice greeted Vic as he stepped through two big oak doors into an old Victorian house.

“Yes mother.” Vice called out, shutting the door behind him.

“We’re in your father’s office.”

“”He’s not my father.” Vic mumbled walking through the foyer and opened up the two French doors and stepped into an office lined with dark shelves with miscellaneous objects set upon them, some in glass cases others just strewn around in some unseen order.

“Dante, you’re late.” A harsh male voice greeted him from a winged back chair behind the desk. “What happened, Dante? You’re bleeding.”

“I ran into Gerard while I was coming to meet you.” Vic said, smiling slightly to his mother and sat down in the chair across from the desk.

“I do not understand the feud between you boys.” The man behind the desk, Vic’s father, said shaking his head.

“Lucius, they are just boys. Gerard is probably upset that we rely on our son rather then him.” Elena replied, stepping next to Lucius.

Vic gave a slight cough and when Elena and Lucius looked at him he stood up.

“Well, if you just called me in here to ask about the fight between Gerard and myself then I must take my leave.” He turned around, walked to the door and stopped with his hand on the brass doorknob and turned his head to face his parents. “Unless there is something you wanted to tell me.”

“Not tell, dear. Lucius’ friend that works in the hospital has generously donated some blood for us. And since you are in contact with all the vampires and you own the shop, we want you to hand it. Just stick it in your refrigerator in the back.” Elena said, gesturing for one of the maids to bring in the box.

Vic took the box from the maid and with a nod to his parents he walked out of the room and into the foyer. He was going to go straight out and back to the store when he saw one of the servants looking at him from a doorway. When the servant saw Vic looking at him he gestured for him to follow. The servant led Vic into the library, which was deserted.

“What is it Dean?” Vic asked, setting the box down on the desk that sat in the middle of the room. “I don’t like staying in this house any longer then need be.”

“I’m pretty sure, what I have found, Vic that you shall stay longer to hear me out.” Dean replied looking around the room.

Vic looked at the other man, who at the same age as Vic, could pass off as his relative with the same build. Except Dean had red hair and green eyes, from his mother’s side, he prided himself on his appearance. Dean wasn’t a vampire, he was the only friend of Vic’s that wasn’t. That was the only reason he was able to stay and know what was going on, but was treated like a servant.

“Now I am intrigued. What did you find?” Vic asked, leaning against the desk, watching his friend pace around the room.

“If your father finds out I will be in deep shit.” Dean said, chuckling a bit but went and checked to make sure the library’s doors were closed and locked tight. “While I was walking through the rooms doing my job I noticed your dad’s desk was unlocked. And curiosity got the best of me.”

“Lucius had his desk unlocked? My God, is the old bat going senile?” Vic laughed, making Dean relax a little with a smile.

“He was called away for a few minutes. I looked at the desk and saw a piece of paper that you might be interested in. I quickly wrote down all the information that was on it so I could have it to give it to you.” Dean took a deep breath and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper out of his pants pocket and smoothed it out over the desk next to Vic.

Vic looked at the paper and turned around to get a better view of it. Written on it was a mans’ name, birth date, and a vicinity of where he might be living. Along with that were two lists of names. One list was of vampire names, which Vic knew from hearing Lucius talk about them. The other list was of names he has never heard of. Vic studied the paper for a few moments then looked up at Dean with a questioning look.

“What is this, Dean? All I see is names.” Vic asked, looking back at the paper.

“Look at the man’s name Vic. See? Adam Olric. Your dad.” Dean pointed out with enthusiasm like he had it bottled up all day.

“What?” Vic grabbed the paper and looked at it more intense. He slowly lowered it and gazed at Dean. “Shit man! Why didn’t you call me up earlier to tell me?”

“I didn’t think about it. And then when I heard your parents saying you are on your way I thought it would be better to show you.” Dean explained then pointed to the address, “See that? That’s about a five mile radius of where he lives. I know, a big lot, but with your ability you might be able to find him fast.”

“What about the two lists of names? One side is vampires, the other side is, I don’t know.”

“I don’t know about that either. But have you noticed we haven’t heard from these vampires for a while? And even seeing them around.”

“You’re right. So what does that have to do with my dad? My real dad?” Vic asked, looking at the paper again as if in a trance.

“I don’t know. But you have to promise you won’t tell anyone where you got it. And as soon as you find your dad you have to help me out of here. I don’t want to be working for your folks all my life.” Dean replied, looking at Vic in earnest.

“You know I wouldn’t do that to you.” Vic replied, he folding up the paper and gave Dean a quick hug before heading to the door to leave.

“Uh, Vic?” Dean said, Vic stopped at the door and turned around to see what he forgot. “You forgot the box.”

They both laughed, a small laugh, but still. He walked over, grabbed the box and patted his friend on the shoulder before walking out of the door and out of the house. He was in a haze all the way back to the store, he couldn’t wait to go see his dad, but it had to wait till morning so no one could catch him. No doubt if Lucius has his name and place of residence, they would be stalking the place all day and night. But still it’s better to go during the day, more people walking the streets and the vampires won’t come after him. But they would tell Lucius and dealing with him was bad enough.