Hey! So, I am SO very sorry for this late update. I have had major writer’s block in regards to this story and I rewrote this chapter several times. Although, I still don’t really like it, but it’ll do. I plan on rewriting this story anyway. Thanks to KiraLove, neverliveindoubt, Haley Hardcore, AMM3485, Bella-lynn, HeatherLee, Carmel March, Booklover91, Jill O’Brien and CydC for reviewing! And, thanks for being so patient with me!

Here is chapter thirty, Enjoy:

Elizabeth tried to break the kiss up, since she was starting to lose oxygen, but Kyle would have none of that. Elizabeth let out a cry of surprise as Kyle turned on her and she found herself in the position she had him in just a second before: shoved up against the hallway wall. Her gasping gave Kyle complete access to her mouth, which he took advantage of by deepening the kiss considerably.

It took Elizabeth a few seconds, but she finally managed to rip her mouth away from his long enough to at least get a much needed lungful of air in. But, Kyle didn’t stop, while she was gasping in lungfuls of air, he was trailing kisses all down her neck, stopping just above the mark that lay upon the lower part of her neck, where her neck met her shoulder. He could only see half of it, the other half was covered by the shirt she wore, but he could clearly see the bottom outline of the tattoo through the thin material.

He suddenly got a huge whiff of her blood, the metallic, coppery scent filed his nostrils and he could clearly see her pulse jumping up and down inside her neck. He felt his fangs lengthening… he had really never been this close to a neck before without actually planning to feed, so it was his body’s practiced response to such a position. Kyle shook his head…No, Elizabeth was not food.

He stepped away from the oblivious girl, “Come on, let’s go up to my room before someone comes.” it was only said as a distraction for him… he needed to stop looking at that pulse, or he was seriously going to lose it. Though, what he said was partially true…if they kept this up in the hallway, they were bound to get caught.

She merely nodded as she allowed him to lead her from the hallway and back out into the foyer, which was deserted by now. Though, Elizabeth could have sworn she heard voices from behind one of the closed doors, but she didn’t get a chance to investigate because Kyle led her to the stairs, which they ascended in silence.

When they reached Kyle’s bedroom, Kyle went and made himself comfortable on his bed, and because he hadn’t let go of Elizabeth’s hand she was forced to do the same. She shifted slightly, trying to get out of his grip, “What’s with all the squirming?”

“I have to go to the bathroom.” she sounded embarrassed as she said it, which was the one clue Kyle needed to decide that it was a girl bathroom visit.

“Oh.” he said, letting go of her, so she could go and take care of her business.

While she was gone, he gave himself a pep talk; he was not going to bite her, no matter how tempting it was. He mentally cursed Elizabeth for getting her period at the most inopportune moment. It was hard enough to get close to her when her blood was inside her body, but with her bleeding like this… it just made resisting the temptation that much harder.

He didn’t have much more time to wallow in his “sorrows” because Elizabeth came out of the bathroom just then, “Am I making you uncomfortable?” was the first thing she asked.

Kyle was surprised, not to mention a little confused, at the questions, “What do you mean?”

“I mean… is the fact that I’m bleeding, is it making you uncomfortable?” that was the nicest way she could but it, there was no way that she was going to ask it any other way… since that would all embarrass her. At least embarrass her more than she already was.

“What makes you think that?”

“Well, downstairs… you just started acting weird like you were trying to fight something. And the only something I can think of that you would be fighting against would be the temptation not to bite me.” she explained, grabbing hold of her neck almost subconsciously.

“I would never bite you, Elizabeth, unless you wanted me too, of course,” Elizabeth’s nose scrunched up at that, “and judging by that look, you do not want that. So, I won’t. I swear.”

She stared at him.

“I know.” she said softly and she really had no clue as to why she trusted him, but she did. Though, he had been in the same bed with her and in her close proximity for the past twenty four hours and he hadn’t tried to feed from her, so for now… she trusted his word.

It was silent for a few seconds before Elizabeth, not liking the awkward silence, broke it with the question that she had been dying to ask for the past ten minutes or so, “Why didn’t you tell me you and David were brothers?”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

They stared at each for several minutes before he sighed.

“I guess I had no real reason other than the fact that I didn’t think it was relevant and we aren’t exactly on the best terms, as you witnessed downstairs. It’s not like we like to advertise the fact that we’re actually related.”

“Why?” Kyle was expecting her to ask that.

“It’s a long story –”

“Well, it looks like we have some time to waste, so tell me. I want to know.”she ordered, sitting down next to him on the bed.

Kyle just looked at her for a few seconds. He waited so long that she was worried that he wasn’t going to listen to her, but he finally sat down in the chair next to her and turned to face her, “I’m going to give you the shortened version.”

She shrugged, “Fine with me, I just want to know.”

“Well, David and I are actually two years apart, though we’re both nineteen, at least in human years because I waited until he was the same age as me before I changed him –”

“So... you were the one to change him?”

“Yea… hard to believe, but at that time we actually got along with one another, at least for the most part. Anyway, we were a pretty ruthless pair, at least for the first fifty years or so. Until, David met some human girl.”

“Katherine?”

Kyle nodded, “He fell in love with her within a few weeks. It was rather sick really… since he was the more heartless of the two of us; I didn’t even think it was possible for him to even be in love. I didn’t really mind it at first, I just thought, it would be like all the other girls he met… he would be enthralled by her for a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, but when he got bored with her, which always happened… I figured he would either abandon her or kill her; whichever was easiest at the time. Though, that wasn’t what happened… he really did fall in love with her. It was disgusting to see my younger brother degraded to something akin to a lovesick puppy. We had to leave the city we were currently in; people were starting to get a little suspicious for obvious reasons. But, David refused to leave without her. He wanted to change her, but I didn’t want him to, she was pretty weak-minded, and I didn’t think that she would last long as a vampire. We ended up getting into a huge argument about it and David ended up leaving and staying with a friend of his so he could calm down. That was usually what he would do when we got into an argument.

“While he was gone, Katherine’s father made the decision to move… I never really understood his reasoning behind the decision, but he had never really liked David all that much anyway, so I think that might have had something to do with it. Anyway… a day or two after David had left Katherine came to the house wanting to talk to David and I told her that he was out of town for the next couple of days. And that’s when she told me that her family was moving away and she had come to say good-bye to him.

“David returned the next day and I forgot to mention it to him… that was a very bad mistake, for when he went over to see her, he found her house empty. He came home, livid, blaming me for her leaving… though, he had thought that I had killed her and her family, or I had paid someone to do it for me. And, no matter what I said, he wouldn’t believe that I didn’t either force her to leave or kill her. To this day, he still thinks I killed her and her family and only made it look like they had left.

“It was only a couple days after that that he found Nicole and changed her before I could so much as protest and they ran off together. I still think to this day that he did that just to spite me. That was the last time I saw him for almost two hundred years. It was only a few years ago that I found out that he was even in the same city as me just with a different clan. He-”

Kyle never got to finish that sentence for the sound of the door crashing against the wall interrupted him.

“What the hell?” Kyle murmured, glancing over towards the door to see who had made such a racket entering the room.

Elizabeth glanced over as well to see her brother’s tall frame taking up most of the doorway. He looked exactly like he did downstairs, gun and all.

“Liam?!” Elizabeth stared wide-eyed at her brother, clearly confused, “what are you doing here?”

He ignored her though, all his attention focused on the boy that stood not three inches from her. “Fucking leech!” Elizabeth winced at the harsh words before there was a very loud bang, and Elizabeth, on pure reflex ducked for cover, covering her ears and closing her eyes. Trying to protect herself from getting shot. She didn’t think her brother would actually shoot her, but the idea didn’t surprise her, he sounded really pissed and people with anger issues tended to act irrationally and not aim properly.

She wasn’t really worried about Kyle because she figured that he would have the intelligence to do the same. The first shot was closely followed by two more. Elizabeth waited a few seconds before she uncovered her ears and opened her eyes; her ears were ringing so badly that she could barely hear anything else. But she could see … and what she saw made her blood run cold and she could have sworn she felt her heart stop beating for a second.

Kyle was lying motionless on the floor, not even a foot away from her. There were three bullet holes in his body, one inhis neck and two in his right chest. He was bleeding profusely from all three and the sight made Elizabeth nauseous. Her eyes moved to his face, his eyes opened wide, as if in shock… that was to be expected, neither one of them had expected her brother to actually shoot anything.

She knelt down next to him, slowly as her body shook uncontrollably. It took several tries before she was able to stop her hand from shaking long enough to check his pulse, which wasn’t there. She pushed on the skin of his neck, as if that would make the pulse suddenly appear. She pushed harder… so hard she probably bruised him, but she didn’t care. It was useless though.

She sat back on her heels and simply stared at him… Kyle was a vampire and that could mean that he didn’t have a pulse. Right?

Right?!

When Kyle stayed still, even after she attempted to shake him as hard as she could to get him to get up. She expected the worse and didn’t struggle as her brother pulled her to her feet, “Come on, we have to get going.” he said, pulling on her wrist. Elizabeth was in such a state of shock at what had happened that she willingly let the person who had killed the boy she loved drag her from the room.

She let him drag her down the hall where they paused for a second before making their way down the stairs. Once they reached the foyer, they were met with the whole household it looked like.

“And where do you think you’re going? Hmm..?” Carson asked from the center of the group. His arms were crossed over his chest and while he looked more amused than pissed, he was still very dangerous, and Elizabeth really didn’t like the way he was looking at her, an evil version of the chesire cat grin, which to be honest, was already extremely creepy. The look at the oldest vampire in the room made her shiver and goosebumps rise on her arms.

She only recognized one of the men surrounding Carson, and Eric’s grin was even more creepier than the other vampire’s., “Leaving so soon?” he asked.

“Fucking get out of my way.” Liam ordered, shoving Elizabeth protectively behind him.

Eric smirked at the action, “You can’t protect your precious little sister and yourself at the same time, boy.”

Liam scoffed, “Do you think I’m stupid enough to do this by myself?” Liam asked, it was a rhetorical question and he didn’t even let anyone so much as repond as he suddenly let out a loud “Now!”

Elizabeth let out a surprised shriek as the front door suddenly banged open and several large men entered the foyer, carrying big scary looking guns. Not the nice, small one that Liam had, but big machine guns. Ones that she would expect soldiers in the army to use. Liam shoved her out of the way behind the stairs right before the armed men opened fire, shooting at anything that moved that wasn’t their own.

Elizabeth lay crouched the corner, in the fetal position, covering her face and her ears, trying to protect herself from the war that was going on not three feet from her. She would have moved into the hallway, that was a few feet way, but she was too terrified… afraid that she would accidentally be shot.

She jumped when a pair of arms suddenly snaked themselves around her torso and she was pulled into a tough chest. She struggled, but the grip only tightened, “Shh…its okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m here to get you out of here,” a voice whispered softly in her ear.

She opened her eyes and turned her head to see who had spoken, “Andy?” she questioned, looking at the blonde haired and blue-eyed boy kneeling down next to her.

He smiled at her, “Yea, come on… let’s get you out of here before things get worse.”

“But, what are you –”

“Not now.” Andy said urgently, “I’ll explain when we’re safely away from here, okay? Come on… let’s go.” he said before he grabbed hold of her arm and led her from the room, leaving the gunshots and the shouting behind as the made it halfway down the hallway towards the kitchen.

David was standing in the hallway, arms crossed and purposely blocking their path.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Get out of the way, David.” Elizabeth ordered.

He simply ignored her and spoke to Andy, “I don’t see why you’re trying to save her when she doesn’t even love you.”

“Because I still love her. And you’re supposed to take care of those you love, whether they return the feeling is irrelevant.” Andy practically spat at the other boy before he used his other hand to shove past him.

“Elizabeth…” David started.

But, she turned on him and interrupted him, “Kyle told me what happened between you two. And, to be honest, I think it’s kind of sad, not to mention pathetic. It has been over two hundred years, and yet you can’t forgive him for something that he didn’t even do.”

“Whatever he told you was a big fat lie, Elizabeth.” David said, his features turning dark.

“How do you know? You don’t even know what he told me!”

“He told you the typical story that she moved away all the years ago. But, that is not what happened. He murdered her and her family when he discovered that I loved her and planned to change her. Kyle was always the jealous type. If I had something that he wanted, he would either take it from me or if that didn’t please him, he would get rid of it so that I couldn’t have it when he couldn’t.”

“Are you telling me that Kyle really did kill that girl and her family?” she asked skeptically.

David gave her a look, as if to say “duh”, but he replied, “Of course, that’s what I’m saying.”

Elizabeth stared at him for a minute. So, now she had two different sides of the same story. The question now was who to believe. While she trusted neither one too well, she found herself wanting to believe Kyle, simply because out of the two of them she trusted him more and he was the boy she loved, so that did count for something.

“You don’t believe me,” David sighed, “I can see it in your eyes.”

“Can you really blame me? He’s not an immature jerk like you. So, I apologize that I believe him more than you. See, David, he hasn’t really given me much reason to think he’s lying, while you have given me quite a few.” she snapped, “Though, in all actuality, it doesn’t even matter anymore since he’s dead anyway.” she tried to hold back the sudden rush of tears as she spoke the words out loud for the first time.

David’s expression changed from one of anger to one of shock in only a few seconds, “What?”

“You heard me, he’s dead. My brother –who is probably still out there with the men that came crashing through the front door, shooting at anything and everything that isn’t actually alive – was the one who shot him, three times.” she explained, trying rather unsuccessfully to hold the tears back.

David’s shocked expression turned to one of relief, which surprised Elizabeth… he had just found out his brother was dead and he was relieved?! Granted, David really didn’t like his brother, but still. Elizabeth didn’t like her sister, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t be upset if something ever happened to her. She could only assume that David would feel the same way, but apparently… not.

“Where exactly was he shot?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Just tell me.” He ordered.

“Once in the neck and two were in the chest.” she said, “Not that it matters, he’s already dead.”

“Unless they were silver bullets or he was shot in the heart, he’s not dead, Elizabeth.”

She just stared at him, “I can’t really remember what side of his chest the bullets holes were in, but it doesn’t even matter; I’m leaving this place for good. And, to be honest, I don’t like either one of you enough to actually stay here when I finally get the opportunity to leave.” She paused “I want to go home.” her voice cracked, a sure sign that she was lying. Though, whether she was lying to him or herself, was unclear.

In all reality, it was both. To herself, because she didn’t want to admit that she actually felt a connection to these two vampire brothers and since she didn’t want to admit that while she loved one, she didn’t hate the other one. However, her mind was trying to convince her to. For all the crap he had done to her (it was his fault she was in this mess), she found that she couldn’t hate him, at least… not really. This was also her reasons to lie to him, since she didn’t want him to know that she didn’t absolutely despise him.

Though, that façade was ruined when her body, completely on its own accord, stepped closer to him and didn’t stop until they were merely a breath apart. And, before she knew what was happening, his lips descended on her own in what could only be considered a very tentative kiss.

So, there it is! I hope you like it. I know you guys are probably really confused, but that's okay, I hope to clear that confusion by the end! I’ve decided to split the last chapter into two smaller ones, so there is one more chapter to go, followed by an epilogue and then this story will be finished! Not that that means much since I’ll start the rewrite once again. Unfortunately, though that rewrite is going to be my attempt to polish this story up for publication, which means that I’ll take this version down and not post the rewritten version in order to protect my copyright and all that lovely stuff! Anyway, I hope to have the next chapter up soon, so until then, see ya and review!