Chapter One (Adam)

Note: Sweet Revenge and Sweet Karma are before this one!

"Hello, you've reached Adam and Julian Grey. We're not available right now. Please leave a message after the tone."

Bleep

"Adam, Julian. It's Alex. Uhm, listen, I know we haven't talked in a while and you have every right to be mad at me, but, Julian, I found something important that I think you should know. It's about your, uhm... Part time job? Whatever you want to call it. Anyway, call me as soon as possible. You have my cell. I hope you're taking care of yourself. Dad's worried that you haven't called him in a few days. So remember to call him too. All right... Bye, Julian."

Bleep

That was the fourth time Alexander Lee Grey called in order to get in contact with his brother, Julian, who was laying beside me in bed during the message, but he was sleeping right through it. He slept quietly, eyes closed blonde hair touseled against the pillow. He was completely naked, save for the blankets that were pulled up to his waist. His legs were entangled with mine, arms drawn up to his chest.

It was something I'd been waking up to for the past year now.

Through a series of rather unfortunate events, maybe a few good ones on the side, but mostly bad ones, Julian and I found ourselves an eerily quiet life. It wasn't supposed to be considering everything that had happened last year.

The terrorist organization known as Zephyra had spent months hunting Julian down to extract what we discovered to be a demonic parasite named Daimonas living inside Julian's conscious mind. We spent most of our time hiding and defending, probably hoping and praying that Zephyra would forget about us and move onto something else, but it didn't help at all.

Zephyra found Julian and took him where Daimonas apparently left Julian, only to fall into a coma for a week in order to recharge his powers. Wulf, Julian's ex-fiance and residential pervert, planned to marry Julian and take him to New York.

In the process of trying to get him back, Vanessa Marie Grey was murdered. Alex, Julian, and Amber's mother. And while the woman didn't very much appreciate my existence, she treated me more like a son than my own mother had and to have seen her corpse lying in the church, unmoving, had struck something in me the way it had Julian.

Hunter, a human, well, hunter, promised he would train us so we could be ready to fight Zephyra. He said the day we called and he didn't pick up was the day that assured us we were ready, and unfortunately, every single time in the past year that we've called him, he's picked up.

I could tell Julian was getting impatient. He was working his ass off. Both in training and real life issues. He had a part time job working at a bar and was still in our band that we had renamed Hunters. In fact, this was the first day off he had in months, which explained why he was sleeping so deeply.

I propped myself up on my elbow, leaning over to kiss Julian on the head. He moaned faintly in his sleep and curled closer to my side of our double bed. I smiled for a split second, then stopped when I remembered that my smile wasn't the same as it used to be.

No, not some angsty bullshit about my emotions.

I mean, it literally was not the same it used to be. Even a year later, I was still having trouble hiding my fangs from everyone. Even calling them my fangs made me uncomfortable. And speaking of fangs, they were throbbing in my gums. Julian told me it meant that I was thirsty, incredibly thirsty, but he was sleeping and I wasn't about to bother him for anything.

I heaved myself out of bed, stepping out onto the platform our bed was raised up on. Our apartment was pretty small. Our bed was in the same room as the living room and kitchen and only the platform set it apart. It was more of a studio apartment. The floor of the living room dipped down a step, only to come back up into the kitchen that was seperated from the rest of the room with a bar and countertops. I went to the left and into the bathroom that was kind of on the small side too.

Julian's father had offered to put us up in our own house, of all things, but we insisted we wanted to make it on our own. It was kind of hard to face reality if you still had your daddy paying for all your stuff. So both Julian and I had a job. I used to have two jobs, but I had a raise in one of them so I finally quit the other, which gave me more time to come home-- Unfortunately, Julian's job kept him away most of the time. His boss was a real prick and I wanted him to quit most of the time, but he said he could handle it.

And I believed him.

Over the past year, Julian had gotten way stronger. Even I was having troubles bringing him down like I used to. Oh sure, he let me pin him down in bed and he even let me handcuff him to the headboard a couple times, but if it came down to a real fight, Julian could easily crack some skulls without so much as a smack.

I stepped into the shower and turned the hot water on to wake myself up. I still felt drowsy from practice last night. Julian and I had spent a good three hours training... and then training sort of turned into sex and sex sort of turned into talking and talking put us both to sleep.

I came out of the shower, relieved to see Julian awake. He had pulled on a pair of sweatpants and was listening to the messages on our machine.

"Julian, Adam, it's Seth," Seth's voice was speaking through the speakers, "If you have time, stop by my place. I found something I think you guys are gonna wanna see. Also, Kipp might need a ride. His car broke down again and the little shit doesn't even know how to put oil in it yet." Julian and I shared droll stares at the comment. Kipp had just recently gotten his license after failing the test a few times and he still had troubles with the car his dad bought him from some old guy in Kalamazoo.

"Adam, it's Felisha," A woman's voice spoke over the speakers, making Julian frown instantly, "I know you told me not to call you or anything, but I think you need to know that some weird guy called here for you last night. He sounded, I dunno, French, or something? Either way, Bubba told me to tell you to quit having your booty calls calling the shop. And I quote take your gayness to your pad and keep it outta mine. Anyway, just thought you ought to know. Oh yeah, and you're working Thursday from noon to nine, which means you get to close up. Later!"

"Felisha." Julian echoed flatly, glancing at me. I rolled my eyes at his accusing stare. He knew very well I wasn't interested in women. He didn't know about Felisha, obviously, because Felisha pretended to flirt with me just to make Julian angry. Felisha was the assistant manager at the autobody shop I worked at, the daughter of the manager, Bubba. And that was his real name.

"French guy," I decided to say instead of answer him, "Does she mean Hunter? I don't know any French guys. Don't make it habit to keep company with 'em."

"Probably," Julian agreed, then frowned thoughtfully as he rested his elbow on the counter, his eyes studying me, "But why'd he call the shop and not the apartment?"

"Not sure," I admitted grimly, "But I'll find out later." Referring to the fact that Hunter was only available to pick up his phone between certain times. Hunter was incredibly secreative and he didn't give anyone too much information about himself, especially personal information. I didn't even know his real last name.

"Adam, Julian. It's Alex--" Bleep. Julian hit the delete button, making me frown as he got up to stretch before heading into the kitchen.

"So what time do you go into work today? Maybe while you're gone I can go see what Seth wanted and maybe try to help Kipp with his car." He was saying as he took out a couple of plastic bags filled with blood. He took down a couple glasses, coming over to lean on the counter in front of me. I frowned, watching him fill one of the glasses with the blood from the package.

"I go to work around two, but, Julian, Alex--"

"All right," Julian went on with a nod as he licked some blood off his finger and tossed it into the toxic waste bin under the sink, "Then I'll probably leave around the same time. You can take me with you and drop me off at Seth's. I'll just walk home from there." I didn't say anything. Obviously Julian didn't want to talk about Alex right now and while I thought we should discuss Alex's message because it sounded important, I didn't want to fight with Julian before I went to work, so I just nodded as Julian pulled out a special plastic bag with my name stamped on it.

His blood. Julian donated blood every so often, keeping them in plastic bags in the fridge, just for me.

Yes, it was probably a hinderence not to feed on blood in general, but I couldn't stand the thought of drinking someone else's blood. The thought chilled me to the bones, so Julian offered up his own blood, and while it took some getting used to, I managed to do just fine on it.

"Here," Julian pushed the glass to me and I took it, staring in at the thick red liquid, then peering up to see Julian downing his casually, before flicking a tongue over his fangs, "I'm thinking I might shower, and don't forget to call Hunter to see what he wanted."

"Yeah, no problem," I answered, then paused as Julian walked around the counters to head to the bathroom, "And Julian?" He stopped, turning to look at me.

"Hm?"

"We're going to talk about it when I get back whether you want to or not." I stated. Julian stared at me for the longest time, then turned around and went to shower, slamming the door shut behind him. I sighed, frustrated. So much for not fighting. Julian was more argumentative this past year, but I wasn't going to crack the whip on him for it. If this was his way of coping, then so be it. But I wasn't gonna be around to fuel the fire.

I drank the glass of Julian's blood quickly, grimacing at the taste. In the beginning, it was metallic and warm and made my stomach churn. But now the taste was getting sweeter and more pungent and it was making me feel ill knowing that I was beginning to like the taste of Julian's blood.

I went to our dresser by our bed in front of the window that looked out over the city. I grabbed a pair of jeans, a white tank top, and a blue work shirt over top. The patch on the front had my name and the name of the garage. I jerked a pair of boots on before I looked up to see Julian coming out of the bathroom wearing nothing, but a towel around his waist.

He didn't say anything when he came over and sat on the other side of the bed from me, picking up a pair of boxers that he set out on the end of the bed. He dropped the towel and held the small boxers up, sticking one slender white leg through them, followed by the other. Temptation won me over as I licked my lower lip and turned on the bed, reaching out and taking Julian by the shoulders, pulling him back on the bed. He looked up at me, surprised for a second before his cheeks flushed.

"I need to get dressed." He mumbled. I shrugged, then leaned down and kissed him on the lips, parting them with my tongue. He moaned, reaching up slowly to run his fingers through my hair. He gave up on the idea of getting dressed and rolled over, getting in my lap and wrapping his arms around my neck to pull me in for a deep, hungry kiss. I growled low in my throat, running my hands down his back that was still wet from his shower. I rested my hands on his bare ass, rubbing slow circles when the phone rang.

We broke our kiss, breathing hard, our foreheads touching. He studied my face for a moment as the phone rang another time and he groaned, climbing off me as I got up with a grunt.

This better be good.

 "Hello?" I asked gruffly, glancing at Julian, who raised an eyebrow and sauntered over to me, pressing his naked body against me. I gave him a warning glare and he just grinned wickedly.

"Adam," Came Walter's voice, making me frown, "It's Walter. Uh, hey, you might wanna come in early today. Jeff called in sick and we have a couple major jobs to do."

"Right, I'll be there in five." I hung up, turning to look at Julian, who was studying me intensely. Sweeping my eyes up and down his body, I noticed he wasn't about to let me leave until I did a little something to ease his aching groin. I took his hand and we went to the bed. I pushed him down on the bed and crawled on top of him, letting him undo my belt so he could take me out.

I hissed at the feel of his hand sliding against me. He ran his hands down to cup my balls, massaging me gently as he nipped at my chin with his fangs before he licked my lower lip, his blue eyes glinting hungrily. He'd definitely gotten sexier over the past year too.

"You're doing it." I told him huskily and he nodded, reaching his other hand to grab himself. He started moving his hands up and down in time with each other, his eyes locked on me the entire time as he panted. I tried to keep my breathing steady, but it was so hard as bolts of pleasure shot through me, making my skin tingle. I licked my lips and leaned down, kissing him on the lips. He moaned, arching his hips up as he came just moments later and just watching his expression twist in pleasure made me ache and come hard, my fangs scraping his lip so it bled. He winced a little, but it didn't last as I sucked the blood off his lips before backing up.

"You can't stay for a little longer?" Julian asked hopefully, obviously getting hard again. I dropped my eyes to his groin and everything inside me wanted to stay and fuck him senseless, but I'd already been late once this week. If I did it again, my boss would tear me a new one.

"Sorry, baby, work." I answered, making Julian pout. I quickly avoided eye contact because it was that kind of expression that made me want to fuck him into the mattress. I picked up my jacket off the coat rack near the door, grabbing my car keys.

"I take it you're gonna walk to Seth's instead?" I asked. Julian stared at me for a while, then nodded slowly as he fell back on the bed, unabashed by his hard-on.

"Eeeyup." He drawled. I smirked and nodded before stepping out the door and shutting it behind me. We were on the second floor, so it wasn't too much of a walk down the stairs and past the front desk where the owner's son sat spinning in his chair, reading a comic book. I went out to the parking lot behind the apartments and came to my beat up Ford pick up. Talk about a stereotypical country boy, I thought bitterly as I kicked the door of it in disgust before getting inside.

I started the engine and drove the couple miles further into the city. It wasn't a huge city like Detroit, but it was a city none the less with at least four McDonalds and two Wendy's. We even had our own mall, which was nice because I used to hate having to drive to the next town over to get my clothes.

The autobody shop I worked at was pretty small, two stories with the top floor being where my boss's office and apartment was. The bottom part was the garage connected to the main office, which I made sure to park near so I could talk to Felisha before Walter or someone else caught me.

Walter only ended up working here because of me and while I hated the guy for being a pain in the ass in high school, he seemed to step it up since then and turned out to be a real hard worker. He was currently living with his cousin, Mac, on the other side of the city.

I closed my creaky door and went inside, the bell over my head toning as I came in. Felisha was sitting behind her desk, watching something on her computer intently before she noticed me and her blue eyes went wide, a blush filling her cheeks as she quickly clicked off something and whirled in her chair to face me, her mass of dark curls swinging over her shoulder in a ponytail.

"Were you doing what I think you were doing?" I asked dryly. Felisha scoffed, but her eyes darted away in embarrassment as she reached up to pull on her ponytail nervously before standing up.

"Anyway, so, the guy called, but didn't leave any address. He wasn't even nice about it. Just asked if you were here and I said no and he hung up on me. You have some mean friends." She added, making me frown and cock my head. It sounded like Hunter all right, but why would he call my job if he could just call my home phone? I shook my head.

"Probably drunk," I replied, making Felisha cock a brow, "Anyway, I'm gonna punch in and get to work." She nodded and plopped back down, twirling in her seat and nibbling on her nails to go back to doing whatever sick thing she was doing. I went around to the back where I dropped my jacket off due to the intense heat from all the work going on and the engines running from cars getting a test run. I punched in near the entrance and pulled on the overall suit that went on over my clothes before I got to work.

Walter didn't seem to be hanging around, or he was probably under one of the Hondas we had come in yesterday. I got to work on a Jeep that needed its door replaced, glancing at the time every so often.

I didn't want to be here at all, but if there was one thing I learned, it was do it even if you don't wanna. I had only gotten this job because Julian's dad called in a few favors and I was allowed to work so long as I kept at it and didn't bring any trouble to the work place.

"There you are." Walter's voice made me glance up as I finished cleaning off one of the power tools, placing it back down to turn and face him. He'd gotten buff in the past year from doing so much physical work, but he'd also gotten timid since the whole thing with finding out Julian was a vampire and trying to tell everyone, who only accused him of being insane. He never kept eye contact and had a habit of chewing on his nails or lips. His dark hair was cut shorter and he had gotten a tattoo near his throat of a pair of puncture wounds, like a vampire bit him. A sick joke we dared him to take a couple months ago.

"Glad you could make it," Walter said, eyes searching my chest instead of my face, "Bubba was driving me nuts the way he was drilling me about the Honda Civic. So, I heard Felisha saying that someone called for you? Was it Hunter?" I hesitated about telling him, the same way I hesitated when telling Seth or Kipp about anything that had to do with Hunter and our goal to bring down Zephyra.

I really did not want these guys getting involved, but not matter how much Julian and I insisted they not stick their noses in, they did it anyway. Obviously seeing what happened to me wasn't enough to scare them away. In fact, it was almost like it fueled them to try harder and while Seth, Kipp, and Walter were great allies to have and it was appreciated that they wanted to help, they were still only human.

Zephyra had killed Vanessa Grey. A pureblood vampire mother set on saving her son.

They could easily wipe the floor with three humans. Yeah, the guys had been doing some preparing of their own over the past year, but that still didn't mean they were ready to take down a whole organization of vampires.

But hiding things from them when they wanted to help so bad made me feel like shit, because I knew how they felt wanting to help, knowing that they could die. I had the same kind of determination and I had plenty of people try and crush my ego, and I almost broke once because of it too, so I couldn't bring myself to lie to Walter and sighed in frustration.

"Yeah, most likely." I admitted with a frown as I picked up a wrench. Walter mirrored my frown as he followed me back to the Jeep, leaning on the hood.

"Why would he call the shop? Why not your apartment?"

"Not sure. I'm gonna call him tonight and ask. In the mean time, have you talked to Seth? He said he had something he wanted to show me."

"Nope. Haven't talked to him since Friday when he called me to help him tow Kipp's car."

"You had to tow Kipp's car?"

"Actually, I didn't have to, but Seth was trying to teach Kipp what would happen if Kipp took his parking spot and I was on duty in the car anyway, so I figured, hell, why not."

"You shouldn't encourage him. Someday Seth's gonna call you to ask for help hiding his corpse."

"Dunno," Walter answered dryly as he stepped back to shrug, "Seth has been acting like something crawled up his ass and died ever since Kipp broke up with Leslie." I rolled my eyes at the thought. Kipp had been dating Leslie for a good few months before Leslie broke up with Kipp after cheating on him with one of Kipp's neighbors, of all people. Kipp was pretty crushed by it and Seth wasn't helping. Everyone insisted he was doing it out of jealousy and at first, I didn't see it, but now that I focused on the two, Seth was pissed that Kipp ignored his warnings about Leslie being a slut.

He was probably punishing Kipp for not listening to him, and for sort of being a douche when he dated Leslie. Anything Leslie said, Kipp would do for her and she led him on like a dog on a leash until the day came that she flat out texted him her break up excuse. It was something along the lines of:

srry not wrking out. i slept wit jordan NEway. n i need my jacket back.

Suffice it to say that Leslie was the worst female in the human species and Seth hadn't let it go easy. He didn't care if she was a girl either. He went right up to her, told her off in front of all of her friends and her boyfriend and his friends. Called her a whore and threatened her if she came within a two mile radius of Kipp again.

Either Seth was the worst lover in the world or he was the best friend in the world. It was hard to tell with him.

"Adam! You got a phone call!" Felisha called into the garage with a warning tone. Walter and I shared curious looks before heading into the office. I took the phone from her, watching her and Walter gie me anxious stares.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly.

"Adam." It was Hunter's voice. I recognized that thick Cajun accent anywhere. Although, he sounded out of breath.

"Hunter," I said slowly, watching Walter's eyes widen, "Hey, what're you doing? Why didn't you just call my--"

"Your apartment phone's been bugged for a week now," Hunter interrupted sharply, making me blink in surprise as he went on in a shaking voice, "Ugh, Jesus Christ. Listen, get Julian and meet me at the warehouse on the corner of Westley and Main. Don't make me wait, boy."

Click

"Who's Hunter?" Felisha asked as I hung up and turned to face them.

"Nobody," I told her, then turned to Walter, "We need to go pick up Julian and the others." Walter looked baffled for a second, then nodded quickly and went to get his coat. I followed after him and so did Felisha.

"Wait, you can't just leave," She exclaimed, "Bubba will--"

"Tell him I went to the hospital. Trust me, I can get a doctor's note." I answered, making her give me a doubting stare before she nodded reluctantly. I stripped my overalls off and grabbed my jacket just as Walter went past me.

"Got your truck?" He asked.

"Sadly. Let's go."