CHAPTER 14
FAMILY MATTERS

LIFE had been weird since the first date. Weird, and comfortable. Percy felt like he now knew so much about Hadley, but he also knew so little. It was an odd feeling – being in the dark, yet so far into the light that it was blinding.

He held her every night. She liked to sleep by his side, instead of being back to back. She liked holding onto his broad torso and wrapping her arms around his exposed chest. Hadley loved his warmth, and she reminded him of this time and time again. When their skin touched – even the lightest of brushes – it was like a chemical reaction. Nothing felt more satisfactory than when she slept, clutching his warm skin like she needed it to live. Maybe she did.

As Percy lied awake at night, rubbing circles into Hadley's back, he thought about the concept of family. Back home, what was his family thinking? Did they miss him? Did they fill out a missing person's report? He felt that they were obligated to by now, and they probably did miss him. Maybe it was just his tired subconscious, but he thought they would be more driven to look for him. He told his parents the city and hotel he was staying in, and ever since he decided to stay at the Cortez, none of his family thought to call here or look for him.

He wondered if he was going to have the same fate as Hadley. They would conduct a lackluster investigation on him for a while, until eventually labeling his case as a murder with a runaway suspect. His family probably already thought he was dead. They were probably in mourning. Little did they know that he had never felt more alive.

The staff at the Cortez had quickly become his new family. He was a human in a hotel full of spirits and all things that went bump the night, but they treated him as if he were one of them, and that's all he could really ask for. He still questioned if Hadley would ever turn him, but it seemed that she wouldn't let up anytime soon. Percy was getting older every single day. He was never one to care about age – not until he met Hadley. She had all the time in the world. He didn't.

Time was starting to bother him. He could never have enough of it as long as he was human.

"You're not gonna want me around when I look like your grandfather," he told her one morning, as he held her tightly against his chest. This was the most they touched: in the mornings, where she could listen to his heartbeat, and her thirst was never tempted because last night's feeding still rested on her tongue. She hadn't let her desires take over since the first time. "If you keep me as a human, I'm just going to get older and older ..."

Hadley chuckled, not realizing the severity in his voice. "I'll still want you when you look like a grandpa. Don't underestimate my desire for older men." Her laughter settled down and she sighed, noticing his heartbeat began to speed up. "I'll like you no matter what your age is – if you're human or not. I've adjusted myself to you."

A string of words hung on the end of Percy's tongue, and he struggled to release them, not wanting to offend her. "You don't think my ... humanity puts me at risk here?" He asked quietly, almost too quietly. Hadley turned her head up, flipping her body so her chin could rest on his chest. She placed a hand on his cheek, caressing his sharp cheekbones. "You can't protect me from everything, Hadley, if this place is as scary as you make it out to be. I want to stay here. I want to be here with you, but if the fucking ghost of a serial killer lives inside these walls ... I'm not safe as a human."

Hadley bit her lip, refusing to say anything.

"Or ... I don't know," he exhaled, running a hand over his face. He didn't know if he wanted to look at her at that moment. "At some point, something is going to separate us. It's gonna be an accident, or maybe even on purpose. An illness. Old age. As long as I'm human, something bad is gonna happen. The only solution is to –"

"No," she interrupted, and her brow furrowed with annoyance. Hadley sat up then, but still remained close to Percy. He noticed that she had worn one of his t-shirts to bed, and she played with the hem of it while shaking her head. "That's not a solution, Perce. It's a fucking tragedy."

They never talked about it again after that morning. He didn't bring up humanity, or time, or anything in between. She wouldn't budge, but soon, she'd have to realize that he was right.

•••

Hadley was becoming more at ease with Percy's delicious scent. So comfortable that she wondered if she would be able to touch him again, if she could feel his hands over and inside her. She figured, on a good day – one where she had a healthy feeding – she would be able to go through with it, only if he wanted to. Excitement ran through her veins at the thought of it.

She went out that night with Elizabeth. Now that she didn't have Donovan's expert personality skills for the hunt, she allowed Hadley to join her. Tristan was still young and acted like a ticking time bomb. He didn't know how to pace himself during the hunt – not like Hadley or Donovan. He'd catch their victim and slit their neck in front of a whole crowd.

If the hunt went well, then maybe tonight would be the night.

Since Hadley was out, this gave Percy yet another dangerous chance to roam the halls of the Cortez without her guidance. It was reckless and stupid, but what was his life anymore without a little risk?

He slipped out a little past eight PM. As he made his way down the sixth-floor corridor, Percy decided that he has always seen a basement button on the elevator, and he wondered if there was anything interesting down there. This might be somewhat of a death trap for him, but he had hope that he could get out of it. I mean, he's gotten out of every little thing before. With the help of Hadley, of course.

But he was curious. It was his natural human instinct, and he'd be damned if he was just going to wait around all day for Hadley to come back.

He entered the elevator without a sound. Percy's eyes roamed down the row of buttons, and after biting down on his lip, he pressed the one that said, BASEMENT, in bold letters. The doors were beginning to close, but out of nowhere, a hand popped out to stop them.

Percy looked up, meeting a dark pair of eyes and a thin mustache. Fuck, he thought. Percy wasn't even at the dangerous part of the hotel yet, and he was already standing in front of a notorious serial killer. But with the way the man was smiling at him right now, it seemed like killing wasn't exactly his intention.

James' hand was propped out, waiting for a shake. "I believe it's about time we met," he drawled and wagged his fingers. "You see, I'm the father in the situation –"

Percy slammed his fist on the button to close the doors. "I'm not interested in anything you're selling!" He exclaimed, and the doors slammed shut, almost taking off the ghost's hand in the process. The elevator began to move down and Percy slapped his back against the wall, releasing a breath of relief. Leave it to him to find trouble without even asking for it.

After a long minute of heavy breathing and feeling his heart rate, the elevator dinged. The doors slowly made their way open, revealing a dark hallway with a few flickering bulbs lighting the way. Percy swallowed hard, but strode into the corridor, hugging his arms around himself. It was so cold down here. He made a mistake in wearing just a t-shirt, but to be fair, Hadley's room was usually hot, as if she liked living in the pits of the Underworld.

It started to feel like something was drawing him somewhere. Whether it be gravity, a force – he didn't know, but there was an invisible thread tugging on his hand. Percy rounded a corner, ending up in a blank room full of bright lights and a row of lockers. Raising a brow, he continued on, entering what looked like an abandoned pool area. The tiles below his feet were encrusted with dirt and dust. The room was dark, so he flipped on a light switch, not expecting to find what he saw in the pool.

Four small coffins.

Percy blinked. He knew about everything. He knew that Hadley and her family were technically vampires, but ... this seemed strange. She didn't sleep in a coffin, so who did these belong to? Her siblings that he had never met?

He heard loud noises echoing from one of the locker rooms. Swallowing hard, Percy headed in the direction of the sounds, feet pattering against the tiled floor. After a moment of hesitation, he pushed open the door. It led to a long corridor that looked like any normal hall in the hotel: same velvet carpet, same fake-wooden wallpaper. With an arched brow, Percy continued walking towards the loud noises. They sounded virtual, almost like a high-pitched beeping you'd hear in old video games.

But when he finally stopped in front of the door rumbling with various clamors, he realized he had been right.

The door opened on its own, revealing a brightly-lit room, framed wall-to-wall with vintage videogames. Candy machines were placed around the corners, while a long, black leather couch was seated in the middle. Percy was amazed at the sight, eyes darting around the room. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning, standing in the doorway as all the televisions screens lit up before him.

And then he looked down again, where four sets of eyes were staring right at him.

•••

Hadley didn't know how she knew that Percy was in danger, but not finding him in his room when she returned back at the Cortez told her something.

She practically ripped apart the suite in ten seconds when she arrived. When she threw a pillow across the room, she looked up, stare roaming to the doorway of Room 66, where James Patrick March stood. He leaned against the doorframe, throwing her a lazy smile while rubbing a finger over his mustache. His sleeves were rolled up, which meant the worst – that he might be doing one of his experiments again – and Hadley's anxiety spiked.

She was sprinting across the room then, grabbing his collar so tightly that their noses were almost touching. Her teeth grit. Her eyes were practically red with anger. "Where is he?"

James spilled the beans in an instant, explaining to her that he saw Percy heading downstairs as he tried to introduce himself. Hadley ignored James' hideous tactics, turning to throw him a glare before running to the elevator.

She knew where he'd be. Hadley knew his curious mind better than anyone else, and now she was hoping to God that she was wrong.

But she wasn't. Of course, she wasn't. Hadley was bursting through the underground pool, and then to the game room. As she appeared in the long foyer, Hadley saw him in the doorway, and she smiled big – almost too big. And then, he was yanked inside the room. The corridor was filled with Hadley shrieking.

She ran even faster, tugging the door open before it could close, breathing heavily once she took in the sight before her. Her siblings were circled around Percy, and he was kneeling in front of Wren, offering her his hand to shake. The scene looked so innocent, but her siblings weren't. They were too young; they hardly had a sense of self-control.

"Hey!" She barked, stomping into the game room. "Get away from him. All of you."

Holden turned on his shiny shoe. "We're not going to hurt him," he said softly. "We know who he is to you."

Hadley still shoved her siblings out of the way. She swatted her hand around, causing them to step back and retreat to their assigned spots on the couch. Wren, however, lingered near Percy just a bit too long, ogling him with her pretty, blue eyes. Hadley hissed in her direction, and her younger sister trotted away before Hadley finally pulled Percy out.

She stared at him with an immense amount of fury, but Percy stood his ground, refusing to cower away. (He was taller than her, after all, but only by a few inches.) He pointed to the game room, raising a brow, and asked, "Those your siblings?"

"Do not try to excuse what you did!" She exclaimed, hair rattling about her face. Hadley took in a deep breath, but nothing could stop her body from shaking. She ran a hand through her dark waves. "Yes, those are my siblings, which is why it wasn't a good idea to go see them!"

"I was curious. Sue me. I can't be locked up in that room all the time, Hadley, unless you want me to die from the toxic fumes in there." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, you've been keeping your whole family hidden from me this entire time. I know the risks, but don't you think I should meet some of them?" Percy looked away then, a frown appearing on his lips. "Just ... without James March. I could do without seeing him."

Her brow shot up. "Did you think for a second that there's a reason why I've hidden you from them? I've explained this time and time again how dangerous this hotel is, but you wanted to stay –"

"I do want to stay."

"– And my family would eat you for breakfast if given the chance!" She threw her arms in the air. "Those kids in there? They can barely control themselves as it is. I'm surprised you even lasted a minute in there without one of them lunging for your neck. My mother wanted you dead a long time ago. You meeting them is out of the question."

Percy pursed his lips, but stayed silent. He knew he'd lost this battle.

"Did you ..." She shook her head. "Did you put yourself in danger to convince me to turn you?"

"No! No, I ..." He thought about it for a moment, realizing that that would've been a good idea, but he would never put her in a position like that. "I'm not that smart, Hadley."

Her expression softened, and soon enough, that frown on her face was lifting into a smile. She bit her lip, taking a moment – a mere second – to think about what it would be like to have him forever, as one of the Afflicted. They could be together in ways that were dangerous now. They could be eternal, damned, forever and ever, feasting on each other's skin and souls forever.

She pulled him in before he could register it, locking her lips onto his. The kiss only lasted for a moment, but it was full of as much lust and passion as their first. Spit dribbled down Percy's chin when she pulled away, and Hadley giggled, biting on the inside of her cheek. She reached out, rubbing the spit away, and said, "Stop putting yourself in danger. You're starting to make me think that you actually want to die."

•••

A/N: Some dialogue was taken from Twilight: New Moon!!!!! A lot of upcoming chapters are gonna have dialogue from the movie and book so be prepared 🤙🏻 I still have a soft spot for Twilight 😪