CHAPTER 28:

CATALINA'S POV:

While Jaden is out on the balcony, doing whatever it is that upset 300 hundred year olds do, I am uncomfortably alone with Mason. Not that I think he will hurt me. I trust him. Mostly.

We stare at each other from across the room. Big brother back from the dead and now a member of the undead. Little sister who now kills the undead. Well most of them anyways.

Awkward. Gotta break the ice.

I pick my sword back up and do a few fancy moves with it, twirling it in the air. Cool stuff. Am I trying to impress big bro? Maybe. His eyebrows are raised. I'll take that as an expression of awe, even if it isn't quite the right look.

I place the point of my sword against the marble floor and give him my most arrogant badass vampire hunter chick look. "I bet I can kick your ass."

He smiles and flexes his muscles. It brings back old memories of when we used to wrestle each other on the living room floor. It usually resulted in me getting body slammed onto the couch and my mom yelling at Mason to leave me alone. Even if I was usually the one to instigate it.

I have to hold back tears from the memories that are surfacing. The best way to avoid turning into a crybaby girl is to project Miss Catalina, tough chick extraordinaire. Mason still hasn't commented on me being able to kick his ass. So, I try again, "Do you know how to use a sword?" I slice my own through the air a few times. Jaden picked me out a nice one.

He crosses his arms, "Cat, what the hell would I ever need to use a sword for?" I swallow another lump in my throat at his use of an old nickname.

I give him a You're-A-Retard look and say, "For this!" I then proceed to spin around, crouched down on one knee, with the other leg splayed out and, with my sword, slice through the ornate wooden leg of a nearby sitting chair. The stuff Jaden picked out to decorate my penthouse was too fancy anyways. The now three-legged chair topples over with a loud thud.

On second thought, maybe I should hide this chair in the closet to dispose of during daylight hours.

My head snaps up at his chuckle, "Baby sis, are you trying to show off?"

I stand up and shrug, "No need to try. I'm a naturally impressive person, big bro." Then a thought occurs, "Wait a minute!" I take a few excited steps towards him, "You're not older than me anymore!"

He looks confused, "Of course I am, I'm twenty-two. You're only eighteen."

"Nooooo," I'm slowly shaking my head back and forth. "If you were alive for real, like still human, you would be twenty-two. You were eighteen when you died, or became a vampire or whatever. I'm eighteen now. We're the same age. Like twins!"

He's trying not to smile. One corner of his mouth quirks, "You always were a dork."

I point my sword at him, "You know, I've killed vampires for less."

Mason points a finger at the balcony, "Well, you should have killed that one."

My mouth opens in shock, "Don't say that! I love Jaden!" Then I grudgingly add, "Can't say that I didn't try to kill the hottie lots of times before. He was just too quick and distracting."

The look on Mason's face is one that I remember well. He always did ruin my fun back when I was in my early teens. "Catalina, I don't know exactly how old he is, but he is too old for you."

I laugh, "You think? Mason, Jaden is too old for EVERYONE."

"Glad you agree," he says smugly. "You won't be seeing him again after tonight anyways."

Reflexively, one of my hands moves to my hip, while I lean on one leg, "And why would that be?"

"Because we're leaving town," he says nonchalantly.

"Are we?" I ask defiantly.

He shrugs one shoulder and seems to be contemplating, "I don't know. I was thinking somewhere in Eastern Europe."

"Like Russia? No way in hell am I going there. From what I understand, all of those former Russian countries suck and are really freaking cold."

His sigh has more than a tinge of exasperation in it, "Fine, we'll go somewhere else."

"I'm not going to run away," I say stubbornly. "I'm not scared of vampires." I laugh hysterically at a random thought, "Even if they are my future in-laws." I can't believe Jaden's parents are behind the abduction attempts.

Now he's giving me a You're-A-Retard look. "Catalina, you can't MARRY him. He's not even a real person."

Okay, NOW he's just annoying me. "He seems real enough to me. So do you, for that matter."

Then it just hits me, bam, too strong for me to fight. My brother is back. I move forward to touch him. An unsteady hand reaches out to grip his arm. I squeeze his arm through his jacket.

My sword clanks to the floor, unforgotten and I find myself in his arms, crying like a damn girl. I hate crying like a damn girl. "I've missed you, Mason. I miss mom and dad so much."

His palm is rubbing up and down my back, in a soothing gesture. "I know Cat, I miss them too."

The guilt that I've been trying to perish by taking out any vampire I can get my weapons on surfaces, "It was my fault, Mason."

"I know what happened, Catalina. Those bastards made sure to tell me. It wasn't your fault. You had no way of knowing what they were, what they had planned."

"I let them to my family, Mase. I got you all killed. I wasn't even supposed to go to that party, but I snuck out anyways."

His hand is still rubbing my back and I'm feeling a little calmer. "How did you become a vampire, Mason?"

His laugh is humorless. "That night is pretty much a blur, but from what I understand, they thought it'd be funny to turn me vampire and force me to kill you."

I pull back in shock, "Those bastards!" I clench my fists, "Ugh! I wish I could kill them all over again!"

His eyebrows raise, "You killed them?"

My eyes flash to his, "Recently."

A dark look passes over his face, "Did they suffer?"

"A lot," I say confidently, "But it will never be enough."

Despite him being here now, I'm hurt that four years have passed without him letting me know that he still existed in this world. "Where have you been Mason? Why didn't you come to me?"

He runs a hand over his face and looks unsure, "It's not that I didn't want to, Cat. I just needed to be sure that enough time had passed."

"Enough time for what?" I'm confused. Knowing that he was still, alive or whatever, would have helped me immensely four years ago.

He nudges me towards a chair, "Sit. I'll explain." I wipe my face with my sleeve after taking a seat.

As he paces back and forth in front of me, a few minutes pass with him only flicking glances at me. Jaden comes back in from the balcony, looking stoic. I know he's hurting. Not that he expects good things from his parents, but trying to kidnap your girlfriend, probably with the intention of killing, would rock any rock anyone's world.

I hold out my hand to him and give him a reassuring smile. His body is stiff as he sit next to me. I squeeze his hand and kiss him on the cheek, "Baby, Mason was just about to explain where he's been the past four years."

Obviously not caring that my brother is in the same room, he scoops me up and situates me on his lap. His face is buried in my hair as he inhales deeply. Then he murmurs, "I won't let anyone hurt you, Catalina."

I cup his face and raise it to mine, "I know baby. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Then I give him a soft, sweet kiss on the lips, "I love you, Jaden."

"I love you too, Kitty Cat." The kiss he gives me is anything but sweet. Consuming would be a more appropriate word.

The sound of a fake cough has us pulling our heads, and lips, apart. I look sheepishly at my brother and Jaden's stoic façade is back in place.

Mason's scowl doesn't intimidate me. "Anyways," he begins, "As I was about to say before vampire loverboy started sucking face with you. The reason I haven't come to you sooner . . ."

"Is?" I prompt him to continue.

He looks at me, then stops pacing, looking down at the floor, "I didn't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me?" I ask, confused.

He finally meets my gaze, "That night, when it happened. Mom was already dead and Dad wasn't far behind. I was laying there, bloody and hoping that I would follow them soon after. You had just ran out of the house. For some reason they only made you watch. When they were distracted with us, I was hoping that you'd get away. But, you were just standing there, with this look of horror on your face."

I bury my face in my hands, "I remember." The memories that I've tried so hard to forget are there again, as if they just happened yesterday. The horror of watching my family being massacred before my eyes hasn't gotten any better. Never will. Jaden leans me pulls me back into his arms, my back to his chest.

"Well," Mason continues, "If you remember," Oh I remember, "After Mom and Dad were dead, they began to solely concentrate on me."

I can only nod my head at him to convey that my memory of the tragic events is still intact.

"As they were draining my life, I saw you slip down the hallway, I presumed to the back door. I didn't want them to catch you, Catalina. I wanted one of us to escape, to live. So, I took it in my head to distract them. I started insulting them, cursing them, thinking that they'd finish me off maybe more violently, but faster and not notice you getting away while they were doing it."

"What happened?" I ask softly, my heart and love going out to the brother who would sacrifice himself for me.

"It worked," he says bitterly. "But, not the way I thought it would. They were distracted. You had gotten away and I had thought that the pain would end. However, they found me amusing, said that I had what it takes. That's when they noticed that you were gone. They were trying to decide whether or not to go after you yet, when Jonathan got the idea that they would go after you, but that I'd go with them. He said that since it was my fault that you got away, that it'd be up to me to finish you off."

"Bastard," Jaden mutters.

"Yes, he was." Mason is starting off into space, looking, but not seeing as he continues, "That's when they all three opened a vein and while holding my mouth shut and pinching my nose, forced me to drink from them. Every time I'd try to spit it out, they'd laugh and keep it coming. I guess I must have passed out, because I woke up the next night, fully recovered, changed and in the basement of a run-down crack house."

"Mason," I interrupt, "Do you know what happened after they left our house that night?"

He focuses on me, "You mean about Aunt Isabel's house being burnt down?"

"Yes."

His face is pinched in emotional pain, "No, but I can imagine."

"I'm so sorry," I start to cry.

His expression is impatient, but kind, "I've told you already, Catalina. It's not your fault. You had no idea that it was even possible for anything like that to happen."

"Still . . ." I trail off.

"Tell me," he demands gently.

New tears are streaming down my face as Jaden wipes the previous ones away, "I thought that if I got to Aunt Isabel's then I'd be safe. That she'd call the cops and, I don't know, they'd do something. I was so hysterical, that it took half an hour for her to calm me down enough so that I was coherent."

"What happened then?" Jaden asks, knowing the story, but never having heard the details before.

My body is trembling along with my words. Reliving it, even four years later, is harder than I ever thought it'd be. "Once I was finally able to get the whole story out, Aunt Isabel was in shock. She saw the blood on me, but I could tell that she didn't know what to believe. She asked me if I had done any drugs at the party that I went to that night. I told her of course I hadn't and she said for me to stay put while she went to get her cell phone upstairs. I was sitting there, terrified, under a throw blanket that she'd pulled off the couch to cover me with, when I heard a window shatter upstairs. I knew before I'd even made it to her room what had happened. I saw them standing over her body and her neck twisting abnormally. As I ran down the stairs, Cyrus dropped over the banister to meet me at the bottom. I thought I was dead for sure, but instead, they let me get away again."

"That's when you ran to the police station?" Jaden says in a soothing voice.

"Yes," I say shakily and look up at Mason. "They didn't believe me, Mason. Thought that I was crazy. Jonathan, Daniel and Cyrus had set Aunt Isabel's house on fire. They never even told me that your body was missing."

"Idiots," Mason says heatedly.

"Yeah," I agree. "When I heard two officers talking to a state psychologist about medicating me and possibly my involvement with the murders, I panicked and ran away from the police station. I thought that I'd seen the worse of the vampires until they showed up a couple nights later, where I was hiding out in the gym of an elementary school."

Jaden addresses his next question to Mason, "None of what you just said explains why you disappeared for four years."

Mason sighs in dejectedly, "Jonathan, Daniel and Cyrus, found me that first night as a vampire in the crack house. I had just drained and killed a homeless woman. They laughed and told me that she was just an appetizer. That I was to go with them on the hunt for you. Despite how thirsty I was, I couldn't bear the thought of hurting you. I got away from them and never looked back."

"So, you just abandoned her?" Jaden's tone is menacing.

Mason's eyes go wide, "What else was I to do? I was afraid that, if I went anywhere near her, I'd kill her. I took to traveling at night. Leaving the city, traveling through towns, over rural areas by night and finding places to hide during the daytime. I took blood from my victims, but tried not to kill them. Praying the entire time that they would never be able to find you, Catalina."

"They did find me, Mason. Again and again. I became so weary, that I finally just gave up. Luckily, at the same time, some hunters found me, killed Cyrus and helped me become who I am today."

"A vampire hunter," Mason says slowly.

"I won't hurt you, Mason, as long as you don't hurt anyone else."

"I'm not going to lie, Catalina, I have hurt people, killed them. But, I try not to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it."

"What are you? A vampire vigilante?" Jaden asks.

Mason takes on an arrogant stance, "I'm not looking out for anyone but myself. I get the blood I need, that's the bottom line. But, now I have Catalina to look out for again. She leaves with me tonight."

"No," I say through clenched teeth.

"Yes," Jaden whispers.

I turn my face to him in shock, "What?"

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