Unraveling Mathias by Marisa Maichel (reading women TXT) 📕

Prologue

In most places, family is considered the most important aspect of life. In my family, there is a lot of violence, a lot of drama, a lot of rivalry, a lot of hatred, and a lot of love. I couldn't blame my father for keeping Mathias a secret. After all, Mathias was accused of killing Alga, Uncle Soren's wife, over four hundred years ago.

Chapter 1- Hopeful New Beginning

I bent down to pet Mishka, the mother cat whom we had rescued last year on Christmas Day. She was purring, content. Her kittens, Remy, Anakin, Belle, Catniss, and Frodo were growing, and now had free rein of the house, although they all preferred the Cat Room, as Father called it. The Cat Room was full of cat trees, toys, beds, a self-cleaning litterbox, and plenty of food and treats. It had been my cousin Louis' room before he moved into the guest house.

Last winter, Louis found a big black long-haired cat which he promptly fell in love with and named Shadowfang. Since then, that cat has turned our lives upside down. No, my life was already upside down. It turned upside down when I found my girlfriend and soulmate Sarah Harper Cresley in the bathroom at a classmate's party, crying her eyes out because she'd been raped by Michael Nales and beaten by her old clique.

Since that night, she's been harassed constantly. I've been planning her seventeenth birthday party, which was February fourteenth, on Valentine's Day. My best human friend Ariella was helping me. Thanks to Ariella, who was extremely popular, and Sarah's own wits and bravery, she had more friends than she had ever had.

As for me, I was just happy to have her. I have been in love with Sarah since freshman year. Now that we were halfway through our junior year, I finally had her, and I was not going to let her go. I studied my teeth. Being a vampire, I naturally have good teeth-I barely even need to brush them, but I do anyway to avoid bloodbreath. I pictured my lips on my human lover's. Her lips were naturally full and bow-shaped, and very, very kissable.

The first time I saw her, I thought she was an angel. Only recently have I realized just how human she is. Even after she confessed to me her sins, I still loved her. I wanted to take her and protect her from the world outside.

I tested my fangs. My upper fangs slid down an inch and a half and my bottom fangs a full inch. I ran a comb through my long black hair. My yellow eyes frowned as I fought a stray bang. I felt long, cold arms wrap around me from behind.

"Hello, Father," I said.

"Hello, son," Father replied. "Are you hungry? I just got in some excellent AB negative from Germany." My mouth watered, and my fangs slid out again. At that moment, my stomach growled. "I'll take that as a yes. Spencer! Is Toby still asleep? Tell him to get up!"

Spencer and Toby are two of our guards. They are also best friends. And potentially future lovers. Everyone except Toby knew that Spencer had a huge crush on him. Spencer appeared in the doorway, running his fingers through his thin blond hair.

"Please, Lord Mordecai, let my friend sleep a little longer," Spencer begged. "I fear that he has what Master Reese has." Father sighed and looked at me. Recently, we found out that I have a rare vampire disease known as parphyrina. It makes me extremely prone to other illnesses, makes my stomach weak, and is possibly the cause of my long-term depression. Or it could simply be the fact that my family is not normal in any way, shape, or form.

All of us are natural-born vampires except for my grandfather, who was changed by Alexander Nicolai, the progenitor of vampires and our cousin.

"All right," Father said. "Have somebody watch Toby's symptoms. He doesn't need to infect anybody else." Spencer frowned and bit his lip, but said nothing. He simply nodded and went on his way.

"When are you going to call in more guards? They need breaks," I told Father.

"I shall take no chances. Since your grandfather decided to let Alexander go free with a final warning, I have constantly been on my guard."

Last year, there was a question of who my true paternal parent was, and they were either Father or Alexander. When Alexander found out, he lost his mind and tried to kidnap me several times. Even after it was confirmed that Mordecai Emerson is my biological father, Alexander continued to try to get me, even using Sarah at one point.

Now I had not seen him for over a month, and Father was still worried. He wanted Alexander killed, but Grandfather and Uncle Soren refused.

I went downstairs for breakfast, nearly tripping over Shadowfang's tail. It was breakfast time for the cats as well. Toby came down a little while later, undoing his dreadlocks. He was fully dressed (not that I would've minded seeing him shirtless) and complaining about racial tensions in the United States.

"I'm just saying that as a hundred year old black vampire, it really irritates me to see so much drama." Spencer was hanging onto Toby's every word.

"I understand," Spencer told him.

"At least some people do," Toby verbiaged.

"Thank, you, Toby, we get it," Uncle Soren snapped. Toby frowned at my uncle's back.

"What's your problem?" Father asked his older brother.

"You people are my problem. Except for you, Reese, you're the only one who has yet to aggravate me this month. I swear, my own son hates me."

"Louis has always been a sassmouth," Father reminded him.

"Yes, but lately it's gotten worse. It's like going through the teenage years again!"

"I don't like your attitude," Louis cheerfully told his father as he sauntered in through the back door.

"I don't like yours. Spencer, tell Janna to hurry up. Reese has to leave for school in twenty minutes."

"It's Saturday," I reminded him. Uncle Soren banged his head on the table. Shadowfang started chewing on my uncle's burgundy hair.

"I'm becoming as useless as an uneducated doctor. Reese, when is Sarah's party?"

"Two Saturdays from now, on the fourteenth."

"I think you should stay home for a while," Father said. I sighed, but I knew there was no arguing with him. And he was right. If I infected a human, it could spread quickly and kill the entire human population of North Hampton, New Jersey. I was already taking a risk by spending time with Sarah and Ariella. The girls still had no idea.

I bit my lip. I nearly lost Sarah by holding back my true nature from her until it was almost too late. I didn't want to risk losing her again. As I drank my meal, I paid attention to how my stomach reacted. I didn't want to risk throwing up again. My stomach groaned in fullness. I was almost too full. I ran to the bathroom and purged my stomach contents.

Grandfather held my hair back. He was living in the house for a few more months at least. He needed a break. He's the king of all vampires. He takes his title and position very seriously, but lately, we had all felt discontent from him.

My grandfather was once handsome. He has wavy red hair that never ages, yellow catlike eyes, and a muscular, yet thin figure. But for the past few weeks, he has been getting dark shadows under his eyes, his voice has been cracking, and he has been spending a lot more time alone.

Of course, Grandfather, Father, Uncle Soren and I all have yellow eyes, but different hair tones. Father is blond, my hair is jet black, and I've already mentioned Uncle Soren's and Grandfather's hair colors. Louis is an anomaly. He has brown hair and blue eyes, probably from his mother Alga, who died six months after he was born and she left Uncle Soren.

After breakfast, I went back to my room to work on my latest song, titled "Emerald Eyes".

When I look into your eyes,

I see beauty, intelligence, bravery, and pain

You're being chased by all the guys

Going against the grain

You're so heartful

That was as far as I got before my cell phone rang.

"Hello, Ari," I answered.

"Hola! What sounds more appealing, a steak or a green bean?" She already knew the answer, of course. I'd told her last month what my diet really consists of.

"Steak. Is there a point to this question?"

"Um, yeah! Shelly says that green beans are far superior to steak. Can you believe that? Steak is the most perfect food!"

"What happened to your new all-organic raw vegetarian promise?"

"Eh, I couldn't stick with it. I love steak too much! Anyway, a bunch of us are going to the mall around noon. Want to tag along?"

"Who all is going?"

"Mason Godfrey, Noah Johnson, Duke Taylor, Amara Ranks and...actually, that's it. Sarah has to work, and Shelly is freaking out because Jon Fields just quit the band. So I'm going to put flyers around town for a new male vocalist." Ariella is the lead guitarist and female vocalist in a rock band called Everlasting Strife.

"Sure, I'll go. I have to clear it with Father, though."

"Ugh, your dad is so overprotective! When's he going to let up?"

"Probably never. Anyway, I'll see you in a couple hours."

"Okie dokie. Toodles!" We hung up, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. If Father let me out at all, he'd probably make Janna follow me around all day. I wondered if I should butter him up first.

"Hey, Dad," I said, leaning over the back of the couch while he watched the news. "Ariella and Mason are going to the mall, and they want me to come along."

"You hate the mall," he reminded me.

"I'm not going to shop! I'm just going to hang out."

"Well, all right, but bring Janna along." I sighed. I knew he would say that. And I could get away with having a bodyguard, because Father was in the process of owning the North Hampton Mall. His plan was to have something for me to fall back on in case the music industry didn't work out for me. Or at least, that's what he told me.

I fired up my old Chevrolet Astro and drove to Father's store, Emerson's Electronics, where he sold computer parts, movies, videogames, consoles, CDs, and other electronics.

"I don't know if I can fix it," Louis was saying into the phone. "This Dynex is a dinosaur. Ma'am, please don't yell at me. My suggestion is to get a new computer. We have a wide range of Dell computers and laptops. I am the manager! Okay, I'm hanging up now. You can pick your computer up anytime before seven o'clock." He clicked off and rolled his eyes at me. "Women."

"Cousins," I retorted. Louis was sore because he'd recently been dealt some heartbreak by Ariella. First, I caught her with Uncle Soren, both of them half undressed. Then Ari and I stopped speaking for a while, and she turned down Louis. He was not used to being rejected by women. Or if he had ever been rejected, he had not truly cared about her.

I clocked in and grabbed the latest box of brand-new DVDs. I contented myself with stocking DVDs and videogames until it was time to go. I enjoyed my job at my father's store. It was busy enough that we were never bored, yet also quiet enough that there was rarely drama.

"Delia," I greeted the tall blond nightmare known as a part-time employee.

"Reese," she snipped. Today she wore pink glittery jeans and a jersey croptop with tall black boots. As usual, she wore a lot of bright makeup and her hair had too much product in it. I looked at her, then shook my head. The only reason why she got the job