Alaric

I grinned as I sat on Christian's chest and repeatedly punched his face. He moved his head, and I punched through the patio tiles. When I tried to pull my fist back, Christian was out from under me and behind me, trying to get me into a chokehold. I reached for his shoulders and gripped his hoody to pull him down as I propelled my legs upward with all my might and flipped over to land on his back. I sat on his back while he chuckled.

"Fucker, I told you to keep away from her," I growled.

"Oh, yeah? Who's with her now?"

My head snapped back towards the patio, but other than the broken garden furniture, Gemma was nowhere in sight.

"Fuck," I said, punching Christian on the back of his head before getting off him. One more blow to his head wouldn't make a difference to him. "I bet you didn't see that coming," I muttered.

"Cunt," Christian said, but I was already off him and walking inside the house.

Gemma was making herself some lunch while Damien sat on a stool chatting with her. I glanced back and forth between them because she was smiling and laughing with him.

"You were worried about the wrong brother," Christian said with amusement in his voice as he walked past me to sit next to Damien. "My apologies, Gemma. It seems is a little sensitive about you, which is highly unusual."

She stopped, whisking to glance at me in surprise. I ignored her and narrowed my eyes on how my brothers had arranged themselves around the four stools, leaving me with no room to sit down.

"Thanks for dropping by. I will walk you to your helicopter," I said as I noticed half my shirt buttons were missing with my scuffle with Christian.

"Tell me a little about your family and how you ended up in Paris," Damien said to Gemma.

"My parents live in England. I have one younger brother. There isn't much to say. I fell in love with art and then France. The language is beautiful, and I knew in my teens that I wanted to live in Paris one day."

"You must have strong roots in England. Your surname is almost one thousand years old," Damien said.

I watched as she poured the mixture from her bowl into a flat pan and turned the heat down.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"I believe we are a little over fifteen hundred years old."

Gemma paused to place a glass lid over her eggs. Her eyes flicked around all three of us.

"You're that old?" she gasped.

"Not me, I'm the youngest," Christian said.

"We can only go so far back in recalling our memories. They are—distorted."

She glanced at me cautiously before returning her gaze towards Damien.

"Why haven't vampires taken over or spread more rapidly?"

"For a long time, it was only us three. We weren't aware that we could create other vampires. When we did, it caused chaos and a threat to our existence. We prefer to keep our existence a secret, or we would end up being experimented on. Christian was taken from us for a short while."

Our little brother was never quite the same when he returned, but he did kill every last one of his jailers when he escaped.

She looked at Christian with compassion on her face.

"I hope you're okay," she said.

Christian stared at her, and I thought he would ignore her. He nodded his head but didn't say anything.

"We have Covens in every country. We oversee them and have a hierarchy in each coven that reports back to the Coven in Greece. If there are any threats to us by vampires or humans, we are consulted before they are eliminated," I said since she was taking the information without freaking out.

"So you three are the original vampires? Like royalty," she asked with a frown.

"We don't know if we are the originals or not," Christian said. "You can call me King Christian if you want."

Gemma grinned and checked on her omelette.

"No, thanks. I have a feeling you guys have enough of an ego as it is."

"I have a sense there were others before us. I have been investigating this," Damien said before a slow smile crept onto his face. "The news of there being select humans who are capable of living longer and being able to produce our offspring puts a different spin on my original outlook."

"How so?" Gemma asked as she put her omelette under the grill.

"I've been searching through history looking for mass Vampire attacks on humans, but if the vampires before us found their blood mates, there may not have been as much carnage. They would want to remain hidden to protect their families."

"Did you find anything?" I asked because he hadn't mentioned this to me.

"I've found a lead but I need to borrow a few of your paintings."

"Tartarus?" I asked because I had a feeling those ones were special. The longer you looked at them, the more you would uncover.

He grinned and nodded. "That one and a few others from different periods," he said.

Damien was the book collector, and Christian was the weapon collector. I preferred art, but we had similar interests in houses and cars—those items we shared.

"Are we any further on who tried to kill Christian this time?" I asked, and Christian grunted.

"Nicholas was our only lead, and you let Samuel kill him. I'm waiting to hear back from a few of our people."

"Be prepared. They will probably try to kill you again," I said with a shrug. "You took a good belting outside. Perhaps you need to focus more on training."

His eyes moved towards Gemma, but she bent down to check on her food.

"The only reason I didn't fuck you up is because of her," he whispered as he made a wanker gesture with his hand. He picked up that bad habit from Samuel and Derrick.

"Will you two stop it? She is going to think we are a bunch of savages," Damien said under his breath.

Gemma was oblivious to our conversation and was busy preparing a salad to go with her omelette. My brothers hadn't reacted to the scent of her blood. It confirmed everything I needed to know. She was my personal yet addictive blood bank. I couldn't wait to get rid of my brothers. The taste of her pussy and blood was still on my tongue.

Christian elbowed Damien and pointed at me. They both smirked at me, but Christian stared at Gemma.

"She is hot as fuck," he mouthed.

Before I could reach him, Damien stood between us, holding a hand on our chests.

"What's wrong now?" Gemma asked with a confused frown as she paused to look at us before carrying her food towards the table.

I quickly followed her before they tried to sit next to her.

"I hope you guys don't mind if I eat," she said, glancing at her food.

"Not at all. We ate before we came," Damien said.

"Okay," she said awkwardly before she began to eat.

We weren't used to having humans in our homes or personal company. When we fed from them, they were always mesmerised. They were easily programmed to follow our commands. Many vampires kept blood slaves, but their minds eventually deteriorated over time. With Gemma, I enjoyed the natural responses from her body, and when she came, it never failed to trigger my orgasm.

I had around nine days before I could impregnate Gemma. She would birth the first of a new branch in our family lineage, created as nature intended and not the living dead like vampires. I glanced at my brothers. They were open and welcoming towards Gemma. Ordinarily, Damien would not have been so forthcoming with information to a stranger let alone a human.

It slowly sank into me that she was family.