12. ARA

The more time I spent with my cock inside Nash, the more I was happy with my decision to hibernate for so long. Mentally, I was back twenty years ago, but physically, I was in the moment with him.

We were interrupted in the bath with someone bringing a collection of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash for us to use. If I thought of my staff as unloyal or looking at Nash in any type of way, I'd have broken their neck and made an example of them. Of course, they averted their gaze and apologized for it.

The water in the tub itself was cloudy from soap, and lightly pink from the Nash's blood. It almost looked like a milk bath, which took me back in time to when the epitome of a beauty routine was a milk bath and special petals.

"I think I could get used to it here," he said.

"You haven't seen anything yet," I told him. "And I think breakfast is almost ready."

Being in this house wasn't anything I'd ever thought would happen again. I'd left it for a reason. It was remote and it reminded me of the closed off approach the older members of my family had taken when they were still living and in this house. There were a total of ten rooms and five bathrooms. That included the staff quarters at the back of the house.

Wrapped in thick towels, we went back into the bedroom.

My staff prepared clothes for both of us on the bed. Nash was clearly taken aback by it, almost scared by it since they'd gone through his things.

"I didn't even hear them in here," he said, picking at the stacked pile of his clothes. "Have these been dry cleaned?"

"Well, you saw her come through to give us the shampoo," I said, sniffing his head. "Mhmm, coconut. And I don't know. Have they?"

He pulled the pair of underwear to his nose and inhaled. "They smell like home, so I guess not. Maybe they just folded them really well."

I tugged the towel around his waist, forcing it to drop to his feet. "You better get dressed, or I'm going to bend you over and this time, I won't cum so quick." I gave him a gentle open palm spank.

"I need to—get rid of you seed first," he said, dipping his head shyly. "So, if you could change somewhere else. I don't want you to hear me."

"Well, come down once you're ready."

Respecting his wishes, I dropped my towel and took my pile of clothes. "Love you." I kissed him before leaving the bedroom naked to another room down the hallway. I'd never been the Alpha of this house, and now that I was, full advantage was being taken, my cock slapping at my left and right thigh as I walked.

The smell of meats being cooked filtered up through the house. And once I was dressed in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, I went down to explore more of the changes that had happened to the house.

The kitchen was the heart of the house, a huge room with a door leading out to the garden on the back.

"Kristoff," I said, getting the attention of the cook. He'd been with the family for years. "Are those sausages?"

"Master DeMauriel," he said, turning and bowing his head to me. "Yes. From the list of food you said your mate eats."

"Ah." A thought entered my mind. "He might not be hungry. He's in heat. Notoriously not a great time for an omega. We'll see how he's feeling once he's finished getting dressed."

"Of course," he said.

"Another question. Does this place have a herb garden?"

He nodded. "I believe so. And a vegetable patch. A little overgrown, but with some tending and mending, I'm sure we can grow crops again."

"Nash will be happy about that." It would also give him something to do whilst I went through family archives in an attempt to find out what prophecies were written that I didn't know about. Nephilim were children of angels and omegas. Barely any of them existed now, most of them were killed before birth, nobody wanted Nephilim around. They never predicted anything good. Everything they said was awful, negative, and sent people to doing crazy things, much like the vampire elders of New York City, and all the other factions to follow.

Waiting for Nash to arrive, I watched the flames of the hob devour the sides of the frying pan and the fat from the same spit out against the back tile and counters. It was hypnotic watching fire. It allowed me to think without punishing myself with regrets.

The last born Nephilim I recalled was fifty years ago. Once a child was born, they were under angelic protection, which is why so many of them were killed off beforehand. Fifty years ago was actually seventy as I incorporated my lapse in time to it. But in that time, I couldn't recall any new prophecies.

Nash snapped his fingers in my face. "I'm not that hungry," he said, gesturing to the large plate of cooked sausage. "I can probably stomach one, but it might come back up."

I apologized for it. "It's been a while since I recalled what an omega in heat needed."

"What I need is lots of kisses, lots of cuddles, and maybe a tour."

Kristoff stood in the shadows of the kitchen, waiting on orders. "Whatever he doesn't eat, make them into something else for lunch of dinner. If his appetite picks up by then. I hope it picks up by then."

"I can't decide when I'm out of heat, it's a fucking curse," he said.

"Come on," I said. "Let's start the tour with that herb garden you were asking about."

Before heading out of the back door, Nash grabbed a sausage from the plate. There was one person in the garden when we walked into it. The overgrown grass up to our knees. She was whacking at them with a large stick. "Oh, Sir, I didn't think you'd be out here," she said, bowing her head.

"Dana, right?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Parents are Ronan and Sara," I recalled. "I'm still adjusting. This is Nash, my mate. I think we already spoke about how the world is all different now. How are you adjusting to the house? And the ground." It was all a different staff to those who were around before I slept, but I could see the resemblance of her grandparents, and parents in her.

"Hi," Nash said. "This is a garden?"

"It's supposed to be," Dana said, swiping a stick through the grass. "I tried to find something metal to cut the grass, but there's barely any supplies in the house."

Nash snapped his fingers. "Then we'll get something. I've never had a proper garden. I want to try growing something," he said.

"Make a list, I'll send someone out for something," I said, resting a hand on his shoulder. I hadn't known his desire to grow something from the earth. It made sense, considering he'd asked about the garden.

"There are some planters," she said. "But I don't know anything about soil. I'm mostly just whacking these to form a path out into the woods. My dad and Kristoff want to go hunting for local game. You know, something to serve you."

"I do love a hunt," I said.

"What? No." Nash shrugged his hand off me. "I'm fine with like eating meat, but hunting animals in their homes isn't what I think we should be doing here." He kicked off his shoes. "This area of land is all healed with grass, but I can—I can—" He closed his eyes and raised his nose up. "I can feel there used to be a path and veggies growing in rows, and—and flowers, all in bloom with their sweet scents."

"How about the two of you stay out here with the garden, and I'll have a look around the house for any gardening tools?" I suggested.

"Ok, but then I want a tour."

I went back inside the house as people brought in more items. There was only one room I wanted to be in. The basement. From a rusted locked door, easily torn from the fixture, I headed under the house. A dull orange spark struck the bulb in the center of the room, barely illuminating the rows of bookshelves line the edges of the room and dust sheet covering a table and chairs in the middle. Glancing across it, in the far corner, buried in complete darkness, the bars of an empty cage.

Memories flooded. Vampires unable to control their blood lust kept inside. As I approached, the orange light above became brighter, illuminating more of the room and into the closed cage. Three corpses, decayed down to the bone. "Auntie Tabby, her husband Jules, and illegally sired human, Von." It wasn't my decision to have them die like that, it had been my grandfather's, I was only half-sure on that. "Rest in peace, or pieces."

Killing a vampire was no easy task, we could put our bodies into a stasis for long periods of time. But these deaths in here were cruel, they weren't just imprisoned, they were awaiting their execution. It was always on the edge of my mind, the horrendous horrors the DeMauriel family had built their names on. Myself included.

"You're gonna need a burial," I said to the pit of bones and dust. "The world has changed since then. I'm sorry you couldn't see it. Wherever you are, I hope you're looking after Elya, or she's looking after you." My sister was older than them, I wondered often about life after death, if there was anything there, or if we just ceased.

After paying a short respect through memory lane, I pulled back the dust cloth from the table and chairs. I was going to be down here a lot, trying to figure out if there was anything I could come back at the elders with to support my relationship with Nash.

These family archives documented all the births and the ever-spanning family tree. It was a rolled up sheet set inside a pipe sconce. Opening it, I spread it across the table and placed small paper weights on it at each of the corners. It was weathered and worn paper, stained and burned.

Sitting in front of it, our family name went back nearly two thousand years. The first two were just known as Si and Pa. No gender, nothing else, either that was their title, or their names. The family had sometimes playfully debated about it over drinks.

Scrolling a fingers across the paper, I went down to the bottom.

It even included Estefania's birth and Elya's death. I wondered who'd updated it, but I knew the staff had orders.

Everyone was dead except for me and my niece. This proved that much. I knew stories about some of them, choosing to die after living for so long. I should've left some staff for her at the apartment, but those numbers had also dwindled a lot too. The staff were families that had committed themselves to us or been forced to commit themselves for any number of reasons. Most of it theft. And most of those were let go, or killed. We didn't have a family tree or log book of staff members.

A footstep creaked on the stairwell.

I turned to see Nash attempting to sneak.

"Bored of the outdoors already?" I asked.

"There's just a lot of overgrowth out there. And I felt you were thinking," he said, joining me at the table. He glanced around from the seat at all the shelves. "What's all this? The archives?"

"And family tree," I said. "It's old."

"You should get all this stuff digitalized," he said. "That way if it's damaged, you still have copies, and don't need to come here to read any of it."

His fancy words went over my head. "Sure," I chuckled. "A lot of these books are very old. I think there's a couple Shakespeare scripts in here too."

"No shit." He jumped from his seat. "Are you being serious? That's like gold."

"Some Oscar Wilde, I believe too," I said. I stood beside him and followed him around the room with a hand on his lower back. "Don't touch any of them. I fear the warmth on your skin might speed up deterioration."

"Everything is dusty," he said with a sniffle and a sneeze. I immediately placed a hand to his mouth before the spital could spray out. "I'm sorry."

"I anticipated it," I said, wiping my hand on my shorts. "Let's back it up a little though. You don't happen to have an ability that brightens the space, do you?"

"I might know of something," he said. He closed his eyes and all around the room bright white orbs appeared like fireflies. They sat around at different heights in the room, putting the light bulb to shame.

I reached out to one, careful to keep my distance from it. They didn't radiate any amount of heat. It was strange.

"It's just light," he said, "you can touch it. It won't hurt." He demonstrated, wafting a hand at one and pulling it down to him.

It was a sensation, strange at first, and then oddly comfortable. "And you can do this any time?"

"It's a very basic skill," he said. "But now you can—" he looked right past me. "What's that? A prison cell."

I hadn't wanted him to come down and see it. "Yeah. It's not in use."

He walked right to it, immediately seeing the bones inside. It was much brighter now. There were rags on show too, eaten away at by bugs and mites. "Who were they?"

I took him back to the family tree and showed him my aunt and her husband as they were listed as dead. The third wasn't on their because he was illegally turned, and while it was still shamed to turn others into vampires, it was more common. "Everyone on this is a natural vampire," I informed him. "It's why I'm here, because rules always change, and I'm going to change the rule that the elders are using to keep us apart."

"How?"

That was the real question. There were a lot of books here. It was going to take a lot of time to get through them all and find a prophetic statement that went in direct opposite to the one being used against us.

I had faith. And a bond that I relied on.