Children of The Fallen

Chapter 10: red and black

Morgan Sinclair

The rest of the day was awkward to say the least. Whatever Victoria did or said, Grayson was silent the whole day. I heard Dane and Chloe fighting upstairs, my ears unwillingly focused on it. I tried not to but the rest of the house was so quiet I really couldn't help it. Chloe kept adamantly defending Grayson. Not excusing his behavior, but she was particularly annoyed about Dane bringing up Kendrick where Grayson's concerned. She said that was low, he didn't think so.

They agreed to disagree but Dane was giving her the cold shoulder the whole day so I guess it wasn't as neutral as they thought. Chloe did stomp downstairs to go reprimand Grayson for brutally attacking Dane. Oddly Grayson seemed receptive, he didn't really fight her on it. He even went out the next day and bought her a new table. He did steal Kellans truck to do so, but he did it nonetheless.

She got them both to apologize to each other for getting unnecessarily violent in her new house. It was incredibly insincere on both ends but definitely funny to watch them awkwardly shake hands while Chloe smiled widely in the background.

Another week went by and it was business as somewhat usual. Grayson went back to going out every night but not bringing anyone back with him. Victoria went back to her general silence, and Chloe and Dane seem to be back to their lovey-dovey selves. I told Kellan about all this energy I now have and don't know what to do with, so we've started working out with each other. About 3 hours a day. It's wild to think that two weeks ago I couldn't even get out of bed without feeling like I just ran several marathons. It's nice to be able to work off at least some of this energy and I'm definitely not complaining about spending some alone time with Kellan.

We mostly talk about vampire stuff, his responsibilities with his territory in part of Columbia and Venezuela, and what I should be expecting in the weeks to come. But sometimes we talk about other things like books and tv shows, about each other- I learned he can speak Spanish. Makes sense given where his territory is but I thought it was cool. I've always wanted to learn another language but never did. Briefly we talked about Lucien and how much he hates him. His mother Elara has always hated him even when they were celestials. He was everything wrong with celestials and now he's everything wrong with vampires. I was surprised that he'd be friends with Dane being Lucien's son and all but he said if Chloe trusts and loves him then that said everything he needs to know about him.

A lot of the time he'll complain about Grayson. He really does not like him. He always picks at his "lifestyle" which mainly consists of feeding on and killing people, partying, 'general depravity' as he calls it- he hates it. He expressed that he enjoyed Dane jabbing at him with the mention of Kendrick and his title. Apparently Graysons never held the title of High Royal. His father Kendrick never granted him it so he has no palace, no city, no people, nothing. He actually lives with Chloe in Colorado, where her palace is. Safe to say it's a sore spot for him, explains why he flipped out at the mention of it. I may not be the biggest fan of Grayson but I can't help but feel bad for him, at least in that moment.

On top of all this excess energy, my whole body feels weird. Not in the way that it's typically weird, I can't really explain it. Everything's just... more. I started experiencing the hearing and the smell a little before hand but now they're both even more magnified than before.

I'm hearing the lights in the upstairs hallway and don't even get me started on the sounds of the birds chirping, bugs buzzing, the wind, leaves rustling, cars- Oh my God the cars, their engines and their wheels against the ground. They're all distant but sound like someone hooked them up to an amp on full blast and it happens to be right next to my ear.

A peaceful nights sleep has been out of my grasp lately because of that. That and my sense of smell. I smell the blood in the fridge 24/7. I can keep it together while everyone's awake and around, there's a bunch of distractions, but when everyone either goes to bed or goes out I have nothing to divert my attention. Dane said a couple days ago that the enhanced senses would be the first thing about me that fully came out and even now, he said my sense of smell and hearing might very well intensify even more.