The Vampire SEAL Collection, page 49
“Sam?” I called out, looking around the immediate area. He didn’t answer.
Rising from the couch, I headed down to his bedroom and knocked on the door.
“Sam, I know you’re in there. I can hear your heart racing.” Easing open the door, I peeked inside. “Can I come in?”
“You’re already in,” he said.
He was lying on the bed in the dark with his hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling.
“I didn’t hear you leave. What’s wrong?” I asked, leaning against the doorjamb.
“Nothing.”
“Really? Why don’t I believe you?” I flipped on the light switch.
“Turn it off,” he said, covering his eyes.
Wow! “Are you crying?” I asked.
I’d never in my life seen my brother shed a tear. Those papers or the picture must’ve spooked him. I did as he wanted and switched off the light. Then I made my way over to the bed and sat down.
“Why are you upset?”
I waited for his response. Silent seconds turned into silent minutes before I decided to give him his space and not press the issue.
Standing, I glanced up at his patched quilt. It was the same as the one I had hanging over my bed, only his name was embroidered at the top—Samuel Jove Mason. We were still waiting for Dad to explain how he and our mom came up with our names. In fact, Sam and I found it odd that we even had a middle name. Over the years, the social workers who had been assigned to us had never indicated that our paperwork had one listed.
“I’ll be back in the family room.” I made it halfway to the door.
“Jo...wait.”
I turned.
“Do you think Pops is really our father? I know he gave us our birth certificates and I saw the picture of Mom standing next to him, but…” He sat up. “I also feel his emotions around us and he hurts every time the three of us are together. He’s hiding something.”
I didn’t move. My brother had never been one to trust anyone except me, so I wasn’t surprised to hear him say this. But I didn’t share his distrust. Sam was the spitting image of my father. They were both tall and well built, and they had the same dimpled cheeks, same nose, same color eyes, and same smile, even the same mannerisms. It would be hard to convince me Steven Mason wasn’t our father. Plus, the most critical piece that proved he was our father was our DNA. Dr. Vieira had my DNA tested to make sure I was truly my father’s daughter before I made the change. Granted I hadn’t seen those results, but I trusted that Dr. Vieira was telling the truth. For that matter, there was also the fact that we had even become vampires. Everyone said that could only be done with a father’s blood. How could we have turned by his blood if he wasn’t our father?
“If he’s hiding anything, it’s something to do with his feelings,” I told Sam. “Besides, you saw his name on our birth certificate. And there’s no way I could’ve turned vampire if he wasn’t our father. Our DNA had to match in order for us to change.”
“Sis, don’t be so naive. How do you know they weren’t lying? We’re on a government compound. The government can do or say anything.”
“You’re not listening. This has nothing to do with the government. Science doesn’t lie. Now you know that he’s really our father, maybe it’s the reality of it that sucks.”
Sam jumped off the bed and stood in front of me before I could blink my eyes.
“The only family I will ever have is you.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead, then walked out.
Whoa! What just happened? Was my brother having a mental breakdown? He was acting extremely odd. What else did he need for proof? I shook my head. I wasn’t going to worry about Sam’s hang-ups. Steven Mason was our father and until someone proved otherwise, I would continue to build a relationship with the man, even if it took an eternity to work out our differences.
I retreated to the family room and continued sifting through the papers in my folder. Aside from the picture of Mom and my birth certificate, there were a couple of pictures of Sam and me as babies. Sam was decked out in a blue outfit that had a baseball embroidered on the T-shirt, and I was wearing the exact same outfit, only in yellow.
I was about to get off the couch and join Sam on the chaise when Dad walked in. He placed his keys and cell phone on the kitchen counter before easing onto the cushion beside me.
“Did you look through the folder?” he asked.
“I did,” I replied.
“Do you have any questions?” Dad glanced over his shoulder at Sam. “What’s wrong with your brother?”
I shrugged.
“Can you tell me about Mom?” I asked.
“Scoot over here,” he said, patting the cushion.
Curling my legs underneath me, I leaned into the crook of his arm. He placed his arm on the back of the couch.
“Your mom was a strong woman” he began. “A little feisty, like you. You remind me a lot of her. She loved life and loved being pregnant with you two.”
“Did you love her?”
His heartbeat picked up.
“I loved her dearly. I still do. She was the only woman…” His voice trailed off as his pulsed raced.
“I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to stir—”
“You didn’t,” he whispered.
“The only woman…what, Pops?” Sam said in a snide tone. “That put up with your shit.”
The only sound in the room was Dad’s fangs clicking as they descended. I grabbed his arm to hold him down, but he was far stronger than me.
He flew off the couch.
He stood toe-to-toe with Sam. The power around us escalated.
Why, oh why was my brother being an idiot?
“You will not disrespect your elders,” growled Dad. “And you will never speak to me about your mother in that way. Do you hear me, son? I’m trying to let you air out your issues and I’ve even ignored some things to try to help you, but I will not stand for disrespect.”
I ran over to them. However, before I reached my dad, he stuck out his arm.
“Stay away, Jo.”
“No! I know he can be an ass, Dad, but have you ever stopped to consider how he feels? Just because you handed us a piece of paper with your signature on it, doesn’t mean that all our issues are over.”
Oh shit! Did I just say all that? I stopped dead in my tracks, afraid he was going to start yelling at me. Tears welled up. I wasn’t sure what my father was going to do as he stood with his hands fisted at his sides.
After several long seconds, Dad walked away. Sam dropped to the chaise. I ran over to my brother and sat down.
“Get away, sis,” he snapped, throwing out his hand and hitting me in the face.
“You asshole. I’m not your enemy here. I’m your sister. What happened to what you told me earlier? Now you’re hitting me? Both of you are insane.” I ran to my bedroom.
Dad caught me midway. My body shook violently. I hated when my brother was being a jerk. He seemed to know just what buttons to push with Dad. Why couldn’t we have a decent conversation? Or even finish a conversation, for that matter?
“Jo, calm down. Sit,” Dad said, guiding me to the sofa. “Sam. On the couch,” Dad commanded, pointing his finger to the seat next to me.
Sam sat down, wrapped his arms around me and buried his face into the crook of my neck. “I’m so, so sorry, sis. I didn’t mean to,” he whispered. “I’m an ass. Please forgive me.”
I pushed him away and a tear streamed down his face. His green eyes slowly faded to black. Okay, this was just too freaky. For the second time in barely an hour my brother was shedding tears. We were seriously screwed up.
“Let’s start over,” Dad said. “What questions do you two have?”
Really? He was going there again? I leaned back against the couch. I did have a few more, and if Sam screwed up our getting answers, he and I were going down to the training room to have it out.
“What about our middle names? Where did they come from? Why didn’t we know we even had them before?” I asked, glaring at Sam, daring him to interrupt.
Dad sat down on the other side of me.
Sam relaxed, or at least seemed to, kicking up his feet onto the table.
“Your mother believed in the power of the universe.” Dad hesitated as he gazed at Sam. “She believed names held power and that their meaning shaped a person. She may have been human, but her spirituality electrified the people around her. Her aura was what drew me to her. Anyway, she knew the strength your grandfather had as a vampire and the power that I have, and she knew in her heart that both of you would live to do great things in this world. She studied astrology and astronomy and found the two sciences interrelated. Her main focus was how the astrological phenomena behind the universe linked to events in the human world. Of course, the scientific community has a host of reasons why astrology is not worthy of being considered a formal science. That didn’t matter to your mother though.”
“So how did she come up with our names?” I asked.
“I’m getting to that, sweetie.” Dad swallowed. “Through her studies, she found that the planet Jupiter signified good fortune. She believed, as others did and still do, that Jupiter is the guardian and protector of the sky. Astrologists will tell you Jupiter is the ruling planet of the sign Sagittarius, and in Roman mythology, Jupiter was considered king of the gods.”
“Wait,” Sam cut in. “Is that why you guys are called the Jupiter Sentinels?”
Dad nodded.
I raised my fingers to my lips. A thought grabbed me. I remembered in space science class, sitting in the planetarium, looking up at the fake sky, listening to Ms. Lewis explain that Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto were all very powerful gods. The three brothers were reputed to have presided over one of the three realms of the universe. Jupiter governed the sky, Neptune controlled the waters, and Pluto was considered the god of the underworld. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up straight as pins. Did that mean the Plutariums were named after Pluto?
“Your mother was superstitious,” Dad continued. “Since your astrological sign is Sagittarius, and your ruling sign is Jupiter, she thought the symbolism behind the name Jupiter fit perfectly for you, and that the name would bring both of you good fortune. So her and I decided on your middles names of Jove and Juno. And if you don’t know, Jove is synonymous with Jupiter.”
“Where does Juno come in? There’s no planet Juno.” I struggled to recall anything Ms. Lewis taught us on other planets. All that came to mind were the popular planets in the solar system.
“Well, you’re right,” Dad said. “But Juno is an asteroid. In mythology, though, Juno was believed to be the sister of Jupiter, his twin. She was a goddess known for her protective nature.”
“Um, Pops, wasn’t Juno the wife of Jupiter?” Sam asked. “At least, that’s what I remember from my literature class. I think one of the girls in class did a paper on Juno.”
I laughed. “Wife? I’m not marrying you.”
A smile twitched at Dad’s mouth. “It depends on the interpretation. Your mother found the same thing, and we discussed it at length. Regardless, she was dead set on the correlation of the names since you are twins.”
“Great. I was given a name as the wife of my brother.”
“Now, Jo, let’s not dwell on that part.” Dad rubbed my head. “While your mother is not here today, I’m beginning to learn that she may be onto something with her beliefs, looking at the way both of you are growing into adults. Of course, time will still tell what lies ahead.”
“So why do our birth certificates say we’re seventeen? That would mean Sam and I will be eighteen in a few months. It also says we were born in December and not February like we were told.”
Dad kissed me on the head. “Very astute, sweetie. All vampire babies are born at home through a midwife. Our society can’t allow any newborns who carry the vampire genes to be born in a human hospital. Too many tests result in too many questions. When a baby is born with a vampire gene, our government completes all the paperwork for both our world and the human world. Only the data they list on the human birth certificate doesn’t necessarily match with the vampire one. We change things like your birthdate, middle name and your mother’s name. The reason we do this is to protect our world from humans. If the human government ever compared notes or documents with our government, they would be hard pressed to put two and two together. It helps conceal our identities as vampires. The documents in your folders are your real vampire birth certificates. I don’t have your human one, which I know, Jo, is your next question. You don’t need your human one, not right now. I am your father, even though Sam has more than ton of doubt in him about me. But for now, that’s all you’re going to get. Any other questions?”
An infinite amount. But it was getting late. Sam and I weren’t going to get very many answered, at least not tonight.
“You know, Pops,” Sam said, sitting up, “I know there’s a lot you’re not telling us. Granted, I get the vampire government stops you from telling us everything, but I want you to know that if you’re lying to us and you ever hurt us, I will do everything in my power to make sure you pay, regardless of whether you’re family or not. Are we clear?”
Spoken like a true Mason. I was in awe of my brother at this moment. My father didn’t move. Didn’t even flinch. He just stared at Sam as though he was the son and Sam was his elder. I couldn’t tell if Dad was proud or pissed.
Several moments of silence gave way to Dad shifting away his gaze from Sam and clearing his throat.
“Son, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Dad pushed to his feet.
I let out the deepest sigh, relieved they hadn’t gotten into a brawl.
“Now, one more thing. In preparation for our meeting with the solicitors tomorrow, I wanted to ask you both something.” Dad sat down on the coffee table so he was facing Sam and me.
Sam and I gave him our full attention. Maybe because Dad never asked us anything so much as told us.
“As you both know, you’ll have a chip placed in you with all your personal information on it. The procedure on how it’s done will be explained to you tomorrow. The chip is not an option. However, I would like to give you the choice to have a tattoo placed on your body at the same time. It’s a tradition in the Mason family to have a symbol that represents who we are tattooed on us. I have one here,” he said, pointing to one of his tats on his forearm.
The tattoo was a circle with an arrow jutting out from the one o’clock position.
“What does that stand for, Pops?” Sam asked.
“Well, in addition to your mother, my family also believes in the power behind the universe. They gave me a birth name of Steven Mars Mason. They thought it was appropriate for me. Mars is considered the god of war. Were they right? I don’t know. My role is to prevent wars, not start them. Nevertheless, I wanted to follow in the family tradition, and your mother was in agreement that if we had children, they would do the same.
“However, I don’t want to force this one on you. I know that you have concerns over the chip. Frankly, I don’t blame you. I had the same issues. But the chip is nothing more than a way to police our world. In addition, being a legal vampire does provide some benefits like stipends for everyday living. Some vampires can’t work among humans, but they still need to live. Our government provides a way for them to do that so they’re not out robbing places or killing humans for their next meal.”
“Why not just have vampires carry something like a social security card instead of a chip?” I asked.
“We tried that many years ago. It was too confusing to keep things separate from the humans. Plus, we want there to be as little as possible physical evidence to prevent humans finding out about us. With technology evolving every day the process is easier,” Dad explained.
I guess it made sense, although I still wasn’t enamored with having a chip implanted under my skin.
“What do you think about getting a tattoo?” Dad asked.
“I’m cool with it, Pops,” Sam said.
“And, sweetie, what about you?” Dad looked to me.
“I guess it depends on what it is,” I said, shrugging.
“Well, your tattoo would represent your middle name of Juno and for Sam, Jove. Juno’s symbol is an upside-down cross with a seven-pointed star at the top. And, son, yours would be the Jupiter symbol like all the Sentinels have.” He pointed to his forearm. “But there would be a slight variation. Instead of the straight stem of the symbol, yours would have a lightning bolt instead, to make sure there’s a distinction between you and the Jupiter Sentinels.”
I bit my bottom lip, thinking about all this. I didn’t have any hang-ups about tattoos. I liked the ones on Dad. I just didn’t want a ton like he had.
“Why don’t you think about it overnight? If you’re keen then think about where you would want it on your body as well. Now, it’s getting late. I’m going to bed.” Dad stood and kissed me on the head, then patted Sam on his shoulder before he left the room.
Sam and I sat there in silence. After a few minutes I turned, facing him.
“So, what do you think of all this?” I asked.
Sam and I hadn’t really discussed much in the last week or so. In fact, we hadn’t even discussed how we felt about the computer chip or school or anything else. All we’d been doing was working out, training and sleeping.
“I guess there are bigger things in life to be concerned with than a chip and a tattoo,” Sam said. “So the vampire government tracks their people. So do the humans, just in a different way. I don’t see that the vampire government is doing anything bad. If it’s a way to police us, as they say, then what’s the harm? I asked Tripp about his and he said it’s no big deal. Pops has one too. As for the tattoo, I was getting a couple anyway as soon as I could.”
