While I sat on the chair, Ashley removed the other couple that was in the room. Probably thought that it was best to have less of an audience while Ricky explained everything to me. David stood in the doorway as if he was making sure that there were no interruptions. The whole situation made me kind of nervous. I had no idea how to react in a place like this. In just seconds my house felt like it wasn't even my own anymore.

"How do we do this?" Ricky asked himself more than to me.

David let out a sigh before giving his two cents, "Might as well just lay it on her. She will find out eventually."

Nodding in agreement, Ricky leaned down so that his eyes were leveled with mine. Complete seriousness filled his face. Making him look a lot like David. Proving that they were in fact relatives. I know that they were related by being cousins. But knowing was so much more different than actually seeing it.

"Before I start, I have to ask. Do you believe in vampires?" I could hear David let out a sigh of annoyance. Apparently this wasn't how he wanted the conversation to start. But Ricky ignored him as he continued with his point, "I'm only asking because this will be so much easier if you have some belief."

Looking at him confused, I tried to figure out where he was going with this. I didn't know him enough to know what was going on in his mind. This kind of made me wish that my best friend was around. It looked like he had a small idea on what was all going on. Jake was good at figuring things out by listening to the small details. Just thinking of him made me wonder where the heck he was since he practically lived at my house. Jack must have kidnapped him for the day to keep him away from the house. Which means, someone here had requested it.

"Ricky, just get to it already. I think she just figured out that we planned all of this," David confirmed my suspicions.

"Very well," Ricky said as he clapped his hands together while he straightened up, still staring at me, "Leah, we are vampires. And when I say we, I mean you as well."

I bursted out laughing. That was the most outrageous thing I had ever heard. Vampires didn't exist. Sure there were some diseases that got the nickname because it gave people the properties of the mythical creatures. But there was no way that they were actually real. I'm pretty sure this whole thing was a joke.

Sadly, the looks on David's and Ricky's faces made my laughter fade quickly. They weren't laughing along with me. Instead they were standing there looking very uncomfortable. Like they were struggling to tell me that this was not all a joke. They actually thought that this conversation was real and that vampires existed. Now I was starting to think I was surrounded by a bunch of crazies.

"Good Lord, you guys are terrible at this," I heard Ashley comment as she came walking into the room. She literally pushed Ricky out of the way before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of my chair, "Let's go to a different room and I will explain everything."

I let her drag me out of the living room and down the hall to my room. Once we were inside, she placed me on my bed before closing my bed room door. Watching her, she grabbed a chair that had no purpose in my room other than to hold my dirty clothes, and pulled it to be in front of me so she could face me while talking to me. She then sat down and smiled at me.

It's still hard to believe that she hasn't aged one bit since the last time I saw her. Ashley had been eighteen when she used to babysit me when I was five. One day she had stopped coming and was ruled as a runaway. That was a little over fifteen years ago. Now here she was alive and well. Looking exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Hopefully she could explain what is going on a little better than what Ricky had.

"I know you are confused. I still look the same after such a long time. Kind of happens when you nearly die and join a family that isn't quite normal," she mentioned to me, still smiling. Seeing it made me realize that I missed that smile a lot.

But then what she said finally registered in my head, "You nearly died?"

A sad smile fell on her face as I watched her go back in time to a dark place. Something I had never noticed when I was a child, "My dad was a drunk. Babysitting you was the only escape I had to get away from him. He had the habit of beating me whenever he drank to much. One day he got a little out of hand and nearly killed me. Ricky ended up showing just in time to save my life."

Just the mention of Ricky's name made her light up. I could tell that that was a story that she didn't mind telling. The story on how her and Ricky first met. But I'm kind of glad that she found him. By the sounds of it, Ashley had a tough life and she deserved someone who loved her as much as she loved them.

"Ever since he saved me, my biological clock slowed down. Seadonnas are very special people. They don't age like others do. Its due to a gene mutation that formed way back to a time period that I can never remember," she told me, "The gene was given the name Gene V because it gave the Seadonna family properties similar to the mythical creatures vampires.

"Seadonna's aged every two years to that of a normal human. So if a normal person was born the same time as a Seadonna and they just turned four, a Seadonna will only turn two. Am I making sense?" Ashley began to explain.

"I think so," I answered honestly.

She ended up giving me a sympathetic smile before she continued, "It's usually hard to understand at first. You have to actually live it to fully understand it. Anyways, none of us know where Gene V actually originated or how it became a mutation in the first place. Maybe it was just Mother Nature creating something that can survive harsh conditions of the old world."

"You said there were properties similar to vampires that you guys possess, what are they?" I heard myself ask. Was I really believing what I was being told here?

"Besides aging more slowly, we are quicker. We do drink blood but only during a blue moon. We also heal faster than most people, but other than that, there is nothing different between us and normal people," she answered, "We can eat normal food without limitations like the myths say. We can walk in the sunlight without any problems, but the first generations have a slight sensitivity that can just be written off as a small allergy. We don't shift into bats or keep any around, but we do have wolves that wonder the halls of the tower."

"Wolves?" I was kind of shocked to hear that.

Ashley nodded, "They come and go when they please. I'm not sure where they come from or why they do, but you get used to it after a while and don't ask questions. It's usually best when you live in the tower since a lot of weird things happen."

It felt like weird things were happening in my life as well. Things that just couldn't be explained. But for some odd reason, what Ashley was saying was making some sense. How she says that this Gene V works, makes sense because of the fact that we don't know much about how the human body works. If I remember correctly there are scientists that are trying to figure it out as we speak.

"We're the good guys, Leah. We work with the government to solve the mysteries that is Gene V. Maybe even use the gene to help save lives one day," Ashley said reassuringly, "But with every good there is a bad."

"You mean Donny?" I mentioned.

She nodded to let me know that I got the right answer, "He was already long gone by the time I joined the family. Ran off when they had just turned fourteen, it was hard on Ricky. But what makes it harder is that Donny made his own family and they go more by the myths than we do. They constantly drink blood, only come out at night, hardly eat any normal food, and are far scarier than you can imagine."

I didn't doubt what she said. Even with the small interaction I had with him, gave me chills. He was scary even though he still fascinated me at the same time. Just the thought of him creeped me out. Warning signs flashed when ever his name came to mind. But yet I still felt like there was more to the evil that was Ricky's twin brother.

A soft knock on the door made Ashley and me look towards the door. The young woman I had saw before hesitantly stuck her head into my room. She had light dirty blond hair that was styled into a messy braid that hung over her shoulder.

"It's okay Amanda. You can come in?" Ashley reassured her.

She smiled as she came in. She had dark brown eyes that showed that she had a matureness to her. Just seeing her made me feel like I could trust and rely on her. As she walked in to the room, I took more of her in. She wore an oversized hooded sweater but it didn't hid the bump forming at her midsection. She even wore hot pink leggins with pink sandals to complete the look.

She stopped right in front of me, a big kind smile on her face. Holding out her hand for a handshake she introduced herself, "I'm Amanda Seadonna. It's so nice to finally meet you."

Taking the offer I shook her hand. All the while Ashley was smiling proudly. After our handshake, the new addition to our group plopped herself next to me on my bed. She then held out her cell phone to Ashley with a smile on her face, "You should text my husband for me and ask him to bring me food."

"Why can't you do it?" Ashley asked her as she slowly took the phone.

"I'm not talking to him," she answered.

Confused, I mentioned, "If she texts from your phone, wouldn't that count as talking to him?"

"Good point," she said before getting a brilliant idea, "Text Ricky and tell him that I want Mike to bring me food."

Ashley frowned at her as she gave back the cell phone. Just seeing the interaction between the two showed how close they actually were. You could tell that they were almost like sisters. It kind of made me curious on how close their husbands were with each other. But that thought was long forgotten when they both just started staring at me for no reason. Making me feel uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"What?" the staring was starting to freak me out. Did they ask me something and were waiting for an answer?

They ended up looking at each other for a few seconds before looking back at me. This was making me more and more uncomfortable. You would think that I was a science experiment. Or, maybe I had something on my face and they were just trying to figure out on how to tell me about it. Either way, I hope that they would finally explain their sudden strange behavior.

After about five to ten minutes, it looked like they weren't going to explain anything. They were just going to continue to stare at me. It was also getting to the point that I didn't want to be around them anymore. Slowly getting up from my bed, I began to back away from them. My eyes never leaving their stares. Not one of them moving a muscle.

I wasn't sure where I was headed and I wasn't going to find out because my back ran right into David. The only reason why I knew that it was him without looking was because Ricky and the other guy went up to the staring girls. Also I'm pretty sure Derik would smell like cigarettes. Then I mentally smacked myself because David smoked too. But something deep inside told me that it was him for sure. Turning around to face him confirmed that I was correct.

His dark eyes looked down at me as if he was wondering what was going on. Ricky had the same expression on his face. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't because the girls were staring at me. They were all probably wondering what my reaction was going to be towards all that was told to me. Honestly, I didn't know how to react.

It's not everyday that you get told something so out there that still made complete sense. All of my life I was told that vampires was nothing but a myth. A fantasy. Something you only read in books and saw in movies. Never in my whole life did I think that they could actually exist. It was just too mind blowing.

"I think you guys broke her," Derik pointed out as he entered my room. He stopped next to David, taking in everyone's expressions, "So what are you going to do now?"

Judging by the looks on their faces, they didn't plan this far. It was as if they were going to go by reaction. Maybe that is why Ricky suggested the one thing that made David give him a look of death, "We might as well leave the half breed with her."

"Over my dead body," David countered. Resulting a look of unapproval from Ashley, "Don't look at me like that. There is no way in Hell I am leaving him with her."

"Right here, dude," Derik said offended.