⚠︎ This chapter has mentions of blood consumption.

♬ SUPERHUMAN - Dorothy ♬

‘’Life is made of choices, events that take you through different paths depending on it, if you could leave it to fate to decide your future, would you gladly give it the baton or would you run away with it, desperate to keep the control over your own life?.’’

How Eryx managed to fall asleep is beyond even his own comprehension, however he managed to sleep for a few hours before his alarm went off. The night before was a blur, but the decision of asking his brother to erase whatever it was afflicting him was probably for the best. All he remembers was bits of information, that whatever it was that he went through from when he got to his room to Ezekiel’s arrival, it is better forgotten.

After his brother erased those memories, all Ezekiel and Mael told him was to let them solve the rest and focus on his adaptation as a vampire and entry to the prestigious Link Academy. I also need to think what course I'll take, he thinks as he leaves his bed.

It takes him around an hour to get ready and pack his bags, his whole life changing in less than 24h, he stares deeply into his now orange glowing eyes, it's surreal how he wished to be a vampire so badly and now that he is one he's unsure if this was really what he wanted. Being constantly told that because he was human he was going to die before his brothers or that he would never truly be family to them because of it… Before he recalled his previous life memories, he would think those people were right and feel bad about himself, however now he can't trust those words. How his brothers instantly mobilized themselves to help him, how even though he was constantly causing trouble they still remained by his side… He's truly loved.

I have dad's eyes, he thinks getting closer to his own reflection, his fingers lingering near the reflection of his eyes. Luc will hate this, he snorts, still staring deep into his own gaze. I wonder how the other brothers will react.

A knock on his door interrupts whatever thoughts he was about to have. “Eryx, come eat, we must leave soon”, Levi's voice is hoarse, he sounds tired, as he was probably up until late solving his younger brother's documents for enrollment. 

Eryx opens the door to face his brother whose red eyes were surrounded by heavy dark circles. “Thank you, Levi”, he says. His brother stares at him in silence for a second before nodding.

“Mael told me you got your memories back after feeding last night”,  he comments, grabbing the bag from Eryx’s hand without a word and walking towards the stairs. The boy follows him. “Be careful at the school, most will assume you were transformed, but since we don't know what triggered your switch, you can't let them know what truly happened”.

“How will they know if we don't know what happened, dear brother?” Mael mocks Levi as he walks towards the end of the stairs, he was wearing the same clothes from the night before, but his hair is slightly wet, as if he catched a light rain. “Morning, ruffian”, he says towards Eryx, messing the younger boy's hair with a light smile, pretending the night before didn't happen, probably what is best since the boy himself barely remembers.

“Funny, and I'm the one babying him”, Levi comments, twisting his nose, leaving Eryx's bag by the door and walking towards the dining room where their mother, Margaret, Ezekiel and his other brother, Nicolas is. 

Nicolas is the second oldest brother, and one of the very few vampires in the world who's older than 500 years, of course there were others in Iris City since it's the oldest vampire city built, but the population of vampires older than 500 are less than 5%, since the vampire and humans war that took place exactly that many years ago. Both Nicolas and their older brother Zacharie lived through the war, and also were close advisors for their deceased father.

Just like all the brothers, Nicolas has red hair, styled back and just a bit longer than Ezekiel's, but still short, his eye is red like their mother's, but his other eye is grey, because during the war he lost one of his eyes, which was later replaced with an eye made of glass. Differently from his other brothers, Nicolas was the most present one in Eryx's life, maybe taking the role of father to himself due to their age difference and their actual father’s passing.

“Eryx!” Nicolas screams, running towards his brother and hugging him tight. “I was so worried about you, why didn't you reply to my texts?”

“Calm down drama queen”, Mael says, sitting at the table and grabbing his glass of blood. “Ezekiel confiscated his phone last night,” he points at the tallest brother who's eating in silence, the red blood painting his pale lips red. “I went earlier to buy him a new one”, he completes tossing Eryx a brand new phone. “It has our numbers saved and a tracker, don't even think of trying to disable it, you're a newborn, you need to be monitored” he says, now directly to the younger brother.

Eryx sits down, followed by Nicolas who sits next to him and gives the boy a few bags of blood. I didn't notice I was this hungry, he thinks as he starts devouring the blood bags. While he drinks the sweet yet stale blood he pays attention to his brothers’ conversation, that was about him of course.

‘’I can’t even begin to unravel what happened last night’’, Mael sighs, leaning over the table, resting his head on it, just to receive a small slap from his mother for his lack of manners. ‘’Outch mom, gimme a break!’’ He says, but still corrects his own posture. 

‘’We need to take a blood sample and ask Zacharie to analyze it’’, Nicolas says with a smile as he pushes more blood onto his younger brother’s hand. ‘’After he changed jobs from the Mayor’s office to that Blood Bank I thought he was crazy but it sure is nice to have a hematologist for a brother right now’’. He comments with clear disgust in his words. Nicolas and Zacharie’s relationship was quite strained after the war, especially because it was just them for a while before Ezekiel was born, and sharing PTSD can sometimes be more negative than positive.

 ‘’Says the crime lord’’, Levi mumbles with his cup on his mouth, but everyone listens either way.

‘’Don’t speak of your brother like that Levi’’, his mom scolds with a sigh, she seems tired, probably because after her husband’s passing she now has to raise eight rowdy sons who don’t seem to ever grow up even if some are centuries old. Not only that but only two of them even have partners of their own, making the woman grow worried about them. 

Nicolas and Zacharie are the only ones in relationships, while Zacharie is married to another vampire woman for two centuries already, they still haven’t produced any offspring, and Nicolas, well, he won’t be having children any time soon since his partner is another man. It took his parents four decades to accept him, and now his partner is well-liked in the family. However the other children are, well, being children, although Milo and Levi are more than one century old, none have ever brought a date home, they probably had relationships as all of the Algeo brothers are good-looking and their family well-seen in society, but they never brought them to meet their mother seriously. And Ezekiel… Well, he had one very fucked up relationship, so it doesn’t count.

Maybe because she didn’t react properly to the first two that did.

But now that the centuries have been piling up, she feels the emptiness that a never-growing family has, especially when you’re never-dying. Someday she wishes to have grandchildren, not only children of her own, however maybe that’s too much to ask when they’re a family that already lost so much with the passing of the family’s head.

‘’Oh, right’’, Nicolas says as he pets Eryx’s wavy hair, ‘’Azrael and I are thinking of adopting’’, as if reading his mother’s mind, his words bring shock to everyone present, except Eryx, to whom the brother had already confided thinking about it.

‘’I can’t believe my gay brother is going to have a child before my older straight married one’’, Mael comments, always acting like a kid near his older brothers. ‘’This is insane, I need to smoke’’, he says, grabbing the cigarettes from his pocket and leaving the room.

‘’That is great news, Nicolas’’, their mother says with a smile. ‘’Are you thinking of adopting a boy or a girl?’’

‘’Boy, of course, we need to keep the family curse’’, he comments with a laugh at his mother’s terrified expression. ‘’I’m joking mother, we don’t know yet, we’re still thinking about it.’’

‘’I for once am happy for you, bring Azrael over for dinner sometime’’, she says, trying to hide her flustered expression due to her son’s joke.

‘’If you two have a kid, who would be the mother?’’ Margaret asks, her voice sounds like a flute, melodical and calming, there is a reason why their mother kept her as all of her sons’ nanny.

Nicolas sighs, ‘’We will both be the father, Margaret, please keep up with the conversation’’, he comments slightly annoyed.

‘’Sorry, it's hard to understand the younglings’’, she says, blushing. Not that she needs much effort, since Nicolas has come out for quite a while, even before Eryx was even born. ‘’I can’t understand how a man can love another man’’.

‘’Well, that’s your own prejudice to deal with’’, Nicolas says with a shrug, grabbing a napkin to clean Eryx’s mouth. He always treats me like a baby, well compared to his 558 years of age, Eryx is surely a baby.

‘’I’m also gay’’, Eryx says, leaning back onto the chair, if he could make a painting right now all of those present in that room would be looking like they saw a ghost. Ezekiel’s reaction is the most terrified there, as if Eryx had just said he’ll kill himself. Of course in his past life, he never really thought about his sexual orientation, he didn’t exactly enjoy romancing men nor women, but maybe that was due to the accident he suffered as a child that affected his brain slightly, however in his life as Eryx he was definitely attracted to men, probably because his brain was functioning properly now. Not that he can remember exactly what accident he had and why he was so affected by it, but what’s the use of mulling over his dead body? ‘’Why are all of you so surprised about this?’’ He asks.

‘’You’re probably just confused’’, Ezekiel is the first to speak, his words are almost a whisper, he can’t even bear to look at Eryx. ‘’You’re still young, you’re just trying to copy your older brother’’.

‘’Well, I lived 19 years as a human, I definitely had time to find myself while I thought my life would be short’’, Eryx strikes back, even if he didn’t tell his brother’s, he’s going to the Academy to romance a male target in a race against the heroine of this world, it would be far worse if they found out by rumors or by the mouth of others. ‘’Just because Nicolas is gay doesn’t mean I was influenced by him’’.

Nicolas, on the other hand looks conflicted, his face screams that he wishes to say those same words to Eryx, that he’s just confused, that it’s just a phase, but due to his own life, he cannot bring himself to actually say it.

‘’I can’t believe even you can’t trust my own words!’’ Eryx sighs, ‘’Well, whether you believe me or not won’t change much, I just thought I should come clean’’.

‘’Since when?’’ Nicolas asks, trying to make sense of the whole situation since the youngest never showed a hint of such preference, but he never showed the other way around as well.

Ezekiel flinches, as if he knows something, but none of the brothers notices it, only the mother who remains silent through the whole ordeal. It took her so long to accept Nicolas, and now her youngest is also deviating from the path she thought for him, she’s unsure how to even react to this.

‘’I don’t know?’’ Eryx answers, holding his arm, ‘’I guess since middle school?’’

‘’Ha’’, Levi laughs. ‘’You’re a baby Eryx, you don’t even have the age to have sex yet’’.

‘’Actually, he’s already considered an adult, remember?’’ Mael is the one who speaks as he comes back to the dining room. ‘’Even if he hasn't stopped growing yet, the fact he’s entering the Academy today means he’s coming of age’’.

‘’Even so-’’ Ezekiel tries speaking but is cut by Mael.

‘’At his age we were also engaging in such acts, older brother, do not try to berate him’’. Mael says coldly, driving the other brothers to become silent. Mael sits down, his long hair brushing against his eyes as he looks at Eryx. ‘’Even so, after all that happened to you, do you really still have time to think about boys?’’

The boy flinches, it’s not that he wants to think about boys, the future of their family relies on him doing so. And him telling his brothers’ about his sexual preference that he truly just came to understand fully not long ago, is simply to prevent any blood to be spilled, as he is quite aware of his position as the youngest, especially now that their father is gone and their mother has no intention of re-marrying.

‘’I just wanted to tell you, I guess I shouldn’t have’’, Eryx mumbles, getting up from the table, leaving his flustered brothers behind.

But Nicolas follows him. ‘’Eryx, wait’’, he grabs the youngest’s arm. ‘’I’m sorry about this, we’re just worried about you, everything is so sudden, you’re changing way too fast, and as your older brothers we just want you to take your time growing up’’.

‘’I know’’, Eryx sighs, ‘’I just wish you of all of them were more understanding, you know how hard it is to come out to a bunch of old-fashioned vampires’’, he says shyly, feeling insecure about the whole situation, can he truly go through this?

Especially considering he still hasn't told his brothers about the dead body he fed from yesterday or his new foresight power.

‘’I’m sorry, this is just too much for this old man’’, Nicolas says, embracing his younger brother. ‘’We love you, you know that, right?’’ Eryx nods, enjoying the hug.

‘’That’s too corny’’, Mael comments, walking past them. ‘’Just use protection if you’re going to do anything, vampires also carry STD’s.’’

‘’Take care… If you need just call us’’, Ezekiel says before opening the mansion’s door. ‘’I need to leave for work…’’ He trails off, looking at Mael. ‘’I’ll be back at night’’, then his eyes go back to Eryx, his gaze is always piercing, but with his memory intact he knows Ezekiel means no harm. ‘’Good luck at school’’.

‘’Thank you, brother’’, Eryx says with a soft nod.