⚠︎ This chapter has mentions of murder and blood consumption.

♬ Everybody’s Watching Me (Uh Oh) - The Neighborhood ♬

‘’I would bring forth your doom if that meant that you would remain by my side until the world finishes burning.’’

The flickering lights, strong smell of disinfectant and those damn uncomfortable white walls that make one feel like going insane. Walking through the hallways of the biggest hospital for vampires in the country is like experiencing a drug high. The Blood Bank is a hospital located at the outskirts of Iris City, in an old rundown building that could fall apart with the slightest of winds. Most of its windows are broken, the old wooden floor squeaks at every step people take inside and the gardens are filled with dead and poisonous plants. Although the place is without a doubt a terrible looking hospital, it's still famous and incredibly busy, as vampires tend to be quite sentimental.

As one can assume due to the name, not only the Blood Bank is a hospital for injured and sick vampires, but it is also a place where the blood humans donate to vampires is stored and then it is distributed to those who live in Iris City.

Donating blood for vampires is done in cities across the country and it's a completely voluntary act, in case there is a shortage in human blood, vampires are instructed to consume the blood of large animals, which is extracted before an animal is put down for human consumption. Animal blood is also stored in the Blood Bank, however the demand is quite smaller, since to most vampires, animal blood tends to taste like paper.

Nicolas Algeo always hated hospitals, especially those with such an eerie atmosphere. His shoes are loud as he walks around the Blood Bank looking for his older brother’s office, his red eyes analyzing the place filled with ill vampires and expressionless nurses. If the situation wasn't so dire he would never step foot there.

The office is at the end of a long corridor where half of the lights don't work. For a place so important in Iris City, one would expect that they would have the money to fix a measly light. This place is a dump, Nicolas thinks, pushing his short hair back and sighing with frustration before opening the door of Zacharie’s office.

Cramped and damp, that's how it feels inside the small office, filled to the brim with books and loose papers, not to mention the snake tank on the side with no snake and the desk that is drowned in documents. Behind the pile of trash is Zacharie. He's by far the only Algeo brother that took most of their father's features, sharp jaw, striking red eyes, a short and badly trimmed beard to match his unkept wavy red hair. He's too skinny again, Nicolas thinks, as his older brother tends to get too engrossed in things, forgetting to eat and sometimes even forgetting to shower, which was the worst part in his honest opinion. 

“One day you'll disappear if you keep forgetting to feed”, Nicolas says, pushing documents off one of the chairs so that he can sit on it, Zacharie doesn't even raise his head, Nicolas sighs, snapping his fingers on his older brother's face. “Hello? Earth to a useless older brother?” 

If anyone asked the Algeo brothers who is the brother that dotes more on the youngests, they would for sure say Nicolas or Levi, however if they ask the one that cares the least, it would be Zacharie, at least in their perspective, maybe because of the difference of age or generations, but the eldest always found hard to connect with his brothers.

He probably should try, but he was always so used to being trapped in his jobs that he doesn't know how. Even his wife was threatening a divorce because he missed their date because of a new batch of blood that arrived. Surely it's not his fault that he's the only competent hematologist there, to do the blood's quality control, however it is his fault for not calling or even texting her.

“What do you want, Nicolas?” Zacharie's voice is low, he sounds sleep deprived and malnourished, both in which he probably is. 

“I'm hurt, why do you assume I would only seek you when I need something?” Nicolas pretends to be hurt, touching his chest and pouting. Zacharie only looks at him with a blank expression. “Fine”, he admits. “It's not for me, it's for Eryx”, the mention of the youngest makes the eldest drop the papers he was looking at.

“What happened to him?”

Nicolas laughs, “Oh look, even you care about our baby brother?”

Those taunting words make Zacharie blush with embarrassment. “Just get to the point Nicolas”.

“Did you know Mom almost named him after her father? That old man's name was Alfred, Alfred, that's absolutely atrocious”.

A sigh leaves Zacharie's mouth, “Nicolas”.

“Fine fine fine”, the man says, leaning back onto the chair, staring at his older brother. “He managed to turn”.

Those words shock him less than what he thought it would. “How?”

“We're not sure, that's why I brought you this”, Nicolas takes a vial of blood from his pocket. “Don't worry I used a sterile needle and made sure to not saturate the blood”, he says, foreseeing the nagging.

“There's no use, even so, the blood is too old, you clearly didn't store it properly”, Zacharie's voice is serious as he points to Nicolas’ pocket. “Just ask him to come here during the week”.

“He can't, he's at the Academy”.

Again, even if he's supposed to be shocked, he just isn't. Why?

“He can come after the introductory week for tests, I'll talk with Milo”, Zacharie says, grabbing his phone, Nicolas leans over, pushing his brother's hand away from the device.

“Why aren't you shocked?” He asks.

Zacharie blinks slowly before sighing. “You know Elara has her prophetic dreams”, he says, scratching his head, unsure how to explain his wife's vivid dreams. “She told me she dreamed Eryx was at the Academy as a vampire and that he was going through a trial of life and death.”

As a past target of Zacharie's wife's prophetic dreams, Nicolas ponders, leaning back onto the chair again, his eyes focused as he attempts to unravel those words. Elara’s dreams aren't meant to be taken lightly, differently from those with the ability of seeing the future she can see more than mere events, she can see a person's soul, intent and even if such events will be positive or negative, however they're all subjective and up to her own interpretation.

And sometimes she tends to be quite dramatic.

“I see, I'll text Eryx so that he reminds Milo about it then, because you know how that sleepyhead is” He says with a sigh, not sure how to interpret things just yet.

“Well, when it comes to Eryx and Luc they all try to be responsible”, Zacharie says, defending Milo, Nicolas shakes his head.

“When Eryx was a child he slept so much he forgot to take the sick boy to the hospital, so no, I'm not going to fully trust that sleepyhead”.

“It was just once and he was quite regretful later”, Zacharie comments, earning a glare from Nicolas.

After a few moments of silence, Nicolas feels a cold moving thing on his legs. What the… he looks down to find Zacharie's annoying pet snake. A 6m long scarlet long-fanged snake, a species of snake created with a vampire's blood, it lives around 400 years and feeds on blood just like a regular vampire. And just like its name, their fangs are so long it doesn't fit inside their mouth and their skin is red and shiny just like a ruby.

“Fuck, lock this shit up”, Nicolas says annoyed, pulling his legs up so that the snake doesn't touch him, Zacharie smirks softly.

“Cupcake is just hungry” he says with amusement clear in his voice.

“Don't name a deadly snake with such a cute name”, Nicolas scoffs, disgusted. “You're not bringing this to my place when you come to visit the baby”.

Zacharie freezes, now he's surprised.

“Baby?”

“Azrael and I are adopting”, Nicolas says, blushing, even if in front of his younger brothers’ and mother he sounded confident, he can't help but feel like a child when he's in front of the eldest’s eyes, after all for long years he was his precious only younger brother.

“Congratulations”, Zacharie says, his tone cautious. “Are you going for a newborn or a child?”

“Newborn, we're talking with a few women that are pregnant and thinking about adoption”. Nicolas says, resting his head on his knees, still recoiling, afraid of the pet on the floor. “I’m unsure if we'll adopt a human or vampire, a few years ago I would say vampire but after the experience of living with Eryx as a human…”

“I don't think you should adopt a human, Nicolas, that'll only bring them inside a world they don't belong in”, Zacharie points out, worried. “Did you tell mother yet?”

“Yes, this morning… She just complained about the fact that you don't have a child yet”, his words make the other sigh.

Zacharie scratches his head, frustrated. “I already told her we have no intention of having children”.

“Well, you know mother, stubborn as a mule”.

“Ha, that's true”, the eldest laughs, staring at his younger brother with care. He wishes to ask more, but he's scared of perhaps overstepping his bounds.

“That reminds me…”, Nicolas says after a moment of silence, his expression is wary. “Eryx came out…”

“From where?”

Nicolas looks at his brother as if he's incredibly stupid. “From the closet you moron, he told us this morning… I'm just telling you in case he tells you later, you can't have the same reaction you did when I came out”.

The older brother shakes his head. “Nicolas I already asked for forgiveness so many times, you're aware at that time none of us was aware of how being gay worked”.

“Either way, being denied my own identity was quite harmful, if I didn't have Azrael…” Nicolas trails off, his eyes becoming distant, as if he's reminiscing about something. “Eryx is our baby brother, and probably the last Algeo child to be born from mother since Father is dead, so I don't want him to be in harm's way”.

“I agree”, Zacharie nods. “He deserves peace now that he finally turned”.

“For that we must completely unravel what caused his transformation”, Nicolas puts his feet on the ground again, getting up from the chair and cautiously looking around to see if Cupcake wasn't around him. “I'm going to go to them, I have work to do and Azrael and I have a date later today”.

“I don't really need to know your plans”, Zacharie grabs another paper from his desk as he speaks.

“Mother will throw a dinner to celebrate our choice to adopt, please come with Elaria”, Nicolas says, awkwardly, he sure wants the approval of his older brother, just like always.

“Sure, you should throw it during the weekend so that Luc and Eryx can come”, the eldest comments.

“Of course, who do you think I am? I'm their favorite brother!” His words make Zacharie chuckle. “What? You don't agree? Why? You think it's you?”

“No, I'm quite self-aware, however I'm pretty sure Levi is their favorite brother, especially to Eryx since they play the violin and go to concerts together”, Zacharie comments, putting his papers down to look at Nicolas who's blushing out of anger.

“I refuse, Eryx told me I'm his favorite when he was a kid!”

“Things change in a decade even if we believe it doesn't”.

“Shut up, I'm leaving, you're speaking nonsense”, Nicolas turns to leave but stops at the door, glancing at his unkept older brother once again. “For all that counts you're my favorite older brother”, he says leaving the room.

Zacharie stares at the office's door dumbfounded. “I'm your only older brother you rascal”, he mutters to himself, laughing right after.