1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

"sorry."

he told the

own-haired teenager as he wrenched her head back,

exposing her neck. "but i'm going to kill you now." he

started to lean in, fangs extended, and she whimpered. she was so

young, he noticed. pretty and young. she probably had no idea how

shitty life was, not yet."fuck!" he shouted,

mentally cursing that stupid

messed-up spell, and shoved her away. "i can't do it!" he

punched the wall, cracking the

icks. "what the fuck

is wrong with me?""well..." a young female

voice said slowly, "how about this: we'll wait 20 minutes, then

you can try again and i can knee you in the balls and run." he

turned and stared incredulously at the

unette, who was standing a

few feet away with her eye

ows raised and a smile playing about her

lips. he frowned and crossed his arms."you know, most

people would consider now

a good time to run." he pointed out."oh, i know."

she smiled sweetly and rocked back on her heels. "but how many

witches can say they've kneed a vampire and lived to tell about it?"

he raised an eye

ow, fangs still extended and face still

monstrous."aren't most of you people pacifistic

vegetarians or something?""well, everyone has off

days."he grinned suddenly – a slightly feral,

predatory grin. this girl was something else, something he'd never

run into before. "i'm roger." he said finally. the girl

grinned widely at him."my name's april."

he

was curious why a shop would be open this late; and he was bored –

that's why he walked into the little pagan store that night. the

first thing he noticed was the almost-overwhelming yet pleasant smell

of peppermint and burned sage. the second was that, despite it being

almost 11:30 at night, the only visible employee looked hardly over

16. and he looked very

familiar."hi, welcome to cohen's books and herbs, can i

help you?" the boy asked with a faint smile. the quiet type, it

seemed, hiding behind his glasses and undoubtedly more comfortable

doing inventory than manning the front. roger shrugged."just

looking around." he wondered

iefly if he dared risk attempting

to feed off this kid when another employee came out of the back

room."hey, mark, i'm almost out of hoarhound, comfrey

root and... rosehips." the pretty

unette said, not looking up

from her notebook, a pen tucked behind her ear. roger stared in

disbelief – of all the people in the city, the girl working here

was—"april?"she looked up, startled, and

he froze. if his heart were still beating, it would've stopped. she

blinked in a confused manner for a split second, and then a

ight

smile blossomed on her face."hey, it's the little

vampire that couldn't!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "you

stalking me or something?""hardly." roger

snorted, noticing the other clerk – mark – looking at him through

narrowed eyes. "what?" he asked challengingly."don't

either of you start." april said, putting her notebook down.

"you'll mess up my store.""our

store." mark said calmly, still looking at roger suspiciously.

"this is the one who attacked you?""what if i

am?" roger interrupted, an eye

ow raised."boys!"

april snapped, hands on her hips. "i don't think you two've been

introduced. mark, this is roger, the vampire who didn't

hurt me. roger, this is my

other,

mark."siblings. well that would explain why mark had

looked so familiar. seeing the two of them standing next to each

other, roger wondered why he hadn't thought of it before – same

own hair, same

ight green eyes, even the same smile, though

mark's seemed more reserved. "nice to meet you." roger said

dryly. mark didn't say anything. roger rolled his eyes. "so this

place belongs to you guys?" he stuck his hands in his pockets

and glanced around. it was a small store, but it seemed

well-stocked."yeah. willed to us. our parents started

it." april said quickly, and cleared her throat. "i take

care of the herbs and incenses and magic, and mark does everything

else!""are you guys even old enough to have hit

puberty yet?"

roger asked dubiously. april drew herself up to her full height (she

was as tiny and beautiful as a china doll, was she as fragile?) and

crossed her arms."we turned 17 last month." she

said, her eyes flashing a challenge. roger grinned wickedly."just

as i thought. hardly out of diapers."april gasped in

mock indignation, and though it didn't hurt him, it rather surprised

roger when she closed the space between them in two quick steps and

smacked his arm. "you jackass!""april!"

mark yelped, looking rather scared that roger was going to snap their

necks or suck them dry."oh, he won't hurt us."

april smirked. "he's got a soul. that's why he couldn't

ing

himself to hurt me.""he... what?" mark

blinked. roger gaped at her openly for a moment, and wondered how the

hell she'd known about

that..."so, who cursed you?" april asked, a wicked

grin on her face. roger scowled a little."no one. i'm

not that stupid."

he growled. april looked intrigued."you'll have to tell

me that story sometime, then." she said finally, smiling. roger

found himself smiling back – an honest-to-goodness smile like he

hadn't given in god knows how many years."maybe i will."

he

was never sure afterwards what exactly possessed him to do what he

did six months after he found the shop. the midget twins, as he'd

taken to calling them (both were under 5'5"), lived over the

shop in one of the two apartments, and they'd never bothered to rent

out the second. april, much to mark's discomfort and displeasure, had

offered it to roger within a week. mark and roger hadn't exactly hit

it off, but they were slowly coming to a place that might be called

friendship. with april, however... they always seemed to be in the

same room. she seemed to adore teasing him, despite of (or, often,

because of) the fact

that he was a vampire. and he... well, she made him smile.still,

that was no reason for him to go and do what he did.and what

he did was to corner april against the kitchen counter while she was

making dinner and mark was downstairs watching the shop."roger,

the burgers are gonna burn." she said, her voice tense with

uneasiness and uncertainty. she was scared, he could smell it, hear

it, feel it start to build in her, and he growled."let

them."it had been leading up to this. everything, every

word, every laugh, ever joke, every time she'd sat with him during

the day and read from whatever book she was reading just to get him

to stop

ooding. that first night in the shop they'd talked. they'd

gone upstairs for hot chocolate, much to mark's disapproval, and

eventually she'd slipped a little sachet on a string from around her

neck, where it had been hidden under her shirt. "this is for

protection. you need it more than i do." she'd smiled and gotten

up on tip-toe to slip it around his neck, then kissed his cheek, just

at the corner of his mouth.and he'd wanted more. with every

moment, he'd wanted more. and finally he'd come to the conclusion

that he needed more,

even just once.he leaned in, april's eyes widened in

fear.but instead of his mouth meeting her neck, it captured

her lips, and roger kissed her as passionately as he could remember

how. it was funny, how he'd thought of so many things that it would

make him feel and think...all he could think was that she

tasted like peppermint.he pulled back finally and she just

sort of stared up at him for a moment. his eyes met hers uncertainly

– more uncertainty than he'd felt in almost a century – and he

realized he almost felt warm.she licked her lips finally and

whispered, "what took you so long?"when the burning

hamburgers set the smoke alarm off,

inging mark with it, they

didn't notice, too wrapped up in each other to care.

it

was bad. he'd known it was bad. he just hadn't expected it to be this

bad.he'd smelled it towards the beginning. something just a

little off about her. seen it in the way she would zone out sometimes

for no reason. heard it in hardly-noticeable slips of tone and

wording. he'd told her to go see a doctor. she did.they sent

her home.a month later, she was in the emergency room,

sobbing because her head hurt so badly,

and it was all roger could do not to scream at the nurses to get her

some fucking painkillers. that would just make her more upset, but he

couldn't handle seeing her hurting like that. mark had paced. roger

had sat next to her, holding her hand. it was as if they'd switched

places for a night.they ran test after test on her, and she

was so drugged with painkillers that she was hardly coherent, and two

days later, they had an answer.

ain tumor.too

deep in the

ain to operate. that's what the

doctors told them. it may be benign. we'll

start her on radiation and chemotherapy. mark

nodded.she was weak, and sick – sicker than she had been,

because the original problem wasn't going away. her hair fell out in

clumps, and in their bed at night, she'd curl against his chest and

sob; because her head ached, because she felt awful, because her hair

was falling out...because she could feel herself

slipping.not into death. the realized relatively quickly that

the tumor was benign, and it had stopped growing – it wasn't going

to kill her. he'd've known if it was – it would be obvious. to him,

at least. no, where april felt herself slipping was worse, in a way,

and more frightening."things don't think right anymore."

she'd confided to him one night in a frightened whisper. "i