Read Online Monsters Within by Victoria Knight - Free Book Online Page B

unnerved Saul slightly.
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean, who decided that there were too many vampires and that you had to stop turning people and scatter over the ends of the earth? Do vampires have a President or something?”
    “No,” Saul said with a laugh. “There is a group that is called The Guard. I will tell you that when it comes to The Guard, I am not allowed to tell you much. It’s just a rule. But it is their responsibility to ensure that creatures such as vampires don’t do anything to threaten the human population of the world. They sort of keep us in check.
    “As a matter of fact, members of The Guard came to America shortly after the Revolutionary War to make sure we were not up to any ill tricks. At that time, there were four families living in the U.S.”
    “And what did you do here in the U.S?” Nikki asked. “Did your family just spend its time killing cattle?”
    He grunted and gave her an annoyed look. “That wasn’t me on your friend’s video. I swear to it. But anyway, this is where another of The Guard’s rules comes in. For the most part, vampires don’t necessarily like The Guard, but this rule is actually genius. To ensure that vampires posed no real threat to humans, a system was set into place. We are only allowed to hunt and live our normal lives in remote regions of the world. And each family can do this only for a certain period of time. Each family has free reign over that remote area for a period of two years and then must go into hiding to live presumed human lives. This allows another family to hunt in another remote area. This way, there are never two families at large at the same time.”
    “So how long have you been living this presumed human life?”
    Saul smiled and shook his head. “It makes me seem old.”
    “That’s okay. You look no older than forty, if that. And apparently, you’ve looked that way for at least twenty years, if that newspaper clipping is any indication.”
    “One hundred and six years. All of it spent, in some fashion, here in Red Creek.”
    “How has no one noticed?” Nikki asked, clearly stunned.
    “I’m not sure. It’s sort of a charm that my kind has over humans. If you were to find the oldest resident of Red Creek and ask him how long the Benton Cabin has been out here in the woods, he’d probably claim he wasn’t sure. People’s memories of us get foggy when they try to piece the oddity of it all together.”
    “That’s convenient.”
    “It is. But it’s been going on since 200 B.C. When the families started to really take off and grow, we realized that one of our advantages was that humans seemed to get very confused and hazy when they tried to recall anything about us for more than a period of thirty years or so.”
    “So you chose Red Creek to hide away until it’s your family’s turn to feed again?”
    “My father did, yes. I am not quite sure why. But we came to love it.”
    “Well,” Nikki said, never one for tact, “if you father is dead and you are living alone, will you go to some remote place for two years all by yourself when your turn comes around?”
    Saul almost kept the next part from her, but decided to tell it all. He rarely had anyone to speak to and he found that it was almost therapeutic to share his history. Even if it was with a mortal that seemed to not fear him at all, he wanted to tell it all.
    “No, I have a sister.”
    “Yes, the article mentioned that.”
    “I assume she’ll show up wherever I go. We’re linked like that. But she split after our father died.”
    “You don’t know where she is?”
    “No. If I set my mind to it, I could probably find her rather easily. We can track each other. But she obviously wants to be alone. So I’ll let her have her time.”
    “How much more time do you have before it’s your family’s turn in the cycle?”
    “Eight years.”
    “And you aren’t supposed to attack humans until then?”
    “That’s right. That’s why this thing with