Before The Sun Goes Down

Gerard's POV
The forest comes alive at night. At least one of every species is awake, even the ones that should be asleep. It engages all of your senses, it makes you feel alive, just like the forest is.
It's a shame that the only reason I'm here is because I'm about to sucking the life out of one of the animals, but such is the circle of life.
My fangs are sharp, my senses are heightened, I feel like a feral animal, ready to snap. Anything that's within five miles of me is in danger, but I only go for the carnivores. If I'm going to eat an animal, I'm going to eat one that eats meat itself, I can't stand the taste of herbivores, like rabbits.
A rustle in the bushes, I tense a little more. I hone in on the scent, smelling it's blood. It's a herbivore, I turn away disappointed, getting ready for another possible meal to walk my way.
A deer, it comes running into the clearing, the smell of fear lingering around it. It's thoughts, although primal, tell a story of a Cougar, an interuppted meal of undergrowth, and a terrified getaway.
I get ready, already smelling the blood of the Cougar. The Deer tries to hide in the bushes, making as little noise as possible. The Cougar springs into the clearing, it's nose high in the air, smelling for it's prey. I wait for a minute, until it turns and sniffs a bush close to the Deer.
I jump, leaping onto it's back, my hands finding their place either side of it's head. The animal tries to buck me off, but I'm a lot stronger than it, so it ends up getting a few broken ribs from where I tightened my legs. I twist my hands, snapping it's neck. I hate prolonging the suffering of something innocent, so whenever I kill, I snap the victim's neck before I sink my teeth in them.
I put my teeth to it's throat, my fangs slicing into the vein easily. I drink the blood, not exactly enjoying it, but not hating it either. Animal blood tastes so much different to human blood, it's like comparing cheap champagne to an expensive one.
Once you taste human blood, it's almost impossible to wein yourself off it and onto a diet of animal blood. I know of two vampires that have done it, and three more that tried to but died in the process.
You go mad and feral while trying, and only the strong vampires can come back from it. I don't know why you would want to have a diet of animal blood and only that, but all for your own, I guess.
I drain the animal, making it crumble to dust using my powers, so there's no evidence of anything left behind.
Once, before I got turned, Blue drained five Deers, leaving them bloodless and in plain view of any hikers or rangers. They got discovered, and Maude had to use her powers to convince the witnesses that nothing happened, and then they had to move. Now, Ernest makes sure there is little to no evidence left behind after any sort of kill.
Not feeling hungry anymore, I reach my mind out to find the rest of the group. I find Blue and Maude, so I start towards them.
I reach them in a few minutes, making sure I approach quietly, incase they're still hunting. They're not, I think Maude just told Blue a joke, because they are both laughing.
"What's so funny?" They take a look at me and laugh again, shaking their heads. "Seriously, what?" Maude shakes her head, still laughing, and they both try to calm down. When Blue is calm enough, he explains.
"Maude was just telling me about your little meeting with Frank... She said she could feel the love radiating off you, and you were really quiet... I'd say that you were shy... Wouldn't you, Maude?" Blue chuckles, nudging Maude with his elbow. She nods, smirking at me. "Oh my God.. Really? I was not fucking shy, I just didn't want to say the wrong thing..." Okay, so I did feel a little shy, but if you could get in the mind of Frank, you would be, too. He kept remembering things about us, and how much he loves me. He knows so much about how I was before I got turned, it's scary. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Gerard. If it helps you sleep at night, then fine, you weren't shy, okay?" I huff at them, crossing my arms."Blue, we don't sleep, we're undead, remember? We don't need to sleep... Anyway, why do I stay with you guys? All you do is tease me for being young, new, powerful... What else? Oh yeah, everything!" I throw my hands up, my exasperation making them laugh again. "Calm down, drama queen... If you feel that strongly, go!" Maude pushes me, making me laugh. Blue shakes his head at us, chuckling. "I think we should go and find the others, they've been gone for a while..." Me and Maude nod, me using my powers to try and find their consciousnes. I come up with nothing, so we just start to walk around.
After about ten minutes, we hear Nikolai's laugh, so we head to where he is. We get closer, hearing more laughter, this time from Aubree as well.
They're in a clearing, sitting and talking. Nikolai likes Aubree the best out of all of us apart from Ernest, but that's because of the way they got turned, and how they're both so similar they could be twins. They won't tell us how they got turned, only Ernest knows out of all of us, I can't even find out when I use my powers.
We don't mind, I mean we all have our secrets. I think Ernest has the most out of any of our species, apart from the Council probably. And, he's told us barely any, Nikolai knows most of them, and that's because they were alone together for a long time.
We greet the two, and then head back to the cemetery. We haven't got anywhere else to go, even Ernest stays in there with us, and he has enough money scattered around the wold to be able to afford several houses.
When we get back to the cemetery, Ernest is by the tree, pacing. Once he sees us, he stops his expression going blank. We walk over to him, all tense.
"What's wrong?" His head snaps to my face, his eyes turning cold. "He's gone." I furrow my eyebrows, wondering what the hell he's talking about. "Who's gone?" He sighs, shaking his head. "Your little boyfriend.. Frank. He's gone back to college or something, and he has no intention of returning for a long, long time." None of us get how this is such a bad thing, so we stay silent, and Ernest sighs. "We can't monitor him if he isn't here. How will we know what he's doing, how far he's got in his research? Ah, yes, we won't. He could uncover everything, he could ruin us. It's already happened to me once, the Council won't let any of us off lightly if it happens again," He looks around at us, staring pointedly at us. "What will happen if he gets enough research, evidence, and he comes after us? The Council will know, the lycanthrope will know, the necromancers, elementals, the dæmons will know. Everything undead or magical around the world will know. We're some of the most feared vampires that have ever lived, and everything each of us have built will go into ruins. We will almost certainly die, and if we don't we'll be stripped of everything." He looks at us again, his facial expression desperate. "Why don't we follow him? Not even all of us have to go, just a few, and they could enroll into the college, and monitor him like that. As soon as anything happens, he's dead.." Ernest is silent after Nikolai's suggestion, but he like it because a corner of his mouth is slightly turned up. He smiles properly, looking Nikolai in the eye. "That's a very good idea, Nikolai. I'd have to plan it a little more, but it could definitely work..." He strokes his beard, staring into the distance again. "Give me until noon tomorrow, and I will have three places available for Gerard, Maude... and Blue in the same college as Frank. You three can then start there in two days. You have to watch over him carefully, even make friends with him if you have to. Don't let him discover anything at all. If it's minor, use your powers to make him forget or something." The three of us nod, and Ernest smiles again. "I swear that's the most you've smiled in over one hundred years, Ernest." Aubree cracks the joke, making the ski, even disapear. Aubree's smile is wiped off her face, too, and she starts to look scared from the Ernest's facial expression. After keeping the stony expression on for a few minutes, he laughs, making Aubree jump. "Your face, Aubree.. If only I had a camera.." He waves a hand at us, and then walks off, still chuckling.
"I swear to god that man is literally insane.." Aubree still looks slightly scared, and she shivers as she watches him walk off. "Well, when you're alive for however long he has been, tell us you aren't insane, Aubree.." Aubree nudges Nikolai, muttering for him to shut up.
"What shall we do while he's sorting everything out? We don't need to hunt, and we have nothing else to do..." We all shrug, thinking about what to do.
"We could 'sleep'." By sleeping, Blue means lie or stand somewhere of relative comfort and daydream for several hours. Knowing we have nothing better to do, we all nod and disperse to our 'sleeping' spaces.
Mine's my coffin, Ernest had it enlarged and padded out. It's like a large bed now, and I often go and lie in there if I need to think or the others are pissing me off. I pull back the grass, opening the doors to the coffin.
I get in, telepathically asking Maude if she could pull the grass back over for me using her telekinesis. I get no reply, but when I close the lid, I hear the grass being rolled over. I thank her, again getting nothing back. She's really fucking lazy when she wants to be.
I close my eyes, getting ready to 'sleep' for the next day or so until Ernest drags us out of our places again and sends us to college.

It's around midnight, and I'm standing by the tree with Maude, and Blue, waiting for Ernest to bring us our supplies and a few cars. He pulls into the parking lot, beeping his horn at us. We walk over, loowing at the car.
It's not exactly big, but it isn't small, either. It's a Bentley, in silver. Ernest get out, throwing the keys to me as he does. "This is yours, Gerard. I have to go and pick you two's cars now, I won't be long." He walks off, soon disapearing. Being a vampire does have it's perks, like how fast you can run or walk.
Within ten minutes, he's back, this time with a sleek, white Ford Focus. He tosses Blue the keys, not saying anything, and walking off. I decide to check out the cars interior, and I look in the trunk first. There are about ten boxes in there, and they have labels on, like 'Clothes', 'Decor', 'Supplies', and 'Books'.
By the time I finish looking in the car, Ernest is back, with Maude's car, a Toyota Yaris.
"Why does Gerard get the best car?" Maude pouts, looking at my car. "They were the first three the salesman showed me, Maude. Be grateful I didn't get you a Smart Car or something..." Ernest smiles, throwing Maude the keys to her car. He walks over to us, his face serious again. "Okay, so, when you get there, Blue and Gerard are sharing a room, Maude you're with some girl. Everything should be ready, I asked if they could get you settled in quick. Everything you need are in the boxes in your trunks, there's money in a bank account for each of you. Your credit cards and stuff are in the glove boxes, spend it wisely. Maude, your last name is Jones, Blue your's is Peterson, and Gerard you're now called Gerald Wayne. You all have a phone, call me if you need anything. Report back to me every Sunday, but if there's an emergency, call me straight away. Apart from all of that, have fun at college, guys." He smiles, again, this really has got to be the most he's smiled in at least a century. We smile back, laughing out of nerves or excitement. "Off you go then. Don't get into trouble, and you two," He points at Maude and Blue. "Look after Gerard, remember he's only a year old, okay?" I roll my eyes, and the other two smirk and nod."Yeah, we'll look after little baby Gerard for you, Ernest.." Blue goes to pinch my cheek, but I move away, slapping his hand away. Ernest slap Blue around the back of the head, and we all get into our cars, driving off.
The route is already in the Satnav, so we shouldn't get lost. I switch on the radio, filling the silence with late night/early morning radio chatter. It's a load of nonsense, but it's better than the silence.

Notes