Free Beginnings (The Trifectus Series - Book One) by Logan Byrne

since the spelling bee disaster of third grade.  As we approached the door, it opened.  There they were: his family.
    “Oh, come in, come in,” a woman said.
    “My name is Rosa and this is my husband, Remey,” she said.  “We are James’s parents.”
    Rosa was a petite, slender woman.  She had dark black hair, not a single strand out of place.  Her blue eyes and warm smile made me feel welcome.
    Her husband, Remey, on the other hand, was her complete opposite.  He stood six foot tall.  His dark hair was slicked and parted as if he was straight out of the 1920’s.  His piercing brown eyes were overshadowed by the cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth. 
    “Well, how do you do, ma’am?” he said with an accent.  “It’s a pleasure to meet such a fine young lady.”
    “Why, thank you, sir,” I said, trying to calm my butterflies.  “My name is Juliet, it’s a pleasure to meet you both.”
    That wasn’t so bad, I thought.  I met his family and they were nice.
    “Come down here and meet our guest,” he yelled to the top of the stairs.
    After he yelled, I heard talking and footsteps before seeing more faces make their way down the stairs.  They were politely arguing with one another.  There were five of them, all very different.
    “This is our guest for the evening, Juliet,” Rosa said.  “Juliet, this is Michael, Maria, Lucas, Elsa and Troy.”
    Michael and Maria were an obvious couple.  Their playful banter and affection clearly showed their love and commitment to each other.  Michael was of average height with rich brown hair.  Maria, a shorter girl, had bright red hair and piercing green eyes.
    Lucas and Elsa were another story.  Lucas was obviously in love with Elsa, but she didn’t seem to care.  She had a look to her.  She didn’t mess around and didn’t need anyone but herself.  She didn’t seem to care much for Lucas, but gave him attention every now and again.  Lucas was a smaller man.  His love, Elsa, was a 5’9” girl who towered over him.  It didn’t seem to matter to him, though.  He loved her.
    Troy was the brute of the group.  He was tall, big and ready to rumble.  He looked as if he had just come out of the backwoods of Canada just for this dinner.  While he was large and intimidating, he was very gentle with those around him.
    “Why don’t we head into the dining room for dinner?” Rosa asked.
    As we made our way to the dining room, I couldn’t help but look at the grandeur of the house.  Scattered on the walls were mementos from over the years.  I had never seen so many old things in my life.
    As we started to sit down, I looked at the table.  Every plate but mine had raw meat that looked like it just came off the bone.
    “Don’t be alarmed,” said Remey.  “I know it probably looks strange to you, but we just suck the blood out of these steaks.”
    “Oh,” I said in shock.  “Is this how you usually eat?”
    “Not at all,” interjected Troy.  “Vampires usually feast on live prey or sacks of blood.  You know, the typical.”
    “Now Troy, don’t scare her off,” interjected Rosa.  “We want to make her feel welcome and invited in our home.”
    “I think what Troy is trying to say is that we do this only when having company over,” said James.  “We don’t need to feed often, but when we do, we like to get it from places like blood banks.”
    “Yeah,” said Michael.  “This way we can have the human blood without actually having to hurt anyone.  Everyone wins.”
    I started to think about my Internet search.  The page said nothing about blood banks or bags of blood.  It said that they get it from live animals or by stalking and taking it from humans.  Were vampires misunderstood?  Were there lies going around to try to scare people away from these peaceful people?
    “I’ve never heard of getting blood from there before,” I said.
    “Most people don’t,” said Elsa.  “Everyone likes to paint us as some kind