GrayStone, Oregon

It was eight o'clock in the morning on Saturday and Excalibur Shields was sitting at the breakfast table in her mother and father's house prodding at a bowl of blueberry oatmeal. She began to wonder if she should've just slept in, being awake at eight in the morning on Saturday wasn't her idea of fun, but oh well. She brushed her honey-colored curls out of her face and sighed as her mother busied herself with making breakfast, the scents of bacon and toast wafting around in the air as the woman scurried around in the kitchen. Cali supposed it was the average morning in their little home in GrayStone for as long as she could remember as she glanced at her father whom seemed engrossed in a novel. She wondered when her two younger sister's would be down.


"Did you hear about our new neighbors?" Her mother asked as she pushed the bacon around the pan.

"Neighbors? Oh, you mean those three guys? Yeah, I heard something about them just moving in yesterday." Cali shrugged, not seeming to be too excited about it. That something had been her friend Erica telling her that she'd seen the guys who were moving in a couple houses down and that they were hotter than hell, but Cali wasn't sure she believed it.

A nod, "I hear they're quite handsome." Her mother smiled at Cali, knowing her eldest daughter probably wouldn't care that much.

"I suppose I'll just have to see myself. You know, attractiveness is all based on personal opinion..." Excalibur said, shaking her head. It wasn't that she was irritable toward men or anything, it was more that she wasn't sure if she wanted to put forth the effort into a relationship that wouldn't last. She had plenty of male friends, but never took any romantic interest in them.

"Well, I think you'll get a chance. I want all of you to come with me and your father to welcome them to the neighborhood." Her mother said happily, as she put the bacon on a plate and set it out at the breakfast table.

Excalibur didn't reply for a moment, taking a sip of her orange juice. It had been this way for as long as she could remember. Everyone was real social in GrayStone, so you welcomed everyone into the neighborhood and introduced your family...Cali also didn't think she could talk her way out of it. Oh, well. At least there was the fact almost everyone who'd seen these guys said they were hot so she wouldn't complain. "Everyone seems to be singing high praises for their looks and wants to meet them. Has Sly given his seal of approval yet?" She asked, inwardly shuddering at her mention of the creepy hunter who lived deep in the woods. As kids, they used to dare each other to run up to his doorstep and play ding-dong-ditch or touch his door everyone was so afraid of him. Cali wouldn't forget when she had been dared to play ding-dong-ditch when she was six and she got up to his front porch and saw all the bizarre things he had, she'd been so distracted by what she was looking at that she barely noticed when Sly stormed out of his house with a gnarly looking knife and shouted at her that she better get off his porch before he cut her up that she barely made it off the porch before he could grab her. She had been scared to death of him ever since. She still wasn't sure if he'd been serious or not, though she never breathed a word of it to her parents.

Her mother shook her head and scowled, "No one likes that man." She said, evenly.



Lucius bounded down the stairs of their new home in the friendly little town of GrayStone he'd be sharing with Kyran and Lithium, rather enjoying the change of scenery they had now. He rounded the corner into the kitchen, wearing light blue jeans and a navy blue v-neck t-shirt that showed off his well-muscled form. He glanced out the window at the deck, taking in the scenery. The town seemed quite friendly. Already several neighbors had come and greeted them, welcoming them to the neighborhood which he thought to be rather nice. You never got that in big cities.

Another thing that Lucius was liking was all the woods and lakes. It looked perfect for summer time which was just starting. He was definitely looking forward to spending time here and getting to know everyone. He didn't know about his 'brothers', but he was liking it here so far, he thought as he dug through the fridge for something to drink. He also didn't think that what they were would be an issue - no one seemed suspicious so far. No one seemed to dislike them either, which was always nice whether you were human or vampire. He supposed there would be a first for everything though.

After a few minutes of gazing out the window at the woods, Lucius swiveled around and looked for Kyran and Lithium.

Catherine was already up early in the morning, even before her parents and sisters were up. She had always wanted to go walking and hunting into the woods at dawn, because everything was so peaceful and quiet. The day before, her mother had told her that there would be three guys moving in to their neighborhood. Honestly, she was scared because she had been quite distant to guys, except her father. But, they say that there are always chances that she would get over her distance to guys. Who knows, maybe those guys would be friendly enough for her to talk to. And besides, she also want to give their new neighbors a gift, a gift that she would get from the woods.

She walked across the forest, looking for trees that are already bearing fruits. After some minutes of walking, she looked up at an apple tree and saw that it already had several fruits. Lowering her hunting weapons and her basket, she climbed up the tree and picked the ripe apples. She managed to pick a lot of them, so she placed it in her basket. When she turned around, she saw a silhouette of a young man, but it seemed so distant to her.

' Catherine, it's just your imagination ' she thought as the sun was rising, and she knew she needed to get back to their house.

Freya panted as she came to a halt during her morning run, glancing at her watch she noted that she had been running for around an hour, the sun was already high in the sky and she could tell it was going to be a beautiful day. Smiling as she caught her breath, she pushed her IPod earphones back into her ears and proceeded to run the last mile home.

Once she rounded the corner onto their road, the Shield residents immediately came into view, running down the path she smiled at a few neighbours in passing before coming to a sudden stop seeing a sold sign outside her old neighbours house “so they finally sold the place” she mumbled to herself, looking up at the old house, seeing if she could get a look at her new neighbours, shrugging seeing no life within the house, Freya jogged further up the road and onto their property.

“I’m home” she called cheerfully upon entering her home, following her nose to the aroma of bacon and eggs coming from the kitchen her stomach grumbled. Walking into the kitchen she immediately walked to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and quickly drank the liquid.

“Good run hon?” her mother asked smiling at her daughter from the cooker.

Freya nodded with a smile, grabbing a piece of toast from a plate in the centre of the table and munched on it “looks like it’s gonna be a nice day, fancy going to the creek later Cal?” she asked her elder sister.

“Before you do anything we are going next door to welcome the new neighbours” their mom commented before Cali even had a chance to answer.

Freya rolled her eyes “Fine” she groaned “Right I’m gonna take a shower be down in ten” she smiled placing a kiss on her father’s cheek before rushing up the stairs towards the bathroom.

Kyran was lounging in a tree with his long legs draped across a strudy branch. Lately, the three had lived in crowded, busy cities. The sweet scent of fresh air was a nice change from the sour smell of exhaust fumes. Why hadn't they moved to here sooner? The vampire smiled again as a little breeze blew through his black hair. It felt nice and refreshing. He lowered his gaze and examined a spider that had decided to crawl up the toned arm of his. It's spindly legs scuttled slowly as if it sensed no danger.

"Hey there," He murmured quietly. He followed it with his eyes for a moment longer before removing it gently onto the bark of the tree. It was time to head back to the house. Sighing, Kyran leaped down gracefully from the high branch and landed silently on the balls of his feet. No doubt, there would be more people coming to greet them. The people here were very open and welcoming. Hopefully they wouldn't be too annoying. The women that had visited so far had all been very.... obnoxious. The other two may not have thought so, but in his opinion, their gazes had been a moment too long and their hello's were a bit too enthusiastic. Bothersome. At least there were a lot of things to do here. The woods seemed to never end and it would be fun to hike along the river.

With easy, relaxed steps, Kyran started taking long strides back to the new house. It was roomy and more than large enough for three men. His ears twitched as he listened to the birds' tweeting and the chirping of bugs. Kyran had missed those sounds. They were much better than than the roaring of cars and chattering of people.

Kyran took hold of the door knob and pulled open the door, walking inside. Now he had to go and get ready for the day. People would be arriving as soon as they got some food in them. He saw Lucius.

"Morning," He said as he walked over to the sink to wash his hands. "It seems like a nice day today."

Excalibur smiled at her younger sister and nodded, "Sure, sounds good." She said, when asked if she'd like to go to the creek later. Cali loved the creek. It had been one of her favorite places to go since she was a child. She looked at Freya to see her expression when she was informed that they would be going to meet the new neighbors, "Don't pout too much, I hear they're very sexy!" She called after her sibling whom was now sprinting up the stairs.

She then thought she should go get ready as well, hopping up from her chair and running up the stairs to go pick out an outfit.

After a few minutes of debating, she decided to just go with a black band tee that read, 'Avenged Sevenfold', a pair of cut off jean shorts and her black converses, calling it good enough she quickly pulled on her outfit and looked at her hair. She didn't think it would be worth it to fuss with it too much, so she just left it down before walking back downstairs, waiting for Freya. She didn't think she bother with any makeup today, it wasn't like they were going anywhere real important where she wanted to impress people a lot. She frowned in concern as she wondered where Catherine was, as it was taking her quite a while to get back.



Lucius nodded at Kyran, "It does. Makes me want to go out and explore the town. Or, well, rather the woods." He said, taking a seat at the round kitchen table which he had jokingly called, 'The Round Table' after King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. "What do you think of it here so far, Kyran?" He asked. He'd always held a lot of respect for Kyran and his opinions. Not only had he saved his life, but he was very strong and powerful. Not that Kyran was likely to let him forget any of those things anyways.

"Don't pout too much, I hear they're very sexy!"

Freya chuckled hearing her sisters words and just hoped to god she was right, this town could do with new men. Jumping into the shower she rubbed her jasmine shower gel over her body before washing her long hair with her favourite apple shampoo and conditioner, once rinsed she stepped out wrapping a fluffy towel around her body and another around her head before walking across the hall to her room where she proceeded to dry and lightly curl her hair before apply her make up. Once done she walked over to her closet, opening the doors she stared momentarily at the selection of clothing, if these men were as sexy as her sister made them out to be then she wanted to look good and so soon settled on the perfect outfit.

Once satisfied with her appearance Freya hurried back downstairs, wrapping her arms around Cali's neck with a laugh "So these guys really that nice?" she asked curiously.

Kyran picked off a comb on the coffee table and ran it once through his dark hair. Might as well look nice...

"It's a lot cleaner here..." Kyran answered Lucius thoughtfully. "People are a lot more talkative and share deeper relationships with each other than any city we've lived in. It's an interesting change." He took a seat on the couch and picked upa book. It was called Skin by Ted Dekker and it wasn't half bad. "What about you? Any women catch your eye?" There was a slightly teasing note in his voice. He hadn't been the person to tease others much but living with someone for some centuries had gotten Kyran to lighten up a bit. "Where's Lithium? He awake yet?"

He thoughtfully turned a couple of pages in his book. Lithium had been the most recent of them to turn. Kyran wondered how he liked it here. It was a lot more like his old home than any other place they had resided in. Hell, it was a lot like his home too, and maybe even Lucius's.

Now that they had a bigger house, Kyran wanted a cat. A cat was clever, quiet and knew where to go to the bathroom. The perfect pet. He had one some decades back... but they had to move a bit quiker than planned and the cat was given away. Tomorrow, when there wouldn't be as many welcomers, Kyran would go look for a cat.

Lithium coughed into his pillowcase once before pulling it out from under his head. Grumbling, as he usually did in the early morning, he struggled to lift his toned, tanned arms, and slammed the fluffy pillow back down, covering his mess of dark hair. If it were any other day, Lithium would have been on his 4th cup of coffee and doing some form of outdoors activity. But it was saturday, and vampire or not, he liked at least one day of relaxation. So why was he awake, exactly?

His arm shot out from atop the pillow on his head, and he blindly pounded on the metal box to his right. When he unpacked it, he was positive that his rather-new alarm clock would be a necessity. He liked to start his days early, at least get in an hour long run before officially going about business. But now, as it was pouring a catchy pop-song into the dark corners of his room, Lithium wasn't too sure that it was a good idea.

Sighing at the fact that randomly punching the aforementioned contraption wasn't silencing it, and Ellie Goulding's Lights was getting progressively louder, Lithium pealed his eyes open, sat up and yanked the alarm clock cord from the outlet, effectively cutting off sound. "Finally!" He mused to himself. Deciding that he was now too awake to go back to sleep, Lithium swung his legs over the edge of the bed, reaching towards the bottom of the queen sized mattress for the gray cardigan that had landed there when he flung it the previous evening. He shrugged it over his bare chest and reached for a pair of blue, straight-legged jeans lying on the floor.

He walked across the room, stumbling slightly as his legs had yet to grow accustom to his weight. He opened and closed his door behind him, and trudged down the stairs, finger-combing his dark brown hair into place. Momentarily, he forgot where he was and paused half-way down the stairway. A lot of places he'd lived in before looked like their new house; spacious and well-furnished. But then he remembered. GrayStone was a lot less polluted than the last city they resided in. But it was one of those small towns; where everybody knew everybody, and if they didn't, they'd harass you until you were friends.

He heard chatter from the dining area, and padded his way to where Kyran and Lucius were casually talking. He decided to vocalize his unhappiness with the people situation.

"I don't want to meet any more people." He groaned, falling to his knees on the hardwood floor before admitting defeat to his own tiredness and laying down completely on his stomach. "Too many annoying..." He didn't finish his sentence. He knew Kyran and Lucius already knew what he was thinking. Out of all the women they had met yesterday, none of them seemed to be the least bit intelligent. And what they lacked in intelligence, they well made up for in sheer brazenness. Not that he had much experience to base his perception on women off of. He had no experience, actually. But that was fine with him. Relationships were messy, anyways. They were messy when he was prince, and they remained messy as the centuries passed.

"Need coffee." He mumbled out, sliding his way in an inchworm-like fashion, still on the floor, to the coffee-maker.

Excalibur looked amused as her sister came back down, "I have no idea. Everyone who's seen them says they're gorgeous." She shrugged, wondering the same thing. She supposed if everyone thought so that would mean something. She looked at Freya's makeup and momentarily considered putting at least a little on, she'd never been big on makeup...maybe. No, probably not. It wouldn't be worth it, she didn't think, "Where's Catherine?" She wondered aloud.


Lucius nodded his agreement with Kyran, studying the grain of the coffee table, "Women?" His head popped up then. "No, not so far." He chuckled lightly. He hadn't thought any of them to be special in the least so far. "Do you have any favorites?" He asked his Maker, jokingly. He looked up the stairs toward Lithium's room when asked and shook his head, "I don't think so." He told Kyran, when just not a moment later, Lithium came down the stairs, looking half dead. No pun intended. "Lithium." Lucius teased the youngest member of their trio, "You don't want to make friends?" He chuckled as Lithium crawled toward the coffee.

"I have no idea. Everyone who's seen them says they're gorgeous."

Freya smiled with a small laugh, letting go of her sister "Well I hope they're right, this town needs some new men" she replied her smile turning into a smirk walking over to the mirror, applying a little chap stick to her slightly dried lips. "Where's Catherine?" Cali's voice caught Freya's attention, turning around she shrugged "I don't really know to be honest, she was long gone when I got up this morning" she answered "Have you rang her?"

Catherine walked back fast to their house, and it seems that everyone was already awake. She went inside the door and heard her sisters looking for her. " I'm here. I just went out to get some apples ", Catherine said as she placed the basket filled with the fruit on the table. " I thought that it would be a nice gift to our new neighbor " she added with a smile. She walked over to the counter and made herself some juice. She had never drank coffee in her entire life. Catherine knew that it was filled with caffeine, and it won't be good for her.

She sat down on the table, quietly ate her breakfast, then asked her sister with a small laugh, " Excalibur, when are we giving these gifts? Now or later? Because I'll be preparing myself already. I don't want to be looking like a little red riding hood in these "

She went upstairs to her room and showered. When she looked at herself in the mirror, her blonde hair was disheveled, and there were small circles under her eyes. For short, she looked horrible. But she will never wear make up. She chose a white dress that was slightly puffy on the shoulders, her white doll shoes to match. Now she looked like a school girl. Perfect.

"No, not yet. I suppose I -" Excalibur paused as she had been reaching for her cell phone when Catherine returned. "I guess there's no need." She told Freya, laughing lightly. She was glad to see her sister back, apparently she'd just gone out picking apples. "And we will go as soon as you're ready." She told her youngest sibling before turning back to Freya, "I agree." She told her sister. When you knew everyone in town it could be a little awkward if you ever wanted to date because there were absolutely no secrets in Gray Stone. New men were appreciated because they were the only people you didn't really know.

After a little while of waiting, their mother stood at the door, ready to go. She needed to get to work soon and wanted to get this over with, "Are we all ready?" She called. Excalibur shrugged, she was ready whenever he sister's were.

Freya laughed along with her sister and smiled at Catherine as she returned from 'apple picking' although Freya highly suspected that she was out hunting "Hurry up Cath!" she called up the stairs becoming eager to get next door, looking towards her mom she raised an eyebrow and released a small laugh "seriously mom, a welcome basket?" she asked. Their mother shrugged "growing men need their food" she stated and too her surprise she watched as the older woman primped her appearance in the mirror rolling her eyes she shook her head.

Kyran was just lazing about on the couch when his stomach grumbled. He glanced at himself with a little roll of his eyes. Being a vampire didn't mean he no longer needed to eat. In fact, Kyran absolutely loved food.

"Nah.. No favorites... yet." He let a corner of his lips turn up a bit into a small smirk. Then the youngest of them appeared, crawling on the floor. "I'd have thought you enjoyed their attention, Lithium." Kyran nudged the prince with a sock covered foot. "No matter. We're here to stay for a bit so I urge you to make yourself presentable. I'm sure the first of many... guests will be arriving shortly."

Kyran had heard the murmuring voices talking about them. It wasn't unusual and Kyran would have felt out of place without the compliments he had grown so used to hearing.