CHAPTER I

Gala woke up suddenly, eyes shooting open at the loud noise.

"Tony?" she asked.

She heard a few muffled grumps and a small figure snuggled inside her bed, scooching close to her. She could only sigh in defeat. Another nightmare. Her little brother was having so many of them since they came to Scotland.

Gala liked it here. It was a beautiful country, the accent was so different to the American slang, so attractive (yet she still preferred the British) and everything was so green and lush... and she could horse-ride across the fields! But there one thing she hated about Scotland too: that it gave her favourite person in the world such awful nights. She cared very deeply about him, especially because the kid, though brave in his own right, was so tiny and physically uncapable to stand his ground that she often had to do it for him. Not that she was particularly tall, but she knew how to intimidate. And it did help that she outsmarted most anyone she knew with her supersonic wits and sharp sarcasm. There were two reasons Tony was her parents' favourite. One was that one. The other one remained that she was not really their child: she had been Tony's cousin at first, but Gala's parents' deaths when she was barely six caused her to be accepted as the first born of the Thomson clan.

"Do you hear that?" Tony asked.

"It's just the wind. Go to sleep, will you?"

"Or the undead"

"I will be the undead one tomorrow if you don't let me sleep"

Gala had a horrible temper when she was woken up, yet she somehow managed to soothe her words when she felt Tony's presence near.

He snuggled closer to her and exhaled before going to sleep.

The next day, as they were sitting around breakfast, their mother Dottie rushed in in a hurry.

"I can't drive Tony to school today, Gala. Could you do it for me?"

"No problem, Dottie" she just couldn't bring herself around to call her mum. She'd never been able, though she did refer to Tony as brother.

Gala shared some traits with her auntie: her face was pale and unblemished and her jaw line was beautiful, but her hair fell in long soft waves past her breasts and was a deep red colour, like blood. Many people believed it to be fake, but she'd been born with it. Her eyes were very strange: the basic colour was amber, but really dark and noticeable specks made them look almost feline. Plus, the shape was large and almond style, with thick eyelashes. She had a lithe and small body, curvy yet agile. Tony always envied the easiness with which she climbed up trees, as if it took no effort whatsoever.

The ride to take him to school was unusually quiet and whenever she looked at Tony, his eyebrows were furrowed. As she parked in front of the lawn, she saw two kids eyeing the car with a malevolent glint in their eyes.

"Who are those two?" she asked Tony.

"The McAshton boys"

"Uh-huh. They look..." she struggled for an adequate word "interested"

"They hate me" he confessed, opening the door.

"Hey!" Gala called, but he was already out, humbly making his way to the school. She drove out of there as quickly as she could: she knew if she saw something strange going on, she would kill those kids. And they were her uncle's boss's grandchildren. Not a good plan, all in all.

Her day was uneventful. On the first day she had seemed striking to many, what with her torn jeans and her cynical attitude, but it quickly became something normal. She had two girlfriends there, Elaine, a pretty brunette who was always ogling at boys; and Susan, a rather perceptive ginger-head with strange tastes when it came to music. They talked about random stuff during breaks and studying hard in class. Gala loved History and Literature, though Shakespeare was starting to tire her. She understood everything except the stupid sighs her female classmates usually gave when looking over Romeo's 'undying words of love' as Mrs. Hallside often called them with gleaming eyes.

"How can someone be so... enthralled by this story?" she argued with Elaine as the exited the classroom at the end of the day "They two losers die at the end, it's nothing to feel romantic about"

"It's the idea of love, the idea of dying for this one person..."

"Mark my words, no one in this whole world would be willing to take a bullet for you, for me or for anyone. Not even our parents. We're in love with life! Committing suicide is such a..."

"Valiant act. You really need a boyfriend"

It took her unprepared. She was not usually this distracted when expecting a retort. She was the one who gave out witty and cold remarks. Gala started worrying about loosing her touch. When they got to her car, and she was one of the few who could actually drive one, seeing as she was seventeen but had somehow gotten her driving license accepted here, they found a boy there, his long blond hair falling perfectly around a long, attractive face.

"You're the Yankee girl everyone's talking about" he acknowledged her.

"So it seems" she answered.

"Paul Redmove" he introduced himself, offering his hand.

"Okay. Can you move away from my car? I kinda need to get inside"

"You're not going to tell me your name?" he asked, baffled.

Gala only glared at him until he had taken a few steps back and as she opened the door, said:

"If there has been talk about me, surely my name has gotten around, right?"

And with that, she slammed the door shut and drove off.

That night, Dottie informed her that both her and Bob were going out to a party at the McAshtons and that they would be back late. They hadn't called a babysitter because they knew she was more than capable of taking care of Tony.

"Don't you look stunning, auntie!" Gala whistled from her place on the couch, where she'd been doing her homework in comfortable silence.

Dottie smiled warmly at her. She truly looked beautiful in her sparkling party dress and heels.

"And Bob, you look absolutely dashing! Is that I see a Scottish scarf around that slim-but-getting-thicker waist of yours?" she completed. Bob smirked at her and rubbed her head, knowing full well how much she loved to joke around.

"I want Tony in bed by nine, we'll come back by one a.m, more or less"

"All right. Ma'am" she answered mocking an army salute.

"If there's any problem, just call us"

"Sure, though I doubt sweet Tony will give me much trouble"

As soon as her uncle and auntie were out, she settled to continue doing her homework. She couldn't deal with Shakespeare and his never ending babble about love. Had the man ever gotten laid? Was it really the way to woo a girl back then? She knew that if it were her, Shakespeare and all his love nonsense could go and throw themselves down a well. She knew what she was talking about. She didn't believe in what guys could say. Gala had been with enough boys to realize that most of what they said was actually façade and she was not willing to play the role of silly giggling girl anymore. She'd done this, done that, and she was done.

She suddenly heard the sound of the stairs screeching under a light weight. Tony? What did he want? He had a glass of water upstairs. She pretended not to notice, so as to discover what he was up to, and heard the front door open and close. She followed suit and found him crouching next to what looked like a corpse. No... no, he moved, yet barely.

"What happened here?" she asked out loud.

"He needs help, Gala! A cow!"

"What for?"

"How should I know? He needs a cow!"

Gala ran to the injured kid and knew better than to ask questions. If the boy was sure, then she would do whatever he told her. She noticed he was strangely dressed in Shakesperian looking clothes. She groaned, but lifted him up as well as she could and drifted him towards her car.

Rudolph barely noticed himself being taken to the farm on the strange device that humans called cars, but he felt thankful to the twisted humans as he drank from the cow. He'd seen Tony turn green in disgust, but the older girl didn't even flinch. As soon as he was in perfect state again, he took a closer look at her. She looked around seventeen years old, like Gregory. He'd never seen a human look so beautiful. Maybe his definition of beautiful was a bit old and she didn't really stand out nowadays, but both her hair and her brilliant eyes struck him deeply. She knew Gregory would swoon at the sight of her and Anna would find her delightful to talk to.

"Thank you.. Gala"

"No problem, Little Vampire"

"My name's Rudolph"

"I don't see your nose glow, Rudolph"

"What?"

"You mean you don't know the song?"

"What song? There's a song about my name?" he grew enthusiastic.

"Hold your horses, young man, it's not a flattering one. It's actually about a Christmas reindeer"

His smile faded.

"I'd rather not hear" he responded.

"So... Rudolph, you're without doubt the weirdest, most charming young man I've ever met. Wouldn't you have an older brother by any chance?"

"Oh, yes I do"

"I was just kidding" she said quickly, her mind slapping itself for looking so utterly desperate.

"But I was not" Rudolph flashed his fangs in a mischievous smile.

Gala discovered herself thinking that if this little thing was so handsome for his age, his older brother must be something worth drooling for. 'Stop it!' she sternly told herself 'Seriously, girl, you're loosing it'.

"Anyway, we should go back" Tony said "It's eleven thirty"

"Shit!" the exclamation came out before she could think about the drawbacks of cussing in front of nine-year old children.

"Gala, what did mum say about you swearing?" Tony looked at her angrily.

"Sorry, hun, don't mention this, okay?" she hurriedly opened the door to her car and the children hopped in. Then she got in herself and started the motor.

They barely had ten minutes since they got home in which to change into their pyjamas and get into bed. Tony's 'treasure chest' was emptied of toys and transformed itself into the perfect coffin for Rudolph. As they closed the lid of the chest they heard the sound of the door being opened.

"Get in bed!" Gala hissed, running to her bedroom. She knew it would look strange if she were sleeping, mostly because she never actually slept before twelve thirty in the night. So she opened up a random book (Interview with the vampire, as she would find out later) and pretended to read, opening it up more or less at the middle.

She heard Dottie climbing up the stairs and the sound of Tony's door as she opened it to check on her son. Then she felt her own door being pushed and her auntie appeared, her smile warm and wide.

"Great job" she said, taking out her purse and giving her a twenty pound note.

"Dottie, it's okay"

"It's time and effort spent, so accept it. You could have gone out tonight to have fun and yet you stayed with your brother"

"It was actually very entertaining" she replied, smiling knowingly.

"I'd rather not know" Bob told her, entering the room. She smiled angelically, and waved goodnight at them. Once she was alone she settled with her iPod and went to sleep, exhausted with the emotions of that night.