THe Enigma of Secrets: Chapter 2

All four guys went running from their various places scattered throughout the house when they heard Shannon scream- somehow, neither Chase nor Ryan saw her on their way to the kitchen, though for her to be able to run out the front door and slam it, she would have had to run right past them.
“‘Maybe even a human this time,’” Tommy mocked, glaring at Jason as Ryan and Chase joined the other two guys in the kitchen. Tommy turned and looked at them, “We left the blood out.”
Ryan sighed and slumped onto one of the bar stools, “Great- now what are we going to do?”
“We? Oh no- you are going to go find her, Ryan.” Jason retorted, “You’re the one that found her- and that amazing voice- you are going to make sure we don’t lose her.”
He sighed again before getting up and following Shannon’s path out of the house.
“Come on, Shan...where are you?” he breathed after looking for at least fifteen minutes with no luck, not even the slightest trace of the scent of her intoxicating blood. “Snap out of it, Ryan- you can’t fall in love with her. She’s human...No, wait,” he scolded himself, “Don’t say that- it doesn’t matter if she’s human or not...you just can’t fall in love with her.”
He looked for a few more minutes before getting fed up with the task and searched until he found her mind, then teleported to her location, out in the woods. “Shannon-”
“Get away from me!”
“Please, Shan, don’t do this.”
She backed away from him, “Don’t do what? You four are nothing but blood-sucking monsters- who shouldn’t exist! ...Vampire’s don’t exist!”
“Shannon, please- I’m sorry, we should have told you, I know-”
“I said get away from me,”
Ryan sighed and pulled her against him by the waist, trying his best to ignore the almost perfect way their bodies molded to each other, “Shannon- we’re not going to hurt you- if we wanted to, we would have done it already. Trust me,”
“How can I trust something that isn’t supposed to be real?”
He smiled and ran his fingers through her hair, “Don’t listen to your head- what does your heart say?”
She closed her eyes and was silent for several minutes, “...Promise?”
Ryan smiled again and nodded, “I promise, Shan...I’ll keep you safe- no matter what...so will you come home now?”
“On one condition...” she whispered after a few moments silence.
“Yeah?”
Shannon looked up at him and even though he didn’t want to, Ryan felt himself succumbing to her soft gray-eyed stare, “Don’t let go?”
He smiled and pushed a lock of aqua colored hair from her eyes, “Alright,”

Jason knew the moment Ryan and Shannon returned to the house as he could immediately smell the rejuvenated sent that Shannon’s blood emitted.
“How much longer do you think they’ll last?” Chase grinned, looking up from his comic book.
“Well, considering how scared Ryan is of their being different races, it might take a while,” Tommy reasoned.
“Not to mention,” Jason added, “That unless we find out that she’s of some sort of Malichi royalty, it won’t matter much- he’s got to choose in a little over a month.”
“Oh yeah?” Tommy smirked triumphantly and dropped a book in front of him, “Take a look at that, Jason-Alekzander.”
Jason quirked an eyebrow and studied the book his fellow vampire had presented him, his jaw slackening more and more as he read further down the page, “Does Shannon know?”
Tommy shook his head negatively, “Her foster parents’ house burned down on her eighteenth birthday- assuming the worst, her real mother didn’t bother making sure that Shannon didn’t perish with them...she has no idea that she’s Malichi royalty.”
“Are we going to tell her?” Chase asked, setting his comic book to the side, a rare serious expression on his face.
“Not today- she’s already got a lot to sort through now that she knows we’re not human...We should tell her mother though,”
“I’ll go!” Chase volunteered right away.
Tommy rolled his eyes, “And I’ll go with him,”
Jason closed the book again and found an open spot on a bookshelf to hide it in, “And I’ll go make sure Shannon’s okay.”
Jason took his time climbing the stairs to the second floor and then took his time getting to Shannon’s door; after knocking and getting no reply, he slowly opened the door to find it empty. A quick search for her mind told him that she was instead in Ryan’s room, another floor up. “As long as she’s not freaking out...I’m not going to disturb them,” he muttered to himself, wondering then if Ryan knew the beautiful young human woman he was comforting was in fact the Lost Princess of Malichi- a country so small that it rarely appeared on maps. It was the perfect place for The Enigma to live because it kept the crazy paparazzi and fans at bay- that and Ryan was constantly getting called home to his mother’s castle where she would hassle him about picking out his future wife from the remaining two princesses.
His father had been half human, half drow, his mother the vampire- which made Ryan-Christopher Landon-Michael Kyo Wylde Do’Urden, Crown Prince of Malichi, a cross-breed.
Jason’s thoughts were interrupted by Chase and Tommy yelling for him, “Jason!!”
“What?”
“We tried to stop her, but Shannon’s mom is on her way over here...RIGHT NOW.”
“Did you not tell her what Shannon’s already been through today?!”
Tommy nodded, “Yeah, but she insisted that she needed to see for herself.”
“Where’s Shannon?”
“In...Ryan’s room.”
Chase did a double take, “Wait. They don’t know that she’s the Lost Princess...and they’re alone...in Ryan’s room?”
“Uh, yeah, sounds about right,” Jason nodded.
“Shannon’s mom is gonna freak,” Tommy insisted, “We need to go get Shannon out of there...”
“She’s calm in there- she feels safe...I don’t know what Ryan said to her, but I think that if we try to separate them right now, something bad could happen.”
There was a knock on the door, making the three vampires freeze; Jason was the first to snap out of it, “I’ll talk to her...”
He opened the door and smiled, bowing a little, “Queen Alexandra- it’s wonderful to see you again. What might we do for you?”
“Thomas and Chase claim that my daughter is alive and is now living with you- I’d like to see for myself.”
“Your Highness, I understand that you’re eager to see if your daughter is still, in fact, alive, but you have to understand that Shannon is quite nervous right now, having just found out that Thomas, Chase, the Prince and I are all vampires...I think it would be best if you gave her a day or two to relax and calm down around us before she meets you.”
“I would much prefer to know now, Jason-Alekzander, if the Shannon Spiecer that is in this house, is my daughter.”
Jason sighed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sway the Queen this time, “Tommy, Chase, if you would show the Queen into the study, I’ll see if I can’t get Shannon to come downstairs.”
The real reason behind getting the Queen out of the entryway was that it was quite common knowledge that there were only four bedrooms on the third floor and that the four male vampires kept their private residences there- seeing Shannon coming down from the third floor instead of from the second would rise suspicion that something was already going on between Shannon and Ryan- which would have been very, very bad for Ryan and his family.
Jason quickly reached the third floor and knocked on Ryan’s door, “Hey Ryan- we’ve got a bit of a problem...”
It took a few minutes, but Ryan eventually opened the door, “What kind of problem?”
“Shannon needs to come downstairs and you can’t be seen touching her, okay? I’ll explain later.”
He sighed and caved, “Alright...Shannon? C’mon...Jason says we have to go downstairs.”
Ryan’s arm stayed around her as they walked downstairs again and he quietly convinced her that he absolutely had to let go of her once they got to the study.
“You better have a good reason for this, Jason,” Ryan hissed in his ear, “You’ve just seen how Shannon’s taking this.”
“Trust me, Ryan, you’ll thank me later.”
Just before opening the doors to the study, Ryan let go of Shannon and Jason’s hand pressed against her lower back gently to get her to follow Ryan into the room.
“Queen Alexandra!” Ryan exclaimed, “What a...pleasant surprise!”
“Here she is, Your Highness,” Jason announced, “Shannon Spiecer...our life saving singer for The Enigma,”

Ryan did a double-take before wanting to hit himself upside the head for not recognizing her name- could The Enigma’s Shannon Spiecer actually be Princess Shannon Spiecer?? It never had been 100% confirmed that she had died in the house fire that killed her foster parents.
Queen Alexandra crossed the room to get a better look at Shannon and Ryan couldn’t help but want to ask her to distance herself a little after catching Shannon’s nervous gaze. This was too much to ask any human to go through in one day.
Alexandra brushed the hair from Shannon’s eyes, studying her, before asking, “Who were your parents?”
“Mark and Andrea Anderson,” Shannon replied, twisting one of the two maroon braids hanging down her chest around her fingers. “We lived in...Raleigh, North Carolina...”
That seemed to settle it for the Queen who wrapped her arms tightly around Shannon, “I thought you were dead...”
“Who are you?” Shannon demanded, distancing herself from the other woman.
Chase answered for her, “She’s your mother- Queen Alexandra Danielle-Catherine Spiecer of Malichi and you are Princess Shannon-Rayn Aurora Spiecer of Malichi...the Lost Princess,”
When Shannon turned and ran out of the room, yet again slamming the door behind her, Ryan had to keep himself from running after her, allowing Tommy to pursue her out the door.
“Your Highness,” Jason said, taking a step toward her, “I think it might be best for Shannon if you let her be for a few days...to let all of this sink in for her,”
“Yes, Jason...perhaps you’re right. Please keep me informed about her,” with that, she left and after he heard her car leave, Ryan transported to Shannon, pulling her into his arms without second thought.
“I’m sorry, Shannon- I swear I didn’t know,”
“No more, Ryan...No more,”
He got her home again and for the next several days only left her side long enough to go out and feed, otherwise spending the remainder of his time in his room with her, not letting go.