Fangs & Fins
Chapter 33 and 34: "Finale"

The Woods' home was massive. James had made a great venue selection; it was definitely an appropriate place to hold a ball. From a distance it just looked like a large white box, but the closer the car approached Rose could make out bulky columns perched under a broad pediment (which was carved with elaborate designs and some Latin script).
Constance squealed excitedly, James and Arianna wore matching expressions (Rose couldn't decide if they were aggravated or just nervous). Ben high-fived Lewis and squeezed Rose's shoulders.
Two petite vampires were stationed at the front of the house, wearing matching ivory colored frocks. They clutched clipboards in their left hands; silver pens in the other.
They waved Constance, Ben, Arianna and James past, while Lewis showed the attendant on the right his and Rose's invitations. The attendant wrote something on her clipboard and motioned for Lewis and Rose to head on in.
Lewis walked over to Constance (who was still waiting in the doorway) while Rose straightened out her dress. She wasn't used to long dresses or high heels, for that matter and her heels were throbbing.
A pack of vampires all sporting short black dresses pushed past Rose, Constance and Lewis, giggling at James as they made their way into the foyer. Rose frowned and stepped inside, Lewis (with Constance latched onto his arm) close behind.
The foyer was huge. There was a marble staircase with intricate iron railing on both sides of the room; the walls were kind of a cream color, and an enormous crystal chandelier hung in the middle of the ceiling. Long tables sporting large bowls filled with different types of blood were located under the windows in the far right corner, and hundreds upon hundreds of vampires were gathered in groups across the foyer, or in giant packs engaged in some complex dance routine. The foyer bled into a massive ballroom which had been draped from floor to almost impossible high ceiling with red chiffon and black velvet. The chandelier was dimmed and thick white candles illuminated to room. It was difficult to see in the candle light, and Rose clung to the closest arm she could find (Arianna).
Around Rose colorful skirts swished and crystal glasses were sipped. James was passing out glasses of blood to her friends (O for Arianna, AB for Ben and a small glass of A for Constance and himself). Constance eventually lead Lewis off to dance and Arianna was dragged away by a throng of tall blondes (her family, Rose assumed), Ben sprinting after her. James smiled and admired his work.
"I thought we agreed not to get separated?" Rose asked quietly, watching James take a sip of his drink.
James shrugged and looked at Rose. "Are you thirsty? I think there might be some water in the kitchen?"
Rose nodded and James held out his arm.

Getting into the ball had been about ten times easier than Lily had initially thought.
All Lily had to do was ask James for invitation, and he'd given her not one, but two (she'd promptly handed the second one over to Ash, who had given her instructions about how to get in and had went into a tangent about how the security left something to be desired).
Lily had dug through her closet, anxiety bubbling in the pit of her stomach. In the end she'd decided on a simple light blue dress and had braided her hair. She couldn't find any heels that went with her dress, in the end she settled on some old silver flats (the left one was falling apart and the right one had black scuffmarks). She knew she looked sloppy, but it was the best she could do.
Her jewelry selection consisted mostly of old earring studs and friendship bracelets she, Rose and Lewis had made at various camps over the summer. She had one nice pair of earrings and an old locket that went with her dress, though. Lily put the locket and earrings on and grabbed her clutch and invitation before headed towards the door.
Ash had gotten her a cab and had given her a bundle of cash to pay the driver. He was arriving separately with "back-up". Lily hoped that meant Petra. She didn't really like the rest of Ash's vampire-hunting friends; they made perverted jokes and were pretty banal about 94% of the time. She smoothed her dress after she was safely in the cab and prayed that Ash could complete his mission quickly and they could leave before Rose noticed her.
Before Lily could show her invite to one of the attendants positioned near the front door, they waved her inside. Lily held the invite up half-heartedly, then stuffed it in her clutch and skipped inside.
It was chaotic inside, with only some old candles providing light. Lily squinted and stepped behind a pack of vampires wearing pale blue and bottle green dresses. If she could stay around them until she found Ash she'd be fine (and hopefully no one would notice her). She clutched her cell phone tightly and listened to one of the vampires' gossip about Constance's date for the night. Which was Lewis, right?
Lily stood on her tiptoes and looked around, seeing if she could spot Lewis and Constance, when Ben Wood taped her on the shoulder.
"Lil...okay, I don't have a nickname for you. But Lily!" Ben jumped up and down excitedly. "You're here!"
He put his arm around a pretty blonde with freckles and grinned. "This is Arianna. Could you stay with her while I go find my brother and your sister? She's a bit upset."
Ben was leaning into Arianna and acting like the second he let go of her he was going to fall to the ground. He was also acting like a hyperactive five year old on a sugar rush, so Lily concluded that he must be drunk. Or the vampire equivalence of intoxication, whatever that was.
"You're like, so motherly," Ben said, putting his head on Arianna's shoulder and stroking her hair fondly. Arianna swatted his hand away. "Please?"
"Of course," Lily said, feeling kind of used but whatever. Arianna wouldn't draw as much attention as Ben would.
Ben smiled and let go of Arianna. "Awesome! You're the man!" He threw his arms up in the air and ran through the crowd hollering.
"Uh, do you want to sit?" Lily asked Arianna. She motioned to one of the stair cases.
"Sure." Arianna sat down on the third step and Lily sat awkwardly beside her, shoving her phone into her clutch.
"So, um. What's a matter?"
"Oh. Just family stuff." Arianna's legs were splayed out on the steps, her hands in her lap. "Sorry you got stuck as my condolence; Ben gets a little crazy when he has too much AB."
Lily gave a weak smile. "It's fine. I'm used to it." She gave a little laugh afterwards. "I don't mind people relying on me. It's nice. I mean, even if I don't want to help them I do. I don't like disappointing people, it just feels...icky."
"Well you shouldn't have to sacrifice things, right? Like having fun tonight. I'm Ben's friend anyway."
"...I don't mind sacrificing things, if it helps others. I'll put my feelings first if someone else could get hurt."
"Maybe you should put your feelings first, for once." Arianna said softly, looking up in the large chandelier. "How do you feel about Rose? And James and Ben?"
Lily didn't say anything for a few moments before Arianna reached out and touched her fishtail braid. "Look, we're matching!" She pointed to her own braid.
Arianna had a nice smile, the kind that made Lily instantly feel better.
I can be friends with this girl. I can make an effort. I can be more supportive of Rose and James. I can be more tolerant of Lewis and Ben eating our food and singing anime theme songs day in and day out. Because I want to, I want Rose and Lewis to be happy. Even if their new friends are vampires. Lily thought.
"Come on," Lily said, grabbing Arianna's hand and pulling her past the crowd of vampires and onto the dance floor. A jaunty little reggae song came on and Lily twirled around. Arianna immediately joined in, grabbing Lily's hand and spinning her around.
It took James and Rose a while to locate water-bottles in the Woods' kitchen. Eventually they'd found four stashed in a Lazy Susan. Now they were on the hunt for Lewis to give him one of the bottles.
James was carrying the other two bottles (Rose had already finished one). Lewis and Constance were slow dancing, Constance's head on Lewis' shoulder (though with her heels she was taller than him). She would just see Arianna twirling around on the other side of the room.
"Lewis," Rose tapped him on the shoulder and passed him a bottle. He smiled appreciatively.
"JAMES!" Ben shouted, racing over to where Constance, Rose, James and Lewis were standing (and knocking over a group of girls in the process. "Bro, dad's coming in!"
James's smile vanished and he pulled Rose over towards one of the staircases. Sure enough, Mr. Wood was pacing slowly towards the top of the staircase, flanked by a few other men on each side.
The music stopped and Mr. Wood opened his mouth to speak.
"Welcome all to the 765th annual vampire ball! As I am sure many of you are aware, our family has not had the opportunity to host the ball in over a decade, which is why we went out of our way to make this year's ball fantastic..."
Rose couldn't listen to him. She reached for Ben's hand and squeezed. This man killed our moms; this man killed our moms...
At least she didn't have to call him 'dad' like Ben.
Ben squeezed back and ran his thumb up and down the side of Rose's hand. She squeezed his hand harder.
As soon as Mr. Wood finished his speech and the crowd below began clapping, the candles went out.
A portion of the room gasped, Mr. Wood's stormy voice told everyone to remain calm. The candles could be relit in a matter of moments. Someone turned on the electrically lights, which were extremely bright and hurt Rose's eyes.
She looked up at Mr. Wood, who was looking bug-eyed at something in the corner, over where Arianna had been. The crowd followed his gaze, and Rose spotted Lily, of all people had been Arianna's partner.
But Mr. Wood wasn't looking at Lily. He was looking at a much smaller person standing on top of one of the drink tables. He was dressed in all black, and his blonde hair was styled in neat spikes.
Rose's breath hitched. It was impossible.
"Rose..." Ben whispered. "I've seen him. In that picture on your mantel..."
And in the school pictures in the hall, in the large family photo over the fireplace, in small frames throughout Rose's room.
Elliot.

"Elliot?" Rose muttered. "H-h-ow is this possible? You're supposed to be dead."
Elliot stepped closer towards his older sister Rose, "That is where you're wrong. I never died." Elliot's voice was quite humorous. It was exactly the same, super high and squeaky.
"But you look exactly the same. The only explanation possible is…is…" Rose couldn't utter the word.
"That's right; vampire." Elliot gleamed, clearly proud of the creature he had become.
"How did this happen?" Lily asked, shocked herself.
"Well, Rose thought I had died that day, but in reality I escaped and met up with Byron. I changed him and together we planned on getting revenge, with the help of my father." Elliot explained.
The others were confused.
"Dad, as in our Dad?" Lily questioned.
Mr. Wood appeared out of the shadows. "As in me," he spoke.
James spoke. "Dad? You're Elliot's Dad? How is that possible?"
Mr. Wood stepped closer to James, "Well, James to be quite honest I'm surprised it took you this long for you to figure out. You see, I am the most powerful vampire, and I figured it only best if I were to marry the most powerful mermaid."
"Mermaid?" Lily and Rose gasped. They had no idea that their own mother was like them; a mermaid.
"But of course the plan was ruined because she met that human and had you two. But I knew in time I could force her to see things my way." Mr. Wood smiled evilly.
"So you forced her to sleep with you?" Lily stated.
"No, eventually she came to her senses. But I grew tired of her, so I killed her. She must have had Elliot I suppose."
Ben laughed and glanced at Elliot, "How old are you, like four?"
"I may look four, but in reality I'm ten."
"Oh, big difference," Ben stated, sarcastically, clearly mocking Elliot.
"Quiet you!" Elliot grabbed hold of Ben and sent him flying towards the refreshments.
When Ben had landed he was pissed. He lunged at Elliot, ready to tear his head off.
Elliot took Ben's hands off of him and stated, "You wouldn't want anything to happen to your little Rosie would you?"
"What are you talking about?" Ben shouted.
"Turn around." Elliot ordered.
Ben, as well as the others, turned around and noticed that someone had a hold of Rose."
"If you kill Elliot, I kill her," the young man said, threatenly.
Lily recognized the voice. "Byron?"
It clearly was Byron; Lily recognized the beach blonde hair. But there was something off about him. It took Lily a moment to realize that Byron had big white fangs appearing in his teeth and that he was holding Rose forcefully.
"You're a vampire!" Lily gasped. "But why?"
"I had no purpose in life! Then I ran into Elliot and he made me see the beauties of being a vampire. Like this for instance." His bared his teeth and was mere seconds away from plunging his fangs into Rose's neck.
Rose started to scream by was cut off by a wince by Byron.
Ash had snuck up from behind and had shot numerous wooden bullets into Byron's back. Lily assumed Ash must of snuck in amidst all the chaos. "Let her go, or this time I'll use something bigger…like a stake." Ash threatened.
Byron apparently wasn't hurt since he managed to pull the bullets out of his back with ease. "Gladly," Byron responded. He threw Rose as hard as he could.
Rose's scream penetrated threw the air. She landed painfully on top of numerous chairs and tables.
"ROSE!" James and Ben yelled in unison. James ran towards Rose, while Ben ran towards Byron.
Ben asked Ash, "Can I borrow that?" Ash had in his hand a wooden stake.
Ash seemed to know where this was headed. "Certainly," he responded
Ben, with stake in hand, forced the wooden stake into Byron's chest, causing Byron to reek in pain. Ben plunged the stake in further and watched Byron's face turn to gray and his body start to wither away. Byron's now dead body hit the floor.
"That's for hurting Rose, dick!" Ben followed the others to where Rose now lay. "How bad is it?"
James was sitting right next to her, her head in her lap, "Well she's knocked out. But she has a light pulse, so she should be ok."
Constance knelt down besides Rose, tears in her eyes. "Rosie!" She ran her fingers through Rose's hair. "She'll be fine, she has to." A tear rolled down her cheeks.
Lily couldn't bear to look at the current state of her sister. She held onto the nearest person she could find (which was Arianna).
Arianna motioned for Ash to comfort Lily. "There's someone I need to take care of," she muttered to herself.
Arianna lunged towards Elliot, her fangs poking out.
"Arianna, NO!"
Arianna glanced over to see Ben. Ben ran over towards Elliot and grabbed a hold of his head.
"You don't have the nerve," Elliot muttered to Ben.
"Oh yes, I believe I do."
Crack!
Ben had decapitated Elliot's head!
Everyone gasped, especially Lily!
"Ben! What did you do?" Lily yelled.
"It had to be done," Ben proclaimed. His hands were now covered in Elliot's blood.
Everyone began to breathe a sigh of relief.
It seemed that all their troubles were over.
"Excuse me?"
Well almost all their troubles.
The voice came from Jewel, who apparently missed all the fun. She was probably making out with a random vampire somewhere, Lily thought.
"What is going on in here?" Jewel said, while looking around at the giant mess that was the ballroom.
Mr. Wood must have left the area, because he wasn't found anywhere.
Jewel then noticed Constance sitting by Rose, crying for her friend. "Aw, what happened Constance, your little mermaid friend pass out?"
Constance was full of rage! She stood up and huffed and puffed towards Jewel. "Stop taunting and teasing me like I'm a little kid! I'm sick and tired of it! You're a bitch and you always will be!" Constance grabbed a piece of the wooden table that had broken off from Rose's fall (why they had wooden tables at the Vampire Ball, no one knew) and plunged it into Jewel.
Jewel withered in pain and fell to the floor.
Ben, Lewis, and Lily had their mouths hung open. They couldn't believe sweet little Constance would hurt anyone.
Constance obviously didn't want to talk about it since she knelt down next to Lewis (who was still tending to Rose). Constance suddenly tore a small gash in her wrist with her teeth, causing her blood to appear. "Will this help?" Constance figured that her vampire blood would heal her, which could probably be true.
"That's ok, Connie. We don't want Rose to be at the risk of becoming a vampire." Ben responded.
Ash suddenly got a disgusted look upon his face. "What's that smell?"
No one around him seemed to understand what he was talking about.
Constance looked down at her wrist. "It might be me. It could be my vampire blood."
A shocked expression appeared across his face. "I don't believe it," he muttered to himself.
Constance just stood there, confused.
"You're the vampire."
Constance chuckled. "Of course I'm a vampire."
"No, you're the vampire; the vampire I have to kill."
"What does that-?" Constance started to say, but couldn't because Ash had suddenly pulled out a stake from behind him and threw it straight through her chest.
"NO!" James yelled.
Constance's face started to lose color and she whimpered in pain.
"Ash, what did you do?" Lily yelled at him.
"She was the vampire that I needed to kill. The one that was killing all those humans."
Ben ran towards him. "THAT WAS ME, YOU IDIOT!"
Ash's expression changed from happy to horrified. He had killed the wrong vampire. He had killed sweet innocent Constance.
James knelt besides Constance, tears streaming down his face.
Constance's body now was all gray and lifeless. The once Hugsy-loving seventeen year old vampire was gone.
James looked up at Ash. "You did this!"
Ash threw up his hands. "I'm sorry man."
James got up off his feet and walked towards Ash. "You're sorry. YOU'RE SORRY? I'm sorrier for you."
James reached into his chest and ripped his heart out. Ash's body fell to the floor.
Lily looked around four dead bodies appeared on the floor and one barely living body.
"Guys we have to get Rose to a hospital!" Arianna yelled. "NOW!"
Ben cradled Rose into his arms and ran out of the room, followed by Lewis, Lily and Arianna. James stayed behind to look peer at Constance. He knelt down besides her and kissed her forehead.

Beep! Beep! Beep!
Ugh, make the beeping noises stop! Rose thought to herself. Rose opened her eyes to realize that she was in a different place. She instantly knew that she was in a hospital of some sort.
"Hey, don't get up. You need to rest."
Rose turned her head to see Ben lounging on a hospital chair, reading a dumb sports magazine. "What am I doing here?" Rose asked.
"Well, you kind of nearly died by your stupid little brother." Ben explained.
"Oh, yeah," Rose realized. "Where are the others?"
"Lily and are down the hall getting you something to eat, and James is at home. He's a bit upset."
"And Constance?" Rose wondered.
Ben's expression immediately changed. He got up from his chair and sat on her bed. "I'm sorry, Rosie. Ash staked her. She's gone."
Tears formed her eyes. "What?"

It took a few days for Rose to heal. She didn't have many injuries; just a mild concussion, a sprained ankle and a few scrapes and bruises. Rose wondered how she was still alive after everything that happened at the Vampire Ball. Ben, Lily and Lewis explained everything that happened to her. It was hard for her to listen, especially about Constance. Her one and only friend was long gone and that was going to be hard for her to bear.
"Well, we're here." Ben opened the door and motioned Rose in. He still needed to help her move around, what with her near-death experience and all.
"Thanks." Rose smiled.
Ben helped Rose get nice and settled onto the couch. "Need anything to drink?" Ben asked Rose.
"Some juice of some sort if there is any." Rose responded.
"I'm on it." Ben said, and went into the kitchen looking for a beverage for Rose.
Beep Beep! Ben glanced down at a text message. The only words that were displayed on the text said: Kill her! NOW! Ben figured it was now or never, so he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dagger.
"I can't believe he's making me do this," Ben muttered to himself, a tear trickled down his cheek. He wiped it away and got Rose a glass of lemonade.
He walked back into the living room, dagger behind in one hand behind his back and lemonade in another hand.
"Thanks." Rose took the glass of lemonade. "So, what do you want to do?"
"I don't know, we could probably watch some Disney movie if you want." Ben suggested.
"Ok. But first Ben, I just want to say one thing."
"What's that?" Ben questioned.
"Thank you for everything. You've been so kind to me lately."
Ben blushed. "It's nothing really."
"No it's not nothing. You've changed, Ben. You really have." Rose grabbed a hold of Ben's free hand.
Ben remembered the dagger behind his back. "No, I really haven't Rose."
Rose placed another hand on his cheek. "Yes you have."
Ben moved closer and closer towards Rose, completely forgetting about the dagger and his objective of killing Rose. Before he knew it his lips were on hers and he dropped the dagger from his hand.
Even though Ben had kissed and made out with hundreds of other girls before, this kiss with Rose seemed different, almost electrifying. They pulled away from the kiss in time to find Mr. Collins opening in the front door.
"Hey kids, I'm home!"
Was he in for a surprise!

A/N: Hey guys it's Kelly! Well...that's it! That's the finale! Did you like it?
We've had the majority of the finale planned since the very beginning...so to see it come to life is just unbelieveable.
There WILL be more! We are working on a sequel...so get ready for that!

I really hope you guys like the finale & the over all series as much as we did writing it!

Get ready for tons more action & drama in the sequel! :) (Which has yet to be titled :/)

Remember: Live chat Sunday at 7:30 CENTRAL time! The link is /kelcalitus
Maddie & I will both be in attendance & we'll be discussing both the finale & some sequel spoilers :)

-Kelly