Eternal: Chapter Two, Part 2

The next night, Drei went out to some meeting or another. He wouldn’t look at me as he left; Valetta’s words still rang in his head, filling him with undue guilt. Mitchell and Valetta were going out in search of entertainment and invited me along, but I didn’t feel much like spending time with them currently. I couldn’t figure out if it was because I blamed them, or if I was shamed and embarrassed. Either way, I wouldn’t have been much of an asset to their plans as I didn’t feel like smiling.

I sat, staring into space for the longest time. Eventually I stood and went to the window. There was still one experiment I had never tried, and now was as good a time as any. Besides, I hoped it would take my mind off of everything else.

Opening the window, I slid out onto the narrow ledge, concentrating on how I wanted to do this. It was similar to some things I had done in the past—like sending messages to people on a breeze. I just hadn’t done anything like this with a person. I had made the air into shapes and used those to move people, but never on a breeze. In my mind, it would be something like flying if I could pull it off.

I started pulling a gentle stream of air below my feet, part of my brain wondering if I should maybe start this closer to the ground instead of five stories up. Ignoring that questioning part of my mind, I jumped onto the breeze, pulling more air into it to accommodate my weight. Slowly going in circles, I practiced balancing myself; unlike before when it was more like standing on a solid object, this was akin to standing on a collection of strings. I could see the wispy strands beneath my feet and tried centering myself on enough of them I found some stability.

After circling for a while, I directed my breeze upwards over the rooftops of the apartment buildings and worked on balance while moving faster, turning, swerving, and even while changing position on my strands of air. I tried to keep over the rooftops, not too far off in case I fell. I did fall, quite a lot. But it seemed all too soon I heard Valetta and Mitchell on the street heading back to the building, so I followed suit and slipped through the window.

Taking a quick shower, I exited the bathroom to find them sitting on the couch, Valetta’s head resting on Mitchell’s shoulder, her eyes studying their linked hands. He was whispering something to her, though I doubted she heard a word of what he said. She just had that look about her suggesting her thoughts were elsewhere.

As I walked past them, she glanced up and asked. “What have you been up to all night?”

“Nothing much,” I said, forcing myself to come up with something more solid than that. “Thinking mostly.” I really wasn’t good at this.

She nodded, though, turning her dark eyes from me again. Mitchell smiled hopefully, obviously unsure what was wrong with her. Reading her thoughts, I found she still fought with herself over what was the best thing to do: reward Drei to my benefit or punish us both. She also struggled to find something for Drei to do to prove he deserved the former.

I shrugged to Mitchell. He didn’t really need to know if he didn’t already; it was one of those things she had to figure out for herself, despite how difficult it might be.

The next few nights followed a similar pattern: Mitchell and Valetta went out after I declined the offer to join them, Drei went out somewhere—I wasn’t sure where or what for, but he kept his distance from me, much to my dismay—and I would take my breeze and improve with what I would call flying.

My mom named every trick she learned and discovered, and I had picked up the habit over the brief time I had spent with her. Shortly after I was born, the government had taken her to one of their testing facilities, and she’d been there ever since. While working under Caroline, I had taken one for the team and been temporarily reunited with her and Nick. Then Drei came and took me away from that dreadful place and the crazy specialists, but she had opted to stay behind. I couldn’t begin to understand her logic; her mind wasn’t in the best of conditions, but that wouldn’t stop me being grateful for the time I had been given with her.

Eternal: Chapter Two, Part 1

Chapter Two: Fearful Truths

“Drei, we really should talk,” Valetta calmly said when we reached the apartment, though it was more a demand disguised as a suggestion. I wished all of this hushed discussion would be finished; I wasn’t a child and I knew what was happening. There wasn’t any reason I could see to keep me out of the loop when I was in the center.

He nodded as if expecting this. Kissing my cheek, he said, “You and Mitchell should wait for us out here. We shall return to join you shortly.” His eyes didn’t meet mine and I wanted to tell them to just have it out here. They wouldn’t, though; they’d probably just pretend they didn’t know what I was talking about and leave anyway.

Mitchell kicked back in one of the armchairs and I sunk into the middle of the couch. I didn’t want to eavesdrop on their conversation—I could guess it was only a continuation of earlier—but I wanted to know what kind of mood they’d each be in when—if—they returned.

“Go ahead and listen,” Mitchell said, his arms crossed and his eyes closed. “I am.”

“But—”

“It is good to know what mood to expect him in, and Valetta as well. As you know, no harm ever came from eavesdropping;” he tilted his eyes in my direction a moment, a content and mocking smile playing across his lips. “We know. It was almost expected of you.” And here I thought I was doing a fair job at not looking shocked. But I wasn’t going to argue with an open invitation.

“Do not drag me away if you are not going to say anything,” Drei was saying as I tuned in. Splitting my attention further, I mapped the room so I could watch them.

Valetta stood a few feet from Drei, biting a fingernail. “Are you not even ashamed of what you have done?” Her hand batted away a tear on her cheek.

“I am ashamed, and many days I loathe myself for what I have done to her,” Drei answered softly, his hands in his pant pockets.

“You do not act ashamed,” she replied humorously. “No, because if you were ashamed, you would not kiss her in front of us, or hold hands in public, or any number of things that you may be doing with her—sharing a bedroom, for another.”

“I see nothing wrong with any of those. Despite what I have done, I still love her,” he said softly, keeping a firm grasp on his stoicism.

“And turning her is how you show that?”

“I have told you she was dying. What would you have me do?”

Valetta threw her arms up in frustration. “Prevent the situation in the first place? You promised to protect her, to be with her. Where were you?”

“It is complicated.”

“Everything is complicated, Drei. That does not mean you leave her to die and then decide you want her to live.” She turned her back to him, crossing her arms. Soon, one hand flew to her mouth and she chewed her nails again.

“Valetta—”

“It does not even suggest that you take advantage of her. It takes years to control one’s vampire, especially the lust.” She ran a hand through her hair, exhaling heavily to steady herself before turning to him. “Swear you have not taken advantage of that, too.”

“I have not taken advantage of her, at all.”

“But you have,” she argued, advancing on him, pacing circles around him. “First you took advantage of her humanity, and took her mortality from her. Then you take advantage of her love and flaunt that as if you deserved it. Who knows what else you have taken advantage of before that, or even after,” she spat angrily. “So have you, or have you not, taken advantage of her vampire’s lust?”

“No.”

“Do you want to?” she continued, stopping in front of him. “Because wanting to is just as disgraceful as the deed.”

Drei looked away from her, walking past her to the bureau.

“Drei;” she sighed, shaking her head. “I should never have encouraged you. She might very well have been better off with Nick.”

“Do not say that,” he shouted, a few tears tumbling down his cheeks. He clenched his jaw and balled his hands into fists atop the bureau. “Nick would not be able to care for—”

“Nick would have been there to protect her,” she shouted back at him, her voice strong despite the tears filling her eyes.

“You do not even know the circumstances,” Drei said through gritted teeth, turning back to her.

“I know you promised to protect her, and you obviously failed.”

I didn’t like that they were fighting, but I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt them. They needed to have it out, as much as it hurt both of them; it was even hurting me. Valetta was making several good arguments, and I almost wanted to stop listening. Drei was right, though, she didn’t understand the circumstances. I had forgiven Drei for not being there because we were both responsible for it. But I had never before thought about if he had failed. Dying meant I failed, because I couldn’t change anything if I wasn’t alive. Hearing Drei had also failed pained me; I didn’t want it to be true. Even as I realized it was.

“I cannot decide if I want them to take her from you,” Valetta whispered, breaking the silence that had filled the room. “You do not deserve her…but she still needs you.”

“Valetta, I love her. Ten—no, ten thousand times the world over. What do you want me to do to prove I deserve to stay with her? I will do anything.”

“I shall think on it.”

Wiping the tears from my cheeks, I looked up at her as she entered the living room. She had recomposed herself and dried her tears.

“Come, Abriel; you should sleep. Today has been far too…exciting.”

She didn’t sound remotely excited and I wasn’t tired, but saying that wouldn’t have been in anyone’s best interest. Mitchell gave me a quick look as if wishing me luck, or perhaps it was pity; then he stood and went to console Drei. At least, I hoped that’s what he was doing. I would hate for him to have to face Mitchell after Valetta had torn him apart; I wouldn’t listen, though. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to withstand another argument if that should occur, or put words to the pain swirling around me.

“How long has it been?” she asked, sitting at the foot of the bed, staring at the curtained windows.

“A year,” I replied, staring at a wall. I really wasn’t tired and it was strange to be falling asleep without Drei. It felt like missing a part of myself, or having forgotten something important. It was a dark and deep feeling of loss, of desolation.

She didn’t say anything after that, some part of her hoping if I thought she was asleep, then I would follow suit. Valetta should have known better though, especially with her emotions as turbulent as they were. I wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t be sleeping that day.

Vampiric: Chapter Twelve, Part 3

It felt almost like the air had been sucked from my lungs. None of this was making the least bit of sense and it was starting to unnerve me. Why couldn’t he just come out and say whatever it was he was avoiding? He wasn’t making anything better or easier. It only seemed to be messier and more puzzling.

“I don’t understand,” I conceded slowly, hoping against odds the answer would come before he said it. His hesitancy was making me fear it, whatever it was.

“I lost my sisters, and it nearly ruined me,” he whispered. “I could not imagine what losing you would be like, and I never wanted to know.”

“Drei…what did you do?”

He stood, my slipping from his as though he had forgotten it was there, and started pacing along the foot of the bed. “What I did is unforgivable and I understand if you loathe me,” he said, refusing to look at me. “I never wished my fate on anyone—least of all you…but I cannot undo what has been done.”

“What did—” It clicked. I had changed, but I hadn’t died. Not entirely. “You turned me,” I whispered, not sure how I felt about it. On one hand, it meant I could be with Drei and it was considerably more difficult for me to die. It also meant I hadn’t failed yet. But on the other, it meant facing the Council, for they would know eventually. It meant never growing old or living a full life. Would I be able to have children if I wanted them?

“I could not imagine living without you longer than I had already,” he murmured, his pacing stopped but his gaze hidden in shame.

I stood—or tried to, I should say—to go to him, instead bringing him to me as my legs crumpled under my weight. “You are still suffering side effects,” he explained, helping me into bed again. “You will be weak for a while, until your body adjusts. It doesn’t help you were injured when I—” The sentence completed itself, despite my fogginess. “Your wounds are healed, however,” he offered hopefully.

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I said, “I love you, Drei. Nothing, not even this, can change that.”

“Not even the way I treated you?”

“I never stopped loving you.”

“Neither I you.” He held me in his arms, the embrace familiar but strange. If anything, it was more powerful, strengthened by his relief and our former separation.

Then the moment was ruined by me and my newly acquired thirst. He laughed uneasily, though he tried to feign lightheartedness. He left briefly and returned with a mug of warm, dark liquid. “Animal blood,” he offered.

“Do I have to?” My stomach felt sickened by the thought as my mouth watered for it.

“You will grow accustomed to it.”

“I don’t believe you.” I held out against drinking it a while longer before thirst won out. Surprisingly, I wasn’t tempted to gag at the coppery liquid. If anything, I wanted more. But Drei said I needed to learn to curb my thirst early on before I began experiencing blood lust. I wasn’t strong enough to press the issue.

“You need more sleep,” he insisted, setting the empty mug on the bedside table. “That is the only way to regain your strength.”

“You’re always telling me to sleep,” I teased, lying down again, exhaustion washing over me.

“Because you seldom tell yourself,” he replied, grinning, his fingertips gliding down my scar-less arm. I closed my eyes, enjoying his touch, soaking it up after having longed for it.

“Thank you,” I whispered, feeling myself drift off.

“Do not thank me for my selfishness,” he murmured softly into my ear as he lay beside me.

I thought about telling him how unselfish he had been. His motive was selfish, but in retrospect, he had done so much. He had given me the deepest secret he had as well as bought me more time to figure things out. He had saved me from failing, and no one else could have given me that. No one.