“I really do,” I said honestly.
“Just understand that there’s a lot that I can’t remember. I have absolutely no memories of being a child. My memories start when I’m around sixteen years of age… But honestly, that’s where my story really begins,” he whispered in the silent car.
I sat up straighter wanting to take in every word that came out of his mouth.
“I can’t remember places. All I can remember is people. Everything else is a dark void. I’m sure the Originals could tell you where I grew up but I can’t remember. But what I do remember is very vivid. I was sixteen years old and strong and very smart. My family wasn’t high ranking but with my abilities we might be one day. I was popular among our people. Even in those days I had the ability to influence the people around me. That’s why the Originals took me. They wanted to use me but I’ll save that story for later.
“So, I was sixteen, cocky, and the world was mine for the taking. I was my parents’ golden boy. I was the oldest and I had seven younger brothers and sisters. Grant, Maxwell, Luelle, Greyson, Raymond, Frederick, and little Penny. Oh, little Penny, she was only three. I loved her so much. I can still remember her dark curls, her pink cheeks, her stubby, sticky, little fingers, and those bright green eyes, so much like yours, that looked at me with such trust. She believed that I would always be there to take care of her but in the end I was too late. I was too late to save any of them. I wish I had killed myself.
“Anyway, my dad was getting old, back in those days you were thought to be ancient if you made it to thirty and my dad was thirty-four. He was training me to take over for providing for the family. I was young and eager to learn. People took notice to my talent as a blacksmith but most importantly at the things I could make. I could make a sculpture out of anything. Everyone was impressed but in that day and age you couldn’t make money being a sculpture. But my dad continued to teach me how to create. It wasn’t long until I could make the best swords around. They were lighter and sharper than other swords of the times. I would stay late and practice how to wield one. I became strong and fast. I was quick on my feet and even quicker of the mind. The girls, of course, took notice. Now, not only was I handsome but I could provide.
“At sixteen I was suitable husband material. But I had eyes for only one. Lea. She was beautiful. She had flaming bright red hair. It was long and wavy and oh so soft. Her laugh was subtle and musical. I was one of the few that could make her laugh. Her eyes were a dark blue. Sometimes in the right light they looked violet. She was perfect. I was young and in love. It didn’t take long for us to become engaged. Her parents were ecstatic. They knew that I loved her and could provide for her. When I was seventeen I gained complete control of my father’s business. I was responsible for all the metal work in our town. Lea and I got married. She was sixteen. I built us a house in between my parents and hers. It was small but cozy. Lea loved tending the house. Our house was the cleanest in town. My best friend Don, at first didn’t like Lea, he felt she would jeopardize our friendship. But her warmness soon won him over. Not to mention her excellent cooking. No one could not love Lea. I was eighteen when my father fell ill.
“Lea was pregnant and with the prospect of having nine more mouths to feed I was close to having a nervous breakdown. I knew my mother wouldn’t be able to feed my siblings on her own. Grant was only fifteen, which in those times he was already considered a man, but to me he was just a small boy. I began apprenticing him. He wasn’t as good at sword making as I was but he was decent. Two months later my dad died. The month after that Lea miscarried. She was devastated and I was too. But I couldn’t help but feel r
elieved. It was one less mouth to feed. Lea was an only child so her parents helped my mother and siblings. Between our combined efforts we managed to keep them alive. Another year passed and then the next. I was twenty. And that’s when the Originals showed up.
“I didn’t know who they were at the time but now I know them for the monsters they were and are. Everyone in town was fascinated by these strange creatures. Inhumanely beautiful, pale as snow, and with eyes so silver they appeared white. There were five of them. Isaiah, Elijah, James, Zachariah, and Xavier. They took a special interest in me. I know now that they were trying to gage what kind of powers I might posses if they turned me. I would be the first vampire ever created outside of the Originals and they weren’t sure what to expect. They didn’t even know if I would survive the transformation. For all they knew they were special and no one else could become immortal. But they were willing to try. Xavier, the youngest, can sense the strength of one’s potential power and he felt strongly that I was special but his older brothers weren’t as sure. Lea was pregnant again and glowing. This was the farthest she had made it through a pregnancy. After the first miscarriage she had five more. Miscarriages were very common back then. But she was eight months along. This time it would happen. But then the Originals decided it was time to act.
“They thought if they showed me what they were and offered me eternal life that I would accept. So that’s what they did. I was scared and thought they were crazy. I said no to their offer. I was happy with my life and I really didn’t believe it anyway. I thought they were just trying to mess with me. Unhinge me. Which if that was their plan, they succeeded. They said that they’d just have to prove it to me some other way and that I wouldn’t like it. God, I wish I had just believed them. But I was naïve. That night there was a knock on the door. Lea wasn’t feeling well so she had already went to bed. Isaiah, Elijah, James, Zachariah, and Xavier stood at the door. They shoved their way in. Isaiah grabbed Lea from the bed. I yelled and I hit them but it did no good. They were too strong. I picked up my sword and tried to stab Isaiah with it so he would let her go. But it just rebounded off his granite skin. My efforts were futile. He laughed this high pitched wicked laugh. He put his mouth to Lea’s neck as if kissing her but I then realized he was killing her. He had cut her neck open with his teeth and now he was drinking her blood! I thought I was losing my mind. In seconds she was dead. I could see the child writhing inside her trying desperately to live. I stood shell shocked. And then the moving inside her stopped. But they weren’t done yet. As I stood rooted to the floor they ripped her open and devoured our child. Our beautiful baby. I was able to take in that it was a girl. She had dark hair with just a hint of red. In less than two minutes they had killed my wife and our child. I thought to myself, that I couldn’t let them take the rest of my family. Suddenly my legs could move again and I was running.
“I opened the door to my parent’s house. What I found inside was horrifying. My mother, my brothers, my sisters, sweet little Penny, all dead. There blood was all gone. Without their blood they appeared translucent. Their dead eyes stared at nothing. I took off running again, this time to Lea’s parent’s house. They too were dead. I went running to Don’s house. But I knew what I would find. I could already hear the screams beginning. So, instead I just sank to my knees and screamed. That’s where they found me. They dragged me away and I was far from quiet about it. I went kicking and screaming. I would not go out without a fight. They knocked me out but I could still hear them talking. They weren’t sure how to go along with creating another vampire. Another monster. They bickered back and forth for what felt like hours but was really only minutes. At that point I just wanted to die. I wanted them to just get it over with already. But that didn’t happen. I felt one of them take my wrist. They argued some more and then I felt the knife stab my wrist. But it wasn’t a knife. It was Isaiah’s teeth. Within seconds I was on fire. At the time I remember wondering how he had set me on fire with his teeth. Now of course I know it was the venom. As soon as I felt the flames I came to. The pain was unbearable. I kept trying to put out the invisible flames. I screamed but no one but them heard me. Everything around me pulsed. My breathing went from labored to non-existent. I may not have had to breathe but the fire raged on. I could feel it spreading to my heart. I wished I could black out from the pain but that was impossible. I thought I was in hell. And then it stopped.”
He took a breath.
“That’s horrible,” I said. No wonder Gabriel acted the way he did.
He chuckled, “Sweetheart, that’s just the beginning.”
“What happened next?” I asked.
“I woke up. I can remember everything perfectly after that. They told me that three days had passed and asked how I felt. But I was too busy taking in my foreign surroundings. Nothing looked the same. Everything was clearer, brighter, I could see things that I had never seen before. I was in an alien world. They told me they had brought me a snack. That’s when I noticed the girl weeping under the tree. I knew her. She was a peasant girl. Lea had talked to her some. Her name was Julie. That’s when I smelled her blood coursing through her veins. I didn’t think I just acted. I had drained her body in less than a minute. I was horrified by what I had done. I held the dead girl in my arms for a moment, saying a prayer, not only for her soul but for mine as well. That’s when the Originals informed me of their plan. They were building an army. An army to rage against the humans. They wanted complete and total control. Power is what they wanted. And my first task was to kill everyone in my hometown. I refused. I told them that I could not be a part of their games. They were not pleased. They tried to kill me but I was newly created and well fed and not so easy to kill. I got away and never looked back. Through the years they’ve tried to get a hold of me. Either still trying to harness my powers or trying to kill me. But to me it’s the same thing so it doesn’t really matter. I hope one day I have the chance to avenge all the deaths they’ve caused. Not just my family’s murders but all the others that have been caused by them.”
I let that sink in.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. I can’t imagine the pain that you’ve went through. But you don’t need to blame yourself. You couldn’t have saved them. This probably isn’t exactly what you want to hear but they probably would have killed your family no matter what. Your family was what mattered to you. They would have wanted to destroy that,” I said.
“I’m sure your right but I still feel like it was my fault. It will always haunt me. Well now you know why I’m such a miserable soul and why I never want to find my soul mate,” he laughed, “When I first found out about the soul mate principle I thought Lea must have been mine and that I had lost her. But then they told me how if you lose your soul mate you go crazy. I thought they were lying. But they weren’t. That’s the thing you always have to remember about the Originals; they never lie, they may twist the truth, but they never lie.”
Chapter Nineteen: After Shock
I had so many questions for Gabriel but I held them back. I knew Gabriel would tell me the truth of any question I asked him. There was so much that I wanted to know about the vampire world. Jonathon and the others had withheld a great amount of information from me. For some reason Jonathon didn’t want me to know the truth of the vampire lifestyle. He wanted to keep me ignorant even though I had no desire to join that world. But maybe that’s why he wouldn’t tell me. He wanted me stuck in the dark. Maybe deep down he was hoping I would change my mind. I had asked Diana different things about being a vampire but she had never given me much information. There was so much I didn’t know and one of my biggest pet peeves was being kept in the dark. Jonathon of all people should tell me the truth. But I know if the truth is what I want I won’t find it from him. Gabriel is a lot of things but a liar he is not. It had taken a lot out of him to tell me about his past and I was frightened to ask him more questions but I knew I had too. I had to have answers. But the question was how to get rid of Danny an
d Mason. Danny and Mason were definitely going to tell the others what Gabriel had said about his past so if I asked him any questions they would be sure and relay that too.
We drove for three more hours before stopping again. This time at an old motel off the beaten path. Typical. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. How come the one being pursued always had to go to the old grungy motel where the killer always found them?
I got out of the car and realized just how much my butt had been killing me. I stretched my sore muscles and cracked my back. I couldn’t help but sigh. That was much better. I looked around and realized it was just my group and a couple of Coven members.
Noticing my puzzled expression Danny said, “We split off from the others. They’re spread out at several other motels in a fifty mile radius. It’ll be harder for Selena to track you if you could be at four different places. Especially since she’ll expect you to be with Jonathon.”
I nodded. This made sense. I missed Jonathon but I knew it was better that we were separated.
We checked in. We would have to sleep two to a room since they were so small.
Danny started to come with me but I shook my head.
This was my chance.