“Then, you will help me leave?” Leila asked.
“I’d not turn you down, but first I must ask you,” Gabor paused to look her in the eyes. “How long will you run? You continue to punish yourself with these incredibly hard missions time and time again, but that won’t bring him back. Is it not about time you stopped running?”
Leila was tempted to look away. How did this man know everything about her? It had been four years since Erich died saving her, and yet it was a hard subject for Leila to hear spoken aloud. Had she been better at what she did, Erich would not have died trying to save her from a jail.
“I’m not running,” she lied, responding to his question.
“Just like you, child, I can tell when a person lies,” the old man moved to pat her shoulder. Leila quickly stood up before he could touch her. Her quick movement caught the old man off guard. “You can lie to me, but how long can your continue to lie to your heart?” He motioned for her to sit back down. “I have no desire to read your future; I already know what it is.”
But how? I did well not to come into contact with him. Leila examined herself to see if she could remember any part touching him.
“I know what can become of you. If only you,” Gabor started.
“I do not wish to know my future,” Leila said harshly. “I only wish to know where my friend is being kept, and then we can be on our way home. Thank you for your explanation of everything, but now it’s time for me to be on my way.” Leila didn’t like talking about herself, especially with a stranger.
Gabor slowly stood and walked to the door. He gave three knocks and the door opened. Anatolio stood before Gabor and bowed his head. “She wishes to be taken to the jail that is housing her friend Kay.” Anatolio nodded and walked back over to Leila.
“Child, don’t let your heart grow cold. The immense power you have in your innocence can be amplified a hundred times if you let yourself love again. Erich is gone. It’s not your fault. You may think you’re alone in your pain, but there’s another in just as much pain from being without love. I just hope that the day you see him you can recognize that you’re not alone.” Gabor smiled kindly at Leila. Anatolio moved behind her and grabbed her arms.
“I thought you weren’t keeping me here,” Leila asked suspiciously.
“I’m not, but in order for you to be brought into the jail, you must be a captive. No one apart from the king can walk into the jail with a guest and demand to see someone being held there,” Gabor explained. “Anatolio will take you there and put you with your friend, but that’s all he’s allowed to do. Jail will give you some time to think over everything we talked about,” Gabor said as he smiled at her. “May we meet again, child.”
Anatolio pushed gently on her arms to force her to begin walking. This time around Leila didn’t test his resolve. He would take her to exactly where she wanted to be. Leila took no notice, though, of the change in her guard’s mood which was now gentler. She was caught up in her own thoughts.
Why did he tell me these things? What does he know of my future? Can I really be happy again without Erich? Leila questioned herself. She tried to get their conversation out of her head. I need to focus. Plan an escape. What does it mean? Leila began to trail off with her thoughts from the seer again. How did he know about Erich?
“We’re almost there,” Anatolio said to Leila breaking her thoughts. “I can get you into the same cell, but that’s it. I don’t have any more authority than that.” Leila was shocked to hear him speak.
“There are two guards on shift at one time inside the jail and two guards outside the gate,” Anatolio continued to explain. He let go of her arms, and she turned to face him. “The guards only change one person at a time so that there’s always someone here. Right now there’s only your friend in the jail and no other prisoners.” Gently, Anatolio turned Leila back around and took hold of her arms again. “Good luck,” he whispered in her ear as they approached the guards at the gate.
“Open,” Anatolio ordered. “I’ve one prisoner here to be placed with the other prisoner.” The gates opened. Two men immediately jumped up from their card game as Anatolio approached. The portly guard’s mustache failed to hide the smile that crossed his face. He was always fond of having beautiful lady prisoners under his watch in his section of the jail.
“She’s to be housed with the other prisoner,” Anatolio commanded.
“I’ll take her there,” the prison guard offered.
Anatolio replied, “I’ll take her myself.” He changed his grip to hold back Leila’s arms with one hand. Leila played along like she could easily be held with one hand. Anatolio took the keys and led her down the hallway. He approached a room and unlocked the door. Leila walked through the door.
“You’re on your own now, so be careful,” Anatolio warned before locking the door behind her.
Leila walked into the dim room. Though she hadn’t noticed, it was already dusk. The room had no light in it except for the last rays of sunlight streaming in one window. This is bad, she thought, noticing they were not in the women’s quarters of the jail. Through the dim light she surveyed the room. The room was sparsely furnished. There was one window, a bed with a blanket in one corner, and in the other corner, staring at Leila with a tear-streaked face propped on her knees, sat Kay.
Acknowledgements
As with any work of fiction, there are many people to thank along the way.
To you, the reader. Thank you for taking the time to read this story. If you liked it, please leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your own blog, my blog, twitter, facebook, etc. The greatest help you can do to keep a writer going is to support them by spreading the word about their books and leaving them encouraging words.
Also I would like to thank my editor and cover designer. A good editor is essential to getting the story correct. Thank you so much Kathie for catching all those errors. I will be working hard to better my writing through seeing everything that I have to work on. A thank you also to Ravven for such a pretty cover. I greatly appreciate all those that can do what I cannot, like editors and cover designers. Thank you also Kathy McMichael for your financial and promotional support.
I’d also like to thank my hubby for continuing to push me further down the writing road. I really never planned to let anyone ever see my writing. I have written tons of stories over the years for my own enjoyment. Writing is a great creative means that you can do alone. This particular story was written two months before Twilight came out, and I laughed when the vampire craze took over. Vampires were always a creature I thought you ran from, not kissed! I never considered going further with this story until my hubby asked me to try and put myself out there. So thank you, B. for pushing me off the deep end (or the cliff as I see it sometimes).
About the Author
Originally from Wisconsin, B. Kristin currently resides in Ohio with her husband, two small children, and three cats. When not doing the mom thing of chasing kids, baking cookies, and playing outside, she is using her education of a PhD in biology as a scientist. In her free time she is currently hard at work on multiple novels as every day passes with more ideas for current and future novels filtering through her mind. She is a fan of all YA fantasy and science fiction and continues to read and review on her own blog.
Books by this Author
To Stand Beside Her [January 2013]
The Legend of the Blue Eyes (Blue Eyes Trilogy Book One) [March 2013]
Becoming a Legend (Blue Eyes Trilogy Book Two) [June 2013]
Summary:
Arianna Grace liked her boring, Midwestern, teenage life where she ignored the many unanswered questions of her childhood. Why were her parents dead? Why did she not have family? Where was she raised until she was five? When someone offers to explain it all, Arianna thinks she’s just getting answers. Instead, she is thrown into a world of night humans who drink blood.
On Arianna's sixteenth birthday, her world is thrown upside down when she chang
es into a vampire. Night humans, or demons, as some call them, live in normal society. Learning all of the new rules of a world she didn’t know existed might be hard enough, but it's further complicated by two former-friends that now want to help her take her role as the successor to her grandfather.
There is a war going on between the night humans. Sides have been taken and lines are not crossed. Four main clans of night humans are struggling for control of the night. Divided into two sides, clans Baku and Tengu have been at war for centuries with the clans Dearg-dul and Lycan. That is, until Arianna Grace finds out the truth; she’s the bridge of peace between the two sides. But not everyone wants peace. With the night humans divided, Arianna is now a pawn in the war between them. She must choose a side—her mother’s family or her father’s—and for once in her life, decide her own fate.
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