He fumbled in his pocket before pulling something out in his closed fist. “I love you Adelay, and no matter what happens from here on out I don’t want you to ever forget that.” He opened his hand, revealing a huge oval ruby sparkling brightly underneath the bathroom lights.
He plucked it out of the palm of his hand and held it up in front of me to display the true magnificence it possessed. It was set on a polished gold band with small chunks of diamonds surrounding it. I knew exactly where it came from. It was the ring from Rouge Amour that had captured my attention the first day we spent together. I also remembered it was a fifty-thousand-dollar ring. He grabbed my right hand, carefully slipping the ring onto my ring finger.
I held my hand out flat, eyeing the lavish stone. “They say rubies can see into the soul of your beloved.”
My remembrance of the lore he had told me at the gallery caused him to pause, looking at me with a sultry smile, impressed that I remembered. The first one I’d seen on him today. It was refreshing but it didn’t last very long.
“Anytime you feel alone I want you to see this and remember that I am always near. No matter where we are in time, I’m still with you, and I’m still loving you.” He cupped my chin in his hand, running his thumb across my bottom lip, and placed his other hand in the small of my back, producing instant goosebumps from the chill his skin constantly generated; before tilting my chin towards his full lips, and softly placing them on mine.
I closed my eyes, breathing him in one final time, one final occasion to feel the passion he ignited within me every time we kissed. Our bittersweet goodbye.
Everything with him felt too right to be wrong. I wasn’t ever going to accept this was our fate. I would find a way to get things back to normal even if it killed me -again-. Both of his hands wrapped around the back of my head, holding it firmly in his strong grasp to keep me pulled in close while he kissed me; and then, as though a switch went off in his head, he drew back instantly, turning cold and erasing any emotion from his face.
“This will only make it harder Adelay. I can’t hurt either of us anymore than I already have.” I knew he was doing what he felt necessary by shielding his weakness to me, but it didn’t soften the blow any. “My father has requested a meeting right now.”
“With me?”
“We are all to be present, but it’s concerning you. He’s waiting downstairs in the kitchen.”
With that, said he turned and walked away, keeping his head hung to the ground. I stood there in utter amazement that he really just turned his back on me, without even escorting me downstairs to the rest of the vampire clan like he had always done before. Maybe our courtship had ended, but common courtesy wasn’t frowned upon. My shoulders slumped a little as I heaved out a heavy breath and trailed behind his shadow that had already disappeared down the dark hallway.
All three of the Ashford men were already in the kitchen, awaiting my arrival. Davin and Sully sat in complete silence, opposite each other at the oversized dining room table, while Eli filled the teacups that were previously set on matching saucers with a small teaspoon placed beside each one. He sat down at the head of the table, allowing him to have one of his boys on either side of him. I wasn’t sure where I fit in in this seating equation but given the way Davin exited the bathroom as though I didn’t exist anymore, I assumed next to him wasn’t the way to go.
Swallowing nervously, I looked helplessly at Sully who happened to be watching me stand in the doorway, looking lost. Immediately he stood up, respectfully pulling a seat out next to him for me take. Davin glanced at him with jealousy in his eyes but looked away quickly after. One point for Sully, zero for Davin. I welcomed his gesture with a smile of relief. He winked at me.
Eli laced his slender fingers together, clearing his throat before announcing why he had summoned us all down here together. His eyes were fixated solely on me. “How are you recovering from your injuries Adelay?”
“Besides a little bit of fatigue, it’s like I’m a new person. My bruises and lacerations are gone.” I looked where my wrists had been sliced and all that was left of them was a little red line that I was sure would disappear by tomorrow. “I guess you could say it’s almost as though I’ve been reborn in a sense.”
Reborn could mean many things. It could mean the glass that was half empty for so long had finally been filled to the brim, overflowing itself with happiness and love, completely full of life and vitality. Or, it could mean the entire opposite. You have woken up with your world turned upside down; heartbroken, depressed, and utterly alone in a tornado of unexplained feelings, like you have lost everything you ever felt completed your existence. Mine was the latter of the two.
“You have until the end of the school year to prepare your parents, as well as yourself, for our move that will be taking place shortly after graduation.”
“What do you mean our move? What’s going on?”
“Mon Chéri, Hanover is not the place for us to be anymore. Too much has happened here, and even just one minute person like Gretchen knowing our secret is a danger to us all.”
“Are you serious? I can’t move away; my parents will kill me!”
“You can and you will. I know you don’t want to, Adelay, but we need to reside somewhere where your gift can be nurtured and flourish in a place where the paranormal and the unknown is nothing out of the ordinary. You have a lot of power in you and will learn to use it to its fullest in time. You resurrected a vampire last night without even knowing what you were harboring in your body. Imagine the possibilities once we know that power's fullest potential? You have angel’s blood coursing through your veins, and it didn’t even stem from your lineage. You were chosen randomly to receive this gift and now you get to reap the benefits of a higher power. It chose you for a reason.”
“My father has a college fund already put aside for me for Dartmouth. He expects me to go to school where he is teaching.”
“Well, there’s been a change of plans. With last night’s destruction of the cemetery and the burning of Gorman’s historical tomb, senses have been spiked within the locals. There surely have been a few complaints, setting the town on extreme high alert especially given all of the recent murders.
“Police are going to be on the lookout now for anything out of the ordinary. We cleaned up our mess the best that we could, but there’s no hiding the aftermath of a fire or possible prints from the body. Once a missing report gets filed, they will issue a warrant to search the morgue.”
My heart wrenched, knowing Xander was the body since Dalton’s prints were probably long gone from the system if they had ever even managed to make it there.
“So, what am I supposed to tell them? Hey Mom and Dad, I am suddenly not with Davin anymore, but I am madly in love with his brother, and we’re eloping to God knows where? Sayonara to my education, and I’ll see ya when I see ya!”
“Let us figure out the details. There’s still some time for us to get everything in order.” Eli winked at me as though he had just softened the blow.
I was speechless. Every thought I had was jumbled into one huge ball; I wanted to scream! I had to get out of here now.
“If you’ll all please excuse me, I’m going to go gather my belongings...” Davin looked up at me for a brief second before looking back down at his folded hands on the table equally as fast. “And go back home while I still can. I need to get away from all of this madness for the time being. My whole life has been turned upside down within twenty-four hours.”
I thrust my chair out and stormed away, uncaring if anyone followed. Truthfully, I hoped they didn’t.
Passing by Constantine’s bedroom upstairs, the smell of apple blossom overpowered the long dark hallway. I had almost forgotten that weird woman lived in the house as well. Her door was slightly ajar; so, naturally I couldn’t resist veering into the mysterious bedroom that I had seen once through Davin’s memory.
She was seated daintily at her vanity, brushing her auburn hair in perf
ectly even, controlled strokes. Thirty seconds must have passed before she caught me watching her from the deserted hall. A smile fashioned on her pursed, ruby red lips while she watched me through the reflection in the mirror while continuing to brush her silky strands.
Something in that forced smile made me want to smack the falseness right off of her face. Since the first day I had met her, she had given off a vibe that she didn’t want me around Davin that he seemed to chalk off as not wanting to expose them to anyone; however, if there was something I was always good at, judging someone’s character or hidden agenda was it.
I knew she not only wanted to satisfy his thirst for blood, but also satisfy his every aching desire, and with me out of the picture, nothing was stopping her now. It made me disgustingly jealous, knowing that he needed her to live humanely in society yet didn’t need a damn thing from me anymore. I smiled back, quickly retreating to Davin’s room to collect my things.
Angrily grabbing my duffle bag from the floor, I began tossing in all of my toiletries inside, purposely leaving the crystal perfume bottle exactly where it stood. I didn’t need anything to remind me of him, being with his brother would be reminder enough. Taking one final glance over my shoulder before closing the door to all our memories, I fled down the hallway, fighting back tears that burned behind my eyelids and threatened to escape if I didn’t get out of here soon.
I didn’t make it out though before Sully cornered me in the foyer. “Please don’t go Adelay.” His beautiful, cloudy blue eyes were focused solely on mine.
“I have to Sully. I’m not myself; nothing is the way it should be. I just need to get back to some sort of normalcy, if even for a short time.”
“Your emotions are too fragile to be alone right now. I’m worried about you.”
“I have to go.” He put his arm over my shoulder, entrapping me between him and the wall, hindering my exit.
“Then, at least let me come with you. You won’t even know that I am there.”
I started to shake my head at his suggestion, but he caught it in between his hands holding it there and making me look straight at him. “Even though you were forced into being with me doesn’t mean I don’t love you or feel it’s my responsibility to make sure you are okay. My brother isn’t able to do it anymore; so, now I will.”
Suddenly, I felt selfish. “Oh Sully, I wasn’t forced! I knew exactly what I was doing when I made that choice. What’s really eating me up inside is the reality that my best friend is dead because of me, and now I’m told that I have to leave my parents for good. Everyone I love is being taken away from me. My life isn’t mine anymore. It’s a little too much to take in. I just need to get away from here so I can wrap my head around all of this. I’ll be fine alone.”
He touched my cheek with the back of his hand, pulling me into him, and wrapping his strong arms around me hugging me tightly against his solid chest. It wasn’t Davin but it wasn’t an entirely bad feeling.
“I know you love him, Adelay. I can feel it in the way you’re tense in my arms as I hold you close to me, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be your ear to talk to, your shoulder to cry on, and your voice to let you know that everything is going to be ok. You saved my life Adelay, and for that I will forever be indebted to you; but I’m begging you, please don’t shut me out. Let me help you through this.”
I loosened my shoulders a little, letting my body ease into him. “God gave me a second chance, yet I still feel like I’m dying inside. Where do we go from here?”
“I can’t answer that princess, but you can rest assure that I will be with you every step of the way.”
The threatened tears ultimately gave in, trickling down my cheeks onto the floor. “Okay fine, you can stay with me. There’s an extra bedroom upstairs for my sister when she visits. No one will know you’re there.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
My driveway was deserted when we pulled in, which wasn’t surprising since my parents were generally gone to Manchester or Lebanon almost every weekend, living their own secret life since we moved to Hanover, or so it seemed. I didn’t mind it though because it made getting Sully inside the house much easier with their absence. I threw my Expedition in park before heading inside with Sully shadowing behind me.
The smell of freshly baked cookies and robust coffee overpowered my nose. It was good to be home. Sully continued to follow me into the kitchen where I poured us both some coffee that was still hot in the maker, indicating my parents had just left this morning, and added a splash of hazelnut syrup before taking a seat next to Sully at the breakfast nook.
We sipped our coffee, silently watching the little white snowflakes that were covering the ground outside the large window.
“Oh, I forgot to give this to you earlier.”
He handed my cell phone over to me; whether or not it still worked I had yet to find out. It had been left in the snowstorm for a quite a while last night, so my hopes weren’t too high. To my amazement it powered on without a problem.
“Wow, I thought for sure it was gone. Thank you, Sully.”
There were countless missed calls from Gretchen and Robbie, all within frantic minutes of each other, undoubtedly trying to reach me after I bailed from Cult without an explanation. Gretchen knew there was reason for concern for my disappearance. Skipping over the numerous voicemails, I opened up my unread text messages first.
Sadly, the first one that showed on the screen only broke my heart all over again.
I love you so much Adelay, I will be home soon. Please stay safe! I don’t want anything to try taking you from me.
Screw you Davin. I set my phone on the table not saying a word. I didn’t want to read anything more. Sensing the sudden melancholy shift in my disposition, Sully wrapped his arm around me, pulling me in close without any questions, so that I could rest my head against him. I accepted his consoling gesture.
“The wounds on your heart are still fresh that only time will heal. They may not disappear completely, but eventually they won’t hurt as bad.”
“Only time will tell I suppose,” I sighed.
He kissed the top of my head. My phone buzzed, alerting me that I had a new text message. I was hesitant to open it, fearing that I was going to be expected to do some heavy explaining to either Gretchen or Robbie; which wasn’t something I was ready to do just yet, or that it would be something sadly reminding me of Davin. Neither of the two scenarios put my fractious nerves to rest.
Thankfully it was only from my mom.
We will be staying at a hotel in Manchester tonight, celebrating Cliff’s promotion. Call if you need anything. Love you.
The update gave me one less thing to worry about. Sully could at least stay tonight without the anxiety of keeping him hidden.
“My parents are staying in Manchester for the night, so we can relax a little.” I didn’t think he was half as worried about it as me anyway.
He smiled softly. “Would you mind showing me to my room, so that I know where you intend for me to stay tonight?”
“Follow me.”
I led him up the creaky wooden stairs where the extra bedroom and mine were located. “Wow it’s so...yellow.” He laughed at the brightly decorated room my mom had prepared for when my sister Gwen came to visit.
It looked like the sun had puked all over it. The walls were painted a buttery yellow with white shadow box moulding running vertically up the walls and the queen-sized bed had a darker shade of yellow comforter with large navy-blue flower type designs on it, and a couple navy blue throw pillows.
A puffy matching valance hung above the yellow drapes that were fastened with navy blue curtain ties on the single window that was in here. It reminded me of something you would see in an old country bed and breakfast. A vase of fake sunflowers sat on the dresser, finishing off the yellow overload.
“Decorating has never been one of my mom’s strong points.”
He laughed, putting down his bag on the bed that he had brought with him.
“It’s okay. I’m only here temporarily.” His statement caused me to wonder if he was planning on staying for more than just tonight.
***
The weekend left as quickly as it came. Sully ended up staying with me Sunday as well because my parents appeared to have a whole other life in Manchester since we moved here, keeping them away more and more. It was alright with me since Dalton was now dead; so, as far as I knew there wasn’t a hit on my head anymore.
Friday night’s tragedies still felt so surreal, like my body was floating through a continuous daydream. So much that I questioned whether or not I was just waiting to wake up and realize that everything was back to normal; that I would actually get my happy ending with Davin. But as soon as I crossed paths with Sully in my house, I knew my fairytale wasn’t coming true.
Don’t get me wrong, Sully had proven to me that he was an amazing being and deserved every bit of his second chance at life. He never left my side that night and had risked his life that had survived many past centuries to save mine; so, there was no other choice but to save his.
I would always resent Davin for leaving me when he knew the show down with Dalton Edwards was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, but no matter how much he let me down I still loved him more than anything I had ever loved in my life. I wished I could get him out of my mind. I wished I could hate him for what he had forced our love to become. Dwelling on his touch that gave me goosebumps, his kiss that sent electricity shooting through every sense in my body, and the way just a simple flash of his beautiful smile could drop me to my knees; it wasn’t making the heartache or forgetting him any easier.
It was Monday morning when I groggily woke from the steady beep of my alarm clock. Slamming down the snooze button, I covered my head with my pillow, not wanting to crawl out of the warmth of my bed. Waking up also meant I would have to face my friends that I ran out on that night at school, and worse, face Davin who I hadn’t heard a single word from. I didn’t know if I was ready for it, but nine minutes later when the alarm went off again, Sully was in there already up and ready to go, shaking me awake.
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