I woke days later; I recall the pain to this day. I felt waves of intense searing pain wrack my body for days and when I final woke I learned I was now a vampire. Leo had taken my human life and Anna, and all I had known away from me. I was now one of them, a monster, and a killer. The thing humans feared and avoided even speaking about.
I stayed with Leo and the Dark coven for a few months. I had no choice. I was new to this world, their world. I did not know how to survive in it yet so I had to stay. I killed as they did.
The hunger for blood was strong in my early days as a vampire. I could not control myself. It was not long though, until I could think clearly again. I knew I had to leave the Dark coven. I had to find others who were like me, who did not kill, and got blood some other way. I ran away one night, and never went back.
I wandered alone, avoiding humans as much as possible. I did still need blood, but I took from humans only what I needed to survive, and did not bite deep enough to produce venom. I lived this life for a long time a few decades at least, always hoping to find others like me. I found my way to New Orleans, it was easy to blend in with humans there, and by that time, I was good at it.
I could control my thirst, and socialize amongst them whenever I wanted now. I saw Dr.Pratt at a nightclub not long after I arrived in town. I as all vamps could sense he was one of my kind. I knew he was different, he interacted with humans easily, and he didn’t treat them like his next meal.
I had met others, but they all were hunters. I did not share my feelings about preserving human life with them. I became friends with Pratt, after many months of us watching each other and being sure, we were both the same kind of vampire. Pratt introduced me to his coven, the Followers, and to a new life.
I became one of them and later an elder leader. Pratt wanted to travel and do medical research, so I became the leader and chief elder of the coven when he left for Europe. I am still the chief elder today, and I have four other elder’s who help me lead the coven. I do my best to watch over, and protect my coven.
I tolerate no deviation from our code of rights; no member kills, hurts, or torments any human or living creature. We live in peace and avoid conflicts if possible. I had to do my best now to protect my newest coven member, Corrine. I worried she and William were in extreme danger, and now both of them were weak and ill.
I had no contact with Leo since Vincent; one of my former Followers left me to go to him. I knew he was still with them, and by now, he was either the chief elder of the Dark coven or he may have moved on to Europe, as many do after a time. This was what worried me the most, if Leo was the chief elder now, he would be irate when he learned I had been the one to kill his favorite, Vincent.
This could be detrimental to the Followers. If Leo was angered by his death, as I expected he would be, he would seek revenge on my entire coven and me. This could be critical, the last time he sought revenge he had taken the only thing in my human life I had ever loved, my Anna. I wasn’t going to sit back and let him kill Corrine and William. I was preparing to protect them, from his evil wrath, no matter the cost.
Chapter 14
Transitions
Back to Corrine’s point of view
I was so happy to be pain free and feeling better all the time. Doc and Pratt were confident the serum was stopping the cancer, and letting the venom slowly complete the changing process. I knew soon, all this would be over, and I hoped life would settle back to some form of normal for all of us. It was a nice break from the usual drama; we had all been stuck in the past few months.
The next few weeks though, found us all right back into the drama big time. The Dark Coven contacted doc. One of their many elders, named Trevor demanded to know why Vincent had been killed. Doc told Trevor the story and how he was going to kill Will and me. He had no option; this did not appease Trevor at all.
Doc warned him that any threat or violent action against any Follower would not be tolerated. I was shocked to learn, that the chief elder, of the Dark coven could possibly be Doc’s brother Leo. I was told the story, by Will about Doc and his only brother. I was absolutely speechless that Doc could be related to one so evil.
It was not known yet if Leo was the leader. Trevor refused to tell Doc when they spoke. I could tell by the tone in Will’s voice that if Leo was in fact the chief elder we were all in serious danger. It seems Doc and Leo, had a deep hatred of one another, setting the scene for a war between the covens.
I had prayed Will would be fully recovered by now, but he was not. I was seeing no improvements, but Pratt said he was not getting any weaker and had no illness recently. Will was on guard with me at all times now. He watched everyone and everything around me. The main reason he did this besides the possible Dark coven attack, was that Roth swore he saw Todd Downs in the area.
This was just more bad news; it was bad enough we had to deal with a coven of evil vampires. Todd my insane ex boyfriend, who attacked me, and nearly killed me two times, was the last thing I wanted to worry about. Not to even mention the entire emotional trauma he gave me. The last attack, on me Todd set it up to look like a suicide.
That night still haunted me to this day, but now the nightmares had become less frequent. I could never forget the way he looked into my eyes when he ran that knife across my wrists. The look was pure evil, no compassion and no remorse at all. I could not believe I had ever had a relationship with a guy like that.
Then there was Will, my tragic angel, the love of my life. He was all I could ever have dreamed of. He was kind, caring, and so in love with me. It was hard to believe how happy I was right now, even with all the health issues and Dark coven stuff. He never tired of being with me, even in the difficult times. The connection we had was so deep and strong; everyone around us could see it in our eyes.
Lydia who in her spare time loved researching history and astrological things, told me Will and I were soul mates. She had told me each and every person has a true soul mate, one person they were meant to be with and truly connected with. I had heard of it, and seen it in movies and read it in books, but now I was living it.
Lydia told me she had never seen Will so happy in all of the many years he had been alive. I was what he needed, and he was what I needed in this crazy messed up world. I only hoped my stupid body would hold up until I could complete the transformation to a vampire. I prayed I could, but still worried I wouldn’t.
Will was still attending classes, despite the fact he hated it, and he was so insanely smart he knew more than the professors did. Doc told us we had to keep up appearances until we went back to Maine, or we made the trip to France. It was looking like we would remain in Cambridge now, at least until I was ready to go to France to complete the change. Doc, as we all did had a “human” life to maintain.
He was a doctor after all, and despite the fact he had partners in his medical office (they were human doctors) they could not take over care of all his patients any longer. Doc had to stay in town and work; it was his passion to heal humans and in order to maintain the appearance of normalcy he needed to be here. He worried I would not want to stay home, but I assured him I was fine being here, at least I could spend time with Gran now.
I started to resume my classes, I had too. Dad was bugging me, seeing as I was recovering he worried for my future, if he only knew! I eyed the stack of books on my desk. I was doing correspondence courses again, and had enough work backed up to choke a horse. I had two essays on human behavior to do, how ironic I thought to myself.
How odd to get that assignment, now that I wasn’t even fully a human anymore. I was a bit annoyed to have to stay to tell you the truth. Sara made me nervous, always watching me, she even commented on my pale coloring yesterday. She told me I needed to go to the tanning beds or get a spray tan, I looked half-dead. I nearly laughed; I so wanted to say, “Well you know what I am half dead if you want to get technical Sara”. I behaved, I shrugged my shoulders and left the room and said nothing.
The other reason
I was bothered by staying in town, was Roth’s mention of thinking he saw Todd in town the other day. Could he be alive? Was he here waiting to get me? The thoughts were getting hard to ignore. If he came back and tried to kill me now, it wouldn’t take much. I was recovering, yes but I could still only walk a very short distance, like uh to the bathroom ok! I couldn’t get away from him if I wanted to. I was basically helpless her in my room.
Will was with me nearly all the time, but he too would be no match for Todd right now either. I hated being so vulnerable and seeing Will the same. I knew it grated on his nerves, having to rely on the coven, and namely his cousins for protection. It was the whole macho guy thing I guess. Will liked being my protector, my knight in shining armor and right now, it was hard for him to be that.
I could see his eyes get dark when Doc told him to let Roth be the one to guard my room at all times. He and Roth were as close as brothers, but Will wanted to be the one able to keep me from harm not Roth. I assured him it didn’t matter to me, but it did not help, he was still annoyed big time.
I smiled at Will. I watched him sleeping on my love seat, a pink Hello Kitty throw blanket covering him, it looked funny. I decided to read, but first I flipped up my laptop to go over my emails. I had been chatting with Beth and Kara a lot this week. It was easier, I didn’t want Sara hearing what we were talking about, and she seemed to be always around.
I was trying to keep in contact with them and a lot of my “human” friends. I was told being a half blood, maintaining my human friendships would be easier even during the changing process. Half bloods did not thirst to the point of uncontrollable behavior as “new” full-blooded vamps often did. Many new full bloods had to be isolated until they learned self-control around humans.
I wanted to invite Kara and Beth over one evening for a movie night, as we use to do, soon. I knew I could never tell them what I was, or becoming right now. I was a member of the Follower coven now. I had to live by the code set centuries before my existence and that meant never revealing what we were.
I decided to watch TV for a while I couldn’t sleep again. I was having more nights like this. Will would drift off easily, and I would be wide-awake. I walked around the house a lot, trying to get stronger and trying to avoid boredom. I knew I was going to need less sleep when I changed fully into a half blood, so I needed to get use to long nights.
Tonight I found a movie, Father of the bride, one of my old favorites, so I curled up to watch it. I looked over at Will again; he was still curled up on the love seat. I admired him as he slept. I was still amazed at how damn good-looking vampires were, especially my William. Will’s thick black hair was ruffled, his long eyelashes fanned out against his cheeks.
Will always would appear normal compared to full-blooded vampires. His skin tone was darker, even than my former human coloring. I just wanted to kiss his full lips, and be close to him but he needed his rest even more than I did now. I tried not to start worrying about his health again. Doc and Pratt swore to me they would watch over him and make sure he recovered, and I knew they would do just that.
Chapter 15
Annoying
I got up early the next morning, feeling pretty good, to my surprise. I had slept only a few hours but really, it was all I needed, I was wide-awake now. It was bitterly cold, as it was only early winter now and a cold snap had set in over Cambridge. I looked at the couch where Will had been sleeping, the pink blanket rumpled where he had lain. I missed him already but I knew he had to go to class today.
Everyone was returning to their normal lives, for now anyway until we were ready to head to France. I had to do some school work myself, unlike Will I had not been on this earth so long that I knew just about everything. I unfortunately had to study, and with all the stuff going on it was hard to focus on economics and bio- chem.
I frowned as I got up wishing Will was still here, but he always had to leave really early to avoid dad’s morning visit. Dad would have been majorly ticked off if he found out Will had been here all night, even though it was totally innocent, and nothing intimate happened between us. Will had always been a gentleman when it came to things like that.
I sighed. I am 18 after all, and I sort of maybe wanted to explore things that are more intimate with Will...someday. I knew that was just not possible, since my health and his was less than perfect. Will and I also knew our dynamics were not lined up, as he was a vampire, well a half-blood and I was still basically a human. We also wanted to wait until we married to be together.
We wanted to marry, Will talked about it often, and mentioned when we went to France after I was feeling better, we could talk about it. Lydia had mentioned to me that Will asked her where the family engagement ring was. It had been in the Darcy family for centuries. I wanted nothing more than to be William’s bride. I just hope I could make it that long.
I got dressed after my stomach growled at me; my hunger was back with a vengeance. I slipped on a flowered sundress with a long sleeve top underneath, and some black tights, to keep warm. I brushed my hair and put a clip on the side, and headed down to eat some breakfast. I knew dad was gone, he had poked his head into my room shortly after 7am, to tell me goodbye and that he would be home to have lunch with Gran and me.
I knew a few of the house keepers were here, doing normal cleaning. I hoped Sara was gone shopping, or out chasing guys over half her age, if I was lucky. The house was pretty quiet so I figured I was alone, well at least inside. The coven would have someone guarding the house outside, so technically I was never really alone.
I felt my stomach turn, when I walked into the newly decorated (yes again) kitchen. My evil stepmother Sara was reading the paper at the breakfast bar. Sara seemed to have an OCD thing about having the kitchen re done every year. I always thought it was totally stupid since the only thing I ever saw her cook was a Pop Tart, and she managed to even burn that. I muttered hi to her as I headed for the fridge. I found a frozen waffle and grabbed one to put in the toaster.
“How are you feeling today?” She asks her voice tight and unfriendly. I so wanted to ignore her but with nobody else in the room I couldn’t.
“Fine,” I simply say, focused on the frozen hockey puck cooking in the toaster. I could feel her creepy eyes on my back. I heard her trademark nail drumming on the marble counter tops. Witch those alone of all the money spent in this kitchen could have probably fed a small country for a year.
“I spoke to Meg Larky this morning.” I turned around nearly twisting my ankle in the process.
“What? My old therapist why would you be calling her?” I gasped, not expecting her to say that.
I had not needed to see my head doctor in nearly a year. I had basically resolved my issues and was definitely not suicidal anymore. I could handle life and did not need to talk about my feelings twice a week, on a plaid over stuffed shrinks couch. I didn’t want to either.
“Oh… well with all the things going on with your health and all. I thought you might need to talk to her maybe, have a quick session?” She gave me disgustingly sweet smile, 100% fake, no doubt about it.
“Yeah health issues” I exaggerated the health part. “I’m recovering from physical stuff, my mind is fine. I’m not crazy or suicidal or anything remotely related to mentally disturbed. I do not need therapy, and I don’t need to talk to anybody ok!”
I could feel rage building in me, deep in the pit of my way to empty stomach. I felt like Sara was trying to push me into blowing up, she knew how sensitive I was when it came to talking about shrinks and stuff. I had spent the better half of last year surrounded by them, and medicated by them. I had no intensions of going back to that part of my old life. I had fought hard to get out of that whole mess, and refused to go back to that.
“I was just concerned you and William were having problems maybe, and needed a neutral ear to listen to you honey.”
The smile on her face as she crossed her arms made me want to throw up; she was prodding me. I could see it i
n her eyes, thanks to my new vampire senses. I could feel something in the air between us, that as a normal human I probably wouldn’t have been able to feel. I could feel her lying, and the hate she harbored for me, it was all their in her eyes, as she waited for me to yell at her.
“What are you talking about? Will and I are perfectly fine, we couldn’t be better actually.” I was really fuming now. I felt my heart beats getting faster.
“Well, I was just worried that’s all, my good friend Kelly Price, told me she saw William at the movies last night with some little red headed girl. I think it was a girl that goes to school with you two. Lacy Hanne’s daughter, Amy I believe her name is.”
I wanted to scream, she had totally crossed the line now. I couldn’t believe she had the nerve to stand right in front of me and lie about what Will had been doing. Will had been with me all evening, and slept on my couch all night. He hadn’t been feeling very good all day and went to bed early while I studied. He was not out with anyone.
Ever After Page 23
