"So, how are you?" Veda asked as we sat down at the table. After a late night talk with Adam about my diary, it was nice to be out with Veda. Yesterday had been full of emotion. First with Liza, then Denise, then the guys showed up, this meant that I had to see Leonidas. I keep feeling so guilty for treating him as badly as I did. I know that he killed my son, our son, but six centuries is a lot of hate. I forgive him though I haven"t forgotten. I never will forget but I can move on. I just can"t bring myself to confront him about it.I looked at Veda and saw what my life had been. I suddenly remembered how simple my life once was. How normal. Now Josh was gone, I was now immortal, and the champion of the G.o.ds. And worse, my best friend didn"t even know. "I"m good," I answered as everything circled in my head.
"Are you really, Abby? You know, you can talk to me. You don"t have to be strong in front of me." Veda"s concern was touching and I decided not to hide anything from her.
"Veda? Do you remember me telling you about Dru?" I asked as the waitress walked up to the table.
"h.e.l.lo, ladies, my name is Kylie and I will be your waitress today. What can I get you to drink?" Kylie was tall and slender with short platinum blond hair and dark hazel green eyes. Her smile stretched across her face and we ordered two sweet teas.
After she left, Veda looked at me and answered my question. "Well," I began, "I"ve discovered why I had what seemed like memories of her life." I paused trying to find the right words.
"Really?!" Veda exclaimed, "Why?"
A slight giggle escaped me at her forever exuberant att.i.tude. She was always so happy to hear about my crazy stories. I just hoped that this one wouldn"t be too much for her. "I"m…" I sighed, "I was Dru. They were my memories. I"m a Kethra, an immortal woman warrior." I stopped, seeing the look on Veda"s face. I didn"t know what to expect. She looked at me with wide eyes and her mouth gaped open. Shock had wiped all the color from her face as it sunk in. "Veda? Talk to me. What are you thinking?" I asked.
"Uh, uh," she started but gave me a finger to tell me to give her a minute. She grabbed the gla.s.s of water in front of her and took a huge gulp. "Ok, what?" she asked as soon as she found her words.
I smiled and explained, "Night before last, I discovered the truth, I"m Drusilla reborn as Abigail Dallin. When I died as Dru, my soul or spirit or whatever you want to call it, transferred to Abigail"s body as she was born. Me. I"m both women, Dru and Abby."
"Oh," Veda began, "And you"re a Kethra?"
"Yes."
"And exactly what is a Kethra?"
"Pretty much, I"m exactly as I always have been except now I"m immortal and I have new memories." I tried to explain as simply as I could. "Oh, and I have fangs now, too."
"Really?!" Veda exclaimed with a smile.
"Yup."
"Can I see?"
"Not now! You want people panicking thinking that there"s a vampire here?" I said quietly with a laugh.
"So you look like a vampire? That is so cool." She said. "So do vampires exist?"
"Yeah, that"s why I am a vampire hunter. Without vampire, what would I hunt?"
"Oh, true. Touché." We laughed about her reaction; it felt good to laugh with her.
I had missed her dearly and I always did love talking with Veda. She had always been into the whole vampire thing so it didn"t really surprise me that she was comfortable about all of this.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel,faster updates, better experience,Please click for visiting.
"By the way, real vampires don"t have fangs. The images of vampire are actually closer to Kethra." I quietly informed her.
"Really? So you look more like oh," she drug out until she could find the reference. "Selene, from Underworld?"
"Actually, yeah, a lot like that, with the crazy blue eyes and everything." We laughed again and Kylie brought us our tea then took our orders.
When Kylie left, Veda looked at me carefully. "So onto more pressing matters, how are things going with Adam? I know you guys were getting pretty close, did you tell him about what you really are? Does he know? What does he think about it?"
"Oh, he knows. He was actually the one who explained everything." I paused before finishing, "He"s also supposed to be my twin flame. The man I was destined to love, my other half. I, as Dru, watched over and protected his family for the last two hundred years. That"s why there is such a connection with him."
"Wow," Veda"s face was lit up with all of the information that I was giving her. "This is awesome! My best friend is an immortal Kethra warrior that looks like a vampire. That is SOOO cool!" she exclaimed excitedly.
All I could do was laugh at her reaction. She always turned into a big child when she got excited. I decided to change the subject to something a bit more normal. "So, how"s Mitch.e.l.l?"
We sat there eating and talking for a few hours, then went shopping. It was a beautiful, cold, groundhog"s day and the shoppers were having a good time. We covered every store in our mediocre mall within three hours and decided to head to my house. She wanted to meet Adam officially. She had met him once at Josh"s funeral, but it wasn"t on any nice terms. When we pulled up to the house, she looked at me with her eyes wide and her mouth open. "This is where you live, now? This place is huge!"
I laughed and answered, "Yeah, my partner, Lena, wanted a big place about sixty years ago. Naturally, I gave in and bought this span of land so that she could design the home of her dreams. So she did. She loved this place and I in turn love it, too." I looked over and saw Adam"s Mustang parked in front of the garage and knew he was here. "Come on, did you want to meet Adam or what?" We walked in the door and I said loudly, "Adam, I"m home."
"Abby?" he came strolling down the hall and into the room wearing a pair of black slacks that hung on him in a very casual way. With a slate, dark gray sweater that was fitting on him, showing his broad shoulders and slender build. As his eyes met mine, a big smile crossed his face. "Hey, Beautiful."
"Hey," I said smiling as he approached me. His eyes were bright and dark lined with his thick black eyelashes. His hair was straight up in perfect spikes. "This is my best friend, Veda. She"s married to Mitch.e.l.l who was Josh"s best friend. Veda, this is Adam, Josh"s cousin."
They shook hands and Veda looked at me. "So, are you going to show me now?" Veda asked.
I laughed and Adam gave me a questioning look. "Okay, okay, fine. Since I know you"re not gonna to leave me alone until I show you. Here." I said as I blinked and my fangs pushed at my lips.
Her eyes lit up and her jaw nearly hit the floor. She smiled and stepped closer to me. She brought her hand up to my cheek just as my phone went off. We all three jumped and I blinked my fangs away.
"Hey, Abs, is my wife with you?" I heard Mitch.e.l.l ask on the other end.
"Yup, we are at my new home if you want to come over."
"Your new home? When did that happen?" Mitch.e.l.l asked.
"How about you come here and I will explain it all to you."
"Ok, where is it?" Mitch.e.l.l asked and I told him how to get to the house. We hung up and I looked back at Veda.
"That was your hubby," I informed Veda with a laugh.
"What are you explaining when he gets here?" Veda asked.
"How I came about living here instead of at mine and Josh"s house. Remember he knows even less than you did this morning."
"True, true, I knew about Dru," Veda laughed. "You know, I would have to say that this is really deep. You two, I think that everything happened just the way it did so that you two would find each other." She smiled a megawatt smile and I knew that this was exactly what it should have been.
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door. As I opened the door I felt the cold air rush in. Mitch.e.l.l stood out on the porch snuggled in his big winter coat. "Hey, Abs, where"s my wife?" In response, I smiled and opened the door wider so that he could see her.
"Come on in, Mitch.e.l.l." I said and motioned him in, closing the door quickly behind him. He walked over and gave Veda a kiss then turned to Adam.
"You"re Adam, right? Josh"s cousin?" Mitch.e.l.l asked with a smile.
"That"s me," Adam answered smiling back.
"Nice to meet you," Mitch.e.l.l said as he extended his hand toward Adam.
"Same here," Adam replied back.
"So, you"re the one who"s been hangin" out with Abby? The one making her happy?" He looked over at me and I smiled back knowing he understood.
Adam smiled and answered, "I am and I hope I am," he looked over at me.
"You know you are," I said coyly.
"Good, then it really is a pleasure to meet you." Mitch.e.l.l beamed at Adam then at me.
We all walked into the large dining room and Veda started telling Mitch.e.l.l everything that I had told her, nearly word for word. Mitch.e.l.l listened and then turned to me and I knew what he wanted. I blinked my fangs out and his eyes shot open wide. He glanced over at Veda then to Adam and back to me.
"Holy cow!" he murmured with a smile. A string of questions flooded out of his mouth, one after another. Questions of how my kind had started, exactly what I was now, how Adam knew it was me, what everything meant, and so on. After about a billion questions, it was finally quiet in the room.
We all just looked at each other than Adam broke the silence. "Are you the guy who likes dragons?" Mitch.e.l.l looked at him and smiled.
"Obsessed is more like it," Veda chimed in and I nodded in agreement.
"I am not obsessed!" Mitch.e.l.l stressed.
"Yeah and everyone has an entire room dedicated to dragons," I laughed.
Mitch.e.l.l broke out in laughter too and we were all talking. Catching up, telling stories and answering question. The evening went on like that as the sun set and gold beams of light came into the front windows, washing the room with warm golden light.
"Well, I guess we"d better be heading home," Veda commented.
"Yeah, I guess you"re right, Babe. Abby it was good to see you." Mitch.e.l.l said as he pulled me into a hug. "I"m glad you"re happy," he whispered in my ear.
"Thank you," I whispered back.
"Adam, it was a pleasure."
"Yes, we"ll have to do it again sometime," Adam replied.
"You can bet on it!" Mitch.e.l.l exclaimed.
"Abby, I had fun as always. Let"s not wait so long next time, though." Veda said as she hugged me.
"Oh, yeah," I answered. She gave Adam a quick hug and we all walked to the front door.
After Veda climbed up into Mitch.e.l.l"s truck and they were off, Adam and I looked around realizing that we were all alone. We hadn"t talked much the night before about my diary entry that he read. I knew eventually we would.
"How was your day?" Adam whispered.
"Good," I answered. I explained the day to him starting at the point of him dropping me off at Josh"s and my home so that I could grab a few things, including my car. From there, I had called Veda, wanting desperately to see her and when she answered I had been thrilled. I went and picked her up and we had gone to lunch. I told him that I had explained everything about us to her, which he already knew, and we had gone shopping. He listened to every word I said. When I finished at the point that we got home he sat with a concentrated look on his face. It looked familiar; it was the same look I had seen on Josh"s face a hundred times. "What are you thinking?" I asked. "I can tell you are in deep concentration, I know that look." I finished with a smirk.
"Can I ask you something?" Adam asked finally.
"Sure," I said tilting my head to one side.
"I don"t mean to bring up painful memories but," he paused. "That entry I read last night. I"m…" he looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. "I"m sorry."
I touched his lips as I shushed him. "Don"t, it was a long time ago, long before you. It wasn"t your fault."
"But it still pains you, I know, I could see it last night when you looked at him. And I really can"t say that I don"t blame you. But there is something else…" he started. "Last night, I saw the pain but I saw something else, too."
I furrowed my brow, wondering what he was talking about. "What?"
"I thought I saw guilt or remorse on your face. I wasn"t sure because it was just a second, but I didn"t and still don"t understand why there would be guilt, so maybe I was wrong." He finished and looked down at his hands in his lap.
I thought a moment before saying anything. Guilt? Yeah, I felt guilt. Regret. Anger, not at him but at myself. "I looked at him last night and remembered how I treated him. I hated him for six centuries. But it was too much." I stood and walked a few steps before continuing. "I should have told him. Yeah, sure, it"s going to hurt but if I had told him all those years ago, we could have worked through it. We could have moved on. But I couldn"t. I couldn"t let the hatred go. I wouldn"t have survived without it."
That"s when it hit me. Liza was right when she called me a monster all those years ago. I hadn"t been, in the beginning but after years of hatred, I had become tainted with the evil that I despised. I had become a monster hiding behind the face of a hero. I was just like the monsters that I hunted, but they were what they were. I, on the other hand, had made my bed by choice.
"What do you mean? Why do you say you wouldn"t survive it?" Adam asked as he rose to his feet and approached me. He grabbed my hands and stopped my pacing.
I looked at him and explained, "I was addicted to it. The hatred. I had coveted it in my heart for so long that it had consumed me. I couldn"t feel anything else." Tears now stung at my eyes.
Adam pulled me into a hug and tried to comfort me. As always, it did, his energy was so familiar, so soothing. "You know," I started talking as I pulled back and looked up into his eyes. "You"re the only person who knows," a small giggle escaped me.
"Really? Casimir and Lothair don"t know?"
"No, I never was much for talking about my feelings. It hurt to talk about it and once it was out I would have to face it, deal with it and move on, and like I said, I couldn"t let it go," I finished.
"So what about now? Can you let it go, now?" He questioned.
I thought about it for a moment then answered, "Yeah, I can, I have. That"s why," I paused, "That"s why the guilt. I feel so awful that he doesn"t even know. Six hundred years and he doesn"t even know he had a son!" I nearly yell, more at myself than anything.
"You have to tell him, Abby." Adam says quietly. His eyes filled with concern.
"I know, I know," I said exasperated. "I will, I promise. But let me be the one to tell him, please." I pleaded.
I looked over and realized that it was getting late. "We had better get to bed. We"re starting training tomorrow." I informed him and he looked unamused at the idea. "But first, a bedtime story?"
"The next entry?" he asked.
"Yeah, come on," I said and we started back to the room.