The Transformed Box Set: Books 1, 2, 3, 3.5
Page 21
"People are drawn to it obviously, but in their minds, vampires are repulsive creatures. Even if they fall in love with us, they don't want to become one of us."
"That just doesn't make sense, but I guess I'm brainwashed from the few movies that I've seen."
"It's romantic in the books and makes for a great story. I just wish that it were true."
"Is there one guy in particular?"
She half smiled. "Yes, there is one who stands out above all the rest. I fell in love with him about 200 years ago when I was still very young. His name was William and he was a lawyer. We were both madly in love with each other and we kept a secret romance going for nearly five years. It was truly amazing. But then he got the bug to settle down and have a family. I begged him to let me turn him so that we could have each other forever. He broke it off, saying that he was as heartbroken as I was, and two years later he was married and had his family. I watched him from a distance until he was buried."
"That is so tragically sad."
"It is, but that's not the worst of it," she said with a tear in her eye. "They grow old and die, but we don't get the privilege of forgetting about them. It's over two hundred years later and I still long for William."
"Have you tried following his descendants?" I asked. "I know it's not the same, but you might find one who looks like him who might…help you feel better. Or that could be a stupid idea, because you can't replace the one that you love."
"It's not stupid," she said. "I did try that actually. About 80 years ago one of his great, great (times whatever) grandsons was a spitting image of him. He did like me until he found out what I was, and then tried to have me burned at the stake."
"Isn't that supposed to be witches?"
"Yeah, he wasn't as bright as William. I stopped following his descendants after that."
"Haven't you found a vampire to hook up with since then? Forget the mortals. You're better than them anyway."
"I'm not looking for a relationship right now," she said, perking up. "I am in my prime and I am having a lot of fun. I'll settle down either when the right guy shows up or when I get bored with having fun."
"It's nice to have someone who not only understands me, but who also tells me more about vampire life."
"I definitely understand," she said. "It's like I said before, we come from a long line of rebellious spirits. My father would be the king now instead of your father if he hadn't chosen to marry my mother. But our grandfather kicked him out of the royal line."
"You don't think it's the end of the world that I have feelings for someone other than Cliff," I said. "It's so hard to imagine."
"If you were to choose this human and he was to choose you, the world would not fall apart. You'd be out of the royal line and your parents would have to figure something out. Have another daughter perhaps."
"What about the blessing? Cliff and I are destined to be together."
"You still have a free will."
"I'm so torn. I am truly in love with Cliff. He is the most perfect being, and we could rule the world together. What more could I want? He's the most handsome guy ever to walk the earth, he is kind and compassionate, and he truly cares about me. Yet at the same time, I'm undeniably drawn to Tanner, who is such a kind soul despite all kinds of odds against him. He cares about me too. He also just happens to be here, and I have no idea where Cliff has been in close to a month."
"There's no doubt about Cliff's love for you," she said. "Wherever he is, I know that he isn't trying to torture you."
"That's what everyone says, but nobody heard him when he told me to get out of his sight," I said and my lips began to quiver again. "How can I feel love for two guys? I'm a horrible person."
"You're not a horrible person, Alexis. You just found two amazing men who both also happen to think that you're pretty amazing too. Do you know how many people long to find just one true love?"
I sighed. "I feel like a terrible person."
"The fact that you do shows that you're not."
I raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't make any sense."
"If you didn't care about holding the hearts of two men, you would enjoy this and revel in it. You would think that it was proof of how awesome you are, and you wouldn't care about hurting them. But you do care about them and you don't want to hurt either of them. I can see that."
"I suppose that's one way to look at it. What am I supposed to do?"
"It all depends on what you want, although before leaving everything to go after the mortal, I would make sure that he is willing to spend eternity with you. By choosing to stay with Cliff, you also get to keep your title as princess, and you get to have the real 'job' of your dreams."
"That's a rotten reason to choose someone, and I would never choose Cliff just so that I could keep my title and position. That would be using him."
"Maybe, but it is also part of the package that you have to consider when you make your final decision. Anyway, you have months left before you complete your transformation, and even then you won't be ready to step into your position of leadership and have your enormous wedding."
"What am I supposed to do for now while I'm waiting for Cliff to return?" I asked. "Do I avoid Tanner, the only friend that I have in a school full of people who hate me?"
"No, don't avoid your only friend. Spend time with him and get to know him better. Make darn sure that you are making the right decision. He showed up in your life at this time for a reason. Don't leave yourself to regret not looking into this further. Since Cliff is gone, you have the perfect opportunity to make sure that you're making the right decision."
"That seems to make sense. What do I do if Cliff comes back?"
"We'll figure that out if and when it does. For now, he's not here, so you can figure things out on your own. In the meantime, we still need to make sure that you receive training in case you become princess. That's why I was sent here. Not to give you romantic advice—that's just a bonus!"
"I need to get prepared. When do we start?"
"Let's go out tonight after everyone is in bed. Then we'll go a little further away on Saturday and get some real training in."
"I can't wait. I better go get started on my homework."
An hour later, I had barely touched my homework. My mind kept wandering to Tanner and then to Cliff. I wondered what both of them were doing. I hoped that Cliff didn't hate me, but wouldn't have blamed him if he did.
There was a knock on my door.
"I'm studying."
"Emma's here," my mom shouted from behind my door.
I opened the door. "She has ruined my life. I will not see her."
"She says it's important and she's already waiting for you at the kitchen table."
"Are you kidding me?"
"I didn't even know that you two were fighting, Alexis. Don't blame this on me."
"You've never liked her. I don't know why you invited her in."
"You're more than welcome to kick her out, but I will not do it."
I sighed, glared at her, and then walked down the stairs. I gave Emma the same glare and asked, "What do you want? Did you find a new way to ruin my life?"
She stood up. "What did you do to Hailey?" she demanded.
"Pardon me? She wasn't even at school, and if I did do something to her she would have had it coming after what you two did to me."
"She wasn't at school today because she was beat up in her room last night, and she's not in her right mind. She has been saying she was attacked by a vampire and that she thinks it was you."
The blood drained from my face. Had I been exposed, before I was even fully a vampire?
"Her parents were considering sending her to a mental hospital because she saying crazy crap like that. The security system shows that nobody was there all night, so we figured you must have called her and threatened her crazy bad."
"So are you saying that I beat her up, or are you saying that I called her? Get your story straight, Emma. I have nothing to
say to that low life."
"It's obvious that you did something. Tell me what it was before I really do something to ruin your life."
My anger rose past the ceiling. How dare she threaten me? I listened for heartbeats to see where my family members were before I ran to Emma in a blink of an eye and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. I slammed her into the nearest wall and got a half an inch from her face and glared into her eyes.
"Don't you dare make any threats to me. Do you understand what I'm saying? Leave. Me. Alone." I let go of her shirt and backed up a couple of steps.
She was visibly shaken and I could smell her fear.
"Get out of my house and start telling everyone at school what liars you and Hailey are."
She just stared at me.
I opened the front and shoved her out. "I said get out of my house. Don't ever come back." I slammed the door.
Clara showed up behind me with a crooked smile. "That was subtle."
"I wasn't going for subtle," I growled. "Those two were made for each other. I'm actually glad that Emma showed up here. I would have had to play nice if she had confronted me at school."
"Do you think that she'll actually tell everyone that they are liars?"
"Not if she's anything like her coward friend who wouldn't even go to school today. They act like they are so powerful, but they're weak and afraid."
"Typical humans," Clara said, rolling her eyes.
***
I couldn't focus on my homework after that, so I texted Tanner to find out where he was. He had just finished with his football practice, so we decided to meet up at the school.
"Where do you want to go?" I asked when he got into my car.
"We can go back to that coffee shop or we can go somewhere closer. The location doesn't matter to me."
"I could go for a spicy pumpkin latte. The coffee shop sounds great."
"That sounds good to me, too. So what did you do to Emma?"
"What do you mean?" I asked. I didn't see how he could have known about that already.
"She showed up at the practice telling everyone that you had threatened her and saying that you are psychotic. She said something about Hailey being afraid to come to school because you threatened her too."
I sighed. "She doesn't waste any time does she? She showed up at my house and I told her to get out. Well, I might have possibly shown her a little bit of what I'm capable of. But just a little."
He laughed. "I miss all of the good stuff."
"People are going to be even worse at school, aren't they?" I asked.
"If Emma doesn't change her tune, then I would assume they will be. They're like puppets."
"But she's not even popular, is she? She's just Hailey's sidekick. Will people really listen to her? What did people do when she was going off at your practice?"
He was quiet for a moment. "They were eating up. It was more fuel for their fire."
"I can't miss another day of school, what am I going to do?"
"Let's figure this out at the coffee shop. I don't want you to get upset while you're driving."
Once we were settled at the same table drinking our spicy pumpkin lattes, I said, "Okay, now let's figure out what I'm going to do. I really don't know how much more of this I can take. I want to lash out and use all of my powers, but for obvious reasons, I can't do that."
"I could walk you to all of your classes," he said. "Maybe people would leave you alone then."
"How is that going to work? You'll be late to all of your classes, plus they might start treating you badly. So far, I don't think anyone has picked up on our friendship."
"I don't care if they treat me badly. I've been down that road before and I can handle it again. I would rather help you out. I'm not ashamed to be your friend. I'd be honored to have everyone see me walking through the halls with you."
"Thanks, Tanner. But I don't think that will actually solve anything. What else are we going to do?"
"I do think that it will help. I'd like to walk you to your classes tomorrow and we'll if see if it does. I can deal with a few tardies. I can't keep it up forever, but one day won't kill me."
I shrugged my shoulders. "I suppose that it's worth a try."
"You want to go outside? It's getting warm in here," he said.
"Is it?" I asked. "Sure, we can go for a walk. I need to stretch my legs anyway."
We started walking toward a park once we were outside.
"Want to play on the swings?" I asked with a laugh. "I haven't swung in years."
He smiled. "That's the best idea that I've heard all day."
"I'll race you." I said and ran at a fast human pace to the swings, beating him by a mile.
"Hey, no fair," he exclaimed. "You can't use your powers to win a race."
"I didn't, I ran slowly—and you still lost."
"Oh yeah?" he asked. He scooped me up in his arms and started running through the park with me shrieking and laughing. "I'd like to see you get out of this."
I squirmed and wiggled but didn't try to get away.
"You're not so tough," he whispered into my ear. "You can't even get away from this mere mortal."
I laughed and squirmed some more. He was paying more attention to me than where he was running, and he tripped over something as he was running up a hill. He fell over and we hit the ground. We both burst into laughter and I pulled on his coat, and we went rolling down the hill together.
When we landed at the bottom of the hill, we were only a couple of inches apart and burst into a fit of laughter again at the same moment. We laughed until my stomach hurt and I couldn't laugh any more. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them he was staring at me from just inches away.
I smiled, and we both leaned in and gave each other a light kiss. I pulled back a little and studied his face. He seemed to be more handsome than I had ever noticed before. He touched my cheek and ran his hand down to my chin and gave me another kiss.
He stood up and smiled at me and said with a smile, "If you want more of that, you're going to have to catch me." He got up and started running again.
I started to laugh, but my stomach was still sore and I grasped it. I jumped up and chased him, letting him win for a minute before I rushed in and gently threw him against a tree. We stared at each other and I reached behind his ears and ran my fingers through his hair. I could hear both of our hearts speed up.
"What is it that you were saying? If I want some more of that, I'm going to have to catch you? It looks like I caught you." I grabbed his chin, leaned in and pressed my lips on his.
He stroked my cheek and said, "You've never been more beautiful than you are today." He touched my shoulders and ran his hands down to my hands. I got the chills even though I wasn't feeling the cold anymore. He grabbed my hands and held them above my head against the tree as we continued to kiss.
I closed my eyes and took in his scent. The smell of love was much more intoxicating and delicious than the smell of fear. I started to kiss his neck and before I knew it, I had bit down and was drinking his blood. It tasted even better than it had before. I had thought that fear-tinged blood was the best, but this was many times better. I didn't want to stop when I felt the flow slow down, but I knew that was for his own good, so I stopped and sealed up the wound.
I looked at him and he was smiling and his eyes were still closed. He opened his eyes. "I don't know what's in that vampire venom, but I love it. Thank you."
"Don't thank me. It's every bit as satisfying for me as it is for you."
He grabbed my face and looked like he was going to say something romantic, then said, "Race you to the swings!" He took off.
"Oh. You!" I hollered at him and let him win. We jumped on the swings and raced to see who swing the highest.
"I can't remember the last time that I've had so much fun," I said, laughing.
"Me neither."
We swung like toddlers for a while longer before we decided that we should get back so that we coul
d have dinner with our families without getting yelled at for being late.
"I'm glad that those kids from school showed up at the coffee shop," he said as we were driving back to the school.
"What kids?" I asked.
"I'm glad that you didn't see them," he said. "I didn't want you getting upset. That's why I got us out of the shop. I had no idea how much fun we were going to have. We'll have to go to more parks."
"Definitely. I can't believe how much fun that was."
***
When I arrived home, everyone was eating dinner but nobody lectured me.
"You look really happy," my dad said. "I'm so glad to see you looking so good. It's been too long."
"You are absolutely glowing," my mom said. "You're more beautiful than ever."
Natalie gave me a wink and asked, "What's his name, Alexis?"
Clara smiled at me. "You definitely look good. I hadn't seen you happy before, and I have to say that happiness becomes you."
"I'm going to take a shower, and then I'll have some dinner after. Sorry that I won't be able to eat with you guys."
"We're just glad to see you happy again," my dad said.
TWENTY
"Hey sleeping beauty, it's time to wake up."
I pulled the pillow over my head and rolled over, hoping that Clara would decide to leave me alone.
"Remember how excited you were to go training tonight? Let's go."
I managed to pull my blankets over the pillow that was still over my head.
She pulled the blankets and pillow off of my head and whispered in my ear, "You're still part human and still have tasty blood. I wouldn't mind a little taste."
I sat up. "I'm awake. I'm awake."
"Perfect. Now get dressed so that we can get going."
She left my room and I fell back asleep. I woke up to a sharp pain in my neck.
"Hey."
She stopped and licked the wound. "Not quite as good as straight human blood but definitely better than straight vampire blood."
"Vampires can drink each other's blood?" I asked, rubbing my now disappeared wound.
"Usually only vampires in love or vampires fighting," she said. "It doesn't sustain us and it's not nearly as good. It's worse than that bagged human stuff."