No one tries to stop me as I'm making my way out the door. I slam the door behind me. I rush to my car and I'm trying to find my keys in my purse.
All of the sudden, I feel someone tapping on my shoulder. I turn around and drop my things on the ground. "What's up with you people scaring the shit out of me?" I ask as I kneel to pick up my things.
"Please, will you just take a walk with me and I will explain everything?" Lilah asks.
"Do I have a choice?" Lilah starts walking slowly down the road. I take a deep breath in and blow it all out. What's the harm in taking a walk with this woman? She said she's going to tell me everything I need to know.
I set my purse on the back of my car and follow Lilah down the road.
"Are you a vampire?" I ask. I already know the answer to my question, but I want to make sure that I'm right.
"Yes, I'm a very old vampire," She answers. "Has Andrew told you the story about how our kind was created?"
"With Ambrogio and Selene."
"They're my parents," Lilah confirms. This day just keeps getting more bizarre. If Lilah's parents are Ambrogio and Selene, then she's considered one of the oldest vampires to walk among us.
"So, explain," I say to her.
"I knew your father, Scott." Is this woman crazy? She's one of the oldest vampires and she says that she knew my father personally. There's no way my dad knew that vampires existed in this world. That's just absolutely absurd.
"What?" Is all I manage to spit out.
"Your father was a very wise man and had a big heart. It's a full out tragedy what happened to him," Lilah admits.
"I miss him everyday."
"That's why we have to protect you so nothing like that ever happens again," Lilah says.
"My father died in a car accident. You can't protect me from that. Why would you even want to protect me in the first place?" I ask.
"Pardon me?" Lilah says as she stops on the dirt road and stares into my eyes. "My apologizes. I forgot you don't know."
"Know what?" I ask.
"The Sulivic Brothers killed your father because of what he was."
I take a deep breath, "Listen, my father died in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. I think you have the wrong family," I say as I start walking back toward my car.
"Nina Mae Mckay. 17 years old. You drive a red Saab. Your mother's name is Ali and your sister's name is Caroline, but you call her Lynns for short because it's her middle name. Your mother Ali is an artist. Your sister is on what you call a cheerleading team. You spent your summer in Scarlett Hills Hospital because you cut yourself. You've been struggling with depression since your father died."
I turn around to face Lilah, "How do you know all of that?"
"I knew your father very well. He loved you all very much."
"Tell me why you need to protect me so bad?" I ask as I start walking back toward her.
"You're special, Nina. You have your father's blood coursing through your veins."
"How am I special?" I ask as I stop right in front of her.
"You have the blood of a healer."
"A healer?" I ask. "What are you talking about?"
Lilah gestures for us to start walking again. I agree and stand by her side as we walk slowly down Andrew's dirt road. "Your blood has the power to heal humans and vampires," Lilah says as she smiles at me. "You're very special. There aren't many of your kind left."
I start laughing. I look around trying to find any cameras because this must be a joke. I must be getting pranked. This woman is truly out of her mind. I don't have special blood. I'm a normal girl that just tries to live a normal life. "That's insane," I say as I raise my eyebrows. "I don't have special blood. I'm a normal girl, not a healer. You must have the wrong girl."
"You're the right girl. I'm sure of it, Nina," Lilah says to me. "I wouldn't tell a lie. We were sent by my parents, Ambrogio and Selene. Our main obligation and priority is to protect you."
My mouth is getting dry. I start feeling my head spin. Here we go again. I'm going to faint. I feel it coming. I try to find a place to sit, but it's too late. Everything starts to appear dark and that's the last thing I remember, seeing black.
* * * *
I hear voices all around me. There are so many voices. Some are yelling and some are trying to whisper. Everyone's trying to talk at once and I can't understand what they're saying. Until finally they start to calm down. I try to make out what the voices are saying. "Is she OK?" One voice asks.
"She'll be fine. This happens a lot," a familiar voice says.
"She faints a lot?" Another voice asks.
"Only when she doesn't eat properly and when she gets really overwhelmed," the familiar voice speaks again.
My eyes start to open and my vision starts to focus back correctly.
When my eyes are clear from the darkness, I see a bunch of faces huddled around me. "What happened?" I ask as I try to sit up, but a hand forces me to lay back down.
"You fainted, Nina," Andrew whispers to me. "You're OK though. Lilah caught you this time."
"I had a really weird dream. Some woman told me I was a healer and you were sent here to protect me. I really must have hit my head or something" I say.
"Love, it wasn't a dream. It was real," Andrew admits. I sit up really fast and get light headed. It was real. I'm a healer. My blood heals vampires and humans. It's not a dream.
My hands find my face and I begin to rub my eyes. I can't believe this is truly happening. There are like seven billion people in the world and this has to happen to me.
A dark haired man brings me over a glass of water. "Thank you," I say as I take the glass out of his hand and take a big gulp.
"I don't believe I introduced myself, ma'am. My name is Abel. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Nina."
"Nice to meet you too, Abel."
I look at the other two faces that I didn't get introduced to yet. "I'm Ella."
"I'm Julian."
"I'm Nina, but you obviously already know that," I say and everyone starts laughing, but me. OK, so if this is true I should probably get more answers. They talked about my father like they truly knew him. I must take advantage of this time and ask them some questions. "Explain to me what I am," I say as I look at Lilah for answers.
"Your true identity is called a healer. You have the special ability to heal humans and vampires," Lilah confirms.
"Give me an example," I ask.
Andrew steps into the conversation and begins to explain, "Let's say a human has cancer or even a wound on their body, with some of your blood, you can heal it like it was never even there."
"And what about vampires?" I ask Lilah. I don't even want to look at Andrew right now. I gave myself to him and he was holding this big of a secret from me. A secret that's going to change my life, forever.
"Your blood has the power to turn vampires back into their mortal human forms," Lilah confirms.
"So, why do I need to be protected if I help save people's lives?" I ask with my eyes still focused on Lilah's.
"To vampires, you're blood isn't special. It's poison."
"But, why?" I ask. Every vampire should want to take my blood. So, they can go back to their human form and live a normal life. Who wouldn't want that?
"Some vampires would love to return back to their natural human form, but for the rest, being a vampire is the way life should be. Unlike a human, we aren't so fragile. We're strong and fast. We are immortal, but with you around, you have poison that will turn them into little fragile humans again. Fear and anger fills their bodies and that's why their first instinct is to destroy you."
"Is that why Lucian is trying to kill me?" I ask.
Lilah looks at Andrew, "Lucian's here? He's in Scarlett Hills?"
"Yes, I meant to inform you. His messenger was looking for William. Then, we had an incident and he tired to kill Nina," Andrew says.
"That's a big danger. Andrew you should have informed us of this immediately," Lilah says i
n wearily.
"Who's Lucian, anyway?" I ask.
Everyone stares at me. They seem like they don't want to answer my question. I look into everyone's eyes one by one, waiting for an answer. No one makes a move until Lilah walks over to me. "Lucian, Gavin, Flavior, and Doru are the Sulivic Brothers." Lilah's voice is gentle.
I lean forward and my eyebrows rise. I suck in a quick breath and let it out. "Lucian helped kill my father?" I ask.
Lilah heaves a sigh, but no words come out of her mouth. She glances at me and nods.
Lucian did help kill my father and now he's after me.
CHAPTER 19
The Talk
Dear Diary,
My life just seems to be getting more unusual and crazier each and every day. I feel like I can't catch a break. Just when I think everything couldn't be better, I jinx myself and everything starts to fall apart. It was overwhelming enough to find out that the love of my life is a vampire. Now, I just received the news that I'm a healer. My blood is very special and it can cure humans and vampires, but some disagree. Some vampires think my blood is like poison to their kind. For that reason, I now have a bunch of vampire brothers after me to kill me just like they did my father. Oh and did I mention, the first vampires ever to walk among this earth, Ambrogio and Selene, my father knew them. He didn't just know them, he was really close to their kids.
I feel like I'm living in a fantasy story that never ends. It's not one of those cute fairy tale love stories that have a wonderful plot setting. It's more like the guy I'm in love with is a vampire that completely withheld secrets from me about my father and who I truly am. Some vampires are trying to kill me and some are trying to protect me. I have the power to heal people with the blood running through my veins and I'm completely torn up inside. What am I suppose to do?
Love, Nina
* * * *
It's Monday morning. I've been laying in my bed all weekend trying to come to some reasonable conclusion to this madness I call my life. I haven't talked to Andrew. I'm beyond pissed off at him for holding secrets that involve my father and secrets that would change my whole life forever.
My alarm is non-stop beeping. I don't have the energy to move and press the snooze button. I don't feel like walking the halls in my school or sitting in class listening to teachers teach me things that they think I'm going to need to know for the rest of my life. Instead I have to figure out everything on my own because my life didn't come with an instruction booklet.
After two minutes of letting my alarm make a disturbing beeping sound, I finally decide enough is enough and I shut it off. I actually didn't just shut it off. I more like unplugged it and threw it across my room. At least the beeping is no more.
I decide that it's time to get my lazy butt out of bed and start getting ready for an agonizing day of school.
I throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and slip into my shoes. I put my hair up into a pony tale. That was easy. I'm ready to go to school.
The thoughts won't stop. It's like a never ending stream of memories and accusations flickering through my head. Stress is starting to take over and run my life. Am I ever going to get a break from all this insanity?
* * * *
School is as dull as I imagined it would be. My teachers just rant on about subjects we need to learn about to pass the class. I'm not paying much attention to any of them. Being an A+ student just isn't on my agenda for today. Trying to get these never ending thoughts, about everything that's been happening, was first on my to do list.
When the last bell rings I'm overjoyed. Finally, it's time to leave this place they call school.
Leaving photography class it's hard not to think of how much I really used to enjoy taking pictures. Every time I held a camera in my hand it was like the world around me didn't exist. The only thing that did exist was the camera in my hands and the scene I was focused on.
Walking out of the school, I spot Andrew leaning against my car. What does he want, to lie and withhold more secrets about my life from me?
"Nina, we need to talk," Andrew says in a distressed voice.
"What do you want, to lie to me some more?" I ask as I plow through him to get to my car.
"I never lied to you. I was trying to protect you. There's a difference."
"Listen, if I want to be protected that's my call not yours." I'm trying to dig through my purse and find my keys as I'm speaking with Andrew. Why do I always put my keys in my purse if I know it will take me over an hour to find them each time?
"Please, Nina. Just talk to me. I promise you I will tell you anything you want to know," Andrew says as he lifts my chin with his index finger. It's really hard to resist those eyes of his. He knows it too, that's why he had to lift my chin up so I had to face him.
"Fine," I say and immediately regret it. I can't help the way I feel about him and those eyes of his need to wear a pair of sunglasses or something. They're way to irresistible.
"I'll follow you home. I want to make sure you get there safely. Then I'll pick you up at your house in an hour," Andrew says as he kisses me on my cheek and walks away.
* * * *
An hour goes by and I'm sitting in the living room of my house waiting for Andrew to knock on my door. I'm actually relieved that I agreed to talk to Andrew so he can answer all of my questions with only honest answers and no lies whatsoever.
The door bell finally rings. He's a minute late.
I grab my purse in a hurry and walk out my front door. I don't acknowledge that Andrew is even there. I just get into his car and sit in silence until we arrive at whatever destination he wants to go to.
We finally arrive at the boardwalk. It was where we had our first date. I sit in silence reminiscing on the moments we shared here. I remember being so nervous and awkward, but when I loosened up it was an amazing first date.
"I'm truly sorry, Nina. I really am," Andrew says in a hushed tone.
"How did my father die?" I ask, getting right to the questions that I want answered. I'm not the type of person to beat around the bush. I just want to get right to the point.
Andrew lets out a deep breath and begins to talk, "Your father was in the process of healing one of the Sulivic sisters named Stella because she didn't want to suffer as a vampire anymore."
"The Sulivic brothers had a sister?" I ask, absolutely astonished.
"Yes," Andrew clarifies. "She didn't want to live forever. She wanted to return back to her human form again. Scott respected her wishes and decided to heal her. The Sulivic Brothers ended up finding them while they were trying to go through with the process. The brothers ended up killing your father for poisoning their sister," he clears his throat before he continues, "Stella ended up staking herself in the heart so she could finally be at peace."
"That's how vampires die, from a stake?" I ask.
"A wooden stake in the heart or going out into the sunlight without a spell from a witch."
"Who the hell are the Sulivic Brothers anyways?" I ask.
"The Sulivic brothers are a clan of very old and very strong, evil, manipulative vampires that think they control our kind. It's absolutely absurd."
"OK, so, why was Lucian's messenger looking for William that night at the beach? Since they're so evil, why is William involved with them?"
"Well, the messenger was looking for William because William used to be friends with Lucian. They go way, way back. Until, Lucian started to lose his humanity and started to become this evil vampire that he is now. Lucian and his brothers are trying to find and kill off all of the healers. They want them to be exstinct so the poison of their blood won't live among us anymore. Lucian thought William might be of some help to him."
I sit in silence trying to let my brain comprehend everything that Andrew is telling me. It's a lot to take in, but I need to know every single detail. "How do you expect to protect me from this clan of evil and vicious vampires? They killed my father and now they're going to kill me."
"I don't kno
w how we're going to kill them, but I know I'm planning on ripping their heads off," Andrew says as he throws his hands up in the air. "We have no plan yet, but I know that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I promise you this, Nina, you're safe with me. I won't let any harm come to you."
I don't believe every word that's coming out of Andrew's mouth, but I can't help but focus on his soft and full lips. I just want to lock our lips together and stay like that for the rest of my life.
In that instant, I move my face toward his and kiss him. "Don't ever lie or keep secrets from me again," I demand.
"I promise you I won't," Andrew clarifies.
"I love you so much, Andrew," I say as I take my lips off his for a moment to breathe.
"Always and forever, my love."
CHAPTER 20
Learning and Practicing
Dear Diary,
I woke up in Andrew's arms today. It is a nice feeling. I feel protected. I still haven't forgotten the fact about him withholding secrets from me. I thought we shared something more than that. I don't want our relationship to revolve around lies. I trusted him.
Sometimes I think that maybe he did it to protect me from all the awful things in the world. Now that I have a little sense of who I am, people are going to want me out of this world, dead. So, maybe he was doing what he thought was best for me. Maybe he was keeping it secret because he just didn't want me to know. I will never truly know, but I know this for a fact, he's going to have to earn my trust back. It's not going to be easy. If he loves me he will be more than willing to prove to me that I can trust him again.
Love, Nina
* * * *
It's really early in the morning and I have to start getting ready for school. I made sure I brought my clothes and the various things I would need to get ready for school. Andrew is still sound asleep next to me. I creep my way out of his bed and slide a sweatshirt on because I'm freezing. I go to the kitchen to find something to eat. I hope Andrew remembered to get food. I walk over to the fridge and open it. It's filled. It has fruits, yogurt, orange juice, soy milk, soda, etc. He remembered that I have to eat. That's sweet.
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