Second Chance at Forever | C. Cullen

021

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Complete

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-Abigail-

She winced as the moonlight from the window hurt her eyes. She blinked away the hazy cloud of sleep that had covered her and grew confused as the room darkened. It took her a second to realize the drapes were being closed and she let out a shaky breath, trying to get her eyes to focus. Everything in her mind was all jumbled as she worked out what happened in the past and what made her wind up laying where she was.

I was posing for a painting... No, that's not right. I was looking at it, here in 2007. It was painted in 1873 by Josef Almond. She allowed that puzzle piece to fall into place and she blinked again as she stared up at the white ceiling above her. She remembered seeing the painting and passing out as all her dreams and nightmares and suspicions became reality. It seemed she was out for awhile because it had been daylight when she had fainted and she felt ridiculous that she couldn't even stay conscious for a few memories. Of course, there were a lot of them, nearly two hundred years worth, and she supposed she understood. But that didn't mean she liked it.

And after that, after remembering what it was like to be a vampire, the ache in her lungs and the pounding in her chest confused and frustrated her. Just go away, she thought irritably to them.

"Abigail."

Oh. The voice had been speaking this whole time, and her hand searched out before she even told it to move. Fingers found silky strands of hair and she heard a sharp intake of breath as she slowly looked to the source.

The man literally of her dreams, her creator and savior, lover and partner, sat there with a ragged madness in his deep black eyes. The look on his face matched that of the night she died and she frowned, fingers running slowly down the side of his head to cup his cheek. He let out a breath and brought up a hand to hold hers there, eyes falling shut as if he were given a precious gift.

"Abigail..." he breathed, voice cracking and he nuzzled into her palm.

"Didn't I always tell you that I would never leave you, love?" she murmured.

His eyes snapped open and up to hers so fast her human mind didn't comprehend it, but she knew then that the speed of a vampire was unlike any other. She also knew how strong they were, and she knew how they were created.

But that barely connected as a thought in her mind as she stared at the wonder and agony on his face, his eyes desperately searching hers and she slowly gulped as her lips parted to let out a shallow, shaky breath. Her heart was picking up and she knew he could hear both rather easily, which frankly now made her a bit embarrassed and her cheeks fanned red.

"Abigail—"

She smiled softly, slow and tender and full of a devotion like no other to her mate, the man she wanted to marry as soon as possible. The thought of not being his wife anymore, of not having him as her husband... She couldn't bear it and her heart constricted with pain.

"I remember it all," she whispered. "I felt like I relived it." She sighed. "The painting was made by Josef Almond in England in 1873. We hung it in our cottage and made love underneath it. In 1918, in Chicago, I remember you coming home to me, concerned and pained when you told me of Elizabeth Masen who wanted you to save her son Edward. In 1933, you told me of Rosalie who was dying in the streets of Rochester and you had to save her. In 1935, Rosalie brought Emmett to us after he was mauled nearly to death by a bear. In 1950, Alice and Jasper joined us after she saw us as a coven." She paused and her eyes grew misty as she took in his ever changing expressions.