Crimson's parents were killed by vampires when she was 6 years old. Because of that she's sworn vengeance on all vampires and spends every night tirelessly hunting for vampires to kill. Lamech is the leader of the biggest vampire clan in the world...
I laid in bed, seething with anger. The vampire really thought little of me, but I wasn't a precious doll that needed protection. I had never needed that. I had always been the one providing the protection.
His attitude annoyed me even more because he should have known that I could handle myself. He should have known that if it hadn't been for the fact that he was my mate, I would have won that first fight we had. But yet he dared to act and talk as if I was weak.
But what made me the most upset was how nice it had all been for a moment. It had felt as if he truly was my mate and truly cared for me. While he had held on to me, I had known that he had been upset because he had been worried and scared about me getting hurt. I had known that he had held me and breathed in my scent to calm himself. I had known that his anger had been caused by the fact that someone had dared to attack me. Or at least I had thought so until he had turned his anger towards me.
The fact that I had, even for a second, almost felt happy and content over that he was my mate made my anger over the reality even worse. Though really it wasn't anger, but pain.
All the stories I had ever heard about mates only spoke of happiness and love and how the two mates would together make each other into the best versions of themselves. It was just like my luck to never get to experience that.
Tears welled up in my eyes and they fell in silence, got absorbed by the pillow. I wasn't sure how long I had laid there when a knock came on the door. I sat up and dried away my tears.
The door opened to reveal the vampire.
"May I come in?" he asked and looked almost pensive.
"Would you listen if I said no?" I snorted and made my voice hard to hide the sadness.
He gave me a crooked smile. "Probably not," he said and walked in, closing the door behind him.
He sat down on the couch and crossed his legs. Then he uncrossed them and crossed them again with the other leg on top. He placed his hands on his knees, then drew back his hair with one. He looked everywhere but at me until he finally stopped moving around.
"I want to explain why Everett attacked and to ask you to never say what you did again," he said and there was a certain level of apprehension in his voice that I didn't understand.
I didn't answer, but only waved my hand for him to continue.
"He had quite a difficult time controlling himself when he was newly turned," the vampire started to explain. "He's alright now and as good as any at controlling his thirst. But during his first year as a vampire, he killed a girl by accident. And not just any girl, but his best friend. He had been good with others before her, always stopping at a good time. But sometimes some people's blood just taste that much better than others. Yours is like that to me, and in those instances, it can be close to impossible to stop. That girl's blood was like that to him."
He let out a long sigh and I felt a sinking feeling in my chest. A bit of guilt over my words crept up on me and I also started to feel sorry for Everett. My mind couldn't help but to wander to Aideen and imagine how she would feel if she in a moment of carelessness would kill me.
"It took him three years of isolation before he dared to even be in the same room as a human again. He begged us multiple times to kill him during those three years," the vampire concluded the explanation and I nodded. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel sorry for him or to excuse his actions. To be frank, I still want to kill him right now for..." His voice trailed off, his eyes fixated on the place on my arm the now very faint claw marks where. "But I hope it might make you understand and that the understanding can ensure that nothing similar happens again."
"I do understand," I said and nodded and I really did understand. I probably understood more about vampires in that moment than I had ever before in my life. I had always been too busy hating them to even consider that they could be more than vampires. That they could be people too.
It wasn't probably so much what I had just been told that made me realize it, but having spent a lot of time with Aideen had. When I looked at her, I didn't see a vampire and when Everett had suggested that I would be able to harm her, it had thoroughly pissed me off. But what the vampire told me about Everett made the realization finally take hold.
No, I told myself, not the vampire. Lamech.
He made to stand up, but then sat back down again. I raised my eyebrows out of curiosity.
"There'll be a few people from a nearby wolf pack visiting the day after tomorrow," he told me and my eyebrows went even further up. "They are having some issues with rouges and want our help. They'll come so we can discuss the nature of the help they want and what we can offer."
I nodded, but felt even more surprised. I had always thought of wolves and vampires to have cordial relationships at the best. Never would I have imagined that they would turn to one another for help.
"And..." he continued but seemed to hesitate.
"And?" I asked.
"You are of course free to interact with them if you are so inclined, but they might not take kindly on you," he finally said.
"Why wouldn't they?" My confusion increased more and more.
"I'm not certain about the details, but they had a co-operation with a coven previously and that coven would have helped them with issues such as rouges when needed. They turned to us because the coven won't help them anymore."
I was briefly startled but quickly shook it off. "The coven must have had good reasons," I concluded.
"Yeah, maybe," he said and gave me a smile that made me certain he did not believe so. "Anyway, just wanted to let you know so we can hopefully avoid any... unfortunate situations."
"Don't worry about me," I said and smirked. "I don't attack anyone unless they attack first or harm someone I care for. Except for when it comes to vampires."
He laughed a low and short laugh. Rather a chuckled than a laugh. It was very brief, but warmed me a little all the same.
Without saying anything more, he got up and left. As I looked at the closed door he had disappeared through, I couldn't help but lament over that I had just had my first conversation with him that had remained polite the whole way through. My first proper conversation with my mate. With Lamech.
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