Finding Grace: The Guardian Chronicles Book One

Chapter 25. Family Ties*

"I never married. I told you I had a fiancée, and that she went mad when I tried to see her after I was changed," he said to her.

Nodding, Evan replied, "I saw her listed on your obituary. Ana, right?"

"Yes, that's right. We had been matched by our parents. Back then, the idea was to keep our cultures as separate as possible, and our marriage was set up when I was only fifteen, and she twelve.

"We knew each other, and were not unhappy with the arrangement; we spoke often that it could be worse. I would say that we became very good friends, but I don't remember feeling more than a brotherly affection for her. I did love her that way, at least. Soon after my transformation, I went to her in the night and tried to speak with her, hoping she would continue to care for me, as a sister, or a friend. I was not very good at concealing my transformed nature, not like I can now. I was very proud of myself for not biting her, as Tourneau only predicted disaster if I tried to contact her.

"Anyway, she was not as welcoming as I thought she would be. She cowered away from me and listened only a little to what I said. Her appeal...her scent...whetted my appetite however, and the beast in me showed himself. I hurried away as fast as I could, but not before she realized what had become of me.

"I went to my brother afterwards, in order that someone know I was still...around," Emil could not bring himself to say alive. "He was angry that I came to him; giving him the responsibility of keeping my secret. I asked him to look after Ana, and he did after a fashion. The next day, her family had her committed, because of her repeated attempts to tell of my becoming a vampire. They of course thought she had lost her mind from despair. She became much worse, locked away. My brother tried to visit for a while, but the visits made her worse. You see, I look much like my brother Mihajlo. She thought he was me. He was asked to never return. I regretted her state, and I began sending in money for her care, from an 'anonymous benefactor'."

"I'm so sorry Emil. You must have been so sad," Evan said, breaking into his thoughts. "Were you able to keep in contact with your brother easily, then?"

"No," he said regretfully. "He hated what I had become, he thought I should find a way to destroy myself. He told me that he was only staying in contact with me so that I could pay a penance for what had happened to Ana. I cannot blame him for that. Even though he and I were not close, I got some pleasure out of the information he brought to me about my family."

"Did you try to contact any of the rest of your family?" Evan asked, knowing how hard it was to be separated from one's family. She ached for him.

"No, not after Ana's reaction. Maybe my mother would have accepted me, but she was too frail. I worried her heart wouldn't take it. She still had my younger brothers to worry about. I miss them so much," he said, his voice raw, the pain he had suppressed for nearly a century threatened to tear him open. He closed his eyes, trying to block their images, but failed as memories tormented his brain. He heard Evan move, and then felt her arms wrap around his waist. He opened his eyes to see hers filled with tears.

"You are so blessed to have had a family you loved, and who loved you," Evan said as she laid her head against his shoulder. She could not imagine what that would have been like.

"I suppose," Emil said quietly, not quite sure what to take from her statement. "My mother was my life, my father my inspiration. He was very distant, but I think it was his way of dealing with the struggles he encountered as a doctor in the days before antibiotics and modern medicine. He always took the losses personally. My baby brother was only eleven when I changed. I regret missing his life most of all. He and I were very close. But our brother took it upon himself to see to it that we never had contact again. He persuaded our parents to send Kristofer to a boarding school in New England, and I didn't have the heart to seek him out there."