Don't Call Me Angel [Book 4] (#Wattys2017)

Chapter 33

*Please read before continuing.*

For the first time during this book series, I will be changing the POV and will be changing the story into 3rd person for dramatic purposes.

Thank you.

Joel came out of his room washed and into clean clothes before walking into the kitchen.

Marnie paced around the kitchen biting the nail of her thumb. At nine years old she was looking more like a woman to him. How children grow up so fast, he thought.

He felt a stinging man in his chest at the thought that his daughter grow up with her mother. Ever little thing Joel did for his little girl was all for her. And very soon she would finally meet her mother. And I will finally have my Anastasia back.

Marnie looked every bit of her mother except for her brown hair. But she had her mother's green eyes.

"Dad, " Marnie jumped the moment her father approached the table to sit and eat. "Umm... I was thinking. What if-"

"The answer is no, " Joel calmly said while looking at his bowl.

"But you didn't-"

"I don't have too, " Joel looked at his daughter. She was given him the same look when he told her she couldn't see Olivia. The vampire woman who crawled into their lives out of the blue.

In the time Joel spent with Olivia, he found her to be naive, brave and giving. It was a little over a year ago when Joel found her talking to an old gravestone and somehow found her way into his home with a wounded wing.

Joel had thought she was the most beautiful being he ever laid eyes on. In his long life, he never saw an angel. But the moment he found out she was a vampire, he wanted nothing but to keep his daughter safe.

Joel couldn't stand vampires, in his long life stretching to near a thousand years, the vampires have done nothing but brought his family misery. During the vampire and witch war, he lost his father and brother in battle. His mother soon dead of heartache over the loss of her husband and son.

Joel grew up raised by his only living relative left which was his uncle who died five years later after adopting Joel, do to another vampire attack.

Joel then spent his years alone, learning the art of magic from his father's books. He taught himself how to use the magical gifts that later made him one of the strongest wizards in the world. He learned everything on his own.

But there was something only one person who taught him, love. And that was Anastasia. She was young witch, running in the woods. Chase down by vampires, Joel saved her, healed her wounds and took her in.

It didn't last long for the two to become one with each other. Within six months they wed and in nine months Marnie was born.

Joel could still remember that night. Again the vampires found their way back to him and his family.

Anastasia ran into the forest while Joel tried to fight them off.

Anastasia found her way to the old graveyard where she gave birth to their daughter.

When Joel finally found them, it was too late. Anastasia was gone but their daughter still lived.

Joel and his wife never came up with a name for their child. So while holding her, he named her after the woman who laid in the grave next to him, in faded words it read, 'Marnie Moore'.

Joel never spoke about Ana with Marnie. Nor did he ever tell her about why he despised vampires or how she got her name.

Marine was a miracle and one he tended to keep. He failed her mother. And fail his daughter last year when she was kidnapped by that monster. And then there was Olivia, Joel felt like he failed her too. She saved and gave up her life for his daughter. During the year Olivia was missing Joel searches for her. At first, he was just going to take his daughter and leave. Found somewhere safe but living Olivia pained him to the point it made him crazy.