Rogue (18+)(Book Two)

9. Youre the reason

"I want to be able to protect myself," she begins, confusing me even more. I look at her pleading eyes and that's when I realize her request.

"No! Are you crazy? After everything I've had to go through and you want to-" I begin as my emotions overwhelm me.

"I want this," she whispers but I don't want to listen. She's being insane.

"Being a vampire isn't what you think... the hunger and fear that you could hurt anyone you come near isn't worth eternal life or being able to protect yourself," I say as tears well up in my eyes. The fact we're even having this conversation, makes my emotions heighten.

"It's not for eternal life. I just want to protect you the way you have been for me. I don't want to grow old and watch you stay the same age forever... you're my best friend, Amanda," her voice breaks as tears stream down her cheeks, showing that no matter what I do, I will always hurt her without meaning to.

"I just... I can't," I say and turn my back on them. All of this is to much, seeing her so broken and scared that I may get hurt. The fact that she wants to stay with me forever even if that means going through what I have. Is it even worth it?

***

A loud bang wakes me from my sleep. I immediately run to the living room to make sure Christen is ok but what I see shocks me. Elijah is pinned to the ground by a scruffy looking kid. His dark hair wraps around his neck and conceals his eyes, making him look even more tarnished. I bolt into action and grab onto the kids arm as it reels back to send a blow into Elijah's jaw.

"Let me go!" He thrashes as I pull him away from Elijah. Now I'm faced with a pissed off vampire that now has his target set on me. All of a sudden, something changes and his figure goes from menacing to scared. "She's a-" He starts but Elijah grabbing him and pulling him out of the room and into the hallway

I rush over to Christen, knowing that all of this has frightened her, and pull her into the room and shut the door so she doesn't have to witness any of this.

"After everything we've been through and you-" the kid begins but stops as I approach. Disgust flashes in his eyes as he begins to talk again. "They're monsters and you're sleeping with one of them."

"Shut your mouth. Just because one pureblood hurt us doesn't mean that they're all the same," Elijah butts in but it doesn't stop the kid.

"What happened to the old you? The you that didn't call them pureblood but called them red eyed, bloodthirsty bastards-" he's stopped as Elijah hits him with the back of his hand, jerking the kids head to the side.

"I'm not going to listen to this bullshit anymore! You're a fucking adult so act like one," Elijah says but he doesn't listen. I watch as the tears well up in his eyes as he turns and marches off. I'm left in shock at what was just revealed to me. Elijahs past had to deal with the unknown kid and purebloods and it doesn't seem to be good memories. "I'm sorry about that," Elijah adds and takes steps to me.

"There's a lot of explaining you need to do," I add, taking steps away from Elijah. Shock graces his face at my movements but he should understand why. His friend has proven that purebloods are red eyed, bloodthirsty bastards and no one will see me any differently. Elijah even thought of my mind like that and yet he wants to change my way of thinking.

"What do you want me to explain?" He asks, questioning what I've discovered and exactly what I want him to tell me. The answer is everything, his past and purebloods, What I am and what my kind does. But I guess I can only ask one question...

"I want to know why your friend is disgusted cause your hanging around me?" I add and that's when Elijah's eyes darken and his whole body tenses as if someone just struck him. I grab his arm as if he's incapable of moving on his own and pull him into the room. We sit down and I watch as he studies my face, looking for who knows what before he begins.

"When I was younger and just turned into a vampire, I stumbled onto a kid named Antoni Frank, the guy that was here before. He was a newbie like me but was never taught how to control him emotions and hunger most of all, kinda like you. I tried to coach him and get him to control himself but it didn't work," he pauses and takes a deep inhale before continuing, " We met a pureblood named Kelic and he promised that he could help both of us with whatever we needed and we trusted him. First, Kelic told us to starve ourselves on our own and if that didn't work we had to go back to him and we ended up doing exactly that. Kelic's next move was to chain us to silver and starve us himself. After a few days went by we began to beg him to let us out. We couldn't take the torture anymore but Kelic didn't listen, all of our pain and suffering fueled him. Once we were too weak to lift our heads, he would open the cage and slit our throats, watching to see how long it took for us to heal back with such weak bodies," he stops and gauges my reaction but I only have questions.

"How did you guys get out?" I ask and rub Elijah's arm to encourage him to continue. His eyes drop down as he grasps my hand and cups it between his.

"After he watched us suffer, he would unchain and feed us by throwing a child in, around the ages of five to eight. We decided that Antoni would have to go without eating so I could be strong enough to get out of the cell while Kelic wasn't looking. I carried Antoni to the closest town and we both ended up devouring a bar full of people that night," a slight smile rises to his cheeks but fades quickly. "After that day, I hated purebloods with a passion and used to call them every name in the book," he nods and chuckles while stocking my thumb.

"What made all of that change?" I ask and that's when his cheeks lightly redden. His eyes dart up to mine as I smile up at him.

"I was assigned to a case on a rogue who was changing humans and couldn't be caught. Once I found her, she proved to me that purebloods aren't the monsters that I thought they were. You proved to me. You're the reason that even with the history I have, I can still look a pureblood in the eye and not be afraid or disgusted. I just hope you can do the same for Antoni," he says, showing me how much I've changed his way of thinking.