[A/N] Howdy folks :D Okay I know this chapter is really late but I really hope even a few of you havn't given up on the story.
This chapter is a little boring but, all the drama and stuff does come along in the next one. I promise XD
Also If anyone would be kind enough to make a video for this story I wold do just about anything lol
P.S Check out the video on the side, the song is just amazing :D
Love <3
Chapter Three.
Flashback;
"Lydia!"
The powerful voice boomed, snapping me from my tormenting thoughts.
"Do it now!"
The same voice called. A voice that sent shock waves of fear down my spine. It was strange to think that once this same voice had sent shock waves of a different kind through me, it had once ignited every nerve ending in my body and left me tingling all over. His voice was like velvet running across my skin, leaving only warmth and a sensual burning in it's path. But in that moment it was rusty nails clawing at my flesh.
My body shook violently as I took in the scene unfolding before my undead eyes. It was chaos. People ran screaming from their homes, children searched for the parents that I knew they would never find. Home's burnt to the ground, churches and schools were destroyed within seconds and flames licked every surface around me.
The village glowed orange and red, it was beautifully tragic. I wished the fierce wind that blew would extinguish the flames, but did nothing more than fan the inferno stared by my people. My family. Me.
I looked at the mayhem we had caused and never in my life, nor after life had I felt so much like throwing myself into the flames and ending it all. Forever, this time. I knew, however, he wouldn't let me. He had given me this life he considered a gift, but I knew was a curse and he would not let me end my contract with the devil so easily.
"Lydia! Now!"
He yelled over the pandemonium. All this for me, for what I done.
"Sweetheart."
A softer voice whispered. My eyes snapped to the reason for all this. Henry. My Henry.
"Please do it. I would rather suffer this fate a thousand times than see you so fearful. Lydia, sweet girl, please do as he asks."
I could see the flames reflecting in his bottomless brown eyes and for a selfish moment I admired the beauty. I always knew he had a fire within.
"I-..I Can't."
I wept, and in that moment I swore I would never stop. Tears streamed down my cheeks and from the look on my beloveds face I could tell my tears hurt him more then the two massive vampire, which held him roughly by the arms.
It was a war and I stood alone in the middle of the battle field, a middle ground between two nations, the one I belonged to and the one which I was forbidden to go.
"Love, don't cry-.."
Henrys words were cut by the sound of bones in his right arm snapping like dry twigs.
"Vile human. You have no right to speak!"
The large vampire on his right hissed.
I lunged towards him. In that moment I had never been so blood thirsty, never so vicious, but I would have killed him. Wiped the pitiful man from existence. I would have, had it not been from the strong arms that suddenly yanked me back.
"Lydia. If you do not dispose of this human waste, I shall do it. You and I both know just how painful I can make it for him. Now, I want you to kill him. I want you to look into his eyes as his life leaves him and in that moment I want you to know you are mine. You shall always be mine, is that understood darling?"
With tears falling from my eye's I nodded. I knew just how cruel this man could be, he would spend hours torturing his victims before he finally let them give into the sweet release of death.
"Good girl."
He whispered in my ear and pushed me towards Henrys crumpled body.
With the ashes of the destroyed homes and lives, my last shred of humanity floated away with the wind that night. But, the words of love and adoration Henry whispered before I took his life, will stay with me until the day I reenter the firey depths of Hell.
End;
The bitter cries of an infant pulled me from my thoughts, like a giant hand reaching into my mind it gripped me from my most darkest memory and set me back to reality.
Until that moment I had not realized my eyes had been flooding with liquid emotion. Ten thousand different thoughts hit me at once, each filled with their own emotions. Hate, regret, guilt. But, I felt sort of happy I could see Henrys face again. It had been so long since I had allowed myself to think of him, or that night.
I had pushed so many repressed thoughts into the back of my mind, it was inevitable that every once and a while they snuck up on me. I knew it was damaging and unhealthy to keep so many things bottle up, but if I had to think of all the bad things I had done I would surely end up in a padded room with a pretty white jacket that hugged me.
"You okay?"
Without looking at the source of the voice I nodded my head and discreetly wiped my eyes clear of any tears.
"Are you sure?"
The stranger pressed further. I wanted to snap at him, yell and scream at him, but I simply nodded my head once more. Words failed me and I knew, however much I hated this man he didn't deserve the butt end of my anger.
He gave up trying to talk to me after that and we walked in silence. We had been doing so for hours and I had to stop myself on many occasions from complaining. I had asked to come with him after all.
The silence we shared dragged on for what seemed like hours, but judging from the short distance we had walked it could have been mere seconds. He was as uncomfortable with the silence as I was, I could tell by the way his back tensed under his shirt and his jaw had set itself in one hard line. I was just about to give in and speak- about what, I was unsure but I knew if I willed myself something would come tumbling out- when the stranger stopped his long strides and turned to look at me.
Once more I was left in awe at his perfectly proportioned face and sharp defined features. I watched as the grin formed on his cupid bow lips tugging the edges up until a dimple appeared on his right cheek. He knew exactly what I was thinking, hell, anyone could guess I mean I must have looked like a dog in heat.
With an amused twinkle in his bottomless eyes, he watched me for a moment, scrutinizing me. Examining me. His eyes trailed from my head to my feet in one long easy sweep, I was a frog on a cutting board and he was a kid with a escape. I felt he could cut me open and look right into my mind in that moment. I had expected a smart comment or a snide remark but when his eye met my face once more his smile faltered every so slightly.
"Do you want to rest? Surely you must be tired."
I shook my head, resorting myself to communicating by my action rather then my voice, I just couldn't trust it anymore and I would be damned if I ended up squealing like a teenage girl.
"Oh come on, woman. I know you can talk. If I have to walk in silence anymore I'm going to start singing and trust me no one wants to hear that."
Judging by how musical his voice already was I was sure I would like to hear him sing, but I would rather the ground swallowed me whole than admit that.
"Please don't, cat's being strangled isn't really my favorite sound."
I quipped back. His grin grew at the sound of my voice, in that moment I got the feeling he like my voice just as much as I liked the sound of his, but I have been wrong before.
"You know.."
He began, a look of deep concentration gracing his feature as he carefully considered his next words.
"I think I liked you better when you didn't speak."
"The feeling is mutual."
I ground out. The word jerk flashed around my mind, along with a few more colorful words. As much as I hated the silence, I didn't want to get friendly with this man, I wanted to hate him. It would make my next course of action so much easier if I didn't get emotionally attached. That was the thing with humans, they got attached too quickly. I learned a long time ago how to mask my emotions and keep everything in check, it was hard for the first few decades, but I found the more times I was let down and made a fool of, the easier it became, like each blow to my ego strengthened that shield I formed around my emotions.
Throughout this entire time Ellie had remained silent. She simply stared up at me and allowed me to wallow in self pity, however for some reason when ever my mind went to a dark place and I felt that shield cracking slightly she would let out a small whimper and quickly bring me back down to earth. Such an intuitive little thing she was. I passed the time by rocking her slightly and every now and then when she seemed to grow restless I would hold up my hand and she would either stare at it in awe or suck on my knuckle with her toothless mouth. She was so cute. Everytime she yawned, coughed or sneezed I had to fight to keep up my big, bad, emotionless facade and not coo or make embarrassing noises at her like a damned fool.
"How much further do we have to go? She needs to rest and being jerked around in my arms is starting to make her uncomfortable."
I barked out at him, well, his back actually considering he was walking a fair bit ahead of me. Looking around I tried to spot some form of civilization. But, all there seemed to be for miles was more and more woodland, this forest seemed to go on and on. I wondered briefly if we were going in the right direction, however Adonis seemed to know exactly where he was headed.
After a quick sweep of the surrounding area, my eyes came to rest once more on the stranger. He was standing still, his back still turned to me. He must have sensed my gaze because as soon as my eyes landed on him he turned to face me.
"Give her to me. I'll carry here the rest of the way."
He held out his arms expectantly. However instead of handing her over I tightened my grip instead.
"No. Why don't we just rest for a minute instead."
His eyebrows arched at my reluctance to let him hold Elli. No matter how much he claimed he was in charge of her, there were far too many holes in his story for me to believe him. Instead of getting angry and all possessive about the situation, the stranger simply shrugged his shoulders and made his way to one of the many near by tree's, crunching his way across the leaves, twigs and dirt that made up the forest floor.
I was beginning to find the silence quite unnerving. I know I said I would rather not speak to him but, hell, I may be a Vampire but I was still a woman, I got to be a little irrational sometimes.
Shuffling my weary feet over to where he sat I slowly lowered myself to the ground. He was sitting against the trunk of a tree with his long legs cast out inferno of him. His hand folded across his shirt covered chest and I couldn't help but smile at how at ease he looked. Just as the edges of my lips quirked up, he opened one eye, an amused look flashing across his face.
"You know, you shouldn't smile, your face might crack."
In that moment I seriously considered cracking his face. No matter how beautiful it was, he could definitely use a bit of a beating to bring his ego back down to size. However irritating his comment was, my smile didn't slip from my face, instead it grew wider. Just to make a point I flashed some of my pearly whites.
"Okay, you've made your point, you can stop smiling now. It's actually starting to scare me."
I quickly relaxed my mouth and soon the smile fell completely from my face.
"You say the sweetest things."
I mumbled irritably, while casting my eyes down to look at the now content girl in my arms. However when I heard no smart reply from the man sitting across from me I looked up, wondering if he was ignoring me or had fell asleep.
Unfortunately neither was true. Instead he had pushed his back off the tree and leaned forward until his face was a few inches from mine.
"You have no idea baby."
His usually sweet voice had suddenly become deep, husky...seductive. My mouth instantly dried up and my tongue was nothing more then a useless heavy weight in my mouth. The whole ordeal simply worsened when instead of leaning away with a satisfied look on his face-- like I expected him to-- he reached out and ran his soft forefinger all the way down the side of my face. From my forehead to my chin he left a trail of tingles. Once he reached my chin he curled his finger under my face and tilted my head back so I could look him directly in the eye. I should have punched him, slapped him, bit him..Anything. But I was frozen.
"You know, I don't think I introduced myself properly. How rude of me. I am Gabriel. But, you can call me anything you want sweetness."
His breath was hot as it washed across my normally cold skin. He was teasing me, and I'm ashamed to say it was working, more then he knew.
I had to do something, anything to get him to back off. I couldn't think straight when he was this close to me, a strange sensation built up in my face, I thought it was the tingles he had made going into over drive. The sensation built and built, growing more and more unbearable until..
"Achoo!!"
I sneezed right into his face. Almost as if I had slapped him, he pulled his hand from my face and jerked back, a look of alarm on his perfect features.
For a few seconds neither of us spoke, I was just as shocked as he was. I actually sneezed. The moment had been so intense, so unbearably sensual and I sneezed. God, I really knew how to kill the moment.
I was embarrassed, yes. But instead of apologizing and burying my head in shame I couldn't help but laugh. His expression was so confused it tickled me to think I had caused the smugness to leave him, even if it was just for a moment. At the beginning I simply giggled, but soon I was laughing so hard my stomach convulsed under the strain.
His laughter joined mine after a moment. Surely we were going insane, two laughing loons sitting in the middle of the forest.
After a few more moment of uncontrollable laughter, it died down and soon stopped completely.
"You really know how to seduce a man."
He smirked and for once I didn't find it irritating. For once I was glad I wasn't alone on this journey. Hey, even the undead need company from time to time, and I had allowed myself to go far too long without it.
"Come on Casanova. We aren't getting any closer to the village just sitting here."
Slowly I got to my feet, ignoring the protest my legs tried to put up. Without waiting for Gabriel to stand I turned and began walking in the direction we had been headed in. Although it took Gabriel no longer then two seconds to catch up. With his hands shoved into the pocket of his jeans and his blonde hair blowing slightly with the sharp wind, we walked side by side for about five minutes.
Suddenly I stopped in my tracks. Turning to look at Gabriel I reached up with my free hand and ran it through my mass of raven curls that blew carelessly around my face.
"Can you take her for a few minutes, I can't feel my arms."
I whined slightly and in turn Gabriel let out another chuckle.
"Sure."
He beamed, looking completely elated that he got to be close to her again, without shuffling the sleeping child too much I passed her over into his awaiting arms. I could sense she was content with him as she snuggled down further into his hold.
Rather then turning and continuing on my way I stood staring at the two. Gabriel gazed down at Ellie with not love, but deep adoration. It was the sweetest thing I had seen in decades and to be truthful it frightened me a little.
However I wouldn't allow my self to voice these thoughts, only a weak woman would. Quickly I changed my train of thought.
"How much further is it?"
I wondered softly. I didn't want to seem weak but, my feet were starting to blister and my legs began turning to jelly.
"Lydia.."
Gabriel began, his eyes flashing up to meet mine before turning to look at something up ahead.
"That's the village just up ahead."
He smiled. Suddenly I snapped my head in the direction of his gaze and sure enough a little bit further up was the village. Obviously I was loosing my touch if I hadn't noticed it before. Relief washed through me as I quickly took off in the direction. A smile broke out across my face as I stalked quickly to the village. I made it about twenty steps before something hit me. This was the village. This was the end of our journey. Once we made it here Ellie would be taken from me. Well, not if I had my way about it. Either way, I would be leaving here either without the both of them or with out Gabriel. I have no idea why but the thought struck me somewhere deep in my chest. Without hesitation my steps slowed to the point where I was almost at snails pace. I don't know if Gabriel noticed but either way he kept his mouth shut. Perhaps he felt just as I did, like if we said goodbye now it would be far too soon.