Chapter 3
The sun was shining through the windows and it agitated the lids of my eyes. Rolling over, the pillow under my head fell and I ended up banging my head into the side of the hardest material I have ever felt.
“Ow . . .”
I sat up rubbing my eyes removing all of the crust and eye discharge. My throat felt dried and I needed something to cleanse it. I opened my eyes to find myself in the middle of the bathroom inside of a round hot tub. I took my time standing up and getting out of it gripping the edge so I wouldn’t lose balance. The bathroom was empty but the size made me feel awkward. With a stand up shower to my right, a bathtub to my left, a toilet on either side as well as a two countered sink, the big hot tub was right in the middle of it all.
I walked towards the sink opening my essentials kit and pulling out my toothbrush and the toothpaste. After brushing my teeth, washing my face, and taking a well needed shower, I unlocked the door and walked out into the room keeping the towel wrapped around my body. To my surprise, Carden wasn’t in the room so I took that to my advantage. I walked over to the suitcase I’d brought along with me and pulled out my dry cleaned and pressed bridesmaid dress. My mother had made all her bridesmaids wear a knee long pastel green dress. The only difference was that the dresses all had a different strap to it. Mine was a strapless. My aunt was going to wear an off the shoulder one sleeve dress and my mom’s best friend Abby decided to wear a spaghetti strapped one with a waist belt.
I took off the cover and placed the dress on the bed. The shoes, a pair of all black pumps, were on the side of the suitcase. By the time Carden walked into the room, I was fully dressed and prepared to leave. I’ve done my dark brown hair into a simple side teased ponytail letting my curls and waves show. I made a small French braid going from left side of my forehead all the way over to the right and into the hair tie braiding up my band as well. I
I’ve done a simple smokey eye look and red lip stain to make my lips look plush. I turned to face him. His attire consisted of a simple tux similar to the one he wore last light. He gelled up his hair so it had a spikey touch to it. His stare made me feel uncomfortable. It was like his eyes were burning holes onto my body. A look of hunger floated in his eyes and I had to clear my throat to snap him out of it.
“How do I look?” I asked him putting some strands of loose hair behind my ear.
He smirked and leaned against the frame of the door crossing both his legs and arms. “You look . . . beautiful.”
His eyes roamed up and down my body and he watched me carefully as I grabbed my clutch from off the counter and walked his way. He held out his hand, a gentleman’s move, and smiled. I slowed down once I reached his side and looked down at his awaiting hand. He dropped his hand after a while and looked at me.
“You’re still mad,” he assumed.
“Yeah, pretty much,” I assured him.
He looked dashing. I figured it was one of those vampire types of things when all the vampires lose any type of flaw they may have. For 124 years of life, he’s managed to keep off any harm and damaged to his face. The natural look of an elderly was invisible as well; no wrinkles or crow’s feet. It looked scary but he looked young.
He blocked the doorway so I couldn’t bypass him and held out both his arms keeping then locked on both sides of the door frame. His head was tilted in a slant in a taunting matter.
“Why?”
“Why what?” I asked sighing when he shrugged his shoulders.
Between his infamous smirking and that annoying shrug, I don’t know which was worse.
“Can you move please? I have about 17 hours of life left and I have to get to a wedding that starts in 7 hours in a different state.”
“Nope, not until you tell me why?”
I groaned. “It’s my mother’s wedding and I’m her bridesmaid. Do the math, genius.”
“Ooo feisty,” he laughed.
I shoved at his chest caring less if he was a vampire who was a part of some cliché royal court. He was interrupting me and my busy schedule. The thing is, his chest was hard as a rock and it was literally impossible to move him.
“Listen Vampire guy, I understand you have to escort me and whatever but I refuse to let you . . .” I trailed off watching the way Carden stared at my neck then he lowered his gaze to my right forearm.
“What?” I asked unsurely.
He grabbed my right arm and yanked it upwards harshly towards his face. His grip was hard and it hurt.
“Carden, let go! You’re hurting me!”
“No. I have to . . . What is this?” he asked staring at a scar that I’ve had since I could remember.
“Just a scar I’ve had since I was a little kid. Why?”
“How long have you had this?”
I shrugged my shoulders while he traced his finger along the scar. “My mom said I had it since I was born. She said it might have just been a scar from the birthing. I never questioned it though. That’s why I got a tattoo around my wrist. See, it continues off into the scar so it looks more like a marking.”
It isn’t very magnificent; just a plain line that goes from the middle of my wrist where my vein is located all the way straight down to the middle of my forearm. At the beginning it loops half way around my wrist and at the end it loops half way around my arm in the opposite direction. The tattoo is only a bracelet looking template all the way around my wrist that then goes from one side of the scar into a tribal mark that overlaps it. It sounds complicated but it makes it look amazing then awkward.
Carden mumbled a couple of nonsense under his breath before dropping my arm to the side. Not long after did he pull out his phone and dial a number.
“Stay here,” he instructed and walked out into the living room speaking in a hushed tone.
I couldn’t catch on to what he was saying on his half of the conversation but either way his command didn’t stop me from staying still. I watched him carefully eyeing his body movement. He rubbed his hand against his pants and at one point squeezed his forehead. He stood by the tall glass window and loosened up his tie. The conversation didn’t last long after about 5 minutes. He hung up the phone and grabbed a pair of car keys out of his pocket.
“Pack your things up. It looks like you’ve got an extra 24 hours of life.”
He walked to the bar and flipped over a drinking glass filling it up to the rim with one of the bottles of rum available in the suite tossing in 2 cubes of ice and swirling the drink up with his finger taking emptying it with a solitary gulp.
“Stop staring at me and go pack up. We don’t have all day,” he said turning his back towards me making another drink.
I looked down at my arm wondering what the hell was going on and why was this so important. Up until now, this had nothing to do with me but now it means something? I didn’t bother getting into an argument that wasn’t necessary especially if that means I get an extra day of life to live.
**
An hour later and we we’ve driving 100 miles per hour down a very busy highway. Carden couldn’t stress it enough that he was a drag racer when he was 10. Apparently he knew the streets like the back of his hand. He could be very persuasive and I was nowhere near being convinced. I held on to the dashboard with dear life while he ran through Nevada like it was nothing. In less than 3 hours we were in front of the beach coast strolling casually through the tents in search of my mother.
“Okay, here’s the deal. As of right now, you are a part of a very serious bloodline which my father was in search for. Your original name was Sophia Romanova and you are the descendant of Livonia Romanova whom of which was a witch. So-”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down speedy. So you’re telling me, I have can I have wings to fly and magic to use?” I asked quietly.
“You’re a witch not Tinkle Bell. You don’t grow wings and spread fairy dust after Peter Pan’s ass. Now listen, Father wants to speak with you as soon as possible so I can’t kill you on my watch. After the wedding, we are getting on a flight to Rome. You-”
“Rome?” I asked incredulously. “I am not going to Rome. I prefer to stay here. It’s quieter and I actually understand the language.”
“Cut me off one more time and I swear I’ll cut you. You have Roman blood in you. You’ll be fine. It’ll be just-”
“But Romanova is a Russian last name. Now you’re just being racist,” I accused pointing a finger at him stopping short.
“Your biological mother was Italian. Her father-in-law, your grandfather from daddy’s side, was Russian. So yay for you, you’re Italian and Russian from your parents who unfortunately died in a tragic car accident. You were one at the time living with your aunt or shall I say ‘mother’. My father has been in search of you since birth but you couldn’t be found. That scar on your arm was a hand down in a way. I knew your grandmother before she died. Livonia, Lilly, told me great things about you and your future. You were going to be the one to save the supernatural from the rising of the reaper.”
I stared at him wide eyed and jaw dropped as he explained my future of what appears to be plain suicide.
“You may or may not believe me but I’m telling the truth. I just didn’t know. You look nothing like your mother but . . .”
He smiled and moved a strand of my flying hair out of my eyes. “You’re a dead ringer for Lily; a very younger version of Lily.”
“You’re telling me my parents died when I was one. I’m Italian and Russian. I’m also a descendant of my grandmother who I look alike and you knew. To top everything off I’m supposed to destroy some Reaper dude and save the supernatural? I thought there were only vampires? Who else falls under the ‘supernatural’ category?”
He shrugged his shoulders and my left eye twitched. “You know witches, warlocks, werewolves, mermaids, and the usual.”
“Mermaids exist?”
“No, but sirens do. Nasty little things if you ask me. They aren’t near being beautiful. They look more like the ones from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. They scare the shit out of me,” he shivered like he remembers encountering one.
“No, no, no. I am not going anywhere with some selfish jerk who right now is only thinking about themselves. I am not some witch who can chant some voo doo type of thing and kill the Grim Reaper so you all can live only to be killed soon after. Kiss my ass Carden. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to walk down that aisle and watch my mom get married. Then if you want you can kill me but I’m going back home to NYC and eat some cookie dough ice cream while watching the ‘Notebook’ since I haven’t yet and play with Senior,” I walked off leaving Carden behind and wandering how I got myself into all this.
**
It felt like the ceremony would never end. I was standing there staring at the tattoo laced around my wrist thinking about why I was chosen. I didn’t know I was adopted by my aunt. This all caught me off guard. So now I’ve been forced into some suicide mission to save the universe? What kind of crap is that?
The vows were said, the rings were placed, they said ‘I do’, then kissed and everyone clapped . . . except me. Before Miranda, my supposed aunt could make it down the aisle, I kissed her goodbye congratulating her and telling her I loved her. She looked surprised and confused but I told her I had to leave and that my flight was in an hour. With understanding she bid me a goodbye and a safe trip and I was on my way. I made it all the way to the highway along the beach line trying to hail down a cab but it was useless. A black Cadillac pulled up and I rolled my eyes when the windows rolled down.
“Leave me alone Carden. If you’re not here to kill me, go home. I’m not saving the world anytime soon.”
“You’re the only one left who can. You don’t have to do much. We have an army ready to fight. All you have to do is chant some spell and you can be on your way. Look, I promise I won’t kill you if you do us this one favor,” he compromised but I just stared him down.
“Samantha, you’re all we have left. You have a vampire begging for your help. This isn’t only about you anymore. This is about all of us. We need your help on this or we’ll all doomed. You’re doomed. We aren’t the only ones who are a part of the paranormal. You are too,” he reassured me.
FML . . .
“Fine, but after this, you all leave me alone and out of this. Do you understand me?”
He moved over and allowed me into his car. I closed the door behind myself taking a deep breath of polluted air.
“Thank you,” he said keeping his eyes on the road as he speed down it.
“Yeah,” I said starting to regret what I just did.
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