Ally opened her eyes to the total darkness and rubbed at her eyes. She sat up and looked beside her. The space was empty. She gasped and felt the sheets. They were stone cold. “Where is he?!” She took the stairs two at a time and fumbled with the latch to release the bookcase’s false wall. It groaned and creaked as it had the last time, whilst she impatiently tapped her foot, waiting to pass through. Mere seconds that felt like years passed before she could squeeze through. Her feet took her to the kitchen first, where she encountered Mabel.
“Where is he?”
Mabel whirled around in surprise. “My dear you took about ten years off my life.”
“Sorry,” Ally said a little sheepishly. “It’s Vincent. He’s gone.”
“He left you a note on the table.” She pointed to the table.
Ally raced over and grabbed the note, ripping it open, she read the contents written in Vincent’s elegant hand.
My Dearest Alessandra,
I had to go and hunt. I needed more blood and I refused to feed from you for a third time in one night.
I will be back when the sun sets. Do not worry for me. I will have returned to my full strength by the time you read this. Tonight, there is something that I want to tell you. A story if you like. I’m not sure how it ends yet but I am hoping that you may be able to help me with that.
I owe you my life Alessandra. For that you have my eternal gratitude. Something that never would have occurred had you not entered my life.
Until tonight,
Vincent.
Ally pressed the letter to her chest. He wants to tell me a story? I wonder how much of this is fiction and how much of this is fact. But at least he is safe. Mabel isn’t the only one who got ten years taken off her life this morning.
“Is Madison up yet?” Ally inquired.
“Not yet. But girls that age do like to sleep in. I know I did,” Mabel joked indulgently. She had really taken Madison under wing. Had almost become a second mother to her, whilst Ally had become like a sister to her. She didn’t know what was in store for Madison’s future or her own for that matter, but she hoped that whatever happened she would stay friends with her. Madison had stolen everyone’s heart. Secretly she thought even Vincent was not immune to her sweet, innocent nature.
Later that night, Ally and Madison sat in the lounge watching TV. Ally checked her watch every ten minutes waiting for him arrive. Madison sent her a smirk. “He’ll be here.”
“I hope so.” Her confidence was beginning to drop with each hour of darkness that crawled slowly by.
“It’s only ten, Ally.” She rolled her eyes in a good hearted jest. “I wonder what his story will be?”
“I don’t know, but I’m anxious to find out.”
The sound of the front door opening reverberated through the whole house. Ally suddenly felt like a cat on the roof in one of the cartoons she’d watched as a child.
“Well I think I’ll be going to bed,” Madison grinned at Ally. She left the room and Ally heard her say goodnight to Vincent on her way past.
She was nervous. There was no other way to explain her behaviour. Last night had changed everything. She’d given him her blood freely and saved his life. She had killed Natalia without even a second thought for what she’d done to him. The moment that Natalia had sliced his throat open, she knew that she had fallen in love with him. But then it was almost too late. There was no time for declarations of love. She’d had to kill one vampire and save the other without any outside help.
“Alessandra.” Vincent took Madison’s place on the lounge next to her. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips.
She gingerly touched his neck and then looked at him. He could see the question in her eyes. “Yes, I’m perfectly healed. It’s as if it never even happened.”
“But it did.”
“I know. You read the note I left you?”
She nodded.
“I meant what I said Alessandra. You have my eternal gratitude for what you did to save me and to deal with Natalia.”
“I tried to stop you and then I ended up doing it,” she spoke the words softly.
He winced at the regret he heard in them. “Look at me.” She turned her face up to his. “She would have spent eternity hunting both of us and would not have stopped until either we or she was dead. Life as a vampire sent her insane.”
“I was so scared that I you were going to die, but I couldn’t let her go either. I made a split second choice. Even though it was the right thing, I feel tainted somehow.”
“You are the least tainted creature I know. She wasn’t a human. She was a vampire.”
“Even so.”
He sensed that her self-punishing would only get worse without a distraction. One that hopefully would put things into perspective and ease the guilt that she was now feeling. “Do you want to hear that story?”
“That has been driving to me to distraction all day. What kind of story?”
Vincent smiled mysteriously. “There is evil doings, a villain, a heroine and of course love.”
“What kind of story would it be without love.”
“Indeed,” he drawled as he put his arm around her shoulder. She rested her head against his shoulder and let out a contented sigh. “Does it have a happy ending?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see.”
She wrapped her arm around his midsection. “Tell me a story then Vincent.”
His face took on a haunted faraway expression as he began to speak. “Centuries ago there lived a young king. Now he was neither hero nor villain at this point. But there was potential for him to become one or the other in the extreme.
“One fateful night, he went out in search of prey and stumbled upon the most beautiful maiden he’d ever seen. The bond between them was instant. He’d never believed in what he considered to be foolish fairy tales of love and happy ever after. He’d never seen or experienced a happy ending. But this girl was something very special. Something innocent. He wanted to possess her. Devour her goodness.
“She refused his offer of changing her into what he was. This refusal was met with ugly pride and an intense display of his temper. She fled into the night. The fool that he was just watched her go. She was wrong and she would come back to him. And he was right, she was going to give him another chance but fate intervened.
“She saw him kill a young girl to slake his thirst. You see, the young ruler was a vampire.
“His love had accepted him, and knew what he was, but chose to remain as an immortal. But when she saw what he had done. She knew that no matter how much she loved him, she could never turn a blind eye to his killing. The tragic truth, was that he rarely killed to feed his hunger. It was only something that he did when necessary. Taking what he needed and letting his victim go was much more preferable. That night, he had been furious and reckless. Lashing out at whatever and whoever he could. The young girl had just been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
“So his bride to be silently ran back home and began to plan her escape. She informed her sister of what she had done and then packed her bags and fled into the night. Once the vampire ruler had learned that she’d left he stormed her house and demanded answers from them. Her parents were distraught and didn’t know about anything that had happened. Her sister however, stalked up to him and told him exactly what she thought of him and that he had lost her forever. His temper raged to a dangerous level as he threatened to kill them. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t hurt her that way. Despite all that had happened, he loved her too much to cause her that kind of pain. So he followed her scent and began a chase across the country that lasted until he reached Glencoe. There he lost all trace of her.” Vincent’s voice grew hoarse.
Ally looked up at him with an echoing pain in her eyes. “Is there more?”
Vincent nodded and continued his tale. “He never found her again until it was too late. During their time together he had the choice to become the hero that she needed or the villain that would rip them apart. He chose the villain. He couldn’t find the strength or the courage to get past himself to be what she needed. A mistake that cost him what was left of his heart and soul. That changed him for the worse in ways too horrible to even contemplate. But when she left, the monster that resided somewhere inside him was born and given free reign. For the next three hundred years, he terrorized anyone and everyone that was unfortunate enough to cross his path. Destruction. Revenge. That was all he lived for. But with each plot that came to fruition, he found that it didn’t ease the ache in his heart or the suffering that he felt. It only made him heavier, darker, angrier…more evil.
“Then one day, he concocted his most brilliant scheme yet. He would steal the immortals princess. The one destined to destroy him and reunite the immortals once more. An enchantress cast a spell over and wiped her memory clean. Then the king had her in his clutches. But then something that he never saw coming happened. He fell in love with her. Not just her beauty, but her strength, her courage, her goodness and the fire that lived within her. She was his redemption. The more time he spent with her, the more he began to change. The rage that burned inside of him lessened. The need for destruction began to abate. The humanity that he had thought long dead was awakening around her. But he lived in terror that one day the spell would be broken and she would return to the man that she left behind. The one she was stolen from.
“But he knew that he had to tell her the truth. If she left him, it would break his heart. But he also knew that to live with her in a state of constant terror that she would be ripped away from him at any moment wasn’t living. And more importantly, she deserved better than that. She deserved to know the truth and have the choice to choose him freely. So he told her a story about a king that lived three centuries ago, in the hopes that she would learn the truth of what he’d done, but also the depth of what he felt for her.”
“And how does the story end?” Ally asked with tears streaming down her face.
“I don’t know yet, Princess.” He kissed the top of her head. “I just don’t know.”