“I’ve missed this place,” Ally said looking around at the waterfall that had come to be their special place. Her eyes focussed on the little tree that still grew out of the water. Her little tree as she’d come to think of it. Her gaze moved to the man sitting beside her, his expression dark and brooding. “James?”
“I have to know,” he blurted out. “I can’t spend forever wondering who you wanted, whether I was second best. Did you kill him because you wanted to or because you had to?”
“I had to kill him, James.” She answered. “There was never a question of that.”
He hung his head. “Well I guess I have my answer then.”
“No, you think you do but you don’t.” She turned her body towards him. “Killing Vincent was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I’m not a killer by nature. It was always going to be hard. But things changed between us.” She let out a groan then stood up and started to pace. “This is so hard to talk about with you. I want you to understand but I don’t want to say anything about him, because I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’d rather hear the unabridged truth, Ally. Imagine I’m Kat or something.”
“Bit of a stretch to imagine that.” She gave him a small smile.
“Stop avoiding. You know what I meant.”
“Yes I do. Alright, here goes. This wasn’t part of his plan. He never meant for me or for him to fall in love. I was the flaw in the plan that he never saw coming. I resisted for as long as I could, but there was something about him that intrigued and fascinated. I knew that he was a bad man. He made no secret of that. He told me what he was and what I was. I think that we both had something that the other was attracted to and never experienced before. It was heady and dark and it pulled us in before we really knew what had happened.
“It started with your mother, James. I saw inside his mind and I know that she was his soulmate. What they had was what we shared. It was love. But his arrogance and pride got in the way. He couldn’t get beyond himself to be what she needed and because of that he lost her. But know this James, you were created in one of the strongest bonds I’ve ever felt. I think that I reminded him of her in a way. He never forgot her. He tried to but he couldn’t. And then I came along. I wasn’t scared of him when I knew that I should have been. I fought him and challenged him. That’s how and where it all started for him. It was a physical and mental connection. For me, I had just lost you. I know that I may not have known that but my heart knew that it was broken without you. The darkness in him appealed to me in a way that scared me. The ruthlessness that was part of who he was, should have turned me off, but god help anyone when that ruthless gaze is turned on you. He wanted me and he was willing to do anything it took to have me. That is a hard thing to resist. I should have walked away from the temptation, memories or not, but I didn’t. And somewhere that passion turned to love.
“You’ve been alive for over three hundred years. You have lived. I hadn’t. I’d always done what I was supposed to. Never did anything reckless or followed my heart and my passion. When my parents died, my heart turned to ice. My blood ran cold in my veins. I wasn’t living. Then you walked into my life and you chipped away at my heart until the ice cracked and I wasn’t scared anymore. But I was still doing what I knew was the right thing. With him, It felt good, but I knew deep down somewhere that it was wrong. And that made me want it all the more in the end.
“What I felt for him was real though, and with him I lived. I was reckless. I gave in to temptation. I felt alive. But he was like a drug. I only felt alive when I was with him.
“I could have turned my back on everyone and chosen him. That was my choice. But I didn’t. I’ve hurt you since I came back and I am so sorry. But I had to be sure about the choice that I was making. So now I know a few things. And these are the things that I know:
“The world we live in is not black and white. Our moral compass won’t always swing to true north and that’s okay too. Without the temptation of something else, how can we know what path we really want to follow. None of us are all that is good and none of us are all that is bad. We are both. The hero can be a villain and the villain can become a hero. But what really matters is what we do after. That’s what really counts and that is what shows us who we really are.”
James watched her intently the whole time she spoke, not interrupting, just listening until she hesitated and he caught the worry in her eyes. “Go on, Ally. Please.”
She took a deep breath and nodded before continuing. “He changed me, James. I’m not the same girl you met when I was sixteen. I’m not the same woman that you met five years later when my life was upended. I’m not even the same woman that I was before my memories were stolen. But throughout that, no matter how I change, one thing will always be true and unbreakable. My love for you. James, I chose you freely.” She sat down and took her hands in his. “It’s always been you, James.”
James pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “It’s always been you too, Ally.” He pulled her engagement ring out of his pocket and held it up for her to see. She gasped. “I thought I’d lost it! Where did you find it?”
“Arabella took it off your hand and brought it to us. I’ve been keeping it safe for you.” He took her hand and slipped the ring onto her finger. “Do you still want to marry me, Ally?”
“With all my heart, James.”