The Light Within Her - Book Nine

Ch. 3- This Is For Life

"Suddenly you're ripped into being alive. And life is pain, and life is suffering, and life is horror, but my god you're alive and it's spectacular." –Joseph Campbell

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I couldn't go back to sleep after I went home. My mind was like a wildfire of spiraling thoughts and there was nothing I could do but sit and let myself burn from it. Sometimes, I wondered if I was the only one in my family that experienced this from time to time. If they were so lost in their mind that they couldn't do anything but stare blankly into space. Throughout my life, I watched my Mother do it but she stopped whenever she caught me staring. I have not seen a hint of anything like that with my Father, but my siblings are a different story. Aeson wears his heart on his sleeve, but I cannot tell what he thinking at all times. He is ice, through and through. Kalama tries her best to hide her sorrow from the rest of the world, but she is slowly crumbling. She lost the love of her life in the last war and has never been the same since. Though, I wasn't alive at the time, I know everything that happened. Jesse Davenport saved Kalama from getting her heart ripped out. He stepped right in front of her and by then, it was too late. He was dead.

Every minute of my life, I have wondered what they were like. The ones my family lost long before I was born. My mother told me everything when I was young enough to understand, but it is every thought when I wake up in the morning. She spoke about her best friend, Jax and how he was her sunlight the same way she was my Father's. I am named after him, after all, and there's always a part of me that longed to meet him. There was so many that impacted my family, so much in fact that they did everything to immortalize them. Even though they are no longer here, I know them. Kellan Ayelet. Grace Alemont. Jesse Davenport. Jax. All of them are family I lost before getting the chance to meet them.

I took a sip of my coffee, curling myself into my blanket as I watched the waves from the ocean seep in and out. There was always something so calming about the ocean that I can't explain. I always feel better swimming in it or just watching the waves, it's calming. Someone sat next to me on the porch swing and from her jasmine perfume, I knew who it was instantly. I turned and gave Rosalind Ayelet a small smile. She wore a golden snake ring that she never took off, even when we are swimming. It symbolized her Father, who was called the Snake by many in the Vampire community. It was her way to keeping his memory alive and I'm so grateful for her. "What's on your mind, Sor?" she asked quietly, placing a hand on mine.

I sighed, taking another sip of my coffee. "I'm the only one in the family that has not grieved anyone. Not like everyone else. I never got to meet them, so I didn't feel the same pain that you all do." I started saying. "It's not something I wish to happen, you know? But last night as I was running, I had to help someone else let go of a body in an alleyway. Amias and Luc Guinevere, they are brothers in this city who just lost someone last night. A murder." Rosalind was silent, so I continued. "I think our five years of bliss is over, Rose."

"We will figure it out together, S." she explained softly. "Whatever happens, we will fight it. There is one thing that our family does and it is were stand together or not at all. Meli and I will be right by your side."

"From death to life." A promise. If the person you loved most in the world was dying, you would do anything to save them, even sacrificing yourself in the process. If a monster was about to kill you, you would step in front of them so they could live. You would do anything for them, even killing them so they can die their own way. From death to life is a promise that means you would do anything for your family. Friends. Anyone. I have not uttered those four words in years, until now. Because now, shit got real.