Finding and Changing Emily

Chapter 27: Daniel

I was laying on our bed when there was a knock at the door.
"Come in." I yelled.
Emily walked in, looking so beautiful, even if she was covered in blood.
"You love me?" She said.
She said it almost as if she couldn't believe that it was true.
"I do." I told her. "I love you. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about your dad but I was waiting until you were ready. I should have told you sooner."
She walked towards me and sat at the edge of the bed. She took my hand and removed the bandage that I put on there after she hurt me. She let out a quiet gasp then she traced her hand over the marks.
"How? How can you love me? Look what I did! Look at how I behaved!"
I sighed and pulled her face up to mine. "Because, when you love someone, you love everything about them. I love you Emily. Everything about you, even the bad."
Her eyes were filling with tears. She swallowed and shut her eyes to keep them from coming down but failed.
"Daniel, I'm afraid." She said.
"Why?" I asked gently.
"If I allow myself to accept your love, to be loved then, I allow myself to get hurt. I haven't allowed that since my mama died. It's hard too but, when I was talking to Amanda, I realized something. I love you Daniel. I'm scared to death about it and that's why I push you away but, I do love you."
Emily had just admitted that she loved me. She had comment issues which was why she was so afraid of her feelings. It all made sense now. She wanted me yet she was afraid of what that would mean for her.
I stood up and wrapped my arms around her. She was crying now and I didn't know why. Was she happy? I tuned into her feelings.
"I love you too. Tell me, why are you feeling so relived?" I asked her.
"I didn't know how to tell you. I mean it's not the best conversation to have because like I said, I can get hurt. I didn't want to tell you how I felt but I'm glad that I did."
I smiled and kissed her. This time, she didn't pull away or stop me like she had before. I also wasn't on top of her making her see that I cared for her. It wasn't like when I French kissed her before, as this was real and this really was the first time that we kissed. I pulled away and kissed her forehead.
"I love you." I whispered.
She hugged herself to me for a few more seconds then pulled away.
"What is going to happen?" She asked.
"What do you mean?"
"With us, with the people I killed. Isn't someone going to come here to kill me like you do?"
She was so worried and it was all unnecessary. I had people who would take care of us but, I wouldn't tell her that. If she knew that people were going to be risking their lives for her she would hate me for it.
"For us, we will just let things happen the way they do. For the people that were killed they won't bother us. They were humans."
Except for that one vampire but she didn't need to know that.
"I'm going to go shower." She told me.
That was good. I didn't want to say anything to her but she smelled just a little bit.
"Have fun. I'm going to go apologize to Amanda. I'll see you later."
I turned and went out the door. Amanda still had her door locked but I decided to knock on it anyways.
"What?" She called.
"I want to talk to you." I hollered.
"Daniel I don't really want to talk right now. I'm pissed at you."
"Amanda, please. Just open the door. I promise to be nice."
I heard movement from inside the room and then Amanda opened her door. She moved so that I could enter and then locked it again.
"What Daniel?" She demanded.
"I just wanted to apologize for how I acted. I was so worried about her and we were almost too late. I know that it's not an excuse for the way I acted but it's why I did."
Amanda smiled and then began to laugh.
"You think that's why I'm mad at you? I understand completely with everything you just said. I'm pissed because you won't let me be with Emily alone anymore and that you think that this whole thing was my fault. It could have happened to anyone but it had to happen to me."
I sighed. "It happened to you because your careless sometimes. Why would you even think about feeding while she was there?"
"Oh I'm careless? She probably wouldn't have ran had you not killed her father! And I was hungry so excuse me." She shouted back.
I was fuming. How hard was it for her to admit that she had lost my mate? That had she'd been more careful Emily wouldn't have massacred a whole town.
"Daniel, you know what your problem is? You can't let things go. Yea, she was missing and it did happen on my watch but you should remember that it wasn't all my fault. If you didn't want her to go with me then why did you let her?"
I was stumped. Why didn't I tell her no? Was it because I wanted to make her happy? I had yet to know what exactly made me say yes.
"I don't know." I told her.
Amanda took a deep breath and touched my arm.
"Your a good man Daniel. Your past is over, you can't go back and make changes. Besides you worry to much. Just relax. Go back to your room. I'm sure Emily's about done showering now."
She was right. It had been so long ago that my world had changed forever. Amanda was the only one who knew about it. The question was, would I ever be able to tell Emily?