The Vampires #1: Alaric and Faina

Chapter 3 (Faina): Understand The Message

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Alaric ran to the open doors and stopped dead at the threshold, under my compulsion to remain inside. I'd moved myself out of his reach.

"Faina. Release me. You tortured me enough last night." Those mesmerizing eyes of his burned into mine as if he could will me into doing his bidding.

"Tortured you? Do you know where my emotions are right now?" I was proud of myself for making my voice conversational. "Right now, my emotions are urging me to burn this house down with you in it for what you've done to me. So, your torturous night leaves me quite cold, and I would, in fact, rather enjoy some heat to warm me up."

Of course, a vampire could survive fire, but he'd be uncomfortable as the house burned to ash around him. Deciding I'd talked with him long enough, I turned and walked away toward the front of the house.

"Faina! Where are you going? You tell me where you're going!" His frustration was so great that every word out of his mouth was being yelled at me. Before last night, Alaric had never once raised his voice to me.

Turning back to him, I smiled the smile he'd always said was so alluring. "Why, I would think it'd be obvious. I'm going to begin auditioning candidates for my new pair bond. I find myself suddenly in need of a new receveur. But no worries, Alaric. It'll strictly be feed and release for them. It won't mean anything."

Things not to say to a frustrated vampire, who was trying his hardest to blow the roof off of our house by bellowing my name as he watched me walk out of sight.

Alaric had raced to the front door and thrown it open as I turned the corner of our house and began walking down our long driveway. Today, it seemed longer than usual.

"Don't do it, Faina! Don't you dare! Faina! Answer me! FAINA! Come back here! FAINA!!"

And so on, relentlessly, as I made it to the street and continued walking until I was out of sight of the house. Two streets over -- I swear I could still hear my name faintly in the wind -- my sister, Aullana, was waiting for me in her silver convertible.

She shot me a look as I buckled myself in. "Well, thanks for that cryptic, tells-me-nothing text in the middle of the night and getting me up in time to see the sunrise. Haven't seen that in...ever. Where are we going?"

I thunked my head back against the head rest. "I couldn't put it in a text, Aullana. I couldn't. I can barely think about what happened, much less put it into words. Alaric cheated on me, four times, he said. Four times. But who knows if that's even the truth? He said my blood soured weeks ago."

"I can't believe your bond is crumbling. There's no way," Aullana said, horrified. "I've never seen a couple more in love than you two. I'm so sorry, Fain."

"It was an illusion," I informed her. Maybe that would be my standard answer when everyone expressed their shock to me.

It was an illusion. Our love was nothing but an illusion. It was simply an illusion.

"And how is it you got away from him? I can't imagine Alaric just letting you walk out of his life. Well, before the crumbling bond he wouldn't have, anyway. Maybe he's different now, but he always had to be near you. Always. So maybe the bond really is crumbling if he let you leave," she said thoughtfully, trying to puzzle this out and understand something she couldn't fathom.

"Actually, he didn't have a choice."

Aullana took her eyes off the road for a minute to look at me quizzically.