Enchanted By: Mariah Soleta

Chapter 17-Alex

   The corners of Adam's mouth turn upwards and he gives me a small smile, but his eyes are depicting the worry that his face isn't showing.  I sigh and push myself off of Lizzie's bed and grab Adam's hand gently, tugging him to the bed.  He sits down with me while Lizzie sits on her desk chair.  She gives me a worried luck but I ignore her and turn to face Adam.

   "Well, are we going to start this discussion anytime soon?  I really need answers, here, I'll start.  What in the hell is going on?"  I look between them with wide eyes and they return my stares with guilty glances.  An uncomfortable silence fills the air and I look towards Lizzie, pleading with my eyes for her to help.

   Lizzie clears her throat and breaks the awkward silence.  "Adam, you need to tell her."

   "I know, Elizabeth." He snaps back at her.  She looks stunned for a moment before she narrows her eyes and snaps back. 

   "Adam, if you won't tell her then I will."  He narrows his eyes at her and they lock horns for a while before he groans and puts his head in his hands, messing up his hair.  

   "Fine, but if I am going to tell you this, I'm going to have to start from the beginning."  He glances at me and continues.  "Starting with how vampires were first created."  I get comfortable and sit Indian style on the bed, knowing this will take a while.  

   "When the world and all of it's creatures were made, no vampires had existed." He says bluntly.  "I'll skip a few years and go to when humans were actually around." He tells me with fake joyfulness.  I give him a smile and he continues.  "Anyway, there was a young Prince Edmund who had gone on a sea voyage with his father, the King.  Everything was going good until one fateful day.  They had now been sailing the seas for a little less than a year and they had never had any problems, until now.  There was a horrible hurricane the night of Prince Edmund's birthday and when he awoke the next morning, he was sitting with his father's crew on a deserted island.  Nothing to do, nothing eat, no one to keep him company...It drove him crazy."  I hug my knees to my chest, not liking where this story was going at all.  

   "One night, he was having a particularly fitful dream in which there was a woman, who was so beautiful, almost inhumanly so, telling him to suck the blood of one of the sailors."  I sit back and gasp, stunned.  "He was so delirious from the lack of thirst, he decided to try it."  Adam paused, the suspension nearly killing me.  "He liked it so much, he drained the poor man dry."  My heart nearly stops and I sit back, appalled, nearly falling off of the bed.  Adam stables me and looks at me, concerned.  

   After making sure I was fine, he continues his gruesome tale.  "Less than a month later, all of the sailors had been killed and the Prince was as strong as he had ever been.  He was strong, fast, and near unstoppable.  He swam from that lonely deserted island to the nearest and went on a killing rampage.  He had moved on, town to town, killing every man, woman, and child he laid his eyes."  Tears start to prickle my eyes and Adam takes my hand consolingly.  "His senses improved and he had noticed that he had not been getting any older throughout the last ten years.  As his killing rampage went on, he noticed that he had been missing something, but he had no idea what it was.  Soon, he started getting unsatisfied with being the only one of his kind, so he used his newly acquired fangs to bite the most beautiful woman he could find, giving her some of his blood to make her into a vampire.  She was such a kind spirit, though, so she made him promise that they would only feast on animal blood from now on.  He was infatuated with her, so naturally he said yes.  They soon mated and she gave birth to three boys and one girl, all who vowed to drink nothing but animal blood.  Years went on and before you know it, vampires were blending in with soceity, going to balls and charity events.  Things were going great for our species."  

   "Then, things started turning ugly."  Once again, he paused, adding to the suspense.  " It turns out, some Royals were turning their secret lovers into vampires, not telling them of the rules.  So they killed to their hearts' content, ignoring the Royals' pleas to stop.  Those vampires were and still are called Rogues.  They're the uncharted vampires, the ones we have no control over."  

   I nod, confused.  "So, what does this have to do with Anna and Jacob?"  I ask him, confused.  

   "Well, their uncle, Dustin, is a mortal enemy of my father.  They hate each other's guts.  No one knows why, they just do.  He had passed on all of his learning to his brother, Mark White, their father who in return, passed it onto them."  

   "A few weeks ago, we had received word of some Rogues entering this area and I had immediately thought of you, so I had decided to come and check it out.  It seems as though Dustin and his family had moved here to "settle down among the humans" but we were all suspicious so I had moved back here and kept an eye on them.  A few days after I had come back, I had an encounter and let's just say, he seemed very interested in you."  He said the last part through gritted teeth and I give him a big hug.  

   "Wow, that's a lot to take in."  I tell him in a muffled voice.  

   "I know, that's why I was going to wait until I was sure you'd be ready but it turns out that was sooner than expected."  I laugh and he smiles.  A gruff clearing of the throat interrupts us and I turn to face a pale white Lizzie.  

   Adam lets go of me and makes his way over to Lizzie frantically.  "Elizabeth, what's wrong?"  He asks her, clearly worried.  

   "I know who my mate is," she says through a strained voice.  

  I look to Adam, confused and he tells me we will talk about it later.  I just nod and he goes back to fussing over Lizzie.  

   "Who is it?"  I ask her from the bed. 

   She peers over Adam's shoulder with a visible sheen of sweat on her forehead.  

   "It's Ian."