“Go on with your story Bastien.”
“Well she told me to be careful of them ‘that are no longer a threat’.” I was afraid we’d start laughing again. I looked at the floor, but when I looked up, she was starting at me strangely. She pulled me to her and kissed me softly on the lips, she has such soft lips. She pulled back and said
“Don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you. I’m afraid too.” Wow, so she felt the pull too.
“Ok” I said and hugged her close.
“Why did Valentina say you were dangerous?”
“Because I have a gift, I guess she picked up on it.”
“Oooh so do I, in fact all of us here are gifted.”
“Really, what’s your gift? Is it to do with the mind, because I remember hearing you in my head during our game? At first I thought I was hearing things, and then I thought you must have a gift like me.”
“Yeah, I can protect myself with a barrier around myself, when I can choose to hear and see things or not. Also if you touch me while that is up it will feel like I’ve burned you.”
“Wow, Lottie, remind me not to piss you off.”
“Good plan” she smiled at me.
“What is your gift then Bastien? Why all the mystery?”
“Well, I have a couple of gifts too, but I don’t know how to describe them.”
“Try me, I’m a good listener.” She said coaxingly.
“Ok, well when I stare at people they seem to forget what they are doing and only see me.”
“Yeah that happened to me in the woods with Simon.” She said.
“What would you call that?” I asked.
“Hmmmm,” she said
“Temporary amnesia?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I also have another gift which can prove to be dangerous or not. I can steal powers. Does that make sense?”
“Ya, like Faine, she can copy them and enhance them.” She smiled.
“NO” I said louder than I intended to. She looked at me puzzled.
“I mean I can steal powers but I can’t use them. I don’t know what happens to them once I’ve stolen them but it leaves the vampire vulnerable for me to kill them.” I said looking down dejectedly.
“Is that how you killed Bianca? Is that how you found out?” Wow she’s perceptive. I nodded unable to speak.
“Do you feel guilty about it?” I nodded again.
“We were having an argument and all of a sudden she fell to the ground, screaming she couldn’t hear me anymore, by then it was too late, I was too angry at her. She had just admitted to killing my grandparents in my home when she went looking for me. She followed my scent to the house I was living in.” I began to sob quietly and Lottie wrapped her arms around me. It was the first time I’d admitted out loud that my grandparents were dead and I had loved Bianca too in some ways. She was the only vampire I had known at the time.
“Could she hear thoughts? How did that make her weak?”
“No,” I whispered,
“She could control minds and she controlled mine to a certain extent. All was fine until I tried to ring my grandparents to see how they were. She told me not to bother then, that they were dead, that she was sorry, but she couldn’t help herself.” The rage I felt then, I could feel myself shaking at the memory of it. I was vaguely aware of Lottie hugging me tighter and crooning softly to me. It calmed me down before going on with my story, because I know what happens when I get really mad.
“I was so angry with her that I felt this energy enveloping me and then she began screaming and well you know what happened next. I was so enraged, it took me ages to calm down. I dismembered her body and burned her thinking at the time that I wish i had just killed her as a human and I could drink her blood. Wipe her out. It would have been far more satisfying. Then I went from town to town, hunting as I went, until I came to Adare and saw you. At first I thought you were just a pale human and I remember thinking at the time that once I drank you wouldn’t be all that much paler” we both giggled.
“Oh my God, that’s so freaky!”
“What? I’m a vampire! It’s what I do!” I smiled.
“No, silly, it’s freaky because I thought similar thoughts about you. Here I was a new-born, at a human wedding, looking for a drink and when I first saw you I thought, hmmmm you’ll do. It wasn’t until I got closer that I realised you were a vampire. Ha ha it’s destiny!!!!!” She collapsed in fits of giggles and I did too.
“So we’re both ‘special’ eh Lottie” I grinned at her. We kissed each other slowly then growing more passionate by the second. After a while when things were starting to get a little out of hand excuse the pun, we heard Valentina calling us.
“We better go and see what she wants” Lottie said. So we did and I’m still laughing at her suggestion. Get this, she wants to bring me and Lottie out to try and teach us to drink animal blood. Ha ha , we’re vampires, its human blood all the way baby!
