Enslaved (ON HOLD INDEFINITELY)

Chapter 39

I am so sorry for the late post. Been really busy with the final month of college. Do forgive me, but please enjoy this chapter too. I'll promise to post the next chapter faster. Thanks for all the support so far! XOXO

Chapter 39

“Scotch?” Gabriel asked, snapping my attention away from the painting of him which hung unceremoniously on the wall of his modest italian mansion. He noticed and was instantly apologetic. “Sorry if I interrupted you, Dustin.” He bowed slightly.

I chuckled and shook my head, “I can never make you stop the bowing thing, can i?” I asked.

He laughed, a hearty one as he approached me with a shot glass, handing me it and filing it with Scotch from a dark bottle. I wasn’t a drinker myself but my father was an avid wine tester, great when you’re a vampire who synthesizes alcohol faster than human, making us literally drunk-resistant.

Eyeing the brown liquid that swished in the shot glass, I put it to my lips, savoring the smell of aged scotch before downing it in a gulp. It burned, not the unpleasant kind but  the sizzling, warm, kind which sent shivers up and down your spine.

Gabriel smiled seeing my reaction, “The finest from one of the Dutch themselves, got this in the cellar for a century, ready…” he pasued and lifted his glass. “for occassions such as this,” he fake toasted and downed his own helping.

“I still don’t get my significance. Our ruling government is gone, the elders and councils have fled, the rest of the vampires either dead or detained by humans. We have nothing, Gabriel.” I said, my voice shaking in the end, thinking about all the things our kind has lost. So much…

He seem to ponder this for a second, a grim look on his face before sighing and pouring himself another pint. “There’s still hope,” he said simply, the last of his confidence draining from his body. His shoulders sagged and he suddenly found the need to lean against the wood paneled wall.

“Yeah…hope.” I tasted the word in my mouth. It was weird, something that was foreign. Lost years ago.

Gabriel was silent for a moment, hands automatically pouring scotch into my empty shot glass. His eyes were vacant for a moment, aging right before my eyes, like a man that was haunted by a past he never wanted to remember. Ever.

“My family,” he finally said in a whisper. “They…died in the war.”

My mouth dropped open, words tied into knot that I couldn’t even spit any out. All I managed was a “I’m sorry,” which even then, sounded awfully lame to me.

He waved it off and downed the scotch, shuddering before contuning, “The german clan,” he spat with as much venom in his voice as possible. It stung, even me. “They came for them, when I was off with the royals protection system. Slayed them…just like that. My mother…she just wanted no part in this, in the war. They couldn’t accept it. Tore out her heart,” he finished with his voice cracking and tears brimming his eyes. “Never stood a chance."

I said nothing and kept to myself as his glazed look told me he was in a flashback and looking by the two indent to his upper lip, I could tell his fangs were out. A much annoyance about vampires, you have no control over your cannines when you get too emotional.

Finally, Gabriel resorted to sagging himself against the wall.

I couldn’t help it, seeing a fellow vampire weak like that. Before when we stood proud, showing that we were weak was equivalent to a sin in human religion. We were strong beings, naturally strong willed but I guess the war took that away from us, together with our pride. I must tell him, it was only right.