The Cost for Freedom

Chapter 17

We had walked barely half a mile before she started talking again. So much for the privacy she wanted.

"Look," she starts by holding up her hand, almost preventatively, in case I lashed out again.

I chose to cut her off again before she continued. "No you 'look.' I am not some long lost granddaughter anxiously awaiting your return, and oh so happy to see you!" I feigned with obvious exaggeration. "I have been here for so long, I-" I stop momentarily before pushing my emotions to the side, "I almost don't even recognize myself anymore. I have hated this place, with a passion since I got here. And now, I find out that you. My great, oh so effing great, grandmother is actually a vampire. So thank you, for letting this horrid place have something to do with me. Beyond my being forced to stay here."

I watched her expression change continually as my words sunk in. Still, her final emotion only displayed worry. It seemed ages before she spoke up, "I am sorry." Her eyebrows bent together upwards and her eyes blinked several times then bent her head down. I expected her to say nothing else so I shook my head, preparing to step away.

"Just, I... listen. Please. Not for me. Not for anyone, but for yourself. I know the weight of my being here. And I wouldn't have come if I didn't know you were in danger here." She shook her head ferociously, "I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this to happen to anyone else in my family. My decisions, they shouldn't have had any effect on you, or your mother." She frowned now as she spoke her last plea, "Please, listen."

My gaze had barely left her face since I had spoken to her last. I couldn't get over her uncanny similar features. Even if she was family, she was distant, so how was it that I recognized her so well? I swallowed, looking down processing what she was telling me. If she was right, if I was in danger, I needed to hear her out. I had to let my pride, and hurt, go for a few moments to learn what I needed.

Finally, I lifted my eyes to meet hers again. "Ok. Tell me everything then. And I mean everything. If you leave me in the dark on anything, and I find out elsewhere somehow, I will never tru-"

"I will tell you everything. From start to finish. I promise."

I nodded, "Ok..."

"It started when I was 23. I had met Cecil when he came back from their annual hunting trips. The boys in the town would leave in groups to hunt; not too many that would leave the town defenseless, but just enough to kill good game. I had known his name, he was royalty in the village, after all, but I had never seen him, not really. Anyways, he was in the village, selling his game to the butcher. I was next door trying to sell my mother's baked goods.

I remember the day he came into the shop, because here he was, holding a dead deer in his hands, looking at delicately baked goods. I mean he was dripping blood! Ah, well, I barely noticed when I saw him. I mean, his son takes the same looks, if you can imagine."

She took this time to eye me suspiciously, humor in her eyes.

"So here he is, holding a dead animal, which I should have been staring at. But instead, I was staring in his eyes. The most blue eyes I'd ever seen, and hair so black, the contrast was mesmerizing... but he'd been staring too.

Suffice to say, we fell in love. Not immediately, because in the beginning he would only come by to "browse" as he would say. And every time he came in he would try something new. I admired that, his ability to pretend as if he wasn't interested in anything but the chocolates, but I knew. You see, Alexis, I was a lot like you. I had attitude, so much so that my mother would hit me for my mouth.

Shaking her head, she looked back to me, her eyes betraying her emotions. I could see how much it hurt her, yet gratified her at the same time, to be talking about her past again.