What Lies Beneath the Water

Letting Go (11)

*Dahlia's POV*

  For two whole days I couldn't even be bothered with Santino and ignored him at every chance that I could. I talked to him when it was necessary, but other than that I kept my lips shut. It started off as some petty argument, but the more I thought about it, the fight brought up what I didn't like about our relationship. The fact that he doesn't let certain things go and that he just keeps bringing the same things up. I was just done with it, so when he showed up at my dorm after school, I didn't even open the door.

"Dahlia, come on and open the door! I'm sorry, and I even brought you your favorite flowers." He said, and I looked at the empty vase in my room that would look absolutely gorgeous with some black dahlias. So, I went over to the door, opened it, grabbed the flowers, and tried to shut the door as fast as I could. Tried. He put his foot in the doorway, stopping me from closing it.

"I could crush your foot, you know?" I stated simply while looking at his dress shoes and suit. He's always wearing a suit.

"You can, but you wouldn't." He said, and just to spite him, I slammed the door on his foot. It didn't even close then, but it was nice to hear him take in a deep breath due to pain. He never screams because he was tortured for most of his life to make sure that he would be immune to it when he would rule. It was a hard decision that Her Majesty Queen Rose Michaelis had to make but decided that it was the best decision to help her son in his future rein. I've never heard him scream since then.

"Don't tell me what I would and wouldn't do. In the end you are not me and you do not know what decision I will make." I put more pressure on the door and heard a deep intake of air.

He put his hand against mine on the door, and I pulled mine away to keep me from falling victim to our mate bond. I wasn't going to let my brain go all fuzzy just by him touching my skin. "What do you need, Santino?"

"I need my mate back. I miss you Dahlia, and I am sorry. I will tell you that I'm sorry a thousand times in a row if it would make you come back to me." I sat down against my side of the door and heard another intake of air.

"I'm not mad at about what you said. I'm just mad at the fact that you kept bringing up the fact that you want me to be friends with her even though I said no. You never let things go, Tino, and you know that humans are a touchy subject for me." I said and felt a tear run down my cheek.

"Don't you think that I hate the humans who abused you for years? Don't you think that I hate the humans who are the reason why you have emotional scars over your entire body? I do. I hate them with every fiber of my being, but I have learned that holding on to hate and suffering and pain chips away at a psyche. I don't want you to break once again because of those people. I love you Dahl, I really do, but my love for you can't save you if that time comes. You will have to save yourself, and that's what scares me the most. That's why I bring it up." He was right. I let those humans continually take pieces of me by the hatred I hold, but I don't know how to let go. I don't know how to just forgive them.

I opened the door and started crying into Santino's arms. He stepped into the room with his good foot and let the other foot just drag in because it was already beginning to heal. Then he closed the door and slowly walked over to one of my chairs, sat down, and allowed me to collapse underneath him.

"I'm sorry. I just can't hold it back anymore. It hurts." I said in between tears.

He gave me a kiss on the top of my hair and kept stroking the skin on my arm as he said, "Despite what you think, Dahl, tears aren't a sign of weakness. It's just a sign that you've been strong for far too long."

~

"You know our anniversary is coming up?" Santino said, and it reminded me of the day that I had actually met him. I think it was my one-hundredth birthday and he had come back from his studies abroad in Avalr. I had grown very close to Silas, Santino's twin brother, in the eighty years that I had known him, but he never spoke much about Santino. Santino was a mystery to be. When he was at my birthday celebration, Santino had a gift in his hand, and I opened it to find an Onyx ring. I vividly remember him saying, "Silas told me that you like Onyx. It's a very regal stone, and it suits you." I gave him a hug as a thank you and that's when I felt the mate bond. I had grown up in the human world for twenty years of my life, so naturally I was like no incest is wrong. But then my dad sat me down and talked to me about it and told me that it's not wrong in Vampiric Society and it doesn't mess with our genetics in the same way that it does with humans. In fact, it does the opposite in vampire children born from two related parents. I think it was like six months or so after my birthday that we actually got together.

"We are going to have been a couple for nine-hundred and twenty-four years. When are you going to propose? At a thousand?" I teased him. We had talked about it at our five-hundredth anniversary and decided that we were still too young to get married. We wanted to study more before committing ourselves together forever.

"That would be very romantic, and I could say, 'On this day, a century ago, you committed yourself to me as my mate, and it has been the best century of my life. So, Dahlia Amore Michaelis, will you make me the luckiest man to exist and marry me?' That does sound nice." He said while running his hands through my hair, something he always loved to do.

"You are already the luckiest man to exist because I'm your mate." I gave him a quick little kiss on his mouth and when I pulled away, his brows furrowed.

"No, that's not a kiss, Love." He put his right hand under my chin and started kissing me. Using his left hand, he pulled my body closer to his sending familiar sparks throughout my body. After a few seconds, he pulled away and said, "That is how you kiss."

I leaned my forehead against his and said, "I love you, Tino."

"I love you more, Dahl."