Rebirth

Can of worms

I saw Ketan sitting on the porch. I sat down beside him. "Want to talk?", I asked. He shook his head. "Why not?"

"You are going to hate me"

"Try me", I chuckled. He gave a small smile. "How about we go to our therapy tree and talk?", I grinned.

"About a month and a half ago we talked about our pasts there. Today, we are going to do the same. It's weird", he chuckled.

"I love your laugh", I smiled at him.

"And I love yours", he leaned forward and kissed my cheek. "I hope I don't be the reason it fades today"

I held his hand, "It won't"

We put our hoodies on and sped towards the tree. "Want to climb like a human again?", I chuckled.

"It's pretty fun that way", he shrugged before climbing like a human. I used my vampire strength to jump up and sat beside him. "That's what I call cheating", Ketan pointed.

"It wasn't a competition", I rolled my eyes. "Listen, I don't want to push you to tell me. You can tell me whenever you want. It's better if it's sooner than later"

He took a deep breath, "I'm ready"

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, "If you are going to hate me, I want it to be before we strengthen our bond further"

"Don't be so certain that I'm going to hate you"

He shrugged, "Can't hurt to assume the worst. Remember when we talked about my human life here?". I nodded. "I lied. I lied about the girl that moved away when we were 15. She wasn't just my friend. She was my first love"

I couldn't help but feel hurt and jealous. I had no reason to feel hurt but I did. It happened way before my time and yet it hurt.

"I told you I never found her after she moved away. The truth is I did. We were over thirty. She knew what I was and yet she loved me or so she made me believe. She was married to another guy by then. I should have known before"

His breath shuddered. I grabbed his hand and rubbed circles over it. "You don't need to continue"

He shook his head, "I need to. I told her everything about vampires. She was mesmerized by all of it. I was attacked by a man few days later. He nearly killed me. I was surprised by how efficient his techniques were. Little did I know that he was her husband. She used my love against me to help her vampire hunting husband.

"I was heartbroken. I girl I knew, the girl I fell in love with was gone. I was blinded by rage. I took the rage out on the hunter. She was watching. First I used his weapons to make him bleed. Then I sank my fangs in his neck and drained all his blood. She screamed and tried to help but I didn't let her. She had to watch me kill her husband. She was helpless and I liked it. That's the worst part. I liked that I killed someone and that she was helpless.

"I hated myself for years after that. I hated being a vampire and I hated love. I didn't like the fact that I enjoyed a murder. I didn't like the fact that I traumatized her by making her watch the murder. I didn't like any of it. I certainly didn't like trusting another person with my heart. I changed myself from that day. I distanced myself from violence and love. That's one of the reasons to why I never joined Yash's army. I didn't want to kill another being unless I absolutely had to. I was scared that I would reach the point of no return"

I cupped Ketan's face in my palms, "You need to fear nothing. Everybody does terrible things. I repeat, everybody. That man was trying to kill you. You did what you needed to do-"

Ketan cut me off, "You don't understand. I didn't have to kill him, certainly not in the way I did. The look of horror in his face when I approached him with his weapons and those lifeless eyes when I drained every last drop of blood from his body...", tears rolled down his cheek.

I was silent for a few seconds. I wiped his tears and looked into his eyes, "Yes, you didn't have to kill him the way you did but that's not the point. The point is you regret it"

He shook his head, "The point is I liked it. You are supposed to hate me for being a psycho"

"You are not a psycho. You liked it but you didn't act on it. You distanced yourself from violence and didn't kill anyone unless you absolutely had to. I can't hate you for something that happened centuries ago and I certainly can't hate you when you changed after the incident"

"I learnt to trust you with my heart and love again. Now I'm part of Yash's army. I will have to kill at one point or another. What if I learn to enjoy killing the way learnt to enjoy loving"

"We are mates. You had no choice-"

He cut me off, "We have every chance to not love our mates"

"Even if you do enjoy killing someone, I will be with you forever. I will not let you give in to your dark side. I will be there to pull you out of it, no matter what", I said with complete confidence.

His eyes went wide at my words, "No matter how much I try to push you away, you pull me closer. You really are a special lady", he smiled.

"Don't forget. I'm your special lady"

Ketan looked deep into my eyes, "I love you, Amaira"

My eyes went wide in shock but I quickly recovered. "I love you, Ketan", I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer.

He pressed me against the trunk of the tree as our kiss deepened. I broke the kiss to take his shirt off and resumed the kiss. He was about to take my shirt off when we heard a voice from a distance.

"You are going to fall if you do it there", Yash shouted. Ketan quickly growled at Yash. His eyes turned darker. "Yeah, yeah, keep growling. I got a mission for you two"

"Can't it wait?", I groaned.

"Nope. If you two need the privacy you crave, better hurry up. Clock is ticking. Tick tock tick tock"

Ketan put on his shirt and jumped down with me. "This better be good", Ketan mumbled.

"Oh, it is. Do you remember Ria?". Ketan nodded. "Perfect. She went missing a few days ago. I want you to find out what happened and if she's alive, rescue her. Simple"

"How do we know where to start searching?", I asked.

"Ketan knows where she lives. It is unlike her to just take off without any information. Find her and bring her to me"

"What's so special about her?", I asked.

"She is one of our best spies and I want to know how the sneaky spy just disappeared without a trace"

"Okay. We will leave in a few minutes", Ketan said.

"Or you can leave during night, like normal vampires", Yash shrugged.

"If this mission allows me to put miles between us, I would love to start immediately", Ketan snorted.

"Just find her", Yash rolled his eyes and sped away.