An Unacceptable Mate

Chapter Nine

    "Charlie...Charlie we love you. Please remember that. We will always love you," someone promised in a whisper.

  "You need to run, sweet heart. Run as far from here as you can," a masculine voice begged.

There was an inhumane growl and then a whimper.

    "Mummy?" a younger, childish voice wailed. "Mummy, where are you? Daddy? I can't see anything."

I recognised it as me. This was the night my parents had been murdered and I'd lived, but how, I had no idea.

  "Charlie, run! Run! He's coming back! Please, you need to live. Let her live you monster!" my mother screamed, panic high in her voice. Younger Charlie started to scream.

    "Touch her and I'll rip your head off," a deep, velvety voice threatened, silencing everything and everyone.

My heart stopped in both my chest and my younger self's. I'd heard it before, many times and many more to come no doubt.

  "Look who it is! 'Princess' Acera," snickered the rogue vampire somewhere in the darkness. I squinted as someone's skin caught in the moonlight, but was gone far too fast for me to identify their face.

    "Leave this family. They have done nothing wrong," my mate urged, trying to be both pressuring and diplomatic simultaneously.

  "My apologies, but hunger can never wait, can it? Then again, hunger is never a problem for you. Not with the entire vampire and human species throwing themselves at you!" the rogue hissed, closer to my current self than before. I could smell the metallic stench of blood coming from him with every movement and gagged.

That was my parents' blood I was tasting.

    "I'm going to tell you again, but only once more," Acera said in a lethal undertone. "Leave this family alone."

The rogue chortled and then burst into a fit of cackles. They cut off like someone had flicked a switch. "How about no, princess."

The mockery riled me up more than it seemed to affect my mate.

    "Please..." my dad rasped, clinging onto the final moments of his life. "Save Charlie, Acera. Save my daughter. She deserves a life. For our friendship's sake."

  "Owen, I was going to save Charlie whether you did or did not ask. She is very valuable to me as it is," Acera explained gently. Something crunched like a neck snapping and yet my mate continued to assure. "I feel like I must protect her and I will look after her, from a distance of course, while she grows up. I'll make sure she heads in the correct directions."

    "Thank you! Thank you!" my dad praised and then coughed horrendously.

My younger self screamed. "Daddy? Daddy! What's going on? Who is Acera? Daddy!"

  "We must go, Charlie," the mysterious hero told my younger self. I watched as he moved to the window where moonlight streamed in and opened it. A smaller person stood at his side, arm stretched up so their hands were together.

    "Goodbye," my mother croaked. I could hear her final intake of breath.

  "Mummy," younger Charlie sniffled.

Acera looked at her, then picked her up and was gone. I stood, staring at where I had once been and then back over my shoulder to where my parents and the rogue lay. If I could see, I'd do terrible things to that vampire's remaining corpse until it disintegrated. Tears dripped from my jaw.