Immortal Love Book #1. Awakening

32. "She's the reason"

By the time we realized we were about to fight a war the sun was close to rising. Alexander arranged a flight to take me and Dennis back to Santa Mon for the day, because even if Darko could walk in the sunlight, his vampire slaves couldn't, and that meant the killings would probably stop during the day, so he gave us the day to rest and recover energy after the agitated night we'd just had. Alexander also said he'd send some of his vampires with us to keep me safe, and that he'd contact The Academy and inform them of our plan so they would back us up. He'd pick us up at 6.00 pm at Dennis' house, and then... I wasn't sure what then. I had gotten so caught up on the fact that I had to be in Santa Mon for Carl's funeral and to comfort my mother, that I'd ignored the fact that I was going to risk my life later that same day. I didn't have a choice, though, we'd already discussed that, but it still sucked.

We were back in Santa Mon right as the sun started shining bright, and Dennis had to immediately go home. I walked towards my front door like I almost didn't want to face what was inside my house. There was a lot of noise coming from the house, probably because everyone had chosen to spend the night at my mom's house and protect each other from the vampires. I knocked on the door and Merissa was the one to open it.

"Hi." she greeted me in a sad tone, I gave her a half smile and I opened my arms to hug her. We hugged and I immediately felt the tears start accumulating in my eyes.

"Stella!" my mother's voice made us break our hug.

I saw my mother, with the same beautiful eyes but only sadder, looking at me over Merissa's shoulder. Merissa moved and I ran towards her with open arms. There was really nothing like a mother's hug. I cried on her shoulder, because I couldn't hold back my tears any longer, and I felt her sob on mine. She held me tight and close for a while, just like she had done the night my father had died. Everything was so similar; the sadness, the people, everything reminded me so much of that horrible time in my life.

I pulled away after what felt like an hour, because I genuinely felt like I had no more tears left. There were a lot of people there. I took a quick look around and I saw Harry, Luca, Ty, Earl, and almost everyone in town, but there were some faces missing. I couldn't see Sophie anywhere.

"Where's Sophie?" I asked my mother and she took a deep breath. I couldn't imagine how hard it must've been for her.

"She's in her room." my mother said. I nodded.

"I'm so sorry for your loss, Stella." Luca's voice made me turn around. He had his typical friendly smile only now with a hint of sorrow. I was glad he wasn't mad at me about Dennis anymore.

"Thanks." I said in a sad tone. I didn't know how to respond to the I'm sorry, so I though a thank you would cut it. He sighed.

I hugged a lot of people, and they were all wondering where I'd been, but nobody dared to ask me. I also found out the people that had died last night during the attack at Kimmel's. Seven people. Seven people had lost their lives. Rachel Ross, Deandra Adams, Charlie Cummings, Elena Smith, Jeff Moss, Annie Moss and Carl Geller. I had heard some of their names before, but I only personally knew four of them. There was Carl, of course. Me, Merissa and Luca had gone to high school with Rachel, Annie and Charlie, but we where never close to them. I still felt deep sadness, specially because my mother was close to their mothers, and I knew she felt their deaths. She felt all the deaths, because she was the heart of the town.

I went upstairs to Sophie's room as soon as I was done hugging everyone and getting their deepest condolences, and I found her looking out the window, not like she was about to jump, but like she was contemplating the blue sky.

"Hey." I said, and she turned to me. I noticed her eyes were red and swollen, and so was her nose. I felt a knot in my throat start forming.

"Hey." her voice was raspy and low, like she hadn't said anything in a while. I tried to give her a comforting smile despite feeling like crying until I didn't have water left in my body, and she smiled back.