I'll Justify My Reasons With Your Blood

As you can imagine, I’d love to hear exactly what Lillian would have to say, but I couldn’t help feeling skeptical. She is related to the enemy and was instructed to deceive Jared. It doesn’t exactly give her a ton of trustworthy points. She finally cracked after minutes of silence and staring.

“Just hear me out, Nikki. I think you’ll find that what I have to say won’t really work in Shadows’ favor anyway,” she said with a sigh.

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to hear her out. I nodded, suggesting that I was ready to listen. She leaned up against the wall and began her story.

“This happened a very long time ago – back when I was still too young to have grown into a full succubus, or I guess half succubus in my case. Anyway, here’s what happened – you and Syn were lovers at one point, and –.”

I think my noticeable gagging may have interrupted her story. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. There is no way that me and him could…would be…just NO!” I gasped.

She rolled her eyes and ignored my outburst. “Like I was saying, you and Syn were in love, but you were unaware of the fact that he was a member of Shadows’ clan, which would have forbade you two from being together. Your relationship was hidden from all of your family members, and you liked it that way. The night before your father’s coronation, you and Syn were riding together in a carriage. The horses acted up unexpectedly and caused the carriage to essentially detach from the bar connecting it to the horses and sent it flying across the road, kinda like a modern day car crash today – you know when a car flies through the air or skids across a highway? Well you two ended up getting injured faster than your bodies could recover. Your blood mixed with his unintentionally as your bodies tumbled over one another. Since Syn was a little older and stronger than you, his blood overtook your blood within your veins and essentially turned you into a member of Shadows’ clan…”

Suddenly, I lost touch with reality. Lillian’s voice and image began to fade away as a new scene was placed before me. Damn these flashbacks!

Brian climbed up the vines leading to my room’s balcony. This was a typical weekly routine by now, since he insisted that we kept our relationship a secret. He never really offered a reason, and I didn’t exactly mind – it seemed more adventurous and romantic that way.

Quietly, he opened the French doors and crept over to my bed. He crawled toward me and held me in his arms with such an immense amount of passion and love. He slowly tilted my head toward mine as our lips met gently at first before we attacked each other, touching, kissing, licking as much as we could.

Typically, when vampires are…turned on…their blood lust rapidly increases. This was always a challenge for us because much like how Brian requested the secrecy of our relationship, he also refused to allow either one of us to feed off of each other. So, either he would bring bottles of blood with him, or we would just have to retire early, which was the case this particular night.

He seemed to be leaving as soon as he had arrived, but not before smiling and whispering, “Until tomorrow evening, my love.”

Moonlight ignited the mansion’s garden in an enchanting glow. My stomach twirled excitedly as I crossed the brick path leading to the furthest point of the yard, the place Brian chose to meet up at. A large black carriage, led by two horses of similar color, stood waiting at the end of the path. I couldn’t help but wonder where he would get a carriage like this because it certainly was different than any other one I’d ever seen.

He smiled as he opened the door for me and escorted me inside toward the red velvet seats. It’s really a shame I didn’t notice the faded death bat symbol on the backside… As the romantic ride ensued, Brian spent a lot of time talking about my family and myself. “So, is tomorrow the big day for your father?”

“Yeah, tomorrow I officially become a vampire princess,” I gushed, “you’ll be attending, won’t you?”

“Uh, I don’t believe I’m on the guest list,” he said, almost with a hint of resentment.

“Darling, you know I can get you in easily,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck.

He slowly pushed me away. “Don’t worry about it, Nicole. How about we just have our own little party after the real party?” I would’ve much more preferred him to be at the real party with me, but to each his own. I nodded in silent acceptance and directed my attention out the widow.

The road was mostly empty, which is why a bright orange glare easily caught my attention. Behind the light was the demon amongst us – M. Shadows. I screamed as I watched him run out into the middle of the road throwing lit pieces of firewood into the road, startling the horses. I leaped forward and glanced out the small slit that looked forward to find that the driver had disappeared…and the horses had suddenly gotten away from the carriage.

I screamed as the carriage lost control and flew forward. Brian and I collided into each other and all other parts of the carriage. Blood flew everywhere and covered the already red-colored interior. Brian held onto me, in a seemingly protective manner, but it was in vein.

Blood dripped off a wound on his face and onto an open gash on my shoulder. His blood now flowed through my veins. At the time, I thought nothing of it. We escaped the carriage wreck in one piece, but there was no sign of Shadows or the horses. By the time we walked back to the mansion our wounds were healed...

The rest of the flashback played out remarkably similar to what the boys of Avenged Sevenfold showed me days ago – only now my parents’ actions make perfect sense. As it turns out, if they had not killed me that very night, I would’ve had to leave my home and live with Shadows and his clan – all of which deeply despised me and planned to do horrible things to me.

I blinked a few times and felt my vision tremble under a dizzy spell as I returned to the present to find Lillian wearing a knowing expression. “I assume you saw the rest of the story?” she noted.

“Yeah, I can’t believe this,” I replied, anger growing inside of me.

“Are you still hung up about going out with Gates?”

“No, I’m pissed because they manipulated my memories. They forced the last portion of the flashback on me, making it look like my parents killed me just because they could!” I fumed.

She didn’t seem too phased. “Yep,” she nodded, “sounds like their work.”

I leaned up against the wall and contemplated my next moves. “What now?” I asked after minutes of silence.

She bit her lip nervously and glanced over her shoulder to make sure we weren’t being watched. “I’m not going to kill, or even harm your brother. But I can’t help what I am…I’m going to have to find some guy to suck, so to speak,” she whispered.

“I don’t know what you want me to tell you. I mean, thanks for agreeing to not hurt Jared, but I can’t just let you do that to someone in that cathedral. Most of them are my family.”

She rolled her eyes, “Look, princess, I think you owe me for what I did for you today. I won’t kill the dude, just make him pass out, ok?” I reluctantly agreed…there were too many other problems at hand to worry about that specific detail – take for example the man walking out from behind a nearby stone column.

“Such a touching story, isn’t it, Lillian?” Syn asked as he stepped forward and stood between us.

I glared at him as hard as I could without giving myself any worse of a headache. “You fucking douchebag! You had that planned all along, all those years ago, didn’t you?! You wanted all of that to happen. You used me!” I screamed furiously.

He smirked as he stepped more toward me than Lillian. “And here I was hoping you would just accept my love without questioning the resulting actions,” he laughed to himself.

“I hate you,” I growled.

He feigned a hurt expression for a couple of seconds before placing both of his arms up against the wall, leaving my head in the middle. His body leaned up against mine, making me feel very uncomfortable.

“You must feel that way because there was one detail that Lillian forgot to mention. Nikki, most vampires have this thing called a blood mate. A blood mate is another vampire who is destined to spend eternity with a particular vampire. Allow me to let you in on a little secret. Nicole Elizabeth Leto, you are my blood mate.”