I'm Simply Leaving

One week after the coronation
South Africa
Kayla’s point of view

It had been great spending a week back in South Africa. My family was excited to see me and Michael after so many months of being gone.

My only problem was that the longer I was here, the more guilt I felt over the situation with Shane.

I parked Michael’s butt in the apartment that I had bought the previous year before graduation and then took a road trip to the University where Shane was staying.

I had his dorm name and room number, so it was just a matter of finding him and sitting him down for a long talk. My plan was to basically come out and tell him the whole big vampiir secret. Being Queen came with all sorts of perks, apparently and in any case, I had broken up this couple and it was a mistake I was determined to fix, even if it meant coming clean to Shane and possibly losing my friendship with him.

There was no answer after I knocked on the door, so I planted my arse on the floor and waited for about half an hour before Shane came walking up the stairs.

“Kayla? Dear God, is it really you? What on earth are you doing here?”

I got up and dusted myself off, “Now is that any way to greet your best friend after so long?”

He gave me a smile that I hadn’t seen in a long while and then gave me a hug.

We went into his apartment and he started rambling about all his classes and some boy he had met.

We were sitting on the couch drinking coffee, when I asked him how serious things were with this guy.

“Oh, no, it’s not like that between us. He’s just a friend. I know he wants more, but I can’t really give him that.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“I, uh, it’s kind of complicated. I just don’t want to be in a relationship right now. I don’t want the sadness and the darkness to come back. I doubt I’ll ever feel that way about anyone ever again,” he mumbled the last part under his breath, but I heard it anyway and I felt the sting of tears in my eyes. It was one thing to know that you had ruined someone else’s life, but to hear the desperation in their voice was something else entirely.

“Look, Shane, I didn’t come for a social visit. I have something really important that I need to talk to you about.”

He looked up sharply at the seriousness in my voice.

“Okay, I’m listening.”

“I’m a vampiir,” I paused to show him my fangs. He paled and I continued, “we’re not the whole bitten by bats or the undead variety. I’m technically an alien. My race came from another planet thousands of years ago and have been living amongst humans peacefully all that time. We don’t kill when we feed and only feed off humans if we’re hurt or unmated. We’re allowed to marry humans in rare cases, but it’s frowned upon since we can’t breed with them. We may look human, but a lion and a house cat can’t have cubs together either. The reason I never told you before, was because we have laws against telling humans our secrets. It’s not because I didn’t trust you.”

“Uh… You’re really serious? It isn’t some joke?” I shook my head, no. “This is a lot to take in. In a weird way it kind of makes sense. I mean you’re just so smart and fucking beautiful. I can remember a lot of times where you did or said something that didn’t always make sense or seemed strange. Is your family…?”

I shook my head, “No, I’m adopted remember. Sam knows, Betty and Marc don’t. My real parents died many years ago. Michael is a vampiir and also my mate.”

He snorted, “That seems obvious. He’s just as weird as you are and you guys had that whole weird chemistry thing going on.”

“You seem awfully okay with this?”

“Oh, trust me, I’m freaking out on the inside. Wait, if you have laws, then why are you telling me now?”

“Our race has a ruling body called the Ancients and I’ve been an Ancient for a couple of years.”

“By a couple of years, are we talking decades or centuries?”

I looked a little sheepish, “More like a millennia, give or take a couple of centuries. Time wasn’t marked as clearly back then.”

He laughed, “You sound like an old lady!”

“I am an old lady and you young man, should respect your elders. Not to mention your betters.”

He gave me a cocky grin, “So you were explaining why you can now break the rules…”

“Yes, well, as I was saying, the Ancients are our ruling body, but the oldest member is considered the king. A couple of months ago, the King and my oldest friend, was killed by his wife and by default, I became the Queen of our race.”
“You’re saying that not only are you royalty and the oldest person on this planet, but you’re also a bloody queen? Fucking hell, I feel like I’m a fictional character in a movie or a book or something.”

“That’s kind of why I’m here. I’m hoping to give your story a happy ending.”

He instantly looked closed off.

“I don’t really see what you can do about it, Kayla. It’s not as if you can magic that asshole back into my life… Wait, you can’t, can you? Because I don’t think that-”

I cut him off, “No, Shane, I’m not going to perform any kind of hocus pocus to get him back. I am however going to tell you the truth.”

“What truth? You mean there’s more than you being a very old alien Queen?”

I gave a sigh, “I’m going to tell you the truth about what happened that weekend with Aiden,” he sucked in a harsh breath at the mention of Aiden’s name, “a truth that I should have told you a long time ago.”

“What the fuck is going on, Kayla? What fucking truth?” he demanded.

“The night of my party, when I met Aiden, it wasn’t the first time that I had met him. I was shocked to see him there with you and then we had an argument.”

“I remember,” he said slowly, realisation dawning on him, even though I could see that he was trying very hard to deny it, hoping that I wouldn’t say it.

“Aiden’s father is on the council with me. Aiden is a vampiir as well.”

“No. No, I don’t want to believe it. It’s not true. Kayla, please.”

“There’s more. I was horrified when I saw you with Aiden, because his father is a strong supporter for anti-human mating’s. He doesn’t believe that we should sully our race with a human’s presence. The worst part is that we have laws about these things. If a vampiir mates with a human and then tells that human the truth about us… if the human can’t handle the truth and has the potential of becoming a threat to us, then we have the human killed.”

“That’s fucked up,” he said, looking a bit green.

“That is our law. We don’t have the same moral values that humans do, since we’re not human,” I gave sigh, dreading telling him the next part, “While we were arguing, Aiden told me that you were his mate and I used my position as a council member to order him away from you. I was afraid that you might take the news of vampiirs badly and then the council would order your death. I feared for your life, Shane, that’s why I did the unforgivable. Aiden begged to have a few more days with you, to say a proper goodbye and I granted him his wish. I told him to use any means necessary to get you to accept that he’d left.”

The expression on Shane’s face turned from shock to horror to outrage. I’d never seen him look at me like that before; as if I’d brutally murdered a child.

“Get. Out,” he ordered. When I didn’t make a move, he shouted, “GET OUT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!”

“I will in a moment. There is more to my story.”

“MORE? More than you ruining my life?”

“Yes. I won’t excuse my actions. I did what I did to save your life and breaking up two life mates is something that I’ll regret for the rest of my life, as well as losing your friendship. I went to see Aiden a few months ago. He isn’t doing well-”

“Whose fucking fault it that?” Shane accused.

“He is killing himself Shane. He’s drinking himself to death. A vampiir finds life unbearable without their life mate. He will die without you. I know you’re upset with me for ruining your life and upset with him for leaving you, but you alone have the power to save him. Forgive him for breaking your heart. Live your happily ever after with him. No one will ever love you as much as Aiden will,” I withdrew an envelope from my purse and set it out in front of him, “This contains everything you’ll need to get to him. Airplane ticket, directions; that sort of stuff. I love you Shane and you’ll never know how sorry I am about this. But you deserve to be happy. And so does Aiden. Don’t blame him for this. He had no choice but to follow my orders. The word of an Ancient is absolute.”
I stood up and opened the door, but turned back to look at him, “If I never hear from you again, I’ll understand. Goodbye Shane.”

It was a long drive back to my apartment and Michael looked at me with such pride for doing the right thing, which made me feel even worse. For fuck’s sake, I’m not four years old. I suppose if I want Michael to stop treating me like a four year old, then I should probably stop acting like one. I just really hope Shane will do the right thing. The ball is in his court now.