Fallen (Fallen 1)

Jonathon seemed to sense my thoughts or maybe it was my facial expression.

“It isn’t your fault. Don’t even think that,” He said sliding a little closer to me; he could see that my anger was dwindling.

I tried to conceal my pain.

“Why did she have to attack my dad? Why couldn’t she just come after me?”

“Because she’s sadistic. She wanted to get at you… and me. She knew she could do that by attacking your family.”

“Why did her scratches burn me? I felt like my whole body was on fire.”

“It’s complicated but I’ll try to explain it as best I can. All vampires have two kinds of venom. Good venom that makes your prey feel no pain. Good venom is like a high for those who are bitten with it. And then there’s bad venom. The bad venom makes you suffer the most unthinkable pain. If a vampire bites you and uses the bad venom you definitely will die… unless you drink the blood of your soul mate. You receive healing properties from your soul mate’s blood and the blood heals the venom making it disappear. If a vampire bites you with good venom you may die if the vampire drains you but that’s rare because if a vampire is going to bite you with the good venom he usually isn’t going to kill you. Does that make any sense?”

“A little. But Selena didn’t bite me. She scratched me.”

“Selena wanted you to suffer for as long as possible. That’s why she killed your dad the way she did so you’d suffer the pain of his loss before the real pain started. When she scratched you she released tiny amounts of the bad venom into your skin all over your body. You would’ve died a couple days later but all that time you would have been raging with pain.”

“Wow,” I said. “I’m glad I finally let you into my head,” I said sighing at how easily we had been discussing the possibility of my painful death.

Jonathon gave a small chuckle. Suddenly serious he said, “Me too. I thought I was going to lose you.”

“I thought I had lost you. That’s why I didn’t want to think about you. It was too painful. I thought you didn’t love me anymore.”

“I’m sorry to have put you through that. I hope you know how sorry I am. I thought I was doing what was best for you. And you gave me the perfect opportunity to make it seem like I didn’t want to be with you anymore with your talk about not wanting to be a vampire.”

“So, it really was all an act?” I asked.

Jonathon slid down he bed to be as close to me as he could get, “Oh, yes principessa. I love you with all my heart and I always will. Nothing can ever change that.”

“Even the fact that I don’t want to be a vampire?”

“Yes. I will not lie to you; it does bother me that you do not want to spend forever with me but I will not push you on the matter. It is your choice and it will not change my feelings for you. I love you. I love you. I love you.”

“I love you. Now kiss me my vampire knight,” I said with a smile trying to clear the lingering darkness that had been left behind.

He leaned in and after months I finally got to kiss him again. The sparks were everywhere. Everything seemed ringed in gold. My soul was singing again. Finally we were together again. He broke the kiss and put his hand on my cheek and leaned his forehead against mine.

“Finally,” we said at the same time as we started kissing again.

Epilogue: A Funeral

Danny, Joseph, and Mason had recovered my dad’s body from the building we had been kept in. Jonathon told me that Selena had taken us to her house. The house where she had tried to turn Andrew into a vampire. The house where he had died. The house where Selena had sworn vengeance on Jonathon.

The guys said when they got there that Selena’s body wasn’t there. So either she had turned to ashes and blown away or she wasn’t dead.

I was willing to bet a lot that she wasn’t dead.

All the Pulmer’s and I were at the airport boarding their private airplane. We were flying to California to bury my dad. Patrick and Amelia were coming with us. Luigi had agreed to keep an eye on my mom. She was more stable now but not stable enough to be near humans.

I settled into the cushy leather chair on the airplane and Jonathon sat next to me. He grabbed my hand and squeezed gently to say that everything would be okay and with him here I knew it would be.

Since he had been back we were inseparable. I couldn’t even go to sleep at night if he wasn’t lying next to me. I was always touching his hand, his cheek, his hair, to assure myself that he was really here and he did the same thing with me.

The Pulmer’s had been even kinder to me; if that was possible. Even Mason was being nice. And Joseph wasn’t saying anything dirty about me and Jonathon.

I bit my lip nervously. I wasn’t looking forward to the funeral at all. I knew my brothers were suspicious about our father’s death and I knew they’d be curious about the Pulmer’s. I also knew that they’d probably drill Jonathon.

The plane took off and I felt like I left my stomach on the ground.