“Please,” I whispered. I just couldn’t bear the thought of dying by Selena’s hand.
He groaned, “I can’t promise that. No matter how much I may love you I just can’t do that. I’d rather go against your wishes and make you a vampire than kill you with my own two hands.”
I knew he wouldn’t give in and I didn’t want to argue the point further. I knew him and if he saw that Selena was going to succeed in killing me he would do as I asked. He would give me my final wish. My final desire before I died. He wouldn’t want me to suffer by her hands. He knew I was right, I could see it in his eyes, but he didn’t want to imagine such a tragic outcome. He wanted to believe there was something more for us. He didn’t want to imagine things coming to such an early end. Jonathon wanted to believe that we had forever. He had waited nearly seven hundred years for me, our time together had been the blink of an eye for him, just a little blip in his centuries long life, how could it come to an end so soon? We had barely had a life together.
With an indescribable pain in his eyes he left the tent so that I could change.
I threw on some clean clothes as quickly as I could in the minimal space. I stumbled and fumbled to get my jeans on. It was easier to put on my dark purple long sleeved shirt and olive green vest. I climbed out of the tent to find Jonathon waiting just outside of it. I was never going to be left alone.
I tried to meet his gaze but he wouldn’t look at me. His jaw was taut and his posture rigid. I knew there was no outside threat. I was the one that had made him so strained. I shouldn’t have asked him. I had put him back on edge and now I truly was never going to be left alone. Eyes would always be watching me.
I knew he thought that I may take matters into my own hands but the truth was I could never do what my mother had done. I just couldn’t.
The Coven had made a breakfast fit for an army and set up several long foldable tables with foldable chairs. I didn’t see how all that food was going to be eaten but as I looked at their full plates I could see where it was going. They all had food piled so high on their plates that they put Mason and Danny to shame. I couldn’t help but gag a little. It was like watching Animal Planet when a lion attacks its prey.
I got a plate and scooped some scrambled eggs on to it, grabbed a piece of toast, two strips of bacon and a glass of orange juice.
I sipped at the freshly squeezed orange juice as I chose an empty area of one of the large tables. I sat down and Jonathon sat across from me. Mason sat down beside of me and Danny beside of Jonathon. Each held two heaping plates filled with food. Their stomachs astounded me. Maybe they were like cows and had four stomachs? One never knew.
The food was delicious, way better than the food at the pit stops we would make in random towns. This food was homemade. I felt like I hadn’t had a meal this good in a long time. I cleaned up my plate. I was blissfully full for the first time in days. Danny and Mason had shoveled their food down and then disappeared beyond the trees with Benji on their trail. Those three were up to something and I had to laugh to myself thinking that it was probably some elaborately genius prank to pull on Jonathon. Danny and Mason and for that matter Benji too could do things to make you hate them but you just couldn’t help but love them. They were irresistible and they knew it.
A full plate smacked onto the table next to my empty one making me jump.
Gosh, I really had to work on the jumpiness, I was going to give myself a heart attack.
A long legged body slid on to the bench next to me.
Isaac.
My forest green eyes met his Caribbean blue ones and he smiled. I couldn’t help but smile back.
Jonathon cleared his throat making both Isaac and me jump and our gazes to separate.
Isaac sipped some orange juice and wiped his mouth off on a napkin before turning to Jonathon.
“So,” Isaac began, “What’s the plan for today? Are you going to build a jail cell out of tree branches to keep her locked up in?” said Isaac.
Jonathon smirked, “Not quite. I just plan to have her with in my sight at all times or in the sight of someone I trust,” said Jonathon looking directly into Isaac’s eyes. I was amazed that Isaac could stand to meet his gaze. Most humans couldn’t directly meet a vampires’ stare.
Isaac flipped his head to the side to remove a stray piece of hair from his face before looking directly back at Jonathon, he held his fork in his right hand and used it to point at Jonathon when he asked, “Do you trust me?”
“No, I do not. You and your precious Coven have given me no reason to trust you. If you had done your job then Selena would be dead,” Jonathon spat coldly.
“How were we supposed to know about some stupid rouge vamp?” demanded Isaac; taken aback.
Jonathon’s expression was beyond monstrous. He stood up from the table in less than half a second so that he became a blur. If possible he had become even paler, if he got any paler he would be translucent, and like last night his eyes had become black with a ring of silver around them only this time out of anger not from passion.
“How were you supposed to know? You can’t be bloody serious! It’s your job to know! We shouldn’t have had to even call and tell your prized Coven that there was a rogue! It’s the Coven’s job to know! To put an end to abominations like Selena not let them happen! Your Coven should have killed her back in 1893! You’ve had a century to kill her! A century! And guess what she’s still out there and god only knows how many innocent people she has killed! How many unnecessary deaths have been caused at her hands! And yet she lives! She lives because of your Coven’s inability to do its job! You’re supposed to know!” he yelled; his nostrils flaring dangerously.
Isaac looked scared but resigned and confused. His eyebrows were knit together.
“You’re right, vamp,” Isaac said, continuing to point at Jonathon with his fork, and looking thoughtful.
Jonathon’s eyes melted back to silver and he sat down. I could tell he was still angry but he had calmed down significantly.
“So, you agree,” Jonathon said.
“It is strange that this Selena has been rouge for over a century and the Coven hasn’t killed her. As you said that is our job. She should have been hunted and killed long ago. There is something strange going on,” said Isaac taking a bite of scrambled eggs.