But if I moved too fast it could have deadly consequences, for her. That I will not risk. I settled down and let my mind wander as she slept safely in my arms.
I heard my enemies outside the window where they have been for the past few nights now. I wanted nothing more than to go out there and destroy until there was none left, but that was not the way, everything must be done in order.
I looked down at my beautiful future and the love welled up inside me. “My beautiful little butterfly; owner and keeper of my heart, how I’ve missed you.”
She settled herself more securely against my chest and nuzzled me before going back to her rest. I allowed myself the briefest of minutes to enjoy the feeling, before I let my mind wander once more.
She’s finally home. I thought this day would never come. With my first sight of her in almost fifteen years, I had taken my first easy breath, since I was a young boy.
There was still much to be done, but the hardest part was over. The years of searching and hoping were at an end.
There was so much new about her, and yet there were little things that I remembered from before. Like the way she rubs her eyes when she first awakens. That she still made that innocent gesture was enough to make me weep.
I’d known always that one day we would be together again; it was the only thing that had kept me sane all those years while we’d been apart.
But the waiting had not been easy. Now each moment away from her was torture, but I had to bait my time. In a few short weeks she would be eighteen and there would be nothing standing in my way.
I knew as the days and weeks go on her need will grow stronger as will mine, but I’ve had years to deal with it, to prepare, whilst she would have none of that.
Because of one family’s greed and misguided sense of entitlement, she had been robbed of much. I won’t dwell on such things at this time though, for I mean to make up for all that she had been denied.
The darkness that touched our lives will not prevail against the love I have for her. It was no match for the strength of the emotion I held for this one being.
And now that we were together at last, there was no force on earth that will ever take her away from me again.
I had lost much in the last fifteen years; time that I could’ve had with her, but most of all, my innocence.
My life had been a mere shell of what it should’ve been without her in it. She was the light in my world, a light that had been almost snuffed out and then had been hidden from me for too long.
There had been times when I felt I would go mad for want of seeing my little Jasmine. Never again! I will never allow anything to come between us again. I held her tighter to me as my mind relived the past.
Years of being always one step behind had almost taken its toll on me. Her mother had done a good job of keeping her well hidden, but I knew even then, that it was only a matter of time before I found her scent.
There was nowhere in the world that she could hide from me then. From the moment of her birth the bond had been formed. I didn’t understand it all then but now I do.
When my family had decided to visit the old country that day all those years ago, I’d known some of it then, or at least I’d felt very strongly that I should not leave her.
I’d fought tooth and nail not to be separated from her, but it was to no avail. No one heeded the words of a boy of ten. Back then I was at the whim of those in charge.
Had I known then what would’ve transpired when I wasn’t there to protect her, they would’ve never gotten me to get on that plane.
I’ve cursed fate a million times since that day. My life had changed; I had gone from the carefree young boy to a new being almost overnight.
I’d learned hate and distrust for those closest to me, and spent the rest of my life searching for her, but she was here now and so was I.
As soon as I found her again in her dreams, I had stuck close. Never revealing too much, not yet, but as the day of her birth drew near I’d made arrangements to return, and to bring her home, it was time.
My family had followed, moving back to the place we’d left so long ago, never to return, since the horror that had taken place there.