Forbidden (Fallen 2)
Prologue
Fury ran through my body. How could this be happening again? I looked down at the war raging below me. A shiver ran down my spine as if I was outside fighting. People disappeared, fire sparkled in the night, shields came from nowhere, water doused, patience was being tested, inventive tactics were being thought up, temptation was stirring, enchantment was trying to seduce, even for a moment, and a moment was all we needed to decide our fate.
A moment was all it took for me to watch him die.
Chapter One: B-day
I stirred restlessly under the covers. I didn’t want to wake up; I wanted to stay submerged in the dream world where nothing could hurt me.
There was a light knock on my door. I jumped at the sound. I was very easy to scare these days. It probably had something to do with being kidnapped and watching my dad’s head being ripped off; but I’m just guessing.
I sat up and smiled at the love of my life as he opened the door. A smile plastered on his face.
“Happy Birthday, principessa,” Jonathon, my vampire soul mate who was nearly seven hundred years old, said.
It was March seventh and today I was eighteen years old.
“Please tell me you didn’t get me anything,” I saw him start to protest. “And if you did I hope it wasn’t expensive.” Jonathon loved to shower me in lavish gifts. He’d already gotten me a car, a laptop, and even paid for my mother’s astronomical hospital bill, and my father’s funeral. I still remembered the day I got the bill for the hospital.
* * *
I was sitting at my desk when Jonathon brought up my mail. I flipped through it quickly, a letter from my brothers, more condolences, and a thick envelope from an Italian hospital. It took me a moment to figure out why they were sending it, it had been so long since my mom had been in the hospital and I was still in a fog from my father’s murder. But then it clicked in my head and I ripped it open, dreading what I would find and how I would pay it. After all, I was technically an orphan and still had no job and no access to my parent’s banking account. The price was so high I was shocked. I began to sweat with worry. How on earth would I pay this? But then I read the balance due. I had been reading the total; not what I owed. It showed that I didn’t owe anything. PAID IN FULL it said in bold letters. For a moment I was confused.
Jonathon; my mind concluded. He was always looking after me. Even paying for my father’s funeral when I had told him I’d figure it out.
“Jonathon,” I called, knowing that wherever he was he’d hear me clearly.
“Yes,” he said standing behind me a moment later scaring the bejesus out of me.
“What is this?” I said holding up the bill.
“A hospital bill,” He said stating the obvious just to spite me.
“Really, I thought it was a gas receipt. What is this?” I said sarcastically this time pointing at the zero amount due for emphasis.
“A paid hospital bill.”
“Did you do this?”
“Yes.”
“Why? I could have figured out a way to pay it,” I said running my hands through my hair in frustration.
“Really?” he asked quirking an elegant blond eyebrow at me. Gosh, he was too beautiful. Every part of him was sculpted like an artist’s masterpiece.
“No,” I said ashamed, biting my lip, my face coloring red.
“Why don’t you want me to take care of you?” He asked looking upset.
“I don’t want you to think I’m dependent on you.”
“I don’t think that,” he said shocked. “I think you’re a smart, beautiful, independent young woman that I like to take care of. You are much too young to be figuring out how to pay for a hospital bill. Especially when I lied to you and it wasn’t even your mother in the bed.”
Jonathon and his uncle had turned my dying mother into a vampire and had another vampire, name Morgina, pose as my mom.
“That’s good to know,” I said breathing a sigh of relief. He chuckled and that was the end of the conversation.
* * *