Chasing Shadows (18 page)

“AubrieAnna, I am a vampire with hundreds of years under my belt, and yes, I am terrified of him. Fathers have always and will always terrify me. When you were Amaryia, your father was a force to be reckoned with, and your father now is one as well. I will do everything in my power to stay on his good side.” Sebastian spoke with such seriousness that I laughed.

“You have to be kidding, right?” I choked out between giggles of hysteria.

“I am absolutely not kidding.” He shivered as if to prove his point.

“Oh my Atlanta! You are really scared of him. I am in love with an immortal vampire who is actually scared of my human father.” I sighed softly and put my head on his shoulder.

“It’s silly, isn’t it? That I am scared of human fathers?” He kissed the top of my head.

“A little, but it’s okay. I would be scared to meet the woman who gave life to you.” A soft smile played on my lips.

“She was quite the woman. Very strong, and wouldn’t take anything from anyone. It didn’t matter who you were, a peasant or the king. She believed that everyone was to be treated equally, with both respect and kindness. Many feared her, but many also hated her for how she commanded the ones around her, as well as the way she carried herself.” Sebastian had a soft, faraway look in his eyes.

“You miss her.” It wasn’t a question. I could tell he did by the way his eyes lit up when he spoke of her.

“I do. But I don’t remember her quite enough to miss her as much as you would miss your mom. It was a long time ago, and I lost her at a fairly young age. All I had was my father, until I met Amaryia. Then I lost her—I mean you—and I had no one. Clamora found me a year later, confused about what I was and why, and that’s when she told me the prophecy about you and how the gods always keep their promises.”

“I’m so sorry, Sebastian. If you want, we can share my mom. I’m sure she would love to have you as a son.” Even though I knew he would decline this offer, I still wanted him to know that I cared about him enough to try to give him some form of a maternal figure.

“Thank you for the offer, but I do not think your father would appreciate me being under the same roof as you without a marriage license.” He chuckled just a bit.

“I suppose that’s true. But I wasn’t talking about letting her adopt you legally.”

“Ah, I see what you mean.”

Sharp growls and loud hisses from Helios made us both jump. He was sitting on the windowsill, staring at the ground. Careful to not frighten him or be seen by whatever was outside, we crept over to the window and peered down. As we approached, without looking I knew what was down there. My fingers tingled aggressively. There was no controlling it. Something told me there was more than just one u da yv la dv outside my house. No longer caring, I stood up and stared down at the ground.

Five people stood scattered across the front yard. Hundreds of shadows flowed and danced around them. They were showing themselves and wanted me to be scared. But I wasn’t. The u da yv la dv were cowardly supernatural creatures that had no business taking over my home. Feeling brave and agitated, I opened the window and let my powers fly from my fingertips and slice a diagonal cut on each and every one of them, marking them. When the time came, they would be the first to go. How dare they even think they could threaten or intimidate me at my own home? All of the shadows screeched when my power reached them, and they scattered, terrified for their lives. Our war had officially started.

Sebastian left shortly after the incident. Well, he made a show of leaving. He came back after he stashed his car somewhere so my parents wouldn’t see it. I chuckled softly when he climbed through my window. It felt too much like he was Edward and I was an already immortal Bella. We both knew he wasn’t staying to spend time with me, though; he was there to make sure no more u da yv la dv showed up. As I was about to hop into bed, someone knocked on my door. Without even having to tell Sebastian to hide, he went into the bathroom and sat in the bathtub. Checking that he was out of sight, I opened the door to see my dad standing there with an awkward look on his face.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I answered, then turned to sit down on my bed.

“I wanted to talk to you about Sebastian.” He sounded nervous, which worried me.

“Oh, okay. What’s up?” I tried to make it seem like it wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Well, I know that you aren’t . . . ” he choked a little bit like he wasn’t sure how to say whatever he wanted to say. “ . . . human anymore. I also know that you can take care of yourself now. But I am still your father. And I will be damned if I let someone hurt you ever again. However, I know that Sebastian loves you. I can see it in the way he looks at you. He will protect you as well as I ever could, maybe even better.” He smiled sadly at me before continuing. “I love you, Auby. You are my miracle daughter. You beat the odds that were stacked against you. You have always been a strong person and a beautiful soul. And although I will never tell him this until the day I feel he is ready to hear it, he is a good guy for you and I know that he will take care of you. So, I like him. But if for some reason he
ever
hurts you, I will come after him with whatever I need to in order to kill him.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Daddy. I love you.”

He reached over and hugged me hard. I gently squeezed back, not knowing how much strength I had yet. As he stood to leave, he kissed my forehead and said goodnight. The door gently closed behind my father and a smile formed on my lips as I thought about what he had said. Sebastian stepped out of my bathroom and I had to hold back a shriek. Somewhere during the conversation with my dad I had forgotten he was in there. Silently he slinked his arms around my waist and nuzzled my cheek. Feeling relaxed and happy, I leaned back into his chest and let him kiss me softly. When he pulled away, I felt cold and disappointed.

“He’s right, you know,” Sebastian said as he sat at the foot of my bed.

“Hm?” I asked, not really having paid attention to what he said.

“Your dad. He’s right.”

“Oh. Oh! I forgot you could hear that whole thing.” I felt a little embarrassed.

“Yes, I did.”

“What is he right about?”

“How I will protect you and take care of you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“That is not all, AubrieAnna.” His face turned serious.

“Huh?”

“I love you. I am
in
love with you.” Sebastian’s eyes smoldered with passion and honesty.

“You have already told me you love me. I thought that you meant you were in love with me, not just loved me.” I felt sad and a little silly for thinking something that wasn’t what it was.

“Well, there is a difference. I have always loved you. But this love is different than it was before. This time it consumes me. You are all I think and dream about. Even when you were Amaryia, my feelings were never as strong as they are right this minute. That is not to say that I didn’t love you then, because I did, just not as much as I do right now. Maybe the gods planned it this way. So they could ensure your safety, your success.” He stopped talking as if he realized he was a pawn in a game that was laced with tragedy.

“Maybe you just weren’t meant to love Amaryia like you love me. It doesn’t always have to be some twisted plan of the gods, does it?” I wanted to believe it was nothing more than true feelings that were meant to happen at this moment instead of the past. I didn’t want to believe that it was the gods forcing a love like this so we could have a definite chance at winning this war. It didn’t feel right that gods could even think of something like that. But at the same time, human life wasn’t as important to them as it was once. People stopped believing, worshipping, sacrificing, and fearing the gods that had created the world around us. We were all pawns. Yet, they needed me. They needed us to win so they could still have something to care about, something to watch over. So maybe they weren’t as cruel as Sebastian thought they were.

“Sebastian, maybe you are just thinking about it the wrong way. They aren’t as cruel as you seem to think. The gods need us, they need us to win so they have something to care about, something to protect and watch over as they have since the beginning. There is no way they would keep you here for all this time just so you could love me so much more than before, just to insure our success. Sure, some of that may be true, but they don’t want to take the chance of us finding out. I am sure they saw how this would play out. The fates know how this will end. They know how we will react. You have to think of that. I know that how I feel about you is real. And I know how you feel about me is real. So why question it? Why not just enjoy each other while we can?”

He sighed deeply and shook his head lightly. “You are right. We need to take advantage of this. You and me together again is something to enjoy, even if we may not have forever. Whatever time I have with you will not be wasted on worries about what the gods may or may not have done. I love you, my sweet one.” Sebastian kissed my forehead as if to emphasize how true his words were.

His arms encircled me and held me close. There were moments when he would squeeze me so tight I was scared he was going to break me—my bones would even creak in protest— but he would never squeeze tighter than that. It was almost as if he was terrified the world was going to tear us apart in those seconds. At one point I closed my eyes from exhaustion and dozed off on his chest. When I woke up, he was lying on his back with my body tucked neatly into his side. Feeling a little chilled, I snuggled deeper into him, wanting nothing but his warmth. Almost as if he knew what I wanted, he pulled me more tightly against him. I wiggled a little bit to get in a comfortable spot so I could go back to sleep. Sebastian was my home. He was my comfort, my world, and my sun. He kept me warm and steady. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t known each other for very long. I had felt this way since the day we met. Nothing mattered except the fact that he was here with me. As all the thoughts about him floated around my mind, I began to doze back into a peaceful slumber.

“Absolutely not! I will not let you sacrifice yourself for me. We will figure something else out. We have to . . .” I pleaded.

“And what do you propose? Giving them yourself? Not a chance in hell. You knew the minute they sent us that letter that I would do whatever was necessary to prevent them from getting you,” Sebastian yelled.

“I just can’t let him die for me.” My words came out in a soft whisper.

“You have to. You have to make this sacrifice for the world. He knew what would happen if he stepped out there. We told him. But he wanted to do what he could to protect you, just like I will.” He looked at me with pity. I looked around the room; everyone had that damn look on their face.

“He is my brother . . .” Tears finally poured out. I had sucked them in all this time. No one could see my weakness.

“I know.” His voice was softer than it had been after the world turned to total shit.

“Sebastian, please? I have to save him. He always saved me.” I looked at him through my eyelashes.

“I can’t let you, AubrieAnna. I am sorry.” He looked away, ashamed that he had to say no.

“Fine.” I straightened my back, a plan already forming in my head. “If you won’t let me save him, at least leave me alone so I can mourn the one person who always saved me and trusted my strength.” The words felt bitter on my tongue. I knew I was hurting Sebastian with those words, which hurt me.

“I love you. And I am sorry.” Sebastian lifted his hand then dropped it before it touched me. He turned and walked out of the room.

I sank to the floor, my heart breaking and tears chasing each other down my cheeks. There was no way I could let Alexandier die because of me. He was getting out of this with me, even if no one else did.

Chapter 9

I jumped out of bed and fell on my face. The nightmare was already starting to haunt me. Alexandier was in college. He was safe at McPherson. At least I thought he was. After all, he had texted me the day before and told me to have a good day. My brother had to be okay. Fearing the worst, I texted him saying I had had an interesting day and that I loved him. If he didn’t reply in four hours I was going to Kansas, and damn everyone to hell who dared to stop me. Not wanting to sit still and overthink everything, I walked into the bathroom to get ready for school.

In the middle of curling my hair, my phone chimed. I got so excited that it might be Alexandier that I dropped my curling iron on my toes and burned them. Sebastian snickered at me from my bed, and I glared at him. Snatching my phone up, I froze when I saw who it was.