My Love Forever (The Night Movers Vampire Series Book 1) (6 page)

“I asked Freya what had prompted these thoughts and she told me that she had fallen in love with Tobias who was Frankke’s son. Tobias was a strong handsome young man and at twenty two was only three years older than Freya, and he worked as a woodcarver. I remember her taking my hand and placing it on her belly and telling me she was going to have his child.”

“I was angry that she had let him make love to her without the marriage ceremony but she said I had lain with many women without being married so I couldn’t judge her or be angry with Tobias, but this was my sister, the sweet Freya so of course I was angry.”

“Then I thought of my father who had been travelling with Gamall for the last two months and I knew that the situation could get a lot worse. So I arranged for her marriage to take place in two days time whilst praying that father would not return before this.”

“Freya looked beautiful and to be honest they made a wonderful couple. You could see that Tobias thought the world of her and that their love was so pure and real that it made me want similar for myself.”

“Father came back the day after the wedding and was furious. Even more so when he scented the pregnancy on her and at first he wanted nothing to do with Freya, but she was his precious daughter and he couldn’t stay angry with her for too long. When her baby daughter was born Freya named her Brisa after my mother. Sebbi was thrilled and spoiled her even more than he had Freya. She was absolutely adorable and we all fell madly in love with the beautiful little girl who was such a happy child.”

“Father kept on trying to persuade me to take the blood and I just kept ignoring him at every turn. Eadgar and Colton had gone to Ireland for a while so if I wanted to speak to them about it I would need to travel and I didn’t want to leave Freya and her family. So time kept moving on as it always does and I made sure through the various trading we had slowly built up that our village had enough good homes for everyone and we had enough food for winter.”

“Freya had informed my father that she would not take the blood as she wanted to have more children and be a normal mother to them, and Tobias was against her becoming a vampire as he did not want her to be different to them all.”

“This made up my mind for me too and as father knew that I would only take the blood if Freya did he stopped asking me about it.”

“When she was twenty seven Freya became pregnant again. She used to take Brisa and go and spend two evenings a week with my father and Gamall at their home on the edge of the village and more often than not I would go and join them after my work was done, a kind of family tradition that we tried not to miss. It was during one of those evenings that our lives changed forever.”

“On this particular night Freya had arrived alone without Brisa for the first time ever, because she had been tired after playing out all day in the sun.”

“Father went into a panic and kept asking where Brisa was and Freya kept assuring him it was alright, and that she was probably sleeping by now. But he left us and ran the mile to Freya’s house, and we all followed in the cart fearful as to what our father’s instinct had told him.”

“When we arrived at Freya’s house it was on fire and our father was laid on the floor outside, his body charred and burned.”

“Freya was running around screaming for Brisa and Tobias but the dread I felt in the pit of my stomach told me they were both gone. Gamall went to my father and gathered him up on the cart whilst I took Freya in my arms and placed her beside me and quickly sped off to my father’s home.”

“The smell of my father’s burned flesh and my sisters wailing despair still haunt my dreams now,” I said with an exhausted sigh as Julia put her arms around me and held me close.

“I don’t know what to say Alex. There are no words really to comfort you when you lose a child like that. Freya must have thought her life had ended that night I know I did when I lost Megan. But she lost Brisa and Tobias in the same night.”

“She lost more than her daughter and husband on that night Julia,” I said as I continued on with the painful story.

“By the time we got back to the house I heard my father speak to Gamall in a gravelly voice, asking where Freya was and thanking him for giving him so much of his blood. Gamall stumbled off the cart but was caught by one of the men they employed to work the land and he was carried inside.”

“Father tried to take Freya from me but I would not let him and I carried her to the nearest bed. When I stood back I could see the blood appearing on the front of her smock dress and I yelled for my father, for anyone to help me. Father came in shirtless his skin already nearly healed from his burns but still black with smoke, and he dropped to the floor at the side of Freya, pierced his fangs through his wrist and told Freya to drink from him. She shook her head keeping her mouth closed but all the while more blood was appearing on her dress and down her legs.”

“She pushed up to grab her knees screaming as she went and I heard Anya the woman who kept house for my father say she needs to push, the baby is coming.”

“Freya was only five months along so I knew the child couldn’t survive but it seemed that her body was trying to birth the baby anyway. I removed her clothing and undergarments as quickly as I could, tears streaming down my face and in what seemed like no time at all Freya pushed the baby boy in to the world.”

“It was so heartbreaking to see......his skin was nearly see through although he was a perfectly formed yet tiny baby. Father could not hear any heart beating at all, but we wrapped him in a woollen cloak and handed him to Freya.”

“She said in a very weak voice that his name was Tobias like his father and that I was to make sure both he and she would be buried alongside her husband and Brisa in the same new Christian way that her husband had favoured.”

“My father pushed me aside, took hold of Freya, looked into her eyes and demanded that she live but her eyes closed and her head shook from side to side.”

“When the placenta came away it was in bits and Anya told us that she had seen this before and it was so bad that the mothers had never lived long afterwards. I kept telling Freya I loved her and that I would find her in the next life but she had lost consciousness by then and even though she was a born immortal with a quicker healing ability I knew this was too much for her to come back from because she didn’t even want life anymore.”

“In the next instant my father had grabbed Anya and sank his teeth into her wrist, savagely tearing a deep gash through her skin. I knew what he was about to do and I tried to stop him, but he threw me across the room with such force that I heard four of my ribs break as I hit the wall and my shoulder was dislocated. I looked over at Freya and saw that my father was forcing Anya’s wrist over her mouth and working her throat by rubbing and squeezing it forcing her to swallow. Anya was screaming but my father used mind control on her, telling her that she wanted to do this for Freya and that she felt no pain at this time, so she calmed down and immediately became quiet and compliant.”

“I struggled over to the bed but physically I was no match for my father even without my injuries. A born immortal has more strength than a normal human but when you take the blood and become a vampire the strength and power you gain is immense and I have yet to see it rivalled. So I just sat back and watched as he made Freya swallow this poor human woman’s blood.”

“Eventually Anya began to sway and that’s when Father removed her wrist from Freya’s mouth. He bit his own wrist and bid that Anya drink from him so that she would not feel the effects of the blood loss.”

“On this very night I saw my father for the monster that he truly was and I knew that I could feel no love for him anymore. But my sister was now to become a vampire and I hoped that she would be the same kind woman that she had been before she had all this loss, for I knew that whatever she became she would now be it forever.”

“She will sleep for a day and when she awakens she will be fully immortal, a vampire with the need to feed on blood as well as human food. Father spoke those words so normally. Like the scene of the last hour had not happened. ‘She will not want to do this on her own my son so will you take the blood and join her in this life everlasting’, my father questioned with hope in his voice.”

“Freya will never forgive you for this father. You have done a terrible thing this night; I said my voice laden with sorrow. ‘I will join Freya in this life but only she will ever have my loyalty for you do not deserve it.’

I left the room and went in search of Gamall to tell him all that had happened and ask his help in gaining my immortality.”

“The next day, with the help of the villagers I buried the baby, Brisa and Tobias as Freya had requested then went with Gamall to my home where I drank his blood and at thirty seven years old had my last human sleep.”

Alex

Julia was sobbing quietly in my arms by the time I had finished my story and although I wanted to cry right along with her, instead I just held her to me and found comfort in her embrace.

“I am so sorry for all your family suffered Alex. How on earth did you carry on? How could Freya survive such an ordeal?” she questioned through her tears.

“Julia of the many things I have seen and known over the centuries, the very thing that stands out the most is that the inner strength and power that is within most females is something that will always prevail above all else. Even if it takes some time to emerge and show itself it will always be there.”

“Men will always have more physical strength and power than women of equal stature but that’s where it ends in respect of the dominant of the species. Human men are emotionally weaker than Human females and they find it harder to empathise with people than women do. That’s why I have a lot of respect for all of the women in my life.”

“All of the women?” Julia questioned, I could tell she was a little put out by this remark and maybe a little jealous too, hopefully.

“Yes all of them,” I answered without worry as I began to explain my statement.

“Freya of course, but I will tell you more of her story later. Then Maggie, well she is just an Angel really. She looks after Josh, Nik and myself like a mother hen always reminding us about things we forget and making sure we are ok. She’s done this for over thirty years, even whilst she was looking after her husband and three children, then Daniel and Keeley her nephew and niece when their mother passed away. And lately her elderly mum and in laws and holds down a full time job.”

“Then there is Gina, she’s in charge of our cafeteria and cleaning duties, even in mine Josh, and Nik’s cottages so you can see how much we trust her. She’s worked for us in different capacities for about fifteen years now. In that time she’s brought up two children, had a few health problems yet still kept going. She is unhappy but has stayed in a loveless marriage because she doesn’t want to be a failure by admitting that she’s spent all these years working at keeping her family together, but is unloved by her husband. I mean how many men would be so selfless as to stay with someone like that.”

“How do you know all this about her Alex?” “Gina is a lovely woman Julia, I’m sure you will become friends because everyone gets on really well with her, you just can’t help it. Anyway, I caught her and Nik arguing one day a few months back. He’s had a thing for her for a long time but she seemed to think he was just winding her up. She’s always carried a bit of extra weight and I know she’s been trying and failing over the years to get rid of it, but she hadn’t had much success until recently, and apparently Nik was telling her that she should stop losing weight and exercising because she was getting rid of all those curves he likes.” “Oh my god, Nik was so out of order, what did Gina do?” “Well to be honest she let rip about all she hated about him which apparently was a lot because she went on forever about him being a disgusting man whore who objectified women, loved himself more than others, threw his dirty clothes on the floor, unlike me and Josh who put them in baskets by the way, and that he told stupid jokes which people didn’t laugh at any more.” “What did Nik say to all that,” asked Julia.

“He didn’t say anything, he just grabbed her and kissed her in a full on Snog.” “What did Gina do when he kissed her? I thought you said she was married?” “She didn’t do anything other than kiss him back at first, but then she broke off the kiss and backed away. Then Nik said she should leave her husband and live with him, that he knew they would be good together and that her kids were older now so she didn’t have to stay for them anymore.  Then Gina just burst into tears and ran over to the other building. I followed her, not wanting to see her upset and that’s when I heard her telling Maggie what had happened. She said that she knew Steve (her husband) didn’t love her and that she hadn’t loved him for years, but if she left him now she would be admitting that all she’s worked so hard for over the years had been for nothing and that she was worried about what it would do to her children and her mum. She also said the only way that she would be with someone else would be for love, and that she didn’t think that Nik was capable of it.” “Do you think she’s right,” Julia asked hesitantly.

“Well you know Nik and how he is, but I’ve got to be honest Julia he was really shook up for a while, like he was lost or something and not himself. He said he knew I had heard everything and thought that I was about to warn him to keep away from the staff. But I didn’t, I just asked him if he loved her. He said he had loved her for many years now, so I asked him if she knew and he said she must do. So I just said that maybe he needed to prove it to her, and that she was right his jokes were stupid.”