Courting a Vampire Ch. 09

Damien looked down at me and I suddenly had a very bad feeling. My stomach rolled and my head began to pinch in pain.

I stared at him and the realization of putting all the little facts in their proper place began to crash on me. Small things began to line up, like my Aunts protection, the idea of having been invited to the courting, instead of just being expected to show up. Everyone's surprise at seeing me arrive, and the fact I never saw more than five members of my family residing in the castle, when the other betrothed had dozens of supporters.

I reached up and touched the scar at the base of my head, remembering the look on both Damien and Desmond's faces when I had said I could just poison Desmond. They had looked stunned, and I had waved it off as they just having underestimated a human. But now that I was looking at it, I realize that they both had genuine fear on their faces.

I let my hand drop with a dull thump into my lap and I looked passed him, trying to will my mind to remember something that it could not bring up, because it was simply gone. I looked up at him feeling the burn of tears behind my eyes, "How come I don't know what happened?"

Damien lifted a hand and squeezed it tightly together and he brought it to his face for a moment before relaxing it and looking down at me, "I found out, and when we were playing, I attacked you with every intention of killing you. I didn't know what happened after I attacked you, all I knew was that you were gone, and so was everyone else I loved."

He backed up a step and leaned against the frame of the closet, "What happened?"

I closed me eyes, "I was in the hospital for what felt like a year. I was told many times, how lucky I was to still be alive. I didn't feel alive though.

The sharp smell of the hospital filled my nose as I remembered back to the time spent there, "I had to relearn everything."

"Everything?"

I kept my eyes closed, picturing the room I spent so much time in, "I had to learn how to talk, walk, feed myself, go to the bathroom, when to laugh, when to cry. I had to learn to be a human all over again."

"What else do you know now?"

I opened my eyes and looked down at the carpet, "I get it now though, why you wanted to torture me and kill me. You're a vampire, and I am this weak, pathetic, human who killed your family."

Damien closed the distance between up and knelt down in front of me and gripped the back of my neck in a painful hold, "Did anyone tell you what's so special about born vampires? We drink blood, but when I sink my fangs into the person, their whole lives flash into my head, every lie, every thought, every action, everything.

He moved closer and pulled my head back. I felt him gently kiss his mark on me, sending a pulse of heat to move into my core before I felt the pain.