Chapter 18

Three days we been on the Mississippi River heading north till we went through the smaller rivers that branched off from the Mississippi River. We passed through Iowa and made our way into South Dakota. Our next stop was eventually coming up, and this time it was in Navis, South Dakota.

It’s also another town where 99% of different magical creatures resides in. The reason we are stopping this time was to take the rest of the trip by car as we enter into different pack territory along the way and gaining reinforcements for the final stretch of the trip.

Enjoying the cruise was a lot more difficult than I had thought. Everyone was tensed, we all wondered when the next attack would happen. They were a couple of times when we saw airplanes and helicopters that flew overhead, but so far none of them stopped. I had to wonder why the others didn’t even attempt to attack us when we are blantly on water at night. What was keeping them away?

The Rogues don’t usually like water. Seline spoke.

That sound stupid. They could just swim up to the ship effortlessly.

No. Something about the water gets Rogues nervous. So they don’t usually pursue.

I guess I shouldn’t complain, but it’s just weird. Technology has grown leaps and bounds, by now our enemy should be tracking us down without much trouble.

True, but don’t you sense a subtle magic casted on this ship?

Magic? Since when?

Since we have boarded the ship since the trip. I believe Shelby has casted a strong temporarily spell. The smell of her still lingers on this ship.

I thought it was strange why I could smell her even though it has been three days.

Still, we need to be diligent so we can protect Samantha.

I know. I made sure to keep either Jaz or Ray with her at all times.

I leaned over the rail, casting my gaze out the front. The waters splitted ways for the ship to smoothly sail through the river. Leaning over, I enjoyed the cool breeze even though everyone was tensed. This peace wasn’t everlasting, I felt that something big was going to happen very soon that put me on edge. It was one of those nagging feelings that I get once in awhile and it’s been building up to the point where I had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind..

My sense has never been wrong since the past six years, and every time it either got me into trouble or out of it. My stomach nervously did a couple of flips, my hands felt sweaty, and I could feel the back of my hand start to itch just out of the blues. I know it’s a bit superstitious, but the itch behind my pinky was the worst feeling that I got.

I couldn’t sleep, and instead I was pacing back and forth. There were a couple of times, when I took three hour nap, but after that I was awake, trying to get this nervous feeling out of the back of my mind. When it became to unbearable to stay inside the room, I finally came out to just calm myself down. Eventually staring at nature did make me feel a lot better.

Adam walked over and leaned against the rail next to me. He glanced out the river water, letting his black hair flutter backwards. Today he didn’t put on the usual gel in his hair and instead he allowed it to be left alone as it is. From the look that he has now and the look when he’s in a complete different hairstyle is vastly different from day and night. For some reason he look a lot better with his hair down, he looked less intimidating and more caring which is a bit surprising.

“Adam,” I called..

“Yes?”

“Why don’t you leave your hair down more often?”

“Because it look sexier on me.” He snickered.

Does vampire always this arrogant? Seline asked.

Uh…yes. I replied back to her. I rolled my eyes at his answer. “You look like an arrogant prick that needs to be slapped a couple times for having his head to high in the clouds to often.”

“That bad?” He turned towards me, leaning his arm against the rail. Something about what I said made him chew his lower lips. I couldn’t help but think the way he chewed his lips was cute, no better yet sexy. Damn, I’m going crazy.

“Yes, you look whole lot better with your hair down. I like it.”

“You do?” Adam was surprised in what I had said.

“Yep, you look cute.” Did I just say that? For some reason, I just blurted whatever was thinking about the consequence. These days my mouth was like a loose waterworks. I feared one of these day I would be misinterpreted.

“Cute? I don’t think that’s the right word for a man. It’s a bit….demeaning. Girls are supposed to look cute.”

I huffed. “Nope.” I popped the ‘p’ with my lips. “You don’t understand, yes girls like charming bad boys in the beginning, but in the end that wins a girl’s heart is the kind, loving, loyal, and cute guys.”

Like my mate. Seline proudly stated. Ken is a perfect mate for us. You need to go and talk to him.

Please no more. Ken is still someone I don’t trust. I retorted back at her.

What are you talking about. You should trust our mate.

No, he’s not our mate. He’s yours. Please don’t push your ideals on me. We’re not a like in anyways.

Seline snorted.

“I see.” Adam replied. He seem to furrow his brow, thinking over what I had just. His hand tapped the metal rail. A flicker of light danced through his eyes, making him softer and warm.

These couple of weeks, Adam just seem a lot more strange. He wasn’t his usual arrogant self, he had become more gentle. Maybe I’m thinking too much after that strange hug three days ago, but he a bit different. People wouldn’t notice it, but I did.

“Is something wrong?” I couldn’t help but ask. For him to be thinking so much in what I had made me feel strangely nervous. I’m not some kind of relationship guru, but someone like him who had have hundreds of girls in the past to date, my words probably might have been more of a slap to his face.

“No. Not at all.” He turned back and gazed back into the river.

The silence was unbearable. I shifted from one leg to another, wondering when he would spout out his usual arrogant words, but he didn’t. He was just standing there as if his lips were sewn shut.

“You’re unusually quiet.”

“I am? I don’t think so.”

I bite my lips, unsure how to answer or even start a conversation. “So…..um……how many girls have you actually dated?” Gah! Stupid me. Why did I even ask such questions?

“4.”

“That’s it?” My cheek twitched. For a playboy his body count was a lot lower than I have expected. Especially because I have heard so many females that states he’s amazing in bed.

“Why you thought it was more?”

“Absolutely.” I harshly replied without a second thought, catching Adam off guard. For a moment there I thought I saw him slip.

“Do you think of me as wild playboy?”

“Yes.” I strongly spoke, not taking a single word back.

“You kill me Tila. I’m not that much of a playboy.”

“Are you kidding yourself? Your age, your look, I bet at least half the population of the females in the world has somehow ended up in your bed.”

This time Adam swerved his head over towards me and look at me in complete disbelief. “I am a gentleman. I don’t just throw myself at just anyone, you know.”

“That’s not what the other girls around you say.” I shrugged, not completely believing in his words. “Plus your a vampire, I have a very hard time believing you don’t go into full erotic bodily contact when you’re feeding.” I waved my hand in front of me accentuating the words.

“Full erotic bodily contact?” Adam burst out laughing. He almost fell off the side of the ship from laughing to hard. I couldn’t help but stare at him strangely at his sudden burst of frenzy laughs.

“What? Is it not true?”

“Tila. You truly full of surprises. Who would’ve thought you would have a dirty mind.” He wiped away his tears then tried to straighten himself, but failed a couple of times.

“Uh, I think you got this wrong. The dirty mind is you.”

“Tila. Tila. Tila. I do not just suck the blood out of my prey. That is for people I am intimate with. Why share such a lovely experience with someone I don’t want to have a long term relationship with? I drink from a glass when I need blood, hypnotizing them in their own delusional sexual fantasies to create the best blood.”

“Lovely experience?” Did he just say that? Getting bitten by the neck is some kind of special thing? Wait…..Werewolves actually do bite their mate on the neck to claim their other half. My hands slipped up onto my neck and frowned at the thought of getting bitten by a werewolf’s mate. It just didn’t sit to well with me.

Eventually our mate will claim us. Seline huffed proudly. When he does, we will both become mated together.

No. Sounds like a bad idea. I tried to shut her voice out, because she was starting to get on my nerves.

“Yes, biting is a sign of intimacy. Plus I don’t throw myself around with other woman that easily.” He smuggly spoke. “I am no whore.”

“That’s not how the world sees you.” I mumbled. Adam cocked his head and his handsome face seem to search for my eyes.

“Why do you want a taste?”

“No.” I caught his gaze and flatly denied. Amusement filled his eyes at my defiance. His hands reached up towards my face and gently stroke my cheeks. An electrifying feeling erupted on contact, shooting up and down my spine. I was completely startled by his actions that I jumped back.

Adam turned his hand around and stared. He gaze at his hand, wondering what just happened. “Interesting.” He spoke casually as if his hand was some kind of special specimen that he never saw in his life. “You felt it too?”

“Yes, you shocked me.” I replied blankly. Quickly I reoriented my thoughts.

He mumbled something underneath his breath that I couldn’t even hear. Even though my sense of hearing were sharp, his choice of words were jumbled up into foreign languages that I didn’t even know existed.

“Is there a problem?”

“No. I was just surprised.”

I finally calmed down and waited for him to reply. Instead he seem to be deep in thought, flipping his hand a couple more times. Then he sighed as if what he was thinking about wasn’t possible, and with a shook of his head, he turned back to lean on the rail.

Weird. This is really weird. He haven’t joked or even tried to advance towards me in the past three days. Is he…..broken? Maybe life finally hit him hard in the back of his head, causing him to lose function in part of his brain. I don’t know, but it made me a bit nervous. The silence between us felt like forever.

I was rocking back and forth, trying to figure out what to say. There were times, when I reached over and grabbed the rail, clenching and unclenching as if I was debating on jumping into the water. That’s how bad it was. Silence between the two of us was torture.

“Have you ever fallen in love?” Adam voice cut through my frazzled mind.

I almost tipped over from his unusual question that I snapped my head towards him in complete disbelief. Did he just asked about love? The vampire who have gone through more relationship than me and lived for over a thousand years asked about love? Preposterous. I must be having a mental breakdown from stress right now and I’m hearing strange things today.

“Have you ever fallen in love, Tila?” Adam asked again. Reassuring that my hearing was completely fine nor was I going crazy.

“Me? Love?” I squeaked.

“Yes.”

“First love or true love?”

“Both?”

“Why are you so curious?” I couldn’t help but ask. He was asking quite a lot of personal question.

“I just want to know more about you.”

“I see…well, my first love would’ve been when I was a little kid. There was a two boys that I used hang out with. One was the one that I liked and the other was someone who was my video game buddy. At first I only saw him as an annoying boy who bothered me to no end, while I played with my video game friend. We used to play the latest games especially the Super Mario Brothers. We blasted through those games as if it was candy.” A lopsided smile erupted on my face, thinking about the whole time we play together and had fun. “I didn’t figure out till later that I like the boy who I found annoying till later on. We used to go camping together and eventually I started to like him. Though as year went by, he started to hang out with the wrong group of people, eventually he moved away with his father, so I never got the chance. I didn’t have the courage to tell him that I liked him and still to this day I regret not saying it.”

“A typical first love story.” He chuckled.

“You make it sound like you have a better first love story.” I huffed, not liking how he was laughing at me.

“No, absolutely not. My first love died before I could even say that I liked her.”

My jaws dropped, unable to say anything else. “Um….sorry?”

Adam waved his hand in front of him. “Nothing to worry about. Death is part of life.” The way he said that had a hint of solemn expression, making me wonder what was bothering him. “What about true love?”

“If I had one would you see me standing here single right now?”

“You’re absolutely right.”

“Then what about you?”

“I never fell in love. Out of the people that I had a intimate relationship they were only one who would crop to mind where I was very fond of. Other than that, I am still looking for my Belladona.”

“You vampires need to change the name of your soulmates into something different. The way you describe Belladonna’s last time makes me wonder if there more of a poison to your soul than a good thing.”

“You think so? I’m actually quite fond of it. It sounds elegant. Plus they are our bittersweet poison that we can’t get enough of to die for.”

“I never heard love to be said in that way. Sounds really bad. How do you know when you found your Belladona?”

“The taste of their blood. The first taste becomes an fatal addiction.” His tongue slipped out and licked his lips. His head turned towards me, giving me a strange ravenous hunger. I scooted a little bit further away from him, because he was making me a bit nervous. For his hunger was quickly quenched when he saw me step away.

“An if your Belladona dies, what happen to you?”

“We change into monsters and eventually get killed by hunters. Our endless thirst becomes unbearing that we seek an end to the ravenous hunger. Majority of us can’t stop it and it consumes them, becoming monsters. Sucking away the blood of our prey into empty husk, killing out of pleasure, but never being satisfied with the exquisite wine that we we had of our Belladona. For us vampires, this is the mark of our true end. For immortality is a curse in our kind’s life, never finding a rest but to continue living an empty husk of a shell. For when we find our Belladonnas, we feel once again the spirit of life that we have once forgotten.”

“That sounds a bit similar to a soul mate for werewolves.” I spoke, thinking over what Adam had said. They were in actuality a lot of similarities that I didn’t expect. “Werewolves have what you call mates and so far there is only one for us that the moon goddess has given.”

“I have heard about your werewolf’s courtship.”

“Just like when their mate dies and they become mated, not even soon after their other half follows after. Some kills themselves, other dies by other hands, while other just live on as an empty husk till eventually they die of a natural cause. Majority of them usually goes insane and get killed.”

“Is Ken your mate?” Adam asked with a strained voice.

“He’s Kimberly Li’s mate. Not mine. “ I blurted out. The thought of him being my mate felt wrong. It just didn’t seem right even if I tried to accept it.

What are you talking about?! He is our mate! Seline was shouting in riot.

I’m not Kimberly Seline. Please do not throw your ideal mate crap at me. I don’t feel anything for him.

You will eventually. You promised to go on a date with him. So instead of talking to this vampire we should be enjoying our bonding time with our mate.

Oh shut up Seline. Let me do things my way and don’t force love on me. I don’t like that or I’ll stuff you back in your cage.

This time Seline went silent and instead angrily curled up into a ball.

“He’s Kimberly Li’s mate?” Adam asked confused.

“Yes, he rejected her six years ago.” I don’t know why I was telling him my life story, but for him to hear it made me have a bit more of the stress that I have accumulated relieved.

“That is something unheard of. Even for your kind, especially since I heard that rejected mates tend to go crazy as day goes by.”

“Well that’s the thing, I didn’t.” Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Seline already was from her outspoken words.

“You didn’t?”

“I mean she didn’t.”

Ugh…talking in third person wasn’t easy. Forget it, what does it matter if I tell him the whole truth. Adam was a vampire, and I don’t think my mate would be a vampire anyways. Plus he’s a good listener, even though he can be a bit outspoken at time. In the past six years, he had kept a fare share of secrets without spilling them out. I took a deep breathe. Here goes, there nothing wrong with telling someone. Keeping such a large secret does drive me a bit crazy at times.

“Actually, can you keep a secret.”

“I can.”

“Swear under the moon goddess that you won’t tell anyone.”

“My dear little angel, my lips have always been sealed in secrets.”

“Come on Adam. I’m serious about this.” I was starting to become less and less inclined to tell him. If by the next ten seconds he didn’t do what I asked, I was just going to never mention it again.

Adam curiously gazed at me not sure what to say.

“Never mi-” I started to spoke with defeat. There was just no point.

“I, Adam Julius Everston swears to the moon goddess that I would not speak of our conversation that we hold tonight to anyone else.” Adam declared. It completely caught me off guard. “There now I said it. Tell me, my little angel. What’s on your mind?”

At first I couldn’t say anything. It just sounded to fantastical that even any sane person wouldn’t believe in what I had to say. Getting to this point was a lot more difficult than I thought, Adam was the rare few I would have intellectual conversations at times. He was becoming a friend that I could converse with even though he had his flirtatious moments. Was it even a good idea to tell him about such problems?

“Don’t worry. I don’t easily judge you as a crazy.” He smugly snickered. I felt a bit of my stress and fear wash away, and instead giving rise to my courage.

“Do you believe in reincarnation?”

“Yes.”

For someone who’s immortal this was quite a shocker to hear coming out of his mouth.

“You do?”

“I have met quite a few reincarnated souls who had their memories intact of their previous lives.So you are saying that you are one aren’t you.”

He caught on quick. I could say that I have been reincarnated, or maybe soul swapped. I don’t know, but reincarnated sounds for some reason sounded right. I’m not sure how I knew this, but I had this strange feeling washed over me, telling me that my answer was correct.

“Since the day that Kimberly Li got rejected by Ken, I awoke” I took a deep breath and let it out. “My name is Tila Leo and I am not Kimberly Li. I died from being accidentally electrocuted. Sounds a bit like multiple personality disorder doesn’t it?”

”It can, but they have been quite a few cases where multiple souls resides in one body. Possession does happen, Tila and it gets pretty nasty. I have seen things in this world that one would believe is just a figment of one’s imagination. A simple reincarnation isn’t much of a surprise.”

“I see. I didn’t know.” I was glad that he believed a little bit more about me.

“What happened to Kimberly Li?”

“She’s gone.” I bluntly replied. That was the best answer that I could give him. It just didn’t make sense on what had happened to her for her to just up and leave her body.

“That sounds a bit strange. Usually for people who are reincarnated they would still retain their main self and not allow their past self to completely take over.”

I shrugged my shoulder unable to say anything else. Even still I was glad that Adam was willing to listen to my ramble, especially something that anyone would’ve thought I was insane.

“I’ll ask around if there has been any similar cases.”

“Thanks.”

“No. Thank you for sharing a bit about yourself. That must’ve been difficult for you to say.”

“Yea. It was.” I genuinely smiled. “Well then I’ll talk to you later. I got to do a couple of things.”

“Do you mind if we have another night out together?”

“Sure, why not. You listened to my woes. I’ll listen to yours next time.”

“How about tomorrow?”

“So soon?”

“If you don’t want to I understand.”

“No. I don’t mind.”

“Then tomorrow night it shall be.”

“Will do.”

“Good night, Tila.”

“Good night.”

Adam stood underneath the moonlight, starring up into the dark sky. Thinking over the conversation that he had. Before I completely turned around and left for a brief moment I saw the edge of his lips curl upwards.

http://enlightendragons.com>