Bound by Destiny, page 15
part #3 of Shohala Falls Series
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Nolan asked with concern and wiped his thumb under my eye to remove a tear. “You did it. You saved your mother…and your dad. There’s no reason for you to be sad.”
I tore my gaze away from the castle to look at him. “My grandmother wants me to tell you that she’s very proud of you. She said that she knew you would be a great man one day.” I paused to swallow past the lump in my throat as Izola’s regal voice continued to fill my mind. “She also said that she’s very happy our love found a way to save us both…and that she always knew it would.”
Nolan stared at me in shock as his eyes watered. “Is she really talking to you?” he asked with a shaky voice.
I nodded. “She is.”
Nolan dropped to his knee in front of me and opened his mouth to speak, but I quickly stopped him and gave him a gift I knew he needed to be at peace with his past. I allowed my grandmother to speak to him through me. It wasn’t something I was even aware that I could do until that moment. It was an odd, intrusive feeling, but when I felt her presence inside me, I retreated into my mind and allowed Izola control of my body. It was the most unreal thing I had ever done…I could see myself talking to Nolan, but it was her voice that came from my mouth.
“Rise, Warrior. For you shall never kneel before anyone ever again.”
Nolan looked up with wide eyes and his mouth agape. “Your Majesty?” he asked with uncertainty.
Izola bowed my head slightly. “You have done well, Nolan. You have proven that my faith in you was well deserved. You protected my granddaughter. More than that…you loved her. And for that, I will be eternally grateful. Kaia may have been the one who saved our people and destroyed the vampires…but it was you who saved her. Therefore, it was you who saved the world. She can relax now and finally know peace with you by her side. As long as she has you, the darkness can’t corrupt her. Continue to love her, Nolan. You are the light in her life that gives her the strength to fight the evil she was born with. Without you, she’s not whole…and she won’t survive. She needs you now more than ever. The two of you were meant to be together. And you have my blessing for a very long, happy life together.”
A tear rolled down Nolan’s cheek as he stared at me, he appeared to stunned to speak.
Izola reached a hand out and rested it on his shoulder. And I felt her presence change from being joyful to being more serious. Even though she was nothing more than a spirit inside me, I felt that she still worried about something. I was about to reclaim my body so that I could ask her about the feeling when she continued to speak. “You gave a great sacrifice to save Kaia…your life. And in return, she gave it back to you. As she fed from your body, her magic healed you and bonded you to her forever. As soulmates, your bond with her is stronger than anything in the world…and it is what will allow you to sustain her life for all eternity.”
Nolan’s brow furrowed as he looked into my eyes but heard Izola’s voice from my mouth. “I don’t understand, Your Majesty, what are you saying? How can I sustain her life? I’m just like the other’s now. My blood will no longer give her what she needs.”
“You are not like the other’s, Nolan. I don’t expect you to completely understand what I’m saying, just know that you are more than the others Kaia has bonded with…the lifeblood of her soulmate is what brought her back from the dead, but it was the pureness of it that will forever satisfy her thirst with only a few drops.”
“Are you saying that Kaia can feed from me?” Nolan asked with disbelief.
Izola nodded. “An ounce of your blood is stronger than the lifeblood of a hundred Lenoi. And now that your life force is bonded to Kaia’s, you will live for as long as she does.”
“Hh..how do you know all this?” Nolan stuttered.
Izola smiled. “There are many secrets that await the dead on the other side. Death has its advantages and we are allowed to see things that the living cannot. Unfortunately, my time here is coming to an end. Before I go, I want you to know how very proud I am of the man you grew up to be, Nolan. If there was ever a doubt in your heart, you should know that I have always loved you like a son, my warrior.”
My grandmother’s parting words stuck in my head as I took over control of my body. The onslaught of information she provided us about my bond and future with Nolan set my mind at ease. I blinked several times as my eyes came into focus and I was once again able to see out of them. “Nolan” I said his name, pleased to hear my own voice come from my mouth. “Do you think it’s true?” I asked with hope. “I don’t have to worry anymore about my hunger?”
He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me to his chest and kissed my forehead. “Only time will tell” he whispered.
I pulled back from him a bit and looked into his eyes as something he said to me a while back drifted through my mind. I smiled as I repeated his words back to him, “To some, time can be a curse. And to others, it can be a gift. It all depends on how you choose to view it.”
A corner of Nolan’s mouth lifted into a grin as he looked at me. “So there are rare occasions when you do pay attention to what I say.” He laughed.
“Sometimes” I replied. “And I think I know what you meant when you told me that…because time without you would most definitely be a curse. While, with you by my side for all eternity is the greatest gift I could ever receive.”
“That’s not exactly what I was going for…but I like your interpretation better.” He hugged me to him again and I rested my heart over his heart and reveled in the sound of it beating at a strong, steady rate.
When I looked to where our friends had been celebrating a little while ago, I noticed that only my mother and Drycus remained. Everyone else had returned to Menar to share the news of our victory. The sight of my parents standing side by side, both of them watching me with love in their eyes, reminded me that my work for the day wasn’t done. I needed to speak with my father.
With my hand firmly grasped in Nolan’s, we started toward my parents.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kaia
Back in my room in Menar, I looked at Drycus as he sat beside me on the sofa. His feelings of fear and nervousness reached out to me, covering me to the point that my body was tempted to start shaking as bad as he was. “Are you saying that you now remember everything from the moment Natalia changed you into a vampire?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, I do” he said and cut his eyes over to my mother as regret and sadness filled his face.
“But when you were a vampire, you didn’t remember how you were created. Why is that?”
Drycus returned his gaze to me as he responded, “I’m not sure. Maybe I just didn’t want to remember.” He paused and looked down at the floor. “I wish that ignorance would claim me now because I don’t want to know the horrid things I’ve done. Or that I’ve seen.” His voice dropped as he lifted his eyes to mine. “It’s like I’m still there…like it just happened. Their faces are so fresh in my mind. And the pain…the pain is so great that I feel as if my heart has been ripped from my chest.” He gasped as a tear rolled down his cheek.
I reached over and laid my hand on top of his as his pain and memories filled my head. I didn’t need him to elaborate to know what he was talking about. His mind was stuck in the past…to the day his family had been murdered. “I know” I whispered and sent out a surge of magic to heal whatever part of him I could. I knew I couldn’t fix his broken heart but I hoped I could at least heal his spirit. “What was done to you and your beautiful family was unfair…you deserved to be loved by your wife for a lifetime and you deserved to watch your children grow up. And I’m so sorry that was taken from you.” I paused as an unwanted image flashed in my mind. My heart clenched painfully at the knowledge not only had two children been taken from him, but also a third. “You’ve lost everything” I whispered more to myself than to Drycus.
I closed my eyes and saw Lucas’ face. The hatred in his eyes that had greeted me when I saw him standing behind me with a smug grin on his face after he’d stabbed me, reminded me that there was nothing I could have done to save him…despite how badly I’d wanted to. But that didn’t make it any easier to know that he was now dead and my father had lost yet another child.
Taking my moment of silent reflection as a sign I was distressed, Nolan stood from his seat in the chair across the room and started toward me at the same time my mom knelt by the end of the sofa and rested her hand on my arm to get my attention. I didn’t realize how upset I was or that I was crying until my mother spoke.
“You’re right, Kaia, your father has lost much in his life. But he has not lost everything. He still has you.”
I looked at her as my own fears swallowed me whole. Could my mother see through me enough to know that I was terrified my father’s feelings toward me hadn’t changed? That he still hated me as much now as he had when he was a vampire? All my life, I had dreamed of what it would be like to have my parents in my life and now I feared that reality wouldn’t live up to the fantasy I’d created in my mind. Despite how strong I was physically and magically, inside I felt like a scared a little girl who worried my father would never love me.
I was lost in thought when Drycus’ gentle voice reached my ears. “Your mother is correct, Kaia.”
I looked over at him and despite everything I knew about him and all the horrible things he’d done, my heart swelled with love for him. Not for the man who’d taken lives and laughed at the pain of others, or tortured my mother and done his best to destroy me…but for the man I saw in his eyes as he looked at me now. I no longer saw the monster who had haunted my dreams my entire life…instead, I saw the man I’d seen in his memories. The man who knew how to love. I saw a man who had a heart and I prayed that he would someday learn to love me.
With Nolan standing behind the sofa with his hands braced gently on my shoulders to offer support and encouragement, I said the words I never thought I would hear myself say. “I love you, Daddy.”
When Drycus leaned over and wrapped his arms around me in a gentle embrace, I completely lost it. His hold around me wasn’t restraining or meant to cause me harm…it was tender and reassuring. It was exactly what I always thought a father’s hug should feel like. Tears flowed down my cheeks as I tightened my arms around him, desperate to cling to him for as long as he would allow.
“And I love you, Kaia.”
Shocked by his words, I locked eyes with my father to see if there was truth to his statement. And I was surprised by what I saw. Before I had a chance to say anything, he continued to talk, “You may not believe me, but a part of me has always loved you from the moment I found out that you existed.” He paused to wipe away my tears. “But the evil inside me wouldn’t allow me to embrace the feeling. Instead, it suppressed my love for you, burying it so deep I couldn’t reach it…until you freed me.”
Drycus looked to my mother, then to Nolan and finally back to me. “If you will allow me, I will spend the rest of my life making sure you never feel unloved again. You are my daughter and I am proud to be your father.”
Too choked up to speak, I threw my arms around his neck and motioned for my mother and Nolan to join us in an embrace I hoped would wipe away all the pain of my past and help me look forward to an amazing future with the people I loved most in the world.
Prologue
Kaia
It was nearly two weeks ago that I led a small army into battle against my father, and things in Shohala Falls had changed drastically since our victory. It turned out my grandmother had been correct about me being able to feed from Nolan. It took very little of his blood to make me feel full for days before needing to feed again. It was a wonderful feeling to know that I would never again have to feel hunger or worry about hurting someone.
Immediately after the battle with the vampires, I spent several days locked in my room with my mother and father, trying to get to know them as best I could. Once I was convinced I didn’t need to fear that one of them would leave me again, I finally decided it was time for the Lenoi to reclaim our rightful place. I was a bit timid at first to be the one everyone now looked to for guidance and decision-making, but once it was established by unanimous vote that I was the new reigning queen, I had no choice but to accept my title.
I had fought hard to convince either my mother or Adora to accept the role as queen, but they both refused. My mother didn’t feel as if she had the confidence to lead, and Adora simply preferred being within the ranks of the warriors. She had grown accustomed to fighting over the last fifty years and no longer felt like royalty. As the last of my bloodline, it was left to me to rule our people. It was a task I wasn’t completely ready to take on, but it was also one I knew I couldn’t fail at.
Once the Lenoi and Pixie’s had returned to the castle to live, I returned Amber – the young girl I saved from Drycus - back to her parents and sent my human friends, Sarah and Gary back their world. Gary was in such bad mental condition that I had no choice but to erase his memory of what had been done to him. However, Sarah had pleaded with me not to do the same to her. She wanted to remember. And I was thankful for that, because she was now my ally in the human world. She had taken it upon herself to start investigating deaths that seemed vampire related and reporting them to me with the expectation that I would do something to stop the murders.
There was still work to be done in our world and the human world. While all the vampires in Shohala Falls had been destroyed or bonded to me, there were still many running free in the human world, slaughtering innocent people to satisfy their thirst. I had hoped that by saving my father, the changes he endured would somehow trickle down to those he’d created. But my hope was in vain. The vampires he’d created over the last century were still out there, destroying lives. And I saw it as my responsibility to stop them. Not only to save the humans, but to ease the pain I saw in my father’s eyes as news of more deaths in the human world reached us almost on a daily basis. He blames himself for each and every one of them. Every time I see devastation on his face, I’m reminded of why I can’t just settle into a nice, quiet little life with Nolan.
It would be so easy for us to just forget about the rest of the world and go on with our lives and perhaps even have a family of our own – and one day, we will – but not right now. Having him at my side as my husband is enough for now. Our wedding three days ago, wasn’t a grand ceremony, in fact, most of our people don’t even know about it. Only my parents and Alyse were in attendance, but that is exactly how I wanted it to be.
Now that my world is once again what it should be and I know the cure to vampirism, my destiny has changed. I no longer believe that I was born to destroy all vampires. Instead, I was born to save the ones that I can. To give them back the humanity that was stolen from them through no fault of their own.
My bite. My blood…is the key. And with Nolan, Alyse, my parents and the Lenoi warriors at my side, a new journey will begin. A journey to save the human world just as my grandmother before me, had tried to do. I’m sure that the battles that await us won’t be easy, but now that I have total control over my magic and thirst, I don’t fear the outcome. Instead, I looked forward to the day the fighting will stop and peace will reside in all worlds.
Elaine Pierson, Bound by Destiny
