CHAPTER NINE - Hiliad's life story
"I'm one thousand years old."
"That's not enough. Have you ever been in love?" I challenged him. I really did want to know.
"I would loveโ" he said, rocking the empty glass of Sheep's blood in his hand.
"No. You do as I ask and then I'll give you another one." The ball was in my court, then. "If I am to trust you, Hiliad, you have to talk to me."
We stared at the other for a least a minute. "You're a jerk," I said, went to the kitchen, retrieved his damned blood and returned, handing it to him with attitude. "Talk." I sat down and waited.
"Yes, I was in love ... once." His voice changed dramatically, almost sad, almost. It lasted a split second. "Now, what we'll do isโ"
"What happened?"
"You are nosey."
"I am curious. I don't take you as one to fall in love. Was it after you were changed?"
He nodded, took a sip of his drink then went to the fireplace and stood with his back to me. "It was before I changed Liza. I thought I loved Liza because ... I was in Stirling, Scotland when I saw Elizabeth for the first time. She was the most beautiful woman ... I watched her for months before I thought of how to get her attention."
I knew how difficult it was for him to talk about her because he kept redirecting his thoughts.
"One night she went walking in the garden with her canine. I made sure she saw me coming so as not to scare her." I could hear the smile on his lips then. "Her voice was the sweetest sound I had ever heard. She was seventeen and her parents were pressuring her to marry. She didn't want to."
"You courted her."
His shoulders rose in a small chuckle. "I haven't heard that expression in years."
"What can I say? I'm old fashioned. What happened, Hiliad?" I asked as softly and gently as possible.
"I met her almost every night for months. And I fell in love with her ... hard."
"Did she die of old age?"
He gave me a quick glance before he turned back to the fireplace. "No. I was about to ask her to marry meโI didn't tell her what I wasโwhen one night she told me her parents had found her a husband and they were to be married in a month."
"So, you changed her."
"I tried. Her blood was so delectable and I ... I ..." Hiliad looked away in shame and pain that I didn't understand. "I went too far. When we drain a human we leave just a little, enough for them to be strong enough to drink our blood then lay with them in the earth to strengthen the Maker-child bond."
Then I understood, and my heart broke for him, although I shivered slightly. "You drained her completely."
"Yes." I put my hand on his knee. He glared at me. "Do not pity me," he said sharply.
I promptly removed my hand but I wanted to know more. "And Liza? How did you come to change her?"
"Liza was a Madam of a brothel for almost twenty years, and she knew what I was. I'd gone to her girls for years, for the women's ... companionship and their blood. But I'd never been with her. The one night we were she confessed her worst fear was to grow old. She asked me to change her, so I did. Liza is a very strong-willed woman and I respect her greatly. I knew she wouldn't be a difficult child."
"Are you two still in a relationship?"
He shook his head and sat down beside me on the couch. "We were for a couple of decades but we agreed to end it. I did ... do care for her so I didn't release her, although she wanted me to."
"Release?"
"A maker can release their child, as we refer to them. We agreed on having a business relationship and we've been together ever since."
I took a deep breath of relief at having known the truth. "Thank you, Hiliad. But I don't understand. Why me?"
He smiled genuinely. "You have strength in you that intrigues me. You taste like Elizabeth. You smell like her."
"But Hiliad, I am not her and I will not become her."
"No, you're not. I realize that now. She never asked any questions." At first I thought he was angry because he'd lost his adoring smile. But then he laughed.