Here the long awaited eighth chapter of SIW. I had this edited version in my hands for a few days but I wanted to be sure I was ok with submitting it. Wanting the little details in place, it can drive a person nuts...
Many thanks to Nulli Para Ora and EvilJ for their proofreading time and an even bigger thank you goes to Mikothebaby for editing. High five to those in the Guild, never could have gotten this far without you!!
Another big thank you for Nulli for providing "Haunted Legacy" and to Evilsnoman for providing another awesome emotional poem. You'll only see parts of them poem but you will get to read it completely eventually!
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Enjoy the read!
Chapter Eight : Insecurities and Initiations!
Calls were made, things were settled and put in place, people moved around. At long last, Adam had to make his appearance. They had agreed that he would appear to take a daily flight home. The flight would return the next day just after noon. They agreed that small window should be enough time to be convincing enough for Adam to help out on the pack issue he was called back for.
In reality, Adam would board the flight, go to the restroom and then Merlin would teleport him out and to John's house. The next day they would do the same so he could come off the flight. All this done just to thwart any possible spies Adam might have picked up.
Once they were all together again and all of the preparations were made, it was time to move to John's house. Through their mental connection, he let Gabriella know he was coming over with a few guests and if she could clear the living room. There was a light shimmer and a second later the party stood in the middle of the room.
John turned around, searching for his Gabriella, wanting to make sure they hadn't surprised her too much.
He smiled as his eyes landed on the tall woman. After all these centuries, it still amazed him how beautiful she was. Without hesitating he walked over and enveloped the dark beauty in his arms, his nose buried in the tiny ringlets of her black hair. He loved the smell of oranges. She was addicted to them and the scent of them was always around her, just as much as if it was part of her persona.
He didn't care for a moment what the others would think but his own lips sought out her lush pink lips and devoured her. Each kiss felt like it was their first and he never got enough of sweeping her off her feet like this. The moan he heard just proved he still had it and he smiled against her lips as he reluctantly let her go. Holding her close he turned towards the others and simply smiled.
"Guys, this is my wonderful mate and wife Gabriella," he introduced her. John turned towards her and started to explain who was who, starting with Adam.
"You might remember someone called Adam from my time in 'Nam. I can finally introduce him to you. This is Adam O'Neill and these two gentlemen are Ed Whelan and Merlin, friends of Adam and here to assist him."
Gabriella extended her hand to all of them and returned the greeting.
"It's a pleasure to get to know you all, though I do wish it were under different circumstances. John told me he has told you partly why he reached out and is offering help. Let us sit and grab a drink. Maybe then I can fill you in as to why we want this solved and why there isn't much that we can do," Gabriella said to them politely.
Her voice seemed to always have a seductive lilt to it and it didn't take much convincing for the men to do as asked. Gabriella sauntered over to a cabinet to the side and put some glasses on a tray.
"A bit of whiskey for all of you or do some of you prefer something else?" she asked, looking over her shoulder.
"I think after all of this a nice glass of whiskey is just the break for us," Merlin replied, nodding politely.
Gabriella laughed, "Oh I'm sure you will appreciate this one. It's from our private stash; I thought tonight needed just the little bit extra."
She came over with the tray and handed each them a small Schott Zwiesel glass with the bottom filled with what smelled like very old whiskey. Merlin smelled his drink and a huge grin appeared on his face; "You sure know how to welcome people. This is luxurious and rare!"
Gabriella just smiled as she handed out the rest of the glasses. More appreciative words were spoken as the men took their sips of the sixty plus year old Glenfiddich presented to them. They enjoyed this rare piece of whiskey for a few moments longer before Gabriella got their attention again.
"It's time I told the rest of how Derrick turned against us and build his private little empire."
****
Let me first start with Jassy and Davinia, our first two children. We met Jassy when she was four years old, which was around the thirteen hundreds. All of her family had died due to the Black Plague. She was huddled between their corpses and the humans didn't want to take her because they were afraid she had the ugly disease too and had left her there to die. We had taken it upon ourselves to scout for any survivors and help them out.
But Jassy touched us. We tried to leave her with the nuns but she wouldn't have any of it. She wouldn't release us and every attempt resulted in a huge tantrum. We talked about that long and hard. We hadn't really wanted to bring a child into our life style. In a span of three days the little munchkin had wormed her way into our hearts and in the end we decided to raise her ourselves.
We tried to hide as much as we could from our true nature, that actually went pretty well since we can actually walk in the sun. She grew up to be a smart young lady and when she turned twenty-five she confronted us. No matter how well we tried, she had figured out something was a bit off. We had been honest with her about everything else and only a single look told us enough that she would keep our secret.
Once she knew she wanted to tag along a few times, but we discouraged her as much as we could. You see we don't just feed, at least not back in those days. We never killed our dinner, so to speak, but we did like to have some fun. We did everything together, that included feeding. Whoever was lucky enough to be with us was cared for and everything was done with mutual consent. It's most of those people who ended up being our loyal fledglings.
This wasn't a part of our lives we wanted to share with her in much detail; it was John and mine alone. Because we're so old, we only had to feed every few months. Smarty-pants as Jassy was, she figured out about our little get togethers and finally understood our bond and never asked about it anymore.
She never followed us, but more and more started to express her need to be truly ours in every way. Not in the way of lovers, but after being raised by us she really wanted to be connected to us. We did have the odd fledgling, people who had always been loyal to us, who served us well.
It's then we told her our own heritage. Again we never lied about it, we just never told her. John is 2130 years old. I'm just over 2500. Gabriella is the name I've used for the last few centuries. My real name and title would shock you a little. So would John's. But that is a story for another time. Back to our children.
We wanted to grace Jassy the best way we saw fit and after presenting the option to her, together with the vow of secrecy around it, she agreed to be sired by both of us. This meant she would get both our memories and both our powers. Since she got both, she never had to go through the phase our other fledglings have too. Learn to control their hunger, adapt to a nocturnal life at first. Walking in daylight is not something that just is; you have to be old to do that. At least a thousand years old.
Jassy could walk in daylight from the day we sired her, she never had to fight the hunger and just like us she only needed to feed every few months. Over time we took on many identities and traveled the world. Some centuries later we came across Davinia, or rather Jassy did.
During the Revolution we lived in Paris, France. We kept a low profile and just enjoyed the entertainment of those times. That didn't last long as you can gather. We were packed and ready to go, the carriage was waiting up front when Jassy stumbled inside with a tiny bundle held close to her chest.
As it turned out her parents were killed. The babe was clutching to her mother when Jassy heard her cries. The mother was breathing slowly and as she felt the babe being taken away she just whispered her name with her last breath. We all fell in love with her instantly and we never doubted we were going to raise her. We left and moved to a remote area. Only this time we never hid our true nature, thinking it would be futile, we just taught her never to tell a soul about it.
She grew up to be a beautiful and smart woman, just like our Jassy. We loved her just as much. When she turned thirty things took a turn for the worst. She got sick. In this day and age we would have found out it was a rare case of ovary cancer. It had spread throughout her body and she weakened every day. It tore us all apart. We didn't want to lose her. We talked to her, explained everything and gave her the choice. We could ease her suffering or sire her as her own, just like Jassy.
She didn't want to leave us behind and the rest, as they say, is history. We gained a second true child. We were happy with our little family and quickly got back to our "normal" routine.
Again, we kept moving around from place to place. We ended up in Europe around the 1920's. The First World War had ended and we hoped it would help us stay hidden amongst all the rebuilding going on. John and I did our thing and Jassy and Davinia did theirs. They ran into a young boy, Derrick. Barely dry behind his ears but he worshipped the ground they walked on.
He followed them around like a puppy. At first it was quite sweet and he had us all fooled. He weaseled his way into all of our hearts. After a while it became clear he suspected we were more than we let on and Davinia slipped. We cursed at her for that but as I said, Derrick had us all fooled. He promised not to tell and so far he still hasn't, not even up to today.
He first lived on his own, but after a few months we were all so smitten with him that we offered him to live with us. We were sure, since he knew, that he wouldn't have issues with the way we lived. Time went by and he seemed the perfect son. We got him the best education money could buy. John taught him how to fight and defend himself.
When he turned twenty-eight things started to change. One night he came home beaten and bloody. He didn't want to go to the hospital so I healed him with my blood. The month after the same thing happened, than John healed him. It was our turn to follow him and that is when we found out he was gambling and losing a lot. Money never was and will be an issue for us. He had a large monthly allowance provided by us, but as it turned out, the second it was deposited, he would spend it in two to three days and the rest of the month he gathered debt upon debt.
Little did we know, but he was doing this on purpose. We thought the gambling was his problem. We were totally wrong. Once he knew we found out about the gambling, he started playing us like a true addict. Promising he'd quit and whatever excuse he could come up with. I still don't know how he managed to do it, but he managed to sneak away from us on numerous occasions.
Than he was dropped on our doorstep, more dead than alive and we were lost as to what to do. We cared for him despite everything that had happened.
