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.