Then came Sofia Claremont, and the rest, as they say, was history.
Chapter 13: Kyle
Brigitte was the mayor’s daughter. She was kind, beautiful, sweet and down-to-earth. I was in love with her, but then so was every bachelor in our town. I had an advantage against all them though. I was her best friend. My father was her father’s bodyguard. For this reason, our family was given our own cottage within the mayor’s estate.
I grew up being the envy of all the other boys in school, because I always got to be around her. We were such close friends, everyone thought that we were sweethearts. We weren’t. In fact, I had to endure being Brigitte’s confidante all throughout our days in school. She told me about every boy she liked – none of them being me. I hated hearing about them and how much she liked them, but I loved listening to her talk, so I bore the heaviness of heart her every story brought me.
As we grew up, she left the estate to go to nursing school and I stayed behind to be my father’s apprentice, since we couldn’t afford to have me go through university. We wrote letters to each other frequently. Again, she told me about the young men she fancied and also those that fancied her. I found myself happy whenever she rejected one of them, and though I was hurt on her behalf when she was heartbroken, I was also relieved. I always believed that we belonged together.
By the time she returned, she was a woman in full bloom and I was even more stricken by her. I was also assigned the job to become her bodyguard, something that pleased me at first, because I would get to spend more time with her than anyone else. However, I soon realized that it was cruel and unusual punishment, because I had to stand in the sidelines as she fell in love.
I will never forget the night he broke her heart. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to punish him for making her feel like trash. I couldn’t imagine how he couldn’t have seen how beautiful a person she was.
She was so heartbroken; she was bed-ridden and sick for three days, so sick that I wasn’t even allowed to visit her. After the end of the third day, she finally allowed me to come to her chambers.
“Brigitte… Are you feeling better now?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think my heart will ever stop aching,” she sobbed.
I couldn’t help but notice how pale she looked as she gulped at the sight of me. I edged on the bed closer to her. “He’s not worth all these tears, Brigitte. He doesn’t deserve you.” I pulled her into my arms and whispered assurances in her ears.
“Thank you, Kyle. You’re such a great guy. If only I could see you as more than just my best friend… If only I could fall in love with you…”
Her words were a stab in the heart. My brain began reeling at what she was implying. I was still trying to absorb what she just told me, when she threw me another shocker.
“I’m sorry for what I’m about to do, Kyle, but I can’t stand the thought of being alone in this.”
I was about to ask her what she meant, hoping for dear life that my voice wouldn’t break when I asked her. Before the words could come out of my lips, however, I felt two fangs bite into my neck.
After breaking my heart, Brigitte turned me into a vampire so she wouldn’t ever be alone, so that she would always have me. I loved her, but she did not deserve my love. When I saw her get killed by the hunters, a part of me was relieved, because I was finally free. After escaping the hunters that night, I found The Shade. I also found Anna, and once again found myself on the losing end of an unrequited love.
“Where are we going?” Anna asked, her body trembling, her eyes wide with fear as Ian and I led her out of The Catacombs.
“It’s alright, Anna,” I tried to soothe her. “You’re just going to spend a little time with Corrine so that she can figure out if we can still get you back to who you were.”
Clearly, from the blank stare she was shooting my way, she didn’t quite understand anything that I said.
“Everything’s going to be fine, Anna,” Ian began rubbing his hand over her back. “We can go to the gardens after. Maybe you can go get some roses.”
A smile lit up Anna’s face. “Roses!” She nodded with enthusiasm. “I like roses!”
I swallowed back the jealousy. I knew that Anna and Ian had some sort of connection between them, one I was afraid to find more about, but it was there and I couldn’t deny it no matter how much it bothered me. And whatever that connection was, it had something to do with roses.
We eventually made our way to The Sanctuary, where Corrine was already waiting. Before she was brought to The Shade to become its powerful witch, Corrine was actually in college as a psychology major. Sometimes, when around her, I found myself antsy because I always felt like she was evaluating me. I had no idea if anyone else felt the same way I did when around her.
“Hello, Anna,” Corrine greeted in a rather formal manner. “How are you?”
“I’m well.” Anna nodded, looking like a deer in headlights. “We’re going to get roses later. Ian promised.”
I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but I could swear I saw Ian smirk. My gut clenched. Is this forever my story? Will I forever be the man in love with a woman who will never love me back?
I tried to push the thoughts away as I watched Corrine lead the beautiful young woman to a room, leaving Ian and me instructions to do as we pleased while we waited, but to make sure we were around when they were done.
Any time I was alone with Ian, I found myself feeling tense and unsure what to do or how to even spark a conversation with him. It seemed the only thing we had in common was Anna. I was pleased to find out that Ian wasn’t up for much conversation.
I found myself taking a trip down memory lane… to the day I first saw Anna in The Shade…
Sam and I were instructed to guard the southeast area of the Crimson Fortress. As with any guard duty in The Shade, the whole thing was routine – something we did at the kingdom, because there really wasn’t much else left to do. Sam and I were mostly just fooling around and trying to figure out how to wile the time away until the end of our guard duty.
We’d been at it for a couple of hours when we heard rustling along a nearby bush.
“I’ll check it out,” I told Sam and approached the area where the sound came from.
Behind the bushes, we knew that there was an opening that led to a large lake. I peered past the bushes and onto the lake and found myself drawing a breath when I saw her. I didn’t know her name, but her beauty took my breath away. Long, silky, jet black hair, big moss green eyes… A lovely feminine form, immersed in the shimmering water…