Chapter 23

Chapter 23: History

 

I woke up alone.  The sun was shining through the window in Alex’s room, it felt warm on my face.  I stretched slowly and sat up.  I smiled and sighed happily, I couldn’t believe how content I felt.  I glanced at Alex’s side of the bed and saw the note he had left for me on his pillow.  His penmanship was so elegant; there was no way my chicken scratch writing could even compare to it. 

Anna,

I’ll be back soon

Alex

I smiled happily at his thoughtfulness, although I was curious about where he had gone. I got up and had a shower and once I was dressed I wondered into the kitchen to find something to eat.  I found Cassy sitting at the table munching on a bowl of cereal and reading the paper. 

“Morning?” I said a question in my greeting.  She looked up and smiled, her vivid sapphire blue eyes full of amusement.

“Morning indeed.  I’m not sure how you’re going to get through a day of school if you’re going to sleep so much,” she giggled shaking her head at me. 

“Where is everyone?” I asked. 

“Max and Katie are in the study, everyone else is hunting,” she replied watching my expression for changes.

“Oh, I see.  And James?” I asked. 

“He went home last night around ten.  He had to be in the office early because he wanted to do some research on your dad.” Cassy informed me.  I nodded my understanding.  She looked at me thoughtfully,

“So, I guess you have a lot of questions, don’t you?  Alex wanted to be here when you woke up but we thought he should go hunting so that he’s at peek strength.” I looked at her curiously.  She smiled and stood up.

“I think I’ll go get Max and Katie.  You should really hear our story from the beginning.  Max is a great story teller, and he’ll be able to answer all your questions when it comes to the differences between the species.” Cassy took her dishes to the sink and quickly washed them.  She was gone a few seconds later.  I walked over to the cupboard and filled a glass with cold water from the tap.  I turned with my glass of water to see Max, Katie and Cassy entering the room.  I would have to get used to their quick and silent movements.  They moved so fast it was unnerving at times and I had almost dropped my glass in surprise!

“How are you feeling this morning?” Katie asked with genuine concern.  She smiled at me and the look in her eyes made me feel warm and secure.  I knew these people truly loved me as much as I loved them.

“I’m feeling well rested, but I’m not sure how long that will last,” I confessed.  Katie and Max nodded.  Katie gave me a warm, gentle hug of greeting.  This made my heart soar in happiness.  I felt loved and cared for.  It had been so long since I had felt this way.  I had almost forgotten how good it felt.

“Let’s go into the family room where we can sit comfortably while I tell you our story,” Max said quietly. 

Cassy tossed me a granola bar and we all walked into the family room.  I sat on the couch across from Max and Katie and crossed my legs, tucking my feet beneath me.  Cassy sat in a chair by the TV and began flicking through the channels with the volume down very low.  We sat quietly for a few minutes before Max began his tale.  He looked at me, his beautiful eyes serious.

“I’ll tell you my story, and then answer your questions when I have finished.  Anna, I want you to understand as much as possible about us.  As a species, we are not that different from humans in physically appearance, but you must remember that Vampires are predators.  Above all, you must remember this fact.  Also, you need to know that other vampires are not as civilized as we are,” he said looking at me with his ancient eyes that were filled with centuries of wisdom.  The knowledge in his eyes made him look so much older than he appeared; the contrast was striking.  Max continued his tale a reflective, far-away look in his eyes as he spoke.

“I was born in 1409 in a small country that is now called Wales. The Welsh had been at war with England and King Henry IV since 1400, nine years before I came into being.  The Welsh had fought back and had successfully retaken most of their lands by the time I was born, but as history clearly shows, King Henry V confiscated, actually took with brute force that had been most of the lands captured by Glyndwr during his reign.  Owain Glyndwr acted, and was proclaimed the Prince of Wales by a small band of followers, among them was his eldest son, his brother in laws, and the Dean of St Asaph.  Owain and his men quickly spread through the north-east of Wales, they took the De Grey stronghold of Ruthin Castle, Denbigh, Rhuddlan, Flint, Hawarden, and Holt. But as history states King Henry turned his armies on Wales and won.  Wales was ruled by the hated Saxons and bards, who were the poets of that time in history, used their considerable talents to communicate the hatred we all felt towards the English.  They composed a number of songs or poems and set their words to music to entertain the people.  I was the younger brother of one of those poets, his name was Guto’r Glyn. We lived in a time of great sorrow and turmoil.  Guto’r Glyn was renowned for his humour and poetry and lived a long life. 

When I was a young man I decided to travel on my own and so I left Britannia and sailed to France.  From there I headed south to explore other lands and I wound up in Italy.  It was in Italy that I first met my ‘maker.’  His name was Angelo and I had never seen a man like him before.  He was tall and lean, with straight glossy black hair and striking golden eyes that almost glowed when light hit them.  His skin was as pale as alabaster and he dressed impeccably, he always looked elegant.  He was an amazing man.  He was a man of the ‘Arts’; he loved to watch plays and listen to the bards telling their tales.  He painted beautifully and also wrote lavish plays about the royal family, but he was a man of science as well.  I don’t know what it was that drew Angelo to me, but he decided to take me under his wing as his protégé and teach me about the finer things in life.  I stayed with him for ten years and in all that time I had no idea what he was.  He was usually only out at night and when he went out during the day it was only during the early morning or dusk, never at mid-day.  One evening he took me aside and asked me if I would like to live forever.  I replied that forever was a very long time to live and if I were to have such a gift bestowed upon me, I would not want to suffer the infirmities that come with age.  I would want to stay young so that I could experience all the world had to offer.  I told him I wanted to watch history in the making.  I loved hearing the tales of old, the stories of distant lands, wars, and heroes, and I loved tales of adventures on the seas.  Angelo smiled at me and told me about himself.  That was the night he turned me.  You see, Vampires are very secretive, suspicious, and possessive creatures and we guard our secrets very carefully.  If we feel threatened we do not hesitate to destroy that threat.  Angelo wanted a companion.  He had been alone for almost seven hundred years and before that he had spent his first four or five hundred years with his maker.  We didn’t really keep track of the years back then, time just was not that important.  I became his companion and stayed with him for about two hundred years.  I left because I wanted to see more the world.  Angelo had taught me a great number of things, the most important was how to survive without harming humans, and how to stay hidden.  He also taught me about the different species of vampires.  You see, as a species, we started to evolve just like humans did millions of years ago.  From what I was told, the first vampires were absolutely vile creatures.  They had no morality, no humanity, and they were extremely vicious creatures.  They also possessed amazing strength and heightened senses of smell, sight and hearing.  They fed on humans as often as possible, but they could only hunt during the night because sunlight was harmful to them.  Sun light was one of the only ways to destroy these creatures for they were very difficult to kill.  One of these creatures lived for a very, very, long time.  It is not known exactly how long he lived, but at one point he bit a woman and did not kill her.  She turned and became the first of a new ‘species’ of Vampire.  She retained most of her human morality, however she still hunted humans for ‘food’.  She began creating more vampires like herself.  Over time, they learned to blend in with humans during the night hours as they were still unable to tolerate sun light. Twilight, after the sun dipped below the horizon, was the earliest they dared to emerge.  One of these new breed of vampires created my maker.  Angelo was the most civilized vampire who had been created.  He learned that vampire males could conceive children with human females and that was how the war between the vampires started.  In fact, most vampires don’t know that secret.  It was unfortunate that many of our secrets have been lost in the great wars as most, if not all, of the older vampires were destroyed until only a handful of second and third generation vampires existed.  Today it is mostly fourth and fifth generation vampires who exist. 

It had been discovered that female vampires could have children, although this was very rare.  To be born a vampire, one would be considered royalty, and there are only two royal families who exist in the world today.  As vampires age, their strength increases.  This is common, and as well as incredible strength, all vampires possess heightened senses.  It was discovered that some of the fifth and sixth generation vampires have other abilities, almost like a sixth sense.  These abilities began to manifest in different ways as time progressed. There are those who are seers, shields, or who possess offensive or defensive abilities, as well as many other gifts.  Vampires at this point in time seem to only have one extra ‘special’ ability, but I believe that soon the next generation will have more than one. 

My family is completely different from other vampires, we are considered an anomaly in a manner of speaking.  I am from the fifth generation, I only have one special ability, but Katie as well as our children and the twins are different.  They are more human than most of the other vampires which is why we have remained hidden.  As you know, Alex was hurt when he was shot, but he heals at an amazing rate.  Generally, we need to feed to enable us to heal in a matter of minutes.  Alex does not heal that quickly yet, although he is getting close.  Most vampires, like myself, George and Stephan are cool to touch.  Our body temperatures are about five to fifteen degrees cooler than the normal human body temperature, our skin is very tough and difficult to injure.  It is similar to leather, but much tougher, which is one of our stronger defensive traits, however we can still be hurt if you know how. 

We all have heightened senses, and we can move at great speeds.  We also crave blood, specifically human blood.  We can survive on animal blood, but it is in our nature to crave human blood.  There are very few vampires who are willing to survive on animal blood alone, like our family, although occasionally, we do partake of human blood if circumstances deem it necessary.  However we would never kill a human.  You see, if we bite a human we can heal the wound and plant a suggestion into their head so they have no recollection of what has happened to them. They usually think that they have had the most amazing sexual experience of their lives.” Max smiled at the blush creeping hotly up my face.

“I know of only one other family like ours, and they live in the Maritimes,” he took a deep breath and sighed.  I looked at him completely enthralled, wanting to know more; and he could tell. 

“Anna, I know you want to learn more, but I think we should take a break for a little while.  You’ve been sitting quietly listening for a while now and there is still a lot to tell.”

 I smiled and nodded, stretching out my legs.  I quickly went to the washroom and then the kitchen to make a sandwich and refill my glass of water.  When I returned to the couch and made myself comfortable Max smiled at me and began his story again.

“I travelled on my own for a very long time before I met Katie here in Canada.  She was living in York, which is now called Toronto.  We met during the war of 1812; she was caring for the injured at a local hospital and she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.” He glanced lovingly over at Katie’s smiling face.

“She was twenty one years old and not married, which was strange for those times; she was considered an old maid believe it or not.  I fell deeper in love with her over the months I watched her work and care for the sick and injured.  When I finally got up the nerve to ask her to go for a walk, she smiled at me and asked what took me so long to ask her.” He beamed as he looked over at Katie again.

“York at that time was very quickly growing in size with all the new British immigrants arriving on ships.  By 1834 there were over 9000 people living in York and when the first mayor was elected, William Lyon MacKenzie, the city name changed from York to Toronto.  Katie and I married, which was rather strange thing for a vampire to do, but I wanted a companion and I loved her very much.  I thanked my lucky stars that Katie did not despise me after she learned what I was. I believe that fate brought us together because we are soulmates.” Max took Katie’s hand and kissed it lovingly before he continued.

“We had two children, William the eldest and then Casandra three years later.  I turned Katie shortly after Cassy was born because she became very ill and the doctors could not help her.  I asked her first, of course, although I may have turned her anyway had she refused because we are very selfish creatures.  Not to mention, I don’t think I could have lived without her.” He seem to shudder at the thought of losing Katie.

 “Will and Cassy are half human so they can go out into the sunlight with no problems.  As for myself and Katie we can both go into the sunlight but we tend to be a bit of a distraction.  This is because as we age our skin takes on a luminous quality, which is actually what protects us from the sun,” he smiled at me as he paused to let me process all the information he had told me. 

“Will and Cassy don’t need blood to survive, they are also able to eat human food and they stopped aging around the age of eighteen.  The only other half vampire half human we knew of back in the early 1800s was living in France.  He was approximately 235 years old and he stayed well hidden.  In fact, only two others besides myself even knew of his existence, and I believe that family still lives in France.  These half breeds are able to heal very quickly.  Not as quickly as a full vampire, of course, but most major injures heal in a day or so as long as they are not vital.  They also don’t require the same amount of sleep that humans do, they only need to sleep three to four hours a night, and if necessary, they can stay awake for approximately ninety six hours without difficulty.  Vampires, on the other hand do not require sleep at all, although we do rest for about an hour a day,” he paused for a moment and looked over at Katie.

“Katie would you continue please?  You know Lizzy and Alex’s story the best.”  Katie nodded graciously and looked at me thoughtfully.  She knew how much I cared for the twins and that I was extremely curious about their history.  I shifted on the couch, tucking my feet under me as I sat cross-legged.  I leaned forward expectantly as Katie began her tale.

“It was a cold night in the fall of 1883 when I found her.  Her name was Patricia and she was only 17 years old.  Patricia had been in Toronto for only a short time; she had come from London a few months before we met.  I found her in an alleyway badly beaten and bleeding, and she looked to be about seven or eight months pregnant.  I was horrified at her condition.  How could someone treat such a young, and obviously pregnant young girl so cruelly?  I brought her home and nursed her back to health as best I could.  She was very frail, and she was constantly sick.  No matter what I gave her she couldn’t keep it down.  Then, one afternoon I was cleaning a chicken in the backyard of our small home.  The smell of blood was in the air and Patricia came outside her eyes wide with hunger.  She grabbed the carcass out of my hands and started licking the blood when she spotted the bowl I had drained the chicken’s blood into.  She grabbed the bowl and greedily drank it all.  It was then I realized what she was carrying within her womb, for I had craved blood too.  I also knew that pregnancy was shorter for women impregnated by vampires and she would deliver in a few weeks.  I asked her who the father was, and all she told me was that it was dark the night the man came.  She said he was beautiful, with golden hair and golden eyes.  Sated with the chicken’s blood for the time being, Patricia told me that it happened about two months ago, and that she first saw the man about a month after she had arrived here.  She told me that she had looked for the stranger but had never been able to find him.  Because she was pregnant and unmarried, she was banished from her home and left to her own devices.  She told me that the men who had beaten her were drunk and sadly, one of them had been her older brother.  She looked at me beseechingly and asked me to care for her child.  She saw that I had two children of my own and believed that I would be able to provide for her child much better than she would.  I told her we would care for her child together because she would always have a home with us.  Patricia shook her head sadly and told me she didn’t think she would live much longer.  She explained that she had been ill when she was young and she was warned by doctors not to have a child.  One week later she went into labour.  Alexander was born first, she named him after her grandfather.  Patricia smiled at this new born infant with much love in her eyes but her expression changed quickly to agony as her contractions got stronger again.  She screamed in pain and we realized that she was about to deliver a second child.  Elizabeth was born seven minutes after her brother and Patricia named her after her mother.  She held both Alex and Lizzy gazing at them lovingly with tears in her eyes and told them that she loved them and they were the best piece of her.  The three of them slept peacefully together for a while and she was able to feed them.  It was beautiful to watch; sadly she died that night.  She haemorrhaged and I was unable to stop the bleeding no matter what I tried.  So many women died in those days, it’s rare for that to happen now.” Katie had a sad faraway look in her eyes as she remembered the mother of her adopted children.  Katie took a deep breath before she continued her story.

“Alex and Lizzy grew up similar to Will and Cassy, however, it was evident that they had a special bond. All of my children have special abilities, which seems to be the norm for halflings.  Will is able to create and control electrical charges which he can direct at individuals or objects.  Cassy can easily shield herself and others from psychic attacks.  In fact she has protected our family from others of our kind over the years, plus she is able to accurately sense a person’s character and she can tell if they are telling the truth or not when they speak.  Lizzy and Alex are special, as you know they can communicate with each other over great distances.  What is interesting is that they have a two way communication which is extremely rare between twins; usually one is a sender and the other is a receiver.  Like Cassy, Lizzy can sense a person’s character and she can also tell if someone is lying.  Alex compliments her ability in that he can persuade you to tell the truth.  Of course this is frustrating around Christmas and birthdays because those two gang up on everyone to find out what their presents are,” she laughed shaking her head.  I smiled and looked out the window.  I was surprised to see that the sun was starting to set.  My stomach growled, complaining about the little food I had eaten.  I wanted to hear more, but the full human had to eat.

 “I’ll put a pizza in for us,” Cassy said heading for the kitchen.

 “We can share since the others won’t be eating.”  I nodded as I stood up to stretch my legs.  I had a quick bathroom break, refilled my glass of water and returned to the couch eager to hear more about the lives of the people who had become my protectors, and perhaps even my new family.

“May I ask a few questions now?” I asked quietly.

“Of course you can,” Katie replied smiling.

“How long do you live? I mean, is it really possible for you to live forever?  And do you know how old the oldest of your kind is?” I blurted out all at once looking at Max and Katie with eager anticipation.  Max started laughing. 

“Slow down Anna, I know you’re trying to absorb as much information as possible and you want to know everything. I’ll answer your questions one at a time.”

“We are not sure how long we can live.  It may be possible for us to see the end of time, but until that happens we won’t know if we can live forever.  As for the oldest among us, I do know who that is, and she is well over four thousand years old.  She is one of the second generation vampires I told you about.  Her family lives in Spain and she is the mother of the royal family there,” he said quietly.  I looked at him thoughtfully, trying to figure out whether I should ask my next question.  I decided to go for it.

“How do you kill a vampire?” I asked slowly watching Max’s face.  He did not register any surprise or shock at my forwardness.  Instead he smiled and answered.

“There are only a few ways to be sure a vampire is dead.  One is to burn the vampire while it is resting, and the second is to use a piece of iron wood made into a stake and driving it through the heart or use carved ironwood shackles to bind them.  Iron wood is the strongest wood in the world and it can penetrate a full vampire, rendering him or her defenceless.  We don’t exactly know why, but iron wood drains us of our abilities making us essentially human in a manner of speaking.  Or you can cut off our heads, that is usually very effective too,” he replied. 

“So all the movies and myths about vampires are wrong then,” I said thoughtfully.

“Yes, it’s all mostly superstition,” Max said.  “We can go into a church and touch the cross, garlic is nothing more than a strong odour, holy water does nothing but get us wet, and silver does not affect us either.  We don’t sleep in coffins, and sun light doesn’t really harm us, depending on how old you are.  Katie, George, and Stephan can handle full sunlight but they can’t go out in public unless they are fully covered up because they would be too much of a distraction.  We tend to avoid the public on sunny days, when we are in the sunlight our skin gives us away.  People either become enamoured when they see us, thinking that an angel has come to them, or they get frightened because they cannot explain what they are seeing.  You see, we sort of glow.  In the old days, when a vampire went out during a bright day and was seen by a mortal, they would be thought of as an angel, or some sort of god. A vampire’s beauty is one of the ways we entice humans.  As I told you before, vampires are predators.  Our strength, speed and enhanced senses help us to find our prey; our beauty, voices and our scent are appealing to humans which makes them want to be close to us,” Max explained.

“But I’m human and I’m not affected by your voice,” I said looking at him in confusion.

“That’s because I’m not using it to entice you.  I could easily hypnotise you.  That’s what we do when we want something; we use our abilities to get what we want.  You actually did that in the clearing when Alex was shot.  In fact, I’ve never seen a human do that, it’s a vampire trait,” he mused as his eyes searched mine, never revealing what he was thinking.

“What about the drinking of human blood, I know that’s something that is true. So, why don’t you seem affected by me or James?” I asked.

“Yes, vampires require blood to survive.  However, it really doesn’t matter if it the blood is human or animal.  Humans just happen to be more fun, and they taste the best.” Max grinned.

 “You see Anna, vampires like to play with their food.  That’s why they tend to go after humans.  That and they smell better than animals,” he replied answering my unasked question.

“What about the stories that say that it feels good to be bitten, or painful to be bitten?”

“Being bitten can go either way.  It’s a very personal and sometimes sexual experience for both vampire and human.  Vampires also feed from each other when they have sex because it heightens the sensation and the connection between the two individuals,” Katie smiled knowingly.  I raised my eyebrows curiously, but she didn’t elaborate.

“Is that why you tried to stop me when I slashed my wrist for Alex?” I asked.

“Yes and no.  You have to understand that for Alex it was an overwhelming experience and it will take him some time to come to terms with drinking your blood.  He doesn’t think he deserves you at the moment because you were willing to give your life to save his.  When he saw that in you, he realized just how much you truly love him.  He would gladly sacrifice himself to save you, but he never thought you would do that for him.  You’ve opened his eyes to a very different world and we’re happy about that.” Max smiled gently at me and continued.

“The problem with you giving him your blood was that it weakened your already overtaxed body and he was inundated with your very powerful emotions.  He will know your every emotion for quite a while, possibly permanently.  It’s one of the side effects of sharing blood with a human, we establish an emotional connection with them.  He also learned your greatest fears and your greatest desires.  He knows you better than you know yourself right now and that could be dangerous for you because he could manipulate you very easily, but he’s not that kind of vampire.  I had to make sure that he didn’t take too much of your blood because once he latched on to your wrist you passed out.  He could have easily drained you dry, but then he would never have forgiven himself and he would most likely have taken his own life.  The other problem we have is that you can’t defend yourself right now and we don’t know how long it will take for you to recover.  You were already sick for six or seven weeks at the beginning of the year so we need to keep a really close eye on you.  We need to make sure that you are safe and you eat well so that you can recover quickly.”

I nodded as I let his words sink in.  I wasn’t sure if I would feed Alex again but I also knew that if I did, it wouldn’t be soon.

“How many vampires are out there?”  I continued with my questions.

“Not as many as the stories hint at.  There may be about two or three hundred vampires on the planet, but our numbers fluctuate so sometimes there are more, sometimes less.  Vampires will fight over territory and most don’t live in large groups like we do.  Many vampires enjoy solitude because it’s easier to stay undetected, but many enjoy small covens of three or four.  There are larger covens, but I only know of two and those are the royal families.  When you’re a larger group like our family or the royal families, you need to watch your every move.  You don’t want your secret to be revealed or you have to move sooner than you had planned.  It takes months or even years to set up an alternate identity for a large family like ours. With technology advancing at such an alarming rate it’s making it harder for us to hide.  Video surveillance and even satellite imaging is becoming a problem for our kind.  Plus we also need to be careful of infrared imaging since we’re cooler than regular humans by about five to fifteen degrees, and that shows up,” Max explained.

“How does someone become a vampire exactly?” I asked.

“It’s a virus” Max replied “When someone is ‘bitten’ the virus is transmitted through the saliva, or venom that we produce in our mouths.  This is the same venom that can make the bite painless if the vampire chooses.  The virus changes you, but you also have to drink a vampire’s blood for the change to start.  The change is not comfortable, and it takes a day or two for it to be complete.  The stronger or healthier you are, the longer it takes, and some people don’t survive the transition and we don’t know why that is.  Our friend from the Maritimes is a chemist and she discovered that our venom carried the virus.  She also discovered that our saliva, or venom is like a drug to our prey and we can convey our intent to the individual we are feeding on through our venom as well as through our voices.” Max explained.  He continued, “Our saliva has two qualities; first, when we make the initial bite we release both a blood thinner and endorphins into the victim’s blood stream to allow their blood to move more quickly and to make it feel good, and when we are nearly finished our saliva releases a coagulant to thicken the blood to stop the flow which also seals the puncture site and heals it instantly.”

“So some of the books and movies have bits and pieces that are right, you just have to know what to look for?” I asked.  Max just smiled. 

 “I guess I have a lot to think about.  Thank you for telling me your story.  It makes it easier to understand who you are and I’m happy that you trust me with your secret.” I said honestly, looking at Max and Katie.  Katie’s head turned slightly.

“They’re back.” She smiled.

“Here you go, Anna,” Cassy said handing me a plate with a slice of pizza and a small salad.

“Thank you.” I was shocked to realize that I was ravenous!  I hadn’t paid attention to how hungry I was because I had been so enthralled with Max and Katie’s story.

I stopped abruptly, just as I was about to take my first bite of pizza, “Oh, I forgot to ask, where will I be sleeping while I’m here?” I asked looking at them questioningly.

Katie smiled, “I think you need to discuss that with Alex.  I don’t think he’s going to let you out of his sight too often until the final confrontation is decided.  Don’t worry dear, he’s a perfect gentleman he won’t do anything to compromise your virtue or his.”  My eyes widened in surprise, a thousand questions going through my head yet again.  Max, Katie and Cassy laughed at my bewildered expression. 

“You’re the first girl he’s ever shown any serious interest in for a long time.  Lizzy is delighted of course because she felt guilty for finding love first.  She and Will have been together since she was of age.  She just wants her brother to be happy,” Katie explained.  I nodded and took another bite of pizza before I could voice any more of the questions swimming around in my head.

Will, Lizzy, Alex, George and Stephan walked into the room a few minutes later.  Lizzy looked at me and smiled.

“So, how was your day?” she asked. 

“Max and Katie told me your family’s history.  It’s such a fascinating story, I was enthralled for the entire day.  I’m going to be dreaming lots tonight,” I smiled.  Alex sat next to me and took my hand.

“You’re looking better today,” he said quietly studying my face.  I smiled, touched by his concern.

“I guess I’m going to need a lot of sleep over the next little while,” I replied. “Did you have a good trip?” I asked.  He smiled and nodded.  He just sat and watched me eat as though it had been years since he had seen me last.  He made me feel warm and cared for and I was really enjoying the feeling.

“Well, I think it’s time for us to go hunting Katie, and let the kids have some time alone,” Max said taking Katie’s hand, and they were gone.

I watched Lizzy and Will as they got up to go to bed.  Cassy and George were in the kitchen playing cards and talking about the upcoming school day. 

“We should head to bed soon,” Alex said looking at me tenderly.

“I wanted to ask you about that,” I said looking down at my hands not wanting to look into his glorious eyes. 

“Are you uncomfortable staying with me?” he asked, gently lifting my chin so that I would have to look into his eyes.

“No, I like staying with you, it’s just that I’ve never really done anything like this and I’m scared,” I said quietly trying to look away.

“What are you scared of?  I won’t do anything to compromise you in any way Anna, I’m not that kind of guy.” Alex said softly, looking into my eyes.

“That’s not it Alex.  I’ve never dated before.  In fact, I’ve never had the time to even wish for a relationship.  I’m completely and utterly new at this, and it kind of freaks me out,” I confessed feeling the blush rising up my neck and into my cheeks.  Alex smiled kindly at me. 

“I haven’t dated a lot either, but I will confess to actually going out on a few dates,” he chuckled.  I rolled my eyes and shook my head, then I took his hand in mine and stood up smiling down at him.   

“So, have you decided?  Do you want your own room” he asked grinning back at me. 

“That depends,” I teased.  “Would I be sleeping alone in my own room, or would you be sneaking into my bed in the middle of the night?” 

“You’re not going to be alone until this is over, and even then if I have my way, you’re still not going to be alone,” he said with a glint of determination in his eyes.

“Oh please! You’re being so over DRAMATIC,” I laughed at him, secretly enjoying his protectiveness of me. 

“Anna, do you honestly think I would let anything happen to you?” Alex asked seriously.  I smiled at him and winked, wanting to lighten the tone once again, I said “Hmmmm, If I remember correctly I was the one who saved YOUR butt.”   

“Ya that’s true,” he scowled, “But you don’t have your abilities right now, so that means I get to watch over you,” Alex retorted with such protectiveness that I had to smile. 

“I can still take care of myself, so would you please stop arguing with me?  Besides I need to get enough sleep to make it through the day tomorrow.” I rolled my eyes at him.  Alex got up and stood in front of me, leaning down to look me straight in the eye,

 “I promise to be a gentleman at all times,” he said seriously and kissed me on the forehead tenderly.  I nodded and we went to bed.  He was true to his word and I slept soundly that night, and every night when he was near.