~Paige~
I bathed quickly, and slid on some jeans, an off the shoulder t-shirt, a loose cardigan, and my new Converse. Even dressed like this, Adrian checkedme out the same as he did when I stepped out in the fancy dress. I met his eyes and sighed.
"I love you," I said.
"And I love you," Adrian said, scooping me up off the floor, cradling me into his chest and kissing me. I have to admit I love the way he babies me. I have never been treated so sweetly by any man. When we make it out the door he sets me down and takes my hand.
"I really do love you," he said as he hugged me tight and kissed my forehead.
"And as I just said, I love you Adrian," I said softly.
"Good. I hope you can forgive me," he said with a grin. Before I had time to ask what for, we were in the air. I closed my eyes tightly and prayed I would not pee. I could hear him giggle as we flew, but I didn't care, he could laugh. I would rather be laughed at for closing my eyes, than for literally peeing myself. Which is what would happen if I looked down. When I opened my eyes we were atop huge cliffs overlooking the sea.
"It's beautiful," I said looking at the view of the moon reflected off the water. I was so mesmerized by the beauty that I forgot to be mad at Adrian for taking me flying. I crinkle my nose at the thought.
"We'll have to take a cab back—no way I am flying again," I said.
He roared with laughter, and was joined by laughter from others. David and Nicole were behind us. They had a fire lit by a huge cave that they were walking from. Nicole had her arms reached out for a hug and I ran into her arms.
"I missed you so much," I said, holding back my happy tears.
"I missed you too, but I couldn't risk hurting you," she said apologetically.
"I know, I understand," I said, nodding and smiling back at her.
"So, I see you've shown her the secret spot," Adrian said to David.
"We got here maybe thirty minutes ago, I haven't seen much," Nicole said with a smile.
"This cave has been here for a very long time. No matter where we move, we always come back here," David said to Nicole wrapping his arm over her shoulder.
We all walked toward the cave, and I stopped to warm up by the fire.
The fire outside the cave gave light to most of the inside, the rest David and Adrian were lighting candles for. Adrian came up behind me after lighting a few candles and wrapped his arms around my waste. I felt so safe in his embrace. David pointed out places on the walls that he and Adrian wrote on each time they visited. There were several different languages. I never knew that either of them spoke so many languages.
"Embrasse la nuit, mais pas l'obscurité," Adrianwhispered in my ear while pointing to one of the writings. His words were like silk, and the language, so beautiful.
"What does that mean?" I asked softly.
"Embrace the night, but not the darkness," he answered in a whisper with his lips grazing my ear.
"Is that French?" I asked as I ran my fingers over the writing.
"It is," he answered.
"But I have spent so many years in America that it feels like English is my native tongue," Adrian said with a shrug.
"There are so many languages here, you must have moved around a lot," I said.
David let out a laugh.
"You could say that. We swore we would see the world, and we have seen most of it," Adrian said.
"Yet we always end up back here," David said with a sigh.
"Why here?" I asked.
"This is where it happened, this is where we turned—willingly—to avenge our mother's death'" David said.
"I never asked you how you turned, David," Nicole said softly as she wrapped her arms around him.
Adrian and I took a seat on a smooth stone. I sat between his legs and leaned into his chest, settled in ready to hear the story.
"We left home when we became men, eager to get out of our village and see the world. Invaders came while we were at sea. They killed our father and took our mother and many other women from our village as slaves," David said sadly.
"Naturally we assumed the invaders to be human, Vikings," he said as if amused.
"We were deceived," Adrian said.
"They only told us Vikings invaded so we would join an army to fight them," David continued. "Turned out they were but vampires that wanted to kill off all of the shifters of our village.
We only found out we were fighting with the enemy during battle when we saw the commander of our army slaughtering and drinking the blood of the Vikings we fought. So we ran. I was injured and Adrian carried me most of the way until we were safe.
We spent years feeling like cowards. We ran with the devil and we never stopped to help the women and children being slaughtered," David said with sorrow.
"We befriended Viking shifters after a drunken fight. They shared the myths of the vampires with us, and we devised a plan. He took us by ship to a new world, one that was kept secret for many, many years. After dark we visited this cave, to make a deal with a vampire so we could fight another of their kind," Adrian said.
"But we weren't sure it would work. We thought we would die during the change," David said,shaking his head.
"Yet we are alive, in a manner of speaking," Adrian said with a wink and half smile.
"Yes, but our mother had already died by the time we came back to fight," David added.
"The monster took the women as slaves and drained them every day until they perished. Maybe he thought it would make him stronger to drink from the shifters. Dumb ass," David scoffed.
"You have to be born with the wolf blood; you cannot be turned, only born," Adrian added.
I nodded as I put together the pieces of the story in my mind.
"It felt good to kill that bastard, though," David said with a smile.
"And what happened to your maker?" Nicole asked, exactly what I was thinking.
"He was bound to these caves by a witch that was once his lover. He wanted us to kill her to set him free," Adrian said with a sigh.
"What happened?" I asked.
"We set him free, but that is another story. Heremains a good friend to this day," Adrian said. I smiled but I had hoped this story would have a happier ending. I can't imagine what suffering they went through.
"It's still here!" David's voice echoed from a far,dark corner of the cave.
"What are you doing over there?" Nicole giggled as David emerged from the darkness with what looked like a tiny guitar case.
He tossed it to Adrian, who caught it with amazing reflexes.
"Well, hello, old friend," Adrian said, opening the case to find a beautiful dark brown violin.
"Can you play?" I asked in anticipation.
"I'm a beast with many talents, my kitten," he answered with a grin.
I backed up to give him room while he pulled the violin out of its case and began to play.
David and Nicole danced to the music he played while I stared at him amazed, like a fangirl with a crush. David and Nicole applauded after Adrian played, and he gave the most smug bow. I could spend forever with this man, but the thought of forever made me feel great sadness. I will die one day and he will take on a new partner. I shook my head at the thought.
"Are you okay?" Nicole asked, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"Yes, I'm fine," I answered with a fake smile.
"I know you better than that," Nicole said.
"I will grow old while you all stay the same. One day, I will be gone and…" I stopped and put my head down.
"And you don't want to be without him, in life or death," Nicole answered while searching my eyes for truth to her theory. I nodded and held back tears.
"Come here," Nicole said, while pulling me into a hug.
"I brought you here to claim you as my mate, Paige. If you would have me?" Adrian said softly, walking up to join in the conversation.
He must have heard me.
I looked up at him and smiled, I didn't know what that meant but I had an idea it was good.
"What vampires and shifters have in common is that we mate for life. We have that one mate that ispredestined to be our mate, and that person is the other half of our soul. We are not whole without them," Adrian said as he took my hand and kissed it. I felt tingles when his lips pressed into my hand.
"So you can imagine our excitement when we both found our other half at the same time, the same night," David said, wrapping his arms around Nicole, lighting up her face.
"We felt the pull, and we have heard the legends, but neither of us knew how strong the bond was until we felt it ourselves, that night—the night we first met. I was drawn to you but what was I supposed to do? Walk up and tell you, 'Hey, I am a stranger to you but you are my soulmate'? Ha…so I sat there wondering when to make a move," Adrian said with a sigh.
"Then I swept in and broke the ice…Saved both our asses!" David said with laughter.
"If you accept me as a mate, I will have to turn you and spend forever with you, or die when you die. We would become one. I would feel your pain and you would feel mine," Adrian said while holding my hands and pressing his forehead into mine. Adrian knelt down on one knee as if to propose.
"Would you accept me as a mate?" Adrian asked, looking up at me so sweetly.
"I will," I said. I could feel my smile fill my entire face.
My cheeks felt warm and I just knew I was blushing.
Adrian jumped up in excitement, and picked me up and swung me around in a circle.
"You have made me the happiest beast in the world," he said while setting me down and pressing his lips on mine.
"How does this work?" I asked with excitement.
"Whenever you are ready, we will have a ceremony. If you wish to be turned, I will turn you after. It is like a wedding in a way, only it is forever," Adrian said with a grin. I smiled back at him.
"I want to be with you forever. If I have to drink blood to do that, then so be it," I said as I stroked his cheek.
"This is so freaking sweet!" Nicole squealed with excitement.
"Now I have to mark you as my mate. It's a mark of engagement, and when you are ready, we will have an official ceremony to have you turned," Adrian said to me softly.
"Will it hurt?" I asked.
"This one won't, but when you get turned, it will be different," he said with a grin.
"Okay, I am ready for the non-painful one now," I said, nodding my head in acceptance.
Adrian slid his hand through my scalp, and I turned my head exposing my neck. He kissed my neck gently then pierced the skin in between my neck and shoulder.
This bite did feel different than any other bite he has given me. I felt intoxicated, consumed with pleasure.
"I take you as my mate," Adrian whispered in my ear.
"Paige... you have to say that you accept him as your mate and taste his blood to seal the engagement," David said.
I nodded.
I understood even though I was overwhelmed with pleasure.
Adrian punctured his wrist with his fangs, and blood dripped from the wound.
"I accept you as my mate," I said, taking his wrist into my hands and placing my lips to the wound. I sucked down the familiar flavor of muscadinewine.
I felt warmth overcome me with every swallow.
Adrian sealed our wounds with his tongue, and the flames of the fire turned blue.
"You are a half-blood vampire now. Until we complete the ceremony," he said softly.
"You are only half-human now. you will be stronger, faster, and a lot less delicate now," Adrian said with a devilish grin.
"Your eyes are so pretty!" Nicole exclaimed.
"Random," I said with laughter, although I could see colors more vividly and could hear the sounds of ships in the distance.
My senses were stronger.
"Your eyes have changed, like mine!" Nicole said.
"Did you two have a ceremony?" I asked to get the spotlight off myself.
"In a sense, we just did it out of order given our circumstances to how she changed," David said.
"It didn't make it any less romantic," Nicole chimed in, kissing David.
"The sun will be up soon. We'll have to fly to make it home in time," Adrian said.
"If I pee it will be your fault!" I said, laughing.
"I'm so happy I got to see you. Tomorrow we will celebrate!" Nicole said while hugging me good bye.
"Sounds like a plan," I said, returning the hug.
Nicole then went to David and held him close and they took off together. It appeared that Nicole could not fly without him.
Adrian poured a bucket of water on the fire and reached his hand out to me.
"Are you ready, kitten?" he asked.
"Yes…Just tell me when to open my eyes," I said, taking his hand.
He pulled me in close and I hugged him tight.
I could feel the wind blowing through my hair, but I kept my eyes sealed shut until we finally landed.
"You can open your eyes," Adrian said with a chuckle.
I was happy to be back on the ground.
We made it inside quickly and crawled into bedbefore Adrian's body became still from the sleep that overcame him.
I rested my head on his chest and drifted off to sleep.