Here I am again! I am completely floored by all the "author alerts" and "favorite story/author alerts" I've gotten after finishing "Addiction". Thank you all so much, it really means the world to me!
Here you have the follow-up to Addiction, so if you're new to my stories I recommend reading that one first, but naturally not a demand! ;)
I hope you all like this as much as Addiction. I haven't really planned far ahead, so if you have ANY SUGGESTIONS or IDEAS, do drop me a note! THat will mean so much! :)
Enjoy!
And remember what I love the most? Yes. Reviews. Feed me! ;)
1. PROLOGUE - The years that passed
I haven't been back in Shreveport, Louisiana for 250 years. Had it really been that long?
As I walked in to town the memories flooded back. The town had changed, no doubt. 250 years did a lot with a small town like Shreveport. Huge skyscrapers stretched up towards the black sky and stood only a few feet apart at the closest. The main road had been built in two levels, letting the traffic passing through town fly by, unrestricted by traffic lights and pedestrians on the second level. I let my legs carry me forward and suddenly I passed through a familiar speck of green. A park. I remembered being here after seeing my friend Armand being killed. I lifted my hand and stroke the collar of my long leather coat. His long, thick ponytail of black silken hair had long ago been stitched in to the high up-turned collar, resting gently against my cheek. As I kept walking I recognized some old building who had outlived the test of time. And it's era to be honest.
I buried my husband about 170 years ago. My strong wolf Alcide had become over 100 years old. A true werewolf lived until rattled bones and fading eyesight took him, he used to say. He didn't believe in an honourable death by fight. He was loving, strong and wonderful until the end. I sat by his side in our house in Alaska when he slipped away. I held his hand and he smiled at me. Promising me he would die while it still was night. He didn't want to leave me without being able to see my face a last time before fading. And so he did. When the moon was at its highest outside our massive bedroom window he kissed me, smiled and told me how dearly he loved me before closing his eyes. I had held him and cried until the sun forced me to close the massive titanium blinds that clasped down along the wall of windows and I collapsed, dreary and cried out.
_
"I wish I could turn you." I whispered one late night. We sat tightly tucked under a thick blanket on out huge porch, looking out on the magnificent nature stretching out in front of us. The mountains, the hills and the pitch black sky overthrown with bright, blinking stars. Alcide's warmth radiated through the blanket and heated me all the way to my core.
"No you don't." Alcide whispered and I looked up at him, seeing him smile. His hair had started to grey around the ears, but he still looked at magnificent as the first day I met him. He turned to look at me, his eyes mild and glittering towards me.
"The one thing you love the most about me is my warmth, isn't it? My soft skin, my heat." He pulled me closer and I chuckled, nuzzling my nose against his warm neck. I had long ago grown custom to his specific werewolf smell and now it was simply the familiar, homebound smell of love.
"Mama, I can't sleep...!" I turned towards the sound of my ten year old daughter.
"Come my sweet." I said, reaching out my hand to her and she jumped up between us, settling under Alcide's arm.
My children Ava and Anthony or Tony as he preferred, I buried 130 and 155 years ago. Ava had been blessed with a touch of my sister Abrienne's power of the Goddess Yemanya, granting her a long life of 120 years and splendid health until her heart didn't feel like beating anymore.
Tony was the spitting image of his father. Except for the werewolf part. Alcide couldn't have been happier about that. Tony was all human, weird as it seemed, coming from the vampire womb blessed by Yemanya and a werewolf's seed. But he was a magnificent boy and eventually man. He fathered amazingly 9 children, the last one he had at the age of 55. Ava blessed us with 5 wonderful grandchildren. They have as well passed now and I don't even know how many great-grandchildren or even great-great-grandchildren I have. After Ava's passing I realised I had no longer a place in the family. They all accepted me, both as relative and vampire, but no one could comprehend what I was to them. They didn't know what to call me. The children didn't want to call me grandma, because I was so young. At one point I was younger than their own mother. So I left, with a note to my eldest grandson; My love is undying. Live, love and feed your family with the love I have for you all, forever. And then I turned my head and walked back out in to the world. My love for exploring had yet again been awakened, like it had so many years ago, when I first wandered in to Shreveport.
At first my heart stung with longing for Alcide. I didn't know how to go on without him. We'd had such a grand life and now I was back at square one. Alone and travelling the world.