Chapter 6
"Omen"
(Revised after reading Dark Demon)
You'd think that now that they are joined things would be easy, wrong. One set of complications only changes so another set of complications can take place.
Christmas was now only 3 days away, Carpathians were arriving from all over the world to join for the celebration.
Little Maria and Mandy were getting along just fine, in fact the girl had taken an instant liking of her step-mother, Maria loved ballet, she had seen Amy practicing a small number for the gathering, and she had started dancing along, feeling fascinated with just how perfect Mandy could dance, let's not forget Mandy had been a dancer since Maria's age, or at least she thought she had.
"Go on, Mary; stretch your hands like this…" Amanda was showing her the basic positions. "That's it; you are so good at it!"
"She has the best teacher." Tristan said, coming inside the make-shift studio, they had built a new room just so Mandy and Maria could dance. "You look so pretty together. Come here you little peanut! Whose daddy's little girl?" Tristan kept asking her that question, maybe she would say something, she wasn't mute, Shea had checked her, she had screamed when she tried to give her a vaccine.
She jumped into his arms, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck and kissing him, she didn't speak but at least she smiled quite often, and she had even gained weigh, she ate little bites of everything but at least she ate.
"What were you guys rehearsing?" Tristan asked; he was still a little marveled that they got along so easy, but then again everyone liked the girl, she wasn't spoiled or ill mannered in any way, in fact even Gregori liked her, and he didn't like anybody. He sure as hell didn't like Tristan.
"A little solo from Swan Lake, she likes the music, I think it soothes her." Truth be told, Amanda liked the girl too, she was a little jealous of her, Tristan had an ocean of love for the girl, but he didn't love Amy any less because of it.
"The answer to what you are thinking is more…" Tristan said; he had read her mind, she thought: when we have children of our own, would you love them the same as you love her? "I'd loved them twice, just for been mine, and more because they'd come from you, they'd be born out of the love I have for you."
Amy leaned closer to the two of them, tucking a stray lock behind Maria's ear, she had gorgeous red curls, Amy wondered is her children would have hair like that, probably not, brunette was dominant, and red hair was pretty unusual as it was. Her children would probably have light eyes, green or gray or blue or a combination of all those colors, and dark hair.
"And they'll be beautiful just the same, why don't you continue? I'd like to watch you dancing." Tristan responded, thinking she would look beautiful with child, Celeste had been so small that she started showing very early, perhaps that's why Mary was so small, her own mother had been 5'3'', very blonde, with blue eyes and a round face that looked a lot alike Maria's, so it was very easy to imagine just how pretty the mother had been.
"We'd like to do that! Come here, Mary. Let's show daddy just how great we are." Amy decided it was beast to leave it alone, Tristan had said it over and over again, he didn't love her, and he never had. He cared about her, and he owed her respect, they had brought a child into the world, they had been very close friends, they had been married, but they weren't anywhere near to what he felt about Amanda, his true and only lifemate. She shouldn't feel threatened, Celeste was only a memory.
I don't feel threatened by that jackass, what's his name Alfred Rogers? And I should, he's alive and kicking, and I'm sure he's still abusing girls like you.
I'm not a girl, I'm a woman.
You keep telling yourself that, baby. I know better.
You are getting on my nerves, you know? This whole 'little one' 'baby' way of treating me doesn't work, I'm a 26 years old woman, by any means I'm independent, and mature enough to know what's good for me, I'm an adult in case you have forgotten.
Are you? Then tell me why you let yourself be treated like a whore?
She wanted to hit him, he was so unnerving, ever since he had discovered everything about her past, about how she handled herself with other men, he had been nagging her about it. He couldn't understand how she could give her body so readily when she knew she wasn't loved.
It's called sex, Tristan. It's not the same as making love, you should know. To my point of view, you only had sex with Celeste. Or now you say you did love her?
He was caught there, if he said he did, he had lied, if he said he didn't, she was right, love wasn't the same as sex.
Fine, you win, you are entirely capable of having sex without loving, but I trust that has changed for you now?
Please… how could you even ask me that question? You know it's different, you and me, it's something else.
And still, knowing that it's different, you haven't said I love you
No, I haven't, and I won't, not now at least, I'll say it when I feel it, and you'll not force it out of me either.
He didn't know what to say, she was still guarded about him, she had doubts, like anyone would, it had only been ten days, a bit more than a week since they met, to a woman who had never said 'I love you' before in her life it had to be difficult.
It doesn't matter. You are still my lifemate.
Like I could ever forget that…
Amy and Maria continued practicing, and Tristan stood there watching, he couldn't deny she was a professional, he couldn't deny he loved her but he could deny that he was frustrated. He wanted her to fall head over heels for him, like he had, but she was far more cautious than him, she'd not give out her heart to him, in fact he sensed she didn't trust him, not about her feelings at least, she still thought he'd hurt her, wouldn't you?
zzz
Been the newbie was terrible, but been the newbie and the town fair attraction was awful; everyone wanted a psychic reading, most of the females and some of the males too.
Down by third vision, Amy was feeling drained, each time she touched someone his or her life flashed across her eyes, a whirlwind of feelings that ended with a vision, usually the future, sometimes a hidden past, each time her soul would abandon her body and seek the world of visions, the amount of energy required was immense.
At some point, her birth mark started burning, Tristan sensed it, becoming instantly alerted, it only did that in the presence of evil or another Dragonseeker. In this case it was Dimitri and Skyler, they were walking towards Amy, they knew where to look for her, Skyler was dying to meet her.
"You must be Amanda." Skyler said, keeping the distance between them, after her conversion she had become less apprehensive about touching people, but she knew Mandy had a very similar curse and she did not want to discomfort her.
"I am. You are like me, you are a Dragonseeker." Amy had been sitting and she stood to gaze at her sister eye to eye, she discovered she had almost a foot on the blonde/redhead, she had green eyes, beautiful eyes in fact, and her mate was standing behind her, a wall of muscles with dark hair and wolfish looks.
"My name is Skyler, I was told you're Razvan's daughter too." Upon hearing that name Tristan materialized next to his mate, she shuddered whenever she heard that name, green eyes, Amy stared at Skyler thoughtfully; those green eyes had haunted her for years.
"I don't know that for sure, but I am a Dragonseeker, we could be sisters or just plainly related, I can't be certain, but I do feel your presence, my mark is throbbing." To prove her point, Amy bared her back, showing her sister the mole.
"Oh… but how come your mark is in the back? Every one of us has it on the hip, Colby and Natalya as well."
"I don't know, I guess it traveled?"
"Did you mother had this mark by any chance?" Dimitri asked Amanda, he was elaborating a theory as they spoke.
"I don't know, she died when I was a baby, she could have, I know she was half Carpathian."
"She could have been a dragonseeker herself, there are many children lost to us, maybe your mother was one of them."
"Whose daughter would she be?" Tristan asked thinking of the Lamia Ovis, there had been many Dragonseekers in the past, half breeds weren't listed there, they would appear only when the conversion happened. Amy and Tristan were already on the book, but Maria wasn't. Skyler and Dimitri were also there.
"I don't know, Dominic? Or someone else, I can't know for sure, but it's a theory."
To that small reunion, another couple arrived, Tempest and Darius, been a redhead herself she was curious about Tristan, and she also wanted a psychic reading.
"I'm—I'm sorry, but right now I'm feeling very tired, would you mind much if I rested for a few hours …before I read you?" Amy said, without giving Tempest or Darius any chance to speak. She was feeling dizzy, the forest was turning around her, in seconds she turned pale as a ghost, grabbing her head between her hands.
Feeling her distress, Tristan stood behind her, prepared to take her if she collapsed, a vision came, without touch or anything like that.
Fire, Amy felt the fire burning at her back, sizzling her skin, she was covering Maria, shielding her from the heat, other Carpathians were there, an explosion had taken place, the grounds were rippling with all the couples running down from the blast, hiding inside the earth was the only solution.
She had been caught unaware, Tristan had been running to them but he wasn't fast enough. Amy was close to Maria and she took her in her arms, running with her, but the blast had expanded through the clearing, burning trees, houses, people and earth all together. Whoever had sent that bomb was a pro, they meant to wipe all of them from the face of the earth.
They had meant to eradicate Carpathians completely, and they had know only a bomb would go through the barriers undetected, no living thing would cross them, but a missile will.
Zzz
"What did she see?" Darius asked conscious of the vision.
"Fire, we are going to be attached soon, a bomb, we must prevent it." Tristan replied, keeping his tone flat, he took Amy on his arms and carried her to their house, she was unconscious and bleeding from the nose, her vision had been too powerful, almost like an omen, her heart had stopped for a few seconds, the visions were getting stronger each time, Tristan feared than one could very well kill her, if she wasn't careful, she followed them and that world was not human, each time she went there it was harder to come back, this time, she had left and return without strength next time she might not return at all.
"Yes, I'll take precautions; Dimitri come with me, we must tell this to the prince and to my brother." Darius said, Tempest and Skyler remained there, watching each other, and then they walked together, following their mates to the prince's house.
Tempest was heavy with child, a boy; she was very much near date, just the thought of an attack on them, when so many pregnant females were about to give birth, made Darius roar with fury. He would not have it, and he was sure neither would Gregori. They would prevent this attack to any cost.
Tbc… don't forget to review me!
Extra, yet one more song that I like! This song makes me want to scream, fight and bang my head like a rockstar, the guitar and the drums are wickedly powerful, I also think that Adam Gontier (Singer of 3DG is awesome, he could very well play a Carpathian, I think of him as Dayan sometimes, his voice makes me fall into a trance. Him and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park, they are great.) What do you guys think?
AN: I assumed that Skylar and Dimitri would get together very soon after Dark Celebration, and he would of course complete the transformation.
"Animal I've become"
By
Three days Grace
I can't escape this hell
So
many times I've tried
But I'm still caged inside
Somebody
get me through this nightmare
I can't control myself
So
what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No one will ever
change this animal I have become
Help me believe it's not the real
me
Somebody help me tame this animal
(This animal, this
animal)
I can't escape myself
(I can't escape myself)
So
many times I've lied
(So many times I've lied)
But there's
still rage inside
Somebody get me through this nightmare
I
can't control myself
So what if you can see the darkest side
of me?
No one will ever change this animal I have become
Help
me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal
I have become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody
help me tame this animal
Somebody help me through this
nightmare
I can't control myself
Somebody wake me from this
nightmare
I can't escape this hell
(This animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal, this animal)
So what if you can see the darkest side of me?
No
one will ever change this animal I have become
Help me believe
it's not the real me
Somebody help me tame this animal I have
become
Help me believe it's not the real me
Somebody help me
tame this animal
(This animal I have become)