Hola...don't worry, i'll try to get the next chapter up soon...sorry it took so long
James' look of pain and proclamation of his marriage surprised Jaden into dropping him. "Your wife?" she repeated, dumbfounded. From the floor, he nodded, and laboriously climbed to his feet.
He looked at a spot on the floor to the left of Jaden's feet, before saying, "When I was Turned, I was a very different person than I am now." He looked up and continued, "I had been married to the woman I loved for two years before I was taken in by the Nichelle. I was miserable without her. Anyone could see that.
"It was not until six months after I was Turned that I begged my Master, Tsar, to allow her to be Turned as well." He smiled bitterly, "Tsar thought it was amusing, and he let me change her myself."
He looked up with tears in his eyes, bitter-sweetly continuing, "For the next eight weeks, Annabelle and I were in utter bliss. We were inseparable, and because I had Turned her, but had not finished my training, everything I learned, we learned together. Then Liam came to town."
James looked away, grief and anger filling his features. His eyes were filled with pain as he told his student, "From somewhere Neskab learned that Annabelle and I were married. That made it all that much of a sport to him when he forced himself upon my wife."
By this point Jaden had given up on attacking James and had backed away, sitting on the bed. "What do you mean? Sport?" she asked in a whisper, almost afraid to know.
For a moment he just stared at her, and Jaden began to wonder if he'd actually tell her, when he replied, "he made me watch."
"He made you watch?" Jaden repeated incredulously. "Why in god's name did you not stop him?"
James laughed once bitterly, "You believe I didn't try?" he asked, his tone as incredulous as hers. "I attempted to kill him. Obviously it annoyed him." James turned away, squeezing his eyes shut as if to block out the memory. His back still turned to her he continued, "For every mark I laid upon him, every bite, scratch or contact of skin; -- he laid upon my wife. In the end, to spite me, he bit her in the neck so hard, and drank for so long that she lost all consciousness. Then I fled with her to our chambers, where I tried to nurse her back to health."
Turning back to face Jaden he informed her, "the bite of a Pure Blood, I learned that evening, does not heal as the bite of an average Vampire's does. It appears that a Pure Blood has a venom he or she can choose to use when they want to seriously injure their opponent. Annabelle's wounds would not close. She never regained consciousness. The last time I ever heard my wife's voice was when she was screaming." As if the telling of this exhausted him, he slumped down to sit beside Jaden.
The room was silent for a long moment. Jaden then ventured to say, "But if Annabelle had been warned --"
"I warned Vanessa," James snarled, cutting Jaden off, rising to his feet. "I told her what fate waited for her when she was taken to meet Liam. She fought. She lost." Gripping Jaden's chin to be sure she listened, he said, "Vanessa was not able to stand for two weeks, and she was delirious for six days." Squeezing her chin all the harder he added, "she almost didn't make it."
Jaden sat open mouth for a moment, staring up into James' eyes. James murmured, "Since before my Turn, every high blooded female ever Turned was hurt by Liam. He refers to it as their initiation into our League."
"Why does no one else stop him?" Jaden whispered, horrified.
He gave her a weary and crooked smile as he told her, "There are less than a thousand Pure Bloods alive. There are four billion Vampires. They are such a rarity that they are like gods as we are like flies. Being Half Blood makes us birds, but we are still completely inferior." He shook his head, "the only way to stop a Pure Blood, is to have another do it for you. Trust me, when I tried to avenge my wife's death, I got my throat ripped out by my own Master, because he'd rather I die, than harm one of Liam's birth." He looked at her sadly, "I'm so sorry Jaden, but there was nothing any of us could do."
"No," Jaden snarled, jumping to her feet and she began pacing the room. "This is wrong! He shouldn't be able to do that! Someone should stop it!" she whirled to face James, rage burning in her eyes.
He put his hands on her shoulders, and forced her to look into his eyes, a hard expression on his face, "you must never make a move against him," he ordered, shaking her to get his point across. "He will kill you, even if you are a Half Blood. Only a more powerful Pure Blood can stop him. And every god that there ever was knows that none of them care. They'll care more about the loss of a Half Blood than a rape, if they even give the smallest amount of a shit."
They stood that way for a few moments, breaking apart suddenly when the door opened after a soft knock. Suddenly Jaden hissed and fell to the floor as Blood Lust slammed through her. Barely contained, her head felt ready to burst and her stomach felt as if something was trying to rip its way out. She gasped to the confused Faithful, "get out or die!"
The man chose to live, obviously because he quickly backed out of the room, firmly shutting the door behind him. "Jaden? What's wrong?'' James asked, kneeling down at her side.
What the fuck do you think it is? Jaden thought, knowing that she was completely unable to complete intelligent responses, let alone insulting ones. She screamed and clutched at her belly as her body shuddered and twitched. Even the presence of James did not help, when he presented his wrist to her, she was too weak and agonized to draw her fangs and sink in. With another wail of agony, she rolled out of James' hold and curled up into as tight a ball as she could. Wrapping both arms around her gut, she pulled both her knees up to her chest and just held herself that way, as if to squeeze the pain from her abdomen.
It hurt so much she wanted to die. The pain she remembered from her Turn felt like lover's caresses as wave after wave of brutal agony ripped her apart. Liam's touch felt orgasmic next to this.
James stood over Jaden and, for the first time in many centuries, had no clue what to do. His student writhed on the floor, wailing at if her intestines were being boiled inside her. Her nails had cut into herself and him as she flailed about, and the bleeding welts had only just started to fade. Why is this happening? He wondered franticly, her Blood Lust has been under control for weeks. What is causing this? He wracked his brain for any sort of knowledge. But he drew up blank.
Staring down on her in a small state of panic, James considered what to do. But before he came to a conclusion, she went limp and became motionless. Quickly kneeling down beside her, he realized that she'd succumbed to the pain, and her body forced itself to shut down in order to gain a reprieve.
