Chapter Twenty-Five
A Sad Way to Go
“So that’s it then? Now or never?” I asked, standing up. “I don’t know, I need to think.”
“What’s there to think about? I am offering you immortality here and you have to think about it.” Nigel scoffed.
Jasper stayed quiet in the corner.
“What would it mean?” I asked. “What would I become exactly? Would I eat raw meat like you and your family or would I go hunting and kill all the local townsfolk.” I said, sarcastically.
“It’s illegal to kill any human who is unwilling,” Nigel said into his hand. “You can do what ever your heart, dead as it would be, desires. You can live the way my family has chosen to live, or you can be wild and hunt alone. We will not stop you.”
“What about my father? What about Bailey? I would just leave them?”
Nigel shrugged. “Again, completely up to you. You can stay in contact with them, or you can fake your own death.”
I flinched back but I’m not sure if he even noticed.
Jasper rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t help if you scare her.” He fluidly walked over to me, but kept a small distance between us. “If you do this, Genna, I will stay. It’s too much of a danger to you if you are human. I could easily kill you. Its a danger for you now.”
“What about when you can control it?” I blurted out.
He sighed. “I wont ask you to wait that long. I don’t deserve it.”
“I want to wait,” I added, a sob forming deep in my chest.
“You don’t know what you asking, Genna.” He reached out to touch my face. As his cold marble hand touched my warm skin, my eyes closed. My knees buckled beneath me. My body felt completely weak. I fought with all of my being to defeat the weakness. I wanted to be strong. I had been weak my entire life, I wanted there to be a change. I needed to be strong.
Nigel stepped forward then. “You know this is the right choice. You crave the very thing that that I can give you.”
“Nigel!” Jasper exclaimed, taking his hand from my face. Jasper glared at Nigel. “If she is not willing, we can not push her.”
“You’re the one that asked me to send her that dream. You are the one that wanted to show her your sick interpretation of her death. You are the one that asked me to turn her. Are you turning back now? Why, little brother?”
“Brother?” I asked.
Jasper opened his mouth but Nigel cut him off. “Oh, Jazz didn’t tell you? We are brothers when we were alive. We were changed together.”
“Then what was all that about the lake? And I thought you were only half vampire?” asked, getting more confused about everything that I had ever been told.
“No,” Nigel started. “He has been a blood sucker all along. He played you, and you gave in so easily.” Nigel stepped closer to me. “He wanted you from the very beginning. He fed you all those lies so that you would in turn want to join our kind. A sad way to go, but I couldn’t talk him out of it.” He shook his head. “All those weeks spent here, getting no where with you. Not the best approach to the problem, Little Brother.”
I looked over at Jasper. He was staring at me, waiting for me to kick them both out. What I wanted to do was the complete opposite. Even though they had both lied to me from the very start, I could forgive them in time.
“That’s it, Genna, go with that. We are only doing this because we love you. You must know that.”
“I do know that,” I said, my mouth moving before my mind could think it through. “And I love you too, both of you.”
Jasper flinched back. “You said you’d keep her warm for me, not fall in love with her. Susan was yours, Genna is mine!” Jasper’s voice turned into a loud bark. “You’re ruining everything!”
“On the contrary, Little Brother, I am just spicing things up.” Nigel’s voice turned confident. “I needed a little entertainment.”
Jasper rolled his eyes. “She is a human being, not some doll on a self for you to play with. Knowing you, you’d probably grow tired of her and throw her away. Just like you did with Susan as she aged.”
Nigel chuckled. “Why is everyone around me always so dramatic?” He threw his arms in the air. “Get over yourself. You’re only scared that she might not choose you.”
“Stay out of my head, Nigel,” Jasper warned.
“It’s my power; I will do as I want!” Nigel spat at Jasper.
My body shook with every boom of their loud voices. I back away from them slowly; they didn’t seem to notice me anymore. I was just an observer.
“It is my mind! I think it is I that decides who gets to read it.”
Nigel scoffed. “What are you going to do about it, Little Brother?”
Jasper’s jaw set. “I may not have any mind control, but I still have powers. Or had you forgotten?”
Nigel smiled. “Oh yes, you have telepathy. Big deal.” Nigel raised his hand and with his pointer finger, he curled it around to create a circle. “You can’t touch me.”
I thought Jasper would snap. He frowned and glared at Nigel, but Jasper surprised me.
He straightened out his hunched shoulders and turned to me, a playful smile one his face.
He held out his hand for me to take. I raised me hand to his, but Nigel was there before we could touch.
“No,” he yelled, tackling Jasper to the floor. “Stop falling for it!” He said to me.
Jasper straightened up and walked over to me. He was more serous now.
“Genna,” he said, holding out his hand again. “Come with me.”
Nigel walked over and held out his hand as well. “Stay with me,” Nigel mused.
And I don't mean this harsh either.
