Chp 5
~Chapter 5~
AJ woke up at 9 PM, refreshed and thirsty. 'I gotta stop craving!' He shook his head and got out of the bed. When he approached the main room, he found Valencia already awake and drinking out of a wine glass that contained a crimson colored liquid. AJ's jaw dropped to the ground.
"Val, you didn't---"
"Relax, Alex! I got this from a butcher shop. You want some? It tastes better cold than hot. Especially in this humid weather."
"I-I-I don't think so. Thanks, anyway."
"You haven't had anything since your transformation. You should really eat to build up your strength. Come on, try it. You'll like it."
"Uh, no."
"Alex!"
"I don't want to!"
"Alex, come on now. You can't starve yourself. Try it. You have to. You'll like it, believe me!"
AJ hesistantly got closer to her. She handed him the glass. He looked at the fresh blood and soon his hunger became almost unbearable. He sniffed it.
"What kind is it?"
"Pig's blood."
"Does it tast like bacon?"
"No!" Valencia laughed. "Just try it! I can't explain the taste!"
AJ was still skeptical, but what else could he do? His cravings grew stronger the longer he held it off. Nervously, he put the glass against his lips and took a sip. His face brightened.
"Hey! Not bad!"
He drank the rest of it.
"Do we have more?"
"Yes, there's a bottle of blood over there," she said as she pointed to the table in the corner of the room.
AJ flew to the other side and guzzled down the whole bottle. He licked his lips in satisfaction, then sheepishly put the empty bottle down.
"Sorry."
Valencia smiled. "That's alright. I already had my fill. So what do you want to learn how to do first? Read minds? Fly?"
"Oh, I wanna fly, definitely!" he answered enthusiastically.
"Ok. Come here."
He did as he was told.
"Now close your eyes and concentrate. Concentrate on touching the stars, reaching the heavens, and disembarking on silent wings."
AJ did all those things she told him and soon he found himself feeling as light as a feather. He opened one eye and looked down. His feet weren't touching the ground.
"Whoa! I did it! I'm flying! This is great!"
He started soaring around the room and doing backflips. Valencia just laughed.
"Hey, Val! Come on! Join me!"
"Oh, I don't want to…"
She didn't get the chance to finish because he literately swept her off her feet and started twirling her around.
"Alex! Stop acting so childish! Let go of me!"
"Oh come on! Have a little fun! I could do this forever! And that's the gospel truth!"
She couldn't help but fool around, too. It had been such a long time since she laughed. AJ brought so much joy to her life. She felt more joy in the past few hours than she had felt her entire immortal existence. It was a feeling that she thought she would never experience again ever since 'him.' She wanted to hold on to it forever. She felt love for AJ. A maternal kind of love. The kind of love a mother has for her child. The kind of love she thought would never enter her life again.
"Ok, Alex, now that you passed this test with 'flying' colors, it's time for the others!"
Both AJ and Valencia floated to the ground.
"Alrighty, now I wanna learn how to read minds! I wanna be a psychic!"
"You basically have to the same thing. Just concentrate on your goal."
He did focus on his goal and tried to read her mind. She looked at him with adoring eyes. His expression grew glum.
"Who's Nicholae?" he asked her. She looked at him surprised.
"What?"
"Who's Nicholae? I read your mind. You're thinking that I remind you of him. Who is he?"
She looked at the ground and sighed.
"He-h-he was…my son."
He kneeled down in fron of her. Her face had an anguished expression and tears were rolling down her porcelain cheeks.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
She looked at him and smiled. "I think that would help. I've never spoken of him to anyone. I've tried to put it all behind me and I thought I did. But when I saw you, everything came back to me. You remind me so much of him."
She carressed his cheek and looked deeply into his eyes. She could swear she could see her Nicolae in those sincere and beautiful brown eyes of his.
"He was about your age when he…" she trailed off.
"He what?"
"He died." She began to cry. "I failed him. When I saw you being drained, I thought maybe I could prevent another mother from feeling the pain that I had of losing a child. I'm sorry that I couldn't do that. But after you awoke, I thought maybe that---I---I'm not trying to replace Nicholae. I can never do that. But I thought that maybe, with you, I could regain a little of what I had lost. I know I could never be your mother, but…" She began to cry uncontrollably.
AJ embraced her and tried comforting her. "Shhh, it's ok. It's ok. I'm sorry you lost your son, but now you've got me. If it makes you feel any better, you're doing a great job so far in being my sire. Heck, I even consider you my second mother!"
She looked up at him and gave him a big grin.
"That means so much to me. Thank you, Alex," she cried as she hugged him.
"Hey, anytime! But don't expect me to call you Mom! I can't picture you as a mother. Well a mother to someone my age, anyway. You seem way too young."
"Oh I wouldn't dream of it! And thank you. I changed fairly young, I suppose."
"You don't seem that much older than me. How old are you?"
"I told you already!"
"No, I mean, subtract the immortal years. How old were you when you changed?"
"Thirty-one," she answered blushing.
AJ's eyes grew wide.
"You were ten when you had your baby?!"
"Oh, no, no, no," she laughed. "I had Nicholae when I was eighteen. I changed when he turned thirteen, but I continued to raise him, even in my undead form. I couldn't bear to leave him."
"But I thought we weren't supposed to interact with humans."
"We're not."
He gave her a look of confusion.
" *sigh* For a long time, I kept my secret from him. I continued to raise him as any mother would and I also engaged in war. You know, with the Daemoniacus. I tried my best to keep him in the dark for fear that in finding out he might reject me or even worse, try to help me in the war and in the process get himself killed. But after a while, he began putting the pieces together and he knew. It was very strange for him having a mother not that much older than him and he joked about it many times. *chuckle* Oh, my Nicholae. He accepted me. He loved me even though I had become…this. Oh, I loved him so. We were inseparable. Damian knew this."
"Who's Damian?"
"He's the new Daemoniacus leader. I killed the old one. He knew Nicholae meant the world to me, so he killed him. Right in front of me. Just to spite me."
"That son of a bitch."
"That's why I don't want you to see your mother. That's why I don't want anyone getting too close to their loved ones. If the Daemoniacus somehow found out, they would not hesitate to take action. They know that in hurting my children, they hurt me. Do you understand now?"
AJ nodded his head.
"Good." She stood up. "Now we must prepare. Tomorrow night, we go to Romania."
Chp 6
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