Page 71 of A Vampire's Pain
“I ran,” she said. “I tried getting some money by sneaking into a party for all the supernatural aristocrats, and I did get in. I was even able to steal a little, but then Dominic caught me. It was how we met.”
“Wow …”
I smiled as I thought about how Gabriel and I had met. How I had ended up getting lost in the big garden, and then Gabriel chasing me around just to get my name. I felt my heart beating faster just thinking about it.
“What about before all of it?” I asked. “Or have you been running all your life?”
“I’m a half-blood,” she said. “In a way I have.”
I looked at her, feeling sad on her behalf, but she smiled at me and waved a hand in the air.
“Don’t feel bad.”
“But I do,” I said.
“I’m happy now.”
“But just thinking about people not liking you because of your blood … or what happened to you …” the last part I whispered, and it was more meant for myself than Lara, but she seemed to have heard it. “It’s awful.”
“People judge you too, don’t they?” she asked.
I sighed and nodded.
“Those who know what happened … yes …”
“Even though it is hundreds of years ago it happened?”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure exactly how much Lara knew of my story, but she seemed to at least understand sort of what had happened. I could see there was still some confusion and a little curiosity in her eyes as if she wanted to know more. I didn’t want to talk about it though. It was just better not to.
“The aristocrats just don’t forget,” I said.
“And what about Damon?”
“What about him?”
“Did he ever … turn his back on you?” she asked.
I shook my head.
“Of course not. He is the only one who has stood by me all this time,” I told her. “Which is why I feel so bad for not being able to do as he tells me to.”
“It’s your life, Valeri,” she said.
“I know … but I owe him so much.”
Lara shook her head.
“You don’toweyour family anything. Being a family means wanting the others to be happy without expecting anything in return,” she said.
I looked at her shocked, thinking over her words.
“I really think your brother wants you to be happy, and not owe him anything because of it. I think he just … thinks he knows how to make you happy and fears you don’t.”
“I understand why he wants to protect me but that night when I met Gabriel, he made me feel more alive in that half an hour I was with him and you guys than I have ever since I was taken,” I told her.
Lara smiled a big smile.
“You really like him, don’t you?”
