Dangerously Yours Till Eternity

“There are no unwanted presence in the house, I did a quick check before coming down to the kitchen.”

Koel’s voice snapped her out of her train of thoughts.

He was seating by her dressing table, his arms folded across his chest. The light was still on, so she could see him perfectly.

“Nice. That is very normal. When did you get the gifts?”

“On our way here. The Sire had told me to.”

Ivy found herself smiling at that.

Chris was always so thoughtful.

She couldn’t wait to get this contract holding her hostage to expire so that she could marry him. Then she remembered the complications of his world and she sighed.

“More tea?”

She looked towards Koel who was already ready to pour her a cup of tea, and she sighed tiredly.

“You are going to drown me in tea.”

He stopped, then set back the jug on the table.

“If you don’t want more tea, then is there something I can help you with? I have studied humans a lot. I can come in assistance.”

She sat up at the opportunity.

“Who is Chris’s brother and why is everyone afraid of him?”

“Afraid?” Koel asked, his expression tight.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

“Yes,” she blurted. “No one said anything about that but I could sense it.”

He hummed. “I cannot tell you that, Sire’s Woman. I have orders not to.”

Ivy tsked, falling back into bed.

“Worth the shot.”

“Is there anything else I might assist you with?”

“Yeah, in fact, there is.” She was sitting up once again. “So let me get this straight. You are not attracted to human women, yeah?”

“That is a bold assumption.” His hand was already curling around his ceramic jug handle again. “Tea?”

“Argh, stop with you tea. I’m trying to figure out why Chris is so comfortable with this whole arrangement. Aren’t Vampires supposed to be possessive of their Potentials or something?”

“Sire’s Woman, if you haven’t observed–”

“Argh, stop with your Sire’s Woman too. It makes me feel old. Just call me Ivy.”

He looked her dead in the eyes and said, “I can’t call you that.”

“Why, is that another order?”

“No but I think it’s implied. Back to your question. Sire’s Woman…”

Ivy rolled her eyes at his stubborness. She probably would just have to get used to it.

“… if you haven’t observed it yet, the Sire has a control on us. We obey him, it is how we are.”

“Because he is your Sire.”

He nodded. “He turned us and we will lay down the rest of us, dead or not, for him.”

“What if you went against him?” She asked, thinking back to what had happened to Elsa on the rooftop.

“We can’t. It is against our very being to go against our Sire. It is torture, for us.”

Ivy gulped, she suddenly felt a tingle of fear cross through her veins.

“Can he sense it if you try?”

He nodded. Then poured a cup of tea…

Oh no—

For himself, thank goodness.

But on a second thought, that might be because this conversation was making him uneasy.

An idea popped up in her mind and she asked.

“Have you ever tried?”

“Never.” He set the cup back on the saucer, making it click against that glass.

It was still a wonder how he carried that whole set around without breaking any. Carrying it around in itself was enough wonder to her. Did he never get tired?

“So he is comfortable because he is sure that you won’t go against his orders, because he is your Sire.”

“Also because I had a Potential in the past.”

Wow.

Had – keyword.

She mentally noted to herself.

“Oh, what happened?”

“She was human, one that wanted to stay human.” He poured the tea for himself again, his eyes glimmered with tears, his smile never flattering but it was obvious he wasn’t going to say more.

Like it was a happy sad memory.

The mood in the room had grown solemn.

“How many years ago was that?”

“A century? More? I have lost count of the years but everytime, it feels like it had all happened yesterday. Like she is still there.”

There was silence.

“Potentials are precious. They are the closest we will ever get to a soulmate. They are what humans call true love and sometimes we find love where we shouldn’t.”

Ivy blinked, her mouth slightly parted in a gasp.

That made her think of Chris.

How they were so different. He said she was the only Potential he had ever wanted to be different with. If she was this important, why had he been willing to let her go when he thought she didn’t want to be with him.

He loved her.

Loved her so much that he didn’t want her to be forced to anything, even if her decision might hurt him.

“Can’t you just find another one? Humans can.”

“It is harder for us. As long as we are still attached to a Potential, we can’t find another one. Even for dead hearts like ours, it takes time for us to move on. Sometimes it takes all the time we will ever have. Immortal as we are.”

Goodness.

Could that be why Chris had stayed away from the few Potentials he found in the past? Could it be that being attached to a Potential, crippled the ability of finding one’s Soulmate too?

She felt Koel standing up and looking towards her.

“I must fed.” He said before stepping closer to her.

Hold up! No way.

A smile stretched across his lips as he looked away and pull up a black bag from the floor. He zipped it open, then pull out some things that looked like juice boxes before sitting back down.

Ah, he was just messing with her.

What a relief.

“It had been so long since I have been jealous of a person with a beating heart,” he said passively, then he started drinking.

Which reminded her of Chris drinking from her. How different their relationship was. And how Koel might be their future, what they ended up being. Her, dead and him, living on with these memories.

Her heart grew heavy at the thought.

If she wanted their story to be different, she would have to be a Vampire.

She gulped, her mind filling with different thoughts.

She definitely wouldn’t be sleeping tonight.

This time around, when Koel handed her a cup of tea, she accepted it, sipping the small sweet smelling warm liquid.

They drank their tea in silence.

She didn’t want to be a Vampire. What would happen to her parents? Won’t that just make her have more dangerous enemies, like Chris already did.

She wondered why Chris never brought this up, surely, he must have thought about it.

Maybe because he already knew her answer. That despite the fact that she no longer considered them as monsters, she still didn’t want to be one herself.

Ping!

A text.

She checked her phone and it was “My Christopher”

“Sleep tight, my Love. Missed your calls, can’t talk right now. I’m so sorry about everything. Elsa is fine, we are all fine. Sorry we had to cut our fun time short, I’ll make it up to you soon, I promise.”

She smiled, putting the phone away to resist the urge to call and hear his voice.

Then she started feeling dizzy and Koel took the cup away, tucking her back in bed.

Why was she so sleepy all of a sudden?

Just as she started fading away, she could hear the voice of someone sobbing quietly behind her.

Koel.

He must be thinking about his Potential.

Ivy’s heart squeezed with an impending loss.

A foreign grieve that was quickly getting too farmilar.

Was this Chris future, playing right in front of her?

Was this really a foreshadowing of what laid ahead of them?