Though tears streaked her cheeks as she read those last words, it wasn't her tears that had caused the tearstains on the bottom of the page in the journal she held. Aria wiped her tears away and glanced around the small room she sat in. It seemed like a lifetime ago since she'd discovered it but it had only been just this morning. It had been on a whim that she'd decided to explore some of the areas in the palace that she hadn't been to yet.

Curiosity had driven her into the old king's rooms. She'd never entered his rooms in the nine months since the last war had ended and the king, Atticus, had been killed nor had she ever intended to enter. For some reason something had pulled her here today though, and she realized now she was holding that reason in her hands.

She didn't think anyone had come in here since his death if the amount of dust on the things in his main rooms was any indication. Though she doubted anyone other than a few servants and the king had ever entered his rooms anyway.

She knew no one other than the king had ever entered this room. It had been hidden behind one of his bookcases. She never would have discovered it if it wasn't for her love of reading. A book titled Wuthering Heights had caught her attention. When she'd pulled it down the book had remained on the shelf but a door had swung open with a loud creak to reveal a faded and sagging trunk in the middle of the room. Wary of what the old king may have hidden inside, she'd approached the trunk with caution but upon closer inspection she'd realized that it wasn't some sort of trap meant to explode in her face.

The scent of must and something sweeter and more floral in hue had drifted up to her upon first opening the trunk. Her attention was quickly diverted from the smell though by the gleaming glass box, lined with gold on the outside. It was placed on top of the clothing tucked neatly inside the trunk. Inside the box had been a blue ribbon that was almost completely white now and only showed its original blue hue in small patches. Another darker blue ribbon was also tucked securely inside the box along with a man's simple gold wedding band. There was also an assortment of parchments and numerous journals tucked into the bottom of the box.

Concerned the papers would fall apart in her grasp, she'd handled them with care when she removed them all from the airtight glass box and placed them to the side. Her confusion about what she'd discovered continued to mount as she sorted through the old-fashioned women's clothes in the trunk. The original color of the clothes had faded to the point it was nearly indiscernible. They had holes and patches in them and were of a style she'd only seen in history books. The dresses had to be at least a thousand years old but they were in relatively good condition given their age. In fact, everything in the trunk appeared to have been taken care of exceptionally well, and with love.

This trunk, and its contents, was so out of place with the monster she'd known, that she began to wonder if the king had even known these things were in here. She didn't see how he couldn't know about the room though, he'd built this place after all.

Then she had turned to the pile of parchment and journals. Going by the dates on the top, she began to read through the parchments that started in the year one thousand and forty. Within the pages, she'd discovered the story of a young woman who had lived a difficult life. No matter how much Genny struggled, she went at her life with optimism and a determination to make it better for her and the sister she cherished.

Within the pages, she uncovered the life of a young woman who had fallen in love with a man that Aria had only known as a vicious monster that had beaten the humans down. A man who had tortured her and relished in every second of making her life a living hell. A man she had always known only hatred for and whom she had assumed had been born a heartless bastard. Through Genny's words and life though, Aria began to realize that he'd once been a man and he had loved Genny deeply.

When Genny's life was abruptly cut short after finally finding happiness and some security, Aria had found herself openly weeping for the unfairness of it all. Finally regaining control of her emotions, she'd turned to the parchments that were written in the far more rigid hand of the wounded man that had been left behind. In those parchments, and later in the numerous journals Atticus had kept, she uncovered his steady descent into madness. She read about the unraveling of a man who had been good and caring before he'd been broken by his father's cruel betrayal. A man who hadn't known how to go on with a life as only a shell of the vampire he'd once been.

Never once had she felt even an ounce of pity for the former king, now she found herself weeping openly as she read the last words he'd ever written. For the first time she truly realized that Atticus had once been a man with compassion, and someone who had loved those around him. Atticus had done such awful things in his lengthy life but he hadn't started out as a mad man. He'd been denied a life of happiness that should have been his, by his father. A man that though he hadn't been close to, he had trusted.

Her heart ached even more as she recalled the time she'd been forced to spend with Atticus in his throne room. The image of all those people and vampires gathered as trophies within it still haunted her, but none more so than Merle when Atticus had held her bleeding wrist over his malnourished form. It made the moment all the more painful now that she knew who Merle had been to the king.

Life was so horribly sad sometimes. One tragic turn of events had started another that had turned Atticus from a loving friend, husband, and cousin to the raging monster he'd been at his death.

Wiping away her tears, she carefully gathered the documents spread about her, placed them back into the glass box and lifted it. She closed the room off again before hurrying down the hall. She'd spent so many hours within Atticus's room that she hadn't realized night had descended until now.

Stepping into the rooms she shared with Braith, she wasn't surprised to find him sitting at his desk. The candlelight played off of the black hair of his bent head. She stopped in her tracks, more tears filled her eyes as she stood and studied his chiseled face and broad shoulders. The thought of losing him was enough to make something inside of her shrivel up. To actually lose him was something she couldn't imagine having to endure. Oh yes, she completely understood what had destroyed Atticus as her gaze remained riveted upon her husband.

Braith smiled when he lifted his head to look at her. The smile instantly vanished from his face, he stood so abruptly that the chair fell over and she barely processed his movement. "What is wrong?" he demanded as he came toward her.

"I discovered something today," she whispered.

"What is it? Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." She hastily assured him when his eyes began to turn a reddish hue and his gaze went beyond her to the door. "I grew curious about your father's rooms."

His face instantly became shuddered, his eyes distant and cold as he stopped walking. Talk of his father was the one thing that could still make him look as severe and unyielding as the first day they'd met. "You shouldn't have gone in there; there is nothing good in there."

"But there was." His eyes swirled with confusion when she held the box out toward him. "You have to read what is in here."

His upper lip curled into a sneer as he shook his head. "I don't want to read anything he wrote."

"Yes Braith, you do." He went to turn away from her but she grabbed hold of his arm, halting him in place. "I'm asking you to read these. There are answers in here that you have to know. Answers you never even knew there were questions to." She didn't mention Melinda's parentage, he would uncover that secret soon enough.

His gaze fell to the glass box, an eyebrow arched up as he studied it. "What is in there?"

"They start as the written accounts of a woman named Genny and they end with your father's own words over the centuries."

Braith still appeared confused but at least he wasn't looking at the box like it was a handful of poison she was trying to feed him anymore. "Who is Genny?"

Tears brimmed in Aria's eyes again and she couldn't stop the one that slid free for the young woman that had lived such a short, brutal life. A woman who had been in love with one man, had sacrificed herself to save her sister, and been the cause of a war she never could have imagined would unfold.

"She's the key to it all," Aria whispered. "Please Braith. I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't think it was important and I think it will help you to understand him better."

"Nothing could help me understand that man," he muttered as he reluctantly took the box from her hands.

She didn't tell him that she'd felt the same way upon waking this morning but no longer did after reading over Genny and Atticus's words. Braith would learn it on his own, and soon. He sat at his desk again and began to carefully remove the documents from the box.

"Start at the beginning," she told him and kissed the top of his head. Walking away from him, she settled onto the window seat that overlooked the stunning gardens below. Though it was night out, with her enhanced vision she could still see the fountain in the center of the garden from where she sat. She'd always loved that fountain but she understood it even better now.

Braith didn't speak but after an hour, he rose from his chair and moved to the sofa. His brow furrowed, his lips pursed as he sat on the edge of the piece of furniture. His shoulders were taut with tension; his hair had become disheveled from running his hand through it while he read. Aria dropped her head against the glass when he rose and began to pace sometime later.

The night wore on and he began to move through the documents at a much more rapid pace. She didn't speak as he read through first one journal of his father's and then another. There had been so many entries over the years that most of them were a blur to her, but many still stood out sharply in her mind, many she knew she would never forget.

Though she'd meant to stay awake, she drifted off as the night progressed toward morning. Large arms wrapping securely around her caused her to stir again. She sensed Braith's desperation as he crushed her against his broad chest. His mouth brushed heatedly over her forehead and cheeks before finally claiming her mouth. She clung to him as he kissed her with a feral urgency that she responded to instantly. His hands slid into her hair and turned her head so that he had better access to her mouth.

Grasping his shoulders, she held onto him as he walked with her into the bedroom. He placed her tenderly upon the bed and came down on top of her swiftly. Aria tried to ease the fervent need in him as she held him close to her and gave herself over to him. The press of his fangs scraping against her flesh caused her body to thrum with excitement seconds before they pierced her skin. A gasp of pleasure escaped her; she cradled his head against her neck while he fed from her. Her own fangs sank into his shoulder; the heated flow of his blood filled her mouth. A feeling of belonging stole through her as they were linked together.

He was calmer when he rolled away from her but she sensed something savage inside of him when he wrapped his large body around hers. Cradling her back to his chest, he brushed the hair away from her face and kissed her cheek. "It could have been me," he whispered in her ear.

"No Braith, it could never have been you. Your father didn't understand what was happening to him. He didn't even know what it was between them until centuries later. By the time he knew, it was too late for him. You're not your father."

"No, I'm not," he agreed. "But you are my greatest love, my only love."

She smiled as she rolled over to look at him. "And you are mine. I keep recalling that look on your father's face, when he died. I never quite knew what to make of it, but now I think it was actually relief."

Braith's striking gray and blue eyes focused on the wall on the other side of the room. He seemed to be looking back to that long ago, horrid day as he spoke. "So do I."

"But he seemed so happy when he came back again."

"I think he had finally snapped," Braith murmured. "I think whatever sanity he still possessed completely came undone when he realized that he wasn't dead. That he may be forced to forever walk this earth with no end to his misery."

"That would be enough to drive me mad," she whispered.

"Me also."

"Even if he doubted it was possible, I think he and Genny are together now. At least I hope they are. He did awful things throughout the years, but I want to believe that whatever there is after this life, would allow him to find the peace in death that was denied to him so cruelly in life."

Braith kissed her again as he cradled her against him. "I hope you're right."

Aria held his hand firmly against her chest, over the place of the heart that he owned. She drifted to sleep wrapped in the cocoon of the love he had for her.

 

The End

 

 

Look for Vengeance, The Captive Series Book 6, coming December 29th 2015! It is now available for pre-order.

 

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