The past week, I didn’t have to lift a finger. Nathaniel had made sure of
that.
I didn’t know if it had something do with the fact that he flirted with
someone while I was in hospital and was trying to earn back my trust or
if it was because I had almost killed myself from falling and suffering
hypothermia.
“Brianna, are you ready to see if you can put more pressure on your
leg?” mum asked the one day Nathaniel was out.
I looked up from the book I was reading in the living room to occupy
my time and opened my mouth to reply, but a knock on the door
stopped me. Mum walked to the front door and opened it, revealing
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Amylia standing outside with a thick envelope in her hand.
“Hello Marie is Nathaniel here?” she asked sweetly.
“He went out about an hour ago. You are quite welcome to wait if
you want to,” mum said and stepped aside.
Amylia walked into the room and looked at me before raising her
eyebrows.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“I just have some things Nathaniel might be interested in,” she re-
plied and sat next to me.
“What do you mean?” I asked, trying to get a good look at the enve-
lope.
“You mean he hasn’t told you?” she asked, sounding shocked.
“The only thing Nathaniel has been doing is fussing over me. I mean,
it’s a miracle that I am in the lounge room and not tied to my bed with
chains and a padlock holding me in place so I can’t move and cause
more damage to myself!”
“Becoming overbearing, I see,” Amylia said, trying not to snicker.
“Overbearing isn’t the word I would use,” I muttered.
Amylia just looked at me, but didn’t say anything. She kept on glanc-
ing down at what she had in her hands and looked nervous over some-
thing. What that something was, I didn’t know.
Half an hour later, Nathaniel walked into the lounge room, but froze
when he saw Amylia sitting next to me. She looked over at him and
smiled like she was up to something that he wouldn’t like.
“What are you doing here?” Nathaniel asked.
“Mail arrived for you at home, and I thought that you might be in-
terested in seeing what it is,” she said, getting up and handed him the
think envelope.
I could only hope that it wasn’t something bad that they weren’t tell-
ing me about. I didn’t like it when secrets were being kept from me. Na-
thaniel’s eyes narrowed when he looked down and gripped the paper so
hard, I thought that he was going to tear it in half.
“And you couldn’t have brung this around later?” he asked, venom
lacing his voice.
“You are gonna have to tell Brianna. She has the right to know what
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you have planned,” Amylia said, and left the room, leaving Nathaniel
seething and me confused.
“What’s going on Nate?” I asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said, leaving the room.
Nathaniel had dropped the envelope on the ground, but I couldn’t
reach out to get it. Making sure that no one was going to come into the
room, I shifted myself to the edge of the couch and pulled myself up. I
started walking slowly, gritting my teeth so I wouldn’t make a sound and
get caught walking without any aid.
I grabbed it and made my way back to where I was resting just in
time. Mum and Amylia walked into the room, shaking their heads.
“Brianna, has Nathaniel been acting any different this past week?”
Amylia asked, sitting in front of me.
“He has been more protective and a bit secretive, I guess. Why do
you ask?”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Amylia muttered.
“What is going on?” I asked, getting sick of these games.
“I want to tell you, but I can’t. That is up to Nathaniel.”
“Mum, do you know?” I asked.
“I have heard something’s, but I can’t go into detail either darling.”
I had heard enough. Forcing myself to get up from where I was sit-
ting and away from Amylia and my mother, I started walking through
the pain.
“Where are you going?” Amylia asked.
“Away from here before I say something that I will regret,” I replied.
“But you need your crutches,” mum said.
“Right now, I don’t care that my leg is killing me and that I want to
scream out in pain because of it. I just want to be alone and you both
should know by now my distaste for secrets. You are just lucky I didn’t
make a big deal when I found out you were vampires, but I knew it was
serious.”
“Nathaniel told us not to tell you anything because of your temper.
He didn’t want you exploding with rage.”
“He hasn’t seen anything yet, and where is my vampire? I want to
have some kind words to him.”
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“Nate has gone on what you would call a vampire run,” Amylia re-
plied.
“Then he better hope that I will be in a better mood when he gets
back,” I said and limped my way out of the room.
When I got into my room, I was tempted to place something against
the door to stop people from entering, but then I remembered the
strength the vampires would support and I don’t think mum would be
happy with a broken down door.
I sat on my bed with my arms crossed and my fingers digging into
the palm of my hands and when I heard yelling from in the lounge
room, I knew Nathaniel was back from his escape plan and wasn’t
aware of the hell I was about to raise. He had vanished for half an hour,
and my mood was still sour. The bedroom door opened, making me
glance at it.
“Why are you in here for?” Nathaniel asked, coming into my room.
“Maybe because I wanted to be alone,” I snapped back at him.
“I understand that you are angry about this, but I know that you will
resort to some sort of violence once you find out what is going to hap-
pen,” he said, walking over to my bed and sitting on it.
“I am tempted to use some sort of violence now Nathaniel to get the
answer that I want from you.”
Nathaniel just stared at me with a blank look on his face. I wasn’t
going to back down from this and he knew that.
“So start talking,” I finally said, breaking eye contact with him.
“Brianna, I planned on telling you Saturday night,” Nathaniel said
quietly.
“Saturday night?”
“Yes. I have plans for us and I was going to tell you what is going on,
but if you really want to know what is going on, I guess I can tell you
now.”
I closed my eyes, feeling my anger start to reach boiling point. We
both were good at playing these games, but I wanted to stop this.
“Just tell me Nathaniel,” I whispered.
“It’s about my schooling,” he stated.
“What was so bad about telling me?” I asked, my tone still hard
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“I’m finally going to university,” he stated, grabbing my hand.
“What?” I asked, my jaw dropping open.
“I have been accepted into university and I plan on taking this
chance to finally make something out of myself for once in my life and
not repeat high school over and over again.”
“Nathaniel, that is really, really good. I’m really happy that you are
going to university. Where are you going?” I asked, feeling happy.
“Victoria University in Melbourne,” he replied, making my happiness
disappear.
“You’re leaving me?” I asked with my voice going hoarse.
“Baby, you have to understand that this was my dream when I was
human and I don’t want to give this up.”
It felt like a ton of bricks had landed on me. Nathaniel had this
dream that he wanted to make come true and I understood that, but at
the same time, he was willing to leave me for I didn’t know how long.
“Brianna, are you alright?” Nathaniel asked when I didn’t reply.
“How long is this going to be for?”
“Two years living in the city.”
“I think I’m going to be sick,” I said after hearing that.
“We don’t have to worry about this until the end of February next
year, so we still have all this time to spend together.”
“Is this why you were in Melbourne not long ago?” I asked, finally
putting the pieces in place.
“We had to go over final details, but I had this planned way before
you entered my life and I couldn’t let this past me.”
“Then we should be celebrating this,” I announced, putting on my
best brave face I could manage. “It’s not every day that someone I love
gets into university.”
Nathaniel looked shocked at this. I think he was more expecting
fights and screaming matches than me accepting this. But what he
didn’t know was I was dying on the inside because of this. My boyfriend
hadn’t thought about how this would affect me.
“I love you so much Brianna,” he said and pulled me in for a hug.
“I love you too.”
I rested my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes, forcing the
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tears that wanted to fall to stay back.
“You finally told her,” Amylia said, opening my bedroom door.
“I see that you heard everything,” Nathaniel said, keeping his grip on
me.
“What I wanted to hear. Are you okay though, Brianna?”
I opened my eyes and just stared at her, giving away my answer. She
nodded and walked out of my room, leaving Nathaniel and myself alone
once again.
“So how are we going to celebrate?” Nathaniel asked, finally letting
me go.
“How about with Hudson and Brandon or we can just do something
ourselves?”
“The Hudson and Brandon idea sounds good, but so does the one
when we are alone.”
“Then how about we do both?”
Nathaniel smiled and kissed me lightly before getting off my bed and
leaving the room. When I was sure that he wasn’t going to come back, I
allowed the tears I was forcing back to fall silently. The main thing that
worried me was the fact I wouldn’t know where this left us in the fu-
ture.
Taking a deep breath, I got off my bed and made my way to the
bathroom, only stopping when I heard voices sounding close by. I didn’t
want them to see me like this. Splashing some cold water on my face, I
felt a bit more human.
“Brianna, where are you?” Amylia asked from in the hallway.
“I’m in here,” I said, opening the bathroom door.
“How are you coping with all of this?” she asked, cutting the chase
and getting to the point.
“I can’t give you a straight answer as this hasn’t really hit me,” I re-
plied.
“But what about when it does? I know that you are young and
strong, but this would have me on a breakdown of some sorts, knowing
that my partner would be leaving me.”
“Who says that I am that strong? I have to deal with Augusta, Jason,
my father being back in town and now Nathaniel leaving me in twelve
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months. None of this has hit me yet, but when it does, I am worried
about the affects it’s going to have on me.”
“This is why we are here, Brianna. Nathaniel wants us to make sure
that you don’t do anything or that anything happens to you once he is
at school and away from you, and I thought that I would get some prac-
tice in before that time comes so I know what to do.”
“Did you know that he had this planned?”
“Nate had this planned since Christmas last year. He thought that if
he enrolled into university that it might help with his depression as
there is a lot more to do there to keep your mind occupied and when
you came into the picture and caught Nathaniel’s attention, I had hoped
that he wouldn’t go through with this plan and stay here with you and
with us, but he isn’t...” Amylia trailed off, her eyes becoming empty be-
fore shaking her head.
“What are you both doing in here?” Nathaniel asked, sticking his
head into the bathroom.
“Talking,” Amylia replied.
“Don’t you know there is a perfectly good bedroom or lounge room
to do that?”
“Of course we knew that, but we just wanted to be different,” she
said, leaving.
Nathaniel said something under his breath before turning his gaze
back onto me. His eyes became concerned after a while.
“Baby, are you sure everything is alright?”
“If something was bothering me I would tell you,” I said, trying to
walk out of the room, but he stopped me.
“Don’t lie to me Brianna,” he whispered.
“Nate, what gossip is Augusta going to spread once she finds out
about this? What is my cousin going to do to you once he finds out
about this?” I asked, my tone becoming cold.
“First, we can work through the gossip and drama that she will cause
and second, I can deal with Alexander when the time comes. He plans
on doing the same thing as me.”
“Why didn’t I know that?” I asked feeling like the world was starting
to turn against me.
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“I only found out because Alexander told me when he told me about
your father and I promised him that I wouldn’t tell you, but as you can
see, I just broke that promise.”
“That reminds me that I haven’t really forgiven both of you about
that. I still need to find out what he wants.”
“I’m sure that you will find the answer to that in time,” he said.
“He never created contact with me and I know for a fact that he is
only back because Augusta somehow found him. He hasn’t paid my
mother a cent of money since I was sixteen and during that time, we
had fallen behind on bills, food and everything else that was needed to
survive. It is a miracle that I could even go to school here, and if it
wasn’t for my grandparents, I wouldn’t be and we wouldn’t be togeth-
er!” I shouted.
All Nathaniel did was staring at me like he did on my second day of
school. It was like everything I just said had gone over the top of his
head. I shook my head and tried to hobble out of the room.
“Let me help you get over all of this Brianna. I want to be the perfect
boyfriend to you, but right now, all I am doing is causing you heart-
ache,” he said, making me stop and look at him.
The look on his face almost broke my heart. I knew that he was try-
ing hard, and I was making it very difficult for him to do that. Taking a
deep breath, I forced more tears that wanted fall back into my body.
“The only thing I want is answers from my father and then I can final-
ly forget about him,” I said.
“I know that you have anger that you want to unleash, and I am giv-
ing you permission to do that on me,” Nathaniel said, making me take a
step back.
“You do realise what you are saying, don’t you? I’m not going to un-
leash anything that you don’t deserve and this is something that you
haven’t done wrong and don’t need to be punished for,” I said, grabbing
his hand.
“Are you sure about that?”
To shut my vampire up, I wrapped a hand around the back of his
neck, brung his face down to my height and glued my lips to his and
kissed him hard. When I pulled back to catch my breath, Nathaniel had a
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look of shock on his face.
“Does that answer your question now, Nate?” I asked. “Or do you
still have more that haven’t been answered?”
“Wow,” he breathed.
“You recover and I will be in the kitchen if you need me,” I said, leav-
ing him the in hallway.
Amylia was sitting at the kitchen table with mum; looking over doc-
uments. Amylia glanced up at me before going back to doing whatever
she was before I entered the room.
“What are you both doing?” I asked, sitting down at the table in
front of them.
“I’m helping Marie with the support documents. Bethany said some-
thing about them to me not long ago, since I am the brains that handles
the finances for us Pryor’s,” Amylia replied, punching some numbers on
the calculator.
“How much does he now owe, dear?” mum asked.
“Seven thousand,” she said and looked at her.
“And will they be seeing that?” Nathaniel asked, sitting next to me
and looking at his future sister in law.
“Nate, I would love you give you an answer, but that is up to Saul if
he comes to the party on this one. He is the one that will owe ten thou-
sand dollars by the time Brianna turns eighteen years of age.”
“Not if I have something to do with it, it won’t be,” he whispered.
“Don’t go doing anything stupid Nathaniel. We don’t need you in jail
for assault or even murder. Just let everything run its course in life. I
mean, who knows, this could be the reason he is back in town right
now,” Amylia said.
“You are aware that Augusta is causing this trouble, right?” I asked.
“That bitch has it coming to her. I would give great pleasure on
bringing her down to her knees,” she said and smirked at Nathaniel.
“But you won’t let me have my fun!”
“You tell me to behave and the same goes for you as well,” he said,
grabbing my hand.
“All I want is that money as it will be very handy for things that we
need,” mum said, grabbing the papers and placing them in her cabinet.
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“I mean, your birthday is coming up soon, and I still have no idea what
we are going to be doing just yet.”
“Birthday?” Nathaniel asked.
“Don’t even think about doing anything,” I replied.
“Leave the planning to us Marie. I’m sure that we can put together a
party of some sorts in a few weeks,” Amylia said, getting up.
“I don’t want anything though,” I argued.
“Sweetheart, let us have our fun,” Nathaniel said.
“Fine you win,” I muttered and crossed my arms.
“See you tomorrow at school,” Amylia said, and left.
I shot daggers into the back of mum’s head. I didn’t want them
knowing about my birthday for that reason, and now they do and I have
no way of getting out of it.
“So Nathaniel how is Brianna’s bed treating you?” mum asked, turn-
ing to look at us.
“It’s different to mine, but I will get used to it,” he said and smiled at
her.
“You can go home after tomorrow,” I said, catching his attention
with my cold tone.
Mum also looked up from what she was doing and turned around,
looking at me with concern. I never usually spoke with such a hard, cold
tone to my voice and when I only did, something was making me upset,
and right now, there was a lot of things just doing that.
“Are you alright Brianna? It is rare that you speak like that,” mum
said, worry lacing her voice.
“I’m fine,” I replied, getting up from where I was sitting.
“Baby, are you sure about that?” Nathaniel asked.
My temper was going to get the best of me. I could feel it and it
wasn’t going to be pretty.
“You want to know what is bothering me. How can my father get
away with not paying this money that he clearly owes to us? How can
you and my own cousin lie to me and not feel any sort of regret of put-
ting me through even more pain?” I asked, my voice breaking towards
the end.
“We didn’t know how you were going to take it. Your father just ar-
234
rived back in town and we didn’t want to cause a breakdown or some-
thing similar like that,” Nathaniel said, getting up also.
“I think it would have been better for me to find out about you going
off to university than seeing my father with Augusta on our date and
knowing in the pit of my stomach the pain this was about to cause my
mother,” I said quietly.
“Brianna, why can’t you just get over this? I told you that I was sorry
about going behind your back and asking Alexander those questions,
but I truly believed that you weren’t going to tell me any of this and I
resorted to my last choice,” he explained.
“Was Alex willing to tell you everything or did you have to push the
questions?” I asked.
Nathaniel didn’t say anything for a few minutes. He just stared at the
ground. “I had to ask him the questions, but he answered them straight
to the point,” he finally said.
Now the truth was starting to come out into the open. I still felt be-
trayed and it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
“I’m so sorry about this,” he whispered when I didn’t reply.
“I know you are, but you were willing to tell me about your past as a
human, so I think it’s time that I did the same, but without the changing
into a vampire part of it.”
Fair was fair and I had promised that I would tell him about it when
he had admitted everything in his past life, but I didn’t and now was the
time to do so. Nathaniel grabbed my hand and led me up to my bed-
room, shutting the door once we were inside.
“Where do I start?” I asked once we were sitting on my bed.
“From wherever you wish,” Nathaniel said, sitting next to me.
“Well, I was born in Melton that you already knew.”
“I remember you saying something about that from our first fight.”
“Apparently once I was born, everything started to fall apart. For
eighteen months, my father was bitter towards me as for some reason,
he didn’t believe I was his as I looked nothing like him. He had thought
that I would be a splitting image of him, but I wasn’t. My parents started
fighting a lot, but I don’t remember any of that as when things got too
bad, I was given to my grandmother until the water had calmed down,”
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I said, my throat burning.
Nathaniel moved a bit closer to me, but I knew that I had to continue
with this. There wasn’t any way on making this any better for me, but if
Nathaniel knew more than before, that might make me feel better on
the inside.
“One day, he just got up and left without a reason and we never
heard from him again. The only way we knew that he was still alive was
the fact he was paying money to mum, but now that has stopped. Mum
put all of that towards a house and worked the two jobs just to support
us. We were extremely lucky that we found this one, but I didn’t want
to live here. I wanted something more flash, but you can’t get every-
thing that you want.
“Over time, I started to grow bitterer towards him, but then on my
thirteenth birthday, he decided to send me a card in the mail. Being so
young, I thought that he wanted something to do with me and was go-
ing to show up, hoping to smooth over the waters and that I would have
a father again. I spent the whole night awake, looking out the window
of my grandmother’s house and even got to see the sun rise for the very
first time in my whole life. But my happiness soon turned to disap-
pointment when I realised that he wasn’t going to show up.
“I spent the whole day fighting back tears and pretending that I was
happy when I wasn’t. I was miserable and felt...dead inside. Alex pulled
me aside and forced me to admit everything and I broke down for the
very first time in my life. My cousin and I had forged a bond that we
never had before from that day. I could go and talk to him about things
and know that I wasn’t going to get judged and I can still do that to this
day.”
“What about me though?” Nathaniel asked. “You can come to me
about anything. I love you and I would never judge you on anything.