Two days later, I still hadn’t seen or heard from Nathaniel.
It was like he had fallen off the face of the earth.
I didn’t know if he was doing this because I left his place or I men-
tioning his ex-fiancée had hit a sore spot that he didn’t want me to
know about. I had no idea what is problem was but for some reason, I
wanted to know everything that was bothering him. I was his girlfriend
so I felt that I had a right to know what was bothering him. Snapping out
of my thoughts and getting off my bed, I decided to go out the front and
get some air that I hoped would help clear my mind.
“Brianna, have you seen the dinner set that we use a couple times a
year?” mum asked as I entered the kitchen.
“No, I haven’t seen that since we have moved here. Why is that
mother dear?” I asked, leaning against the door frame, crossing my
arms.
“I was just wondering as we will need it. We most likely left it in
Melbourne by mistake,” mum said and walked out of the room. I heard
the front door open and close and started to wonder what she was do-
ing or had planned for some strange reason. She had never acted this
strange before.
“Need it for what?” I asked aloud and walked to the front door so I
could get my fresh air that I was craving.
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I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw who mum was talking to
outside when I opened the front door before breaking into a sprint to
my grandparents. My grandfather looked up and opened his arms for
me so I could embrace him when he saw me approaching him. I felt like
a giddy school girl who had just been asked out on a date by her high
school crush.
“My darling Brianna how I’ve missed you so much,” My grandfather
said as he hugged me.
“Oh Joseph, they have only been here for two months. Wait until
after a year and then say it, like I am,” my grandmother said, making me
glance over at her and smile.
Her straight to the point and not beating around the bush nature
hadn’t vanished and I had missed that, but the other side of her I hadn’t
missed and I was sure that would come out to play soon enough.
“Now Liz, just because I said that we couldn’t stop so you could
shop doesn’t mean you can get huffy. We are here for Brianna’s birth-
day, not for you to spend our life savings on stuff that we don’t even
need,” he replied, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“Oh Joseph. Marie let’s go inside and leave these two to spend
some time together.”
Once mum and grandma went inside, I pulled away from my grand-
pa with a huge smile on my face. I was feeling extremely happy just by
seeing him and I had no idea on how I would be feeling when it came
time for him to go back home.
“I can’t believe that you came early. I thought you were coming lat-
er on in the week?” I asked.
“Well we thought we would come a week earlier so we could spend
time with you and your mother,” grandpa replied. “Now, where is this
Nathaniel your grandmother informed me about?”
My blood ran cold when my grandfather mentioned Nathaniel.
“I’m pretty sure that he is at home,” I said. “I will go around there
later on today and see if he wants to come around so he can meet you.”
“Wonderful. I want to see if he is good enough for my granddaugh-
ter. Now, where is your juvenile cousin, Alexander?”
“Still in Colac, but I am sure once mum rings Aunty Rachel, they will
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be straight here to see you and grandma.”
“Brianna,” I heard Nathaniel say behind me.
I wasn’t expecting to hear that voice.
“Nate, what are you doing here?” I asked, turning around so I could
look at him.
I felt grandpa get closer to me as Nathaniel approached. Nathaniel
looked over my shoulder before looking down at the ground.
“I came to see you, but I see you have company so I won’t stay and
interrupt anything,” he said and started backing away from me.
“Nate, this is my grandfather Joseph,” I said, making him stop mov-
ing. “They have come up a week earlier so they can spend some time
with us before my birthday. Stay for dinner so you can meet my grand-
mother.”
“Would I be allowed to?”
“Of course you will be allowed to,” grandpa said, making me look at
him.
That was a first that he had given his approval for a guy to stay for
dinner, but though, this wasn’t his house so he couldn’t say if he could
or couldn’t this time. It was up to mum.
Nathaniel nodded and glanced at me before looking down at the
ground, so he wouldn’t see my stare that was currently burning holes
into his vampiric skin. Mum came to the front door, asking grandpa to
come inside and help her start the barbeque, leaving Nathaniel and I
alone. I crossed my arms and bit my lip, waiting for him to start speak-
ing. There was no way in hell that I was going to start this conversation.
“Why haven’t you spoken to me in the last two days?” Nathaniel
asked, making me look up at him.
“Because I had no idea if you would have ripped my head off or not
after our last talk. I didn’t want to risk my life ending so abruptly,” I re-
plied.
“That doesn’t mean anything. You could have at least called Beth to
tell her to inform me that you were alive.”
“You mean that you couldn’t have used your vampiric senses to see
if I was alive like you normally do?”
“Very funny Brianna,” he replied and crossed his arms.
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“I didn’t mean it as a joke Nathaniel. We will talk about this after
dinner when my family are outside and won’t hear what we are saying,”
I said.
“Why can’t we just talk about it now Brianna?”
“Because I don’t want to be upset in front of my grandparents. They
don’t even know you and if they see you have gotten me upset, they
will not be happy with you and do you want to leave a bad impression
on my grandfather,” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Why wouldn’t I want to leave a bad impression on your grandfa-
ther?” he asked, confused.
“Because he is the one that has to approve of you. Sure, you got
past mum, but my grandfather will be much harder on you on every-
thing that involves me and my happiness,” I stated.
“Then I will just have to make an excellent impression on him and
your grandmother,” he said and walked up the stairs to the front door.
I groaned in frustration and followed him inside, hoping that he
wouldn’t go too overboard on the affection in front of my grandparents.
But that was even if I let him touch me until we had our talk later on this
evening.
“So Nathaniel, tell us a bit about yourself,” I heard my grandmother
say when I opened the front door.
I was interested in hearing what he had to say to her, but a part of
me was worried that he might charm my grandmother too much. My
grandfather wouldn’t like that to happen.
“Well what can I say? I am nineteen years old and madly in love with
your granddaughter,” Nathaniel said, looking straight at my grandmoth-
er.
“He is a charmer this one. I think Brianna picked well,” mum said,
smiling at Nathaniel.
If only they knew of his sudden mood changes where he was likely to
kill someone, but that could have been the vampire in him coming out
on show.
“Talk about sucking up Nathaniel,” I said, walking into the room and
making them look at me.
“And what makes you think I am sucking up Brianna?” he asked,
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looking at me.
“Because you normally do,” I replied, smirking at him.
“Marie, would it be alright if I invited my family around for dinner
tonight?” Nathaniel asked, looking at her.
“Of course it would be,” she replied. “It would be a good chance for
both sides of the family to get together and get to know each other bet-
ter.”
“Wonderful,” I muttered and walked off to my room, not giving
them a chance to reply.
I closed my door and sat on my bed, hoping that no one would fol-
low me up. And as usual, I was wrong. Five minutes later, mum knocked
on my door and opened it, making me look over at her.
“Has something happened? You are never like that,” she said, cut-
ting straight to the point and walking into my room.
“Everything is fine mum. Don’t worry about it,” I replied.
“Brianna, when are you due for your period?” she asked suddenly.
“Not until tomorrow,” I said, wondering where she was going with
this.
“And you and Nathaniel haven’t done anything?” she asked, making
my blood run cold
“Mum, my vampire boyfriend who can hear what we are saying is at
the kitchen table with my grandparents!” I hissed.
“I don’t think Nathaniel would care of what we talk about Brianna. In
fact, I think he would be happy that I’ve touched on this subject,” she
said, making a point.
“Mum, I’m not pregnant. I’m still a virgin thank you very much, but
there is a problem,” I admitted.
“What’s that?”
“Hudson is pregnant and it has come out into the open that my
vampire has a craving to become a father.”
“But I thought it was rare for a vampire to create a child with a hu-
man?” mum asked, confused and rightly so.
“He lied as he thought that you might start hounding us for grand-
children like Beth is with Nathaniel once she found out about me.”
“So what is going on with Nathaniel? He seems fine to me.”
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“We had a fight the other day and it seems his ex-fiancée is playing a
part in this for some reason, but I don’t know why. I tried getting the
answer out of him, but it didn’t happen. He is a stubborn vampire.”
“Is that the reason why he is using the extra charm? Just in case you
have another fight and it won’t hurt your grandparent’s impression on
him?”
“Knowing Nathaniel that would be one of the reasons.”
“Are you going to come back out or are you going to stay in your
room until dinner?” mum asked, walking to the door.
“What time is Amylia and the Pryor’s getting here?” I asked.
“Twenty minutes from now,” mum replied.
“When Amylia gets here, send her in. I want to talk to her about
something.”
Mum nodded and left, leaving me alone in my thoughts until Na-
thaniel was standing in my door way. I looked at him and raised my
eyebrows, not saying anything.
“What do you want to talk to Amylia about that you can’t talk to me
about?” he finally asked.
“Girl stuff that she will be able to understand,” I replied.
“How do you know I won’t understand?”
“You mean you would know how the female mind works?”
“If you have forgotten, I have been on this planet for a long time so I
have learnt a thing or two over the years.”
“You do know what this is about right?” I asked.
“Of course I do. It is about me not telling you why Mary is involved in
this,” he said, walking over and sitting on my bed.
“I just don’t understand why. You usually tell me everything else, so
why is this so different to everything else that you have told me or that
we have been through?” I asked, looking at him.
“Because it is difficult for me to talk about. I have even lied to my
vampire family about it so they wouldn’t pity me on it.”
“Nate, you can tell me. I am your girlfriend so I think I have a right to
know,” I said and grabbed his hand.
“I will tell you later tonight as I am staying over. I don’t want to say
anything as I know that my vampire family will be able to hear every
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single word I am staying and I don’t want them to hear,” he said.
“Why can’t you just tell them as well? They won’t pity you that
much, will they?” I asked.
“Bethany will and I don’t want that happening. I have been in this
pain for a very long time, and I am shocked that they haven’t forced it
out of me by starving me. I will admit anything when it comes to food
being withheld from me.”
“Typical guy,” I said, smiling at him.
“You have to promise me though when I do tell you, you can’t tell
anyone, not even Hudson. No one can know about this,” he said, plead-
ing with me.
“So you want me to take it to the grave?” I asked.
“Basically.”
“I still think whatever it is, you should tell your own family. They
might be able to help you through it.”
“They won’t be able to though. That is the problem. They think they
can help, but they only make the problem much worse than it was be-
fore I even told them so I don’t even bother anymore.”
“Is that why you won’t tell me? Are you afraid I might make it worse
than it already is? Mary was a bitch Nathaniel and both you and I know
that. She is an olden day Augusta.”
Nathaniel opened his mouth but couldn’t say anything as Amylia
walked into the room.
“What are we talking about?” she asked, looking between the both
of us.
“Nothing that concerns you,” Nathaniel hissed and walked out of the
room.
Amylia turned her head and looked at his retreating form before
looking back at me. “What’s with him?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Did mum send you in here?”
“I came in here myself. Marie is too busy talking to Bethany while
Jack is having a lovely chat to your grandmother and father about medi-
cine,” she replied and sat on my bed.
“It seems they already get along,” I said, smiling.
“Is everything okay? You seem upset over something,” Amylia said,
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placing a comforting, cold hand over mine.
“Nathaniel is hiding something,” I said, looking at her.
“You’ve figured that out too. He has become even more secretive
since Hudson revealed that she is pregnant and we don’t know why,”
she said.
“What would he be hiding though? It’s not like we would judge him
on anything.”
“Nathaniel can be really secretive when he has to be Brianna. There
are a lot of things that you still don’t know about Nathaniel and I just
hope that he will reveal things to you before it is too late.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“Nathaniel can drive wedges between his relationships with some
people by mistake and I am scared that he might to the same with you
by mistake,” she revealed.
I slowly nodded, processing what she had said. Half an hour later, I
still hadn’t said anything. My bedroom opened, making me look up and
snap out of my thoughts. Mum was standing there, looking at both of
us.
“The barbeque has started if you both want to make your way into
the backyard and join in the party,” mum said, smiling at us and walking
back down the hallway.
“I guess we should go outside and join the party and that way we
can see what sort of mood Nathaniel is in,” Amylia said.
“Hopefully a good mood,” I muttered, getting up from my bed.
“I just hope no one drops any hints that we are different. We usually
act like humans in front of others, but sometimes, we have a brain fade
and give away a clue that something is different about us,” Amylia said,
looking worried.
“Well, don’t worry. Once my grandparents get the wine into their
system, they won’t notice anything different about you,” I said and
walked down the hallway.
“Then I was glad I talked Jack into bringing a bottle of wine with us,”
Amylia said behind me.
We got outside to see that everyone was having a good time. Every-
one but Nathaniel that was. I walked over to him and kicked his leg,
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making me look up at me in shock.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah everything is fine,” he replied.
“Then why are you so quiet?” I whispered, sitting next to him.
“I have been waiting for you to come out of your bedroom with Am-
ylia so I could spend some time with you,” he replied, grabbing my
hand.
“Well you are spending the night, so we can spend time then,” I
muttered, looking down at the ground.
“Brianna,” he said, making me look up at him. “I promise you that I
will tell you what is going on later tonight.”
“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to,” I said, playing with my fin-
gers.
“I’m scared that if I don’t tell you, it might drive a wedge between
us,” he said really quietly.
I glanced over at him before getting up from where I was sitting and
walking over to mum, seeing if she needed help with anything. I just
mostly wanted to get away as it felt that things were starting to get too
strong feeling wise for me.
“Brianna is Nathaniel alright?” mum asked as I was about to walk
away.
“He wants to tell me something later on,” I said.
“Why can’t you just take him to your room and get him to tell you
then?”
“Because he doesn’t want to tell me now; I’m not going to force him
into doing anything mum. He doesn’t respond when you do that. We
have all found that out the hard way.”
“Did something happen when he was human that is making him go
like this?”
“It’s complicated.”
“How complicated?” she asked.
“Extremely complicated,” I muttered.
She looked at me but didn’t ask any other questions. I walked back
over to Nathaniel, straight away noticing that he had a strange look on
his face and in his own world.
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“Nate? Do you need anything?” I asked.
“I’m fine. I am just thinking,” he replied and opened his arms for me.
“What about?” I asked, sitting on his knee.
“What I am going to tell you later. I don’t know how you will take it.”
“What have you done? Committed murder?”
“Brianna, you know the answer to that question already. I am a
vampire and killing is in my nature,” he whispered so my human family
couldn’t hear.
I nodded, knowing that he was right. The back door opened, making
me look over to it and seeing Aunty Rachel and Alex standing there.
“Brianna, Nathaniel,” Alex said, walking over to us.
“Alexander,” Nathaniel replied, being civil.
“What are you both doing?” he asked, looking between the two of
us.
“Waiting for the food to be cooked and the salads to be made so we
can eat. You got here quick,” I replied.
“You know how mum drives when she is in a hurry,” he replied, sit-
ting next to me. “She plays Russian roulette on the roads.”
“That’s true,” I replied, thinking back to the times I have been in the
car with her when she was in a hurry. How I walked away with my life, I
will never know.
Alex looked over at Nathaniel, but didn’t say anything. I was hoping
that he could sense that he wasn’t in a good mood and wouldn’t say
anything that would make him snap. I didn’t want anything happening
that could possibly involve blood loss. Two hours later, the Pryor’s and
my aunt and cousin had left and mum and my grandparents had gone
inside, leaving Nathaniel and I alone outside.
“Do you want to talk?” I asked after five minutes of silence.
“What about Brianna?” Nathaniel asked, looking over at me.
“You know what about Nathaniel,” I replied.
“Oh right.”
“Did you forget all about it?”
“I put it out of my mind and I guess it didn’t come back in.”
“Do you really want to tell me or did you just say it to make me hap-
py?”
328
“I don’t want to tell you Brianna, but I have no choice. I don’t want a
wedge coming between us.”
“Why do you think it will drive a wedge between us?”
“Because you and I both know it involves Mary and my human life.”
“If you want to tell me Nathaniel, you can. If you don’t, then you
don’t have to. I can understa-”
“I’m a father,” Nathaniel said, cutting me off. “Or was a father, I
should say.”
“What?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing.
“I haven’t told anyone this, but Mary was pregnant when we were
meant to get married and I guess Brandon telling me that Hudson was
pregnant stirred up emotions that I didn’t want to feel again as it
brought back memories of the child that I have never met before.”
“Did you know that she was?” I asked, ignoring the feeling that was
in my chest. I felt like I had been punched in my chest and the breath
had been sucked out from my body.
Nathaniel had kept this secret from his family, including me and I
don’t know how he didn’t crack under the pressure and tell someone
about this.
“I had no clue. I only found out about it once the baby was born and
it was in the local newspaper after my parent’s disappearance and my
name was mentioned as the father and it looked like me in even in black
and white.”
“Is that the reason why you want a baby so bad for? To make up for
the life you missed out on seen growing up?”
“I would have missed out on it anyway,” Nathaniel said with a bitter
tone in his voice.
“What do you mean?”
“It didn’t survive. Mary abused her body throughout the pregnancy
as she didn’t care, but that was according to the write up I read in the
newspaper. I personally think she only kept it thinking I was hiding
somewhere and once I saw her pregnant, I would come running back to
her and then everything would be back to normal in her eyes and that
the arranged marriage would have gone ahead It didn’t work as I had no
idea that she was even pregnant. The baby died almost a week after it
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was born and Mary committed suicide, in the end believing I was dead
and that she would be with me. She thought that I wouldn’t be able to
escape her in death, even though she had no idea that I’m a living and
walking corpse.”
“Why haven’t you told your family about this?”
“Because I didn’t want pity. I don’t even know if it was a boy or girl
as the paper didn’t say. All they said was baby Norwood.”
“Nate, have you been looking for this baby?”
“Of course I have been Brianna. I put it behind me but as I said, Hud-
son’s impending arrival has stirred something inside of me that made
me want to look for my deceased child and I have had no luck in doing
so.”
I couldn’t feel anything. I was feeling numb. I didn’t know if it was
shock or my body was shutting down with Nathaniel’s news. I was hop-
ing it was from shock and nothing else.
“Brianna, say something please?”
“I don’t know what to say Nathaniel. I think I will need time to pro-
cess this.”
“Of course. I completely understand that. I wasn’t expecting you to
be able to process this straight away but it would have been nice.”
“Yeah, but I promise you that I won’t tell anyone about this. That is
up to you if you are going to tell them or not.”
Nathaniel nodded and sighed, looking down at the grass. I knew that
something else was bothering him, besides this. I placed my hand on his
shoulder, making him look ove