Ever After

Chapter 12



Secrets



A light tap at my door, and I knew William was here. I instantly felt much better. I giggled at him, as he walked in all bundled up in a puffy black ski jacket and black knit hat and scarf. He had the scarf nearly covering up his face only his eyes were visible. Clearly, he was cold.

“Cold out there,” I smirked, covering my mouth to muffle my laugh. He looked like a vampire Eskimo or something.

“Uh, yeah a little,” he says. “I’m glad you think I’m so funny!” he winks as he starts to peel off his many layers.

“Sorry, you just look like a vampire burrito!” I smiled innocently.

“Glad I can amuse you.” He rolls his eyes as he pulls off his hat. His shiny black hair is sticking up all over. He looks adorable. “I aim to please your highness!”

He bows down being sarcastic. I throw a pillow at his head he quickly ducks down and crouches on the floor as if he is under fire from me. He crawls over on his hands and knees to my bedside.

“Mercy, mercy please doesn’t shoot!” He put his arms up on the edge of the bed still kneeling, and leaned over and kissed me. My head spun, at the feel of his gentle kiss.

“Ok, you win no more pillows,” he begs. I laughed; I looked into his eyes, getting lost as usual.

“How are you feeling?” I ask. He seemed puzzled, as that was exactly what he was going to ask me.

“Uh… I should be asking you that, not the other way around.” He caught me staring at him, analyzing him really; he seemed uncomfortable all of the sudden.

“Somebody told you didn’t they?” he asks his eyes seemed dark suddenly.

I recalled this trait, Lydia told me about it. When a Vamp was disturbed or deep in thought very often their eyes would appear to get darker, but only slightly. Humans with their poor eyesight compared to a vamp’s would never notice such a minute change in eye color. I did and for the first time, I was momentarily excited about it, but with Will’s tense face locked on mine, it was not the right time to mention it.

“Was it Roth? I will kick his ass!” he snarled, his anger building.

I figured I had better talk fast before he bolted out of the room, and hunted poor innocent Roth down.

“No, it wasn’t Roth. It was Gran and I made her tell, me. She let a few hints out on accident and I caught on, and put them together. It wasn’t her fault… really at all.” I looked down at my hands embarrassed now.

“So you know I’m not 100% yet, not quiet up to snuff,” he says.

“Is that all Will? Is there more you’re not telling me?” I gently placed my hand on his shoulder.

He still did not look at me. I put my fingertips under his chin, and tilted his head up so his eyes, met mine now.

“Please Will I love you, tell me what you know.” He blinks, and takes a deep breath.

“Well… basically I’m a mess, not much else to tell you really,” he sighs sadly.

“William!” I said in a warning tone, he knew I meant business.”

“Ok… ok… well it’s just that blood Vincent made me drink, it really messed me up bad. I’ve been a train wreck for weeks. My body’s a total joke,” he says as shakes his head. “I sleep more than you did even when you were fully human.” I took his hand in mine. I was shocked at how hot it was.

“Are you running a fever?” I say as I place my hand instinctively to his forehead. He backs away, annoyed by my mothering him. I drop my hand and take a deep breath.

“Yeah, I usually do anymore. I just ignore it now.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I eat more human food than blood, and I got a cold twice while we were in Maine. It was like the turn of the century the last time I had a human cold!”

“What do Doc and Pratt say about it all?” I fidgeted with my bracelet as I waited for him to answer.

“Well Pratt’s trying to figure out what’s going on, that’s part of the reason he’s still here, and for you as well of course,” he says with a weak smile.

“How serious is it Will? Did Pratt say you might recover soon?” I felt my heart speeding up, one word popped in my head –stress-, the big no for me. I knew by his silence that it was not good.

“Maybe? I don’t know to be honest with you. I feel almost… human right now, it’s so strange really.” He looks down at the floor.

“Human?” I gasped in disbelief. I never thought I’d say that word like I just did, like it was a dirty word or something.

“Yeah, sort of,” I could see he was very disturbed, heck, I was disturbed too. We were supposed to be the same now, or would be soon. “Pratt thinks that maybe with time, I will get better, but they will not tell me that for sure yet. I still need blood, though. I’m not going all human on you or anything.” He laughs, trying to break the heaviness in room.

“Good thing, cause I am going all vampire on you, you’re going to have to keep up you know!” I play punched him in the arm.

“Wow…”He holds his arm, pretending to be hurt, and laughed.

“You’re such a girl!” I tease him.

“Gee thanks a lot,” he sighs, leaning over and kissing me softly again.

“How is Gran doing? Is she ok with all this?”

“Oh…she noticed my color, right away after I washed all the makeup off.” I shrug my shoulders. “She said she would rather have me as a vampire as to not at all.”

“I second that, you really do look lovely.” He kisses my hand.

I wished I could feel better about all of this, but doubt kept filtering into my head, especially when I tried to sleep. So many factors were coming into play that really grated on my nerves. The fact neither one of us was really sure about our conditions, or if we would recover. The fact Todd was still out there somewhere and possibly plotting to try to kill me again.

The last one, but not the least, the fact my evil stepmother may or may not want to kill me so she could claim my inheritance. I did my best to try to block it all out. I could literally feel my body react to stress, so Doc and Pratt were dead on about avoiding it. I could feel my heart speed up, like crazy when Will was telling me he was sick. I hated to see what my body would do under really stressful conditions; it couldn’t be good at all.

The next few days passed by quietly. I saw Doc and Pratt each day. I went to Doc’s office at the hospital often with dad in tow, for my “check ups”. I did feel better but I was still at risk, for a setback. I had to be watch full for signs of distress. Pratt was anxious to get me to France to complete the change now.

Will was improving as well, but not as quickly as Doc and Pratt would have liked. I watched William a lot myself. I could see he was still weak. I would wake in the night many times, as I was requiring less sleep as the days went on. I would see him sleeping all through the night and even in the middle of the day sometimes.

Doc seemed very uneasy, with both of us so vulnerable still. It was not something he was use to, he protected his coven always. Will and I were basically sitting ducks, if the Dark coven decided to attack us; it would be an easy kill for them.

The Dark coven was another story. I hated to even think of them. Doc had heard from his sources that the Dark Coven was irate about Damon’s death. Doc could not get the name of the one who now led them, but we all knew someone was. Doc was watching for any signs of a possible violent attack by the Dark coven every day.

The Followers were on high alert now, watching for anything that could pose a threat. Will and I were never technically alone. My house was watched at all times by various coven members. If the Dark Coven chose to seek revenge, we all knew they would come for Will and me first.

I was the sitting duck in all this. Will was vulnerable but still nowhere near as weak as I was. My body was in mid phase, Pratt said. It was an extremely delicate phase of the changing process. I was still for all intensive purposes, at least to vampires a human.