Protector (35 page)

“Yes
, ma’am!  I’ll be here bright and early.”

“Awesome, have a good night.”

“You, too, Peg.”

Ten minutes later Anna-Marie is breezing into the Coffee Shop.  She scans the crowded room full of people just getting off work in dire need of a caffeine boost until she finds her target in the back of the room. 

She stops and smiles at the utterly beautiful man across the room.  With him in her sights the rest of the world seems melt away. 

He looks up in her direction as if he could sense her presence and he begins to smile as well and stands to greet her.

She quickly rushes over to him and throws her arms around his waist not caring who may be watching.

“Well, hello to you, too,” he says as he kisses the top of her head.

“I’ve missed you,
” she gushes.

“Oh yeah?  I take it not just kinda?”

They both begin to laugh and untangle themselves from their embrace.

“Busted
!” she says mockingly.

“You like the Mocha
, right?”

“Yes sir I do, with all of its smooth chocolaty perfection.”

They both sit down beside each other facing out into the busy street.

“So, how was your visit?”
he finally asks.

Anna
-Marie stares down at her coffee trying to find the words to answer his question.

“It was surreal.”

“Why, what happened?”

“I asked about my birth mother.  I was right
, she knew more than I thought.”

“Did she tell you where to find your birth mother so you could ask her about your father?”

“I didn’t have to.  She killed herself after I was born.”

“Oh
, Bella, I’m so sorry to hear that.  Are you okay?” he asks and puts his hand on hers to let her know he is there for her.

“Yeah, I’m okay, I guess so anyway.  It’s very sad what happened to her, but in all reality she is a stranger to me.”

“Anna-Marie, don’t detach yourself from it.  Her past is your past.”

“I know, I guess it just hasn’t set in yet.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t get your answers.”

“No, I did.  My mother was there through it all.  They were best friends
,” she says.

She relays the story her mother told her a few days before
, of the night that ruined not only her birth mother’s life, but also Anna-Marie’s.

Alessandro sits back in his chair
in total silence once she is finished retelling the story.  He has heard stories about Rogue activity before, but he has never been so personally involved with it.  His mother’s death was different.  They did all the same stuff to her, but she didn’t survive the brutality.  As much as it has affected his whole life, he is now thankful that she didn’t survive it.  How does a person come back from something like that? 

He looks at her again.  She looks so sad and tired, almost like she did when they first met.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’ve had a few days to soak it all in.  I just want to know how this is going to affect me now.”

“What do you mean?”

“Alessandro, I’m a
Mixed Breed,” she whispers.  “That means I’m different from a normal person, more so then I ever imagined, but like everyone has said so far, a female born is very rare.  Is my body like yours?”

“That is true.  I have questions about that
, too.  I know there have been a couple of females born through the decades, but it is very rare and I’ve never known one.  Surely someone has though.”

“I hope so.”

He notices her silence and watches her as she stares down at her coffee and chews on her bottom lip.

“What is it?”

“Well, your people hunt people like me.  Will they accept me, knowing what I am?”

“
Anna-Marie, look at me.”

She shyly looks into his big almond eyes
.  “I promise you nothing will happen to you as long as I have a breath in my body.  I love you and you are with me, so the Brotherhood will accept you as one of their own.  As you have seen, any one of them will lay down their own life for the life of one of their own.  Besides, it’s not like we haven’t ever had a Mixed Breed join our community.  Hell, we have even had a Rogue or two convert the Brotherhood way of life.”

Anna
-Marie’s eyes get big.  “Seriously?”

“Yep, we all have the power to choose how to live our own lives.  It’s the ones that choose to live as a Rogue that we have to stop.”

“So, they just say, ‘hey, I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to be a ruthless animal anymore’ and all is forgiven?”

“Well, not necessarily.  Once a vampire is created
, their hunger is almost unstoppable, to the point of physical pain.  If they allow themselves to succumb to the blood lust, the animal in them takes over and the more they let go, the harder it is for them to stop.  It’s nearly impossible to come back once they jump off the cliff, but if it is early enough there is still hope.”

Alessandro looks out the window and is surprised to see it is almost nightfall. 

“Are you ready to go?  I’d like to get back to the manor before nightfall.”

“Oh, is it that time already?”
she asks as she looks out the window as well.  “Wow, it’s almost dark out.  Yeah, I’d like to get back before nightfall, too.”

25

A month has gone by since
Anna-Marie was told about her birth mother and the hell she had endured.  Not only did her birth mother suffer on the night Anna-Marie was created, but also having to relive her nightmare for the whole nine months she was pregnant.  How torturous that must have been for her.

Her own night
mares about Dylan and the Rogue have come less and less in the past few weeks, that is until recently.

Alessandro has been so great with trying to help her figure out who and what she is.  As far as they can tell, so far, she is pretty much like him. 

He had tested her strength and abilities almost daily for the first couple of weeks she had been at the manor.  She has finally found her match on the track, which thrills her to no end to finally have some real competition.  Their speeds are almost identical, but hers is a little more trained from all of her years as a track star.

Not surprising, he has the upper hand in the strength department from all of his years as a warrior.  Even as a child she was never big into fighting, but she is quickly learning how to defend herself.  It surprises her now how naturally it is coming to her.

Every night after she comes home from work, they train down below in the training facility.   He is an expert at all styles of fighting.  Thankfully, he is very patient with her.

This week has been harder for her to get motivated to train.  Alessandro has been good about it though.  She knows he has been worried about her because she is so tired all of the time and she hasn’t been eating nearly as much as she should be.  He says it’s probably because everything is starting to catch up to her.  It’s a very probable excuse, considering her life has been flipped this way and that way for the last couple of months now.  Who wouldn’t be worn out from so many whiplashes?
What Alessandro doesn’t know is her nightmares have began to stir up again.

Anna-Marie lets Alessandro run with his excuse for her because truthfully it is partially right, just not entirely.  She doesn’t want him to know how distraught she has been due to an upcoming event, one in which symbolizes the end of her existence.  She always knew the first Anniversary of Dylan’s death was going to be hard, but after finding out the truth, she didn’t realize it was still going to affect her the way that it has.

Yes, Alessandro would surely be hurt to know she still feels this way.  

This glorious crisp fall morning Alessandro sits down on the side of the bed and kisses
Anna-Marie softly on the lips.  She smiles and her eyes flutter open into little slits.

“Good morning
, mi amore,” he says to her in his mothers native Italian, as he strokes her hair.

She yawns
.  “Good morning to you, too.  What time is it?” 

“It’s almost ten.”

She stretches her arms high above her head.  “Wow, I must have been really tired.  I was sleeping great.”

He laughs.

Suddenly she sits up straight and within seconds she is jumping off the bed and running out of the door to the bathroom.

Alessandro runs behind her
, confused.  “Anna-Marie, what’s wrong?” he says to the closing bathroom door.

He hears her vomiting, but she won’t answer him.  Panic sets in and he starts to pound on the door.

“Anna-Marie, open the door!” he demands.

Every time she tries to talk to him she begins to get sick again.  It takes her a couple of minutes to get her bearings to answer him. 

“I think I’m okay now.”

“Then open the door!”

“What the hell was that?” she asks herself, ignoring Alessandro’s pleads. 

She knows she has been worn out lately
and her stress level is off the charts, but that should be expected, right? 

“Am I getting sick?  It can’t be
.  Mixed Breeds don’t get sick.”

She pulls some toilet paper from the roll and wipes her mouth
.  “This damn depression is going to kill me,” she says to herself.

Slowly she crawls to the door.  Alessandro hears her unlock the door, but he doesn’t wait for her to open it herself
.  Instead he throws it open and finds her sitting on the cold floor.

He kneels down beside her
.  “Anna-Marie, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m better now.  I must have eaten something bad
,” she says, still not wanting to let him know how depressed she has been lately.

He moves her hair out of her damp pale face
, “Are you sure?”

With his help
, she slowly stands up. 

“Yes, I’m sure.”

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“I think I need to go lay back down
.  Will you stay with me?”

“Of course
, I will.”

He puts his arm around her waist and helps her walk back to their room.

They stay in bed for the rest of the day.  Anna-Marie mostly sleeps the whole time, while Alessandro protectively watches over her. 

At nightfall,
Anna-Marie opens her eyes again.

“Well
, good morning again, Bella.”

She looks over at Alessandro and he smiles down at her
.  “What time is it?”

“It’s seven.”

She opens her eyes wide.  “At night?”

“Yep, you slept the whole day away.”

“Damn, no wonder I’m so hungry.”

He laughs
.  “I bet.  Do you want me to go downstairs and get you something to eat?”

“No, I’ve
lain here long enough.”

She sits up slower this time, still feeling a little funky, and throws her legs over the side of the bed.  The sudden movement wasn’t such a good idea.  She clenches her hands to her head to get the spinning from her sudden onset of vertigo to stop. 

Alessandro frowns.  “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just give me a minute and I’ll be fine.”

Just like that, the spinning stops. 

He holds out his hand to her
.  “Come on.  Let’s get some food in you.  Hopefully, you’ll feel better then.”

She takes his hand and they
slowly walk down the stairs hand in hand.

Halfway down the massive staircase, they both stop in their tracks as they hear a loud commotion coming from the foyer below.

They both look at each other at the same time.  Forgetting Anna-Marie’s sickness all together, they begin to run the rest of the way down the stairs.