Page 38 of Into The Light

“Her name was Isobel. We met in 1514,” he said, and sadness weighted his words. “I used to pay prostitutes for their services but feed on them instead, erasing any memories of the feeding before I left. I walked into a brothel one night and there was a beautiful woman with hair and eyes as dark as a raven. That night I fed on her. She was fearless, and when I drank her blood, it almost excited her. It was the first time that had ever happened. My first time drinking fear-free blood. After feeding on Isobel she looked elated. Intoxicated. It intrigued me. Instead of erasing her memory, I lay in bed and spoke to her. She was filled with questions about me. My life. My condition.”

I nodded along even though he had turned forward and couldn’t see me. The thought of Aiden in the bed of another woman caused a twinge of jealousy, but pain for his loss quickly replaced it. You could hear how much he cared for her in the tenor of his voice.

“I told her everything. We talked all night and before I knew it, the sun was peaking up. There was no time to get home, so she hid me in her closet. I thought about erasing her but every time I looked into her eyes to do it, something stopped me. So, I went into the closet convinced she would whip it open an hour later with a horde of angry villagers prepared to burn me in the sun. But the door didn’t open until darkness fell. There she was, eager to spend more time with me. She didn’t look at me like I was a monster. She looked at me like I was a human again.”

Aiden paused for a moment, his mind reliving that moment again, no doubt.

“She offered her neck to me that night. And once again I drank fear-free blood. Again, we laughed and talked into the night and when the sun came up, I went back into her closet. The next night a customer demanded her as his lady for the evening. Jealousy tore me up when she told me I would have to go. I asked her to come with me, to join me in my life. I had money, means, and the world at my feet. She hesitated but for a second and then smiled and said, ‘Let’s go.’ I took her away that night, and we never looked back.”

Aiden’s voice faded off. I rode behind him in stunned silence. “What happened?”

“A week after we met, I proposed and we married in Venice. We traveled and laughed. We saw the world. Life was wonderful having her at my side. Things were good for many years. I offered her the gift, but like you, she declined. She loved being human. She got older, more beautiful in my eyes. Lines formed on her face and her black hair became streaked with grey. Some years later she got tired easily and her breathing became ragged. I could feel her slipping away. I begged her to take the gift, and she agreed, but she wanted just one more day as a human. She wanted to breathe the warm air, eat her favorite foods, and dance one last time in the sunlight. She died that night in my arms.” His voice cracked and trailed off.

My breath caught in my throat. The vision of Aiden holding his beloved in his arms while her life slipped away tore at my heart.

“I thought she was sleeping until I heard her heart stop. I tried to feed her my blood, but it was too late. I’ve never forgiven myself for not forcing the gift upon her. She should still be here. She died of what I think now, with more knowledge, was cancer. A waste of a life.”

“It was the life she wanted, Aiden. A full life with you. You were right not to force immortality on her. Being human was what she wanted. I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine.”

“I made a pact with myself never to feel that again. To honor her memory by never loving another. You think I am lonely and cold, and you are not wrong. I live in a prison of my grief and loss and I deserve to be here.”

“Aiden...” My chest clenched tight as he revealed this other side of himself, the reason for the distance and the darkness. It was a broken heart that had formed the layer of ice I had seen slowly melting away. “You can’t believe that. You can’t believe this woman who loved you, who valued life and choice so much, would wish you to suffer in eternal grief and darkness. I don’t know her, but from just the small amount you have told me, it sounds as if she would want you to live. To really live and to experience the most this life has to offer... well, what eternity has to offer.”

I held my breath, scared for a moment that he would respond with anger that I had overstepped, but his silence gave away his inner reflection.

“Perhaps,” he said, though the word lacked the weight of conviction.

“You should honor her life by living yours to the fullest, Aiden. I know if it was me that is what I would want. If you can’t live the human life she wanted, then live the best vampire life you can live.”

“I could live a human life if I wanted.”

We were outside, but it felt like the oxygen got sucked right out of the air. “What?”

“It’s possible, not that I would ever choose it, but I could become human again, or so I’m told.”

“How?”

“A century ago I heard a story about a vampire of the original clan that was tortured and deprived of blood. The process was said to be excruciating and took a month of starvation, however it ended with him human again.”

“Human?”

“Yes. Human. Able to walk in the sun, eat food, live a normal life. Human.”

“What happened? How long did he live?”

“About a week. They cut his head off when they realized starving an original vampire of blood doesn’t kill him.”

“Oh,” I said, my face crinkling in disgust. “No one else has tried?”

Aiden snorted. “Of course not. Why would a vampire choose to become a human?”

His reaction sent a wave of warm anger though my cheeks.

“What the hell is so wrong with being human?”

Aiden laughed, a full and hearty belly laugh. “Where do I even begin?”

“Try me.”