Pre Edit Count –   4,593 Words

Song I listened to for this chapter: I’m Yours by The Script

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Then she turns to Godric as they enter the room. “My heart hurts for her.”  Godric nods.  He is staring at his mate with sheer longing on his face.

She smiles gently, and tells him, “Do it.  Hold her close, and have a first blood exchange also.  This way we can monitor her at all times.  Seems you will be bound to your mate a lot during this time.”

Godric walks over and in seconds is by Bella’s side, smoothing her hair from her face.  “She is well worth it all.  Thank you, Ludwig.”

She smiles as she closes the door and casts the spell for them both.

Then her face hardens and she goes back down to Chief Swan, “Your turn.  And I am giving you a warning.  Eric is coming.  Be afraid.”  And she snaps the gloves on her hands.

Now:

Godric is standing inside the bedroom looking at his Mate.  His poor broken mate who, through no fault of her own, is hurting and going through so much that she does not deserve to have to endure.  He looks briefly around the small room  to try to to see what her life has been like beyond the few things that Eric and he have discovered.  He doesn’t want to know too much yet as he finds himself craving the sound of her voice as she tells him things about herself, but he also needs to know more about her as he wants to gift her with something for allowing him to be her mate…if he can convince her not to hate him for what he is about to do.

She is about to become his now, mated to him in one of the most intense Bonds that, according to his Maker, will supersede even his close Bond with Eric.  He had wanted for her to know him, to let him romance her and have her come to love him without outside influences.  Although it seems that his desires were fated to fail from the beginning since he had already had to give her his blood and her body reacted so differently than expected.

But he cannot deny that he is secretly happy about this either.  He wants and needs his mate.  Right now he can sense her feelings, but he can’t do anything to help with them in the way that Eric has been helping him with hers.  He also longs to hold her, to purr and do whatever it takes to make her feel better.  If he needs to he will turn her and they will deal with everything then.  For right now, however, he is trying to get used to time hanging over him.

Sure there have been instances in the past when time was important, but nothing has ever felt closer to his heart than his own mate and the limited amount time she has left. Nothing brings his rage closer to the surface than to think this time limit has been imposed on his Mate by the Cold Ones.  How dare they limit her time on this earth, the time it may have taken for him to find her?  Didn’t they care that the other half of her very soul was out there?

Sighing in dismissal of what he cannot change now, he moves to her side and brushes his hand across her face.  The spark that went through them both like a lightning strike makes her open her eyes in shock and meet his, and just like that, they are Mated.

No one knows why it is that easy, why they didn’t have to actually copulate or even exchange blood, but if you find your mate, if you are lucky enough to find your mate, it seems that the fates didn’t want to make it too hard to bind the two together.

Feeling her confusion and fear, Godric smiles at his mate, “Shh, a thaisce (my treasure).  My name is Godric.  I know you are confused, but we have the rest of the night and if need be, the day, to talk.  I am confused also, so may we get to know each other?” He is drinking her in, as a thirsty man would in the desert upon finding water.  And he has never felt so comfortable in his skin, in his soul, as he looks into her brown eyes that have flecks of green all through them.

Blinking, Bella turns her head and moans with how bad her whole body is aching, and her head is pounding.  She clenches her teeth against the pain and manages to sit up with Godric’s help.  She looks over at the boy beside her, and stills.  That look in his eyes tells of his age.  It is the same look in any of the Cullen’s eyes, but he isn’t cold to her, nor does he have red or gold eyes.  In fact he has the most beautiful blue-green eyes she has ever seen on anyone.

She gazes over the rest of him.  His dark hair suites him perfectly, and it is just long enough for her to run her hands through it.  Her eyes travel down his body, and she can see that he must have been aggravated for some reason as his tie is loosened and his top button was undone.  Her head tilts to the side as she tries to make sense of what she is seeing.  She cannot deny the curl of lust that shoots through her body as she looks at him.  He is everything she has ever dreamed about and there is nothing about him that doesn’t outshine Edward…

Godric stands still and allows his mate to look him over.  When she appears confused, he quietly asks, “What is wrong, a thaisce?”

She looks him in the eye and asks, “What are you?” That look in his eyes and the accent in his voice all hint to her that he is more than human.

He gives a wry laugh. “It seems my job tonight is to repeat myself.”  At her look he admits to her, “But this telling is the only one I have wanted to give.  Are you ready for this?  Because it will turn the world you think you know upside down.” He watches her closely for any sort of sign that maybe she won’t reject him, that she might do the impossible and accept him instead.

Bella can’t help the sound that comes out of her.  It was supposed to be a laugh, but the derision was too much there.  “I don’t think that you could turn my world any more upside down than it already is.”

Sighing, Godric tells her, “Don’t be too sure about that.  But can you tell me the names of the vampires you were associating with?  I don’t want to offend you, but calling them the Cold Ones the entire time may do that.”

Bella just stares at him in shock.

He waits but realizes she is just too dazed.  He softly informs her, “I will tell you the story as I know it.  Then I will wish to hear you fill in the details that we are sorely lacking.”  He put his hand up to her cheek and gently cups it, “But, you will find that while the world will be different, you will have someone by your side for the rest of time.  Someone who loves you, and will worship you for the thaisce you truly are.”  He wants her to understand that no matter what, she has someone to walk the ages by her side.  No matter if it’s the short years of her human life and then forever in the afterlife, or as one of his kind.  He will be there, he has nothing that matters to him more than her.

He smiles at her bewildered look and settles onto the bed beside her.  He begins,   “I am going to tell you the story of my life.  Please don’t interrupt me, as this will be hard enough to get through in one telling.  What you are about to hear is a tale that only two people in this world know.” And this way he can tell her exactly what she is getting into with him.  There will never be any secrets between them, and this will be a way to get out as many as he can….

He waits for her nod before he begins to divulge his life story. “I was born to a world much different than this.  It was full of life and secrets in the shadows of the great trees.  A time when the Gods actually walked among men.  My childhood was fun, I was loved and knew it.  I remember the times as a blur of playing, swinging my sticks with the other boys of our tribe, imitating the warriors who trained around us.  I recall the end of that summer period in my youth when I was picked to be trained for a warrior’s life.  The time after that was harder, but still was a phase I look back on fondly to this day.  I grew with others of my skill, hunting and fighting together.  Life was good, and those memories are treasured for making me what I became.”

His eyes darken as he remembers, as he tries to relate to her his past that is nothing but rumors in this time, “However, it all ended way too quickly in my mind.  During this time is when we were invaded.  The warriors took us, had us stay in trees and shoot arrows as they ambushed the invading army.  One of those times, when the invaders made it further than was thought, I made my first kill.  I defended a boy of another group similar to mine and ended up in the middle of a battle.  I never hesitated, it was my duty and right to defend what is ours.”

Taking another breath, Godric watches his mate as he continues, “After that battle, I was declared a man by our standards.  I was 13 summers old.  It was a good time.  I trained with other warriors, gaining my marks as I passed the tests and battles.  When I turned 15 summers, our current chief died and I was allowed to compete with the others for that position.  I won.  I was feasted and given the accolades of the tribe for winning against all the contenders.  It was a huge deal as I had taken down warriors more advanced in age than I was.  I was marked with the chieftain’s chain.” Godric gestures vaguely toward his chest, then continues, “I led our tribe, and it was a prosperous time.  Due to our priest, I was also marked with the mark of our god.  It was thought that he touched me personally and I cannot tell you even after all this time if they were right or not.  There is much in my life that seems as though I was god-touched. Each of my feats and challenges are marked on my arm, described in detail.”

His eyes were lost in that era, and Bella realized their dreamy bluish-green hue perfectly matched the colors of a summer day in the shade of trees. She is still shocked to realize that he is telling of the far, far past; that he must be older than anyone she has heard of.  She also is intrigued by the mentions of him being marked.  Looking at his chest, she wonders how much is marked…

Godric’s voice continues, “For the standards of this time, it was a harsh life, children were rare and many died.  My feats are lost in legend, to time itself.  But it was a good life.  Then the invaders came back again.  I was responsible for the tribe, and we pushed them back many times.  But as chief, my place was at the head of battle, leading by example.  And one day, when I was 18 summers old, one of their warriors pulled a cowardly move and knocked me out from behind.  When I came to, I was bound in ropes and raped multiple times by the coward and his comrades.  It was a time that I learned more about pain and the use of torture.  They used everything they could to break me, every tactic common for the times.  I was branded as one of their slaves, and I will wear that brand for the rest of my life.  However, it is not with shame that I wear it.  I wear it with pride that I overcame those times.  I fought and was punished many times because of my rebellion.  The last night I was alive, I had been brought to their main camp.  My master had mistakenly thought that I was too damaged that night from the torture and then his pleasures to do anything.  Instead, I instigated a rebellion and managed to free many of my countrymen.  They helped carry me past the guards and only left me when it was apparent that I was not going to survive.  They helped me carry out the funeral rites of my tribe and left me with a sword, which was one of the greatest tributes one can carry to the afterlife.  I was prepared to die and was thankful that I had done what I could in my life.”

Bella had tears in her eyes, listening to this proud warrior telling his tale to her.  The sheer horror she felt when he casually told her he was raped and tortured astounded her.  The look in his eyes told her that in order to tell her these things, he is having to relive those times.

Smelling and feeling her compassion for him, he wraps an arm around her and smiles when she cuddles into him.  He waits until she is a little more composed and continues his tale.

“An old woman came into the clearing where I was and stood over me. I could hardly see her with my vision blurred from the blood running in them and swollen from the beatings I had taken.  It was the darkest part of the forest, and she was nothing more than a blur to me. She looked down at me and told me that she had been sent to save me.  I thought she was the Crone, and was taking me to Underworld.  Instead she attacked me and drained my blood.  I barely remember her telling me, “My little one, you will bring about a whole new world.  Your time has not come, nor will it.  You will walk by yourself for a millennium before finding the son of your heart.  You will teach him and become his brother, father and son.  Once you have taught him all you know, you will travel with him and become legend.  Then, after you know loneliness again, you will find your other half, and your Bloodline will change the literal world.”  And then there was nothing.”

He holds her to him as he explains what happened next, “I woke up in the ground.  For a child considered touched by the God of Water, it was torture.  I dug my way out of my grave and came out into the night.  That began a thousand years of me being nothing more than a savage, a learned one, but nothing stopped me from taking my anger and hate out on the world. At first, I did nothing but follow the armies of my enemy, feeding off the dying.  Every night, I had to suffer the agony of burying myself in the ground every night.  I slowly began to change as I taught myself more of the skills of the warriors that have come after me.  During the second century of my life, a druid came of my people.  He had been instructed to teach me the runes of our kind.  After him, during the many following years, other scholars came to me at night and taught me.  It wasn’t until almost a thousand years later that I came across a man fighting who drew me to him.  He was powerful, and smart. He led his men with a courage that is rarely seen, and won many battles that he shouldn’t have.  But, as comes to all who fight, he was wounded severely.  I found him lying on his funeral bier, his men waiting to dispatch him to his heaven. He was joking with them telling them he was pissed off about dying. I killed them all, and landed beside him.  He asked me if I was Death and then told me I was just a little boy.”  Godric laughs.

Looking down at his Mo anam cara (Soul mate), he relates the conversation that he believes ultimately brought him to her, “He called me a swine for killing his men and when I complimented him on his fighting, he told me he would fight me now.  I have never known or seen a person since who had such a love for life.  I realized then that he was the one I was waiting for and hadn’t even realized it. The words of the old woman came to me and I asked him, ‘Could you be a companion of death? Could you walk with me through the world? Through dark? I’ll teach you all I know. I’ll be your father, your brother, your son.’  He thought about it then asked me what was in it for him. I told him the simple truth, ‘Life’.  He agreed.  I killed him, so that he could be reborn as my son, my brother, my father.  And when he rose after the third night, I was there beside him helping him out of the ground.  I never left his side for hundreds of years as he became everything to me.  I never knew what love was, and over those centuries, he taught me that.  He also civilized me, in his words.”  Godric laughs as he remembers how his son had given those lessons at the beginning.

Looking down at Bella he explains, “My son is a Viking.  He takes cleanliness to a whole new level, even back then.  The first night of his new life, he threw me into a lake, telling me that I stank.  Every time after that, he would toss me into water, deriding me and saying that as the worshiper of a water god, how could I not desire to be clean?  To tell you the truth, it had been because of those years burying myself in the ground and not caring.  After a while, I had become numb.  But he held me down and cleaned me the first time, ending up cutting some of my hair since it was so bad.”  He touched his hair, remembering. “It took until much later for the two of us to learn the trick of growing out our hair.  Seems that once we are turned, the length of our hair then, is the longest it will ever get.  We can cut it, and if we desire, we can grow it out.  Eric had cut it so very short because it was so bad.”  He shakes his head at the memories, grinning.

A movement from his mate bring his attention back to her, looking down to Bella he divulges, “Now, as you might have guessed, we are vampires.  Our history goes back much further than mankind’s and there are more than us out there.  The ones you met are called Cold Ones by everyone.  They are recent with even the oldest of them being younger than me.  No one knows how they came about and there is surprisingly very little known about them, as we are finding out to our dismay.  There are also not as many of them as there are of us.  Unlike them, we can be killed by sunlight and actually die during the day.  We can also be killed by a stake to the heart and large amounts of silver.  But we grow stronger as we age, and we gain different abilities.  We also have what we call the Bloodline.  My maker actually released me when I was turned, making me the head of my own Bloodline.  I offered to do the same with both of my children and one accepted.  Eric, on the other hand, has chosen to stay with me.  He is what they call a Dírige de semine Sanguinis, a direct descendant of the Blood.  His child and any others he may make are all the direct holders of the Bloodline, along with any I make.  Others can swear to the Bloodline and become a part of it.  Vampires who do so  take the blood of the head of the Bloodline and become part of that one instead of their own.  This can only happen with either Makers who become part of our line, and therefore all of their line is then ours, or with those who have been released by their own makers, either because of their Maker’s death or by being released as I was.”

He then asks Bella,“Following so far, a thaisce?” It is very important that she understand this portion since, as his mate, she is now his equal and so will be the head of the Bloodline along with him.  If she decides to walk the nights by his side, even though she technically would be his Childe, her status as his Mate would make them remain equals. He is not certain how this will work since he would be the first to turn their Mate in recorded history, but he is sure that it will.

Bella is thinking but she answers quietly, “Yes.”  She is following along and has tons of questions, but she remembers his warning at the beginning and wants nothing more than to learn of his history and hopes that he will explain what happened when she woke.

He nods and gathers his thoughts to continue telling her more about vampires and the information she will need.  “My Bloodline is one of the largest.  This is because during my lifespan I have helped a lot of different people and Kingdoms.  I have always refused the thrones offered, but the vampires who have taken those thrones often swore Blood fealty to me.  This was never asked for as it is considered sacrilege to the Blood to force someone to be sworn to it.  I also have other Supes that have sworn this Blood oath to me, and their descendants have renewed it voluntarily since I refuse to force anyone into that type of bondage.  I will get back to you later on why this is important for you to know.”

Raising his hand and stroking his fingers through her long chocolate hair, he sighs in contentment. However, he can still feel the confusion and continues his story so that she can tie it all together.

“My first Child, as you heard, is called Eric.  He is coming here with his progeny, Pam.  He is looking forward to meeting you, and I am hoping you can be at least friends with him.  If you can be more, I would be overjoyed. But I do have to warn you about some other things.  When a vampire is young, he is…hungry, and not just for food.  Sex, after many years, is often meaningless to us unless with a mate, or a beloved child.  Most vampires don’t pay any attention to the pulls to make children, and often quickly abandon the ones they do make. In fact, it is a common belief that a Maker and Child always part ways.  Eric and I are one of the exceptions to this.  And I freely admit we have been lovers in the past.  Because of my own upbringing, sex was not monogamous nor was it same-sex.  Eric was the same.  But he needed to be held back since sex and feeding are linked very closely for vampires.  So I was the one who satisfied that urge, rather than have him kill.  Later I turned a young woman with whom he was enamored, only to have the two of them fall apart not even decades later.  She never really loved him, only used him.  He too was using her, but I freed him of having to have a tie to her, so she wouldn’t haunt him.  He has thanked me.”

Looking down at her, he tells her softly, “I know this is a lot of information, but it is very important for you to know these things.  The reason I am here, a thaisce, is that I was on an errand for Eric, who is the Sheriff of Area 5 in Louisiana.Years ago, before Eric became Sheriff, he was an enforcer along with me.  He was asked by the King of the Californias to come investigate some murders that were making it into the newspapers.  Back then, that was a huge deal.  He did, and that is how he came across Pamela.  He used the authority given to him and arrested the two vampires, a Maker and her child, who were causing the problems, and gave them to our Council for judgment. The child of the Maker had already been given to the state of Louisiana’s Queen and is working off his debt.  The Maker, however, was sent to her own Maker.  She was asking for release, and not only Eric, but quite a few members of the Council, didn’t want her free to make mischief this close to the Revelation as we are coming out to the public by the end of the year.  They asked me as Sheriff of Area 9 in Texas, as Eric’s Maker and Head of his Bloodline, to come here and make our case against her freedom.  While on my way to Seattle, I came across a scent.  I pulled over and tracked the scent to find you laying on the ground.  I wrapped my coat around you, but before I could do much more, I was approached by someone.  Turns out, you have a new breed of Supes here.  But he is the one who realized what you were to me.  My treasure.  My one in a trillion chance of pure bliss.” At the end of this he turns his head to look her in the eyes.

She is looking at with such confusion, he tugs her tighter to him. “Bella, you are one of a very rare circumstance in my world.  I want you to think of all the people in the world, of how many are here right now.  And now think of how many people have been in the world since I was born, even since the world began, really.  The only way I could find you would be by catching your scent, by touching you, or if we were to just happen to look into each other’s eyes.  Now think about how hard it would be to find one specific person out of the group above.”

He looks down and lays his cards on the table to her. “You’re my Mate.  The proof?  When I touched you, it felt like lightning had struck me. That sensation flooded my whole body, which made me look you in the eyes.  And when your eyes met mine, I felt a click in my brain, in my entire being.  And just like that, we formed a Mating Bond.  You, yourself, and no one else, caused me to reopen my Bond with Eric.  You caused me to be rejuvenated in so many ways and to look forward to being alive.  Before you, I was depressed, working my way toward greeting the sun, which would have been my way of suiciding.  I was tired of life.  I was lonely.  But you, the possibility of you, made all that seem so very selfish.  And this is why Eric is looking forward to meeting you.  He wishes to meet the person who saved his brother, father and son from leaving him, and instead made us as close as we used to be before I started to withdraw.”

Bella is shaking her head.  She tells him with grief in her voice, “How can I be yours when I am already someone else’s?”

He looks her in the eye and asks simply, “If he had been your mate, could he have left you?  Because I promise you, I cannot, I will not, leave you.  I cannot even comprehend it.  I want to be here for you, be everything you need, everything you ever wanted or dreamed of.  I will be all and work to be more for you.  I give you all of myself to do with as you please.  Even if you request it, I cannot leave you.  I would stay out of your sight, but I would be here on the chance you will want to see me.  No matter how old you are, or if you are human or vampire.  If something ever happens to you, well, when I found you, I knew I was likely to greet the sun with Eric being the only reason not to.  But now that we are Bonded?  I would get revenge for you if needed, and then I would join you in your afterlife.  Because we will be together, our souls right now are one.  And I am so sorry that you have to carry the burden of my own tortured soul, but I will do everything to make it up to you, a thaisce.”  His voice breaks at the end, he is just hoping that she will give him this chance…

 Bella just stares into his eyes.  He quietly asks, “Do I not please you?  Is there something I can change for you?  Do you not want me?”  The grief in his voice is evident.

Gasping, Bella tells him, “No, you’re beautiful.  And your eyes…  But how could someone who has seen so much beauty in his lifetime ever want someone like me?  I am boring, and so, so plain!”

Turning and cradling her head in his hands, he tells her, “But I do want you, more than anything I wanted in my entire life.  To me you are perfect.  I have waited over 2,000 years for you, never thinking that I could be possibly so blessed.  Bella, how could I even dream you up?  Your beautiful deep brown eyes that remind me of the forests of my youth?  Hair the color of mahogany, a color that would have made you the envy of any person in my tribe.  This sweet face of yours, the plump bottom lip that I wish to kiss, a body of the very goddesses!  There is nothing of you that is plain.  And boring?  A thaisce, nothing that Eric and I have discovered in the short time we have frantically been searching for information about you has made me think that you are boring.  Smart, oh yes. You will be a joy to have conversations with.  Eric is looking forward to talking with you also.  You are a caregiver, something that I understand so well being one myself.  It is what caused my tribe to prosper underneath me, then Eric.  Lastly our Bloodline.  And I say ours, because everything I am or have is yours.  I lay it out at your feet and hope that you accept me.  Will you, a thaisce?  Will you accept me as your Mate and allow me to thank you for the privilege of being my angel, allow me the right to worship you as you only deserve?”

Bella is shaking her head no.  “Godric, I deserve none of this.  No one should worship me.  I don’t deserve this!”

And he smiles a sad smile, “You deserve all this and more.  Please accept me, Bella.  I am a man behind the vampire that needs you.  Please, please accept me.”

Staring into his eyes, Bella is lost.  She can see the pleading, the simple need he has for her to accept him and she realizes that he has told her everything so that she is aware of his past, of all of him.  He has told her of these things so that she knows what he is and what he has done so that there are no surprises.  And while she stares into his eyes, she realizes that the hole in her chest that Edward caused when he said those hateful words to her, is gone.  It was gone the second that she looked into Godric’s eyes.

He stares into her brown eyes, hoping that she will accept him, that she will allow him in her life.  But he lets her think.  She needs to make this decision, though he hates the necessity of dumping it all on her at once.  No matter what she decides, he will make sure she is healed and happy.

Bella’s head lowers as she thinks and finally, after the longest ten minutes in his life, a very soft “yes” escapes her lips.

Final count, 5,542 words.

Fairfarren~Wendy

Wendy