Torn between two

Chapter 21

Dunya’s POV

“I really am a vampire and I can prove it to you.”

I look at Elijah annoyed and roll my eyes. I’m really not in the mood of joking around, I just want to be near him and go to sleep, forgetting everything that happened today.

He sees I’m clearly annoyed and open his mouth, revealing his upper teeth, where two sharp fangs reside. Well, he’s gone the extra mile with this joke, when did he even have the time to put on these?

“Elijah, please. I appreciate your good sense of humor, but I’m really not in the mood right now. When did you even put those on?” I say and reach for the fangs, trying to pull them off, but they won’t budge. “Did you super glue these on?” I roll my eyes again.

“Dunya, I’m telling you; these are real.”

“Haha, very funny. Now can we please go to sleep? I’m really tired and I just need to be close to you. Any other day, I would be all in with this Dracula/Edvard Cullen thing.” I stick my tongue out to him and snuggle to his chest again. Suddenly I feel him leave from my side and he’s standing by the door.

“I’m not joking around, Dunya.” he says and he’s quickly by my side. Okay, that was definitely weird!

“How are you going so fast?” I ask with wide eyes and shake my head. “Please, just stop fooling around.” I say and sit up, pulling the sheet to my body to cover myself up. His eyes turn blood red, like in my dream. What the f*ck!?

“Dunya, I’m telling you, I’m a vampire. Not a f*cking Hollywood version of it, but a real vampire.” He shifts his eyes back to his emerald green ones, then back to blood red. I back up the bed in panic, not realizing fully what is happening.

“How the f*ck are you doing that?” I say with a horrified look on my face, he seems worried of my reaction.

“Like I told you, I’m a vampire. You don’t have to be afraid of me, I’m still me, just a little older...” he says and scratches the back of his head.

“This is not funny, Elijah. Stop it.” I say with a serious tone.

“Dunya, I’m not trying to be funny.”

“You are telling me that you’re a living dead creature that drinks blood? Do you know, what that sounds like? This is not a f*cking made up world.” I roll my eyes at him. Next thing I know, he scoops me up in his arms, like I weight nothing and we’re in the back yard. He stops for a while so; I can see where we are and then he brings me back to the bedroom.

“Oh my God.” I say and jump out of his arms and back up. His eyes are still blood red and his fangs are emerged. The images of my dream run through my mind, making me freeze in one place. I don’t know what to think or to say anymore, my heart beat is erratic and I curve to the floor with panic. He immediately comes to me to calm me down, but I push him away. “Dunya, please. You’re safe with me. I love you.”

“What do you want from me?” I say in panic, tears staining my eyes as they pour out.

“I just want you, nothing else. I want to be with you.” he pleads and tries to come closer.

“Are you going to drink from me? Are you going to kill me? Make me one of you?” I spurt out the questions one after another, not giving him a chance to answer.

“No, no and no. I’m not going to do anything to you that you don’t want. I love you; I fell in love with you from the very first moment that I saw you!” His eyes are back to his normal emerald green ones and there’s pain in them. He tries to pull me closer to him again, I stay there for a while, when it all comes to me. I quickly stand up and walk away from him, trying to find my clothes; I need to get away from here.

“Dunya, what are you doing? Babe, just come to me, it’s still me.” he pleads, but I can’t look at him right now. I’m terrified shitless, if I stay here any longer, I might pass out.

“I have to go home... I-I need to get away from here.” I say as I’m dressing myself.

“NO!” he yells and suddenly I’m pinned to the wall, and his blood red eyes are looking right at me. New set of tears roll down my eyes, as I remember my dream again. He’s going to drink my blood and I can do nothing to stop it.

“You can’t go!” he growls and holds me tighter by my hands, making me wince.

“Please don’t kill me.” I plead as I’m shaking with terror. He looks at me with sorrow in his eyes, they turn back to green and he releases me.

“I will never do that. You don’t have to be afraid of me. Dunya, I love you.” he says with remorse in his eyes.

“If you love me, you will let me go” I say with a whisper, my head is spinning and my eyes are burning. I really need to go. “Will you please let me go home?”

“Of course, you can go whenever you want.” he says and backs off. “I just wish you’d stay...” he says and lowers his eyes. I slip out and grab the rest of my stuff.

“I - I can’t...” I mumble between sobs and run out of the room. He follows behind. “Let me at least take you home?”

“No. I need to be alone.” I say and head to the door. He stops me by my hand and turns me to him. I can’t even get myself to look into his eyes. He releases my hand as he sees I’m terrified and sighs deeply.

“It’s not safe out there at this time. Gerald will take you home...” Before I can protest, I hear Gerald pull the car to the front door. I leave without saying anything and sit in the back seat. New set of panic caused tears roll down my face. Gerald takes off and looks at me through the mirror with sadness in his eyes. “Miss Dunya. He’s a really good man. You should give him a chance.” That´s the thing, he isn’t a man…

I’m too overwhelmed to say a word, so, we drive in silence. Once we’re at my apartment, I quickly run inside and lock the door behind me. I drop to the floor crying, not knowing what to think anymore. How did this day get even worse than it was? All the warnings, all the name calling and I still didn’t have a clue. How did this get to this?

I’ve been dating a vampire. A f*cking vampire! A blood thirsty, supernatural, people killing vampire!

***

Daniel’s POV

I woke up to a phone call, Mickael, my soon to be Gamma calling.

“Daniel, I’m sorry I hadn’t had the chance to call you earlier. We’re headed there today.”

“What are you talking about? Weren't you supposed to come alone?” I squint my eyes and look at the screen, it’s really early. “Why are you calling me at this time?”

“Sorry, Alpha.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m not Alpha yet.”

“I’m sorry, Daniel. The current Alpha and Luna are coming with me, alongside with Layla.”

I sit up and rub my eyes. “What? Why?”

“They didn’t tell why. They heard that Layla and I were coming there and just tagged along.”

Well f*ck. Last thing I needed was my dad getting his nose into my business here.

“When will you be here?” I rubbed my temple in frustration.

“We’re just about to take off. So, we should be there by 3pm, Athens time, at the latest.”

“F*ck. Okay, thanks for the heads up.” I shut the phone and growl in frustration. Not the right timing, Dunya’s coming to dinner and I do not want to get her into an awkward position.

***

I’ve been up since Mickael called; I couldn’t sleep anymore. I’ve been pondering if I should call of the dinner, but I really need to see her. Ugh. I should just call her and tell her maybe a different day, γιαγιά is going to kill me. I call her, but no answer. s**t. She’s at work, so, I should just text her. It’s only 2pm, I remember Layla saying she’s always done by 4. I drive to her workplace and sit in my car, waiting for her. I should at least drive her home; I did promise to pick her up.

It’s already 4:15, where is she!? I step out of the car and plan to go inside, as I see her coming out. She notices me and looks confused, then walks toward me.

“Hi, Daniel. What are you doing here?” she says and hugs me tightly, holding on for longer than a normal friend hug, sending sparks all over our bodies. She reluctantly let’s go and just stares at me. She looks exhausted, her eyes puffy as she’s been crying for hours. What did that asshole do to her?

“γιαγιά invited you for dinner, remember? I promised I'd pick you up.” I try to calm my wolf.

“Oh, yeah. Totally slipped my mind...” she says and looks down. Something’s bothering her, she isn’t her normal cheerful self. What was I thinking? She needs me, f*ck my dad, I’m going to take her.

Dunya’s POV

“Are you okay? You look a little off?” Daniel asks worriedly.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired...” I partially lie, he can’t know about yesterday. Not about his cousin nor about Elijah. I was tired, mostly because I was too terrified of sleeping last night.

“You still want to come to dinner? γιαγιά is expecting you and Layla’s probably already back by now.”

“Yeah, of course. It would be nice seeing them again.” I manage to smile shyly. I need to be close to friends right now. I need to be close to him for some reason. His presence always makes me feel better. I’ve been all over the place since this morning, not being able to focus on anything. Last night I could barely sleep, since the tears stopped, I fell asleep and saw the same dream over and over again. Elijah draining my body and me dying.

Daniel’s hug gave me some energy, I need to be with him right now. He holds the passenger door for me and I climb in. “I have to go change.” I state and he nods. We drive to my apartment and I go to change quickly. I put on a white dress, with red rose details. The top part is tight, with sweetheart neckline and the bottom is loose, reaching just above my knees. I match with red stilettos and a red purse. I quickly put on some simple make-up and jewelry.

I head back to Daniel’s car and step in. He just stares at me.

“You look really beautiful.” he states with mouth still open, making me blush.

“Thanks.” I smile at him. He just sits there staring at me, like he wants to say something, but nothing comes out. “Are we going?”

He clears his throat and starts the engine. “Yeah. By the way, a heads up; my parents came too with my friend Mickael. Hope you’re okay with that.” His parents? Jesus, I’ve met almost all of his family. My mind wanders to Elijah; no wonder he hasn’t told me anything about his family or friends, nobody’s probably alive anymore. Daniel looks at me, as he sees my demeanor change, I’m terrified again. I just smile at him and push Elijah thoughts aside. “Yeah, of course. Why wouldn’t I be? It’ll be nice to meet them.”

We drive in comfortable silence to his grandparent's mansion, he checks me once in a while, just staring and I smile at him. He seems to know something’s wrong with me, how is he so good at reading me?

We pull up to the mansion and we walk inside. Daniel’s grandma Pheotra and grandpa Leopold come to greet me by the front door. Pheotra hugs me warmly and guides me in to the living room. Daniel follows Leopold somewhere, as me and Pheotra catch up. She tells me Layla’s unpacking in her room and tells me I should go meet her there. I walk to the hall and turn to stairs, when I bump into a hard chest. f**k not again. I look up to see yet another freakishly handsome and tall man, around Daniel’s age. He looks at me with shock and says “I’m sorry Luna, I didn’t see you.” Luna? Huh? Where have I heard that before?

“It’s okay, I wasn’t looking where I was walking. My name is Dunya.” I correct him and smile reaching my hand to shake his. He shakes my hand in return. “I’m Mickael, nice to meet you.” he smiles back at me. I continue my way upstairs to Layla’s room. I see someone going inside a room at the end of the hall and slamming the door behind them.

Layla’s in her room, putting away her clothes and searching for something to wear to dinner. She smiles brightly when she sees me and bolts to me for a bear hug.

“Oh, sweetie! I’ve missed you! I’m sorry I left with such a rush! Hope you’re not mad!” She hugs me tightly, barely letting me breath.

“It’s okay, I’m not mad. I will however pass out, if you don’t loosen your grip.” I chuckle and she lets go of me worriedly.

“Sorry.” she grins apologetically.

We catch up, talking about everything. Well, except the part of Elijah being a vampire. f**k, she did say it herself... Does she know? How could she know?

“Layla, remember when you called Elijah a vampire?” I ask shyly and she looks at me confused. “Was it because his work and the fact that he made me hickeys?”

“Yeah, of course.” she quickly responds. Okay... So, it was just a random coincidence. How could she know that he truly is one? I can barely believe that fact.