Behind the Mask

8. Taken

Maximus

My memories revealed themselves once again as everyone watched. 

***

I flashed us to my house and gently placed her on the sofa, I didn’t want to let her go. But I knew I had to do it before the effects of the potion faded away. I was still invisible to her eyes, but she could feel my touch and the tingles that formed at the touch of our skin. 

I brushed a dark lock off her forehead and placed a kiss on her snow-colored skin. She was so beautiful, so perfect. She was mine and yet I couldn’t be with her fully. 

I stayed in the living room, my eyes fixed on her. The invisibility spell would fade in a few minutes, it never lasted long, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave her; to take my eyes off her. 

After a few minutes, Melinda woke up and placed her hand on her forehead. 

She looked left and right around the room, trying to situate herself until her eyes met Tina’s. 

“Where am I?” She asked softly.

“You were reading at the park and fainted. It’s a hot day. I brought you here, levitation magic,” Tina shrugged. She wasn’t expressive, at all. But this time she followed what Elric said. 

“Oh... thank you,” Melinda replied, smiling politely as she sat up slowly.

Tina cleared her throat nervously, “There is more. Your mate, he is here. It is a miraculous coincidence, a gift from the Goddess!” 

Tina was as subtle as thunder! I exhaled deeply at it. 

“What?” Melinda lost her composure for a moment, her back sliding against the couch and her beautiful blue eyes widening. 

But soon her bewilderment was replaced by happiness as a sweet smile raised on her lips. 

“Where is he?” she asked, looking around.

“He is… a wizard. He can meet you, but not show himself. It is complicated,” Tina said awkwardly to my frustration. 

“I don’t understand,” My mate muttered, her smile fading away. 

***

“What the hell?” Liv almost yelled and Melinda pushed her hand away interrupting the spell. 

“You abducted her and then lied to her! You both are the worst! There is no hope for any of you two!” Liv continued looking between Elric and me. 

My eyes moved to Melinda’s face, she looked numb, broken. Her thin tears were sliding down her face. I motioned my hand to wipe her tears, but she moved away and stood up. Her eyes were still lost, almost lifeless while her hand roamed down to her stomach, where our children were growing. 

A shiver of raw desperation made my blood freeze. I was losing her by the second, hard and fast. 

~ * ~

Liv 

I stood up with a jolt, slapping Elric in the chest. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t keep seeing the memories form in the smoke as my life and things that I believed were true, were love, collapse. 

“Liv, please!” Elric gave me a sheepish look and his arm tried to reach to my wrist. Hell no! 

An idea popped into my mind. Had this deceitful male also drugged me to get me pregnant with the twins? 

“Did you use the pixie drugs on me too?” My question almost sounded like a statement. I didn’t know it anymore!

“No, of course not. I wouldn’t ever do it to you. I love you...”

I cut him off with another slap in his firm chest.

“What in the 6th pit of hell? You wouldn’t do it to me, but you did it to my mom, easily.” My body was getting hotter and hotter and hotter, I was fuming! 

“Liv... that isn’t what I meant. I meant that I wouldn’t do it again, I wouldn’t risk your health, the circumstances at those times were different. We had urgency, we couldn’t wait, we had to stop the war, our people were dying. I know that you care deeply about our people too, try to understand...”

“Enough!” My voice resonated around the room, and I felt the tip of my fingers leak fire, but I clenched my palms shut. I didn’t want to burn the room. Actually, I did, but I shouldn’t. I had to control myself. “Don’t you try to manipulate me again! You’ve already gotten all you want, forget me!” I yelled before turning around. I took a few seconds to notice that I had made a curtain of fire rise in the midair between Elric and me. It didn’t burn the floor but made it impossible for him to get closer to me without feeling the burning heat of hell. Good. 

Before I could blink, Avalon was by my side wrapping me in his arms and helping me calm down a bit. 

“Mel, we didn’t want to hurt or lie to you. I regret it deeply. We just did what we deemed right at the time, to guarantee that the female of the prophecy was con…” The Lier King started again, looking at my mom. 

“Don’t believe a word from him!” I cry-snapped, my eyes were a mess of tears and anger. 

“If you had told me your plan and that your ultimate goal was achieving peace, I would have agreed with it. You didn’t need to keep me in the dark or to put me in the dark in the first place. Of course, I wanted peace, my parents, grandparents and great grandparents died because of that terrible war. How could I not agree with peace and agree with c*****e?” My mom said with lots of emotion and intensity, I’ve rarely seen her speak like this.

But I could imagine how it was for her, her mother died fighting, her father followed suit. Her grandparents (Princess Alexandria and her mate), and great grandparents died ambushed by the vampires in one of the wars for the piece of land that later became the neutral turf.

“I’m deeply sorry Mel. We didn’t know that, we imagined that you would have the same mindset as Avalon. As you know he wasn’t willing to sign the peace treaties until some months before Liv reached her mating age.”

“You could have talked to me, asked me about my opinions and thoughts,” she added. 

“You should have considered her as a person, not a means to achieve a goal.” I almost yelled. 

“As we said, we were also afraid that you would reject the mating. An Interspecies mating was unheard of.” Elric added.

“Before us. Especially in the time in which the animosity between species was very high. The probability of you rejecting it was too high. Melinda, I couldn’t have you rejecting me and your bond, not only because of the peace matters,” My father added.

“So, your brilliant plan to win her and avoid a rejection was to keep everything behind a mask and never even talk about it to her? I get the talking part; your conversation skills would make her run to the hills,” I taunted him. 

I was enraged that they made her go through all of it, that much. A cold and lonely version of her personal Hell.

“Livia, please,” My father cast an annoyed glare. I didn’t care the least.

Avalon tightened his hold on me and flashed me a soft look of sympathy. A soft hazel-eyed look. And to think that for some time I thought that Avalon was my villain when the real jerk was the one pretending to be nice! 

Lies, acting, masks, it was all an insane and perverse game to get what they wanted without caring about others. 

In the warmth of Avalon’s arms, I realised that I was crying very hard and sobbing loudly. Goddess, I was a huge mess! He kissed the top of my head, ran his fingers up and down my back soothingly, and sent me love through our bond. He was ignoring everything and everyone surrounding us and making me feel at least for a couple of seconds that we were the only ones in the room. 

I didn’t need Elric and his lies. I was better off without him.