Not What You Expected

Chapter Twenty Three

Sophia's P.O.V

"William..."

The name flows out, barely above a whisper. My heart pangs with hurt as if someone is physically squeezing it. Memories course through my mind, and I practically feel the way his lips once danced across my body. The feelings I once had for him resurface, and it's like I'm falling in love with him all over again.

"He was our first love after all..."

Tears start to overflow from my eyes. I turn to Jackson, feeling so hurt and betrayed that he would allow me to see this portrait.

That he would allow me to feel these feelings again...

"How could you do this to me..."

I whisper out as I stare him dead in the eyes.

Jackson stands so tall and stiff that he could almost pass as a statue. The glow of fire dances across his pale skin, and I would be lying if I didn't once again say that he is truly a masterpiece.

He sighs. "Because it's finally time that you know the truth, Riley." He takes a few steps towards me, and like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, I remain frozen in my spot.

"William was your husband. You married him in 1682, and stayed married to him until 1686. In the beginning, your marriage was like a match that the heavens seemed to have formed...then it took a turn, and it seemed like it was a relationship straight out hell..."

Images of William pushing me around, physically and emotionally abusing me. Images of me crying as I ran from him, me locking myself in the nearest room I could escape to and praying that the door was strong enough to hold up against his fists.

"If-if I was a vampire then why couldn't I protect myself against him..."

It truly does make me wonder. I mean, I almost snapped the neck of a werewolf, and yet I couldn't stop a mere human from abusing me?

"Pathetic, isn't it..."

I ignore the inner vampire as I solely focus on Jackson.

He sighs. "Because you loved him...not only you, but your vampire self loved him too, and when you're inner vampire-self forms a bond that is entirely made out of love...she can't kill it, because killing it means she would also be killing part of herself."

The inner feeling of the link between girl and monster shuts down, but before it does, I don't miss the feeling of pain that flows through the connection.

"I left..."

I can't do this...I can't do this!!!! All my life, I've been merely surviving. I've never had the pleasure of feeling happy until William came and made my life happy...until he didn't. I've been married twice, I know that for a fact. I've had many intimate moments with strange men, and I've only loved once...

Until now...

"You did, and then five years later, you and I met in 1691." I don't miss the way his eyes start to cloud over, as he remembers old memories that even I have forgotten.

"We married and moved to what is now Washington State, as Washington State wasn't officially founded until November 11, 1889. Before it was founded, it was known as 'No man's land', but I built this house for you, and you loved this place so much...you swore you would never leave, through hell or high water. Nothing would make you leave..."

I take a ragged deep breath as I fight to stay on my feet. "Who are all those people in that portrait..."

"Those, my kitten, are your aunts, grandparents, parents, ex-husband, and your-."

"She's not ready to know about them!"

Before Blake can even finish his sentence, Ethan comes storming into the attic-like room and grabs me by the arm tightly. If I were human, I'm sure I would be screaming at him to let me go, as I feel his sharp wolf-like talons scrape against the material of my jacket. But since I am a vampire, I am immune to such pain.

I wonder just how much pain I am truly immuned too....

"Here we go again."

Jackson mumbles out as he runs his hands down his face. Honestly, he is starting to act like the dad of the group.

If we even are a 'group'.

I mean, werewolves and vampires coming together to be a group just because of a girl named Sophia? Ironically, that is me, and I'm not that special. I mean, yeah, I'm well over three hundred years old, and I apparently have lived a double life, but that still, doesn't make me special 'enough' to make two species that hate each other come together.

Unless there's something less... something bigger than just me...

I glance around the room before sighing as memories come forth, and before I know what I’m doing, I shake off Ethan's impossibly tight grip and walk straight up to the portrait.

"Riley, baby, come here. We're going home, and stop talking about this nonsense."

Ethan takes a few steps towards me, but luckily, Jackson gets in his way, forbidding him from coming any closer to me.

I let out a dark chuckle, as I can't help but allow the darker side of me to escape. You know, the more I spend thinking about my past, the more it becomes overtly clear to me that I'm not the person everyone believes I am. I have a dark side that I once allowed to control me. I've murdered innocent people and have not even shed a tear for them. I’ve allowed my selfish ways to get in the way of my judgment, and for that, I have made awful life decisions. And I can never change the hurt I have done to people, and that hurts me more than one can ever understand because now, I'm not the same person I was back when I was a vampire. The day I forgot my memories was the day I became a new woman.

The women I was meant to be....

"Ethan, this is, or was, my life once; I want to know everything I can about it." I growl out as I stare intensely at the portrait that seems to be painted by Picasso himself. Every detail is painted so perfectly that it seems the people in the portrait are actually in the room with us. They look so realistic that I can't help but reach out and gently caress the cheek of the women with dark forest green eyes and black hair that resembles the starless night skies. She has this intense aura surrounding her, that I can sense even through a portrait. Her high cheekbones and intense stare make her look like a goddess herself. But the longer I look, the more I realize just how familiar she looks.

I can't quite say where I have seen her, but I know that face as if I have seen that face since the day she was in this world. I glance from her to the woman sitting next to her. She shares the same black hair that resembles the starless night skies and green eyes, only hers are lighter and more of an emerald color.

I go on to look at the man that stands directly behind them. He shares the small black hair, but his eyes are no shade of green...they are as grey as steel, with black specks in them.

Everyone in the portrait is pale, but the rest of the ladies and gentlemen have either light or dark brown hair. Only one man has blonde hair. None of them look as identical as those three do; it's as if they share almost the same exact DNA. DNA you wouldn't share from being aunt/uncle or cousin...no, that kind of DNA you would only get from being siblings, and the last time I checked, the only siblings in this portrait should be the aunt's, that's it!

But the more I try to think about it, the more my head starts to throb, and before I know it an image is being basically forced into my mind.

But before I could even see it, blackness took over......