Kin of the Damned

Chapter 19

I was now inside Xios' room. Training had ended uneventfully but with how chaotic things have been lately, I couldn't be sure that was really a bad thing. All we did was rotate partners. I fought against Mara, who was hard to beat but not as hard as Alexios. The third opponent I went up against was Olivia. I won which Olivia had a mini fit over but I was able to abate her envy with comments of her not being to train while always working in the tech wing. The final opponent I faced was a man that I had not met before. He was chosen in the heat of the moment when Kane was heading straight for me so I asked the first person I could. I lost to him, but to be fair, he appeared to be thirty and thus, looked like he had trained for a lot time.

Now was the time I would finally be able to read one of Xios' works, I was vibrating with excitement. I began to grow impatient watching him sift through notebooks and pages. "Xios, hurry up." I whined, feeling slightly embarrassed at acting like a child.

"Yes, yes." Finally, he looked at a page with a satisfied expression that then changed to apprehension when he fearfully handed it to me. I was about to read it before he said: "Wait...If you hate it, say nothing, okay?"

"Okay." I said before beginning to read. Once I was at the end, I had tears collecting in my eyes.

Suddenly, I heard Xios' voice joking, "It was so bad you want to cry." Along with his voice, I noticed the smell, smoke. I looked up to see Xios smoking.

"Xios, I already told you to stop.."

"I can't help it, Val. I do it when I'm nervous so by the time that I've noticed, its already been lit."

"Those death sticks will kill you, Xios."

He let out a puff of breath in a laugh, smoke wafted out with it. "Last I checked, werewolves were not weak enough to be killed by human diseases."

"The fact still stands, it's not good for you, plus I'd rather not die by secondhand smoke."

Xios looked worried when I talked about fgettiing sick, he immidiately stamped out his cigarette. I was confused, "What changed your mind?"

He had a slight flush on his ears, "I don't want you to die, I'm not that heartless. Are humans really that weak?" It was sweet how much he cared about me, he could've always told me to just leave when he smokes.

"I'm actually stronger than most humans. I can only remember getting sick four times in my life."

"I have you beat, I've only been sick once."

"What did your parents do for you?" I asked, I've always heard about parents nursing their kids to health when their sick.

His happy expression dropped. "It was at the castle so I had to take care of myself."

"I'm sorry for asking."

"It's fine, what about you? Any happy stories to bring my mood up?"

"Once, I got sick and I got to stay home. I spent the whole day eating ice cream and watching tv."

"What about your dad? You said he was the one who was taken."

I was surprised that he mentioned my father. "Dad was at work, he couldn't take care of me."

"What about the other times?"

"He was busy, iI didn't want to bother him more than I already do." Alexios' face had an expression of pity. I hot flash of anger covered my body. "Stop looking at me like you pity me."

"I may not know much about parental relations, but I know enough that that's not how it should be between a parent and child."

"I'm a strong person, Alexios. I can take care of myself."

"Strong doesn't mean bearing everything yourself."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore. Let's just read the story." Alexios looked like he wanted to keep speaking, but refrained.

I turned my eyes to the notebook. Maybe he's right? Once I was done reading Alexios' story, there were tears in my eyes. "What's wrong? Was the story that bad?" He asked.

"No, not at all. It was really beautiful, Xios. How would you not want to share this?"

"Well, more than not wanting to, it was more about not having time, and the location I was in. All my stories were written based on my experiences so I don't want to give the vampires something else to use against me." His eyes narrowed at the thought of what could happen.

I put my hand on his. "I'm so sorry about everything they did, it kills me that my mother did this to you. Once I become Queen, you can be sure things will change."

"It's okay, it has everything to do with them. By the way, I asked about your dad and my father says that he's in the cells right now, but will be released."

"That's great. Did your father say he was okay after the attack?"

"Yea, all the prisoners were unharmed." I let out a sigh of relief. 

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Hello everyone!  It's been awhile, I know, school has been hectic.  I'll upload a couple of chapters more.  We've finally gotten to like one other person reading it pretty consistently now, which thank you to them.  I'm grateful to every reader I get since I've always wanted to be an author and only seeing that I read it was pretty disheartening, but I'll try to keep going.  That's why I would love any constructive criticism anyone has for me.

See you in the next chapter! :)