Eternal Redemption - Book Two ✔

Chapter 14

"When I was just a young boy my powers started to appear," my father started and I made a note to myself to not interrupt no matter what I heard. I wanted the entire story, the full version and I couldn't let myself get in the way of that.

"It runs in my father's side of the family and apparently it develops quicker for men than women. Something about temperament," my father added with a slight smile. "My father taught me how to use them and did his best to explain to me how it had been passed down through generations, but we were rare, which was why he never wanted me to tell anyone. 'They want us,' he'd said to me, but I was an arrogant child and an even more arrogant adolescent. I knew I was powerful and trained by myself for years while we moved around from place to place, making sure to only train in the daylight so that no fangers could see me. Sometimes I even thought myself to be unbeatable." My father shook his head and held a brief pause.

"I was seventeen when I met Shax for the first time. He terrified me beyond belief, yet intrigued me in a way I couldn't quite comprehend. He didn't know I was gifted, not at first at least and I did my best to hide my powers from him. He was passing through the town where we lived at the time. Him and his men killed my parents, snapping their necks like twigs, but not before torturing my father to the point where he told Shax what he wanted to know. But Shax, he spared my life when he could have so easily killed me as well." My father stopped and seemed to hesitate before continuing, "Shax said he'd see me again and if I wanted to live, he wanted something from me." My father looked right at me and I looked right back at him. I wanted to hear this, no matter how awful, but I guess I knew what was coming next.

"He said he'd want my first-born child; one with gifts more powerful than mine. Like I said, I was arrogant and clearly thought too highly of myself. Thinking myself unbeatable, I couldn't fathom the idea of someone even more powerful. And I had almost laughed when he'd mentioned that he'd wanted my child. I never thought that would ever happen. I didn't plan to have a family; I was so young and could never imagine wanting to bring up a child in a world like this. But I was selfish and I thought that if it never were to happen, where was the harm in agreeing to his terms. I didn't want to die; I wanted to live and to experience more of what my powers could offer me.

So, I made the deal with him, but on one condition; that he didn't come for you until you were grown up and your powers had shown themselves. To my astonishment he agreed, I still don't know why, and he let me be. The only thing he wanted before leaving was my necklace, something of mine to track me with when the time came. I reluctantly handed it over and that was it. I never saw him again." His voice trailed off and silence spread through the building. Still, I didn't speak, but I heard the accelerated pounding of two heartbeats in the room. Clearly, Grant was listening, though I didn't bother to ask him not to.

My father fidgeted with his hands in his lap.

"I met your mother just a few years later and despite my efforts to avoid it, I fell in love. Her smile could light up even the darkest of days and there were plenty of them.

At first, I didn't want to tell her about me, about my powers. We were in a small camp in Texas somewhere, maybe thirty people. We tried to set up a sort of civilisation, hunting for food and animals in the day and protecting each other from vampires at night. I think we managed almost a few months before what I never wanted to happen, happened." Jonathan's voice lowered, "when Sarah told me, she thought she was pregnant I didn't feel any ounce of joy; instead I was scared shitless. She was so happy, but I still didn't tell her about me and I knew I could never tell her about my deal with Shax because she would leave me. No," he paused, "she would kill me and then leave me. And she meant more to me than you did at the time. You were nothing; just a maybe hiding itself inside of her. But then her belly started to grow and I knew it was only a matter of time. So, we left Texas and crossed New Mexico and finally settled in Arizona."