Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter 43

As she followed Tobias into the house, Cecilia tried to figure out what to tell him without sounding dishonest since she couldn't truly understand why he was angry at Helen in that very instant.

"I don't know Helen very well, but even I can tell that she was just trying to help. Why are you so mad at her? I don't get it." Cecilia said.

Her voice was really quiet and soothing, the last thing she wanted was to further anger Tobias because he already seemed to be at the end of his tether.

Raking his fingers through his hair, Tobias seemed to carefully consider his answer or try to control his anger, Cecilia wasn't sure which one. Once his eyes found hers, however, the anger seemed to disappear like air from an inflated balloon when released. He couldn't believe how even one look from her could keep him grounded, calm him down, and make his day, all at once.

When he looked at her, he didn't feel like a vampire who needed redemption, he just felt like himself, like Tobias. He couldn't be anything but honest with her, he NEEDED to be honest with her for all things big or small.

"I am sorry. It's just that she has been doing this for decades. She is so overprotective that sometimes I feel like she thinks I can't handle myself without her. The worst thing about it is that I know that most of the time she is right, she does have better solutions." Tobias said.

"Then why get so angry?" Cecilia asked.

"Because she acts like I'm a small child. She keeps protecting me as if she were my mother and if she continues doing that I will never be able to truly be independent. I am a grown man for goodness sake," he said.

Although Cecilia could partly understand how he felt, she couldn't completely empathize with that feeling because she never had anything similar to that.

"She is your family. A vampire or human, a family takes care of each other. All she wants to do is keep you safe and happy." Cecilia said.

As she said that, she noticed one runaway strand of Tobias' hair falling on his forehead. She brushed it gently away in a soothing gesture that made Tobias feel calm and content. Her hand lingered on his cheek more than it was necessary before she quickly pulled it back confused by her actions.

"No matter how annoyed we get with them sometimes family is still family. It doesn't matter if it's the biological one or the one we have made for ourselves." Cecilia said.

Upon saying that, a sadness appeared in her eyes that clouded all the other emotions.

Tobias could sense her mood shift in the air. At first, there was empathy and some warm emotion that he couldn't truly identify, not even with his enhanced vampire senses, but after uttering those words her mood shifted to one of sadness and melancholy.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I am sorry... I was just... thinking about my family. They might not have been the greatest family, but I do miss them and worry about them," she said.

"They are doing okay. Well, as well as you would expect after you have gone missing," he answered immediately.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"I've been checking up on them from time to time because I had a feeling you would want to know," Tobias said.

"You must think I am a horrible person," she said.

As she said that, she lowered her head in shame.

Gently lifting her chin with his hand he looked into her eyes, into that sea of sadness, and almost drowned himself in their beauty, but he could gather his wits enough to tell her what she needed to hear.

"I could never think you are a horrible person. I knew that you were dealing with too much, there was too much happening, so I didn't think it strange that you didn't ask about them. It was still obvious that you cared, I could see it in your eyes. I was just waiting for you to be ready to ask for the answers you needed," he said.

"It's just that if I thought about that part of my life if I accepted the reality that I should never see them again, it feels so final. Also, would it be better for them to think I am dead or alive, lost, or found?

"It hurts to think about never being with them again, never being human again.

Maybe if I didn't ask about them, none of this would be real. I would wake up and realize this has all been just a horrible nightmare," she said.

"Is everything you have been through as a vampire been so horrible?" Tobias asked.

The pain in his voice was obvious even to her who wasn't so good at noticing other people's emotions, and especially recognizing why they were feeling them.

"Not you. You have never been and never will be a nightmare. You are the only good thing in this whole ordeal," she said.

As she was saying that, her hand found its way to his face once more and her fingertips started gently stroking his cheek, her eyes fixated on his of fire and ice. Slowly her hand moved from his cheek to his lips gently tracing them while barely touching them, it was just a whisper of a touch that gently brushed along the outline of his lips.

As she did that his lips gently parted giving her more room to trace the softness of those cool lips that suddenly mesmerized her with their gentleness and firmness. They were a contradiction. She never expected such gentle lips in the most dangerous predator.

Before either of them could figure out what she was doing, she crashed her lips against his, her hand grasping firmly behind his neck his lips immediately answering the feverish attack.

It was like a volcano exploding, covering them with melting lava, the heat of emotions replacing the one of bodily warmth they no longer possessed. His hands firmly wrapped themselves around her waist pulling her closer melding them together as one.

Suddenly a sharp pain pierced through Tobias' lip and before he could even register what happened Cecilia wrenched herself out of his embrace and ran off to the other side of the room.

"I am so sorry. I hurt you," she said shaking.

Only then did Tobias notice a few drops of blood trickling down his lip and realized what had happened, that Cecilia's fangs had come out unintentionally.

"It's okay. I am fine. I am more than fine," he said with a gentle smile.

Still, in the heat of the moment, he couldn't see how terrified she was of what had happened so it came as a shock to him to see her moving away from him after sharing such a passionate moment.

"I thought I had it under control. Will I ever learn control? I could have fed on you, hurt you, as I did before. I need to go," she said.

Before Tobias had the chance to say anything or to even understand what she was saying she was a blur, quickly vanishing from the house.

He stood there stunned wondering what had happened. One moment all his dreams were coming true, the next Cecilia ran away from him.

Wiping away the blood from his lip, he couldn't help but worry about Cecilia. Still, he had a feeling that he needed to give her some space because she seemed terrified.

He didn't even get the chance to explain to her that it often happened to the young ones to lose control of their fangs in the moment of passion and that it was nothing to be ashamed of.

Not knowing what to do, he decided to ask Helen to talk with Cecilia as soon as she came back because maybe it would be easier for her to listen to another female. It would especially be credible if Helen said it having in mind that she was always a matter of fact type of vampire.

If Helen didn't show up soon, he decided to go and find her, since he worried Cecilia might get herself in some trouble.