Forgiveness and Punishment

38

"Melissa, are you alright?" Tad asks going into the dark room Melissa had escaped to once they returned home. He goes up behind her and gently turns her when she doesn't answer him. He inhales sharply. "Melissa, what's wrong?"

Tad wipes her tears away then just holds her waiting for her to answer him. "N-nothing's wrong. I'm just being stupid again." Melissa manages to get out without sobbing, but it was close.

"Melissa, come on, you detest crying, so something is making you sad. What is it?"

"Timothy, he is going to hate me now. B-because of me he killed his sister and maker. He loved her like I love you and TJ. I-I had hoped that he was going to ask me to mark him, and that he wanted to mark me, but now, he won't want to any more. If he ever did. I know Cliff expected us to announce the ceremony some time ago."

"You are being silly, Melissa. Timothy adores you, he took out his sister because she attacked us, meaning that she attacked you and through you, himself. She committed an act of war against him, from what I understand about vampire politics. No matter how much he loved her, he couldn't let that go unpunished." Tad tries to explain to her and comfort her at the same time.

"Tad, would you please allow me time with Melissa alone?" Timothy asks from the doorway. He'd heard the whole conversation and it hurts him that Melissa would think that he'd hate her for what happened.

Tad nods and immediately steps back. He gives Melissa a kiss on the forehead before leaving the room.

Before Tad is gone Timothy is taking his place and pulling Melissa into his arms. "I could never hate you. Especially for what happened today. Delilah has been planning retribution against me since she turned me and we killed her maker five hundred plus years ago. I've just was never in a position that she could set it in motion before."

Melissa freezes then looks up, horrified. "What?"

"I've done a lot of thinking over my past with her. Hell, she might have even set this up before that. I know that she had a lot of anger towards my parents, so I have no doubt that her coming home and seducing me in front of them was part of their punishment. I never looked to closely at anything she did, but hindsight is perfect so they say.

"She used me to get revenge on our parents, she used me to kill her maker, she used me as an excuse to live through the purge and she was going to use me to start another. 

"She was always a little crazy, but she hid it well. She didn't like the idea of traveling as much as I wanted so she let me have my freedom. It was only later that she realized just how strong and powerful I had become. That's when she allowed her crazy to come forward. She saw a way to use my power and kill the other vampires, she wanted me to start another purge. 

"She should have known that no matter how much I loved her, I would never forgive her for something like that."

"She knew, that's why she hid it from you. She was obsessed with you."

"Like a child with a toy, perhaps. The bonds had grown weak since it had been so long since we have been around each other. But that close to her and she was able to reestablish them, I was fighting them, but I wasn't sure that I would be able to break them.

"I thank you for cutting them like you did. She most definitely wasn't expecting that. It allowed me to have the freedom to do what should have been done centuries ago. What I refused to see when I was younger. She hid her insanity well.

"There are none so blind as those that refuse to see." Timothy whispers bitterly. "Because of me, you were used as a pawn to start a war, your brothers nearly killed. My pride and arrogance nearly caused you irreparable harm and a new purge of the vampire people. Have I done anything right with you, Melissa?" Timothy is practically pleading by the time he finishes.

Melissa holds her words until she is sure that Timothy is paying full attention to her. "Yes. You made an incredibly bold decision to turn me, even though you knew it could bite you in the ass and you end up dead because of it. You have shown me, day after day just how much you love me. You kept my brothers here to protect us and them, to allow Tad enough time to grow up and decide without our constant influence just what he wants in his future.

"You allowed me time with them as much as you could and held me when I cried because I couldn't be with them.

"You've made hard decisions, the latest of them being the ending of Delilah. You've done a great deal of right, Timothy. Perhaps not what I wanted, but what was needed. I love you for that. It's what makes a good leader great and you are one of the best leaders there are.

"That's why I'm afraid that you'll hate me in time for killing her."

"When the leader of the last purge found us, it wasn't long after we killed Delilah's bitch of a mistress. She looked at the dead leader and the gaping hole in her chest and told me that I would have to do that once more to a maker. I never understood what she meant. Not until today. In fact, until I killed Delilah, I had entirely forgotten her prophecy."

"I don't understand?" Melissa is confused.

"The leader of the purge was a bit of a soothsayer or psychic. She would catch bits of the future, but it was never very clear and only small snatches of time. But when she says something, it always happens. Always. She was telling me that one day I would have to kill another maker, mine, just like I had killed Delilah's." Timothy tries to smile, but the sadness in his eyes remain. "I have killed various vampires over the years, even helped out in the purge a bit, not much, baby vampires aren't strong and I was not taught how to fight vampire style. Some had even made other vampires, but for some reason I always killed them by removing their heads. Many like in Highlander, using a sword to do so.

"Delilah is the only one since I killed her maker that I killed by crushing her heart."

"We are a product of our decisions, I don't believe in destiny or fate." Melissa finally says.

Timothy gives off a bark of laughter, "Whether you believe in fate or not, it believes in you. If at any time I had made different decisions, or your step mother had done so, we wouldn't be here at this point. You would have died from cancer and I would have never known you." Timothy gently caresses her face.

"I, personally, am very thankful to fate. Because of her I met the most incredible female ever to be born and through her some very incredible males." Timothy smirks.

Melissa snorts in amusement. "I think my brothers and Travis would just as soon be with you as with me."

Timothy shakes his head. "You under estimate yourself, love. They are drawn to me because of me being vampire and even more so for the kind of vampire I am. They have always been drawn to you, long before you were turned. TJ would eventually have tried to seduce you and well Tad, I'm not sure what direction he would have gone on his own. Travis has always been sexually aware of you, you heard him.

"As for me, I was hooked on  you the moment I saw you. That's why I took the chance of a lifetime." Timothy gets lost in his thoughts as he looks into Melissa's eyes. He forgets what he was trying to say. "Fuck, I love you." He leans down and kisses her.