SWNOVELS Chapter Not a Dream, a Memory
Viola
Once Darius sank his fangs into my neck, my whole body weakened with a pleasure that trembled throughout. It’s as if he poured liquid euphoria into my veins, sending a blissful heat that spread into my extremities.
It felt like I was dying and being invigorated with life simultaneously, sending my consciousness to a place beyond this realm. At first, I thought it was a dream until she asked me a direct question and waited for my answer.
“Viola, did you hear me?” I looked at my mother’s gray eyes, which reminded me so much of the ones I see every day when I look in the mirror.
“It’s your choice, little one. What will it be?” My mother asks.
I stared at her, trying to recall when this dream started, but I found myself dropped into the middle of a world that had no beginning. I looked around at the world I was suddenly in and recognized my surroundings immediately. This was once a reality—I was in my mother’s garden. I was five years old, lying on a blanket under the oak tree beside her.
My mother handed me a lily of the valley flower, and I inhaled its fresh, creamy scent.
I consider her question and think it over. “I think if he loves me, then it’s okay. Will he love me as Daddy loves me?”
She laughed warmly, a sound I didn’t know I missed until just then. I engraved it deeply into my memory, not wanting to forget it again.
“No, not like Daddy,” she sighed. “I know you can’t imagine this now, but this man, this creature, he will love you on a whole new level you’ve never experienced, and you will love him so much that the idea of being apart from him, even for a minute, would make your heart bleed to death.”
I recall my response vividly. “That doesn’t sound very healthy to me.”
My mother chuckled. “Perhaps not.”
“Mother, I’m not ready to make this choice,” I say quietly. “I don’t understand.”
Her eyes locked onto mine, and she smiled. “All right, how about now?”
Now? Now I’m twenty-two, the same age my mother was when she died, lying side by side with her in the garden.
As I rolled onto my side to face her, like a reflection in a mirror, she did the same, and our gazes met.
“Now, I want to spend all eternity by his side…” I said with a hint of hesitation, which she detected.
“But?” She encouraged me to explain.
I searched for the words to help best describe the complex and contradicting emotion that weaves it’s way into me.
“But, I…” I trail off.
“You don’t want to die?” She asks cautiously.
I nodded. “For the first time in my life… I want children, his children, and only his children. I’ve never wanted children before, but with Darius…it’s different.
Mother nods, smiling softly. “Then a Dhampir you will both be: half and half. Two halves that make one whole.”
“A what?” I ask but never get my answer.
“I love you, Viola,” her last words echoed as she was engulfed in pitch black.
When I opened my eyes, I woke up in my bed. It took a moment for me to feel my body, and when I lifted up my hand to examine it, I saw it for the first time with my new, semi-immortal eyes. The new wavelengths of light I was able to see made the simple, moonlit room more ethereal than ever before.
Memories of blood and Darius pierced into my reality, and I sat up to see the most perfect sight a woman could wake up to—the man she loved.
I watched his reflection in the glass of the window as Darius looked at the world outside. I noticed the droplets of water running down his bare chest, intrigued that I could see them from this distance so clearly.
When Darius’ eyes met mine, and he turned to face me in all his glory, I felt my heart skip a beat. He was right—the gorgeous man from a couple of days ago was a pale shadow of the beauty he radiated in his fully restored state.
Now, I lay on top of Darius, listening to his beating heart with his hand slipped up my nightgown, his fingertips seeming to draw shapes randomly.
At first, I thought they were random squiggles, but as I focus, I realize he’s writing something—the same thing over and over.
“What are you scribbling?” I ask.
“Salanghaeyo,” Darius’ voice is so rich and full of warmth, a complete contrast from the first time he ever spoke to me.
To imagine seeing him like that again, on the brink of death, almost brings tears to my eyes. I push the feelings back, promising I will never let anything like that happen to him again.
I look up at Darius and gaze into his incredible brown eyes. The man of my dream, finally here in the flesh, looking right back at me.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I love you,” the words come so easily for him it leaves me speechless.
My new heightened ears pick up footsteps approaching my room, and I sit up in bed, staring at the door.
Sophie enters without knocking, as usual, and I panic. When her eyes land on Darius, who sits up underneath me while I’m still straddling him in bed, she nods.
“Bonjour,” she says almost cheerfully.
I half expect her to jump out of her skin at the sight of a strange, shirtless man in my bed, but she says absolutely nothing about it.
My brows furrow, and I watch as she places a pile of men’s clothing on the foot of the bed.
“Good morning, Sophie,” Darius says casually.
He kisses me before lifting me off him and getting up to inspect the clothes she brought for him.
I watch as Sophie shows him each piece of clothing, holding them up to his tall frame to see if they fit.
“This one will fit you across the chest, but you’re uncommonly tall, so it will slip from your waistband, ” she says.
My mouth practically hangs open as I try to figure out in what reality Sophie and Darius know one another.
“What’s going on here?” I ask.
“Well, he can’t always walk around like this,” Sophie discreetly motions to Darius’ bare chest.
“Sure, he can,” I feel my lips curl into a smile as I tongue one of my new fangs, itching to sink into his muscular flesh.
Darius shoots me a wink before putting on the shirt.
Sophie notices my fangs and rushes over to inspect them, grabbing my face and inspecting my teeth like one might a horse.
“But you’re alive; I see the blood flowing through you; how is this possible?” She asks.
Sophie puts her ear to my chest and listens to my heartbeat.
She pulls away and eyes me. “I do not understand.”
“Mother called it Dhampir… Wait, Sophie, explain everything that I’ve missed out on,” I demand.
And explain she does. For the next few minutes, she rambles at me in French, telling me how she felt a burst of magical energy and followed it to find Darius feeding on me. When she tells me about her and my mother being witches and the sacrifice my mother made for me, the dream I had starts to make sense.
I look over at Darius who watches us—the very sight of him looking all dapper in a shirt, rolled-up sleeves, and a vest, sends my heart fluttering all over again. I quickly forget my anger towards Sophie for lying to me all these years about being a witch and my mother’s sacrifice and watch him move around the room like the ethereal being he is.
“Darius’ heart started beating too,” I whisper.
If Sophie is a witch, she may have answers for us about what happened to Darius, but the words don’t quite land.
She blinks at me, clearly confused. “What did you just say?”
“Darius, he’s alive,” I repeat. “I think.”
Sophie looks over at Darius, who stands there with his hands in his pockets, watching us.
“If it’s all right,” Darius starts, “I’d like to look into this ‘Dhampir’ business a little later. It’s imperative we start the adoption process today if you’re feeling up to it, darling one. I’ve had William make an appearance, eat breakfast, and call for Edmund to get the car ready. we need to get this chapter over with as quickly as possible and leave this wretched place.”
Sophie helps me get dressed behind the caravan in my room as Darius explains the plan he and Sophie devised last night. It’s straightforward, but it means spending the day with William’s body under Darius’s control. I know I have nothing to fear with Darius watching over me, but this man literally killed me just yesterday.
After I’m dressed and ready to go, I linger at the door to my room, hesitating. We could finally be free of this place, but bureaucracy stands in our way. Part of me wants to say the hell with it all—money and land mean nothing to me. However, deep down, I know it makes sense to secure my father’s life’s work, not just for me but for Elliott. If I am to be his mother, I want it done right. If that means tolerating William’s body by my side for a day, I’ll endure it.
“Do not worry, darling one,” Darius assures me, resting his forehead against mine as he holds me close. “I will not let him touch you, even if it’s me in there. His skin will never touch yours again, I can promise you that. I will be with you every step of the way.”
With Darius’s assurance, I find William already waiting for me outside by the car, and though seeing him rattles me a little when the red light flashes from within his eyes, I know that I am safe with Darius behind the wheel of his body, so to speak.
William and I meet with Mr. Collins, William’s lawyer. Mr. Collins seems somewhat skeptical of some of William’s requests, especially his desire to relinquish parental rights over Elliott while leaving Elliott as the sole inheritor of his entire fortune and vast properties. However, with William’s stern insistence and a significant sum of money produced from his breast pocket, Mr. Collins agrees that the paperwork will be ready for signing tomorrow.
“I’m leaving in a few days, Mr. Collins. I want everything taken care of before my departure,” William declares as he signs the last document approving all to be prepared.
As William signs, I can sense Darius’s frustration with the entire situation, and I can’t blame him—he’s been imprisoned for years and is now forced to deal with these matters instead of enjoying his freedom.
We’ll have to wait for all of this to be processed, but maybe there’s something I can do to help Darius while the paperwork is being completed.