Letters to Romeo. - Chapter 319 Complication of the transformation
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The following day when Melanie woke up, her hand was on Simon’s chest, and she craned her neck to take a better look at the sleeping vampire. She wondered if he really was asleep or if he was faking sleep. But his chest moved steadily up and down as he breathed, and after a few seconds, she decided that he was indeed in dreamland.
A soft smile appeared on her lips. He looked harmless right now, someone who held no sarcasm and someone who wouldn’t hurt even a fly. Looks could indeed be deceiving, thought Melanie in her mind.
Like her, Simon had his hand around her waist, and their legs had somehow entangled in sleep, and she wondered how neither of them had woken up out of uncomfortableness in their sleep.
Last night was wonderful, and as stated by Simon, they had gone another round before fatigue had started to spread in her body.
She hoped she could be his strength and protect him from the pain he had turned immune to when he was a young boy and a human.
With the rays of the sunlight that had started to seep through the glass window, it turned the room brighter with every passing minute. Simon’s hair appeared redder under the gaze of the sunlight, and the little cross hung on one of his ears. She didn’t dare to run her fingers across his chest, not wanting to wake him up. It was as if he hadn’t slept all these years, and now was the first time he was sleeping this deeply.
After a few minutes passed, Simon’s lips parted, and in sleep, he murmured something while his eyebrows furrowed.
“You cannot… I won’t let you…”
Melanie couldn’t make out what Simon was exactly saying, as they felt broken, but she noticed the light sweat started to form on his forehead.
Worried, she raised her upper body and placed one of her hands on Simon’s cheek. She called him, “Simon?”
One word from her lips, and Simon’s eyes flew up. They were dark red, and when he took a deep breath, Melanie noticed the fangs in his mouth.
“Are you alright?” asked Melanie, her voice soft and her eyes seeking out his out of worry.
The frown that had been marring his face disappeared, and he sighed. He pulled her closer to him and hugged her.
“A bad nightmare?” asked Melanie, feeling his arms tighten around her.
“Yeah,” replied Simon, and he stared at the ceiling before closing his eyes.
“If you want… we can talk about it,” said Melanie and Simon softly chuckled. “I am a pretty good listener.”
“It’s alright. It was just a nightmare,” replied Simon, and Melanie pulled away from him so that she could take a better look at his face. Her black eyes observed him, where it was back to looking smug and full of mischief. “How long have you been awake?”
“Probably fifteen or twenty minutes,” replied Melanie, and she decided to not pester him right now about what had haunted him in his dream.
“Mm,” hummed Simon, and he pulled her closer before kissing her on her mouth. “You should have woken me up earlier.”
She should have, thought Melanie in her mind. She responded to his words, “You seemed like you needed some extra few minutes to sleep and I decided to watch you until then.”
“Spoken just like a stalker,” remarked Simon, and Melanie rolled her eyes, but there was a smile on her lips.
“I meant that I was watching over you. Just making sure no harm comes to befall on you, out of my pure kindness,” replied Melanie.
Simon chuckled, “What a sweet girlfriend I have. Who looks after me when I am sleeping, I won’t let anyone steal you away from me.”
They sat upright on the bed, with Melanie, who pulled the sheet closer to her body, covering the front of her body. Simon moved closer to Melanie, leaning forward to kiss her shoulder, and this action alone was enough to make her blush.
“I never thought you could be a romantic,” said Melanie, and Simon grinned.
“What did you think about me? In the bed of course, because I know I was a jerk outside it,” hummed Simon, his red eyes hadn’t switched back to the usual green.
Melanie coughed and then cleared her throat before looking at the wall.
“Don’t tell me you thought I was going to be bad, but then I must have proven you wrong. Considering how you had been moaning under me as we made laaav,” he continued to kiss her slender shoulder.
“You really are smug about it, aren’t you?” asked Melanie, giving him a small glare.
“Of course. What’s there not to be smug about it. Tell me, what did you think about me,” he poked her for an answer before starting to tickle her sides. Melanie burst into laughter,
“Wait! Ah-haha, I—I will tell you, hahaha,” she rolled on the bed when Simon continued to tickle her. “Stop!” she continued to laugh until Simon finally decided to give her a break.
“You are trying to kill me!” Melanie accused him, and Simon offered her a bright smile. She pursed her lips before answering his question, “This was way before we actually started to speak properly. Or civilly.”
“You mean when you decided to believe I was decent?” he raised his eyebrows, and Melanie coughed one more time. When his hands came near her again, she quickly said,
“It’s just that… I thought you were the kind of guy who took what he wanted and then left…” and though Melanie said this, Simon could tell that she had toned down her words so that it wouldn’t be rude. “That’s all. Nothing more than that.”
“You mean to say, you thought I was someone who only fucked and then left them without considering their needs? How cruel to have judged me, I won’t lie I am hurt,” he moved away from her and, in fake pain, turned his back to her. “Did you think I am a person who didn’t have the ability to love and respect a woman?”
The smile on Melanie’s lips fell as she didn’t mean to offend him. She quickly got up and scrambled on the bed so that she could come and sit in front of him.
“Of course, I never thought that you disrespected any woman. I know even though you like to tease me… you were always polite to the other girls in the university,” explained Melanie, and she continued, “I in the beginning didn’t understand why you liked to pick on me while you were really nice to the other girls.”
“Mm, I am still a boy who likes to pick on people whom I like,” nodded Simon, but then he stared at her.
“I didn’t mean to judge you, but you always liked to press and push my buttons…” her voice trailed while staring into his eyes.
But that didn’t mean that Melanie hadn’t questioned his behavior. She often wondered what kind of person he was, where he appeared to be empty on the surface. Not really bothered by how people perceived him. But now she knew that he wasn’t empty, but that Simon’s nature had a depth to him which not many were fortunate enough to witness.
She said, “I think you are a wonderful lover,” a hint of a blush coming to coat her cheeks. Simon had not only satisfied himself, but he had made sure to satisfy her, tiring her until she fell asleep.
Simon moved his face closer to her, and he kissed her lips, “I love it when you praise me.”
Once Simon and Melanie were ready, they left the apartment and headed towards Veteris.
Going away from Veteris had cleared Melanie’s mind, and she felt less anxious right now. While Simon went to meet his maker, Melanie had decided to pay a visit to her parents. Hoping they were alright. On reaching the infirmary, she greeted the doctor,
“Good morning, Doctor Isolde. Do you know where my parents are?” she inquired.
The vampiress looked up from the book she was writing and replied, “Your mother was shifted to the floor above. Elder Remy thought it was better to keep a more watchful eye as her temper and complaints haven’t ceased yet.”
Melanie awkwardly smiled, “Apologies for that.”
She quickly climbed the stairs, and when she reached the floor, she noticed her father coming from the other side of the corridor. He looked relieved on seeing her.
“Where have you been, Mel? I looked for you but no one knew where you were.”
“I had been outside for a bit… What happened?” she asked, staring at the corridor before her eyes shifted to look at her father. “Is mother alright?”
“I am not sure. I haven’t paid her a visit since midnight,” replied her father, and Melanie frowned on hearing her father’s words.
“What do you mean? Let me go and take a look,” said Melanie, and she headed in the direction where her mother was locked in the room.
Before Melanie could reach for the door, her father warned her, “Keep a little distance.”
This only made her even more worried, and she finally pushed the door open and her eyes widened. Her mother’s legs were chained and her face had turned similar to a rogue vampire’s features, who was losing consciousness of her surroundings.
“She was alright when I left, what happened?” asked Melanie.
Her father pursed his lips, looking slightly guilty, and he replied, “Your mother wanted to heal herself. To not be a vampire and return to being human.”
“What did you do, dad?”
“It wasn’t me, but your mother, who said to get the potion that was in the back of our car. I gave it to her… believing it would help ease her pain. But it only made it worse,” her father rubbed his forehead as if he couldn’t believe things had turned to worse. “The older vampire said that her transformation has been disrupted and instead of healing, her body has moved to a deranged vampire. So we need to wait… hoping she will be back to her usual self. I am so sorry, Mel.”
Melanie’s eyebrows furrowed, and she turned back to look at her mother, who snapped her teeth at her.
“Please don’t give or inject her with anything, dad. Please,” said Melanie and she sighed. She hoped her mother would transform without any complications… because she knew if it didn’t work, the other vampires would be left with no choice but to kill her mother.
She stayed there for an hour, and when she decided to grab a water bottle, her paths crossed with the vampiress.
“Your family seems to always causing us vampires trouble, Melanie. I mean which idiot goes injecting things during transformation?” the young vampiress laughed, who was a student of Veteris.
“I didn’t know you work in the infirmary. Or are you perhaps killing time here?” asked Melanie. She remembered talking to this person remotely in the library. And at that time, she thought this person to be kind.
“I am here to keep an eye so that nothing bad happens. The last thing we need is your parents trying to inject things into other vampires and kill them, while still working for the hunters,” replied the vampiress.
“My parents have no interest in the other vampires. So you can relax,” replied Melanie, and she started to walk past the vampiress.
“You are making a mistake, Melanie,” commented the vampiress, and Melanie stopped to turn and look at her.
“It is funny how you remember my name while I cannot remember your name for the life of me,” stated Melanie, staring at the girl.
The vampiress smiled and replied, “It must be because I am a higher being than you.”
“Or it can be that you have known about me for quite a long time. Or watching me,” replied Melanie to catch the vampiress smile.