Chapter 59

Chapter 23:

Trisha’s P.O.V

“Damnit!” I threw aside another book that had a promising title but did not have what I needed!

I needed scandals and dirt on the Elders, not flowery words and love poems on their beauty! So yes, I was pissed off enough to throw around books that had hundreds of years of history, but I wasn’t a monster, so I instantly regretted my decision and ran after said book, picking it up from the floor and properly keeping them back in place after making sure I hadn't made any damages.

So far the only thing I had gathered was that the Council consisted of four members, three men and one woman. They were considered over ten thousand years in age and they were certainly not the first vampires, but…the last of the first? And there was more misinformation about the Elders than information, because the records kept varying from one data to another.

So not only was I angry, I was frustrated and exhausted and feeling the little hope that I had, slip away bit by bit.

“Trisha? Is something wrong?”

Startled at the voice behind me, I turned in my stool to find Jonathan standing near the entrance to the library, a gentle smile on his face.

“Father?” I jumped down from the ladder, landing perfectly on my feet in front of Jonathan.

“My child,” Jonathan opened his arms for me and I went into them with a smile.

In the last couple centuries, I had lost so much of my memories from before my transformation. Slowly but surely, I would forget them all to make room for new ones. I didn’t remember who my birth father had been or what my relationship with him had been like. I could vaguely remember a man who had driven me to school and taken me to get burgers on Sundays. But now, if anyone asked me who my father was, I could never imagine it being anyone but Jonathan.

His scent of earthy herbs has become so familiar in the last two centuries that I cold sniff it from miles away.

“I’m so glad I found you here.” I told him as we took a seat on the sofas at the back of the library. “I’ve been trying to gather information on the Elder Council for ages, but I completely forgot that you’ve been around Damien longer than I have! Father, can you please tell me all you know about the Elders?”

Father looked thoughtful for an instant, almost like he was hesitating. I have never seen him unwilling to help me with anything in my life. Then why would he be hesitating now?

“Is something the matter?” I asked when he didn’t speak for almost a minute. “Father? You know you can tell me anything, right?”

But he shook his head, a sad expression on his face. “When you first met Damien and fell head over heels in love with him at first sight…I knew I had to do something to stop you. So I told Damien not to encourage your feelings for him. I told him to push you away as much as he could.”

I blinked back my surprise as best as I could, but my mind wasn’t cooperating. My father? Jonathan had told Damien to stay away from me?

“Why?” I felt a sense of foreboding in the pit of my stomach. Something was bothering me and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like what my father was going to reveal to me today.

“Damien is a good man and no doubt a very good King,” father shook his head. “I wouldn’t have served a King who I did not respect and praise. But…”

“But, what?”

“Damien has a rough history.” Father sighed, running a hand down his face. “He became a co-ruler along with King Dominic when he was only 300 and after the late King’s death, he took the crown for good. I’ve never had any qualms about the way he ruled…but I’d known the child long before he became King and he didn’t have a happy childhood.”

Seeing Damien the way he was now, I couldn’t even imagine him as a child. But everyone had once been a baby and so had Damien. In the two hundred years that I’d been a vampire, I had never heard anyone talk about Damien’s childhood or his upbringing. Most of all, Damien never spoke of his childhood, his relationship with King Dominic or his relationship with Vandal.

“What do you think I should be aware of?” I asked father, because if he was bringing up Damien’s past and telling me secrets that he had kept hidden for almost two centuries, something must really be wrong.

“Damien’s mind…works in different ways.” He said, hesitating once more. “He had been neglected by King Dominic all his life and he only learned the truth after he was dead. And even after he found his real father, he had only been a tool for Vandal to use as he pleased. Damien had never really had a chance to feel the love that a parent should show their child, so in many ways…he might appear a bit broken.”

Broken? Damien?

No. I just couldn’t see those two words in the same sentence.

“Father…you’re stalling.” I realized. “Look, whatever it is that you think I need to know, just say it. Please. I’ll try to take it as best as I can.”

Finally, father placed his hand on my shoulder and looked me directly in the eyes. “I hope and pray that you will take this news with an open mind, my daughter. Because I need to tell you two vital information that I cannot keep from you any longer and only then will you be able to decide what to do next.”

That sense of foreboding increased and I felt a sudden tightness in my chest like invisible hands were squeezing my internal organs. Something was very wrong! And it was about to get worse.

“The Elder Court sent Damien a letter yesterday. The trial is in two weeks.”

I felt my breath knock out of my lungs.

Damien had known! He had already known about the trial when he came home last night. And yet, he decided to hide that information from me. But why? I was supposed to fight the trial for him! Then why would he hide such a vital information? What on earth was he thinking?

But this wasn’t all, was it? As I looked at my father, I saw him prepare himself for what he had to say next. Whatever this news was, it was worse than the former. What could possibly be worse than me finding out that we were completely unprepared and the trial was only two weeks away?

“And?” I asked my father; gathering all the strength I had left. Something told me, I would need it. I would need everything in me to hear what my father had to say next.

“Damien…he married you for a specific reason.” Father swallowed, balling his hands into fists on his lap. “He married you because the criminal on trial gets a last wish…and the person who kills the previous King in front of the Elder Court…becomes the next King.”

The ground shifted from beneath my feet.