6. Immortal

Catalina’s POV

I cleared my throat as I looked into his menacing eyes. I moved away from him, hoping he wasn't a vampire and that what I thought wasn't real. That this was only a nightmare, but it wasn't. Thaddeus pulled me closer to him and looked around. "We have to go, there are vampire hunters everywhere," he said.

He held the steering wheel, and I buckled my seatbelt nervously, hoping this would end soon. I stare at him, and he glances across at me without making any kind of facial emotion. He floored the accelerator pedal to get the vehicle moving at top speed.

As we pulled up to his magnificent estate, the sky was as black as midnight, no stars were visible, and clouds covered the horizon in a dull gray. There is no one there, not even Salvatore, and it is really lonely to dwell in this mansion alone without anyone else.

But it might be better to be alone than surrounded by horrible people.

As he unlocked the metal door leading into the room, he questioned, "Are you scared?"

I shook my head and asked him, "Why would I be afraid?"

"You are aware of who I am... I am a vampire, Catalina. It only takes a second for me to put an end to you,"

I sighed and hung my head low. "I think you can't hurt me," 

"Do you?" He sealed the entrance using a blast of frigid air and shut all of the windows in this mansion, even the ones in the most inaccessible nooks.  "You know what I'm capable of,"

"I...I know," 

"Do you know that I've been around for a long time? I am, along with a great many others, an immortal—"

Then I looked up and asked, "How...? I'm curious, how old are you?"

He gave me a sly grin and said, "I'm twenty eight."

I let out a terrified gasp and asked, "How long have you been twenty eight?? ever since when?"

An intense desire fueled my desire to learn about him and every aspect of his life to satisfy my curiosity. I was standing in front of him, yet I couldn't touch him because he was so far away from me. He shudders at the thought of inhaling my scent, and the very thought of touching me causes him pain.

“Since 1918…” he answered without even blinking. 

I didn't know how a vampire could live until now. In 1918, the First World War ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, and the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people around the world. So it looks like a lot of people have died that year.

My voice broke when I thought about what had happened in history and realized that the man before me was immortal. "How did you survive?" 

"I died in 1918. I was 28 and a German soldier. The pandemic hit different places at different times, and I got the Spanish flu. I didn't know I had a father at the time, but he saved my life. He returned to give me another life—a life of being immortal that I didn't choose."

“Do you hate your life?” I asked him. 

He shook his head and said, "Of course, I've always been thirsty for blood... I've killed a lot of people, and they were all monsters, but I'm also a monster. I didn't want to live this way, but my father—"

"When did you last see your father?"

He looked at my face and took a slow step toward me. "He's gone... accidents happen anytime."

He stroked my face and said, "Why don't you go to sleep now? Now that it's past midnight, it's time for me to go hunting. I live on fresh blood from animals, and I don't know how I'd be able to stay alive without them."

"Have you ever thought about what it might be like to taste human blood again?"

"I used to be human, too, and I stopped drinking human blood after one of my vampire clan's members killed my mother...."

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that…” 

He raised his left hand and said, “You don’t have to pity me, creatures like me don't deserve your pettiness…”

I took a soft breath and turned my back on him. I looked up and sighed, seeing that I still had to walk a hundred steps to return to my room.

I was scared to death when he picked me up so quickly, and he just ran a few hundred steps to my room.

Even though his lips were only a few inches away from my neck, he tried very hard not to smell my scent.

When I look into his eyes, my heart starts to beat.

"Catalina, don't do this..."

“If you want to live, and go back to your normal life, don't give me the reason to keep you forever…” 

“I don’t wanna go back there again…” I sighed. 

“And why not?” 

Salvatore walked in out of the blue and said, "Someone is looking for her...."

"Her?" Thaddeus doubted.

Salvatore replied, "Yes, they're humans. I could smell their raging blood coming toward her." He then moved away.

Thaddeus walked slowly down the stairs like a human, and I followed him, not sure what had happened. Why the hell is this happening? Do they know already that I was here with Thaddeus?

When I saw my stepmother and my ex-fiancee waiting for me down there, my eyes filled with anger and worry. She looked worried about me and asked, "Catalina! Well, there you are!"

I stopped walking in the middle of the stairs and hugged Thaddeus from behind, saying, "Please don't give me to them, they're murderers..."

"Catalina, what are you talking about? Arthur is here, and he's sorry for what he did to you. It was all an accident!" My stepmother was insistent.

"Come home, my love," Arthur said with his arms wide open.

She's not coming, I know you've been her guardian since her father died, but now that she's married to me, she's my responsibility," Thaddeus's voice reverberated throughout the building.

The eyes of my stepmother flashed with anger. "How could you get married to this man so quickly? How! How can I tell this to Arthur's family?!  I can't believe how stupid you are!"

"You're going to regret this, Catalina," Arthur said with a bitter laugh. "It was such a mess that she married a nobody! You've ruined the name of your family!"

"After the passing of my father, I have no one to call family!"

I don't know why Thaddeus saved me again this time, but we must act like a couple. But why did he have to say that I was his wife? Maybe that's the only way for me to get away from these awful people.

Thaddeus said calmly, "It's already midnight. It's time for you to leave...leave my territory." 

Arthur stared at Thaddeus with astonishment. "We're not done!"

As Emily and Arthur left, Salvatore shut all the doors and asked, "What do we need to do now? We are getting closer to humans, and because of her, they will know about us."

"Prepared for a wedding tomorrow, Salvatore."

"What?!"