Chapter Three

Age 7

I keep Stefan close to me as much as possible and always locked him in a cage when I went to bed. I was not going to lose him again. That year without him was agonizing to say the less. As I came out of my room all dressed for my birthday to have my party in the back yard this year I dress as my version of a princess, it was my converts my brothers got me and a black two-layer teacup dress that my parents got me and then I had a top hot and vial also black with two layers. I put Stefan on my hat and went down the stairs.

Once I was outside I went straight for the cake took a slice and went and sat with Beck and Grant which was sitting on the grass not at one of the tables set up for us.

"Blair-Boo we got you something else for your birthday, it was a lot and we weren't sure you would want something so expensive but we decided what the hell..." as Beck dropped off his sentence he gave me a red velvet box with the words "Royals" on it.

I took it and slowly opened the box and then when I saw all the small rubies leading for the biggest ruby of all of the worlds I snapped the box shut and throw it at Beck's head. "I don't want that god awful expensive piece of shit!!" I finished my cake and then back up to my room and got ready for bed.

Age 8

This birthday I told my parents that I didn't want to go out and I diffidently didn't want to celebrate it. After my other birthdays I was through with them I was just turning a year older. The school was getting bad for me.

I would go home and the other kids would still be in school doing special classes I was somehow exempt from taking. The other kids didn't like that and started whispering behind my back and I just would tuck Stefan in my pocket in my coat and go about my day.

Age 9

The other kids were now throwing food at me and Monica was the leader of the pack on that I would say words to her but she wouldn't stop and also my parents had words with the school. Later that day at home my father saw me and just picked the food from my hair.

"Dad I don't want to go to school anymore, the kids are mean and the teachers don't care if I have the best grades in the class anymore, and to top it off your so busy with work with the president of the community."

"I'm sorry Blair-Boo, I have talked to them but there is nothing they can do and your mom and I are just to busy with our work we can't home school you. How about you think about taking Stephen all the time now, or you can take the ruby necklace from your birthday."

"I will not take that thing!! Dad I always take him to school with me. It's why I don't come home with bruises like when I was sick with that god awful flu and forgot him at home in his cage, no I have you picking stake out of my hair along with chip bits."

"Is that what these small things are?" I muttered "yes" I could tell he was done with that so I went for the shower, locking Stefan in with me. Once I no longer had food residue I try thinking of how to make my self less noticeable.

The next day my appearance was blended into the background perfect to food in the hair not mean names to my face no pushing or beatings that left me bruised. When I got home I went to the back yard and stayed out way past the curfew just holding Stefan.

"Stefan, I think if I do what I did today then they won't know I exist and leave me alone."

"We know you are here Blair-Boo and we love it," Beck said as he sat by me.

"NO! You really don't and I know this because I hear you complaining to mom about watching me instead of hanging out with your girlfriends." I said as I got up and went to my room slamming the door shut.

Present Age 16

As I awoke I could hear Carden arguing with my brothers. "They are going to find this place and kill her!" It was Grant "No one and I mean no one will so easily find this place."

"Is that what you think, you had to go get your sister the other night and you don't think you were followed." Grant was starting to do his growl/yell.

"I know for a fact that we were followed because I killed them and Blake had their heart for a snack so don't go telling me that I've put my beloved at risk when I know full well that we didn't come all the way here just to be followed!" Carden's voice was so deep and resonating that it rattled the old building. In a calmer voice Carden said, "I'm going to go to bed now and I expect to not be so belittled again in the morning."

Grant slapped his fist against the wall, "Why is it my sister keeps fainting around you?! I want an answer to this question before you go to sleep because I want what's best for Blair-Boo, even her heath to be the best."

"I do know that in-betweens have been known to relieve their childhoods till the point they are now living. These episodes get triggered by life-changing events or with age some times they are in your sister's case had these episodes from birth and the vividness of them are becoming more unbearable for her body, therefore, making her faint beforehand. I'm taking the best care for her I know how and if you feel you can do so much better than your parents you would be mistaken. Besides I was there to help them."

I heard a deep sigh and footsteps leaving. Close after I heard the door open to the room. I was fully awake and I could see how to warn out Carden was, I got up and was pressed up against his chest within seconds. "Blair-Boo what is it?"

"I heard your fight with Grant. They really care about me you know that as much as my parents do."

"I do know the Community needs us ancient royals but my sister called in our parents so the community should be scared and the people after me should be on the run or coming for us. That is why Blake is going to go get loyal witches and werewolves, their few in numbers but strong. Humans really like to destroy the things they don't know."

He had sat us down on the bed. Carden seemed too deep in thought. "What is it Carden?"

"Do you remember your birthday where you got the necklace from the jeweler store named "Royal" I need you to find it and wear it because there will be times I'm not close enough and I need you to be safe."

I remembered the necklace the god awful thing was never on my mind once I shoved it out of my face, I didn't even know where it was. "I don't know where it is I didn't want that god awful thing, the twins might still have it though."

"Please Blair-Boo get it and don't take it off. I know it's big and god awful but it has to be to have my blood and blessed magic in it. Please," he said the second 'please' like it killed him to ask so many times and be refused.

"Fine I'll see if they have it by chance." I got up and left the room to get Beck as I walked the mansion I found Grant instead.

"Hey Grant, do you remember that 'Royal' brand necklace you got from Carden to give to me," I waited for some kind of response.

"Yes, are you needing it now?" Grant was obviously trying to be a good sport after the fight and I felt for him on some level but in a way he was also out of line so I didn't know where I wanted to be on it.

"As a matter of fact I do. Carden is begging I wear it for my safety so I figured I should so I stop all the worrying that's going around its so heavy in the air you could cut it."

"Come on to our room we have and I'll have Beck help me dig through the possible places we might of putting it if it's not where I think it is." I followed Grant as he started to move towards his room.

Once at the room I could tell neither one wanted to be here long and didn't take care of the room as well as theirs at home. I could tell beneath all the mess that it was a very fine room fitting a palace just like the rest of the place. Grant chatted with Beck before they both argued over was the other thought they put the necklace. I just sat on Beck's bed and fell asleep.

Age 10

Things at school were getting somewhat better till Monica become bored with her sad group of friends to come and pick on me and I didn't really give them what they really wanted. I ate lunch in the back of the library with Stefan.

"You know what Stefan if I can get an 'A' on my next report card from English than we get to go to that night amusement park with Beck and Grant. They know how hard I've been working on school and they've given my space to figure out everything with school and not bothering them seemed to help."

Stefan just kept inching towards my food and I had to keep pushing him away, sometimes I think he does these things to make me laugh and I always work because every time I push him away I giggle.

"I'm sorry Blair-Boo that book you were asking for we no longer have any copies. I know that it's for an assignment so I went home and got my copy it does have all my notes but don't use them most of them were wrong." Ms. Lakelen said placing the book beside me.

"I would not put all the effort into finding a book to do it the wrong way once I did." Ms. Lakelen laughed and nodded and walked off wishing me good luck.

I had a free period so I continued to work in my little corner of the library working very hard on my essay. Once the end of the school bell rang I was done with my final draft. I read it to Stefan and he seemed to nod as if I'd done a very good job. I was so going to that amusement park.

A few weeks I got my report and I aced all of my classes and was with Stefan and my brothers at 'The Screamathon Amusements' Beck and Grant wanted to go on all the kids rides first but I wanted to go on all the big ones I could first. They agreed since I worked hard in all my classes that they would do it my way.

We were going on the last big ride I could and the ride controller wasn't going to let me take Stefan on it with him in my shirt. "You can't take the stuffed toy."

"Oh you think since I'm ten and little I have a stuff toy well Stefan is a real vampire bat and if he has to stay behind I'll give him permission to make a meal of you so your choose."

"Well if he is a real vampire bat than as a whole they don't drink blood. Therefore I'm safe, so hand him over."

"Fine it's your death. Go have dinner Stefan but make sure the ride goes before you do I still want my fun." He did a purring growl and flew out of my shirt and went on the boy's shoulder.

The boy started the ride and once we pasted I could hear screams, apologizes, and more screams than just the wind of the ride. When we got back to the start Stefan was flying above the boy and there was no longer a line for the ride. "Come Stefan, we have more rides to go on."

Grant and Beck wanted to go home but I kept running from line to line so I could get all the rides in before the park closed.

I had the best time of my life because I wasn't confined to the back yard. Though Beck and Grant weren't ever going to go somewhere with people that Stefan could possibly hurt or kill like the man that wouldn't let Stefan ride with me.

Present age 16

"Blair, Blair-Boo were are you!" It was Carden and I was just waking up from my dream, wait Carden said I was reliving my life when I was younger which means I was ten in that relive session. As I got up I felt a heavy pull on my wrist as I looked down Grant and Beck must have found it and agreed to put it on me this way since I was asleep. I went out into the hall since the shouts of my name were getting frantic. I could hear Blake trying to calm down her brother. As they come into view Carden's face showed great relief that I was still there and in front of him.

"What is it Carden?" He was embracing me before I could finish talking.

"You didn't come back from getting the necklace I was starting to worry and I went looking for you and I couldn't find you at all."

"How long was I gone?" I didn't feel like it was long but a part of me thought I might be wrong.

"So last night I asked you to get it and you left to go get and then all day I was running around and looking for you and your bothers didn't want to help me so I didn't think to look in their room and I was starting to come here to make them help me because I couldn't believe you were gone." I could see Blake nodding her head to confirm his worry "He also took like a five-minute nap where he woke in a panic and since it’s now the next night the panic was more so."

"I see. I went to get the necklace but Beck and Grant didn't remember what bag it was in so it took some time looking for it and I had one of my relive dreams I guess it was longer than most of the others." Carden's face seemed to go through several emotions first being worry, somewhere between sad and angry, and finally settling on relief.

"You have it though and I found you and now we can go to our room and I can feel sane again," Carden said as he held my arm in his.

"Yes, please get your sanity back because if I have to watch you go through it again I might just kill myself," Blake said as we moved down the hall towards our rooms. I laughed and it echoed off the walls and come back to my hears in the most musical way.

"Night sister, and please don't let her bothers to bother us till next night." She nodded and Carden brought us into the room.

"What would we be doing that we need that long all to ourselves? Carden?" I was starting to get worried. I know Carden was my beloved he had an effect on me but I wasn't sure I wanted all his baggage. I know I had mine but I just wasn't ready for being his beloved, being that connected. I'd seen how my parents were. It was like the other could never do anything wrong but that was a lie as well. I didn't want to become a slave to him!

"I just want to get to know you better and you to get to know me as well. I know that your exposer to me as I was older was scary and the time spent with the Stefan me was great but it does not compare to the talking version of me." He had picked me up and placed me on my side of the bed and was now sitting on his side facing me.

I sat in silence. I was trying to find something I wanted to know about him as the man/vampire that he was now but nothing was coming to mind and I was more confused as to why he would want to know more about me. "I don't have any questions that come to mind I just want to know more about you vampire upright and walking you more than anything."

"I know that I scared you when you were little and that wasn't wrongly placed I have a very dark past and for you I don't want to relive a second of it to have you even hear it. So please don't make me tell you those times."

"That's fine tell me the happier times I know that as Stefan you probably didn't have any hard times."

"Oh as Stefan I never had a bad second because I was with you. Hmm, where to start with the Carden part of me...Oh I know when Blake was born this was when humans worshiped us she never would have touched the ground if she didn't kill those worshipers that insisted she didn't need to walk. Sorry that part was kind of dark, anyways back than to have a celebration was for the whole family so my parents for me got a girl that could spend my time with. I thought it would be a good time to see if my soul mate was alive so I thought it might be this girl that let me have but she wasn't I knew quite fast. So I became familiar with the body of a woman and not just with drinking blood by giving pleasure to a woman's form.

"I by no means when around doing this afterward but I wanted to be the best for my soul mate I didn't want to be totally clueless to those things. As I was very very young as a vampire Carden so much younger than the form I keep for you or my age now it was a very happy time and it was on of my earlier good parts of my life that weren't ruined with bloodshed in large doses."

I just sat and stared at Carden I knew he just wanted to be the best for me but a part of me was becoming the green-eyed monster of jealous. So I just had to calm myself down I wasn't even alive when he was doing this. He hadn't found me and he had a burning desire to have me and if I wasn't around yet to be ready for every moment that might arise when I finally was.

"I know that it's not something you want to hear but it was a good time in my life, I got a sister and I got to experience the right way to treat you thought I've been thought a couple more times than that to keep up with the times. I didn't want to ruin the special moment if it arose." He was clearly worried that I didn't like his sharing which was not the case.

"No, don't take my silence as a bad thing I was just trying to get control of my feelings to understand that for a better part of your life I wasn't around yet and you were planning for when I was and just how far you were willing to go to make our time together special."

I could see him start to smile and keep that smile. As I moved into his lap. "I do have one question, so six years ago we went to that amusement park did you kill that man that didn't let you go on the ride with me?"

"I really don't want to answer that question but since you asked. Yes, I became Carden and since that park was in my ruling and all the guests and workers there were indeed vampires I changed to my very old age and killed him for his stupidity of not recognizing his leadership and for being rude to my beloved soul mate." Carden petted my hair as I sat in his lap. I mindlessly played with the ends of his. "I made it fast and painful. Why bring it up now?"

"I relived that part when I fell asleep in Beck and Grants room. I didn't think of it much when it happened but now that I dreamed it and I know better now I could not ask you if my guess was right that it actually happened."

"I see, do you remember the past six years or will you dream them," Carden asked as he began to just hold me very close to his form.

"I remember all agonizing six years of hell of school and how Beck and Grant finally realized how much I hated the situation I was in and compromised with me so they had a life outside of being with me and the crazy whims I had."

"I don't think your going to have anymore fainting and reliving dreams than from the research I did on the in-betweens that have lived to document there lives. Granted it’s not very many but the ones that did all stopped reliving their lives in dreams when they remembered the years closest to their age or didn't miss anything important or monumental to their life. Which means you'll dream like the rest of us vampires and humans alike."

"That is going to be weird because for the past sixteen years of my I've dreamed of my ten months in the womb and my fist birthday to my fist outing from my house when I was ten that I'd been trapped in since I was born just so I could stay alive. Now I'm trapped in a bigger, prettier trap."

"I by no means wanted your life to be trapped in one building or another I lived for the moments when we could go outside and play when I was Stefan. I was always hoping I could be able to make you my beloved and be more powerful that anyone that comes after you I could kill. I wouldn't have to hide you away or even be with you. If I was sure of who was coming after my power I would've killed them the moment I knew for sure it was them, but I don't and it makes me angry that I have to hide."

I yawned for the first time in my life and yawned two more times before I moved off of Carden.

"Blair-Boo you’re tired that's why you keep yawning. Go to sleep I'll be here in the morning with food and we can spend more time talking if you like."

"I need to sleep?"

"Yes, you need to sleep," Carden said softly and began to take my annoying clothes off to tuck me under the covers.