An Unwavering Promise--Completed

Chapter Seven

Eleanor’s POV

The living room of the rented house was rather basic. There was a couch, where the two vampires were sitting, a few chairs scattered about, and a coffee table in the middle. A television stood on a stand in the corner near two windows, and there was a staircase leading up to the left of the room. The kitchen area was peeking out from behind the living room, and a hallway led to the rest of the house behind the staircase. Everything was decorated in muted blues, white, and beige colors.

“You never look happy to see me anymore, Eleanor. Do you remember in the Library? We bonded there! And now you just look upset whenever I come by. What happened?” Candy whined, setting her glass down on the coffee table.

I dropped my bag on the floor near the door. “Candy, it’s not that I’m not happy to see you, it’s just… Well, you left us in the lurch last time, so forgive me for being a little less than enthusiastic that you want to join us for this round of adventuring.”

“Ah,” she sighed. “I suppose we do owe you an explanation, hmm?”

“That would be nice, yes.”

Berty cleared his throat. “I’m afraid it’s my fault, dear Eleanor. For as long as I have lived in this vampiric state, I have longed to discover the mysteries of the world. As you’ve grown to learn, there are many that are hidden. So, due to some knowledge I learned many, many years ago, I heard that you could create portals to not only other dimensions, but also to other worlds, which is where I believe we all came from anyway.”

I frowned, but stayed quiet.

“So, with the dragons being in those caves, I couldn’t help myself and pulled Candy into my scheme of investigating the area instead of helping you finish off Nicholas. I assumed correctly that you wouldn’t need our assistance anyway.”

“You expect me to believe that?” I said, the skepticism obvious.

“Well, yes…” Berty faltered. “Don’t you?”

I shrugged and walked further into the room. “I mean, not really. But I want to. I want to believe you guys are on my side. That you want to figure out how to free the dragons and stop the demons and find a missing race. But you two have been so suspicious. And, you were working with Liam. I’m sure you knew of his background and chose to ally yourselves with him. There are so many factors against you, but I’m still finding myself hoping you’re the good guys.”

They shared a look between themselves, and I watched as they pondered my words. I was starting to get annoyed that everyone around me lately was acting surprised by my logical arguments. First Alexander, and now these two. How had I not proven myself to be a competent, logical alpha?

“How could we prove to you that we are for your cause and wish to only aid in your quest instead of hindering?” Berty asked.

“I suppose that’s a good question,” I sighed, plopping myself down in one of the plush chairs. “ Not disappearing off would be a lovely start, I should think.”

“We could certainly do that for you, dear,” Candy purred. “We’d like to gain your trust back, seeing as we’ve lost it through our previous actions. And, we’ll tell you any and all information we’ve gathered ourselves. I won’t lie and say Berty and I have also played for the good guys; however, we’re trying to start new and actually do the right thing.”

Rubbing my eyes with my fingers, I grumbled, “Why doesn’t that make me feel any better?”

Alexander let out a snicker as he also made himself comfortable in the room.

“So, tell me,” Candy said, choosing to ignore the comment, “When do we go out to snoop tonight?”

“Who says you’ve been invited?” I asked.

Candy pouted as Berty questioned. “Didn’t we just make up? We humbled ourselves for you and we don’t even get the treat of seeing the orc?”

“Oh my goddess! You two are insufferable. Humbled yourselves? You didn’t even apologize! You justified your actions instead of taking responsibility. What’s your obsession with the orc anyway?” I practically shouted.

I was losing my mind. The argument with Alexander had already put me on edge, and now I was dealing with two childish vampires. It was a wonder they ever made it this far in life acting this way. If I hadn’t had restraint, I would have staked them out of frustration! The way they were acting was as if the Moon Goddess herself gifted them to me in order to help me find all the secrets this world had locked away.

Candy looked taken aback by my outburst, and Berty looked offended.

“We apologized,” he said defensively.

“Did those words ever leave your mouth before now? Did you ever say, “Eleanor, we’re sorry for leaving you to deal with a crazed, lunatic lich, who may or may not control you and try to take over your mind so that you murder your friends? Oh and by the way, we’re running off to go exploring because we’re old and want to see the world before we die.” Hmm? No! No, you didn’t. I’ll answer that for you!” I yelled.

Candy shifted in her seat uncomfortably. “We didn’t know he would try to mind control you,” she said quietly.

“That is so not the point!” I emphatically declared.

Rising out of the chair, I paced the length of the room a few times. I felt everyone’s eyes on me. I was annoyed and frustrated, and I desperately wanted to go for a run. However, we were nowhere near a forest, and I didn’t want to impose on another pack’s territory by accident. Major cities were neutral ground, but it didn’t stop nearby alphas from trying to claim the land for their packs. It was usually a topic of discussion every Alpha Summit.

“Fine!” Candy burst out. “We’re sorry. Like, actually sorry for our actions. We knew it was wrong to leave you all to fend for yourselves, but we were selfish and left anyway. We were trying to find a way–”

“Candy!” Berty shouted, cutting her off. “What are you doing?”

“Telling them the truth,” she huffed. “They deserve to know. Well, at least Eleanor does. We want her to trust us, no? Well, then I think we need to just let the cat out of the bag. She may even help us.”

Berty seemed annoyed but only nodded once in response.

“Thank you,” she said before turning to me. “Bert and I are trying to do something crazy.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Like what?”

“Like turning into a human.”

“But…what?” I asked, dumbfounded.

My brain was struggling to comprehend what she had just said. Why would vampires want to turn human? It didn’t make any sense. How was that even possible? I supposed that was why they were searching for an answer–to see if it was even possible.

“A little known fact about vampires is that we don’t actually live forever. We age extremely slowly to the point where humans, especially, think we live forever. It depends on whether you were born a vampire or turned, how strong your vitals are, genetics, ecteria. However, the kicker is that it is really quite painful to start dying as a vampire. Since our bodies are older, they break and tear differently, and we eventually grow so weak that we starve to death wherever it is we’ve fallen or laid down. It is pleasant,” Candy stated.

“So… you don’t want to die like that, I take it?” I clarified.

She nodded. “Exactly. It sounds horrible. And, Bert and I realize that we’re on our way out. We’d like a faster death.”

“How would turning human give you a faster death?” Alexander chimed in.

“Well, humans live at a maximum of about 70-100 hundred years. What would happen to a body that has far surpassed that?” Berty answered.

Realization dawned on both me and Alexander at the same time. Their bodies wouldn’t be able to handle the transformation, and so they’d die as soon as they turned.

“Is this really what you’d want?” I asked cautiously.

“It is,” both Berty and Candy said in unison.

Alexander questioned, “How do you know there’s such a, umm, cure? Antidote? What would you even call it?”

“Transformation. It’s not like vampirism is a curse, Alexander,” Berty said sternly.

“Right…” Alexander mumbled.

“We have reason to believe that the orcs could change vampires into humans. This is why we want to find the orc with you,” Candy nonchalantly said. “We’re hoping that the orc will kill us.”