The Forgotten Mansion

Chapter Three Part Two

*** Flashback of Brooke’s love story ***

Brooke Masterson was 23 years old when her mother, Queen Cecila turned her into a vampire, with Brooke’s consent. Brooke never thought about having children of her own, so she was okay with being a vampire and the possibility of not having children. It helped knowing that if she changed her mind that she could still have children after witnessing her mother have five more children as a vampire. Malachi had become a part of their family and taught the Masterson’s everything there was to know about being a vampire. After all, he was 518 years older than everyone else there.

Brooke grew the closest to Malachi, but he never saw her as anything more than his goddaughter. Malachi introduced one his sons to Brooke and they instantly clicked. Brooke is a princess and so by law, she is required to marry a prince. With Malachi becoming a king to his own childhood castle and no longer its prince, after his parents stepped down 100 years ago, all of children became princes and princesses.

The son that Malachi introduced to Brooke is named Leonard Blythe, and he stopped aging at 30 years old and has been immortal for 250, making him 280 years old. Some vampires get lucky and have something they call a mate bond. This means that two vampires are destined to be together and once the mate bond is established nothing can ever separate them. A vampire only knows who will share their mate bond by tasting each other's blood, even just the smallest drop of blood will form the mate bond and a direct link into their mates’ mind and emotions.

Leonard has been searching for his mate for 200 years with no luck. Once Malachi notices how quickly and how well Brooke and Leonard are getting along, he tells Brooke about the mate bond. And this reminds Leonard about him wanting to find his mate.

But before he can ask Brooke anything about it, she pricks her finger on her own tooth and says, “Do you want to try it?”

Smiling Leonard says, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”

He then pricks his own finger, and they taste each other’s blood. Instantly Brooke and Leonard are blown away by the direct line into each other’s heart and minds.

“YES! Finally!! After 200 years I've found my mate!!” Leonard shouted joyfully.

He then picked Brooke up around her waist and spun her around making her giggle.

“I knew it as soon as I saw you, that I would marry you.” Brooke said smiling happily.

Cecila and Solomon came out to the courtyard where Malachi, Brooke, and Leonard are.

“What’s all this excitement?” Cecila said smiling at seeing her daughter so happy.

“I have a mate!” Brooke squealed.

“A mate? What’s that?” Queen Cecila asked.

“Here, each other of you prick your finger.” Brooke said excitedly.

“Brooke, honey. Not every vampire gets to have a mate bond.” Malachi tried explaining before Brooke made her parents try each other’s blood but was a second too late.

Once they tasted each other’s vampiric blood the mate bond showed itself and became intense for them.

“I can hear your thoughts. And you’re not even trying to speak to me in our minds.” King Solomon said confused.

“Me too. And I can feel what you’re feeling right now. I don’t understand, how is this possible?” Cecila said.

Malachi explained what a mate bond was to them and then told them that not every vampire is lucky enough to have one.

“Only he keeps leaving one part out. Every vampire he has ever known, has found their mate sooner or later.” Leonard said.

Malachi rubbed his forehead and said, “Except for me. Yes, I know. Thank you, son, for sharing that. Geez.”

Brooke rubbed Malachi’s back and said, “You’ll find your mate. She's out there somewhere. You just have to look, and thanks to you I found mine sooner. But we are going to wait awhile before getting married. So that we can get to know each other. Plus, I'm only 110 years old, I'm not exactly ready for marriage yet.”

“Thank you, Brooke. I knew I always liked you. Now, I believe you two may be wanting some alone time, to get to know each other. So, us adults will be leaving.” Malachi said smiling.

Brooke and Leonard smiled and walked from the courtyard to the larger outside garden of Masterson Castle.

“So, where are you from originally?” Brooke asked.

“I was born and raised in Armenia. But we’ve moved around a lot since then. My father has an unforgettable face.” Leonard said laughing.

“What about you, have you always lived here in Cheshia.” Leonard asked.

Nodding Brooke said, “Yes, I was born, raised, and turned into vampire in this castle. And I've been here ever since. I've never left Cheshia.”

“Well, where is the first you would want to go, when you do decide to adventure out?” Leonard asked.

“The one place I have always wanted to go to is Japan.” Brooke said smiling.

“Then that’s the first place we will go together. I want to show you everything!” Leonard said.

“So, before we make any vacation plans, I think we should play a little game of 21 questions until we get to know each other. What do you say?” Brooke asked.

“I say, that’s a great idea. Ladies first.” Leonard says smiling.

“Alright. First question, what is your worst regret?” Brooke asks.

“Oh wow. Getting into the cutthroat questions right away. Okay, well, my worse regret would have to be one night 75 years ago. I made the biggest mistake in my life, and I will never forgive myself for it. There was this girl and her family, I had become friends with them and had grown close with the girl. But on January 25th in 1946. Catalina and her family all caught the now very rare dengue fever. Which is more commonly called black bone fever. It started with pain in the back of their eyes and an extremely high body temperature. My sister, Penny, was a nurse at the local heath station trying to care for the mortals that caught the illness. So, I knew the symptoms and I still didn’t even try to save them. Catalina knew that I was a vampire and as she lied on her death bed, I still refused to change her family to save them as her last death wish. I chose not to save her and her family because I knew that she wasn’t my mate whether I turned her or not. And at the time I didn’t want to be responsible for turning a female mortal whenever I did find my mate. I thought that any mate I would find would be upset with me for turning a group of humans all because I had feelings for the daughter at one point. That is something I will never forgive myself for.” Leonard said, ashamed of his actions.