His Past

Caleb waited in the room for Rose to wake up for a few hours. He didn't mind, on the contrary, he was more than happy to be by her side, even if she was unconscious.

He spent the next few hours admiring her delicate features. He committed to memory every freckle and every pore on her beautiful face, feeling his heart swell with love and fulfillment.

He finally had her by his side. After spending two years watching her from afar, he was finally able to be close to her.

He couldn't tell anyone about why or how he had fallen for her, it was too embarrassing for him. Without her even knowing it, she had become his saving grace.

She was like a bright angel who had come into his life when everything around him was nothing but bitter darkness and misery. When he had been at his lowest, she had saved his life by simply being kind to him.

That was when everything had changed for him. The way he saw the world had changed from being a cold, and empty, never-ending hell, to a bright and promising opportunity.

After he met her, and fell in love with her, the only person he had told was Ksien, his right hand man and best friend. He had told him everything, from meeting her, to falling in love with her, and finally planning to make her his queen.

His friend had the power to see the future when people around him made certain decisions, and after Caleb had told him everything, Ksien had revealed to him that he had seen his future together with Rose.

From Ksien's words, Caleb decided he and Rose were meant to be. It was fate that had brought her into his life when he needed her the most. He also decided fate had decided they would be together forever as husband and wife.

He would never let anyone get in the way of their love and would fight for her against hell itself if necessary.

Watching her, he decided not to tell her about their past. He didn't want her to love him out of pity. He wanted her genuine love. He wanted her to fall in love with him the way he had fallen in love with her, sincerely and profoundly.

His eyes opened when he heard her stirring. He looked down at her and waited for her to open her eyes.

Rose's eyes slowly opened and took in her surroundings. Her eyes groggily fell on a stiff figure beside her and she frowned as she studied his features. She looked at the man sitting next to her and lifted her eyes to look at his face. Her eyes widened as she met his gaze and rationality snapped into her immediately.

He watched her suddenly sit up on the bed and look up at him with wide terror-filled eyes. Her blue orbs shined with both fear and anxiety as she looked at him. His heart sank as he watched the paleness on her face. "Hi," he said.

Rose couldn't talk. The images of him devouring a man earlier flashed through her mind. Until then, she realized she had truly underestimated how cruel and heartless this man was.

She shivered as the thought of being married to him ran through her. How could she live married to someone like him?

Caleb sighed. "I know you have a lot of questions to ask Rose, but first let me try to explain what you saw."

"You ate a man," Rose said, voice barely a whisper. "No, you devoured him."

"It's not what you think Rose," he quickly tried to explain. He reached out for her but to his shock she slapped his hand away and pulled back.

Rose quickly got off the bed, swaying a little as her head still struggled to regain full consciousness. "Don't touch me!" she yelled out. She stood up and turned to look at him reaching out towards the bed to steady herself.

Caleb's eyes showed a glimmer of pain before returning to their usual coldness. "I won't touch you." He watched her stealing glances at the door and at the window, and part of him wanted to laugh at her obvious intentions.

"I won't touch you, but you have to sit down and listen to me. I promise after I'm done, I will leave you alone in your room, unharmed."

Rose gulped as she considered his words. She knew it was ridiculous to try and escape from a house full of vampires, but her mind was not being logical at the moment.

Would he really not harm her if she listened to him? It's not like he had done anything particularly hurtful before.

He felt a sense of relief wash through him as she sat back down on the corner of the bed. "Thank you."

He kept his eyes on her as he began to talk. "I have… a very particular power. A bit different than most vampires," he confessed.

She frowned. What did that have to do with what had happened?

"When I was young, I always thought I was an ordinary vampire. Everyone in my family had special powers, and I was the only one who was different. I lived as an outcast for many years. My family members looked down on me because they said I was weak and useless."

Rose tried hard not to let herself be fooled by his heart throbbing story. So what? A lot of people struggled with their families, but that didn't make them killers.

"After being rejected and abused by everyone around me I didn't care about anything anymore. I knew that being the pureblood prince didn't matter as long as I had no power. No one was going to respect me, let alone accept me to ascend the throne. I lived like that for years, abused and rejected until I was broken. One day, after being beaten by a bunch of assholes who thought they could bully me, I finally snapped, and decided I wasn't going to take it anymore."

Her heart beat furiously as she listened to his story, mainly because she realized how similar their lives were, being outcasts from their family, mistreated by their relatives. Rose didn't have to ask how he felt, she knew very well. It seemed their lives were a bit similar, full of pain and misery at the hands of their so-called family. Without realizing, tears began to roll down her cheeks as her heart clenched painfully.

Caleb frowned, heart throbbing as he watched her shed tears. Was she crying for him or for another reason? He couldn't let himself be so vulnerable and believe she felt anything towards him. He continued to talk, fighting the urge to rush to her side and wrap her in his comforting arms.

"There were five of them, and I killed them all. One after the other. I tore into them viciously, draining them completely until they were nothing but dust on my fingertips. I didn't feel bad, they were heartless bastards who had tortured and killed hundreds of not thousands of humans."

He frowned as memories flashed through his mind. "After I killed the first guy though, something happened to me, something that completely shattered my mind. I realized I was able to use the power that the bastard I killed had used on me before. He had the power to use electricity. He was able to torture people by zapping them, or killing them instantly if he wanted. He had bullied me for years and this time too, he had used his power on me, but after I was done with him, I suddenly found myself having his power."

Her breath caught when he handed her a handkerchief. She carefully took it from his hand and wiped the tears from her cheeks. All the sadness she had felt only a minute ago was replaced with fear once again with his words. Fear, but she wasn't sure what she feared anymore. The man in front of her, or was it herself and the emotions that were running through her at the moment?

"I used the power on the other four and rendered them immobile. After that I did the same thing to them, drained them completely until they didn't exist anymore. I was shocked, ecstatic when I realized I had gained every single one of their powers after doing that."

He studied her reaction, before continuing. "I realized then, that I was not the weak useless prince everyone had convinced me I was. I was more powerful than anyone and everyone I had ever come across."

"After I realized I could gain powers by draining others, I lost control. I went on a killing spree, hunting and killing everyone who had ever bullied me or taunted me in the past. Word got around of course, and everyone began to fear me and respect me. My father was finally proud of his son. Everyone finally agreed I was more than worthy of being the heir."

Rose gulped as she listened to his words.

"But even after I was told this, I didn't stop killing. I wanted more power, all of the power in the world, so no one would ever be able to hurt me again. I was simply a scared little boy, alone in the world without anyone to rely on, and I finally realized it with someone's help."

He looked at her meaningfully, eyes softening. "There was someone who made me realize that power was not everything in this world, because I truly had nothing. I changed the way I saw the world that day. I found loyal friends, and I forced my father to retire. With all my power, he had no choice but to comply with my demands. He was a cruel man, who thought of humans as nothing but cattle, so I had no remorse for what I had done to him."

Rose frowned. "Who was this person who helped you? Was it a relative of yours?" Or a girlfriend, she wondered.

He chuckled and a soft look crossed his eyes.

Rose's heart stopped at the look on his face. His eyes glistened and his lips curled up into the gentlest smile she had ever seen. She felt warmth and love emanating from him, and she knew at once, this person was someone important to him.