Chapter 12

"You are a reincarnation of your past self, you have reincarnated so many times, for quite some time now, and have been with you all those lives. You have been called many names, you were born Elvyrah, but have been Katherina, Delilah, Beatriz, and in your last live your name was Verinokah". That was the name that Adel told her, Melissa remembered.

"It all began with Eve and Lycaon or Lycano, Eve was a greedy being and she wanted your father all by herself. He was a regular man, but he made the grave mistake of falling in love with someone else. He did everything in his power to be with her until your mom find out. It was her fault that he was turned into a werewolf. He was devastated thinking that he will be rejected by the only woman that he truly loved, and he ran away. Eve took him in, and they conceived you.

            Later on, your father learned that she tricked him, he left her pregnant with you. I met Eve one day, I didn't know she was pregnant, and I helped her, I served her. I knew that something was off, but I didn't care, after all, she was so kind to me. Nothing was normal in Eve's house, she was submerged into abandonment, she didn't sleep, or eat. 

            One night I entered her room after knocking for quite some time, and she didn't respond. She was crouching on one corner, pale as a paper. By then I knew what she was and offered her my blood. I knew that she needed to drink blood for you to survive. I couldn't let you die you know, but I also knew the consequences of my offering. I let her turn me into a vampire".

"Annie you…?" Said Melissa with a mix of amusement and intrigue.

"Yes Melissa. I am a vampire. I was her food, but she never mistreated me. I lost my child. One day she found me, laying on the ground, not wanted to live anymore. She took me in, and I was eternally grateful for it. When I realize that she was carrying a child I couldn't let myself but to help her have you. I serve her quite some time.

            After you were born you were always at the house by yourself, she will go on her daily rounds to kill werewolf's. She was looking for vengeance, after your father left her with a child, it seemed like he took more than one wife, procreating werewolves left and right. 

            But the more she killed, the more they reproduced, and she never was contempt with their deaths. They never satisfied her empty soul, her thirst for vengeance against your father. She learned that Lycaon had more than a dozen wives and those wife's had lots of children and these children had more children. At some point she met another vampire Draco, until today no one know his origin. They started to turned humans into vampires.

            It is said that there are as many werewolves as there are vampires to keep the balance between the species. Until there were too many wolfs in your mothers' eyes. You were about to turn 21 when she came back to the house looking for you.

            Eve knew that you were born a hybrid and she wanted to keep all the species in check. The werewolves and the vampires were killing each other, and their greed grew bigger and bigger every time. That is when she decided to eradicate all the werewolves from this world. She saw them as impulsive beasts that didn't have the reasoning that humans had. Vampires on the other hand, were cautious and compose. For this matter she wanted the vampires to rule the world. She always though the vampires were superior beings.

            The night of your 21st birthday was the night of your first awakening, she tied you up to a bed and waited for the full moon to come through the window, there were four of us in that dungeon room, you started awakening, your body was jerking back and forth I thought you were about to break the chains that confined you to that bed, it was an horrific sight, you were suffering and struggling too much. In her eyes, once you were a full develop vampire, she will give you the task of eliminating the werewolves.

            But you had animal instincts in you, and you awakened into a vampire first. She knew what that meant, and she killed you. You had died for the first time in front of my eyes.

            Knowing that you will be reincarnated she send me off to find the couple that will have you and I will stay with that couple until they died. It had to be a couple which destiny was written. They will die and I will take care of you until you fully awaken, or you are killed. It was easy for me to find them that was my task and one of my powers".

"So, I have never been fully awakened?" Melissa asked still trying to piece the puzzle together.

"No, you haven't. You always die before the awakening is complete and reincarnate in a sixteen-year-old girl every time. That's why you don't have memory of your past. Your memory starts at sixteen years old. These girls must meet all the requirements before you can reincarnate in them. They have to die at the same moment as you, and their parents have to die shortly after. That is how it has been for many centuries now.

"She killed her own daughter", Melissa asked preplexed "How do you have the stomach to hurt your own daughter?" She retorted in horror.

"The night of your awakening has always been a full moon, as you are transforming, both vampire and wolf instincts take over and they fight inside your body to gain completely control over you. You have to almost be completely awakened into one species or the other. If you awaken into your wolf form, they killed you as a wolf so you can only be a vampire and vice versa".

"But if I have died, why do I keep reincarnating?" asked Melissa.

"Before you complete the process of awakening into one form you have been killed. You must die twice in order for you to not reincarnate anymore".

"So, if I die once I can live. I must die twice to die for good?" asked Melissa. 

"No, there's only way that you can die for good. It must be your doppelgänger that kills you at least the second time. You must die in both of your forms so cannot reincarnate, but you have to be killed the second time by your doppelganger".

"Have you killed me before Annie?" Melissa asked, absent in her thoughts while looking at Anastasia in horror.

"No Melissa. I have always been there, taking care of you, defending you. Although I've always failed the second part. After you were killed the first time it was really painful for me to watch everything that you went through, and since that day I vowed to protect you and be with you until my last days".

"Why I haven't being killed for good?" Melissa asked. 

"Your doppelgänger never had the opportunity to kill you, she always gets killed before she got time to kill you".

"Who had killed her?" Melissa asked, but she was certain she felt that knew the answer to this question.

"You Melissa, you have killed her every single time before she can kill you".

            Melissa rose from the chair and started to pace around the studio. "Who had decided this life for me? I don't want to be part of this; like I don't want anything to do with the company". Melissa said while hoping with all her being that all this was a joke, a bad nightmare, a bad dream that she wanted to awake from. She couldn't believe everything that she was hearing. She will have to die to live again. Everything was almost unbearable.

"Everyone thinks that you have been both a blessing and a curse" Anastasia continued, "the future of all our species is in your hands".

"I don't want to have anyone's future but mine in my hands Annie" Melissa screamed while looking at Anastasia with almost insane looking eyes. "I don't want to reincarnate anymore". 

"I will do everything in my power not to have you killed this time".

"No Annie, this time I have to die, and die for good". Anastasia looked at Melissa with puzzled eyes but knew exactly what she meant by this. "I don't want to be the reason, for the extinction of a complete species. Is not my place to decide, and I can't ask you to be with me forever".

"Since the beginning of times these two species have coexisted in some way or another".

"Don't you think that if I keep dying it's because that is how it's meant to be? This time I have to make sure that I die for good. That's the only way that all of you can live in peace".

"It's that is your decision I will not refute it" said Anastasia with a somber look.

"Look Annie" Melissa said while crouching in front of Anastasia and holding both of her hands. "I know that you see me as your daughter and I'm grateful for that. You have done so much for me. But is not fair for you, or for the vampires, or the werewolves. Don't you see Annie? I'm the reason for their endless fights. I'm the one who have to disappear".

            Melissa though that she needed allies. But she only could think of Adelrick, she knew that wasn't going to be easy, this next chapter of her life, she was determined to change her future.

"What about Flavio?" said Melissa thinking that maybe he could be an allied too.

"I met Flavio the last time you reincarnated. Him, as well as me was fed up with all the battles that we had fought. Since that moment on. We both swore to protect you and defend you".

"So, there's only two of you against everyone?" Said Melissa on a defeated tone.

"No Melissa. There's four of us". Anastasia spoke looking at the curtains that she had slide shut earlier.

"Four?" Melissa asked.

"I tell you what Melissa, why don't you go directly to Flavio and ask him yourself to tell you, his story. He is really susceptible and talking about his life is not something that one can do so easily. More so when that life is bound with our sins. I know that he will give his life for you, no questions asked. It's really late, you should rest. Please don't jump into any conclusion just yet. Don't take any decisions until you have heard all sides of this story. Rest now, tomorrow is another day. For now, I will find her". Said Anastasia getting up from the chair.

"Annie, don't make any contact with her just yet. Let me know when you find her. I have a lot to think before I met her". Said Melissa while walking out of the studio room.

"As you wish Melissa". Anastasia responded.

            Melissa went up the stairs to her room, got undress and stood in front of the large mirror next to her bed, she couldn't believe she was half werewolf, half vampire. Her skin was fair with defined lean muscles. Her long black hair was almost to her waist and her silver eyes were gleaming like two full moons. She was tall, and her nails were long, her complex was almost perfect. She could see now that she had some of both. Now everything made a little more sense.

"Annie said that there were four", Melissa tough while walking to the shower, opening it. "Who is the other one? She looked towards the window and remembered the words that Adel said, 'I'm around you but I'm not a creep'. Maybe whoever Adel was referring to be the one that was missing, the fourth one. The man that I saw today, maybe? The one that is always lurking in the shadows.

            She finished her shower and went to bed "Tomorrow is the first day of my last live". She said closing her eyes. She was determined to find whoever this fourth person was.