Chapter 6: Origins

ALESSANDRO'S POV

A look mixed with both confusion and hurt filled Maria's face. Alessandro hadn't wanted to say the words aloud, and he felt the shift in the air.

"Oh," she finally responded. Maria sat up, and Alessandro noticed she moved slightly away.

"Let me explain," he said. Alessandro expected a fight, or for her to grow angry with the resolution that his baggage was too much to handle. Yet, there she sat in silent resolve, looking at him expectantly.

"Settle in," Alessandro said, trying to lighten the mood. "It's a long story." He cleared his throat and began. "Since the beginning of time, vampires have lived together. Our energy has always been stronger when we gather in communities. However, as with humans, my kind does not always get along simply because we are similar in origins. A split came among our community as certain ones of us excelled and grew abilities different than one another."

"Like magical powers or something?" Maria asked. Alessandro tried to read her face to gauge whether she was becoming more distant from him the more he spoke or not, but her expression gave nothing away.

"You could call it magic." Alessandro played with the word. "It feels unjust to describe our abilities as simply magic, though."

"A bit cocky, aren't you?"

Alessandro noticed then the playful look on Maria's face. Nothing he'd said so far was pushing her away. A lightness seemed to form in his chest, giving him the ability to speak more comfortably.

"It's not cocky when we know how bada*s we are."

Maria scoffed, but Alessandro took note of the way her body began to relax against his cushioned headboard.

"My Kingdom —"

"Kingdom?!" Maria sat up. "So wait, you're, like, royalty or something?! Damn, this is way cooler than you being Edward Cullen."

"Who?" Alessandro wrinkled his brows.

"Nothing...Well, he's a —"

"I know who he is," Alessandro dared to give her a small playful poke. "Remember, I'm an immortal being who's walked this planet for three centuries, not a caveman."

"Right, right," Maria laughed. "But if we're getting technical here, you haven't only walked."

Alessandro smiled, "I was getting to that. So to answer your first question, yes, my parents were the King and Queen. Within my Kingdom, we noticed abilities, powers...magic, developing among certain ones of us. A few members evolved to walk out into the sun. Others became known as Transporters and could send their physical bodies to a specific place at the snap of a finger. Then, others like myself developed the ability to shift into bats. As you can imagine, everyone evolving so differently caused a divide. Daywalkers began to think that they were superior to those of us who had to avoid the sunlight. Shapeshifters began to take petty revenge on Daywalkers by keeping them up at night. And Transporters started to come and go as they pleased. The Kingdom eventually broke when the Daywalkers created their own small town a few miles from us.”

“But if it wasn’t magic,” Maria interjected, “then what was it that caused these changes among everyone.”

“We wondered the same for a while.” Alessandro allowed his gaze to fade into the distance as he remembered the many arguments his kind had had over this very ordeal. “Some were convinced that it was simply evolution. Others decided it was groups of us dabbling in unknown magic.”

“So which was it?” Maria pushed, the concern in her eyes showing.

Alessandro brushed his hair back, swallowing hard. Was he pushing her away with all of this information? “I don’t know,” he finally admitted, “Evolution I guess. I mean why can some humans be Olympic competitors while other struggle to run half a mile? Is there really a set in stone answer?”

“It just seems odd.” Maria seemed lost in her own thoughts on the matter before finally shaking her head and asking, “But the Daywalkers— why didn’t they just leave? Why did they build a town so close to the Kingdom if they despised you all so much?”

“They couldn't go far if they wanted to live up to their full potential. As I've said, vampires' energy strongly relies on us being in close proximity to one another. Even so, when they broke off from us, there was a shift. It was subtle, but slowly it began to take a toll on us as more Transporters came and went and Daywalkers branched out. To put it in perspective, abilities within us that used to be obtainable at the snap of a finger stretched into minutes before they were accessible. Some now requiring incantations or relying heavily on the energies we could gather from the moon when it was full or waxing."

"Like the night I saw you," Maria said. "I watched you staring into the moon but knew that something was off."

"I had a lapse in judgment," Alessandro frowned. "I wanted you to know, but not like that. However, at times the urge to shift comes out of my control. And that was one of those nights."

"Urges?" Maria questioned.

"A vampire's gotta eat," Alessandro tried to keep his tone playful, but Maria's face shifted ever so slightly. Alessandro imagined that she envisioned him as the beast she feared, feeding off innocent victims.

"I would never hurt you," Alessandro promised once again.

"But who would you hurt?" Maria looked at him solemnly.

"I feed off of known criminals, but never enough to kill them. Only enough to maybe slow them down so that the right people can finally catch up to them and serve justice."

Maria shifted on the mattress again. Alessandro had thought that the most challenging part would be telling her about his engagement. However, this was proving to be more than he was prepared for.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" she asked.

Alessandro paused before saying, "It's not as easy as that to explain. One of the Transporters brought back a family." Here Alessandro's eyes glazed over. That day in his memory felt as clear as yesterday.

"This family," he continued, "seemed to have all three abilities: Daywalking, Transporting, and Shapeshifting. It was only a matter of days before jealousy spiked up among the Daywalkers, especially when they got wind of the prophecy the family carried with them. The prophecy told our community what we already knew: that our community was stronger together. And if we united forces, we could rebuild our kingdom to its full potential. The most reliable way to make that bond permanent was through the union of enemies. A marriage. This family had one daughter, and my parents were the King and Queen, with one son. It was the obvious choice."

He looked into Maria's eyes as they drifted further away, trying to make sense of it all. Her mind was clearly already traveling beyond what he had said.

"So the two of you," Maria began cautiously, "You and your... fiance...did you kill people?"

Alessandro was silent. This was part of the truth he knew he had to tell her, no matter how horrific.

"Yes," he finally answered.

***

MARIA'S POV

She'd somehow expected the answer, but it didn't make hearing it aloud any easier. It was one thing to know that she sat in the bed of a man who was betrothed to another woman. But now to see that she sat beside a murderer...

Did vampires even consider it murder? And why did she care so much whether he was engaged or what happened in his past? It wasn't like they were a couple.

But her heart was already reaching for his, and she had no idea why. He'd talked about prophecies, all the things that sounded like they belonged in movies. But was there a slight possibility that this was all true? Alessandro had said that telling her about his secret seemed like a primal thing he needed to do...something fated. So, what pawn in fate's prophecy did Maria play?

She took a ragged breath before saying, "Tell me more."