The Eternal - Part 1 - Awakening

The next morning, I wake up feeling refreshed, no doubt thanks to Julia's blood. There definitely is a difference with drinking from the source vs those bottles.
Or maybe it's just a psychological thing. What do I know. Placebo affect though, right?
We go through a daily routine, almost as if we've been together forever. Breakfast. Sex. Showers. Working on our projects. Lunch. Back to work.
I had put Isabella on ignore, but I know she's been texting me. I didn't block her. I figured I might be curious to read her messages later. Bad, I know.
More importantly, after lunch, I surprisingly get a text from Adão.
"Training?"
"Sure," I text back. I didn't think he'd ever instigate a training session. But a training session would be good for me. Exercise strengthens the mind and all that. Besides, I could probably ask him about his history with Samira.
"I'm going to hang out with a friend," I tell Julia.
She looks sad when I say that I'm leaving. "Will you be back tonight?" She asks.
Of course I'll be back, what an odd thing to say. Then I remember the Pablo mechanic fiasco, and just say, "Of course. I won't disappear again."
She kisses me. And I get ready and leave for Adão's place.
The next thing I know, Adão and I are back at this godforsaken island. Sweating, breathing hard, exerting ourselves. Or, well, me exerting myself. Sparring is tough.
"Okay, let's take a breather," Adão finally says.
I drop to my ass, to sit on the ground. Adão tosses me a bottle of blood. I drink it.
I don't burn brown though. I just let the exhaustion flow through me, appreciating the work-out I just had.
He sits down on the grass across from me. He doesn't seem to pulse brown either. But he wasn't that tired in the first place.
"So - any more questions?" He asks, "I think we're done with the physical part of training today."
As usual, as soon as it comes to the questions, I don't even know what to begin with. There's just too many questions, what do I even ask?
I take it back. The questions actually aren't even coming to me. I almost feel like there was nothing wrong at all. Perhaps the workout helped me get my brain too clear.
But, shouldn't, he be the one explaining things I should know though? Why do I have to ask questions to get information out of him? It didn't sound like Isabella had to question Samira - wait - ok ok - it's all coming back.
"Samira," I say abruptly, "What's your history with her?"
He looks away. His eyes are, thoughtful. Or annoyed, maybe? "Ask another question," he says.
Annoyed.
"It's important," I insist.
He looks back at me, curious. "Why..." His eyes seem to register something. "Her new progeny...Isabella was it?"
His eyes widen, "Your fangs are out."
I blink in surprise. I didn't realize that I reacted to hearing her name. And not just reacted, she brought out my fangs? Fuck. This girl is in my head. I reach up, and I see that he's telling the truth - I touch significantly sharper teeth. I'm able to find the muscle memory to put them away. And then I bring them back. And away again.
I tilt my head, looking at Adão. And I flash them again.
He laughs at that despite himself.
"Well, I suppose I'll tell you," he says.
He then proceeds to pour his heart out.
"It was a tumultuous romance. Our makers hated each other. In their day, they were thought to be strong. Not just strong - but one of the strongest vampires alive. They were constantly trying to one-up each other. Perhaps that was due to their competitiveness, or perhaps because they truly had very different world views.
Regardless, in the end, that meant that us - Samira and I - their progeny - being together at all - it could not happen."
He pauses to take a swig from his blood bottle.
"Of course - it did happen. But it all had to happen clandestinely.
Some makers take the parental approach to their progeny. Both of ours did. And so naturally, we lived with our makers. That meant, to spend time with one another, Samira and I would have to sneak out like schoolchildren.
Despite the dangers, we would meet each other. Youth is funny like that. We're all so desperate for connection at that age.
Eventually, the excuses must have triggered suspicion, because my maker caught us. Red handed. Quite literally. We had been feeding from a human together. It's a...delicate art to do that while engaging in intercourse. But, I suppose that's beside the point.
In the end, my maker gave me a choice. It was not a command. She did not believe in those. For that matter, I do not either. But, the choice was to continue learning with her, or to break our bond and be with Samira instead."
"Could you actually do it?" I ask, "Break your bond?"
"Yes, I was well versed in Green. The color of bond manipulation. It's something I haven't introduced to you yet - but you and I share a maker/progeny bond. Although, the color of this bond is green, it was not made using green.
Bonds made with green are a bit different, but all you need to understand right now is that we we can both manipulate, create, and also break our bonds with green. Including maker bonds.
And so, my maker, that night - she put me in a difficult situation."
"How?" I ask.
"I may have been strong enough to break my own bond, but I wouldn't have been able to break someone else's. Least of all, a bond belonging to a vampire much older and stronger than I. This was something all three of us knew," Adão explains.
"I don't understand," I say, "why would that be a problem?"
"Breaking one's bond isn't as simple as...well doing it," Adão explains. "There are other consequences to breaking the bond with your maker. Such as losing their protection."
"Oh," I say understanding, "you were afraid of Samira's maker."
"Yes. For this to work, Samira and I needed to be able to defend ourselves, or at least run away together. Some enmities are...well, let's just say they run deep," Adão says. "The council here in Brooklyn would not permit such a thing. Vampires are not allowed to kill other council vampires without just cause. That is how it is in most places. But, where we were...the rules were different."
"So, if you could break Samira's bond then you would've been okay," I say.
"Possibly," he says. "Her maker could still come after us. Technically, it was a crime to break someone else's bond. Her maker would have been allowed to kill me then. By council law, a vampire is only allowed to break their own bond. So, the real solution would have been if Samira could have broken her own bond. That way, by council law, she was then protected from retaliation from her maker. But even that was wishful thinking as that council would not have enforced any law against either of our makers."
He pauses for a minute. And at the point where I'm not sure if I should prod him further, or if he'll even say anything further if I do push, he starts speaking again of his own accord.
"There was little else to choose," he says simply. "If I had broken my bond, Samira and I couldn't run away together. Her maker would have always been able to find us, due to the bond the two shared. And her maker was not as kind as mine. She wouldn't have given us a chance to avoid death.
Or, perhaps she would've let Samira live, and simply killed me.
I do not know.
But at that moment it all came to a head."
He sighs.
"I've thought about this often," he continues, looking down at his drink, "Run through the scenarios many different times. Gone back and forth. Thought about all the 'what ifs'.
Maybe I could've convinced my maker otherwise.
Maybe Samira's maker could have been convinced to let us go.
There were many 'what ifs' I've gone through.
Perhaps Samira had seen something I did not. Perhaps her maker would've taken me in to spite my former maker. Or perhaps there was another option available to us.
It does not matter. None of the 'what ifs' do. For I did not give Samira a chance to even speak."
"So you chose your maker," I say.
He looks me in my eyes, "Immediately. Without question. And that was what Samira could never forgive. For me to give up on us so easily."
"Do you ever regret it?" I ask.
He doesn't answer. He simple looks away and says, "time to go home."
I fly home to my apartment. There wasn't much need to hang out at Adão's much longer, and perhaps he needed some alone time anyway.
I need some alone time too. And since Julia is at home, alone time at home is not going to really work. I check my phone. It's 6pm. I still have an hour or two before she starts panicking. And so I find a nice rooftop to hang out on.
I have a coffee in hand. I thought about the energy drink - but something about the last few days has been inspiring me to be a little bit healthier.
I already have my suspicions about Isabella. Or rather, Samira. Clearly her motivations were to get back at Adão somehow. Through me that is. What does she want? To make him feel the pain of betrayal? If that's it, then maybe she'd have me break my bond? Or break it for me?
Well, she wouldn't have broken it for me. Based on those council laws, that doesn't make any sense.
Instead, she would've most likely had Isabella leave me. But, that would only hurt me - not Adão right?
It's confusing. I can't see the play here. But, maybe vengeance doesn't need to necessarily make sense.
Maybe she'd have had Isabella manipulate me to do something to Adão - or steal something from him maybe? He does look like he's doing really well...
Nope. None of my thoughts seem to be getting me closer to the truth.
I think about confronting her - Samira that is. But, there's no way she would tell me the truth, right?
My thoughts are getting muddled together. Not unlike how Adão described his internal thought process about the what ifs.
I decide to learn something from his example. There's no way to really know what Samira's plan was. Not for certain.
I'll head home for today.
I think to myself I need to spend some more time around other vampires. So I decide that I'll hit up Amar or Lehana tomorrow.