Chapter 7: The Whole Story

Chase’s P.O.V

I sat on the edge of my bed, shirt half off, the pain from the gash on my temple a dull throb now compared to the sharp sting it had been earlier. My mother knelt beside me with a cloth soaked in antiseptic, dabbing gently around the bruises from the fall before she focused on the wound on my forehead.

The familiar scent of lavender clung to her sweater, grounding me in a way I hadn’t realized I needed. I winced when the gauze grazed a particularly raw edge, and she muttered an apology under her breath, her fingers far too practiced at this. Like she had done this a thousand times before—not just for me, but maybe even for herself once. Or for someone else.

“You’re lucky it didn’t go deeper,” she murmured, taking out a band-aid and placing it carefully around the gash. “Stupid lucky, if you ask me.”

I gave her a crooked smile, trying to ease the tension I felt buzzing in the room like static. “You always say that. Feels like I’m either lucky or stupid. Or both.”

She didn’t laugh, but her lips tugged into something that tried to be a smile. Her hands stilled against my side. I saw her eyes flicker—away, like she was watching something only she could see. I waited. Sometimes she drifted like this, caught in the tide of some memory she never quite shared. But this time, something was different.

“You’re old enough to know now,” she said suddenly, her voice lower. “About your step-father.”

That made me straighten despite the pain. “What about him?”

She sat back on her heels and pulled the sleeves of her sweater over her wrists like she was trying to wrap herself in more than just wool. Her eyes met mine—soft, tired, determined.

“I met Landon five years ago,” she began. “I had just landed a job on a major sustainability project for a multinational corporation. It was everything I had worked for… long hours, tight deadlines, traveling back and forth across cities, trying to impress the people at the top.” Her smile now was nostalgic, but tinged with something else—regret, maybe. “And Landon... he was the CEO.”

I blinked. “Landon? He’s a CEO?”

She nodded. “Of the whole damn company. Charismatic, impossibly intelligent, always dressed like he walked out of a black-and-white movie. He had this… presence. You couldn’t ignore him, but he wasn’t flashy either. He didn't talk much, but when he did, everyone listened. Including me.”

She paused to tighten the bandage and I sucked in a breath, not sure if it was from the pull of the cloth or the story unraveling in front of me.

“At first, I didn’t think anything of the strange things. He never ate during meetings, just sipped what I assumed was coffee from those dark thermoses. He worked ungodly hours and didn’t seem to tire. He was polite but… distant. Old-school. Like he didn’t quite belong at this time.”

Her gaze flicked up to meet mine again, and for a moment, she searched my face, as if trying to find traces of him in me.

“It was an accident,” she whispered. “I wasn’t supposed to be in his suite. I had left a folder there during a strategy meeting, and I went back after hours to grab it. The door was slightly open, so I thought maybe housekeeping was inside. But when I walked in…”

She trailed off. Her hands fidgeted in her lap, gripping each other tightly.

“He was standing in the corner of the room, facing away from me. At first, I thought he was pouring himself a drink—until I saw the bag. A clear plastic bag filled with blood. He was drinking from it like it was the most normal thing in the world.”

I swallowed hard. My chest felt tight—not with fear, but with the sheer surreal weight of her words. “You saw it?”

“I saw everything,” she confirmed, her voice steady now. “He didn’t flinch. Didn’t hide it. He turned around slowly, the bag still in his hand, and said, ‘Now you know.’ Just like that.”

I stared at her. “Weren’t you scared?”

She shook her head, a small laugh escaping her lips—not amused, but resigned. “No. I should’ve been, right? Any sane person would’ve been. But I wasn’t. Because it wasn’t the first time I’d encountered something... not human.”

I furrowed my brow. “Wait—what?”

“I grew up in a town where strange things happened all the time. The kind of place people avoided after dark. My grandmother always told me these fantastic tales of creatures that drank blood and humans that turned into wolves under a full moon.”

She smiled at my stunned silence, brushing a strand of hair behind my ear like I was still five years old.

“So no, Chase. A vampire drinking blood from a bag didn’t scare me. If anything, it made sense. Like everything in my life had led me to that moment. To him.”

I didn’t know what to say. My whole world felt like it had tilted sideways. “So… you fell in love with him even after knowing?”

“I think I loved him before I ever knew what he was,” she said softly. “And once I did… I loved him more. Because he trusted me with the truth. Because I saw the way he suffered alone. The way he hated what he had to be. Landon didn’t ask to be a vampire, Chase. He just survived. That’s all he’s ever done.”

She reached up to touch my cheek, her hand warm and trembling. “And so will you.”

Something in her words hit deep—like a bell ringing in my ribs. I felt hollow and full all at once.

My throat tightened, and I closed my eyes, letting myself breathe in my mother’s scent. Suddenly, everything made sense and nothing made sense at all.

The stories that my mom told me as a kid…I thought they were to scare me…but now, I realized that they were tales that she had heard growing up—tales that were probably true.

But then…something struck me.

"Mom, you told me that this wasn’t the first time you had ‘encountered’ something like this. What do you mean?" I asked, my voice cracking just slightly at the end. "What have you encountered before? What kind of creature did you deal with before?"

She didn’t look at me right away. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the fire, as though the answers were buried deep within its flames. A sigh escaped her, soft but heavy.

“That’s a story for another time, Chase,” she said quietly. “One I promise I’ll share when the time is right. But for now, all you need to know is that Landon is… he’s my soulmate. In other words…” Her eyes met mine. “I’m a vampire’s bride.”

I felt my mouth go dry. I stared at her, stunned. “A what?”

“A vampire’s bride,” she repeated, slower this time. “It means that no matter what, Landon will never hurt me—or you. It means his soul is bound to mine, and my safety… your safety… It's his instinct now. He will protect us both with his life.”

My jaw clenched. I shook my head. “No. No, this doesn’t make sense. You’re asking me to just accept this? That suddenly, the guy with the weird eyes and the death-stare is some kind of knight in shining armor because of some… supernatural soulmate thing?”

She stepped closer to me, placing her hands gently over mine. “I know it sounds unbelievable. I do. But I’ve seen it with my own eyes. He would die before letting harm come to either of us.”

I hesitated, my heart thudding loud in my chest. “Can they really be trusted?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. “Can he be trusted?”

“If they couldn’t,” she said softly, “then Alex wouldn’t have saved you.”

Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. I wanted to believe her—I really did—but something twisted inside me. I looked down, not wanting her to see the flicker of doubt on my face. The truth was, Alex hadn’t saved me. Not really. Not when it counted. Just this morning, he’d stood there while my classmates cornered me in the locker room, laughed in my face, and shoved me into the metal grates until my back ached. He had watched—his cold eyes unreadable—and walked away like I was invisible.

I wanted to tell her. God, I wanted to scream it out loud, let her see the truth so she’d stop putting these people on pedestals. But when I looked at her—so tired, so full of fragile hope—I couldn’t do it. She’d been through so much. We had. She didn’t need to carry one more burden, not tonight.

So I swallowed the words. Let them sink like stones in my throat. Instead, I nodded slowly, even though the knot in my chest only grew tighter.

“If you say so,” I murmured.

She smiled, brushing a hand over my hair like she used to when I was little. “I do. You’re safe now, Chase. You’ll see.”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her I wasn’t sure I believed that. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

But I hoped—I really hoped—that she was right.