Gwen’s POV
I weave in and out of consciousness many times. Each time, there is someone watching me. The purple-eyed man.
I’m convinced that I died and went to the underworld. If I’m not dead, I must be hallucinating.
I cannot tell how long I’ve been lying here…wherever ‘here’ is.
During the small spells when I’m awake, I recollect my memories. Leaving Stefan’s place, taking a bus, the bleeding. After that, nothing.
What happened? Did someone take me to a hospital?
When I fully regain consciousness, the man is not there. But when I turn my head, I see him. He is at the window.
The room looks pretty bare for a hospital room. The walls are stone and there is no other furniture in the room. But the bed is quite comfortable. I sit up, bracing for pain to wash through my body. But there’s no discomfort.
“Hey.” My voice comes out as a scratchy whisper, but he hears it anyway.
He turns around and even across the room, I can see his purple eyes clearly. It wasn’t a dream. “Ruby!” he exclaims as he rushes to me.
Ruby?
“Where am I?” I ask. At the same time, it registers to me how impossibly gorgeous he is. He is a little too pale, but…it must be the eyes. Up close, I see they are more lilac than anything.
The eyes, and his long, white hair. Despite the colour of his hair, he doesn’t look old. Forty at most, I would guess.
“I thought I was losing you,” he says, his eyes perusing my face. In a tortured voice, he repeats, “I thought I was losing you again.”
While I’m not in pain, my head’s a little wonky, and I’m parched. He isn’t answering my question, and his words don’t make any sense.
“Who are you?”
“It’s me. Alexander.”
That only increases my confusion. If I knew an Alexander with lilac eyes–though I’m suspecting those are actually contacts–I would remember him.
Forget the eyes. His looks aren’t the forgettable kind at all.
This situation feels very familiar.
His expression flattens. “Oh. Of course, you cannot possibly remember me. It’s been over five hundred years, and you cannot recall your past life anyway.”
I blink. What is he talking about? Five hundred years? Past life?
“Oh, Ruby.” His voice is full of yearning, his eyes swimming with emotion. He reaches forward and brushes hair from my face gently. His fingers are cold. “But it’s okay. We are finally together again. I’ve missed you so much, my sweet Ruby. I thought I would pass from this world without seeing you again.”
I don’t think I’m in a hospital.
“My name is not Ruby,” I tell him.
Now I know why this situation is so familiar.
It’s like I’m back in Joseph’s nightclub, telling Stefan he’s got the wrong woman.
His dark brows, which are in sharp contrast to his pale skin and even paler hair, draw together. He straightens, removing his cold touch from my forehead. He nods. “Ah. Of course. What’s your name in this life?”
This life? “Gwen. Gwen Rose.”
“Just as beautiful,” he says.
He smiles, and his pale face suddenly looks livelier. I don’t know where to begin with my questions. He is talking about a past life, a woman called Ruby, and that we knew each other. Let’s say we are from the past…how can he remember all that?
“How old are you?” he asks me.
“Twenty-three.”
His face twists. “You’ve been in this world that long and I didn’t find you.”
I look away from him and take in my surroundings. A look out of the window gives nothing away. All I see is the sky. This room must be quite high. “Where am I?”
“Inside my castle,” he replies.
My gaze goes back to him. “Castle?”
He nods. “When you feel better, I’ll take you around.”
Sounds like a plan… “Where is your castle?”
How did I end up here?
He blinks and seems to think. “I believe the nearest town goes by Sunerria.”
“You believe?”
He smiles again. His smile does wonders to his face–as if he wasn’t gorgeous enough already. “We are quite out of the way, and I don’t go out much.”
Well, that explains the pale complexion.
Sunerria… Sunerria is in the northeastern part of the country. The region around the town is densely forested and mostly uninhabited. A quick calculation in my head reveals that I’m at least 500 miles away from where I last was.
The terror that should have stricken me from the moment I woke up in a strange room with a strange man finally hits home. “How did I get here?”
How can I get out of here?
“Do you remember what happened to you in the motel you were staying in?”
“I was bleeding, and then I blacked out.”
“I found you just in time before the humans took you away. I had to bring you home and take care of you.”
“When was that?”
In the back of my mind, it registers that he said ‘humans’.
“Two days ago.”
I’ve been unconscious for two days. Then, did he drive across the country with me? Each time I woke up before now, I was lying on this bed. How fast did we get here if it’s only been two days?
“Why did you save me?”
“I told you, I’ve been waiting for you for half a millennium. But when I found you, you were almost dead. Luckily, my blood revived you.”
I swallow hard. “Your blood?”
“Yes. I’m much more powerful now. If I’d failed to save you again, I…” His face twists again in an indecipherable expression. “Don’t worry, I can protect you now. Nothing will hurt you ever again.”
There are still so many questions running through my head. But before I get to them, there’s one thing I need to get out of the way.
I ran away from werewolves.
I already know that vampires exist.
He is talking about waiting for five hundred years and feeding me his blood.
I lick my dry lips. “Alexander, is it?”
His tense expression softens. “Yes.”
I suck in a deep breath. “Are you a vampire?”
He doesn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
I swallow hard. Okay. I’m stuck in a castle probably located in the middle of an impenetrable forest with a vampire. If this was a few months ago, I would be scared.
Scared? Terrified!
I probably should still be terrified. But he saved me.
Is that necessarily a good thing? I have no idea what his relationship with this Ruby he is talking about was. What if she was his favourite pet or something? Maybe a…blood slave? Was she a werewolf or a human?
“Why do you think I’m Ruby?”
His brows pinch together again. “You look exactly like her.”
Oh.
I’ve heard that one before.
I don’t know whether to be relieved or not. If he finds out I’m not the one he was looking for, will he let me go?
Before I can assure him that he’s got the wrong twin, he continues,
“But more than your face, it’s your blood. It’s what drew me to you. The smell. It’s exactly the same. It’s wondrous. It’s not just your soul that came back. Your face, your scent…everything.”
Okay, but still…
“What if there’s someone else with my exact face? My blood?”
“No two people have the same blood.”
“Even identical twins?”
“You may have the same DNA to the last bit, but you’ll never have the same scent. Your scent is like…your signature. It’s not just about the blood. It’s a mix of everything that you are. Your body, your soul, your essence. Yours alone.” He walks away from the bed, facing towards the window. “You were not born a werewolf, were you?”
“No.”
He comes to a halt, and then turns partially towards me. His face in profile is just as captivating. “Then, I suppose the werewolf found you before me.”
“What?”
He faces me again. “He has marked you.” He smiles woefully and shakes his head. “Why I can still remember his scent after hundreds of years is beyond me. But then, I’ve spent years obsessing over what happened back then…” He trails off and turns away from me again. “When did you meet him?”
“Are you talking about Stefan?”
“Is that what he calls himself now?”
“Can you tell me–”
Oh no. Maybe he is not talking about Stefan.
The ancient werewolf Stefan told me about, the one who he shares his body with, the one who takes over his wolf. The one who bit me.
“What, my love?”
The endearment throws me, but only for a second. We can revisit that later…
I take a deep breath. “Can you tell me about what happened back then?”