Chapter 13

(Brianna)

“I DON’T understand. If you have a mansion as great as this, then why are you staying in the apartment? Your living room here was a lot bigger than that apartment,” I said with awe while looking around Ingram’s mansion.

When he invited me to his place in Tanay, I agreed right away and did not think about attending the wedding reception anymore. After all, I’ve already fulfilled my duties in Stella’s wedding. I didn’t want to let the chance slip away now that Ingram seemed to finally willing to open up to me.

We used Ingram’s black sports car to travel. Dexter, his right-hand man, would be the one to return my car in the apartment.

Until now, I still couldn’t believe what I’m seeing. I’ve always known that Ingram came from an affluent family judging by his car alone which had me self-conscious about my second-hand car which I got from my savings in writing novels. Ingram’s mansion was even bigger than my mother’s mansion. It had floor-to-ceiling walls and black and white furniture.

“I occupied the apartment next to you because I wanted to be close to you.”

My brows knitted. “But why? You didn’t have to adjust so much just to get close to me. Besides, the morning I woke up with a hangover and found you in my apartment, you said that you were already my neighbor at that time so why were you talking like that?” I glanced around. “I also don’t see anyone. Are you living here alone? Where are your parents?”

“I have friends who are on vacation. They are staying here at the moment. But they had to go somewhere so you wouldn’t meet them today.” He pointed the long, elegant, black couch. “Please sit for a while. Make yourself at home. I’ll just go get us something to drink in the wine bar.”

When Ingram returned, he was now carrying two goblets with wine in them. He handed me one before sitting beside me.

“Where are your parents?” I asked again while drinking the wine.

He suddenly looked wounded. “My parents and Indigo, my only sibling, were already gone. They were found dead in a river back in Springfield, Illinois.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said, filled with sympathy. “Now I know you’re from Illinois. If you don’t mind me asking, when did they die?”

“They died in sixteen-eighty-one, exactly three hundred and forty years today.”

I spilled my drink and looked at Ingram, still dumbstruck. His face was dead serious. I waited for him to laugh or say, ‘got you there!’ but he remained quiet. I was the one who laughed to break the ice between us. I pulled out my hanky from my purse and wiped my mouth. “I remember telling you to quit kidding around during crucial moments.”

I casually put the goblet on the center table although I was beginning to get nervous. Here was Ingram again and his crazy words. “We are talking about your family’s death here. You shouldn’t joke around like that. Be serious.”

He stared at me. “I’m already serious, Brianna. You once told me to tell you things about myself so you’d know whether you can trust me or not. Here I am now. I’m exposing myself to you now. My family really died more than three centuries ago. I’m a 350-year-old Vampire. I’m in this country to search for you.”

It took me a while to recover. I stood up. My head refused to accept what he just told me. “I’m familiar with this, you know. I’ve written something like this before. I’ve already heard this story. When a guy doesn’t want a girl anymore, he will tell her things to make her leave him first. Some even go as far as saying that they’re alien. Ingram,” I turned to him with a heavy heart. “I won’t chase after you. You don’t need to invent those stories to push me away. You didn’t even need to bring me here. You just got my hopes up.” My eyes welled up and took my purse. “You know what? I’ll just leave and—”

“Wait—”

“What is it this time? Since your lies didn’t work on me, did you change your mind and now, you want to say something else? Are you going to say that you are not actually a Vampire but a Werewolf?” I was stunned when Ingram stood up and jumped from the ground floor to the fourth floor. I wouldn’t have even noticed where he was if he didn’t call my name.

I clutched my chest. And then he bit his wrist. I saw blood dropping from it but seconds later and the wound disappeared, even the blood. The only evidence left was the blood stain on his shirt. I looked at his mouth which still had some blood on it.

“I’m really a Vampire, Brianna.”

Oh, God. I wasn’t able to respond. I still remembered how Ingram jumped towards me before I fainted.

“BEFORE, I could just choose to show which face I wanted the world to see. I could show them the human that I had once been, the beast inside me, or the angel straight from my soul that has been screaming to be saved. But I couldn’t choose when it came to you, Brianna. It’s hard to think logically when you’re beside me. That’s why you can be assured that everything I’ve shown you from the beginning was real. Because during those times, I was showing you my heart.” Ingram drew a deep breath. “And I’m showing you all of me now. I know that this won’t be easy for you to accept. Waking up one day to find out that Vampires exist, that’s really hard to take.”

I opened my eyes and pressed my forehead as Ingram’s confession flashed my mind.

“I didn’t change my name including my friends who are Vampires, too. We value our names so much because it was our only remaining connection to our families and to where we came from.” Ingram looked at me with sad eyes. “We transfer from one country to another so that people won’t doubt and discover about our real identities. And when I told you I’m a businessman, it was true. I have businesses almost all over the world. From real estate, food industry, outsourcing, farming, catering, franchising, you name it. That’s the thing with living for an extremely long period of time. You get to learn the tricks about business,” he added without the slightest hint of arrogance as if he was only talking about something so mundane. “I’ve learned quite a few out of boredom.

“The Black Swans manage my properties and businesses. They are humans who support the Vampire Community. I lead a very simple life, you see. I’m just a Vampire who killed time through venturing in different businesses while waiting for you. That was how I lived for the past centuries.”

I’ve been thinking about those things for days now. Until now, I still don’t know what to do. It was so overwhelming to discover that the creatures I thought only existed in fantasy books and movies were actually real. And they were living with us. I feel like the world suddenly got bigger.

I was also petrified to know that there were creatures who were a hundred times stronger, quicker, and more resilient than average people like me. It was horrifying. Not to mention that those creatures feed on human blood to live. And one of them was the man who I treated as my ally, the same man who made love to me over and over.

I’ve longed to uncover the mystery behind Ingram Wilson. But what I’ve discovered was more than I anticipated. In an instant, my whole world flipped.

When I woke up after I passed out, Ingram began telling me everything. After I heard his story, I asked him to bring me back to my apartment. I asked for some space and time to think things over. He understood and told me that he would be around if ever I’d need him. All I had to do was call his name and he would show up.

But I haven’t called him yet. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“How can I tell that you’re really in love with me? You just said you’re a Vampire,” I remembered asking afterwards. “Can you really feel anything at all? In a novel that I once read, the Vampires there had no heartbeat. And in Twilight, Edward Cullen sparkle—”

“For crying out loud, this is real life, Brianna!” Ingram pressed his temples and looked at me as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing from me. Well, I feel the same towards him. Now, we’re even. “Why are you comparing me to Edward Cullen? I don't sparkle! And of course, I still have a heart like you. That’s not a design in my body. It still beats. A Vampire’s heart beats in order to move the blood through our body. That's why staking us through the heart is an effective way of killing us. And we could still feel human emotions. How could you doubt that?” he added in a frustrated voice. “One more thing, I don’t hurt others to feed. We have Vessels, they’re also humans, who offer us their blood in exchange of money. We couldn’t digest human food that’s why we’ve been trading with the Vessels for years. We help them and they help us in return. That’s how life works for us.”

“What should I do now?” I sat on the bed and leaned on the headboard. Ingram and I haven’t seen each other for days. And despite the negative feelings I’m having, I couldn’t deny that I’m missing him.

“I’m not asking that you take me, Brianna. I want you so much to be mine, but I won’t ask you to be mine. Just like what I said, it would be risky for us to be together. Because the moment we chose to stay together, we’d be cursed,” Ingram said the night we separated. “Our days as doppelgangers would be numbered.”

“You’re scaring me.”

He shook his head. “I’m not. I’m just giving you a choice. A choice whether to stay or run away. I’ll accept your decision, whatever that may be. But I will still always guard you, Brianna. I won’t leave this country. I will protect you with my life because aside from that, I don’t know what else to do. Even if you end up not seeing me anymore, I will still make sure that you get to live your life the way you wanted to.”

“I still don’t understand. If you knew about the curse, then why are you here? You should have saved yourself. We could have never met at all. Why did you risk coming here when you had the chance to avoid me from the get-go?”

He looked deep into my eyes. “Because I love you. When I came here, all I really wanted was to see you. I didn’t know I’d end up falling in love with you.”

Geez. I got up and paced back and forth inside my room. Ingram said that he had been cursed even before he was born. The curse had been going on and on from a certain clan of Vampires. He said that I was also cursed. Every three hundred years, doppelgangers like Ingram and I are born because we happened to be the unlucky ones who were bearers of the curse which Acantha and Xenos started.

“What do I want to do with my life?” I looked around my room. There was big shelf in one corner which was filled with my favorite books. Beside it was my writing table. Every single day of my life, my laptop and my books were the only ones with me. I’m already twenty-eight and I’m still alone. For a human like me who was supposed to live shorter lives compared to the creatures Ingram talked about, I should be making every minute worth it. But am I doing that? Have I been living my life well?

I’ve suffered almost all my life. My happy days ended when Papa died. I was just able to experience happiness when Kristoff came into the picture. But it was short-lived. When I found out that he got Stella pregnant, my world collapsed again. Looking back, I wasn’t able to live life to the fullest. But when Ingram came, every day felt different. I felt like my heart had been revived.

And when he left, I felt lost like a little girl. It was like my home had been taken away from me. And I couldn’t return. I didn’t know where to go. Because…

“Damn it,” I muttered in disbelief. My heart raced upon the realization. “I’ve fallen for him. I’ve fallen for Ingram.”

“Admit it, Brianna. You are drawn to me just as I am drawn to you. There’s this dark side of you who wanted to explore things with me.”

Ingram was right. He made me feel things I’ve never felt before. With him, there was thrill and excitement. I feel the most alive when we’re together. And without him now, I feel the opposite. If Kristoff was like a gentle wind in my life, Ingram was the storm. He was that dangerous and complicated. But I was happy with him.

Suddenly, I was reminded about the lyrics of Papa’s favorite song. It was What Am I Living for by Eddie Peregrina. What am I living for if not for you? Baby, nobody else, nobody will do. What am I longing for each lonely night? To feel your lips to mine, to hold me tight...

What or who am I really living for? Am I really living to begin with? Without Ingram, I could live longer because I would be safe from the curse. But I wouldn’t be able to be happy. I would exist, but I wouldn’t live. And after a couple of years, I’d die like any other human in the world.

Why am I hesitating? Does it really matter if I’d die earlier? What matters was that I made every second of my short life count. I’d die happy. Other people didn’t have that kind of privilege. Others lived their whole lives without knowing what happiness really meant.

With that thought in mind, I pulled out my jacket on the rack and wore it before leaving my room.