succumbed to the wine she freely poured me and then…”
“Oh my God, are you seriously about to tell me that she seduced you!” Keira shouted, making me shrug my shoulders.
“I was a man, Keira, one full of alcohol and in front of me was a pretty girl leading me to a stable, willingly taking off her clothes.”
“So, you were drunk and ended up playing hide the snake in the bush on some haybales,” Keira surmised, making Dariush laugh.
“Oh, I do love how humans speak,” he muttered, with a shake of his head.
“Something like that, only unbeknown to me at the time, it was her first time and because of that, I did the right thing by marrying her,” I said, making Keira frown.
“So, you’re telling me because you popped her cherry, you had to marry her… jeez, is that how it went back then?” Keira asked, looking to Dom who frowned.
“I wouldn’t know, Keira, considering as you well know, you were my first human. But despite this, I have a feeling Luc has more to add.” Keira’s gaze shot back to mine and looked at me expectantly. So, after a frustrated rub to the back of my neck, I told them the rest.
“I married her because I got her pregnant.”
“WHAT!” she shouted in utter shock and well, it wasn’t as though I hadn’t been expecting it. I sighed again and told them,
“Dalene became my wife weeks after she missed her bleed and suspected she was pregnant. After that, she gave birth to our child and for a few years, life between us was sedate and well, naturally, mortal.”
“Then what happened?” Keira asked in hushed tones.
“Matthias happened, and when the time for granting Jesus my aid came nearer, he took greater action against me. Because what Jesus had wanted me to do was something that, until that fated day, I had been unsure of, for I had a wife and a child to consider… that was until…” I paused, being unable to push past the emotion I felt myself near choking on.
“Before what… oh no, Lucius what happened?” Keira asked in a quiet voice, as she could only guess the horror that came next.
“Matthias convinced her to… to…” I swallowed again and pushed past the pain enough to finally say…
“To kill… Our daughter.”
25
Living Nightmares
“To kill… Our daughter.”
The moment I said it, Keira’s hands flew to cover her mouth as she cried in shock. Tears instantly filled her eyes as Draven’s grew wide, for they were both pained and curious, as he was no doubt questioning if he knew his friend at all.
“You had a daughter?” Keira’s voice sounded so small and for the first time, in many, many years past, my daughter’s sweet little face came back as a memory, and I couldn't help but allow myself a moment to smile.
She had been perfect in every way.
Of course, I cared little that every parent thought this of their own children because to me, she had been the most beautiful being alive. I had never felt so much purpose in my life or been so proud until that moment I first held her in my arms.
In truth, until Amelia had come into my world, I had never allowed myself to love as I had done when I had my daughter in my life. I had never known what it was to love until the day she was born, for I did not even carry that love for my wife. No, I simply married her when she turned pregnant, for I did not want to condemn her into committing that sin. I did right by her but then again, in so many ways it turned out that I had done wrong.
“Oh, Lucius, I am so sorry for your loss… how old was she?”
“My daughter died when she was but three years old.” Keira freely cried at hearing this, and Dom looked as if he was truly stuck on what to say, only getting out just beyond my name,
“Luc, I…” I shook my head at him and said,
“It is not needed.” Then I rose from my seat in my desperate need to get away. Even after all of this time, the pain of losing a child never leaves you. Two thousand years and there were still things that reminded me of her. It was why I usually chose to distance myself from children as much as immortally possible, for those times were the worst. It was the memory of her hands that always stayed