Blood Land by J.R. Lawson (famous ebook reader .TXT) 📕

“Who’s there?!” Nora screamed once more.  Finally, this time someone emerged in response.  It was Kale, his arms up in surrender as he stepped out from behind the side of the house.

“What are you doing here?!  How the hell did you find me?!” Nora then screamed upon seeing him.

“Seriously?!  No, ‘hello’?” Kale sarcastically replied.

“You don’t deserve a ‘hello’!” Nora angrily argued, “Now I’ll ask you again, how the hell did you find me here?!”

“You took off my coat, which you stole!” Kale shouted back in response, “Caroline finally sniffed you out.”

Nora began to rub her arm nervously as she turned to look away from Kale for a second.  “I just thought….it felt wrong to be at Will’s grave with it on….” She mumbled, almost to herself.  She didn’t wait to see if Kale had heard her thought because she turned back to him and angrily added, “But it doesn’t matter!  I’m not going back with you!  So if that’s what you’ve come to try to do…to convince me to come back with you…you can forget it! I’m not going!”

“I understand,” Kale responded softly but with the utmost seriousness.  Nora then looked back at him with a slight bit of confusion on her face and as Kale saw it, he continued, “I’m not going to deny that I want you to come back.  I do.  But, I understand why you won’t.  I was an ass; a complete and total ass to you.  And I know no matter of apologizing can make up for that.  I can tell you I’m sorry for the rest of my life and it wouldn’t fix it.  So I get it.  I want you to come back.  Really, I do.  But I know I can’t make you.”

Nora paused for a second as she looked at Kale’s face and heard his words.  She couldn’t help but notice how unkempt he was and almost broken he seemed.  She’d never really seen him this way and it definitely alarmed her a bit, but she wasn’t about to back down. “You’re right, you can’t!” she finally said after shaking the sympathetic thoughts towards him out of her head. “I don’t need you anymore!  I’m doing just fine on my own!”

“I just want you back home so I can protect you!” Kale suddenly blurted and as soon as he did, he realized he had chosen poor words.

“Protect me?!” Nora now screamed, “I don’t need protecting!  Don’t you see me?!  Look at me!  I’ve gotten stronger out here not because of you, but because of me!  I can take care of myself!  For almost my entire life I’ve been ‘protected’ or everyone around me seemed to think I needed protecting.  And for a huge part of my life I believed them.  Will’s parents thought I needed protecting from my own parents, Will thought I needed protecting from the world, you think I need protecting from Dagon, and even Dagon wants to find me to try to ‘protect’ me.  I’m sick of it!  I don’t need protecting from anyone!  I can be strong on my own!”

Kale just looked down with a slight bit of shame as he listened to her yell at him.

“In fact, I’ve even gotten my ability!” Nora suddenly added, causing Kale to then look up at her surprisingly.  Nora caught sight of his expression and went on, “That’s right.  I’ve got my ability. And I got it on my own.  Without you!”

“Nora…” Kale tried to start, but Nora cut him off. “No!” she yelled, “I don’t need to hear what you have to say!  I already told you I’m not coming back with you!  So just leave!” It was then that Nora turned around and began to walk away from Kale, toward the woods that rested behind her house.  For a moment, Kale panicked as he watched her walk away from him.  He couldn’t lose her again, he just found her!

“I miss you!”

Nora instantly stopped and turned around to face Kale again, who was now looking at her with grief in his eyes.  She wasn’t sure she had just heard what she thought she had. “What?” she asked.

“I miss you,” Kale repeated himself, “I want you to come back.  I do want to protect you…but I’m fine if I can’t anymore.  But really, Nora….I just…I miss you.”

Nora started to shake her head in somewhat disbelief.  Her breathing got heavier as she realized she was beginning to be on the verge of tears. She wasn’t sure if it was out of anger or sadness, but regardless, she began to intently march over to Kale as then shouted, “You bastard!”  Kale however, said nothing but watched her make her way very irately toward him.

“You bastard!” Nora repeated as she now finally stood right in front of him and stared right up at him with much hurt clearly in her eyes. “You say all those things to me!  All of those hurtful things!  After I basically poor my feelings out to you and then you find me after a whole week and you say you miss me?!!  You miss me?!! How could you say that!!” It was at that moment that Nora began punching Kale in the chest with both of her fists, alternating her strikes as she kept yelling, “How could you tell me that?!  How could you!!  You bastard!  You bastard!! YOU BASTARD!!!” Tears were now streaming down her face as well as she kept angrily screaming at him and bringing her fists down on his chest.  Kale just stood there, letting her hit him.  He admitted to himself that it hurt; Nora had indeed gotten stronger, but he felt he somewhat deserved it from her and so he let her take her rage out on him.

After a few moments, however, he finally decided to try to stop her. “Nora!” Kale shouted to get her attention, but Nora was still angry hitting him. “Nora!”  He yelled again, but she seemed to be in her own world, not hearing him.  “NORA!” Kale finally bellowed as he then proceeded to grab her by the wrists, forcing her to stop her blows and look up at him.  Tears were covering her face, as well as the messy strands of her auburn hair as he stared down into her eyes; eyes that he could see were changing, becoming more…vampiric.

The two of them gazed at one another for a few seconds that seemed to last forever, until Kale did something he had wanted to do ever since he had found her tonight.  He hugged her.  He abruptly wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her.  Nora was taken aback for a split second as she had never had Kale actively hug her before, but as she stood there, with his arms around her, she felt the warmth and depth of the embrace she was receiving.  She knew it was for real; absolutely sincere.  It was upon that realization that she put her arms around him as well and embraced him back, as tightly as he was squeezing her.  It was then, that the range of emotions that had been inside her finally found their way out in the form of her beginning to openly sob on his shoulder.  She cried a painful and scorned cry as the two of them held each other for longer than they ever had before.

It took a while before Nora was finally able to create words throughout her sobs as she said, while still within Kale’s grip, “I missed you too!”  As soon as she had made her confession, she felt Kale give her an extra squeeze as she gave him one back.  She wasn’t quite sure how much longer they stood there hugging each other in the snow, but it didn’t really matter.  She never wanted to let go, and she could sense that Kale was feeling the same.

 IT WAS ONLY moments later that both Nora and Kale resided inside Nora’s home.  Kale stood, right in the middle of the wrecked living room as he looked around him at the dark and depressing house.  Nora, however, was kneeling in front of the fireplace, that was still luckily intact, attempting to light a fire.

“So, you’ve really been here the whole time?” Kale suddenly asked her.

Nora nodded, still facing the fireplace. “I never intended to, really.  I just came here to get…vampire blood…from our freezer downstairs but then no matter where I went to try to train, or hunt, I kept coming back here.” Nora stood up as she had finally lit the fire and turned to face Kale. “It provided good shelter from the cold wind, and I could make a fire, which was nice.”

Kale nodded in agreement as he then sat down on the lightly snow covered floor in front of the fire and Nora, softly smiling, soon joined him as well, but not before grabbing a blanket that was nearby.

“So…you said earlier, that you got your ability?” Kale then decided to ask.

“Yeah…I did,” Nora responded as she covered both of them with the blanket.  She casually looked over at Kale whose face looked serious as he seemed to be thinking hard about something as he stared into the fire. “I know you didn’t want me to get it, but…” Nora started but Kale shook his head and interrupted her.

“No, it’s o.k.” he said, still watching the flames of the fire in front of him, “I already told you I was wrong.” He then looked over at her as he continued, “I was wrong to hold you back.  I was being…selfish.”

Nora looked back with the same level of sincerity she saw shown on his face. “You really mean that?”

Kale nodded. “I do.”

Nora looked away briefly and Kale noticed the obvious doubt in her eyes. “I mean it, Nora.” Kale then repeated, hoping Nora would look back over at him. “I meant what I said.  I was wrong.  I look at you…I look at you and I see this strong woman.  This really strong woman who wanted something, and despite what I said to you about it…went and took it anyway!  You fought for what you wanted!  And…I admire that.  And I shouldn’t scold that.  I should be encouraging you, not dissuading you.  Otherwise…I’m just like him.  I’m just like Dagon.  Holding you back, making you be something you don’t want to be.”

It was then that Nora finally looked back over at Kale.  There was softness now in her eyes that he noticed as he then continued, “I like who you are this way, Nora.  I like you as a human because…of your kindness.  And I just worried that…if you became a hybrid…you’d lose that.  You’d be consumed by the power of being stronger that you’d change.  Because that’s what happened to me when I became a vampire.  I don’t want you to change.”

“But change happens,”