Won By the Sword : a tale of the Thirty Years' War by G. A. Henty (latest novels to read .txt) 📕

Demetrius didn't know was that Lucius made a vow to heaven. His soul would never find rest until there was some kind of peace between the races. I wanted to join him in his choice but Demetrius called upon the dark god to place a curse on me out of pure spite. I wasn't going to die but live so I could see the man I loved murdered over and over throughout the centuries,

“This was my life until one day, Lucius' soul disappeared. I tried and tried to hear the song it sang but when I couldn't find it I came here. I thought, maybe he’d moved on to the new world.

“For one-thousand years there was no trace of him. I almost gave up hope, thinking he forgot his promise. That he forgot me.”

Jill paused, knowing she had just given Damien a buckshot blow of information at once, searching his wide-eyed stare for any sign he was going to say anything. Hopefully he didn’t think she was crazy and kick her out. When he didn’t respond, she continued.

“I’d thought you lost until I saw you the day you moved here, Damien. There was no mistaking your soul, no mistaking the song it sang. The vampires know who you are, they won't stop until they either turn or kill you. Knowing Demetrius, it'll be the latter. I won't let that happen again, not when I have the strength to stop it.” Jill took a sip of her coffee, fighting to keep her strength in check to avoid shattering the mug.

“I must admit, that would have sounded like a fairy tale to me a couple of days ago. It still sounds a bit unbelievable but I’m sure from our time together, you’ve already seen I’m not exactly what people around here would call normal either. If I was honest with myself, I never really have been.” Damien’s response was relaxed despite his being angry and in self-denial only two hours ago.

The memories he’d long blocked still bothered him, almost torturing him like angry, wailing ghosts. Maybe he would find peace if he actually dared to share them with someone. Jill shared her past out of trust, it was only right that he extend the same trust.

Damien stared into the fire he’d started before Jill began telling her story. The room was warm and peaceful with the soft crackling of the wood and subtle smell of burning hickory. He inhaled deeply, slowly releasing the breath to relax his mind against the anxiety he could feel welling up inside of him.

“Charlie and Sarah aren’t my real parents. My biological mom wasn’t exactly what one could call parental material. I never met dear old dad. Apparently, he just knocked her up and then ran out on us. I’m not sure, nor do I really care to find out. What I do know is when I was very young, my mom did things to me. Things that, at the time, I didn’t know were wrong. Anytime I would ask to go play with my friends, she would lock me in my room, yelling at me and saying things like I only wanted to get away from her like dad did. When it was time for me to start school, she freaked out saying I couldn’t go because there were other girls who would take me away from her,

“It was only when one of the teachers reported the abuse to the town police that I was finally set free from that hell. Charlie and Sarah took me in as their own and despite my hesitation and anger at first, worked through the pain with me. I began seeing them as my only parents, locking away any memory of the other woman.”

“Little did I know at the time, those memories were slowly destroying me. Things didn’t get much better in school. We were cutting designs for Valentine’s Day and I accidentally cut my finger. Before I could tell the teacher, it disappeared. It was the first time I knew I was different. The other kids had to go to the nurse for injuries like knee scrapes or cuts but not me.”

Damien rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and finger to keep his own anger suppressed. He’d kept it hidden deep within himself, denying its existence. Strangely enough, it felt good not to have to bear the pain on his own.

When he was sure he could, Damien continued his story. “All throughout school I did my best to hide being different until the day my dad couldn’t take me to school so I decided to ride my new bike. I was so excited to show it off I guess I wasn’t watching where I was going. A black car speeding down the street hit me, sending me up and over the hood. I landed on the pavement, expecting to be dead only to find I’d only been dazed,

“By the time the ambulances and police arrived, there wasn’t anything too severe wrong with me. They told my parents they couldn’t explain it. When my mom and dad looked at me, I was afraid they might abandon me, thinking I was some sort of freak,

“At first, it seemed like I might have been right until my mom walked over to me and hugged me close to her. Things changed after that. The people in town started avoiding me. Some from the religious sect said I had been possessed by the devil. Even my own schoolmates distanced me. It’s why I had to leave Big Timber. I lost my mom only a year after the accident. I hadn’t been the same since.”

Jill felt the sting of tears in her eyes at the pain she could feel radiating from Damien. Her own heart aching at knowing he’d suffered alone for so long.

“I never told anyone. I chose to close off and suffer in silence,