Seventeen
Thalia
My mind felt confused as if it was surrounded by a tremendous dense fog and finally, the fog lifted. I had no idea where I was but my instincts told me I was not in danger. However, the last thing I remembered was hanging over a pool of salt water and the intense pain.
"Thalia baby, are you awake? How do you feel?"
Dario's voice sounded so angelically beautiful but I did not miss the slight hint of worry in it. I slowly opened my eyes the first thing I saw was Dario staring down at me his beautiful face and eyes filled with happiness but he also looked a bit worried at the same time the second thing I saw was Vladimir. Was I in some alternate universe?
"Dario, what happened I can't seem to remember."
"It is a long story babe…"
"I shall leave you two for the moment, I promised Gabriella, that I would not be long. It is good to see you awake sweetheart. I am really glad we got to you in time. I will stop by again later."
With that, he smiled gave Dario a nod, and left the room. A million questions filled my mind at once. Why did Dario and Vladimir seem friendly, how did I get here in the palace, and what did he mean by glad they got to me in time? And who on earth is Gabriella?
"You are probably dying to ask me a million and one questions so let me start telling you what happened. First, we thought it was Vladimir that abducted you but it turned out we were completely wrong about him in a lot of ways. He then found out through some very shade sources that it was Lord Marcus that was behind your disappearance. He then went to investigate Blood Rose Castle and found Rose, Skye, and Gabriella a human girl that was held prisoner for a good couple of years she was very weak and badly tortured by them he could not leave her so he brought them all back here. Skye and Rose were weak but luckily not seriously hurt. They did manage to tell Vladimir that you were taken by Serafina and on his return, he informed us of this. We then went to rescue you and found you just in time you were very weak, badly beaten, and… I almost thought we were too late. I did manage to save you but at a cost. You were too weak to be saved as a Dhampir. Thalia, I am so sorry I know you never wanted to be a full vampire."
He looked so worried as if by telling me this I would turn from him. Taking his hand, I gave it a little squeeze so that he would look at me.
"Dario, why are you sorry you saved me? I thought I would never get out of that horrid place. Or see you or Lucian and Willow or anybody else that I care about. You loved me enough to take that risk and save me so thank you for loving me so much that you would not give up on me. Is there more to the story that worries you?"
"You still don't miss much do you, baby? The healer that came to heal you gave some not-so-good news. What they did to you Thalia was really bad they hurt you more than you know. The healer gave so pretty bad news and it might be very devastating to you."
"What did the healer say?"
"She said that for at least a year you are not allowed to be a guard or do any guard training but she would advise that you stop being a guard completely, but that was not the worst of it. She also said you may never be able to have children ever…. But before you say anything that doesn't change anything it doesn't change how I feel about you and I don't care about having kids if that is not in the cards for us all I care about is having you in my life and being able to love you."
I heard what Dario said and even though I never really thought about children being told I might never be able to have any was a shock. Also being told I must stop being a guard shook me more than I ever thought it would.
"Dario, thank you for telling me and thank you for still being here next to me and still choosing to be with me to love me but I just need a bit of time to process everything and work through my emotions. May I have some time to myself please to think about all you have told me?"
Dario
As I left Thalia and Shut the door behind me, I felt scared and shaken. I did not want to lose Thalia. But I knew, I could not force her to be ok with all that had happened and what that all meant for her. Her whole life was changed forever and in a very big way all I could do was pray and hope that even after everything she will still love me and that she would choose me and choose to fight through all of this with me by her side.