Chapter 3: Part 3

Eli walked out of his room, leaving a sleeping Jolisa behind in his bed. He felt horrible. He placed his hand over his heart. He remembered feeling overwhelming terror when he was faced with Jolisa's death days ago, never had he felt terror like that before. Now he was experiencing a new emotion, guilt. But to feel guilt he would have to acknowledge he had committed a wrong. He let his hand drop from his heart and paced down the hallway. He had done nothing wrong. He had taken every precaution to keep Jolisa safe from herself. He knew she'd wake up confused, and irrational. So he'd taken steps to force her compliance by locking up two of her friends in his dungeon, at least until she realized she had no reason to fear him. He'd release them eventually, and they were being well taken care of.

He'd also forced her obedience by using his new power over her, which she would soon overcome. Hopefully, by then he would have earned her affection, and wouldn't have to take drastic action to keep her by his side. But the more he thought about forcing her compliance the more the ache in his heart increased. He didn't like this new feeling. He sighed, it would have been so much easier if Jolisa followed his orders as everyone had always done. No one had questioned him for as long as he remembered, being clan leader no one dared.

He was suddenly jerked from his thoughts as he heard laughter coming from downstairs. Laughter had always been rare in his life. He suddenly remember Jolisa laughing as she stated she'd rather kill herself than to be with him.

The only person in the world I can't stand being without would rather kill herself than to be with me. He cringed at the thought.

Heading down the stairs to the main floor he pushed away all thoughts about Jolisa. He had to appear confident in all aspects as clan leader, showing weakness would only cause doubt in the minds of his followers. Reaching the main floor he turned right and made his way to the dining room where a meeting was going to be held tonight, and found the greeting sight of his brother Aiden, and Shani. He still couldn't believe his eyes. His brother. Alive. His mind flashed back to the day Shani, who he now knew was Aiden's bride, had with all seriousness told him he needed to see something or someone.

[Flashback]

Eli had been at Jolisa's side for two days straight unwilling to move, unless she woke up. He held her small hand in his, and softly caressed it. In two days he had figured everything out, at first he had decided that once Jolisa woke up he would tell her everything. However, the more he thought about it the more he saw the negative aspects of telling her the truth from the start. How would she react to the knowledge the Shani had helped him with transforming her, would she see that as betrayal on Shani's side. He didn't want her friendship with Shani to be damaged. plus Jolisa would need Shani's advice in the next few days. Shani could help Jolisa adjust much better than he could, since Jolisa would probably hate him for the first couple of weeks of her new life as a vampire.

Then came the problem with the Fallen. He didn't want her to learn of the small degree to which the Fallen had gone through to save her life. That was her family, and they hadn't even stuck around to accompany her as she face death. None had held her hand, or whispered consoling words to comfort her. They'd left her all alone.

All except for one Fallen, Elly was her name from what Shani had informed him. The Fallen, Elly, had cried at Jolisa's bedside. He'd seen how close the Fallen was to Jolisa, the love she had for her, and Jolisa probably cared equally as much for her, they were probably sisters at heart. He didn't want that bond between them destroyed. Elly had done nothing wrong, but what if Jolisa blamed Elly for letting him take her to be changed. Eli knew Jolisa would wake up confused, she'd most likely would not remember much during the first couple of days, and she wouldn't be able to make rational decisions or conclusions. She might feel betrayed by both Shani and Elly, and deeply hurt by their actions. So maybe it was best not to explain everything at first. Giving her a couple of days to adjust would be the better option.

Eli wondered over and over if this was the right action to take. He didn't like the idea of keeping anything from Jolisa, but if it protected her from feeling any further pain he'd do it.

Right as he'd reached this decision, his bedroom door opened and in walked Shani. She looked startled. Her lips were swollen, and her hair was messy, and out of place. Eli caught a glance at the bite mark on her neck. Shani blushed as she watched Eli take in her disheveled appearance.

" Eli you haven't left the room for two days."

Eli nodded.

Shani looked over at Jolisa, " I should clean her up, she's still in her bloody clothes, I don't think that would be a very pleasant thing to wake up to. Covered in blood and all."

Eli agreed with her, but he didn't want to move Jolisa, maybe the movement would cause her pain.

" Plus there's something you need to see, or someone."

Eli set Jolisa's hand softly on the bed. He supposed he could be away from Jolisa long enough for Shani to clean her, meanwhile he could feed, gather his strength. " Your offer is very thoughtful thank you, I'll be back soon. I don't want to see anyone right now."

Shani nodded, " I understand, but it's really important. I don't know how to tell you this you won't believe me even if I do, so you'll just have to see if for yourself."

" I really have no time," Eli began saying. " Maybe once I get back."

" Come on brother I've waited patiently for two days now."

Eli's attention locked onto the man walking in through the door. He swore his eyes were playing tricks on him.

" Aiden?" he asked confused.

" Yeah, don't look too surprised." he said walking over to Shani taking her hand in his.

" I thought..." Eli shook his head and started laughing he walked over towards Aiden and wrapped his arms around him. " I thought you were dead."

" From what Shani's told me everyone thought I was dead." He said hugging Eli back.

Eli finally let go after a couple seconds, and quietly stared at his brother still in shock. Once he wrapped his head around the fact that his brother was really alive, he noticed that he was holding Shani's hand.

" You two know each other."

Shani nodded. " It's a long story."

" Long." Aiden agreed.

" Then we'll have to sit down and talk some time soon. Maybe once every thing's calmed down a bit." Eli responded.

Aiden nodded, " You have your bride to take care of."

Eli nodded. He also had a war on his hands to deal with, a missing sister, and from the looks of it he also had some apologising to do to Jolisa and the Fallen for accusing them of Aiden's murder.

" We really have a lot to discuss." Eli said. " After I feed."

He hug Aiden once more, before making his way to the door, still in shock.

" By the way, there are to unconscious humans in the backyard. The male one is your female's friend."

Eli was already heading down the stair by the time Aiden finished his sentence. He remembered thinking he didn't like the sound of Jolisa having any guy friends.

[End of flashback]

Aiden stood up to greet Eli, it was a custom every vampire did in the presence of the clan leader out of respect. But it'd always bugged Eli. He motioned for Aiden to sit down as he himself sat down. Eli had found the time to talk to Aiden about his disappearance, and Shani. Though the story was at times confusing he was clear on the fact that Shani was Aiden's bride and that for some unknown reason Markova had ordered Aiden to be captured, and he'd been held prisoner for two years.

Eli had never liked Markova. Now he really hated Markova. Aiden's story only fueled his hatred. Whatever Markova was up to it was no good. First he captures Aiden, then kidnaps Rin, there was no doubt in Eli's mind he was up to something. Eli had decided days ago that he would kill Markova, but once he found out from Aiden that Jolisa had be beaten and tortured by Markova, Eli decided the he would kill Markova slowly and in the most painful way. Eli gripped the table tightly cracking some of the wood. He wanted to break something every time he recalled everything Markova had done to his loved ones.

" Eli is everything okay." Aiden asked noticing his anger.

Eli let his hands drop to his lap, " Yeah."

" Jolisa's woken up." Shani stated more than asked.

" She has."

" I'll go talk to her." Shani moved to stand up.

" Well, right now she's asleep. She woke up rather unstable."

" Oh," Shani sat back down. " It's nothing to worry about I'm sure."

" No." Eli replied. " Now that she's woken I have to prepare to leave. I want to leave knowing you'll look after her Shani, and that you Aiden will make sure she is protected at all times."

" I'm going with you." Aiden stated.

" You can't be away from Shani without losing it."

Eli had thought his brother had come back as he'd always been, but the truth was Aiden wasn't the same, he would go into coma like states whenever he was away from Shani. His mind would wonder away, and it scared Eli. It had happened only once, shortly after Eli had left to go feed after learning that Aiden was alive. Shani had stayed to clean up Jolisa as she had offered, and Aiden had left Shani's side only out of respect to Jolisa's privacy. When Shani had left to go find some clothes for Jolisa she'd found Aiden laying down in his bed eyes open, but mentally not there.

She'd screamed for Eli after unsuccessfully trying to get Aiden to respond to her. Luckily after a few minutes he snapped out of it. But who knew, maybe next time he wouldn't snap out of it for a few weeks even months.

" He's right Aiden." Shani whispered

Aiden nodded, " I am useless in my current state I guess."

Eli shook his head, " You're wrong, you're the only person I trust with Jolisa's protection."

Shani smiled tugging Aiden's arm around her. " Plus I just got you back, I'm not letting you out of my sight."

Eli suddenly felt jealous, and hated himself for feeling it. His brother deserved to be happy after everything he'd gone through. But he couldn't deny that he felt jealous. Shani's love for Aiden filtered from her eyes. If Eli could see half of that from Jolisa he'd be die happy.

Eli frowned he needed to think about something else. " Where is everyone. Jaxon should be here by now. And where are the rest of my men."

" Oh, about that Jaxon arrived a few minutes earlier but said he had to go visit someone, he wouldn't say who. He also gave permission to the rest of the men to go visit their families." Aiden answered.

Eli sighed. He didn't have time for this. " John!" he yelled.

Eli's new servent, a young man quickly ran into the dinning room. " Yes, Lord Eli."

" Go find Jaxon and tell him to get down here."

The man ran off in a flash.

" I guess I only really need to talk to Jaxon." Eli had since assigned Jaxon as commanding general. He was incharge of the men, and incharge of leading this war for now. They'd made no progress in finding out where Markova had sneaked off to, but it was only a matter of time until they found him. Now that Jolisa was okay and past her transformation Eli was eager to get out there and look for Markova, interrogate members of the the Marcus clan and just find Markova and kill him. Then he could focus on finding Rin. Eli had also set up a special team to look for her, but they were getting no where.

" I really think you shouldn't leave so soon, Jolisa really is going to need your help in these next few days." Shani said.

" I have no choice. I have responsibilities, and you haven't forgotten what I've told you." Eli replied.

Shani nodded. " Yes I promise not to say anything until she herself remembers, and I promise to try and talk to Elly about meeting up with Jolisa."

Eli nodded. It was his idea to have Elly visit Jolisa, but he didn't think the Fallen would be willing to talk to him so he'd ask Shani to help him.

Suddenly there was a loud crashing noise coming from up stairs. Eli instantly stood up. " She can't be awake I just sent her to sleep."

Then another bang. Eli frowned. " Why can't she just corporate for once." He started stalking up stairs.

Shani run after him, " Wait! Let me talk to her."

Another bang.

Eli hesitate. " No you stay with Aiden."

" But,"

" Just stay here I'll take care of it."