FTAWM Chapter 10

Eric POV

"I get it, I'm powerful, can't you get it some other way? I don't want this power if it comes with this price. I never asked for it."

I went to bed with Faith's words still ringing in my head as they so often did. There was something about how she'd said it that was nagging at me. There was something buried there in her wording.

"That's how this works. I willingly give you permission to take away my power so that I will be rendered useless in these politics and to you. Please."

I grimaced. It was the 'please' that had truly hurt. Faith almost never stooped to 'please' with me. That 'please' implied so much too. She thought I was holding her here while I held an easy solution. And that grated on me to no end. The idea that she still believed I was getting some sick pleasure out of all of this, was the most disheartening thing I'd learned tonight.

"I will be rendered useless in these politics and to you." She thought she was merely useful. That, as she'd said earlier, she was a resource to be tapped. I couldn't deny that her power had been was drew me to her, but now, how could she not see we were well beyond that? That I didn't want her to be 'useful'? How was I ever going to change her mind? How would I ever get her to see that all I wanted was my bride and my family?

Ellie POV

Eric kept his word. We immediately dove into one-on-one lessons. It had been a large step as I had to let him go into my mind every so often, so he could help me understand what I was doing and what I was seeing. We began experimenting with how I could untangle the usual mess of colors I saw and worked on testing my limits. That one even got Solomon and Mom involved as we sent them to separate corners of the manor and realized I could find them and still read them.

Eric was a good teacher. Though he was in my head every so often, he did his best not to scare me and was very good at helping me figure out what I was doing. I was tapping into more power that I hadn't known about, and even Solomon was beginning to see he might get something out of revealing his abilities to Eric. It was still not likely, but I knew there was some conflicting emotions where there hadn't been before.

Mom had taken the news well. She'd told me it was my decision and said she supported whatever I wanted. She wasn't very convincing, but I knew it wasn't really about me. Another problem had apparently come up between her and Eric and she had suddenly become much too easy to read. It wasn't good. She was practically empty.

I told Eric as much as we sat, taking a small break from my lessons. He looked grim but unsurprised. "It's to be expected," he said, and dropped the subject. We sat a little longer before he spoke again. "Would you tell me about Solomon?"

I was immediately wary. "I promised I wouldn't tell on him. It's his choice-"

"No, no, no dear, I don't mean that I just…want to know about him."

Ah, so, he wanted to win Solomon. "What do you want to know?"

He shrugged, "Honestly, anything at this point, the boy refuses to even meet my eyes."

Yeah, I definitely knew why. I sighed. "I don't know, Ollie's kinda my opposite. I mean he's not – we get along really well but I don't know." I began to swing my feet, "People always point out how strangely we balance each other out. I'm trusting, Ollie's cautious; I got mom's hair, he got mom's eyes; I get the ideas, but he usually chooses which to follow; I see people for how they are, he -" I stopped short, realizing what I'd almost given away, maybe that had been Eric's aim after all but as I glanced at him again I only saw curiosity – though it was now somewhat clouded after what I'd said, but only slightly. I couldn't fault him for that.

"Anyways," I said, veering back on course, "we're just very different, and he doesn't change his mind. He's really stubborn."

Eric looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, "Really? I hadn't noticed," he said, a small smile betraying his sarcasm and making me giggle. "It's not surprising given his mother and myself," he said turning back. The silence sat for a few moments before he looked at me again. "gata pentru mai multă practică?" (Ready for more practice?)

"Da," I said, standing once more.

Solomon POV

Mom and Eric continued to talk while we were around, but I knew that their Romanian lessons had stopped almost a week ago. And though what I knew was limited, I had been able to glean something: Eric was pushing mom into something she didn't want – again. It was all very hard to place.

Family dinner was quiet, especially as only Ellie and I were eating. However, when mom came around to gather the dishes, putting her hand on Ellie's shoulder to lean over and grab her plate, Ellie let out a yelp of pain, startling us all out of the awkward silence.

"What's wrong, honey?" Mom immediately asked as she stood. Ellie quickly moved out of reach, clearly upset.

"It really hurts!" Ellie responded.

"What hurts?"

"My shoulder, you leaned on it weird and it really hurt," Ellie said.

Mom frowned in confusion and I did too. I'd seen the whole thing and knew mom hadn't put any weight on Ellie's shoulder, but as I looked over at Eric I saw grim recognition in his face.

"Eleanor, can I take a look at your shoulder?" he asked calmly. Ellie silently walked over to him and let him push her tee shirt sleeve off of her shoulder wincing slightly at the motion.

Clear as day on her shoulder was a large patch of angry red skin. Eric looked unsurprised, but Mom was horrified. "What happened, Ellie?" She rounded on Eric, "Did this happen your training session? Why wouldn't you tell me this!" she fumed.

Eric shook his head calmly, letting Ellie's shirt fall back into place. "No, it happened a few minutes ago when you leaned on her shoulder."

Mom looked even more horrified if possible, "What do you mean?" she demanded.

"It's a burn, Faith. I think that's all the explanation you need," he said quietly.

"A burn?" Mom repeated in disbelief. Eric nodded slowly. "That's impossible, the two of them don't burn." She continued.

"They do, the more they embrace their vampiric nature," he responded, sounding like he wanted to be anywhere else. He turned back to Ellie, "It'll heal quickly but it might be sore to sleep on tonight," he said gently.

Ellie's face was pale as she nodded. I knew she hadn't missed what this meant, even if she was making amends with Eric. Mom's necklace had been the source of our discomfort and was now dangerous.

Faith POV

Resignation came surprisingly easily. After dinner, I retreated back to my room to think. I realized how empty my threats and promises had been about how I would never cave to Eric's whims, how I would never allow him near me again. It no longer mattered what I wanted or thought. He had a final card that trumped anything I still held. The twins were my only priority and if I was putting them in danger I needed to do everything in my power to end it – even if it put me in danger. And as I started evaluating further I came to further realizations about my situation. I had extremely limited options, and there was only one that would leave me any room to save face, the question was, would I be strong enough to follow through with it?

That night I steeled my nerves, walking myself through all of the steps, practicing what I had to say and how to say it, knowing it was my only option but also determined to claim as much agency as I could. I would do it tomorrow night, there would be no backing out.

True to my plan, I avoided Eric completely and spent the next day trying to mentally prepare, knowing deep down nothing would truly help. In the end, I would just have to grit my teeth and push through – painful as it may be. As the night approached, I carefully changed and slipped into the short dressing robe hanging in the closet. I even went so far as to touch up my face with some makeup, grasping for any bit of confidence I could. But the eyeliner and mascara only seemed to emphasize the pure fear in my eyes. I took a deep breath and looked myself in the eye sternly, "You're going to be okay. You're going to survive this." I said to myself, with false boldness, "You have before, you will again." It didn't help much.

I grabbed the small bottle of precious few pills I had left. I had found them tucked away in my things from years ago when I'd been much more prone to panic attacks and had known if there was any time to take them, it was now. I tossed some back with a bit of water and felt my muscles loosen ever so slightly. I messily pinned up my hair, knowing it likely wouldn't stay that way long, took one last cleansing breath, biting back the tears that already threatened to fall, and silently unclasped my necklace, leaving it on the vanity. I started down the hall to Eric's room.

Standing in front of the door I knew I had reached the point of no return. The moment I entered, my fate would be sealed. I wavered; eventually after a few more deep breaths, my hand found its way to the wood and I knocked firmly. Eric answered the door promptly, not bothering to hide his surprise.

"Good evening, Faith, how can I help you?"

"May I come in?" I said quietly, biting the inside of my lip and praying my voice wouldn't waver. He nodded and pulled the door open to let me pass and closed it gently behind me.

"Have you decided to resume your Romanian lessons?" he asked slowly, obviously suspicious.

I shook my head and looked down taking a slow, collected breath, hoping he didn't hear it shake slightly. "No, I'm here to negotiate terms."

"Terms? What terms are we negotiating?" he asked, I could hear the bafflement in his voice as he took a few steps toward me. I didn't miss his glance at my attire.

I breathed in deeply and locked eyes with him. "Terms of surrender."

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A/N: just another small disclaimer that I speak ~*Google Translate*~ and neither French, nor Romanian...but I incorporated both languages into the story regardless. oops.