“Are you crazy?” Dana said to Derick. “So, in your bid to make her see the importance of patience, you try to kill her?”
“Relax Dana, she’s an immortal, she can’t die.”
“I expected better from you Derick, you know how important blood is to us as vampires. No vampire can survive without it. But instead of telling her that, you choose to lie to her. What if she had surprised you and tore down that roof? What would you have said?”
“I’m sorry, Dana, but you can’t blame this all on me. While you and the others decided to leave her alone because she said she wasn’t joining us, I was the only one who still decided to help her. You know I would never try to kill her. I wanted the best for her, the same way I did with Marylin, and I would never make her go through anything I haven’t been through myself.”
Dana tried to shield her thoughts. She didn’t want him to read them, but she hated it when he was right. Derick continued speaking.
“No one loved Marylin more than me in this coven, but even I know that she isn’t Marylin Lou. She is a different person even though she carries the spirit. She has a home and a family to get back to. And I wish you all would just try to help her out instead of acting like a bunch of creeps! Marylin isn’t coming back to this coven, and I think it’s time we accepted that.”
After Derick finished what he had to say, he left the room. Dana had heard his thoughts; she had seen the pain in his eyes. She knew that Derick had enough love in his heart to let her go, as long as she was happy, even if it was for a second time. She decided in her heart that she would do the same.
***
Joana lay in her bed, still feeling the burns in her stomach from Derick’s lesson, even though she had fed. According to Derick, she had spent only two hours there, but it felt like she had been there for days! She never would make herself go through that kind of torture again, she didn’t care how long she had to wait to master her powers. Those few hours of agony were so not worth it for her. Just then, she heard a knock on the door.
“Come in,” she said in response to the knock.
“Hello,” Dana said as she walked into the room, “how are you feeling now?”
“It still feels as if my stomach was set on fire.”
“I’m sorry for what you had to go through,” she said. “This was all my fault; I never should have left you alone with Derick.”
“I know he was just trying to help,” Joana said.
“Indeed, he was.”
Dana waited for a few moments of silence before continuing to speak.
“I have decided to help you in your quest to become human again. I know I should have offered to help before, but it was hard to take in the fact that you were not Marylin and wouldn’t be joining us anymore, and that was selfish of me. I am sorry for that. I will speak to Edmund and Hillary; they should be able to help you in any way they can too.”
“It’s ok,” Joana said. And thank you for offering to help me. “It really means a lot.”
“For now, you will have to rest, when you are fully recovered, we will continue the training. I will supervise whatever activity Derick gives to you from now on. In the meantime, while you rest, I still have some things to tell you about Marylin Lou that might be helpful to you in your quest to find the council. If you need to hear about it, which I know you will, you can come over to my room.”
“I will, thank you.”
“Get some rest now, and let me know when you would like to begin your training afterward.”
“Ok,” Joana said.
Dana left the room after their conversation, leaving Joana to continue into her thoughts.
***
“Hello Joana, you wanted to see me?” Edmund said as he walked into her room after being asked to come in. Joana was still in bed.
“Yes, I did, sit down please. I don’t want to waste your time, so I’ll just get straight to the point. The other day with Derick, you said something about him never being able to resist Marylin Lou. I have been thinking about it since you said it. And although it’s none of my business, I just feel I should still know if they were lovers so I’ll know how to place my boundaries with him. We are going to be spending a lot of time together during my training, and I don’t want to put him in a situation that makes him uncomfortable, nor do I want him to be getting the wrong ideas.”
Edmund sighed before continuing. Derick would kill him if he found out that he had told her, but she did deserve to know the truth, after all, it was the same girl he was in love with centuries ago.