The truth

The feeling I got when I was slowly pulled back into the world of reality was so... unreal. What I'd just witnessed, what I'd just felt, it made me hate myself for making this all about me. Damon's pain was, at this moment, just as raw and bitter as mine, and as I slowly opened my eyes, I made it a point to have him in my arms the second I awoke. But all hopes of that were crushed the second I saw a set of familiar golden eyes staring back at me.
"Moon Goddess, it's Jasmine Spectra in the flesh. I must say, the pictures don't do you any justice my little Vixen."
My reaction to him was a chaotic mix of intense emotions: it began with a deep, dark fear, transformed to a piercing sadness and then developed into the faintest, softest sense of relief. Finally, the mix of emotions were combined together, leaving nothing but red, hot anger behind.
"Lucien..." It left my mouth in a soft, heated whisper, and when it did, his golden eyes softened and so did his handsome features. Slowly, he reached up, ever so delicately, before placing a warm, soft hand against the skin of my cheek.
"I'd say that I've missed you, but that would be an understatement. No words could come close to describing how much I've yearned to see you again, Jasmine."
I gritted my teeth and clenched my jaw before moving my head to the side.
"That makes one of us."
Immediately, when I said that, he retracted his hand, and I heard him shift. "You hate me?"
"I despise you."
"But do you *hate* me."
I said nothing to him in response, not trusting myself to speak at this moment. Lucien and I had too much of history and too many memories for me to approach this in the manner I wanted to. Instead, I just focused on the faces of the people whose death's I was forced to witness, all because of this man in front of me. And when I did, it fanned the burning flames of anger in me just a little bit more, and I hoped that it would be enough to get me through this.
"You never could bring yourself to hate me, could you?"
I was about to respond, this time, denying any accusations of me not hating him when Damon moaned and began moving his feet in the water. My eyes immediately shifted to his pained face and soon, his hazel eyes peered up from his heavily lidded eyelids, meeting mine immediately.
"Damon! Damon are you alright?"
"Lucien!" Was the only thing he uttered out through gritted teeth as he stared down at his brother in a state of white, hot rage.
Lucien looked down for a moment, scoffed, and then turned towards Damon.
"Brother. That was a delightful blast from the past, don't you think? It was to *die* for, pun intended."
"You're sick."
"I believe the term you're looking for is 'mentally ill'. And yes, that is quite possible. Then again, who can say that they are a hundred percent sane in the membrane."
Lucien spoke as though this was all a joke to him, as though he had not just relived the death of his father, no, as though he had not just killed his father, all to spite his brother.
By now, Lucien had gotten up from his knelt down position on the floor and he'd begun walking to his brother, a bright smile decorating his sickeningly handsome face.
"Oliver, help the both of them up, towards the lounge area. Macy, Nancy, bring along their chairs. Goddess knows this place is so bare. Once you’ve done that, the three of you are more than welcome to leave."
"But-"
"I asked you to do something, Macy, now do it, or I'll make you."
And there he was, the famous devil. Satan in the flesh. You never said no to Lucien... never.
Macy nodded slowly and watched, trying hard to cloud her anger, as Oliver helped Damon and I up. I hissed at him and made an effort to bite his ear, when I did, he dropped me painfully to the floor and I winced. As expected, Damon was beyond himself. However, Lucien was, surprisingly, the one to take action against Oliver who was on the floor with me within the next few seconds.
"Don't you dare hurt her like that again, fucking idiot." He said angrily. And it was at that point that I finally realised the extent to Lucien's insanity. He was yelling at Oliver for merely dropping on the floor yet he himself had done things way worse to hurt me. Lucien knelt down and held out a hand for me, a situation all too familiar. But this time, instead of reaching for his hand like I did, all those years ago, I smacked it away and helped myself up.
"Strong independent woman. Sorry, I forgot. That must have seemed quite insensitive on my part," Then he got up and turned towards Oliver and said, "Up on your feet, dear cousin. These two are too wobbly to make it to the lounge by themselves. This time, please do me the kindness of treating my little Vixen like the royalty she is."
I was sure as hell that royalty was not treated in such a manner.
Oliver helped me to my feet, this time, using a gentler touch. I refrained to do anything stupid, and Damon did as well, clutching onto Oliver as he led us to the lounge area. Behind us, were Nancy and Macy, dragging their chairs across the floor. Once we'd entered the lounge, Lucien made his way to the golden couch inside, sat down and then motioned for Nancy and Macy to place the seats down.
"Thank you, sweethearts, now do me a favour and make yourself very scarce-"
"But Lucien-"
"I haven't forgotten about the promise I made to you. Now run along cupcake."
One thing I definitely did not miss about Lucien was his nicknames. He turned Abigials and Marys into 'honey' and 'love' in a heartbeat. It was not the nicknames I was against, but more the effects they had on people when the words dripped off of Lucien's tongue. A simple nickname like 'my little Vixen' had a strong girl like me weak at the knees and running after Satan.
Once Macy, Nancy and Oliver had left the room, Lucien motioned for us to sit and both Damon and I refused, not as politely as Lucien would have liked.
"Moon Goddess, you two are such tough customers. Look, I'll make a deal with you. You sit down, and I'll tell you the truth."
"What truth?" Damon asked skeptically.
Lucien leaned back and crossed his legs smoothly before stretching his arms across the soft, delicate fabric.
"For you, Damon, the truth of our father and the truth about why I left. I've given you snippets, yes, but I'm sure you're dying to know more. And for you, Jasmine... the truth about your mother-"
Immediately my head perked up at the mention of my mother's name and I uttered out, "My mother? How could you possibly tell me the 'truth' about my mother when you have no idea who she was-"
"Wrong, Jasmine. And if you'll let me finish, please. Goddess, your manners are deplorable. Though what can I expect when you've been hanging around a thug such as my brother."
"I was always a thug, Lucien."
But he purposely ignored what I had said and continued on. "As I was saying. I will tell you the truth about your mother and the truth about the fire that night."
And that's when my legs failed me, and I wobbled slightly. I'd been dying to know about what truly happened the night my parents had died. In fact, the curiosity had haunted me all my life and now, as I stared at Lucien's stern face, I could not believe that the curiosity of mine could actually be satisfied so easily.
"You're lying, Lucien."
"Jasmine, you and I both know that you are the only person I do not and will never lie to."
For a moment I just froze, staring at him wordlessly. He was right. Lucien was always more inclined to be truthful to me, especially when we were confronted face-to-face like this. It was something about my eyes and his, they created this electrical pull, one which neither of us could pull out of, and one which filtered out the lies.
"Fine. Damon and I will sit down."
Damon's jaw dropped at my submission and I pulled him to sit down. I was in no mood to explain myself at this point. He'd just have to trust me.
Lucien smirked at the both of us and said, "Well, the truth is not as divided as the two of you think. In fact, you will find that Jasmine's past ties into ours more deeply than you could have ever known, dear brother."
Damon who had still kept his eyes on me for the time-being, finally looked towards Lucien in curiosity and asked, "How so?"
"Let me start from the beginning, right at the beginning. I'm sure Oliver has told you, Jasmine, about the Michaels lineage, and I'm sure he's told you about your bloodline: Alpha Wolves. What he hasn't told you, however, is that the Kayden family, your mother's family, were one of the most powerful pack of Alpha Wolves, together with the Michaels family. In fact, for a very long time your family and mine were sworn enemies. Your family derived their power from their amazing survival skills. Their wolf bodies were specifically designed for killing and so they rose to the top of the werewolf hierarchy rapidly, adapting, killing and conquering. My family, however, is known for our strength and incredible ability to be cunning and manipulative, and unfortunately for the Kayden family, the Michaels family used this cunning and manipulative ability to infiltrate the pack. In no time, the Kayden's were captured and taken in by the Michaelses. The merging of the two pack's turned the Michaels pack into the most powerful pack known to werewolf kind, but it did not stop there, more and more werewolf packs were taken over by us, and soon we dominated the wolf world."
Lucien then shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. I, however, did not move a muscle, engrossed more than ever in what he had to say than anything else.
"The Kayden family, however, tried their best to keep their family name, but, as you can imagine, it grew difficult over time and soon there was only a few branches of the family tree- Jasmine's mother and her parents. Now I'm not quite sure about the details but, according to my research, Jasmine's mother was... well not too different from Jasmine herself. She was strong, independent and the deadliest warrior in the pack. A perfect match for dad, if you think about it. And so, it makes sense that the beautiful Selene Kayden and the pain-in-the-ass Ambrose Michaels fell madly in love."
At this point, I was about to stop Lucien, but Damon beat me to it. "You mean..."
"Yes, Jasmine's mother was the infamous woman who left our father. The woman who had broken his heart."
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Did anyone expect this? I hope not!
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Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending all my love!