Kaleb POV
We stood there silently as Kimberly absorbed all the information. I thought she might have gone into shock, but she finally regained herself and walked towards the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked as she turned the doorknob.
“To the poolside”, she smiled faintly at me and Dan. “I’ll stay there for some time so that you guys can talk. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine”.
With that she opened the door and left without another word.
“Was it really necessary to tell her?” I asked after Kim left. “The less she gets involved in our world, the better for her”.
“She doesn’t have a choice, Kaleb, not after she almost got your secret out. It’s either this or she would have gotten her memory wiped clean. There years of her life will be completely erased and we’d have placed fake memories in her head, denying her of the progress she’d made, of the person she’s become”. Denlian said.
“And now she is in more danger than she was before knowing about Melinda! I snapped. “She’s human and we both know how much she’s ruled by her emotions. She’ll eventually get mad or upset at Melinda and she’ll say something to anger her, and Melinda will use that as an opportunity to get rid of her. You really want that to happen?”
“What do you mean Melinda will kill Kim? Has she done anything to kim?” Dan asked in concern.
“Not yet. But I have my suspicious that Melinda might have been the one to order the shot on me”.
“What! No those were hunters bullet” Dan said leaving me speechless.
“What?”
“That’s what I came to tell you today before being greeted by my ex at the reception. I traced the owner of the bullet by the imprint he left while loading it. Turns out, he didn’t use gloves, thinking it would be impossible to trace. I found him entering the Hunters Union last night along with some other men”.
I shoke my head at him. “That’s impossible. The hunters have been out allies. The only people they hunt down are rogue demons who had broken the rules. And I’ve never broken the rules in my life. So how can hunters be attacking me all of a sudden? You may be right about Melinda not being involved. But the thing that has been bothering me is, why try to shoot me at broad daylight? If a hunter is a really after someone they disappear without a trace”.
“That’s exactly what has been bothering me as well” Dan answered. “Hunters are very precise, they never miss a target. Then why should they shoot the abdomen only, they could have obviously aim for the head. And on top of that the men fired a few warning shots to cause commotion”
“Something doesn’t add up Dan. Find out what it is”.
Dan nodded and got up from the sofa “I’m already working on that”.
“Dan” I stopped him as he was about to leave.
“I didn’t tell you about Melinda because I didn’t want to hurt you again. She was planning to get the contract with Bluebird knowing well that you wouldn’t know that Trevina and Melinda are the same person”.
“You know, it wouldn’t have cost you dignity if you’d just said sorry” with that Dan walked out the room and slammed the door behind.
Kimberly POV
“Kim what are you doing here?”
I looked up to find kieth standing by the entrance of the pool. I came here straight after I left the room. I knew this would be the only empty place since the pool hasn’t been filled yet. It gave me some privacy to think about all that I’ve heard.
“Hello? Earth to kim!” Kieth waved his hands
“Sorry. I was just lost in thought”.
“Lost in thought?” He sat down beside me and let his leg dangle in the empty pool. “The preparations seems to be going fine, the decorations are almost finished and the opening ceremony preparations are going fine. So what’s gotten you worried?”.
“Just stuff” he doesn’t need to know about the tension between the two brothers, he’d mistakenly confess it to Melinda and she’ll take that as victory. I don’t know of her intensions but I do know she wants to cause a rift between them.
Kieth jumped down into the pool and stood before me and then stretched out his hand “Be my date to opening night?” He asked hopefully.
“Kieth…. I… I..” I hesitated in answering. He was hopeful that after this project is over we might get back together, but I didn’t want to give him false hope. We can never go back to the way we used to be especially now that Kaleb is in the picture. I feel like a connection with Kaleb, a bond and understanding that I just can’t move away from him. Even though I’ve tried suppressing the feelings.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this Kieth. We can never go back to how things was”.
“Is it because you like him now” he asked making me freeze on the spot ” Kimberly have you gone insane? How could you even think that a relationship with an Incubus would work?”
“How do you know that?” I asked him alarmed.
He scoffed. “It’s written all over your face! Kim why don’t you understand that it’s never going to work? Those creatures consider us as food! Being with him will kill you! You should be with someone of your own species! God damn!”
“And that means I should be with you!” I stood up from the floor. “What the hell has happened to you Kieth? Do you really want to force your feelings on me?”
“I don’t have to force my feelings on you, Kim you just need to open your eyes!” He snapped. “Look we can both get out of this, I’ll tell Trevina that we want to be together and that we don’t want to be their scribt anymore. She’ll erase the past three years of our lives and plant new memories. It’ll be like we never parted. We could have all that we’ve always wanted! We could be together again, get married and start a family together!”
I was stunned into silence.
What just happened? Is it really Kieth saying all these things?
“Kieth… what are you talking about? Plant false memories? What’s the point of living a lie? We won’t be ourselves anymore!”
“But we’ll still have each other!”
“No we won’t!” I yelled. “Stop living in the past Kieth! We used to love each other but that was five years ago! You need to move on!”
I took a deep breath and said “I have”. And the I walked away from my first love, forever.
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