CHAPTER 24I was staring blank at Raghav sir, what did he mean when he said that he was my godfather. How was that possible," What do you mean?" I asked while i sensed my insides burning, my temper was rising and i was very well aware of this. He let out a deep breath and then looked at Cabir who nodding his head went out followed by everyone else but Manik. I looked at him, analysing what it could be. All i know is that the last time i met someone important my life took a complete 360 turn and i really didnt want this to happen again. I kept staring at Raghav Sir who was clearly trying to find suitable words to keep what all he had to say in a decent manner to me," Will just spill out the beans." i yelled and moved ahead a bit, banging my hand on the table right in front of me. I was annoyed because of his silence," Calm down Nandini, i cant tell you the truth if you will react like this." he said sternly this time. I closed my eyes while my head dropped down, i took a few deep breaths and then looked up at him, gesturing to continue. " I know all this will turn your life upside down yet again, but we cant hide this anymore. Everything that you have been told till now, about you being a hunter, everything is true...partially true." He said emphasising on the word partially. I blinked my eyes in confusion," How??" Raghav Sir looked into my eyes and replied," Nandini, right nowi want you to forget who you are. Till now you must have an idea who your mother was, but now i will tell you, who your father was." My heart thumped hard when i heard the word father, something hell wrong, and i knew it for sure. I looked at Manik once who gestured me to calm down. I slightly nodded to him and looked back at Raghav Sir," I Nandini, not only knew your father..i knew him very well, because he was my friend, my best friend." I closed my eyes in despair when i heard him say that. My hands coiled into a fist and i felt Manik's hand on my, caressing it slightly, but it never really worked. " Yes Nandini...your father was a hybrid. Your father, Reyan Rathore was a hybrid who married a hunter...you mother, Sharon Cole." I felt my heart escape my chest as soon as he said those dreadful words...yet again i lost an identity. I squeezed my eyes tight to withheld the overpowering temper of mine, when suddenly something struck me," Do my friends know about this?" I asked Raghav Sir who was rather shocked at my question," Nandini first list..." He began to say something but i was not ready to hear anything, i wanted answers now, true answers," I said do my friends know about, is Aryaman aware of this??"I asked again, raising my voice, i opened my eyes and looked into Raghav, i saw fear there, fright!!!! He composed himself and then replied," Yes they know about this."I felt warm blood shoot through my veins when he said those words, i was out of control now, my temper had reached its heights. Without wasting a second i turned around and ran towards the car outside," Nandini no, wiait..." I heard Manik's faint voice behind me but no, i was not going to answer them anymore. Not at least this time.
I rushed the car in full speed, gushing through the dirty and wet curvy roads. Each and everything that Aryaman had till now told me about hybrids, or about anything rang in my head. He lied, he lied to me when i trusted him the most. I reached the camp in no time. The squealing sound of the breaks announced my arrival. Thankfully there was no training today, just Aryaman and his friends present. I came out of the car with rage written on my face," Nandini are you alright, what happened??" Aryaman approached me showing his concern which burnt me further. He tried touching me but jerked his hand away," DONT YOU DARE TOUCH ME!!!!" i yelled at him, as loud as i possibly could. He was taken aback because of my sudden outburst. I saw everyone else straighten their postures up, especially Soha. Oh how much i wished to rip each one of them. " Nandini, whats wrong." Aryaman asked me snapping out of his shock," What is wrong, what is wrong. Why did you lie to me, why the hell on earth did to hide the biggest fact about my existence, who f**king gave you the right to play with my life, to play with my feelings...to f**king play with my existence. Who gave you the RIGHT!!!" i yelled again. I knew i was spitting fire right now, but honestly it didnt bother me." Nandini..." Aryaman tried to say something but i cut him off," I trusted you Aryaman. I trusted you with my life, with my truth...i trusted each one of you. And what did you guys do to me, you f**king lied to me, hid the most important thing about my life. Why did you do that,huh!!! Why????" My voice was softer this time, i was pleading him rather than shouting." I was trying to protect you Nandini." He replied softly this time," Protect me from who, myself??" i asked him, trying to make him realise his mistake. He opened his mouth to speak something but nothing escaped. My head dropped down now, i was hurt. There was this one person whom i trusted blindly and he was the one who hid everything from me. Aryaman raised his hand to touch me when a voice stopped him," Nandini!!!!" I turned around and found Manik standing near the car. I sensed Aryaman's body stiffen up and without a warning he walked passed me towards Manik," You did this right!!! You did this on purpose." Aryaman was acting way too unreasonable. He was balming Manik for his own deeds. Aryaman was surely crossing his limits. He was continously pushing Manik while he stood there trying to bring matters under control," You dogs...what else could we expect from the backstabbing dogs like you!!!" Aryaman shouted on Manik. They were standing just inches apart from each other, i knew things were out of control now. " Oh yeah!! So are you scared Aryaman, or ashamed about yet another failure of yours." Manik taunted back," I am not scared of a low creature like you, you instigated her against us." He blamed him again," You deserve every bit of it." Manik was one heck of a man, he just knew very well how to use that razor sharp tongue that he was gifted with. Aryaman was standing mum over there now, he had nothing to say," You deserve it all, and you know why. Because all this while all you did was instigate her against who she actually is, you made her hate herself, hate a part of her. And its not my fault if your well planned move just backfired." Manik replied again," And for your kind information, we didnt instigate her against you, she ran away before we could tell her the entire truth, something that you hunters can never do." Manik said gritting his teeth together. There was fire in their eyes, dangerous fire. Aryaman ruffled his hair and took a step back in exasperation. He looked at me and said," Nandini, you dont know the whole truth yet. These dogs, they are disgusting...you have no idea what have they done in their lifetime. Bloody blood sucking dogs...all i was trying to do was protect you from becoming something like them...i was just trying to protect you from becoming a DEMON..." Aryaman was yelling at shouting about all the things. But he had no idea how much his words was affecting me, every word against them was like a blow onto me and before he could complete his sentence i shouted back at him, " FOR GOD'S SAKE ARYAMAN STOP CALLING MY FATHER A DOG...STOP CALLING ME A DEMON!!!!!!!!!" As soon as i said those words, Aryaman seized on his place, he was numb and i knew i had crossed my line. Composing myself i replied again, in a soft voice," I am a part of them Aryaman, just like i am a part of you guys. Do not forget my true identity...just accept the fact, i wasnt and can never be a true hunter, because there is a part of me which is of a hybrid. PLEASE!!" As soon as i finished i sensed hastened footsteps coming towards us. I looked up and found amms and TK standing there. A gushing sound caught my attention and i looked back to find Raghav sir coming out of car. There was a serious atmosphere every where and for the first time in a while i looked up to find the presence of all friends, but this time, their eyes were void of any warmth, they were cold, ice cold
We were seated in amms cottage. There was TK standing next to her, Raghav sir was seated right besides her. Manik was standing near the window staring at me and there was Aryaman on the exact opposite corner sitting and glaring at Manik. Silence prevailed in the room when Raghav sir started off," Nandini, what we are goung to tell you is ought to be disturbing, very disturbing...but we hope that you handle it properly and not burst out like you did a while ago,ok." He asked me and i nodded, he smiled slightly on my reply. " If today you ask us about the exact story of your parents the we will for sure fall out of it, because we ourselves are not completely aware of it, but we will try to manifest the possible circumstances." I nodded again when amms sweet voice fell on my ears. She smiled a bit and continued," Sharon Cole was one amazing student of mine, she was brillient in everything she did, except everyone doubted if she had a macula. Yet she was respected in our community for your grandfather, was the head of the camp and for the kind of personality your mother carried. Things changed when one sudden summer your mother vanished away without any clues left behind." Amms stopped there and Raghav Sir continued," Your father, Reyan Rathore was exceptionally good in his skills. The best hybrid ever, his was physically very strong, very active, and way too manipulative. He was the soon to be alpha of the pack and i the second in charge. But just one week before the official ceremony your father vanished. He was not just a friend to me, he was like brother. I had noticed his change in behaviour earlier but just ignored it like everyone else, until he disappeared." I was engrossed in their story, as amms continued," It was after one month that they returned, just to shock us to beyond repair. They were married. This was against the norms of the hunter community, hybrids had always been our enemies. It was different that hybrids and hunters over here had a mutual interest in peaceful coexistence. For this one reason we had this pact where in, the hunters had promised to not hunt on hybrids unless a human was attacked by them. Our lands were demarcated and we shared a rather ok realtion." I scrunched my brows together," What do you mean by that?" I was completely unaware of who hybrids were and what they did." Hybrids are a mix of vampires and werewolves. They may eat human food, but every three months they need to feed on blood, its essential for their survival. Initially, werewolves came into being as response to oppose the growing violence of werewolves and vampires. Hybrids are basically werewolves turned into a vampire, so they more or less share common features like, they dont age. Vampires are physically strong and werewolves are mentally sharp, hybrids have both the qualities, which makes them really dangerous. Things got out of hand when the need of blood forced hybrids to feast on human, creating a havoc and it was then that the hunters came into being, to challenge the hybrids.Ever since then they have been enemies." Manik explained me everything, while i sensed Aryaman chuckle on the hybrids are dangerous part. " After your parents returned, there were serious problems between the two communities, each one of them blamed the other and there were rumours about murdering both of them. Under such circumstances they both fled away, where, we are not aware. It was after about a year when we got a letter from your other, who explained your birth. Your birth dear was a sin...it was the result of the union of two dangerous creatures and it was believed that you should be killed. But your grandfather was against this, so were many. They believed that your birth was a chance to study the power you may possess, and if you turned out to be dangerous, you would be killed. It was then when your parents were called and were made to stay to stay in a no man's land." Amms replied. It now made clear why everyone feared me," But matters got worse. Your father, he changed. His immense power made him mad and there was this will within him to conquer the world. And he knew it very well that there stood only two being in his way, your mother, who would never let him accomplish his dark motives and secondly you, who would obviously turn out to be way more stronger than you." Raghav sir told me and my heart beats raced faster when suddenly i heard Aryaman speak up," That dream of your, about that fire in your house. It was probably not an accident, it is believed that you mother deliberately shot the house on fire because that was the day your father had planned to murder you both." i looked at Raghav sir to make sure it was true. He had a mixed expression, as if what Aryaman said was true, but partially true. It was amms now who spoke again," This incident was that one reason why everything finished, there was this one group that was against your survival, but being numerically small they stood no chance against the one's who stood besides you. This incident gave them the perfect moment and it was then that vast riots broke out within the community, millions were slaughtered. And you were made to escape..." Amms completed the sentence and stopped,Raghav sir spoke next," Hybrids were against this all, this slaughter as we had promised to be by your side in every situation. We had to interfere and finally the riot was brought to an end. It was then the Treat of Hora was signed, which stated that you will be brought up by a hunter but when the time comes, you were t return here to know the truth. The complete truth...and will be trained in acquiring essential skills for surviving in this world without being caught by the world out there." TK spoke this time and again i interfered," But why?" His head dropped at this question again, when amms answered," Because we are different. If the world gets to know then they may destroy us. I agree we are strong but numerically a minority. What if they put us into laboratories to know biological makeup. Also, it is good we remain as a fiction." I nodded slightly. So this was my story, i was happy, finally i knew who i was. "But this is not the reason why we decided to tell you this right now...there is something more..darker and you need to compose yourself to hear it Nandini." Raghav sir's comment made me feel giddy, what else was left???
I know again a cliffhanger but i cant help it. Its really a long update...i just cant abhi!!!!!!!
Edited by deepanksha - 9 years ago
