FF- Time And Again- Book 2- Book 3- Link added - Page 87

Originally posted by: Asyalover

wow...i loved alina's attitude here

Originally posted by: mire220

awesome update... luved it..
loved abhiya moments..

thanks for the pm..
sorry for the late comment!!!

Originally posted by: maria090

nice update 😳

Abhay found Sid in the forest-surprisingly, with Chand. He smelt blood before he saw Sid wiping his mouth, the corpse of a leopard at his feet.Abhay frowned. "Thats an endangered species. I assume you changed?"

"Today, "confirmed Chand. "Alina Khurana brought him over."

"Alina?" said Abhay sharply. He glanced over at Sid." I hope you didn't try anything with her."

Sid scowled back at him. "Why? Is she another of your girlfriends? Piya won't be very happy about that."

"Miss Khurana seemed in fine form," said Chand. " In fact, she threatened to break Sid's neck. Not bad for a werewolf, really. Besides, she hates the Khuranas."

Abhay smirked. He wouldn't have expected anything less from Alina.

"Dad, do you mind leaving us alone for a while?" said Abhay. "We've got some things to discuss."

Chand glanced between them. "Control your temper," he said quietly to Abhay as he left.

"So," drawled Sid, once Chand was gone, "To what do I owe this pleasure, little brother?"

"Stay away from us," said Abhay bluntly. "Go back to your woman or whatever- just get the hell out of mine- and Piya's life."

Sid tilted his head to the side and fake-pouted. "Always so drastic, dear brother. And just when Piya and I were becoming such good friends..."

"Really?" said Abhay coldly." Such good friends, that your lover tried to kill her and you did nothing about it?"

Sid laughed. "That near drowning? I don't get why you're so pissed. You got to her quick enough, didn't you? Besides, "Sid smirked, "Don't tell me it didn't...turn you on."

Abhays hand was covering his throat in a second." Don't you dare," he hissed. "She could have died, and for you, it's just a joke. I cant believe I actually considered giving you a chance-"

He released him, throwing Sid back against a tree, but Sid simply bounded back on his feet. The smile vanished from his face, replaced by a calculating look. "Really, Abhay? What would you have me do? Dive down after her? Or come running to you like your pet puppy and tell you everything? Spoil the effects of my own idea?"

"You?" hissed Abhay. "You- you gave her the idea to- to kill Piya?"

Sid shrugged. "Of course. You're easy to manipulate. And of course, I like manipulating..."

"I'm done here," said Abhay coldly. "Farewell, brother. And may our paths never cross again."

He turned and began to walk away. It was foolish, but a stab of disappointment hit him. Why had he begun to hope?

A slight crack. Sid leapt down in front of him. Abhay rolled his eyes." I have better things to do than flight with a fledgling vampire," he said coldly. Sid didn't respond. He simply said, "She was in love with you."

Abhays eyes narrowed. "Who? Maithali?" he said bitterly. "I hate to break it to you, but the key word is was."

"Not her," said Sid, sounding more serious than Abhay had ever seen him. "Piyali."

The name hit him like a ton of bricks." I don't need to know anything about her, all right?" he turned away.

"You do," said Sid quietly." I hid..things... that night because I wanted to make you hurt like I was hurting. She never betrayed you- or Maithali. That was me all along."

Abhay couldn't believe it. His gaze shot up to meet Sid's eyes." What?" he said. But Sid's gaze was lowered. "She was in love with you," Sid said bitterly. "So it was you she chose to support , not me. Even though it wasn't Piyali you loved she did her best to help you. She did her best to plead with the king, but he didn't listen because I told him. She broke off our friendship the night we fought. And she knew we'd become vampires. And she tried to stop me- if I had listened, then maybe we wouldn't have been where we are now. But then all I wanted was to hurt you, and I wanted Maithali. I twisted her words and her memories to suit me."

Abhay felt numb. He took a step backwards. "Why are you telling me this now? How do I know this isn't another one of your lies?"

Sid smiled, and for the first time, Abhay saw an echo of himself in Sid's face. "Because, little brother," he replied," I finally understood what she meant when shed said that you cant force someone to love you back. You might get a twisted version of it, but never the real thing. Even if you wait centuries for it.and no, this isn't a lie. It's a truth I should have told you long ago, and not for your peace of mind. I'm saying this in respect of her memory. I hope you can understand that because I don't think it's possible for anyone to love like that."

Abhay said nothing. He could think of nothing. Nothing, except her wide brown eyes, the only feature of her he had ever seen. Her eyes widened in shock, then pleading. Her voice, begging him to understand.

Sid turned and walked away. He needed to be somewhere else...

"What did you say?" Maithali's eyes were chips of ice. "Piya is alive," he repeated. She let out a howl, fangs descending, her eyes glowing an iridescent violet." This is your fault!" she screamed, and for the second time that night, he was night, he was flying through the air. This time, however, he did not get up. He simply stayed motionless. Idly , Sid wondered if today was Attack Sid Day.

"If you had bitten her,you would not have been able to dispose off her corpse," said Sid quietly. Maithali paused midway through demolishing the walls of the old house." They would have found out," he continued ."And then the vampire council would know. I was only trying to protect you. Because my first priority has always been you. You know that, don't you?"

Maithali turned to him. Her entire denamour changed, from a snarling tigress to a purring cat. She leant closer to him and Sid recognized the lust in her eyes.

He pulled her to him roughly, his fingers unfastening his dress while she divested him of his shirt, their lips clashing..

Haseena saw Abhay enter the house, looking pale, even for a vampire. His face was expressionless, his movements mechanical. She wanted to ask what it was that had affected him like that, but something told her not to say anything. He didn't look at her or acknowledge her in any way as he went up to his room.

Abhay could still hear her. He remembered the first time he had seen her, during a thunderstorm, her eyes wide and almost panicked.struggling to sit on a horse, her eyes continually turned towards him. Her laugh.

She had loved him.

He couldn't help but remember her reaction when he had told her he was in love with someone. Her eyes wide, her whole bearing reflecting childlike hope and a hint of excitement. Now that he remembered...he had never mentioned Maithali. Had she held on to a hope that he might have loved her?

He remembered the first time Maithali had come to meet him in the dead of the night- Piyali had been with her then, he had seen her silhouette from a distance. But after a while...she had gone. He had simply thought she had been giving them privacy-but could it have been something else? Had he broken her heart, unintentionally?

The next day, she had gone and spoken to Sid, who had been angry..because he had asked her to. Of course. It all fitted in. She had known that Sid was in love with Maithali... right from the beginning. And she had still tried to reconcile them. Had she really loved him that much, that she had not begrudged him for loving another?

Surely she had- but then,Maithali was her best friend. She had probably held her tongue on account of the circumstances. He swallowed as he remembered how she had risked her own life- twice, to help him. Why had he not listened to her? Why had he been so blinded by the brightness of the sun that he had ignored the gentleness of the moon?

He pulled out the old, tattered veil. He remembered her last words to him, but this time seeing them in a different light. He had called her a liar. Threatened to kill her. She had begged him to listen-

"Abhay," said a soft voice, and he felt a slim hand move over his own. His head shot up, and for a wild moment it was as if Piyali was sitting with him, but he came crashing back to reality when he saw his mother sitting next to him, looking worried. She reached up and wiped something wet from his face. Then she took the tattered veil from him. "How old is this?" she asked quietly." Is it-?"

He took it back carefully, tucking it inside a drawer.

No, he said. "Its not Maithali's. Its someone else's."

Haseena looked as though she wanted to say more, but she kept silent, knowing that he wasn't willing to talk about it.

"Come out of the past, Abhay," she said quietly, as she left." Think about the present- and the future."

The door closed softly behind her.

Abhay closed his eyes, trying to rid himself of the guilt that ate away at him. Perhaps everything that had happened was his karma catching up with him. He deserved every bit of pain, not because he was a soulless monster, but also because he had broken the heart of a young woman who had truly loved him..loved him enough to come to warn him about his brother and Maithali even though she had known what he was...she had been more concerned about his well-being than hers.Strange, how similar her name was to Piya. They shared the same name, didn't they? Piyali. But Piya would never have stood by. She would have fought him...she would have protested...surely, she would have...she would also have been too afraid to approach him if she had known he was a vampire. A bitter taste remained in his mouth as he remembered the time she had called for help...running away...hatred, disgust in her eyes...while in Piyali's there had been nothing but pure, unadulterated anguish...

No, there was not much in common between them. Except of course, that they were both too good for him. Too pure.

Alina opened her door and glared. Sid sure had a nerve, coming and knocking in the middle of the night. "What do you want?" she hissed, crossing her arms over her chest. Sid looked ruffled, even though he was dressed immaculately as usual. His eyes flickered over her from head to toe and then came to rest on her face, and she could tell that the look was deliberate. "Can we talk?" he asked.

He seemed oddly sincere. She sighed and allowed him to move inside the dark living room. "Only ten minutes," she warned, switching on a dim light. "That'll be enough," he replied, moving closer to her. Alarm bells rang in Alina's head, but her feet stayed stuck to the ground. Then in a flash, he was behind her, his hands skimming over her bare arms. Alina was suddenly very conscious of the fact that she was wearing a thin tank top and pyjamas.

She felt him inhale near her neck and she clenched her fists. "Werewolf," he whispered, sounding slightly surprised. "Of course, I should have guessed long ago if you weren't masking your scent. I think I like your true scent better...more wild, I think." Idly, he slid the thin strap down her shoulder, lightly tracing a pattern on the exposed skin. Perhaps it was the panic that gripped her, or the fact that her nerves were on fire, but Alina whipped around. His eyes were dark pools of need and there was a strange half smile playing on his lips. "So...Alina Khurana," he said softly, "have you ever been kissed by a vampire?"

Alina was frozen. She could not move, could not form a coherent thought. He cupped her face and kissed her, far more gently than she could have expected, yet with an underlying urgency that shocked her. Alina's eyes fluttered closed. She hesitantly opened her mouth to him...and then she caught the scent of another vampire. To be precise, Maithali's.

Disgust and betrayal filled her : she jerked away from him. "How dare you," she hissed. Sid looked almost confused, but she knew better. "It's very easy for you isn't it? To treat women like your toys? To have s** with another vampire and seduce a werewolf the same night? Or is this your perverse idea of having some fun?" Realization flashed across his face. "I can explain-" he began. Alina held up a hand. "I'm not interested," she said frostily. "Now get out." Sid looked regretful . "Alina, I.."

"OUT!" she shrieked. "Get out!" She looked angrier than he had ever seen her. He had barely made it out before the door slammed shut behind him. He never heard the stifled sob on the other side, though.Never saw the tear that fell below Alina's chin, never saw the dark, almost insane fury in her eyes...

A dark shadow fell near the gates of the Dobriyal Mansion. Maithali's lip curled as she scented Piya in a bedroom on the first floor. It would be easy...almost too easy to leap up to the balcony, enter the room and finish her off in her sleep. Regardless of what Sid said, she didn't give a darn about the evidence. There was no one who could challenge her...

She inhaled sharply and took a flying leap onto the balcony. The air around her sizzled and hissed, and the next moment, Maithali felt an unseen force throw her backwards, and if she were a human, she would have surely broken a few bones as she landed on the ground, but as it was, she was a vampire, and so she simply got up, enraged.

Maithali knew this was a spell. A pretty powerful one at that. One no normal witch could have conjured. But that did not matter. She snapped out a counterspell to a shield and tried again. She had fully expected to be met with no resistance, but this time, she was thrown backwards yet again.

She snarled, letting her fangs be seen. The street around her was deserted, not a trace of any living soul near her, and this was what infuriated Maithali- the fact that she was being thwarted by someone close, yet someone who lurked in the shadows, hiding themselves from her.

"Coward!" she snarled. "Show your face if you choose to defy me! Or do you not have the nerve to face me?"

There was a step. It echoed in the silence. Then a cool wind touched Maithali's face. The step was followed by others...slow and measured. And then she came out into the open, her own long hair slightly swaying in the wind. A silver circlet encircled her forehead, glinting in the moonlight. Reina came over to stand hardly ten feet away from Maithali, a small smile on her lips, although her usually soft eyes were hard, dark...and cruel.

"Hello, Maithali," she said, still with that hard smile. For the first time since she had been vampire, Maithali felt a small stab of fear, but she pushed it away as quickly as it came.

"I know you ," she said, with a growing certainty. "I have seen you before...who are you? And what exactly is your reason for shielding an insignificant human girl?"

Reina stopped smiling. "If the human girl was so insignificant as you say, you would not have stalked her to her house and tried more than once to get to her, with no regards for my shield. As for who I am..." she paused. "I have more than one identity. Which one would you prefer?"

Maithali hissed. "Don't you trifle with me, witch," she snapped. "I could snap your neck in two right now."

"Oh, I'd love you to try!" said Reina brightly, though her eyes remained as ruthless as ever.

Maithali snapped. This was the last straw. She lunged for the irritating witch, fully intending to bite her, but Reina clicked her fingers and a bolt of green lightning shot from the edges of her hand, sending Maithali tumbling. Maithali laughed, countering it with a spell of her own, sending Reina slightly off balance, but not for long as she sent another spell at Maithali. But Maithali was prepared, and she used her own supernatural speed - vampires were faster than any other creature, rivalled only by werewolves- to leap into the air, landing right behind Reina and sending two spells in quick succession. Reina, unable to evade two spells at once, faltered , and that was all the time Maithali needed.

She leapt on her, pinning her to the ground, her fangs outstretched, and Reina knew she was close to losing...but no. She wouldn't.

Maithali was centimetres away from Reina's neck. The witch had gone completely still, and Maithali wondered if she admitted her defeat already...but there was one thing still nagging her. Why did this witch hate her so much?

She hesitated for a few seconds...but that was a mistake.

With a force that was much more than any witch could have, Reina threw Maithali off her, leaving her shocked, and promptly became invisible.Her voice, eerily cool, resonated in the air. "Go, bloodsucker. Go in dignity. Because you will lose...you will lose what you treasure the most...just as you took it from me. I will have my revenge, Maithali. Be sure of it!"

Maithali scoffed. "I have better things to do than spend a night arguing with you, witch. As for your revenge...make sure you remember the bite I almost gave you. Next time, it'll be fatal."