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Pia sees the wedding video and comes to know that she was married to Abhay in past life. Advik asks Sama to look out for Pia as she is in danger.
Abhay stared at the diary, lying hidden in one of the drawers in the now empty and ruined Raichand mansion. He had come here earlier, wondering if there was anything that would relieve his confused state of mind. He had almost turned over the whole house, the broken furniture, the dust filled rooms, and had finally found this, in one of the rooms, buried beneath dust.
He opened the diary. On the first page, in elegant cursive letters were the words, "Haseena's musings".He flicked through it. It was like discovering a lost part of himself that he himself did not know about. The diary was old, very old, almost two hundred years old, and very thick. As he went through some of the entries, he paused at an entry dated more than 70 years ago, as a few words caught his eyes.
October, 2010
We've moved to Dehradun now, the three of us. Abhay has been restless every since he came here. I understand this place links him to a painful part of his past, but that was a long time ago. And I don't think Maithili is the reason for his restlessness. He hardly shows any emotions, if any, it's even less than me and Chand. He's a vampire through and through except the fact that he doesn't drink human blood. But the point is, he's agitated today. He went out to have a run through the forest and he's been in a high temper, even grumpier than usual ever since...
Was this about him... Moments locked up in ink from those days long ago? He had been grumpier than usual, a wry smile twisted his mouth at the words, and he had been restless after he had run through the forest? Why? What had happened there?
November, 2010
I don't believe it! The past is returning to haunt him again. He's the son I've never had, and now I can't bear to see him in so much turmoil. That girl is a splitting image of Maithili! How is that possible... For a moment, I thought it was Maithili herself... but how could it have been.. that was two hundred years ago... when Abhay had still been human... and in love.. and we hadn't met him... no, this girl is Pia Jaiswal. I could see the disbelief and anger on Abhay's face when I asked him to apologize.. I didn't really want to put him through more pain.. but what If he reveals his true form in anger? If he loses control? I can't let that happen.. too much risk to the Raichands... but I never even dreamt that he'd ask her for a dance! What he was thinking of, I'll never know... Abhay is always impulsive, moody... but this.. and the way the girl looked at him while he danced.. I don't get a good feeling about this... and for a moment I thought in Abhay's eyes too.. but how can it be... he hates seeing the living proof of his long-lost dead love...
Abhay reread the entry, his eyes widening. Here was the first mention of Pia... and he had danced with her... how Had Pia looked at him while they danced? What had Haseena seen in his eyes?
December,2010
He actually brought her home! The nerve of him! What does he think he is doing, allowing a human to spend a night in a house full of vampires? And what's more, he tried to hide it from me and Chand... he tried to defend her.. and here I was thinking that he hated her...
Abhay has changed these past two months... he cares for her.. he cares for that human slip of a girl... and her love can so easily be seen.. it's so obvious even in the couple of times I have seen her... foolish humans...
But Abhay is a different matter altogether.. He's starting to feel again.. and it is dangerous for vampires. He's not only risking the safety of the vampire world... but he's risking his heart again! He is actually standing up to us for that human who will vanish the moment she has an inkling of what he is? He's such a fool... thinking he knows humans more than me and Chand... we have been around longer, we know...
Abhay blinked. Had he ever been like this? This was a stranger's tale, where were the descriptions of the ruthless, arrogant vampire he was now? No mention of that... It was all about how caring he had been.. Alina's words flashed through his mind "Come on Abhay, you were NEVER like this. You couldn't harm any innocent. This is not you Abhay."... Was she telling the truth then?
January, 2011
Something needs to be done Chand I have both thought about. And so we are leaving Dehradun. Abhay won't oppose on this matter, he knows if he doesn't come we'll leave him behind and it's always safe to remain in groups. We have no alternative. With growing unease, Ive observed their growing closeness.. how her thoughts are gradually taking Maithili's place.. how's it's becoming Pia, Pia and Pia everywhere for him... he's even starting to defy us for him... and Pia doesn't leave him alone either. The girl is clever but too clever for her own good. She's found out about Maithili and she most certainly is on the trail to find out who Abhay is. There's too much at risk now. Interfering humans are not good news. Chand is all for killing her and be done with but Abhay won't let him. And Abhay is our son.. we can never harm him...
February, 2011
She knows. She knows who we are... It all started with that accident she had. It's uncanny how Abhay senses her every movement, senses her every pain. He's actually walked out on us to go to her... ran out on us more like. And Chand decided that he had to remove Pia once and for all. We followed him.
Later she went into the forest, at the very shack where Maithili and Abhayendra died and Abhay was born. The nerve of that girl! We reached there before Abhay, closed the exits with huge boulders and set it on fire and retreated. And Abhay had to go and spoil our plans and make it even worse if possible. He saved her at the cost of revealing his identity. Well, it did one thing. It made Pia run away from him in terror. But that was temporary. By the next day, she was back, ready to accept him for who he was, ready to go after him again. It's Abhay who's staying away now, but she won't let him. And she hasn't told anybody about him being a vampire either. For the first time, I don't know what to make of this girl... What is she made of really? Does she really love my son so much?
May,2011
For the first time, I feel the enormity of endless existence I have... Maithili has come back and has taken Abhay away from me. Frozen him forever, till she wants him back. What do I do now? How do I bring him back? Only true love can bring him back.. but... Pia... She's my only hope to get him back. Now is the time to see whether her love is true. For Abhay's love for Pia certainly was true. He loved her enough to set her free, he wiped out her memories of them together before freezing... and she doesn't remember him... she's gone far away to Paris... but has her heart forgotten?
Abhay's hands were numb as he read. His brain buzzing indistinctly. It was like reading of a stranger he once knew, an identical twin he had once lost.. Was all this really written about him? Did he really live with Chand and Haseena? Did Haseena really love him so much, care for him like a mother? And Pia... Had so much happened between them, almost a hundred years ago... she had loved him? Loved despite the knowledge of who he was.. saved him from being frozen in time? And was this really him? He was capable of love? So much love in fact... that it was.. as Haseena had written.. Pia, Pia and Pia everywhere for him? Then why did he not remember this? Why did he have no memories of that love he had shared.. a love which had awed Haseena?
He flicked through more pages, and it was like examining a lost treasure. A weird kind of feeling was rising in him and it was a while before he realized what he was feeling: sadness. But why...
He read more parts... entries showing her joy when Pia had finally thawed the ice and freed him, how he had decided to stay away from her, how her heart had bled seeing him in pain for staying apart from the girl he loved, how hard it was for him to push her away towards others, their growing worries on discovering the family of werewolves, the attack on Chand, and the revelation of someone named Jeh Khurana as a werewolf, who had a sister named Alina Khurana... Abhay paused.. Could it be the same Alina who was the queen of the werewolves now? Was it possible? He read the entry once again:
They are forming a timid friendship, Abhay and Alina. They are mortal enemies however, and the family needs to be killed. But Alina does indeed seem different from Jeh and Dipannita. She's shy and sort of sweet, afraid and suppressed... But how can I question their friendship when I know I made an error in judging Pia, thinking her to be a threat... So I refuse to say anything now. I trust Abhay's judgement..
Abhay blinked. Him and Alina... friends? This was a laughable idea now... he had destroyed more than half of the werewolf clan now... maybe this was another Alina...
As he read more of the diary... he got more and more confused... Half of the times he was sure that the entries were not true at all... How could it be true? Had he really had a family once, a friend, a love so strong that nothing could finish it? He read about the fight... how he was killed.. and then he came back as a human... him and Pia shifting away to Mumbai... more conflicts... and then at last... a happy marriage... them going on a honeymoon.. coming back...
Haseena's entries were more light now, more positive and warm. She and Pia seemed to have grown a strong bond and Haseena had written a lot about it... he paused towards the very end of the fat diary, at an entry written untidily...
I think Abhay is going mad... they were so happy when they went.. as Pia called it... their.. "second honeymoon" together.. but he came back alone.. all distraught... and nothing Chand or I say can calm him... he still doesn't believe she's no more... But something seems amiss here... I have a bad feeling about this... some of my old forebodings are coming up... the vampire council knows what a powerful vampire Abhay can be if he's restored from his human form... but he'll also become a monster.. I can't lose my son... no no... why will they kill Pia... her death was an accident... just an accident...
And then the last entry
Pia's body.. I must find it... I must.. I won't let them do this to Abhay.. won't let them take away his happiness... I have a strong feeling that it is the council now... no.. I will find Pia's body and set her soul free. I will bring her back to Abhay...
Abhay stared at the last entry, not really seeing it... What did it all mean? They had been happy... and then Pia had been murdered... he became a vampire again... the council?
Abhay clenched his jaw. What was going on? He seemed to be a puppet if this was all true... Haseena had been suspicious of the council... but why would the council..
He threw the diary aside, scowling. It was time he found out what was actually going on..
And as his vampire senses kicked in..something else registered...something that he had not realized being so engrossed in reading the diary...it was a distinct scent...coming from the diary...a scent he had come to well associate with Advik Raheja...
**************
Advik's house was empty when Abhay reached it. He knew Advik wasn't there ... his scent was weaker than it would have been if he had actually been present. Abhay didn't know whether there would be any security in the front gates, and he did not want to waste time finding out. He had come here to see what Advik had to do with all this... for the first time, he felt confused about Advik... whose side was the vampire really? What secrets was he hiding? He circled the house once, and stopped beneath a window at the back of the house. The scent was strongest here... the window must belong to Advik's room. It was open and on the first floor.. and Abhay had no problems jumping in through the window... a flash of an elusive image flitted across his mind... jumping down from the window with a girl whose eyes he had covered with his hands... who had curly dark hair...
The image was gone as quickly as it had come. Abhay blinked, wondering what it was all about.. What had he just seen? He shook his head to clear it and looked around.. The room was tastefully decorated, with subtle touches of the decoration styles at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A huge bed took up one part of the room. The floor was carpeted, the bright colour in contrast with the cream walls around. A table was there in another part of the room. Abhay was about to walk towards the table when something caught his eye: something hidden beneath the pillow on the bed.
He approached the bed, and as soon as he was near it, his vampire eyes understood what was beneath the bed: a book, thick and ancient, partially under and partially out of the pillow. This struck him as strange because, Advik didn't seem the type who would read bedtime stories at night. He bent down to retrieve it and his eyes grew wide as he read the title of the book: SECRETS OF THE SUPERNATURAL.
It must have been written long ago; Abhay thought, as he opened the book and flicked through the pages; because printed books were hardly available nowadays: tablet story books and ebooks were the calls of the day. He paused at a specific page where the corner of the page had been turned down as a bookmark. His eyes roamed over the page, coming to pause at a paragraph towards the end of the page:
When it comes to emotions, no supernatural species can match that of a vampire. Indeed, a legend exists that if a vampire does indeed love, then it is a love in its truest form. Once united with his/her soulmate, it is quite impossible to forge the bond formed between the two, specially if the vampire's other half may be a human. If indeed, they are forcefully separated, by fate or any other way, the pull of love is so strong that when the soulmate is freed, he/she will return to his/her vampire lover. Not only that, the return will ensure that the person will become the most powerful supernatural in the universe, as a defense against re-separation. The thirst for revenge is said to burn deep within the person, a thirst to make those people pay who has separated him/her from the lover. A recognizing symbol is usually a giveaway for such individuals: a symbol which he/she may not be aware of, a symbol which nonetheless is also a part of the vampire who is the individual's other half. While he/she may possess powers like self-healing and calling for help when in distress, they have no recollection of their previous birth and may not even be aware of their powers. This makes them slightly vulnerable, as their blood is the most powerful weapon of all, and those vile enough to sacrifice their blood will acquire immense powers.
Abhay stared at the paragraph, reading it over again, sense slowly starting to seep in. Only one name registered in his mind: Pia... A flash of the bat tattoo, an identical replica of his, came to his mind. And she had not been aware of it, either, he remembered. How much did Advik know? And how had he known - about him and Pia - if there had indeed been any him and Pia. Was Pia - could she really be his ---? Why could he not remember? He closed his eyes in frustration, straining his memory to remember something, anything. But these written words were the only things to go by... he could not recall that love which had called Pia back... and, he remembered suddenly, Pia had indeed healed miraculously from those injuries after her kidnapping... and he had also been able to know where exactly she had been when kidnapped - then was this really true? Or just a bunch of coincidences? It was as if a gaping hole existed in his memory, beyond which he could not see anything. He could not rest until he found out the truth. For he was sure, by now that there was something going on - first the Vedre, those sudden flashes of elusive images he couldn't remember, Haseena's diary - the book -
And there was something else.. he realized suddenly... if this was true... if Pia was what the book said she was - then her blood would give power to - was that why Alina and Liana were so hell-bent on being friends with Pia? Could it be the solution? Because they thought that Pia's blood could give them powers to defeat him, the invincible Abhay Raichand. Then another thought came to him mind. What did Advik has to do with all this? Was he the one who brought Pia back to this world by freeing her soul? Considering the way he has never tried to come between them surely points towards Advik deliberately trying to unite him and Pia, but why would he want to do that? He was supposed to be his enemy, then why would he bring his soul mate back to him? Or was he not really an enemy?
Abhay stood there, unmoving, reeling against the discoveries and realizations. A picture of Pia's baby brown eyes flashed in his mind, and he felt a sudden protectiveness towards her, something he hadn't felt in a long time... he would never ever let her fall prey to the greed of the supernaturals. She would be safe, he would make sure of that. He would be her savior forever. It was just because he wanted to find out the truth, he told himself, but deep down he knew. He knew that he cared, knew that whatever his excuses were, he could never bear to see those beautiful eyes of the girl he claimed to hate shed tears of pain. Ever.
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