Moonlight Kiss

58. Von Helsing's Offer.

[Jade]

I couldn't sleep throughout the night, the words of the old woman kept haunting me and I did not know what to make of them.

What did she mean by anything can be changed?

I was confused as to why she used to think she was bonded to someone forever before.

Did that mean Mason and I were not bonded forever or did that mean that our bond could be broken.

I did not seem to understand that and it was stressing me out.

The next morning I tried calling Mason and he still wasn't picking up, I decided he wasn't really feeling pain and that was how he could stay more than four days without me and then I started to question other things about our bond.

I wondered if I was fated to meet the old woman, she was very warm and I felt like I could trust her and open up to her in just a few minutes of knowing her.

She was really knowledgeable and I wished I could meet her again so that she could explain the cryptic messages she had given me yesterday.

I heard a knock at the door and I went to open it. I was shocked when Zara burst in happily, waving a brochure and what seemed to be an application letter in front of me.

"What is that?" I asked her, she was so excited, she was basically bouncing around the room.

"This is an NYU application form." She announced.

"Yes, but hasn't the deadline elapsed?" I asked her.

"Yeah, but for you I pulled some strings, you just have to make sure that your application is excellent and I trust you, you'll make it." She said waving the paper in my face.

"I c-can't." I blurted out and she looked at me like I'd gone insane.

"What do you mean you can't, sure you can." She said, encouraging me.

"I can't Zara, my life is in Florida and not here, if I get in it will just be a waste because I can't leave Mason and the pack, my family, they need me." I said exasperatedly.

"Looks to me that they'll get on fine without you." She said, "You need to stop thinking about what others need and start concentrating on what you need."

"I couldn't possibly, I'm not that selfish." I glared at her, getting angry now.

"It's not selfish to look out for yourself, you'll be miserable if you keep living your life to please others, when are you going to start doing things for you." She shouted back at me.

"Zara!" I yelled and she kept quiet immediately.

"I'm sorry, I'm just looking out for you because you never look out for yourself and I fear that no one looks out for you." She sighed and dropped down on the bed.

"Thank you, Zay, but you have to understand that I'm really happy with my life." I said.

"I really hope you mean that." She replied and I nodded.

"I plan to take writing classes once I get back to Florida then I'll be like those poets and great writers who get inspiration from nature and write in country houses. There's a huge lake behind the mansion, I can see myself sitting there with a cup of coffee and just writing away." I tried to sound excited.

"Maybe that would have worked if you were someone else, what about your dreams of working in a publishing company, of owning a publishing company, all of your big city dreams." She gesticulated a lot as she tried to get her point across to me.

"Everything can be done in Florida, I can achieve everything there, can you please stop making thos hard for me." I said and joined her on the bed.

"Fine." She got up and dropped the papers on the table. "Promise me you're going to think about it." She added.

"Thank you, Zay, I promise I will think about it." I smiled at her.

This was my best friend, she was so caring and even if she didn't really understand, I knew that she had my best interests at heart, I wanted to achieve my dreams in the big apple but I knew that I couldn't.

Florida was a great state too and I side could alsoake my dreams come true there but I wasn't worried about that yet, the cult were still after us and the pack had not yet recovered from the last war.

The needed my support right now and also their Alpha, no matter how stubborn he was, my brother had also just had a baby, I couldn't imagine baby Dine growing up without me.

"I just came to drop that, I've got to go." Zara gave me a hug and left.

After she left I picked up my phone again, I wanted to add another text to the long list of unanswered ones but I stopped myself.

I had reached my limit and I wasn't going to beg for his attention again, Zara was partly right, every since I was a kid, I'd spent my entire life worrying about others.

First I worried about my mom to the extent where I never told her when I was having terrifying nightmares and then I began to worry over Jay when the stress from school was making him use drugs then I met Mason and I began to worry about him and our bond.

So it was safe to say that I never really put myself first.

I decided to go to the museum and so I took a shower and put on the most cultured clothing I had, I wore a silver silk camisole with a brown midi flay skirt and I paired it with a white pair of low Air Jordans and I carried a statement piece round straw purse.

I packed my long red hair into a hair ponytail and I put on a pair of dark sunglasses.

Hugo drove me to the museum of modern art and I was in awe of it's beautiful designs and intricate patterns, when I got into the museum, it was really quiet and there were a lot of people studying different art works.

I was naturally drawn to abstract paintings and so I turned to the first abstract painting that caught my eye.

It was a large painting with diverse colors, it had brown spottings, purple streaks that resembled the after glow of a sunset and green shades that resembled nature, it had other colors like yellow, grey, blue and it was so much fun trying to seduce the meaning behind the colours of the painting.

I was drawn to the portrait and I kept staring at it for quite sometime, the more I stared at it, the more I loved it.

I needed to know the name of the artist who had painted such art masterpiece and so I looked down to check the name of the artist.

It was signed with just two letters which I guessed where the initials of the artist who painted it.

"V.H, hmmm." I read aloud and hummed to myself.

"I see you found my painting." A voice said behind me and I turned to stare at the man.

"It's you, what are you doing here?" I asked, Von Helsing.

"Oh, I frequently commute here, you see am one of the artist whose works are displayed here and I just like to come by to admire my paintings over and over again." He gloated.

"What do you mean, this is not an art gallery, it's a museum." I shook my head at him.

"Yeah and I know that, this paintings were made well over two hundred years ago, humans like to claim that their the ones to invest everything but they don't know that they're the most ignorant of creatures, it's funny to watch them get so excited over something that's not even a big deal to us." He smirked.

"You're V.H?" I asked him.

"Yes, but of course the humans don't know that." He smiled.

"Who are you in this world?" I just had to ask him, it felt like he was not just an ordinary student.

"In this world I'm the son of a wealthy billionaire who owns the Helsing publishing house in the heart of New York." He said.

"B-but, you're a student." I said.

"Not that that ever stopped anybody before but I'm studying for my doctorate degree." He said.

"Wow, that's impressive, I know that you're really old but how old are you in human years?" I asked him.

"Oh, that will be about twenty three." He responded casually.

"That, that's." I didn't even know what to say, I was just starstruck.

"If you're done admiring my painting, why don't you join me for lunch." He offered and I smiled.

He led me out of the museum and then we went to a small cafe nearby, it was literally within walking distance and then we got a table.

"I'd like some tea." He smiled at the waitress who came to serve us, she stared at him starstruck for a while before I cleared my throat and she turned to me.

"I'm sorry miss, what would you like to have." She asked politely.

"Iced coffee please with some chocolate." I told her and she scribble something down in her little notebook and walked away.

"This place is truly nice." I sighed while we waited for our order.

"Yes, I can see that you really like it yet." His lips were pursed as he studied my expression.

He was a really good looking man but I did not have that sort of feeling towards him, he also did not seem to give me that sort of vibe, though I didn't really like him in the beginning, I was already coming around.

Though he liked to brag a lot, I found his company really nice and amusing, he was very knowledgeable and he knew almost anything about everything.

The waitress came back with our order and we thanked her as she dropped them and went to serve other customers.

"If you like it so much here, why don't you stay." Von Helsing's eyes flashed yellow as he stared intently at me, it was almost lie he was looking into my soul.

"You won't understand, it's complicated." I sighed and took a sip of my drink.

"You're not human, Jade, stuff is not meant to be complicated for you, you either so or you don't." He said. "I have an offer for you though, I need somebody to run the publishing house and you're just the right person for the position."