Worth Waiting For

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~~~ Ashlynn (POV) ~~~

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I have been wondering around this planet close to eight hundred years. Most of it has become boring to me. The politics of my world will also be the bane of my existence. They just never let it go. I mean, since when did the princess of the vampire kingdom have to marry and mate in order to claim what was rightfully hers. What was rightfully mine.

For close to two hundred years, I have successfully evaded the limelight. Although this meant that I needed to be far away from my home in Romania, as well as far away from my family. It was needed. I wanted to live my life as the Queen. Not the carefully constructed image my mother wants me to convey.

Not many things in my life was a surprise anymore. Not the natural disasters, nor the disastrous after effects of humans moving to a new settlement, nor the people I fed off of. Since I left my home to go on my journey, I have not killed a single person. When I fed, I would do so conservatively. When I needed to fight, I would use my Glimmer to erase their memories after I had won. This has become my boring life.

Little did I know that Fate had another plan for me. Without me noticing, as it always has been, Fate moved me from location to location. All the way to the America"s. North America to be exact.

I was driving down a long stretch of road surrounded my dense forests. It has been a long time since I ever thought about enjoying the scenic"s. I drove in silence, not even switching on the radio to my "69 Shelby GT500. It was a long drive ahead, and I knew that if I ran I would leave too much of my scent behind. It was a way they could track me, therefore I needed to avoid such activities.

For reasons beyond my understanding, I felt as if something was about to happen that would forever change my life. For the better or worse, was still to be determined. No matter what I did, I could not shake this feeling.

I rounded another bend in the road and came upon a fiery crash. A log truck was overturned as the logs it was carrying was scattered across the road. Four cars were mixed up in the crash. It might become an even bigger accident due to it happening on blind bends within the road.

I didn"t notice how much I didn"t care about what I was seeing. It was if I was numb to the fact that there were human lives in danger. I guess that it attributes itself to being alive for over eight hundred years. Well, sort of anyway.

I stopped my car about a dozen meters from the accident, wondering how long the authorities would take to get here and start moving everything. I wanted to get to my destination quickly so I could begin to plan the next few years within this state.

It was at the point when I almost decided to turn around that I heard the noise that would change my life forever. It was the sound of a toddler crying. The sound came from an overturned car within the carnage of the accident. The voice took over all my thoughts. All I thought about now was this voice and how I want to hear more of it.

I got out of the car quickly and made my way over to the overturned grey minivan. Fire had erupted by the engine and the rest of the car was beginning to catch a light. I located the source of the voice and found it to be a three year old boy with black hair. He was still strapped within his kiddies chair, bawling his eyes out.

I saw his parents in the front seats with their arms resting on the roof of the car. Both had ceased breathing. For the first time in a long time I actually felt sorry for this human boy. For anyone for that matter.

I wanted to see him smile. To hear him laugh. What is happening to me? Why am I feeling this way? It is just a three year old boy and yet I would do anything for him.

I pulled him out of the wreckage and held him tightly to me as he wrapped his arms around my neck. His crying only intensified until it wore him out enough causing him to fall asleep.

It took close to an hour before the police officers and ambulances arrived. The little boy resting against my shoulder was the only one who survived the accident. When the paramedics came, I handed the boy to them for a check up. As soon as he left my arms, I felt empty. I felt alone.

It was then that I knew that I would do absolutely anything and everything to keep this boy safe. Regardless of whether or not I was in his life. I would have to wait up to fifteen years or so before I could bring myself to allow anything with this boy. After all, he needed to be a consenting adult in order for anything to happen.

I asked the ambulance where they would be taking the boy and once they told me I returned back to my car. Once the road was clear enough, I would drive through straight to the hospital to see if the boy was being taken care of.

My mind began to wonder whether this boy was the reason for my long dull life. Whether life would be worth living as long as he remained with me.

Over the course of the next few days, I watched the boy from afar. I watched as the nurses ensured that the boy was healthy. I watched as Child Protective Services came and took him away. I watched as he was introduced to the orphanage where his new home would be. I watched as he grew ever so confused at the absence of his own parents.

I watched as he realized he would never see them again. I watched him cry himself to sleep everyday for weeks. It was hard on me, but I just couldn"t leave him.

I never thought I would be reduced to a glorified watcher. Or maybe a stalker if you see it that way. What I never thought in my whole eight hundred years, was just how much your Beloved would mean to you once you found them.

But now I had to wait before anything could happen. I had to wait for a decade and half to pass before I could finally have my little part of happiness. But how is this going to work? How does the Princess, Ashlynn of Graen"a, have a human for a Beloved?