"After that, I searched London. I knew what I had seen, what they were, and I was determined to seek vengeance for my family. When I couldn't find them there, I went to the continent. I spent a long time searching France, Spain, and Germany before moving to Italy. That was when I met up with a group of vampire hunters and joined them. I was twenty-one at the time."
Stefan paused to take a deep breath. Isabelle remained silent; her hands curled into his neck as she fought back her tears. Tears she instinctively knew would cause him to stop speaking. He didn't want her tears, but her heart was breaking for the boy he’d been, for the cruel twist of fate that ripped his family away from him and caused him to grow up in an instant.
She couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose any of her family; it was like a knife in the chest just thinking about it. She couldn't imagine what it was like for him to see them murdered, and so viciously. She wanted to cry for the man who went to his sister only to be turned away by the only family he had left. If the woman was still alive, Isabelle would rip her to shreds for being so cruel to him.
"For the next five years, I searched the continent, destroying any vampires I came across. I found the two men in that time, both in Greece. With the help of my newfound friends, I overtook and destroyed them, but the woman still evaded me."
"I ran into her again two years later, in Dublin. Her name was Brenda." His voice was strained, and his hands dug into her skin. She knew he wasn't aware of it, and she didn’t protest it. "She recognized me, remembered me. I was alone with her, consumed with vengeance and hatred, but it wasn't enough. She won the fight but thought it would be more fun, more amusing to turn me into the one thing I’d loathed for the last sixteen years.
“She changed me instead of killing me. I fought against it, but as you know, the more you fight, the more it hurts, and the more difficult it becomes to resist. She forced her blood into me and disappeared. After that, I had nowhere to go, no idea of what to do. I couldn't return to my friends, they would have killed me instantly, so I left Europe and went to Canada."
Isabelle could no longer hold back her tears; they slid down her cheeks to wet his shoulder. Sorrow engulfed her for the man he’d been, for the man he could have been if things had been different. She bit back a sob as his grip eased on her waist and he began to stroke her back again. She was the one who should be offering him comfort, not the other way around. She snuggled closer as she sought to ease some of the torment radiating from his body. He nuzzled her neck before speaking again in a softer, less cold voice.
"I spent the next fifty years traveling between Canada and the states. A lot of our kind came here. It was an excellent place for them to feed. People could just disappear into the wilderness with no questions asked.
"I hunted the killers amongst our kind, feeding off them, and growing stronger. I couldn't go for the most powerful ones; they would have destroyed me. So I bided my time, killing the newer ones until I grew stronger. I met Brian in Boston when I was seventy-eight. He’d been changed twenty years earlier, his wife, and children were murdered at the same time."
Isabelle shuddered as she bit back a sob. "He was just as determined as I was to avenge their deaths. He’d been doing his own hunting, destroying any vampires he came across. We fought, I could have killed him, but I didn't. I could sense he wasn't evil, wasn't like the others. Brian's powers hadn't matured enough for him to sense the same thing about me. When I explained to him not all of us were evil; we joined together to hunt the ones who were.
"With Brian's help, I killed even more, and went after ones who were stronger. After a hundred years, we found the two who killed Brian's family. They were the most powerful we’d ever come up against, but we destroyed them. Both of us left the battle severely wounded but much stronger from their blood.
"That was when we decided to go back to Europe. Most of the older ones had remained on the continent. Our strength steadily grew as we moved through the continent, hunting and destroying everyone we could find.
"I never found Brenda, and after thirty years we decided to return to the states. By this time, I was beginning to doubt I would ever find her and that she may already be dead. Twenty years later, I ran into her in New Orleans. By then, I was stronger than she was. I’d fed from some of the most powerful of our kind, absorbing their strength and powers. Brenda lived off humans and took pleasure in destroying families, but their blood wasn't as strong as the blood I’d been thriving on.
"The battle was short and brutal, and when it was over, I was left with nothing. For the last two hundred years, I’d been consumed with a need for revenge. It was the only thing driving me; the only thing keeping me alive for so long. After Brenda was dead, there was nothing left to fuel me.
"Brian and I continued our mission, but it wasn't the same. I was only going through the motions, just surviving. I began to realize all my existence had ever been, and ever would be, was nothing but death and destruction. There was nothing left to drive me, except
