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16

SPENCER MURDOCK

I walked into the cafe for a shift; I haven't gotten to work for a while. Jeff is usually in charge of creating the schedule but for some reason, my name hasn't been showing up. Finally, I got a personal text from in saying that I should come in today. I assumed it was for work but when I walked in the only person I saw was Diego. He sat by the window looking out and sipping on some warm coffee. 

Hesitantly, I walked toward him with held breath. He's supposed to be dangerous, a vampire, someone who can kill me in an instant. But from the time I spent with him, he didn't give me the vibe that he wants to hurt me. More than that he was excited to be my friend and maybe happy that it bothered Jackson. His brother on the other hand... well, that's a different story.

"Diego," I mutter, my head hung low and skeptical. He looks at me and smiles as he takes a sip of his coffee before ushering me to sit in front of him. On the side of the cup was his name written in my best friend's handwriting with a heart at the end of it.

"Spencer," He replies, his voice hoarse and soft. I take a seat and watch as his perfect Spanish features go from worry to guilt. "My brother told me about what he did." Diego paused. "I'm so sorry."

I just looked at him, I didn't know what to say. His eyebrows pierced together and his eyes held a bit of pain. All I knew was that I'm not mad at him. Scared? maybe. But I understand why he kept it from me. I understand why all of them kept this secret from me. 

"I am sorry for lying to you, for what he did and how he did it. I understand if you don't to be friends anymore, I just wanted to tell you that." He finished, satisfied with his determination.

I looked around the room and sighed. "Where's Jeff?" I asked curiously. Deigo looked at me with a little hint of hurt in his eyes.

Sighing, he spoke, "He's fine. I didn't hurt him. He left a few minutes before you showed up." He told me.

"No, it's not that I'm afraid. He texted me to come in so I assumed he'd be here." I explained.

"I told him to text you. I needed to talk about everything." Diego looked around before leaning to whisper lowly. "Whatever you need me to do to fix all of this, I'll do it. I didn't know until Derek told me what he did but I need you. You're my only friend and I care about you so much."

My heart broke at Diego's words once I saw how scared he is to lose me. Of course, in the last few weeks of knowing him, I built a bond that I didn't even want to tear down. Pretending to date each other, going out into town, and laughing together. Creating memories of good moments I didn't want to lose either.

"I'm not mad, I need you too. I'm just really surprised, I have a lot of questions. Jackson talked to me about his side of things but I know that you're quite different from him." I didn't even want to mention the words 'werewolf' or 'vampire' because of how public we are.

"I'll answer any questions you have honestly." A word that I wanted to hear from him, I want him to be completely honest with me so I give him a small smile before playing with the base of his coffee cup. I trail my fingers on the ink of Diego's name in Jeff's clean handwriting.

"Does Jeff know?" I ask curiously. Diego shakes his head as an answer. "Are you going to tell him?"

Diego sighs and runs his tan hands through his thick brown curly hair and rests it there for a second in thought. I could see that he's been thinking about this a lot and how much he cares for my friend. His light eyes give a sense of guilt that is no doubt eating him up.

"Eventually." He finally says. "I mean, I really want to tell him. I hate that I lie to him but the rules are clear. If I tell him... I could royally fuck everything up."

"Derek told me... or showed me."

"Students aren't allowed, adults haven't really been addressed. We haven't left Dimmsvale in decades to know what exactly to do. Jackson could be in trouble for even talking about it with you." My eyes widen at his words.

"W-what would they do?" I stutter out my worrying question.

"Relax, he's the alpha's son and you're his mate. As long as you don't tell anyone else, he should be fine." He tells me.

"How did you know- when did you-"

"At the rally." Diego smiled softly at me. "When I kissed you, I saw how you reacted and how he did," Diego explained. "I assume you didn't know then but now you do."

"Basically." Then a question popped into my mind. Something I've kind of wanted to know since I found out about what Diego and his family are. "How old are you?"

Diego chuckled. "I've been eighteen for two hundred years." I gasped.

"You're fucking two hundred years old." It came out as a whisper-shout.

"Two hundred and eighteen." He smirked at me.

"How about your family?" I asked.

"My sister and I are closer to the same age. Danelle is closer to five hundred years old and Kendrick is three hundred and sixty-three. Derek is closer to Kendric's age as he is three hundred and twelve." Diego said all of this like it was normal to be telling me that they are older by freaking centuries.

"If you guys are that old then why are you all a family?" Inquisitiveness filled my voice as thoughts swarmed around once again. 

"That's a long story." He warned.

"I want to know," I assure him. I just want to understand the world of Diego and Jackson. They are two out of the only four people I actually care about.

"Okay," He took a breath, ready to relay some information to me. "After two centuries of being a vampire, Danelle found the love of her life. At the time, Kendrick was human and stupid. He fell in love with her but stopped at nothing to protect her. Danelle could protect herself from the humans hunting her but she was worried that Kendrick would be too brave and get himself killed. So, she turned him.

"They spent almost six decades madly in love and then they came across Derek who had, then, recently been changed after losing his wife. Derek didn't know how to control his hunger so they took him under their wing and helped." He finished but he didn't even touch the subject of him and his sister.

"Well, what about you? How did you change, and your sister? How did they find you?" I bombarded him with all these questions. I just want to know.

"That's a little sad." He says quietly.

"I'd like to know but if you don't want to tell me yet then that's perfectly fine," I told him. Diego looked at me with a tense expression as the memories came to him.

"I grew up as a field worker. I picked grapes for wine and was sold around. Until I was 12, my father and I had the best relationship I could ever ask for. He loved me and my sister dearly but after my mom died, we needed to survive. I didn't want him to keep worrying about taking care of me so I ran. I went and worked and willingly sold myself to farmers. When I turned 18 I felt like I had enough to come back and make my father proud.

"Turns out that my father got so depressed from my mother's death and my leaving that he killed himself. He left my little sister alone for years and she turned to prostitution. I tried to get her off of the job and work with me out in the fields but at that time it wasn't common for women to work like that. And being foreign didn't help either of us out either. I was walking home to our house after working and was jumped."

I held his hand in mine as he paused in his story.

"She was this beautiful girl who could get any man she wanted. But when I didn't want her, that night, she got mad. She couldn't seduce me even being the... creature... she was. The woman didn't realize that she wasn't the right gender for me to even become interested. So instead of killing me out of anger, she turned me. I still don't know why. I didn't see her after that. But I spent two years trying to fight off the urge to drain my little sister, my friends, and my lover, at the time. It was so hard that I started to push everyone away.

"Camilla was the worst pushed. She went further and further into the world of hooking and drinking until she could be pulled out anymore. One night, she had a 'customer' who went too far. He harmed her badly but she took it. She let the bastard walk all over her. He told his friends about how docile and they attacked her outside the tavern she worked. They beat her and- and raped her." His voice cracked, revealing his feelings for just a second, and he paused for another second. "S-she was going to die. I found her and I knew that she was going to die. So I turned her, I made her into one of me."

Diego looked sadly down at his coffee and I squeezed his hand. "What did you guys do after?"

"We left, and a couple of years later we ran into Daniella and Kendrick. They took us in, they saved us. Derek immediately took in Camilla as a sister. He protected her and took care of her. He didn't really favor me. He didn't like to be around me or talk to me. When he was forced to be in my presence, he would glare at me and never take his eyes off me like I was going to destroy everything around me."

"Well, why did he do that?" I asked.

"I don't know, honestly. He was heartbroken about some girl for a long fucking time. It was annoying but there was nothing I could say that would fix it. He just didn't like another guy, besides Kendrick, in the family I guess." Diego looked down at his hands, I decided that it was enough reminiscing for today. I didn't want to bring up more bad memories just because he feels guilty for not telling me. His past is his alone, if he trusts me then I will listen but it's not my business to pry.

The rest of the conversation consisted of Jeff and Jackson and some small talk.

Tori