"I'm afraid to show you who I really am. I don't think you'll like what you'll see.."
At the age of sixteen Tessa gave birth to her only son; Dorian. He was taken from her at birth, considered too young to even have a child in the first place. Much less outside of wedlock. They claimed because of her religion they allowed her to carry the child to term, but the same night he was born Tessa's parents took him from her, claiming that he didn't make it a few hours later. Tessa continued her life, believing Dorian was dead. It wasn't until six or seven years later Tessa learned about their lie.
At the start of freshman year in high school and still human, Tessa met a young man named Tyler Addison. He was trying out for the football team while at the same time she was aiming to be a cheer leader. It was your basic
high school love story.
By mid freshman year however, the fairy tale
met a bad ending. Tessa was pregnant, when her
parents found out she was forbidden to see tyler.
The pregnancy wasn't something she could hide
while still in school, and she couldn't avoid Tyler
either. Against her parents' word she met with him
privately between classes and informed him about
the pregnancy.
Tyler, of course, had a little secret of his own. He was a telepathic,
and a strong one at that. He used it from time to time to help him win a game,
cheat on a test. Little things that never required his full potential until the
night he went to confront Tessa's parents about the child they were
expecting. Out of respect for them and his love for Tessa, he was prepared to
propose to her that night in front of them only to be thrown out - quite
literally. But that didn't stop him, his love for Tessa made him very persistent,
and his emotions got the better of him. He demonstrated his power by fighting
back. Taking interest in his power Tessa's parents sent cross soldiers to collect him, ending in his death when he refused to cooperate.
On the night Dorian was born, Tessa's parents assumed even watered down by Tessa he must have telepathy in his blood because of his father. Dorian was taken to the Core where he was raised and trained to use his powers for
their own gain.
He became powerful, even surpassed his father. In doing so he moved
up in ranks, an elite. Able to withstand even the most brutal of beatings. Over
the course of fifteen years, he trained without resistance. The Cross with held
the name of the supposed vampire who killed his mom and dad. They told him he
wasn't ready. He had to be strong enough before they told him, and they didn't
until his fifteenth birthday - approximately the same time Tessa was sired by
Viral.
She became his primary target, his anger, the pain he suffered from never getting a chance to know his parents. It all drove him to become a stronger man and a stronger telepath. That anger festered in him, grew and made his heart turn cold. He didn't care, he didn't love, and he killed anyone who stood in his way of avenging his mom and dad. However his current age still kept him from reaching his full potential. The cross had a theory that he would reach full power when he turned eighteen. They offered an accelerate, and put him in a stasis where he aged faster and his muscle mass increased in size. He aged by four years in a matter of days.
The night they let Dorian out to track Tessa down, he left a note on her door step instructing her to come alone. Six years of being one of the undead told her that was a bad idea. She learned to trust her instincts, and in doing so she asked her boyfriend Cosmo to come along.
It was a good thing she did. At what she considered was an over -the-top introduction, Dorian blew up her's and Cosmo's cars with C40 dynamite. 'A warning shot' he said. He clearly made his point. The next time they met, things went a little less destructive. They talked, and he fought a serum The Cross injected in his body they in his earlier years to brainwash him. He even had a fake photo of Tessa bloodied and standing over two bodies. They said the corpses that lay at her feet were his mom and dad. He's been holding onto that picture all this time, believing it to be true.
The photo was absolutely real, but it wasn't his parents.
Tessa just fed, she didn't know who those people were.
At first, Dorian didn't believe her. The Cross had no
reason to lie to him right?
Over the course of their short time together
Dorian learned the truth, and Tessa finally got her
son back. But by the end of the night Dorian had to
return the Core
or risk dieing by a kill switch they implanted by his
heart. They put him a chamber and everything that
happened that day is erased from his mind after he reports in.
Their last meeting was intervened by Cross soldiers and Dorian almost died. To save
his life Tessa gave him her blood. Not only did it power him more than he ever
thought possible, but he became addicted. Dorian craved the power vampire blood
gave him, and the next night while being experimented on Dorian lost control.
Tessa made a vow no matter what it took, she would save Dorian and bring
The Cross to an end.
Even if it cost her her life.
To find out more about Dorian Faust, click
Time passed on. Weeks.. Months. Over time Tessa made efforts to get to know her son, but not to the amount of her liking. There were periods where she would go weeks without speaking to him. Many nights she spent looking over maps of the city, studying the coordinates Dorian gave her for each facility location. She was determined to bring the Cross to an end once in for all. During that stretch of time, Cosmo brought Tessa to the underworld to meet his father Hades, who asked her if she believed in fate. She became confused by the inquiry, but gave him an honest answer.
"I do believe in Fate, but to an extent. I believe that even though your Fate is supposedly sealed already, I also believe it can change depending on the actions you take and events that happen through out your life. An example might be if my sire decided to make me into a meal instead of turning me, my Fate would be to die. But, seeing as how I'm standing here before you, then my Fate is to be a vampire."
As the night continued on, things came to a not so pleasant end. The two returned to Cosmo's manor where he had a secret of his own to reveal.
He was Dorian's real father.
The story Tessa knew was one Cosmo threaded together to replace Tessa's memory of him. A prophecy of Tessa's death had Cosmo fleeing to protect her, but he didn't know she was pregnant.
"'There is something that I need to tell you." He repeated, brow still furrowed a bit, a torn expression evident on his face. He was silent for a moment. Then he seemed to gather his thoughts together and he continued. "Tessa, when was the first time that we met?" He inquired then looking into her eyes.
Tessa thought back to that snowy evening. "At the tavern... Why?" She frowned a bit, looking at his expression.
Cosmo smiled a little as he recalled the memory, but then he shook his head. "No. The first time I met you was in your fourth period history class in high school your junior year."
.......................
Cosmo didn't let go, but he would, if she asked him to. He knew that this was a lot to take in. He had already been through it, and now it was her turn. At least she wouldn't have to go through it alone. Neither of them would have to go through any of this alone ever again. "For you safety." He began. It was best just to be as honest as possible at this point. "I was led to believe that if I stayed with you, I would bring about your death." He revealed. "I... I couldn't risk something bad happening to you, b-because of me. I didn't want to leave. Please, believe me baby, I didn't." He held her hand just a little bit tighter at that. "I was just trying to keep you safe. I had no idea that you were pregnant. When you were turned by Viral... when your heart stopped beating... I was led to believe that you had died anyways and that all I had done to protect you had been in vain. You could imagine my surprise when I ran into you at the tavern last year."
That same night, Cosmo proposed to Tessa.
Three weeks passed.
Cosmo learned the truth about his linage. For centuries he thought that Hades was his father, when in fact it was Zeus. While this made sense to Cosmo, Tessa and Faust had a hard time comprehending it all. and how that would affect Faust in general.
The night Faust was taken was one of the most traumatic experiences Tessa ever had to endure. For nine months she carried the child alone, only to be told he didn't survive past birth. He was raised in the hands of the cross, growing up under the impression that Tessa was the one who killed his parents. When he became of age, she became his primary target.
Faust's upbringing was overseen by cheif in command, alice sinclare, also known as 'silver tongue'. Lie after lie, she used spun tales to keep faust under her control. She was motherly towards him, his only light in the shroud of darkness the cross kept over him all his life. She had him wrapped around her finger.
At the same time, she would manipulate Tessa's father david. it was her idea to take faust away from tessa. She knew about cosmo, faust's father the night she met cosmo in passing. He was at a carnival with Tessa, and though it was brief, enough study on greek mythology made alice realize who cosmo was after following him for a short period of time.
Knowing eventually that Tessa would learn the truth, she suspected that Faust would bring around Tessa's demise. After all, what mother in their right mind would kill their own child? The boy had extraordinary abilities, Mastering the basics of telepathy in such a short period of time. Alice became fascinated with the child and his power. She kept a close eye on his growth into a young man. His strengths, weaknesses. When he was sent out to kill Tessa Alice was confident that the boy would do so without fail.
Never did she expect that he would fall for a boy a few levels below his class. One that he trained with during his endurance lessons. His training partner, Forrest. Alice knew Forrest could see right through her, and for a period of a year, they played cat and mouse with one another. Forrest warning Faust to be weary of the woman, and Alice striving to prove him wrong in every sense of the word.
" Who will you believe more? Me? Or some lowly child?" Her eyes would feign sadness. Her performance was strong. To fight a bond of love the two boys shared was not an easy task and she knew it well enough. But rather than give in, she deflected Faust's attention to ' Focus on the matter at hand'. His prime target, Tessa. She honed in on that hatred and sense of revenge. She willed it to blacken his heart.
When she discovered the two boys had reunited and Faust had broken free of the Cross's influence, Alice thought all hope was lost. She intended to use the boy to get Tessa and Zac out of the way, to climb her way up to being The Cross successor. She whispered things into David's ear. Taking Faust away from Tessa had been of her influence. She thought for sure The Cross was going to end, so long as it remained in David's control. He had grown soft, weak. The Cross just had so much potential that he and his wife had merely scratched the surface.
,
Then news came of Helena's death. Mauled by something that looked like a wild animal, but Alice knew better. This news sparked anger and brought forth grief in David's heart. But most of all, it left him vulnerable. Alice left the core in search of Tessa and Zac, reassuring David that she would surely see them to their end. As for Faust, David has yet to learn of his betrayal. She intends to use the boy for her own means, but how she'll go about that remains unclear.
