She stared at her hands as she tried to decide how much to reveal to him. “It was fairly normal until I was twelve. You know, mom, dad, white picket fence, little ranch house, pool in the backyard. We lived in Ohio then.”
“What happened when you were twelve?”
At the time, it was something rather inconsequential, but it turned out to be the catalyst that would tear her ordinary little world to pieces. She couldn’t reveal that to him without telling him why she was here, but she could tell him some of it.
“My mom decided we should tour the U.S. and homeschool me. So my parents bought an RV, pulled me out of school, and we hit the road when I was thirteen.”
It had been so much more than that, and by then, she’d been more than happy to leave school behind. She’d gone from being the popular girl dating the cutest boy to the social outcast, who dreaded going to school and heard whispers about herself wherever she went. She’d also become more of a fascination for her mom than a daughter.
“And how did you like traveling?” he asked.
“I hated it.”
That was putting it mildly. She’d hated being the social outcast; sheloathedbeing on the road. She’d been lonely, frustrated, sad, scared, and humiliated, but he didn’t want to hear the details of her teenage years.
“How long did you travel?” he asked.
“Three years,” she said. “When I was sixteen, I put my foot down and told her I wouldn’t do it anymore.”
Sherefusedto be her mom’s one-woman freak show anymore. There were many times she considered running away from the life her mother shoved on her, but no matter how much she resented being her mom’s freak show, she loved her parents dearly. They were also all she had in the world, and she couldn’t leave them behind.
“Where did you go after that?” he asked.
“We moved to Pennsylvania and settled down. As soon as I turned eighteen, I got my own place.”
When she refused to keep traveling, they agreed to live somewhere no one knew her, and Elyse chose a small, quiet town. Her father agreed with her. It was one of the rare times he told her mother no, as her mom wanted to move to Manhattan, but the idea of all those people made Elyse nervous.
By then, her father had realized how miserable Elyse was and the damage they were doing to their daughter. He always catered to her mother, but he loved Elyse and refused to continue doing something that made her unhappy.
“The Savages have your father, but where is your mom?” he asked.
She winced at the reminder of her poor father being held by these monsters and punished every time she failed. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “They brought my father here once after I first arrived to make sure I knew they had him, but there was never any mention of my mom. My dad looked so devastated that I think they killed her.”
She’d never forget the broken look on his face, the way he huddled in on himself as Joseph stood with his hand on her dad’s shoulder. Though her dad wasn’t crying at the time, red rimmed his eyes, and his face was swollen. His belly overhung his jeans, as always, but there was something frail about him.
She never got the chance to ask about her mother before they decided to show her what they were capable of doing if she didn’t follow their rules. Later, she asked Joseph about her mother and never received an answer. If the vamps had her mom, they would use her against Elyse too, but they never mentioned her.
“They’ll kill him if I leave here,” she said.
“No, they won’t. They’ll keep him because, no matter what, they can use him against you.”
“You can’t know that.”
“No, but it would make no sense to kill their one connection to you. These Savages are ruthless monsters, but they’re not stupid. They’ll keep him alive in the hopes of drawing you in again. If they’ve kept you here for this long, they’ll want you back.”
“What if they don’t? What if they decide to cut their losses?”
“Do you think they will?”
“No.”
She was too valuable and too dangerous to them. They’d want her back, or they’d kill her, and until they succeeded in one of those things, they would keep her dad alive. Or at least she hoped they would.
“Did you have any relationship with any of the women you’ve been with?” she asked more to change the subject than out of any desire to know the answer.
“No,” he said. “I don’t do relationships.”
“Were they all one-night stands?” she asked incredulously.
