Page 69 of No One’s Daughter

He chuckled low. “No, nothing like that. I once felt his closeness, but that was a long time ago. I haven’t seen him in over one hundred years.”

His features changed then, like he was recalling difficult memories and I knew better than to prod further, so I opted instead to bring the focus back to me. “It doesn’t seem likely for a true born to be born without anyone noticing. Who was my mother? Why would she leave me?”

“Perhaps she was doing what she thought was best. Trying to protect you. Vampire society isn’t kind to women.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re either breeding stock or—”

“Or…”

“Killed—if deemed too powerful or dangerous.”

My heart sank. The patriarchy was ever present even within supernatural societies. Just fucking great.

Wait, is that why he’s been so adamant about hiding me?

“Is that the reason we’re on the run?”

His eyes met mine once more before he shifted and looked toward the ceiling on a large exhale. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but yes. I don’t agree with how things are run. A lot of us don’t. And I know it seems absurd, but I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe our paths were meant to cross and I’m just doing my part.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. Did that mean he cared or did he genuinely believe this was a part he had to play? And this was supposed to have been better treatment?

“What do you think they’d do with me?”

“I honestly can’t say, but my guess would be as I said earlier. You’re undoubtedly powerful but you lack skill and ability, so you’d probably make a decent enough wife. To them that is… not to me.”

I swallowed hard. “So I’m fucked, basically.”

He nodded. “You and me both.”

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Davien

WE CONTINUED OUR pattern of training in the evenings and I continued to push her hard, until she snapped. She’d managed it twice—the magic. And on the second occasion, it hadn’t been a fluke. She’d controlled the air enough to knock me off balance with a gust of strong wind.

​It had been promising, and a small part of me believed things were starting to look more hopeful. She could do this.

​But in those same days, she’d withdrawn.

​Treated me to nothing more than one word answers and silence.

​She did what I asked of her, stopped arguing and I should have been happy about that, but… I didn’t like it.

​No more sharp remarks were thrown my way for the sake of it. No more deliberate attempts to get under my skin. No more questions. Nothing.

​I couldn’t understand it. I thought that now—more than ever—she’d be happy. She was doing well in her training, getting a hold of herself more and more.

​The days had grown too quiet.

​Just as it was now.

Quiet.

​We’d moved locations again in the early hours of this morning. Much of the same—this was the seventh place now, and I wasn’t sure how much longer we could run like this. We were running out of time and I knew that. It was part of the reason I’d been pushing her so damn hard.

​I was going over notes Marlette had dropped off again—if I could maybe figure out this part of the puzzle, the rest of it might start making more sense—when I heard it.