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Diana stepped back, one foot on the stairs, her eyes on me. “I know,” she said tentatively. “But you need to know what he is, what she is, whatyouare. The Deacon was the first vampire, and the first of our kind came later. Moments before you.”
“What is our kind?” I knew what it was; but I needed her to say it.
“We are from the wolves. You arethewolf.”
I looked into Diana’s eyes, waiting for more. It never came. “The Deacon said something about stories of werewolves and Lycan, not to get caught up in them.”
“Those are human stories meant to make sense of the things that lurk in the night. Our kind came after the vampires. You and your brother are the sons of Fenrir and the demon that made the Deacon.”
“Who is the demon?” I asked, unsure if my mind could take much more.
“Incubus, succubus. Whatever it wishes to be. It takes, just as he does.Lilitas the father of vampires.Lilithas the mother of wolves.”
My mind stuttered and started on the words. Father. Mother. I didn’t have to wonder why a father would rape his daughter. Family was a meaningless word. “He cut her. Right in front of me. Spilled her blood on the floor,” I whispered.
“Where?” Diana asked.
“Inside the Archer house.”
“We need to go there,” she said, running up the stairs.
* * *
When we walked into the Archer house in the dark of the early morning, the creaking floors sounded loud in my ears. Diana was ahead of me, standing next to the blood on the floor, staring up at the ceiling where the hole was. The moon was obscured by the clouds, and I wished for nothing more than the sun. Not the sun in the sky, but the girl who had been taken into the night.
Diana turned to me, and for the first time, I saw her cry, though it wouldn’t be the last time. “Everything you want to know is in the blood,” she said, reaching her hand out to me.
I walked to her but did not take her hand as I looked down at the blood on the floor—half congealed, some still wet. “What do I need to do?” I asked, though I knew. My body stiffened with the thought, but I held the shame at bay.
“You need to drink it,” she stated.
I shook my head as looked down at the dirty floor and the red blood. It called to me, and I was ashamed of that, aroused by it, haunted by the color in daylight and the dark of night.
“Their kind does not let anyone drink from them. Not unless they want to give their memories away. When you drink another’s blood, you take in a piece of them. You see their memories; they become your own. It exacts a toll. That many memories, over time can drive you mad. Unless you are undead, like him,” Diana said.
“Do they survive? Those who do it?” I asked.
“They don’t survive long. His daughters grow mad when they take the blood of others, and they’re forbidden to change into Strigoi. If they do, he kills them. That’s why he’s always making others, making new daughters. He tests them, and they fail, over and over again. I don’t know what the fuck he’s looking for,” Diana admitted, voice cracking.
“She let me drink her tears, her blood,” I admitted. “I saw a memory.”
Diana cursed. “You’re meant to be her undoing. Sorina means the sun. You’re meant to devour her, to take care of the problem he cannot correct himself. He made her what she is—a lethal killer, but her hatred for him weakens her. It’s all she sees. She wants to kill him but cannot, because only he knows the fate of her daughter. Knows where she sleeps.”
“Salina. Salina, her daughter,” I said, my voice dreamy and faraway as I stared at her red blood on the dirty floor.
“Salina means the moon. Your brother, Hati, is her undoing.”
“Who is Salina’s father? Who did she love?” I asked as I tore my eyes from the red and stared at Diana.
Diana smiled a sad smile. “It wasn’t love; it was defiance. He forbids his daughters to breed with our kind. Because a daughter of such a union will be his undoing, the daughter will complete the circle before he can shroud the world in darkness. He wants to bring eternal night to this world.”
I shook my head as everything Diana said swarmed around inside of it. “Fuck this shit. Fuck this town. Fuck this house and this goddamnworldand all this—”
“Do you believe me?” Diana asked, voice hard.
I looked down at my hands, blood under my fingernails from when I changed. “How can I not?”
Diana looked down at the blood again. “Nicholas, drink it. You have to.”
