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“We may have been keeping some stuff from you,” my dad says. “But it was for your own good.”
“Okay…what stuff?” Dylan asks.
My parents exchange another harried look between themselves. Then my mother turns her attention to the window, watching as the storm clouds get closer. Rain starts to splatter against the panes and it’s like I can feel that rain inside my chest, against my ribs.
She takes in a deep breath, brushing her dark hair behind her ear.
“I wasn’t born a vampire,” she says in a low voice.
I figured that, but to hear it is still a shock. And from the look on my brother’s face, he’s even more surprised than I am.
“What do you mean?” he asks. “How is that possible? Those that are turned, turn into monsters. You’re annoying at times, but you’re not a monster. Not to mention they can’t, like, have children.” A deeper look of horror comes across his face. “Are we adopted?”
“No,” my father says emphatically. “You are biologically our children.”
“Really,” my mother says, her eyes full of tears. “You are. I was created by a vampire who is part witch. For whatever reason, she’s able to turn people into vampires and not monsters.”
“Lenore,” I say, wondering if now that I’m a vampire, am I still part witch? Am I the same?
She nods. “Yes. Lenore. I asked her to do it.”
“Why?” I ask.
She looks at my father. “Because I didn’t want your father to go through life without me.”
“I probably wouldn’t have let her, had I known,” my father says tiredly. “We had been friends for so long and had just gotten together…”
“My mother had just died,” she explains. “And I was so broken. And Lenore…she brought back her lover, Solon, from the dead and he was fine so we took the chance. I almost died for good. But when she was done, I was a vampire. Of course, we didn’t think I could get pregnant, but then I did.”
“With me,” Dylan says.
There’s a flash of hesitation on her face. Then she smiles brightly. “Yes. You were born Dylan. You were a miracle.” She looks at me. “And then you were our next miracle.”
I frown, not liking the idea of being a miracle. “So then, why hide this from us? And why change your names? Our last name isn’t really Harper, is it?”
My dad sighs and pulls out the chair across from us, sitting down, his tall frame making the chair seem tiny. “It isn’t. Your mother and I never officially got married. But when we found out she was pregnant, we decided Dylan’s last name would be mine. My real one. Eriksen.”
“So why Harper? Why change?” I ask.
My mother comes over and puts her hand on his shoulder. “Word got out that I was an anomaly. Not only a vampire that was created and turned by another without going mad, but one that could have children.” She takes in a trembling breath, her violet eyes filling with tears again. “We were afraid…”
“We thought it safest if we went into hiding,” my father finishes for her. “It’s not just humans we have to be cautious about in this world. It’s witches. It’s other vampires.”
“Other vampires? Witches?” Dylan asks.
I try not to bristle at the way he said witches. We’ve been taught that witches are our enemy, not vampires. But because Dahlia was a witch, well, I know exactly why vampires fear them. Us. Fuck, this is confusing.
“Not all vampires operate with the same moral codes as us,” my father explains patiently. “And I’m not talking about the occasional killing here and there in the name of sustenance. That happens. It’s not something to be proud of or condone. But it happens. I’m talking about vampires who kill to kill. Who want to dominate the human species as a whole. Keep them as pets. That sort of mentality.”
And that’s when I remember why I was in Venice.
To get back the book that fell into the hands of Saara and Aleksi.
“The vampires!” I suddenly exclaim. “The ones in Venice. Saara and Aleksi. They had a book, that’s why the guild sent me there, to get it back. What happened to them? What happened to the book?”
“Valtu killed them,” my mom says, and a burst of pride goes through me.
“Well, he thought he did,” corrects my father. “He killed Aleksi, but Saara is still alive. She managed to survive somehow. We think maybe she had learned some magic to thwart death, we aren’t sure. She’s now the head of that sect of vampires. The ones who want to enslave humanity and kill any vampire that resists. Her and another vampire called Enoch. They’re trying to become the next Skarde with a vampire army.”
