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“Same genes as Leif, same powers as Dahlia. I’m the whole package.”
“Power?” he says, sniveling. He reminds me of a pig on two legs, wearing a toupee. “The power you possessed as Dahlia was good for one thing and one thing only, and that was killing vampires. Too bad you haven’t gotten the urge to use that power on yourself.”
I have the need to keep him talking but I’m not really sure why. Solon and Valtu are frozen in time and can’t help me. I guess I figure I’ll come up with some way to get out of this eventually.
I nod at the market around us. “You picked an awfully public place to do this.”
“You’re worried I’m blowing your cover?” His grin widens. “They won’t remember a thing leading up to this or after, and I’ve sent an electromagnetic pulse to disable all electronics and technology. No, Dahlia, this is just between you and me now. The way it’s supposed to be.”
He moves his hand and I cry out in pain, my whole body lifting a few inches off the ground, invisible vices clamped over my arms and legs, pulling me in opposite directions.
“You deserve to rot in the ground,” I grind out, fighting through the pain.
“For what? For showing you your true potential?”
“You brainwashed me.”
“I was a mere schoolteacher,” he comments, his black eyes looking positively inhuman.
“You’re a murderer!”
“So are you.”
“You made me this way!”
“We all have to wear many hats, Dahlia. That happens to be one of mine. Do you consider it murder when people deserve it? If they’ve killed others? Do you consider it murder when you do it?”
“You killed my parents!” I scream. “I loved them, and you took them from me. You killed them and blamed it all on vampires, but all along it was you.”
“There has to be sacrifices for the greater good. That’s how the world works.”
“But you did it tomyworld! Then you inserted yourself in my life pretending to be someone who fucking cared. Someone who looked after me. You used me and manipulated me when I only needed someone to love me!”
I hate how pathetic I sound, Dahlia’s insecurities coming through.
“I did care,” he says, and I let out an acidic laugh.
He ignores that and continues, “I cared for you like I would my own daughter. Your own well-being was of the upmost importance to me, as was showing you your true potential. You mattered, Dahlia, whether you want to believe it or not.”
“Stop calling me that. It’sRose.”
“If you’re so hell-bent on being called Rose, then why do you care what happened to Dahlia’s parents? You’ve got new parents now. Amethyst and Wolf are quite the pair.”
“New parents you’ve also managed to fuck around with,” I cry out. “You tried to take my mother, you kidnapped my brother! And just because they’re my parents now as Rose, doesn’t mean my parents as Dahlia didn’t count. They did count! I loved them and they loved me and we were happy. And you came and you ruined it all. You destroyed my family!”
My words screech across the silent market, my heart growing tighter and tighter as the anger and injustice floods through my body, clouding my thoughts.
“As I said, it’s all about sacrifices,” he says simply with a splay of his palms.
“Sacrifices don’t count if they aren’t your own!”
His gaze sharpens on me and I get the same feeling from his eyes that I got from the ghosts and demons in Valtu’s place.
“Why are you really here, Dahlia?” He blinks slowly. “Sorry. I meanRose. Hmm? It can’t be those parents of yours that are just faint memories of a bygone life. And it can’t really be Leif. You never met him before. Why would you care about someone you’ve never met, that is obviously in no distress. You do realize that what you’re trying to do is ruin his life? Leif has only known me as his father, Atlas as his brother, Celina as his sister. He doesn’t know the sacrifices he made, and he’s better off for it. He’s a strong, smart young vampire, the only one I can stand to tolerate. You want to take that away from him? He won’t let you.”
“No,” I tell him. “He will know the truth. He will see. We will make him remember what you’ve done to him.”
“We merely borrowed from him to enhance ourselves. We’re his family. Without the testing and his contributions, we wouldn’t have been able to raise him. It’s lonely being a vampire, isn’t it? We couldn’t very well die and leave him. We had to ensure that we would live forever as well.”
