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They ignore him. “I just can’t believe it,” Lenore says, wide-eyed. “You’re their daughter. I never would have known. Do they know you’re here?”
I wince. “No.”
“Dahlia,” Lenore scolds me. “I mean, Rose.”
“You can call me Dahlia Rose if it’s easier,” I tell her.
“Why didn’t you tell them?” Solon asks.
“Because they’ve been so cagey about the whole thing,” I explain, exasperated. “They’ve lied to us our whole lives. I don’t even know if Rose is my real name. Or if Dylan is his.”
Solon and Lenore exchange a furtive glance.
“Oh no, don’t tell me I had another name,” I say, pressing my hand into the bar top.
“Well, you should be used to that by now,” she says. Solon elbows her lightly and she sighs. “I feel like I’m stepping on toes here. Okay. You were born with the name Rose. But Dylan was born with the name Liam. And of course Leif’s name was always Leif.”
Leif? A cold sensation floods my chest. I look at Dylan who appears equally confused.
“Oh my god,” Lenore whispers, her hands to her mouth.
“Leif? Who the hell is Leif?” Dylan asks.
“Fuck,” Solon swears under his breath. He bites his lip, looking between my brother and I. “You don’t know.”
“Who is Leif?” I ask, my voice rising now.
“They didn’t tell you everything,” Lenore says as she looks pained.
“Obviously fucking not,” Dylan says sharply. It’s rare to see him angry, but I think the lies are finally getting to him too.
Solon swallows thickly, then leans against the bar, giving the both of us a grave look. “I don’t know what Wolf and Amethyst told you, but I have no choice but to fill you in. I know they did it to protect you, I just assumed that when you found out the truth, you found out all the truth. Leif was your brother.”
“Brother?” Dylan and I say in unison.
Solon eyes Dylan sympathetically. “You had a twin. Leif.”
Dylan nearly falls backward. He reaches out and steadies himself on the edge of the bar top. “A twin?”
Solon nods while Lenore slides the straight vodka on the rocks over to my brother. “Yes, a twin,” Solon says. “He was taken from you, from this very place, when you were only a year old.”
Dylan’s eyes are wild. Of course, this is all before I was born, so I don’t remember it, but it might explain the many nights when I was younger seeing my mother red-eyed and crying over hushed and private things I didn’t understand.
“Taken by whom?” I ask. “How?”
Lenore and Solon exchange another uneasy look. “Your mother and father were living here with us,” Lenore says quietly. “As you saw tonight, the house has wards up. Most people can’t get in or out, and that goes for witches and other vampires too. Solon and I were in Europe. With you, Dahlia. You and Valtu.”
My mouth drops open. She goes on, “Amethyst and Wolf were here. They weren’t alone, Ezra, one of the other vampires who lived here, he was here too. They came for them. Broke through the wards. Tried to kill everyone and take the babies. But your parents and Ezra, they fought back. Managed to save Dylan. But Leif…Leif was taken. And to this day we don’t know where he is.”
“Who took him?” I repeat, feeling fire raging in my chest, coupled with the sick feeling of knowing who it might be.
“Someone who took family from Dahlia,” Lenore says with finality. “Bellamy.”
It feels like I’ve been kicked in the gut, my hand instinctively going to my stomach, gasping for air. How could this man have taken so much from me?
“Oh my god,” I gasp. “Oh my god.” I can barely breathe. “He killed my parents and then he took my brother, even before I had a chance to become his sister.”
When Leif was taken, I was still Dahlia. Fuck, this must have happened right after I died. I died as Dahlia and almost immediately would have been reborn to my mother. Like my birth was making up for what Bellamy took from me.
