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“Umm, can we just talk?” I ask, blushing. I feel his disappointment like a wave.
“Sure, Fayla. What would you like to talk about?”
“You? How did you become a vampire hunter?”
“That’s a long story…” he trails off, thinking.
“Not like we’re going anywhere?” I force a laugh, and the chuckle that comes from him is far more genuine.
“It’s been what my family has done for centuries,” he begins. “A long time ago, vampires weren’t believed to be monsters. They were revered like gods, and when a vampire would choose a human mate, the people would celebrate.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad…” I whisper, and take a bite of the bread again almost mindlessly.
“Sure, if you never found out the truth. If no one ever told you, if you never saw it, you’d think the couple would go off and live happily ever after. But that’s not what the vampires were doing. Sometimes families would see their children again, but they’d become monsters. Feasting on the blood of their family members as if they couldn’t help it. At that point, the vampires would return and take them away, never to be seen again.
“Other times they wouldn’t transform. Their families would find their discarded bodies in their wedding bed, the vampire who took them nowhere to be seen. They’d be drained of blood, pale, dead. There was nothing anyone could do about it, not until the right vampire chose the wrong bride.”
I swallow hard, wishing I never asked. It’s been a long time since vampires behaved that way, doesn’t he know that? We’ve advanced the same way humans did. We became what we needed to be to fit into society as it changed. We’re not the monsters he’s making us out to be.
“The right vampire?” I urge him.
“Zarius Cadell, the right vampire.”
He says my father’s name like it’s a curse word. I grind my teeth and try not to interrupt. My father is the best man I’ve ever known. The only man, before I was taken.
“Zarius Cadell turned his sights on my ancestor. She was a pillar of the community, a respected leader of the town. She fell for him like all women did, head over heels. Her family urged her against it, warned her what could happen, but she was blinded by lust. She was obsessed with Zarius, it was more than infatuation, it was as if she’d been bewitched.”
Sounds like love to me…
“When Zarius bit her, he was so sure she’d transform and not die. He bit her at the wedding ceremony in front of their small child and drained her. She died, right then and there. In a fit of rage Zarius killed everyone and everything in his path. He killed his wife's whole family. At least, he thought he killed them all…”
I had a brother, a different one than Angelica talked about? The news crawls into my heart, sewing a seed of doubt against my father. Tears burn behind my eyes, but I don’t interrupt Sebastian.
“My direct ancestors, her brother and his wife, escaped that day. After that, they made it their purpose in life to hunt down and destroy every single vampire they could. They became the first Blood Knights. My family has been hunting the Cadells since that day, but they’re slippery. The Monroe’s are easier to target, so filled with rage toward the Cadells they tend to let their defenses slip. But it doesn’t matter. I may have failed in my attack on this place and I may have been captured, but I know my Uncle Van is still out there. He’ll come for me, he’ll bring the full strength of the Blood Knights, and we’ll erase the Cadell clan from the face of the earth.”
My blood runs cold, my breathing nearly stops. The bread I’ve been nibbling falls from numb fingers. Sebastian isn’t just any other vampire hunter, he’s a vampire hunter that my family created. They hate my family more than any other. If he knew who I was, I wouldn’t be safe.
My body starts to shiver, trembling out of my control, and it only gets worse when Sebastian reaches through the hole and rubs my shoulder tenderly.
“You don’t have to worry, Fayla. I’ll protect you. I’ll get you out of here, and when we’re finally together? I’ll make you writhe on my fingers. My touch will be so much better than what you felt last night, I promise.”
His touch would be different, alright. His hands wouldn’t be between my legs, they’d be around my throat.
I swallow down my fear, knowing what I need to do now, and lean into his touch. I need to make him see that all vampires aren’t bad. I need him to know that my father didn’t mean to do what he did. Maybe if I can teach him what vampires are really like, then I can save my family.
Save my mother.
Redeem my father.
Chapter6
Sebastian
“Believe it or not, I remember the day I was born,” Fayla says, her voice full of awe and whimsy.
“How?” I laugh. “I don’t remember anything before I was…maybe four?”
“I don’t know, I just do!” Fayla breathes a giggle and I can almost feel her shrug.
