Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Crystal ❯ Chapter 26
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Silly1 
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Mystery / Horror / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 11.25.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 264 | Status: Work In Progress
Miscellaneous: Original Stories Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Supernatural / Romance / Mystery / Horror / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 11.25.2010 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.4K | Visits: 264 | Status: Work In Progress
Crystal, Chapter 26:
My father sat inside a circle of vampires who all stared hungrily at him. I sympathized. At the moment, Johnny held me away from the vampires, away from my father, at the top of the stairs. It was all I could do not to throw myself down them so I could get to him. I didn’t want to protect my father; I wanted his blood!
It was full dark before I awoke the second time to murmuring from the living room below. My jaw ached, and I tasted blood—my own. I must have bitten down with my newly emerged teeth. My blood awakened the hunger which lurked constantly now at the pit of my stomach. Where was Johnny? I needed him to tell me what to do.
I followed the sound of voices to the top of the stairs, and spotted my father surrounded by Lachlan, Owain and the others. Suddenly I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t think—only wanted! He was mine, mine, and they couldn’t have him! His blood belonged to me!
I lunged for the stairs when strong arms wrapped around me from behind. I struggled, oh how I struggled, but those arms held me effortlessly. I twisted my head around and bit down. Johnny’s blood filled my mouth, and with it, sanity returned. I let myself go limp in his arms.
Johnny was smart enough not to let go of me. I still wanted. He must have seen it in my eyes, because his arms remained a cage to hold me close to him. “Johnny, get me—“
“Away. Right.” Still not letting go, he half-carried me back to my room and closed and locked the door behind us. Once we were out of sight of my father, my uncontrollable craving for blood subsided to a tolerable roar.
When Johnny loosed his arms, I stepped back and gingerly touched his arm where I had bitten him. The mark had already disappeared, but my stomach clenched at what I had done. “I can’t control it,” I admitted.
Johnny ran his hand across my cheek, gently, like he was scared I might run. “Control what?” he asked in a low voice. “What changed?”
“How can you stand it?” I asked miserably. “I never knew it would be this intense. I wanted to kill my own father!” I turned my head away. “Will it always be like this?”
“Crystal.” Johnny took my chin and turned it back. “What happened?”
“Look,” I said, opening my mouth.
I don’t think it had registered when I bit his arm how I had done it. It registered now. His eyes widened and he paled. “This shouldn’t have happened. Not yet.” He glanced towards my locked door. “I need to talk to Owain.” Johnny pulled me into a tight hug. “You have to go under the water tonight. We can’t wait any longer. Owain will know what to do.”
That wasn’t it. I knew what to do. Johnny knew what to do, too! But I wasn’t ready. “I want to go home,” I whispered.
Johnny shook his head, tickling my chin with his hair. “You don’t understand,” he argued. “If you don’t go under the water, your need for blood will only get worse. The water makes it bearable. You have to go under now.” He kissed me and took my hand. “Let’s go talk to Owain and see what he has discovered about your father.”
“I can’t!”
Johnny held out his wrist to me. “This will help,” he said. Then his lips quirked up in a crooked grin. “Go on, I want to see you do it.”
I bit down, and the blood slid down my throat. Johnny’s blood sang of family, infinitely more so than Paul’s had, yet I felt no desire to keep on drinking as I had with Paul. A few mouthfuls gave me back my control.
“Better?” Johnny asked. “Think you can face going downstairs?”
My father would be there. So would Owain and the others. I felt almost back to my old self. I nodded.
Johnny led me down the stairs. My father still sat in a circle of vampires, although not so many as before. Four of them held him there by the sheer power of their gazes. None of them spoke. My father’s arms were crossed, a sign of stubbornness, except I saw how round his eyes were. He was frightened. When he saw Johnny by my side, he swallowed nervously. The little motion of his throat set my pulse to beating faster. Johnny squeezed my hand.
Owain, Lachlan, and a woman vampire whose name I didn’t remember pored over papers that were spread out all over the table by the kitchen. Michael—Michael?—leaned over the papers with them, speaking in a low voice. “This is as much as we were able to keep track,” he said. “We lost most of the spoken records in the purges. My great great grandfather started compiling these lists only a couple hundred years ago. It’s not complete.”
Uncle Robert came out of the kitchen with a tray full of tea. A few of the vampires accepted a cup. I shuddered. My dad didn’t take one either. “Our records only go back about three hundred fifty years, when our branch emigrated to America.” He nodded to Johnny. “We were the only keepers in our group, so we kept records of all the passengers, whether they were of our blood or not. We know Crystal’s mother’s lineage, but not his.” Uncle Robert pointed to my father, who tightened his arms across his chest. His lips were a thin line. Only his eyes, too wide, gave away his anxiety.
“Owain?” The woman blood-drinker with hair so blonde it was almost white, spoke up.
“I have no keepers,” Owain said flatly. He turned over a thick stack of papers to read the names written there.
“But your son?” The woman prompted.
“Ewen is dead. His descendants are a matter of public record. Go look it up if you’re concerned.” Owain glanced up from the list he was reading. “None of those bloodlines are strong enough for what we’re seeing here.” He looked directly at me. I wondered if he could tell what had happened to me.
“But there could have been others, not on the records,” Johnny said. He still had a grip on my hand. “Bloodlines might have combined and we wouldn’t have knowledge of it after all that happened.”
Owain threw down the sheaf of papers in his hands. “This is pointless,” he said. “There’s only one way to tell for sure.” His head swiveled around until he was looking directly at my father. Johnny looked, too—so did the girl. “We need to taste his blood.”
“There’s a complication.” Johnny brought me out to stand in front of him. “She needs to go under the water tonight. I’ve let it go too long.”
My father, who had flushed, then paled when Owain mentioned blood, to the amused interest of the group of vampires who still surrounded him, glanced at me in confusion. He didn’t know about the water, and I didn’t see why he needed to. “Not now,” I whispered to Johnny, looking pointedly at my father.
“I won’t lose you.” Johnny didn’t promise, but I knew him well enough. He wouldn’t say anything unless it became absolutely necessary. I smiled—carefully.
Owain nodded. “I agree. It must be tonight. First, we verify her bloodline.” He moved across the room until he stood in front of my father. “Get up,” he said curtly. Two of the vampires who had been sitting with my father helped him get to his feet, in case he had any thoughts of disobeying. My father was shaking, but he stood, and shrugged off the arms that held his.
Owain regarded him. “He really doesn’t know anything, does he?” he commented in our own language. He reached for my father’s hands, and my father shrank back as far as his two vampire guards would let him. They took his arms again and held him still. Owain waited until they had lifted both his arms into something resembling the position for the offering, and then he bent down and slashed my father’s palm, waiting until the blood filled it before he drank.
I trembled, but Johnny held me tightly, murmuring encouragement in my ear. Didn’t he feel the desire as strongly as I did? I thought I would be able to handle it. I didn’t want to feel this way about people that I loved!
My father gazed in wonder at his hand as Owain straightened up. I knew what he would see—a red rash, no wound, no blood. As soon as the wound had closed, I stopped trembling. The craving subsided enough for me to relax in the circle of Johnny’s arms. The blonde vampire glanced at me curiously.
“He is one of mine,” Owain pronounced, turning away. He looked at me. He didn’t say it out loud, but his look said that I was one of his, too. “Ewen’s, a child I never knew about. Since his blood is so strong, the descendants must have married others, possibly more than once, with our blood.”
Like my mother’s branch. I wondered about my other relatives. Owain had said his son was prolific, and had had lots of legitimate kids. All of those descendants would have blood that was half of half of Owain’s. Were there any others like me, I wondered. No, Owain had said he kept track of the ones he knew about. My father was an anomaly.
“Give me a taste.” The other woman blood-drinker, Verica, pushed forward. I frowned. Owain didn’t stop her, and she reached for my father’s hand. I strained forward, and not to save my father. I didn’t want her to have him. Johnny held me back effortlessly, but my actions had drawn the notice of Owain and Lachlan, as well as the blonde woman vampire.
One by one, the other vampires surrounded my father so that they could taste the potency of his blood. A growl welled up in my throat, as I fought against Johnny to get to my father. “Mine!”
Owain grabbed my chin and tilted my head up. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked Johnny. “She’s already changed.”
“Mine!” I repeated, louder, still straining against Johnny.
“She has to go under the water—now.” Johnny said. “I fed her my blood, but it’s not enough.”
The blonde vampire peered into my eyes. “Let her accept the offering from her father,” she said softly. “If he offers, freely, the promise will bind her.”
Johnny had his doubts. He had lived for over three hundred years ignorant of his own history, and blood promises meant little to him. But Lachlan agreed, and so did Owain. He loosened his grip on me.
“It has to be of his own free will,” the woman reminded us.
“Hey, Crystal’s father. Sam.” Johnny called across the room, drawing my dad’s attention from his own problems. He was moaning, not in pain, but in terror, as his hands and arms healed over and over before his eyes from repeated ‘tastings’ from the vampires. Only Johnny—and I—had not touched him yet. “Your daughter needs you.”
My father stared at me from across the room where I had my own vampire guard surrounding me, or I would have run to him to get to his blood. It wasn’t fair that the others should have it—he was my dad, mine!
“You have to want to give her your blood,” Johnny said. On some level, he was enjoying this. From the expression on my father’s face, the farthest thing from his mind was wanting to donate more blood. Johnny never let go of me as he walked me closer and closer to my father. I started sweating. “She needs you to do this willingly.”
“Daddy,” I said, need giving my voice a pleading note. “I know you’re scared. I’m scared too.” I was. Scared of losing control, scared of killing my own father. He had to understand the risk. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
My father was shaking harder than he had when the real vampires had taken blood from him. They hadn’t asked. I was asking. I prayed he would make the distinction. Johnny glaring at him from over the top of my head didn’t help matters.
“What do I have to do?” my father asked. He raised his hands like the vampires had made him do at first. It was a start.
“Offer her your blood,” Johnny said. I don’t think my father could tell Johnny was holding me back from attacking him outright, or he wouldn’t have stood so resignedly in front of me.
He held out his hands.
“Say it.” Johnny growled.
“Crystal, I want you,” he stressed the word, “to have my blood. You’re my daughter. I haven’t always been there for you, but I always loved you. I always will. No matter what.” He tried to smile. “My blood is yours.”
Johnny let me go and I slashed down on my father’s offered palm with my beautiful, sharp teeth, and drank blood freely given. It was like a switch had been turned off. When I raised my head, my eyes were filled with tears. “Mine,” I said in the ancient language, completing the ritual. “Mine,” I repeated in English. “I love you, Dad.”
I didn’t feel like murdering him anymore. I knew it wouldn’t last, but at least I could function like a normal person for a while longer. Somehow I knew that my father would be safe from me now. Paul had been safe from me, too, because deep-down I knew that he already was mine. I may have taken a little too much blood from Paul when I was out of control, but I would never have killed him. Good to know.
I hugged my dad, and murmured soothingly in his ear. “It’s over now. You’re safe. They won’t touch you again. Thank you, for trusting me.” I smiled, and wiped my tears as I turned back into Johnny’s embrace. “Make him forget,” I whispered. “He’s not ready to know about us.” My father might never be ready. I could live with that. I knew now that he accepted me fully aware of what I had become. That was enough.
“All right,” Johnny replied, releasing me and gripping my father’s arms instead. He stared into my father’s eyes, not giving him time to panic, and made a liar of me as he struck like lightning, taking blood directly from my father’s throat until he collapsed in Johnny’s grip. Johnny carried him to the couch. “He won’t remember,” he assured me.
“When he wakes, we should all be gone,” Lachlan said. “Michael, Robert, take care of it. Send him back to his own country. We’ll take care of Crystal.”
Oh yeah, me. They still planned on taking me under the water tonight. But I felt fine, now. The timing wasn’t right, I knew that. I had seen what was to happen there on the hill with Grandfather. Had that vision just been a possible future? Was this the reality? I did not want to feel out of control again, but that was inevitable the longer I delayed going under the water. I guess I had no choice.
“Michael, how is Annie doing?” I asked, while I was still in control. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
Michael gave me a panicked look, and I realized he had not mentioned his new baby to the group of vampires, or even his own. Lachlan glanced up, surprised. “She’s doing well,” Michael said, now that the beans were spilled. “A girl, we had a girl. Annalise.”
“A child?”
The vampires were delighted. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Family was important to them, and there was hardly any family left. Michael’s child would be strong in our blood.
“Can we see her?” That from the blonde vampire, who sounded wistful.
“Of course we’ll see her, Halla,” the other woman vampire said. She was dark where Halla was light. Verica had been a blood-drinker from Roman times. “Tomorrow, or the day after. Let the mother regain her strength.”
Rose came out of the kitchen and Uncle Robert immediately put his arm around her waist. “She’s a wee thing,” she said, “dark like her mother. Michael, you ought to go home to your wife and daughter. Paul’s waiting for you to get back.” It was a subtle warning. The baby was too young for vampire visitors.
“Bring her to the loch before the first freeze,” Lachlan said, in a tone I hadn’t heard him use since we first met him. Authoritative. He was the vampire of the loch. He was the head of this family. Rose nodded, and so did Michael. I didn’t doubt that the other vampires, especially the women, would find an excuse to visit the baby beforehand. I planned to.
But first, I had to go under the water. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to go home, to my own lake, but I didn’t think I would last that long. I sighed. “I’m ready,” I said.
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My father sat inside a circle of vampires who all stared hungrily at him. I sympathized. At the moment, Johnny held me away from the vampires, away from my father, at the top of the stairs. It was all I could do not to throw myself down them so I could get to him. I didn’t want to protect my father; I wanted his blood!
It was full dark before I awoke the second time to murmuring from the living room below. My jaw ached, and I tasted blood—my own. I must have bitten down with my newly emerged teeth. My blood awakened the hunger which lurked constantly now at the pit of my stomach. Where was Johnny? I needed him to tell me what to do.
I followed the sound of voices to the top of the stairs, and spotted my father surrounded by Lachlan, Owain and the others. Suddenly I couldn’t see straight, couldn’t think—only wanted! He was mine, mine, and they couldn’t have him! His blood belonged to me!
I lunged for the stairs when strong arms wrapped around me from behind. I struggled, oh how I struggled, but those arms held me effortlessly. I twisted my head around and bit down. Johnny’s blood filled my mouth, and with it, sanity returned. I let myself go limp in his arms.
Johnny was smart enough not to let go of me. I still wanted. He must have seen it in my eyes, because his arms remained a cage to hold me close to him. “Johnny, get me—“
“Away. Right.” Still not letting go, he half-carried me back to my room and closed and locked the door behind us. Once we were out of sight of my father, my uncontrollable craving for blood subsided to a tolerable roar.
When Johnny loosed his arms, I stepped back and gingerly touched his arm where I had bitten him. The mark had already disappeared, but my stomach clenched at what I had done. “I can’t control it,” I admitted.
Johnny ran his hand across my cheek, gently, like he was scared I might run. “Control what?” he asked in a low voice. “What changed?”
“How can you stand it?” I asked miserably. “I never knew it would be this intense. I wanted to kill my own father!” I turned my head away. “Will it always be like this?”
“Crystal.” Johnny took my chin and turned it back. “What happened?”
“Look,” I said, opening my mouth.
I don’t think it had registered when I bit his arm how I had done it. It registered now. His eyes widened and he paled. “This shouldn’t have happened. Not yet.” He glanced towards my locked door. “I need to talk to Owain.” Johnny pulled me into a tight hug. “You have to go under the water tonight. We can’t wait any longer. Owain will know what to do.”
That wasn’t it. I knew what to do. Johnny knew what to do, too! But I wasn’t ready. “I want to go home,” I whispered.
Johnny shook his head, tickling my chin with his hair. “You don’t understand,” he argued. “If you don’t go under the water, your need for blood will only get worse. The water makes it bearable. You have to go under now.” He kissed me and took my hand. “Let’s go talk to Owain and see what he has discovered about your father.”
“I can’t!”
Johnny held out his wrist to me. “This will help,” he said. Then his lips quirked up in a crooked grin. “Go on, I want to see you do it.”
I bit down, and the blood slid down my throat. Johnny’s blood sang of family, infinitely more so than Paul’s had, yet I felt no desire to keep on drinking as I had with Paul. A few mouthfuls gave me back my control.
“Better?” Johnny asked. “Think you can face going downstairs?”
My father would be there. So would Owain and the others. I felt almost back to my old self. I nodded.
Johnny led me down the stairs. My father still sat in a circle of vampires, although not so many as before. Four of them held him there by the sheer power of their gazes. None of them spoke. My father’s arms were crossed, a sign of stubbornness, except I saw how round his eyes were. He was frightened. When he saw Johnny by my side, he swallowed nervously. The little motion of his throat set my pulse to beating faster. Johnny squeezed my hand.
Owain, Lachlan, and a woman vampire whose name I didn’t remember pored over papers that were spread out all over the table by the kitchen. Michael—Michael?—leaned over the papers with them, speaking in a low voice. “This is as much as we were able to keep track,” he said. “We lost most of the spoken records in the purges. My great great grandfather started compiling these lists only a couple hundred years ago. It’s not complete.”
Uncle Robert came out of the kitchen with a tray full of tea. A few of the vampires accepted a cup. I shuddered. My dad didn’t take one either. “Our records only go back about three hundred fifty years, when our branch emigrated to America.” He nodded to Johnny. “We were the only keepers in our group, so we kept records of all the passengers, whether they were of our blood or not. We know Crystal’s mother’s lineage, but not his.” Uncle Robert pointed to my father, who tightened his arms across his chest. His lips were a thin line. Only his eyes, too wide, gave away his anxiety.
“Owain?” The woman blood-drinker with hair so blonde it was almost white, spoke up.
“I have no keepers,” Owain said flatly. He turned over a thick stack of papers to read the names written there.
“But your son?” The woman prompted.
“Ewen is dead. His descendants are a matter of public record. Go look it up if you’re concerned.” Owain glanced up from the list he was reading. “None of those bloodlines are strong enough for what we’re seeing here.” He looked directly at me. I wondered if he could tell what had happened to me.
“But there could have been others, not on the records,” Johnny said. He still had a grip on my hand. “Bloodlines might have combined and we wouldn’t have knowledge of it after all that happened.”
Owain threw down the sheaf of papers in his hands. “This is pointless,” he said. “There’s only one way to tell for sure.” His head swiveled around until he was looking directly at my father. Johnny looked, too—so did the girl. “We need to taste his blood.”
“There’s a complication.” Johnny brought me out to stand in front of him. “She needs to go under the water tonight. I’ve let it go too long.”
My father, who had flushed, then paled when Owain mentioned blood, to the amused interest of the group of vampires who still surrounded him, glanced at me in confusion. He didn’t know about the water, and I didn’t see why he needed to. “Not now,” I whispered to Johnny, looking pointedly at my father.
“I won’t lose you.” Johnny didn’t promise, but I knew him well enough. He wouldn’t say anything unless it became absolutely necessary. I smiled—carefully.
Owain nodded. “I agree. It must be tonight. First, we verify her bloodline.” He moved across the room until he stood in front of my father. “Get up,” he said curtly. Two of the vampires who had been sitting with my father helped him get to his feet, in case he had any thoughts of disobeying. My father was shaking, but he stood, and shrugged off the arms that held his.
Owain regarded him. “He really doesn’t know anything, does he?” he commented in our own language. He reached for my father’s hands, and my father shrank back as far as his two vampire guards would let him. They took his arms again and held him still. Owain waited until they had lifted both his arms into something resembling the position for the offering, and then he bent down and slashed my father’s palm, waiting until the blood filled it before he drank.
I trembled, but Johnny held me tightly, murmuring encouragement in my ear. Didn’t he feel the desire as strongly as I did? I thought I would be able to handle it. I didn’t want to feel this way about people that I loved!
My father gazed in wonder at his hand as Owain straightened up. I knew what he would see—a red rash, no wound, no blood. As soon as the wound had closed, I stopped trembling. The craving subsided enough for me to relax in the circle of Johnny’s arms. The blonde vampire glanced at me curiously.
“He is one of mine,” Owain pronounced, turning away. He looked at me. He didn’t say it out loud, but his look said that I was one of his, too. “Ewen’s, a child I never knew about. Since his blood is so strong, the descendants must have married others, possibly more than once, with our blood.”
Like my mother’s branch. I wondered about my other relatives. Owain had said his son was prolific, and had had lots of legitimate kids. All of those descendants would have blood that was half of half of Owain’s. Were there any others like me, I wondered. No, Owain had said he kept track of the ones he knew about. My father was an anomaly.
“Give me a taste.” The other woman blood-drinker, Verica, pushed forward. I frowned. Owain didn’t stop her, and she reached for my father’s hand. I strained forward, and not to save my father. I didn’t want her to have him. Johnny held me back effortlessly, but my actions had drawn the notice of Owain and Lachlan, as well as the blonde woman vampire.
One by one, the other vampires surrounded my father so that they could taste the potency of his blood. A growl welled up in my throat, as I fought against Johnny to get to my father. “Mine!”
Owain grabbed my chin and tilted my head up. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked Johnny. “She’s already changed.”
“Mine!” I repeated, louder, still straining against Johnny.
“She has to go under the water—now.” Johnny said. “I fed her my blood, but it’s not enough.”
The blonde vampire peered into my eyes. “Let her accept the offering from her father,” she said softly. “If he offers, freely, the promise will bind her.”
Johnny had his doubts. He had lived for over three hundred years ignorant of his own history, and blood promises meant little to him. But Lachlan agreed, and so did Owain. He loosened his grip on me.
“It has to be of his own free will,” the woman reminded us.
“Hey, Crystal’s father. Sam.” Johnny called across the room, drawing my dad’s attention from his own problems. He was moaning, not in pain, but in terror, as his hands and arms healed over and over before his eyes from repeated ‘tastings’ from the vampires. Only Johnny—and I—had not touched him yet. “Your daughter needs you.”
My father stared at me from across the room where I had my own vampire guard surrounding me, or I would have run to him to get to his blood. It wasn’t fair that the others should have it—he was my dad, mine!
“You have to want to give her your blood,” Johnny said. On some level, he was enjoying this. From the expression on my father’s face, the farthest thing from his mind was wanting to donate more blood. Johnny never let go of me as he walked me closer and closer to my father. I started sweating. “She needs you to do this willingly.”
“Daddy,” I said, need giving my voice a pleading note. “I know you’re scared. I’m scared too.” I was. Scared of losing control, scared of killing my own father. He had to understand the risk. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
My father was shaking harder than he had when the real vampires had taken blood from him. They hadn’t asked. I was asking. I prayed he would make the distinction. Johnny glaring at him from over the top of my head didn’t help matters.
“What do I have to do?” my father asked. He raised his hands like the vampires had made him do at first. It was a start.
“Offer her your blood,” Johnny said. I don’t think my father could tell Johnny was holding me back from attacking him outright, or he wouldn’t have stood so resignedly in front of me.
He held out his hands.
“Say it.” Johnny growled.
“Crystal, I want you,” he stressed the word, “to have my blood. You’re my daughter. I haven’t always been there for you, but I always loved you. I always will. No matter what.” He tried to smile. “My blood is yours.”
Johnny let me go and I slashed down on my father’s offered palm with my beautiful, sharp teeth, and drank blood freely given. It was like a switch had been turned off. When I raised my head, my eyes were filled with tears. “Mine,” I said in the ancient language, completing the ritual. “Mine,” I repeated in English. “I love you, Dad.”
I didn’t feel like murdering him anymore. I knew it wouldn’t last, but at least I could function like a normal person for a while longer. Somehow I knew that my father would be safe from me now. Paul had been safe from me, too, because deep-down I knew that he already was mine. I may have taken a little too much blood from Paul when I was out of control, but I would never have killed him. Good to know.
I hugged my dad, and murmured soothingly in his ear. “It’s over now. You’re safe. They won’t touch you again. Thank you, for trusting me.” I smiled, and wiped my tears as I turned back into Johnny’s embrace. “Make him forget,” I whispered. “He’s not ready to know about us.” My father might never be ready. I could live with that. I knew now that he accepted me fully aware of what I had become. That was enough.
“All right,” Johnny replied, releasing me and gripping my father’s arms instead. He stared into my father’s eyes, not giving him time to panic, and made a liar of me as he struck like lightning, taking blood directly from my father’s throat until he collapsed in Johnny’s grip. Johnny carried him to the couch. “He won’t remember,” he assured me.
“When he wakes, we should all be gone,” Lachlan said. “Michael, Robert, take care of it. Send him back to his own country. We’ll take care of Crystal.”
Oh yeah, me. They still planned on taking me under the water tonight. But I felt fine, now. The timing wasn’t right, I knew that. I had seen what was to happen there on the hill with Grandfather. Had that vision just been a possible future? Was this the reality? I did not want to feel out of control again, but that was inevitable the longer I delayed going under the water. I guess I had no choice.
“Michael, how is Annie doing?” I asked, while I was still in control. “Is it a boy or a girl?”
Michael gave me a panicked look, and I realized he had not mentioned his new baby to the group of vampires, or even his own. Lachlan glanced up, surprised. “She’s doing well,” Michael said, now that the beans were spilled. “A girl, we had a girl. Annalise.”
“A child?”
The vampires were delighted. I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Family was important to them, and there was hardly any family left. Michael’s child would be strong in our blood.
“Can we see her?” That from the blonde vampire, who sounded wistful.
“Of course we’ll see her, Halla,” the other woman vampire said. She was dark where Halla was light. Verica had been a blood-drinker from Roman times. “Tomorrow, or the day after. Let the mother regain her strength.”
Rose came out of the kitchen and Uncle Robert immediately put his arm around her waist. “She’s a wee thing,” she said, “dark like her mother. Michael, you ought to go home to your wife and daughter. Paul’s waiting for you to get back.” It was a subtle warning. The baby was too young for vampire visitors.
“Bring her to the loch before the first freeze,” Lachlan said, in a tone I hadn’t heard him use since we first met him. Authoritative. He was the vampire of the loch. He was the head of this family. Rose nodded, and so did Michael. I didn’t doubt that the other vampires, especially the women, would find an excuse to visit the baby beforehand. I planned to.
But first, I had to go under the water. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to go home, to my own lake, but I didn’t think I would last that long. I sighed. “I’m ready,” I said.
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