Page 64 of Silent Stalker
“She knew, yes. She knew, and at my recommendation, we played at being prejudiced, hoping we might repulse you against vampires so much you would never develop your thirst. She knew my nature since before we were wed. I refused to marry her without her being aware. She understood the role she would play. There is no love between us, and there has never been. She needed money for her parents, I needed a wife willing to bear a child for me. We agreed we might never love each other, but we would, in our ways, show our child unconditional love. Which we did, even though you may not realize that right now. I was not a kind father, that much is true—but I couldn’t afford to be one. I knew what you were from your first breath of your second life.”
A lump formed in my throat, and I struggled to swallow it back. “Everything I knew wasn’t real?”
“It was real enough. Carefully orchestrated so you, a vampire, might live as a human in all ways, undetected by those who might hurt you. It had not been my intention to have to stage the masquerade in the way I had, but when you died and came back to us, I needed to pave a way for preternaturals to be able to live among mortals openly. I became a villain in your eyes so you could have ground to stand on as an adult. I built you an empire so that even if nothing went the way I wanted, you would have a place to call home. Harlem was to be that home, the most comfortable prison I could make for you if that was how the cards fell. I had not anticipated that the Lowrance brood would become involved—or that you would have the gumption to become an accomplished huntress. And when I heard of what you’d become? The beauty of it all surpassed any hopes I’d had for you.”
“She turned as an infant?” Emerick whispered.
“It is as much of a shock to you as it was to me. Then to hear your interpretation of how to raise women safely? Truly brilliance. Not the truth, but a truth, and it proved accurate. The blood matters. But please don’t misunderstand me. While I never loved Penelope’s mother, I respect her and always have. We had roles to play, all for Penelope’s benefit. Everything we did was for her, understanding we cultivated a red rose who would one day grow fangs and wield the dark power of her heritage. It turns out she is more inclined to wield the lighter part of her heritage.” My father shrugged, sat on the edge of the conference table, and glanced in the direction of the corner security cameras. He opened his mouth, flashed pearly fangs for the observing security team, and waved. “Meeting with you at my work was just the first of my tests, which you passed. You proved you could turn my Penelope into her own person, ready to face off against me even though I have always scared her.”
Emerick lifted a hand and rubbed at his temple, as though warding off a headache. “Did we get any of it right?”
“I’m sure you did. I am elder to you—and elder to even your master. I admit, I worried when word spread that my Penelope had attacked Clarke during that fiasco. I had not wanted her nature to rouse under violent circumstances. And that vampire will pay for his trespass, that much I assure you. Such cruelty will not go unpaid. I would apologize for that, Penelope. If I had told you the truth sooner, you may have been able to defend yourself. I left you defenseless in the worst of ways, hoping you would age a little more before you were able to embrace your nature. But you are fully mature. I have long worried about that because of young Edgar. When I heard the news, I felt that perhaps I had a chance to right at least one of my sins.”
“I’d really died right after I’d been born?”
“I remember the second you died. Your mother had understood what happened, and she knew the truth about me. I held you while she cried, having just heard I could do nothing. I’d told her of Edgar and what would happen if we dared to even try. Thousands of years, and you, my first and only daughter, died so soon after your birth. I thought I’d understood, in that moment, what it meant to be staked in the heart. But then you rose, so gentle of a transition I hadn’t realized what was happening until you cried, thirsty and hungry. Let’s just say we were both confused. I’d never wanted to believe the predisposition could be so strong as to turn an infant. And so, because I needed you to be strong, capable, and able to withstand anything the world threw at you, I started my campaign early. Under no circumstances could anyone even suspect what we were. The first daughter of our era, raised on her own from infancy? You would have been stolen from me the instant anyone learned of you. So, I planted the seeds of prejudice and hate, and I struggled to balance your nature against those prejudices. Anyone who might discover the truth? I made certain you had reason to be skittish around them.”
Emerick inhaled, covered his mouth with a hand, and made a soft sound.
My father smiled a grim smile. “Perhaps I should have warned her a little better about ancient vampires who might want to drag her to their beds, as there is little more determined than old, single vampires seeking forever. Make no mistake, young Emerick—if I thought you were unsuitable for my daughter, I would have staked you myself, taken her from your brood, and set her loose on a more suitable candidate. Fortunately for you, I realized you are among the best our world has to offer her. I understand what you had done for Edgar. And you’re, in some ways, stronger than me. I could never stake my baby girl, even aware of the risks she could rise. And rise she did.”
“I wouldn’t be able to stake my newborn, either,” Emerick stated, lowering his hand from his mouth. “The thought of even considering it sickens me. I wouldn’t be able to do it. I don’t know any vampire who could. But that’s why I handle it for the brood, so they don’t have to. They would do what I couldn’t if needed.”
“Yes. You have always had more honor than is sensible. And your brood is strong because of that. But, Penelope survived, so the future may be different for parents who might lose their children. Her rising was the most peaceful I have seen. One instant, she was gone. The next, she cried from thirst and hunger, as though the life hadn’t fled from her body at all.”
“How did you get away with it? I can’t even imagine a thirsting infant,” Emerick admitted.
“Penelope received my blood most days, which controlled the thirst. She was, biologically, mostly human. Sometimes, she would show a little fang, but it only took some disapproval to upset her enough they retracted. While a risk, I had her taken to the doctor expressing concern the next morning. The condition that had ultimately killed her was corrected with an operation. She was six days old when she underwent the procedure, as it took that long to find a surgeon who could do the work. To prevent detection, I served as the donor for her blood. All they did was confirm I could donate and didn’t look any closer than that. After you recovered, Penelope, faster than anticipated, you were declared fully healthy. You escaped without even a scar, although that’s thanks to my blood. This is where the most serious of my mistakes happened, Penelope. Your mother ended up receiving more of my blood than she should have.”
“So we were right. You were feeding me blood. You also fed my mother blood. We just had the wrong reason for why.” The truth hurt a lot less than I thought it would. If anything, the lengths my father had gone to give me a life at all went beyond anything I’d imagined possible.
In some ways, my entire life had been a lie, but I had been the one lying to myself.
If I looked at the world through my father’s eyes, he had done his best to make sure I had a life.
“Correct,” my father replied. “Unbeknownst to me, she had formed a dependency to my blood within a week or two of the transfusions during her pregnancy with you. As long as I continued offering blood hidden in her meals, nothing happened, so we maintained the routine. She was unaware of how long I’d given her blood, although she was aware of everything else. I made sure to provide so she wouldn’t suffer. Her addiction was my mistake, a most unfortunate accident. As we agreed, once Penelope was safely nestled with other vampires, grown into her potential, we began the process of divorce. But then she disappeared. Clarke’s doing, I presume, as he is one of the few brood masters I couldn’t account for when she disappeared. And, as I suspected Clarke, I was not truly concerned for her. She will be a far better wife for Clarke. He can do everything I could not. And knowing what I do of Clarke, he is her type.”
I selected the smallest of the viable twigs and went to work whittling away the bark so I could shape it. “But you both got married agreeing that it would only be until I reached adulthood?”
“That’s correct. Her parents required expensive medical care, and I wanted a woman willing to deal with being my wife until our sole child grew to be of age. You are not my first child, although you are my only daughter. Some of your brothers are still around, but they assume I have gone and gotten myself killed until I show up and dash their dreams of finally having gotten rid of me.”
“I have brothers?”
“You have three living brothers, all younger than your Emerick. The eldest of them is six hundred years old. The next one is five hundred years old, and he follows his brother like a puppy. The next one is three hundred years old, and he likes to pretend he is a brood master of some success.”
Emerick’s eyes widened. “You’re Eugene Charleston’s father?”
My father chuckled. “I am.”
Emerick whistled. “I’ll be damned.”
“Explain that reaction, Emerick,” I demanded, pausing in my whittling to shoot my husband a glare.
“Eugene is quite an interesting vampire. He refuses to acknowledge who his father is, only admitting that he has a father of disgustingly gentle disposition who refused to turn him until the age of thirty-five despite his predisposition. He also adores his older brothers, who tend to be solo vampire hunters out to protect society from the riffraff. He whines about the risks his brothers take all the time, really. He is a half-decent carver, likes having things his way, and emulates his father’s disgustingly gentle disposition with his vampires, also refusing to make anyone below the age of thirty-five. He’s the only brood master I know of with an unknown, ancient vampire for a father and two brothers.”
My father grinned and showed off his fangs. “Eugene needed a gentle hand because he is a gentle soul. I prefer to think of Penelope as a fierce huntress who would not permit even infancy to rein her in. A gentle hand in her youth would not have been a good thing. She was simply too fierce from the first breath of her second life.”
“Four different methods of raising children, all with the same astonishing result,” Emerick complained. “I have tried to lure all three of your sons into my brood on several occasions. I still make offers to Eugene because it annoys him—and tempts him. I will make more insistent offers now, knowing he’s my brother-in-law.”
