Page 78 of Silent Stalker
I laughed at Emerick’s demand, retrieved enough potatoes for us for dinner, and narrowed my eyes. “Is this enough?”
“If you were serving humans, yes. Double that amount, and you’ll be set.”
Doubling the potatoes would give us four each, and while I raised a brow, I did as he recommended, also grabbing enough garlic and onions for the meal while I was at it. “But where does it all go?”
“We have heightened metabolisms compared to humans. We’re creatures of magic, and in many cases, calories are the fuel our magic uses—right along with the blood we no longer can produce for ourselves. It’s complicated. I’m glad your biology seems to be switching back to a more normal method of sustenance, as giving you sufficient calories through only blood would have been quite a challenge. I expect the blood you consume will still need quite a lot of magic in it to sustain you, but the food should help somewhat.”
“And I thought food was complicated before.” I set out the potatoes, sighed, and braced myself for the inevitable. “I will leave you to your dark steak rituals, but don’t take long, else I might run and hide in the bathroom again.”
“You are quite proficient at running and hiding in the bathroom.”
“Perhaps too proficient.” Before I could lose my courage, I headed for the sitting room. In the time we’d talked about dinner, my mother had taken over the couch with Clarke, and she worked on crocheting something. “We wanted to get dinner planned so we can start it and eat at a reasonable hour. You’re both welcome to join us, of course.” As Clarke hadn’t claimed Emerick’s chair, I did, expecting to have to get up before taking my rightful place as the owner of Emerick’s lap. “We were investigating some leads, which weren’t all that useful, but at least we got to pick up some clothing for me.”
My mother sighed and regarded her project with a furrowed brow. “Your father wrote me a letter, which he had passed through Clarke.”
That sounded like something my father would do. “Did it include an apology?”
“In his way. I knew what I was getting into to have you, and he hadn’t kept his status as a vampire secret. I wanted a child, and more importantly, I wanted a child who would have future security. How better to do that than have a child with an old vampire who genuinely does love children? We didn’t expect you—or what happened to you.”
My father loved children? When I thought about it, I admitted she had a point. Who, except someone who genuinely loved children, would go through so much to make sure I had a life? Perspective mattered, and when framed through his eyes, I could understand how love had driven so many of his decisions. “He told me I had a defective heart.”
“Yes, you did. And it was only luck there was a donor who passed at the right time, as we didn’t know if you would be able to survive without a heart transplant. We considered telling you when you were younger, but it would have raised too many questions. The lack of transplant drugs being used would have been one of them; you adapted to your new heart without them. We pretended to give the drugs to you. We’ve told many lies over the years. In some ways, I am ashamed of the lies I told and the false life I orchestrated, but I would do it again if I needed. Like your father, I would not stake a child, especially mine. I am sorry for the painful things I did to you, but they were necessary.”
I shrugged. “Seems to me like it was for good reason.” I gestured towards the kitchen. “Emerick is quite appreciative for how it worked out. I guess I just wanted to know that it was the truth, and that you and my father did as you did making sure I made it to adulthood alive.”
“And without randomly attacking someone,” my mother said. She heaved a sigh, staring down at her project. “But yes. Your father explained predisposition to me because of my problems with my blood pressure and needing a lot of transfusions during my pregnancy with you. He never expected there would be a problem with your heart. Neither did I. We had to limit some of the tests they do on infants due to your father, so your heart defect came as a surprise to both of us. You rose as peacefully as you passed, which concerned your father. Then you got a little wild.”
The moment of truth had come sooner than I’d anticipated, but I refused to run away. Not this time. “I attacked you.”
“You were quite the handful for the first twenty minutes, to say the least, but your father figured out how to get you to latch onto his wrist, rather tricky when dealing with an infant without actual teeth and little strength. Your fangs never really came in. According to your father, your fangs took the place of your canines, but they never developed, which helped us hide everything. We’d made an agreement: I would play the perfect trophy wife of a bastard, and we’d use that to hide the eccentricities of your upbringing. He disliked being so overbearing, but your father was determined to get you to adulthood, although we had some hiccups along the way. Puberty was particularly perilous.”
No kidding. I cringed at times, thinking back on how irritable I’d been—and how much I’d eaten. Knowing the truth, it amazed me I hadn’t bled my father dry by the time I’d turned sixteen. “And your status as a vampire now?”
My mother laughed. “Are you worried about that of all things?”
I stared at her. “Well, yes. You weren’t really given a choice.”
“Only because your father refused to turn me. He would not murder the mother of his child, and every woman he’s had a child with has not been a wife for him. They wanted a child, he wanted a child, so they made arrangements, just like I made an arrangement with him. He understood my motivations might be lacking without any form of bond between us. The chances of my survival were unacceptable to him. He hadn’t realized he’d been accidentally working on turning me for the entirety of your life—and even before you were born.”
I turned my attention to Emerick’s maker. “Is that accurate?”
“Yes, it is. Your father is many things, but I fully believe he genuinely cares about your mother’s ability to have a good life moving forward, in that he threatened a great deal worse than a mere staking if I did anything distasteful. It’s not often I hesitate on such a matter. Whomever your father is, he’s old… and old things have power. But it’s obvious, because he had you—and he raised you to become a vampire on nothing more than a wish and his age. I had planned to be excessive with your mother to turn her, but her spontaneous rising resolved such matters. I helped her along when I realized what was happening, so I am making the claim I turned her. In reality, she was already turning when I became involved.”
I regarded my mother, who seemed exactly as I remembered before I’d been kidnapped and revealed to be a vampire, albeit paler. “Do you know why you spontaneously rose?”
“I suspect it’s because your father had been giving me blood all along. I was aware of it to a certain degree, and he said it sometimes happened. I’d become addicted to the magic in his blood, which he’d been using to feed you—and since he couldn’t realistically hide what he was doing if I didn’t play along, I was exposed in high quantity. It turns out it was an ultimately fatal addiction. I’m sure if he’d known, he would have maintained giving me blood. He is willing to be cruel out of necessity, but he dislikes the necessity of it, and he finds no joy in it. I know you have a different view of your father, but while he can be cruel, he is also kind. Well, for a vampire.”
“It amazes me how two people can view the same picture so differently.”
“We cultivated you to look for danger around every corner, that you needed to uphold certain behaviors. It was cruel, yes—but it was necessary. Your father didn’t want to release you to the brides broods, where you would be put up like a mare on auction. He wanted to raise you to be a queen, one who could withstand any storm. In his eyes, a mistress of a reputable brood with a vampire you obviously care about suffices, although he’s rather annoyed he can’t even posture. He had looked forward to posturing in front of any serious men, especially the vampires. He did some posturing for Clarke, though. I’ll admit, I enjoyed it more than I should have.” My mother glanced at Clarke and shrugged. “Sorry, but I did. He was never the kind to make gestures often, though when he did make a gesture, it was rather grand and always appreciated.”
I hoped never to understand why my parents had done as they’d done.
“Well, you did get to read the letter, which consisted of some rather lengthy descriptions of my fate should I harm a hair on your head. He takes your position as the mother of his daughter rather seriously—more seriously than I had anticipated. So, we are here so I maintain ownership of my various organs, as I have no doubt he would follow through with his promises.”
Wise vampire. “My father doesn’t make threats. He never has. Of course, now that I think about it, he would execute his threats in creative fashions.” I could think of only one time I’d earned an actual spanking, and the shock of it had done more for ensuring future obedience than the pain. A lot of what he’d done had implied doom and destruction on the horizon to force me to walk the straight and narrow.
Considering he’d been giving me blood on the sly, I understood why he’d never sent me to bed without supper.
