Thirty-Six

Vali

“I’m going to be honest, when you told me we were going to come to your parents I assumed it would be a small townhouse or something along those lines…” Antanasia said as I drove us down the driveway to the house I grew up in.

“No, my parents always preferred living out here in the woods. They felt safer surrounded by the trees than they did in the city.” I told her as our home came into view through the trees. I had mostly grown up in Germany, although my parents tended to travel for their work and so I followed them.

“What do they do for a living?” She asked, maybe trying to get me to open up to her once more. It was difficult to do, because not a single part of me wanted to.

“They design technology to work in cohesion with nature. They have been researching new kinds of energy recently, to figure out a way to prevent us from killing the planet.” I answered as I parked the hire care.

“A noble cause, that must pay very well.” She said as we got out of the car and I looked at the familiar home. A wooden cabin that was more mirrored glass than wood, so that when you were inside you felt like you were in the forest. It was off-grid, generating it’s own power from solar and the river that was a hundred metres away in the forest.

“It does.” I replied as I walked to the front door, knocking on it before standing and waiting.

“They put pressure on you to do something for the world…” Antanasia trailed off, and before I could respond the door opened. My mother was a few inches shorter than me, my father just above my eye level. I got my umber skin from him and my facial structure from her.

“Vali…” My mother trailed off. I guess I also received my name from her too, since it was her obsession with Norse mythology that granted me it.

“Mum…” I whispered and she immediately enveloped me in a hug, one that was making my eyes burn. How long had it been since I’d had the time to see them? Far too long. I looked up at my father while still wrapped in my mother’s arms, and embraced her back. He just smiled at me before he hugged the both of us at once.

“As happy as we are to see you, little one, we have a feeling it isn’t just for a reunion.” His voice was as deep and as comforting as I remembered.

“No, it’s not…” I said as they both let me go and I backed away.

“Come in, we can talk about it inside.” Mum said, her hazel eyes flicking towards Antanasia.

“Sorry, this is Antanasia.” I said, pointing to the vampire. “Anne, this is Lucille and Robert Johnson, my parents.”

“It is lovely to meet you Mr and Mrs Johnson.” Anne said, my parents both smiled at her.

“Please, call us Rob and Lucy.” Dad said, and Anne nodded before my parents let us inside. It was only after Mum had made us peppermint tea that I was allowed to speak again, to explain why I was here. Not that I got the first word in…

“We saw the news, what you did at the Summit.” Mum said, holding her own cup of tea with both hands to absorb the comforting warmth from it as she always did. “Is this because of what happened there?”

“Yes and no.” I answered.

“Vali.” My father’s voice reverberated through me. A warning to get to the point.

“Traian, the Vampire King I managed to get removed from his throne, he is rising. Me and the Vampire Prince, Mircea, are working together to take him down.” I said, and then everything came out of my mouth in a flood. Every little detail from what I knew about the hunts to Mir and I being mates, to our shared power and what we had already done to fight against Traian. And then, of course, what had happened less than twenty-four hours ago.

“And why have we not met Mircea?” Dad asked. If course the only part he was concerned with was my mate.

“We’ve been a bit busy, Dad.” I answered, he nodded. “You can meet him when this is all over, I promise.”

“He has to survive for that.” Anne said, once again taking away the warmth from the room. “We are going to have to act quickly to make sure he does.”

“Then why are you here? Is there not somewhere else you should be so you can direct the fight?” Mum asked, and I bit my lip.

“I need a safe space to hone in Mircea’s power. According to Antanasia, I might be able to figure out how to use it against Traian’s fire.” I said, and Mum’s brow furrowed.

“You said his power stretches to the atomic level, yes?” I nodded in response to her question. “Then it is fairly simple, no? You just remove the flammable atoms, the oxygen, the hydrogen, saturate the fire with carbon dioxide.”

“Or turn the oxygen and hydrogen atoms into water.” My father added, and Mum pointed at him with a smile on her face.

“The issue with that is no one knows how to control the atoms themselves anymore. That was a secret passed down between the generations, it wasn’t passed from Nicolae to Mircea.” Anne explained.

“So I have been entrusted to figure out a family secret to control atoms all because I am able to use my telepathy in new ways that haven’t been written before?” I asked, and a tight smile reached the vampire’s lips. Great. Just fucking great.

“Well, if anyone can figure it out, it is you.” Dad said, and I had to refrain from rolling my eyes. “You take everything you are given and turn it into something beyond what people thought was possible. That wolf bit you, and you became their Chosen. With that position as their leader, you brought order to your people. You went to the Summit to stop the Hunts, and here you are in the midst of a war that could end all of that horror. Do you see that? You were bitten, and instead of allowing yourself to fall into the system that was built for your people, you’re changing it. Instead of becoming bitter and angry about what happened, you are going to bring peace to the entire world. You’ve been given extraordinary power, you can make it undefeatable.”

My father’s gold-brown eyes were focused on mine, the colour exactly the same as my own. He was right, and he knew it judging from the smile on his face.

If he thought I could do it, then I could.