Chapter 77

DAVID

I stared at the girl crouching by the river. Her dress looked like it had perhaps been a ball gown, but it was now covered in blood and dirt.

She looked like she’d crawled out of her own grave. And considering what she’d just told me about being a vampire, that may be exactly what she did.

But her supernatural properties weren’t what shocked me most.

It wasn’t even that she punched out the terrible couple that had been hauling me around the world for the last two weeks, drinking from me and leaving me in a corner while they had sex, smearing themselves with my blood.

What scared me about this creature, this girl, were her eyes.

Opal eyes, like mine. Like my mother’s. Eyes I hadn’t seen for twenty-five years. And her face, the shape of her body, the way she moved.

I knew her the moment I saw her. She was Gabriela, there was no denying it. She was the spitting image of my mother and my aunt.

She wasn’t dead. We had buried an empty coffin. There was never any sign of her body. Rangers had looked at the marks left on my parents and told us she had probably been eaten by a bear.

They assumed its hibernation was disturbed by the avalanche, causing it to wander out for food, finding my infant sister alive.

I stared at the girl by the river. It was no bear. That was obvious. It was a fucking vampire.

I had seen what the terrible couple was capable of. Cold-blooded murder, relishing the taste of human blood, indulging their every whim.

They were incredibly strong and cunning, able to trick any human into following them, myself included. They were beautiful. And they were the most horrible creatures on the face of the earth.

And they had killed my mother and somehow corrupted my sister. Rage bubbled up inside me.

She tried to hide her fangs by rolling her lip down and biting on it, making a face when her teeth pierced her skin. She tried to move slowly. She tried not to intimidate me, but how could she not?

I was shaken to my core. She zoomed from one place to the next, realized her pace was too fast, then stomped very slowly, casting me the smallest glances, asking me questions.

Her eyes were wide, full of hope.

I had no idea what to do. Running away wasn’t an option. I had tried that many times over the last two weeks. They always caught me.

I doubted my vampire sister would drink my blood and throw me across the room like the other two had done. She had healed me, after all. I didn’t think she’d let me go either. She wanted answers.

She was washing her hands clean of the blood. When she turned back to me, she gave me a small smile.

“David.” Her eyes glowed with excitement. “Tell me about my parents. Our parents.”

I felt a sudden resentment as I remembered my little sister whom I’d held in my arms the day she was born, who cried all night, who would grip my finger in her hand and giggle.

The one I mourned for years, imagining her small body torn to pieces by a wild animal. She had grown into a monster. She didn’t even seem to care that her kind killed our parents.

She looked like them so much. She had the high cheekbones, the dimples from our father, the way she cocked her head to the side as if she was trying to read my thoughts.

“First, I want to go home,” I told her. She blinked at me, then nodded.

“Of course! Where do you live? I will take you there.”

“New York,” I answered dryly.

She paused but still nodded. I gazed at her. She seemed to be reading my emotions like a book.

“I can take you to New York,” she informed me. “Or if not me, then my family will make sure you get home safely. David, again, I am sorry for what Elizabeth and Damon did to you.”

I recognized their names. She seemed sincere. I bristled.

“I don’t care. I want to go home. Now.” I didn’t want to sound like a spoiled child. I was afraid that was what I was coming off as.

She looked a little annoyed, disappointed. But I couldn’t be around her or her kind any longer. She owed me that.

“I see. We can’t travel during the day. Tomorrow evening I will take you to the airport. Does that work?” She arched her brows.

I didn’t have a choice. Not that I’d had a choice ever since that red-headed bitch landed on me at Central Park two weeks ago.

I ran my hand over my face and through my hair. She watched me cautiously, her eyes darting from my face to the forest behind us.

“Tell me about my parents,” she breathed. I pursed my lips.

“You don’t deserve to know anything about them,” I snarled. She blinked in surprise.

“Why not?” She seemed truly shocked.

“Because they were murdered by your kind! Your family!” I snapped.

“They died in the avalanche, David,” she murmured. I blinked at her, not wanting to hear her words.

“They had gashes. Now I understand that they had been attacked.”

“My mother, my vampire mother, she found me after they had died. She only tasted them. Vampires don’t like to drink from dead humans. Fresh, warm blood is best,” she answered smartly.

I bristled. “I just want to get away from you people,” I snarled.

She nodded slowly. “I get it,” she said. “I was a human until recently. I was also afraid when I realized what they were, what they could do to me, that they were actively trying to kill me.”

She pursed her lips. “I get it. I won’t make you stay to tell me about my parents. But David, I want you to know, I want to know you. I want to know my family.”

She seemed sincere. I ran my fingers through my knotted hair. She followed my every movement with her large eyes.

“My mother, our mother, she was Colombian. Her family immigrated there about two hundred years ago. Originally, they had been Greek.

“And on Dad’s side, he was American, but his parents were from the Netherlands. I grew up in Alaska, where Dad was from.

“After they died, after you died, Mother’s family had me brought back to Colombia. I moved to New York two years ago.”

Her eyes were shimmering with what seemed to be blood. I watched as a red tear trickled down her face. She wiped at it quickly.

“Tell me more,” she begged. “Do we have more siblings? Cousins?”

“Cousins, yes, many. No other siblings,” I answered.

I watched her nodding to herself.

“I paint,” she announced. “A lot. I am currently doing a Ph.D. in Aeronautical Engineering, I live in Toulouse where I work on the Airbus.” She gave me a wide smile.

“Dad used to paint,” I told her. She grinned at me. “I’m a teacher,” I continued. “I teach physics in high school.”

“We’re almost in the same field,” she giggled, and I couldn’t help but smile. She looked so happy.

She glanced toward the woods suddenly, then back at me with a sheepish smile.

“Aric is on his way,” she informed me. “Aric is my, well, not really brother anymore.” She seemed amused.

Suddenly, a Viking appeared from the trees. He was tall and wide-chested, his red eyes swiveling over us.

I was gripped by fear. I recognized the sharp nose, the tousle of his hair. He was undoubtedly related to the two who had taken me.

But his expression was soft, and he gazed at Gabriela with a wide grin splitting his face, his fangs on full display.

“Eleanor!” he called, rushing to her side. He pulled her into his arms and crushed her against his chest. I looked away, suddenly uncomfortable when he started kissing her passionately.

“You were incredible,” he spoke softly.

“I still have so many questions,” she answered.

“So do we,” he chuckled. “I brought you this, and we should be getting back to the castle. The sun will be up soon, and Grace is still trying to salvage her wedding.”

“Poor Grace,” Gabriela murmured. “I ruined her party.”

“Don’t worry,” the Viking chuckled. “She’ll make it her life’s mission to ruin all of yours over the next two hundred years.”

He turned to look at me, and his eyes had shifted to a bright blue. His expression was pure confusion.

“So, who are you?” he asked me.

I felt the power radiating from his intense stare. Beside him, my baby sister turned vampire was bouncing with glee.

I pulled myself up to my knees. Whatever blood transfusion she’d given me earlier had me feeling stronger than I had in years. I held my hand out.

“I’m David. I guess I’m her brother,” I said. The Viking shook my hand with a small smile.

“I’m delighted to meet you, David,” he replied. “My name is Aric. I want to apologize, on behalf of my whole family, for what my grandparents have put you through.

“They still live by the old ways of vampires, when stealing people could go unnoticed. I imagine you want to go home? We can arrange that.”

I blinked at him. I knew he was family with those two bloodsuckers!

“Sure,” I nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Would you be interested in being turned into a vampire?” he asked.

“Aric!” Gabriela scolded.

I stared at him.

“What?”

Aric glanced at my sister. He smiled. “It would be interesting, wouldn’t it, to see if he ends up like you? A pureblood turned vampire?”

She glared at him.

“No, that’s not going to happen,” she growled.

“No, thank you,” I agreed.

Aric shrugged.

“Fine, come with me. We can put you in the tower room, where Eleanor grew up. In daylight, none of us can reach you up there.”