Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

must be angry. Slowly, she began to descend the stairs, her hand sliding along the polished banister.

“Charlotte?” Valek’s voice lingered threateningly from the library threshold.

She froze on the third to last step, her skin bristling.

“Can I see you in here, please?” His tone struck her like warm poison.

She made her way to the library door; stopping short when she saw him perched on the arm of the garnet- colored armchair. The fireplace crackled in front of him and made threatening ember reflections in his crystalline eyes. She swallowed thickly when Valek stood.

“S-sorry. I know I woke up late. I’m leaving now.” She spun on her heel.

“I think you know that is not what I wanted to speak with you about.” His words halted her once more.

Biting her lower lip a little too hard, Charlotte turned slowly back around. She should have prepared a bit more for this. After all, she had broken the most important rule.

“What is this?” He pulled out the small glass jar, which had once held the glittering lightning bug. Charlotte saw the little fly had become nothing but a brown carcass crumpled at the bottom of the glass.

“It m-must have died.” She winced, her fingers winding in knots behind her back. “I caught it for you because I thought you might like it. Like a little piece of the sun.” Valek sighed and firmly placed the jar on the wooden end table by his chair. The sound of the glass bottom slamming against the wood made Charlotte jump.

“You are not allowed in my bedroom. You know that, Charlotte.”

Her heart sank when he used her full name, instead of the much more endearing term, “Lottie,” he normally liked to call her. He only did that when she was in a lot of trouble.

“I don’t know what made me do it,” she said quietly.

“Charlotte.” He approached her. “I make these rules for a reason. I am only trying to protect you.”

He stopped inches from her, his shoulders back, his stance broad and erect. Blood burned in Charlotte’s cheeks, yet she looked him in the eye in spite of it.

“Why do you have to be alone? Why do you have to do that to yourself?” She fought back tears.

“Because, Charlotte.” His glare pierced her. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. Can’t you see I am trying to protect you?”

“Protect me from what? You?” Her frustration built. “No one should have to die alone!”

“I will not subject you to that!” he bellowed.

Charlotte quaked in his shadow, frightened. He had never yelled at her before. She stared angrily down at the tears splashing on the floor in front of her feet.

“And why did you leave the Occult borders today? I told you, it is dangerous! If you got into trouble, I couldn’t do anything to help you!'

She looked up at him, surprised. “How did you know I left? Will you get out of my head, please? ” The taste of salty tears flooded the back of her throat. “Besides, you make me cross those borders every single night to do what you are unable to do so you won’t kill me!” She jabbed a finger at him. “I don’t see how the amount of danger you put me in is any less significant!”

Valek shuddered.

Charlotte hadn’t realized just how far she had gone until then. She could have said anything to him. She could have called him any name in any number of languages, and it would have never hurt him as much as what she had just said.

“If you regret living here so much, then I grant you your freedom. Just say the word,” he said quietly, sadly.

Charlotte’s mouth fell open. The emotions rolled from her like tidal waves. “You should have just left me in the gutters the night you found me. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe my real parents put me there for a reason?” She bit her lip harder than she had before, regretting everything spewing from her, but she couldn’t control it. He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. His brows furrowed.

“That was an utterly selfish thing to say.” His voice cracked when he looked her in the eyes. “You are only allowed to leave the Occult when it is unquestionably necessary. You leaving for me is a safety precaution, because I want you here, Charlotte. That is true! ”

“But I have been leaving the Occult every single night for the last ten years.” Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“Not anymore.”

“But what about you? What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“But Valek—”

“And another thing — you are never, never allowed to be in the woods alone!” He pulled his pipe from his breast pocket and lit it.

“But Aiden was with me!” She continued to argue.

“And he did nothing to protect you.” He put the end of it to his lips.

Charlotte’s mouth filled with acid. “Yes, he did! He stopped my bleeding so I wouldn’t be in any danger walking back into this house!” Her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Valek closed his eyes and calmly blew a perfect smoke ring into the air. He turned his back to her and walked steadily toward the fire. “Do what you want, then. If that’s how you really feel, Charlotte.”

Her arms dropped slowly back to her sides. Of course that wasn’t how she really felt. The honest truth was she had been sketching his face in her drawing book for months. The honest truth was she had snuck into his bedroom because she couldn’t tear him from her mind, because if she were being upfront with herself, he was the one thing in life she treasured more than anything she’d ever possessed. But she quickly shoved those sick thoughts back to the deepest depths of her mind. He could not ever know how she felt. Sadly, she turned and started to leave, hiding her own pained expression.

“Take your whistle,” he whispered.

Grinding her teeth together, she clasped her trembling hand around the small, tarnished thing on the end table beside the door. She placed it around her neck again.

* * *

Valek listened to her footsteps make their way out into the windy night. He heard the front door open, and then shut with a finalizing thud. He peered out of the large, dusty library window at the small girl pushing through the frigid wind, her arms wound tightly around herself. The wind blew the hem of her dress up around her knees. He thought about running after her, but he knew he ought to just leave her alone. He had never felt the need to yell at Charlotte before, but there was just something about her getting too close to him scared him.

She was like a small, pomegranate seed he held in his hand. If he squeezed too hard, it would burst and the red would spill over and stain his fingertips. She would be so very easy to destroy, and yet she seemed so quick to destroy him. He couldn't deny his instincts. He never told her how he still struggled sometimes. If she walked past and the wind rushed the scent of her mortality to him, he had to force himself to fight that one awful thought.

He knew she didn’t really mean what she said, and he knew she felt sorry the instant she’d said it. Guilt grasped a tight hold of him as he watched her walk alone in to the freezing darkness and fought the urge once more to run after her. But the Regime had just begun to keep a close eye out for Occult people crossing the borders. He had to be home anyway, just in case a patient decided to walk in.

Valek somberly made his way back to his office to take care of some paperwork. Sounds of the house’s foundation settling filled the space Charlotte left vacant. He hated the empty feeling. Even silence seemed too loud when she was gone. He sat at his desk, sighing, and pulled messy patient files from the drawer. He started putting them in some sort of order that made sense to him. It was merely busy work. He actually didn’t need to keep files at all with his photographic memory. He glanced at the desk schedule in front of him. No scheduled appointments tonight. He sighed. No scheduled appointments for the last several months. It seemed nobody wanted to pay a visit to the Vampire doctor.

Maybe he should go after her.