Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

had the opportunity, he would have been listening. Her throat felt thick as a fresh wave of bile crawled up her esophagus. Had she really just seen what she thought she had? Impossible. Out of every evil thing this nightmarish city contained, her very worst nightmare had been realized. The images flashed, vivid at the forefront of her mind, recalling that which had sucker punched her clear across the face only a few moments ago. She ran, passing the taverns and shops, not knowing where to turn next. There was no safe haven. She needed to find some place empty, some place quiet, where she could think.

Why did it have to be Evangeline? It just confirmed all of the fears that constantly tormented Charlotte in the back of her mind.

Nights she lay awake, conjuring up in her mind this very thing was somehow eventual, somehow inevitable. Tears from her eyes meshed so well with the cold rain on her face; she could hardly tell she had started to cry. Her lungs began to scorch in her chest after a distance and she bent in half, her hands on her knees as the tears continued to fall. Oxygen returned to her in a fury of blistering waves. Her shivering fingers wound absently around her silver whistle, habitual.

Charlotte straightened again and looked around at the desolate village square. Her teeth chattered as she wrapped her arms around her shoulders, suddenly too aware of the zillions of goose bumps on seemingly every plane of her body.

She turned to her left to see a shadowed alley between the freestanding gothic cathedral and Broucka General Store. It didn’t look to her like it would a dead end, as the dank path seemed to twist around the side of the church walls. Perhaps this would be a good, quiet place. She began walking. A gargoyle loomed at her as she passed, its wretched jaws extended in an eternal howl, like it too was disgusted with the putrid love she hid so fervently from the one who raised her. She shuddered.

Sure enough, the washed cobblestone pathway turned and disappeared under a mound of dirt and grass. A low, black fence surrounded the entire churchyard, its twisted gate mangled and rusted. Grass, a brilliant emerald color, even in the dead of night, stretched to the moon, her ankles drowning in it as she walked. A stony fountain stood in the very center of the forsaken garden, its winged statue pointing his cherubic hand toward the night sky.

Charlotte walked over and peered into the basin, a sickly sort of jade color with moss growing around the sides. It didn’t look like it worked at all with the limestone decay built up around the bottom. It was completely unkempt, but it was just the peaceful sort of place she needed. She sank into the basin of the dirty fountain where the rainwater collected, her legs dangling over the brim. She was already sopping, and anyway, getting dirt on her clothes was the very furthest thing she cared about. She buried her head in her hands and sucked deep an enormous breath of the clean, dewy air. Tears finally starting to dry, she shoved the rest of the garbage from her mind so she could finally think more clearly.

Valek was her parent — her guardian, she amended. He never wanted her to refer to him as ‘Father’. He made that point when she was very young, learning to talk. Perhaps if he had made those boundaries more clear, this might have never been an issue. Valek raised her. He was the only thing she had ever learned to love, and by far her greatest treasure. In spite of growing up around all of this magic, Charlotte looked at Valek like she looked at nothing else. He meant everything, and she had just walked in on him and Evangeline. Together.

Exhausted, Charlotte sighed and looked up at the stars. The downpour had diminished into a light drizzle. The storm seemed to have cleaned all of the thick, ominous clouds away, leaving the sky sparkling. Thankful the rain had stopped. She breathed in the clean air and watched Polaris wink down at her. She returned to her conundrum.

She decided she should be happy for Valek. He had been alone for years, even before he’d found her. Yet the thought of Valek romantically involved with anyone at all seemed weird and unnatural, because it had always just been the two of them, simple and unchanging.

Maybe it made sense for Valek to be with Evangeline now. Of course it did. Charlotte could never be that for him. She wasn’t supposed to be. And Evangeline was nice. She was beautiful. She would take care of him.

Something hard and icy stabbed at the inside of Charlotte’s chest again, and she lurched forward, balling her fists in her hair. No! She wasn’t going to accept that. She needed Valek, and she needed him all to herself. They were soul mates. That was the reason he’d found her nearly nineteen years ago in Prague. There must have been a reason. They belonged together.

Biologically, he wasn’t much older than her — about four years. They weren’t related in the least. They practically were like different species altogether. They could be together once she was old enough. He only needed to wait for her.

No, her logical half fought back. That was too disgusting to even think about. Why was she thinking it?

Her heart and mind raged on in battle, neither half making any sort of victory. What was she going to say to him? What was he going to think? Charlotte couldn’t imagine her situation getting any worse.

“Lottie?”

The soft, familiar voice dripped like honey in the thick gardenia-scented air. She looked up to see him standing at the edge of the broken gate.

No! Go away! She said the words in her mind, but nothing came out of her lips that had frozen shut. Instead, she buried her face in her knees again. Wrong. It can always get worse.

“I’m not going to go away,” Valek said aloud, answering her thoughts defiantly.

He padded over to her with his hands up in surrender, careful, as though she were a spooked rabbit.

She felt like she was going to be sick. This was it. The floodgates were now open. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked at him. He had cleaned up. His hair was tied neatly back with a black ribbon. His red ascot with the Czech coat of arms scrawled in elegant gold, and brown sear-sucker vest were back in their rightful place — the buttons closed. She wanted to look away again, but his lingering, sapphire gaze kept her there.

“What?” She sniffed and quickly wiped at her face with an already dampened sleeve. She hated when she was vulnerable. She wished she were on the opposite end of the world.

He sat down on the scummy brim of the fountain and took her small hand in his. His skin was cool and satiny, like it always felt — dry, though with a slick sort of feeling, like the scales on a snake.

“I am sorry, Lottie,” he said almost too quietly for her to hear. “I should never have allowed that to happen.”

She sniffed again. “Why are you sorry?” She wriggled her hand free and folded it sheepishly in her lap. “Who you choose to be involved with is none of my business. You deserve to be happy.”

“Do not say such things. It is without a doubt your business. I do not feel that way about Evangeline.” He pleaded for her to look at him. She refused.

“That’s not the way it looked.” This was stupid. She felt like a jealous wife.

“I am aware of the way it looked.” He sighed. “And I am not going to try and explain. But I promise it was meaningless. Evangeline will not be my betrothed anytime soon.” He chuckled darkly.

Charlotte didn’t buy it. Instead, she turned her face away, the only effort she could make to hide from him. She felt him inch closer to her as she sniffled once more.

“Please do not cry, my Lottie.” He eased one long bony finger over her cheek, wiping away a tear. She couldn’t help but completely melt inside.

Finally, she turned to look him in the eye, which proved to be a big mistake. Her tears flowed inconsolably then and it was all she could do to bury her face in his chest, her hands knotting around the back of his neck.

“Valek. I’m so confused. It’s not like I can hide it from you any longer. Eventually you were going to hear it.” She sobbed.

He rested his bony cheek on top of her head, listening to the thoughts she knew he had not since paid much attention to. This did complicate things quite a bit, and she knew it.

“Shhh, Lottie.” He stroked her hair. “You shouldn’t have to hide anything from me. You know that. I told you to come to me under any circumstance. I meant it.”

He delicately slid his hand up the side of her arm — a gesture she was sure he meant to be comforting, but it wasn’t. She pulled away. “I’m sure this was not the sort of circumstance you meant.” She quickly brushed away