Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

She screamed and fell backward, slamming into a burlap figure. She let Edwin help her up, dusted herself off. She beamed seeing Edwin, sewn neatly back together, and immediately threw her arms around him.

“Edwin! I’m so happy to see you!”

“Jeez, why are you in such a hurry?” he asked, adjusting his glasses that had been knocked askew.

Charlotte cleared her throat. “I was just on my way back home.” She peered back toward where the jack-o- lanterns were. They were again lifeless and staring blankly forward.

The shiny, black eyes behind Edwin's bottle cap goggles, now repaired at the bridge with duct-tape, went blank. “N-no. I–I don’t th-think that is the b-best idea—” he began to warn again.

Charlotte sighed. Not again, she thought. “Edwin? What's the matter now? Is it Valek?”

“No! No! No!” He scratched his head feverishly back and forth. “No! It’s n-not! It's n-not Valek. V-valek. Tr- trouble!” Edwin's head shook violently from side to side like he was about to short circuit. “No!” he said again. His head quickly convulsed to the left once more. “N-no! No!”

Charlotte looked around for someone she possibly knew. Something was going seriously awry in her town. And according to Edwin’s half-baked warnings, it was about to get a lot worse.

No one in the square seemed to be paying attention. There was nowhere else to go but home.

“Valek is in trouble, Edwin,” she concluded. Clouds moved past the moon and thunder sounded somewhere miles away. She wrapped her arms around herself — not to keep warm, but rather to keep herself together. “I have to go.” She proceeded walking again in the direction toward home while Edwin continued to spew.

“N-no! No! No!”

Chapter Nine Bronze Light

Charlotte burst through her front door, causing the surrounding walls to shake when she slammed it behind her. She glanced down at her trembling fists and held them tightly to her sides, trying to keep them still. She scanned the room for her Vampire, the skin on her arms and face tingling.

“Valek?” Her voice broke when she called him and couldn’t see him anywhere.

Valek poked his head out from the library, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Everything all right?” He took a step from the study to stand before her.

The awkwardness between them reappeared when their eyes met. She quickly looked away, however, relieved.

“No.” She breathed. “Just leave me alone, okay? And stay out of my head!” she ordered as she stomped past him into the kitchen.

Valek said nothing as he watched her go by.

Charlotte tore open the refrigerator door, scanned the shelves for something edible, overlooking the certain drawers Valek used to stash emergency medical supplies. Her stomach started talking to her, which was just part of the reason for her rage. She was always testier when she was hungry, another trait she picked up from Valek.

She pulled out a fistful of carrots, celery, and a chicken breast, and laid them each out on a cutting block. The silver butcher knife she pulled out of the wooden knife-holder glistened off the soft light above the old, gas stove. She feigned unawareness of Valek, who stood in the entryway watching her, concerned.

She started chopping the celery into small, green chunks and then pushed it into a heap on one side of the counter. She pulled out a lackluster pot from the cabinet above the stove, filled it halfway with water from the sink, and set it on the burner. Taking the celery chunks by the handful, she dropped them in the pot. Miserable, ignorant Elf. How could she have allowed herself to be so trusting? How was she going to escape the Occult with Valek now that the Regime was watching for him? She needed to devise a plan.

Next, the chicken. She cleaned the meat and dropped the breast in whole — the best way to flavor the stock. Steam lifted into her eyes as she stirred, and she could feel her pores opening. She closed her eyes and inhaled, attempting to calm herself, knowing ultimately, she had to tell Valek what happened.

Finally, she started chopping the carrots, her hands moving fast and furious as she thought about Aiden and the things he told his father. She saw the Wizards’ cogs turning from their high, holy place in the city, and the plans they were plotting against her now. It was only a matter of time. She had to get Valek out of the Occult very soon. She saw Aiden’s lips releasing the secret she had kept for nearly nineteen years. She saw them kissing her—

“Damn!” she blurted out as the silvery knife plummeted to the floor, splattered with blood. “Damn it!” she said again, clutching her wounded finger. She ran over to the brass sink and started rinsing it under warm water.

Valek, who had been lost in thought looming against the threshold, tensed. His pupils engulfed his pretty, blue eyes — gone black as pitch and cold as death. He silently stalked up right behind Charlotte and quickly punched down on the faucet handle, stopping the flow of water.

She spun around, surprised to meet his chest at her eye level. She cautiously looked up into his sable gaze; the blood feeling like it was draining out of her face. She gulped. But his glare wasn’t hungry or scary like she expected. This time it was different somehow.

“You mustn’t curse in this house, Lottie.” One corner of his mouth stretched upward in an agonizingly sweet smile that sent a ripple through her body.

The bronze light created a dull flame in the shiny black behind his lashes, as his fingers began to slide down her arm, searching for her wounded finger. Stuttering incoherently, she meant to protest, but couldn’t find any of the words she wanted to say. He pulled her hand up to his cool lips. She could feel them part under her skin. He smiled down at her again, forcing her to drop her gaze.

He pressed the cut to his mouth and gently sucked.

The pressure sent a new ripple down her spine, causing her to look up at him again. She watched his pleasure with wide, innocent eyes. The inside of his mouth was warm and tantalizing, and she instantly missed the feeling of it when he softly pushed her hand away.

She looked down at her palm that still lingered in his. The cut had completely disappeared. He smiled down at her again.

“I–I…uh—” She stammered to articulate something — anything, but once again came up empty.

He hushed her, putting a finger to her lips. Her heart fluttered as the muscles in her stomach clenched. He lowered his face, so close to hers that she could see her reflections in his black irises. The word “danger” rang out in her mind, but her lips began to ache for his anyway. The effect he had on her was unfair. Be careful what you wish for.

“I would like to speak with you,” he whispered into her mystified face.

Suddenly, a pounding slammed against the front door, interrupting Charlotte mid-thought.

A foreign voice rumbled from the other side. “Open up!”

Both Charlotte and Valek’s heads snapped toward the foyer. A fist met the door once again, more aggressive than before.

“This is the Regime Guard Force! We demand you open this door!”

A different voice sounded. “We have this house completely surrounded!”

Valek turned his eyes on Charlotte, and she could tell he was tuning in. Chagrin rushed to her face, burning her cheeks. He was going to hear everything; from the kiss, to the argument, to the “goodbye,” to Edwin’s warning. The blackness quickly dissipated, and his eyes turned back to their hard and icy azure.

“Quickly, go to my office. Hide in the freezer. Do not come out under any circumstance. No matter what you hear,” he hissed, clutching her shoulders.

The freezer was where Valek kept his “leftover meals” until he could find a different way of disposing of them.

Charlotte’s arms prickled as the light above the stove flickered out. She tried to think of any other place she could hide that didn’t contain dead bodies.