Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

strained when he sensed the blonde draw nearer. The Vampire had a full glass in her hand as she lightly tapped Valek’s shoulder.

“What?” he said, without shifting his gaze.

“You’ve been sitting here for hours. The sun’s almost up. You’re thirsty.” She offered him the glass, her voice staying as airy and light as it was before.

Only then did he look at what she was handing him. He hadn’t realized the aching that had begun again in the back of his throat, or the burning he felt in his center until he smelled it in the glass. He gazed at her with completely enveloped irises. The truth was, he forgot completely about what he was, because for those hours he prayed for Charlotte, he was human.

“Take it. If she wakes before the morning, you don’t want her to see you like this.”

Valek apprehensively took the glass from her, searching through her mind, finding nothing cruel or judgmental about him. He sipped and winced as the cold ambrosia ran down his throat. He had never had it cold before. It almost did nothing to satiate him, and he finally understood what Francis had been talking about.

“I know it’s awful. But it’s the best we have right now, until—”

“Please,” he interrupted her. “Don’t mention it.”

There was a moment of silence as they both watched Charlotte’s face.

“She’ll be okay. She’s dreaming,” the blonde said.

“Oh.” Valek stroked Charlotte’s cheek. “That’s good.”

“Don’t you want to know what she’s dreaming about?”

“Yes. More than anything. But I promised her I’d stay out of her head,” he explained with a slight smile when his Lottie sighed.

“I see. I’m Andela.” She offered her hand to him.

“Valek.” He ignored the gesture.

Andela withdrew her hand. “Well, if you or Charlotte need anything, I’ll be here.” She smiled softly. “She will be safe, Valek,” she soothed, and walked back to join the rest of the group.

He studied Charlotte’s sweet face, wanting so much for her eyes to flutter open. He thought back just a couple of nights before, when she had crawled into bed with him — how her face looked then, the way she smiled when she dreamt. He wished he hadn’t reacted the way he did. He would give anything to go back and relive that night. But even with all of the inhumanity he possessed, he could never turn back the hands of time.

He lifted her hand to his face, just so he could feel her warmth again. He closed his eyes, inhaling her scent, allowing himself to be comforted by it, though the guilt continued to twist at his insides.

“Valek….” Her little voice rose from the box beside him.

His eyelids flew open to see her watching him. Valek felt the group of Vampires around the fire grow very still again.

“I’m here, Lottie,” he whispered. Everything else in the room seemed to disappear.

“Valek,” she repeated, her eyes closing and reopening like those of an antique doll.

“Are we safe?”

“For now.” He smiled.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured.

“For what?”

“For before. For when I stopped trusting you,” she said. “This is my fault.”

“No.” He hushed her. “No. I was very wrong about a lot of things. You had every right to be angry.”

“Not with you.” Her gaze moved from his face to her surroundings — the soft sides of the casket around her. “Am I dead?”

“No.” He chuckled. A few soft laughs resonated from the fireplace, too. “You’re fine. You’re my Lottie. You scared me a little, but you’re safe now.” He ran his fingers through pieces of her hair and began to hum her lullaby.

Chapter Thirteen Rogues

Charlotte slowly sat up, her head still spinning. She clutched the sides of the coffin so she wouldn’t fall back again. Valek’s hand swiftly moved to the middle of her back to help her keep balance.

His eyebrows pulled together as he appraised her. “Perhaps you should not get up yet,” he warned. “You’ve lost a lot of blood. You may need a transfusion.”

Charlotte blinked until the spinning went away. Her head still pounded, but nothing else seemed to hurt. She could see all of her flesh wounds had been healed. She only felt weak. She turned to see several luminescent eyes that matched Valek’s staring at her from one corner of the room. She stared back at them with the same curiosity.

“Who are they?” she asked, fighting to remember what had happened.

Valek rushed to explain. “We escaped from the Regime. We’re at a friend’s house. He’s harboring rogues. Nowhere else is safe.”

Charlotte turned her gaze back on him.

“The Regime? That’s where we were?” She was astonished as more questions invaded her mind. She recalled every detail of the guard’s face, who found her hiding in Valek’s bedroom, as though she had known it forever. She remembered feeling her mouth open to scream, but hearing nothing as they dragged her away, kicking and clawing through the mud and the cool, morning rain as it splashed onto her skin. Everything had gone hazy. Something heavy had come down on her head, making her world go black. The last thing she saw was Valek’s fearful, blazing eyes before she woke up in the dungeon.

“Do you remember?” Valek furrowed his eyebrows.

Charlotte saw him then. Really saw him. She analyzed his torn shirt and disheveled hair about his dirty beautiful face. She grabbed onto him with as much strength as she could muster and pulled him close, wrapping her arms around who she thought she had surely lost.

“You saved me!” she cried. She saw the large doors on fire, though the vision blurred in her mind. She heard the thunderous orders from the guards and felt the wind that pulsed by her when they were running through the night. It was all very distant.

“You saved me,” she whispered again.

Valek smiled.

“Your face….” His skin was cracked, like broken marble. “I tried to stop it.” She reached up to stroke the burn scars, but he met her fingers with his and pulled them gently away.

“I know. I will be all right, Lottie.”

“How do we heal it?”

“I don’t think we can.” He changed the subject. “It is not important at this moment.”

Charlotte gaped wide-eyed around the dark basement. The warm firelight danced off the hauntingly beautiful, macabre faces that gazed back at her, studying her, as she did them. There must have been ten or twelve of them, each having their own pair of crystal-colored eyes. She saw the ominous daggers gleaming in their mouths, tasting the scent she left in the air.

Various parts of her body started to prickle with the memory. She shut her eyes against the vision, feeling as though she were back in the dungeon of the Regime. She smelled the polluted smoke again and saw the sinister shadows that hissed at her. She knotted her fists in her hair, pushing the images away. When she felt something cool touch her hand, she looked to see Valek regarding her with worry.

“Lottie. They are safe.” He put her fingertips to his cool cheek again. “You are safe. I swear it to you.” He frowned.

Charlotte gaped at him, tears stinging the bridge of her nose. She knew she was safe, but there was something else — something she desperately needed to tell him. She felt it burn every time his gaze locked with hers.

“Charlotte….” Andela’s soft voice shattered the ice that seemed to form in the silence.