Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

contours of lips.

“Lottie,” he whispered, as he began to run his wiry hand along the length of her jaw.

Charlotte immediately pulled away, wrapping her hands around her neck. He frowned, knowing his eyes must have shifted in that moment. The same hollow feeling he’d felt when Charlotte had been mad at him swelled in his chest again. He would sacrifice anything just to show her she really was safe with him.

“No. Don’t be afraid,” he said. “I'm not going to hurt you.”

Charlotte waited a few more moments before she released her hands. She inched closer to him again, and his sorrow melted.

He stroked her curls with his claws, reveling in her purity. It almost made him warm. “We’re really together now.” His lips pressed against her ear, smiling at the reality of what he was saying.

Valek mentally heard her shock over how he reacted to her. Charlotte was frowning at him. She had been anticipating some sort of argument — like he might try and convince her he was much better suited as her father figure, and her impulses were insane. But this was no longer how he felt in the least. It was the difference between night and day.

Her thoughts were extremely loud as they circled in his head. The challenges they now faced were enough to convince him, if they survived, they would survive together through anything. Even this confusing taboo. As he gazed down at her, he could see the apprehension burning all too fervently in her eyes.

Valek chuckled. He cradled her cheek in his palm and shifted so they lay gazing at each other, nose to nose. “Can I come back inside your head now?”

She gulped once and nodded.

He tilted her head back so he could look at her directly. Tidal waves of emotion flooded through open gates. All of her fears and fantasies he already knew would be there, made themselves extremely evident to him in that moment. He smiled at the chagrin burning in her cheeks.

“Do not be embarrassed, Charlotte.” He grinned when he felt her face heat against his palm. He brought his mouth cautiously closer to hers and hesitated.

He was testing himself before pressing his cool lips against her warm ones. She sighed into his mouth as he moved his hands to the base of her neck.

Their lips moved together. The ache, which had burdened them for so long, seemed to melt away in that moment in which everything else disappeared. The world and all of its problems were lost somewhere in space. Charlotte was once again the person Valek knew best. In that moment, they weren’t different from each other at all.

Valek pulled away first, one small thought fighting him in the oceans of his mind. But he continued to hug her close to him. He listened, enjoying the complicated mind he had been forbidden from for what seemed an eternity. Even though he couldn’t physically see it, he mentally heard the enormous smile Charlotte hid as she pressed her face against his chest.

That was when Valek remembered something else about what happened the night before — the evil, disgusting promise he was forced to make. Lottie peered at him, still beaming, but her face dropped when she noticed he wasn’t smiling anymore.

“I need you to stay strong for me tonight,” he said darkly.

Then, the thin sliver of orange light filtering in through the open crack in the coffin was eclipsed. Valek quickly released Charlotte and glared up at it as someone’s fist lightly tapped at the roof.

“Valek?” It was Francis.

“A moment, please.” Valek quickly kissed Charlotte on the forehead before gazing at her sadly one last time. He slid open the top of the coffin to reveal Francis standing there, along with the rest of the rogue coven. All of their faces looked harder and paler than they had the night before. Valek slowly got to his feet, watching them. Charlotte began to get up, but Valek held his hand out to stop her.

“We need to talk to the girl now, Valek,” Francis said regretfully.

Valek grimaced as the rest of the coven stared at Lottie with their hellish eyes.

“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked, the blood draining out of her face. He frowned. She had always been so intuitive.

“We have confirmation of what the regime has planned. It’s exactly as I thought.” Lusian was the one speaking. “An all-out genocide of our kind. They are planning on cleaning out Occults all over the world.”

Valek glanced at Charlotte, tuning in to her mind again.

“Well, there is only one thing to do then.” He looked at Lusian and the rest of them. Andela stood next to Lusian, her dove face stained with streaks of red. “We have to gain as many as we can on our side. Build our own empire. That means going to the other Occults before the Regime can, and convincing other Vampires to join our forces. If they want a war, I think we should give them one.”

“Why stop there?” This time, Jorge spoke from his stance at Dusana’s side. “Why not get any Lycan who isn’t on the side of the Elves, and Witches, too.”

“No. That puts us at risk. What if the Wizards send someone to be their insider?” Francis argued.

“How can they when we are able to know everything they think?” Jorge argued back.

Valek stepped forward, addressing the entire coven then. “They boast so well they rule with the light, true? They hate the darkness. We are the darkness. Their safe haven is beginning to divide now because they fail to recognize both powers have to coexist, or else the entire world loses balance. Well, if they are trying to rid the world of one of its halves, I think they have officially lost our balance!”

Lusian gazed thoughtfully at the ground.

“They have created a world in the light and ruled it. Now I think there must be someone to rule in the dark. If they want a war, that’s what they shall be served.”

Charlotte smiled at Andela as she walked toward her.

The tall, drawn woman glared down at Lottie’s innocent face as more ruby tears rolled down her cheeks. An odd sort of fear shot up Valek’s spine when Charlotte took the Vampire’s cold hand in hers, causing Andela to stiffen.

“Don’t worry. We will win. I know it.” The girl smiled again. Andela still was not happy, and she withdrew her hand quickly.

Valek rushed up behind Lottie and pulled her back against him. “Not right now,” he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on Andela’s strained face.

Valek could tell that the realization clicked in Charlotte’s mind then, as she slowly backed away from Andela and closer to him again.

“Charlotte?” Francis spoke carefully. “Do you think you might like to stay upstairs for now, with Sarah?”

“Who?” Charlotte lifted an eyebrow.

“I will take her,” Valek lamented, avoiding all the thirsty, angry stares in the room. “I would rather be the one to talk to her about this, anyway.” He shot an acidic glare toward Francis, who only grinned in reply.

Valek put his arm around Charlotte’s waist and led her to where the ceiling opened up to the tunnel. He watched as Charlotte peered into the dusty, dark tunnel, reluctance playing on her face.

“It will be all right, love. Sarah is Francis’ house Witch. It’s just for now.” He glanced back at the testy coven. “You’ll like her. She is…nice.”

Charlotte frowned. “I’m bothering them, right?”

“It’s just because it’s early,” he admitted, and kissed her head.

Sasha, the tall, dark Vampire, snorted in disgust.

Valek scowled at him before hugging Charlotte so tightly to his chest that her feet lifted off the ground. “Hold on.” He leapt up through the black hole, leaving the rest glaring after the two of them.

They shot ferociously through the trap door, sending clods of dust flying everywhere about the narrow, lavender hallway. The Witch, Sarah, who had clearly just finished sweeping, frowned at the mess, still clutching the broom in her hand as she watched Valek land gracefully on the floorboards.

Valek smiled apologetically at her. “I’m just going to need a few moments with her, then she’s all yours.”

Sarah smiled brightly, but didn’t say a word. She flitted off to some other part of the house. Charlotte frowned, and Valek noticed how she strained to sift through her memory of this house or of the little Witch from the