Of Light and Darkness: The Vampire's Daughter

need to get away from you,” she muttered, and trotted back to the other parts of the house.

“Dobry den, Charlotte,” Evangeline grumbled into her book.

“Good morning,” Charlotte said quietly from where she stood, eyeing her.

Evangeline turned once more. Charlotte was still lingering at the edge of the study. “What are you doing? Come in!” She waved her hand at one of the small, wooden stools in the corner and the thing came alive before Charlotte’s eyes. The legs of it ran over behind her, scooping her up in an instant and bringing her over directly next to where the Witch sat. “So, you want to help.” Evangeline licked her index finger and flipped another page.

“In any way that I can,” Charlotte responded gingerly. She wasn’t letting her guard down just yet.

“And what way is that?” Evangeline squinted at her.

“Well, you tell me.”

Evangeline looked up from her book. “It is not what I can tell you. It is what you can tell me.” The Witch grabbed Charlotte’s left hand and held it out in front of her face. “What of these spectacular lines I’ve been hearing so much about?”

Charlotte tried to pull her hand back. “Why do they matter to you?”

Evangeline smiled when she found what she was looking for. “Ah. Valek’s line. There it is.” She picked up an already inked quill at her side and scribbled something down in one of Sarah’s texts.

Charlotte ignored the thought that Sarah probably wouldn’t like Evangeline writing in her books and asked, “What’s the big deal?”

“Well, don’t you already know? It says you are Valek’s soul mate.”

Charlotte smiled. She couldn’t help it. “I know.”

“It is significant to know when I’m making spells to protect you once you are inside the Regime walls.” She eyed the whistle around Charlotte’s neck. “That little thing will hardly accomplish anything.” She grew silent for a minute. “But wait….” Evangeline caught sight of something else on Charlotte’s palm. “There is another line here.”

“Yes. I know.” Charlotte frowned, thinking of Sarah’s vision.

“You have Aiden’s line as well.” A thought flickered through her eyes. She continued. “It crosses directly over Valek’s. But there is something different about Aiden’s line.” She kept Charlotte’s wrist in her hand, but turned her face back down to the book.

“I have never seen that before.”

Charlotte panicked. “What do you mean it looks different?”

“It just looks deeper, somehow.”

* * *

“It’s more vivid than the other one.” Evangeline was genuinely confused. She could tell it was not a natural line in Charlotte’s hand, but rather a scar purposefully carved there by someone. Aiden made Evangeline aware of most of his plans, but never mentioned anything to her about this. At some point in Charlotte’s life, one of the creatures, perhaps Aiden, scarred her when she must have been too young to remember. It looked to her like he did it by magic. Evangeline even recalled the act being illegal in most Occults. But the fact was, it wasn’t a real fate line at all. It was put there by force.

Evangeline thought of just leaving then. This didn’t seem worth it anymore. She could see now that Aiden and the others were truly the dark ones. He had been planning this for a long time. Perhaps if she hid like the Vampires did, the Regime would forget about her. She looked back up at Charlotte’s fearful eyes and realized she had better calm the expression on her face. “You know what? I think I’m just tired. I think the shadows of the firelight are playing tricks on your hand.” She let Charlotte go.

“So what do you think it means — that I have two fate lines? Sarah said that wasn’t normal.”

Evangeline needed to think of something quick. “I’m not sure. The fates are tricky. It’s beyond me, Lottie.”

“Don’t call me that,” Charlotte said quietly.

“Charlotte.”

Sarah walked back into the room, Edwin in her arms. “Any progress?”

“What is that?” Evangeline looked up at the grotesquely shaped hunk of burlap and yarn.

“That would be your friend, Edwin.” Sarah tossed the little pile to the floor beside Evangeline.

A horrible memory flashed before her eyes. It made her soft features twist into something else. “T-there is no w-way for you to fix him though?”

Sarah looked to Charlotte. “We’ll figure out a way.”

The three grew quiet. The two Witches flipped through their books as Charlotte stared into the crackling fire. “I’m glad you are alive, Evangeline,” she whispered.

The Witch stopped reading but did not look up at her. “Me, too.”

“It’s hard to imagine it’s daylight outside right now. There are hardly any windows in this house,” Charlotte mused distantly, balancing her chin on her hand.

Sarah pulled her enchanted needle out of her hair and waved it in the air above Charlotte’s head. To her delight, a small bewitchment mimicking a glowing sun began to grow against the ceiling, casting another warm glow about the room.

“Francis asks for this bewitchment a lot,” Sarah said as she flipped a page.

Still smiling, Charlotte looked again at the little enchanted sun. “Could you leave it here for Valek tonight?”

“Absolutely,” Sarah chimed.

“Well, Sarah. It appears Charlotte is indeed fated to Valek, just as you guessed.”

Evangeline flipped another page in her book.

“I didn’t guess. I knew it.”

“Good. You succeeded. Now tell me what you used to enchant that rusty, little whistle?”

“The warts off your mother’s a—”

“Hey!” Charlotte interjected. “We are never going to get anything done like this.”

“Charlotte’s right.” Sarah stood up again. “I’ll take care of everything. I’m done pretending to like you.” She stormed out.

The study was quiet again. “Evangeline?” Charlotte started again.

“Yes?”

“How did Valek become what he is? How did Francis do it?” she asked.

“Is that what you and Valek were arguing about?”

“We weren’t arguing.” Charlotte lifted her eyebrow.

“Please, your aura is putrid.”

“It wasn’t really an argument,” Charlotte huffed and dropped the conversation.

“All I know is Valek was living alone in the Bohemian Occult years before I was alive. Most Vampires are like Francis. They’re moody, overtly sexual, and extremely conceited. Valek was always different. He kept to himself most of the time.”

“So Valek never told you he had a wife?” Charlotte asked.

“No,” Evangeline concluded abruptly and turned another page.

Charlotte gathered up her burlap friend in her arms. “I wish there was a way to save Edwin.” She fiddled with one of his loose button eyes.

Evangeline stayed very quiet. Her eyes shifted along the book in front of her, but she was not reading. She noticed Charlotte yawn. “You don’t need to stay up here with me all day, Charlotte. If you’re tired, why don’t you try and sleep?”

Charlotte got up from the uncomfortable, wooden stool and collapsed into Sarah’s oversized green armchair with Edwin still in her arms. “I’ll be fine. You might need me for something.”

Evangeline snorted. “Like what? You can’t wield magic.”

“Yeah…but what if you need my sacrificial blood for something? Everyone needs my blood around here.” Still holding Edwin as though he were a teddy bear, Charlotte curled up with her knees to her chest and closed her eyes.

Evangeline turned her head back toward the fire. The sweat was cold on her face. The guilt so palpable she