God, I miss them. But maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that they’re not here today. What would they say about Stella, my half-vampire daughter? What words of wisdom would they have for me?
Vampire. I’m a vampire, I mouth to myself in the mirror hanging above the blue bench. Even though I’m thirty-five now, I can practically hear my parents scolding me like a child for making the choices that led me down this path. They would probably say, You turned your back on us, on the Keepers, for this? To end up a dirty, vile vampire? They would say I was trained to kill vampires, and it wasn’t too late to fulfill my destiny. My parents, their parents, and several generations before them were Keepers who hunted creatures of the night.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Michael was the notorious “Executioner” and at the top of their kill list—not for anything he’d done in particular, but because he was so dangerous. I learned the truth after falling for him, when I was looking for information to help Michael stop the Uprising.
No one ever said the Executioner looks like a hot-as-hell, twenty-year-old college student, with a face that breaks hearts and a body that could set your books on fire. No one told me he was the ultimate gentleman who’d do anything to help a stranger, including killing a few unsavory men who’d attacked me one day outside my library. No one told me that it would take everything I had to not fall in love with him. Even after I knew what he was.
Suddenly, a crash echoes through the house, and goose bumps erupt down my arms. Crap.
I drop Stella’s backpack and go for the umbrella stand, where several weapons are stashed, including my compact crossbow. Devil Juicer, I call it, because it punches a hole right through a vampire.
I grab DJ, secure the arms, and pull an arrow from inside the bench. Locked and loaded.
I slip off my shoes and quickly make my way through the living room, which is basically a huge three-story library, all open in the center of the second and third floors to allow the light to pass through from the glass skylights above.
I cling to the wall as I tiptoe down the hallway, toward the wing of the house with my and Stella’s bedrooms.
My entire body feels like it’s on fire, pumped and ready to kill. If there’s an intruder, I know I can take them if they’re human. If it’s a vampire, I can only win through the element of surprise. I am too new, too weak to take on an older vampire.
My vampire blood pounds through my body, the cells sucking up nutrients, preparing to power up my muscles. I don’t know what other vampires feel, but my body is intensely aware of every function, every single inch of skin. It’s going to take forever to get used to it.
I hold my breath and reach Stella’s bedroom door. I lower my crossbow, ready to take action.
In one swift motion, I twist the handle and push.
Stella is on her hands and knees, picking up the pieces of her pink cactus lamp.
She sees the crossbow and screams at the top of her lungs.
“Oh God!” I pull out the arrow and toss DJ to her pink bedspread. “I’m so sorry, honey.” I swoop down and take her in my arms, holding her tight. She cries in an endless stream of shrieks and hiccups, her body shivering. “It’s okay. Shush, shush now,” I whisper and rock her in my arms. “Mommy is a vampire. My reflexes are too fast to accidentally hurt you, baby.”
But in my heart, I have to wonder if that’s true. I pointed a loaded weapon at my baby. I thought Nice was back, wanting to take Stella again and force me to be with him. That was how he did it for five long years. Her life was the only leverage he needed to get what he wanted. Luckily, he has an aversion to sex with humans.
But now, I’m a vampire.
Like a true five-year-old, Stella shakes it off with a few sniffles and asks to be set down. She smiles up at me with those big brown eyes that remind me so much of her father.
I try to push him out of my mind. I’m not over him yet. I don’t know if I ever will be.
“It’s okay, Mommy. I’m not mad. Can I go to school now?” She grabs the hem of her tutu-like pink dress and shows off her choice of outfits. She even tied a matching pink bow in her blonde hair—same color as mine.
I smile down and try to hold it together. She is so sweet and so precious. “Oh, wow. Don’t you look beautiful. Just like a real princess.”
The irony is that Stella is a princess. And as long as Michael stays in power, she will always be at risk. It doesn’t matter that Michael no longer cares about us. People think he does. They see us as his Achilles’ heel. It is why her preschool comes equipped with armed security guards, a safe room, and a state-of-the-art surveillance system. I hocked my first-edition Brontes and Austens to pay for it.
Like I said, I must use every asset at my disposal to create a safe and normal life for us. The question is, what will I do when that sound I just heard really is Mr. Nice coming to claim his prize?
If only Michael would answer my phone calls.
CHAPTER FOUR
I drop off Stella at her new preschool for “tiny royals”—my little personal joke, given the security. After taking a thousand photos, I wait outside the gate for another ten minutes, just to be sure Stella doesn’t come screaming out of the building in tears (or covered in blood because she decided to make her own snack). So far, she hasn’t shown much interest in blood,
