“I’m truly sorry this has happened. When you first started to see him, I thought it was going to end tragically for him.” He pulled me close to him, pressing my head against his chest.
“I think it did end pretty tragically for him,” I said.
“But not in the way that I thought it would. I thought that you were going to rip his heart out and eat it for dinner because you were so angry about Wesley.” He was petting my hair now and rocking me slowly.
“Why can’t he tell me where he is?” I asked. I had to admit what he was doing was somewhat comforting.
“Because he doesn’t know,” my father said in a matter-of-fact voice.
“How can he not know?”
“Because they haven’t told him,” he answered with a laugh. “If he is, where I think he is, you wouldn’t want to be there anyway,” he said slowly. “I’ve been there once. Nice place, beautiful views over the ocean, but the people...” He shivered. “Well, they’re not people at all.”
“What are they then? Dad, those things that attacked Aaron and his family… are they what’s causing this change?” I wondered aloud.
He sighed. “They are the reason for the change, yes.”
“This is a physical change, isn’t it? Not like a change in the time, or the weather. When he said things were changing, he meant that he is changing,” I murmured.
“I think you’re starting to understand.” He kept rocking me back and forth.
“What is he becoming?”
“It depends what was in that house. There was a plethora of different species, different bloodlines… I’m not sure who was what. The bloodstain images I got were inconclusive. We couldn’t find anything that pinpointed who carried out the attack. It was motivated by malice though. They wanted revenge for their brother being burnt to ashes, and then the feeling of the two purebloods. It’s almost like a group of scientists has been experimenting to see what they could get by mixing different genetic pools. I just don’t know. Your mother asked me to let it go for a bit and focus on getting your third friend above ground. We will resume searching for answers as soon as the allies start to show.” He took a breath and kissed the top of my head. “I love you, Dawn,” he said into my hair.
“I love you too, Dad,” I answered, squeezing him tightly. “How long till the contract is broken?”
“You have a few days left, maybe two weeks. It just depends on how quickly the change happens.”
I curled up closer against my father and closed my eyes. As much as I didn’t want to think about what was happening to Aaron, the more I felt it was my fault.
Chapter 27
Training
I kept the story of my being dumped from Adam. I wasn’t sure if he would rejoice that things had ended between Aaron and me, or if he would feel some pity. And it was something I didn’t want to face myself. I was sure, however, that my father had told my mother about it.
The one good thing that came out of the break-up was the fact that I could now focus on my fire training. I mastered the protection flame in an afternoon. That meant we were finally good for the raising of Krista. I was ready to provide my part of the equation. Minerva and Shawn both agreed that it was time Helen and I worked on the act together, trying to find out what exactly we needed to do.
All we had to go on was a dream that Helen had had before she made her way to Midvale to find me. In that, I cast the fire of protection to keep the evil spirits out while Helen parted the earth and brought forth the casket. I broke open the top and then we recited some ridiculous chant that my mother had told us about. All of this was supposed to put Krista back on solid ground. It did make me think that God had a sense of humor after all. He had already told her that she was going to get a second chance. Perhaps he was somewhere up there finding this all hilarious. Watching me spend days falling on my ass as I trained would be enough to get anyone laughing.
My thoughts kept going back to Aaron. I acknowledged that at the start he was meant to be nothing more than a filler. I was supposed to use him up and let him go, not actually start giving a damn about him and worrying when he wasn’t near. I wasn’t supposed to get attached to him. But I did. I had longed for some of that attention that Wesley had given me. Yet I had wished so many times for history to start over so that I could meet Aaron first and avoid the heartbreak of losing Wesley. Little had I guessed that Aaron would hurt me too, if not quite at the same level.
Edmund returned that night. He looked at me with a somber expression while I tried not to drool over his immense power and presence. As soon as he saw me, he wrapped his long arms around my body and pulled me close. Aside from the lack of a heartbeat, I felt at ease in the vampire’s arms. I knew he wasn’t a threat to me in any way; after all, he wanted to live to see another night. I knew from experience that my blood was poison to their kind. For him, it would be suicided to attack me.
“His family sends their love,” he said into my ear.
“Well, that’s so nice of them,” I said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I didn’t really blame them, but there was no one else I could blame.
“They wish you well in your journey. They don’t know what you are or what you’ll do for them. They
