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"He did. She ran to protect her baby from her own pack and he never knew what happened to her. When she imprinted, she never returned, thinking he would forget her. But he never..... he thought she was dead and so was his bairn, so he came after your kind to avenge you both." Leyanne touches my shoulder and makes me jump with the contact. Weirdly soft for her, as though she's explaining to a fragile mind and all I can do is shake my head. My eyes round out in bewilderment as I stare at her and then Jasper and then blanche as it hits me again
"And ten years later...." I blub, grasping at it all.
"He rebuilt his army after finding out the truth, with intentions of avenging you both once again. This war, is all about you. He knows she fell on that battleground, he thinks you were murdered on the mountain right after." Jasper releases me from his tight embrace to give me room to breathe and it gives me a moment to pull myself together. Stunned by this new history, no longer capable of feeling anything more while so much hangs inside of me.
"I don't believe you.... it can't be real.... I couldn't be the source of all this death and pain. All those who have died in the battles." I don't want to carry the guilt or believe this.
"Lorey, vampires have kept me alive and safe for a decade. On the strength of being Marina's adopted son and your sole living wolf family. The high lord favors me, and gave me Darrius as my eternal companion to make sure I remain unharmed..... he takes no part of his son's war. He doesn't care what he does but if he knew his heir is still alive.... He would intervene."
"You could end a war by merely existing... the high lord would exert his power and recall his son. His son.... would be tamed with the knowledge his child lived. You, my pet, are literally the one to bring peace to two kinds, by just breathing." Leyanne's words sit heavy on me and I stare between the two of them at the long distant road we came here on. Mind peacing out as I pick apart and process every single detail with eerie stillness. The prophecy that I would end a war was always within my grasp, and it was never anything to do with my gifts at all.
Almost twenty years alive on this earth, all my losses connected to this enemy, only to find they're all linked, and my loss was for nothing. I was the center of the storm and if the fates had only revealed me sooner to the vampire lord, then maybe no one would have died at all. It can't be that simple. None of it can. My mother died for her own cause, and my pack continue to suffer because of my existence. All I ever needed to do was stand up and be seen.
"I can't..... I need to think." I spew out my rush of words and push away from Jasper's close proximity as though he's causing my lack of air. Dizziness overtaking me as my vision blurs while I stumble to the verge and crumble into the grass to sit down and put my face between my knees. Taking deep breaths to cool the sudden heat crawling over my body like fire ants. It's all happening too fast and it's so beyond crazy and farfetched. My brain is close to exploding and it's all too much to compute in such a short time.
"Not all vampires are at war with your kind. Some of us just don't care. The lord has been left to run rogue for twenty years.... it's' time my people took their kind in hand." The low rumbling voice of the dark stranger pulls me out of my posture, lifting my chin unsteadily and I realize I'm being shadowed by the one from the car in all his huge glory. He's tall, wide, and impressively terrifying when standing like an imposing tower over me. Yet, he's standing in full sunlight, even if he is wearing a dark hood and gloves. That's the only part I seem to focus on.
"Your kind? Aren't you all the same? Vampire is vampire." I hesitate, trying to gauge if his clothing is enough to protect him but stare in shock as his naked tanned wrist peeks out from under his coat as he stretches and pulls his hood back down without a single reaction to the light. He smirks and somehow despite all that's going on with me, I gawp at his sudden exposure and complete lack of pain. Blinking in daze that it does literally nothing to him, and swallow hard with this new piece of information. We've seen Vampires in the sun when we caught some as prisoners to extract intel. They burn and die in horrifying cries and screams of pain, then dissolve to ash like a bursting powder puff. We have an upper hand because of this weakness, and yet here's one, and he's fricken fine. Walking in sunlight could be a complete game changer to the wolves upper hand.
"Vampire is a loose term for a varied species... we can be born or made, and it makes a difference. Birth keeps us pure and strong.... it's also heavily monitored to ensure no child is born without purpose... except the occasional accident. The ones who are turned, they're weaker, slower, and they have nothing of our gifts and abilities, also easier to kill with such basic things. Lord Varro's army is borne of turned halflings. Pale eyed, weak, blood thirsty, sun fearing .... pawns. Consider them an abomination and an embarrassment to our bloodlines. My kind are royalty, and we stay far from the mongrels in order to preserve our existence." His superior tone, that weird accent and his blood red eyes all surround me with a heaviness that causes me to pause and listen with no response. My heart thudding and head swirling, taking in his words. Vampires can be like humans, that can walk in light, have warm and tanned skin and look relatively passable, despite teeth and red eyes. Does this also mean they can control the blood hunger? Don't need it to survive and can ignore the impulse to feed? He seems pretty controlled.
"The pure breeds are rare, Lorey. Compared to other species, they are still only in their hundreds globally..... Darrius here is from the house of Danesti, one of the oldest in the vampire hierarchy, second to Draculesti.... The high lord's bloodline. Your bloodline." Now that makes me snort and choke in disbelief as lame movies we watched in the orphanage appear in my head.
"You’re saying freaking Dracula was real? ... I'm a descendant of some horror story vampire?" I blurt at the absurdity and laugh insanely with a head shake. The bubbling giggle of someone having a real hard time processing reality. Sure I'm having some sort of midlife crisis brought on by the trauma of my mate abandoning me to some stupid cursed fog. Or maybe I've had a mental break, and all of this is only happening in my mind.
"All stories come from somewhere and his bloodline was created long before his fable was. The house of Draculesti, well, they have ruled the vampires since the dawn of time.... it was the child of Draculesti that first started these troubles." Darrius gazes off towards our truck and I follow, glimpsing both my femmes staring this way and eavesdropping in as best they can. Still immobile and I guess Leyanne is keeping them tied to their seats even now. Leyanne follows my line of vision and I hear her sigh, before I look away and dismiss the sight of them.
