Chapter 23
Inearly wept as my grandfather turned his car onto the main road.
It occurred to me that I’d started to believe I’d never set foot outdoors again—that I’d thought it more likely that I’d die trapped in the shed. Shivering, I took a few deep breaths, relishing the sweet smell of freedom.
“Are you cold?” my grandfather, who looked a whole decade younger than me, asked. He angled the heating vent toward me.
“I’m okay, thank you,” I said, and then I started bawling.
He handed me a wad of napkins he’d extracted from the center console. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re alright now.”
I allowed myself a few minutes of crying, which made me feel a whole lot better. Once my tears dried up, I said, “Sorry. After being treated so horribly by Richard and Maxine, it’s nice to have someone show me kindness.”
He smiled. “You can put the seat back and sleep, if you like.”
I nearly laughed. “I’m so amped up right now that I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep for a week.”
“Understandable. We have about an hour until we get to my place, so make yourself comfortable.”
“Is that where you’re taking me?” I asked.
“Unless there’s somewhere else you’d like to go?”
“I’d like to go home.”
“That’s the first place they’re going to look for you,” he pointed out, reasonably enough. “I figured my place would be safer, since the Nolans know where you live. I’ll take you home as soon as the smoke clears, so to speak.”
I was suddenly wary. “How do you know that they know where I live?” I certainly hadn’t shared this information with him.
“I’ve been following you for a while, though I’ve recently ramped up my efforts.”
“You have?”
He nodded. “You don’t remember seeing me at the wedding?”
“No, but I think my date noticed you watching me.”
“Ah. Your VGO friend, Joseph.”
“You’ve done your homework, I see.” I wasn’t sure what to make of that, not feeling too trusting of long-lost family members abruptly materializing in my life.
“Richard and Maxine aren’t the only ones who’ve been keeping tabs on you. Rest assured, Granddaughter, my reason is completely different from theirs.”
“And what is it—your reason?”
“To keep you safe.”
I believed he was being sincere. “Thank you, again, for rescuing me. I was about two seconds away from being injected with God knows what.”
“Don’t mention it,” he said.
He turned the radio up so that soft classical music offered some background noise.
He drove a nondescript silver sedan that was nothing like the flashy luxury vehicle the Nolans owned.
My grandfather’s energy was different, too.
He was relaxed to their stuffy; unlike my great-grandparents, who’d made it seem as if I was always being judged, he made me feel as if I’d be accepted no matter what.
“Can I ask you something?” I said shyly.
“Sure.”
“What’s your name?”
“I’m sorry, I should have told you sooner. It’s Sebastian. Sebastian Monticello.”
“That sounds Italian.”
“It is.”
“I guess that means I’m also Italian?”
“Part Italian. Did you never ask Tilly about your ancestry?”
“It’s funny that you call my grandmother Tilly. Richard and Maxine called her Greta.”
“I knew your grandmother as Greta, too, but I’m aware you knew her as Tilly.”
I smiled to show that I appreciated him being so mindful. “Family was sort of a sore subject for her, so I never asked about our background.”
“I can imagine,” Sebastian said. “The Nolans are far from what I’d call . . .”
“Nurturing? Kindhearted? Sane?”
He chuckled. “All of those.”
“Tilly thought you’d abandoned her.”
“I know she did.”
“I always did, too, because that’s what Tilly said. But now I know about the deal you made with the Nolans.”
Sebastian’s brows lifted. “They actually told you about me? That’s surprising.”
“They probably figured it didn’t matter what they said, since they’d planned on killing me from the get-go,” I quipped bitterly. “It’s not like they had to worry about me tracking you down.”
“Richard and Maxine are despicable excuses for human beings.”
I went quiet for a moment and then said, “I have so many questions for you.”
He glanced at me, then quickly looked back at the road. “Like?”
“Why do you look so young if you’re not a vampire? Where have you been all these years? Why have you been following me around so much lately? Why reveal yourself now?” There were so many things I wanted to know.
“That’s a lot of questions. Which would you like me to answer first?” Sebastian asked with a crooked grin that was both boyish and wise.
“You pick.”
He drummed his thumbs on the steering wheel, thinking. “I’ve been following you more lately because I suspected Maxine and Richard were up to something. They thought I vanished when Tilly was pregnant, but in truth I’ve been keeping tabs on them for decades.”
“Why?”
“If they told you about me, I’m assuming they also told you about Richard’s hunting club?”
“They did. Pack of psychos.”
“Indeed. I’ve monitored the club’s unsavory practices. Whenever the club puts a target on a vampire’s head, I’ll warn them.”
“And the club never realized you’ve been spying on them and saving vampires?”
He shook his head. “I can stay hidden in the shadows when I need to. With you, I never worried so much about being seen, which is why your VGO friend spotted me. For the most part, though, keeping to myself has always been the safest way for me to survive.”
“Considering how the Nolans treated me, that was probably wise.”
He turned the stereo down a notch, then said, “My blood is like yours, Olivia. It makes vampires turn human. That’s also why I’ve been steering clear of the Nolans. If they found out what my blood can do, they’d probably try to kidnap me like they did you.”
I sat up in the seat. “I thought I was the only one—with this kind of blood, I mean.”
He shook his head. “There’s not a lot of us with this mutation. There are far more vampires in the world, but we’re out there.”
“What are we?”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “We’re human, of course.”
I flashed him the first genuine smile I’d had in days. “That’s good to know.”
“There are two types of us,” he continued. “There are those like me, the ancients who know what they are and have lived a life of secrecy because of it. Then there are those like you who live most or even all of their lives not knowing they’ve come from a unique bloodline.”
“How is it that some know what we are, but others don’t?”
“It’s almost by default. As you can see, I’ve aged slowly.”
“But you do age, right?”
“Yes, but at a decelerated rate.”
“You can say that again,” I said, glancing over at him.
He chuckled. “It’s not an exact science, but my estimate is that I age about one year for every hundred or so years I’m on the planet.”
I gasped, trying to wrap my head around such a thing. “Hence knowing by default.”
“Right.”
“How can that be, though? I age and we’re related.”
“Sure, but you age well, right? A lot faster than me, of course, but you won’t have to worry about your hair turning grey until you’re ninety, if it ever does. You might even live years beyond a natural life. You obviously aren’t immortal like a vampire, though.”
“I don’t understand. Why do I age faster than you?”
“The simplest way to put it is that your blood has been watered down throughout the generations. You might have turned out differently if Tilly was also from the original bloodline, but she was a regular human, just like your father,” he explained.
“This is why most of our kind have no idea that they even have special blood.”
“Because they’re from a mixed background,” I said.
“Yes, and because they probably haven’t been placed in situations that have allowed them to figure it out.
You might not have figured it out, either, had you not started congregating with vampires.
And only then, it was after one of them drank your blood.
Most of those recently born of our bloodline have no idea that vampires exist, thus they also wouldn’t know that their blood turns vampires back into humans, if it even does. Very few of us have such strong blood.”
It made sense when he put it that way. Sort of. “So, not everyone from our ancestry has blood that will turn vampires back into humans?”
My grandfather nodded. “Correct. Throughout the centuries, those who are from the original bloodline migrated out of Europe and created offspring with regular humans, which created new generations with less potent blood. Considering how ancient I am, your genetic makeup is still fairly close to mine. I’ve only conceived a single child, your mother.
Most—or dare I say all except for you—descendants of the original bloodline are generations and generations removed.
I’m talking dozens of generations, Olivia.
Their blood would not be as potent as yours.
So, on the rare chance that a vampire consumed their blood, it would likely have very little, if any, effect. ”
I cleared the lump rising in my throat. “I’m not sure how in the loop you are about my psychotic great-grandparents, but they took my blood to replicate a serum that had been made to ‘cure’ vampirism.
It was created by a vampire wanting to make a fortune while also helping others of his kind—willing vampires, I mean—who were sick of immortality.
The serum was destroyed by the VGO, though, which is why the Nolans are now trying to make a new one.
I tried so hard to fight them off, but I was outnumbered, and they were going to get my blood no matter how much I resisted . . .”
Sebastian reached over and patted my forearm, an odd grandfatherly gesture for someone who barely looked out of high school. “Nobody can blame you for the Nolans getting your blood. You had no choice. Please don’t beat yourself up.”
Blinking tears from my eyes, I placed my hand over his and muttered a quick thanks.
“Besides, we’re going to find them. At their age, they won’t be able to run for long.”