1. Rose #2
He frowns at that. My mom turns to him and says, “Do you know who Dahlia Abernathy is?”
My dad seems to recognize the name right away. “I didn’t know her personally…”
Now my mom seems bothered by it, her shoulders straightening, eyes narrowing. She probably assumes it’s some woman he knew. She always was the jealous type. If only she knew the truth, which she will any moment now.
“Well, who was she?” she asks.
“Dracula…Valtu,” my dad says, his voice lowering. “She was his lover. The reincarnated one. The witch. The one he…”
“The one he killed,” I fill in.
They both look at me. “Why are you asking about Valtu and his reincarnated witch lover?” my mom asks. “We never actually met her, we just heard about her from the others.”
My eyes widen. “Did you hear about her from Valtu?”
My dad folds his arms across his chest. “Listen, Rose, you’re going to need to explain why you’re asking all these questions before we answer them. I’m being serious here.”
I look between the both of them. There’s so much I want to say and so much I want to know, that I don’t know where to start.
But I have to start somewhere.
“Valtu killed Dahlia because Lenore had seen through her glamour,” I explained, watching the confusion in their eyes grow.
“Lenore saw that she was a witch in disguise, recognizing her as only another witch could. But what Lenore did not see was that Dahlia was not only a witch, but the reincarnated lover of Valtu’s…
and it was only just before that all of those repressed memories came back into Dahlia’s head.
Dahlia remembered all her past lives…but too late. ”
“How do you know all of this?” my dad asks carefully.
Another deep breath. It does nothing to calm my racing heart.
“Because it’s happened again.”
They exchange a bewildered look. “What do you mean?” my mom asks.
“ I was Dahlia. And I was Lucy. And I was Mina.”
They just stare at me for a moment. Finally my mother gives a shake of her head, puts her hand on my shoulder. “Okay, honey you need to sit down.”
I stay rooted, grinding my teeth together.
“I don’t need to sit down. I need you to listen to me.
I know this sounds crazy, but I am his reincarnated love.
The minute the blood went down my throat is the minute I remembered everything.
I remember every single life. Dahlia’s feels like it happened yesterday, the others are more foggy, like a dream from long ago, but the emotions are still there.
I’m not just Rose Harper. I’m everyone else as well, and I’m destined to be with Valtu. ”
The truth hangs in the air like fog. But I can tell neither of them believe me.
“You must have read about this online,” my father says, reaching for the glass of scotch. I knew he’d need it. “Reincarnation…it’s rare, okay, it happened to Valtu’s lovers, but not to you. Not to our daughter.”
“You don’t want to believe me, because you don’t like him,” I say. “Because you’re the one whose girl he stole once upon a time.” And as those words leave my lips, the clarity of the truth hits me in the face like a cold shovel.
I feel my expression fall as the realization comes over me. “Wolf isn’t your nickname. Wolf is your real name, isn’t it? It’s not John.” I look at my mother. “And you…your name isn’t Yvonne. Your real name is Amethyst.”
Though both my parents are naturally pale, the color from their faces seem to drain in unison.
“Why did you change your names?” I lick my lips anxiously, feeling like I’m on the edge of something, and that everything else in my life I took for granted is close to collapsing. “What are you running from?”
My father takes a step toward my mother, slipping his hand around her waist, steadying her. She already seems like she’s going weak at the knees, and my mother is not the kind of woman to show weakness in any way.
I feel fury toward her that only a daughter can, a daughter that’s been coddled and lied to her whole life. I want to maim her, to make the truth come out. Being a vampire has turned me into a monster already.
“You didn’t even turn,” I accuse her, wincing at how ferocious I sound. “You weren’t born a vampire. You were made one.”
“Rose,” my father says sharply as my mother’s eyes grow wet, full of pain.
“You both lied to me! My whole life!” I cry, throwing my arms out, feeling the anger coursing through me. “I never questioned it, but how could I? You taught me that vampires that were turned by another would not only turn into monsters, but could never procreate. So what is it?”
“Rose, you are my daughter,” she manages to say, her voice shaking. “I can promise you that.”
“But you weren’t born a vampire. Lenore turned you into one. Didn’t she?”
She presses her lips together into a thin pink line as tears run down her cheeks, her mascara running.
My dad leans in and kisses her on the head, giving her shoulders a squeeze. “Come on, baby,” he says to her. “It’s time we tell them the truth. Dylan, too.”
So, it’s not just me then. My brother has also been fed lies.
My god, so many lies. I was fed lies as Dahlia, too, spending my whole life believing that my parents were killed by vampires when it was actually Bellamy, head of the witch’s guild, that had them murdered so I would be a more dutiful soldier for him.
A sharp stab of fire emanates in my gut. They may have been my parents from another lifetime, but I remember them as Dahlia would, and their loss and the truth causes deep burning pain.
I have so much vengeance inside me, I don’t even know where to start.
“Dylan!” my dad yells down the hallway.
In moments my brother appears, hair looking disheveled and his t-shirt askew like we just woke him up from a nap.
“What’s up?” he asks, scratching his head as he stares at my parents with puzzlement. Then he looks at me and gives me a lazy grin. “Ah, hey Rose. You’re up. You all vamped out now?”
“They’ve been lying to us, Dylan,” I say to him.
His brows furrow as he looks at me, then them. “What do you mean?”
“I mean we’re about to explain everything,” my dad says.
“No,” my mother says softly. Her hands grasp at my father’s sleeve. “Honey, they’ll be in danger if they know.”
“Baby, they’ve always been in danger. It’s about time they know why.”