7. Rose
Rose
NOW
I wake up in an armchair. I open my eyes, my vision momentarily blurred until a room comes into focus.
There are candles flickering from sconces on teak walls, velvet-backed chairs and intricately carved onyx tables scattered throughout a large room, fine Turkish carpets on the floor.
Everything is dimly lit and shades of red, brown, black, and gold.
This is Dark Eyes , I think to myself, the fuzziness in my head starting to lift. This is the secret vampire club hidden in the basement of the house. They must have knocked us out and brought us here and…
Dylan!
I jerk up, expecting to be restrained in my seat but there are no ropes holding me in place, just this feeling like I’ve been tied to one spot.
Fucking magic.
“Easy now,” Lenore says, and she comes into view, eyeing me warily.
“Where is Dylan?” I cry out, but my voice is just a whisper. I try to look around but my head feels like an anvil, too heavy to move. “My brother?”
“He’s with Solon in the billiards room,” she says. “He’s fine, if that’s what you’re worried about. I think he might even be winning.”
I let out huff of air that borders on a growl, my brows lowering. “And I’m just supposed to trust that? The last time I saw you, you hand your arm against my windpipe.”
She flinches at that. It’s weird how she looks exactly the same.
I know it’s too be expected because she’s a vampire and all, but other than my parents, I’ve never had that experience of being around those that never age.
Hazel eyes, long honey-highlighted hair, pert nose.
She’s all light and ethereal but there’s a toughness about her.
I’m not sure I like her very much. Some of that might have to do with the fact that she helped get me killed.
“I’m sorry about that,” she says carefully. She comes closer, inspecting me. “But it really is you…”
“Surprised?”
“Your being reincarnated as a vampire? Yes. Very surprised. You’re the last person I expected to see again.”
“I want to see Dylan.”
“Of course,” she says. “Here, let me loosen your restraints. Just promise not to try anything.”
“Why would I try something? I’m the one who came looking for you.”
“Exactly,” she says, and she closes her eyes for a moment and flutters her fingers in front of me. I can feel invisible ropes loosen and a vice-like pressure leave my head. “Can’t help but think you might be a girl with revenge on your mind.”
I slowly get out of the chair and follow Lenore as she walks past an old-fashioned looking bar with rows of glasses hanging above top-shelf liquor bottles.
She gestures through a glass door to the billiards room where I can see Dylan playing pool with Solon.
He’s laughing and I can hear him faintly through the door, jabbering on about some TV show he’s obsessed with.
“Want a drink?” Lenore asks, gesturing behind the bar. “Or would you like something more bloody? I could make you a real Bloody Mary. You’re looking a little pale.”
“I was pale even before I became a vampire.”
She goes and grabs a vodka bottle. “I know. I see your freckles have faded a lot. Your skin has reverted to the way it used to be when you were born. When I transitioned, I lost every one of my tattoos. It sucked.”
“Maybe that’s for the best,” I tell her, sitting on a bar stool. “Tattoos are great, but not for eternity.”
She gives me a quick smile as she pours her vodka in a highball with ice. “So Dylan…that’s his name, right? He said you didn’t remember any of your past lives until you turned into a vampire. How long has that been?”
“Couple of days now.”
“And your name is Rose now. Rose what?”
“Harper.”
Her eyes turn into saucers and her hand starts shaking enough that she has to put down the bottle.
“Rose Harper?” she whispers, her brows knitting together. “Oh god. And…Dylan Harper?”
“Yeah,” I say slowly.
“Your parents…I should have known.”
And then I realize why she looks so shocked. Dylan didn’t tell her who our parents are.
“They used to live in this very house,” I inform her.
She swallows, shaking her head. “No way. It can’t be.”
“And yet it is. Of course, I didn’t know that until the other day. Dylan didn’t know either. We didn’t know that they weren’t always John and Yvonne, but Wolf and Amethyst.”
“Solon!” Lenore yells over her shoulder. “Get in here! You’re not going to believe this.”
In seconds there’s a flash, the scent of warm tobacco filling my nose, and Solon is suddenly standing right beside her.
“What is it?” he asks, staring at Lenore with concern.
She points at me. “This is Rose Harper. Harper . She’s…she’s Wolf and Amethyst’s daughter.”
“The fuck?” Solon says, his voice gruff even in his faint British accent. “But we’ve met you before.” He eyes Dylan as he walks out of the billiards room toward us. “We’ve met both of you before.”
“That was like ten years ago,” I tell him. “I’ve changed. I don’t think you would have seen me and immediately thought of Dahlia.”
He runs his hand over his brow. For such a distinguished and notorious vampire, I have to admit it’s rather novel to see him reacting this way. “I don’t understand. You’re Dahlia. And you’ve been reincarnated into Wolf and Amethyst’s child?”
I shrug. “I know.”
“But don’t you think that’s a coincidence?”
“I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how reincarnation works. How did I happen to find Valtu again? Both times before?”
“It’s a web,” Lenore says. “And you keep getting tangled in it.”
“By dying over and over again,” I say grimly.
“Except not now cuz you’re a vampire,” Dylan points out, then notices the bar. “Hey, you got any beer?”
They ignore him. “I just can’t believe it,” Lenore says, wide-eyed. “You’re their daughter. I never would have known. Do they know you’re here?”
I wince. “No.”
“Dahlia,” Lenore scolds me. “I mean, Rose.”
“You can call me Dahlia Rose if it’s easier,” I tell her.
“Why didn’t you tell them?” Solon asks.
“Because they’ve been so cagey about the whole thing,” I explain, exasperated. “They’ve lied to us our whole lives. I don’t even know if Rose is my real name. Or if Dylan is his.”
Solon and Lenore exchange a furtive glance.
“Oh no, don’t tell me I had another name,” I say, pressing my hand into the bar top.
“Well, you should be used to that by now,” she says. Solon elbows her lightly and she sighs. “I feel like I’m stepping on toes here. Okay. You were born with the name Rose. But Dylan was born with the name Liam. And of course Leif’s name was always Leif.”
Leif? A cold sensation floods my chest. I look at Dylan who appears equally confused.
“Oh my god,” Lenore whispers, her hands to her mouth.
“Leif? Who the hell is Leif?” Dylan asks.
“Fuck,” Solon swears under his breath. He bites his lip, looking between my brother and I. “You don’t know.”
“Who is Leif?” I ask, my voice rising now.
“They didn’t tell you everything,” Lenore says as she looks pained.
“Obviously fucking not,” Dylan says sharply. It’s rare to see him angry, but I think the lies are finally getting to him too.
Solon swallows thickly, then leans against the bar, giving the both of us a grave look.
“I don’t know what Wolf and Amethyst told you, but I have no choice but to fill you in.
I know they did it to protect you, I just assumed that when you found out the truth, you found out all the truth. Leif was your brother.”
“Brother?” Dylan and I say in unison.
Solon eyes Dylan sympathetically. “You had a twin. Leif.”
Dylan nearly falls backward. He reaches out and steadies himself on the edge of the bar top. “A twin?”
Solon nods while Lenore slides the straight vodka on the rocks over to my brother. “Yes, a twin,” Solon says. “He was taken from you, from this very place, when you were only a year old.”
Dylan’s eyes are wild. Of course, this is all before I was born, so I don’t remember it, but it might explain the many nights when I was younger seeing my mother red-eyed and crying over hushed and private things I didn’t understand.
“Taken by whom?” I ask. “How?”
Lenore and Solon exchange another uneasy look.
“Your mother and father were living here with us,” Lenore says quietly.
“As you saw tonight, the house has wards up. Most people can’t get in or out, and that goes for witches and other vampires too.
Solon and I were in Europe. With you, Dahlia. You and Valtu.”
My mouth drops open. She goes on, “Amethyst and Wolf were here. They weren’t alone, Ezra, one of the other vampires who lived here, he was here too.
They came for them. Broke through the wards.
Tried to kill everyone and take the babies.
But your parents and Ezra, they fought back.
Managed to save Dylan. But Leif…Leif was taken.
And to this day we don’t know where he is. ”
“Who took him?” I repeat, feeling fire raging in my chest, coupled with the sick feeling of knowing who it might be.
“Someone who took family from Dahlia,” Lenore says with finality. “Bellamy.”
It feels like I’ve been kicked in the gut, my hand instinctively going to my stomach, gasping for air. How could this man have taken so much from me?
“Oh my god,” I gasp. “Oh my god.” I can barely breathe. “He killed my parents and then he took my brother, even before I had a chance to become his sister.”
When Leif was taken, I was still Dahlia. Fuck, this must have happened right after I died. I died as Dahlia and almost immediately would have been reborn to my mother. Like my birth was making up for what Bellamy took from me.
Tangled fucking web is right.
“I have to say, in all my years this is one of the most beguiling, mind-boggling scenarios I have ever come across,” Solon says gravely. “I can’t begin to make sense of it.”
And yet somehow it does make sense.
“Is Bellamy still alive?” I ask.
“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Dylan says after he finishes his drink, slamming it so hard on the counter that it nearly shatters.