Chapter Three
I”ve only seen a vampire movie once. It was one of those teen films about a brooding vampire with a tragic backstory falling in love with a human girl who is more than willing to give up her mortality to be with him. Now that I think about it, it wasn”t the greatest movie I”ve ever watched, but it”s the only reference I have to go off of now.
Drake sits with me on the bed, patiently waiting for me to digest all this information. Vampires. Ancient artifacts. My bloodline holding the key to something beyond my comprehension. I haven”t decided yet whether this is real or if I”m having an extremely vivid dream. Maybe I”m still in bed sleeping and I”ll wake up any minute now and everything will be normal.
I glance over at Drake and suck in a breath when he stares back at me with unabashed intensity. He”s half naked, just wearing basketball shorts and nothing else. The muscles in his chest and abs ripple as he moves, reminding me of last night and how good it felt to have him moving inside me. Maybe that”s why I was so enamored by him. Because he”s a freaking supernatural creature and not because he”s exceptionally hot.
But then, why am I not panicking? Shouldn”t I be afraid of him or trying to escape? Or maybe I”m in shock and my body is just responding in an unorthodox way. Whatever the case, the panic never comes. The more I look at Drake, the more intrigued I am by him. There is a dark power flowing around him that I can almost see, and I realize that I believe him. I don”t know why, but somehow, I know he”s telling the truth.
”So, vampires are real?” I ask, my voice sounding small and hesitant even to my own ears.
He gives me one sharp nod before confirming, ”Yeah, they are. And you”re on the cusp of entering our world, ready or not,” he replies, his tone calm as if discussing the weather.
”Okay, okay, let me get this straight. You”re a vampire, and there”s this ancient artifact tied to my bloodline that your clan is after?” I attempt to summarize, the words feeling surreal as they leave my lips. Drake nods again, a solemn acknowledgment of my conclusion.
”That”s the gist of it, yes. There”s a bit more to it, but that”s the big picture.”
”Alrighty then,” I reply slowly, drawing in a deep breath. ”You know, you talk about protection, which is all very shining-knight of you, but what about me? What about my life? The one I”ve already built. What if I don”t want to be a part of your vampire drama?”
His eyes harden for a split second before his expression smooths over again. ”You”re already a part of it, Lola. I”m sorry if your mother didn”t prepare you for this, but she should”ve─”
”If you”ve been following me around for six months then you should already know that I don”t have a mother,” I snap. ”She left me with my adopted parents when I was five years old. No explanation, no note, nothing. She just vanished and never came back.”
”Ah,” he hums. ”I didn”t know that. I”m sorry.”
”Don”t be.” I shrug dismissively, but a wave of sadness washes over me as I remember the day that changed my life. My mom left without a trace, leaving me behind as if I were just a toy she”d grown bored of playing with. There was no goodbye, no warning. She just up and left. It was devastating and traumatizing for a five-year-old kid, and my adopted parents did their best to ease the pain, but it was impossible to erase it entirely. Even now, it”s still something that”s left a mark on me. ”It”s fine. I was better off without her. She never really loved me, anyway.”
Drake reaches out to place a hand on my shoulder. ”I”m sure that”s not true. Perhaps the burden was just too much to bear. Or perhaps she thought you”d be safer with humans.”
”Are you telling me my mother is... one of you?” My breath catches in my throat. Could it be possible? But that doesn”t make sense. I don”t have fangs or super speed or strength or anything that would make me seem different from everyone else. ”That”s not possible. I”m not like you.”
His gaze takes over me from head to toe, and I shiver under the weight of it. ”Your mother wasn”t a vampire, Lola. She was a witch, and so are you.”
”A witch?” I echo faintly.
”Yes,” he confirms. ”It”s why we need you. The power that runs through your veins is one of the most powerful forces in the world. You”re the product of a witch and a warlock, a full-blood from an ancient line of practitioners.”
”I... I”m a witch?” I stumble over the words, barely able to wrap my mind around them. ”Are you sure you”ve got the right girl? I don”t have a broomstick or a wand or whatever it is witches use. I don”t even own a black cat.”
”Lola,” he says in a commanding voice. ”Listen to me very carefully. You are a witch. You have the ability to wield magic. I”m sorry that this is how you”re finding out, but there”s nothing to be afraid of.”
”Easy for you to say,” I grumble as I rub my temples. I”m suddenly eager to get the attention away from me. I need distraction, a momentary reprieve, so I ask, ”Can you tell me more about your life? Your clan? What exactly would I be signing up for?”
”We have our own ways of living,” he replies in a businesslike tone. ”We have our own laws and a hierarchy in place to ensure they”re upheld. I”m the leader of my clan. We”re called the Revenants. We”re not the monsters humans often imagine us to be. We”ve adapted to coexist with them, blending into their society to ensure our survival.”
I can tell that there is a lot more he isn”t telling me, and I”m not about to stumble into this thing with a blindfold over my eyes. I need to know what I”m getting myself into if I decide to go through with this. ”And the rest of your clan, the Revenants, do they know about me? Do they know what I am?”
”No,” he answers, his jaw twitching with tension. ”Only a select few are privy to our knowledge of you. But they”ll know when they catch your scent.”
”Why aren”t you telling the rest of them?” I push, feeling oddly protective of this secret, this part of my heritage that no one had bothered to tell me about until now. ”Do you not trust the members of your clan? Do they not agree with what you”re doing?”
”Lola, the fewer people who know, the safer you are,” he insists. ”My clan is loyal to me, but some of them are greedy and power-hungry, a very human trait we”ve yet to stamp out from our evolution. Some of them may go behind my back for the chance at taking my position away from me, and you would provide them with an easy target.”
I want to believe him, but the warning bells ringing in my head keep me on my guard. I know very little about him aside from his name, and only bits and pieces of what he”s told me about himself and his clan. ”And what about you? What”s your story, Drake?”
”I”m a vampire,” he says simply.
”Yeah, I got that,” I retort. ”But who are you? Where or when are you from? What happened to your parents? Were you born a vampire? Is that even possible?”
”Slow down,” he chuckles. ”One question at a time.”
I chew on my bottom lip, waiting for his answer.
He sighs and rakes a hand through his midnight black hair. ”I”m from the fifteenth century, and my parents were also vampires. They died in a clan war. Afterward, I found a group of other vampires who took me in, and I gradually worked my way up until I became their leader.”
I study him, a deep-seated urge to reach out and touch him pushing me forward. Even if he is a vampire, the fact that he”s spent so much time without parents, a pain that I”m all too familiar with, makes me want to comfort him. ”That sounds lonely,” I murmur, wondering how many lonely nights he spent mourning his family.
”It was,” he replies solemnly. ”But I”m the leader of the Revenants now, and my family has only grown since then.”
I see the vulnerability in his eyes, the pain and uncertainty he tries to hide underneath his cold facade, no matter how hard he tries to hide it. ”Do you ever wish you weren”t a vampire? Do you regret what you are?”
I see a flicker of something in his eyes—contrition, perhaps, or a reflection on a life lived in shadows. ”Regret is a luxury I can”t afford. I embrace what I am because it”s the only way to navigate this world. Sometimes I wish things were different, but they”re not, and wishing won”t change that.”
I see him, the man behind the powerful vampire, and it only makes me want to dig deeper. ”So what do you do when you”re not hunting down magical artifacts?”
”I”m always hunting,” he replies drily. ”That”s why I”m the leader. My responsibility is to protect the members of my clan. As a vampire, I”m an apex predator, which means it”s my job to take care of our enemies and take down those who would seek to destroy us.”
”What kind of enemies are we talking about here?”
”Every supernatural creature you can think of,” he tells me, a feral grin spreading across his face as if recalling his greatest battles. ”Shifters, werewolves, fallen angels, even the gods themselves.”
”Wow,” I say, staring at him with wide eyes. ”I mean, I know I said it before, but damn. I guess I”m getting a whole introduction to a supernatural world today. But what I”m really asking is, what do you do when you”re not kicking ass and taking names?”
His lips quirk into a small smile, a genuine one this time, and the sight sends an odd sensation through my stomach. ”You humans and your hobbies.”
”Ah, ah, ah.” I raise a finger into the air. ”I”m not human, remember? I”m a witch. An all-powerful being. Don”t lump me in with those weaklings.”
”An all-powerful being who is still unsure of her lineage,” he reminds me gently.
He”s not wrong. I”ve spent most of my life wondering who I am and where I come from. My adopted parents loved me and showered me with affection, but they weren”t able to give me answers when I asked where I”d come from. It was the first scar of many to come, and the deep wound that has festered under the surface for years.
This could be a chance to have those questions answered. If I could harness whatever power is inside of me, maybe it could help me discover who I really am and where I belong. But all of this is so overwhelming that I can”t quite process it yet. It”s not every day that you find out you”re not even human.
”Will you give me some time to think about this?” I ask in a shaky voice, barely able to contain the emotions rising in me all of a sudden.
He nods once. ”Yes. But Lola, I wouldn”t be telling you this if it weren”t necessary. My clan needs you.”
”Do you need me?” The question leaves my lips before I can stop it, and I don”t know what compels me to ask it in the first place. I don”t even know why I care.
His eyes darken. ”I”ve already made that clear,” he answers in a husky tone that makes my insides tremble. ”Why don”t you come with me to my home? You can meet the rest of the clan and make your decision then.”
”Where do you live?”
”Just outside of Chicago.”
”Chicago? That”s hundreds of miles from here!” I protest. ”I have a job! I can”t just up and leave.”
”I promise you, Lola, if you decide to help us, you will be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams,” he assures me. ”You won”t ever have to work another day in your life if you choose it.”
I”m not a gold digger and wealth has never been a big priority for me, but I do like the idea of freedom and never having to work in a sweaty bar ever again. I mean, that would be awesome, right? The more I think about it, the more appealing this offer becomes. ”But what if I get there and decide I”m not interested in playing nice house with your clan?”
He”s silent for a long moment before answering. ”Then I would let you go. It wouldn”t be ideal, but as I”ve said, the ritual won”t work if you”re not willing. It would do us no good to hold you prisoner. All I ask is that you try to consider this opportunity. You control what happens next.”
I let out a heavy sigh. ”So basically, you”re asking me to give up my life and run away with a bunch of vampires, one of whom has been stalking me for the last six months?”
And there it is. That sly smile that drew me to him in the first place. ”Basically,” he replies.
”Well, when you put it that way, how can a girl resist?”