Page 19 of Little Doll

Mother released me so I could face my father squarely. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and spittle flew as he spat out his words. “And that is the same reason Draven was not invited to thisfamily meeting. He’s not a vampire, and he can never ever know about you.”

“Why not?” I asked. It pained me to think of the chasm that had already opened up between myself and my simple and sweet brother Draven. A chasm he wasn’t even aware of.

“Why not?” Costel snarled. “Because, Nova, if he knows, then other people will find out. And if other people find out, they will kill you. They will probably kill our entire family.” He moved into my face and pointed at me with a trembling finger. “Don’t you understand? They will think you’re a monster.”

Chapter 8

Nova

So much informationhad been hurtled at me as the hours of the night passed by, but I felt I had learned almost nothing. I still had so many questions, but when the hour drew near, when sunlight would begin to flood the large windows, and my brother Draven might rise, my family told me I needed to return to my windowless room in the tower. Only as the others filed out and Fane stood to offer me a hand, did I recall the strange, confusing incident when we left the tower room and then suddenly just… were in the grand foyer.

“How do I find the tower room?” I asked. “And was I imagining things when we left it to come in here?”

Fane smiled as I placed my hand and his and stood. “Well, it’s a matter of magic, you see.”

I rolled my eyes, and that quick anger sparked. I was tired of nonsensical and whimsical responses and ready for some straight answers.

He detected my frustration and chuckled. “You see, Little Doll, Blackmoth House is a house of many secrets. More secrets than you or I will ever know, surely. And it has its ways to protect its secrets. You are one secret of Blackmoth House now.”

I stopped and stomped my foot, sending one sharp crack of my boot on the floor echoing about the room. “I don’t understand. I’m so tired of all these odd mythical sounding answers to my questions. Just tell me so that I can understand, Fane!”

He tilted his head to the side and cupped my face in one hand. Something crossed his charming face I didn’t recall ever seeing there before. Compassion. “I’m sorry, Nova. I really am. I know this is all so confusing and frightening. There is too much for you to learn, possibly to know it all in one night. But you must trust me. The answers will come in time.”

I wanted to cry. My shoulders slumped and all the sudden it seemed if I’d never slept a wink in my life. They had told me I wouldn’t always need to sleep if I didn’t want to. Sometimes I would sleep during daylight just to pass time away from the sun. But it wouldn’t be necessary. However, as a young vampire, I might feel fatigued for awhile. Such was the case right then. “Fane, just tell me how to find my room,” I said weakly.

“Don’t worry, Little Doll. It’s easy. Those who are aware of the magic can harness it easily. Think of where you want to be and take a step. That’s all there is to it.”

I frowned at him for a few seconds, thinking perhaps he’d lost his mind. But who was I to say? His claim wasn’t really anymore daft than any of the other things that were happening to me.

He gave an encouraging smile. “Go on, you try it. Take us where you want to go.” He squeezed my hand.

I squared up my shoulders and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and envisioned the stone room. Then, together, we took one step.

As he’d promised, I opened my eyes and there we were, back in the round room.

I was so tired; I made no attempt to change into sleeping clothes and I fell in a heap onto the bed. Fane took a seat in the same chair he’d been sitting in while he watched me sleep. “May I stay with you until you fall asleep, Little Doll?” he asked. So strange to hear him ask permission or use any sort of polite manners.

“You don’t have to,” I murmured, my eyelids already drooping.

“I want to.”

I shimmied around in the bed enough to pull the covers up over me. But as I was sinking intooblivion, my eyes popped open. “Fane?” I asked with great alarm. “Are you a vampire?”

Fane’s face fell and shadows flickered in his eyes. “No, Little Doll. I am not.”

All these years that I’d barely seen him because he was such a creature of the night had made me think that. He lived like a vampire. I was surprised to hear he wasn’t one. I was still pondering it when I slipped into dreams.

The dreams were mostly incredible. Elaborate adventures and sultry sexual escapades. But there were interludes of strange voices calling out to me in the dark. Mysterious scratching sounds.

And then there were nightmares of blood.

During the night hours the next evening, I languished in the Blackmoth House library under the pale light of the moon streaming in the tall windows. A book lay open across my stomach, but I found I could barely focus my mind on the adventures within its pages.

My eyes drooped, and my mind wanted to drift back to the land of dreams. I was also distracted by the distant voice of a little girl softly calling my name. Something about the voice broke my heart. I fancied it was simplymyvoice,the lost little girl I’d once been calling out to me to be rescued from this cruel fate.

There was also the matter of the incessant scratching sounds in the walls. Anywhere in Blackmoth House that I went to escape, it followed me. Scratching like rodents had gotten into the walls. All the walls. Even the walls of my room that were made of stone.

Perhaps the vampire curse had brought with it a curse of madness as well.

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