Page 80 of Thicker than Blood

I nod, blinking against tears. “I was never supposed to know. I buried it, afraid to believe it.”

“Believe what, darling?”

“No one ever sat us down and told us directly what happened to him, but I heard rumors. I think they wanted to protect us, but there were whispered secrets at family gatherings while they stared at us. I heard my cousin talking about us and my dad. They said he was out working an overnight shift. He was delivering beverages to convenience stores when he was jumped and attacked by a group of men. They left him bloody and… changed.”

The memories of that day rip through my mind, tearing away whatever wall I built around them to keep them away. My throat tightens with emotions long buried.

“Changed?”

I focus on Elias to ground myself. “I didn’t believe it. I never saw one sign that he wasn’t normal. He was a good man. The best, really. He loved us all so much and doted on my mother. It was easy to shove those words back and forget I’d ever heard them. I never asked my parents or my sister. I made myself forget.”

Elias nods in encouragement.

“Then the war started, and everything changed. I went to sleep with a regular, happy family and woke up to chaos. I saw puddles of blood through the living room, kitchen, and into the bathroom. My sister, Emma, was huddled in the dining room and told me dad was sick and mom was helping him, but we had to stay away. I started to ask what was wrong with him, but the bedroom door flew open and my mom came running out. She was covered in blood.”

I have to take a break as visions of that day accost me. Elias kisses my forehead, giving me the strength to keep going.

“She tried to block him from us, but he was so strong. He brushed her to the side and she slid all the way across the floor. I thought he was going to kill us.” I shake my head. “He told us it was time for us to step into our true selves. My mom screamed.”

Images replay in my mind, bringing tears to my eyes.

“He took my sister first, holding her down and feeding her blood from his wrist. I didn’t understand. Or maybe I just didn’t want to. I remembered all the rumors. I knew on some level well before the discovery that vampires existed. I read about you and others just like you. Some called them myths and legends, folklore, dismissing them as stories of superstitious people, but Iknew.And that day, my dad was doing things that I couldn’tmake sense of. He was acting like a creature from the stories I’d read.”

“Gods. What happened next?” Elias asks.

Staring off into space, the visions of that morning play out before me. “He turned his attention to me while my sister lay on the floor, convulsing. My instinct told me to run from him, so I did, but he was fast. He caught my ankle and dragged me back to the living room. I looked for my mom, but she wasn’t on the floor anymore. Then…” I blow out a shaky breath. “My dad opened his mouth and he had these fangs. He told me as his only son I would fight beside him and we would kill all the mortals who denied us our rights.”

Elias creases his brow with concern. “Did he bite you?”

“Before he could, my mom appeared behind him and staked him in the back, through his chest and straight into his heart. That’s when I noticed the bite marks in her neck. She told me we had to go. We had to hide until the war was over, but before I could even get off the floor, the front door burst open and four vampires entered. My mom…” My voice cracks.

“Oh, darling,” Elias coos. “Your pain breaks my heart.”

“I’ve never told anyone why it happened. Why they killed her.”

“They killed your mother?”

I nod. “My sister snapped out of whatever was happening to her and she tried to attack them but they… they tore her heart out.”

“In front of you?”

“They didn’t touch me,” I continue, almost in a daze. “They butchered my mother for killing a vampire. My dad was turned the night he was attacked, but he didn’t embrace it. When they had children, me and my sister, those traits were passed along to us. For some reason, that day, he took the side of the vampiresand tried to turn my mom and wake up the dormant blood inside his children.”

“His dhampir children.”

I nod, blinking rapidly as the truth I’ve mentally buried for years slaps me across the face. “They left me there unharmed for some reason. I’ve had nightmares about the one who spoke to me. His eyes…” The words leave my lips in a whisper. “They were the strangest color. Like orange and red. He seemed to stare into my soul.”

“What did he say?”

“That one day I would be ready. He didn’t tell me for what and I didn’t ask. I think I knew what he meant. He thought I would embrace this other side of me.”

“But it seems you didn’t know?”

I shake my head. “He touched my forehead and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was in a hospital and beyond traumatized. I couldn’t remember anything, like my memory had been wiped, and the nurse told me what had happened to my family. I was even questioned by the military. They knew it was a vampire attack but wanted to know why I wasn’t hurt.”

Hot tears slide down my cheeks as all the memories come back. Elias rubs my back.

“I didn’t remember why. I couldn’t tell them. I was in counseling for a year over it, and they diagnosed me with PTSD.” I scoff, wiping my face. “The doctor said someday something could trigger my memory. I guess that day is today.”

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