Page 14 of Fallen Heirs

Words that rang so true for me and hit me right where I lived.

“You’re right.”

She stepped closer. “I think it’s about time we altered that perception, don’t you?”

“What do you have in mind?”

“Teach me to hunt. Like a vampire.”

Huh.

Not what I was expecting.

None of it was.

But I couldn’t deny that it felt good to have someone else who was right here with me when it came to all of this.

And to feel needed too… it was everything.

It had me telling her without reservation, “I’m ready when you are.”

4

~Alena~

So many sympathies had been offered to me over the last couple of weeks.

The memorial a few days ago had obviously been the height of it, but even before that, I’d experienced so much of it.

The front gates were lined with flowers, rows upon rows of them that me and the boys had been sorting through.

People I didn’t even know had contacted me through text and email and many even over the home phone here in my family home.

Family home.

It couldn’t really be called that anymore now that both my mom and my dad were gone.

But I’d come here anyway. I guess it was the familiarity. It gave me some comfort. And my mom’s things were all over the place, kind of like she was still here.

But she wasn’t.

And it hurt all the more as I recalled all the stories about her that the guests at the memorial had imparted to me. Stories I’d had no clue about. People I’d had no clue about.

I’d hardly known that part of my mom. The leader ofExemplarpart. She’d kept so much secret, so much away from me.

And yet, Orpheus had told me that she’d actually wanted me to follow in her footsteps after all, to become a part of it all.

It was a hell of a mind-fuck, to be honest.

So much of what had happened lately was.

It’d had my head spinning.

It had threatened to unleash a tidal wave of pain and grief.

I didn’t want that.

I didn’t want to be weighed down by it.

---