Page 27 of Lucy

CHAPTER 13

Lucy

I wasn’t sure I likedthe way Jenny Spark was staring up at me, half fear, half amazement. But it didn’t really matter because Joanie threw herself at both of her parents. It only dawned on me in that moment that her dad’s name was Clark Spark.

My lips twitched, and I fought a smile.

Viv smiled over at me, but I caught the glimpse of sadness in her eyes.

“Are you okay?” I asked her quietly.

She nodded and moved closer before saying, “Yeah, I am really happy for her. I just can’t help but wonder what is going on with the Alliance.”

It might have been the truth, but something told me that she was hiding the real pain. I had heard stories about her adoptive mother, Susan. Apparently, she was one of the leaders in the order. Supposedly she was dead, but I of all people knew that death wasn’t permanent. According to Henry, the Alliance was chock full of top-notch medical professionals as well as some of the most influential vampires.

How vampires could turn against their own the way that the Alliance had is beyond me. And don’t get me started on pure blooded vampires. The fact that they take the time to see the percentage of pureness is beyond a joke. I thought that people had evolved past such petty endeavors to make themselves more important.

Viv’s blood was the purest out of all of us, and she still had some witch running in her veins. We weren’t sure where that was coming from either. Joanie seemed to have more magic in her, but according to the tests from the lab, she was not a full-blooded sister to Viv and me, who were indeed twins if the tests were correct.

Our mother, whoever she was, had to have been a witch for my powers to manifest as strongly as they have. I wondered, for a fleeting moment, if she had been a necromancer as well. I hadn’t wanted to dwell a whole lot on the thoughts of our birth parents. They were gone, and I grew up with that knowledge.

Veti hadn’t ever told me who my mother was because she herself didn’t know. I felt a shiver creep over me and wrapped my arms around my waist.

“Are you alright?”

I smiled at Viv who had essentially just asked me the same question I had posed to her moments earlier.

I took her hand in mine and said, “I am good. But I don’t think we should linger here. It’s time to get back to the palace.”

Jenny and Clark were slowly getting to their feet with Joanie’s help. It seemed that it was at that moment when Jenny truly got a good look at me. Her eyes widened, and she took an instinctive step backward.

Shaking her head in disbelief she whispered, “What is going on?”

“Mom,” Joanie’s tone was calm as she explained, “this is Lucy, she is Viv’s twin sister.”

“That’s not possible, we would have known.”

I felt that same ripple of apprehension running across my skin. “What’s not possible?” I blurted out.

“There were only two siblings that survived the attack.” Clark’s face was filled with shame. “We should know, we were there.”

I tried to wrap my mind around the fact that these two individuals were part of the mob that destroyed my family. I suddenly hated the fact that I had helped them. I whipped around on Viv and Joanie; my eyes full of tears. “You never said that they were part of the Alliance. You only told me that they were being held captive. Why would you want to save the people that ruined our family?”

Joanie looked as though I had struck her, and I felt a small amount of guilt, but I pushed it aside.

“They aren’t bad people,” Viv explained and tried putting a hand on my arm, but I shook her off.

“They are bad people,” I countered. “Because of them, I lived in a fucking cave under the earth in the middle of nowhere for twenty years. Because of them my parents are dead and most of my siblings. How can you say that they are blameless?”

Jenny’s eyes filled with tears. “You are right. We are not blameless. We joined the Alliance because we thought we were ridding the world of evil. We had no idea what we were getting into. There was also the promise of a child, and we desperately wanted to have children.”

I scoffed, “Yeah, you wanted a child bad enough to murder someone and take theirs?”

Her face was stricken has she drew in a harsh breath.

“That’s enough!” Viv demanded.

Joanie took a protective step next to her parents. “You need to calm down, Lucy.”

---