Page 5 of Black Rose

“Well, who was she?” she asks.

“Dracula…Valtu,” my dad says, his voice lowering. “She was his lover. The reincarnated one. The witch. The one he…”

“The one he killed,” I fill in.

They both look at me. “Why are you asking about Valtu and his reincarnated witch lover?” my mom asks. “We never actually met her, we just heard about her from the others.”

My eyes widen. “Did you hear about her from Valtu?”

My dad folds his arms across his chest. “Listen, Rose, you’re going to need to explain why you’re asking all these questions before we answer them. I’m being serious here.”

I look between the both of them. There’s so much I want to say and so much I want to know, that I don’t know where to start.

But I have to start somewhere.

“Valtu killed Dahlia because Lenore had seen through her glamour,” I explained, watching the confusion in their eyes grow. “Lenore saw that she was a witch in disguise, recognizing her as only another witch could. But what Lenore did not see was that Dahlia was not only a witch, but the reincarnated lover of Valtu’s…and it was only just before that all of those repressed memories came back into Dahlia’s head. Dahlia remembered all her past lives…but too late.”

“How do you know all of this?” my dad asks carefully.

Another deep breath. It does nothing to calm my racing heart.

“Because it’s happened again.”

They exchange a bewildered look. “What do you mean?” my mom asks.

“Iwas Dahlia. And I was Lucy. And I was Mina.”

They just stare at me for a moment. Finally my mother gives a shake of her head, puts her hand on my shoulder. “Okay, honey you need to sit down.”

I stay rooted, grinding my teeth together. “I don’t need to sit down. I need you to listen to me. I know this sounds crazy, but I am his reincarnated love. The minute the blood went down my throat is the minute I remembered everything. I remember every single life. Dahlia’s feels like it happened yesterday, the others are more foggy, like a dream from long ago, but the emotions are still there. I’m not just Rose Harper. I’m everyone else as well, and I’m destined to be with Valtu.”

The truth hangs in the air like fog. But I can tell neither of them believe me.

“You must have read about this online,” my father says, reaching for the glass of scotch. I knew he’d need it. “Reincarnation…it’s rare, okay, it happened to Valtu’s lovers, but not to you. Not to our daughter.”

“You don’t want to believe me, because you don’t like him,” I say. “Because you’re the one whose girl he stole once upon a time.” And as those words leave my lips, the clarity of the truth hits me in the face like a cold shovel.

I feel my expression fall as the realization comes over me. “Wolf isn’t your nickname. Wolf is your real name, isn’t it? It’s not John.” I look at my mother. “And you…your name isn’t Yvonne. Your real name is Amethyst.”

Though both my parents are naturally pale, the color from their faces seem to drain in unison.

“Why did you change your names?” I lick my lips anxiously, feeling like I’m on the edge of something, and that everything else in my life I took for granted is close to collapsing. “What are you running from?”

My father takes a step toward my mother, slipping his hand around her waist, steadying her. She already seems like she’s going weak at the knees, and my mother is not the kind of woman to show weakness in any way.

I feel fury toward her that only a daughter can, a daughter that’s been coddled and lied to her whole life. I want to maim her, to make the truth come out. Being a vampire has turned me into a monster already.

“You didn’t even turn,” I accuse her, wincing at how ferocious I sound. “You weren’t born a vampire. You were made one.”

“Rose,” my father says sharply as my mother’s eyes grow wet, full of pain.

“You both lied to me! My whole life!” I cry, throwing my arms out, feeling the anger coursing through me. “I never questioned it, but how could I? You taught me that vampires that were turned by another would not only turn into monsters, but could never procreate. So what is it?”

“Rose, you are my daughter,” she manages to say, her voice shaking. “I can promise you that.”

“But you weren’t born a vampire. Lenore turned you into one. Didn’t she?”

She presses her lips together into a thin pink line as tears run down her cheeks, her mascara running.

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