Family Secrets (Young Adult Edition) (Davenport Manor (Young Adult Edition)) (16 page)

Todd slightly shook his head, “I’m
still trying to wrap my head around this. It’s hard to
believe.”

She reached out to take
his hand, which twitched at her touch, but slowly relaxed and
wrapped around hers. “Look at me, Todd. I’m the same person on the
inside. The ‘me’ that you have come to know…that’s
me
. I know it’s hard to
look at me the same, but if you look beyond me being a vampire,
you’ll see that I’m the same inside.”

His mouth twitched into a small smile,
his eyes could only be read as forgiving. “Come on,” he said as he
began to walk and lightly tugged her hand.

He led her back to his bedroom and
motioned for her to sit on the couch. He was forcing himself to
relax around her even though his senses were telling him to be
fearful. She was dangerous. He saw what she was capable of tonight;
she snapped the necks of five men so fast it happened in a blur.
The screaming growl that came out of her mouth when she was furious
was downright frightening. The strength of a single kick sent a man
soaring back twenty feet. He knew that if there was anything on
this Earth that should be feared, it was her.

The fact of the matter: she used her
speed, strength, and inhuman rage to save his life. With that
realization he knew that he no longer needed to fear her, but to
immensely thank her. If it wasn’t for her, he probably would have
been lying in the morgue at that very moment.

He poured two glasses of wine, then
stopped while pouring the second one and looked at her with a
raised eyebrow. She politely shook her head “no”. He sat down on
the other side of the couch and said, “Okay, let’s have it. Tell me
everything.”

“What’s to tell? I’m a vampire, that’s
pretty much it,” she responded with a shrug.

“Do you kill people often?” That
question was high on his list.

“No, besides self-defense, I have only
killed one person from feeding on them, which was my first prey. I
didn’t mean to, but the urge to drink was so overwhelming, I just
couldn’t stop.” She hung her head, ashamed by the memory she had of
her first kill. “We’re not what movies and books make us out to be.
We don’t have to kill in order to feed, most of us don’t. Of course
you’ll get the occasional rogue vampire that will do it anyway, but
if the high vampires find out about it, they’re dealt
with.”

“High vampires? Like the vampire
police?” He laughed.

She chuckled with him, “No, we don’t
have vampire police. We have kings and queens on each continent,
except Antarctica. The King of Europe is ancient, the rest are
close in age to me. They are all his offspring.”

“They sound ominous…”

Emma shook her head fast, “No! They’re
not at all. The kings and queens are actually the most respected
and fair vampires that are on the Earth. They’re not at as scary as
they sound. They maintain the peace with the vampires living
amongst humans—we try to live quietly alongside you. Up until now,
you never knew we existed, so we must be doing a good
job.”

Todd sipped his wine and eyed her
skeptically. Up until now she was this sweet girl that he was
falling for, now he felt deceived by her.

“What did you say to that guy you let
go tonight? Aren’t you afraid he is going to run to the
police?”

This was the best time, if
any, for her to come clean. “He
is
going to run to the police, but to turn himself
in for killing his buddies. Vampires have this gift we call
charming; we are able to manipulate the minds of humans to do
whatever we tell them to. I told him to forget he ever saw us and
to go to the police station to turn himself in.”

Todd’s mouth fell open as
he was fascinated and disgusted at the same time. “You manipulate
people? Have you
charmed
me?”

“No! Of course not! There are plenty
of vampires who use that ability freely, however I don’t like to
use it unless it is a dire circumstance. I think tonight fell into
that category. Before we had private resources for blood, charming
was our only mechanism for surviving in secret. We would charm
someone first to forget everything that was about to happen, not to
scream, and such, then we would feed on them. We would then rub a
bit of our own blood on the puncture wounds. It instantly heals
them and after charming them, they would have no recollection of
what happened.”

“Can your blood heal sick
people?”

“No, just injured people. Our blood
only heals the basic makeup of the body—a broken bone, cuts, things
like that. Illnesses and infections are considered foreign
organisms to the body, something our blood cannot heal.”

“Couldn’t you donate some of your
blood to hospitals to heal injured people?”

“That’s not the first time someone has
asked that question and we have even asked ourselves that question.
It is definitely a possibility in the future. Vampires are evolving
and the kings and queens have been discussing coming out into the
open and donating our blood for the greater good. Not only would it
help humans accept us, but we would be helping them as well,” she
explained.

Todd’s brain scrambled to come up with
more questions for her. As freaked out as he was by her revelation,
he was also intrigued. How many people could say they had a
relationship with a vampire? Or even knew a vampire for that
matter.

“The ghost I keep seeing, Elizabeth…is
that your sister?” He asked.

“Yes, that’s my little sister. You’re
the second person I know of that has seen her, but the first that
has communicated with her,” she responded with envy. “You don’t
know how bad I wish I could see her, too.”

“Why does she say that you know the
truth and that you need to make it right?”

Emma looked off to the side and shook
her head, “I don’t know.”

The painting of Elizabeth that had
securely hung on the wall for years came crashing down to the floor
with a slam. Todd jumped and Emma spun around in attack mode, her
fangs instantly appeared. His attention quickly turned to her and
was suddenly more afraid of her than he was of the picture falling.
He stared at her as she composed herself and retracted her fangs,
slightly embarrassed. She walked over to where the giant portrait
laid face-down on the floor, picked it up as if it weighed one
pound, and hung it back up onto the wall.

“Who turned you?” He asked, spitting
out the next question lingering in his mind.

“Do you remember when I left for
Scotland to visit my friend, Aidan?” Emma asked as she came back to
the couch to sit down. “Well, he’s not just my friend, he’s my
maker. I had met him in town one day in 1815; he was so charming
and easy to talk to. Apparently he was taken with me and saw a
spark in me that made him think I would be a good immortal. He
found me in the woods as I walked to Elizabeth’s cottage that night
and after idle chit chat, he began to scare me with his questions.
He chased me down, eventually caught me, and struck. Got me right
in the neck.”

“What was it like turning into a
vampire?”

“Awful, but fairly fast. We have small
holes on the tips of our fangs where we can release venom if we
choose to. When he bit me he had every intention to turn me.
Feeling every organ in your body rapidly shut down was the most
excruciating experience—ever fiber fights to survive while the
venom takes over. It only took minutes to complete though. Toward
the end, I accepted that I was dying and once the pain was over I
thought I was dead. But, when I opened my eyes everything was the
same, yet different. The first craving for blood was a feeling I
could never describe in words.”

Todd remained silent while he
processed everything, but Emma’s impatience got the best of her.
“Say something, Todd. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

He leaned forward and set his glass
down on the coffee table, then relaxed back into the couch as if he
was preparing to interrogate her. “Tell you what I’m thinking?
Okay, let’s see—the girl I began to fall in love with is a mythical
creature that I should be afraid of…”

“Obviously, not mythical,” she
interjected.

He continued to speak over her, “You
never told me! This isn’t like some silly little trait like one
foot is bigger than the other. You’re a vampire! You’re not even
alive!”

She nodded, clearly perturbed with his
tone toward her. “Now you tell me, Todd…I’m sure you have some
secret of your own. Do you announce it to every person you
meet?”

He understood where she was coming
from and they sat in yet another awkward silence.

She quietly asked, “Did you say you
were falling in love with me?”

He matched her soft voice
and looked directly into her eyes, “I
was
. But, I think that feeling has
since passed.”

“Good,” she responded as
he looked at her with confusion. “I don’t want you to be in love
with me. The last time a human was in love with me, he
became
like me. I don’t
wish that for you.”

He chuckled, “I don’t wish that for me
either.”

Glad to see a hint of a
smile, she admitted, “However…I love you, too. That feeling
has
not
passed
for me.” She stood up and gave him a wistful smile before bidding
him goodnight. She walked out of his room and shut the door behind
her, leaving behind the memories of feeling human for the past
couple of months.

Chapter 11

A couple of weeks had passed and Emma
made sure to avoid Todd to the best of her ability. Her acute
hearing, sense of smell, and speed came in handy as she would dodge
him every time he was coming near. She hated feeling like this in
her own home.

She knew she needed to get away. Far
away. One day while they were filming she went to her room and
plopped down on her bed. She thought about where she could go;
perhaps a vacation somewhere by herself. But, Christmas was just
days away and she surely didn’t want to spend it alone. She reached
for her phone and scrolled through her contacts, hitting “call” on
the one she could always turn to.

“
Aidan, it’s Emma. I need
to get out of here, mind if I come for a visit?”

She smiled knowing she was going to
get to see her maker again so soon. She explained the reason why to
him and he lectured her about getting involved with a human she
didn’t plan to turn. While she normally became perturbed when
others lectured her about the same subject, she couldn’t help but
take Aidan’s words to heart. She wished she would have spoken to
him sooner as he would have been the only one to talk her out of
pursuing Todd.

She opened her laptop and began
searching for flights to Glasgow and decided on the same one she
had taken a couple months before, which meant she’d leave that
night. She booked an open ticket so she could return when she felt
ready to come back. She got her suitcases out of her closet and
began to pack everything she would need. She needed this trip—to
get away from Todd, from all the tension in the house, and even
Zachariah, who was relishing in the break up between her and
Todd.

She eventually went downstairs and
waited for a break in filming. Once Zachariah and Daniel were
available, she called them over to her. She saw Todd from the
corner of her eye, who was watching her intently. It was the first
time he had actually seen her in two weeks. She disregarded him and
never returned his stare.

“
I need to get out of
here. I’m going crazy trying to dodge Todd all the time,” she
quietly explained to them. “I feel like a bandit in my own home.
I’m leaving for Glasgow tonight, so I’m going to spend the holidays
with Aidan.”

Daniel looked at her with
disappointment, “I have never spent Christmas without you, Emma.
You’re the only family I have left.” Sadness saturated his voice.
It pinched at her heart because he was one hundred percent right.
She
was
his only
family now.

Even Zachariah looked slightly
forlorn, “I have never spent the holidays without you either. Over
one hundred Christmases with you.”

Their heartbroken faces were killing
her! So much for an escape, “Alright, when I get to Scotland I’ll
ask Aidan if he wouldn’t mind if you two joined us. Goodness knows
he has the room at his house.”

Later that evening when everyone was
gathered in the parlor after dinner, Emma came downstairs with her
suitcases and placed them in the foyer. She went into the parlor to
wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe travels to their homes on
their break. She explained she was going to Scotland to visit her
friend for a while and glanced around the room as she spoke. She
made brief eye contact with Todd for the first time in two weeks.
When she was done saying her goodbyes, he got up and sauntered over
to her with his hands deep in his jean pockets.

“
You have a Merry
Christmas, Emma,” he gently said.

“
You as well. Are you
going back to London for the holidays?”

He nodded, “I am…will you be back
before filming is done or is this our final goodbye?”