Revamped (18 page)

“Killed Aurora,” I finished quietly. I had vividly witnessed her death in my dream.

My father nodded. “Upon hearing the news, I went mad with rage. My years of bowing down to Viktor were behind me. I wanted nothing more than to kill him with my own hands. That would never be payback enough for Aurora, but I wanted to destroy the only thing he ever cared about—himself.”

“How did you kill him?” Hunter asked, his voice startling me. I had forgotten that anyone else was in the room.

“This was still during a time when vampires often slept during the day,” my father explained. “One morning, while Viktor was in deep slumber, I chained him inside his coffin and took him out onto an abandoned ship. I set the whole thing on fire. Ridding the town of the tyrant king proved to be a good thing for the vampires around here and immediately catapulted me to power. Not that any of that mattered,” he said glumly. “I didn’t have the only thing I truly cared about.”

“So, the burned, disfigured man that shot me?” I asked, all of the puzzle pieces slowly falling into place.

My father nodded. “Yes, that was Viktor.”

“When I got the anonymous email with the information about
BloodCorp
, my team managed to connect it to
Dixie Pharmaceuticals
. When I saw that the name of the company’s director was Amelia Summers, I knew right away that there was more to it all than met the eye.”

Amelia Summers. Ethan’s mother. How did my father know about her? I didn’t have a chance to ask as he continued to speak.

“I rushed over, knowing full well that you would be there. When I saw Viktor standing over you, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I hadn’t seen him in well over a century. The entire time, I had falsely assumed that he was dead. Realizing what he did to you, I wanted to kill him all over again. But there was no time. You were dying and I had to do everything in my power to prevent you from suffering the same fate as Aurora. I allowed him to escape to save you.”

That name again
. “Why do I look
exactly
like her?” I asked.

My father’s green eyes flooded with pain.

“Tell me.” I urged, my voice trembling.

He sighed, a sigh so deep and unnerving it gave me goosebumps.

“Aurora had a habit of giving people capsules of her blood. She was fascinated by its power. She loved being a Born—being special. She gave me a vile to wear around my neck. After she passed away, that was the only thing of hers I had left,” he said, smiling sadly. “I wanted nothing more than to bring her back, but that was impossible. Until the late 1900s, that is, when the scientific community started putting a lot of thought into cloning living organisms. In 1995, I met a doctor named Amelia Summers—the same woman who owned
Dixie Pharmaceuticals
. She was working on experimental research on human cloning. It was a very taboo subject matter, but something about it intrigued me.”

More puzzle pieces were merging together, but I desperately wanted to rip them away; wanted to erase the image that was beginning to form in front of me.

“I felt the need to share my pain with this woman, to tell her everything,” my father continued. “After coming to terms with the fact that vampires existed, she got in her head this idea that cloning a Born vampire would be easier than cloning a human. The Born’s blood is so much stronger than a human’s and since a Born is able to mature and develop, their cells, unlike those of Made vampires, are living, working units.”

“You cloned Aurora?" I stammered.

“Amelia and I used the blood from the capsule Aurora had given me. A year later, you were born,” he explained. The shock of his words reverberated through my entire body. My face stung, as if he had just slapped me.

“A few years later, Amelia’s husband left her for a vampire mistress and she changed. She was out to destroy every single vampire, starting with you. I wouldn’t let that happen, of course. I vowed to myself that I would teach you to protect yourself; that I would never allow you to experience any hurt the way Aurora did.”

“I was made from Aurora’s DNA?” I cried, my whole world crumbling around me. “I’m…Am I
her
?”

My father shook his head. “You’re nothing like Aurora. I could tell the moment you were born, the second I looked into your beautiful eyes—your mother’s violet eyes—that you were different. Science works in mysterious ways. Aside from your similar looks, you are worlds apart—even less alike than two siblings.”

“Because I’m not even real.” I wanted to scream, but my voice sounded weak and raspy. Each word passing across my lips felt more painful than the previous. “I’m someone’s clone. You wanted Aurora and you got me. I’m a failed experiment!”

“No, Dawn…”

"This whole time—the past nineteen years—were you hoping that I would turn into Aurora?” I asked, struggling to breathe. My throat was so tight; my eyes burned.

“Of course not Dawn,” my father said, kneeling down in front of me. “You’re not Aurora, but you’re my daughter just as much as she was.”

“Why did you send me on a mission to Angel Creek?” I demanded. “You knew about Aurora’s connection to the place,” I paused, adding, “To Sebastian.”

My father stiffened. He attempted to pat my knee, but I shifted abruptly, causing his hand to slide off.

“I sent you to Angel Creek with good intentions, Dawn. I knew you wanted a mission so very desperately, and according to my research, it was one of the safest places around. Since the tragic massacre at the Hamilton House, nothing dangerous had ever happened in that town. And I honestly didn’t know that Sebastian would be there. I thought he had perished along with Aurora that night.”

“Did you hope that being in Angel Creek would have triggered something in me? Perhaps reawakened Aurora?”

My father sighed. The creases around his eyes deepened, making him appear as if he had aged a whole century in the past five minutes. “Perhaps deep down inside I was curious to see if it would bring up any memories. But I’m glad it didn’t. I’m happy that you’re not Aurora. I’m so proud of the unique young woman that you have become, Dawn.” He brought his hand to me again, this time gently placing his palm against my face.

“I’m not a
young woman
, father! I’m a
clone
!” I cried, pushing his hand away. “A fake! A nobody!” I rushed out of the room, brushing past my astounded group of friends.

I raced out of the house, running into the courtyard, not even noticing, let alone caring, that I was wearing a nightgown and had no shoes on my feet. I just knew that I had to get out of the house before the toxic air inside suffocated me. Most importantly, I had to get away from my father.
Not that he was even my real father
, I thought miserably.
He belonged to Aurora
.

I took refuge by the large stone fountain, collapsing on the ground next to the orchids. I buried my face in the flowers, plucking at them angrily, no longer able to hold back my tears. I sobbed for what seemed like ages, until the tears stopped flowing and I was left with nothing by dry heaves. Completely depleted, I picked my head off the floor and looked around. Sebastian stood above me, completely motionless, an expression of deep sorrow in his light eyes.

“Did you know?” I asked coldly.

“No,” he replied, lowering himself beside me. “I had no idea,” he admitted sincerely.

“But you knew I looked like her.”

“When I first saw you, for a brief moment, I thought you were her. The second you started to speak, or rather
yell
at me, I knew with certainty that you weren’t Aurora. Everything about you was completely different,” Sebastian smiled. It was a kind, heartfelt—almost loving—smile.

“At first, I convinced myself that I had to keep far away from you. I feared that if I got too close it would bring up memories of her,” he sighed. “But then, you drew me in. You kept inching your way into my mind, as if you had some crazy hold over me.”

“You mean
Aurora
did,” I corrected. Just uttering her name made my stomach churn.

“No, Dawn.
You
did. I couldn’t get you out of my head. You were the most unique girl I had ever met in my entire life. The most fascinating and frustrating—all at the same time. I kept lingering around the cottage woods, watching you with the recruits, secretly cheering you on. The day we spoke in the gazebo and you asked about how I was turned, I wanted to tell you everything. I wanted to tell you about my family, about Aurora, but I was afraid. So I ran. That one night, when you almost kissed Ethan, I was so overcome with jealousy I nearly split a tree in half from my frustration. It was then that I realized I was falling for you. Hard.” He looked away, embarrassed.

“I saw you in my dream,” I said quietly. “You and Aurora. You looked happy.”

Sebastian sighed. “I was a sheltered, spoiled, human boy. My biggest worry in life was whether or not a beautiful girl was going to agree to my marriage proposal. Of course, I was happy. At the time.”

“Things have changed?”

“Very much so. Especially the
human
part.”

“Well, at least you’re not a clone.” I felt the tears creep up behind my lids again. “My entire life is a big lie.”

“Don’t think like that.”

“And how should I think, Sebastian? I’m a science experiment! A consolation prize, at that!” I yelled. “My father wanted to bring back his dead daughter, and instead, he created me.” I paused, quietly adding, “Even the guy I like would have been with her if she were still alive.”

“Dawn…” Sebastian reached out for me.

“Forget it!” I stood up before he could touch me. “Please let my father know that I never want to see him again.”

With those final words, I sprinted back to Angel Creek. I took refuge in the small cabin in the woods, memories of my first night at the cottage flooding back into my mind.
It was a much happier time
, I thought, remembering how excited I was about my mission. Now, it seemed like entire centuries had passed since that fateful day.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

For an entire week, I isolated myself inside the cottage. I trained aimlessly throughout the day and wallowed in despair during the night. My whole world had suddenly been torn apart, my sense of identity stolen by a girl who had been dead for well over a century.

Every day, either Brooke, Sophie, Hunter or Seth—or all four—came knocking on the front door, begging to be let in. Every day, I ignored them, unable to endure facing anyone I knew. I was still overwhelmed by the shocking news of my origin, still immensely wounded by my father’s lies. At the same time, I was riddled with shame, humiliated that the entire team had been privy to the story about Aurora. I desperately wished she could have stayed a dirty little secret forever. It was bad enough that I suddenly felt like an impostor in my own life; I didn’t want others thinking that I was one too.

To my chagrin, on the sixth day of my self-imposed exile, Brooke chose to circumvent the locked-door issue by throwing a rock through one of the kitchen windows. The noise of crashing glass sent me flying down the stairs, poised for an attack. My intruder turned out to be the smiling, perky blonde, outfitted in her short blue-and-white cheerleading uniform and white tennis shoes. She took one look at me and wrinkled her nose.

“Eww, Dawn! You’re still wearing the same nightgown you had on the last time I saw you,” she whined, placing her impeccably manicured hand over her bright-pink lips and wrinkling her nose. “And I can tell you’ve been wearing it all week!”

I looked down at the stained fabric, shrugging indifferently.

“And your hair!
Ohmigod
! We’re going to need a team of stylists to brush through that thing,” Brooke said, taking a step back, as if somehow my disheveled hair was contagious, and smoothing her own immaculate locks.

“Well, don’t worry! I’m going to take great care of you. We’re going to have an
amazing
girl’s day!” she squealed, clapping her hands together.

“Oh, that reminds me—we need another girl!” Brooke strode over to the front door, unlocking it and ushering a very embarrassed Sophie into the cottage.

“Hi,” Sophie stammered, waving shyly at me as she entered.

“I can’t wait to get started!” Brooke exclaimed, pulling us both into the living room. “We’re gonna begin with makeovers. You’re
totally
up first!” Brooke said to me as she began removing make-up and hair tools from her oversized pink shoulder bag. “Although,” she added, looking disapprovingly at Sophie’s long skirt and white blouse, “you’re in desperate need of help too.”

I sighed, overwhelmed by the scene unfolding in front of me. “Guys, thank you, really, but I’m just not in the mood.”

Sophie reached out and gently patted my arm. “Ordinarily, I would honor your request,” she said. “But I think you’ve been alone long enough. Not to mention, Brooke threatened my well-being if I so much as thought about leaving.”

“I’m sorry. I just can’t face anyone right now,” I said, shaking my head.

Sophie sunk into one of the large, brown armchairs, its magnitude swallowing up her thin frame whole. “It’s true that none of us have ever been in your situation, but believe it or not, we have all had hardships to overcome. Remember when I told you about my best friend Charlotte?”

I nodded, taken aback by the sudden sadness in her voice.

“Well, I left out the part of the story in which I was so in love with Charlotte that I thought about ending my life when she left,” Sophie said matter-of-factly.

Brooke gasped. “Whoa, that’s totally tragic. What did you end up doing?”

“I cried a lot,” Sophie said, shrugging her wiry shoulders. “But aside from feeling sad, I focused on my future. I knew that my goal in life was to one day go to college, so I immersed myself in my studies.”

Brooke rolled her eyes. “Kinda boring.” After a brief moment of contemplation, she added, “But I guess I can understand.”

“My point, Dawn, is that tragedy happens.” For the first time ever, Sophie looked directly at me as she spoke, a surge of strength and determination shining through her big brown eyes. “What you eventually have to realize is that life goes on. Especially for vampires. At least you have us to help you through it.”