Chapter 8

• The world slowed to a stop and for an entire minute, I blanked out. The sounds around me thinned to resounding silence, my vision altering until the sights around me grew hazy, getting replaced by events that happened fourteen years ago.
• I saw myself sitting in the scanty reception area of a place mum called a special clinic. Clutching Mr fuzzy, my stuffed rabbit, I'd stared at the placard on top of the door that read, Mr. Trenton, and waited for her to come out.
• I remember thinking the place didn't smell like a hospital. At that time, it had meant a good thing.
• Minutes later, a tensed-looking mum marched out. Before I could utter a word she grabbed my arm with a muttered, 'Come along now.'
• Hours later, when I was seated on the kitchen counter, she'd set the drugs down before me, staring into my eyes in the way that told me she was about to be serious. I had dropped my crayons.
• 'Now listen to me, Lenore,' she'd said. 'The doctor's just confirmed that you're... sick. Now don't you worry, baby. You'll be fine as long as you take these drugs and don't come in contact with any plants. Understand?'
• Over the years she further explained I had a rare genetic disorder. My system would exacerbate the symptoms of a simple plant allergy, making it life-threatening.
• At present, I brought my eyes back to the man before me. My voice cracked a bit when I said, "You're lying. My mother... She wouldn't..." I caught myself. I thought I heard a hint of doubt in my voice. To be in doubt meant I believed this man, this... vampire.
• No. My mother wouldn't poison me. She might not like me, but she didn't hate me.
• I locked gazes with him. "You're lying."
• He didn't bat an eye. In a tone lacking emotion, he said, "The symptoms of this 'illness', have you experienced any of them before?"
• A painful pause. I didn't even know what they were.
• But I didn't voice that out to him. There was, however, an error in his words and I pointed it out, "You say these medications are designed to 'poison' me. I've been taking them for over fourteen years, how come I'm not dead yet?"
• His fingers closed around a bottle. What he said next had me freezing: "The human part of you isn't."
• My stomach bottomed out. "Are you... are you suggesting that I'm not...human?"
• "Yes."
• My head swam. "I think... I think you should leave." He was insane.
• He just stood there.
• My nerves strung tight. "Leave. Your claims are outrageous. First, you accuse my mother of poisoning, and now you say I'm not... human?"
• When he didn't show any sign of budging, I spun around, going for the door. "You know what, you can stay here if you want. I don't w--"
• Before I got to the door, he traced to materialize in front of me. With a gasp, I shot backwards.
• His huge frame blocked my exit. Holding my gaze, he said the words that suddenly had my world stopping, "I know about your past."
• I stilled.
• "I understand what happened that night four years ago with Robert more than you do... And I know your father's whereabouts." Then he finished with, "He still lives."
• I grew faint. It wasn't until the backs of my legs connected with my bed that I realized I'd been slowly inching backwards. away from the man, away from his outrageous claims. If what he said was true then he knew the gravity of his words, knew the shattering effect it'd have on me. But even as I felt my world turn in itself, he stood there, looking coolly composed, like he'd rather be anywhere else than in my crappy apartment.
• My head grew light and when I opened my mouth again it was to tell him to leave.
• I never got the words out because he asked, "Have you never wondered why you feel a connection to nature?"
• I said nothing, not that I could have.
• Regardless, he told me, "It's because your kind control nature."
• He continued, "Your mother knew this, which was why she sought to extinguish that part of you. Your 'medications' are just substances that are harmful to your kind, substances that are designed to gradually weaken and kill you."
• Standing motionless, I searched the man's eyes. They were neither insane nor delusional.
• And he knew about Robert.
• A niggling suspicion started to eat at me. I banished it immediately. My father couldn't be alive, and I couldn't possibly be some kind of... Druid.
• I could control nature? I couldn't even control my own life. A hysterical laugh bubbled to the surface.
• I decided to call his bluff. "You said you know about what happened that night more than I do?"
• He inclined his dark head in a nod. "I do. Three years into your relationship with Robert, you noticed something odd about him."
• A breath left me. That was... true.
• "Yes," I said, trying to gather my thoughts. "I... did. After three years, he grew distant and I thought he might be hiding something from me. I got suspicious and I knew it was wrong, but I... I decided to find out what it was. It was true he was hiding something."
• His dark eyes watched me. "You probably assumed he was in some sort of cult."
• Again, true. Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I gave a jerky nod.
• "Only he wasn't," the man said, turning away. "There are more people like you, Eleanor. Creatures that don't quite fit into the equation. Robert is one of the many."
• "Are you saying..."
• "That he's of an immortal specie, yes. And while vampires depend on blood to live, his kind depends on souls, on life itself. And that's where you came in."
• My fingers disturbed my neck beads. So it wasn't all love with Robert? If at all? From the first day we met, he'd known what I was. Known what it was he could use me for? On the point of spiralling into dejection, Sebastian's gaze met mine.
• "But your soul is yours already, so he couldn't steal it," he said. "He wanted one that hadn't formed a true connection with its host. A child's." He concluded, "He wanted children of your kind."
• My fingers trembled around the beads. I hadn't been the only pregnant woman in the room that night.
• After I made the realization that Robert wasn't... normal, he'd somehow found out I was onto him, and I suppose had decided to speed up his plans on taking my baby's... soul.
• The day before that night, I remember drinking my morning milk and blacking out.
• I'd woken up to a dark room, with strange men garbed in black cloaks, kneeling.
• In their midst was an unconscious woman. By the time I'd registered what was happening, a knife had been driven into her rounded belly. And then I went hysterical.
• More details I hadn't noticed before, or simply ignored, started pouring in.
• At my scream, the man near the window had given a choked cry and crumpled to his knees. The trees beside the open windows had been shaking violently. I assumed it was the wind. But then a coiling, green vine had looked like it crept through the window to fasten around his neck...
• I didn't know what to make of that, so I simply didn't. The night was already odd in itself.
• But what if... what if I had somehow engineered that? I had left home to be with Robert--a stupid decision, and since mum strongly did not support our relationship, the rate at which I took my medications had lessened, possibly making the other... part of me recoup and gain strength.
• It was possible I had manipulated the vines to kill him.
• The rest had sprang to their feet then, banding after me, and I'd run, wild with fear.
• Robert had gained in on me and I'd grabbed the very first object I could find, sinking it into his chest. Moments passed before he began to bleed heavily
• Blood. So much blood. On my hands.
• Stumbling away, I continued to run, wiping his blood on my yellow sundress.
• As I got into my car and sped away, heavy guilt clawed at me. It got chased away at the memory of the pregnant woman. My throat tightened. Innocent. And her blood had been ruthlessly spilled.
• Eventually, I thought Robert was dead.
• I had another thing coming.
• With the reluctant help of mum, we had run from him and his followers, interchanging cities and identities at dizzying speed when they got too close. To enlist mum's help, I had manufactured a story about Robert being in the mafia, telling her that the members of his syndicate were after me for attempting to kill him once I found out he was cheating on me. The blood on my dress, and the scares we received the following days, had acted as enough proof.
• I sucked in a breath now, looking at Sebastian.
• I had thought Robert was a monster... I didn't know he was a monster. A soul-stealing monster.
• Sebastian's voice reached me. "This brings me to the point of being here. It might be a lot to take in, but your father; he is king of your species. And as his first and only child, you're heir to the throne..." His voice grew distant as he looked out the window. "It is time, Eleanor. Time for you to meet him."