survived.
“The doctors didn’t have a clue,” he said. “I…was somehow drawn to her , just a baby. A tiny little thing she was. I saw her again and again and again. The last time she came in….she was almost at the verge of death. I cut my nerve and gave her a few drops of my blood.”
“You what?” Mira shrieked.
Everyone sat straighter. The tension in the room was palpable. Lacey didn’t know what this meant. Why was his blood beneficial for her? What was wrong with it? Why was everyone so anxious? “You shouldn’t have done it,” said Arman.
“It was…a pull I couldn’t describe. I couldn’t let her die.”
“Shit,” said Mira. An odd look came into her eyes. She began to pace the room. “So she was given your blood. That would explain why the power rose inside her. The reason why she was dying was obvious…she’d the power, the gift, and her small, frail, human body couldn’t cope with it. A lot of kids that die in infancy have the gift and die because of it. Those that survive don’t know about it. They never touch on it, and it remains buried…until and if they turn into one of us, and that’s when it fully comes to life. That’s when they can harness it.”
“So we have to turn her in order to enable her to use this power?” asked Nyle.
“No one is doing that,” growled Aric.
“Turn me into what?” asked Lacey. She was actually feeling dizzy again. What the hell were they talking about? Power? Gift? Blood? She was lost.
Mira came to stand in front of her. Aric made an odd sound in his throat as if he was warning the other woman. Mira waved her hand. “I don’t think we have to turn her. She is unique, because of what Aric did, I think. She has already touched her power so she would probably be able to harness it without turning into one of us.”
“What does ‘one of us’ mean?” Lacey questioned.
“Are you sure?” Nyle asked Mira.
“We’ll have to wait and see, but I think she can do it.”
Agitated wasn’t how she would describe the way she felt. Lacey was frustrated beyond belief. “What is this power that you’re talking about?”
Mira glanced at Aric and he nodded. “It’s magic.”
Lacey couldn’t stop the laughter that sputtered out of her. She had not expected this. Now she was sure that they were all really mad. Had they escaped from a mental hospital? “What the hell? You guys have been making a fool out of me all along. So is there a camera? Is it some kind of a comedy show?” She turned slowly to see if she could detect a camera, but nothing made sense. She glanced into Mira’s eyes. The woman was serious, intensely so.
“Can you explain why Aric would remain the same since he first saved you until now? He looks the same, doesn’t he? Why hasn’t he aged? You saw me move. Can you figure out how I… we all can move so fast? We’re extremely strong also, and we drink blood.” She smirked. “Don’t you know what we are?”
Lacey actually felt the blood drain from her head. If she wasn’t so determined to remain strong, she might have fainted again. The words sprang to her lips but it took some effort to say it. “Vampires?”
“Of course,” said Mira. “Very good... You’re a smart girl.”
Lacey felt as if she couldn’t breathe. No, that couldn’t be true, but no other explanation made sense. Just because her mind wasn’t willing to accept this fact didn’t mean that it wasn’t true. She glanced at Aric. He couldn’t be a monster, he just couldn’t be. She wouldn’t ever be able to believe that he was bad. “Vampires, but how?”
“We’ve been in this world for a long, long time, much before the humans populated this world so much that we had to go into hiding. How the first vampire came? I have no clue. But we’re as much a part of this earth as you humans are. Yes, our numbers are very few. And yes, we don’t interact with humans much. We have safeguarded our secret for centuries and will continue to do so
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