Sweet Blood of Mine (30 page)

I furrowed my brow. "Dad, the cravings are intense. Are you teling me that al the time you were with Mom you never fuly satisfied your hunger?"

"She was worth the sacrifice. Our kind are not the sort who fal in love, but your mother won me over from the first." Pain knotted his features. He grabbed the pen from first." Pain knotted his features. He grabbed the pen from the table. It crunched as his fist clenched around it.

A knot formed in my throat. The pain in his eyes probably echoed my own. I found it hard to speak for a moment but I had to know. "Is Elyssa a vampire?" He hadn't said a thing about her.

"It's best you forget her," he said.

"But I love her."

"Love is powerful. Very powerful. But it can't overcome some obstacles."

"Enough with the mysterious nonsense. Is she realy a vampire of some sort?"

He hesitated. "Yes."

"But she goes to school. She doesn't burst into fire in the sun."

"Vampires, as a general rule, don't like the sun because it makes them lethargic, but it won't torch them."

"She doesn't seem tired to me. Would SPF three-thousand sunblock do the trick?"

He offered a grim smile. "She may be a djadaji, also caled a dhampyr, a very rare breed of vampire."

"Oh, how wonderful. A rare kind of bloodsucker."

I tossed the remains of my apple into the trash.

Dad stood and brushed the crushed pen bits from his hands then wiped at the spiled ink with a paper towel.

"True vampires cannot breed. Only those of great age and potency can successfuly turn a human into their kind.

However, in the dark days it was a known practice of some old and lonely vampires to approximate families by turning a woman while she was pregnant."

"Babies can survive that?"

"Rarely. Vampiric metamorphosis is brutal on the body. Even strong adults die during the process."

"Did your parents homeschool you about this stuff?"

"It's certainly not something you'd learn at public school. Your mother and I left you dangerously ignorant of the facts. We'd hoped you would be a human child and that we could offer you a normal life. We were so very wrong.

And for that, I'm sorry."

I thought of Elyssa, eyes blazing and fangs glistening. Scary as hel but so damned sexy. "So you're saying the baby could come out as a vampire. A dhampyr.

What makes it different from a normal vampire?"

"Dhampyrs have souls. They are immortal but they can also procreate like humans."

"How can an immortal age?"

"Even our immortal bodies have a growth phase because we are born and not turned. Our aging simply slows and then ceases. A mortal turned vampire, however, would not age from that point on."

I thought about what that could mean. Elyssa's entire family could be vampires. But why would she cal me a monster if she was a vampire? It made no sense. She was every bit the monster I was. Unless her soul negated the monster inside her.

"Elyssa almost kiled me. She caled me a monster."

"Aren't we?" Dad said. He scrubbed at the ink on his hands but it wouldn't come off.

"Hang on a second," I said. "This isn't just about me, it's about Mom too. Does she think you're a monster?

Does she think I'm a monster?"

"It's very complicated, Justin. Your mother stil loves us despite al outward appearances that she's abandoned us."

"Then why did she leave?" I pounded the table in anger. A crack ran down its center.

"Her parents are very powerful in the sorcery community. Our
blessed
union was a huge embarrassment to them. Your mother forgave me for being nonhuman although those were very trying times. She loved me enough to bear my children. However, your mother's parents stole something very precious from us, and she parents stole something very precious from us, and she couldn't bear the pain any longer. It nearly destroyed us."

"What could be so precious that she'd abandon us?"

He seemed to weigh his next words carefuly.

"Your little sister."

I sat there, mouth gaping in stunned silence.

"Her name is Ivy, and she's about to turn eleven,"

Dad said, jaw tightening like a vice, eyes literaly flickering with an unholy blue light. "Eliza and Jeremiah Conroy, your mother's parents, took her shortly after birth and the Arcane Council supported keeping her out of the hands of 'an irresponsible girl'."

"I have a sister," I said. "My mom is a sorceress, and my dad is a demon." I slumped in my chair. "And I thought people on reality TV had it bad."

Dad smiled grimly. "Like I said, son, love doesn't conquer al."

"Why did Mom wait al this time to go to Ivy? Why didn't the Conroys take me?"

"We managed to hide from them for years, but they found us while your mother was pregnant with Ivy. Their price not to reveal our location to the Slades and to let us keep you was our daughter. They forbid us from seeing her until she turned eleven, at which point your mother could return home to them."

I did some quick math in my head. "How in the world don't I remember Mom being pregnant? I was only seven, but I think that would stick out."

"Al those times you mother charmed you, she also blurred your memories. Made it harder for you to remember certain things. She thought it was for the best, sparing you the pain, although I disagreed."

"You're damned right it was wrong! I have a sister.

I want to remember everything about her, no matter how painful."

I thought back to the mystery pregnant woman who had stepped in front of my car after my first encounter with Stacey. She had looked like Mom. I remembered the nightmare with the long dark halway and the shadowy figure with the cane. Now that I was thinking about it, I remembered other times I had dreamt of crying babies and mystery pregnant women. Trying to recal any of it in detail, however, was like trying to peer through a shimmering haze. It made sense now. My subconscious had known al along. My first encounter with Stacey had triggered Mom's protective charms and that must have jarred loose a few suppressed memories.

The strain of remembering caused a gentle ache in my head. I massaged my forehead with my fingers, but it didn't help. "I think I remember the night the Conroys came for my sister."

Dad nodded. "You attacked them with your toy sword."

"I guess I didn't win."

"Your grandfather laughed." Dad shuddered. "And then he hit you with a spel that froze you into place." A snarl contorted his face. "He told me to chain the little monster up next time."

"Why did he think I was a monster? You didn't even know what I was until now."

"He was certain you were spawn and that your sister would be pure human. How he knew, I have no idea."

"Did Mom know?"

He shook his head. "Of course not. She would have told me." Something flashed on his face. Was it grief? Uncertainty? I had a sickening feeling that neither Dad nor I knew what Mom was truly up to.

"Why didn't you go into hiding again?"

"Sorcerers have ways of finding people no matter where they go. This particular geographic location interferes with tracking spels and magic, according to your mother.

In the end, they stil found us."

In the end, they stil found us."

"It doesn't make sense," I said, resisting the urge to put another crack in the kitchen table. "Why did she have to wait eleven years?"
And why didn't she take me with
her?
I wondered. To protect me?

"Eleven is the age at which children start their arcane arts training."

"In other words, magic."

He nodded. "Your mother was one of the best teachers."

"And eleven years is plenty of time to brainwash a little girl. They probably figured I was too old for that."

Rage and sorrow warred for dominance on Dad's face as he nodded. His fists tightened, released, tightened, released, and he took several deep breaths as if he were performing a wel-known ritual. As if he were exorcising his own demons.

I stood up as a sense of purpose roared into me. I would rescue my sister and my mom. Soul or not, I wanted my family united again. "I'm ready."

"For what?"

"To learn how to be a good demon. When do we start?"

"First thing tomorrow."

"No more drinking? No more secret meetings with private eyes?"

He shook his head. "It's time I became a real father."

I walked over to him and hugged him. "Thanks."

He patted my back and squeezed me to him. "I love you, son."

For once, I didn't feel icky for saying it. "I love you too, Dad."

We dumped every bottle of alcohol into big trash bags and put everything curbside then cleaned the house until the odor of sour beer hovered only faintly in the background, even to our enhanced senses. The clock read three in the morning when we finished and Dad told me to get some rest–we'd start practice during the day when it was safer for us to be out.

Despite how tired I was, it took a while to fal asleep.
I have a sister!
That meant I was a brother. A big brother at that. That gave me the right to beat the crap out of any guys who even looked at her, right? I was happy but nervous and ful of dread al at the same time. What if she didn't like me once we met? The scene I had dreamt of when my grandfather had taken Ivy from my parents played through my mind, stil blurry from Mom's attempts to block the painful memories from me, but vivid enough to fil me with rage. I wanted a sister to protect and to love, and I
would
get her back from those monsters no matter the cost.

But I had to face reality. I was in over my head until Dad showed me how to use my abilities and I learned more about the Overworld. Al the times I'd been out at night prowling for girls, I'd never known a gang of people with fangs could kidnap me and use me as their own personal snack pack. I remembered the strange people who'd watched me practice footbal. Had they been vampires…or worse?

I dreamt of huge wolves morphing into humans and then into cats. Mom appeared in a black bilow of smoke and shot lightning from her fingers. Dad morphed into a demonic creature and vanished. A dark figure in a top hat chased me through a black featureless wasteland.

I jerked awake and couldn't go back to sleep. The breaking dawn seemed surreal. Had the conversation with my dad actualy happened? Was I realy a demon with a sorceress for a mom? Did I realy have a little sister?

A yummy smel interrupted my thoughts. Food before philosophy, I always say. Dad had made pancakes, bacon, and eggs. He smiled. "Set the table, would you?"

My real stomach growled as I grabbed the plates My real stomach growled as I grabbed the plates and silverware.

After breakfast, Dad explained a few basics to me, some of which I had already figured out on my own. When I used my superhuman abilities such as health restoration or strength, I used up energy from what he caled my
psythus
, or a psychic wel. The psythus is the equivalent of a psychic stomach that stores the energy leeched from others. When I leeched, I actualy took parts of a human's soul and spirit from them. Dad explained the two were separate, that even souless beings had spirit. His explanation about the two only confused me so I took his word for it. If I fed too much on one person, I could severely damage the person's soul to the point of no return and leave them in a coma.

This frightened me as I thought back to Victoria and the girls who I had come so close to ravishing. I told him my concerns but he assured me I would have to be near death to leech enough soul from someone to damage them.

He told me how to probe without "hooking" as he caled the latching process. Apparently I could feed off any sort of emotion, but as with food, every incubus had a different taste preference.

"There are those who enjoy pain," he said. "The things they'l do to a person while they feed are horrific."

"What are kine?" I asked, remembering the strange term Stacey had used a few times.

"It's an old term that means cattle. That's how most leeches view humans."

"That's horrible."

"One entity's predator is another entity's cattle."

I shuddered to think of what Stacey might have done to me had Mom's charm not been in place. Come to think of it, a psychic energy battery meter would be realy handy. Maybe on a watch or something so I could look at the time and tel whether the old supernatural batteries were running low.

"What happens if we go to church?" I asked.

"We would disintegrate into puddles of molten flesh."

I gave him a horrified look and leapt from my seat.

"What if I'd gone to church with a friend? Holy crap, Dad!"

He laughed. "Just kidding. At worst you'd have to listen to a boring sermon."

"Oh." I sat down. "Wel, that sounds like reason enough to avoid churches."

After a lecture taking up most of the morning, Dad took me to the Laundromat to practice my skils.

"Why a Laundromat?" I asked, looking around at the bored men and lethargic women reading magazines or watching
Saved by the Bell
reruns on an ancient nineteen-inch television. "Is this what you were doing when I folowed you the other day?"

"Yes, I was feeding. People here are in a neutral state of mind. It's easier to practice probing without strong emotions getting in the way," he said.