“Y’all lost?” asked the burly werewolf with sun-kissed skin and platinum hair, tied back in a neat ponytail. His piercing gray eyes bore into Sophie-Anne and I.
“We were hoping for a table. We just wanted to get some coffee,” said Ulric, pleasantly.
“Alright. First though, I’m gonna tell you a joke,” said the werewolf. “A vampire, a witch and a Black Bane walk into a bar, thinking they’d be welcome. Which one do you think gets asked to leave first?”
“We promise we’re not looking for any trouble,” said Ulric.
“Listen, sweetheart, I don’t know what you’re playin’ at hangin’ out with these two but you should probably be in school and stick with your own type,” said the werewolf, looking at me, thinking I was a witch and nothing more.
“We need a safe place for me to talk to her,” I said, gesturing at Sophie-Anne.
“There is no safe place for you to talk to her kind. And, she’s definitely not welcome here. Neither are you,” he said to Ulric, “you picked your lane, now stick to it!”
“Get me the owner, Samantha Silverstone. She knows me and will vouch for me,” insisted Ulric.
“Good try,” said the werewolf, narrowing his eyes, “I’m not moving from this spot, though.” He turned slightly sideways from us, still keeping us within his sight range and spoke into the tiny microphone jutting out from his headpiece. He turned back around and gave us a begrudging frown. “She’ll be down in a minute. Don’t move from here.”
Sophie-Anne watched him with a detached fascination, looking bemused. She then cast me a glance but I immediately looked away, feigning curiosity about the bar by scanning the place beyond where the werewolf stood. He too was pretending he couldn’t see us, constantly looking down at something in his station. While his was a dashed ego that he’d been overruled by his boss, mine was because of excruciating nerves.
I needed to know what the vampire wanted so she could be on her way and we could be on ours. There was always an ulterior motive when a vamp turned up, seemingly from out of nowhere. How long had she been following us? Had she been sent by the Dark Legion or by Nadasdy alone? We’d only been gone for about a minute and we’d been tracked down. That really wasn’t good.
A striking, petite woman, dressed in a black knee-length dress and blazer made her way down from the other end of the bar. I could see her long, sleek, ponytail, about three shades warmer than the host-werewolf’s shock of hair, swishing from side to side in rhythm with her step. As she came closer, I saw her eyes which had the same fiery glow as Ulric’s, lit up as she saw him.
“My man! Where y’at?” said the female werewolf named Samantha Silverstone, to Ulric. They hugged affectionately and I smiled as a way to stifle any non-smiley feelings that were making themselves apparent. Samantha Silverstone went too close to Ulric and whispered something in his ear and Ulric laughed.
“You know me, keeping myself out of trouble – just about,” grinned Ulric. Wow, since when did he have a smooth side to him?
“Good, that’s what I like hearin’,” said Samantha Silverstone, “and what can I do for you on this fine morning? How about a Big Easy Breakfast with an extra side of grits?”
“That sounds great,” said Ulric, “I was also wondering, if my friends, Kat and Sophie…”
“Sophie-Anne,” corrected the vamp politely. As if adding that was important at this moment, in front of a complete stranger who neither knew her nor cared. Not for anyone who wasn’t the apparently infamous Ulric. This was not the time to be feeling envious. But now we were friends – really?
“Right, right, Sophie-Anne,” said Ulric, “I was hoping Kat and Sophie-Anne could also have a table as they have a few important things to discuss?”
“And if my senses aren’t deceiving me, you’re a vamp, am I correct?” asked Samantha, scrutinizing Sophie-Anne with narrowed eyes.
“Correct,” said Sophie-Anne.
“Hmm, I just don’t know,” said Samantha, crinkling her forehead, “you know Ulric, which is why you’re still standin’ on the premises but then again, if word gets out…this really isn’t the place for vamps, y’all know what I mean?”
“Kat’s half Crystal Witch,” said Ulric, “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Please?”
“I guess just this once, if you really can vouch for them,” said Samantha, “but any sign of trouble and you’re both out of here, you hear me?”
“Sounds like a good deal to me,” said Sophie-Anne taking the werewolf’s conditional entry in her stride.
“Good, let me take you’s to a booth in the back, come along,” said Samantha, enjoying her sway over two vampires. Or at least one and half vampires.
Ulric followed us and once we were seated, said, “I think they’d like some privacy. Can you seat me at a different table?”
“Of course, darling, come this way. And you two, just gesture to one of the wait-staff if you want anything,” said Samantha picking up that we weren’t really there to eat. “Now, you must tell me what’s up with that sister of yours! Have you managed to locate her yet?” Samantha’s voice trailed as she led Ulric back towards a table in the front.
“Now please cut the crap and tell me who you really are and what you want,” I said in a hushed voice when Ulric and Samantha were at a safe distance from us. In response, Sophie-Anne slipped the crystal from earlier, across the table.
“Here, this is for you,” she said softly. When I neither took it, nor shoved it back at her, she reached into her bag and extracted what I first thought was a square of paper. She placed it down on the table and slid it across, revealing the photo of a man. “Do you recognize him?” she asked.
“No, I’ve never seen him before,” I answered, as my eyes wandered over to the image. I couldn’t be sure whether it was the presence of the quartz crystal so close to me or something else but my blooming instantly began to tingle. I swiftly pulled my hand under the table and placed it on my lap.
“He was your father,” said Sophie-Anne, sliding the picture over to me, next to the crystal.
“That’s not possible,” I said.
“And why not,” she asked with a smile.
“Because whatever scheme you have going, you have it the wrong way around,” I said, pushing away my overwhelm, which was growing by the second. “My mother was a witch and my father, was the…the Sanguine vampire.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Sophie-Anne maintaining her calm, almost tender demeanour.
“Isn’t it obvious? Out of the two, only a witch would be able to sustain such a pregnancy. Actually, under normal circumstances the witch would perish trying to give birth to or even carry a half vampire so I don’t even know how that could be possible,” I said, “but a vampire, carrying and giving birth to a child that was part Crystal Witch? I don’t even think a vampire’s body would host such a pregnancy.”
“And, as you said, under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t,” replied the vampire, plainly.
“Then what happened?” I asked, annoyed that I was now endorsing this mind-blowingly unreal idea that the woman sitting across from me could, might, actually be my biological mother. I stared at the crystal, which made me feel warmth throughout my body as I focussed on it. At least it provided a welcome distraction from staring at her.
“Love,” she replied. “I truly loved your father,” said Sophie-Anne, stroking the photo. Her eyes took on that intangible expression I’d seen in Natalie’s. The one that set her apart from being just another blood thirsty, power hungry vampire. I gawked at her without meaning to and Sophie-Anne smiled. “I know, you’ve probably been raised to believe that my kind aren’t capable of such elevated emotions.”
“It’s not that, it’s just…I don’t know,” I admitted.
“And most of us probably aren’t. What’s seen as a strength by the rest of the world is perceived as a weakness by vampires. But Katrina, look at yourself – surely where there are rules, there are exceptions.”
&n
bsp; “Your accent,” I said, trying to get away from the intensity of the situation, “where’s it from?”
“I didn’t think I had one anymore,” said Sophie-Anne, raising an eyebrow, feigning offense.
“It’s very slight. I don’t think most people would pick up on it but…” I didn’t say that since my own dark bloodline had kicked in, the imperceptible was sometimes glaringly obvious to me.
“Hungary. Although, I’ve been living between the United States and Europe for a long time now.”
“How old are you?” I asked. Suddenly I had many questions. The only ones I didn’t want to ask, were the ones about her outrageous claim that she was my mother.
“In human years, it’s a little embarrassing to admit but I’m pushing eighty-five,” Sophie-Anne laughed.
“Oh,” I said, instantly doing a mental calculation of how old that would have made her when she had me. No. I wasn’t going there. It was exactly what she wanted. Poor, formerly orphaned Katrina, finding out that she had a mom, who’d been a ripe sixty-eight years old when she’d had her. Poor Katrina, who had then been abandoned by said mom, to live life as a ward of an indifferent state and then for a sojourn in a Crystal Coven. Anger swept over my angst and all my life, the pain I’d held inside and never had anyone to soothe, began to bubble to the surface.
“What are you thinking?” asked Sophie-Anne as I inhaled sharply.
“I’m thinking that no matter what you say or why you’re here, I hate you!” I said, loud enough that a few of the bar’s patrons glanced our way. I had never said the words before to anyone. Not the myriad of foster parents I’d had and not the witches at the coven and not even to those that had threatened me or my friends at Bloodline Academy. “Who really sent you?” I demanded through clenched teeth, “Was it Duquette? Or Nadasdy? Or maybe Devin?”
“I get why you’re upset,” said Sophie-Anne. No one has sent me, exactly.”
“Then why are you here?” I said, “Because unless you tell me, right now, I’m leaving!” I stood up, looking towards where Ulric was seated. He was engaged in conversation with Samantha, the werewolf who owned the bar. Honestly, if bad ideas were home-runs, Ulric was on a winning streak. And he was hitting it out of the park with every single one he’d had about what running away should entail. Maybe the one about coming to Superno wasn’t so bad but the rest were all suck-tastic. I stuffed down the thought that he wouldn’t have needed any ideas at all, if I’d just had a proper plan of my own to begin with.
“I’m here because you need to know about your ancestral family line,” said Sophie-Anne ushering me with her deep-as-midnight eyes, to sit down again.
“How convenient! First Nadasdy dangled that carrot in front of me – of course it was in exchange for turning my best friend into a vamp and now you turn up with more news of the family,” I whispered, trying to keep myself from shouting it.
“That is exactly why I’m here – Aramastus – your principal, has managed to track me down after all these years. I don’t know how he did it.” Sophie-Anne turned her attention to the photo that lay in the middle of the table. “His name was Cassander. Cassander Quartz. He was a very powerful Crystal Warlock.”
“What was his coven’s name?” I asked.
“He wasn’t attached to one. He attended Superno Academy and eventually joined the Supernatural Light Alliance as a vampire hunter. That was how we met.”
“Wow,” I said, “I’m sorry but that is really screwed up – definitely for a vampire but especially for a witch or warlock.” No wonder I’d been attracted to Ulric. Evidently, there was a whole Romeo and Juliet thing going on at the level of my genes.
“Call it what you might. Unlike other Sanguines of my ilk, I wasn’t interested in wreaking havoc over mortals and subjugating them. When Cassander saw me for who I was and not the label placed on my forehead, he knew I was different and I knew he was doing a job. We started out as enemies but found with each another, what most people in this world long for. We found true freedom through love,” said Sophie-Anne pensively.
“And then you had me and decided I wasn’t what you were looking for so you just gave me up and let everyone believe you were both dead,” I accused her.
“No, you’ve got to believe me, Katrina – it wasn’t like that,” said Sophie-Anne, exhaling and looking deep into my eyes.
“So, you and…Cassander,” I couldn’t call the warlock in the picture anything other than by his name. That was the most he was to me. Had ever been to me. “The two of you didn’t want to give me up? How does something like that just happen?”
“I’m not going to lie to you, Katrina. If you get nothing else from me, you deserve to know the truth,” said Sophie-Anne.
“Which is?” I spat back.
“The truth is that we were very much in love and lived a few very happy years together. We had decided from the beginning that we would never have any children. It was too risky. And, there were so many unknowns.”
“What you’re saying is that on top of everything else, I was a mistake?” I said. I wanted to get up and leave. To refuse any further attempts at communication with the woman who’d made a mistake and then solved it by giving me up. I also knew that all my life, I’d had so many questions and searched for answers that weren’t there.
This woman, who made me want to cry in frustration but most of all, in the bitter pain that can only come from abandonment, also happened to be, a walking compendium of my past. She was likely the only one on the planet who knew my story. And as she had said, she owed me the truth if nothing else.
“There aren’t mistakes,” said Sophie-Anne surprising me with her answer, which was as sincere as it was unexpected. “There are actions and there are consequences. And the actions we take with our choices impact whether the consequences are good or bad.
“We didn’t want children because we had no idea how a child of ours would even be possible. But most of all, it was because we knew that we’d all be in danger – first and foremost the child.”
“Then why did you do it?” My lip trembled as I asked the question that had been concealed inside me for a lifetime. “Why did you both give me up?”
“When we found out I was pregnant, Cassander and I both decided that we’d go into hiding and raise you together. We knew that the S.L.A. and the Dark Legion would come after us otherwise. What we’d done was forbidden. We were both so excited to be a family that nothing else mattered to us anymore.”
“And?”
“And my brother found us just before we were due to leave. He killed your father immediately.” Sophie-Anne turned away. “I disappeared and knew that if I kept you, it was only a matter of time before they found you. I gave you up in the hope that I could hide you in plain sight.”
“But didn’t you know that my vampire side would emerge eventually? You must know that supernatural bloodlines activate at seventeen?” I said, though the spite and resentment from my voice had evaporated. If what she said was to be believed, she really hadn’t had a choice but to do what she’d done.
“It was obvious to me from the moment I saw your face, that the Crystal Witch in you, was very strong. When you were adopted by the coven, my hope had been that due to the environment you were in, that part of you would continue to strengthen. Call it naivety or denial. If I could have chosen for you, I would have picked for you to have been wholly a Crystal Witch.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said. I wished that from Lorna and Babette to my own biological mother, everyone would stop acting like being part vampire was a choice I’d made against my better judgement.
“Believe it or not, I always pictured what I’d say to you when we finally met. When you were a small child, I found it easier to think of what your first encounter with me might be like.”
“You mean if, if we met,” I corrected her.
“No, when. I’ve kept track of you all these years. When you were adopted by that coven – the Circle of Quartz – it became harder. On o
ne hand, I was so happy that you had been found by witches. Beings who could help you develop and channel your magic. But the drawback for me was that they were located in Louisiana. Out of all the thousands of covens in this world, you were taken to live a two-hour drive from St. Erzsebet’s Academy. A hive of Sanguine presence.”
“And how did you keep track of me? Did you move to Louisiana too?” I asked wondering where the woman lived.
“Cassander and I had lived in Hungary when we were together. We’d decided to leave together. After he was gone and I’d had you, I stayed around those parts because it’s where I decided to give you up. Then, when you eventually moved to Canada, I moved there too.
“I didn’t move to Louisiana when you went to the coven because I knew there was greater chance of me being discovered. As you know, New Orleans, especially is crawling with high-ranking vampires in the Dark Legion,” said Sophie-Anne regaining her composure. “I currently live in Toronto. But I come here often. Especially since I heard you’d been brought to the academy.”
“Wait. But if you thought my vampire side would never emerge, why did you keep track of me. Would you still have approached me if it hadn’t?” I asked, not fully understanding her rationale.
“I did it because how ever you could have turned out, you’re still my daughter and always will be. Had you been a Crystal Witch with no activation of your vampire side, I’d decided that I eventually would have approached you but unless there was a way to hide that I’m a vampire, from you, I wouldn’t have revealed my identity. I would have made up something.”
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