Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (33 page)

“Well, I guess that plan failed, because Drake intended to take my life as soon as the child was born.”

“Because you’re not human now, Amara. The agreement was for a human life. Human lifetime. Not eternity.”

“So you can just change a blood-binding agreement to fit your own desires—whatever goes, right?”

“Watch your tone, Amara. I may have left my human life behind, but I am still your father and I will not tolerate disrespect.”

“Disrespect! I’m not being disrespectful. I’m mad because my entire life, my future, my baby’s future, is dictated by
your
past mistakes!”

“Your life is a
result
of my past mistakes, so do not be so quick to point the finger of blame, because were it not for my errors, you would not exist.” He sat back, rubbing his hairline firmly with both hands. “The only reason I first agreed to this—the only reason I ever signed that contract—is because, when I sat down with my son before it all took place, and asked him why it was so important that he bring this girl back to life after all the ways she’d harmed our world, I saw the eternal agony of lost love in his eyes. Had I not, none of this would ever have even happened.”

“So it didn’t matter to you that his love was so evil people feared her rebirth?”

“It mattered, but I was naïve enough to think that she would grow anew with love—as a Daughter of Lilith—and she would be different. I have since learned that is not the case—that she would have been born as an exact reincarnation. And in this changing world, there is no place for magic. There is no place for evil in any form. So I set out to stop the child ever being born.”

“Then you should have killed the soulless vessel decades ago.”

“Yes, I should have. If not for the sake of Lilith and all that descended from her, then for the sake of my son Drake—for what this fight has done to tear us apart.”

“I didn’t think you were ever that close.”

“We were. Once. Until I kidnapped the first soulless child and tried to keep it from him. That is when he became the warrior—the High Lord that men in his close circles feared—even Arthur.”

“I thought people
always
feared him?”

Both Dad and David shook their heads.

“Even I knew there was a time when Drake was too kind for the good of our people,” David said.

“Which is what led to the overpopulation of vampires,” Dad cut in. “So when he became cruel and heartless after I stole the soulless vessel, it sent shockwaves through our community. And we played a battle of wits for hundreds of years, but as each decade has passed, the virility and burn within his fight has died a little more. Until around the year you were born, when it suddenly burned with a fire so bright I didn’t recognise my own son.” His eyes drifted to thought. “Something happened that year. Something that changed him—made bringing his wife back suddenly more important than it had been fifty years ago.”

“Are you saying he just… what, couldn’t be bothered for a few decades?”

“It was my belief that he had given up.” Dad nodded. “For a time, until, as I said, that year. But even now, in the few times I’ve seen my son since your wedding day, I do not see the fight within him that was once there.”

“Then why is he pursuing it?”

He cleared his throat. “Perhaps because the rumours among our people about an evil witch are not just rumours.”

“What rumours?” I said.

“The only rumour I’ve ever heard is that she’s an immortal witch,” David said. “Which isn’t possible. We all know that.”

“It is possible.” Dad poured another cup of tea, looking up from the brown water to add, “Her soul would be as rotten as a corpse, but it is possible.”

“Why would a witch want immortality so badly she’d be willing to taint her own soul?” I asked. “From what I know of witches, they value Life, Nature—”

“Well, if the inner leaflet of Anandene’s family bible is correct, Safia is her mother,” Dad said. “Although I have no proof that this is true, but the love for a daughter would be a very good reason for a witch to acquire immortality.”

“Which makes her motive to want this child born greater than Drake’s.” I looked at David, concerned.

“And gives her reason to bring harm, perhaps, to any who would stand in the way,” Dad added, and a few things clicked into place: Drake’s love for family, his need to protect it over all else—why would this man I know now have done the things in the past that he’s done if family meant so much to him? Why would he have killed my mum and Harry just to get me near David? Why would he have played along with the ancient story of war and hatred between him and Lilith—enough that his own niece ended up being tortured right before his eyes? None of it fit. None if it made sense when I stepped back and looked at Drake as the man I’d come to know.

“Dad,” I said, not really sure I wanted to know, because if the answer was no, then I still had good reason to hate this uncle I was starting to like, “do you think Safia made Drake kill my mum?”

“That’s a good question.” He stared ahead, his eyes small with thought. “And I
would
like to believe that because, for the son I knew—for the son that loved his sister Lily—it never fit. He has always been a dark man with a cold heart for humans, but not for family.”

“But what could she hold over him? It must be something bad to make him hurt his family this way.”

“I have a theory.” He paused, closing his eyes for a moment as he breathed out long and deep. “If I tell you this, it must be met with the solemn promise that you will not use it against him.” He opened his eyes and looked right at me, then especially at David. “Drake is my son and, should I see fit to remove him from this world, that is
my
prerogative, but if you, or any of your people, act—”

“I promise, Dad,” I cut in. “And David does too.”

David nodded.

“Very well.” He moved his cup aside and gathered his hands together in front of him, leaning a little closer. “Amara, you know, have known since you discovered what you are, that you cannot die—unless you’re beheaded and left in pieces.”

I nodded.

“It is the same for
all
Originals.”

“What do you mean?”

“My head, like yours, can be removed by the swing of an axe.”

“But you’re vampire—”

“I am not vampire. I am the creator of vampires.”

“But their bones—they don’t break. Their necks can’t be snapped, they—”

“They are evolved. Different to me—different to you. And different, also, to Drake.”

I touched my throat. “Does that mean Drake’s head…”

“Yes.”

David and I looked at each other—our eyes wide.

“But again,” Dad said, “it is a secret you must keep at all costs. Trust no one with it.”

“So… I never needed to snap Drake’s neck? I could’ve just…”

“You could.” Dad’s stern eye turned on me with a warning. “And it is my belief that this is what Safia holds over him.”

“Death? He’s afraid of death?”

“If you have lived thousands of years—never fearing death—for another to learn your secret and hold your life so easily in their hands, would it not terrify you?”

“Into killing people? Probably not.”

“Would you kill for your child?” He motioned toward my belly.

David reached over and rubbed my back. “Besides, Ara, Drake’s a bit older and bit darker than you.”

“This is true,” Dad agreed. “But that does not mean he is not good.”

“I know, Dad.” I patted his hand. “I spent a lot of time with him at the castle.”

“So I’ve been told.”

My eyes shifted from their absent wandering and fixed themselves on Dad’s. “Told by who?”

“I went to see Drake—before I came here.”

“Why?”

“He released you—knowing the dangers out here for you. I needed to know if he knew that the child was soulless—if perhaps he meant you harm.”

“Does he?”

“If he does, he did not let on. He did, however, give me a greater insight to his motives.”

“What do you mean?”

“The fight. I spoke earlier of seeing it burn out in him, only to surface again decades later. But when I looked into his eyes today and asked him what Anandene meant to him, he looked away—cast his eyes to the ground and said he no longer wished to talk about her. When I entered his mind I was blocked right away—but not by Drake. It was by magic.”

I wondered then if this evil witch used the same kind of spell on herself as Drake used on me—to make others forget they’d seen her. Perhaps she was commanding Drake and then making him forget—making him think he was acting of his own volition.

“I had that same thought myself.” Dad nodded to my head. “But he admitted the witch was alive when I asked. So he is clearly not under a mind-cloaking spell. He also said he’d not seen her in decades. But it was a lie.”

They both looked at me then as I thought about that night in the corridor, where a strange white-haired woman touched my belly.

“Then she has not hidden herself with a spell,” Dad said, looking at David. “She hides in plain sight.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“You met her—Safia,” Dad said, sending a cold shiver down my spine. “I know only because I once met her too, and she has not, for all the years that have passed, changed a bit.”

“So that
was
her!”

“And Drake is working with her,” he added. “I’m sure of it now. However, I am still not convinced it is merely by threat of death.”

“Could it have something to do with the children—the Damned?”

“Why do you say that?”

“He told me there was a reason that he killed them, but wouldn’t say any more.”

Dad’s eyes widened as he sat back. “And he left three alive.”

“What does
that
have to do with it?” I slid forward on my seat. “Dad!”

“He needed the blood of only twelve innocent lives.”

“What for?”

Dad rubbed his face. “I’ve only heard stories—for all the centuries I’ve lived, not once have I been present in a town where this happened. But there is a legend that once in every decade, twelve children will die. Twelve lives sacrificed for what is believed to be the Spirit of Lilith—my mother—the Eater of Children.”

“But she would never!” I insisted.

“No, but as it happened in the same pattern for centuries, I knew it had to be an immortal. I just never realised until now that it was my own son.”

“Why would he do that?”

“If you take into account that the witch Safia lives—that her form hasn’t changed—and you also know a thing or two about witchcraft, then the reason is clear: she requires the blood of twelve youths to drink over each decade to remain in her youthful, immortal state—”

“So he took my children!” Tears coated my eyes so I couldn’t see. “She had him kill my children just so she could be young?”

“And now I see Drake’s logic.” Dad nodded. “Better the children whose lives had never truly begun than the loved children of human parents.”

My eyes watered. “And what about the next decade? What then?”

“He will do as he has done for centuries,” Dad said. “He will kill twelve children from the human world.”

“Why would he do that? What does she have over him? It
has
to be something worse than death.”

“I would like to believe so. But until I ask him, we can only assume. And, we must also practice caution, because my son, in his heart of hearts, does not seem to want this witch wife of his alive again, which means he is driven by a deeper, darker motive. And until we know what that is, we must fear him.”

“You mean fear
you
?” David said, laying his hand suddenly across my chest and pushing me slightly back.

“Ouch! What are you doing?” I shoved his hand down, rubbing my chest.

“You knew, Ara?” David looked from my dad to me, his tone liquid with hurt. “You already connected the dots and you never said anything.”

“What dots?” I asked, getting rather annoyed.

“He came to the manor that day—”” He pointed at Dad, talking about him like he wasn’t in the room, “—after his death—to
kill
our baby.”

“Oh,
those
dots.” I winced. I probably should have mentioned that. “Look, I didn’t
know
anything, David. My council tried to warn me that Dad might be a threat. But I wouldn’t believe them.”

“But he is a threat.”

“Dad?” I said, asking beneath that single word for the truth.

“Sadly, it is true.”

I took a short, quick breath, covering my baby. “Why would you kill her?”

“At first, it was because I believed she was the witch Anandene—until you mentioned your soul leaving your body while you sleep and ending up with Jason.”