Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence (34 page)

“How did that…” I stopped then as I realised. “My soul is connected to him via the contract—that’s why I’ve always wandered to him.”

“And why you so easily fell in love with him,” Dad confirmed. “But after I realised you would not bear the witch, I decided that this had to end. Once and for all. If that child is allowed to be born, your soul can be placed within her, and—”

“Not without your help,” I yelled. “You said it. You told me you were the only one that could move my soul, that—”

“There is another,” David said, looking at me as he read my dad’s mind, and I saw it too—saw a day in the forest when I used the words of a spell to create a bridge over a dead leaf—opening a pathway for its Life Force to return to this realm.

“But… that’s just plants. I can’t bring humans to life.”

“You can.” Dad nodded. “And Drake knows you have this power. And if he knows, it is likely Safia knows. Once she finds out your child is soulless, you are in danger, because the love of a mother far outweighs that of a lover. If we were afraid of what Drake would do to see Anandene reborn, we should be terrified of Safia.”

“Of Safia?
You
were the one that was going to kill my baby—kill an innocent child?”

“As I should have done the day you were born, and your mother before her, and so on.”

“I won’t let you do that.”

“If she lives, Amara, the soul you place in her can be extracted one day, and if your soul is placed into an older child, or even an adult, it will blacken. She will be a cruel and heartless creature, and she will be forced to mate with Jason—her own uncle—to bring the child Anandene into the world. After which, she will be slain.”

“I’ll teach her to protect herself.”

“It will not be enough.”

“Dad, you can’t be serious? Please don’t make me fight you, I—”

“I am not here to kill her, Amara.” He smiled warmly, reassuringly. “I made a decision months ago to leave it be—perhaps to end this at the source—cut off the head of the snake, so to speak. Which is why I went to Drake—”

“To kill him?”

“To reason with him, I hoped—and perhaps, if he could not be reasoned with, to lock him away.”

“But if he’s not the root of the problem…”

“Precisely.” His lips crept up into a wicked grin. “We must kill Safia.”

David slowly removed his arm from across my chest and looked coldly at my father. “How do we do that?”

“We need an army to fight Safia, but first—” Dad looked at me, “—we will need to take back Loslilian.”

“Then I’d better go into town so I can call Drake,” I said.

“We’ll go tomorrow,” David said. “I need to check in with Jason, too—make sure he’s still safe.”

“Before any of that,” Dad cut in, “I need to move Sam and Vicki to a safe place.”

“Why?”

“Because, in order to save the human race from the possibility of Anandene, I needed to become the vampire once more—needed to be at full power for the war I feared would follow after I killed your child. Now, what I did
not
know then is that the war would have been driven solely by Safia’s eternal love for her daughter. I couldn’t let Sam become a victim of my past. But knowing what I know now, he is not safe merely by my absence. He needs to be taken somewhere no one will find him. And he needs to be told the truth.”

“The truth?”

“About what he is, who he is and…” Dad closed his eyes. “Who I am.”

“So you’re going to tell Vicki, too?”

“I’m left with little choice.”

I grinned, imagining what they might say.

“However, I want
you
to tell him,” Dad added.

My grin washed away. “What?”

“It will be easier to bear if you first tell him and I show myself later—when he’s had time to process it.”

“Time? How long are we talking?”

“We have a while, Ara,” David said. “An attack on such a large scale takes time to plan. If we go in to Loslilian on a whim, we’ll fail.”

“You can visit Sam and Vicki tomorrow. That way, he will have at least a week to process it all before we must send him into hiding,” Dad said.

“So, what, we’ll just call Vicki and tell her we magically teleported back into town?”

“Why not?” David said. “We’ll tell her we wanted to have the baby back here—in America.”

“Won’t she wonder why my accent hasn’t changed at all—having lived in Paris for so long?”

“I’m sure she won’t think much past this little bundle,” David said, placing his hand and a smile on Bump.

Dad smiled too.

I did not smile back. “Fine, then if you want me to tell Sam the truth about his father, I want the truth about mine. And about my real mom—Rose.”

“You have the truth.”

“No. You told me she died in childbirth, but she didn’t—she died giving up her soul, and…” My eyes narrowed at Dad, hoping he would finally admit what I knew all along. “She wasn’t your sister, was she?”

“No.”

“She was…”

“My adopted daughter, as was your namesake Amara.” He sat back and absently adjusted the button on his sleeve. “As each girl passed on, I drank blood and reversed my age, continuing my life as a younger man—raising their daughters as my own.”

“And what about my real father? Were you telling the truth when you said he died in Afghanistan, or do you just not want me to know who he really is?”

“I was telling the truth.” Dad took a deep breath and shook his head in that way people did when they wished they had better news. “I’m sorry, honey. You will never know your father, but please know that he was a kind man, and that there is still a family out there—an aunt at least—that would one day love to meet you.”

I looked up at David and he smiled softly at me.

“Guess that means I’ll never get the sister I always wanted,” I said.

“I’m sorry, Ara,” David said, gently brushing my hair over my shoulder.

“Perhaps, once all this chaos has passed,” Dad said, “I will find a new life partner and give you a baby sister.”

“You plan to go back?” I asked. “To being human?”

“It is my preferred state.”

“Wow, so the mission to kill my baby must have been greatly important to you—to make you give up your human life, and your son.”

“If you understood what Anandene did to the world, to my firstborn son—”

“I know she was evil—brought a plague, but that’s all, right? I mean—”

“Have you ever watched an infant die of the plague?” he asked, knowing the answer already.

“Um. No, can’t say I have.”

“Until you have seen the fear, the anguish, the suffering of imminent death, do not brush it away so lightly as to say ‘that’s all’.” His stern voice seemed to run through me, making me hold my breath, even as he paused. “Anandene cared nothing for this world, she revelled in the suffering of the weak, and she changed my son into a man I feared. But what I have seen in him of late is the boy I left when he was human—the boy Lilith, my daughter, loved. And I would give anything to see this version of him remain.”

“Even kill your own daughter’s unborn baby?”

“Even that.”

Of all the people that had hurt me, of all the people I forgave for hurting me, Dad would be the hardest. I
wanted
to forgive him and move on. But I knew my heart wouldn’t let me—not knowing how close my baby came to death—saved by one sentence. One realisation that David was the wrong Knight and that the baby was soulless. And thinking about her being soulless made another question arise.

“I was soulless.” I touched my belly. “Stillborn. Will she be too—because she doesn’t have a soul?”

“You were stillborn because Rose suffered a traumatic birth. But your grandmother Amara lived soulless in her mother’s arms for almost twelve hours before I moved the soul.”

“Why did you do it then—move Rose’s soul?” My head hurt with confusion. “If I was dead, then this entire mess was over. Why did you move the soul into me at all?”

“Rose begged me, so I agreed, in the hopes that once the soul left one body and entered a dead one, it would cross over, and this nightmare would finally end.”

“But… you just said a vessel can live without a soul for a while.” I tried to make sense of it, but I couldn’t. “Did Rose know that I lived, or did she die as soon as the soul left her?”

“Amara.” He shook his head in annoyance. “I thought you would have caught on by now.”

I shook my head to say no.

“Each time I moved the soul from one daughter to her newborn babe, I also ended her life,” he said, but I still didn’t get it, so he added, “With my own two hands.”

My heart shattered as I drew a quick lungful of air, covering my mouth, imagining him killing my mother. And from that, my stomach filled with rage. “Then, if you find it so easy to kill, why not just kill
me
—with the soul in me?”

“To kill a creature without a soul is no sin,” he said simply. “When Lilith’s soul brought you back from death, or perhaps it was this Cerulean Magic, who knows, I knew the good Lord had taken the decision out of my hands.”

“But
my
baby is soulless.” I felt as if I should move away from him. “You’re contradicting yourself, Dad. You said you came to kill Anandene. But
she
would’ve had a soul—”

“And I would have committed a mortal sin to rid the world of her evil.”

“Except, since my baby has no soul, it wouldn’t
be
a sin, so what’s stopping you from taking her life?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why aren’t you?” I slapped the table. “The truth please?”

“Call it hope, or perhaps love—for my daughter. I have to go,” he said quickly, standing up. “I will gather my resources and meet with Drake, and return here in two days’ time to discuss the plan.”

“And what about Sam—and Vicki?” I asked, standing up too. “You just want me to turn up on their doorstep and… dot, dot, dot?” I rolled my hand around in the air as if it, combined with the ellipsis, implied a story.

Dad bowed his head slightly. “I leave it in your hands.”

My eyes shrunk. “You coward.”

Dad didn’t defend himself; didn’t say anything—he just walked past me, taking all the respect I once had with him. Then he glided down the steps and hopped in his car and drove away down the bumpy road, leaving behind nothing but a pile of questions and a horrible, empty feeling in my throat.

Chapter Seven

David and I lay awake all night talking it out—how we’d break things to Sam and Vicki; why Drake might have been relieved to get me out of the castle; where Arthur had gone; and whether or not we should send Jason away with Sam for safety, or use him to help win back the manor.

My bones felt heavy with so many things running through my mind, and yet too light with the thought that my own dad came to the manor to kill my baby that day. But the worst part was, I understood why, and I didn’t feel angry. I just felt hurt, and scared, and
lucky
that things turned out the way they did. But I couldn’t make myself feel anger.

“That’s a good thing, my love.” David kissed my head. “From empathy comes forgiveness, and we don’t have time for you to hate your dad. We need his help.”

“So you’re not angry at him then?”

“Ah, no, I’m angry,” he said simply, with a disconcerting laugh. “I wanted to rip his throat out and, frankly, knowing that he can die gives me peace, because I can sit here and imagine over and over again how his eyes will look when they roll to the back of his head.”

“David!”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Can you blame me?”

“No.” I laid back down against his chest. “But when he returns here in a few days, you better be civil.”

“I am nothing if not diplomatic.”

“Good, because, like you said, we can’t win this battle if we’re hung up on hating my dad.”

Neither of us said anything again after that. I watched the fire wave and teeter as a winter breeze came down the chimney, and David rubbed my back with a firm hand, making larger then smaller circles absently, his mind clearly off in another dimension.

“It’s going to kill Sam, you know,” he said in that deep, relaxed tone I loved.

“I know.” I sat up a little to look at his face. “I wish Mike were here.”

“Why Mike?”

“He and Sam have a really good relationship; I think Sam pretty much idolises him.”

David nodded, pressing between my shoulder blades to lay me back down on his chest. “I think so too. But we need to keep Mike as far away from this nightmare as possible. He has a family to think about now.”

“But Dad said he’d return—for the battle.”

“I don’t want you to worry about that, okay?” He swept my hair back off my brow. “The visions can be altered, Ara. I’ll warn Mike—tell him to go underground.”

“And Jason?”

“He’s coming with us,” he said decisively. “And until the battle, I want him staying
here
with us as well.”

“Why?”

“He’s Safia’s only hope of ever resurrecting Anandene. We need to protect him in case word gets out about the baby being soulless.”

“Protect him—by taking him to a battle between immortals?”

“He won’t be fighting anyone. He’s going with you to the forest.”

“We’re going to the forest?”

“To get that apple from Lilith,” he stated, as though I should have read his mind. “It’s the best way to keep you both safe—protected by the myths surrounding that forest and, perhaps, by its magic.”

I nodded in surprise. “Clever.”

“They don’t call me King for nothing.”

“Um, technically, no one calls you King anymore.” I patted his chest in a very condescending manner. “You’re just regular old David now.
Old
being the operative word.”

“Bite your tongue, wench,” he said playfully, squeezing my cheeks together in one hand. “Or I’ll bite it for you.”

I giggled, shoving his hand away.

***

After spending the morning in town at a coffee shop, with a prepaid phone, and a cup of blood for David—thanks to the homeless guy in the alley—we reluctantly got back in the car and headed toward my dad’s old house. He assured us when we spoke on the phone that Vicki and Sam were not being watched by Walt’s men, but even then, as we drove down the familiar old street—the trees bare as winter breezed in and wiped away the old for the new—I felt uneasy and watchful, casting my eyes to the rooftops and toward every shadow. It was no secret now that Walt meant to kill my child, and there was a rather hefty price on my head, so we’d been told. Any vampire that had not made an oath on the Stone to me, or to Drake, was now considered an enemy.

“Are you still angry?” David asked, pulling up in the driveway.

I jerked away from his touch.

“Ara, how could I possibly have known Mike would react that way?”

“Because you know Mike! And you know he’s bound by his Blood Oath to protect me above all else—including those boys.”

“My love, he left you. He entrusted you to the hands of others; there is no way I could have known he’d jump on the first plane back if your life was in danger.”

For some reason, I didn’t believe him.

“Anyway, you need to get your game face on.” He nodded toward the blue front door, where Vicki stood for a moment, studying the car and, upon realising who was in it, sprung from the step and galloped toward us, screaming. “Time to break her heart,” he added, unbuckling.

I threw my seatbelt off and reached for the door as it flew wide open and Vicki leaned in, wrapping herself around me.

“What are you doing here? When did you get back? Oh my goodness, look at you—” She leaned back and let me breathe, “—look at that little pot belly. You look so lovely—” She turned her head to look at David, “—doesn’t she look lovely? Come on, hop out and let me get a look at you.”

As she turned to hug David, I rolled my eyes, wriggling myself out of the seat and onto my feet.

Sam appeared from inside the house, clearly to see what all the commotion was. He stood there a moment, took in Vicki and David, his eyes moving to me, then he let go of the doorframe, started at a run down the steps, and shook his head softly as he jogged across the grass. “I knew you’d eventually be back.”

“Couldn’t stay away from my little bro,” I said, stumbling back as he wound his arms around me. When my belly touched his, though, he jumped back a bit, looking down at it.

“Whoa. You got big.”

“Are you joking?” Vicki said, coming in for another hug. “She’s tiny. Only half the size I was with you, Sam.”

Sam just shrugged.

“Everything’s fine, though,” David assured, “with the baby. We had a scan—she’s progressing well. She’s just a bit little, that’s all.”

Vicki looked relieved. “I was just about to ask.”

“I figured.” David winked at me.

“Come on inside then.” She gave my hand a tug, and as her frail fingers wrapped mine I flinched a little; she didn’t look all that much thinner to the untrained eye, but on closer inspection, she clearly wasn’t eating. “Are you just visiting?” she added, “or…”

“We’re moving back,” I said. “At least until I’ve had the baby.”

She looked at Sam, then at me and then at David. “Well, that’s just great news! Isn’t it great news, Sam?”

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh, rolling his eyes affectionately after his mom passed.

“And will you be staying with us? Because you’re more than welcome, you know. I—”

“We’re moving back to my house,” I lied.

“But what about the tenants?”

“They’re moving out.”

“Oh, well…” She stood back from the front door to let us in. “I suppose that’s not as far away as Paris.”

“Close enough to visit at least every weekend,” David offered.

“When are you moving back in?”

“In a few weeks,” I said, unwinding my white scarf from my neck. But as I stepped over the threshold and the warmth of the fire in the den carried the familiar smell of home and a lifetime of memories, I stopped. Sam closed the door behind us and I just wanted to close my eyes as it clicked into place—shutting out the world and all that was wrong with it. It felt like home here still—like a safe haven—so familiar that my heart filled up with grief.

Last time I was here, my dad was just a man—a man that had passed away—and so many of the emotions I felt that day still lingered here. I couldn’t seem to resolve his loss with the fact that he was still alive. Maybe because he could never be Greg Thompson again—school teacher; loved community member; father and husband—or maybe because the truth of the real man was so far from the lie it made me wish he was still living as the human. Greg Thompson loved his daughter, his family; he would never have plotted to kill my child. But then, he did plot, didn’t he? He had been all along. He’d closed his bedroom door every night, knowing a vampire would sneak through my window. He’d sent me off to school, knowing I’d meet David and that my fate would be sealed. He’d been the wasp in the beehive since day one.

“It never gets any easier,” Vicki said, touching my shoulder.

I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, dear.” She pulled me in for another hug, and it was just so warm and so human, and she smelled so familiar—of lemon laundry soap and lavender perfume—that I wanted to stay here in her arms forever and never have to tell her that her husband didn’t love her enough to make her immortal.

“Come on,” she said, rubbing my back. “Let’s make some coffee. And you’re in luck, I just baked some cookies.”

“Mom, you’ve always just baked some cookies,” Sam said, and we all laughed softly, the tension easing a few degrees. Nothing was ever that bad that Vicki’s cookies wouldn’t taste amazing.

***

All I could think about, as we sat at the table catching up, was Vicki’s face the day I arrived here after my dad supposedly died. She was smiling now, but I still saw the hollowed-out woman on the porch, looking down at me like her heart had just been ripped from her body, taking her soul down with it. She loved my dad more than he deserved. And when I finally got the courage up to break the news to her, the smile she wore now would fade and I wasn’t sure it would ever return.

“Here,” Vicki said to Sam, handing him the plate of cookie crumbs. “Go feed these to your dog. I know how much he likes my cookies.”

“He’s not here.” Sam shoved the plate away and sat back with his arms folded.

“Where is he?”

“Off doing whatever he does when he’s not being my dog.”

Vicki shook her head dismissively, but a thought sparked in her mind then that even I caught: she thought Sam was losing his mind—that he believed the dog could talk, and perhaps it was time to get him some help.

“That dog used to hang around my house, too,” I offered. “Did you know that?”

Sam nodded to confirm, and Vicki’s brows went up on her forehead.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s…” I winked at Sam. “No ordinary dog.”

“See, Mom?” He rolled his hand out toward me. “Told ya I’m not going mad.”

“Ara simply said the dog hung around there, Sam. Not that it could communicate with her.”

“Actually—” I sipped my coffee and then placed the mug back down on the table, “—Petey’s not your average dog.”
Say it, Ara. Say it. He’s not a dog. He’s a vampire. A man.
“He kind of does talk—in his own way.”
Coward!

“And I suppose you’re going to tell me he
did
actually show Sam the answers to his math homework.”

“He did that?” I smiled expectantly at Sam; he shrugged. “It wouldn’t surprise me,” I added, and Sam looked up from the tabletop, his attention moving to Vicki.

“Nonsense.” She stood and took the plate to the sink. “Dogs aren’t that smart.”

“Yes, but… that’s not a dog,” I said, taking a really deep, centring breath then as my heart leaped and dived in my chest, my blood rushing through my veins like cars down a freeway. “He’s a vampire.”

Vicki laughed, her blonde hair swishing around her chin as she moved her head from side to side.

“Mom.” Sam studied my face, sitting up in his chair. “She wasn’t making fun of my delusions about the dog. She was serious.”

Vicki put the plate down and stopped laughing. “Oh no. Not you, too, Ara.”

“She’s not insane, Vicki,” David added. “Although it sounds insane, she’s telling the truth.”

“The dog?” she said, confirming with a look. “Is a vampire?”

“And so is Sam,” I said, spitting it out before I could chicken out.

She looked at Sam, her mouth playing on a smile.

“And so was Dad.” I shut my eyes so I didn’t have to see her face. “Actually, so
is
Dad.”

“Is?” Sam said.

“Is,” I repeated.

I felt David shift beside me, his hand touching my waist before Vicki’s bony finger caught my chin and thrust my face upward.

“That’s not funny, Ara-Rose,” she said, her steely eyes making me want to close mine again, “and I won’t have you coming here after months being away, and start filling Sam’s head with silly stories!”

At this point, I wished I still had my phone so I could show her the photo of my much younger dad and I at the Festival.