Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

was thinking, but I didn’t tell her that. I looked down for a moment and then slowly raised my head. She was staring at me but staring as if she were in pain. “Daddy loves us, doesn’t he, Ava?”
    “That’s a different kind of love, Lorelei. That’s love to survive.”
    “But you love Daddy, too.”
    “For the same reason, and you’ll see, that’s true for you as well. It will always be true for you. Love to survive, nothing else, no sweet music, no glorious summer days, no moonlit nights to embed in your brain forever and ever. In short, no poetry, just survival. We’ve been chosen for it.”
    She made it sound more like a tragedy than a blessing. I looked away so she wouldn’t see the tears coming into my eyes. I knew she would mock them. “How did you know I told him my real name?” I asked her after a moment.
    “How did I know?” She laughed. “He’s become my shadow over there now. It was like he was lying in wait for me. I didn’t even realize it. Suddenly, there he was walking beside me, but only to talk about you. He practically fell to his knees to get me to tell him where you live. The only way for me to get rid of him was to come on to him.”
    “Come on to him? What do you mean?”
    “I’m sure you know what that means, Lorelei. I started to flirt with him in order to get him to forget about you. I think I’m capable of doing that, getting him to forget you. It worked, of course, so shake him out of your head. He’s just like any other man who stands when he pees,” she said, rising. “Nothing more, nothing less.”
    “What about your engagement ring?” I asked, challenging her story.
    “I took it off. It does come off, Lorelei.”
    “What exactly happened?”
    “What exactly happened? I had him eating out of my palm. I kissed him, and I mean really kissed him like he’d never been kissed. He practically had an orgasm on the campus grounds. If someone mentioned Lorelei to him now, he would say, ‘Who? Lorelei? Who’s that?’”
    I didn’t believe her, but I wasn’t sure if that was because I didn’t want to believe her.
    “Fortunately for you, I have him dangling on a string out there. I don’t think it’s necessary to tell Daddy about this, but you can’t return to the campus with me ever again,” she said, moving to the door.
    “What are you going to do with him now?” I asked.
    She opened the door but stood there thinking. “Nothing. What can I do with him? You know the rules we must follow. I won’t think about him any more, and I advise you to do the same. We have other things to think about now. Daddy is moving closer to a decision.”
    “What decision?”
    “A decision about how much longer he wants the family living here. I overheard him talking about it with Mrs. Fennel. I have the feeling it’s in the works.”
    “Soon?”
    “Don’t look so devastated,” she added as she stepped out and turned to me. “It’s not good for you, for any of us, to grow too fond of a place and especially the people living there.”
    “I know. It’s just that… I thought Daddy liked living here.”
    She laughed. “Daddy likes wherever he lives. That’s the point, Lorelei. He doesn’t live anywhere he doesn’t want to live. For a while,” she said. “Besides, don’t youenjoy starting new? I always did. Of course, I was never so susceptible as you seem to be.”
    “Susceptible to what?”
    “Friendships, boyfriends. Get over it,” she said, and left.
    I sat there staring after her. If I had ever felt I was very different from her, it was right then, but was I really any different? Wouldn’t I soon be just like her, just as hard as she was? Would it matter if I tried to fight it?
    If I only knew more about myself, more about my origins
, I thought. Maybe, just maybe, mine were different from hers and from Brianna’s, and that was what accounted for my feelings. Maybe this was why Mrs. Fennel and Daddy wouldn’t tell me very much about myself. Maybe they were afraid of how I would feel or react if I knew.
    I sat in my room for a while, just thinking about it all, and then I went out to the living room, expecting to see Daddy, hoping, now that I was older and closer to the maturity he expected, he would tell me more. I wouldn’t let him tell me to be patient. If I had to, I would beg him to be more forthcoming. He wasn’t there, but I heard Mrs. Fennel in the kitchen and went in to ask her if he was home.
    “No. He won’t be back until