Vampire 01 - Daughter of Darkness

guess.”
    “I can’t guess,” Marla whined.
    “She brought him to Daddy,” she said, again looking at me. “It broke her heart forever, but it was the right thing to do. As a reward for her sacrifice, Daddy let her keep his name. This happened a very long time ago, but she still smarts over it, and that’s why she hates being questioned about herself and why she says love can be poison for us.”
    Mrs. Fennel
, I thought, amazed. I’d never in a million years have guessed she was someone with a broken heart. Was Ava telling me these things deliberately now?Did she know about me and Buddy? Was it meant to be a lesson I should never forget?
    “Well, I’m never going to fall in love,” Marla said. “Just the idea of being with only one man forever makes me sick to my stomach.”
    Ava laughed and put her arm around her to embrace her and kiss her. “Our lovely, perfect little sister,” she said. “Don’t you agree, Lorelei?”
    “Yes,” I said. “She surprises me more and more every minute of every passing day.” Although I didn’t like being this way, I know I sounded bitter and sarcastic.
    “Remember what Daddy told us,” Marla said, wagging her head. “Surprises can be wonderful. It makes every day seem like the first day of your life.”
    “None of us quotes Daddy better or more accurately than you do, Marla,” Ava said.
    Why was she heaping compliments on our younger sister? She should be heaping them on me. I was the next in line, not Marla.
    “So, what are you going to tell Daddy when he finds out you were suspended from school?” Marla asked me.
    I looked at both of them, at the way they were both waiting for my response. It was as if they were testing me. It made me angry to see them ganging up on me, but I knew that losing my temper was just what Marla would enjoy seeing.
    I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “I’m certainly not going to lie about it. I’ll tell him the truth.”
    “What is the truth?” Ava asked.
    “What do you mean, what is the truth? I told you exactly what happened. It was an accident. I answeredthe phone before I thought about it, but if those girls weren’t so hateful—”
    “Why was your phone on, anyway?” Ava pursued, leaning toward me and bearing down on me like a prosecutor in a courtroom. “Daddy and I know never to call you during school hours. Why would you think it was either of us?”
    “I just told you. I wasn’t thinking. I didn’t realize it was on. I don’t do everything as perfectly as you do, Ava.”
    She sat back, lapping up my backhanded compliment. “You’d better be as perfect as I am,” she warned. “We have a great many wonderful things, and we’ll each have more. But there are many tests ahead of you to pass, Lorelei. Failure is not an option for us, either. You had better think more than twice about everything you do from now on. If Daddy forgives you, that is,” she added, and shifted her eyes toward Marla.
    I felt Marla’s eyes stinging me. Ava had been right about her. There were differences in her, mature changes happening almost right before our eyes. It was not hard to imagine her breathing down my neck as Ava had predicted. My changes didn’t occur as rapidly. I didn’t think they had for Ava, either, and of course, I couldn’t recall anything about Brianna’s maturing, but I had never heard any stories about her to illustrate these sorts of quick changes. Maybe of all four of us, Marla was the special one, after all.
    As I looked from Ava to Marla and back to Ava and saw the steely cold in their eyes, I thought this was more than the simple sibling rivalry Daddy had described.It was one thing to be competitive with your siblings, to seek to gain your parents’ approval faster than your brothers or sisters and maybe even become their favorite, despite their insistence that they didn’t favor one of their children over the others. But it was quite another thing to be absolutely ruthless about it, to wish actual harm on your brothers or sisters. Although my experience with other girls and boys as I had gone through school was very limited, I had learned and sensed enough to know that what was happening here among me and Marla and Ava was unusual, despite the lessons taught from the biblical tale of Cain and Abel. At least, I hoped it was; otherwise, what was the value of family? Where were the love, affection, and concern? Didn’t we owe any loyalty to one another as well as to Daddy? Was the fable