Daywalkers: The Awakening (The Daywalkers Series Book 1)
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“Wonderful,” Sofia said. “Glad to see you’re already conforming to society’s expectations of normalcy.”
Christian smiled mischievously. “I think we all know I’ll never be what society considers to be normal.”
“You’ve got us there Christian,” Alexander said. “Now, can we eat?”
“You can even say grace if you’d like,” Christian said.
“You’re just full of jokes tonight aren’t you,” Josephine commented.
“Well, I was asleep for two centuries. I’ve got a lot to make up for. It did take you long enough to bring us back. Did you enjoy having our house all to yourself?”
Alexander shot a look of warning at Christian. He didn’t like when people insulted his wife. Especially Christian. Christian’s sense of humor could be rather crude.
“I was sucked into an amulet. I did the best I could. If it wasn’t for this girl’s lack of knowledge I would still be stuck in that amulet.”
Christian raised an eyebrow. “I guess we are to be grateful for Elizabeth’s twin.”
I didn’t want us talking about the girl. I wanted her off my mind, not at the center of our conversation. “She doesn’t look exactly like Elizabeth.”
Alexander’s eyes met mine. He shook his head, a look of disapproval on his face at my comment. His distrust of me was warranted. I should refrain from making any inferences about this girl. The last thing I wanted was for my brother to think I wasn’t putting our family first again.
I just didn’t want any reminders of my past transgressions. Comparing this girl to Elizabeth made me feel like I was living those days all over again. This time things were going to be different. I wasn’t going to be tricked. My family would come before everything and everyone.
“We still have the problem of Melinda’s family,” Sofia said. “They are going to come looking for her. Surely her parents are going to want to know where their daughter is.”
I smiled at Sofia. “That’s the plan. Melinda will lead them to us. That way we can get rid of the Sinclair’s for good. Start with the Sinclair’s and move on to the rest of the coven.”
“Unless her sister has knowledge of witchcraft, I don’t see that happening,” Josephine said. “The Sinclair’s aren’t what they once were. Neither is the coven. The only members left of the Sinclair’s are Melinda, her twin brother, and their older sister.”
“What about their parents?” Sofia asked.
Josephine seemed concerned about something. There was something she didn’t want to tell us.
“What is it?” I said.
“Melinda’s father murdered his wife and then killed himself. No one knows why, but he snapped one day. It was very out of character for him. Sound at all familiar?”
Each of my siblings had a grave look on their face. Even Christian, the brother that cared the least about everything.
“You think they’re vampires?” Alexander asked.
“No,” Josephine said. “I think they were turned into vampires. Only unlike your family, they didn’t want to live as vampires and decided to kill themselves before they fed.”
“What a shame,” Sofia said, smiling at the news. She could be such a devil. The worst of us all if you got on her bad side.
“I say we get the hell out of this town,” Christian said. “I for one want to enjoy this bright new world. Have you seen all of the neat gadgets they’ve created? Better than magic, I’d say.”
“Christian has a point,” Josephine said. “Falls Creek isn’t what it once was. There are no vampires. Hardly any witches and if there are any, they’re in hiding. It seems like the Sinclair’s are the only ones left and their down to their last generation. A generation that doesn’t even have knowledge of witchcraft. We’d be better off settling elsewhere.”
“We should go back to New Orleans,” Christian said. “There’s no way you could eradicate vampires and witches from a town built by them.”
“You want to go to the vampire capital of the world?” Sofia said incredulously. “Are you looking for hunters to try and kill you?”
“I can hardly be killed. None of us can. The only hunters we were ever concerned about was our own bloody coven. With majority of them gone, our problems are solved.”
There was the problem. We didn’t know if the majority of them were gone. We knew nothing of this world. For all we knew, they were in hiding. We needed to know as much as we could about this era. Until we did, none of us would be safe.
Chapter 11—Melinda
I rested my head against the pillow. At least they had very comfortable beds. This place reminded me of a castle from medieval times. These vampires lived like royalty. I wondered exactly how old they were. I knew they were in a comatose state for 200 years, but how long did they walk this earth before that?
I couldn’t imagine living forever. I’d bet you’d lose track of time after a while. An eternity was a long time. You could do anything. Read everything, study everything. So much time to do whatever you wanted with.
I’d probably only have a thousandth of their time. Especially at the rate I was going with drinking. I’d give my liver until thirty, forty tops.
I know I sounded like I didn’t care about living. Why be so afraid of vampires killing you if you don’t care about living at all? It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I didn’t want to die. I just wasn’t sure how to live without my mom.
If I had one wish, it would be to have her back. I didn’t care about my dad. He was the reason I was in so much pain. He took her from me. From Nick. Even from Scarlett.
I could be hard on Scarlett, but I knew she loved and missed our mother just as much as I did. Well, maybe not as much.
I don’t know if anyone can miss her more than me.
If she were still here, maybe I wouldn’t have found myself in this shitty predicament. I wouldn’t be in the home of vampire witches.
I wouldn’t be so sad all the time.
And I was sad literally all the time. I felt like every fiber of my body felt exhausted. Being depressed all the time was really taking a toll on me. I wasn’t sure how much more I could withstand.
I couldn’t stop the tears from escaping my eyes. I felt so alone. So broken. I wanted the pain to stop.
I wanted my mom.
Chapter 12—Theodora
As I walked through the hallway, I stopped when I heard something. It was faint, but there was no denying what it was. Melinda was crying.
I stopped at her door, bringing my ear up to the door. It wasn’t my first time making someone cry, and it wouldn’t be my last. But this girl was different.
Hearing Melinda cry bothered me. It wasn’t because she looked so much like Elizabeth. In fact, a part of me wanted to take my anger out on the girl for that reason. It was because she reminded me so much of my own family. She lost a mother, just as we did.
I knew that pain all too well. It was a consuming pain that I had to struggle to bury inside of me in the deepest pit of my mind. Melinda’s loss of her mother was fresh. She was going through something right now that no one deserved to go through. No matter who you descended from.
“Eavesdropping?”
I rolled my eyes. I heard Josephine coming from down the hall. Luckily for me, you can’t sneak up on a vampire.
“No.”
I stepped away from the door and glared at her. I didn’t like being questioned. Least of all by Josephine. She was my brother’s pet. She reported to him on any of her concerns. I didn’t trust her one bit. She wanted to cause a rift between Alexander and me.
I walked down the hall towards my room. She was following me. “Do you mind?”
“I need to talk to you.”
I sighed as I allowed her to come into my room. She closed the door behind her, turning to look at me.
“What now?” I said.
“Maybe we should let Melinda go.”
“And why should we do that?”
“We can leave town and start over.”
“Fine. We can do what we came here to do and then leave.”
I looked at her in confusion as she paced the floor. She was nervous about something. Scared. Josephine was a lot of things, but cowardice was never one of them.
I wouldn’t question her on it though. We weren’t friends. The only reason she was here was because of my brother’s obsessive love of her. She was family through marriage. She wasn’t my blood, and therefore I felt no obligation to her. Not like the obligation I felt to my siblings.
“I know you and I don’t always get along, but we have something in common,” Josephine said.
I scoffed. “We have nothing in common.”
“I love Alexander the way you loved Elizabeth.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. Why was everyone so hell bent on reminding me of my past mistakes?
“I’m not trying to be a bitch,” she said, after seeing my reaction. “For once.”
“Since when?”
“Since I was forced to live alone for 200 years. Losing everyone you consider to be your family can change you entirely. Feeling utterly alone is the worst feeling imaginable. It’s worse than death.”
I couldn’t argue with her there. I felt that agony during my slumber. Only I wasn’t always entirely conscious for it. I was aware at times, but I tried to stay within my mind. I tried to focus on the good memories. That wasn’t very effective when most of my memories weren’t good.
“I don’t want any of us to feel that feeling again,” she continued. “I know that it can’t be easy to have to look at a girl that looks so similar to the woman that betrayed you. Why put yourself through that torment?”
I looked away from Josephine. I didn’t want her to see in my eyes what I felt inside. There was so much. Guilt, sadness, anger. Lonely. I still felt lonely, even with my family back together. The truth was, I missed Elizabeth. It infuriated me, but I couldn’t help how I felt.
The heart was a tricky organ. It made you feel things that weren’t altogether logical. I should hate Elizabeth for betraying me. She hurt me and my family. And yet, I didn’t hate her. I didn’t love her anymore. I wouldn’t go that far. But I didn’t hate her either.
Melinda wasn’t Elizabeth. She may have had similar features, but I saw something different in Melinda. Innocence. Innocence that I didn’t want myself or my family to taint.
“I deserve it,” I said.
“You’ve been punished enough. Two centuries worth of punishment is more than enough. You didn’t mean for any of this to happen. You thought with your heart, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that.”
“There is when following your heart leads to the destruction of your family.”
She pursed her lips, rolling her eyes at my stubbornness. We would never see eye to eye on anything. Even when she was trying to appease my guilt, I still fought against her. It was rather comical.
“After everything that we’ve been through, we deserve to be happy. Together, as a family. Let Melinda go. Move on. And stop looking back on your past.”
That was easier said than done. My past shaped who I was. How could anyone possibly forget something that was a part of their entire being?
Josephine was right about one thing though.
I needed to let Melinda go.
Chapter 13—Melinda
It was morning. I’d survived the night in the creepy mansion, with the creepy vampire witches.
This whole thing was a nightmare. I had no way of contacting Scarlett. She probably thought I was off screwing around. She had no clue that I was in serious danger. No one knew.
I was going to die here. And no one would even know where to find the body. I was sure that vampires were expert killers. They must have been highly skilled in disposing of dead bodies.
The door swung open. The blonde one with the weird name came in. She glared down at me.
“Get up.”
She spoke to me so coldly. Did she have to be such a bitch? I guess they didn’t teach manners back in her time. It wasn’t difficult to ask nicely.
“Now.”
I stood to my feet and glared at the woman. She was a couple of inches taller than me.
“Follow me,” she said, not wasting a bit of time in exiting the room and walking down the hall.
I had to go at a light jogging pace to keep up with her swift walking. She was in a hurry.
“Where are you taking me?”
No answer. Again, total bitch.
We walked into the foyer.
“You don’t have to kill me.”
She turned to look at me. Her face remained impassive. I wished she’d show even the slightest bit of emotion. I wanted to know what she was thinking. This vampire needed to get on a poker team. No one could ever figure out what she had up her sleeve. Me included, unfortunately.
She was staring at me oddly. It made me feel uncomfortable. Her big green eyes burned a whole into my face. I was sure she hadn’t blinked once. I wondered if vampires had to blink.
No, I had definitely seen Josephine blink. Theodora was just weird.
“I’m nothing compared to you people. You could probably squish me like a bug.”
I thought I saw a smile appear on her lips, but if she did smile, it was only for a second.
It was a shame. She was beautiful, even with the broody grim look that seemed to be permanently etched across her face. She probably had a nice smile.
Then again, maybe she didn’t know how to smile. She was evil after all.
Theodora turned and opened the front door, leading the both of us outside. We walked to the end of the long driveway. There was a car waiting at the end of it just outside the double gated entrance.
I furrowed my eyebrows as I followed her.
She stopped me a few strides before we arrived at the car. “This human is going to take you home.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Melinda, you look a lot like one of your ancestor’s.”
I was aware. Her brother almost killed me because of it. “Elizabeth.”
“Yes,” she said. “And this woman, she betrayed me in one of the worst ways you can betray a person. My family wants a fresh start. In order to do that, we have to try and let go of the memories that haunt us. That means you need to go. You’re a reminder of someone from my past. Someone I want to forget.”
She looked away from me. This had to be a trick. Some kind of sick mind game. Did she get off and getting my hopes up only to attack me from behind? Maybe she didn’t want me to see it coming when she went for my jugular vein.
“You’re just going to let me go?”
“Truth be told, you’re a child. My family has done a lot of evil things, but we’ve never stooped low enough to harm a child.”
I couldn’t have been much younger than her. I’d say she was twenty-two tops, maybe younger.
“Go,” she said.
I cautiously walked forward, but she grabbed my arm. I knew it was too good to be true.
I looked into emerald eyes as she spoke. “Mark my words Melinda, if you or your family tries to bring harm against my family, I will find and kill every last one of you. Child or not.”
I scowled at her. I didn’t like anyone threatening my family. Especially a vampire like her.
I snatched my arm away from her and got into the car. She walked back towards the house without another word.
I don’t know why, but something inside me told me she couldn’t hurt me even if she wanted to.
Whoever this Elizabeth woman was, she must have really done a number on Theodora.
Chapter 14—Melinda
As soon as I walked through the front door, Scarlett pulled me into her arms, hugging me tightly. “I was so worried.”
I let out a sigh of relief. I was home. I was alive. I lived through that terrible ordeal. But now, I had questions
.
“Where were you?” she asked. “I tried to track you, but I couldn’t get a read on you. Nick is out looking for you. He’s worried sick too.”
“A house just outside of town. With some vampire witches.”
She looked at me in question. I made my way to the kitchen. I hadn’t eaten a thing since yesterday and I was starving.
As I looked through the refrigerator, I felt her eyes on me. “Do you know that our family used to be vampire hunters? Mom and Dad too I’m assuming. I mean she put some chick into a necklace, so she was definitely more into magic than she let on.”
“I know.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked at her. “You know?”
“Yes. I know. Tell me exactly what happened. And please tell me that you didn’t help the Daywalkers escape.”
“You know about them too?”
She looked at me with a look of anger and despair combined. “You did.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Josephine was going to kill me. Maybe you should have warned me about all of this.” My family’s secrets put my life in danger. If they were trying to protect me by keeping me out of this, they failed.
“You have no idea what you’ve done. You released an evil that no one has been able to stop before.”
“They’re leaving town,” I said, trying to make her calm down a notch.
“Highly unlikely. I’m sure they didn’t mention why they came back to Falls Creek 200 years ago.”
“I wasn’t exactly in the position to ask them their life story Scarlett!”
She came forward, looking at me with such intensity. “Melinda this is serious. They came here to get their mother’s body so that they could resurrect her.”
I didn’t see the big deal. If their mother was a witch, what was the harm in bringing her back? I’d bring my mother back if I knew how. “So?”
“Victoria Genovese was the only witch in existence born with the ability to absorb the powers of others. If they resurrect her, they’ll have more power than all witches in this world combined.”