‘But Dad, you are needed here; if anything happened to you or Mum I don’t know what I’d do.’ Emily could not help being sceptical; they could change their minds.
‘We have led very full lives, we know the risks and are happy to take them for you,’ Judith said, as she eased into the room and entwined her arm with her husband’s.
Emotion overcame Emily as she sensed that she was on the verge of tears. Tears of joy. She did not want to cry now, not in front of them. She took a deep breath and replied, ‘I really appreciate it. What do you have in mind?’
***
Judith knew Catherine, Anna, and Ian were suspicious. Ian in particular had that uneasy look about him. She would not allow them to sway her. She would see her plan through.
She straightened up and began, ‘Thank you for coming.’
Jeff squeezed her hand, and continued, ‘Your mother and I have decided to go with Emily and Steven. Steven does not want to kill anyone so we need to enable a slow recovery. It might take a few days or a month; we have no way of knowing. We cannot let anyone else put themselves in danger for something we feel is our responsibility.’
Almost immediately, Ian protested and burst out in anger, ‘Are you crazy? We can’t allow this. What if something happens to you? You need to be protected, not sent out in the open.’
Jeff calmly continued, ‘We do not need protection. What if something happened to us? We have lived long lives, full of unexpected twists and new discoveries. We are not afraid of death.’
‘So you are inviting it then?’ Catherine added, a scowl pasted across her face.
‘Many of you have managed to go back to normal civilisation with no ill effects. Why should it be different for us? We are curious to see how mankind has changed after all this time. We need to take Steven to recover and he is adamant that he does not want to kill. So, we have come up with a plan. If he feeds regularly he will recover, without having to kill anyone. There is no reason why we should be harmed.’
‘What about the journey there?’ Catherine continued, ‘How will you protect yourselves?’
‘We are not children, Catherine. We will take the same route that you always take on the ship. Then, as soon as he is better, we will come back.’
‘And he’ll agree to this, will he?’ Ian growled.
‘We have to trust him, or he will never allow himself to become one of us.’
Anna got up and gave Judith a hug. ‘Please be careful.’
‘If, and that is a big if,’ Judith paused. ‘If we don’t come back, make sure that you keep the values we have cherished alive. You need to stay focused and not worry about us. If the bats had not given us this remarkable immortality, we would probably be dead already.’
Ian’s face turned puce. Her son always wanted to do things himself.
This time she would not let him. In a firm voice, she repeated, eyes fixed on Ian, ‘We will go, no matter what you think.’
With a shake of his head, Ian got up from the chair, turned around and left without looking back.
Catherine gave them both a quick but strong hug. As she got to the door, she glanced over her shoulder and smiled. It was nice to see. Judith was glad Catherine understood.
Anna held onto her mother’s hand and made a final request, ‘Promise me you’ll come back safely.’
‘We’ll do our best,’ Judith replied.
When Anna left, Judith reached out for Jeff’s hand and nuzzled into his shoulder. It felt right to make the sacrifice. There had to be another way for Steven. If anyone could find it, they could. It was impossible to know how long it would take for Steven’s injury to heal. Regardless, it was exciting to consider the stories they’d come back with. Whenever anyone else left, it was always interesting to hear what they had to say upon their return. Now, it was their turn to leave. The trip could bring them closer. She did not want to think of all the things that could possibly go wrong.
Epilogue
A Voice From The Past
Caitlin screamed at the top of her voice, ‘Steven, no!’ Perplexed by the strength of the dream, she sat up confused – it had seemed so real.
She was sure Georgina had woken her up, taken her hand and forced her to follow. Somehow, they had arrived in the middle of the New Forest, before Georgina’s ethereal form had vanished.
Caitlin heard faint voices whisper through the trees. As she peered through, she gasped. In the middle of the clearing stood her image holding hands with the student that had come to her door a few months earlier. She recalled his name, Steven. She remembered him shouting it when she had shut the door in his face.
The thing was her image looked scared standing next to him.
As though he knew she was there, Steven turned to face her and gave a cunning smile. It revealed a set of white glinting canine teeth which leaned towards her image, headed straight at her throat.
At that point she had woken up.
Why would that person, Steven, or whatever his name was, be doing that? What on earth could it mean? She had never been into vampire stories. And what did Georgina have to do with it? She was convinced she did not know this Steven, yet something told her she should.
She stood up and paced her room. The first year at university had gone really well, other than the incident with Georgina. The reason for Georgina’s death was still a mystery – she did not buy into the suicide theory. Yet, for the past few months Caitlin had felt so inexplicably sad and lonely. Something niggled at the back of her mind – a missing piece of the puzzle eluded her.
She fumbled around to find the light switch on the wall. Once on, she blinked, as her eyes adjusted, and scoured through the drawers. It had to be somewhere. Finally she breathed a sigh of relief as she opened the letter she had concealed in the drawer, and read it again to try to make some sense of what it meant.
Dear Caitlin,
You might not remember me now but if someday you do, leave me a message on my Facebook page – Steven Thorn, England, D.O.B. 4th September. If I ever manage to retrieve it, I promise that I’ll find you. If not, I hope you lead a happy and fulfilled life.
Always yours, Steven Thorn
Caitlin powered up her laptop and looked at the Facebook entry for Steven Thorn again. There was no picture and the details were minimal. She thumped the table and sighed. She could not understand why he had slid the note under her room door. She did not remember anything about him and she was certainly not going to leave a message to a total stranger. The problem remained – there was no logical explanation for him featuring so vividly in her dream.
Why had the fact that he had been holding her hand, as though they were a couple, look right to her? And more importantly, why had he leant towards her as though he wanted to suck her blood? She could not shake the feeling she should know more.
###
Acknowledgements
When I wrote my first romantic novel in February, 2010, I allowed my friends, Kay and Kathryn, to read it and waited with anticipation. Truth, my writing style was extremely raw, and yet they really liked the story. They believed I had potential and Kay in particular was amazed at the speed with which my ideas flowed. When the idea for the Evolution series (now a trilogy) transpired, they were amongst the first readers, along with another friend, Katie. All three gave me the confidence to think that perhaps I could publish my story and take it to the masses.
Tentatively, I published extracts of the romantic novel on Booksie and made great friends. The romantic novel allowed me to experiment, but it was far from a finished product. It was during the start of 2011 that I joined The Word Cloud, courtesy of The Writers’ Workshop – home of a free online community for aspiring or published writers. The advice I obtained was invaluable. Although, it was through Booksie that I discovered the fun side of sharing your writing!
I’d like to thank a few online friends: Barb, thank you for giving me the basic tools for a debut novel; Emma, thank you for your blogs; Tony, thank you for taking the time to ed
it some of my first chapters, you are a gem!
I would also like to thank Susan Buchanan for her extensive editorial advice and proofread in 2014, and Catherine Lenderi for her constructive feedback. Both gave up their time to help me tighten up Hybrid and I appreciate their advice.
Also, to my sister-in-law, Anja, and my parents-in-law, Heleen and Willem, your support was fantastic. I would also like to thank my father, Malcolm, for instilling me with a love of reading and writing and for taking the wonderful picture which I used to create my original cover page.
Last, but certainly not least, to my husband, Robert. Thank you for giving me the time to write.
All the best,
Vanessa Wester
Continue THE EVOLUTION TRILOGY…
Find out what happens next in COMPLICATIONS; and RETURN. You can also find out more about Steven’s mother in a prequel to the trilogy, EMILY.
“The Evolution trilogy was so much fun to read! All the components of a good series are there and I found myself thinking about the characters constantly. For me that is the sign of a good book - I can’t get the characters out of my head, they come to work and the gym with me and I try to figure out what will happen next.
I fell in love with Caitlin and Steven, the main characters in Hybrid, joined in on their adventures in Complications, and was rewarded with a finale that tied up all of the details and loose ends in Return book 3… A very satisfying ending! I highly recommend this trilogy.”
Susan
“A great set of books. A must read for all. Imaginative story somehow believable. I would like to visit the community myself.”
Lovely Lane
Visit www.theevolutiontrilogy.blogspot.com to find out more.
Connect Online
Whatever you thought about my debut novel, HYBRID, I would love to know. It would really make my day if you left a review.
Thank you very much,
Vanessa Wester
Find out more about me here…
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The Evolution Trilogy Blog
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References
The following links on the internet helped to create this work of fiction:
Southampton University
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/
Los Alamos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Alamos_National_Laboratory
Amazon Rainforest
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/travelblogs/1139/109159/Brazil%3A+Rio+to+the+Amazon+Rainforest?destId=363150
Albert Einstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
Manhattan Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project
Tapir information
https://www.igorilla.com/gorilla/animal/tapir_attack_in_Oklahoma_City_PartTwo.html
https://www.tapirs.org/tapirs/tapir-faq.html
Hybrid (The Evolution Trilogy) Page 31
