Half My Identity

The Truth

"Pleased to meet you Reina Calysto, or should I say Elena Tepes, daughter of Edmund and Esmeray Tepes, descendant of Dracula himself. I am Vesper Alnwick, a Pure Blood of the Tepes Clan." Said a man with pale skin, dark crimson eyes and black hair neatly combed back. He retracted his wings and began to approach Reina. Jason growled at him in his wolf form, suspicious of Vesper's intentions.

"Pardon our intrusion on your celebration. But I assure you neither I nor my followers are here to cause trouble. We are simply here to invite you back into our ranks where you belong." Vesper said as he bowed before Reina.

"Wait, what you talking about?" Reina asked with a perplexed look on her face. Vesper's facial expression changed into one of surprise.

"Oh, did your parents not tell you that you were adopted?" Vesper asked Reina as he glanced over at Alpha Raizen and Luna Lilia then back to Reina. She looked over to the ones who had raised her with shock, disbelief and a little hurt.

"Is that true?" Reina asked her parents. But before they could answer, Vesper chimed in.

"Oh yes, it's very true. Let me explain if you will. Exactly eighteen years ago in the early evening, you were born to Edmund and Esmeray Tepes, Elders of the Tepes Clan. But later that same night, dark rogue werewolves infiltrated our territory and attacked the Tepes Castle and the village at the foot of the castle. They murdered many of our kin including your birth mother and father. This became known as the Howling Massacre. I'm sure you've heard about it. Moving on, me and all of the highest ranking vampires were away at the time on a very important coven meeting between all the clans in the region. I suspect the dark rogues knew that and took advantage of the opportunity and attacked. Of course, under normal circumstances, your mother and father would have been required to attend the meeting as well since they were the Head Pure Bloods of the Tepes Clan. But they had just had a child and thus were omitted from participating. That aside, one of the castle guards had escaped and notified us of what was going on. We were immediately dismissed from the meeting and rushed back home. When we arrived, the Eclipse Pack had just finished their assistance duties and were on their leave. It was still a complete and utter bloody mess though. Even a vampire such as myself was disturbed at the sight of how much blood had been spilled." Vesper paused and sighed as he remembered what he came home to. The crowd of werewolves just stood there silent with shock.

"Anyways, after seeing the extent of the carnage, I was especially concerned about Edmund and Esmeray and their daughter, you. They were the Head Pure Bloods of our clan after all. I immediately found a surviving castle guard and was told your father sacrificed himself and stayed behind to fend off the dark rogues so you and your mother had a chance of survival. He apologized for not being able to save your father. Unfortunately, we found out that the werewolves got to your mother too. We assumed you were gone as well because the last time she was seen alive was when she was running away with you in her arms." Vesper told Reina the truth. Her head was filled with questions now.

"So if you thought I was dead, then how did you find me here?" Reina asked Vesper who continued his story.

"Based on witness accounts, we assumed that you were deceased. But... there was something that didn't add up. We had a lot of bodies to recover. Many of the corpses were mangled beyond recognition. But being vampires, we can identify others by the taste of their blood. When we counted for all the losses, you were not among them." Vesper explained to Reina.

"Then why didn't you go look for me? You said I was the daughter of the Head Pure Bloods of your clan and a descendant of Dracula himself. Didn't I mean anything to you?" Reina asked the Vesper whose facial expression hardened.

"I wasn't finished explaining everything yet. Please do not interrupt me. Anyways, as I was about to say, though the Eclipse Pack helped us out that night, we didn't even consider the possibility that they would have taken you because of the long history of conflict between werewolves and vampires. And though there has been peace between our two races for over 200 years, there is still tension. The Eclipse Pack is well known for its size and immense influential power in the Celestial Alliance. We thought there was no way they'd take in a vampire and possibly jeopardize their reputation. Werewolves are proud creatures after all. But the more we thought of it, the fact that you were not among our deceased kin or anywhere to be found after the Eclipse Pack left became too much of a coincidence." Vesper paused briefly before continuing.