Married to the Prince of Darkness (COMPLETED)

Chapter 64

After a little while, I got off from the dusty floor and stepped into the small hallway. Martha was leaning against the bannister, staring at the floor with misty eyes. Quietly she muttered, "They said it was an accident. She eaten some poisonous berries while playing out in the parkland. Her healing factor hadn't fully matured yet, so she had no chance. By the time they'd found her, it was too late. Thelma didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. The police just arrived out the blue and told us, she was gone."

"I'm so sorry," I replied.

She wiped her eyes with the edge of her sleeve and said, "It's not your fault. There is nothing to be sorry for. It happened years ago. They say time is supposed to be a great healer, but it ain't. I miss that little girl everyday... and I miss my sister. Violet wasn't the only one who died that day - Thelma did too. A mother's love for their child is the strongest thing on this planet - it never dies or lessens with time. My poor Thelma, she used to be a fantastic scholar up at the university, but after Violet she now struggles to even recall her own name."

I'd never had children and so I couldn't begin to imagine the heart wrenching grief of loosing a child. My own pregnancy was so new it didn't feel real. I'd never thought of the little bundle of cells growing inside of me as a baby. To me it was just a novelty, and something I'd yet to fully comprehend. I'd never taken the time to think about the future and what it would mean to become a mother. In the last few days since waking up, my sole focus had purely been to survive each day. There was little time to indulge in fantasies of motherhood.

However, as I stood here, having just stepped out from this child's room, it hit me like a freight train - I was going to be a mother, I was going to have a baby, and this baby was going to need my protection. My hand drifted over my stomach and I shivered. I was so scared, but I knew I had to do what needed to be done in order to protect my child and stop Henrietta.

I walked down stairs and back into the sitting room where Thelma was. Walking into the room, I finally understood why she looked so gaunt and old for a vampire. She had to endure what no parent should, and after so many years of unresolved grief, misery and injustice, she'd been driven to madness.

I went to her chair, and leaned down next her. "Thelma," I began, taking her hand in mine. "I vow to you that I will avenge you and your daughter. I promise you, that I will not stop until Henrietta is made to pay for her crimes."

Tears glistened on Thelma's eyes lashes and she said, "Thank you - thank you so much."

It was a promise from one mother to another. I squeezed her hand tight then let go. Standing up I looked over to Jacques and said, "We need to go."

He replied with a simple curt nod. His normally cheerful expression had dissolved into a blank melancholy. He looked sadly over to Thelma and then back to me and said, "I will do everything I can to help you bring down Henrietta. That kind of evil should never go unpunished."

"Thanks," I said softly.

We both silently acknowledge the challenge ahead of us and began to make our way to the door. From behind us I heard Thelma call out after me. "Wait, there is something else," she cried. "The dead, you must be careful of the dead."

A chill rippled down my spine - her words oddly mirrored those of the Queen's, written down in the journal. I turned back to face her and asked, "What do you mean by that? The Queen said the exact same thing."

Thelma's eyes wandered to the corner of the room. "I don't know how, but she controls them. She's one of the old ones - one of the few that survived...Violet, where have you been? I've been looking for you."

"Thelma," I called to her again. "How is she an old one?"

She looked over to me, struggling to remember what she'd just said. "To understand, my dear, we'll need to go back to the beginning of Port Cressida. You see-"