Primal

Chapter Forty-Three - Heartbeat

Author's Warning: This chapter is bloody. If you have any sensitivities to gore, read at your own risk or ask someone to sum it up for you in the comments.

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My head was spinning.

"I thought you were dead..."

My mother smiled.

"Well, technically speaking, I am."

My eyebrows furrowed and she scoffed.

"I'm a Vampire, darling. Don't you get it?"

I felt my heart begin to beat wildly in my chest.

"Since when?"

She thought about it for a moment.

"A little over eleven years, I should think," the man said.

She nodded in agreement.

"Who is this?" I asked her, pointing him.

She smiled.

"Viktor, meet my daughter Evelyn. Evelyn, this is my brother, Viktor."

"Brother?" I asked incredulously. "You never mentioned-"

"How could I?" She interrupted. "I never even told your father that I came from a family of Vampires until I myself became one."

She stepped towards me slowly.

"You never wondered why I lost so much weight? Or why I never left the house? Evelyn, dear, I thought you were so much brighter than that..."

"Dad told me that you were sick and that you had surgery," I said, stuttering over my words.

She raised an eyebrow at this.

"Sick?" She asked. "Yes, I suppose he probably did think Vampirism was a sickness. I tried for years to convince him to let me turn him, but he never obliged."

"So you were never addicted to painkillers?" I asked her.

She smiled.

"No, darling. I'm addicted to blood."

I shook my head in disbelief. My brain couldn't process the information quick enough.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" I asked her, suddenly coming to my senses.

"You should ask your father-in-law," Viktor said, walking over to stand beside my mother.

"Yes," my mother agreed. "Congratulations on your big day, by the way. I would've liked an invitation."

Bitterness laced her sarcastic tone.

"You were missing," I said through clenched teeth.

"That was my fault," Viktor said. "I'm afraid that after we set your house aflame, we had to migrate for a while until we could get a proper plan in place."

"You're the one who did that?" I asked.

He nodded, smiling.

"Did you get my flowers?"

"The tulips?" I asked. "That was your doing too? How did you get into the palace?"

"Again, ask your father-in-law. He's the one who put the bloody flowers there for us."

Everything was crashing down all at once, all of the pieces beginning to fit together.

"Why are you here?" I asked slowly.