All of her life, Maria Alvarez has been sure of three things.
1.) The Lord God will protect and guide her thought all of the trials of life.
2.) Vampires are soulless husks of their former selves, little more than animated bodies feedi...
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
"Maria? What are you doing?" Carmen asked, looking her up and down with a mixture of confusion and concern as she came into the room.
"I need to talk to you." Maria could barely choke the words out. "It's really important."
Carmen shrugged off her jacket and slowly walked over to the bed, taking a seat beside her. She put her arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. Maria cast her gaze to the floor, unable to look at her.
"What is it? Is everything okay?"
"No." Maria shook her head, still looking at the floor. "It's not. I've done something bad."
"Something bad?" Carmen's voice was tense.
"You're going to hate me." Maria could barely choke the words out. Tears were stinging in her eyes, and her chest clenched so much that it hurt.
"You didn't tell anyone I've been biting you, did you?" Carmen said, her voice panicked. "Please Tell me you didn't-"
"No, no." Maria shook her head. "It's worse."
"Worse?"
Maria nodded, unable to hold back her tears. She covered her face with her hands and sobbed shamelessly into them. Carmen placed a hand on her back, and rubbed it softly.
"Maria What is it? You're really worrying me." She said, her voice laced with urgency.
"I've been lying to you, Carmen." Maria said through her sobs. "I care about you so much and all I've done is lie to you."
Carmen grabbed her shoulders, trying to get her to look up at her, but Maria couldn't manage it.
"What have you been lying about? I don't understand."
"I -" Maria took a steadying breath. "I didn't come here because I ran away from the church. I lied." She immediately collapsed back into crying.
"What do you mean? Why did you come here, then?"
"Because Father David told me to." She said. "He sent me here to try and frame the coven for biting people."
There was a long moment where the room was silent, save for Maria's own quiet sobbing. Carmen shifted, standing back up so that she was standing over her. Maria didn't look up. She couldn't.
"Have you told him anything? Have you told anyone from the church anything?" Carmen asked. Maria still couldn't look up, but she was surprised at how even her voice was.
Maria shook her head. "They only tried to contact me once after I left. It was the night at the sushi bar. I told them to leave me alone."
