The Eternal Bloodlines: Shattered Reflections

Excerpt from the Eternal Bloodlines: Dark Impulses

"So, how come I don't want to run anymore?" I turned my gaze to his, feeling so small suddenly.

"Because of your Maker," he said simply, drawing a new frown to crease my smooth white brow.

"Tobias?" I asked uncertainly.

Cipher nodded, lounging back and letting out a sigh. "Fledglings who have an absentee Maker generally won't stay put. It's like human teenagers travelling to find themselves. Same deal. And you've been trying to find yourself your whole vampire life. Toby just gave you the answers and now you're not feeling the call to go wandering anymore," he flicked his gaze to me, almost like he was trying to cement his point with a stare. "Why else would you travel all the way up to the Dandenong Ranges just to check out your old house after nearly sixty years?"

"Are you saying I went to Olinda because of Tobias?" I maintained my frown, my voice small and cold, but with a weakness in it.

"Cupcake, your Maker just came back into your life and brought a truck load of your past with him," Cipher reasoned. "He gave you the answer to who you are in the sense of your heritage as a vampire. So, logically it makes sense that you wanted to reconnect with your human one too."

"It was weird walking around in that town," I confessed, thinking about everything I had seen. "Nothing was what it used to be when I was human. It's nowhere near what it was and... seeing one of my high school friends... it made me feel so alone."

"Saw that they'd aged, huh?" he perceived.

I nodded dimly. "Yeah. I remember Ethan as a seventeen-year-old hormone factory, but that night he was an old man. He was healthy, but so, so old. And he'd had a life... even married my best friend..."

"So, you've also had the realisation of what it really means to be immortal," Cipher nodded, picking at a pepperoni on his pizza. "It ain't fun to have that moment. Believe me."

"Yeah... It isn't," I agreed quietly.

"So, logically you want to find some security in your life," he spoke with such experience that I couldn't help wondering if all vampires, if all immortals, went through these moments of clarity. "You start looking to be with others like you rather than others that you used to be like. Suddenly moving around and being a recluse to the world doesn't work anymore, and you find yourself wanting what all the humans have."

"And what's that?" I barely managed to ask that question, my voice dry and hushed.

"Connection," he replied. "And what better way to connect to someone than with the guy who made you a vampire in the first place."

I glanced at him from my feet, still hugging my knees. "You think I'm pining for my Maker?"

"Well, you've only been doing that most of your last sixty years," he said with a shrug. "The difference is that now you know that he's your Maker and not just the guy you had feelings for."

"I haven't seen him since that night in Olinda," I pointed out, letting my eyes drift back to my sock clad feet pressing into the sofa cushion. "Not since he dropped me back at my haven."

"Seriously?" he frowned. "Not even once? I thought you were lovers?"

I sighed deeply, almost painfully. "I honestly don't know what we are. Everything just feels awkward with him now that I know who he is to me. And being separated again is just making me feel... sick."

"Sick?" his frown deepened.

I nodded, my stomach still churning inside me. "Yeah. Like the separation is making me want to vomit or something. And even though he's texting me it just doesn't feel like enough."