Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

13

Stephen's expression relaxed, the crinkles at the corners of his eyes transforming into a smile that lightened his whole face. He reached across the table and took my hand, his warm palm encasing mine with a familiar touch. A thrill of elation brought goosebumps rippling over my skin.

"You've always been generous, Alice, I love that about you. It means a lot to me, that you'd put Mary first after learning all that. She's the only family I have."

Stephen's bright blue eyes softened with tenderness. I could feel myself gravitate towards him. Suddenly thankful for the table that separated us, I broke the spell and pulled my hand from his.

My throat was dry and scratchy. I took a mouthful of coffee, sliding my eyes to the side before I got pulled in again. My hand fumbled in my pocket for the garnet pendant that I'd stashed there. Maybe Stephen wasn't immune to the pull of my life-force after all. His relations had been witches, even if the power had been stripped from his particular branch of the family tree.

Disappointment weighed heavy in my heart as I realised that I would have to raise my guard with one more person as a consequence of this unwanted power. It was also one more reason that I needed to distance myself from Stephen, and find a way to quell the stubborn feelings that still lingered in my heart.

Bloody hormones.

"Stephen, when did you find out about the real world? Have you always known about witches and vampires?"

It's a question that had been bugging me since my eyes were opened to the paranormal world a month ago. Both Stephen and Emily had not so much as blinked when my powers began to develop. They had accepted Thomas's true nature as a vampire without a question. I knew they had contacts in the Department of Paranormal Affairs, DPA for short, but that didn't explain when it had all started.

"Well...we had the manuscript that depicted you and your mother and the silver tree?" Stephen answered; making the statement a question because he knew it wasn't enough to explain his experience.

I shook my head, shooting him a look full of disappointment. "I thought we'd moved beyond this. You can't continue to treat me with kid gloves. I'm a grown woman. I have power of my own now. You need to trust me with the truth, however hard it is."

"You're right, I'm sorry. I was fifteen when I learnt about the real world. One night, Emily and I sneaked out to go to a warehouse rave in the city. We were young and stupid. We got mixed up with the wrong people. Or at least, we thought they were people. We owed them money for party drugs."

My eyebrows shot up.

"I know, ok, young and stupid, remember? Anyway, I had enough cash to settle the debt, but we were brash and naive, we thought we could handle it a different way."

Stephen paused, his head dropping forward. Anguish twisted his features as he struggled with the difficult memories. I wanted to tell him to stop. That I didn't need to hear any more. But I stayed silent.

I did need to hear this. I wanted to know who he really was, what had happened in his life to make him pretend to love me for a job. Whatever it was, I knew it was bad by the look on his face. A cold, sinking feeling settled in my gut as I waited for him to finish his story.

"The plan was that I would arrange to pay the dealers, and Emily would secretly record the meeting, to use as leverage to get them to drop the debt. I thought a kitchen knife taken from home would be enough protection for us both."

Stephen's skin turned deathly pale and the feeling in my gut expanded until my skin felt like an empty shell.

"They weren't human," I finished for him, my voice small and quiet.

He looked up, meeting my eyes, refusing to back away from whatever horror he had to convey next.

"Vampires, and they had been peddling ecstasy contaminated with a drop of their own blood, so that they could track their prey more easily. They let us carry out our crude plan, playing along as though they feared the paltry threat of exposure through the recording. We left the meeting high on our victory over adults that we considered no better than incompetent fools."

"You were just a kid, Stephen, don't beat yourself..." the look of sheer self-loathing on his face stopped me in my tracks.

"Emily had the room next to mine. I stumbled in, still groggy with sleep, but high on the events of the previous night. Her room was empty. Still not realizing the extent of our mistake, I starting calling for her. Then I saw the blood."

Silence ticked by in seconds that dragged out while I waited for Stephen to compose himself.

"I went back to the club, but the men were gone. Asking around, and offering hefty bribes, I got an address. They left her barely alive. It was my fault."

"It wasn't. It was both our faults," Emily said from the doorway, "blaming yourself didn't help me then, and it hasn't since. We found those vampires a couple of years later and we made them pay for what they did to me."

A look of pain flickered over Emily's face before it was gone, replaced with her usual stony detachment.

"We've worked to protect people from the monsters in the dark corners of the world ever since, whether they're human or something else. It's why we built our security business," Stephen finished.

I understood now why Emily was so lethal. I couldn't even imagine what had happened to her as a vulnerable fifteen-year-old at the mercy of reprobate vampires, and I didn't want to.

Suffice to say, I couldn't imagine anybody getting the drop on her again.

Emily's actions make a bit more sense in the context of her dark history. Hope you're enjoying the story!