"Nora could sense my sire wasn’t what he seemed, but no one was inclined to listen to a child. She was much younger than me and my parents had her later in life. She never realized how deeply entrenched the companion was in this world, largely in part because they grew up together."
"They fell in love," Liam said with a soft look in his eyes. "She was so happy when she got pregnant with Connor. By that time, I’d been a vampire just under two decades."
I blinked at him. How was he able to hide the fact he didn’t age?
His smile was wry. “I traveled. A lot. When it came time for me to age, I dyed my hair. It also helped that my sire would compel those who started to notice my lack of aging to forget their suspicions. Nora was the only one who ever suspected, but because I was her brother, she never looked too deep. In the end, she didn’t want to know.”
Liam fell silent.
I reached up, caressing his jaw. "What happened?"
"When Connor was around ten, there was an ambush. I’d miscalculated. In my arrogance, I assumed humans would never be able to fight on the same level as me. I was wrong. The companion was mortally wounded in battle. His master had no choice but to turn him or let him die."
Liam looked at me. "It's almost unheard of for a master to attempt two turnings in less than fifty years, but he loved his blood companion as a son. The two had been together since the companion was an infant. If my master hadn't been as powerful and ancient as he was, I have no doubt the companion would have died."
I had a sinking suspicion I knew where this was going. The carefully worded way he made sure not to name the companion was a dead giveaway.
"Thomas was the companion," I said.
Liam held my gaze as he dipped his chin in a nod. "What Nora could ignore in her brother was impossible in the man she married. When we came home, she welcomed Thomas and said she understood, that she'd rather have a vampire as a husband than a corpse."
Pain etched lines of grief on Liam's face. "She made a place for us to sleep the day away and said she'd guard it with her life. We woke to my people dragging us into daylight, stakes in hand and hatred on their faces. If our master hadn't saved us, we would have died."
The thought of Liam leaving this world before I had the chance to know him was sobering.
He didn't have to tell me how close they'd come to death. I knew well the effect the sun had on the newly turned. They would have been defenseless.
Part of me hated his sister for being capable of such an action.
I moved closer to Liam, snuggling my forehead against his shoulder as I stared unseeing at his chest. I thought about my own sister and family. How our relationship had suffered in recent years and what it would feel like for them to try to end my existence.
It wasn't a comfortable thought.
Already, there was strain and conflict. How much worse would it be if they knew what I was and called me monster? Would they look at me with hate and fear, convinced I was a soulless abomination?
"This is why you don't want me to have a relationship with my parents and sister," I said softly.
He made a sound of agreement, one finger drawing circles on my lower back. "Both Thomas and I know what it's like to have the people you love betray you. The pain is indescribable. If either of us seem uncaring or harsh, there is a reason for it. Neither of us want you to live through that."
I understood even as I knew I wouldn't give up on my family so easily. They might act like Liam's sister had, but they might not. It was that "what if" that kept me from writing them off entirely.
"How did Thomas end up being the one to sire Connor?" I asked, changing the topic to a less heavy one for now. "He would have been incredibly young, not even out of his first century."
I thought vampires were incapable of siring progeny until they were much older, more powerful.
Liam's long exhale told me he saw what I was doing but was going to let it go—for now.
"Like you, Thomas was something of an outlier. A decade after she tried to have us slaughtered in our sleep, enemies swept through and killed her and most of our people. Connor managed to survive," Liam said.
Poor Connor—and Thomas.
It couldn't have been easy to know someone he once loved had died in such a violent manner—even with all that had happened.
"Connor blamed his father," I guessed.
Liam shook his head. "No, quite the opposite. He was overjoyed Thomas had returned. The cracks in their relationship started much later."
I frowned at him.
