“You're no longer one of us,” he said, his voice filled with venom. “You made your bed with the vampires, now you have to lie in it.”
The hunters were just as confused as I was. My father was known to be a ruthless vampire hunter, yet here he was, letting his own child live. Even when our organization specifically called him to end this. To endme.
A kind of painful hope unraveled in my chest. It caused bloodred tears to fill my eyes.
All my life, I had wanted my parents to show they cared about me. That it wasn't just about the prophecy. But I had been disappointed and hurt over and over again, both physically and mentally.
But now, for the first time, my father was showing me the mercy I never got as a child.
“I'm going to finish this prophecy,” I told him, pushing myself to a sitting position as the hunters started to slowly retreat. “Not for the hunters. For myself and the people I love.”
My father motioned for the others to leave. They cast one glance at me before they started disappearing. Behind buildings. Into the surrounding forest. Melding into the darkness like the professionals they were.
Leaving only my father and me.
“How noble of you,” he replied. “Maybe it'll make you feel better about betraying your people.”
I let out a growl and shakily stood. Pain was coursing through my veins, and my vision was still hazy. They’d taken the sound machine, but the ringing was still there, making it hard for me to concentrate.
“Don't you see they've been betraying us? They're just using our bodies, our lives, to further their agenda. Don't you understand how much pain we went through to get here? Is any of it truly worth it?”
“You’re bleeding out, yet you still have the energy to lecture your own father.”
I took a step forward, and this time he didn't move. He let me get closer. So I took another step. And then another.
“You're here. You let me live. So you must know it even if you don't admit it. Don't you want more? Don't you want to see your children again?”
His throat bobbed, and his eyes fell to the ground.
“Vesper, I?—”
I wobbled, almost falling over before his hand caught me. It was warm and gentle, so much so that it caught me off guard. I flinched, expecting pain, but it never came.
“They turned you against us. Your own children. Don't you see it?”
His face twisted. His jaw tightened.
“It doesn't change anything,” he said, pulling me up. “In another life, one where we weren't tasked to save our species from ruin, maybe I could've been a better father.”
“You can still try?—”
“Enough,” he spat, but it lacked the usual harshness. It brought me back to a memory.
I was a child, begging him for something. I forgot what it was, maybe candy or a toy, but I remembered how tired my father had been at that moment. And it made me understand that, while he had been cruel and hurtful, maybe the hunters made him that way.
I let myself fall into him. It wasn't a hug since he didn't wrap his arms all the way around me, but I felt the weight of one lingering on my back.
“Run away,” I whispered. “Take Mom and run. Nothing good will come from staying here. If not hunters, then the vampire council—they’re using our blood percentage to try to justify punishing us for being hunters. It'll never be safe.”
There was a pause before I was pushed back with a force that had me stepping back.
“I’m sorry for everythin?—”
It happened so fast, and I was so disoriented I didn’t realize what was happening. Blood splattered all over me. My father's face froze in a horrified expression. I looked down at his chest, where a hand had been shoved, holding his still-beating heart.
I opened my mouth in horror, the scream still building in my chest as the person pulled his hand away and let my father's dead body fall to the ground.
General Lee was there, staring at the heart in his hand as it slowly stopped beating. He looked horrible. His hair was a greasy mess around his head. Blood covered his body, but it didn't seem like it was all my father’s. His shirt was torn, and I could see the scars Aurelia mentioned peeking out.
