Page 33 of No One’s Daughter

“Actually…” he said, reaching in and, grabbing the chain between the cuffs, I breathed a sigh of relief, idiotically thinking he’d remove them. Instead, he attached them to the car’s grab handle. My arms were pulled up awkwardly, limiting my mobility even further. “Wouldn’t want you running. Can’t take any chances,” he taunted, winking at me, actually fucking winking. Then he slammed the door in my face before I could even voice my protest.

I kicked the seat in front of me in frustration just as he slid into the driver's seat. “Don’t make me shackle your ankles too,” he said without turning. “Because make no mistake, I would. Happily.”

I stilled. The threat wasn’t empty, and I wasn’t interested in testing him. So I bit my tongue and kept my limbs to myself.

“Good girl.”

The words were both patronising and deliberate. My jaw twitched with the urge to respond, but I refused to engage with him.

He started the ignition, one hand steady on the wheel as the engine turned over smoothly beneath his touch. He looked frustratingly competent, and I had a feeling he knew exactly what he was doing.

I threw dagger eyes at him through the review mirror where his gaze had briefly locked onto mine. I didn’t like how he had managed to get under my skin so quickly. He had disarmed me like it was nothing, like I was nothing.

I broke eye contact first, turning my attention to the window instead. I refused to let him see that he affected me.

We travelled in silence, my mind reeling with a million questions but I knew asking him would be fruitless. Civilization slipped away gradually—streetlights thinned and buildings gave way to long stretches of darkened tarmac lined with hedgerows and open fields. The further we drove, the fewer cars we passed. The roads narrowed as we went, winding through the countryside, the car’s headlights cutting clean paths through the dark. He had one large hand lazily hung over the steering wheel, the other tapping his thigh as he kept his focus on the winding country lanes.

I shifted slightly in my seat, the pull on the restraints a constant reminder of my current predicament. I tried to go over the events of the last forty-eight hours. Make sense of them and what they meant for my future.

Was I really a goddamn vampire?

The revelation meant that the woman who I’d believed was my mother all my life—wasn’t. I’d never known who my father was, so there was no loss there.

But I kept returning to the part where I wasn’t my mother’s daughter. Had she known? Is that why she’d despised me?

But the biggest question that dug the deepest was, why? Why did she raise me? How had I come to be with her? Why?

Was Claire the same as me?

No, I shook the thought from my mind. Claire actually looked like our mother, the same brown hair, same brown eyes.

Deep down I knew, I’d always felt like I didn’t belong, so this—as bizarre as it was—made perfect sense.

I was a vampire, and the family I thought was mine… wasn’t.

I sat in silence with my thoughts, going over every detail of my life. Every difference in how I’d been treated, and how I’d felt was analysed for clues but none of it helped. But one thing I was sure of was that all the ‘wrongness’ about me finally made sense.

After what must have been hours on the road in complete silence, the car eventually slowed as we rolled into what had to be the most unremarkable street of terraced houses I’d ever seen.

Davien parked without comment, and then—because apparently my current confinement wasn’t restrictive enough already—he unclipped the chain from the handle, and before I could even think to move, fastened it to himself.

My gaze dropped to where metal met metal.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

“No chances,” he said simply, already stepping away from the car and tugging me along with him.

Right.

Of course.

Fuck my life.

Perhaps I could ask the witch for help.

The crisp November air filled my lungs as we arrived at an old red brick house after a short walk, right in the centre of a row of attached two up and two downs. Neat little front gardens were walled off from the path and road. Though this particular lot had a weird aura about it. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I guessed it had to do with its supernatural occupant. I was sure a week ago I wouldn’t have noticed anything different about this house.

Now though, it stood out.