The Promise (Neighbor from Hell, #10)(86)

While life with his father was wonderful, it was also very lonely. For the first fourteen years of his life, his father had taken him all over Europe desperate to keep him safe. He’d searched everywhere for answers, taking Trace with him and as he did his best to keep Trace’s existence a secret. When Trace was six-years-old, weak, sick, and barely bigger than a toddler his father became desperate to save the child that his wife had so desperately wanted and did something no other vampire would have dared.

He’d kidnapped a priest who’d sworn allegiance to the Sentinels, the group of altered humans placed on earth to fight against vampires, demons, and shifters. With one move, his father had signed his own death warrant, but hadn’t cared. The only thing that mattered to Ethan was keeping his promise he’d made to his wife and protecting their child.

For three weeks, he’d kept the priest prisoner in a cave a mile away from the little tavern where his father had left him in the care of a local whore. His father had paid her to ignore her usual customers and focus on him with the promise of an excruciating death if she failed in any way. Night and day his father questioned the priest, careful to keep Trace’s existence a secret.

The priest refused to answer. At first, his father had been patient with the older man, hoping to coax the holy man out of the answers he desperately needed. It wasn’t until the whore stumbled into the cave, carrying Trace who’d taken a turn for the worse, that his father had lost control. He’d attacked the priest and threatened to turn him if he didn’t tell him what he needed to know to save Trace.

The threat worked. The priest had quickly explained that children like Trace were not human, something his father had feared since his birth. He’d also explained that he was a Pyte, the unnatural product between a vampire and a human woman. He explained that a Pyte would remain weak unless he was fed blood along with human food and if he reached his sixteenth year he would go into a deep sleep and wake up changed into a true immortal with absolutely no way to kill him. The priest had refused to tell Ethan anything else. Instead, he’d pleaded with Ethan to kill Trace before it was too late.

As Ethan struggled with what the priest had told him the terrified whore had pulled a small dagger from between her breasts and tried to stab Trace through his heart. She would have succeeded if the priest hadn’t screamed at her when she’d hesitated. Ethan lunged for her, taking the dagger in his shoulder in the process and before she could scream for help, he’d ripped her throat out.

Using the dead whore’s dagger, he’d slit his own wrist and carefully fed Trace his blood, praying the priest hadn’t lied to him. For two days straight, his father held vigil over him while the priest prayed for his death. Once Trace managed to open his eyes, his father had been determined to do whatever it took to keep him safe until the day that he would no longer have to worry about him.

Ethan had kept his word to the priest even though he knew by doing so that he was unleashing a witch-hunt on the two of them, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to hurt a man of God no matter the reason. He’d made the priest promise to give them a day’s start before he alerted the Sentinels. Once the promise was given, he’d freed the priest, grabbed Trace, and fled. They’d barely made it out of town before the Sentinels had come for them.

From that point on, he’d kept Trace hidden from everyone, too afraid that someone would figure out that Trace was the small boy that the Sentinel Council was looking for. They’d moved frequently, searching for others like Trace, and finding nothing but rumors and ghost stories meant to scare children into behaving.

No matter how many nests he came across, Ethan couldn’t find anyone that had come across another Pyte before. But once a Master caught wind of Trace’s existence they were forced to run since Masters either wanted to kill him or keep him to find out what he could do for them once he hit his immortality.

Once they’d outstayed their welcome in Europe, his father bought passage for the two of them to the colonies. They’d both instantly fallen in love with New England. Although it was already a well-loved area for many demons and shifters, vampires were reluctant to settle in the colonies since it would have been more difficult to hide what they were. It would have been safer for them to stay in Europe where they could move more freely, but his father hadn’t wanted to take any more chances.

For the past two years, the two of them had enjoyed a sense of freedom they hadn’t known in Europe. They mostly stayed in small townships, which Trace preferred. When they were in the small cities like Boston, Trace wasn’t allowed to leave their rooms, but here he could go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted as long as he avoided the shifter Packs that sometimes crossed this area.

He’d made a point of going outside every day, enjoying the sunlight on his skin while he still could. In a matter of days, weeks, or months he was supposed to make his transition and then the sun would be lost to him forever. It was the same reason that his father had settled them here even though it meant that he had to travel most of the night to the nearest city to feed.

For years, Trace had been counting down the days until his sixteenth birthday. Once Trace hit his immortality, which according to that priest’s should be soon, his father would no longer have to worry about him, and he could return to Europe where life would be easier for him.

Trace had already decided that he wouldn’t follow his father back, not after the warning the priest had given them. Once he underwent his transformation, he was going to move away from everyone and everything. He’d feed on rats if that’s what it took because he refused to be the monster that he was meant to be.