The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(39)

“This is amazing,” I told him. I continued to explore. I found a gigantic walk-in closet and an adjoining bathroom.

“It is yours,” he told me.

His words echoed loudly in my head: ‘You’re very important to me. You are my blood.’

I just nodded. I didn’t want to be grateful to him. No matter what, I had to remember my mission. He had killed my mother. He was trying to buy me off, or it seemed like he was.

Alice appeared in the doorway of the other room and cleared her throat. “Your supper is ready, Mr. Trevor.” She nodded my direction. “Miss Chloe.”

I hadn’t realized she knew who I was. Trevor hadn’t bothered to introduce me.

“We will be down momentarily.” Trevor dismissed her with a slight wave of his hand. He didn’t thank her, but what else should I have expected? She hurried out of the room. “Shall we eat?.”

I wasn’t really hungry, but I figured it was best to eat to keep my energy up. I threw my bag onto the bed and followed him down to the dining room.

Later, we sat across from each other at the long dining table while Alice served us thick steaks, potato salad and corn on the cob. I picked at my food and stared down at my plate.

What exactly should I talk about with a father I have never known and whose guts I hate? Maybe he was thinking something similar, because he didn’t say anything either, except to ask if I wanted some of the red wine he had uncorked and was pouring into the crystal wine glass beside his plate.

I passed. I didn’t want to do anything that would cloud my thinking while I was around him.

I didn’t trust him.

I studied him while I messed around with my food. He was dark. Everything about him, except his skin, was dark. His hair, his eyes, his demeanor, all of it was just… black.

“So, how old are you now anyway?”

He tilted his head thoughtfully. “My mortal life was taken when I was twenty eight, the age which I will forever appear. As an immortal, I have lived nearly one thousand years.”

I almost spit out my water. “Wow!”

“Yes, it is a very long time to have lived.”

Against my vow to loathe him, my interest was piqued. I wanted to know more. “How did you become a vampire?”

He took another sip of his wine. “That is a story barely worth mentioning. It happened so long ago.”

“I think it’s worth mentioning. You should tell me.”

He shook his head. “Perhaps another time.”

I shrugged and stabbed a piece of steak. “Whatever. If you would rather sit here and stare at each other, that’s fine with me.”

“Chloe, you're being insolent.”

I shrugged again and chewed my steak then took a big swig of water to wash it down.

He leaned back in his chair, turning to the side so he could cross his legs. “I suppose, if it pleases you, I could tell you how I came to be who I am. Seeing as I am your father, it would not be a terrible thing for you know.”

After another rather delicate sip of wine, he spoke. “I was born in the Balkans. My parents bore no other children. For most of my life, I stayed home with my parents and worked the land.

“When I was twenty-two years, they both died from the sickness that had spread rapidly throughout our small community. Nothing could help them.”

As much as I wanted to hate Trevor, the look of sadness on his face when he spoke of his parents made my heart wrench a little bit, I knew what it was like to lose the ones you love.

“After their passing, I had no desire to keep our land. An inner anger I had not known before had surfaced. I wanted vengeance for something that could not have been helped. I wanted to kill people who had no part whatsoever in the spreading disease that took my parents. With this anger, I became a soldier and killed for the good our people.”

I leaned forward and ate a few bites. This was actually a good story. Much better than I expected.

“Eventually, the nobles of Italy hired foreign armies to fight for them. Their country had much wealth; however, their armies were miniscule. They were known mercenary soldiers, led by Condottieri. We were basically contract killers. Some called them soldiers of fortune.

“Italy found war and blood. I reveled in it and fought my way into one of the highest-paid armies. Years passed and my soul hardened. Death and becoming a vampire are not what made me the way I am. It was life that made me a killer.”

He paused for another sip of wine, then continued. “One night, in the calm between battles, I stood on the cliffs and looked down at the black sea. Below, I saw a woman who sat on a lower cliff, letting the spray of the waves rain down upon her white gown. I called out to her, telling her to remove herself or she would be drowned when the tide came in. Still, she sat on the cliff, staring out at the waters.”

“She was a vampire!” I guessed.

“If you want to hear my story, be silent.”

I shut my mouth, because I did want to hear it.

“Frustrated with the idiot woman, I climbed down the cliffs to retrieve her. I was a hardened soul, but I wasn’t going to stand by and watch a woman be taken by the sea for her stupidity.

“When I arrived on the cliffs below, I bellowed at her that very thing ordered her to climb back up the cliffs with me.

"When she turned and looked into my eyes, I saw the most beautiful woman, perhaps aside from your mother, that I’d ever seen. Her face was pale as ivory and hair dark as the rolling sea beneath her.