I backed up. “So, you are willing to kill people if you have to?”
She smiled darkly. “Survival of the fittest.”
“Is Caleb turning my mother into one of you?”
“I believe that he has chosen your mother to be his mate.”
Oh, hell.
“Is Caleb your real father?” I asked, continuing with my questions. If she was willing to answer, I wasn’t going to stop.
“Yes,” she said. “My father became a… vampire first. He then turned me into one to save my life.”
My eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”
“I had Typhoid.”
“Wow, when was that?”
“Eighteen ninety-one,” she said.
I stared at her in shock. “That would make you…”
“Much older than you,” she answered.
Caleb stormed into the bedroom and waved at me. “Let’s go. We have to get you out of here before your brother and Duncan show up. I guess they know about this place from Susan.”
“Are you taking me home?” I asked, backing away from him.
His eyes narrowed. “You weren’t hurt, and when I walked in on you and Ethan, you looked to be enjoying yourself. You aren’t planning on pressing any charges against Ethan, are you?”
I looked past Caleb to where Ethan was standing with his arms crossed, looking furious. “No,” I said.
“You aren’t going to make any trouble for us, are you? Not that anyone would believe you anyway,” said Caleb.
“If you leave my mother alone,” I said. “I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
Caleb’s face turned dark. “I can’t do that.”
“Yes you can! Do you think I want my mom turning into a vampire? I’ve seen her neck!” I yelled, surprising myself.
He sighed. “There are things you don’t understand. Your mother… I have feelings for her and I’d do anything for her.”
“So you’d turn her into one of you?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “How do I say this?” he stepped closer. “Your mother has cancer and I’m giving her a second chance.”
I snorted. “You seriously expect me to believe that?”
“She has breast cancer,” he said, his face grim. “Hell, she doesn’t even know about it yet.”
I felt sick to my stomach. “What, you can sense that?”
He nodded. “Yes and if she becomes one of us, she’ll survive. If she doesn’t, she may die.”
“But you didn’t even consider giving her a chance?”
“I was afraid she’d say no,” he said. “You’re right, though, I didn’t give her a choice. She may hate me when she finds out, but at least she’ll be alive.”
“Do you consider yourself alive?”
Ethan stepped past Caleb and put his hands on my shoulders. “Do I look dead to you? What you felt earlier, was that really so bad?”
I stepped back. “Ethan, you’re trying to control me again. I don’t know how I feel about you because it isn’t real. You use your powers to make me feel things that I’m not even sure about.”
“I only did it the first night we met,” he said. “And I’m…. sorry. But I haven’t manipulated you at all since that night. Every feeling, every emotion you’ve had since then, has been real.”
There was a sharp knock at the door and someone stepped into the room. “We have to do something, now!” hollered one of the guys I’d seen Ethan with in the diner the other night. “Someone’s here. I think it’s her damn brother.”
“Fuck,” groaned Caleb.
“Wait,” said Celeste. “Let me take care of him.”
“Don’t you dare hurt my brother,” I snapped.
She smiled. “Believe me, when I’m done with him, he’ll be begging me to hurt him. But in a good way.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but Caleb nodded and said, “Celeste won’t hurt him or she’ll answer to me.”
She gave him a pouty face as she stepped out of the room.
Caleb nodded towards the door. “You’re free to leave,” he said to me.
I looked at Ethan, who was obviously upset. “I…”
“I told you before that you were free to go,” he said. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
I’m sure he still thought I was Miranda and wanted me to become a vampire like he was. But the very idea of doing that was frightening beyond belief. I still wasn’t exactly sure how I felt about him, but I knew without a doubt that I didn’t belong to that world.
I looked down and stepped past him to the door.