As the silence stretched, Tarian offered her a respite.
“I was a strong necromancer from the time of my birth,” Tarian said, his voice rough. “But my other powers developed over time. I can sense my kind, as you know, and sometimes I can command them as I would a vampire. It only works on the younger or weak willed of my kind, but I can do it.”
She glanced at him. “Not Dominic.”
“No. Not Dominic.”
Necromancers shouldn’t be able to control others of their kind. It was a talent she’d never even heard whispers about. That he’d trusted her with it gave her the courage to continue speaking of her transformation.
“My mother stayed with Lucian for the rest of her life,” she said. “She loved him as she’d never loved another, but she refused to be transformed. She never wanted this life.”
“Did she want it for you?”
Melissa closed her eyes, thinking back to the fateful day when her mortality had ended. “I don’t know. She wanted me to live, though as what, I can only guess.”
“What happened?”
“We were traveling to meet with Lucian. It was right at sunset and we were at the edge of a steep hill. Something spooked the horses, and the next thing I knew we were falling.”
She still saw the rotating hill flash by her window in her nightmares. As they’d fallen, she’d seen her mother’s terrified face. Both knew they weren’t getting out alive.
“I was thrown free,” she continued. “Hit my head and blacked out. Lucian tells me he raced to the scene as soon as the sun set but it was too late. I was unresponsive, and my mother was pinned under the carriage.”
Tarian’s hand tightened around hers. “The transformation can’t heal extreme injuries.”
“I know.” The odds of her mother surviving even if she’d agreed to become a vampire were slim. Vampire blood had the power to heal almost any wound, but it still needed veins to circulate through. “She died making Lucian promise to take care of me. He would have anyway, but I like thinking that her last words were about me.”
“So Lucian turned you.”
“He wasn’t going to risk losing us both. I didn’t even get a choice, just woke up with an aversion to sunlight.”
Tarian glanced at her. “Did you regret it?”
“No.” Sometimes it made her feel guilty that she reveled in something he mother had loathed, but she loved her new life. Being a vampire, being strong and fast, gave her a power she’d never had as a human. Her mortal life would have been short and hard, but as an immortal she could enjoy the rolling of the years. She had experienced music, art, and culture that a normal lifespan would never have been able to offer. Even if Lucian had waited for her to wake before turning her, she wouldn’t have made a different choice.
“Necromancers are born not turned,” Tarian said. “We never have a choice.”
“Did you want to be something else?”
A humorless smile twisted his lips. “For years. No necromancer child gives thanks for what we are. Not in a world that despises us.”
Melissa looked away, knowing she’d been part of the world that had perpetuated anti-necromancer sentiments.
“Things changed during the wars. I was young and revolutionary.”
“I doubt you were fighting for a world where necromancers and vampires were treated as equals.”
He tensed. “No. I fought for the extinction of your kind.”
She tried not to let the knowledge hurt. After all, Lucian had fought to eradicate necromancers, so fair was fair. Still, she couldn’t help wondering if any trace of those hate filled years existed in the man she knew today.
“What changed your mind?”
“My father died. Killed by a vampire on the field. Suddenly it wasn’t a game anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Tarian shrugged. “It was a long time ago. My mother and I did our best to survive. She was always more of a pacifist than anyone else in the family.”
“So you learned from her.”
“Yes.”
She smiled, cuddling up on her seat. “I’d like to meet her.”
“She’d have liked you,” Tarian replied. “But she died several decades ago.”
The pit of her stomach dropped. Losing one parent was bad enough, but if anything happened to Lucian she wouldn’t know how to exist.
“I’m sorry.”
“We were in hiding, and she was pregnant. Hard to get good medical care when you have to avoid all the places decent doctors are likely to hang out.”
Yet another reason to hate vampires.
“My sister survived,” Tarian said. “And I had a reason to keep going.”