Vampire Most Wanted(78)

            “He rushed downstairs, sent one of the servants up to get me, and tried to battle with my mother, but she could still control him. When Aegle, the mortal servant my father had sent to fetch me, returned to the top of the stairs with me in her arms, two of the remaining servants were dead and the third was rushing up the stairs while my mother and father struggled below, the pair of them engulfed in flames.”

            Divine paused, more to let Marcus digest everything she’d just said than for her own sake. To her, this was an old story, one she’d lived with her whole life. She had no more tears for her long-lost parents and felt only sadness for her father who had been used so poorly and then had died trying to save her and the servants.

            “The servants got you out,” Marcus said finally.

            It wasn’t a question, but Divine nodded in response anyway. “They managed to unblock an upstairs window and jump out with me.” She turned her fork absently on her plate and said, “I don’t know what became of the other servant. I think Aegle said she left us, planning to return to her own family, but Aegle stayed in the area for three days waiting for my father’s brother to come before giving up and setting out to try to find my family herself.” She glanced to him and grimaced before explaining, “Aegle was actually my nanny, though I don’t think they called it that back then. She’d cared for me since birth and had been trusted with our secrets. She knew that I was an immortal and needed blood to survive and did her best to help me get it. But I was young and couldn’t yet control the minds of donors which made matters difficult.”

            “How the devil did she see you fed then?” he asked with amazement.

            “I don’t remember it, but I was later told that she lured men to a secluded area and then knocked them out so that I could feed on them.” Divine smiled faintly. “Aegle was a very intelligent and creative woman.”

            “No wonder she had to move after a couple of days then,” Marcus said with amusement. “I’m actually surprised she stayed in the area as long as she did with those men no doubt out looking for her.”

            Divine nodded.

            “So she was able to find your family and reunite you with them?” he asked after a moment when Divine didn’t continue.

            “Eventually.”

            Marcus’s eyes narrowed. “How eventually?”

            Divine sighed. “I was eleven when we kind of stumbled across an uncle who read my mind, realized who I was, and took us to my grandparents.”

            “Do you mean to tell me it took seven years for—”

            “Yes,” Divine interrupted. “I’m afraid the way we were forced to live didn’t help. Actually, it hampered it greatly. We could never stay anywhere long with her having to knock out people for me to feed on.”

            Marcus dropped back in his chair with dismay. “You had no one to teach you to read or control their minds so she could stop knocking them out.”

            “No,” Divine admitted.

            For some reason her answer made him frown, and he said slowly, “But surely you began to learn to do so on your own? It is a natural skill. Training helps, but with enough time around mortals you should have begun to pick up on their thoughts, and then started to be able to begin to control them.”

            “But I wasn’t spending time around mortals other than Aegle,” she told him. “We were constantly moving, traveling mostly at night to avoid the sun’s damage and the need to feed even more often. And then the stories of Aegle’s attacks on men became almost legendary and we had to avoid people in case they had heard of her and had been given a description.”

            “Hmmm.” Marcus shook his head. “It’s a wonder you found your uncle at all.”