Discovery of Death (11 page)

The image of that woman, though. He felt a connection to her in a way he hadn’t to anything else since he’d been reborn. The woman . . . he couldn’t help but feel he’d seen her before, and not only her, but others in the images that flashed through his mind afterward as well. The man whom he presumed was the woman’s husband, and the young lady who was as intriguing as she was beautiful. When he brought the image of the three of them to the fore of his mind, there was a warmth that permeated from the thought that swept through him, a sense of not only familiarity about them, but of belonging.

Were these people his family from time’s past? Was he their son? Did he just kill his own mother? The human one?

He stood as Wil came up to him.

“
So, how was it?” Wil asked.

“
Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”

Wil smiled. “You’ve just been reborn and suffer memory loss. Everything is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.”

Zach smirked. “I suppose, but I do have a question.”

“
Shoot.”

“
If you guys are my family, then who was I with before I came here?”

“
Ah. You mean your Surrogates.”

“
Surrogates?” He didn’t know the word.

“
Yeah, surrogates. They’re substitutes, if you will. I had some at one point, too, so did Cassie. Our mother and father gave us up for adoption when we were born. You see, if your parents were pure-blood vampires, you yourself would be born one, too. But if your parents aren’t, meaning they didn’t descend directly from the first vampires, then their offspring are born human despite their being undead.”

“
Huh?”

“
Okay, to simplify: Mother and Father weren’t always vampires. They were born human and were eventually bitten so turned into vampires. With me so far?”

“
Yeah.”

“
As a result, the vampirism isn’t the dominant thing in their genes so when they had kids, the dominant side usually is what was born, in our case, humans.”

“
So why not just turn the baby into a vampire and raise it as one?”

“
Because the vampire gene is recessive, it has to mature before it can be—what’s the word? Activated?—for turning. Usually around the time kids are in their teens. That’s what Mother says, anyway.”

“
So other humans raised us until—”

“
Until Mother came for us and brought us home.”

It made sense, but was a hard thing to swallow. Not only was Zach meeting this strange new family, he was now being told he had another one out there as well.

“
Have you . . . gone back to your other family?” he asked Wil.

“
Once, but I didn’t let them see me. Mother said it would be too upsetting and could cause problems for us.”

“
Like . . . ?”

“
The family could have slayer connections and we could be found out pretty quick. It’d be really easy to put two and two together.”

“
What
about
changing your
old family into vampires?”

“
Father said that every time a slayer has been turned—assuming your old family were slayers—it always ends in bloodshed.
Our
blood. Turning a slayer, he said, was like a human angering one bee outside of its hive. It goes back in and gets an entire swarm of them to come after you. It’s just too dangerous.” Wil glanced back at Mira, Rain and Cassie, who were sitting around talking on Mira’s coffin in the middle of the room. “I wouldn’t want to die. Not again. The things I can do now, the life I lead, there are very few restrictions and I’m more powerful now than I ever was in my previous life.”

“
And if they weren’t slayers?”

“
Can’t risk it.”

Zach thought he was being too paranoid. He furrowed his brow. “Do you remember your previous life?”

“
Now I do. It took a while but it eventually came to me.
Different
memories
from different blood triggered my own
memories until, eventually, everything became clear.”

“
And you don’t miss them, your family?”

“
No.”

“
Why not?”

“
The change adjusted my outlook on everything, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed for yourself.”

He was right. Ever since the beginning Zach had a fairly easy time believing what he was told and shown. Something within confirmed all that was revealed to him as fact and even as part of the life he now led. There was also this sense of
immersion
in the vampire world, as if he was just one drop in a pond, intermixed and mingled with all the other drops. He was one, and they were one, and he was one with them.

“
I have so much to learn,” Zach said almost in afterthought.

“
Father will help you with that. He’s the oldest of us and knows more than anyone of us combined.”

“
How long have you been a vampire?”

“
Forty-two years.”

Forty-two years?
Zach thought.
He only looks twenty-something.

“
Mother turned me when I was twenty-one. Time stands still once you’ve been turned. For most of us, anyway. Sometimes the old life has trouble letting go and you continue to age for a short period before finally stopping.”

“
You mean I’ll be this way . . . forever?”

“
Pretty much.”

Zach let the idea soak in. Yet a part of him also felt cheated out of a full life despite what he got in return. He had barely begun living before becoming one of them, was only human for a short time. It would have been nice to live a longer life even if that meant being a lesser being for a larger period of time. And after the images he saw once drinking that woman’s blood, being human didn’t seem too bad either.

19

O
ver the next
few days, Rose divided her time between the home she grew up in and the home her parents had used for their nocturnal activities. Her father had taken time off work, even so far as passing any home deals in the works onto others he knew in the business.

“
Family comes first,” he said.

Rose was given time off school to grieve, which she did plenty of. Yesterday afternoon was spent in her room, crying into her pillow for at least an hour straight before getting herself together enough to take a shower.

As for her mother’s funeral, her father informed her that due to her unique death, slayers had procedures in place for such an occurrence, their people stationed in various city jobs to handle the required paperwork for a slayer’s passing. Certain reports had to be forged and signed off on. Insurance policies needed to come into play, questions needed to be answered. Rose was amazed at the operation, but if everything her father had been telling her over the last few days was true, then her mother’s memory would be safe, both on paper and in the hearts of those she knew.

The funeral was coming up in three days and preparations were already underway in terms of internment for the body.

“
You have a crypt for vampires,” Rose had told her dad, “but not for you guys?”

“
The crypt for the undead, as mentioned, is for those who don’t disintegrate at death. It’s more of a vault than a crypt, actually. As for us slayers, we’ve lived our whole lives as normal as possible on the surface. We also die as normal as possible, so the eyes of the world see that, like them, we return to dust. But there is a place overseas where the memory of slayers is preserved and a plaque will be mounted in your mother’s honor for her years of service. You and I will go there one day, when you’re ready.”

“
I’m ready now,” she said. “How about after the funeral?”

“
I would love to,” he said, “but the funeral is but the beginning for you, for you shall follow in your mother’s footsteps and train to take her place.”

Rose sighed. “Dad, I’ve been really patient with you. I’ve listened to everything you’ve told me and, even after what you’ve shown me, I’m still coming to terms with it all. A part of me believes you, another part is waiting to wake up and get on with life. But if indeed this is reality, then I don’t want to be a part of this. Even just being part of it now for Mom’s sake is hard enough. I’m hoping that once everything settles, you and I can just move on and forget any of this ever happened.”

“
I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but we can’t.”

“
Why? ‘They’ won’t let you?”

“
No. But I know that which I fight, and it’s something I cannot walk away from. As for you, yes, you do have a choice, but I want you to carefully consider it. Don’t let grief over your mother interfere with your decision.”

“
How can you be so cold like that? You sound like Mom’s death was all in the line of duty or something, and once she’s laid to rest, that’s it and life goes on with you heading down the same path that killed her.”

“
I don’t expect you to understand.”

“
You’re right . . . I
don’t
understand.”

“
One day you will.”

“
I don’t want to.”

“
You will.”

Rose rolled her eyes and stormed out of the room.

♦ ♦ ♦

On the day of Shelly Jordan’s funeral, the sky was overcast and there was a slight chill on the air. The limousine rolled up to Eagle Park Cemetery just past eleven o’clock in the morning. Rose stepped out of the limo and her father came out behind her. Other members of Shelly’s family, Rose’s cousins, and others on her dad’s side drove up in their own vehicles, everyone somber, eyes cast down to the ground.

The priest led the way through the cemetery, leading the family to the shelf-like crypt—a
columbarium—
where Shelly’s ashes would be laid to rest. Marcus wanted it that way, and Rose knew most of the reasons had to do with his other “job.”

“
We can’t preserve the body,” her father had told her. “Your mother and I already talked about this. We must purge any chance of infection with fire, even if the other was killed rather than turned. Likewise, by cremating the remains, they become useless to any vampire who might learn our true identities and use the body as leverage against us at a later date.”

Rose understood, but that didn’t mean she liked it. “Your life is governed by slaying the undead, isn’t it?”

Her father looked her in the eye. “Yes, but so was your mother’s, and please don’t view it as a hindrance. It is not. It is an honor.”

Now, after the funeral service in the church, Rose and her father stood before the vertical crypt, the door to her mother’s cubbie in the
columbarium
open. Her father held the urn containing her mother’s ashes, the urn itself inside a black velvet bag.

“
If you would, please, Mr. Jordan,” Father Melnick said.

Rose’s father nodded, brought the velvet bag close to his chest, and gave it a squeeze. “Rose,” he said, and the two walked together to lay Shelly in her eternal resting place. “Together.”

Rose cupped her hands under her father’s, and together they brought the bag with the urn to the open
columbarium
and set the bag within.

Tears in her eyes, she whispered, “Bye, Mom. I love you. I’ll do my best to take care of Dad.”

She turned away, only to hear her father whisper to his wife, “Until we meet again. I love you, Shelly.”

They returned to their place before the
columbarium
, while the priest finished the eulogy.

Family and friends gathered around the Jordans, sobbing, some putting hands on each other’s backs. A few embraced in sorrowful hugs.

Marcus Jordan held his daughter tight, and Rose held him even tighter. Her world had changed, she knew. Not only had she lost her mother, but she had also lost her father, the man she knew before learning he was a slayer.

20

Z
ach sat outside
his family’s mausoleum, his back against its side. Despite it being daylight, the overcast clouds kept the majority of the sun’s rays from his skin. Rain, had told him that while direct sunlight was fatal, cloudy weather was not. However, UV rays still filtered through the clouds and, out here, Zach felt them on his exposed hands and face. His skin was hot, a subtle burn, but right now the heat was a distraction from his thoughts.

In the past few days, he had hunted each night, once each with Rain, Wil and Cassie. The thrill of snatching prey from the streets of the city was almost as exciting as the moment before he bit into his victim’s neck and bled them dry, their blood a launchpad into a tidal wave of euphoria. The aftermath of his victims’ memories was something he also looked forward to, as each image flashing before his eyes connected him further with his old life and how things were before he was reborn.