Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I know that Braith, but they will not be accepted if I stay human, will they?”
He swallowed heavily as he shook his head. “They have agreed that our oldest child will have a seat on the council, but if the child is human, he or she will not be accepted as my heir. It will have to be a vampire child of ours, and even if it doesn’t sound like it, that is a huge concession for them. Though, I don’t plan on stepping down for a very long time.”
“Would others accept them?”
He hesitated. “It’s going to be very difficult for awhile Aria. It’s going to be a long time before our society operates the way we want it to.”
“Probably not in my lifetime though,” she muttered. “The life they will face...” Her voice trailed off as she turned toward the fountain. “We fought to make a better world, but our children will still know hardship and hostility…”
“No.” He grasped her chin easily as he turned her head toward him. “No. Our children will know no such thing.” But even as he said the words he knew that he was trying to force things again, trying to make things bend to his will. “Ok, yes, they may face some obstacles but all children do, and things will be different for them. There will be prejudices, distrust, and hatred for a long time to come, but one day all of this will be just a memory and the hatred will fade.”
“Just as the memories of the world that used to exist have faded, I don’t have that many years though Braith.”
“I know.” This was it; the time had finally come to tell her. He was fairly certain of the choice she would make, he just wasn’t sure he was ready for it. “Aria, there is something you must know.”
She frowned at him. “What is it?”
He braced himself before continuing on. “Xavier knows many things; more than both of us could ever learn, or figure out, or understand over hundreds of years.”
“I know, he’s fascinating.”
“That’s one way to describe him I suppose, most go with peculiar but I guess fascinating works.” The furrow in her brow deepened as she stared at him. “He also sees deeper into people than anyone I’ve ever known, and he understands more about the way they work. He sees things in this world that no one else would, or even could. Before you were captured I noticed that he had taken a particular interest in you.”
“What kind of an interest?”
“That’s what I was curious to know, and I confronted him on it.”
“What did he say?” she prompted when he didn’t speak for an extended moment.
He didn’t want to say the words, as badly as he wanted to blurt them. “He believes that you have vampire blood in your heritage.”
She became as still as stone, even her heart seemed to freeze for an instant before giving a forceful kick against the inside of her ribs. “That’s not possible.”
“I think it is.”
“No.” She shook her head so vehemently that her hair flittered around her face. “No, Braith. I’m human.”
“Yes, you most certainly are human. However I believe that somewhere, over the years, one of your ancestors was the child of a vampire. Listen to me Aria, it makes sense,” he said when she continued to shake her head. “You’re so fast, faster than most humans, and only Daniel and William move with the same sort of soundless grace that you do.” He didn’t add her father in; this was difficult enough without that reminder.
“Max is quick and capable in the woods, but nowhere near as quick or as silent as the three of you. You’re strong; you yourself were amazed when you destroyed that vampire in The Barrens. The first time I ever saw you maneuver through the trees, even I thought the speed and grace with which you moved was extraordinary. I’d never seen anything like it. If I’d been thinking clearly at the time, maybe I would have picked up on it, but I don’t think I’ve thought clearly since I met you.”
“Same here,” she muttered as she stopped shaking her head and frowned at the fountain.
“There’s also the bloodlink.”
“It’s never been with a human before, Ashby and Melinda were so baffled by us.”
“As was Xavier and Gideon. No vampire has found their bloodlink in a human, Xavier is certain of it.”
“That might explain why I unreasonably felt like I could trust you from the beginning, and why I was strangely unafraid of you when I first met you. I was always so reckless and driven to find a piece of me I didn’t know was missing, until you kissed me and I found it. Maybe there is a little bit of vampire DNA in me that recognized something in you.”
He quirked an eyebrow as she frowned at him. “You weren’t fearful of me? I’m terrifying.”
“Nowhere near as afraid of you as I was of that other vamp that tried to claim me.” He would have protested if she wasn’t smiling at him so endearingly. “But what does that mean Braith? What difference does it make if somewhere along the way there was a vampire in my family?”
“It didn’t have to be a vampire; it could have been a human-vampire child banished from the palace, one that fled in order to avoid the abuse they received.”
Dawning realization settled over her features. “My great grandfather left the palace when he was a child. He later started the rebellion.”
“I know, you told me that in The Barrens, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. When I spoke to your father…”
“My father knew of this? What did he say?” The yearning in her voice tore at his heart.
“He told us what you just did. His grandfather left the palace at thirteen; he struggled to survive on the streets of the town before retreating into the woods. Once in the woods, he gathered a loyal following that over time became the rebellion. Your father didn’t know much about his time in the palace, only that his grandfather had left after his mother died, and that he had a deep hatred of vampires. David assumed it was because of the abuse he’d sustained while in the palace. He admitted it could have been possible that it was more than just that. He said there were strange rumors about the man when David was a child, but they faded after his death, and were chalked up to having been created to add an aura of mystery and power to the rebel leader.”
“What kind of rumors?” Aria inquired.
“That he was faster than a human, stronger, could see better and hear better than a hawk. Your father never really thought anything of it, and your great grandfather was killed when your father was only ten. He’d never spoken about it with his father as there had been no reason to question any of it, until Xavier.”