Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
The problem with vampires is that they know they have all the time in the world, so they assume everyone else does too. But with Lucy, that time suddenly became very narrow and very clear.
I wasn’t running out of it, but she was.
And I had wanted a child, maybe more than she did, because even when Lucy would have to inevitably go one day, her legacy would live on in our offspring. I would have them with me for life, a way of keeping her alive.
But now it looked like I was not only going to lose the child, but I could lose her as well.
So it was time for the truth.
“Don’t be sorry,” I plead, kissing her hand. “This isn’t your fault.”
“The doctors, they warned me when I was younger,” she said. “My sister died during childbirth. The same thing almost happened to my mother when she had me. They say we’re cursed.”
“You’re not cursed,” I told her, but those words rang false. It was enough that she looked at me sharply, as if she knew.
Then she surprised me. “I remember you.”
I could only stare at her in response.
She nods, squinting slightly as she licked her dry lips. “I know you remember too. I remember who I was. I loved you so, as I love you now. But my name isn’t Mina anymore. I died. I remember so clearly how I died. But you…you never died, did you?” She coughed, pink going to her cheeks. “You are still Valtu. How?”
I couldn’t help the smile on my face, the way her words opened up a whole new world for me. I wouldn’t have to get her to remember, she already did. She already knew who we were to each other.
“When did you start to remember?” I asked, unable to hide my excitement. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She gave me a look, like she was aware that I just skirted over her question with more questions. But she answered. “I think on some level I always knew. When I first met you in the museum, I thought that I knew you from before. I told my friends that but they thought I was just silly. When we first made love, I submitted myself to you in a way I thought I never would, because deep down I knew how to be with you. There are so many examples that I would brush away, thinking I had no explanation.”
She paused and gave me a weak smile before taking in a few shallow breaths. “And then the day I found out I was pregnant, I remembered being Mina. I remember how I felt when I learned I was going to have a baby, that it was going to be yours. It brought it all together.” Her eyes closed and a tear spilled out. “Oh, and that’s when I knew this baby wouldn’t live. I am cursed, Valtu, don’t you see?”
Tears pricked at my own eyes and I managed to hold them back. “No, no,” I said adamantly, reaching forward and brushing her tear away. “No, you are not cursed. We will be okay. We will have another.”
The truth is, I was the one who was cursed.
And deep down I knew there would be no other.
And she knew this too.
“Valtu,” she whispered to me. “Please tell me the truth. Why are you still you? I know you didn’t wake up one day and remember, I know you’ve known all this time. How is this possible?”
Back then, the concept of a vampire wasn’t as known as it was today. The Vampyre and Carmilla were two books about vampires that had come out before Dracula, that naturally I had already read, but I wasn’t sure how much Lucy knew other than it being Eastern European folklore.
“What if I were to tell you that I can’t die,” I said, “would you believe me?”
She nodded. “Yes. I can see that you haven’t yet. You are the same man I knew back then. Perhaps a better dresser now.”
“Well that certainly makes this easier.” I gave her a warm smile, suddenly enveloped by how much I loved her. “Lucy. I am a vampire. Do you know what that is?”
She stared at me for a moment, processing it. Then she said, “You are a vampire. Of course you are.” She sat up a little in the bed as if having a sudden burst of strength, and looked me over, her long red hair falling over her shoulder. “The undead.”
“In my case, I never died,” I explained, a little shocked that she was taking this so well. “I was born a human but turned into a vampire the day I turned thirty-five, which happened to be the day you died as Mina. I never knew, of course, and I often wonder why God couldn’t have had me turn just moments earlier. I could have saved you from your death. You and the baby.”