Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

What's Best

           Ava

I woke up in another room from my drugged stupor in another room. A room that was bleaker, darker, where there were no windows. I looked down to see that my wrists were bound to the metal chair I sat in. Someone stood feet away from me, her familiar Hunter scent lingering in the air. My mother.

My memories of the minutes before my blackout stood fuzzy in the back of my mind. But then I remembered the words my mother spoke. My whole chest burned at the thought of Liv. She's becoming just like you. Right now, in this very building, in a room tucked away somewhere, Liv was transforming into the very monster I was.

As my mother paced in front of me, I noticed the sharpened stake she held in her hand. Derek stood behind her, his burly arms crossed over his broad chest like he was her bodyguard or something.

"Mom..." I whispered through the dryness in my throat. How long had I been here now? How long had it been since I had blood?

My mother stood expressionless, gripping the stake in her hand, ready to use it if need be. But this woman wasn't my mother anymore. She gave up that title a long time ago. And now she had every capability of killing me.

"She's weak," Derek said.

"Of course." She gripped the stake tighter. "She's growing thirstier. If she wasn't tied up right now, she would go after one of us using up all of her remaining energy. But she wouldn't succeed, would she? Because we've been trained since we were young to deal with this sort of thing. To deal with hungry vampires."

By the inflections in her voice, I knew she was all talk. For some reason, she was stalling. Just making me suffer longer. Torturing me in her own ruthless ways. I gritted my teeth together, pulling unsuccessfully at the binds. They burned my skin.

"What do you want?" I hissed through gritted teeth. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Oh, sweetie. Isn't it obvious?" She stepped towards me, her boots clacking on the concrete floor. "I am a Hunter on a mission. You just happen to be the vampire who landed in my grasp. You might not realize it, not now, but I am doing all of this for you."

I glanced over at Derek, noticing the syringe he held filled with an odd red substance. He came towards me, his expression strict and all business. But there was something off about him. Maybe it had to do with the sweat on his brow. The nervous gestures he had.

"For a while now, I have been working on a project that I believe will change everything about the vampire world."

Derek sauntered behind me where he grabbed onto my arm and pressed the cold needle to my skin right at the crook of my elbow. He didn't let go of the syringe though, he just kept it there pressed against my body as he waited for the command.

"For years, I have spent my time in labs when I wasn't out hunting down your kind. I spent nights staring at words that would make no sense to you and your lack of Hunter knowledge. I have tested combination after combination of ingredient found all around the world. All to save us. All to save humanity." Her eyes darkened in such a sense that made my whole body freeze over. "A cure."

A cure. I digested the word. Digested her expression. Her determinute. A cure—a solution to vampirism. A way to destroy the monstrous life—this existence. The same life I lived. The same one my mother despised. I thought about the syringe filled with strange liquid.

That's why I was here. I was her first live experiment.

"Please," I whispered through the dark room.

Admittedly, my life as a vampire hadn't been all rainbows and sunshin. But it had been worth something—so much more than my human life. Finally, I found an ounce of myself. My feelings began coming to the forefront. I could finally consider myself.

And the way my mother looked at me now, with such spite, I knew whatever explanation I had would only fall flat. I also knew that whatever Derek held might not be the solution to everything my mother wanted. She didn't truthfully know if it would work. For all we knew, it could kill me.

"Out of all the people in this world, my daughter," she hissed. "Somehow, you managed to get yourself turned. After all my work, my own child. I am here to solve this problem, Ava. I want to change you back. Make you human again."

I shook my head. "You can't change who I am."

"Haven't you hear what I've been saying?" Her voice rose. "I can change you. I can fix you."

In my mind, I saw the faces of the people I had met in the last month. The people—all vampires—I had come to know and care about. Angelina, Victor, Bernard, Jacqueline, even Jane. And William. They were genuine people. They were better and had more humanity than half the humans I knew. More than the man lurking behind me and woman standing in front of me.

"I can't be fixed," I told her, my voice small. I attempted to sit up in my chair, gathering up all the strength I could muster. "You can't fix me, Mom, because there is nothing to fix."

I kicked my feet up, using the last ounce of my strength, and threw them right into her torso, knocking her down to the floor.