Diary of An Unnatural (BOOK #2)

A Step Back

Ava's POV

      Our group of vampires and hunters ran toward her, Hanson at the front with an expression I had never seen him wear before. Derek stood up, brow furrowed as he stared at my mother with such a look that could murder.

"What did you do, Celia?" he started, his voice ringing in my ears.

I crawled over to Liv's lifeless body. But her body wasn't lifeless anymore. The white pallor that came with being a vampire flushed pink. Her lips reddened, dried and cracked. I bent down and pressed my ear to her chest.

The flutter of a heartbeat responded followed by a gentle rise and fall.

My breath caught in my throat. "She's alive," I whispered. "She's human."

My mother pursed her lips from above us. "Not quite," she explained. "I am continuously experimenting. That was the first and last of my most recent experiment. And it was meant for you, Ava."

I pulled up to stand in front of her, protectively over Liv. "But you didn't," I said. "Liv jumped in. She took it for me. And now she's going to be human again—"

"No," Derek quickly intercepted. "Something is wrong. Her heart...it's stalled. It's not beating at the normal human pace. Part of her is still a vampire. The cure you made, Celia. It's not perfected yet you planned on using it on your own daughter?"

My mother's head snapped back to him. "I planned on taking my daughter back. I planned on turning her back to who she was. This was a last resort. But that stupid girl got in the way."

I put my arms out as if I could shield Liv from the cruelty of the woman who gave birth to me. "You can't have me, and you can't have Liv."

"I don't want your friend," she hissed, her tone almost sounding tired. "I'll leave you all to put up with her. It's her fault she's this way, so she must learn. As for you, Ava—"she stared pointedly at me, "--understand that this fight is far from over. I may be without a current cure, but I'm not without a mind. I may let you go this time just so you can see my workings in your friend, but eventually, you will come and find me. I know it. You don't want this...this life for yourself. No one could. It's not what you deserve."

I shook my head defiantly. "You have no right to tell me what I deserve."

Her eyes narrowed. "God, you are so much like your father sometimes. It sickens me."

Derek stepped towards her. "What makes you think Ava will come to you?"

"She's my daughter and a Hunter," she told him, just stating facts. "The blood that runs through her veins is special, unlike any other. Even your son's."

William's head snapped up.

"Look after her," she spoke to him now. "Watch it or she'll stab in you in the back. She has Madsen blood. No matter how much she tries to deny, she can never turn away from what she truly is."

I held my head up higher. "And what I am is a vampire."

"Keep telling yourself that, darling."

And she turned away with the rest of her Hunter lackies and walked back into the dark forest. Not giving up on me, no. But trusting I would soon follow. She had plans, plans none of us could foresee. Plans involving my loyalties. To my family—the "Madsen" blood she called it—or to the new life I lived and the only people I trusted.