When Darkness Falls (Book 1, the Darkness Falls Series)

Chapter Eight

"You heard me. I had a family, Kiara, and they were all killed." 

"By vampires?" 

Luke shook his head. "By vampire hunters." 

"I . . . what happened?" 

Luke shrugged and this time it was stiff and jerky, like he was trying to keep old pain from digging its claws in too deep. "I was just a kid when it happened, two maybe three. I don't really remember it, just . . . blood and fire." 

My skin tingled with a cold I hadn't felt before. 

"My parents were vampires and they were killed for that simple reason. Because they weren't human. It didn't matter that they'd never harmed anyone. They were different and that meant they deserved to die. Hunters broke into our house one night and slaughtered them." 

"Why didn't they kill you too?" My voice was a strained whisper. 

Another jerky shrug. "Maybe they couldn't bring themselves to actually stab a kid. I don't know the particulars, Kiara, but I know they wanted me dead." 

"How?" 

Luke's eyes lasered into me. "Because they set my parents' house on fire." He took another step forward. "While I was still inside." 

Bile burned my throat. Vampires reproduced like any other creature. Vampire babies grew into vampire children, vampire teenagers, and eventually vampire adults. For the first time I was struck by how similar humans and vampires were. The thought of someone stabbing a human child was enough to make my stomach try to launch itself out of my body. How was a vampire child any different? I closed my eyes and swallowed down nausea. I wanted to ask how Luke had survived, but I didn't trust myself to speak.  

I didn't need to; Luke read the question in my face. "I survived thanks to Samuel, a vampire that just happened to be in the right place at the right time. He came across our burning house and heard my cries. He'd never even met my parents, but he risked his life to save mine that night. He pulled me out of the flames and took me home." A wry smile twisted his lips. "I don't think he planned to keep me, but once he showed me to his wife, Elena . . . I think she adopted me on the spot." 

I forced the contents of my stomach back where they belonged. I couldn't bear to think of Luke, a tiny child trapped in a burning building with the bodies of his parents. If this Samuel hadn't rescued him . . . I blocked the next thought from my mind.  

"Samuel and Elena kept you," I croaked. 

"They raised me as their own. They taught me how to blend in with human society, how to keep my head down, stay off hunter radar. But it's never enough." Bitterness laced his words. "We're always running, always moving around, never putting down roots." 

For a moment I couldn't breathe. The irony of this was slapping me round the face. Standing in front of me was the person I'd waited all my life for, the one person who might truly understand me, and he was a vampire. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Both seemed appropriate.  

"I'm sorry, Luke. I know what that feels like." 

"You do?" His face creased with surprise. 

I hesitated. Now that I finally had someone to talk to, someone I could spill everything to, I was nervous. Taking a deep breath I plunged ahead. "My family never settle anywhere either. We're constantly on the move, heading from town to town, looking for something to kill. You know my friend, Riley, with the red hair and the lip-ring?" 

Luke nodded. 

"She's the first proper friend I've ever had outside my family. She's the only person who doesn't know what a freak I am, the only person I can pretend to be normal with." Frustration bubbled up inside me, leaking through the floodgates of emotion I was fighting to keep closed. "I've never belonged anywhere. I might not know what it feels like to be hunted, but I sure as hell know what it feels like to be trapped." 

Luke and I stared at each other, neither of us saying a word. There was something intimate about the silence, as if we were baring the rawest parts of our souls to each other. I felt I could have stayed like this for hours, just gazing into the silvery-grey depths of his eyes.  

But we didn't have hours to spare. The night was plodding along, soon it would be morning. When I was with Luke, it was so easy to forget he was a vampire. 

"Uh . . . listen, I should probably head back. You should too . . . you know." I pointed up at the sky. 

Luke's eyes darkened as he gauged the position of the moon. "I've got a little while yet before the sun chases me away." A smile touched his lips, that gentle one I liked to think was reserved for me. "How about I walk you home?" 

I tried to answer, but my throat had gone dry again so I had to settle for a nod.  

We walked back up the meadow towards the woods. Our bodies were close, in line with each other, but not touching. The small space between us was still charged with tension, and I couldn't help noticing how our strides matched pace. It was as if we'd been walking side by side like this for years.  

I hadn't meant to come here to see Luke tonight, but somehow it had happened. Fate, Riley would call it, or destiny. I wasn't sure I believed in any of that. What I did know was that I felt a connection to Luke that I'd never felt before.  

And I'd do anything not to lose it.