The Death of a Vampire

4.News of an Engagement

"Hunted? By whom? Are we of Jewish heritage? Or gypsies? Or some persecuted religious sect?"

"We have been members of all kinds of religions. We have been everywhere across the centuries, hiding in plain sight, taking whatever religion was necessary to blend in. Religion has never been the issue. It is our blood heritage that makes us prey."

Nana clearly expected me to ask what she meant by heritage, but I refused to do that. What I was feeling right now was anger, pure, hot anger, now that I understood my family had been keeping secrets from me all my life.

Jonathan kept standing unnaturally still in the doorway to my living room. It was like he was not even... breathing? In my rising anger, I lost any inhibition about looking at him and stared at him right in the eyes, feeling my chin lifting up defiantly.

My stare seemed to amuse him! The odd red rings in his eyes gave the impression they were growing thinner as a result.

"You see, Elena, this world is not inhabited by ordinary human beings only. There are many living things under the sun and in the shadows of this world that normal people have only heard of in fairy tales and legends. The reason for this is that the rare bloodlines that give human-like creatures their extraordinary abilities have been a carefully kept secret. You don't need to look too far to find the reason why, either. People that others consider deviant have always been chased, harassed and killed simply for being different, haven't they? The people I'm talking about, or rather the Creatures, never conformed to organized religion or to the strict rules of society. And that scares ordinary people, especially when they are deliberately kept ignorant by those in power, be it politicians or religious leaders."

I turned my gaze away from Jonathan's amused eyes. I couldn't keep up the pretence that I was not interested in what Nana was saying any longer. I was deeply interested.

"What kind of creatures are we talking about? Demons and vampires at least, I take it. Are there other creatures as well?"

Nana rose from the sofa and turned so that she was standing facing me. She spread her arms slightly, fingers pointing down, closed her eyes, and did the impossible. She vanished right in front of my eyes.

I was on my feet in an instant.

"Did you see that?" I looked at Jonathan.

This time, he really did smile and let out a soft chuckle. I heard a surprised hiss and Black scooted out of my bedroom, with all the hairs on his body standing up. Nana walked out of the room behind him. The bedroom, that is. The room that she had never entered.

"What the hell did you just do?" I breathed.

"What do you think I did?" Nana fired back.

"You just vanished into thin air! And moved yourself into another location!" I yelled the obvious at her.

"Excellent. You got it. That is exactly what I did."

"But... it's not possible!" I tried to convince myself.

"Well, then it's pretty interesting that I managed to do it, don't you think?"

The corner of Nana's mouth turned up in just the same way as Jonathan's had earlier. "This was simply to show you that I am not lying. You won't be able take it all in at once, Elena, but it has become painfully obvious that you need to know as much as we can tell you, because now, a vampire has bitten you and claimed you as his own with that ring he has put on your finger."

I looked down at said ring, apparently glued to my finger. With a little imagination, you could think the dark red stone was a big drop of blood.

"What do you mean by 'claimed me as his own'? And how do you know it's a male vampire?"