Chapter 9
1021words
At the top of the clock tower, the midday screams were more punctual than the church bells.
Vivienne was curled in a corner of the "Sun Cage."
The specially enchanted glass filtered out the sun's lethal ultraviolet rays, leaving only a searing heat that felt like a branding iron.
Her skin ulcerated and healed, over and over again.
Miles stood in the shadows below the tower, clutching a withered lily. He listened to her wails from above, his face a mask of stone.
"My Lord, are you not going to see her?" Silas asked coldly from behind him. "Today marks one month of her punishment."
"No." Miles turned and walked toward the edge of the muddy cemetery he had defiled. "Death would be too easy for her. Her hell is living."
He walked to the edge of the cemetery and stopped abruptly.
The invisible barrier was still there. If he took one more step, the blood curse Isolde had left behind would scorch his soul.
For an entire month, he had been a distant voyeur, only able to watch the nameless headstone from afar.
"The exhibition at the gallery has begun," Silas reminded him. "It's the lady's posthumous exhibition. You should go."
Miles nodded, took one last look at the headstone, and disappeared into the darkness.
The gallery was crowded.
Everyone was gathered around the centerpiece of the exhibition hall. It was Isolde's final sculpture.
A winged female vampire was using her wings to desperately shield a little girl from sword-like rays of sunlight.
Beneath her wings, the girl was throwing a tantrum, trying to push her mother away.
Miles stood before the statue, looking at the restrained suffering on the mother's face, and his knees buckled, nearly sending him to the ground.
He recognized the little girl. It was Lily.
Isolde had hidden all her love in this cold stone, while he and Lily had only complained that her wings were blocking the light.
Time flew.
Five years, for an immortal vampire, was but the blink of an eye.
But for Lily, it was a long and agonizing torment.
In the Vance estate's training room, Lily swept an entire row of expensive crystal glasses to the floor.
"Why won't anyone teach me!"
Lily shrieked, her voice still that of a child, but her eyes held the ferocity of a teenager.
"Why do the children from the neighboring clans have elders to guide them in controlling their bloodlust? Why must I rely on sedatives every time the thirst takes hold?"
The servants knelt on the floor, terrified into silence.
Miles sat in a corner sofa, a bottle in his hand, his eyes glazed over. "Go find Silas. Don't bother me."
"You are useless, and Silas is just a butler!" Lily ran up to Miles, her eight-year-old face twisted with rage.
"I am a monster! I can never grow up, and now I cannot even control my blood cravings! It is all because of Isolde! That evil woman turned me into this!"
Miles looked up, his clouded red eyes fixed on her. "Shut up. You are not to speak her name."
"I will! She ruined my life!" Lily cried, running out of the room.
Today was her human birthday. By now, she would have been eighteen.
Lily stumbled into the long-sealed master bedroom. It was Isolde's room. She wanted to find something to smash to vent her hatred.
Under the bed, she found a black box with a magical lock.
Its magical lock had been timed to release on her eighteenth birthday.
Lily tore the box open. There were no jewels inside, only a yellowed diary and an old hunter's bounty notice.
The photo on the bounty notice was of a dying, eight-year-old human Lily.
"What is this..."
Lily's hands trembled as she opened the diary.
"October 3rd. Rescued a little girl from the human world. The plague took everyone in her town. She had a high fever, and her organs were beginning to fail. Illegal turning was the only way. The Elder Council wants to kill her. I had to trade half of the clan's mines for her life."
"November 5th. Lily is awake. The transformation fever erased her memories of the painful illness. All she knows is that she woke up a monster. She hates me for turning her into something that will never grow up. It is better that she hates me than to know she was dying. As long as she lives, I can protect her."
"December 20th. The Elder Council is again demanding that Lily be sent to a research facility. They say a vampire who never ages is a disgrace to the clan. I used all my power and influence to ensure she could stay home."
Every line, every word, spoke of a mother's unconditional love.
Lily's hands began to shake violently.
The diary slipped from her fingers.
What she had thought was cold-hearted cruelty was actually Isolde shielding her from every storm.
"No, that's not right..." Lily covered her mouth, tears streaming down her face. "Aunt Vivienne said you turned me because you were selfish... that you did it for fun..."
The truth, like a belated knife, plunged deep into Lily's heart.
She finally understood. Isolde was never the villain who had stolen her humanity.
She was the mother who had protected her with her life.
Late that night, Lily went to the cemetery.
A small figure knelt before the nameless headstone.
She was still wearing the lace princess dress Isolde had bought for her five years ago, looking like an exquisite doll.
"How could this be... What have I been hating all these years..."
She remembered the countless times her mother had tried to stroke her hair, only for her to pull away in disgust.
She remembered the day her mother died, when she had smiled and said, "Good."
Lily looked up, tears flowing uncontrollably.
She pressed her forehead hard against the cold headstone and, with all her strength, cried out the word she thought she would never say again in her life:
"Mother..."
