Don't Touch My Men - Helen Scott Page 0,24

my own was probably the equivalent of seeing someone in their undies, considering the time period he came from.

“Who are you exactly? You look familiar.” His voice was scratchy like he was dehydrated, and I couldn’t imagine how thirsty he must feel. If he could feel. I mean, he wasn’t bothered by the stake in his chest, so I had no idea what kind of physical senses he had.

“I think I’m your granddaughter.” I shrugged.

“Mary?” He took a step closer to me, his form not moving quite as smoothly as he was obviously used to.

“Yes.”

“I’m Harker, though I doubt you remember me, since we only met once and you were still a bairn at the time.”

I shook my head, unable to properly focus. “I’m sorry, I can’t not ask anymore. Why do you have a stake in your chest?”

“Your parents stayed true to their word then? They told you nothing of the world you were born into?”

“They told me I was the devil’s child and that I was evil, right before casting me out.” My heart stung as the words I’d thought a thousand times left my lips.

“How long have you been alive? The world feels older. The air smells different than it used to.”

“I’ve been alive a while,” I replied, not quite trusting this corpse with the truth.

His eyes narrowed on me. “You can trust me. I’m well aware of the truth of this world and the strange beings in it.”

I hesitated but the words seemed to fall from my mouth, even though I hadn’t intended saying them. “I was imprisoned in a mirror realm by some warlocks. I was there for hundreds of years. Finally, some men freed me, and now the whole world has gone to hell.” When I summed it up like that, it both didn’t seem like that big of a deal and also seemed like a huge deal at the same time. How that worked, I had no idea.

“Hm, I knew there was something special about you. Being born during a blood moon and a hurricane isn’t exactly normal, even for someone like us.” He tapped his chin with his finger as he appraised me once more, surprising me when he asked, “Is this what women dress like these days?”

“No, this was forced on me. We dress more like men these days.” I wasn’t sure why I added the second bit, but something made me feel compelled to at least allude to the fact that women weren’t restricted to large dresses and tight corsets, that we had just as many, if not more options than men did now. There was a part of me that wanted to try and catch him up on the world, on the frankly mind-boggling inventions that humans had come up with during my time in the mirror realm. I felt that same need to understand reflected back at me from my grandfather and wondered if that was where I got it. We both knew it didn’t come from my parents.

“I’m glad to see that people have come to their senses. Those dresses were a nightmare to get on and off. Completely ruined the moment.”

I almost choked on the air I was breathing. The last thing I wanted to think about was my grandfather, this corpse, having sex. And not just that, but the passionate kind of sex, where a dress like that could ruin it with all the laces and buttons that had to be undone. “You never answered my question,” I blurted, desperate to think about something other than the nasty images that were currently flowing through my mind.

“Question?”

“Why do you have a stake in your chest?” I stared him down, not blinking away from his intense gaze.

“Because I am the dhampir. Half human, half vampire. The stake was supposed to keep me dead, but I guess it was no match for your magic.”

“So your father was a vampire?” I asked, verifying that my assumption was correct. If it wasn’t and female vampires had been able to procreate all this time, then I was surprised there weren’t more half breeds running around.

“He wasn’t a vampire. He was the vampire.”

My brain felt like it stuttered as it caught up to what he was saying. “Wait, so does that mean I’m part vampire as well?”

A grin spread over his face, and I knew the answer. It sent a shiver down my spine.

12

Ellis

Alastair needed to rest, and I needed to get the hell out of there. I was shaking, sweating like