Thaddeus reluctantly lets me go, and I grab Lana’s hand, pulling her up the stairs. Orion is right on our heels. I rummage through the wardrobe, give her some clothes, and follow her into the bathroom and shut the door, but Orion’s hand stops it. “Door stays open,” he says.
Lana looks mortified at his words, as any teenage girl would be. “Not all the way, just so I don’t have to knock it down if something happens,” he says, confusing me. I turn the shower on for her, and Lana gets undressed. She seems different, almost perfectly fine, like nothing happened. Lana hops in the shower.
Sitting up on the sink basin, I notice her chest is covered in blood under the gown, and she has a scar where her heart would be. “Are you okay?” I ask her. Lana’s head whips to me so fast, she nearly gives me whiplash just watching how quickly she moves.
“Yeah, fine,” she says, her voice almost melodious.
“So, what happened?”
“I don’t really remember; child services got involved. April had been acting strange the past week, and I was staying in a motel near the hospital. I was visiting Dad, and she came in crying hysterically; saying these horrible things, that dad raped you, that he is sick in the head. She was waving his gun around. Dad tried to get her to calm down. I heard a bang, and Dad fell off the bed, and I saw blood pooling, and the next thing I know, I heard the gun go off again, felt like I was punched in the chest. Then I woke up in the morgue; that’s when I called you,” she tells me.
I hate the way Lana calls him Dad, that she has an attachment to the vile man, but I also understand he was good to her; she never saw the parts of him I did.
“Orion wouldn’t tell me if they are okay; he brought me here. Said I couldn’t go home, said that I am a vampire now. Pretty cool, don’t you think? I love the Vampire Diaries,” she says excitedly.
Her attitude shocks me. So unfeeling, like she doesn’t know the people who raised her, like she has no connection or emotion at all.
“Is it true what mom said? Did dad really do that?” she asks.
I cringe at the word, feeling disgusted hearing it leave her mouth. “Yes, Lana, what April said is true,” I tell her.
She looks at me. “But you are over it, right? You’re good now?” she asks.
Her words shock me. Is this the same Lana I knew? What happened to me is not something you get over; you just live with it, deal with it, or in my case, not deal with it, thanks to Thaddeus, who dealt with it for me.
I say nothing.
“So, what about mom? Did she get arrested?” Lana asks, and my lungs restrict. She doesn’t know. She doesn’t know they are dead.
“Lana…”
Orion pops his head in the door, shakes his head, and presses his fingers to his lips. He doesn’t want me to tell her. “I am not sure,” I tell her, turning back to her.
She is washing her hair. Why am I lying to her? What is going on? Lana’s strange behavior and Thaddeus’ sudden distrust of her runs through my mind, and nothing makes sense. Suddenly, the water turns off. I hand her a towel. She steps out, wrapping it around herself, the room full of steam.
“The hot water here sucks,” she says, making me raise an eyebrow. The room feels like a sauna, the room is so thick with steam I feel like I am inhaling the water in the air. I open the door, intending to walk out, and the breeze from the open window brushes over me when she speaks again.
“What’s that smell?” she asks, and just as I turn to face her, I notice her face twist into a demon, her eyes go blood red as she lunges at me, knocking me over and sinking her teeth into my shoulder.
I scream, and Orion is already ripping her off me, her teeth pulling painfully from my skin. Lana thrashes in his arms, a crazed look on her face.
“What the fuck, Lana! You bit me!” I say, shocked just as the door bursts open. Blood trickles down my chest where Orion ripped her teeth out of me.
She continues to thrash in his arms like a wild animal. “Let me have her!” she screams, fighting against him. Ryland rips me to my feet and yanks me from the room, his arm around my waist.
I see Thaddeus walk over to her and grab her face. “Enough!” he yells at her, and I see her freeze for a second before she starts thrashing again. Ryland drags me downstairs, my hand clutching my blood-soaked neck. He sits me on the lounge just as Bianca walks in. Her eyes dart to the stairs at the commotion above us.
“Upstairs,” Ryland tells her, and she disappears in a fast blur. I hear banging and crashing upstairs, making me look up at the landing above us.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask him.
Ryland bites into his wrist and presses it against my lips to stop me from asking any questions.
“Drink it,” he says, and I let my lips part, feel his blood coat the inside of my mouth, warm and thick, and I have to force myself to swallow. The sensation of my wound healing beneath my hands is strange.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask again. His blood coats my lips, and Ryland wipes it off with his thumb.
Ryland looks up and then back at me. “She is a newborn vampire; they feel everything differently or feel nothing at all. Your scent must have overwhelmed her,” Ryland says.
“But Orion doesn’t attack me like that?”
“He has had hundreds of years of practice to control his bloodlust. Even older ones sometimes slip. Lana has no control yet.”
“But she will be okay, right?”
He sighs, running his hand down his face. He looks tired. He places his hands on my legs, looking up at me. “That is why Bianca is here. She will take Lana and look after her,” Ryland tells me just as Orion comes downstairs, his clothes torn from the struggle.
“Lana won’t go with her; she doesn’t know her,” I tell him.
Orion growls at me and sits down, clearly angered by something. “She can’t stay here with you; she won’t have a choice but to go with Bianca,” Orion argues.
“And if she says no?” I ask.
“Then Thaddeus will kill her. She needs guidance; Bianca will look after her,” Ryland tells me.