AUTHOR'S POV
"Viktor coming to me was only the beginning", Tamara attested. "After the curse splattered on their faces on the first full moon, Viktor and Daniel had to rekindle the old friendship they shared. Together, they tried to break the curse while I watch in total entertainment... The following full moon was a total disaster, not just for them... but also for me. Vik fatally injured me leaving me fighting for my life", Tamara showed a scar on her right arm. She grazed it with her fingers as she close her eyes. "A lycan's poison is fatal to all immortals. Whether it's a single scratch or a ravishing bite, cursed or not, it can kill anyone. I wasn't prepared for that.".
"You got a taste of your own medicine.", Diana replied with a smirk.
"I did..", Tamara scoffed, a half smile curving her lips. "Herbs and spells prolonged my fragile life. I made several trials that failed to completely heal me, until I found the cure. I needed an innocent child as a vessel to carry the healing properties my wounds require. A child who haven't come of age, because its blood isn't resistant to dark magic. However, not a single child that I took survived the mutation.", she walked closer to Diana. "A day before the poison owns my entire body, Daniel came to me", the tension rises, Diana kept her hands together, clasping. "He came as a father with a child dying in his arms. Burning and rotting from the inside, being eating by itself alive that not even a great doctor like him can cure. I returned his favor extra special, being the wolf that he was to me", Alva's gaze softened, not with love but with fascination. "See that Diana? Fate moved in my favor. It's always like that", Tamara grazed Diana's cheek with her finger as Diana flinched. "I used my last stroke of hope, and betted it on the girl's life. And surprisingly, she survived.", she added.
"It didn't mattered if the girl dies then and there", Diana lowered her gaze. She knew exactly who Tamara is referring to. "The girl was me", she whispered, and held herself tight. A nagual always wants something in return. She was both the expected quid-pro-quo, and her father's debt payment for what he has done to Tamara.
"I didn't just healed you.. I turned you into something better. Your blood does not strengthen. It does not corrupt. It erases. Magic. Curse. Instinct. All of it collapses in you. You turn monsters into something ordinary. How great of me, isn't it?", Alva revealed what sparked her interests the most. "I didn't tell Daniel what you were. He was just smart enough to figure all that out on his own".
Everything stitched together like a part of a quilt. A patchwork of truths all sewn to a whole story of her past. "How..", Diana stammered, now trying to weave the memory of the attack that killed her parents. "How did my parents died? The night when we were attacked...", she whispered. "My mother...", her voice faltered.
"She died.", Alva nodded without feeling sorry. "It was a full moon. A night of chase for Viktor and Karin. That's how you got that scar under your favorite tattoo. Karin died, along with your mother.".
"And my dad?", Diana asked.
"He ran. Wounded and broken.", Alva continued. "He believed his family died that night", she gave her a faint smile.
"He mourned, while you raised me", Diana sighed at the sad truth.
"My lovely creation".
"I am not your creation!", Diana retorted.
Alva didn't flinch. "What you were, died with your mother. And what you are now... is mine".
"I was dying from the lycan's scratch... I'm sure of it", Diana wondered, unbelieving.
"No, you healed on your own.", Alva answered, quickly. "You were just too weak from exhaustion... Well, I did a little blood harvesting for some wolf on a death bed. Not that you aren't made for that", the corners of her eyes wrinkled, watching Diana strain at the heavy weight of the truth. "Now that everything's clear...", Alva opened the door with a moonstone. Diana's eyes flickered at the red line markings on the floor of the doorway, with her pulse thudding in her throat. She lifted her eyes, and only sees darkness beyond it. Unwelcoming, screaming with hesitations. "The answer of why I'm keeping you with me is inside this room", Alva stood aside, expecting Diana to feed her curiosity.
"What's in there?", Diana peered through the dark. There were no movements. No sound. And probably, another prison that Alva set up for her. Diana noticed how Alva stayed at the mouth of the door, not taking a single step beyond the red line. "Why not after you?", she asked, shifting her gaze at Alva.
"I'm fine right here. You're the one seeking for truth.", Alva met Diana's gaze.
In one slow breath, Diana walked in. Her feet inside her thin bedroom slippers trembled at the cold metal floors. Going in, the cold room swallowed her whole. Her footsteps were soft and light. The room was darker inside - thick, suffocating kind of dark. The kind that pressed against the eyes until shapes began to form where there were none. Diana's breath fogged in front of her, as she stop at where the doorway light ends. "Hello?", she called softly.
Nothing answered.
She turned to Alva who remained at the entrance where she could only see the outline of her body. Suddenly, something in the room shifted.
A sound - low, almost imperceptible surrounded her. A scrape of something moving where it shouldn't. Diana's eyes followed the shifts, and the sounds at any corner. Then, her body went still until a certain feeling hinted that it's too late. Then... it lunged.
Fast.
Silent.
Precise.
Pain exploded at her neck as fangs sank deep. Her hands clawed in the air, at nothing.. and somehow at everything. She couldn't scream. She couldn't think. A strangled gasp tore from her throat as she feel someone feed on her blood. And then it stopped, abruptly.
The creature recoiled on the metal floor, along with a sharp unnatural hiss ripping its chest. Diana collapsed on her knees, clutching on her neck, as her blood warm her fingers. Staining her satin robe. It was only then that Alva entered the room in measured steps. Whistling a happy tune with her hands in her pockets, casting light from the walls of the room. "Don't be such a cry baby, Diana. It was just a small bite", Alva said, as crouch down meeting Diana's eyes.
The creature crawled to the corner of the room. Heaving, and choking from the blood that tasted honeyed poison. "What..", the vampire let out a broken sound. Its body trembling, teeth shifting... and eyes getting their rich amber color.
"That's Claudia. An original", Alva introduced, straightening her back. "I kept you alive for me to catch one."