Chapter 11
She stood barefoot in the sand, hands resting on her protruding abdomen. Icy water lapped at her toes and the hem of the dress she had put on, much like the stranger's lips on hers that fateful night. "This is where we met," she whispered. She gazed out into the ocean, but at nothing. "It was like a dream. I didn't know if it was real. I didn't care. I wanted him, I won't lie." Adelaide turned her gaze to D. "But if I knew it would have turned out like this, I never would have let him."
"He would have taken you anyway."
A look of sadness crossed her face. "D, I never wanted to be... helpless. I never wanted to cause so much trouble for everyone else. I just didn't want to feel alone anymore. He made me happy for a while."
Memories of D's mother flashed back to him and he got lost in them. He had heard nearly the same words from her all those millennia ago when he was a child. Though he never really forgave her, he had some sympathy. He was no stranger to loneliness. As he watched Adelaide standing there on the shore he considered that she even resembled his mother, from her delicate looks to her very nature. It infuriated and sickened him that his father treated innocent human women this way. How all vampires treated humans. That's why he had to hunt them.
Adelaide could see that D was lost in thought and she thought it best to leave him alone. She bundled the fabric of her dress in her palms and walked out of the rising water. The tide had been creeping up on the two for quite some time. She then slipped her shoes on, dry as she had left them on a piece of driftwood, and took a few steps towards town.
"D," Adelaide whispered, halting a few feet away from him.
Silence.
"Remember, I want to kill him too."
The silence continued. D did not stir, but Adelaide was suddenly overcome with emotion.
"My father..." Her voice cracked, her grief finally spilling out. "My father wanted to kill it. He wanted to try, but he was just desperate!" She grasped at her belly, the pain of the memory still fresh for her. "He thought that if we killed it our town would be left alone again. All he wanted was for the townsfolk to be safe! He would have never done it..." Her pained look was then suddenly replaced with one of anger. "Your father came and killed him instead before anything happened to me or the child – not because he cares, but because he just sees me as some plaything and doesn't want anyone else to get in the way of his little fantasy," she seethed. "I was so wrong about him. He doesn't love me. I was stupid. He killed my own father right in front of me and for that alone, I want him dead as badly as you do."
"I see." D could feel her hot gaze on him and did not know how to reply. He had had not known. "It's understandable that you hate vampires now," was all he said.
Her look abruptly softened, sensing that D might have thought she had similar feelings about him. "I don't hate vampires or dhampirs, "she sighed. "We all come from the same place." She stepped closer to him and took one of his pale hands in both of hers, looking up into his blood-red eyes. "We're all family on this planet, no matter who or what we are. I would have never wished harm on him, if not for... if not for this. You understand that I want to stop him, but not because he's a vampire – because he's evil. There's nothing wrong with being a vampire or anything else. It doesn't determine who you are. I believe that you choose the way you live."
To Adelaide's surprise D squeezed her hands back, though his faced remained emotionless. She sensed from the stoic hunter that he understood and that she had said all she needed to say. Her heart didn't feel so heavy anymore and she hoped his felt lifted as well. With that she let go of his hand, thanked him for listening and walked back to town, leaving the patient dhampir to his mysterious thoughts as the golden sun began to set over the horizon.
