Chapter Thirty-Seven

Ella was cold, her whole body ached and her head felt fuzzy and light. It was incredibly difficult to construct a coherent thought. She couldn't remember where she was or what had happened and her eyelids were so heavy that she could barely open them.

Wherever she was it was dark and freezing and she shivered against the icy chill. With great effort, Ella finally managed to drag her eyes open and was surprised to find herself in a basement. There was no way to tell if she was still in her own home, or maybe she was somewhere else, she'd never been in her own basement, they'd always creeped her out.

This one was creepier than she'd ever imagined, there were chains hanging from the wall and a fine mist filled the room, like there was a smoke machine somewhere nearby. The mist smelled vaguely familiar, but Ella was too groggy to place where she had smelled it before.

Slowly, Ella pulled herself up so that she was sitting with her back against the wall. As she moved that was when she realised there was something around her throat. Her hands flew to her neck and she felt something cold and metallic locked around it like a collar. The collar was connected to a chain and that bolted to the wall, looking around Ella could see that all the chains had collars attached to them. There were nine in total, including her own.

"Ah good," a voice came from the shadows. "You're awake; I was beginning to think I'd overshot the dose of the sedative. You being the freak that you are, I wasn't sure how much to give you."

"Dad?" Ella croaked when Marcus stepped out of the shadows and into the small patch of light from the tiny square window set in the wall. "You did this to me?"

"You don't remember?" Marcus sighed. "I so hoped to avoid your little tantrum again. Try to remember Ella, I know the sedative can make things a little foggy but we talked about this. I'm not your father, remember?"

And she did, it all came flooding back. Arriving home from the grill, their argument then he'd slipped and she'd finally seen the real him. He couldn't hide after that, he'd had no choice but to tell her the truth. He wasn't her father and he'd never loved her, he'd only agreed to take care of her because he'd loved her mother. He'd kept her around to try and lure out her real father, the one he blamed for her mother's death, the vampire.

"No," Ella moaned, shaking her head. "It can't be, it's not possible."

"Ella," Marcus sighed again. "We went through this already, it's late and I'm tired. Tomorrow's going to be a long day and I don't have the energy to argue this with you again. Your father's a vampire; you're a hybrid, half Fae half Vampire. It's why you can do the things you do, the speed, the strength and the hearing. Your mother had theories about what had made it possible, but she didn't know for sure. I'm not sure we'll ever really know how you were conceived, but here you are none the less."

Ella was still shaking her head; she didn't know what to say. Of all the things she had learned about herself since arriving in Mystic Falls, this was the hardest one to accept. Three of her best friends were Vampire and she loved them dearly, but she knew that not all Vampires were like them and it made her skin crawl to think that her father had been one.

Had he been like Caroline and Stefan, unwilling to hurt innocent people, or had he been a monster like those who had tried to kill her. Or maybe he was like Damon and torn between what he knew was right and what his nature told him to be. Would she ever know her real father? Know where she had come from? Would she ever truly know who she really was?

"She loved him you know?" Marcus spoke again; his gaze had taken on a far off look as he stared down at her. "Your father, he was her one true love, the way that Jeremy is for you. I suppose you knew that though, that a Fae can only have one love? I'd always known that she hadn't loved me, that she had just wanted a father for you. It was a relief when I found out why she couldn't love me. It didn't matter to me though; I loved her enough for the both of us. I even loved you for a time, it hadn't mattered to me that you were half Vampire, you were still my daughter."

"You don't think that anymore?" Ella asked, tears welling in her eyes at his words. "You don't love me?"

Marcus stared at her for a long moment, his expression torn. "You remind me so much of her you know, same warm brown eyes, same bright smile and I think then that I love you. I can see the sweet little girl that she fought so hard to protect from the world, the little girl I promised to protect too, the little girl I once loved with all my heart. Then…then there are the times when you'll say or do something that will make me think of him. The way you roll your eyes or when you're angry, the colour of your hair, things that you couldn't have gotten from her. Those are the things you got from that monster and I hate you. I remember that you're a freak…a monster. You stole her from me! She died protecting you and it takes every ounce of strength I possess not to slit your throat."

Ella let out a strangled cry and looked away from the vicious stare of the man she had loved her whole life, the man she had believed was her father. This wasn't that man; she didn't know who he was anymore. He'd told her the truth of how her mother had really died. Marcus had come from a long line of Vampire Hunters that went back centuries. When her mother had told him what she was, what Ella was, Marcus had made the mistake of confiding in his brother, Alexander.

Alex had been disgusted that Marcus could love such a creature, meaning Ella, her mother was a pure Fae, a source of light not something they would ever kill. She was innocent, but Ella, she was an abomination as Marcus put it. So Alex had told their father and he had come from Ella. Her mother had fled with her, tried to run away, but Marcus' family had caught up with them.

They had only wanted Ella, but her mother had refused. Marcus' father stabbed her and thrown her body into the river, he'd then turned on Ella. A six year old little girl, sleeping in the backseat of her mother's car clutching an old battered teddy to her chest, her thumb thrust in her mouth and he'd paused. That had been all Marcus had needed, he'd shot his father and incapacitated his brother then fled with Ella.

Marcus had sworn to the woman he loved before she'd died that he would protect her daughter and he had kept that promise until now. For nearly 12 years his hatred for Ella's father and for Ella herself had festered and boiled until it had reached its climax. Now he wanted Ella to die, but not before she was forced to watch him kill those she loved like he'd once had to do.

"Please," Ella begged. "Please don't do this. Think of my mother, she loved me and you loved her. She wouldn't want you to do this, you swore to protect me."

"I should have killed you 12 years ago, then she'd still be here. She died because of you!" Marcus spat, his face a mask of fury and hate.

"She'd be alive, but she'd never forgiven you for killing me."

"I could have made her see it was for the best."

"No," Ella shook her head. "No you couldn't, she was my mother, she died to protect me, she loved me more than life itself. You could never had made her think that killing me was the right thing to do. She'd have hated you."

"We'll never know, because you took her from me," Marcus cried out.

"Please Marcus; you don't have to do this. You could leave and you'd never have to see me again. Just go."

"I will leave, don't worry, but first I have a job to do. I was hired to get rid of the Vampires after all. It wouldn't be very ethical of me to leave without completing my work. Tomorrow…everyone you love is going to die."

TBC…

A/N: So things in Mystic Falls don't look so good right now. Will Marcus succeed in killing Ella's friends? Or will the young hybrid be able to stop Marcus? If she does stop him what will it cost her?