Chapter 20 – The Fog

Claire's POV

I didn't know if I had heard Sam correctly, so I thought I should check before asking more insanely confusing questions. "Did you just say...Danvers?"

"In fact, I did."

"So that means..."

"That we are related, well so it does. But I shouldn't have to waste my breath explaining this when Amelie is much better at explaining such complicated hoo-has." He smiled at Amelie and seemed to stand back as if allowing her to take centre stage.

As she began to speak, her gorgeous golden hair was pulled from the tight bun she always kept it in and she took a deep breath before walking towards me. "As you all know, Sam and I dated when we were young."

"Dated? Is that what you call it?"

"Very well. We dated, but what you didn't know was that we dated many years before our fathers ever became obsessed with the idea of immortality. We were best friends, all three of us – although, Morley didn't like me all that much."

"Understatement," Morley coughed in a discreet manner that was intended on being completely obvious at the same time.

"Fine, we hated each other. Sam did not know this and we did not know of each other's feelings of hatred toward the other, so we lived like that for many years. Sam and I were together for all this time, and we fell in love. At this point we were possibly fifteen – it had been a year and a half before our fathers' obsessions started – and we discovered that I was pregnant.

"I was obviously delighted. My father was quite the opposite, shall we say. But I was delighted. Our beautiful baby boy was born just eight months later after we'd turned sixteen, and we kept him well and happy. And then the incident with our fathers' began, and the baby was no longer safe. So after thinking long and hard, we made our decision to give the baby away.

"They were a lovely couple. They couldn't seem to have a baby of their own so were delighted when we offered them the chance at a family. We said that they could have him on one condition; that the baby kept the surname Danvers. Obviously they could not refuse, so they accepted and all was well.

"However, when the dark magic of vampires found their way into the science lab, it brought a curse along with it. Seen as we were the first vampires to exist, a curse was put on our dear child – whom was now part of a loving family and living a happy life – that meant that the next descendant of the Danvers bloodline to be welcomed into the world of vampires would lose the right to have a child unless the first immortal male of the family sacrifices himself."

My eyes were drawn to Amelie as she spoke, the story that she told seemed like a biblical story of some sort – Moses with a twist. Taking the entire thing in, I kept trying to process everything in my mind; however, I knew that was a waste of time before I had even started trying and so began my millions of questions.

"So, I'm descended from you guys." It was more of a statement, although it held a slight question in it, one that was answered by the silence. "When you said that your father, Sam's father, and Morley's father wanted to become immortal you actually meant your father and Sam and Morley's father, correct?"

"Correct."

"You fell pregnant at fifteen and gave birth when you were sixteen?"

"Yes."

"You were young."

"Indeed I was."

"And then you gave the baby up so that he could live on in another life."

"We did."

"Did you care for the child?"

"More than anything in the world."

"Did you know of the curse?"

There was a long pause, a hesitation, but when she finally replied all I heard was a faint, "Yes."

Any questions I had once been thinking to ask had flown out of my mind along with any thoughts that I had once been considering. As I looked into Amelie's eyes I saw regret, and sorrow, and love; and then I got it. Why she had taken such a liking to me in the first place. It wasn't because I was smart or because I was pretty, it wasn't because I was new to town or had good friends, and it wasn't any of the silly things I had considered once upon a time. It was because I was family.

"I need some air." I stood and walked passed Amelie, Sam and Morley and toward the door that I would never forget; the door that changed my life – but for better or for worse I wasn't yet sure.

The air in the next room was much cooler, and the silence was deafening as soon as you walked through the door. I hadn't taken much notice of my surroundings when we had been on our way to escaping, though I could recall the hospital scene and the doors and the halls and the confusing corridors that only helped you get lost.

But that was what I wanted, what I needed at that very moment. To get lost in hallways and trains of thought – to leave this place behind and come back later when everything seemed to be alright.

So I ran, faster than any vampire had ever charged at me. It felt like being in a tunnel, a tunnel so dark and dirty that any hope that you could hold on to was being thrust away every second. And just as you would in a never-ending tunnel, I kept running, and running, and running.

Running as far and as fast as I could manage, turning up different hallways and hurrying down others. But I knew that I couldn't go too fast, because I was pregnant.

And I stopped running to ensure that I did not fall to the ground.

Pregnant. How did it come to this? I was pregnant and I wasn't happy about it. Instead I was scared. I had always dreamed of the day where I would discover that I was going to be a mum, and finding Shane – the father of my child – was one of the best things that had ever happened to me.

But that dream...

I shuddered violently and leaned against a wall. I saw a flash of darkness, rotting walls and broken tables. I saw the ghostly halls and filthy chairs. The one thing I remember most about my little visit to this terrifying dream world was the fog. It had been thick and heavy, as if the house itself had a giant raincloud flying just above it to keep it unhappy. The fog could have swallowed me up whole had I not known to tell myself that it wasn't real.

And then there it was again, the fog. It flew around me in circles, and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor with my back pressed up against the wall and my arms wrapped around my legs. I could hear voices somewhere in the distance, and I was one hundred percent sure that the others had come to find me. Well, I'm sure this wasn't what they had hoped for, but I couldn't change it.

One thing I knew this time was that it was real; whether the fog actually existed or not, that wasn't the problem. Everything that had happened in the past week had been real, just like what was happening right now was real.

I felt warm hands on my upper arms, and cold fingers on my forehead. I could see colour, but it was extremely blurry; mixed in with the fog. The contrast between the temperatures of vampires and humans was surprising, but I was too far away to notice all that much.

My last thought was that Sam was going to sacrifice himself for my baby whether he like it or not.

And then all went dark.