Chapter Fifteen

Secrets

Edward's POV

I sat at the small table in Margarete's hotel room. She sat across from me, eyeing her cards with concentration. I smiled, she was taking this game way to seriously. She glanced up at me and then back down at her cards.

"You're not being fair. You're only letting me know the colors. Knowing the colors isn't going to help me any," she said with a pout.

"And you made up some crazy cards. Since when do face cards visit other face cards?" I asked with a grin.

"I'm sorry. The Queen of Hearts got lonely and she always had a thing for the Jack of Clubs."

I shook my head, "You're one strange girl."

"I'm not strange. I have a very active imagination." She bit her lip, "Do you have a three?"

Yeah, we were playing Go Fish! It was the only game we both could agree on. It was nice though. No real competition.

I frowned, throwing down a three, "How did you know?"

"You were repeating things in your head three times. I guessed," she replied as she picked up the card and took her three out of her hand, putting it to the side. "I get to go again."

"This isn't a fair game, you know. Even with you allowing me in, I can't get passed all the crap you have in there. I have to dig through disco balls and too tight to breathe in corsets."

"It's not my fault I can read mines better than you."

"You have over 200 years more experience with it than I do."

"Not my fault I was born before you."

"I should blame your parents, then?"

"Wouldn't be able. They're been dead just as long as I've been a vampire."

Ok, the conversation was starting to take a darker turn. Though, I don't think she noticed. She rearranged her cards, trying to pick which one was next.

"Did you kill them?" I asked quietly, not really expecting an answer.

"You don't have to ask. You could just dig through the crap and find out for yourself."

"That's true. However, that's a little personal. I would rather you tell me on your own free will."

She looked at him and nodded slowly, "I did."

"Did you change them?" I asked, interested in her story.

She put her cards face down on the whole table and folded her hands in to her lap, "No, I didn't. I didn't drink from the either. I wanted so badly to. I wasn't able to. Not because they were my parents, but because I could feel their pain. Their pain was mine and when I lowered my lips to my mother's neck, I thought I was the one about to die, even though I already was dead. I murdered them instead. Slowly."

I swallowed hard, leaning closer, "Why?"

"They were going to do the same to me," she said softly. "The day I was changed, was the day my parents and my town were going to kill me. They were all threatened of my gifts. At first, they thought it was just a parlor trick. Smoke and mirrors. But when they finally thought about it, they couldn't think of how it worked. I knew what people were thinking. Exactly what they were thinking."

Her eyes focused on her cards and I was waiting for her to continue her story.

"When I was six, I told my parents that a plague would rip through our town in exactly three years. They forgot over time. They thought I just had a nightmare. Sure enough, three years later, half the livestock died. No one knew why. My parents remembered what I told them. They knew I was special then," she cleared her throat. "At first, they were thrilled. They had a fortune teller and they used me to take them from poverty to a very highly respected family." She toyed with a pencil on the table, "They put me on display like some circus freak. I thought it was fun at first. I got to play with all the kids who came with their parents to see me. As I got older, my gifts got more powerful and the money made my parents greedier.

When I predicted the death of a boy who had tried to have his way with me, my parents ignored me once again. The boy died a few days later. The town suspected I was to blame. They thought I had something to do with it. I didn't. I wish I did. That's when the town started to withdraw from me. Even my parents. I started to see my life slowly ending. I knew the date and when the day came, I hoped it was wrong. I wished I had just made it all up."

She stopped speaking for a few minutes. Painful memories, I assumed. "You don't have to finish."

She smiled, "It's ok. I was talking to a boy. He was about to give me all his savings. Next thing I know, I'm being dragged out of my parent's shop in to the middle of the town square. They tied me to a stake. They thought I was a witch. My parents walked forward, torches in hand. I closed my eyes as they lowered them. Praying that if I did have any real magical powers, I would be protected. When the pain never came, I opened my eyes. The whole town was dead. A massacre. I was untied. I went to find my parents and I did. Then he found me."

She picked up her cards, "Three days later, I woke up. Thomas, my creator, explained to me what had happened. What I was. He had kept my parents prisoner. A gift for his new daughter. I was prepared to drain them and when I couldn't, I wasn't about to let them go. I tortured them. I even let Thomas feed from them. I killed my mother first. Then my father a day later." She shifter in her chair, "Got any queens?" she asked casually.

I stared at her confused. I didn't understand how she could be so calm after telling that story. I glanced at my hand and shook my head, "Go fish."

She reached forward and picked up the top card from the deck in the middle of the table, "I'm only calm because I've had so long to deal with what happened."

"Don't you regret it, though?"

She shook her head, "No. Why would I? They were ready to kill me. They created me and they were ready to burn me at the stake. The deserved a slow death."

I sighed, "No one deserves death."

She glared at me, "Some do. Some people are so horrible that they deserve the worst. What I did, was the worst thing they could have ever imagined. They created the monster that I am now. I was born with these gifts and they abused them. They used me and then were going to kill me."

I simply nodded. I guess I somewhat understood.

She put the cards down, "We need a new game."

"Any suggestions?"

She looked out the window, "I wish the sun would go away. I would suggest shopping or a museum, but it's not possible."

"I hope Bella doesn't wonder where I am."

"She knows you can't go in the sun."

"Yes, but she could go to the house."

"She won't."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing."

"Margarete," I growled.

She looked at me. Her scarlet eyes were now green. How did she manage that? She blinked and they were back to scarlet, "Edward."

"Your eyes," I said softly.

"Yes, I have two of them…"

"They were just green. Why?"

She shrugged, "Green with envy?"

I chuckled, "I'm serious."

"As am I. A gift I was given when I was changed. Only fair, I guess. I sense emotions and mine show through my eyes."

"That was the first time I've seen them any other color. They've been scarlet since you got here."

"Scarlet. Red. Passion. I'm passionate about changing what lies ahead."

"And why are you envious?" I asked, putting the cards back in to a neat stack.

"Your love for her. It reminds me of Thomas," she answered in a whisper.

Once again, she had me intrigued, "You and Thomas were together?"

Nodding, she looked back out the window. The sunlight the came through the window cause the side of her face to sparkle. "We were. For a few decades. As you know, immortality gets a little lonely on those long sleepless nights. It was a relationship of convenience. He did love me though and I was rather fond of him."

"What happened?"

She turned back to me, a sad smile on her face, "That story can wait. Let's figure out how to fix this mess that your wife has created."