Chapter 2: New friends
After a hearty lunch and two hours of discussion, Annika had convinced herself to have a DNA test.
She was quite concerned. Eva had not really told the knights everything.
She had not talked about her strength, more as a vampire than as a witch.
The next day she showed up at Chris Roberts' lab.
The procedure took a relatively short time, but the results would take at least a month.
Chris and Miriam did not want to overlook anything.
After the tests he had promised Phoebe to go out to lunch because Madame Elena had told her about her talent for ballet.
Three hours later she found herself at the table with three vampires.
Marcus and Phoebe visibly in love and the one whom everyone called Gallowglass and who had introduced himself to her as Eric. The only one who could put her at ease with a mix of irony and sarcasm.
The 3 vampires mainly watched her eat, while Phoebe submerged her with questions about her life.
Annika responded good-naturedly; she did not like to be pretentious, so, lunch had gone pleasantly.
They had asked her about her home in Boston and her work. They had been astonished when they had learned that she had recently been hired as a project manager in one of the companies in which Gerberto and Domenico Michele held a majority share.
How she put up with them was a mystery even to her. They had found their balance between silences and daily bickering. The two vampires never minded their own business and wanted to pry into everything.
Annika, who liked to change jobs often and had experienced multinational corporations, was thrilled by the challenges of an innovative start-up.
She had been able to choose her team and with great pride had assembled an enviable crew.
She had to admit to herself that MBA advocated by her mother and which she would have preferred to avoid in order to jump straight into the working world had helped her in this new adventure.
The afternoon ended quietly with Phoebe recounting the details of their upcoming wedding. Of course, Annika won an invitation to the event to be held in France.
She liked to travel so she gladly accepted.
Gallowglass had insistently offered to drive her home, or rather drive her car home so she would not be alone in the evening. Annika had agreed.
They found themselves talking for hours and both were surprised at the confidence that had already been established between them.
They said their goodbyes around midnight, and Annika returned to her apartment.
For that day, the surprises were not yet over: she found under the door a picture of her as a child in the foster home and shuddered as she read only two words, "Stop seeking."
She tried to keep her cool, but her heart began to beat wildly.
Two seconds later she found herself next to the blond vampire who had driven her home and stuck around to make sure she went to sleep.
He snatched the picture from her hand and pushed her into the house, closing the door behind them.
Annika poured herself some vodka. She was recovering quickly and was trying to calm Gallowglass, who instead had already updated the other knights on what had happened.
She begged him not to say anything to Eva, and he agreed.
He asked her what it meant to her "No more seeking."
Annika confessed that in all those years she had never stopped looking for her mother.
She barely remembered arriving at the foster home when she was about 3 or 4 years old.
The nuns and caregivers who ran it had told her that because of the war she and other children had been orphaned or abandoned because their parents could not afford to support them.
But she did not believe it. In her heart she faintly remembered her mother and perhaps siblings, but she was not sure. The memories blurred with those of the children in the foster home, and she had been told over and over again that they were just dreams she had created for herself to overcome loneliness and overcome abandonment.
Her name Annika Novak had been chosen by the nun who found her. Novak was the last name of that loving nun and she wore it proudly. As a child she had considered this name unfamiliar, but today it was part of her.
Gallowglass listened to the flood of words she was telling him. He was surprised at how much she had suffered and how well she hid it. She looked like a normal girl in her late 20s, but a storm was brewing inside her.
She asked him not to tell Eva anything. She feared that she would not understand her research and would suffer for it. She was grateful for everything she had done for her, she loved her, yet she felt there was something unresolved in her life and wanted to understand why.
Gallowglass stayed all night doing research while Annika tried to get some sleep.
The next morning she got ready to go to the office. They had breakfast together on the way and convinced Gallowglass that she could take care of herself.
However, something had changed for the vampire...
