The Rise Of The Daywalker

CHAPTER 2:The BloodlineTruth

KAREN'S POV

I ran until my lungs burnt and my legs were numb. The forest swallowed my cries as I collapsed onto the damp earth, clutching the side of my head where the vision had hit me hardest. It couldn’t be true. Vampires lie too!! It’s what they do to survive. But this didn’t feel like a lie. It felt like a truth that had been waiting to explode inside me.

"My kind?" I whispered, hugging myself. “No… I’m human. I bleed, I eat garlic, I pray!! I’m not one of them.”

I stayed in the woods for what felt like hours. But the cold started biting through my coat, and I had nowhere else to go. I had to face them. Face my grandparent!! When I got home, the lights were still on. I heard the low murmur of the television, the clink of Grandma’s tea mug against the kitchen counter, and then footsteps. It was almost sunrise; I wonder why they were still awake. Waiting for me, I guess.

“Grandpa!” I pushed the door open, bracing for another explosion, but he barely looked up from his newspaper.

“You think running off into the night makes you a warrior?” he asked coldly, flipping a page.

“I need answers,” I said quietly but firmly.

He scoffed. “Answers don’t change who you are. Or who you were raised to be.”

I stepped forward. “Why didn't you tell me?”

Grandpa’s hand froze mid-air. “Tell you what?”

“That I’m not fully human.”

He slammed the paper on the table. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, I do!” I snapped. “Cassian, he showed me. My mother.”

Grandma appeared in the hallway, pale and shaking. “Karen, please…stop!”

“Don’t lie to me again, Grandma.” I turned to her and spoke amid tears. “Tell me the truth! Tell me who my mother was.”

Tears welled in her eyes. She reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a locket, one I’d seen her wear for years but never opened. She hesitated, then handed it over.

Inside was a photo of a woman with silver eyes and a hauntingly familiar smile. My mother. I had never seen a photo of her; my grandparents told me my parents died in a ghastly accident and that they took all of their pictures down and burnt them because they reminded them of their dead daughter. And I fell for that.

“She was… turned,” Grandma whispered. “Not bitten. She chose to become one of them. For love.”

I felt the wind leave my chest.

“She fell in love with a vampire?” I asked.

“With your father,” she nodded. “A noble one. From the House of Vaeloria.”

“Cassian’s house?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

Grandpa stood suddenly, fists clenched. “She was a traitor to her kind. And so was he.”

“No. She was in love,” Grandma said firmly. “She ran away with him, got pregnant, and came back to us begging for shelter with you in her arms. The council found out. They ordered her death.”

My stomach turned. “And you let them?” The tears I was trying to hold finally rolled down my cheek.

“I tried to protect her,” Grandma said softly. “I hid you both. But the council threatened to burn our house to the ground. Your mother gave herself up… to protect you.“

“And you,” I turned to Grandpa, trembling. “What did you do?”

He didn’t speak.

“You are a member of the council,” I said, the realisation crashing over me like thunder. “You voted to kill your daughter.”

“She wasn’t my daughter anymore,” he muttered. “She was one of them.”

Silence filled the room. Grandma cried quietly, and Grandpa looked like a statue carved in shame.

“You should’ve told me,” I said, backing toward the door. “You trained me to be a killer. I’ve hunted people… like me.”

“You’re not one of them,” Grandpa barked. “You’re still human. You choose who you are.”

“No, you chose for me,” I hissed. “And I’m done letting you decide.”

I walked up to my room upstairs and slammed the door. I leaned behind the door and slowly collapsed to the ground. I cried until no tears were coming out. It felt like I was a shadow of myself and I didn't know who I truly was. My real identity was something I had hated all my life, or rather, my grandpa had made me hate all my life and I couldn't bring myself to believe that I would be everything my morals stand against. I heard Grandma banging calmly and calling out my name, but I didn't respond. I was in there for three days without food or water but it didn't seem to make much impact on my grandpa because he didn't care; he never came to check on me once. Not even once!! He was that cold.

I was on my bed for days; I was a shadow of myself and all I did was roll over as much as I could, restless, night after night. And one last roll was all it took to see the figure. I squinted my eyes to see clearly in the dimly lit room and there he was. I found him in my room. I thought I was hallucinating but I wasn't. He leaned casually against my wall and the moonlight kissed his skin like he belonged to it.

“Go away…” I muttered, my voice barely air.

“Thought you ghosted me forever; apparently, you’ve been sulking,” he mocked.

“Shut up,” I muttered.

He grinned. “You’re welcome, by the way. I just detonated your entire identity crisis.”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corner of my lips.

“You were right,” I admitted.

“I know.”

“My mother… was one of you.”

He tilted his head. “And how do you feel about that?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “Like I’ve been lied to my whole life. Trained to kill…my own kind.”

“That’s what they wanted,” he said softly. “To turn you into their weapon.”

I looked at him for a long moment. “Why did you let me live?”

Cassian’s expression faltered for a moment, just a second and then he looked away.

“Because you are one of us,” he said finally. “You were so little and adorable when your mother took you away. You were just a baby then. Screaming your lungs out as she ran through the woods.”

I blinked. “You’ve seen me before?”

“I saw your mother before she ran away from the fear of the unknown.

My heart beat louder in my chest.

“And when I saw you the other night,” he added, “I knew if you pulled that bowstring, I’d let you.”

“Why?” I whispered.

Cassian stepped forward, voice low. “Because I’d rather die by your hand than kill what’s left of your father. He was my father’s right-hand man; he served my family diligently and died while defending the only woman he ever loved. Your mother.”

Silence fell between us. I felt the weight of his words settle into my bones.

“I need to know more,” I said. “About my Mum and my father. I need to know what and who I am.”

“I can take you to someone,” Cassian said. “Someone who helped deliver you. She was exiled from the clan after your mother left because she broke the rules… She lives underground now. Hidden.”

I hesitated. “Will she tell me the truth?”

He nodded. “She has no reason to lie.”

I inhaled deeply, I had no home now. No certainty. No side.

But I had questions. And Cassian had answers.

I was ready to step into the dark but not as a hunter. Not yet as a vampire. But as something… in between. Something the world would never be ready for. And just like my mother, I was gripped by the fear of the unknown. I didn't know what was waiting for me out there and i was stuck between going away with Cassian or staying to the live I’ve known.