CHAPTER 1:KARLENA
I laid in bed and watch the sunrise from out my window. I looked over at my alarm clock. 7:00am. Great. So this is the married life huh? Countless nights spent alone ? Adriano, my husband, was supposed to been home before 7AM. Actually, before 3AM. But of course, work is more important than his lonely bored wife supposedly. It has been months since Adriano has touched me. All he does is hang out in his new strip clubs he just opened. We haven’t even seen each other for 3 weeks since he opened up his latest strip club. Cashmere Palace. What a stupid f*****g name for a strip club if you ask me. Doesn’t even want me to come hang out with him at the clubs. He is probably f*****g the strippers in there, while I sit in this big ass mansion all by myself. Of course we have maids and butlers here but I am the only one who actually live in this big ass house. We have no kids. He brought me a stupid chiwawa dog that I don’t even like. Damn dog has more anxiety than I do. All he do all day is shake. He do so much damn shaking I be ready to give the damn dog a Xanax just to go to sleep and get the f**k out my face. I didn’t even give the dog a damn name for real. I just call him doggie.
I get up out of bed and start my shower. Might as well get up and spend some money. Adriano is rich. Well his family is rich which makes him rich. A rich spoiled brat. I married Adriano when we both were 20. We were so in love back then. We were nearly inseparable. But ever since his father died in 2020, Adriano became in charge of his father’s clubs. Which meant less time with me and more time at the club. His mother, Lasilla, hates me so I can’t hang out with her and spend the money. Only reason she hates me is because she has this weird ass attachment to Adriano. Like ever since his father died, she thinks MY HUSBAND, is her MAN now. If Adriano is not at the club, he is with his mother. She really gets on my nerves. I’m just done with this family. Tired of being fake and always by myself in this marriage. Today is the day I make Adriano sign the divorce papers. I take a shower and get dressed. I walk to my walk in closet and try to find something to wear. I found this cute pink sweatsuit outfit. I love pink. Plus it’s fitting me just right. Showing my curves and goes perfectly with my mocha brown skin. I do my makeup and put my hair in a bun. I figure I go to the gym and buy some more things for my new apartment that Adriano doesn’t know about, then later on go to the new club and make him sign the papers.
I walk down stairs to the kitchen to be greeted by Shawnee, the chef. “Good morning Mrs.Palatano. Nice outfit you have on today.” She said warmly. I smiled at her. She is always so pleasant in the mornings. “Thank you Shawnee. But didn’t I tell you to stop calling me that? You can call me Karlena.” She smiled. “As you wish Karlena. What are you having this morning?”
I scrunched my face up. I wasn’t really hungry this morning. I’m actually still tired. Hadn’t got any sleep last night because I was so horny while my husband was probably f*****g one of his strippers. Plus, I had plans on giving him the divorce papers and I don’t know how that’s gonna go. I am actually nervous about how this would go. Adriano is always calm cool and collective. I never really ever saw him mad or really upset. Not sure how me wanting a divorce is going to make him feel. “I’ll just take a protein shake Shawnie. I’m actually about to go to the gym.”
Shawnie looked at me confused. “The gym? And no proper breakfast?” I smiled. I loved how she always tries to look out for me and make sure I’m ok. Even tho Shawnie is 63, she looks like she is 43. After marrying Adriano, and he hired her to be our chef, I always considered her as a bonus mother for me. You see, my whole family was killed by vampires. Well just my mother side of the family. I do believe it was my own father’s family who killed my mother. He would never admit it tho. Actually that’s part of the reason why him and I don’t talk now. He made me a freak of nature and now other vampires hate me or want to kill me. I’m what you consider a Dhampir.
My mother was a human biochemist studying at Yale. She met my father at a bar with some of her study buddies. According to her, it was love at first sight with my father. Only problem was that my father was a vampire. A Feral vampire. I know he loved my mother very much and completely adored her. His side of the family did not approve of his new lifestyle and way of living. My father chose not to be like his family and feed off of humans. Her preferred to feed off of animals.
I do have a faint memory of my father from when I was five. It was one of many nights my father came home after he left to go “eat”. I remember sneaking down the steps to scare him when I saw him in the kitchen. He was facing the sink looking out the window. He was taller. Way taller than his usual height, and he had antlers! I couldn’t believe it. My dad didn’t have antlers ! I didn’t know who this person was standing in my kitchen. Then he suddenly started to change. More like morph back into his regular self.
I got so scared I ran upstairs to my mother and told her what happened. She laughed, then smiled at me. “See what happens when you sneak out of bed?” She said grabbing my little nose softly. “But mommy! Why did daddy change like that? Is he ok?”. She nodded her head up and down. “Yes love bug. Your father is ok. Sometimes when daddy goes out to eat, he get certain traits from the animals. Doesn’t last long at all. He is ok. Now go back to bed. You have school in the morning.”
That’s the only memory I have of me being actually scared or concerned for my father. All my other memories are him packing me and my mother up and having us constantly moving all over the world for fear his family might come kill my mother and me. It was always a coward move in my eyes. I always wanted him to stand up to his mother and father. Instead he always ran away from them.
Apparently me being a Dhampir was an abomination. My mother always told me I was more powerful than I know. She was always there for me no matter what. Always uplifting me. I really grew total honor and respect to my mother the day she finally put her foot down to my father’s parents. That also was the day she died. But she didn’t die without a fight. My father hid with me and we both watched my father’s family come in our house. They destroyed everything! Any memories we had in the house were now all gone. My grandmother, Lablanca, grabbed my mother by her throat. I started to cry. My father put his hand over my mouth. His fingers stunk. Smelled like ash and iron. My grandfather, Calic slowly glided over to my mother. He turned her head to the side and opened his mouth real wide. His fangs retracted.
He bite down on her neck. I could see my mother smile. Tears started to fall down faster down my cheek. Why was she smiling? Then my grandmother bite down on her neck also. My mother threw her head back and laughed. She couldn’t stop laughing. Both my grandfather and grandmother eyes got real wide. Then both their bodies started to shake uncontrollably. Both of their mouths slowly started to form foam and started melting. They both screamed in agony. My mother kept laughing.
“I told you my blood was no good.” My mother laughed to them. They kept shaking and then eventually fell to the floor. My father ran over to them crying. “Mother ! Fatther !” He screamed. I instantly ran over to my mother who was also slowly dying. She smiled at me. “Karlena, don’t ever let anyone tell you you’re not special. I love you with all my heart.” I hugged my mother for as long as I could. My father grabbed my arm. “ We have to go. The others will be here soon as they sense they are both dead.” I grabbed the bag my father had packed for me and we both ran out the door.
I shuddered at that flash back. I always hated my father after that day. He didn’t stand up to his parents or even help my mother. In my eyes, he was not a protector. For the next 13 years we moved constantly. Never getting comfortable wherever we were at. When I finally turned 18 I left him. Didn’t even say goodbye or nothing. I just packed a bag and left. He saw never came looking for me either. It was better this way. I had complete and total control over my life . I did as pleased. Went where I wanted.
