Page 136 of House of Crimson Hearts
“But the thing is, the mansion I broke into, it was on the St Clair estate. It belonged to Dahlia…”
She’s said enough. She doesn’t have to finish this story for me to know that everything I thought was wrong. Two straight weeks I’ve avoided this conversation. Maybe somewhere deep down I knew it couldn’t have been Octavia, I knew and didn’t want to hear it.
“I thought we were being quiet, that we’d dance around a couple of the rooms and then get out before any vampire noticed.”
Octavia grits her teeth. I glance up at her, but she looks away. This story is painful for her too.
“But Dahlia isn’t just any vampire. She heard, Red. She heard us, and she came, and she killed everyone.”
Amelia is crying now, big fat tears roll down her cheeks. “I managed to hide, but I saw everything as she tore through all of my friends. Derek, Sandra, Elijah. She drank them all dry, torturing them, making them think they could escape. She let Derek run, then hunted him like a mouse. And I watched from the cupboard, trying not to scream. I thought I was safe, that I couldn’t be heard. But I was wrong.”
“What happened?” I ask, my voice nothing but a whisper.
“I let a sob out when she dropped Derek’s body to the corridor floor. She sped to the cupboard, ripped open the doors and dragged me out by the throat. Because I’d evaded her, she wanted to make an example of me. She took me to the living room where all her vampire friends were and humiliated me, stripped me naked. Beat me. Made me crawl on all fours through my friends’ blood. Made me drink their blood until I threw up.”
Nausea swims in my gut, I go to wipe my face again and my hand comes away wet. I’m crying?
Amelia kneels at the foot of the armchair I’m in and takes my hand. “Octavia turned up. There was an enormous fight. She ripped the heads off all of three of Dahlia’s vampire friends. That, of course, made Dahlia worse, but she was more furious that the rest of her friends deserted her.”
“I regret my actions, if I’d left her friends alone…” Octavia trails off.
“NO. If you’d left them alone, I’d have been forever dead,” Amelia says and turns to me. “It was a standoff; Octavia was holding Dahlia’s best friend. So in a fit of rage, Dahlia picked me up and held her teeth next to my neck. She said she’d trade. Octavia let Dahlia’s friend go, but Dahlia drained me anyway. And then she left me for dead, racing out of the house after her friends.”
Octavia kneads her temples. “I was too late. There was nothing I could do to save her other than turn her.”
“She gave me the choice, Red. She asked me if I’d rather die or be turned. It was consensual. And I wouldn’t be here without her. That’s when you turned up.”
I rub my face, trying to claw through my memories, but every time I do, they slip away like sand through my fingers.
“I… I don’t…” I say.
“It’s okay.” Amelia squeezes my hand. “I know you don’t remember.” She glances at Octavia and nods for her to continue.
Octavia leans forward, “You arrived too late. Amelia was already mid-transition. You were hysterical blaming yourself. I tried to stop you, but you were desperate to be near her. Amelia attacked you. It was a frenzy of chaos. I got Amelia off you before she drained you. I didn’t have a choice, I fed you just enough blood to save you, heal your wounds.”
“No,” I say. “No. I was taken to the Hunter Academy. They used herbs on my wounds.”
“No, Red. I saved you,” Octavia says.
“Then why don’t I remember?”
Octavia glances at Amelia, the two of them sharing knowledge I don’t have. I’ve never felt more alone.
It’s Octavia who continues. “When Amelia finally snapped out of the transition haze and then realised what she’d done, she was distraught. You, though, were hysterical. We couldn’t calm you down.”
“You snapped, Red,” Amelia says, clutching my hand. “You completely lost it, we couldn’t get through to you. It was like you weren’t even in your own body anymore. Over and over you screamed, blaming yourself for everything. No matter what I said, you’d convinced yourself it was your fault I’d been turned. That you weren’t good enough, you’d failed as a sister.”
I close my eyes not wanting to see and rub my hand on my chest trying to erase the shadow of an ache I can feel now.
“What did you do?” I say to Octavia, my teeth gritted.
“The only thing I could. I compelled you to forget. Wove stories of hatred into your mind leading back years, I played your villain. Let your mind focus on hating me so your heart could learn to love your sister again.”
Everything shatters. I have no idea how I’m supposed to feel about this.
“Would you really have chosen to die?” Amelia says, rubbing her thumb over the back of my hand.
“I…They took everything from us… you, Mum, Dad… How could you so willingly become one of them?”
