Page 26 of Guarded By the Golem

She sat down, and Kara went to rummage through the fridge. “I’m making everyone breakfast,” she declared. “Don’t even think of saying you’re not hungry.”

No one protested. I, for one, loved my sister-in-law’s cooking.

Maya stole a glance at Goliath. I could tell she was curious about his condition, but too polite to ask.

“Goliath worked for Monster Security Agency a long time ago,” I said.

Her eyes widened.

“Yeah,” Goliath said. “Then I lost a leg, and they had no use for me anymore.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged. “Sometimes the worst things happen to you. In this case, me. Nothing I can do about it but move on.”

“It’s a terrible thing,” she said.

We all nodded and were silent for a while, the only sound the clattering of pots and dishes as Kara made breakfast. To break the silence – and because it made no sense to postpone – I pushed the file toward Maya.

“This is what you wanted. Everything’s in here.”

She inhaled sharply, then exhaled as she placed her fingers on the edges of the file. “The reason Lockwood kidnapped me?”

“That and much more.”

“Did you read it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. That’s okay.”

She opened it, and her own name, along with a copy of her ID, stared at her. As she started reading, I studied her face. She was incredible. My mate. I couldn’t have wished for a better woman.

Chapter Sixteen

Maya

The more I read, the more I remembered about myself and my life before Lockwood had knocked me unconscious and given me a concussion. It all came back to me. My memory was intact once again, and I let out a breath of relief. I knew who I was, and I knew I was innocent. I’d always been innocent.

However, it hadn’t been “wrong place, wrong time”. Dr. Vincent Lockwood had targeted me for a very specific reason, and as the file revealed it to me, the words became blurry, and I realized my eyes were filled with tears. Kara passed a box of paper tissues to me, and I wiped my eyes and my cheeks.

“Are you okay?” Mason asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know. This is all too much. And hard to believe.”

“It’s true, though. The world is full of hybrids.”

Relationships between monsters and humans weren’t the norm, but there were no laws against them. Apparently, there had been such a union in the history of my family, as shown by the meticulous family tree Lockwood had made. My great-great-great-grandfather, Korin Lowcastle, had been a vampire. Was, in fact. Yes. Was a vampire, since vampires were immortal.

I didn’t know anything about him. No one in my family had ever mentioned him, and it was the first time I even came across his name. A note at the bottom of the page said that Korin vanished from my great-great-great-grandmother’s life when she became pregnant, and never returned. He’d abandoned her and their baby. My great-great-great-grandmother married a human man, and together, they had two more children.

Apparently, the offspring of a vampire and a human was called a dhampir, and my great-great-grandmother was one. She had some vampiric traits but was mostly human. The nextgenerations had even less vampiric traits, to the point where they were negligible. In my case, they were basically non-existent, which made me almost a hundred percent human.

Almost, because there was something in my blood. Something Dr. Vincent Lockwood had had a use for.

“This is a lot to take in,” I said. “So, my blood, because it’s so diluted, can heal a human temporarily and prolong their life without turning them into a vampire. Because I’m not a vampire.”

“That’s right,” Mason said. “Your blood has healing properties. Lockwood’s mother has cancer. This was the cure he’d found for her. Vampire blood is too strong, and it would’ve turned her, had he used it for transfusions. Dhampir blood is also too strong. He had to find someone whose blood was diluted enough but still had the properties needed to keep the disease at bay.”

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