Essence (Nectar 3)

If you’ve met any female vampires so far, and I’m sure Tristan has enlightened you a little, vampresses tend to be very cold, very unfeeling. Extraordinarily selfish and without empathy. The overwhelming majority, anyway. Some more than others. Our cousin is vamp and his turned vamp wife is tolerable. She only shows her bitch side in extreme circumstances. The thing is that Jet gives her a very privileged existence. She rarely has reason to go off. But many females are far worse.”

“Rebecca Jamieson,” Sam interjected, “She has met Becca. She’s also briefly met Dawn Jones, not to mention had quite an interesting run-in with Celia Wickson. And then there’s Taryn Walker.”

Kyla nodded with big eyes.

Sasha gave her a small and understanding smile and then continued,

“Royal and turned vampresses alike are feral. But I was sure I could be different. I had to look after a newly turned vamp and I desperately wanted to be vampire. I’d long since given up trying to convince Dr. Constantin of this but I was aching for it and I’d been concocting serums in an effort to try to combat the bitch effect. I wasn’t getting much of an opportunity to try them out. But I did get a chance to try one with a visiting vampress and it seemed to have helped so I had hope. Dr. Constantin sloughed me off. I got upset. He didn’t want to take a chance and have me unruly, on his hands and not able to continue with our work. I had a lot of responsibility. Anyway, I saw an opening. I went quiet with him on the topic for a few years but finally saw that opening with Jackson Curtis.”

Kyla’s eyes bugged out. She’d thought about Jax many times since seeing him pressed against that window staring longingly at her but there hadn’t been an opportunity to find out more.

Until now.

“My brother brought Jackson Curtis to us and long story short, he, freshly turned, wound up in my care and I wasn’t mesmerized by him due to the fact that he was so new. Royal vampires freshly turned have more acute strengths than a turned vamp and that turned vamp takes time to develop skills so it worked in my favour. I convinced Jackson to turn me. I was wrong about the serum I’d developed and I was wrong in thinking I had control over my emotions, my urges. It was bad. I did bad things. Really bad things.”

Tristan put a plate in front of her. Toasted bagel with avocado, cream cheese, and tomato and warmed her coffee up, too.

“Anyone else hungry?” Tristan asked.

Sam and Sasha both said Not me, thanks in unison and then Sasha continued.

Kyla was trying to process all she’d been told. Thinking about how Jax looked so much healthier.

“So, to backtrack a bit, we’ve met, you and I. When you were a child. I was heavily involved in the breeding program so I’ve spent time with you and with your brother, Kyle. Your parents, too. We performed a variety of periodic tests before you were taken away.”

Kyla’s heart began racing. Kyle. Her brother. Her twin brother. She took a big sip of coffee. Too big. But it didn’t burn going down, surprisingly.

“Kyle and I were close. Before I was turned, while he was awake. We were good friends. I’m sure I was a parental figure for him. He lived at The Constantin Center in Arizona from the time he was nearly four. You were taken and things went wrong and Kyle was brought in. Your parents’ memories were wiped. Kyle had a sheltered upbringing there. Dr. Constantin tried to make it as normal as possible for him, spent quite a bit of time doting on him, but that was until he hit his teens and then the experiments really started. But one thing that wasn’t done was that female vampires were not fed Kyle’s blood. I took it in small doses for several weeks, sneaking to steal it.

I started to see a change. I started to become me again, only vampire. Yet me. It was a dream come true. But I had to get away from Dr. Constantin. I escaped The Center and took Kyle with me. But he was in a coma. He’s still in that coma. I know that taking his blood without his consent was wrong, Kyla. But I also believe that knowing your brother as I do, he would be okay with it knowing how it helped me and knowing how it saved me from hurting others. I really do believe he would be okay with it. But it’s been two years and I haven’t figured out how to wake him. I want to wake him.”

Kyla was silent a moment, listening to Sasha, thinking that she seemed very sincere. She seemed so different from the other female vamps Kyla had been exposed to so far.