Damned if I Don't (The Harker Trilogy Book 2) (7 page)

Edie

“Wait, what?” Carl asks in disbelief.

All emotion leaves me and the world begins to spin around me. No, this can’t be true. This Hannah vampire, whoever she is, has her facts wrong. There’s no way. No fucking way that’s the truth.

Fuck. My. Life.

“Anthony is
Ale
’s twin brother,” Hannah repeats, putting that final nail into the proverbial coffin. “I know that’s hard to believe, but…” She turns her attention to me and clasps her hand over mine. “Think about it,” she says gently.

I do. I honestly try, but the pieces don’t want to fall into place, because I have such a block—on the very suggestion—that they’re even remotely related.

“It can’t be true.” The voice is so rough and raspy, it takes me a beat to recognize it as my own. “They don’t even look alike.”

Even as the words leave my mouth, I freeze even deeply. Anthony’s face is so scarred and melted that I couldn’t tell you what he looked like before that happened. There was some sort of horrible trauma that happened in his past, and I realize that it shielded me from seeing their similarities.

Their skin tones, their height, their builds, all eerily similar.
But what should have given it away earlier are their eyes. Both Jude and Anthony have piercing blue eyes. Something that only family members could closely mirror.

“Oh my God,” I whimper, trying to put my head in my hands. The moment is made worse by the fact that I’m reminded of my missing arm. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

I can’t even look at Jude at the moment. I feel betrayed on so many levels, yet all I want right now is to be held and told that everything is going to be all okay.

“Does that sound familiar?” Hannah asks. “
Jude
?”

“No,” he says softly.

Hannah sighs, and I feel her shift on the chaise lounge.

“Story time,” she says, “because I don’t think it can wait any longer. You have to know who you’re dealing with. And
why
. Before anything happens, you should know the truth.”

She takes in a deep breath, clasps her hands, and begins. “The year was 1508 in Saragossa, Spain. The Spanish Inquisition had been underway since 1480, with over two thousand souls executed across the whole of Spain.” She closes her eyes, remembering the past. “It was a time of chaos. There were people being accused of witchcraft, being killed for various reasons. There was pandemonium across Europe. Anyone could be tried and found guilty of heresy at any moment.”

Her eyes flick to Jude, softer. “There were two brothers during this time. They grew up with Inquisition surrounding them, and were even persecuted to a point because of their status as twins. They were
Antonio
and
Alejandro
De La Rosa
.
Two brothers, inseparable in life. They did everything together. Except, Alejandro was dying of consumption, and there was no hope for a cure.

“In his grief, Antonio stumbled onto our vampire society, meeting the Progenitor. He learned that we lived forever. That we had powers beyond normal humans. That he could save his twin brother because he wasn’t too far gone.” She chuckles humorlessly. “Antonio managed to convince the old man to turn him into a vampire, so that he, in turn, could save Ale.”

“How?” Carl asks, like he’s riveted by the story and we’re not just talking about Jude who’s sitting right here.

Hannah smirks at him. “Antonio was a smooth talker back in those days. Once turned, he saved Alejandro’s life by turning him into a vampire too. As both brothers got the hang of their new status as creatures of the night, they ravaged the countryside, taking what they wanted, killing who they wanted. They used the Inquisition as cover for their actions. No one questioned when a neighbor went missing, because that’s what happened in those times. So now that nothing could hurt the brothers, they were able to do whatever they wanted.” She sneers. “They were right bastards. Terrorized people. Killed them for sport.”

Hannah falls silent as she thinks on that. I watch Jude’s expression as she says her story, and his face is emotionless, without any sort of recognition for what she says. I can’t read what he’s thinking. I can’t even guess at what’s going through his head.

“What happened?” Carl asks, prodding her along.

Hannah hesitates for a moment, her keen eyes on Jude—no,
Ale
. “Alejandro grew a conscience.”

My cousin blinks. “A conscience?”

“Ale realized what he was doing was wrong, and it took meeting the Progenitor for him to realize that.” She smiles grimly. “The Progenitor showed him the purpose of vampires. To keep evil from being unleashed on the world. And they were being evil themselves. Alejandro met two other vampires in a similar situation to him—one was the Progenitor’s direct child who turned her sister into a vampire. Kindred souls who treated their immortality completely different to him and his brother.”

Her voice quiets. “One sister was Esther. The other was me.”

I get where she’s going with this. “You?”

“Yeah. Ale and I were close…”

There’s no mistaking the meaning she put behind that. I feel like I’m going to vomit.
Lovers.

Jude’s not saying anything as Hannah continues to speak. “Alejandro stopped being Antonio’s partner in crime. Instead, he joined the Progenitor’s cause. We were working at that point to stop the vampires taking advantage of the Inquisition. To stop the heresy calls and executions.” She sighs. “It would be a while longer though before it stopped.

“Alejandro worked to pay back the horrible things he did before meeting the Progenitor. Some things are unforgivable, and he nearly didn’t forgive himself. But he tried.”

She’s watching Jude again.
Alejandro,
right? I don’t know what to think anymore.

“Meanwhile, times changed. Antonio worked in his own way by himself, building up a following, while Alejandro worked on our side. The twin brothers didn’t see each other for hundreds of years. Until…” She blinks at him, as if waiting for him to continue the story.

He doesn’t. Instead, he looks white as a sheet.

“What?” I croak, knowing that we were coming ever closer to the present. “What happened?”

Hannah turns her brown-eyed gaze back onto me. “Antonio—
Anthony
at that point—approached Ale, wanting to talk to him. We never saw him again. It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth.”

She quiets again, looking at Jude like they are alone in the room. “I thought you were
dead
, Ale.” She reaches out to put her hand over Jude’s, but he jumps back like it shocked him. A hurt expression crosses her face for a brief second, before she composes herself and puts her hand back in her lap.

“That was fifty years ago,” she says, her voice rougher. “I hadn’t heard anything from Ale. Anthony has gained traction among the underground world. Esther is dead. And the future is bleak.”

“Do you know why Anthony wants to be the Progenitor?” Carl asks.

“You mean other than absolute power?” Hannah asks amusedly.

He shrugs. “I guess? You guys make it seem like such a burden to be the Progenitor, but if he has absolute power, then…”

“The role of the Progenitor is one that no one should bear,” she says crossly. “It’s a position that you don’t want someone unstable being in, and it’s something that you wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Anthony thinks he knows what he’s getting into, but it’s way beyond anything he can imagine.”

The Progenitor had told me the same thing, and I remember that even Esther looked a bit hesitant to take on the role. The dark side of the Void is such a terrible state of being to keep in control.

“Ever since Ale joined the Progenitor’s side,” Hannah says, “Anthony has been busy building what you could call a religion among vampires.”

That catches my ear. “What?”

Contrary to popular belief, Christian crosses and religious symbols don’t harm vampires unless they’re made out of silver. Most vampires are atheist, knowing that they have the closest thing to eternity stretching out before them, but some find peace in religion.

I’ve just never heard of a vampire-specific one.

“It’s more like a cult. Anthony and his followers believe that the Void is the natural state of the world. Every Progenitor since the beginning of time has interpreted it differently. The latest one has held it back as much as possible, infecting his children through a bite—
vampires
. Anthony believes that the Progenitor should let that power loose on the world. Let nature sort itself out. Chaos is life.”

Sounds like a horrible religion to me. I guess anything that has Anthony at the helm would horrible.

“Doesn’t everything go back to normal though?” Carl asks. “The Progenitor told Edie that she’d be cured and vampires would go back to being humans.”

“The Progenitor effectively
chooses
what happens when she ascends,” Hannah says. “When she accepts the Void into her body, everything can go back to normal. Or, if she chooses not to accept it, her body rejects the Void and sets it loose upon the world. Esther would have cured vampirism. Anthony has other plans, I’m afraid.”

“Why is it just when someone ascends to be the Progenitor?” I ask.

“Because that’s the time when The Void is at its most liquid. It’s loose at that point, and the Progenitor can decide how to mold it. If you are on Anthony’s bad side when that happens…” She shudders. “That’s why his religion has been growing.”

Now I understand more of why Aunt Tessa betrayed us. She was so sure that Anthony was going to succeed, she wanted there to be no question as to Carl’s future.

You could have just talked to me about it.

“It just sounds crazy,” Carl says. I wonder if he’s thinking my exact same thoughts about his mother. “Like when someone becomes the Progenitor, it’s like they’re playing God. Choosing what to do.”

“It’s almost exactly what happens,” Hannah says. “What is a god other than some all-powerful being?”

“So we need to find another vampire to be the Progenitor then,” I say. “The Progenitor seems like he’s ready to move on and have someone else take the reins.”

Hannah shakes her head. “There is no one else.”

“But…” I start, “there are so many vampires out there. If there’s just one of his children left, then—?”

Hannah shakes her head again.  “The only vampires that can become the Progenitor are his first generation descendants. Meaning only vampires he has turned. Over the years, the Progenitor has turned thousands, possibly
hundreds of thousands
of humans into vampires, and they’ve turned children of their own. But they’ve all died. Anthony made sure of that.”

“Anthony killed all of the Progenitor’s children?”

Esther’s death flashes before my eyes. Her shock as Anthony tore out her heart. She never wanted to be the Progenitor, but she was doing it to save the world.

The noblest sacrifice ever, and she died trying to follow through with it.

“They’ve been dying for hundreds of years. Anthony just killed all of the ones that were left.”

“Why hasn’t anyone tried to stop him?” I demand. “I’ve been trying to kill him for five months now and no one’s offered up any information…NOTHING! It’s like they’re afraid of him. Why is it just now that I’m finding out that he has a fucking religion following him? And why aren’t you trying to do anything about it?”

“We have been,” Hannah says evenly, although I can hear the threat underlying her words. “We’ve been fighting just as hard as you have.”

“Is there something we can do?” Carl asks. “Like find someone else for the Progenitor to turn and become his child? So they can become the big guy?”

“Of course. We just have to find a human who is strong and mature enough to take the Void within themselves and live eternity alone. Are you going to sign up for it, boy?” she asks him directly.

Carl preens. “If I have to.”

She grins predatorily. “You think you can handle it, but I sense that you’re already fragile. It takes a very special kind of personality to be able to handle that responsibility. It’s not something you develop in the span of a few days. Or even hundreds of years. Esther was terrified to do it, but she knew there was no one left.”

“So now what?” I ask, feeling defeated. “If we can’t have a new Progenitor, then the other option is to kill Anthony and hope that the Progenitor screws his head on straight enough to find the right person to take his place in the future?”

Hannah nods. “Something like that.”

“There’s just one hole in that,” I say. “I’m his familiar, right?” Even saying it makes me sick, but she nods in answer. “I thought his successor had to have a sip of my blood in order to complete the ritual. And I’m
dying
.”

Hannah pauses and then nods in understanding. “There is another to carry the Harker line after you,” she murmurs sadly.

Amelia.

Once I die, whether it’s a day from now or a year, the title of the Harker will be passed onto my three-year-old niece. Up until a few days ago, I’d been trying to kill Anthony to avenge Meghan’s death and have the future safe for my niece. Now I realize that I have to kill Anthony before I die, so that we buy time for the Progenitor to find the
right
successor.