Chapter 5: The Talk

The drive back home was peaceful. It wasn't awkward at all. But even if I want it to be this peaceful, I had to talk, to ask some questions and to apologize.

"Mom, Dad. I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier, I couldn't stop myself when she brought you guys into the conversation. I had to defend you."

My mom averted her gaze to me, I thought she was mad or maybe disappointed but she wasn't. It was a soft look, somewhat saying that she understood me. She then started talking.

"Honey, I am proud of you for trying to defend us, but force should always be our last resort. Listen to me Clarke, that will ever be the last time you try to protect us. We're your parents, it is our job to protect you. Not the other way around."

"Mom, I'm not a kid anymore. Do you really think I would be okay if something happened to you?"

"Nothing is going to happen to your Dad and I, and we are not going to leave you. Not for a very long time."

"Promise?"

"We promise." Dad said. I saw him smile through the mirror.

"I have a question to ask."

"What is it Clarke?"

"Uncle Heinrich mentioned about being the last heir, what was that all about?"

"Darling, remember when I told you that we came from a family of royal blood? Centuries ago, our family ruled the vampire clan. But some people were always afraid of our family, they were afraid of your Grandmother, she was the strongest vampire in the whole clan. They feared that we would make them our slaves, so the family of vampires who was scared of us, convinced the others that we were bad. They overthrew us. But blood is blood. We carry royalty with us. We are the oldest and the beginning of the vampire race."

"You shouldn't worry to much about it Clarke. It's already history." Mom spoke.

"And besides we should be celebrating right now."

Our kind of celebration was different, it meant camping on the woods, hunting, playing around and relaxing. We immediately built the camp. Tents and sleeping gears, fireplace and extra clothes.

I decided to shift into my wolf to run around. It is always good to build stamina. My wolf was different than the rest. Mostly, wolves would have bright to black furs. Mine had crescent white. Regular wolves would have shining yellow eyes, I had ash white. But the thing is, I could shift my eye colors, red to complete dark when I'm on vamp mode and back to white when I'm wolfed. I've never actually tried to mix them yet. I knew deep inside me that I was never near ready.

Running around on my wolf form is always such a joy, I could run free, I feel strong and composed. Sometimes I feel like I run with the wind. I wonder if it would feel good running with a pack. My mom never shared anything with me about hers. She never shared about her family either, but it's acceptable knowing that Mom was an orphan, her parents were killed when she was young. She probably doesn't remember much about them, it'd probably hurt if she did try to remember, I could barely think straight with the thought of losing them.

Mom joined me for a run afterwards, her wolf was very light brown almost near white. We do have a size difference, mine was a bit bigger than my Mom's. When we do run with each other, we tend to be competitive. Whoever circles the forest the fastest wins and gets to be exempted on daily chores. You see, I'd put my life on this race. A week without chores sure do sound good, I mean I love doing it but it's always good to relax for a bit.

Mom was a smart runner, she would use the trees to gain up more agility and to try and tick me off my path. However, I was fast and despite my huge form, my body is light. It was easy for me to ignore the trees my mom would purposely destroy.

And guess what? I won, again. I quickly went to the bushes and changed my clothes.

"That's one week free from chores Mother." I teased.

"Alright, alright. A week, it is."

I laughed. "I'm going to get some sleep. Good night parents." I teased still.

"Good night, daughter." Dad teased back.

A few hours into my sleep, I awoke. I tend to have nightmares, and they are about me. I kept having the same dream over and over and over again. Me facing a mirror, with my reflection staring back at me, but it was way more different from me, her eyes were ash and black and gold mixed together. It was appealing like it showed so much self-control and power but it was also scary. My mouth had excess blood that had dried and my fangs were shown, along with my claws. They were drenched in blood, I couldn't tell if it was human or not and then my dream would end when I look at my reflection and it would smile back at me.

I decided to go outside my tent and have a walk. I let my feet drag me to wherever they want to go, and I found myself in front of the marvelous lake. I could use a swim right now. I jumped into the lake, which was a bad idea because it was cold, but having vampire genetics could be helpful in situations like these. I focused on letting my body decrease its temperature and after some time, I was already stroking back and forth the lake.

Time had passed very fast. It was already early morning when I went out of the lake and changed clothes.

"Where were you?" my Dad softly asked, careful not wake my mom up.

"I was at the lake, I could not sleep so I decided I'd go for a swim."

"Nightmares again?"

"Yep, the same one."

"Did you at least enjoy swimming?"

"Oh, I did." I smiled.

"I saw you talking with Heinrich's son yesterday before we left, anything you'd like to tell me about?"

"It was nothing Dad, he gave a book."

"Is that so?" he arched his eyebrows.

"Yeah" I shortly replied.

"So, what do we think of him?"

"He's nice." I said, hoping he won't turn it into one of those conversations where he thinks I might actually have a crush on the guy.

"Hmm, he's nice. That's it?"

"Yeah dad, can we please not continue this conversation? He could be a friend, that's what I think."

"Okay, fine. We'll talk about something else then."

"About what?"

"About going to school, there's a good school in the nearby town."

I literally choked on my own saliva after hearing that from my father.

"I'm sorry, can we go over this again?" I asked dumbfounded.