The Realm of Truth (Book 1) [In the process of editing]

Chapter 26: Hybrids

(Odette's POV)~

I made it out of the kitchen as quick as I could, making it into our hotel bedroom within a few seconds. I shut the door behind me and Damien was still sound asleep. My eyes peeped through the peep hole as I stood on my toes. I heard the small footsteps making their way down the hallway and I tried to not make a sound.

As Hazel and Claire passed our door, they stopped to look at me straight in the eye, and I covered my mouth with my hand. Do they know I'm here? My breath was shaky and I forced myself to stop breathing for a moment. They acted as if nothing happened, and walked away. I looked at the clock and I eyed that it was almost midnight. No one would be awake at this hour.

I took a sigh of relief, and then I heard glass shatter. "Odette?" Damien spoke up, and I wheeled around in surprise. The two girls had broken through our windows and I saw that Hazel kept her hand around his neck and held him off the ground.

Claire found a stake that pointed at his chest. I rushed forward, and as I pulled Damien behind me, I wrapped my arms around them both. I tossed them out the window and watched them unable to grab onto anything. We heard their heads splatting on the pavement and Damien made a "yuck" face as he walked away.

"Gross." he mumbled casually. "What happened?"

"Freaky voodoo magic." I sighed.

"I won't tell you, but...I told you so." he said with a tease, and I gave him a pout. I tried to cover the windows with our curtains and sat on my bed. "You don't look so good."

"Well, I tried to go grab a blood bag downstairs until those two were just sitting there in the middle of the kitchen dead and staring straight at me." I explained. "It was even freakier when they started moving."

"Maybe if you didn't sneak out of the room, none of this would've happened."

"Wait." I glared at him. I was getting mad all over again, despite the fact that Damien was being obnoxious. "You knew I snuck out?"

"Odette, I'm a light sleeper. Of course I heard you sneak."

"And you didn't you follow me?" He shrugged in response, and I scoffed. "Unbelievable, Damien. I could've died tonight and this is how you help?"

His face hardened, and shook his head. "Do you know how many times I've tried to help you, Odette? In the past month, I helped you with the evil twin who tried to kill me multiple times because you suppressed your knowledge of being who you are. I helped you by giving you my blood to help you become stronger. I helped you here. In Salem! Helped you find your family, but what did you do? You became under the influence of an uncle who's trying to make you do things that are illegal in the real world."

I tried to ignore him and crawled to the back of my bed. I tossed myself over to face the wall and tried to block him out.

"Your uncle is the one who's causing you to do all this, Odette. Why can't you see that you're falling under his compulsion?"

"Why, Damien?" I repeated, rolling back to face him. "Because I had no choice! I want to learn more about him. I wanted to know more about my cousins, but you saw what I had to do. I killed them because they tried to kill me. I don't even know why they were killed in the first place."

"Probably because of your freaky witch friend and Ambrosius. They probably killed them so you could feed on their blood when we got back. He probably lured them back here while we were on the tour."

"That's not true. He wouldn't have done that." I denied.

He groaned and leaned backwards a little in exasperation. Damien decided afterwards that he was going back to sleep, and turned the lights off.

While he slept, I prepared for the longest night ever.

~~~

Ambrosius was in the kitchen again the following morning, making sure everything was set for the wedding reception. "Ambrosius?" I called out to him, and he looked up from the table.

"Ahh, Odette. Glad to see you're well rested." He said. I didn't say anything but look at him. He was taller than I was, and since he was older and more powerful than I was, I stood my ground. "I guess Hazel and Claire have taken their leave as I haven't seen them anywhere?"

I shrugged, it was just me and him. We would be even, considering I snagged a couple blood bags before I confronted him. Without his comrades, he's just an old man. "You could say so." I said. Ambrosius looked at me, odd. "I need you to tell me something, Uncle Ambrosius."

We waited until the last person left and I narrowed my eyes to make sure they walked through those double doors. His hand was lying down on the table and I quickly grabbed one of the silver utensils. I hissed at him as he tried to move his hand. Fear streaked across Ambrosius' face. I planted it back down and stabbed through it with the knife, like a meat cleaver on a cutting board.

Ambrosius wanted to scream in agony, but we were both trying to keep quiet, so he suppressed it. It was wonderful to hear him scream in pain for the trouble he caused.

"What is it?" He seethed in anger and sweated bullets. Ambrosius reached for the knife but I wedged it down more and heard it scraping against the tissues and bones.

"You are going to tell me exactly what happened ever since we got here and last night when Damien and I went on the tour, from start to finish." I aggressively said. "And you better tell me everything or I swear, I will cut through your hand, slowly and painfully. Start now, or forever hold your peace."

I sliced through his hand, towards his forearm and he screamed. I could see his blood flowing with the blade.

"Oh, looks like I've hit a bone." I said, grinning at the fact that this was a fun game. "I think that might've been the radius bone. It's not important to you, is it?"

"Okay, okay!" He said quickly as I started to slice again. I let go of the knife. "I'll talk."

I sat down across from him. "First, you."

"What do you want to know?" He asked, taking a seat.

"Anything. I don't remember much about my family. It's hazy. Like, my memories are kind of blocked. Who are you, really?"

"I'm a vampire, Odette." He reassured, with a heavy breath. "Someone...must've tampered with your memories." He said it as a matter of fact. I was about to grab hold of the knife to stab his other hand, but then he stopped me. "And...I'm also a witch."