The Vampire And Her Human Mate

15| History

She was still smiling as she made her way downstairs to the lab. Her mother looked up as Bianca entered the room.

"Good morning, dear." She indicated to a French press. "Coffee?"

Bianca started to shake her head- she hadn't drunk coffee in years. Changing her mind she went over to it and poured herself a cup with just a splash of milk.

She felt her mother's eyes on her. "I can ask Lorenzo to get some blood."

Bianca took a sip of her coffee. It was nicer than she'd remembered. "No, this is good."

"You haven't eaten since you got here."

Bianca came over to where her mother was working, she was writing up some instructions. "Don't need it right now."

Freya didn't say anything but Bianca could feel her scrutiny. She could feel her mother holding back whatever she wanted to say. Bianca could only imagine. They hadn't spoken or spent one on one time since she was a child- any conversation they'd had as she got older had been at a formal event and Bianca practically iced her out. She'd never been able to forgive her mother for leaving her and her father the way that she had. She'd never forgiven the isolation she had had while stuck at the academy knowing he was gone and her mother was now married to his childhood friend, who was responsible for his death even if he hadn't killed him directly.

Bianca hated to admit it but she was starting to feel empathy for what her mother went through. Bianca's father, Carlo, had not been her fated mate. Theirs had been an alliance marriage and while her parents had built some kind of relationship they hadn't loved each other. It wasn't until after Bianca was born that Freya and Vigo had the opportunity to meet. Vigo was from a rival house but had gone to the academy with Carlos and they had become friends, which bled into adulthood and had meant harmony in the Italian vampire community for the first time in centuries.

Freya had fled her marriage for her mate. It had incensed Bianca's father and the two families had gone to war over it.

Bianca had been left behind with him when Freya left. She had been seven years old. Carlos had been a cruel man but he had been her father and she had loved and respected him. Feared him too.

Her vampirism had been evident from birth and he had been very proud of that, honing that part of her as a child. She had not been allowed to eat food as a young child, really only having it occasionally with her mother. He enrolled her into the academy three years earlier than usual, at age nine, and she graduated at sixteen. The early enrolment was both because of her early development as a vampire and as the war was ramping up and he wanted her safe, physically at least. It had been rough- a vampire school was not for the weak. If the study and training workload didn't break you, the cruelty of the faculty and other students were there to pick up the slack.

She didn't know all the details of her fathers death, but when it happened she had been practically imprisoned at the academy. It was the safest place she could be as no one could touch her there with the enchantments in place- though many tried. All other members of her father's family were killed- her being the last one. She hadn't been able to leave for three long years. Vigo came to see her when she was fourteen, offering to swear an oath that he would not harm her if she swore an oath she would not seek revenge against him, his family or the Council. He had not wanted to kill his mate's daughter. After that, he had adopted her and she took his name over her father's, essentially ending his line.

She had liked Vigo despite herself and after proving herself, at her insistence, he had put her to work from the age of Fifteen. She had refused to see or speak with her mother so she hadn't known what she thought of her child becoming an assassin- it was only in the last year of Vigo's life that she had started to interact with the woman again at all and after his death she hadn't spoken with her.