Snow White Queen [NaNoWriMo 2018]

Chapter Nine

Over the next few years, Tamela taught Neva everything she needed to know about being a vampire. It started off small, like basic differences between humans and vampires and the different habits Neva would have to pick up. For example, she didn't need as much food or sleep as humans did.

She could eat human food, she'd just have to stay away from quite a bit. And she did need to feed on blood at least once a month, but it didn't necessarily have to be human blood. Thanks to this information, hunters started bringing back blood from their kills to store so that Neva could have that when she needed.

Just in the first few months, Neva's health improved greatly. So did her self esteem and happiness. No longer was she afraid of what she could do if she wasn't careful. She knew exactly what she was capable of, and she also knew how to control herself.

She wished Dorian could see her now. Dorian had stopped visiting after her mother had died, though they had kept exchanging letters. She missed her friend, and she wished she could see him.

Neva was about sixteen now. Tamela had started moving on to more nuanced, and questionable, topics.

How to kill, for example. Tamela had said that it was something she should know just because people would attack her simply because she was a vampire, and she should know how to defend herself. Neva tried to say that she could simply learn hand-to-hand combat. Tamela had agreed, but also argued that Neva had been given a weapon, and she should learn how to use that in addition. Neva said that she didn't want to ever have to kill anyone, just harm, and only if the need arose. Tamela sneered at her weakness and said that no one would give her that mercy, so she shouldn't offer it to anyone else.

So, she just went along with it.

~~~

"Tell me, how do you feel about your father?" Tamela asked suddenly one day.

Neva was taken aback by this question. "Why would you want to know?"

"Just curious." Tamela shrugged casually. "Don't tell him, though he probably already knows, I don't really like him much. Granted, I don't think he likes me either. He doesn't seem to like vampires much."

Neva took her words into consideration. "No, he really doesn't. I don't think he ever liked me much. At least, not since I became a vampire, though I don't remember anything before that."

Tamela was silent for a moment. "What would you say to getting rid of him?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You know, like you did with your mother?"

Hearing Tamela talk about it like that felt like a punch to the gut. Neva suddenly felt very light headed.

"I have to go." Neva stood up and walked away without another word.

~~~

Get rid of him. Like you did with your mother.

But it wouldn't be like it was with her mother. Neva would give anything to go back and do literally anything else that night, if it meant it would save her mother. If it meant she would be alive today.

Neva hadn't been in control that night. If she had, that would never have happened.

Now, Neva had complete control. If something like that were to happen again, it would be completely in Neva's control. It would be completely up to Neva whether or not she went through with it.

It would be completely up to her whether or not her father lived.

She was torn. She knew she shouldn't. This would be wrong on so many levels.