[Two Weeks Earlier]
Cora was stuck in another dream running through the dead, white forest surrounding Gray Vale with flowers trailing her path.
"They will know," she hissed to the flowers that insisted on springing up, bright and green and full of an abundance of life that was in such stark contrast to everything about the vampire's world. She waved the delicate blooms away with fluttering hands before turning and attempting to speed faster through the tree trunks that looked like corpses.
But as in every dream like this, the stubborn blooms would not listen. They continued to trail her no matter how fast she ran or how many sharp turns she took, bringing forth life to every surface she touched such that she desperately hoped for some miracle to strike her with spontaneous wings so she could be free of surfaces all together like the royal winged vampires of Gray Vale, but the wretched flowers would probably take flight after her—finding a way to be birthed into the very air itself.
There was no terror that matched what the flowers instilled in Cora.
Never had she suspected how thunderously loud and clear her heartbeat likely was to those who did not have the means of producing one. All of Gray Vale must have heard the terror of her heart as she sought to be free of that cursed floral life that was hunting her. It was thundering in the sky, the phantom of its beat resonating in the corpse trees such that she almost expected to see them spring to life around her—walking trunks reanimated by the very blood that was rushing through her veins.
She would bring all of Gray Vale to life if she was not careful, and this was a place that very much wished to remain unliving.
Soon Cora was tripping and sprawled out against the ashy ground, green stems and blooms encircling her until she was surrounded by a vibrant colorful target with her at its center. Shit, it was a fairy ring. It was an unmistakeable fairy ring. Any cold, unliving creature would know it, for it was the symbol of the enemy.
The crackling of a coming freeze shuddered toward her from every side, splintering the ground like horizontal lightening.
"They are coming," she whispered to her plant companions who had so cruelly chosen to bring forth her treasonous truth.
"You are wrong. They are here," a chilling voice whispered, its breath freezing over the delicate green stems that had surrounded her, caging them in ice for eternity since there would never be a sun to free them.
"I-I am not with th-them," she stuttered, pointing with tremulous hands at the green ring around her.
"You are not with them, child. You are them," the disembodied voice answered before she saw a female that looked exactly like her walking forward, glaring at her with large, black eyes.
The evil twin pulled a long steel spike from behind her back. There was a black liquid coating its surface like ink, and Cora stumbled backward, seeking to distance herself from that burning sludge that, once plunged into her chest, would sentence her to an eternity of the most incomprehensible pain.
She had witnessed other vampires receive that sentence, and it was the most horrifying thing she could imagine. People thought vampires feared death. But how could anyone fear death when the bubbling, burning black sludge promised eternal pain without any hope of release?
"I did not create this," Cora shook her head, trying to prevent the black spike from getting any closer.
A cackle echoed like a death rattle in her twin's throat. "You think we are stupid? You have always been a rampant weed in Gray Vale. This is no surprise, Cora. This spike has been reserved just for you. Now we just have to wait for your heart to stop beating, and then your eternity of torture begins."
————
"I don't understand why you keep having nightmares about being discovered when everyone already knows what you can do," her brother said the next day over breakfast.
Their mother's eyes flitted between the two of them uneasily. "That is not what the nightmare is about, Z," she said softly.
"It's not?" He chuckled, milk running down his chin. He wiped it with the back of his arm, causing Cora to grimace. Why couldn't he just use a napkin like everyone else?
"No," their mother said simply.
"She's right," Cora sighed. "It's about… my heart stopping. Everyone is anticipating it. It should happen any time. And the fact that it hasn't happened…" She trailed off, not wishing to finish the sentence.
No one else at the table finished it for her either, because all of them knew what it would mean if her heart never stopped beating. If it continued pumping in her chest forever, then she was not truly a vampire after all.
What would the royal family do with her then? She would be as good as a fae living amongst them. That could not be tolerated, could it? It was okay if one of their own had the ability to give them life, but if Cora were simply a fae… even if the royals didn't have a problem with it, there would be a great deal of vampires who did.
The only reason their mother was able to remain in Gray Vale was because she had rid herself of her fae abilities before they moved here—sacrificing them in order to stay with her children and keep a watchful eye. She had promised their father that she would never leave them alone in Gray Vale, and that meant rejecting that which made her a threat in the eyes of the vampires.
After the three of them sat at the table in uncomfortable silence thinking the same thing, Zane took another bite. All of them at that table had beating hearts, and the question was whether it would remain that way.
They were the only individuals within Gray Vale who were not part of the unliving population. They were the only ones who exclusively ate food. And they were the only ones who could not go anywhere at all without everyone glaring at them suspiciously.
It was truly the most wretched place to live. Cora hated it.
She felt the mix of fear and curiosity directed at her family by those in the vampire city. Her and her brother may have been half vampire, but they were also half 'other,' which basically meant they were half prey in the eyes of those there. And no prey lived in Gray Vale.
The citizens there abstained from drinking from prey, and for many of them Cora, Zane, and their mother Penelope were walking temptations—so much more appealing to the thirst than the blood river that ran through the middle of town with all of its raw emotion filtered out. It was honestly a wonder how none of them had been accosted by one of the creatures there regardless of whether or not Cora was able to kill them. She supposed they had the royals to thank for that, although it was not something she wanted to admit.
The royals were just as wretched as the city they ruled.
"You have your checkup today," her mother reminded her over the steaming tea that was nestled in her hands.
Cora's heart sank. That meant she would be making a trip to the palace.
"They have requested for Zane to go this time, too."
"Why?" Her brother groaned in protest.
"Because you are eighteen now, and I suppose they are hoping you will turn soon as well," their mother answered.
"You are coming with us, mother," Cora said, a fierce glint in her eyes. "I am not leaving you here alone."
"I will be fine," she sighed in response. "You know I hate going anywhere in this city."
Penelope rarely voiced her negative opinion about anything that had to do with the vampires or Gray Vale, but it was always there—the undercurrent that was her heartache and resentment and exhaustion from having to live in a place so devoid of life and so reminiscent of the mate she had lost.
Everything here spoke of death and yet kept it dangling impossibly out of reach. No wonder they valued Cora's presence so highly despite the fear and suspicion she instilled. She was the only hope any of them had for grasping a death that was so elusive otherwise.
"Maybe you had a nightmare because of your checkup," Zane suggested, rising from the table to take his bowl to the sink. "How much longer will they continue to make excuses for your stubborn heart that refuses to die?"
"They will continue making excuses for it as long as I am doing a service for them," Cora said fiercely, shoving her chair back. "Hurry up and get ready Zane. I am not waiting for you."