Amelie went to her bookshelf and got out a book. She opened it and Eva realized it wasn’t a book, but a photo album.
“It’s easier to follow a story when you have pictures,” she smiled, her fingers shaking as she opened the first page.
She sat down on a chair, pulling it closer to the bed, so that all of them could look at the photo album. The first photo was of a big group of students, all neatly standing in front of a school. Smiling faces revealed shiny fangs and Eva could even see a few tails in there, too.
“This is Holmerry,” Eva remembered the name.
“Yes,” Amelie smiled, tapping at her husband’s face in the photo. “The pride and joy of my husband, Sorwyce. These were Rannulf and Douxora. How proud their father was of them both.”
Amelie turned to the other page and Eva saw a photo which she knew her father had in his study. It was Sorwyce, Douxora, another man she didn’t recognize, and her father, all standing in front of Holmerry.
“My dad has this photo,” she told them both.
“Of course he has,” Amelie smiled. “So did yours,” she told Sebastian, who seemed surprised by this fact.
“You seem to forget that vampires can live for a very long time. Unless, of course we stumble onto someone shooting silver bullets,” she swallowed heavily as she spoke, “or someone whose job it was to hunt us all down, like that horrible man, Helwing.”
Her whole body shook as she voiced his name.
“You mean Abraham Van Helsing??
?? Eva asked.
“No, dear,” she shook her head, with a smile, remembering she was safe here, “that’s a mistake perpetrated on purpose by Mr. Stoker. Van Helsing never existed. He was just a fictional character but he did have a basis in real life. It was Georg Andreas Helwing, who was born in a small town in Wegorzewo, in Poland. He was a Lutheran pastor, and he studied and wrote papers about vampires and werewolves. Mr. Stoker heard about him through one of his friends from Slovakia, I forget the name. You are all probably too young to know anything about the bubonic plague which killed off many people in the 18th century. These peasants believed that whoever died from this disease, would rise from the grave after they’ve turned into vampires, so they could keep spreading the disease. So, to prevent vampires from coming back to life, they would sing a song for the dead, chop the head off with a spade, then throw it into the tomb. Most of this was rather silly but Helwing managed to come up with some pretty successful methods of killing us.”
“But, didn’t you say it was the plague that killed the villagers and not vampires?”
“You see, Helwing was very intelligent. Even back in the day, there was some semblance of science and he knew how to use it. He knew who died from the disease and he knew they wouldn’t be coming back as vampires. But, some of our ancestors, they tried to use the plague to their benefit. They killed peasants, draining their blood, leaving them to look like plague ridden corpses. Helwing could somehow distinguish who died how.”
“Why did they kill peasants in the first place?” Sebastian asked. “Couldn’t they just live off the cattle?”
Amelie’s face suddenly darkened, but Eva knew there was more to it than just sadness. There was a deep rooted pain, which had been there for centuries.
“We are not monsters,” Amelie continued, not really answering his question at first. “We do what we must. We need blood. That is how we were created and we do not question that. We only try to hurt as few as possible.”
Eva suddenly remembered that Sebastian was a blood dealer. Did Amelie know? Sebastian was hurting others by what he was doing. He was making the problem even worse.
“What if some chose not to?” Eva asked.
“What do you mean?” Amelie wondered.
“I mean, what if someone provided human blood on purpose?”
Sebastian turned to face her. His eyes locked with hers, but she didn’t look away. She wasn’t afraid of the answer, if he was.
“I guess you’re talking about me,” he said loudly.
Eva was shocked. He said that and he even sounded proud of what he was doing. She felt hatred rise from deep inside of her, so deep she didn’t even know it was there. How could she have been so wrong? She couldn’t see him for what he was, even after Bella had warned her several times. How could she have been so blinded by her attraction to him?
“She thinks I sell human blood, like everyone else,” Sebastian turned to Amelie.
“You didn’t tell her?” she asked him.
“No, I waited for your instructions,” Sebastian shook his head.
“Wait,” Eva finally put down the teacup, which was already empty. “What’s going on here? What didn’t you tell me?”
She suddenly felt that rush of dizziness again and the pressure inside of her head became almost unbearable. Sebastian rushed to her side and placed his hand gently underneath her head.