Discovery of Death by A P Fuchs Page B

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    “ Those of whom we drink blood become a part of us in that way,” she had told him. “The secrets and memories that were revealed to you are now your own. It is how we gain wisdom and learn to utilize it to ensure our survival.”
    Zach wasn’t completely sure his not mentioning the image of himself was a complete secret anyway. These people could read his mind and he’d thought about what he saw several times since returning to the crypt. He just wished he knew how to read his family’s minds and how to block them from reading his own.
    One thing at a time, he thought. He’d already learned so much, and apparently his father was to teach him even more tomorrow night.
    The image of that woman, though. He felt a connection to her in a way he hadn’t to anything else since he’d been reborn. The woman . . . he couldn’t help but feel he’d seen her before, and not only her, but others in the images that flashed through his mind afterward as well. The man whom he presumed was the woman’s husband, and the young lady who was as intriguing as she was beautiful. When he brought the image of the three of them to the fore of his mind, there was a warmth that permeated from the thought that swept through him, a sense of not only familiarity about them, but of belonging.
    Were these people his family from time’s past? Was he their son? Did he just kill his own mother? The human one?
    He stood as Wil came up to him.
    “ So, how was it?” Wil asked.
    “ Unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
    Wil smiled. “You’ve just been reborn and suffer memory loss. Everything is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.”
    Zach smirked. “I suppose, but I do have a question.”
    “ Shoot.”
    “ If you guys are my family, then who was I with before I came here?”
    “ Ah. You mean your Surrogates.”
    “ Surrogates?” He didn’t know the word.
    “ Yeah, surrogates. They’re substitutes, if you will. I had some at one point, too, so did Cassie. Our mother and father gave us up for adoption when we were born. You see, if your parents were pure-blood vampires, you yourself would be born one, too. But if your parents aren’t, meaning they didn’t descend directly from the first vampires, then their offspring are born human despite their being undead.”
    “ Huh?”
    “ Okay, to simplify: Mother and Father weren’t always vampires. They were born human and were eventually bitten so turned into vampires. With me so far?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ As a result, the vampirism isn’t the dominant thing in their genes so when they had kids, the dominant side usually is what was born, in our case, humans.”
    “ So why not just turn the baby into a vampire and raise it as one?”
    “ Because the vampire gene is recessive, it has to mature before it can be—what’s the word? Activated?—for turning. Usually around the time kids are in their teens. That’s what Mother says, anyway.”
    “ So other humans raised us until—”
    “ Until Mother came for us and brought us home.”
    It made sense, but was a hard thing to swallow. Not only was Zach meeting this strange new family, he was now being told he had another one out there as well.
    “ Have you . . . gone back to your other family?” he asked Wil.
    “ Once, but I didn’t let them see me. Mother said it would be too upsetting and could cause problems for us.”
    “ Like . . . ?”
    “ The family could have slayer connections and we could be found out pretty quick. It’d be really easy to put two and two together.”
    “ What about changing your old family into vampires?”
    “ Father said that every time a slayer has been turned—assuming your old family were slayers—it always ends in bloodshed. Our blood. Turning a slayer, he said, was like a human angering one bee outside of its hive. It goes back in and gets an entire swarm of them to come after you. It’s just too dangerous.” Wil glanced back at Mira, Rain and Cassie, who were