Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) by Mark Gronwald

your secret."
    Sabine took a deep, calming breath. "I'm a vampire."
    Esmerelda sat up. "No, you're not."
    "I'm pretty sure about it," Sabine said, showing her fangs. "I drink blood to survive."
    "But you're awake during the day. That's not possible for a vampire. You're something else."
    Sabine shrugged. "Well, Michaela and Regina resurrected me."
    Esmerelda jumped up. "What? How?"
    "The vampires had this ancient book. They had already turned me into one of them, and chained me to a slab at one of those old forts on the north side of the bay. They told Regina and Michaela that they could save me if they did the spell. Regina and Michaela brought me back. Then the vampires made them stake me and bury me." Sabine held out her hands. "See? Regina had to carve these in my hands and feet with silver."
    Esmerelda studied the tattoos for a few seconds. "Let me see your feet."
    Sabine lifted the gossamer gown to show her naked feet.
    Esmerelda paced back and forth. "Well, you clearly have a conscience. And I think the fact that you can walk around during the day means that you still have a soul."
    "But today is the first day since I was turned that I've been awake during the day."
    Esmerelda pondered for a moment. "What did you do differently in the last day?"
    "Um," Sabine hesitated, then decided that it was too late to make something up. "I kinda bit a werewolf."
    "You did what?"
    "I... he was a bad werewolf. He was trying to hurt Doug."
    "But you didn't explode from the energy overload." Esmerelda paced. "By the Goddess, this is unheard of. You should be dead right now. If you were a year-old vampire, you'd be dead. The energy would have exploded out of you. Probably taking your head with it."
    Sabine swallowed back the lump in her throat. "Well, I felt like my head might explode, but then it passed and I felt more like I was drugged out of my mind."
    "Yes, well, I think your soul saved you, by holding all that energy in. That could also explain your lack of aura. Your soul is trapping the vampire energy inside you."
    Sabine stared at Esmerelda. "But shouldn't I be alive, if I have a soul?"
    "If you were killed after binding your soul into a vampire's body..." Esmerelda's eyes started to drift as she contemplated what might happen.
    "Why wouldn't my soul just fly the coop when I was killed?"
    Esmerelda rubbed her chin. "If your body was mortal, then your soul would leave, but it's possible that your soul couldn't leave because of the spell."
    "So I'm what? A ghost walking around in a vampire body? A walking, talking spell? A mystery wrapped in an enigma?"
    "I'd go with 'it's complicated' myself," Esmerelda said with a smile.
    Sabine laughed. Esmerelda grasped Sabine's hands and Sabine felt the old woman's warmhearted affection. She saw flashes of Esmerelda's memories of raising her kids, and seeing them grow to adulthood. She saw those children get married and have children of their own. She saw them go to the woods on the full moon and run free as a pack, with Esmerelda watching over them from high in the trees.
    Sabine saw love that she herself had never experienced growing up, and her eyes melted into tears that she couldn't hold back. Sabine let Esmerelda see her own memories of a totally different youth, growing up with an absentee mother and a workaholic father. She showed the pain of neglect still twisting like a knife through her heart. She let Esmerelda see the hope that drove her.
    Sabine wiped away her tears. "Sorry, I just..."
    "It's okay dear," Esmerelda said, cradling Sabine's cheek. "Those weren't your true parents."
    Sabine blinked a few times, not sure she'd heard correctly. "What did you say?"
    "You'll find out when you're ready," Esmerelda said, patting Sabine on the hands she still held.
    "No. No way you can drop a bomb like that on me and not explain. My parents... what are you saying? That I was adopted and didn't know it?"
    "Try to see your earliest memories. Focus. I'll take you back further. I see your