The Blood Moon Twins
Chapter 64

BLADE

"Just close your eyes, boy, and relax," the old woman said. "And sit, so I don't have to reach so high."

Someone pushed a chair in my direction, and I was sitting a moment later. The old lady put her hands on my face, pulling my gaze to hers. I could feel the energy buzzing inside of her, and I knew she used to be a powerful sorceress back in the day. "I said close your eyes, boy," she said. I heard Remy giggle at the sass. I wanted to glare at her for it, but I knew I would get sassed again if I opened my eyes.

I could feel everyone's eyes burning into me, ready for the answers that lie in my head, and it made me nervous. Suddenly, I didn't want to be in this room. I just wanted to steal Remy away and hold her close to me. We hadn't had much time alone together since her coma, and I missed it. She was more reserved around her family, but she was different when it was just the two of us.

"Just breathe. No need to feel nervous. This won't hurt, child," she soothed.

I didn't feel like a child, but to her, I was sure I was. I hadn't aged in a few years, since my body froze after I became an adult, but I was still just a young vampire, especially compared to some vampires that were centuries old.

With a deep breath, it felt like I was transported to somewhere completely different. The air felt light, but when I opened my eyes, it was like I was standing in the middle of a room with a single light to fill the space. It was hard to see past a few feet in front of me, which was strange. The old lady stood in front of me, facing away with her hands clasped behind her back.

I let my gaze fall onto the darkness, and it was unsettling. Usually, the darkness wasn't an issue for me. Vampires had enhanced night vision to the point that it was easier to see at night versus in the day. The lights usually strained my eyes. But here, it was the dark straining them. It was like my vision had been blocked, stopping me from seeing what was around me.

"Where are we?" I asked. This place didn't seem like it belonged on earth. There were no walls, and the darkness seemed to go on forever, and there was something different about it that made it feel fake.

"We're in your head, boy," she said, looking out into the darkness.

"My name is Blade," I gently corrected. She hadn't used my name once, so I assumed she didn't know it.

"And my name is Ginger, but you've been calling me old lady in your head," she said casually. She glanced back at me with an amused smile gracing her lips. "How did-"

"Your thoughts aren't safe in your head unless you protect them," Ginger said. She motioned for me to follow her. "Come, boy. Let's see what we can replace in here." "How do you protect your thoughts in your own head?" It was easy for me to keep pace with Ginger. I could practically hear her bones creak with each step.

Ginger quickly smacked me in the arm. "Just because I'm old, doesn't mean I'm slow. I'm taking my time to make sure I don't miss anything. Not everything is about speed." She wasn't kidding about my thoughts not being private.

"And it takes practice to shield your mind," she continued. "Typically, this place is only a place accessible to sorcerers when you allow them to enter. However, there are some sorcerers who can enter your head without permission. It's why it's important to learn how to shield yourself."

"And how do I do that?" I asked. I kept looking around, expecting to see something around us, but the darkness just continued on. I kept close to Ginger, worried I would get lost without her.

"One of my specialties is entering another sorcerer's mind," she said simply. "I can help those who don't know how to do it themselves. I can teach you to protect yourself."

"But I'm not a sorcerer." I had never used magic, and neither had any of the vampires around me.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked, but it sounded like she already knew the answer to her own question.

I thought I was sure about it, but she made me question it. I didn't know what to say. I didn't know much about my ancestry, so there was a chance I had sorcerer blood in me, but I assumed I would have felt the magic before.

When Caulder first told me about the prophecy, I was worried about Remy. They knew she was the Daughter of Moon and Magic, so her fate was already tied into the prophecy. I feared that this Son of Blood and Magic would steal her away from me, but if I was part sorcerer, then...

"This way, boy," Ginger said, taking a sudden sharp turn.

"Where are we going?" I kept up with her pace when she picked up speed.

"I'm looking for your memory of your mother," she said simply.

"I don't have any memories of her." I didn't know her name or what she looked like, and whenever I had dared to ask my father, I was severely punished. Eventually, I stopped asking. There were no pictures of her, and there were no memories, either. "You have at least one memory of her. The day you were born."

I didn't think that was a memory that could be accessed, but I wasn't about to question the old sorcerer. This clearly wasn't her first time doing this, so I followed her blindly.

She stopped so suddenly that I nearly ran into her. She lifted her hand up and said, "We're here."

The area looked the same as all of the other areas we had walked through, so I didn't understand what the difference was here. All I saw was darkness.

"The darkness is representative of the blocks you have put up to protect yourself. There are some difficult memories lying beyond the darkness," Ginger explained. She still wasn't looking at me as she talked. "I can show you how to erase the shroud of darkness, but what you see beyond it will not be an easy thing to handle. It's not too late to back out now."

I could feel Remy within me. Her heartbeat was soothing, and as I thought about how I should proceed, she filled every thought inside of me. She had hit me like a freight truck-it was unexpected, powerful, and changed my life permanently. I knew there was no backing down. I had to do this, no matter how painful it was.

"Show me."

Ginger turned to me with her lips pulled tight. She approached me and stopped when she was only a foot away. She touched my chest, and her hand started glowing. "Just breathe," she said. I followed her directions, and starting from where she was touching me, the glow slowly spread over the rest of my body until my entire body was glowing.

I could feel light fill my eyes, erasing the darkness that clouded my mind. Then the rest of the room started to brighten. Before I could see anything, I heard her screams. It was a voice I knew and didn't know all at the same time. I took a few steps forward, trying to see what was going on.

A flash of brightness mixed with a baby screaming, and the scene was set. A woman was lying on a pile of sheets, covered in sweat. She had red hair that was a mess, and she was crying, but they weren't sad tears. They were tears of joy. Her eyes were bright yellow, just like mine. This was my mother. It had to be.

My eyes had never made sense before. All vampires had red eyes when they used human blood as their food source, but if they drank blood from other animals, the red would fade to a normal color. Even with that, the yellow had always shone through, even when I was forced to feed off humans. It was only one of the reasons I never felt like I belonged as a vampire. Now I knew it was because my eyes were from my mother.

As I kept watching the scene unfold before me, my stomach started to churn. There was another source of crying in the room, and it was coming from a baby with wisps of dark hair on its head. Another person dressed in a black robe was holding the baby. "Let me hold my son," the woman cried.

A figure stepped out of the shadows, and the tall, dark figure instantly marked him as my father. He looked just as terrifying as I remembered, and I ended up taking a step back from him.

"Take the child away," my father ordered.

"No. You can't take him from me. Let me hold him," my mother cried. These tears were different from the ones before. These were filled with fear, and it struck a chord in me. I had cried those same tears several times throughout my childhood because of my father. I wanted to run and stop them from taking the baby away. I wanted to comfort my mother and tell her it would be okay, but I couldn't move. I knew there was nothing I could do to stop the scene from unfolding the way it was about to. It was only a memory. "Take her to the dungeon. She's done her part," my father ordered.

Rage filled my heart. He never cared about her. He had only used her to produce a child, and then he was ready to discard her now that her part was over with.

"No!" A blood-curdling scream escaped my mother's lips. She flew to her feet, and her eyes were glowing with pain.

"Take her away. Now!" my father ordered. His voice made me flinch.

More hooded figures emerged from the darkness, grasping my mother's arms. They started to drag her away, but she used magic to shift away from them, appearing right in front of the figure that was carrying the baby. She went to grab her son, but her body suddenly tensed. She choked on words, and then blood started leaking from her mouth. My father twisted the knife in his hand, digging it deeper into her back.

"You have done your part by creating the Son of Blood and Magic. I no longer have a need for you," my father whispered into my mother's ear. He pulled the knife out of her, and she collapsed to her knees.

"Blade," she whispered with her final breath. "Never stop fighting against your destiny." Her focus shifted, and for a moment, it looked like she made eye contact with me-the real me. My heart raced, but there was no way she could actually be talking to me. She was just talking to me as a baby. That was the only thing that made sense.

A smile touched my mother's lips as she continued to hold my gaze. Then she collapsed to the floor, blood filling the space around her.