Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Alicia knelt down in front of her dresser, then slowly pulled the bottom drawer all of the way out and laid it on the floor beside her. Holding her breath, she carefully lifted a small leather-bound book out of the hiding place. She still remembered the night she had found it. That was the last night she ever saw her father alive.

Her mind flashed back to that night and she suppressed a shudder. She had come home from boarding school for Christmas. Everyone else was at the church for midnight mass but she had waited on her father. He’d forgotten all about her as he sat behind his desk on the phone with Malachi. Even as a child, she had felt his anger growing by the minute.

The things he’d said about vampires that night had stayed in her nightmares for years… that a vampire had murdered Carlotta Santos thirty years ago… not him. He and Malachi argued something fierce but it had ended with her father confessing his love for Carlotta and his hatred for the vampire.