Chapter 2: The Mother's Betrayal The carved symbol on the door looked worse up close. Alexia stood in the entryway while her mom shut and locked the door behind them. The clicks of the deadbolt seemed too loud. Her mom's hands shook as she turned around. "Let me make some tea. We can talk in the kitchen." Alexia dropped her backpack on the floor. The normalcy of the suggestion clashed with everything that had just happened. Tea wouldn't explain the creature with fangs or the enhanced strength that had flooded through her body without warning. "I don't want tea." Alexia moved toward the living room instead of following her mom toward the kitchen. "I want to know what Thorne-of-the-Ash means." Her mom stayed frozen by the door. She looked older suddenly, like the question had aged her by years in seconds. "You should sit down." "I've been sitting in classes all day." Alexia's voice came out sharper than she intended. "Something attacked me on Maple Street. It had fangs. It moved faster than anything human. It called me by a name I've never heard before and said my ancestors tried to wipe out its entire species." The color hadn't returned to her mom's face. She pressed one hand against the wall like she needed support. "You're stressed. Senior year puts a lot of pressure on students. The college applications, the workload—" "Don't." Alexia took a step closer. Her newly awakened instincts picked up on details she would have missed this morning. The way her mom wouldn't make eye contact. How her breathing had changed to quick, shallow pulls. "You went pale the second I said that name. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Her mom finally looked at her directly. Something in that gaze made Alexia's stomach turn. Not recognition or concern, but calculation. Like her mom was running through options and scenarios instead of reacting like a parent whose child had just described being attacked. "You're exhausted." Her mom pushed away from the wall and walked past Alexia toward the kitchen anyway. "I can see it in your face. When was the last time you slept properly? You've been staying up late working on that calculus homework." Alexia followed her into the kitchen. The familiar space with its white cabinets and granite counters should have been comforting. Instead, everything looked wrong. The afternoon light coming through the window fell at odd angles. The clock on the wall ticked too loudly. Her mom opened the cabinet where they kept the tea, pulling down a box of chamomile. Her movements were too precise, too controlled. "I think you experienced a hallucination. Stress can do that. Your mind creates scenarios that seem real but aren't." "I didn't hallucinate getting slammed against a wall." Alexia's hands clenched into fists. The memory of that iron grip on her shoulders was still fresh. "I have bruises. You can see them if you want proof." Her mom filled the electric kettle with water and switched it on. The heating element began to glow. "Bruises can come from anywhere. Maybe you bumped into something and your stressed mind created a story around it." The dismissal stung worse than Alexia expected. She had come home looking for answers, for some kind of explanation that would make sense of the impossible thing that had attacked her. Instead, her mom was acting like she was crazy. "What about the symbol on the door?" Alexia gestured back toward the entryway. "Did I hallucinate that too?" Her mom's jaw tightened. She pulled two mugs down from another cabinet. "Probably vandals. Teenagers looking for trouble. I'll call someone to fix it tomorrow." The kettle started to whistle. Her mom poured hot water over tea bags in both mugs. The steam rose in curling patterns. She pulled a small bottle from her purse on the counter. Alexia recognized the prescription label. Sleep medication that her mom kept for bad nights when work stress kept her awake. "Here." Her mom twisted the cap off and shook out a pill. She dropped it into one of the mugs, then held the cup out toward Alexia. "Drink this. It'll help you relax. You need rest." Alexia stared at the mug. The pill dissolved slowly at the bottom, turning the water cloudy. Something in her newly awakened senses screamed wrong. The same instinct that had helped her track the vampire's movements now focused on that innocent-looking cup of tea. "I don't need to relax." Alexia didn't take the mug. "I need you to tell me the truth." Her mom's expression hardened. She set the mug down on the counter with enough force to slosh tea over the rim. "You're being difficult. I'm trying to help you." "By drugging me?" "It's just a sedative." Her mom pushed the mug closer. "You're clearly not thinking straight. Once you've had some proper sleep, we can discuss this calmly." The kitchen felt smaller. Alexia backed up a step, putting more distance between herself and the tea. Her mom's behavior didn't match the situation. A normal parent would be calling the police or rushing Alexia to the hospital to check for injuries. They wouldn't be insisting she was hallucinating and trying to force medication down her throat. "Why are you acting like this?" Alexia's voice dropped lower. "Something is really wrong here." Her mom's face did something complicated. For just a second, real emotion broke through the controlled mask. Grief, maybe, or regret. Then it vanished behind that same calculated expression. "Fine." Her mom picked up the mug herself. "If you won't drink it, I'll add it to water and we can try again. But you're taking something to calm down. This conversation is over until you've rested." Alexia's instincts flared again. The way her mom held the mug, the determination in her posture—this wasn't going to be a suggestion much longer. Her mom was planning to force the issue. "The pill isn't safe." Alexia said it as a statement, not a question. "There's something wrong with it." Her mom flinched. The mug trembled in her grip. "You don't know what you're saying." "Then explain it to me." Alexia's heart pounded faster. "Tell me why you're so desperate to knock me out. Tell me what Thorne-of-the-Ash means. Tell me why you went white when I said it." The silence stretched between them. The kitchen clock ticked through ten seconds, then twenty. Her mom stared into the tea like it held answers she didn't want to face. "Your father's family had a legacy." Her mom's voice came out barely above a whisper. "A bloodline that went back centuries. Hunters who killed things that normal people didn't believe existed." The confirmation should have made Alexia feel validated. Instead, it just made everything more terrifying. "Vampires." Her mom nodded slowly. "The Thorne family nearly wiped them out. Your father's ancestors were relentless. They developed weapons, techniques, whole schools of combat designed specifically to destroy the vampire covens." Alexia leaned against the counter for support. Her dad had died when she was six. A car accident, her mom had always said. Quick and painless, over before anyone could react. They didn't talk about him much. His absence was just a fact of Alexia's life, like having brown hair or being left-handed. "Dad was a hunter?" The words felt strange in her mouth. "No." Her mom shook her head. "He left that life behind. Changed his name, moved across the country, tried to build something normal. That's how we met. He wanted nothing to do with the violence or the legacy." The kettle had stopped whistling. The kitchen settled into an eerie quiet. Alexia's newly enhanced hearing picked up the sound of her mom's rapid heartbeat, the slight rasp in her breathing. "But the vampires found him anyway." Alexia could guess how that story ended. Her mom's grip on the mug tightened until her knuckles went white. "They killed him. Made it look like an accident so the police wouldn't ask questions. I was seven months pregnant with you." The grief in her voice sounded real. Alexia wanted to believe this was just a tragic story about her dad's past catching up with him. But her mom was still holding that drugged tea, still looking at Alexia like she was a problem that needed to be solved. "Why didn't you tell me?" Alexia kept her distance from the counter. "Why let me grow up not knowing any of this?" "Because I wanted you to have a normal life." Her mom set the mug down finally. "Your father died for nothing. His family's war with the vampires was pointless. Generations of violence and death over a conflict that started so long ago nobody even remembers the original cause." That didn't explain the present situation. The vampire on Maple Street had been very clear about remembering every detail. Centuries of grudges didn't just evaporate because one hunter decided to quit. "So you just hoped they'd forget about me?" Alexia's voice rose. "Pretend I didn't exist?" "I made sure you didn't exist." Her mom's expression shifted to something harder. "I suppressed it. The hunter abilities are genetic, but they don't activate automatically. They need triggers. Stress, danger, extreme situations. I kept you safe, kept your life calm and controlled. No violence, no threats, nothing that would wake up that part of your DNA." The enhanced strength flooding through Alexia's body during the attack hadn't been random. It had been dormant, waiting for the right circumstances to activate. Her mom had spent eighteen years carefully managing her life to prevent exactly what had happened today. "But it didn't work." Alexia thought about the stranger's surprise when she'd fought back. "The abilities activated anyway." Her mom picked up the mug again. The tea had cooled slightly, steam no longer rising from the surface. "It wasn't supposed to happen. Not yet. I had more time." The phrasing struck Alexia wrong. "More time for what?" Her mom didn't answer. She just held the mug and stared at Alexia with that calculating expression that made her daughter's skin crawl. "Mom." Alexia straightened up from the counter. "What did you do?" The question hung in the air between them. Her mom's face cycled through several emotions too quickly to track. Then something broke. Her shoulders sagged. The mug lowered. "I made a deal." The words came out flat. "Twelve years ago. The vampires found us anyway despite all the precautions. They were going to kill both of us." Alexia's stomach dropped. She already knew this story wasn't going to end well. "They offered me a choice." Her mom's voice stayed eerily calm. "They would leave us alone, give us protection, let you grow up safely. In exchange, I would make sure your abilities never activated. And when you turned eighteen, I would deliver you to them." The kitchen tilted. Alexia grabbed the counter behind her to keep from staggering. Her own mother had sold her out to the creatures that wanted her dead. Spent twelve years raising her like everything was normal while planning to hand her over like a package. "You agreed to that?" Alexia could barely force the words out. "I was trying to survive." Her mom's calm facade cracked. "You were six years old. I had no training, no weapons, no way to fight them off. They would have killed you right then. At least this way you got to have a childhood. You got to have friends and school and birthday parties and everything normal kids experience." The justification made Alexia want to scream. Twelve years of normal life in exchange for being murdered on her eighteenth birthday wasn't a fair trade. It was just delayed execution. "What about the protection and immortality?" The words came out sharp. "That part of the deal sounded pretty good for you." Her mom flinched like she'd been slapped. "I didn't do it for that. I did it to keep you safe as long as possible." "Safe." Alexia laughed, but nothing about it sounded amused. "You call this safe? Planning to drug me and drag me to vampires who want to kill me?" Her mom set the mug down and took a step toward her. "The abilities weren't supposed to activate. You weren't supposed to fight back. If you'd just stayed normal, this would have been quick. Painless. You wouldn't have had to know what was happening." The casual way she described Alexia's murder made something snap inside. All the fear from the earlier attack, all the confusion and adrenaline that had been building, crystallized into pure anger. "Get away from me." Alexia moved sideways, keeping the kitchen island between them. "Don't come near me." Her mom's expression shifted to something desperate. "You don't understand. Breaking the deal means they'll come after both of us. There's no running from this. At least my way, you wouldn't have suffered." "Your way meant I'd be dead." Alexia's hands shook. "And you'd be immortal and protected. That's what you really cared about." "That's not true." Her mom reached for her across the island. "I love you. Everything I did was to give you the best life possible before—" "Before you murdered me." Alexia backed toward the kitchen doorway. "You keep saying you did this for me, but you made a deal to kill your own daughter. There's no version of that where you're the good person." Her mom's face crumpled. Real tears started to fall. "What was I supposed to do? They would have taken you that night. At least this way you got eighteen years." Alexia didn't have an answer for that. Maybe her mom really had been trying to do the best she could in an impossible situation. Or maybe she was just good at justifying betrayal. Either way, staying in this house meant ending up drugged and delivered to creatures with fangs. She turned and ran for the front door. Her mom shouted something behind her, but Alexia didn't stop to listen. Her hands fumbled with the locks. The deadbolt stuck for a second before finally sliding free. The door swung open. Alexia stumbled out onto the porch, her mom right behind her. Hands grabbed her arm, pulling her back toward the house with surprising strength. "You can't leave." Her mom's voice had gone high and panicked. "They'll find you. At least here I can control when and how it happens." Alexia twisted hard, using some of the combat instincts that had awakened earlier. Her arm slipped free of the grip. She shoved her mom backward. Not hard enough to really hurt, but enough to create distance. Her mom staggered against the doorframe. "Alexia, please. Be reasonable." There was nothing reasonable about any of this. Alexia jumped off the porch and ran. She had no plan, no destination, just raw need to get away from the house and the woman who had spent twelve years planning to kill her. The street was empty. Most people were inside having normal dinners with their families. Alexia's legs carried her away from the cul-de-sac, back toward the main road. Her backpack was still in the house. Her phone was in her pocket, at least. She pulled it out while running, checking for anything useful. Her mom hadn't called the police. That made sense. Explaining the situation to cops would require admitting to conspiracy with vampires. Instead, there were just a few texts from earlier asking about dinner. A new message popped up while Alexia stared at the screen. Unknown number. The preview showed just the first line: "I can help." Alexia slowed to a jog, then stopped completely behind a parked car two blocks from her house. She opened the message with shaking hands. The full text read: "I know what happened on Maple Street. I know about your mother's deal. You're in danger, but there are people who can help you survive. Real answers at 1847 Industrial Way. Old Santos warehouse. Come alone. Bring nothing that can be traced." Alexia read it three times. The message could be a trap. The vampires could have sent it, luring her somewhere isolated to finish what they'd started. Or it could be legitimate help from someone who actually understood what she was dealing with. Either way, she couldn't go home. Her mom would be calling whoever she'd made the deal with right now, trying to explain why the eighteen-year-old daughter they were expecting to collect had instead developed hunter abilities and run away. Alexia looked up the address on her phone. Industrial Way was across town, near the old manufacturing district that had been mostly abandoned for years. A twenty-minute drive, or about an hour walking. She started walking, keeping to side streets and avoiding the main roads where her mom might drive by looking for her. The sun was setting, throwing orange light across the houses and trees. Normal people were settling in for normal evenings. Alexia was fleeing her own mother while vampires hunted her for crimes her ancestors committed centuries ago. Her phone buzzed again. Her mom this time, calling instead of texting. Alexia declined the call and kept walking. Another buzz a minute later. She declined that one too. The streets gradually shifted from residential to commercial. Closed storefronts and empty parking lots replaced the houses. Alexia's legs ached from the walking and running. Her shoulder throbbed where she'd been slammed against the wall earlier. The enhanced strength from the attack had faded completely, leaving her feeling weak and exhausted. Industrial Way appeared after forty minutes of walking. The street was exactly as depressing as Alexia expected. Cracked pavement, buildings with broken windows, chain-link fences surrounding lots filled with rusted equipment. The Santos warehouse stood at the end of the block, a three-story structure with faded paint and a partially collapsed roof. Alexia stopped at the edge of the property. Every instinct screamed trap. Walking into an abandoned building based on a random text message was horror movie levels of stupid. But her alternatives were limited. She couldn't go home. She had no money for a hotel. Her friends would ask too many questions she couldn't answer. She climbed through a gap in the fence and approached the warehouse. The main door hung open, revealing darkness inside. Alexia pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight. The beam cut through the shadows, illuminating concrete floors and metal shelving units. "Hello?" Her voice echoed through the empty space. No response. Alexia stepped inside, sweeping the flashlight around. The warehouse looked abandoned. Dust covered everything. Old boxes were stacked against the walls. No signs of recent activity. She checked her phone again. The message had definitely said this address. Maybe she'd arrived too early. Or too late. Or the whole thing was a setup and she'd walked right into it like an idiot. Footsteps sounded from deeper in the warehouse. Alexia spun toward the noise, her heart hammering. A figure emerged from the shadows between two shelving units. Young, maybe early twenties, with dark hair and cautious eyes. "You came." The figure stopped about ten feet away. "That's good. We have a lot to discuss." Alexia kept her phone's flashlight pointed at the newcomer. "Who are you?" "Someone who can help you stay alive." The figure gestured toward a clear area near the wall where someone had set up a camping lantern and a couple of folding chairs. "But first, you need to understand exactly how much danger you're in." Alexia didn't move toward the chairs. She stayed near the door, ready to run if needed. Her phone buzzed in her hand. Another call from her mom. She glanced at the screen, then back at the stranger. A new text notification appeared beneath her mom's call. Same unknown number as before. Alexia opened it, keeping one eye on the figure waiting by the camping lantern. The message contained a single line: "Check your mother's phone records from twelve years ago. The number she called the night of the deal. Then you'll understand who you can really trust."