Modern Day (set after the end of Revelations)

I stood on the pavement, staring up at the grubby little house that I'd once called home. It had only been a matter of weeks since I'd left here, as a human, and moved into Belle Morte, where I'd died and become a vampire, but already that felt like a lifetime.

In many ways I was still that same girl. In other ways, I would never be that girl again.

Edmond Dantès took my hand. "Are you ready to go in?"

"Not yet," I said.

I tore my gaze from the house and looked down the street. Two of the streetlamps were out, creating patches of darkness between the bright yellow glow from the others.

All my life I'd lived on this street. I remembered playing here with June, when we were kids, riding our bikes up and down the pavement, always trying to avoid that pothole that still hadn't been filled. The bikes had been rickety and rusting in patches, donated to us by a neighbourhood family once their own kids had outgrown them, and we'd both been aware that we had to be very careful with them since Mum couldn't afford to have them repaired or replaced, but we'd loved them.

When I closed my eyes, I thought I could still feel the wind on my face and in my hair, the jolt of the bike beneath me, the sound of June's laughter as she beat me in yet another race.

Back then, I could never have imagined that the day would come when June's laughter would be silenced forever.

I could never have imagined that I'd fall in love with a vampire either, or become one myself, but here I was, fangs and all.

"Okay," I said. "I'm ready."

As we walked up the path to the front door, it occurred to me that this was the first time that I'd see Edmond in my old house. I knew he'd been here before, looking for me after Etienne's goons had kidnapped me, but I hadn't been here then. It was also the first time that Mum and Edmond would formally meet. Technically they'd met at June's funeral a week ago, but that day had been about mourning June's loss, not about introducing Mum to my boyfriend, and even if I'd wanted to, she'd left Belle Morte shortly after the ceremony.

Before June had become a donor, Mum had been indifferent to vampire houses. Now, unsurprisingly, she hated them.

I hoped that, one day, she'd be able to visit me properly at Belle Morte, but she'd made it clear that that wouldn't be today.

Knocking on what had, up until a few weeks ago, been my own front door felt very strange, but I'd had to leave my key behind when I became a donor, and I'd never got it back.

A couple of moments passed, then Mum opened the door.

She looked like she'd aged about ten years, her face drawn and hollow, her eyes smudged with exhaustion, and her hair, slightly browner than mine or June's, scraped into a knot on top of her head.

Her expression softened when she looked at me, but there was suspicion in her eyes when she looked at Edmond. From anyone else, that would have made me bristle and want to leap to his defence, but I couldn't exactly blame her.

"Come in," she said, gesturing.

I hugged her as soon as I stepped inside, and she stiffened against me before hugging me back. It was only for a second or two, and maybe it had been an involuntary flinch, but it still stung.

Wisely, Edmond didn't try to hug her.

Mum led us through to the living room, and Edmond and I took a seat on the tattered sofa.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Mum said, and her voice was strangely reserved, as if she were talking to strangers.

"Thanks, but we can't drink anything," I said.

"Why – oh. Of course." She hovered awkwardly in the doorway, and the atmosphere felt thick with tension. I'd never felt so out of place in my own home.

"Mum, please sit down," I said, indicating the wicker chair opposite.

She did, her hands clenched tight in her lap.

"I know how hard this is for you. It's hard for me too," I said.

Mum said nothing, but her mouth was pulled tight in a way that I recognised. She was trying not to cry.

Maybe it was too soon to have brought Edmond around. Maybe I should have visited her on my own a few more times, to help us both adjust to everything that had happened. But it was too late now.

"So," Mum said. "You're not coming home, is that right?"

"I can't," I said softly. "I'm a vampire now."

Mum's mouth twisted. "And vampires can only live in fancy mansions."

"It's not like that. It'll be years before I can be out in the sun for more than a few minutes, and I need constant access to fresh blood. Belle Morte is safe for me."

Mum nodded, but her hands were still clenched. "You would stay even if you were human, wouldn't you?"

Edmond shifted beside me; I don't think either of us had expected that question.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "But it doesn't really matter, does it? I'm not human. I'll never be human again."

Anger sparked in Mum's eyes, and her gaze shifted to Edmond.

"Don't blame him," I said at once.

I'd blamed him, back when I'd first woken up as a vampire, and I couldn't have hurt him more if I'd tried. I wouldn't let Mum hurt him too.

"He turned you," Mum said.

"He asked, and I said yes, and he only did it to save my life. I was dying, Mum."

She flinched, tears brimming in her eyes. "And now you're going to live forever, in that house where you and your sister both died."

Living forever was what so many people wanted, but I understood why Mum was upset about it. I would always be her daughter, and we would always love each other, but becoming a vampire had changed something in our relationship. The ground had shifted underfoot, and we both had to work out how to stand together again.

"Yes, I am," I told Mum, "both because it's the safest place for me, and because I love Edmond."

I glanced at him and he smiled down at me. It struck me how very out of place he looked in my shabby former home, like a glittering diamond among a heap of pebbles.

Mum swallowed loudly, then she jumped to her feet and rushed from the room. Edmond half-rose but I put a hand on his shoulder.

"I think I need to talk to her alone," I said.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "Are you okay to wait here?"

Edmond kissed me. "I'm not going anywhere."

I found Mum in her bedroom, curled up on her bed. I sat beside her, inhaling the familiar smell of her perfume.

"You don't even know him," Mum said after a few moments.

"Yeah, I do."

"He's so much older than you."

"Yes and no. He was only twenty-two when he died, so in human years, that's a four-year age gap. I don't think that's anything to clutch pearls over."

"But he's not human, is he? He's hundreds of years old."

Okay, she had a point. "I have forever to catch up," I said.

Mum sat up. Her eyes and nose were pink with tears, and I ached to hug her, but I was afraid she'd flinch away again.

"Your sister is dead and you're moving out to be with a man that I don't even know," she said.

"That's why I brought him here. I want you to get to know him."

She managed a watery smile. "I always hoped I'd get to meet your boyfriends before you moved in with them."

"Yeah, well, I'm a rebel like that."

It was a lame joke, but she smiled again.

Tentatively I reached out and took her hands, and she didn't pull back.

"I know you're scared and hurting, and I am too, but I need to know that we're okay, because you're still my mum, and I've still lost my sister and I need you," I said, my voice wobbling.

Mum's face crumpled and she lurched forward to hug me. "I'm right here," she said. "I'm always going to be right here."

I don't know how long we stayed like that, hugging on Mum's bed, but eventually the shaky feeling inside me settled, and I thought it had for Mum too, because her breathing and heartbeat were both steadier.

"Okay," I said leaning back.

Mum wiped her damp eyes.

"I'd really like you to meet Edmond now, if you're ready," I said.

Mum smiled, and it was the first really genuine smile I'd seen since leaving for Belle Morte. "I'm ready," she said.

1/2

A/N: Sorry for the late update, but it was my birthday over the weekend, and I just didn't have time to get a story posted :)