Chapter 13 - The Cards You're Dealt

"You... you know you can't hurt me, right?" I ask, feeling unsure.  What did he mean by finish?  Does he know how to kill me?  Raphael himself said it was possible to get past my "shield," who's to say Daniel hasn't figured it out too?

"I am well aware," he starts, "and I'm not here for you."

"Oh?" I ask.  "Well, if you're here to get revenge on the Volturi for killing Derek, you might want to think again.  They would kill you easily."

He just laughs at me.  "I couldn't care less about that prissy group of self-proclaimed vampire 'rulers'.  And I'm glad my idiot of a brother is finally taken care of.  He did nothing but cause trouble for our whole family."

"Your family?" I ask.  Are they vampires too or are they dead?  Daniel must have seen the questioning look in my eyes.

"Our parents died long ago," he says curtly.  I snap my mouth shut at his hateful tone.

"If you aren't here for me, or the Volturi, then why are you here?" I quietly ask.  His expression turns unreadable and he looks away from me.  "What could Derek possibly have started that you needed to come here for?"  He purses his lips before looking at me.

"You saw how Derek killed your mother, right?" he asks.  My stomach flips at the unexpected reminder.  I squeeze my eyes shut and nod.  "How he killed your father?"  I nod again.

"And my little sister," I continue, forcing the gruesome images out of my head with no success.  Daniel taps me on the forehead and I open my eyes, looking at his concerned face. 

"You saw your sister dead?" he questions.  I shake my head.

"I couldn't bear to look for her after seeing my mom," I answer, a few tears escaping against my will.

"You wouldn't have found her even if you had looked," he explains, forcing me to look at him.

"What does that mean?" I ask.  He looks at me for a minute, as if studying how I might react to whatever he's planning on telling me.

"Do you remember the young female vampire who attacked the club you were at last night?"  My heart drops and my eyes widen in utter shock.

"You're not saying..." I exclaim breathlessly, but the rest of the sentence gets caught in my throat.

"Derek turned your sister into one of us.  He knew that after killing your parents that it would rip you apart.  That's why he took your sister.  He knew that once he told you about the Volturi, his days would be numbered.  So in the time before he died he... trained your sister onto your scent so she would come looking for you.

"You say 'trained' like you're avoiding a different word," I tell him, my eyes cast down.  I can't even begin to imagine the things Derek might have done to Emily during that time.

"I'm hoping I can take care of the problem before the Volturi find out," he tells me without the slightest acknowledgement of my last comment.  My eyes widen and I jump up from my sitting position.

"You aren't going to kill my little sister!" I shriek, "If you do, you are as much of a monster as your brother."

"Vampires are monsters, my dear," he starts, standing up to look down on me. "If I don't do it, your newfound friends will, and unlike me I doubt they will be gentle about it."  Are you freaking kidding me?!  How the hell does one kill "gently"? 

"Why can't somebody just teach her how to assimilate among humans again?  Every other vampire is able to do that!"  Daniel just shakes his head.

"She is a child.  An immortal child.  She will continue to be unpredictable, and she will continue to cause the same problems as she did last night in her search for you.  Immortal children are completely unable to integrate themselves into the world again.  She will continue her destruction until she is stopped.  You need to realize that she isn't the sister you remember her as anymore."  I shake my head in disbelief as he continues.  "You need to look at the situation objectively Anna." 

"This is all my fault," I whisper, "If Derek would have just been able to kill me in the first place..." I trail off.

"Questioning the cards you're dealt with in life won't change the outcome of the game, Anna. The hand you're dealt will win you some games, and at the same time cause you to lose others.  You need to take what you're given and do everything possible to take as much of the prize as you can."

I pause, tilting my head at the vampire in front of me.  "You know," I start, "You have a mindfulness that not a lot of humans have, let alone vampires... No offence" I quickly add upon seeing his surprised expression.

"Actually, I just play a lot more poker than I probably should," he laughs while pulling a deck out of his shirt pocket like it was a pack of cigarettes.  I study his face while he puts the cards back in his pocket.  What could possibly be the reason why Daniel and Derek went down different paths like they did?  Whatever it was, it must have been pretty significant.  "Are you hungry?" he asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"Huh?" I ask blinking.

"I'm pretty sure there are some eggs and stuff in the fridge upstairs if you want.  I'm assuming it's been a while since you've eaten anything?"

"Yeah," I nod.  I follow him back upstairs and it hits me.  If Daniel lives back in the States, who's house is this, or was this? 

"So," I start, trying to keep a casual air in my voice as he takes a bunch of ingredients out of the fridge.  "How did you come across this lovely house?" I ask.  He stops and stares at me.  Then he suddenly cracks a couple eggs on the granite countertop, which makes me gulp involuntarily.

"I applaud you for your efforts, but the worry on your face is quite obvious," he laughs, "And here I though we were starting to trust each other."

My eyes widen, "That's not...!" I start, but he shakes his hand, laughing.

"No it's fine.  This is actually my place though.  Believe it or not, I come here to Volterra every so often.  More than I would like to actually, as I would much rather be back home in my cabin, secluded from this fast-paced lifestyle."

"Then why do you come here?" I ask curiously.  He looks at me again.

"How do you like your eggs?" he smiles.

"Come on, way to avoid the subject!" I tease him, glad that my confidence making its way back into my personality.  He raises an eyebrow, holding the spatula over my frying egg like he's about to stab it.  "Wait!" I yell, reaching across the island to push his arm away.  "Over-easy!" I smile.