The Silent One: Cursed Daughter (Book 1)

Cold to the Touch

(Alice's POV)

After slowly standing up I stared at them for a moment. My memories began to flood back to me. It started with them taking Anna. Then Tate and I were at his grandma's house. I remembered Ceciellia telling me that I was cursed and it was curable. Tate told me that we were mates, but his grandmother didn't approve.

We spent two days preparing for our fight to get Anna back. There were so many vampires, dead and alive. The dining room was a disaster. It looked like one giant massacre. We also found out that Sophia was Tate's aunt, and that a banshee wasn't responsible for his grandfather's death.

I remember the look on Tate's face when I told him goodbye before running off to look for Anna. When I found her, we hid in a room, where we met two other vampires. I remembered the feeling of being turned into a vampire, and being cured of my Banshee curse.

When we tried to leave, we ran into Tate. We decided to find Alex before leaving that place. In the midst of my fight with Kane, they subdued Sophia and rescued Alex. I remembered using my new ability to force Anna, Alex, and Tate out of the window. Tate tried to hold onto the window sill, but the blood on his hands caused him to slip and fall onto the rose bush at the bottom. The last thing I could remember doing was standing at the broken window while reaching out for Tate.

I remembered everything, and it angered me. So I began to try to free myself from my cage. All I wanted in that moment was to rip their heads right off their bodies. After realizing I wasn't getting anywhere with the bars of the cage, I sank to my knees.

"Surely you remember us, Alice," Sophia said with a smirk.

I watched her carefully as she walked up to the bars of the cage. When she was close enough, I leapt onto my feet, and stood in front of her. I reached through the bars trying to grab her. It startled her, causing her to take a step back.

"You will stay locked up in here, until you can handle yourself. We can't have you running amuck, or you will blow our cover," Kane said as he leaned against the bars of the cell. "Once we are finished with you, we'll figure out what to do with you when it gets to that point."

"Why are you doing this?" I asked as a tear had escaped my eye.

He chuckled and shook his head.

"You're a pathetic little girl, you know that," He said before standing up straight.

Sophia smiled at me, before she and Kane turned around, and started to walk away.

"Don't leave me down here!" I yelled.

I pressed my body against the cage, while reaching my arm out towards them. They ignored me and left me down here anyway.

I sank my head low, and began to cry. A tear hit my hand. This was real. This was really happening. I wiped my tears away, before taking a look around the dimly lit room. I had to get out of here, or I would become insane. I tried to open the cage, but the bars wouldn't budge.

I punched the wall in frustration, but only hurt my hand. A scream escaped my lips, as I held my throbbing fist. I clenched my teeth and became angry. That was until I felt a pain shoot up my spine, then through my mouth. My stomach felt as if it were on fire. I fell to the floor, on my hands and knees. My hair, my blonde hair, fell in front of my face. I watched as it turned red.

"What is happening to me?" I cried out.

My jaw began to throb, as two of my top teeth grew longer and sharper. They were fangs. It's official, I'm one of them. I squeezed my eyes shut as my screams pierced the silence.

"Awe look how cute she is when she's in pain," Sophia cooed.

They must have come back in while I was screaming, because I didn't hear them. I glared at her, as she ran her long pale fingers down the bars of the cell. Kane was standing behind her with a menacing grin on his face. I hissed at them, but stopped when an unbearable pain shot through my stomach. It felt like I had been repeatedly stabbed in the gut. For a moment, I felt air caught in my throat, making it impossible to make a sound. The pain is throbbing, coming and going with each passing moment.

"Please make it stop! Kill me!" I yelled when I was finally able to speak.

"Now why would I do that?" Kane asked with a chuckle. "Maybe I like watching you suffer."

"Screw...you, ass-," I tried to say, but I puked instead.

Out came a thick dark red, almost black liquid. I fell over onto my side, and just lay there. That's when I saw Kane whisper something to Sophia. I couldn't make out what was being said, because of the throbbing in my head. She smiled at him before looking down at me. Then she left the room, leaving Kane and I alone. I crawled over to the corner, where I sat doubled over in pain. It was unbearable.

A few moments later, the cellar door opened and Sophia came in with a woman. The woman had tape over her mouth and her arms were tied behind her back. The woman's gaze met mine, and she looked at me as if I knew her, but I had never seen this woman before.

Her eyes grew wide with fear as Sophia pulled my knife out of her pocket. She used the blade to make a small cut in the woman's neck, not deep enough to kill her, but just enough to make her bleed. Sophia then shoved her into the cell with me. The aroma was so strong that it made my whole body tremble. I'm unable to stop myself from crawling closer to the woman.

Once I was only a few feet away from her, I made eye contact with her. I could see my reflection in her eyes. The black veins that spread across my face made me frightened of my own self. My fangs were so long and sharp, the damage I could do with them is scary to think about.

She must have felt the same way, because she closed her eyes while releasing a muffled scream. Tears trickled down her face, causing me to look away. The more I smelled her blood, the more it became difficult to fight my thirst. It didn't help that Kane and Sophia were urging me to feed on this innocent woman. It was starting to drive me insane.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her neck up to my mouth. After sinking my teeth into her skin, I began drinking vigorously. Her blood seeped out of the corners of my mouth. I never thought I'd enjoy the taste of blood, but I ended up liking it a bit too much. I couldn't stop myself. Even when the woman let out cries and whimpers, while she attempted to push me away. I was so hungry. I didn't want to stop. It wasn't until I felt her body become limp in my arms that I forced myself to stop and back away as I wiped the blood from my face.

As I looked down at my blood-soaked hands, it suddenly hit me. This was just like the nightmare I had. I looked at the woman, and it was no longer the same woman I had seen at first. At that moment, I realized it wasn't a nightmare, but a vision of this exact moment. My mother was dead, and I was the one who killed her.

I sat there feeling numb. My thirst was quenched, but my anger grew stronger. I stared at her for a long time. Just wishing she would wake up, but the dead don't sleep. I couldn't move, it was like I was frozen.

"Kane, we should leave," I heard Sophia say. "All this excitement has made me hungry."

I didn't bother to look up at them. When I heard the door close, I crawled towards my mother and touched her hand. She's cold to the touch. I screamed as loudly as I could, before hugging her lifeless body.

The thought suddenly hit me. Maybe I could still save her. I used my teeth to make an opening in my wrist, then I did the same for her wrist. Once we were both bleeding, I pressed our wounds together, hoping I could change her.

"Please come back. I need you, and I can't do this without you," I said through my sobs. "You are my mother, and you're all I have."

After a few moments, she still didn't move or open her eyes. I began to fear that I was too late.

"Please?" I begged her. "I love you, Mommy."

I held her in my lap, while running my fingers through her hair. Her wrist had stopped bleeding, and her body was stiff. I knew she was no longer with me, but I still sang to her the song she used to sing to me as a child. It wasn't long before I ended up crying myself to sleep, while holding onto my mother's dead corpse.