Vampire State of Mind by Jane Lovering

Author:Jane Lovering
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: fiction, vampire, paranormal
Publisher: Choc Lit Limited
Published: 2012-05-25T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

‘When we lived in Exeter, it was a war zone.’ My mother – Jen – sipped at her tea. ‘And there was such misery, such suffering …’ She put out a hand and touched my arm, as though to reassure herself that I was still there, still alive. ‘You have to remember, Jessica, that this was at the height of the Troubles, the prejudice and the discrimination were terrible things to see, and the hatred.’

She looked across at my father. He would never be anything other than Dad, this man who’d taught me to read and helped with my homework. Malfaire was never going to qualify for the title for anything other than DNA input. My father looked back, reached out a hand and covered her fingers with his. ‘Go on, Jen,’ he whispered. ‘It’s time. You know it.’

A deep breath and she went on. ‘I worked as a volunteer when I wasn’t teaching. In a women’s shelter. It was a frightening time, Jessica, more than you can ever imagine, back then, even admitting to knowing someone who wasn’t human was to invite a petrol bomb through your window. Whole areas had zero-tolerance policies, there were zombies and ghouls walking the night, you’ll never know.’

‘I read my history, I’ve seen the films. What has it all to do with anything?’

‘There were women … little more than children some of them, starving, out on the streets. Parents dead, often killed by the mon–’ a flick of a look in Sil’s direction – ‘by Otherworlders. The welfare system was hard to negotiate if you had no home … these people were desperate, Jessica, alone, terrified, hungry, some of them had children of their own to feed, they would do whatever it took to keep themselves alive. Even … Well. You said you’ve read your history. You know what people had to do.’ She dropped her eyes, fingers plucking at my sleeve as though she could pick a conclusion into my mind through the wool. ‘And there was a girl …’

‘My mother.’

A nod over the cooling tea. ‘She came to us so shocked that she barely knew her own name. She’d been in … well, one could hardly call it a relationship … she’d been the plaything, I think is the best way to put it, of a demon. Who had grown tired of her and thrown her back on to the streets with only the clothes she stood up in, and they weren’t good for much by then, either. And then she’d found out she was pregnant.’

The cold finger that ran down my spine was so distinct that I half-turned to check that Sil was still sitting at the table corner. My fingers were blue around my mug and I couldn’t think of anything to say. Sil was concentrating on the floor, looking a bit embarrassed. Let him, he’d been the one who insisted on coming; if my family’s dirty laundry was going to get aired in front of him it served him right.

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