I woke in a comfortable bed in a comfortable room that had bars on the windows and door. As I spotted them, I sat up fast, eyes going wide, fists clenched, ready for a fight.
Beyond the barred doorway, a woman stood watching me. She was slender, tall like me, with auburn hair that curled wildly to shoulder length and green eyes that glittered as they took me in.
"Hello, Lilith." Her lips smiled at me, but her eyes were wary and extremely wet. "I've been waiting for a very long time to say that."
I frowned as I studied her, puzzled, because though I appeared to be her captive, the emanations I felt from her were peaceful, loving and kind. She was clearly on the verge of tears, something that made no sense whatsoever.
I glanced around the room, which didn't resemble any memory I had of The Farm. It was pale green, with dusky pink roses hand-painted in the corners. The woodwork was cream colored, and there were lace curtains on the windows. The flowers on the bedspread that covered me matched those on the walls. And the furnishings were delicate and old looking.
Where was I?
"Lilith," the woman said softly.
I shot my gaze back to her, all my defenses going up. "Why have you taken me prisoner?" I asked her.
"What is this place? What have you done with Ethan?" I frowned at her. "You're not with the DPI, are you? This isn't The Farm."
"No, we're not the DPI, and this isn't the Farm. I'm sorry we had to act so violently, Lilith, but you'd have been killed if we hadn't."
I lifted my brows, recalling the ambush and the fact that there had been many, not one, who had attacked me. "So you and your friends ambushed, drugged and abducted me to save my life?" I asked skeptically. "And these bars? If you're trying to help me, why am I imprisoned?"
"Only to keep you from killing an innocent before you've had a chance to hear that we're on your side.
We need to protect you but also to protect our own."
"How noble of you."
She nodded. "Any mother would do the same for her only daughter."
I was silent. Her words slithered around in my mind like snakes seeking a home. They had to be lies.
They must be lies. I stared at her as I probed her mind, seeking the lie. But I didn't find one. She was completely open to me, and I felt no hint of deception or malice.
She looked like me, I thought in growing amazement. But no. It couldn't be true.
"I was told my mother died giving birth to me."
"And I was told my daughter was stillborn, even though I heard you cry. I knew it was a lie. One of my nurses did, too. She tried to help me and was murdered for her efforts. But it was because of her that I found these womenthis order. And because of them that I finally found you."
I blinked as I stared at her. "This order ? "
"It hasn't yet been decided how much I'm allowed to tell you about us, Lilith. But they are good women, devoted to a just cause. They would never do harm to one of you."
"One of me?" I rolled my eyes even as I averted them. "What on earth do you mean by that?"
"You're a vampire. So is your friend Ethan. You were kidnapped at birth because you were one of the Chosen, as so many other children and babies have been, only to be raised in captivity by the DPI and their keepers. We still don't know the entire purpose behind that. We only recently even learned where the Farm is located."
"How?" .
She lowered her head. "I can't tell you that. Not yet. But we do know, from an unquestionable source, that the DPI knew you and Ethan were on your way there, intending to rescue the others. They were waiting for you, Lilith. You'd have been killed before you ever got inside."
I pushed back the covers, putting my feet on the floor, realizing only now that I had been re-dressed while I slept. I was wearing a long, pretty nightgown of soft white linen. For a moment my hands trailed over the fabric and my heart softened. I found myself wanting to believe this woman. And yet, how could I? I had trusted only once in my life, and Ethan had betrayed that trust by lying to me andand maybe more.
"How could anyone know what Ethan and I intended to do?"
"I don't know the answer to that," the woman said softly. "Did you or Ethan tell anyone?"
I knew I had told no one of our plan. And I could think of only one person Ethan might have told, though he'd promised me he wouldn't. And yet he had. He must have. And that made twice that he had broken my trust in him. He must have told his damned brother.
"What happened to Ethan?" I asked, not answering her question, and regretting instantly that the words emerged in a coarse whisper, betraying my emotions.
"He was taken."
My head swung toward her as my breath caught in my throat. "The DPI?"
"I don't know. It was just one man. He got Ethan into your SUV and then drove away."
I closed my eyes. If Ethan had told James where we were going, and James had told the DPI, then it was clear James was working for them. And by now they had undoubtedly taken Ethan back to The Farm. God, was he even still alive?
I got to my feet. "I have to find him. I have to get to him before it's too late, if it's not already." Moving to the barred door, barefoot, I clutched the bars in my hands. "If you are truly my mother," I could scarcely say the word, "then you'll let me go to him."
Her tears spilled over then, rolling slowly down her cheeks, and I found it hard to doubt that she had been telling me the truth, "Lilith, please," she whispered. "You can't go back to The Farm. They'll kill you."
"They have Ethan."
"You can't be sure of that."
"I'm as sure as I need to be," I told her. "PleaseI have to try."
"Then let us help you."
I blinked at her, shocked by the offer. "A handful of mortal women, against the DPI and their army of vampire killers? You wouldn't stand a chance."
"A better chance than you'll have going alone." She sighed when I didn't answer, then said, "You've been unconscious for hours, Lilith. It's too near dawn for you to do anything tonight. You might as well rest here today. You'll be safe."
"It doesn't look as if I have a choice about that," I said.
She frowned, and then, with a heavy sigh, reached up to what must have been a switch in the hallway. A moment later, the barred door slid into the wall. The bars on the windows rose, as well, disappearing into the wall above them.
"I won't hold you against your will, Lilith. I only wanted to keep you here long enough to tell you who I am and why we acted as we did."
As she spoke, she stepped inside, hesitating after a few steps, then moving closer, until she stood right before me. With a hand that trembled, she reached up to me, and her fingertips touched my face, then slid back to my hair. Fresh new tears welled in her eyes as I stared into them, and something gripped my heart and squeezed.
"You're so very beautiful," she whispered. "I knew you would be. I didn't get to see you. To hold you.
To be a mother to you. But I knew"
"We look alike," I told her softly. "I always wondered if I resembled my parents. But the keepers got angry when I asked about you, and then they claimed not to know anything anyway."
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you. I was young and alone, and I didn't know."
I nodded. "And my father?"
"I barely knew him," she told me. "He was a one night stand, a date that went further than I'd intended. I never even knew his last name."
"And what is your name?" I asked her.
"Serena," she told me. "Serena Monroe." She lifted her chin, swallowed hard. "Lilith, what did they do to you at that place? Were you were you mistreated?"
I averted my eyes and thought that if she truly were my mother, she was far better off not knowing the worst of it. The punishments, the torture, the drugging and mind-control techniques. "We have classes, lessons. They teach us about the nature of vampires, and about combat. Armed and hand to hand. They try their best to squelch any hint of independence or rebelliousness in us. When we became vampires, they told us, we would work for them, serving our government for the good of all."
"And do you believe that?"
I met the woman'smy mother'seyes again. "I never believed it. That's why I had to leave. They couldn't defeat my will, so I knew they were going to have to to kill me. I was running out of time."
"I can't possibly imagine what you've been through. All these years When I think of you as a newborn in their hands, as a little girl" A sob escaped and seemed to choke her. She pressed a knuckle to her lips, sniffed hard, took a breath. "I'm glad they couldn't break you."
"So am I." I moved toward the door, almost experimentally, walking at a mortal pace, and not entirely because I wanted, to. I was still weak and shaky from the drug.
Serena stepped aside, and when I looked her way, she lowered her head and blinked away the new tears filling her eyes.
I reached the door, and another woman stepped into my path, blocking it.
"It's all right, Ginger," Serena said softly. "I've told Lilith who I am and what's awaiting her at The Farm.
I've done what I wanted to do. Besides, we don't hold captives here."
Ginger looked from Serena to me, her eyes wide with what looked like disbelief and hurtnot her own, but hurt on behalf of her friend. Her mindunblocked, perhaps untrained, or maybe just that honestspoke volumes. She thought I must have no heart, that I must be the coldest being in the universe, to walk away from the mother who'd devoted her entire life to finding me. The mother whose heart was being broken all over again.
But as I neared the door, Ginger stepped aside, refusing to meet my eyes.
I stopped, licked my lips and turned. "You really are my mother, aren't you?"
Lifting her head, Serena met my eyes, no longer even trying to hold back her tears. She nodded. "I am."
Swallowing hard, I moved back toward her, an odd tightand unfamiliarfeeling in my chest. "Perhaps you're right and it is too near dawn for me to accomplish anything tonight. And I do still feel weak from that drug, as well."
"I'm so sorry, Lilith. It was the only way we could think of to stop you from walking into the DPI's trap,"
Serenamy mothersaid.
"Yes, I'm beginning to see that."
My mother pressed a hand to her forehead, moving toward the window. "We had every intention of saving Ethan, as well. That man who intervened"
"I know you tried." I walked closer to her, lifted a hand and let it come to rest on her shoulder. "This probably isn't the reunion you've been dreaming of all these years, is it?"
She looked over her shoulder at me, her smile a bit shaky, her eyes filled with more emotion than I'd ever seen before. "But it is a reunion. You're alive, and I've finally found you. Nothing else matters."
I felt something stirring in my belly, but I didn't know what it was. "I don't really know how to how to be a daughter. How to have a mother. I don't know what it is you want from me, but I sense your disappointment. If you tell me, perhaps"
A sob escaped her, and then she wrapped her arms around me, held me close to her, and I could feel her body trembling. One of her hands moved in small circles on my back, with the other slipping gently into my hair, pulling my head down on her shoulder.
I was surprised and yet also soothed by the warmth that moved from her body into my naturally cool one. I was touched by the rush of feelings I felt coming from her, for she erected no barriers in her mind.
This woman, I realized, loved me.
She loved me. She would die for me.
That was real, and it was true, and it was beyond my ability to comprehend. Here was a person I could trust beyond all others. Beyond anyone. And I didn't even know her. But I couldn't deny the purity of her feelings for me. I could feel them. She didn't hide from me the way Ethan did.
I wrapped my arms around and squeezed gently, letting my head relax more thoroughly on her shoulder.
My eyes burned, and my chest still felt tight. It was powerful, the emotion that flowed between us, more powerful than anything I could have imagined. And quite suddenly I didn't want her to let go. The realization came out of the blue, washing over me with a softness and warmth and a feeling of utter relief that left me almost limp in its wake. It was as if I'd been waiting my entire life for this woman's loving embrace.
And I knew in that moment that I would never regret trusting her, that she would never deceive me the way Ethan had. This womanmy mother, I thought againwould suffer slow torture and death rather than betray me. She loved me in a way that no other being ever had, ever could or ever would.
I clutched her tighter, and my shoulders trembled. I felt my own tears rolling down my face. Gently, she held me away from her to look at my face. I wasn't ashamed of my tears. I didn't need to be ashamed of anything with her.
With the most tender touch I had ever felt, she brushed my wet cheeks with her fingertips. "It's all right.
This must be overwhelming for you."
Sniffling, I nodded. "I don't know you, but it's as if a part of me does."
"The part that came from me, perhaps?"
"All of me came from you."
She smiled at me. "Including the stubbornness that wouldn't allow those bastards to tame you."
I blinked, and smiled back at her. "Yes, it must have. For you to have refused to give up trying to find me for so many yearsyou must be as stubborn as I am."
Serena nodded, wiped at her own eyes then, and smiled.
"I'll stay here for today," I told her. "I'll rest and recover. But at sundown, I have to go after Ethan."
"You love him?" she asked.
I blinked, then frowned. "How can I answer that? Until just now Mother" I smiled as I called her that for the first time. "Until just now, I didn't think I could love anyone. But I love you."
"And I love you, Lilith." She slid an arm around my waist, walking me along the hallway toward a massive staircase. The other woman, Ginger, stayed behind, but I heard her sniffle and clear her throat.
"We have more than an hour until sunrise," Serena said, leading me past the staircase to the farthest reaches of the corridor. "And so much talking to do. Let's sit in the solarium while we can still look out at the stars."
"Yes. I'd like to know about my family."
She nodded, opening a door and leading me up a flight of stairs. "Yes, and you can tell me about your escape, and what you've done and seen since then. And you can tell me about your Ethan."
My Ethan. I hadn't thought of him that way, and it made my heart jump a bit when she said it. But I didn't know if he truly was mine in any way. He'd lied to me.
For the first time, though, I thought I might have a clue as to why. His brother was his family. The bond I felt with my mother was a revelation to me, and perhaps he felt a similar one to James. That bore some consideration, didn't it?
We emerged into a circular room, with walls only about four feet in height. Everything else from there up to the domed ceiling, was made of glass. The frame that held it looked like a spider's web. And beyond the glass, the stars glittered like icicles in moonlight.
She led me to a pair of comfortable chairs, and I sat, staring upward. "This order of yourscan you tell me its name?"
She was silent for a moment. "It's secret. We couldn't continue in our work if word of our existence leaked out, Lilith."
I nodded. "I won't repeat anything you tell me in confidence," I promised her.
"We are called the Sisterhood of Athena," she told me. "We're more centuries old than even we know for sure. We go back as far as the written word, that much we know."
"And your work?"
She looked at me, trust in her eyes. "We observe and protect the supernatural order. We watch over vampires, Lilith. We seldom interfere in the affairs of the undead, but when others do, then we step in.
This Farm that the DPI is running, the abduction and imprisonment and, apparently, the indoctrination of the Chosenthat's not natural. It's not allowing you, and all of them, to grow and live and choose with your own free will. They're trying to own and control, perhaps even to enslave, an entire race. And that cannot be allowed."
I watched her, and frowned. "But what can you hope to do about it? You're just a group of ordinary mortal women."
"Mortal, yes. Ordinary?" Her smile widened a little. "No, we're far from ordinary. We're strong. We're fast. We're skilled. We spend our lives training, so that if and when we are needed, we an be effective, even deadly if necessary. The Sisters of Athena are warriors, Lilith."
I tipped my head to one side. "Then why have you allowed The Farm to continue as long as it has?"
"We couldn't find it. We finally got a lead on a handful of individuals we felt might be connected, and we sent a member out to make inroads with them. She made one of the men fall in love with her, and eventually he brought her in as a keeper. But when she was taken in for the first time, she was blindfolded, and once they're inside, the keepers aren't allowed to leave until their time has been served.
Three years. She's been there nearly that long now, and in all that time she's only managed to contact us twice, both times just in the past few days, to tell us of your escape, and then the fact that the DPI knew you and Ethan were coming and would be waiting in ambush."
I went tense in my chair. "I know who she is!" I said, as the image of a kind faced blond woman flashed into my mind. The one keeper who'd always shown kindness, humanity and concern, but only when the others weren't watching. "Here name is Callista, isn't it?"
She blinked in surprise. "Yes. How do you know?"
I shook my head slowly, remembering. "She was different. Kind when she could be, without being observed. Of course, she had to pretend she was one of them, but I always knew there was something more to her."
My mother looked troubled then. And I understood why. "She took a great risk, sending out that warning for my sake, didn't she?" I asked.
"Yes, she did. If they find out, she'll be killed. But she knew that, and she took the risk of her own free will."
"So she told you where The Farm is?" I asked, already worried about finding my way back.
"We have the coordinates. We triangulated the cell phone's signal."
"And what will you do, now that you know where it is?" I asked.
"We'll take a few more days. We'll surveil the place, map it, know it by heart without them ever knowing we've been near. We'll come up with a plan, and then we'll move in and destroy The Farm in the most efficient, safest way we can come up with."
She sounded almost like Ethan when she spoke about time and surveillance and plans, I thought.
"Our goal," she went on, "is to free the prisoners, save our sister Callista, and prevent innocent blood from being shed."
I sighed and lowered my head. "I'd go with you if I could, but I can't wait for all that. If Ethan was taken there, they could be planning to kill him at any time. If they haven't already."
"Can't you try to contact him? Mentally?" she asked.
I closed my eyes. "I've been trying ever since I woke up. But there's no response. Ethan thought there was some kind of barrier around that placeone that prevented mental contact between the prisoners and anyone outside." My throat went tight. "Or perhaps he really is already dead."
"Lilith, I think the man who took him was a vampire."
I frowned and opened my eyes. "How would you know?"
She tipped her head and frowned back at me in an almost amusing way. "I've been studying them for a long time now. I know a vampire when I see one, and I'm almost certain it was a vampire who took Ethan."
I blinked rapidly as I processed that information. "It could have been his brother, James. He vanished from The Farm two years ago. Some believed he escaped. Others believed he had been transformed and sent out to work for the DPI."
"Do you know what kind of work they make their farm-raised vampires do?"
"I only know what they told us. That we would be serving our country for the good of all. And that anyone who escaped would be hunted down and killed." I swallowed a lump in my throat. "By someone like James, maybe."
"He wouldn't kill his own brother!" Serena said it as if she were willing it to be true.
"You don't understand what they do to us there, Mother. Theythey brainwash. They program. They drug. Most can't withstand it. They become loyal, obedient unto death."
"I can't imagine any vampire being so thoroughly controlled."
I glanced at her, wondering how many vampires she had known.
She read my look. "I've met some, but none who were raised as you were."
"You've met the Wildborns?" I was stunned. "And lived to tell about it?"
She smiled. "Wildborns? That's what you call them?"
I nodded. "And we're Bloodliners," I told her. "That's what they call us at the Farm. They say we're all the same bloodline, once we're made over."
She frowned, a troubled look crossing her face. "But how are you made over?"
"Through transfusions. They drain our blood and infuse us with vampire blood instead."
"But where are they getting the vampiric blood?" she asked.
I blinked, remembering the horror. "They had a captive vampire there. I saw him, before I left. He was in so much pain. He he made me take his blood. I think I killed him, and I think that's what he intended."
She closed her eyes and leaned over in her chair to hug me gently. "You couldn't have known."
I lowered my head to her shoulder. "It was cruel, the way he was kept. And I felt for him. But he must have been different from the rest. The Wildborns are vicious. They're savages. Killers. Like wild animals."
She met my eyes, her own gleaming with utter disbelief. But even as she parted her lips to speak, the door to our haven burst open and another woman surged inside. My mother shot to her feet.
"Serena, we have to evacuate immediately!" the newcomer shouted, all but breathless. "Why? What's happened?"
"The vampires have found out where we are."
