Chapter 56: Demon or human?

Blake struggled to find his voice.

"Rose..." he finally managed, the single word seeming to echo in the quiet room. "What are you?"

She flinched slightly at the question, lips twisting in a pained grimace. Her gaze slid away from his, suddenly unable to meet the naked curiosity and fear in his eyes.

"I'm a monster," she whispered, voice laced with self-loathing. "Some say… a creature of darkness, straight from your worst nightmares."

Moving with aching slowness, she sank down onto the edge of the bed, seeming smaller than Blake had ever seen her before. Gone was the confident, controlled woman he knew. In her place was something older and more haunted, the weight of countless lifetimes bowing her shoulders.

"I'm...a vampire," she said at last, forcing the words out like shards of broken glass. "An undead, a demon even. I'm cursed to walk the earth drinking the blood of the living to survive."