They spotted Brendan’s dad in the living room, talking to a short, pale man in sunglasses. “Sorry, can we pry you away for a minute?” Olivia asked.
Mr. Daniels followed them into the kitchen. “Ivy and I have something to ask you,” Olivia said.
“Of course,” Mr. Daniels replied. Ivy bit her lip and stared down at her boots.
“Could a human woman die from giving birth to a vampire?” blurted Olivia.
“It depends,” Mr. Daniels answered, and Olivia felt a flicker of worry.
“On what?” she risked.
“Mainly on whether she kept up her iron intake,” replied Mr. Daniels. “But, assuming a balanced diet, there’s no reason a human mother couldn’t act as a surrogate to a vampire child. Why do you ask?”
“Because we found out that our mother died in childbirth,” Olivia explained plainly. She looked over at her sister, and it was clear Ivy still wasn’t convinced. “Could she have died because she needed more iron or whatever?”
“No, no, that wouldn’t have been the situation in your case,” Mr. Daniels replied, shaking his wild mane of gray hair.
Ivy looked up. “Why not?”
“Because iron deficiency in the mother would almost certainly result in birth defects in the vampire offspring, and you’re healthy as a bat. The normal, human complications that often arise during labor were probably the cause of your mother’s death.”
“So it wasn’t having me as a daughter?” Ivy inquired softly.
Mr. Daniels squeezed Ivy’s shoulder affectionately. “No,” he said. “Certainly not,” he added more forcefully.
Olivia saw relief wash over her sister’s face. “Thanks, Mr. Daniels,” Olivia said triumphantly.
Ivy felt like she’d just had a blood transfusion. “Would you be willing to tell my father what you just said?” she asked.
He looked puzzled. “I suppose so, but why?” Ivy exchanged glances with her sister. We have to tell Brendan’s father the truth. Ivy thought, shepherding him further into the corner by the pantry, so no one else would overhear. “If we tell you a secret,” Ivy said, “will you promise to keep it?”
Mr. Daniels paused, studying the serious expressions on Ivy’s and Olivia’s faces. “I will,” he pledged finally.
“Remember when you told us about Karl Lazar,” Ivy said, “the vamp who fell in love with a human and went into hiding?”
“Yes,” Mr. Daniels agreed.
“Well, we found him,” Olivia whispered.
“You did?” Mr. Daniels’s eyes widened. “Where?”
“In Franklin Grove,” Ivy replied. “He changed his name to Charles Vega.”
“Inconceivable!” Mr. Daniels gasped.
“But true,” said Ivy. “My dad is our real dad. And he thinks our mother died because he got her pregnant with a vampire baby.”
Thankfully, Mr. Daniels understood at once why the girls wanted him to speak to their father. “Lead the way!” he said.
Ivy knocked lightly on the study door. “Dad?”
“You may enter,” his voice came faintly.
“Dad, Mr. Daniels is here.” Brendan’s father followed her into the room, and Olivia came in behind him. “He has something to tell you.”
“Your wife’s death was not your fault, Charles,” Mr. Daniels said simply.
Her father bristled. “I appreciate your concern, Marc, but—”
Mr. Daniels put up his hand. “Let me finish. I have been studying human-vampire childbirth for nearly a decade, and your daughters’ particular case around the clock for two weeks. When the girls’ mother was impregnated, the human cells and vampire cells separated and formed two entirely distinct embryos. From that moment on, the pregnancy would have been completely normal. All my research confirms this. There would have been no toxic effects from the vampire DNA in your wife’s womb.”
“Then what killed her?” Ivy’s father demanded.
“Human medicine and science have greatly advanced,” Mr. Daniels said. “But even now, in this day and age, there are unpreventable fatalities during childbirth. It is the way of nature. It is human nature, Charles.” Mr. Daniels spread his hands. “It has nothing to do with vampires.”
Something changed in Mr. Vega’s eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice faltering.
“I am as sure as a geneticist can be,” Mr. Daniels said gently.
Charles Vega rose slowly from his desk and came around to stand before Mr. Daniels. Then, to Ivy’s amazement, he threw his arms around Brendan’s father. “Thank you,” he gasped. “Thank you.”
“You are most welcome,” Mr. Daniels replied generously.
Ivy’s father turned to face her. Beaming, he grabbed her hand. With the other, he took Olivia’s.
“Can the two of you ever forgive me?” he asked. “For deceiving you for so long? For being so wrong?”
Olivia’s lip was trembling. “As long as you promise to forgive yourself,” she said tenderly. “Dad,” she added with a gulp.
Their father pulled the two of them to his chest, and Ivy looked across to see Olivia smiling at her with tears in her eyes. She heard Mr. Daniels let himself quietly out of the study.
Ivy hugged her sister and her father as tightly as she could. For the first time, there weren’t any secrets to keep the three of them apart.
Chapter 11
“I’m dreaming of a black Christmas,” Olivia sang to herself as she painted her nails frosted pink. It was Christmas Eve, and her sister was rummaging around in the bottom of her closet, checking to see whether Olivia had any shoes that might match the outfit she was planning on wearing for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner.