The Vampire's Daughter

It was hard for Audrey to talk about her father.  When people ask about him and she tells them it’s hard, people automatically assume that he’s dead.  Technically speaking, he is.  Vampires have to die to be come reanimated.  That was the best way Audrey could explain it.  The Siring Vampire/Vampires had to drain the potential Vampire-to-be of all of their blood.  As the Vampire-to-be is lying there, dying, one of the vampires have to force feed the Vampire-to-be to drink their blood.  It was a disgusting, hellish way for it to be done and it didn’t always work.  Even if the Vampire-to-be did come “back,” they didn’t always act the way they did.  Sometimes, the Vampire-to-be died instead.  Audrey didn’t talk about stuff like that.  It was a good way to get herself committed.  People just didn’t want to believe in vampires, but they liked the idea of magic because of those books about The Potter kid.  Bring up vampires, though, and people looked at a person like they were crazy.  No, thank you, Audrey had said to herself, I have enough problems without dealing with people who think I’m crazy. 




Audrey Alexander sat in the local café, writing – again.  It wasn’t until her father was sitting directly across from her did she even realize he was there.  “Dad,” Audrey said, shocked.  “When did you get here?”

“I have only being here but a few minutes,” he said, smiling.  Audrey rolled her eyes and went back to writing.  “Do you not want to know why I have come to see you, Apple of my Eye?”  She waved him on to speak, tapping her pen on the table as she thought an idea through.  “I have come to tell you I am to be married.”  Audrey dropped her pen but stared at the table.  Had she really heard him right?  Married? 

“To whom,” Audrey asked, she hoped, politely as she looked up at him. 

“Your mother,” he answered, waving someone over to bring him a cup of grey earl tea.

“I don’t have a mother,” Audrey sighed, “you’ve always been the one to tell me that.”  If she didn’t have a mother, her father couldn’t get married to her, and that would be the end of that.  It was childish logic, she knew, but it worked for the moment. 

“Nonsense, Audrey, my heart of hearts,” he said, adding cream and sugar to the aforementioned cup of grey earl tea.  “Everyone has a mother.  I know I told you as a child that you didn’t have a mother because she was not around.  I am not your biological father, of course, but your mother and I were together when she had you.  We decided to raise you together.  Shortly after we had you settled into my house with a nanny in employment, your mother took off.  She left a note telling me you were better off without her. 

“I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago.  Apparently, Antonio found your mother in Canada.  She has been Turned.  It seems it was shortly after she left us.”

Audrey remembered Antonio well.  He was really good at game of hide and seek because he used his vampire power to become invisible for short periods of time.  He even used his powers to make her invisible too and they had spent many evenings hiding from the Nanny, Sophia.  She smiled fondly at the memory before conjuring up some relevant questions to ask as she tried to remain mature and grown up about the situation.  Okay, well, become grown up and mature about it.  “So that’s it,” Audrey asked, “Antonio found her and you are just going to marry her?  No discussion?  No rational thought?  Daddy, I would have thought you had more common sense then that.”  Way to be relevant and grown up, Audrey, she chastised herself. 

“Your mother will be in town tomorrow night.  The wedding is a week from tomorrow.  I will at your house to pick you up at seven.  There will be a small gathering at my house.  Wear something pretty, my daughter, and be nice to your mother.”

What else could she say, except: “Of course, Daddy.”

“That is my Apple Dumpling.  See you tomorrow.”  A quick kiss on the cheek and he was gone before she could track him going out the door.  Ugh, vampires.  Audrey went back to her writing and decided not to think about it.



Audrey woke up early the next afternoon.  She cuddled up in her sheets, not wanting to get up quite yet.  Her boyfriend, Gregory, lay beside her, dead to the world in a completely un-vampirey way.  She had many things to do before her evening with her father . . . and mother.  She had never had a mother before.  The idea of it was intriguing and equally terrifying.  What if her mother didn’t like her?  Didn’t love her?  What if her mother wanted nothing to do with her?  Well, she couldn’t get around that last one, she was going to marry her father, after all, and no one - no one - told her father no.

She sat up and stretched, contemplating eating at home versed eating out with Brittany when they went shopping.  She climbed out of bed and made it to the shower.  She was so tired.  She was also very glad that the bookstore she opened up three years ago was alive and thriving enough that she could hire a manager to do most of the work these days.  The book club idea had taken off well.  Most members bought the decided book from her and she let the use the Meeting Room for their get-togethers.  She should probably stop in there while she and Brittany were out anyway.  An hour later, Audrey had her hair done, her outfit on, and she was eating reheated leftover pizza.  Brittany Minton bounced in and took the other slice off her plate.  Audrey just smiled at her as Brittany danced around, listening to her iPod.  When Brittany danced past her, Audrey pulled one of the ear buds from her ear with an audible pop.  “I have to go buy a new dress to meet my biological mother.”

Brittany stopped.  “Wh-what?”  Suddenly Brittany was a flurry of movement.  She grabbed Audrey’s purse and shoes and car keys.  “Tell me more on the way,” she said, practically pushing Audrey to the door, the reheated pizza forgotten.  “There’s a sale downtown and we have to go now if you want a smoking hot dress.”

“I don’t want to wear a smoking hot dress to meet my mother,” Audrey said, putting her feet out to prevent Brittany from completely pushing her out of the room.  “Wait a tick, Brit; I have to tell Gregory we’re leaving.”  Brittany rolled her eyes and let go of Audrey, who ran out the door and to the car so she could drive. 

They had finally arrived at the mall.  Brittany hadn’t wanted to go shopping until she heard the whole story, which hadn’t taken all that long so she made Audrey repeat herself.  “I don’t know anything else,” Audrey told her, exasperated, when Brittany wanted to hear the story a third time, “it was a quick conversation.”  They walked into Maggie’s Attire and started browsing through the racks.  “What in the world would someone pick out to meet their biological mother?”

“What about your mother,” Maggie Brennan asked coming out of the stock room at the back of the store.  “Colleen, mind the store,” she shouted to her clerk, who rolled her eyes and went back to reading her magazine.  “I swear,” Maggie said to the two of them, “if she wasn’t my sister, I’d fire her.”  Audrey and Brittany laughed because they knew better.  A year after they graduated high school, Maggie opened up the store as a way to keep her younger sister out of trouble and to get clothes at discounted prices.  It was rough at the beginning, but Maggie went and took all the right classes and had a brand new marketing strategy: advertise.  “Anyhow,” she said glaring at the giggling fools she called friends, “what’s this about your mother then?”

“Oh, well,” Audrey sobered up, “Dad said that Antonio found Mom in Canada and now she and he are going to get married.”

“Antonio is marrying your mother,” Maggie asked, leaning against a rack of dresses.  “How does that bode with your Dad?”

Brittany laughed as Audrey rolled her eyes.  The people she called friends. . . .ugh.  “No, weirdo, Dad is marrying my Mother.  Ceremony is a week from today.  You guys are coming, right?  You aren’t making me go by myself, are you?”

“We’ll be there, Ray-ray.  Don’t worry.”  Maggie and Brittany spent the next hour throwing dresses into the dressing room for Audrey to try on.  At the end of that hour, Audrey thought if she ever saw another dress again it would be too soon.  Maggie wanted her to wear the classic Little Black Dress and Brittany had picked a floor length white dress with black lace on it.  “It’s your choice, you have to wear it.”

Rolling her eyes, Audrey bought them both using the credit card her father gave her as it was his insistence that she “wear something pretty.”  Maggie left Colleen in charge of the store and the three of them went to dinner.  They went to Pocatello’s Restaurant, an old haunt they still frequented.  They spent a lot of time there as kids because their friend Sal’s parents owned the place.  They had since retired leaving Sal and his brother Marco to run the place. 

Smiling at the candlelight and familiar red and white checkered table cloths, Audrey waited for Sal’s cousin, Sabrina, to seat them.  Sabrina, dark olive skin and dark hair, took their drink order and skipped off – literally.  Maggie shook her head at the retreating figure.  “That girl is odd, I tell you,” Maggie whispered, “she’s not right, as cheerful and sunny as she is.  It’s disgusting.”  Brittany laughed; Audrey shook her head.  Sabrina brought their glasses of ice water and then took their order.  “Must be not remember us,” Maggie commented as Sabrina bounced off again, “we always order the same thing.”  Brittany nodded, munching on a crunchy breadstick.  Audrey shrugged, it didn’t matter to her.  She just knew that she had to eat before she went home and got ready.  Her Dad was always really good about keeping food in the house for her, but Vampires sometimes get queasy around food.  Would her mother be queasy around food?  She was a relatively young vampire as vampires go. 

Someone pulled her hands away while she was rubbing her eyes as she contemplated the unknown that was the evening ahead of her.  “You shouldn’t do that,” Sal said, putting her plate of chicken parmesan in front of her.  “What’s this about your mother,” he asked, sitting down in the empty seat beside her.  He waved his brother over, who brought the salad and Pasta Carbonara  over penne for Maggie and the biggest Meatball sub on the East Coast for Brittany.  Maggie forked into her salad and then forked a piece of bacon from the sauce.  “I’ve never figured out how you eat all of that.”  Brittany just waggled her eyebrows and took a bite out of one end.  A long string of melted provolone and mozzarella stretched between Brit’s mouth and the sub in her hand.  Sal shook his head and turned back to Audrey.  “Well?”

“What?  Oh, yeah, my mom,” she said and then lowered her voice, filling him in.  “What do you think?”  Sal shrugged.  “You’re a big help, Pocatello.”

“I’ll tell you what else is big,” he said, scooting closer to Audrey.  She rolled her eyes and pushed him away, cutting her chicken with the fork in her other hand.  “C’mon, Alexander, I’ll show you a good time.”

“I think it would be a really good idea if you back off now, Pocatello.”

“Great, Gregory is here,” Audrey sighed.  Gregory Grayson, Audrey’s live-in boyfriend, is a telekinetic and a local attorney.  A thoughtful attorney who kept vampire hours so he could spend time with his vampire raised girlfriend.  Sal stood up, vacating the seat for Greg.  She leaned in and kissed him.  He put his arm around her and pulled her closer.  Possessive any, she thought to herself and then brushed the thought away.  He was just trying to show that he cared. 

“How about some service, Pocatello,” Greg asked gruffly.

“Sure, I’ll send the waitress back.”  Sal left without another word.  Audrey was a little upset that Sal and Greg would never get along but she thought they should at least make an effort.  The rest of dinner was quiet.  Audrey was busy deciding what dress she would wear and mentally preparing herself to meet her mother.

“Cat got your tongue, Audrey?”

“What,” she asked, looking up from her mostly uneaten food.  “I’m sorry, I was thinking.”

“I should have known.  I could see the smoke coming out your ears,” Maggie said, smiling.  The three of them were done eating.  Greg was half way through a bowl of chocolate gelato.  Shaking her head in hope of getting rid of her thoughts, she set in to finish at least half of her chicken parmesan and she had been looking forward to some gelato herself.  Sal came over a moment later with a take out box and a to-go box.  The to-go box was filled with gelato and Sal packed up her food himself.  Audrey smiled at him gratefully as Greg scowled at him. 

“Can’t please everyone,” Sal said to Greg and then left.  Sabrina bounced over again and dropped the check off.  Everyone’s orders were written separately on the same check.  Written on top of three of them was sprawled: Complementary – Enjoy.  On the last order – Gregory’s – was an extra “Jerk Charge” of three dollars.  Audrey tried hard not to laugh and was unsuccessful.  Greg threw a bill on the table and stormed out.  Audrey shook her head as Sal waltzed back over.  “I hope you girls enjoyed yourselves.”

“I always enjoy dinner and a show,” Maggie said, popping the last piece of bread in her mouth.  Sal sat down in the vacated seat once more. 

“Tell me how a nice girl like you ends up with a jerk like that.”

“I didn’t end up with him,” Audrey protested, frowning, “we’re together.  It’s not like I expect to marry Greg.  I just . . . I don’t know.  I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Of course you don’t,” he mumbled standing up again.  “See you back here tonight,” he asked.  He sighed as Audrey gave him a bewildered look.  “After we close up for tonight we’re having my birthday party.  You didn’t forget, did you?”

“I’ve just been so busy . . . with, with everything.” 

“It’s okay, Rey-rey.  Now I’m being a jerk.  I know that the last, what, twelve hours have been hard on you.  Just promise me you’ll try to make it.”

“I promise, Sal,” Audrey said through a few tears, “I’ll try really hard.”

“I’m sure you will,” he said, pulling her to stand up so he could hug her, “I’m sure you will.”  He kissed the top of her head and then walked away again.

“I have no idea how you do that, but you should teach me,” Maggie said, stirring her ice cubes around in her now empty glass.  Brittany nodded, her hand under her chin and resting on her elbow.  Audrey raised an eyebrow at them.  “I can’t believe I have to spell this out!  Audrey, you have one of the top attorneys in the county at your beck and call.  Than you have the hottest guy in town, possible the county, panting after you like a puppy.  How do you have two wonderful guys when I can’t find one?  Give one up.”

“Sal?”

“Yes, Sal,” Brittany spoke up.  “That’s enough for the day.  Let’s get you home so we can go meet your mom.”  Audrey nodded and followed them out of the restaurant.  It was going to be a long, long night.



Vincent Alexander certainly didn’t look his 235 years.  In two weeks, he would celebrate his 200th year as a blood-sucking member of the Undead.  That made it sound like one of those horrible bands from the 1980’s with the funny hair.  Many of them dressed as women, did they not?  No matter, he had many things to prepare for.  He would see Caroline before picking Audrey up and bringing her back here.  She would meet her mother.  He and Caroline would get married and they would be the happy little family he always dreamed of. 

He carried his brandy sifter from his Study down the hall to Caroline’s suite of rooms.  He could smell the blood wafting up from the sifter as he moved fluidly down the hall.  Stopping in front of the main door, Vincent waited, unsure of how to proceed in the first time since Caroline left those 23 years ago.  He knocked, timidly.  “Caroline?”

Over a minute later, the door opened a crack.  “Vincent?  Is there something wrong?”

“I have come to see you before I go retrieve our daughter, Audrey,” he said, smiling proudly.

“Oh, okay, then.  I’ll see you when you get back,” she said, closing the door.  Vincent stuck his foot out and stopped it.  Caroline yelped, surprised.  “Vinny, what are you doing?”

He pushed the door open and walked into the room.  Antonio sat at the desk in the lounge.  “What are you doing in my betrothed’s rooms, Antonio?” Vincent folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the doorframe, the brandy sifter sat forgotten on a small table.  “I thank you very much for finding Caroline and befriending her but I think maybe it has gone a little too far.” 

“Maybe it is you who misunderstand my intentions, old friend,” Antonio said, standing up.  “I only wish for Caroline to feel safe as she has been a way a long time.” 

“I am here, Antonio, why would she not feel safe?”

“As I said, Vincent, Caroline has been away from here for a long time and I am sure she feels . . . odd being back here in this place with you.  I am just here as an ear to listen to any concerns or feelings she does not feel ready to share with you just yet.” 

The three of them stood in a weird vampire triangle as if facing off in some crazy, imaginary battle.  Caroline stepped back causing Vincent to look her way.  He really looked at her this time, too, not just glancing over her because she was standing nearby.  She looked very much like Audrey, he decided.  Or Audrey looks like her mother, he mused to himself.  They had the same curly raven black hair.  Where Caroline kept her hair short, Audrey preferred to keep her hair long although she complained it was a nuisance to take care of.  The shared the same forest green eyes.  Caroline stood seven inches below his 6’6”.  Audrey would be a bit taller than her mother then.  Caroline’s lips were naturally puckered and usually so.  It was much more pronounced at the moment because she was getting ready to yell at one or the both of them.  Her style in clothing changed, he noticed, since he had seen her last.  She was dressed very sophisticatedly in a suit where she had always worn jeans and a t-shirt before.  This vampire standing here was not the Caroline he knew.  This was not Audrey’s mother.  The being standing before him just looked like her.  His undead heart sunk.  Audrey would be very upset with him, for many reasons, he was sure. 

Vincent took a step back.

“What did you do that for,” Caroline asked.

“I have no reason or right to keep you here, Caroline,” Vincent said quietly.  “You are released from are betrothal, I do not wish for you to be in a loveless marriage.”  Caroline looked upon him in amazement.  “I would not want Audrey to be in such a situation.  You must do what is in your heart.”

Caroline took two steps towards him, standing right in front of him.  “Thank you,” she said in a watery voice.  “It means so much to me that you would still look out for me even if it doesn’t suit you.  I would still like to met Audrey, still be a part of her life if that’s okay with you.”

He looked down at the Mother of his Child and smiled.  “She is an adult, Caroline.  She can make her own decisions.  I will go pick her up now.  I am sure she will have at least two friends in tow.  She will meet you, yes, and everything will be okay.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “You want to be with Antonio?”  She nodded.  “As Audrey’s friend Brittany says – Alrighty, then.”



“I don’t want to go and you can’t make me.”

Audrey had met her father at the door.  Maggie and Brittany stood behind her on either side.  They both giggled and waved when Audrey threw open the door as he approached.  “What is wrong?”

“I will not go to meet her.  She abandoned me and she wasn’t here and I don’t want to meet her.”  Audrey turned in a huff and marched further into the house.  Vincent followed her to the living room.  He didn’t need any super vampire powers because he was a father.  More importantly, he was Audrey’s father.  He probably knew the child better than she knew herself. 

“She did not abandon you, my little rosebud, she had left me.”

Audrey whirled around, confusion and anger plain as day on her face.  Vincent took an unconscious step back.  “In leaving you she abandoned me.  What kind of mother does that?  I’ll tell you – no mother of mine.”  Vincent sent out his psychic feelers to find Gregory, Audrey’s boyfriend. 

“Where is the Lawyer?”

“Out,” Maggie and Brittany said at the same time from the kitchen.  They had not followed Audrey and Vincent.  Maggie peeked in.  “He claims he isn’t coming back,” she whispered.

“I heard that!  I don’t care if he ever comes back!  I can’t believe that jerk would do that to me!  I can’t believe . . . I can’t. . . .I . . . can’t. . . .”  Audrey grabbed a pillow and threw herself so she was lying on the couch where she then sobbed uncontrollably. 

“One probably does not wish to meet their mother with the red eyes of crying.  Come, my darling daughter, we wash you up good as new.”  Audrey mumbled something.  “What is it, Chihuahua?” 

Maggie could be heard laughing loudly from the kitchen.  “What?”

“Daddy,” Audrey asked, resting the side of her head on the pillow and looking at her father.  “Did you just call me a dog?”

“A dog?”

“A Chihuahua is a small dog with short hair,” Maggie explained, coming back into the room and sitting down in an arm chair, deciding not to miss anything else.  Vincent looked from his daughter to his daughter’s friend.  “Really, Mr. Alexander, I swear.”

“I apologize.”

Audrey giggled.  “Let’s go then.  I just need to wash my face.  I’ll be back in a minute.”  Ten minutes later they arrived at Vincent’s Manor.  Audrey was very nice to Antonio and her mother.  They explained right away that Vincent and Caroline were not going to get married.  Instead, Antonio and Caroline were to be married.  The date had not changed.  Would Audrey consider being a bridesmaid for her mother?

“I suppose. . .”

“Great, it is settled.  Caroline, find a beautiful dress for my beautiful daughter.”  Everyone groaned.  Vincent was losing his touch if that was the best he could do.

“Better than Chihuahua,” Audrey whispered.  “Well, it’s been great,” Audrey said an hour later.  “The three of us have a party to go to, however.  We’ll see you tomorrow night?”

“Where are you going, Goddess of the Night,” Vincent asked, pouring Antonio another drink.  “We have not finished with the talking yet.”

“I know, Daddy,” Audrey said as Brittany and Maggie silently cheered with Vincent’s triumphed return.  “We promised our friend Sal that we would go to his birthday party.  It starts soon and we want to be there for all of it.”  Lots of hugging and promises ensued.  Audrey waited to let Caroline go last.  “Well, Mom, I, uh, had a great time.”

“I’m glad of it,” Caroline said, smiling, “do you want to go dress shopping tomorrow?”  They made arrangements to go the night after tomorrow.  Audrey turned to leave.  “Audrey, I really did think it was best.  I was very sick you see.  I was, well, I had cancer.  I couldn’t bear to watch you lose me.  I had planned on leaving and not thinking about it, hoping you’d be better off without a mother at all.  Vincent did a very good job of raising you.  I was sorry to hear that Amelia passed.”  Audrey nodded, remembering her caring but stern Nanny. 

Audrey kept the majority of her thoughts to herself.  She didn’t want to yell at her mother.  She didn’t want to tell her that she would have rather had her as a child.  Amelia had been very good with most things, but she hadn’t wanted to talk about boys or sex or stuff the girls talk to their mothers about.  Amelia had been more of a book and school type of person.  Yes, Audrey had some of the best tutors in the world and she had Amelia up until last year, but that did not make up for not having a mother.  It was a good thing she had Maggie and Brittany to talk about boys and clothes with or she might have gone crazy. 

Maggie watched intently as Audrey went through her silent battle.  It was probably best to get her out of here before the blood hit the wall, literally.  She couldn’t help but wonder if clearing the air would help any.  Deciding against it, she murmured an apology and took off with Audrey and Brittany in tow.  Audrey would do best in Sal’s arms right now and she wouldn’t rest until Audrey was there. 



Sal was turning 25.  He knew he should be happy.  Most of his friends and all of his family were there to celebrate.  His cousin, Nick, stood behind the bar bartending.  Sabrina and some of the other cousins had taken over the makeshift dance floor at one end of the dining room.  “Admit it, Salvador, you miss her.”

“Miss who, Mama,” Sal asked, pouring another shot of tequila for himself.

“The Vampire’s Daughter,” Mama Pocatello said, sitting down across from her son.  “You like her, don’t you?”  No use lying to a mother, he thought.  He nodded.  “Miss her or like her.”  Sal laughed and nodded again.  “Well, okay, then.”  Sal waited for his mother to say something else. 

“Well, Mama,” Sal said, throwing the poured shot back and pouring another one. 

“Go after her then, Salvador,” Mama Pocatello said, gently, “it is destiny.  I am certain.”

“Yes, Mama,” Sal said, shaking his head.  His mother could be so weird sometimes.

“I am not weird, Salvador, I am just who I am.  Do not think such thoughts about your poor Mama.”  Mama Pocatello turned towards the door and then smiled at Salvador when she turned back.  “She is here.  Go and get married to the Vampire’s Daughter.  Have lots of babies.”  She got up and left before Sal could say another word. 

Audrey sat down and smiled.  “I met my mother.”

“Yeah?  Well, my mother says we should get married and have lots of babies.”  Audrey laughed.  “I’m serious.”

“I know, Sal,” she said, “my mother is marrying Antonio instead of my father.  Will you come to the wedding with me?”  Sal nodded.  Audrey smile grew bigger.  “Now as far as the two of us. . .well, let’s just see how that goes.”

“I think I can live with that,” he said, leaning over the table, kissing her, “I think I can live with that just fine.”  He took her by the hand and led her to the dance floor.  “Wanna practice the baby making thing tonight?”  Audrey laughed but let Sal lead her to his house across the street.

“I think I can live with that, Sal.  I think I can live with that just fine.”  They both laughed and locked the door behind them hoping no one figured out where they ran off to.