Cora pulled her hood up, securing it tightly under her chin as they walked along the blood river toward the palace. It was no wonder this place was called Gray Vale. Other than the red river, it was so… gray.
"Why do you always wish to cover yourself?" Zane chuckled next to her. He was much more brazen, walking around with his mess of black hair clear for all to see. "It's not like you stick out by your appearance."
"You think people do not know me by my appearance?" She hissed.
"Yeah—the appearance of the hood. If you wish to look like the grim reaper, you are doing a fair job of it," he snickered. "Your face would blend in with everyone else's here, sis."
"I just… feel safer like this," she mumbled, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She would never be comfortable here, regardless of how much time had passed.
"Then why do you always refuse to ask for a coach?" He asked, bewildered by her behavior.
"A coach?" She scoffed. "Really? Do you see any coaches in this place? Do you see any horses?"
"No, because they are at the palace, which is where we are going," he answered.
"Exactly. What a great way to draw even more attention to ourselves," she replied. "No one is staring now, but they certainly would be if we were riding in a coach."
"Why do you care so much? And if we were riding in a coach, they would be staring at the coach… not at you," he said.
"Never mind," she grumbled.
Her brother obviously did not understand, so it was pointless to argue about it. She did not want any more attention than possible, and she didn't want to ask for any special treatment. She didn't want to feel indebted to the royals more than she already did.
"I miss cars," she sighed.
"That is something we can definitely agree on," Zane replied with a chuckle.
They had lived there for three years now. It was the agreement the royals made with their mother. Their family was allowed to live in the regular world amongst humans while her and Zane were young, but once they neared the age when their hearts should stop beating like all other vampires, they were required to move to Gray Vale.
In a way, it seemed that during these past three years everyone in Gray Vale had been anticipating Cora and Zane's births into the vampire race… except it was rather backwards. It was like an unbirth. Their hearts would stop beating, and then their identity as fellow unliving creatures would be secured.
At the moment, Cora and Zane remained in that ambiguous, undefinable space. No one was quite sure if they would, in fact, become vampires since they were a mix of their mother's fae and lycan origins.
It was not too unusual for vampires their ages to be… living. Even though vampire young were extraordinarily rare, they were always born with beating hearts. And they lived for a short time with those beating hearts continuing on, fluttering away in their chests like little hummingbirds alerting everyone around them that they should be valued and fiercely protected.
But around the age of 21, the hearts of the vampire young stopped, and they transitioned into the eternal phase of their existence. By all accounts, it was terribly painful. Cora was not looking forward to it. Since she was now 21, her heart should arrest any day. But it was still beating along like it had its own plans. Cora wasn't sure if she should hope it would remain that way or not.
She wanted to remain living. She didn't want to be a vampire like all of those other cold, seemingly unfeeling creatures they were surrounded by. But she also feared what would happen should she prove not to be a vampire like all the others.
Would they simply let her and her family go back to the human world? It was never discussed. The silence around that possibility was ominous on its own, and it hinted toward the answer. There was no going back. If she was not a vampire, she would either be allowed to remain there as a living being or her identity would not be accepted and she would be killed.
Whatever happened to her would directly affect Zane as well, and that was something else she had to deal with. Every beat of her heart held a small echo of guilt for what it foretold about her brother's identity. It was certainly possible that one of them would transition to become a vampire and the other would not. But since Cora was the oldest, she was the first test.
"Where does all this blood come from?" She asked aloud.
It was not the first time she wondered about the source of the blood river that endlessly flowed through the city. It was the source of nourishment for everyone in Gray Vale, diverting into their homes through faucets. For all she knew, the vampires bathed in it—coating their pale, dry skin with the vitality they could not produce on their own.
"Do you really want to know?" Zane asked next to her.
"No. No, you're right I don't," she said softly.
Regardless of where the blood came from, they were stuck in Gray Vale. This was their new home, and there was nothing they could do about the horrors around them other than learn to embrace them.
But her mind kept wandering to the mouth of the river. It had to be human blood. They would not deign to drink from anything less. The river just made quenching their thirst much less… messy. And less emotional.
That was one thing she was aware of—the emotions that vampires would typically receive when drinking from their victims had been filtered out of the river. It was emotionless, which allowed them to maintain their constant state of apparent detachment. How else would they live with themselves? Not that they were living…
Cora sighed heavily. This place made her sick to her stomach and gave her a headache. It was hard to believe that she was actually half vampire.