She had brought the stave with her, and when her mother saw it, she broke into a fresh burst of tears.
"Look,"Meredith said, "this doesn't have to be so tragic. I've got a pretty good idea of what happened. If you want to tel me about how Grandma and I real y got hurt, that's your business. But if I was...contaminated in some way..."
She stopped. She could hardly believe it. Her father was holding out an arm to her, as if the somewhat rank condition of her clothes didn't matter. She went to him slowly, uncomfortably, and let him hug her regardless of his Armani suit. Her mother had a glass with a few sips left of what looked like Coke in front of her, but Meredith would bet it wasn't al Coke.
"We'd hoped that this was a place of peace,"her father orated. Every sentence her father spoke was an oration. You got used to it. "We never dreamed..."And then he stopped.
Meredith was stunned. Her father didn't stop in the middle of an oration. He didn't pause. And he certainly didn't cry.
"Dad! Daddy! What is it? Have kids been around here, crazy kids? Did they hurt somebody?"
"We have to tel you the whole story from that time long ago,"her father...said. He spoke with such despair that it wasn't anything like an oration. "When you were...al attacked."
"By the vampire. Or Grandfather. Or do you know?"
Long pause. Then her mother drained the contents of her glass and cal ed, "Janet, another one, please."
"Now, Gabriel a - "her father said, chiding.
"'Nando - I can't bear this. The thought that mi hija inocente..."
Meredith said, "Look, I think I can make this easier for you. I already know...Well, first, that I had a twin brother."
Her parents looked horrified. They clung together, gasping.
"Who told you?"her father demanded. "At that boardinghouse, who could know - ?"
Calming down time. "No, no. Dad, I found out - Well, Grandpa talked to me."That was true enough. He had. Just not about her brother. "Anyway, that was how I got the stave. But the vampire that hurt us is dead. He was the serial kil er, the one who kil ed Vickie and Sue. His name was Klaus."
"You thought that there was only one vampire?"her mother got out. She pronounced the word the Hispanic way, which Meredith always found more scary. Vahm-peer.
The universe seemed to start moving slowly around Meredith.
"That's just a guess,"her father said. "We don't real y know that there was more than the very strong one."
"But you know about Klaus - how?"
"We saw him. He was the strong one. He kil ed the security guards at the gate with one blow each. We moved to a new town. We hoped you would never have to know you had a brother."Her father brushed his eyes. "Your grandfather spoke to us, right after the attack. But the next day...nothing.
He couldn't talk at al ."
Her mother put her face in her hands. She only lifted it to cal ,
"Janet! Another, por favor!"
"Right away, ma'am."Meredith looked to the housekeeper's blue eyes for the solution to this mystery and found nothing - sympathy, but no help. Janet walked away with the empty glass, blond French braid receding.
Meredith turned back to her parents, so dark of eye and hair, so olive of skin color. They were huddling together again, eyes on her.
"Mom, Dad, I know that this is real y hard. But I'm going after the kind of people who hurt Grandpa, and Grandma, and my brother. It's dangerous, but I have to do it."She dropped into a Taekwondo stance. "I mean you did have me trained."
"But against your own family? You could do that?"her mother cried.
Meredith sat down. She had reached the end of the memories that she and Stefan had found. "So Klaus didn't kil him like Grandmother. He took my brother with him."
"Cristian,"wailed her mother. "He was just un bebe. Three years old! That was when we found the two of you...and the blood...oh, the blood..."
Her father got up, not to orate, but to put his hand on Meredith's shoulder. "We thought it would be easier not to tel you - that you wouldn't have any memories of what was happening when we came in. And you don't, do you?"
Meredith's eyes were fil ing with tears. She looked to her mother, trying to silently tel her she couldn't understand this.
"He was drinking my blood?"she guessed. "Klaus?"
"No!"cried her father as her mother whispered prayers.
"He was drinking Cristian's, then."Meredith was kneeling on the floor now, trying to look up into the face of her mother.
"No!"cried her father again. He choked.
"La sangre!" gasped her mother, covering her eyes. "The blood!"
"Querida - " her father sobbed, and went to her.
"Dad!"Meredith went after him and shook his arm. "You've ruled out al the possibilities! I don't understand! Who was drinking blood?"
"You! You!" her mother almost screamed. "From your own brother! Oh, el aterrorizar!"
"Gabriel a!"moaned her father.
Meredith's mother subsided into weeping.
Meredith's head was whirling. "I'm not a vampire! I hunt vampires and kil them!"
"He said,"her father whispered hoarsely: "'Just see she gets a tablespoon a week. If you want her to live, that is. Try a blood pudding.'He was laughing."
Meredith didn't need to ask if they had obeyed. At her house, they had blood sausage or pudding at least once a week.
She had grown up with it. It was nothing special.
"Why?"she whispered hoarsely now. "Why didn't he kil me?"