Parent Trap Part 2

Here lives Calista Vaight, a vampire believed to be dead by her own clan, in a small cottage with low ceilings.

She raised her daughter in secret, with a select group of friends, though Calista has no real friends of her own. She sent her daughter to a muggle school in a muggle settlement nearby.

To all who know of her, she is a hermit. To the few who are permitted to know who she is, she is a blood-resisting vampire, only drinking what she needs to stay alive.

Lodging with her is her second-cousin, Ana Vaight, who failed her initiation by refusing to kill Nicolas Casillas. She is believed either dead or on the run, and her own brother has sworn to make her pay.

So it is a hermit-like existance for both of these vampires, and the young half-vampire who lives with them.

_____

Calista sighed, pouring a small bottle of blood into two glasses. She filled both to just below the rim, then accepted the small glass handed to her by Ana, with a few drops of water in the base of it.

Adelina wasn't a fan of strong blood.

Ana took her drink and headed through to the sitting room. As she wasn't a full vampire, she didn't need blood exactly to live, but drinking blood was what she had always done, and she had to admit she liked the taste. Only slightly.

Calista ignored her own glass, instead glancing out of the thick-paned window, into the darkness. As a vampire, she could see further than humans, and noticed an approaching person making a beeline for the cottage door. Expectantly, she waited.

Adriana walked nervously to her mother's home. How did she look like? Sure Adelina gave her a picture but... how did she look like for real? What did her voice sound like? How does she talk, walk? Her mind was bursting with questions and yet at the same time dread. What if she found out that she wasn't Adelina? What if she found out and she didn't like her? What if... what if! A lot of what if's.

She knocked on the door.

Calista opened the door almost before the knocks stopped.

"What time do you call this?" She raised an eyebrow. But then she shook her head. "Hurry up and get in here before you let all the heat out."

She stepped aside to let her daughter in.

Adriana's heart skipped a beat when her mother opened the door. She followed her inside. "Mum..." she whispered, a smile starting to make its away on her face.

Calista raised an eyebrow, but smiled.

"Who else?" She shut the door and gave her daughter a hug.

Adriana hugged her mother tightly. She felt tears brimming eyes and had to blink several times to make sure she wasn't going to cry.

Calista frowned slightly.

"What's the matter? Don't think I can't see your eyes watering. Has something happened?"

Then her eyes widened slightly. "Are you getting hunger pains already?" She ushered the girl into the kitchen and gestured to the smaller glass. "Drink up." She ordered, sipping at her own drink.

She wondered what the drink was, but surmised that it was probably something Adelina drank and if she made a fuss about it, her mother might suspect something.

So without further ado, she drank it.

It tasted coppery but then sweet... it took her several seconds to realise that it was blood. She knew she should have spit it out, but... it was nothing like she thought it would be. It was made her feel better, more alive.

"Wow..."

"Feel better?" Calista smiled.

"You my dear, may just have experienced minor hunger pains. Maybe you should have some more before you go to school..." The proud mother mused aloud.

A voice could be heard from the next room. "Maybe she should have something a bit less dilute."

Calista glared in the direction of the voice. "No. That is not necessary. She is half-she couldn't stomach it." Calista avoided the topic of her daughter's father.

Adriana presumed that the other voice belonged to Ana...

She remembered Nicolas talking about that time when he got abducted and that the vampire Ana refused to kill him.

"School?" Adriana said confused.

Ana sighed and wandered into the kitchen. "Disembodied voices are phoney." She explained. "And school broke up a few weeks ago, Calista."

Calista laughed. "Of course, how silly of me."

Ana rolled her eyes at "Adelina". "Although there is a certain summer expedition to...consider..." She directed this at Calista, who paled.

"There's no considering to be done." She hissed at Ana through gritted teeth.

Ana downed the remainder of the blood in her glass and shrugged. "Adelina might beg to differ."

Calista glared at Ana for a split second, and Ana sighed, placed her empty glass by the sink, and slipped upstairs to her bedroom, shutting the door.

Right, Adelina was her. She had to remind herself that.

"Summer expedition? What did she mean?" Adriana asked curiously.

"Nothing. She's just...being as depressing as usual." Calista waved it aside.

She forced a smile onto her face, and smiled at her daughter. "So, what did you do today?"

"Oh you know, I just went out for a walk, met some pretty interesting people, then came back here." Adriana said hoping she didn't say anything that might blow her cover.

Calista raised an eyebrow. "Pretty interesting people? Have you been hanging around the back streets again?!" Worry showed in her eyes.

"What? No, Mum," she couldn't help but to smile. How long had she wanted a mother to tell her what to do?

Calista smiled back. "Good. You know I don't like you hanging around there."

She gulped some more blood down, pacing herself. "So, have you spoken to Maddie lately?"

"Ermmm...." Has Adelina? Hmmm... she decided to go for the truth. "No. Not lately." Well... it was truthful.

Calista was surprised, but put it down to the girls having a disagreement. They'd sort it out by themselves.

"So, what do you want to do tomorrow?" She asked brightly, hoping her little girl wanted to spend the day with her. Adelina had been almost distant lately, and Calista had decided they needed some mother-daughter time.

"Nothing..." Adriana said wondering what Adelina usually did.

"I was just thinking we could do something. We never have mother-daughter time anymore." Calista utilised her puppy eyes, pouting slightly.

"Alright!" Adriana said a little too eagerly. "I mean... sure. What did you have in mind?"

Calista smiled. "I don't know..." She glanced around for inspiration. "We could go shopping?"

"Yes, alright, I think I'll quite like that." Adriana said nodding eagerly. Then she stopped and thought that she must have acted out of character.

Calista blinked. "You would?" Her face broke into a grin and she hugged her daughter.

"You can't resist the puppy dog eyes." She joked, hugging her daughter close, presuming Adelina had got over her distracted phase.