Chapter 52-Her human roots

Chapter 52: 52-Her human roots

At the back, Maisa laughed again from a funny joke that Zolani made. She didn’t hide her happiness and happy showed it off. All her white teeth were displayed as she laughed.

Zolani had finally figured out the game and was now aggressively defending an answer that was obviously wrong. The whole process was so fun to witness, Maisa couldn’t look away.

"You can not possibly believe that’s the answer?" Sapphire asked. Clearly, it wasn’t. At thar point, she was starting to think that Zolani was hopeless.

But how could she blame her? The girl was a pureblood vampire, and even though she had a human parent, she was far from human. Facts remained that Zolani had never been to the human side of the world or interacted with humans enough to relate to their games.

"I do," Zolani said, enjoying the games even though she was failing at them.

"It’s completely wrong," Maisa whispered to help her out.

"You don’t know that," she stuck to her answer stubbornly. "I could be right."

"I literally know the game, and I know that it isn’t right."

"That doesn’t make you right."

Sapphire stared at her. "How did you become this competitive?" She gave up, falling weak to Zolani’s persistence. So even though Zolan was wrong, she let her have the win. "You’re right. You win."

"Yes," Zolani smiled proudly. "I’ve learned from the best," she added and pointed toward Maisa, giving her the credit for her win.

Maisa laughed. For a moment, she simply watched Zolani. The mixedblood had entered her life when everything had been falling apart with her.

Zolani had visited her when everyone else stayed away, defended her when things were falling apart, had risked herself for her, and got injured protecting her.

Maisa couldn’t understand why Zolani was so good to her. The effort she put in felt more than just fulfilling a zing. After all, Zolani had learned a human game simply because she wanted someone to play with while the others hadn’t even attempted to give interest.

And now she was sitting beside her, laughing like nothing in the world could possibly go wrong. Maisa’s heart warmed towards her. She had lost so much since becoming a vampire.

Her famil, her old life which was now realizing wasn’t much of a life, her identity and her certainty about the future but somehow, in the middle of all that loss, she had gained something too.

A friendship, real friendship unlike anything she had ever had before. Not people approaching her based on her family’s name, based on the wave they can ride to, he recognized by the best of the best vampire hunters.

Zolani liked her simply because she was Maisa, and Sapphire did too. Maisa quietly looked at both of them. For the first time since waking up as a vampire, she felt like maybe she wasn’t completely alone, and maybe surviving this new life wouldn’t be as impossible as she had believed.

She leaned back against the seat, listening to Sapphire and Zolani argue over the rules while the ancient road carried them forward. She smiled softly.

"Zolani, Have you ever wished to connect to your human roots?" Maisa found herself asking Zolani.

Zolani froze up. She dropped the piece of paper in her hand, straightened herself, and turned her head away.

Her crimson hair bounced when she moved, then settled down when she fixed her head on one point and didn’t move again.

She glanced at the passing scenery and didn’t answer Maisa. Answering that question, even just debating it, was suicide. She had worked too hard to get to where she was to throw it all away on a dangerous question like that one.

"Hey," Maisa pushed her arm, trying to get her attention.

Zolani’s eyes remained fixed outside. She remembered her mother for the first time after forever in that moment. Recalled the last time she saw her, it was three months after her sister Zoe’s funeral.

A crimson tear rolled down her cheek. Her mind got sent back to the darkest moment of her life. To the endless fights between her parents after Zoe’s death, the blame games, the shouting, the screaming, and finally, the separation.

Her father blamed her mother for taking Zoe to her home town which got her in the hunter’s radar ab got her killed and her mother remained stubborn, claiming she wasn’t in the wrong for wanting Zoe to meet her grandparents and learn her human roots, too.

With neither party ready to bend to the other, they decided it was best to go their separate ways. Her mother wanted to take her with her but her father refused, he sure her mother at the blood court and the second the vampire Lords heard of Zoe’s death, they granted her custody to her father without a hearing.

Afraid she might end up like her sister if her human mother takes her with her, they refuse to let her mother take her. For a while, she was allowed to see her mother and monitored visits, but eventually, her mother cut her off. She claimed it was too hard to see her and not picture Zoe.

Zolani closed her eyes, the bitter memories stealing away her smile. In the glass, she saw her mother, and instantly, her heart clenched tightly.

Later, she discovered that her mother had remarried and the man had no idea of her past. That was the reason she cut ties with. Worse, the man turned out to be a vampire hunter, which felt like the biggest betrayal to Zolani, her father and to her late sister.

Since then, she didn’t trust the human heart or wish to get to know her human roots. In fact, there was nothing Zolani hated more than her half-human side.

"I’m sorry if I asked a sensitive question," Maisa apologized, sensing Zolani’s pain through the bond.

Zolani, feeling too emotional to respond, didn’t bother to. There was no way for her to do so without falling apart.

She wasn’t the only one who felt Zolani and her pain. Varitreya was doing her hardest to tune them out and pretend, even just for some time, that the bond didn’t exist. Addessa stole glances at Zolani but didn’t make a move or ask what was going on while Lumi dramatically laid her head on her beother’s shoulder.

She had a feeling that she wouldn’t get to finish her book anytime soon. The emotions radiating from the mixedblood through the bond heightened her longing for her late father. She found that she could relate deeply to those feelings.

"I think you’d look adorable if you were bold..." Luan stated.

"What?" She frowned.

"Keep putting your head on my shoulders and you will be bold befode we reach Scaris," he said softly, his tone was on the border of threatening and scary.

Lumi lifted her head and dropped her head to lean on the window. "Are we even related?"

Luan offered a dark smile. "DNA dictates that I love you, it doesn’t say that I have to indulge you."

"How mean of you."

"I can be even meaner," he said, leaned his head to the other side and went back to ignoring her. He had too much on his mind to worry about her.

His eyes landed on Addessa. He was trying to let her go and forget her, but the wound was still fresh and he was having a hard time moving on.

Kayden turned around and their eyes locked, then the whiteblood followed the like of his sight to Addessa and for a split second, he frowned. Then, his face went back to normal and he looked away.

"What is his deal?"