Darkling Read Online Free PDF Page B

in our core; it’s the essence of our survival. No matter the millennium, it always comes down to that. However, with my whole being I wished for something different—for people to overcome those primal instincts with their mind, with education. It couldn’t be something found in a utopian fantasy world—it had to be possible!
    Lena stopped in front of another door.
    “Mr. Matthews is waiting for you.”
    After she had left, I tapped on the door, realizing that I was actually entering a vampire’s den. We would be one-on-one. Oh, no. Panic overwhelmed my body just as a melodic voice bid me to come in.
    Gritting my teeth, I entered.
    “Sit wherever you wish, Miss Young.”
    He was leaning against the table, and, when I entered, looked up in happy anticipation. He looked to be in his early thirties, and he had a sincere-seeming smile, porcelain skin, and lively brown child-like eyes.
    “I am François Matthews and I’ll be teaching you about vampire history. The relevant parts.” His eyes smiled.
    The room seemed like any other professor’s space, with a glass table, white board on the wall, and a built-in bookcase that stretched floor to ceiling. Matthews himself looked like an average college professor in a tweed jacket with elbow patches—though fashionable, not old.
    I sat as far away as possible within the limits of politeness. I didn’t want to deal with another angry fangy vampire.
    “Do you have any special request regarding what I should call you?”
    “Nika?” I was very careful.
    “Good. Shall we start then, Nika?” He flashed me another toothy grin. No fangs, though, which was comforting. He passed a notebook and pencils to me. Right, school supplies—I forgot about that.
    “Surely you have many questions, so, why don’t we start from there.”
    Yeah, a ton! Only, in that moment I felt unprepared, blank. I dug around for the first one.
    “So, the daylight—” I started, but he waved me off with a chuckle.
    “We are not of the Bram Stocker mythology lines. We are a living, breathing species, a civilization of its own. We are integrated into human society, we work, pay taxes, eat . . . and fight our own daily battles,” he said, and based on his look, he didn’t seem too excited about explaining the difference between urban fantasy vampires and their own species. He waited for my next question.
    “Well, I’ve been told that vampires are born not created.”
    “That is correct. There is a Book of Law, which is not as large as those law books that humans use…” He laughed at his joke. “It strictly forbids the making of a vampire out of a human. This is because of centuries and centuries of problems and wars with humans that all resulted from the existence of those creatures—Rogues, the created vampires. Their tempers were troublesome due to the specific mixture of human blood and our poison. They were extremely wild, frantic and savage. Brutally violent. In earlier times it was thought that this was part of the makeover, the period of adjustment that happened before they evolved into the way we are. But that idea turned out to be false. Time passed and they became even more untamed and violent—so my race finds no comfort in the existence of such an un-trainable and uncontrollable wild horde.”
    “Do they still exist?”
    “No, they became extinct long time ago.”
    I thought of Baldur and his bare teeth being completely untamable. The short hairs sprung up along the nape of my neck.
    “Why did they exist in the first place?” I asked.
    “First out of love. Vampires are born from relationship between vampire man and human woman, who may or may not give birth to a vampire child. There is one chance in three that a baby born of this union will be vampire. So, we all have had one human parent and sometimes even human siblings. We do actually age, but at a much slower rate than humans . . . thus the love dramas. They are a huge part of our history, maybe even more so than in human