Where Secrets Lie

"It's just one? The night of the gallery you were moaning in your sleep and woke up in a cold sweat. I should have asked you about it before." He paused. "I guess I didn't care as much then."

He stared at her with an intensity that she couldn't bear. She turned away, wondering what he meant by his statement. Did he care more now? Suddenly, Alyssa popped into her mind, and she spun back around to face him. "You can't tell Alyssa about this," she pleaded.

"Why shouldn't I?" Michael said with a smirk, "I hardly think you're in a position of asking me to do favors for you."

Kara scoffed. "Apparently I'm not." Her attitude subsided and her voice grew soft. "I just don't want her to worry about it."

"I won't tell her if you'll tell me what it's about," Michael said.

"It's too personal," said Kara, sitting down on the couch.

Kara refused the offer to move closer. Sharing anything about her past life made her feel vulnerable enough. She didn't want to have to worry about him taking advantage of that. However, she felt compelled to tell him everything and spill her heart to him. Before she knew it, she was telling him the whole story.

"I had just made detective, and I was undercover on my first big case. It was the Luciano case. Maybe I was too prideful at being made detective or maybe I was just still inexperienced, but I made a rookie mistake, and my cover was blown."

"They figured out you were a cop?" Michael asked.

She nodded. "They figured out everything about me, including my family." Her eyes glossed over as she spoke, seeing the scene in her mind just as she had on that dreadful day. "I didn't realize what my mistake cost me until I went home. There was debris everywhere, blood splattered on the walls." Her voice caught in her throat a moment before she continued. "I'd seen gruesome scenes before, but this was the most grotesque crime scene I've ever laid eyes on, and it was as if they purposely made it that horrible." She stopped, unsure if she could continue.

Michael closed the distance between them then touched her shoulder, offering comfort. "The blood led to my parent's room, so I went there first, and they were on the floor in a puddle of blood, dead. Their eyes were so empty." Her eyes began to water. "There was a thump from Alyssa's room, so I raced there, afraid she met the same fate, but she wasn't home."

"Who was there?" Michael asked.

"This tall man, but I knew in an instant he was really a man. His sharp teeth and soulless black eyes gave him away. I shot at him, but my bullets did nothing. He pounced on me, and I looked at his face, and I knew what he was."

"A vampire," Michael said.

Again, she nodded. "Yes, just like you. I don't know how, but I fought him off. I grabbed some pencils from Alyssa's desk and drove them into his chest." She looked up at Michael, and the tears began to fall. "If Alyssa had been there, she'd be gone too."

Michael embraced her while he wiped the tears off her face. "But she wasn't there. She's here, with us, and the monster that did that to your family is not like me."

Kara looked up at him, shyly. She wanted to believe what he said, but she still couldn't fully trust him. She pushed him away and slid back to the other end of the couch. "Well, that's everything. That's the nightmare that keeps me up at night. The fact that I never get home in time, it still haunts me. It was also how I discovered the vile creature that is the vampire." She looked at him coldly, but when she noticed that her words seemed to hurt him, she felt guilty.

"Do you think it would help you trust me if I could find out who ordered the hit on your family?" he asked her.

Kara's guilt turned to anger at his words. "Don't you think I've tried that?! I know it Luciano but I could never get anything to stick." She diverted her eyes, "I thought maybe he hired a vampire to kill them."

Michael gently placed his hands on her flushed cheeks and turned her face to him, "I assure you that the Caswell clan had nothing to do this." Michael smiled. "Let me help you."