Mateo’s Chapter 7

The world was shifting again.

With four Grand Masters active — Lilith, Vlad, Alina, and Janessa — the supernatural air felt charged, like the moment before a storm when the wind changes direction. Forgotten Hollow was stable, and the changes Lilith and I had made were finally taking root.

Which meant it was only a matter of time before other vampires noticed.

And they did.

Not new vampires — but already established ones. Minor ranks, Primes, wanderers who’d been living quietly until the balance of power changed enough to draw them out.

Every evening, at least one new vampire arrived at the edge of our territory, unsure of where to go or who to acknowledge.

Janessa and Alina made that choice easy.

They directed every newcomer straight to Lilith.

That alone created a quiet divide:

Vlad’s side — the old, the ruthless, the power‑hungry.
Lilith’s side — the steady, the neutral, the ones who wanted something better.

No war. No threats. No dramatic confrontations.
Just a line in the sand, drawn by choice rather than force.

---

Meanwhile, Lilith and I had our own work to do.

We needed to build our vampire family — our true family — the fledglings we would turn ourselves. Five for me. Four for her. A legacy that would outlive us both.

But how did you find someone destined to be your offspring?

“Do we advertise?” I joked one night. “Put up a sign? ‘Now accepting applications for eternal life.’”

Lilith rolled her eyes. “Absolutely not.”

“Then how do we find them?”

“You don’t find them,” she said. “You recognize them.”

“Like you recognized me?”

Her expression softened. “Exactly.”

She hadn’t been searching when she found me. She hadn’t been planning to turn anyone. She’d just… known.

So while Lilith stayed home — late in her pregnancy now, meditating or moonbathing in the yard — I began to wander.

And for the first time since the night I arrived, I stepped beyond the borders of Forgotten Hollow.

The world felt too bright, too loud, too alive, too weird. Forgotten Hollow had a stillness to it, a supernatural hush. The rest of the world felt chaotic in comparison.

But I kept walking.

Willow Creek.
Oasis Springs.
Newcrest.

Not San Myshuno.
I wasn’t ready to go back to the city just yet.

I wasn’t hunting.
I wasn’t searching.
I was listening.

Waiting for the spark Lilith promised — the instinct that would tell me this one.

This is yours.
This is the one you’re meant to guide.

Most nights, I found nothing.

---

Until Newcrest.

It was nearly morning, the sky already softening at the edges. I was about to turn back toward Forgotten Hollow — toward safety, toward Lilith — when it hit me.

The pull.

Not subtle.
Not gentle.
A surge.

Like someone had grabbed an invisible thread inside my chest and yanked hard enough to steal my breath.

I froze.

There was no mistaking it.

This was her.

I followed the pull across the plaza toward a small retail strip just opening for the day. And there she was — walking toward the employee entrance of a clothing store, keys in hand, hair pulled back, completely unaware of the supernatural earthquake she’d just caused.

“Hello?” I said.

She turned, startled, then gave me a polite, confused smile. “Hi… do I know you?”

Not yet.
But she would.

We talked for a few minutes — small talk, because what else do you say to someone you’re cosmically connected to while they’re trying to clock in for a shift? She was sharp, grounded, quietly funny. And the whole time, the pull didn’t fade. It intensified.

By the time she said, “I’m sorry, I really have to get inside,” I knew.

She was the one.

“Can we talk again?” I asked. “Tonight?”

She hesitated — just for a heartbeat — then nodded. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

And that was enough.

She arrived that night exactly when she said she would.

And she’d dressed up — not fancy, but intentional. Like she understood, on some instinctive level, that this wasn’t just a conversation. It was a threshold.

I brought her to Forgotten Hollow.

Specifically, to the training grounds — the place humans saw as an old graveyard, but vampires knew as a place of beginnings. The air was cool, the moon bright, the stones casting long shadows across the grass.

We walked among them, talking about everything that mattered and everything that didn’t. I explained the truth — the Houses, the lines, the responsibilities, the bond between sire and fledgling.

She listened.
Really listened.

And when I finally asked the question — the real one — she didn’t flinch.

“Yes,” she said. “I want this.”

The transformation was powerful — more powerful than I expected. And with that power came something I hadn’t been prepared for:

the intensity of the bond.

It hit me like a second pull layered over the first — instinctive, magnetic, overwhelming. A force that wanted closeness, wanted connection, wanted something I couldn’t allow.

Lilith had warned me, but warnings didn’t compare to feeling it.

She understood immediately.
She’d felt the same thing when she turned me.

So she stayed close.

When the bond tugged too sharply, when my instincts surged, when my emotions spiked into something too heated, too reactive, too drawn toward Lyndsay, Lilith stepped in — grounding me, distracting me, redirecting me.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

The rest of the time, she cared for Lucian, who arrived only nights after Lyndsay moved in — a tiny, perfect boy with no hair and soft cries.

We assumed he was a vampire, but we wouldn’t know until he was older. Vampire children didn’t show their nature right away.

Lyndsay settled into the spare room, weathering the transformation with remarkable steadiness. I kept my distance when I needed to. Lilith kept me steady when I couldn’t. And slowly, the intensity eased into something I could control.

And the moment the bond settled into place, I understood exactly what Lilith meant when she said, You’ll know.

Once Lyndsay was fully turned, she would move to the fledglings’ house with Alina and Janessa.

---

It was two nights later when I heard footsteps on the porch.

I thought it was another vampire showing up, but when I opened the door, I froze.

Ginger.

My mother.

She looked tired, worried, determined — and somehow relieved the moment she saw me.

“Mateo,” she breathed. “I… I found you.”

I didn’t ask how. I didn’t want to know. I just stepped aside and let her in.

Since she was here — since she’d crossed whatever invisible boundary separated my old life from my new one — I took her to meet Lucian.

Her face softened instantly.

“Oh,” she whispered, touching his tiny hand. “He’s beautiful.”

“He is,” I said quietly.

She held him for a moment, rocking gently, humming under her breath the same way she used to with me. And something in my chest tightened — a reminder of the world I’d left behind, and the one I’d built in its place.

When Lucian drifted back to sleep, I led her to the study so we could talk.

Except Lilith was already there, working at the desk, calm as ever. I introduced them, and she gave my mother a polite, measured nod — the kind that said she understood exactly how strange this moment was for both of us.

A moment later, Lyndsay poked her head in.

“Oh! Hi!” she chirped, waving a little too enthusiastically.

I introduced them too, and the second the words left my mouth, both Lilith and Lyndsay exchanged a quick glance — some silent agreement passing between them — and then they slipped out together, closing the door behind them as quietly as shadows.

Then the room was quiet.

She stared at the door, then at me.

“Mateo,” she said slowly, “what is going on?”

So I told her.

Not everything.
Not the deep lore, not the politics, not the ancient history or the dangers or the instincts I was still learning to control.

Just the surface.

“We’re vampires,” I said. “Lilith and me. Lyndsay too. This place… this life… it’s real.”

She sat there, absorbing it, her eyes flicking to the door where Lilith had disappeared.

Finally, she reached over and took my hand.

“You’re still my son,” she said. “That’s all I need to know. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy and know you belonged somewhere. If this is that place, then I am so happy for you.”

And for the first time in a long time, I felt the truth of it settle in my chest.

I belonged.

---

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