My Stepmom Is a Vampire
Copyright© 2025 by Vamp
Chapter 39: Confronting Madeline
Seamus didn’t have time to keep lamenting how weak and ignorant he was about what happened inside this very house. He needed answers, and that meant finding Madeline.
According to Isolde, she was always in the library on the third floor—the one with the glass dome roof where you could see the night sky and stars.
Normally, he might have appreciated the view, but that wasn’t important right now.
His breath was ragged by the time he reached the door and pushed it open. The library was vast, with two floors and a circular staircase on the left leading to the upper level.
“Madeline! Where are you!” he shouted, scanning the aisles. “I know you’re here! Show yourself!”
Silence.
The library was empty.
“Fuck!” He stomped on the circular tile in the center of the room, the one marked with the image of a giant black snake.
The tile shifted beneath his feet. Startled, he stumbled back. Around him, the bookcases began to transform, their brown teak wood darkening to black.
The ceiling sky turned into a star-filled night. The tile itself changed, as though he were standing in the middle of space.
The snake engraved on the tile came to life, rising up and hissing at him. “Have manners changed so much in a thousand years? Where is the ‘hi,’ the ‘hello,’ the ‘how are you’?”
Seamus rolled his eyes. “I don’t have time for that.”
“I know you’re plotting something with Viviane. Tell me what it is.”
The snake slithered in a slow circle around him. Its face was expressionless, but he could still feel her mockery.
“Ah ... so you’re the rat,” she hissed, her head lowering until it hovered just in front of his face. “Did you know that, in the past, rats in the walls were burned alive?”
“I don’t have time for your theatrics. Your plan involves me, and it will probably get me killed.”
His eyes narrowed. “Tell me why you and Viviane leaked the fact that I have Crimson Nectar.”
The snake’s body rippled and reshaped, becoming Madeline’s human form. Her eyes widened in surprise, which only deepened Seamus’s confusion.
“Leaked? Your information?” she said slowly.
“Why would I, or someone who loves you more than her own life, do something that would get you killed?”
“You want Isolde dead, and with me here, vampires will attack this mansion to get to me. You want chaos.”
His voice echoed through the dark library. His fists clenched. Betrayal gnawed at him, and his trust in Viviane wavered.
Madeline shook her head, a laugh spilling out. “Ah ... I shouldn’t have expected more from a human being.”
She snapped open her fan and smacked it against her palm. “I am a higher being who has lived for thousands of years. I value honor more than any vampire in this house. I would never put you—my ally—in danger.”
There was something in her tone, a rare seriousness laced with a faint disdain, that told him she meant it.
He had only met her twice before, but this was the first time she looked truly resolute. And yet, that only made him more uncertain about who had actually leaked the information.
Madeline’s lips curled slightly. “Seamus, you should broaden your perspective.”
“Perhaps the one responsible is the last person you’d suspect. Perhaps it’s the one who saved you, the one who plays the role of your savior.”
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