Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

My eyes fell on her face almost immediately. In all the scenarios I imagined, I never thought I’d see this one. She watched the speaker at the head of the table, with an expression filled with awe and inspiration. She looked like she belonged with them. I had never seen anything like this. All those times in class, even with her teaching and lecturing, and worrying about Seth, she never looked like she was remotely happy. That had changed. This sudden decision on her part filled my heart with dread. I never saw her as an enemy before, but now, things between us would change drastically.

The others hadn’t noticed my presence. The speaker continued on. I didn’t hear the words, but I needn’t hear them. My mind was focused on her. It was she that I was here for. I approached cautiously. When I stood near enough that I would be noticed, I stopped. It only took a second or two, but the atmosphere shifted, and her eyes drifted slightly. In that moment, her gaze fell upon me and all expression of adoration fell away from her like a sheet of water. Her body froze, still like a pillar of ice.

My presence was known now. Several of them suddenly stood up, alarmed that I had crept up on them without their knowledge. The leader stopped speaking and turned his head slightly. Ms. Ingram didn’t move a centimeter. One of the vampires nearest me reached out, aiming for my torso, but I caught a hold of the back of his neck side stepping his hand with one fluid movement, and slammed his head into the polished surface before he could react. I was not in the mood to be toyed with. Not after this surprise.

Ms. Ingram slowly stood up, knowing exactly why I was here. Before when she nearly attacked me in the school, she hadn’t completely seen what I was capable of. If her new friends tried anything that wasn’t reasonable, she would get a glimpse of my power, before she ran away in horror, if she even got that far. I noticed her body looked thinner than the last time I saw her. He skin was sallower, thin and pale. Her situation was worse than I imagined it to be.

“Miss Harper,” she greeted me, using my fake last name. “What are you doing here?”

I didn’t answer her. How could I, knowing what she did? She tried her best at sounding curious, like she didn’t think I would know about this place when I knew otherwise. She didn’t want me here, and it wasn’t for my safety.

Silence settled between us, filling the gaps and the areas around us like cement. The others seated around the table didn’t know what to make of this situation or what to make of me. I was the oddball here, but even my oddness didn’t explain why Ms. Ingram was here instead of at school where she belonged. It didn’t explain what she’d done.

“Who is this woman?” the head vampire growled at her, his canines already showing. “You know her…” he breathed.

Ms. Ingram’s eyes flickered over to the man. “She is one of my students from school. I assume she was worried about my absence.” She lied so easily. I should’ve realized it before now, but was too late.

“But how did she know to come here?” he questioned her again.

One of the warlocks met my gaze. “Aside from that question, how did she enter?”

Ms. Ingram looked back at me, like she was telling me I should flee before more trouble followed. But I wasn’t moving, not without her or a reason.

I stared at each person in turn. I didn’t recognize a single one of them, human or vampire. They were new here in the city. Apparently they didn’t know anything about the Tierney’s. No wonder Octavian and Finn’s father remained so long here this morning interrogating people. Someone had moved in on their territory that they didn’t know. Though I was sure Octavian knew, but remained silent.

I switched my gaze back to the leader. He apparently didn’t like my presence here; probably he deemed me as a threat. He ordered the two nearest me to attack using a small single gesture which I didn’t miss. I expected it, after disrupting their meeting. I took a step backwards, just narrowly missing a dagger that suddenly flew near my midriff. The sound of the metallic object rushed towards my ears, but I had already sensed the dagger in hand before it even left the vampire’s fingers. The guy I had slammed into the table jumped up, regaining his consciousness. He went after me, as well as the one who threw the knife. But I wasn’t scared of them. Their actions were sloppy and inexperienced, clueing me that this rag-tag team was a bunch of newborns.

The short one nearest me kicked his leg out for whatever reason, possibly trying to trip me up. I found the action both stupid and foolish. I grabbed a hold of his leg before it could hit me, and used his leverage against him. I hurled his body into the other guy, and then I leapt into the air. I landed on them both, feeling the crunch of their spines between my feet. They weren’t going anywhere for a while. The others at the table flinched upon the sound of the crack. The few humans nearest me scooted backwards in their seats, an involuntary reaction. One of the girls whimpered and glanced up at the leader already fearful.

“You said we’d be safe here,” she whispered to the guy. “And now she’s killed him!”

The man she mentioned in her words twisted his head at the sound of her voice. I dug my heel into his spinal cord and he went still once more.

“I need to speak with Ms. Ingram,” I greeted them.

The leader, who remained motionless watching my acrobatics while his inexperienced lackeys did all the work, nodded his acceptance. She made her way slowly around the table, eventually standing before me. She crossed her arms and the muscles there contracted, more so than they did the night before.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded. “I told you to leave, and go home.” I didn’t bother masking my tone or emotion. The vampires would hear my voice whether it was whispered or not. They would know that I knew of them, before she did.

She sighed and relaxed. “I needed this, and you couldn’t deliver, so I took matters into my own hands.”

I cocked an eyebrow at her. Was she delirious? “By showing yourself to them? Did they let you get what you wanted?”

She nodded. “More than you could offer.”

I released the pressure on the two men and pulled her towards the metallic door. The second we slipped beyond the curtain of magic that encircled the table I knew we wouldn’t be overheard. The others disappeared, leaving the table empty once more.

“What did you do? What did they do?” My voice sounded more hurried than I wanted it to.

The change didn’t faze her though. She shook her head. “They did more for me than you ever did, Abelia. I got my chance to kill one. And I’ll get my chance to kill more.”

“Kill one? More?” I let her go. “Do you hear yourself? You’re with them! What do you think they’ll do to you when you become something that they fear?”

She shook her head. “I’ll never be like that. They’ll never fear me.”

She had lost her marbles. “And what about teaching, what about your family?”

“Oh wake up Abelia,” she snapped at me. “What family do you think I have after I lost him? This was all about vengeance for my lover! And I will have it once I find the creep that killed him. And believe me, I will, with their help.”

I was right. She had gone completely insane from revenge. She was not only a danger to herself, but to others now.

“You call yourself old, but you don’t know the first thing about love,” she spat out and walked past me, wrenching open the metallic door.

I took it as my cue to leave.

One of the warlocks penetrated the curtain of magic. He crossed his arms and stared at us both. “Jennifer,” he called out. “We need you back here. Twilight approaches.”

I swallowed mostly to relieve the tension in my throat. “Fine, I’ll leave you alone. But remember, if you get in my way, then we’re not friends anymore.” I turned and stalked out of the front door.

Once I stepped into the dim light of the setting sun, I knew she had been lost to me. Things would never be the same between us again. The metallic door swung shut, sealing her fate. She would never teach again. She would never see her family, if she had any loved ones still living. She had lost her heart to her hatred of vampires. There was only one solution left to me now. She had become a threat to Finn, and because of that threat, she would become my prey. It was a sad day as I didn’t want to lose her, but deep down inside I understood her pain and suffering.

She was wrong about her last statement to me. I knew a lot about love and the powerful emotions it created. I knew that it could cause obsession and rage, fury and vengeance, jealousy and envy. But it also caused other emotions that were strong and beautiful. I had never felt those, except for my family before…

I turned and walked away from the nest. I had used the bottle of blood in vain, and now there would be no fight. I would need to get a hold of a new bottle soon. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Emery’s number. They needed to know what happened to our teacher and soon. Thankfully he answered on the first ring.

“Where’s Finn?” I asked him, knowing he was somewhere nearby. The three were never far from each other. I tried keeping the emotion from my voice, but I was sure something slipped by.

“He’s with me,” he answered. “Thalia too. We’re somewhere downtown, but I don’t recognize the place.”

It would be like Finn to drag them somewhere new and not tell them. “Ok, here’s the deal…” I started but Finn’s voice interrupted mine. He must’ve grabbed the phone away from Emery.

“Abelia? Where are you?” the kid demanded, sounding more upset than he usually was by my supposed ineptitude.

My eyes rolled and I gritted my teeth in frustration. “That’s not important. What is important is you need to go on vacation, now. Take a holiday. Fly across the ocean, just get away from here.” Hopefully he’d take the hint and not question me, but that wasn’t the case.

“What do you mean?”

I sighed not wanting to say this, because saying it aloud was like making it true, even if it was already the truth. “Ms. Ingram is lost. Just get away from here and let me deal with this. You shouldn’t be around here as long as she’s like this. You can come back after she’s been disposed of.”

He didn’t answer for a long time. “So you were at Thackery Street earlier. My father said you were acting in defense of me, but I didn’t know what to believe because we had never discussed the possibility of you heading into that part of town for anything.”

“Wait, what?” I didn’t understand what he was telling me. I go where I want, enough said. “Defense of you? That’s not what I was doing there. I was hunting last night with Ms. Ingram to keep her off your back. It only happened that I came across your father and that stupid warlock, and believe me when I say that was a complete accident.”

“Warlock? You mean Octavian?” Of all the things he could’ve asked me about that commentary, he had to mention that fluke of a kid.

I immediately understood the sarcasm he threw at me from the other side of the phone. “Well, I get your point - he’s not much of a warlock.”

He didn’t waste any time continuing. “Well, see here’s the thing Abelia. I saw you take off earlier at school. You really worried me, because I saw the look on your face. But you didn’t hang around long enough for me to find out what was wrong. I hoped I hadn’t scared you in the hallway…”

The rest of his ramble faded away and I nearly dropped the phone. He had seen me. Oh no. The pit of my stomach opened up and swallowed me. That was what I was trying to avoid.

My ears opened up again once more. He was still talking. “You had me worried that something may have happened that wasn’t supposed to. So I called Octavian and he gave me the address where he’d last seen you. We’re almost there.”

Instantly I lowered the phone and turned on all my senses. I hated doing this, as I liked to block them out in order to give myself peace. Using all five sometimes had this effect on me that caused my brain to go crazy with innate thoughts, but I needed them now.

They were extremely heightened, especially with the vial of blood I had in me. Children played on a playground several blocks over to my left - the rusty springs of the swings squealed with each pass. Four streets down I heard the cat calls from the street-walkers as night ascended and their clientele drove past. I even caught the movement of people inside the depot moving freely about now that it was time for them to do whatever it was they did at this time of night. They were short several people from the time I had left the building, but I didn’t bat much of an eye to them. It was Finn I needed to find. He shouldn’t be here in this part of town, especially with Ms. Ingram the way she was.

“Abelia?” Finn questioned through the phone, shattering my thoughts.

In the distance sirens blared, but they weren’t coming closer to me. There weren’t any sirens through his end of the phone either though, which meant he wasn’t anywhere near me, and that put him in even more danger. I pulled the receiver back to my left ear, and turned around searching for the part of the city they were at. I knew they were here, my instinct told me so. I was only a block away from the depot, but that didn’t matter anymore. Finn was in an area of the city that was dangerous to him, and he didn’t even know it.

“Abel?” he questioned me again using the nickname my friends gave me, in hopes of derailing me from my silent manner.

“Shh,” I harshly commanded him. Hopefully he’d stay quiet this time. I listened for sounds beyond the breath from his mouth, anything that would give me clues.

He was up high, and away from the sounds of the street. The wind whispered more harshly than it did from where I stood on the pavement. Siren’s approached his location, but they quickly faded away again. I turned east, knowing he was in that direction. The wind caught the microphone once more, signaling that he was on the roof of a building. I climbed up the side of the wall nearest me, doing an acrobat of sorts between the windows and the rusted stairwell. Once I was up top, I scanned the rooftops for the area in which he stood.

Movement in my left peripheral vision caught my eyes. I stopped scanning the horizon and focused my sight in that direction. I spotted a pack of people with their backs to me, darting across the rooftops. I didn’t really recognize the crew there, but five people moving in a formation up this high wasn’t a good sign. They moved quickly, jumping from one building to the next, moving in towards a target of some sort. As soon as I’d seen them, they leaped across two more buildings and then halted their progress. They came to a complete stop, several buildings away from me.

Through the phone connection Finn and I shared, his breath changed and became more hurried. I expected him to say something, knowing words were about to be formed, but instead of his voice, someone else spoke, someone whose voice sent chills down my spine.

“There you are little Tierney. I’ve been looking for you,” it rasped aloud.

Before I could ask where he was, the connection died.