Bloodlines

by Lindsay Anne Kendal

  “Good, now what’s going on?” Lucian asked again.

  “You came around here this morning. Don’t interrupt me either, just listen,” Jake told him. “I asked where your car was and you said it was in the garage. I admit I thought it was strange you not just fixing it, but I thought maybe it was in for a service. We started work on Lily’s office and found a trapdoor. We waited for Keira to get back from Tyler’s and then went down it...” He continued to relay the morning’s events.

  “We came in here to clean her up,” Lily continued, “And you walk in, so naturally she attacks you…”

  “But I haven’t been here, and I would never attack you guys. And I certainly wouldn’t fight with Keira. I’d never hurt her like that. We might have had a disagreement but I wouldn’t attack her,” Lucian said with a hurt look on his face. “I swear I wouldn’t.”

  “Screw this!” I said as I walked out of the room.

  “Where are you going?” Tyler asked.

  “To see what’s down there. Lucian swears it wasn’t him and I believe him. So whatever it was obviously knew he was going to be late and took his place. It’s snooping around and it sounded desperate to get through the door down there. I want to know why,” I told them as I walked out.

  I went back into the soon-to-be-office, the others following behind me.

  “Who do you want with you?” Jake asked.

  “Are any of you going to attack any of us,” I asked seriously. “Because I swear, if I have anything like that again, whether it ends up being the real you or not, I will kill you.”

  “No,” they all said.

  “Jake, you’re with me again. Lucian, I’m sorry but after what’s just happened I’m not risking taking you down there.”

  “I understand…I think,” he sighed.

  “Tyler, watch Lily. Danny, come on,” I said, walking down the steps again.

  This time when I got to the door I didn’t hesitate – I just pushed it open. It was light, made of wood – my god did it make a noise though. I didn’t step inside; I just looked in. The walls were the same as those in the tunnel, stone; the floor was simply dirt and there were cobwebs hanging from the walls and ceiling. There was a stone slab in the center of the circular room, the height of my dining table and two smaller slabs at either end. They had obviously been used as a table and seats. Again there were papers everywhere.

  “Are you going in?” Danny asked me.

  “Yeah.”

  I had only walked two or three steps into the room when everything changed. This time though, I didn’t panic. Danny and Jake disappeared, the cobwebs were gone and all the papers were on the table along with two candles, just bright enough to light the room. There was a woman there now, old with long white hair looking at me with a soft expression on her face.

  “Ah, I’ve waited so long to see a woman born into this family,” she smiled, motioning to one of the smaller stones. “Come and sit with me for a moment.”

  As I sat down so did she, facing me.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “My name is Elizabeth Putnam, I’m your many-times great-grandmother…too many to count,” she told me, smiling kindly. “I’m the one who kept this house safe for you. It took a lot to keep people out of here all these years; I had to use a very old spell.”

  “I didn’t know you’d lived here.”

  “There are a lot of things you do not know, my child. And sadly, I cannot stay long enough to tell you everything. I’ve only been given a small amount of time to come back here and talk to you.”

  “Oh,” I almost whispered.

  “I did live here, for a while. I lived until I was seventy-three years old, you know. Back then, that was a miracle, or the work of something sinister,” she grinned. “My grandson bought this house, his name was John, he was starting a family and asked me if I would help them with the children. I was so pleased. Although to be truthful, I just wanted to have a granddaughter.”

  “So you could teach her about your power.”

  “Yes,” she sighed. “But, she didn’t want to know. She wouldn’t listen, silly young thing, she was so beautiful, and she could have been so powerful. But I guess not everyone wants this. Anyway no point dwelling on the past – I have you now.”

  “What’s in me?”

  “These papers are still lying around in here when you return to your own time. Look through them; they will answer your questions. I don’t need to spend my last few minutes here telling you something you can read once I’ve gone.”

  “Ok, I guess,” I said sadly again.

  “Keira, do not be afraid to use your power. It will protect you; you can do things you have never even imagined. Part of her will always be in you, and just because she isn’t from heaven doesn’t mean she is all evil. She can love, more than any human can, she can care, be sad and even afraid. She can be warm and look after those she cares about. She can heal, but I think you already know that. Be warned – to anyone who causes her harm, though, she can be more evil than anything in this world can be. Only one other has a power to match hers, and he isn’t in heaven. I think you know of whom I speak.’

  “So there is demon blood in me!” I said with a panicked look.

  “Yes, there is, but don’t fear it.”

  “How…how did it get there?”

  “I drank it, it became part of me, and now it is part of you. Only you have another power alongside it. You have used that one mainly. Now I think it’s time you let the other one out too. Once you master it…well, it’s like I said before, it’s like nothing you can possibly imagine. It is ultimate power.”

  “How do I do it? How do I let it loose, I mean?”

  “Only you can let it loose, whenever you want to…if you want to,” she said, standing up. “Your friends are your real friends out there. The impostor has gone, but you will meet more like him again, in one form or another. And you must be ready; your friends cannot defeat it alone. It will kill them. And it doesn’t travel alone – it has followers, and they are willing to lay down their lives for it and will fight to their dying breath for it. They too have power, bestowed on them by it. Do not underestimate them, Keira. They can be very dangerous.”

  “But who is it? What does it want?”

  “I must leave. Know this – you can defeat it, if you’re clever enough you can defeat anything. Protect this room, Keira. Put the most powerful spell on it you know, don’t let it find out who is in you. Make sure you have the upper hand. Goodbye my child,’ she said, slowly fading away, a sad smile on her face.

  “No wait, please!” I begged, standing up. “Who is it? I’ll protect the room, I swear I will. I promise you…”

  A moment later she was gone.

  “Keira?” I heard Lucian say. “Are you back with us?”

  I looked around the room; everything was how I originally found it.

  “Well?” He asked.

  “Yeah, yeah, sorry, I’m with you,” I told him.

  “I had to come down; you were freaking Jake and Danny out.”

  “It’s ok – I know you’re you.”

  “How?”

  “One, I trust you and, two, I’ve just been told you are,” I said, partially to get a point across.

  “By whom?”

  “Elizabeth Putnam.”

  “You mean the Elizabeth who started the power in the female bloodline?”

  “Yes, Lucian, she was so nice to me,” I said, my eyes welling up. “I didn’t want her to leave.”

  “Come on, let’s get back up there. I’ll make you a cup of coffee. You can come back down later,” he said, taking hold of my arm.

  “Where’s Jake and Danny?” I asked.

  “They’re waiting upstairs for you; it freaked them out. One minute you were with them, the next you were sitting at that slab, talking to someone they couldn’t see or hear. When I came down, I just waited until you stopped talking.”

  “How long was I like that?”

  “A
bout ten minutes. Come on.”

  When I walked up into the office, everyone was waiting for me. I looked over at Jake and Danny and started to speak, but they cut me off.

  “Don’t apologize,” Danny said. “If anything we should apologize for getting freaked.”

  “We should have realized you were having a vision,” Jake said.

  “It wasn’t a vision,” I told them.

  “What was it then?” Tyler asked.

  “My many-times great-grandmother, Elizabeth; she came to see me, to tell me a few things…”

  “Wow!”

  “Yeah, she was,” I said, smiling. “If Lucian still makes me a cup of coffee like he said he would, I’ll tell you what I know.”

  Just as we were about to walk out I stopped.

  “I’ll meet you in the living room,” I told them

  As soon as they had gone I closed the door. I closed the lid on the trapdoor and stood back looking at it for a moment. Then I knew what I was going to do, my eyes turned and I put my hand out towards it.

  “The only way someone or something will be able to get in here, grandmother, is if I’m killed. While there is life in me, no one will get in without me already being down there or being with them.” As I said those words, hoping she could hear me, sparks of kinetic energy surrounded the trapdoor. There was a flash of red light around it and then everything looked normal.

  I walked into the living room and waited for Lucian and Danny to come in with the drinks for everyone. I sat on the sofa next to Tyler and sighed.

  “Here we go, people,” Danny said, as he and Lucian brought the drinks in.

  “Come on then, Keira, tell us a story,” Jake said, getting comfy.

  I told them most of what was said. Like Elizabeth told me, I had to be smart – that meant keeping some things to myself. It’s not that I didn’t trust them; it was in case something was listening. I didn’t tell them the power I had in me was ultimate, and that the only person with power like mine was Elizabeth, and the ruler of hell. That was something nobody needed to know. I just said Elizabeth had confirmed it was demon blood.

  “I’m not impressed with the part where they kill us,” Jake said.

  “Neither am I!” Lucian said.

  “She didn’t say them; she said it could kill you,” I corrected. “You should be able to kill the followers.”

  “So, could it kill you?” Tyler asked me.

  “I should imagine so.”

  “Over my dead body!” He said seriously. “If it or they want you dead, it or they will have to kill me first.”

  “So I take it you put a spell on the room when you asked us to go ahead before,” Danny said.

  “Not on the room, but on the trapdoor and the tunnel– yes,” I told him.

  “What spell?” Lily asked.

  “I can’t tell any of you, I promised. I don’t break my promises. But it’s just as effective as the one she put on the house to keep you out.”

  “Are you going back down there tonight?” Lucian asked.

  “Maybe later,” I said. “Lily, I’m sorry but you will have to pick another room for your office.”

  “No problem.”

  “That one is off-limits now.”

  “Ok how about some light-heartedness just for the next few minutes,” Jake said. “I’m starving. Anyone fancy ordering in a pizza?”

  “Yes!” We all said at the same time. We all looked at each other and giggled. Jake went and ordered everyone’s dinner. Lucian, Danny and Lily started putting her office furniture out of the hall into one of the rooms upstairs. Luckily none of it had been damaged in the fight. That left me and Tyler to fix the damaged walls in the hall and the empty room.

  “Wow, it’s a good thing we are how we are; these would have cost a fortune to fix,” he said, examining one of the holes.

  “I know. From now on, no more fights in the house,” I grinned.

  “Are you and Lucian ok now?”

  “I don’t know – maybe it was too much too soon. I know he doesn’t trust me fully, that doesn’t change overnight.”

  “Did you know it wasn’t him before?” He asked.

  “When we were in the tunnel and he got annoyed my gut told me something was wrong. But I didn’t think I would see two of him.”

  “What do you think is going on?”

  “Honestly I don’t know,” I said, fixing another hole.

  “I think I do,” he said, deep in thought for a moment. I think it’s trying to rip us apart. You know, like split us all up, make us hate each other. We’d be easier to take down if we’re not together.”

  “You know what; I think you might be right. They nearly killed Jake. If I’d have gone after Lucian, and bumped into the real one, I could have killed him, or at least turned against him completely. He could have killed me!”

  “Exactly.”

  “You need to tell the others.”

  “I’ll talk to them later,” he told me. “From now on, no matter what, we stick together.”

  “I agree.”

  Chapter 20

  What Lies Within

  At 10 p.m. the guys decided to call it a night. We walked them to the door and told them we’d see them tomorrow. Lucian just sounded like a friend saying good night. He was also the first to drive off. Before Tyler got in his car I shouted at him and walked over.

  “Have you got a minute?” I asked him.

  “Course I have.”

  “Walk with me a minute,” I said, heading around the side of the house.

  “What’s wrong?” He asked as he walked beside me.

  “You know when I was with your mom before?”

  “Hmm.”

  “She said you went home one night last week in a vile mood and all the doors were slamming and everything,” I told him. “Apparently it was the night you found out about me and Lucian getting close.”

  “Did she now?”

  “Is that true?”

  He didn’t answer me so I stopped walking. He carried on for a few seconds before stopping and looking up at the sky.

  “Tyler, is…?”

  “Yeah, it’s true.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, lowering his head.

  “Look at me!” I told him, but he didn’t move. I walked over to him and turned him to face me. “Look at me and be honest with me.”

  Eventually he looked me in my eyes. “Yes, I was pissed off, why? I wanted you from the start…we were close from the start, and he got you!” He said looking away from me. He walked a little bit further before talking again. “I wanted to get to know you more, and let you get to know me. If we’d continued getting along so well, I was going to ask you out.”

  “Tyler you should have told me.”

  “Why, it wouldn’t change anything.”

  “You don’t know that,” I said.

  “Yes I do!”

  “You know, to be honest with you, I don’t really think this is a good time for any of us to be together. Not with everything that’s going on. It’s one thing trying to mess with friendship, but when something starts messing with your heart…well, just look at how Lily was with Jake.”

  “You don’t have to let me down gently you know.”

  “I’m not letting you down at all; I’m just saying what I think.”

  “What do you mean; you’re not letting me down?” He said, turning to face me.

  “Nothing. Look, I better get inside, I’m getting cold,” I lied, making my way back to the front of the house.

  “Keira!”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  When I got around the corner I ran through the porch and into the house.

  “What’s wrong?” Lily asked.

  I didn’t answer her; I ran into the living room and got to the window just in time to see him drive off. Then I flopped down on the sofa, tilting my head back so I could stare at the ceiling. A minute later I heard Lily come in.

  “What’s w
rong?” She asked again, sitting next to me.

  “I don’t know what to do,” I said, moving so I was sat partially facing her.

  “About what?”

  “Tyler.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know I went to see his mom this morning.”

  “Yeah,” she said, getting comfortable.

  I told her what his mom had told me about him being in a mood.

  “Ok”, she said. “Have you asked him about it?”

  “Yeah, that’s why I shouted him before he left.”

  “I wondered why you both walked off.”

  “He admitted he’s liked me from the start, that he would have ended up asking me out.”

  “Ok, but I don’t understand why you’re stressing. I thought you liked Lucian in a romantic way, not Tyler.”

  “So did I. Lily, I’ve always been attracted to Tyler, but lately I’ve begun to like him more and more. I find it hard to get him out of my head. I think Lucian is gorgeous, but look how he’s been with me. Tyler has never been off with me. When I was out with him yesterday, I felt so comfortable and I couldn’t stop staring at him.”

  “So what you’re saying is, you don’t know who you want,” she asked.

  “No, yes, I don’t know,” I said, getting up to pace.

  “Keira, I can’t make your mind up for you. I know they both care about you a lot, but Tyler does stand by you all the time. He would defend you until he was blue in the face, even if you were in the wrong. On the other hand, Lucian cares for you; he treated you like a queen up until your disagreement.”

  “How do you feel when you’re alone with them?” She asked.

  “When I’m with Lucian I feel happy – he’s caring, loving, a complete gentleman. He says really sweet things too. But when I’m with Tyler, god, I feel like I can be myself more. He doesn’t judge me; he lets me do whatever I want. He’s playful, funny and I feel safe with him.”

  “So you like them both for different reasons.”

  “I think I’m going to stay away from both of them from now on.”

  “You can’t do that,” she told me. “That’s not fair to them.”

  “Well, I’m not getting closer to either of them then.”