Dark Legacy (House of Winterborne Book 1)

by Luanne Bennett

  “Fuck!” I hissed, cursing my fear.

  “There’s no one here to catch you this time,” he said, standing in the doorway.

  Had he been watching me and Hawk?

  My eyes darted to the conservatory as I tried to focus and shut everything out but the image of Mrs. Wells’s apartment across town. It was impossible. All that mind clutter was back.

  He laughed again. “There’s no one in there to save you either. I’m afraid your familiar is gone.”

  My lungs filled painfully as I gasped. “It was you? You killed him?”

  The world around me started to crumble, and my vision grew spotty as darkness bled into my peripheral vision. With the journal held tight against my chest, I took a step back and leaned against the waist-high wall. My last memory was of the blue sky filled with billowy clouds as I tumbled backward over the edge.

  Chapter 27

  I rolled over and hugged the soft pillow wedged between my cheek and neck, breathing in the delightful scent of lavender. Everything about that pillow seemed wrong, and the memory of falling jolted me fully awake. I sat straight up, my fingers still gripping it.

  The sheets made a soft rustling noise from my limbs shivering. When I looked down at my clothes, they were soaked in sweat. So was the comforter. That’s when I remembered seeing Ryker Caspian’s face just before I saw the sky. I’d thrown myself over the edge of the terrace and tried to travel, but I definitely wasn’t in Mrs. Wells’s apartment. He must have caught me before I disappeared.

  The ruby bracelet around my wrist caught my eye, and then I saw the ring on my finger. I reached for my ears and felt the earrings too.

  “What the hell is going on?” I whispered. Jakob had said he was going to burn them, but after what he told me about Phillip throwing them into the river years ago, nothing about the rubies surprised me anymore. I yanked at the ring, but it just got tighter around my finger, and the earrings seemed to be welded to my lobes.

  I glanced around the strange room. It was furnished with antiques, and the floor was covered with a fine Persian rug. Ryker’s apartment, I assumed. The one on Riverside Drive.

  I climbed off the bed and checked the door. It was locked. Then I went to the window, relieved to see the river and New Jersey on the other side, confirming that I was still in New York. There were no bars on the outside of the glass. He must have thought I wouldn’t risk jumping from six or seven stories, but he obviously didn’t know about my newly discovered traveling skills. All I had to do was take a dive, but first I had to smash the window.

  My hand felt weak. I tried clenching it several times, but the light in the center of my palm had gone out. It was like my power had been unplugged. The son of a bitch was controlling it with the rubies.

  With a firm yank, I tried to rip the bracelet off, but it was like steel welded to my wrist, the same as the earrings and ring. The delicate filigree wouldn’t even bend.

  I looked around the sparsely furnished room and spotted a couple of small wooden chairs in the corner. But as I picked one of them up and headed for the window, I heard the lock on the door disengage. I quickly put it down.

  The door swung open and Ryker walked inside, carrying a tray. “I thought you might be awake by now. Hungry?”

  “Hungry?” I stared at him in disbelief.

  He set the tray on the dresser and glanced at the chair next to me. “Go ahead.”

  “Go ahead and what?”

  “Break the window,” he replied in a cavalier tone as he offered me a cup of coffee.

  The bastard was pissing me off, so I grabbed the chair and swung like Babe Ruth. The wooden legs came within an inch of the glass and abruptly stopped, jolting me.

  He walked over to the window and pick up the chair, sliding it toward me. “Have a seat, Morgan. We have things to discuss.”

  Realizing my options were limited and this would probably go a lot easier if I cooperated, I sat down.

  “Now, do you want coffee or not?”

  “Sure.” Maybe a little caffeine would help me think.

  As he handed me a cup, he bent down to look in my eyes, and I felt something slip over my head.

  “There now,” he said, adjusting the pendant to lie perfectly centered against my chest. “The set is complete.”

  The cup slipped from my hand and hit the floor, shattering to pieces. I grabbed the ruby necklace he’d so easily slipped around my neck, instinctively trying to rip it off. But I couldn’t.

  “I would have put in on you while you slept, but I wanted to see your eyes when I captured your will.” The satisfaction on his face was revolting. “Now I have all of you. Just like I had Katherine.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  He pulled the other chair up to mine and took a seat. “I want your power.”

  “If it would get me away from you, I’d gladly hand it over.”

  He stared at me blankly for a moment and then began to chuckle as if I’d told a lukewarm joke. “You’re definitely your mother’s daughter. I remember the first time I met Katherine. We were at the university library and she was pretending not to notice me.” His lips rose into a faint smile as he seemed to gaze right through me. A moment later, he snapped out of it and focused on me again instead of her memory. “But you know that, don’t you? You’ve read the journal, which means you know who I am.”

  “You’re an assassin.” I refused to acknowledge him as my father. “The Elders call you the Reaper.”

  He lost his smile and suddenly looked like he wanted to strike me, but instead of flinching, I glared at him defiantly. Regardless of the ruby hanging around my neck, he would never control me completely.

  “They’re nothing but a bunch of old fools.” He stood up to look out the window. “Reaper,” he scoffed. “It a legend that doesn’t exist. Never has. Their ignorance is astounding.”

  “Are you denying you’re a vampire?”

  There was a glint in his eyes when he turned around. “Indeed. But not just a vampire. You and I are much more than just common Night Walkers. We come from the line that every inferior species mutated from, including those abominations that think they have a right to this city.”

  “There is no we,” I said. “I’m ten times more my mother than you.”

  “Yes, you are.” That glint got even brighter, sending a shiver through me. I had a strange feeling I was about to hear something that would shatter everything I thought I knew about my mother.

  “It’s your legacy, Morgan. Passed down from mother to daughter.”

  I did my best to hide my ignorance and act like I wasn’t scared to death to hear the next words to come out of his mouth. But that was proving to be difficult as my lips stuck to my teeth and my mouth went exceedingly dry. “I think I need a glass of water.”

  Ignoring my request, he stood up and cocked his head. “You have read the journal?”

  “Most of it.”

  He seemed to be having some sort of revelation and headed for the door. “I’ll be right back.”

  A minute later he returned with the journal in his hand. He sat back down and scooted his chair closer to mine, then flipped the pages toward the end. “Let’s finish it together, shall we?”

  Katherine Winterborne

  January 1, 1995

  The women of Winterborne House have a dark secret. They keep it hidden so deep that it’s rarely thought of and never spoken about, because just speaking the words carries connotations of a fate worse than death. Some aren’t even aware of it because their mothers are cowards and refuse to arm their own daughters with the knowledge that might save them from an unimaginable fate. But I was one of the lucky ones. My mother told me about the legacy. That’s why I knew the moment Ryker revealed himself to me that I would pass this knowledge on to you, Morgan. It’s my duty as a mother. The day I found out I was pregnant, with a daughter no less, was one of the best and worst days of my life.

  So, now for the truth. I tell it the way it was told to me. The wa
y you will tell it to your own daughter if you choose to have children after reading this.

  The legend goes that a Winterborne immortal woman took a vampire as a lover over two centuries ago. From that union, a rare pregnancy occurred, and the child became a carrier of a recessive gene. A vampire gene. From that moment forward, all females descending from that one fateful indiscretion carry the gene. Fortunately, our immortal genes are dominant, and they will stay dominant as long as a child is never conceived with a carrier of the same recessive gene. With a vampire from the original line.

  Ryker comes from the same ancient line where the gene manifested and spread.

  But it’s just a legend. It’s never been put to the test. No Winterborne woman has ever been foolish enough to sleep with a vampire, the enemies of the clan. Until now.

  Legend or not, I’d do you a great injustice by telling you nothing will happen and it’s just an old wives’ tale handed down from mother to daughter. We’ll take this journey together and find out. But if something were to happen to me before you’re old enough to understand, I’ll make sure you know the truth. But I pray every night that the legend will amount to nothing and the only legacy you’ll know is to be the future queen of Clan Winterborne.

  Katherine Winterborne

  October 12, 2019

  Well, so much for an old wives’ tale. I’ve actually added to the legend, because there’s another part of the story no one knew about. The days are getting darker for me, and my impulses are to the point where I fear I’ll do something I can’t live with. All these years I thought it was you I’d have to watch over to make sure your cravings didn’t surface and give you away. I never knew I’d be the one who needed watching.

  I’ve felt it for a while now, but lately it’s been unbearable and I’m afraid I can’t hide it any longer. My instincts are becoming harder to control, inciting an unspeakable hunger at the sight of blood, a hunger so deep in my bones I have to lock myself in the bathroom and draw my own blood to distract myself from the cravings. Jakob is the only one I trust. Neither of us understands it, but Jakob thinks it’s because you grew inside my womb. Your blood is my blood, and after all these years, I’m no longer just a carrier. It’s manifesting inside me.

  I have to protect you now. By the time you read this, I’ll be dead, drowned at the bottom of the ocean where the clan will never know what I’ve become. Or what you could become. You’re a threat to the future of the Winterborne clan, and they’ll kill you to preserve the bloodline. Trust Jakob. Let him help you. And whatever happens, don’t let Ryker anywhere near you.

  Now burn this journal and never speak of it again.

  Ryker snapped the journal shut and tossed it on the dresser. Then he headed for the window to glance out over the Hudson River. “I would have stopped her if I’d known she planned to kill herself. That wasn’t my intent when I woke her thirst.”

  Still stunned by it all, I could barely speak. Then my brain caught up to what he’d just said. “What do you mean, you woke her thirst?”

  He sighed and muttered something under his breath.

  “Answer me!”

  Without turning around, he headed for the bedroom door. “It’ll be better if I show you.”

  As soon as he left the room, I stood up and started yanking at the damn jewelry again. I stopped when I heard a commotion down the hall, a moaning followed by a scuffle. Then the house went quiet again and I heard Ryker coming back.

  I ran to the window and tried to break it with my fists, but they stopped inches away from the glass just like the chair had. Those rubies had bound me just as tightly as the twin’s spell.

  Ryker walked back into the room with a man wearing a white robe who looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week. The man sat on the bed, his eyes fixed on the wall as if he were in a trance.

  “We’ve been preparing for several days,” Ryker said, taking the man’s arm. “In fact, we completed a cleansing ritual this morning while you slept. An awakening requires preparation of the blood.” He flipped the man’s arm over and examined the vein that ran down his wrist, his brow furrowing as his face took on a thoughtful expression. “Maybe if I hadn’t waited so long to wake Katherine, she’d still be alive and here with us now. But she resisted me for years until I finally insisted that it was time.”

  A sickening feeling roiled up from the depths of my gut as he beckoned for me to join him by the bed. “What are you going to do?” I asked, refusing to go near him.

  “I’m giving you a gift,” he said, running his thumb over the man’s vein. “Just a taste and you’ll become who you’re destined to be. You’ll wake up just like your mother did.”

  “You forced my mother to drink blood?”

  “Of course. It’s the final step. Until you drink consecrated blood, you’re trapped between two worlds, neither to which you belong.”

  He crooked his finger at me, and I backed up, hitting the wall. With the rubies suppressing my power, I was trapped. My heart beat painfully against my chest as I shook my head and refused his order. Even the necklace couldn’t compel me to peel myself away from that wall.

  “Damn it, woman! Come here!”

  He finally gave up and left the room, leaving me with the man sitting on the bed.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked him.

  The man slowly turned his head to look at me, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. His eyes looked vacant, like there was no one home inside his head.

  “Don’t waste your time,” Ryker said as he came back into the room. “He’s not here at the moment. I’ve given him some herbs to mask the pain.” In his hand was a metal chalice. He set it on the nightstand and grabbed the man’s wrist.

  “You’re going to kill him!” I yelled, unable to stand there and say nothing.

  Ryker gave me a puzzled look. “Kill him?” He glanced at the man and then back at me. “He begged me to use him. They all want what we have.”

  “And what is that?”

  He let out a sarcastic laugh. “Eternal life. But you wouldn’t understand wanting that, would you? In a few short years, you’ll be immortal.” He dug his pointed fingernail into the man’s wrist, puncturing his skin. The man flinched when his blood began to flow, but his eyes remained fixed on the wall. “He’ll let me do whatever I want to him, with the hope of someday becoming one of us.”

  After tipping the man’s arm to collect the blood in the chalice, he rubbed his thumb over the wound and it healed before my eyes. Then he stood up and offered me the chalice. “Drink.”

  I remained glued to the wall. “Fuck off!”

  Ryker’s eyes flashed red. “You talk to your own father with that foul mouth?”

  He came toward me and grabbed my chin. I tried to fight but I was frozen, my will manipulated by his.

  “Just a drop,” he said as the cold metal cup pressed against my lips and tilted until the taste of warm copper spilled into my mouth. The urge to vomit disappeared as the taste suddenly changed to a sweet nectar that slipped down my throat as easily as fine wine. He kept tilting it until it was empty.

  Ryker caught me as I slid toward the floor. He laid me on the bed, and I closed my eyes as the room turned on its axis and the sensation of flying filled my head. A bright light appeared, and a thousand voices whispered to me as I felt my arms fly open and catch the breeze in the valley I was soaring through.

  “Enjoy this, Morgan,” I heard him say in the distance. “You only transition once. It will never be this exhilarating again.”

  The bright sky went black, and I began to soar blindly through the darkness, trusting my instincts. Then suddenly I was on my back, the gnawing hunger in my throat making me so sick I thought I would vomit all the blood from my stomach. My eyes wouldn’t open. I tried to sit up but felt his hands on my shoulders pushing me back down against the mattress as the whispers returned, growing louder until I could feel their lips against my ears.

  Wake up, Morgan.

  I couldn’t breathe.
A thousand thoughts bombarded my mind, filling my vision with images of blood and death and a world of never-ending darkness. “This isn’t real,” I said, trying to wake up.

  The strange whispers became Ryker’s deep, commanding voice telling me to open my eyes. But I couldn’t. It was like sleep paralysis trapping me against the bed, with phantom limbs, dead and unresponsive. I fought back the terror that seemed to be eating me alive, and then my eyes suddenly popped open and I was standing at a window looking out over the river, the smell of grilled meat filling the air.

  “Come and eat,” Ryker said. “You’ve had a rough transition.”

  I turned around and saw him standing next to the dining room table. “What time is it?” I’m not sure why I asked, but I was disoriented and needed something to anchor me.

  He glanced at an old grandfather clock against the wall. “Half past ten.”

  I looked outside at the dark sky and realized he meant p.m. How had I lost an entire day?

  Feeling weak, I approached the table and glanced at the steak surrounded by a pool of blood, and my stomach began to turn. “I can’t eat that.”

  “You’ve expended all your energy. You have to eat or you’ll pass out and I’ll have to feed you more of Henry’s blood. Shall I get him?”

  Henry?

  I stepped away from the table before he could force the nearly raw meat down my throat like he’d done with Henry’s blood. “Then get me a muffin or something.”

  He laughed and picked up a knife, stabbing it through the center of the T-bone with enough force to shake the table. “From now on, this is your muffin!”

  Chapter 28

  Swallowing the last bite of my steak, I was shocked at how much I enjoyed something I’d sworn off years ago. I could have eaten a porterhouse.