Lost Heir

by brett hicks

  Lost Heir: NecroVamp

  I ended up splitting this book into two parts. The story felt like it would be choppy and disjointed otherwise. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy!

  Prologue:

  Ancient stone hallways glinted low as Henry walked the length of the halls. Desiccation and rot lingered in the air, the final hints of the once powerful Alchemists. The war had ravaged the lands above and what was once the largest and brightest beacon of light in the ancient world now laid buried deep below the surface for three-thousand-years.

  He came to a massive antechamber of silver and grey. Gold ringlets and script of Alchemist alphabet was inscribed on the floor. The words were of a more ancient dialect than the one Henry had been exposed to, thanks to Dean Sylvester.

  He held out the electric lantern and studied the words and sequences. Either he was about to walk into a highly restricted men’s room, or he had arrived at the central control room.

  Henry took a few paces towards the door and a massive alloy dish dropped from the ceiling. The material looked similar to titanium, but the magic of the dish was unmistakably inhuman in its craftsmanship.

  The white text of the same ancient dialect began to write themselves.

  “Reveal… Heritage.”

  Henry pulled out the sample vial of blood he had stolen from the NYPD’s private storage and he poured the contents into the dish-like surface glowing with the white lit text.

  Thea’s blood touched the surface and the doors hissed and clicked. After what seemed an eternity, the doors opened and the alloy dish flew back into its home in the ceiling. Darkness greeted him as he entered the room that had been sealed off long before the war touched the rest of the grand city. The city lost, with its heir.

  The first prisms of light glowed brightly through the ancient crystal spires of the mythical place humans knew as Atlantis, the place that was attributed a name that had been intended for its heir, the lost heir, the daughter of the greatest alchemist and necromancer. The greatest champions for peace who once lived and now Henry held it in his possession. He had finally navigated the labyrinths and the death traps; he had arrived at the seat of his own coronation.

  All he had needed was time and enough of Thea’s DNA and now nothing could stop him! E heir would never know what was stolen from her or the true value of her life’s worth. The Grand Junction of prophecy had blinded all the seers of the world, so now was the time to act, now was the time to bring the old ones to their knees, along with the filthy humans!

  One:

  Just when you think it’s safe to close your door and let down your hair, a revenant of gigantic proportions busts into your apartment.

  His eyes glowed under the faint light and his pale skin seemed to shine. He was something much less human, much less man than monster. I say that, considering I am one of two princesses of the inhuman populace of Manhattan.

  My sword glowed to life in a pale-green flash of flames and magic. Thundering through my blood was the ancient powers of a nearly extinct species of immortals.

  “Well, let’s get this over with then, I assume you’re here to kill me.”

  Something crossed the giant’s features and the ancient powers swirled around us. Incomprehensible energies swirled and the light-blues of death magic infused his blood, a color that looked almost exactly like my own magic—which should not be possible. His energy-signature was linked to my own, yet I had not made this revenant.

  “Who are you?”

  The question was almost a whisper it was asked so lowly like I was almost terrified of the answer. The large man looked on me with an impassive expression. He was neither warm nor cold to me, he just was.

  “Atlantis, I have failed you.”

  His voice rumbled deeply and his strange cadence gave me pause. There was something almost familiar about the way he formed his words. Something primitive inside myself was tripped and I felt my green blade flicker out of existence and rush back inside my bone and blood.

  “Tell me who you are, and who is Atlantis?”

  My tone was equal parts frustration and mysticism. My mind swirled in the infinite variables, but I couldn’t bring myself to believe the simple reality. The magic felt so familiar, so familiar. I looked at the giant and I dismissed the possibility of him being my father. Even without the impossibility of a revenant procreating and producing a necromancer, there was nothing of this man in me. No features and certainly not his height. I am a short-stack and this man was a very literal giant. There was no way that I could have come from him!

  His deep and seemingly musical voice was like the lowest notes on a stringed instrument.

  “You are Atlantis and I was supposed to be your guardian.”

  The words seemed to cause a domino effect on my brain. A cascade of thoughts and emotions that I had long since believed dead inside me, came flooding out. All the old scars seemed to bleed in my heart. This was the old ache of an orphan, the pangs of a girl deprived of the gentle love of her parents. The anger of the young woman who lost pieces of her very soul on the Boston streets.

  The familiar magic that was now bound to me through him made more sense.

  “My parents made you?”

  He nodded his massive had and grunted deeply in confirmation.

  “Your father created me Atlantis; he was, after all, the only one of your parents capable of reanimating the dead.”

  I frowned and I studied the massive revenant in lingering curiosity.

  “Are you saying I’m a half-breed?”

  He stiffly shook his head.

  “No, both your parents were of the ancient line, just different branches of the line.”

  I blinked rapidly.

  Ancient line?! I have never heard any reference to something like this from Seri.

  I stepped forward, suddenly emboldened by the surge of raw adrenaline through my blood. My muscles seemed to tighten and my body seemed to cool slightly as my fight-or-flight instincts went into overdrive.

  “What does that mean? What is this ancient line?!”

  I felt a surge of magic behind me and I didn’t have to look to know my girlfriend had come in to investigate why my magic was all over the place. I felt her cold rage and her nearly imperceptible movements in the dark.

  “Ancient line is the proper term for the Alchemists. If what he says is true, then you really shouldn’t exist Thea.”

  I looked to Seri; she was completely unreadable right now. Her face and body seemed to be locked down as tightly as a fortress in wartime.

  “No, that’s impossible!”

  I exclaimed loudly and I looked at the large man who had not moved for some time now.

  “You are surprised, that is reasonable, however, we do not have time for you to stay in shock for long. You will be facing extinction within days, if not less.”

  My body went still and the pins-and-needles feeling of cold prickly fear cascaded along my every nerve. Something in his low and dreary tone seemed to supercharge my senses and galvanize me to action. The problem was, I didn’t know which direction to move in right now.

  “Explain yourself!”

  Seri growled at him and her eyes glinted with barely restrained power. She was never one to mince words. She strode forward and she eyed the massive hulking pale figure with all the cunning and deaf grace of a lioness on the prowl.

  “Who are you and why do you call my kin by that name?!”

  He looked to my vampire girlfriend and studied her for a long moment and he seemed to look between us as if he could see the light-blue tether of metaphysical energy that binds us tightly to each other with the bond of kin.

  “You reek of the Draugr’s blood.”

  I felt Seri’s sudden rush of pungent emotions as if they were my own. She seemed t
o still in that lethal vampiric way of our peoples when threatened. The way the giant spoke the word Draugr, it was like the worst curse he could heap upon a person. My mind spun and I could recall that the word was Norse in origin, it meant something like, “Walk-Again, or the walk-again man.” I had come across it in my recent studies on the inhuman lore and myths of old.

  “Yes, he’s my father.”

  She said it tersely and she eyed our guest as if she expected him to try to club her with one of his limbs. He studied her and his massive head tipped to the side slightly. His gaze was like something so cold and so ancient that our world held no meaning for him. His every posture and action was alien. He was something from a time so thoroughly forgotten, that he scarcely fit in this urban setting.

  “So I see and it is your blood that transformed my Lady. Where is your father? When I woke long enough to send Lady Atlantis off to a human refuge, he was still in power.”

  My spine flash-frozen at his words and their likely implications!

  “Where are my parents!? Who ARE YOU!!!!”

  I shrieked at him like a banshee on the Moors. His eyes came back to me and he beheld me with something akin to pity and sorrow, or as close to that mixture as his cold facial expressions could seem to manifest.

  “Forgive me my Lady Atlantis. Since no one here appears to mean you any harm, can we be seated? This is rather a very long conversation and one in which you will likely find yourself relearning everything you know to be true.”

  Seri eyed him like a massive serpent ready to strike at any moment. She had slunk closer to me without even my notice, which was saying a lot these days. I could feel her heat coating my chilly state and I reached out and I stroked my palm down her soft back. She seemed to ease slightly at my light touch and I felt my sanity returning to me at her nearness.

  “Fine, but you will tell me everything you know!”

  I said it through grit teeth and the man nodded his large head.

  “Of course, my Lady.”

  Seri and I walked into the living room and I noticed Bix, Vivi, and Liam were already in the room. I do not know at what point in this drama they had come in, but they seemed to have enough information not to look overtly hostile. The dark elf and the light elf seemed to size up the large man and they looked surprisingly cool and confident, despite the great difference in size.

  Liam was already pouring whiskey into crystal glasses that he had given me when I moved in. Liam always seemed to be obsessed with us having good drinks in every corner of our domain. I had even accused him of being to blame for the number of alcohol distributors in every major country. Then he had pointed out that mortals and inhumans alike needed no help in fueling their passion for a beverage.

  The giant man gracefully seated himself in a large armchair that Bix had given me. It was spelled to shrink to my form, but that magic seemed to work in reverse for the bulk of the giant.

  He seemed to follow me with his cold gaze and his pale eyes seemed alight with a perma-glow. Unlike most supernatural beings that could cut the power in their eyes, he seemed incapable or unwilling to hide his power.

  “Drinks, ladies, you all look like you’ve been spending too much time with the ghosts.”

  Liam stated conversational and I shot him a look and pushed my thoughts to him.

  “Bite me, Liam!”

  He chortled lightly and he kept dispensing drinks. He looked amused and deeply intrigued with the level of telepathic control I had now. I could utilize my bond to Seri to communicate with anyone bond to her as well as myself.

  The giant drained half his glass in one gulp and he smacked his lips together. His eyes widened slightly and Liam said, “That’s the good stuff mate.”

  The other man grunted an affirmation and then he looked at me.

  “Your name is Atlantis and you are the daughter of the two greatest rulers to ever inherit the throne of Earth. Your mother was called Morrigan and your father, my master, was Nox.”

  My mouth nearly hit the floor at this declaration of my origin.

  Two:

  To say that I handled this news well would have given me far too much credit!

  I kicked over my wooden coffee table and I stood in a rush and I had a fist full of the giant’s shirt in my palms in the next heart-beat. No one else had moved, not even the giant man. He just looked into my hot gaze as if unaffected by my anger. My power swirled and surged around the room and the wings I kept tucked in metaphysically were now loose and my dark magic seemed to permeate every single molecule in my apartments.

  “Nox was a female goddess of night and the dead, you dare insult me or my intelligence! Morrigan was also a female goddess of Celtic lore. You are trying to tell me I come from two women?!”

  “Your father could shape-shift and when he met your mother and they decided to try for children, he stayed in his male form. You are the product of two ancient beings who are the source of the powers that now call themselves inhuman. When your father, and I use that term because he was the one who provided the seed that conceived you, was not in male form, he was a woman. Should this really surprise you? Considering your proclivities towards the Draugr’s daughter, you should be a little more open-minded?!”

  I pointed my index finger into his hard sculpted peck and growled in annoyance.

  “Only, I never grew a damn dick when I fuck her!”

  He nodded in concession and huffed.

  “That is because you were born fully female, like Morrigan. You look like your father, with your dark hair and your amber and brown eyes. But, you also have your mother’s figure and slight stature.”

  My heart throbbed in my chest as he casually spoke of things any orphan girl would long to hear! I’m twenty-three and yet this information almost seemed to make me feel like I was eight and crying myself to sleep again.

  Jerked his weight forward and I glared into his eyes with all the menace a tiny girl could ever hope to impose upon a giant.

  “You break into my home and I am just supposed to believe what you say?!”

  His smile was filled with mirth now and he didn’t show the least bit of fear at my wrath, which was something. Most beings were terrified of me when I was angry.

  “You would have smitten me with your powers if you believed I was lying. I’m sorry that I failed to guard your properly Atlantis, but I am not lying to you.”

  He spoke to me with a bone-deep conviction and zero doubts with which power resided. I had power in spades; I had managed to fight off Dean Sylvester with zero training, even if I had some help. I have also managed to transform a human into a Dhampire, not a vampire.

  “Tell me where they are, why have they left me alone all this time?!”

  His eyes were suddenly solemn and I had my answer.

  “They managed to hide you in stasis using the lost technologies of the ancient races’ science and their alchemy. The new-bloods, the inhumans call them Alchemist, but in truth, the Ancient Blood Clan was something much more, something primal and ageless.”

  Seri was at my side now and she pried me loose from the giant’s clothes.

  ‘Sweetie, please, hear him out. Nothing he has said is untrue. I have access to the hidden histories, well some of them. I know of the ones called the Ancient Bloods. I did not know that they were the same race as the Alchemists.”

  I looked to her and her pale eyes were pleading to me. Like I even had a single choice in those perfect gemstone puppy-eyes! Seraphina was my kryptonite and my great love. I sagged and I leaned into her warmth like my personal blanket.

  “Fine, but I really hope this starts making sense and soon.”

  I mumbled and she pulled me tightly against her side and wrapped a comforting and possessive arm around my waist.

  “It is unusual for me to process this scene. You two should have been born bitter enemies, yet you are kin.”

  Liam sighed and lightly said, “I’d get back on track and fast mate. These two little spit-fires will burn your blood
y house down if you keep tempting them, yeah.”

  Bix rolled her eyes and sniffed in what passed for amusement with her. She did not let her emotions show very much while in a possibly dangerous situation.

  “What is your name?”

  He licked his lips and then he drained the rest of his glass.

  “They called me Atlas. I was the one who was given the burden of the entire world’s future and placed into stasis with my infant charge.”

  He looked to me and inclined his head slightly.

  “I was in stasis for over three-thousand years with you Atlantis. We were to be sent forward in time to a place distant from the Draugr’s height of power. You are the last of the Ancient Blood Clan.”

  I frowned and pointed at him.

  “Atlas, like the flipping titan? E one that had the world placed on his shoulders? That Atlas?”

  His lips twitched at one corner slightly.

  “I see that the mortals and the young inhumans have greatly limited information. You were my burden Atlantis. You are the burden of an entire planet, but no, I did not hold up the world. That is scientifically impossible.”

  “Says the revenant to the necrovamp.”

  I snarked at Atlas and he looked completely unimpressed.

  “It shouldn’t surprise me that you managed to take on the vampire strain, but it still does. Vampires were based off some of Nox’s stolen DNA. I suppose, in some ways, your father was the very first night-kind.”

  Some of the fight drained from my veins and Seri looked at me with a measured look of mild concern. Liam had the typical devil-may-care grin and he kept sipping on his pricy whiskey.

  “If my parents weren’t alchemists, then how come you claim that I have the same bloodline as the Alchemists?”

  “Your mother was the founder and creator of alchemy. The natural ability to break complex ingredients down to their base elements and reform them in a magically rearranged pattern was one of her many abilities. Forming entirely new materials was how most of the inhuman species were created. Her assistant even attempted to replicate her genes and that gave rise to the race known to you as the Alchemists. Your father’s DNA was also stolen in this betrayal, hence the rise of the Draugr and his ilk.”