right,” I said.
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“This is Cecile,” Cryder said. “I wrote you about her.”
“Ah, the human you turned,” Giorgia said to Drake. “This
one doesn’t look frightened of me.”
“Should I be?” Cecile asked, a bit more sass in her voice
than I thought advisable.
Giorgia laughed. “Of course, you shouldn’t,” she said.
“You’re part of the family now, too. Samuele, come and meet Rena
and Cecile.”
The vampire I took to be Cryder’s father glided over as if he
were on oiled casters. “It’s very nice to meet you both,” he rumbled.
“We’ve anticipated your arrival for quite some time.”
“We should let Rena get to bed,” Cryder said. “She’s had a
long journey, and she’s tired.”
Giorgia’s smile faded slightly. “We can’t send anyone to
their quarters just yet,” she said.
“Why not?” Cryder asked. “We came all the way from the
States, Mother.
“I know that,” Giorgia said. “But there’s the ceremony to
think of, Cryder. Everyone has been awaiting your arrival.” She
raised her voice ever so slightly. “Show them in, please.”
Cryder’s hand tightened on my arm. “She isn’t prepared for
this,” he said in a low, furious voice. “She wasn’t expecting it. It’s unfair to spring it on her.”
My heart fluttered anxiously in my chest. What was being
sprung on me? What was the ceremony? I remembered what Cryder had told me about the trials I would have to undergo as I joined the royal family. They would be painful, he’d said. Was that what was
happening right now? He was right; I wasn’t ready!
The courtyard surrounding the entrance to the palace was
filling up with people. No, I reminded myself, not people. These were vampires. We were still in the town of La Oscurità, after all,
right in the heart of it. And this was a place that repelled humans and welcomed vampires, so the newcomers clustered around me
couldn’t be anything else.
I pressed back against Cryder, terrified. Would they bite me?
What were they here to do?
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It was astonishing just how many of them managed to crowd
their way into the courtyard. I wondered, in the back of my mind,
the part of me that wasn’t panicking, whether this was something
that happened often. Did the king and queen regularly open their
doors to their subjects in this way, allowing them onto the palace
grounds? If they did, it was no wonder everyone in La Oscurità was
so loyal to the crown.
“What’s happening?” Cecile whispered.
“The townspeople are here to see their new rulers and to
declare their allegiance as the power shifts from my parents to me
and Rena,” Cryder said quietly. “It’s an important part of any shift in power. As rulers, we’re only as strong as we are supported by our
people. It’s important that they know how much we value their
approval, and it’s important for us to know we have it.”
I found my voice. “That’s all it is? They’re just going to tell
us if they approve or not?”
He looked down at me, his hands firm and reassuring on my
shoulders. “What did you think was about to happen?”
“I didn’t know…”
“Oh, honey.” He wrapped his arms around me. “You’re
overwhelmed, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
“You’re alright,” he said quietly. “There’s nothing to be
afraid of. You don’t have to do anything right now. They just want
to see you, that’s all.”
“But I’m a mess. I just got off a plane. My clothes are
crappy, my hair is a disaster—”
“That’s the kind of thing humans notice,” Cryder said.
“That’s not what they’ll be looking for.”
“What will they be looking for?”
He hesitated. “Maybe you shouldn’t worry about that right
now,” he suggested.
“No,” I said. “I want you to tell me. If you don’t, I’ll just
imagine it’s something worse than it really is.”
He sighed. “Okay,” he said. “Well, part of it is your bearing.
The way you carry yourself. They want to believe their rulers are
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proud and confident.”
“I’m not feeling very proud and confident.”
“I know. It’s okay. A lot of what you need right now, you
have naturally. It’s in your bloodline. You have your mother’s
posture and proud chin. Now just look up—that’s it. Don’t look at
your feet. You don’t want to show that you’re intimidated or afraid.”
“Should I smile?”
“It doesn’t really matter,” he said. “Smiling is a human
gesture. It won’t mean much to most of them, unless they were only
turned recently, like Cecile. But new vampires are still susceptible to the spell that protects the city.” He glanced at Cecile. “You saw that firsthand.”
She nodded. “Do vampires really not smile?”
“We can,” Cryder said. “But showing teeth tends to mean
something a bit different in our culture.”
“Your mother—”
“My mother is a diplomat,” Cryder said. “That’s part of
being a ruler. She smiled at you because she knew that was what
would make you most comfortable.” Then he laughed. “Don’t
worry. She was never going to eat you.”
“I wasn’t worried about that,” I mumbled.
The guests to the palace had taken up positions in a ring
around the courtyard. Now they were staring at me and Cryder. “Am
I supposed to say something?” I asked.
“No. Just let them see you. Let them understand who you
are. And—”
“And what?”
But Cryder seemed unable to say anymore.
“They’re scenting you,” Drake supplied.
Cryder gave him a dark look.
“Scenting?” I felt a shiver come over me. “What does that
mean?” Cryder’s arms tightened around me. “Remember how Bristol
was able to find you by smelling your blood? And so was I?”
“Yes?”
“They can do the same. They can tell by your scent what you
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are and who your mother was.” He kissed the crown of my head.
“Don’t worry. You’re perfectly safe. But if they’re going to accept
you as their new queen, it’s something they need to know.”
“Will it turn them against me?”
“Not a bit,” Cryder assured me. “It will make them trust you
more to know that you’re one of them.”
But I wasn’t one of them, was I? Not really. All right, so
maybe I had vampire blood. Maybe my mother had been a vampire.
But I had been raised in the human world. Even though Cryder had
been prepping me for months for my transition to vampire life, I still felt as human as they come.
I knew Cecile had been through a bit of the same thing. We
had talked about it the night before graduation, huddled in her
bedroom and speculating about all the ways our lives were about to
change. “At least you’ll be among your own
people,” I’d said.
“You’ll be with pure vampires, like you.”
She’d laughed. “I’m hardly pure vampire,” she’d said. “I
mean, I am in all the basic ways, I suppose. I don’t sleep anymore.
That’s pretty bizarre.”
And the bloodlust. I hadn’t mentioned that aloud, though.
Transitioning to a diet of blood had been strange enough for me, and I was just drinking cocktails of Cryder’s blood that he’d donated
willingly. Cecile, I knew, had far more complicated feelings about
her new diet, and I still didn’t know whether she was ready to talk
about it. She would come to me, I supposed, in her own time.
Until then, I wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up. She
had been doing a remarkable job adjusting, I thought. After all, this whole situation should never have been her problem in the first
place. She wasn’t the one with a vampire for a mother. She wasn’t the one being hunted by an evil vampire hell-bent on taking her
blood. Her life should have moved seamlessly from high school to
college to career, and maybe to becoming a wife and mother.
Well, she’d still have the chance to get married, I thought,
noting Drake’s hand resting on her shoulder. If nothing else, she’d
found love. And I knew from firsthand experience how valuable that
could be in a trying time.
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Cecile had punched her pillows into a supportive shape and
leaned back on them. “I might be a pure-blooded vampire,” she’d
said, “but I don’t belong in their world any more than you do.
Probably less. At least your mother was one of them. Me, I’m just a
random girl who got in the way of Bristol.”
I’d hugged her. “You’re not random,” I’d told her firmly.
“You’re my sister, practically. You’re my best friend. I need you
with me, Cecile.”
I was jerked back to the present as Samuele stepped forward
and raised both of his hands above his head. All of the vampires
standing around us fell silent, waiting to hear what their king would say. “Citizens of La Oscurità,” he began. I was surprised by how well his voice carried. It seemed as though the courtyard we were
standing in had somehow been designed for its acoustics. The sound
reverberated off the cobblestones.
“Honored guests, beloved friends,” Samuele continued. “I
welcome you with open arms and open heart to the palace today. We
thank you for your attendance. We are humbled by your show of
support for your new king and queen.”
Cryder’s hand slid down to grip mine. It suddenly occurred
to me to wonder whether he was nervous.
I’d never seen Cryder nervous. At least, I didn’t think I had.
But today wasn’t just a big deal for me, was it? He was about to
succeed his parents as ruler of La Oscurità. He was stepping up to an enormous responsibility, something he’d probably been preparing
for all his life. In a way, I was lucky. I was a newcomer to this
world, and everyone knew it. No one would expect me to be very
good at my new life right out the gate. I would be given time to
learn, time to find my footing. But Cryder would have all these eyes watching every move he made.
I squeezed his hand back. For the first time in our entire
relationship, I felt like an equal partner. I was afraid, yes, but so was he. I could feel that we were drawing strength from each other.
That was kind of amazing.
He stepped forward, bringing me along with him, and lifted a
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hand to wave at his congregated people.
I waved too, thinking of photos I’d seen of royal couples
together and feeling a little bit foolish. I wasn’t a real queen. It felt strange to be acting like one.
Except that, actually, I was a real queen, wasn’t I? Just a
couple of days ago, I’d been graduating from high school. Today I
was greeting the town of La Oscurità as their new ruler.
It didn’t feel like it could be real life. But it was, and the
sooner I got my head around that fact, the happier we’d all be.
“Welcome, Cryder!” Samuele said. “And welcome, Rena!”
There was a moment of silence in which you could have
heard a pin drop. My heart seemed to be pounding in my ears.
Then a roar of applause broke over us like a wave. The
vampires gathered in the courtyard around us were smiling and
cheering, some of them even stamping their feet eagerly on the
ground. Cryder wrapped his arm around me. “They approve,” he said
quietly into my ear. “We pass the first test.”
I laughed with nervous relief.
But this had just been the beginning. I didn’t know what lay
ahead for me, but I was fairly confident that gaining the approval of the vampires clustered here had been the easy part.
Now the real trials would begin.
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Chapter Four
We made our way into the castle, Cryder’s parents leading
the way, the four of us following after. I did my best not to shrink back into Cryder’s arms, to look as though I was comfortable and
confident and ready to face whatever was waiting for me inside, but
the truth was that I was deeply shaken by what had just happened
out in the courtyard
At least I got their approval, I reminded myself. It could
have been much worse. What if they’d all just stood there staring
stone faced at me and Cryder? What if they’d refused to approve our
union, or refused to accept me as queen? What would have
happened then? I supposed I would have been put on a plane right
back home. Which would mean heading back into danger. Back to a
place where rogue vampires like Bristol could find me and hurt me.
I wouldn’t have been able to go back to Cecile’s mother. Not
after what had happened to Cecile herself. I wouldn’t be able to
stand it if anyone else was hurt because of me, because of what I
was. If the vampires hadn’t wanted me, I would have had to go on
the run by myself. And I knew I wouldn’t have been able to fend off
any attackers for very long. I wasn’t a fighter. I didn’t have those skills. Stop worrying about it, I told myself firmly. I had been approved. I had been accepted. I was here now, and I was to be
allowed to stay, and that meant I didn’t have to think any more about where I would go if I couldn’t be here.
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It was just that everything was happening so fast.
A gasp from Cecile brought me back to the present. We were
standing in a vast open foyer with a marble floor and high columns
all the way around the perimeter. It must have been at least three
stories high, to judge by the sweeping stone staircase that led up
before forking in two divergent directions.
“This is beautiful,” Cecile breathed.
She was right. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everything in the
foyer seemed to sparkle when the light from outside caught it. Was
it all made of marble? It seemed as though it might be.
“Are we really going to live here?” Cecile asked.
“Not right here in the foyer,” Samuele laughed warmly.
“You’ll have living quarters. But y
es, you’ll be residing in the
palace, of course. This is where royalty lives.”
“Even me, though?” Cecile asked. “I’m not royalty. I’m just
a high school student.”
“You graduated,” I reminded her. It seemed like something
from another life. In a very real way, I guess it was.
“Okay, I graduated,” she agreed. “That doesn’t make me
royalty.”
“Drake is royalty,” Cryder said, smiling at her. “He’s a part
of my family.”
“But again, what does that make me?” Cecile asked. “I’m
just dating him. Are you sure I belong here?”
“The palace is the safest place in La Oscurità,” Giorgia said.
“Don’t you want to live here with us?”
“Of course, I do! I just...it all seems too good to be true. A
few months ago, I was taking the SATs and applying to state
schools, and now this?”
“Why don’t we show you around the place,” Giorgia
suggested. “Perhaps it will begin to feel a bit more like home if you see a little more of it.”
“A tour is a wonderful idea,” Cryder agreed. His arm rested
on my shoulders, securing me to his side. “Shall we begin in the
throne room?”
The throne room! I supposed I had known there must be a
throne room—this was a palace, after all, and Giorgia and Samuele
were the king and queen—but to actually see it would make the
whole thing real in a way it hadn’t been so far.
Fight for Blood
Samuele led the way through the foyer to a huge set of
double doors. They were bigger than any doors I’d ever seen
before—they seemed to stretch for miles above my head. I was sure
they’d be too heavy to open, but Samuele managed them with
apparent ease.
This time I was the one who gasped.
The throne room was a masterpiece. It was surrounded with
stained glass, and the floor was made of tiny golden tiles. At the
head of the room stood a raised dais, on which three thrones rested.
The two in the center belonged to the king and queen, I was certain, but there was a smaller, slightly less ornate one off to one side. What was that for?
It’s Cryder’s, I answered my own question. That’s Cryder’s throne. I pictured the three of them sitting there and felt slightly shivery. This was the royal family of La Oscurità. The royal family
of the vampire world. My new world.
Fight for Blood (Blood Origins Book 2) Page 3
