She hugged me to her and I would’ve stayed like that until she pushed me away, even though I had a feeling she never would. My dad came up behind me and hugged me too. So did Troy and Cindy and others. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it felt like everyone.
Finally the troll leader cleared his throat. “It’s time, your highness.”
We all untangled ourselves from the big group hug and I looked up. It was completely dark now and the moon shone full and bright in the night sky.
Fire appeared in my mom’s hand. “In love and in fondest memories, we return your body to the ash from whence it came.” She threw the fire onto the pyre. My father did the same. An orb of fire appeared in my hand without me even trying and I tossed it into the pyre as well.
When everyone had taken their turn adding to the fire, enormous flames grew and licked at my grandmother’s body, consuming her. In moments, she turned to ash, which then turned to small red rubies that floated out of the room and up into the night sky.
I watched until every last one had ascended. “Good-bye, Grandmother.”
Sixteen
One by one the others left. I listened as my mom and dad thanked those who’d come. Sabrina still sat on my shoulder, crying, sniffling, and blowing her nose.
I hugged Professor Pops, my dad’s brothers, Kenmei, and the others, until the only people left were my mom and dad, Cindy and her advisor, and Troy.
He stood beside me and took my hand. “You doing all right?” he whispered in my ear.
I wasn’t, but I nodded. “Fine. Thanks for coming. It means a lot to have you here.”
“Hey.” Troy turned me to face him. His eyes were intense, and searched mine. “I’ll see you soon. Hang in there.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “By the way, I like the diamond addition.” He winked, squeezed my hands, and kissed my cheek.
“Thanks,” I said again, lamely.
He went to the entrance where I noticed Professor Pops still waited for him. They left together.
Cindy said good-bye next, promising to take me shopping soon. I smiled at that. It was one of the reasons I loved her so much. Even with all our worries about the darkness she wanted to make me smile.
Sabrina left reluctantly after I told her to go, that I needed some time alone with my mom and dad.
When it was just the three of us, we held each other a moment. “Love you, my queen,” my dad said sweetly, wrapping an arm around her.
She let go of me and pressed herself fully against him, stifling her sobs against his neck.
He held her close, pressing his cheek against the top of her head and letting her cry. My heart broke at seeing them like that, so sad, yet still so committed to each other.
My fault, my mind whispered.
Someone coughed behind me. I guessed it would be Laeddin, that he’d come to offer his condolences. Upon turning, I saw that it was Christopher. At the sight of him my mouth watered, his blood calling out.
“I know you asked me not to come, but I felt I would be remiss if I didn’t offer my sympathies for the loss of your mother.”
My dad’s head lifted and his features turned furious. “Leave. Now. You’re not welcome here. This is a private matter.”
Christopher’s shoulders fell. He looked so sad. I wanted to reach out and comfort him. In some ways I understood his feelings. He’d betrayed those he cared for out of selfishness. As had I.
He glanced at me.
I gave him a small smile.
“I’ll leave as soon as Jasmine asks me to go,” he sad gruffly.
I sucked in my breath. Was he seriously going to go against my dad? That seemed dangerous.
My dad let go of my mom. “I won’t ask you again, Hunter.” His strange eyes flashed heatedly.
I stepped between them, facing Christopher. “Thanks for coming, but I think you should go.” I told him with my eyes how urgent it was he leave, but he just smiled.
“I’ll go as soon as you tell your parents the truth about us,” he said smugly, crossing his arms.
I nearly died of embarrassment. “Why are you doing this?” I asked, shocked.
My mom and dad were suddenly on either side of me.
“What’s he talking about?” my dad asked, glancing from me to Christopher.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
“How do you think she got her vampire abilities back after Maleficent—Sharra—whatever we’re calling her these days, took her wings?”
My mom gave me an incredulous look. “You didn’t!”
“How dare you?” My dad was on Christopher in seconds and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. “She’s a child. My child. I told you once that I would kill you if you ever gave me a reason. The time has come. Touching my daughter is more than reason enough.”
Energy seemed to pulse from my dad and into Christopher.
The Hunter’s arrogant face became scared and his face turned gray, the color of ash. I hadn’t believed it was possible, but whatever power my dad possessed, it was killing Christopher.
“Dad. Stop!” I shoved against his shoulder. Somehow I was stronger than I realized and my dad sailed across the room, until he smacked against the wall. “Sorry.” I went to him and stuck out my hand to help him up. “Sorry.”
My dad shook his head. “What’s gotten into you?” He got up without my help. “You’re drinking from him?” He pointed at Christopher.
I glanced at the Hunter and saw he was on his hands and knees, panting.
“He betrayed your mom, tried to kill her. He worked for Sharra, the same evil vampire who killed your grandmother. How could you?” He shook his head. “I’m beyond disappointed.”
That was the worst. My dad’s disappointment. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just…” What excuse could I give him? I didn’t have one.
“Jasmine, there’s a reason we never allowed you to drink Christopher’s blood,” my mom began. But she was unable to finish.
Seventeen
“Ahhhhh, it’s good to be here once again.” Maleficent appeared.
My dad didn’t hesitate, but went after her, grabbing her by the throat. He was so quick, he shocked all of us.
“I had a feeling you’d show up.” His fingers dug into her neck as he forced her to her knees. “You’ll pay for the pain you’ve caused and when I finish with you, you’ll be completely gone from this Earth forevermore.”
Maleficent blinked several times and then touched my dad with the tip of the staff she carried.
His body became stiff, like he’d been frozen. Maleficent pulled from his grasp. “Stupid boy!”
“Dad!” I shouted, running to him. Maleficent sent a black current at me. It struck and I fell to the ground.
“That was too easy,” she cackled.
“How dare you lay your hands—”
Before she could say more my mom had Maleficent’s neck in her mouth, her fangs biting down.
Maleficent’s eyes became wide with momentary fear, but she recovered when she touched my mom with her staff and it rendered my mom immobile.
Christopher lunged at her as well, but she held up her hand. “If you don’t stop right there, I’ll kill you without thinking twice.” She glanced at me and then continued speaking. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
Christopher shook his head. “Very good. Run along then, Hunter.”
He stalked from the room, his footsteps echoing off the floor and my heart fell. He was still a coward. Even after everything that’d happened.
Maleficent laughed as she walked over to my dad and picked him and my mom up like they were nothing more than rag dolls. How could she do that? Why? What made her so powerful?
You gave her your wings and your magic. It’s your fault.
“No,” I called out. “Don’t… hurt them.”
She came over. “You think I’m going to make them Akuma like the others, but I’m not. Oh, no. What they’re going to get is so much worse.”
I trie
d to sit up, to raise my hand, and make the swords appear, but they wouldn’t come. Whatever Maleficent had done, it’d made it so I couldn’t move.
“Toodles, Jasmine. Thanks for the wings. They’re amazing, better than mine ever were,” she said and disappeared, taking my parents with her.
Eighteen
I lay on the floor, wishing I could cry, but still paralyzed by whatever Maleficent had done to make it happen.
It felt like hours or longer, but it was just minutes before Christopher returned.
“Get. Away. From. Me.” The words came out choppy, but I heard them leave my mouth.
“Look, I’m sorry I acted like a coward, but how can I help you if I’m dead?” He ripped open a vein in his wrist and let the blood drip into my mouth.
I tried to move. I didn’t want his damned blood, but some of it went down my throat and sadly it helped. The paralysis began to subside and I grabbed his hand, pulling his wrist further into my mouth, drinking deeply until I no longer felt the effects of whatever Maleficent did to me.
Once again in control of my faculties, I pushed him away and scooted back, smacking against something. I looked up and saw Laeddin.
His presence suddenly made me angry, like I-couldn’t-contain-myself furious. I jumped up and punched him in the face.
He just stood there.
“How could you? Why weren’t you here? You should’ve been here.” I hit him again. “You could’ve saved them.” I kept pounding on his chest, but no longer meaning it.
“I had a feeling something might happen and I couldn’t let you use your final wish.”
“Why? If it could’ve stopped Maleficent, then why?”
“Because.” He wrapped me in a bear hug.
“Because why? Tell me, damn you.” I hit him harder and harder and harder.
“Princess,” he grabbed my wrists. “You know the rules. I can’t kill anyone and you aren’t ready, not even close.”
All the air seemed to go out of me. There was no fight left. “Fine, then find out where the next piece of the crown is so we can go get it.”
“I already have. It’s in the gargoyle realm.”
That stopped me cold. “There’s a realm filled with gargoyles?”
“Yes.” He let go of me. “I’ll take you there as soon as you’re ready.”
“I’m going too,” Christopher said.
I’d forgotten he was still there.
“No, Hunter, you’re not. The further you stay from her the better we’ll all be.”
Christopher roared in frustration. “Stop keeping me from her. She’s mine. She belongs with me and only me.” He sounded like a child and I felt sorry for him.
“Chris,” I said, going over to him.
He ran his hands through his hair. “You don’t understand. I have to stay near you. We belong together.”
“Then explain it. Why is it so important that we stay together?”
He shook his head and I noticed tears in his eyes. “I can’t, not with the genie is still around.”
“Well I’m not going anywhere,” Laeddin said.
Christopher glared at the genie like he wanted to kill him with his stare. “Take this.” He yanked a carved bear from his wrist and placed it in my hand. “Please, don’t ask questions, just do me this small favor.”
I nodded. It was the least I could do. “Sure, where did you get it?” I knew the answer because I’d seen it in his memories, but I wanted to see if he’d tell me the truth.
Christopher tied the soft leather around my wrist. “I made it. Before I became a Hunter I enjoyed making things like this.” Once it was secure, he sighed. “Thank you.”
“Your wel—”
With a twinkle he vanished.
I studied the weathered wooden bear. A deep reddish brown stained parts of it and I knew it was blood. But whose, I wondered.
You’ll get him killed too, I thought and then quickly pushed it away.
Laeddin came up behind me. “You aren’t going to keep that thing on, are you?”
“I am,” I said, acidly. “You got a problem with that?”
“No.” He sighed heavily. “Let’s go.”
“To the gargoyle realm?” I asked as he took me in his arms. His exotic scent filled the air around me.
“That’s right.”
Nineteen
47 Days Until Total Darkness
When I was a young girl, I had no patience. I wanted to get where I was going fast. I ate as quickly as possible and did my chores like I was in a race against time. There was no in between. I flew from one adventure to the next without bothering with anything else. Now we were literally in a race against time, and I felt motionless. Frozen like a snowflake on frosted glass. Back in Sharra I’d had my magic and my wings. I’d had everything even though I’d been too senseless to realize it. Now, because of a reckless wish I had neither, and my enemy had both. For a time, I lost my vampire abilities too and became exactly what I’d wished—a normal human.
And I’d hated every second of it.
Even though it had been a hard lesson to learn, I understood I didn’t really want normality, but instead wanted to be me, whatever that meant. Thanks to the Hunter Christopher and his blood, I’d regained my vampire abilities, including my lust for blood. But I still didn’t have my wings or my magic. Maybe I never would. Maleficent had them and she was using them to destroy the world. She also had my mom and dad, I hoped. Laeddin believed she wouldn’t kill them while she might still use them against me. I longed to imagine he was right even as I tried not to think about what she might be doing with them or worse, to them.
It was a harsh reality, living with the consequences of my childish choices. Knowing that all that was wrong with the realms—the Akuma, the darkness, the deaths of so many innocent lives, and the taking of my parents—was my fault. It was a pain living in my chest like a twisted weed. It festered, producing jagged thorns and overripe fruit. I hadn’t killed Abby, Camden, or my grandmother with my own hand, but I might as well have. I was to blame. Attending Ariel’s funeral had been one of the most difficult moments in my life, but at least I still had them. Moments. Those who’d died didn’t have that luxury and the ache of that knowledge rested heavily in my bones.
The Akuma were popping up everywhere. Maleficent created them by planting some of her darkness into an already wicked heart. Their spirits were overcome by the evil and they became demon servants to the malevolent mistress. Maleficent. Her name made me shudder.
The only way I could possibly make amends was to destroy her. And that meant collecting all five pieces of a fairy crown created thousands of years ago. As a whole, the crown was believed to have untold power. But five assassins had split the crown and hidden the pieces. Laeddin believed that if I restored it, I could destroy Maleficent, return light to the world, and reverse the effects of the pestilence, as well as get my wings and magic back. That was my hope too and I clung to it with every fiber of my being.
Which was why Laeddin and I had come to the land of gargoyles, a stark countryside with little to offer in terms of color, but instead a kaleidoscope of various shades of somber. Even the clouds were overcast in gloominess. The sky gave no indication whether there was a sun or a moon.
No vegetation grew. Underfoot, there was nothing but gray rock reminiscent of gravel. My shoulders sagged as I understood the darkness had touched this realm too. It was strange but I almost felt it, like the weight of a thousand mists, soaking into my skin, determined to claim me as one of its own.
I stepped from Laeddin’s grasp. “Are we close?” I was still upset with him for abandoning me when Maleficent killed my grandmother. He could’ve saved her. I could’ve used my last wish and he could’ve saved her. Instead he’d ignored my cries. Doing so seemed to go against the genie/master codebook, if there were such a thing. He’d told me more than once that I was his master until I completed my three wishes. Yet my grandmother had still died. And at the hands of a murderous, evil
, wicked queen. The thought burned me up inside.
I took a deep breath knowing I needed to put those feelings aside and focus on my first priority, which was finding another piece of the crown.
“I have an idea where it is.” Laeddin hiked a short distance to the edge of the ridge.
“Where’s that?” I pushed down a frustrated curse and hiked over to him. We stood on the top of a vast mountain. The crisp air whipped thin around us, nearly empty of oxygen. Had I still been human I would’ve had difficulty breathing at such a high altitude.
“Down there, probably within or below the palace.”
I followed his gaze as I stroked the bear bracelet encircling my wrist. Christopher had it given to me. For some reason it’d become my new favorite item of jewelry, not that I’d worn any before. But it brought me comfort to play with the bear charm. My eyes drifted down into an expansive city surrounded on three sides by mountains while the fourth opened to the sea. Homes made of rock and sand lined the streets, standing in rows like soldiers waiting for battle. Two thirds of the way toward the castle was a large wall with a gate. Two gargoyle sentries with matching brown wings stood guard on either side of it. The second rung of houses was similar to the first, though they were much bigger and many had colorful flags sticking out from their roofs. Some few houses even had roofs made of different colors. Another, much smaller rock wall with a gate guarded by two gargoyles with matching maroon wings separated those houses from the inner courtyard and the castle. I found it strange that creatures born with the ability to fly would have need of walls, but I guessed it was there merely as a reminder of the separation between classes. It seemed no matter which realm I came to there would always be the wealthy and the poor, the aristocrats and the commoners. Even Sharra had an ordering system, though my mother the vampire queen was much more democratic.
Vampire Nights (Vampire Wishes Book 3) Page 6
