“Stewards are almost human, well most definitely more human than Vampires. They have their own government and social structure that governs themselves and the Fare. Their primary objective in life is to watch over Vampires and Fare alike. It's not exactly a servant race, being a Steward is an honorable title.”
There was one central Steward and Fare community called the Coetus Essentialis. However there were few who were allowed to live freely in the human word due to special circumstances. Fare and Stewards seldom inter-married, but every once in a while there would be a child born of this rare union and the results were varied.
Solomon’s parents were a mixed couple, one a human descendant of a Vampire and the other a Steward. He was stronger and more intelligent than the others as well as more loyal and territorial. But, not all of his siblings were so lucky. He had an older sister who went insane once she reached puberty and had to be institutionalized. Solomon’s parents had their hearts broken three more times by stillbirths and deformities. So, when he was born, Solomon was doted on like a Prince.
On his 5th birthday, his intelligence and physical attributes earned the attention of the Royals and he was quickly promised to Efia upon completion of his training and education. He came to her when he was 18 years old and had been loyal to her ever since. Chloe wasn’t sure how old Solomon was, exactly, but she knew that he had helped raise Zander and Jordan.
Being in charge of the St. Clair compound and family security, Solomon had selected all of the Stewards who patrolled and secured the grounds. Even the housekeeping staff were proud Stewards.
More than simple servants, all of the Stewards were treated liked trusted members of the family. At least that is how Efia treated hers. As a result, Solomon was constantly being sent gifts from Steward parents in hopes that their children would be selected to serve the St. Clair Vampires.
Although it sounded similar to indentured servitude, Chloe assured me that a Steward could leave the household at any time. It was a disgrace, however, for him or her to be asked to leave, but they were free citizens in the Vampire world.
Since my DNA was confirmed, Solomon had been researching the Steward families for new prospects. He would need to recruit at least two more if I was going to stay at the compound and possibly four if I intended to live elsewhere. Likewise, if I chose to be Embraced and lived through it, I would need to select two Fare of my own.
“It isn’t like you're going to go to the supermarket and pick out a Thanksgiving turkey,” Chloe shook her head when I voiced my dismay. “It's a very organized and dignified process.”
“So, they just line up for a taste test? That’s gross.”
“No, silly. You’ll see.”
Chloe leaned forward and poured herself a cup of tea. She lifted a silver lid off of a platter and held up a small glass of red liquid that looked suspiciously like blood. Looking directly into my eyes, she emptied exactly half of the contents into her cup and set it down. Slowly and deliberately, she lifted the cup to her lips and drank, never breaking eye contact with me.
“Please don’t tell me that was…you know.”
“Look, we are the human descendants of a very powerful Vampire Queen. Until we are Embraced, we are vulnerable to kidnapping, assassination and worse. I've been ingesting blood since I was born and it has helped me to be less vulnerable.”
Chloe’s matter-of-fact attitude made it equally easy and difficult to comprehend what she had just said. It was true that she was far more intelligent than any 15 year old I had ever met. And, that stunt in the reception hall with the air was amazing. But, I was still waiting to be woken up and told that this was all a dream and simply a result of my vivid imagination.
“You should try some. This is from Efia. It will help you with your training, and you’ll need it. Grigor's going to keep sending people after you and you’re gonna need to know how to defend yourself. Violeta's been assigned to be your trainer. She's to be Zander’s mate and she is angry that he has put off their ceremony until we found you.”
“So, do you think she’s gonna take it out on me in training?”
“I am absolutely positive that she is!”
“Great!”
Chloe laughed and poured my tea in the remaining cup. She hesitated with the small container of blood before looking at me for approval. I sat there for a long time thinking about what I was about to do. Becoming a Vampire and drinking blood were not things on my to-do list for the year and yet, there I was. If I were dreaming, then drinking the blood-laced tea would mean nothing. If this was real, however, then my life was going to be changing no matter what I drank. I had to trust someone and Chloe was just as good a candidate as anyone else.
She was still patiently watching me as I ran through all of the different scenarios available. Suddenly, she reached over and pinched my arm so hard that it almost brought tears to my eyes.
“What the…?”
“You’re not dreaming, Chey. This is real! But you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”
I rubbed my arm several times in order to get rid of the sting. If I had been dreaming that pinch would have definitely woke me up. My confusion was being replaced with resolve. The woman who gave me life was a prisoner of an evil Vampire, the woman who raised me was prepared to sell me to the highest bidder and the women who called me granddaughter were offering me a home and immortality. I guess my choice was made. I nodded for Chloe to pour the blood into my tea and I drank.
Chapter 9
Violeta was a drop dead gorgeous brunette about three inches shorter than me who looked like a scary female ninja. Her bobbed hairstyle and dark brown eyes added to her lethal appearance. Picture Lucy Liu with an attitude and you got Violeta! She smiled as she circled me like a predator circles its prey. This was supposed to be the assessment portion of training. We had to see just how much I needed to learn based on how much I currently knew. I had tried to tell her that I knew very little about fighting or self-defense, but she insisted on having a sparring match to be certain.
Chloe’s words came to my mind when Violeta pounced on me. She hated me and her hands were around my throat. She didn’t squeeze, per se, but she made it clear that she could rip my head off at my shoulders if she wanted to.
“Cheyenne, you didn’t even try to defend yourself.”
“You moved too fast. I didn’t even see you coming.”
“Have you been drinking blood? It will help with your reflexes.”
“Yeah. A little bit.”
“Well, drink more!”
Violeta spent the next three hours chasing me around the rooftop gym. The sun was beating down on the glass ceiling and had turned the room into a sauna. I'd asked if we could open a window, but she said no. She claimed that the heat and the high altitude would help my training but I was certain that she was just trying to kill me.
Thankfully, Zander came into the gym right as I was about to die from dehydration. He carried two towels and a tray full of refreshments. Violeta walked over to the table, leaving me flat on the floor gasping for breath. I watched as Zander kissed her sweetly on the top of the head before he walked over and offered me his hand. His smile was just as amazing as Jordan’s and I was instantly put at ease by his presence.
“So, how is the training going?”
“Your girlfriend is trying to kill me,” I whispered.
Zander let out the loudest laugh that I had heard in a long time. If not for the fact that I was dead serious, I would have joined him. I glanced over at Violeta to see that she had an evil smirk on her face. If she wasn’t trying to kill me then she was trying to get as close as possible. Zander continued to laugh as he helped me to the table and poured me a drink. I knew that he had laced my orange juice with blood because I could taste a little bit of iron in it.
I'd been given the blood of a few of my Vampire family members but Efia’s was given more often. It had become easy to tell the difference between them just by taste alone, but when I was give
n blood from Abraham or Israel I got massive headaches. Efia said it was because their blood was more potent than the others. So far, only Zander and Jordan had been able to ingest their blood without headaches and nausea. But I definitely knew that I was drinking orange juice ala Amelia.
Amelia was so proud of Chloe and me that she was constantly supplying us with blood. She wanted to insure that we had all of the advantages that she could afford us. She even showed up this morning to wish me luck with my training session with Violeta. I just wish she had told her that I was a newbie and to take it easy on me.
For three hours each morning and evening, Violeta put me through a vigorous training session. She relentlessly stalked me through the gardens, attacking me with an eagerness that was just plain wrong. I knew that I was getting stronger, but she still over powered my every effort to fight her off. She constantly told me to use my Elemental powers on her even though I didn’t know how. Since she didn’t have the same attribute she wasn’t able to tell me how, so she decided to try to scare it out of me. And Violeta was scary!
One afternoon, when I was sure that I was going to die in training, Violeta came at me with that feline grace of hers. She was so quick and elegant that I thought, “At least my death will be pretty”. And then, in the same moment I thought it unfair that I was so close to meeting my real mom that I couldn’t let anything happen to me. I was getting stronger everyday, I thought, at the exact moment that Violeta jumped into the air. I looked up at her and inhaled quickly causing her to stop midair. Confusion flashed on her face in slow motion until it was replaced with pride. I had never seen that look from her and I wanted to bask in its warmth. I smiled up at her and, at the same time, exhaled…forgetting to move out of her way.
Violeta’s feet slammed into me and she sat on my chest, holding me down until I caught my breath. Through my eyelashes I could see concern on her face and decided to lie there a bit longer, but my breathing calmed and she saw through my rouse.
“Get up, you brat”, she growled. But I thought I saw a hint of a smile.
By the end of our third week of training, she switched to cardio-conditioning in which I was supposed to run 10 miles a day in order to get ready for the next set of skills. In the middle of my first 10 mile run, Tabitha joined me near the edge of the property. I had known that someone was following me but had seen several Stewards hanging around and thought it was one of them. When she reached my side, she slowed to match my pace and smiled up at me. I knew she was making every effort to mend the bridge between us and get us back to where we had been. Even though I knew that she was forced to keep secrets from me, it didn’t change my feeling of betrayal. Something inside of me thought that she should have told me the truth. But, regardless of all of her deception, she was still my best friend and I missed hanging out with her.
We finished the 10 mile loop with a sprint to the end. Tabitha beat me, of course, without even a hint of breathlessness, and was pouring me a glass of water when I finally reached the back deck. The Stewards must have set a table outside so that we could have breakfast and I was grateful for the variety of fruits and muffins. Veronica, Tabitha’s Fare, was also waiting for us near the table in case Tabitha needed more sustenance than fruit.
I loved having Veronica around. She knew several different languages and was funnier than all-get-out. In the few hours that I was not training or sleeping, Veronica would join me and Chloe in my rooms to help educate me on the ways of my Vampire family. There was a lot of history and protocol that I needed to be aware of. Also, as the descendant of a Vampire Queen, I had to consider everything I said and did as a reflection on the family as a whole. It was all so overwhelming that I nearly asked if I could take the blue pill and go back into the Matrix where I belonged. But, ironically, I continued to take the red pill and live in my new reality.
One afternoon, I walked into my rooms to rest in between Violeta’s intervals from hell to find Veronica and Chloe explaining the red and blue pill joke to Efia. When they were finished, Efia threw her head back and laughed with such unabashed amusement that we all joined in. Veronica stood to leave, received hugs from Efia and Chloe, and gave me her wonderfully crooked smile and a pat on the shoulder in an act of solidarity. I only hoped that my Fare would be as personable as Tabitha’s.
Efia was still recovering from her laughter when I reached the couch. She wiped at the tears that were running down her face and fought to catch her breath. These moments of pure joy were so rare that I didn’t want to do anything to ruin it, so I stood silently while she composed herself. Chloe had poured me a glass of juice that I was sure was spiked with Efia’s blood and I drank it greedily. My reflexes had gotten a lot better, but Violeta had been a Vampire for a long time and she was always just a tad bit quicker.
Earlier that week, just when I thought that I was gaining ground in our training, Violeta made it blatantly clear that I'd never had a chance at besting her. She told me that she allowed me to get close in order to keep me encouraged. I supposed she thought that I was encouraged enough to know that I would only be able to beat her after my Embrace and possibly not even then. She prided herself in being the best warrior that Efia had and I was going to learn from her even if it killed me. And it just might!
I finished my drink just as Efia finished her last bout of laughter. She kept mumbling to herself about the blue pill as she straightened her dress and reached for her glass of water. Every time I was in her presence I was speechless. She was so beautiful and regal that I could hardly believe that she was real, let alone a relative of mine. She sipped her water with the elegance of a woman who had lived during a time when manners and etiquette meant everything.
“Come and sit with me,” Efia said as she patted the couch next to her. “You look like you could use some refreshments.”
“I could use about a week’s worth of sleep,” I said, slowly lowering myself to sit.
My body was so sore from the beating that Violeta had given me that I was sure I wouldn’t be able to stand again without assistance. Efia patted my knee and handed me a bowl of fruit. She ran her fingers through my tangled locs and began to gently separate them from one another. This was the third or fourth time she had groomed me in this way. I figured out that the women in my family felt an affinity to each other through grooming hair. Chloe often sat behind me while I studied and arranged my locs into different elaborate styles. I felt myself relax and started to enjoy the love I was being shown. I emptied the bowl of fruit and placed it into Chloe’s outstretched hand before I leaned back into Efia’s hug.
“Did you know that Violeta is trying to kill me?”
“She is not,” Efia laughed. “She is simply following my orders and preparing you as thoroughly and quickly as possible.”
“But she's going overboard. She hates me, I know it.”
“She does not. Violeta was one of the people responsible for tracking you down after Ms. Redding adopted you. She has wanted nothing more than to reunite you with your family.”
“No, she really hates me!”
“Violeta is the best that I have. She has…experience in life-threatening situations. Truly, she is far better than many that the other families have at their disposal. It is a true gift, having her choose us as her family. She had many other suitors, and yet she chose Zander.”
“Of course she chose me,” Zander was leaning on the door jam and smiling. He must have been standing there for quite some time because he looked at me with a mixture of amusement and pity. He walked over to my side and began to massage the knot out of my shoulder as he continued to speak with Efia about the different weapons that I should be trained on next. As the knot began to melt from my body I heard Zander mention fencing and knife throwing and wondered how in the world I was going to master any of those things in the next few weeks.
I had been training with Violeta for the last two months and didn’t feel like I could do any more. In the morning we would do cardio which usually involved some sort of
obstacle course from hell. Violeta was always jumping out of secret hiding places or throwing sharp objects toward me at neck breaking speeds. It was near impossible to run 10 miles and dodge flaming knives at the same time.
“Definitely fencing. She will start tomorrow.” Efia began to rise.
“Tomorrow? Please, Efia, I need a day off.”
“You can have a day when Violeta tells me you can.”
And with that, she was gone.
Chapter 10
Zander sat in Efia’s vacant spot and reached for some fruit. Chloe stood up and sat so close to him that she might as well have been sitting in his lap. He hugged her in the same way that he did every time he saw her. It was clear to see that she worshipped him and he adored her. I was always jealous when I was around the two of them and right now was no different. I looked the other way when I felt the sting of unshed tears in my eyes.
“So, Chey, Violeta tells me that you are doing great.”
I looked at Zander to see if he was teasing me but he wasn’t. Chloe just shrugged her shoulders and handed him another piece of fruit to eat.
“She IS trying to kill me.”
“On the contrary, she is trying to keep you from getting killed. Grigor and his crew are much more brutal than Violeta and they won’t hold back.”
“Hold back? Is that what she calls it? Today she threw a hatchet at my head! And it was on fire!”
Zander laughed so hard that he started to choke on the food in his mouth. He continued to laugh as he moved Chloe out of his reach and threw a succession of punches at my head. Instinct, fear and self-preservation kicked in and I was able to block each and every one. I rolled off of the couch, came up in a crouched position and shook my head to clear my vision. Zander was on his feet before I knew it. He was coming at me with round-house kicks and caw magraw moves while I blocked and outmaneuvered him. He was moving so fast that I could barely see him except for the blur of movement getting continually closer to my body.
Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) Page 9
