I struggled to remember my training and the different strategies that I had learned over the past weeks. One thing that Violeta was trying to get me to learn was to control my Elemental powers. This was the hardest part of the training because she didn’t understand my power anymore that I did. All that either of us knew was that it was brought on by my emotions.
With that in mind, I tried to summon any emotion other than an annoyed aggravation at being attacked by my brother. I couldn’t believe that he was really kicking at me. If I was too slow he would actually make contact and the result would be painful. He should know better than to play these types of games with his young human sister. I was becoming angry at the thought of getting hurt and I stared straight at him and gave a mental push. It's hard to explain how I did it, but I had begun to see the part of my brain that controlled my attribute. Once I could see it, I could use it..
Immediately Zander’s eyes widened and his movements slowed. It was like he was caught in Jello. I had succeeded. He smiled when he realized what I had done and stopped trying to move, allowing his body to slowly come to rest on the floor just inches from me. After a few moments of basking in the glow of my accomplishment, I freed him from my version of suspended animation.
“Well done, Sis.”
Zander extended his hand to help me up and walked me back over to the couch. He put his arm around my shoulder and squeezed before planting a brother kiss on the top of my head. He was smiling from ear to ear when I looked up at him and I could see that he was sweating from exertion. He had not given me a break during our little battle. He had actually come at me full force and I had held him off. He looked at me like a proud father looked at his child.
“The key to your powers is to sustain them for long periods of time without causing yourself harm. Since it seems that only you and Chloe possess the ability to manipulate air that drastically, it has been hard for the rest of us to determine exactly how to teach it to you.”
“Can you do it at all?”
“I can manipulate enough air to make my features indiscernible.”
“You mean blurry?”
I started running through the random blurry images that I had seen last summer and on the first day of school. I looked from Chloe to Zander and saw that they both had guilty looks on their faces. Zander simply shrugged but Chloe looked downright panicked.
“I guess you could say blurry,” Zander said.
“So, did you ever come to see me?” I made sure that I only looked at Zander even though the question was clearly directed at both of them.
“Yes. Once Tabitha confirmed who you were I couldn’t help myself. We have been looking for you for a very long time.”
I looked over at Chloe and she nodded her head slightly. Now I had identified two of the three blurry figures that had been stalking me in New Mexico. I wondered who else was able to blur their features and was about to ask when Tabitha and Solomon walked in. Solomon was carrying a satchel so large that he was struggling under its weight.
“What’s in the bag, Sol?” Chloe asked, grateful for the chance to change the focus of the conversation.
“Weaponry. We need to be ready for our attack on Grigor’s compound.”
Carefully placing the bag on the coffee table, Solomon unzipped and unloaded its contents. From all the talk about battling Grigor and his clan, I expected to see grenades and torpedo launchers. Instead, there were an assortment of swords, knives and hatchets. Each one was solid silver and sharp enough to cut stone. I ran a finger down the blade of the sword closest to me and had to fight back a feeling of dread. There was no way that I would be able to handle this in a fight.
The reality of my new life was sitting on my coffee table...sharp and lethal, and I would be expected to handle each of them with the finesse of a seasoned vet. Once Embraced, my senses would sharpen. I had been reading up on all of the different abilities that I would have, all of them seeming supernatural until I remembered that every other Vampire had them as well. My limited free time had been spent reading as many Vampire books as possible to try to find some way to relate to what was happening to me. Starting with the most popular books then the older, more historical accounts of Vampire life, I had built a comprehensive list of things to expect.
There were times I wished for the simple romantic Vampire story where boy meets girl and they live happily ever after. But it appeared that my life was going to be a cross between Blade and Vlad the Impaler. So, I continued to look at the lethal weapons on the table and kissed my dreams of a Vampiric romance good-bye.
Vampires promoted their own myths about sunlight, garlic and Holy places. They encouraged the false modern characteristics that had become stereotypical. This was by far one of the best ways to hide their existence. Aside from long life and the need for blood, most of the stories about Vampires that I grew to believe were false.
The attributes that I would inherit with the Embrace were plentiful. I had been learning to control my power over air but it was difficult since I had never thought it possible. Chloe started me on simple tasks first. She would light a candle and have me blow it out by causing the air to move like wind and then she would have me remove the air from the space altogether. Making wind was as simple to me as blowing out a lungful of air. Removing air was trickier.
I left the others sorting through Solomon's bag of goodies and relaxed my sore body in a well deserved tub. I would have gladly slept in the bathroom if the bath water hadn't turned to ice, causing my teeth to chatter. Chloe had started a fire in the main suite, and I haphazardly climbed into bed in my favorite pair of pajamas.
The next morning I met Violeta on the rooftop terrace to begin my fencing training. I felt silly in the complete fencing outfit while she wore a cute sports bra with matching yoga pants. It was clear that she had no fear of being injured on the first day of class.
We went through the basics of the sport for the first few hours and I realized why Violeta was dressed as she was. There was no contact whatsoever while I learned how to hold the sword properly. She tied one end of a rope around my waist and the other to a 45 lb weight and forced me to advance until I was soaking wet with sweat.
By lunch the only thing that kept me from falling on my face was that fact that we had an audience. Chloe had arrived an hour into my training and had been joined by Zander, Tabitha and Jordan. They sat there giving me thumbs up and looks of encouragement. I removed my fencing mask and laid my sword on the mat at my feet before walking over to greet them.
“Good job, Sis”, Jordan said with a crooked smile. “You look like you have the hang of it.”
“She’s doing okay considering she knew nothing beforehand. But she has to get quicker feet if she is going to stand a chance in a fight.”
Violeta came up behind me with her hands on her hips, looking at my feet and shaking her head. Zander handed her a salad and she sat next to him to eat. Tabitha, who I realized had been missing in action for a few days, removed the lid from a huge chicken Caesar salad and held it out for me.
“I can’t fence. I’m no good at it,” I said around a mouth full of lettuce. “I don’t even know why Efia recommended it.”
“It will help you with your balance and agility. It will get easier, I promise.”
I looked at Violeta as if she had just killed my dog. She actually sounded sincere and supportive. I looked at Tabitha in time to see her raise an eyebrow in Violeta’s direction and felt satisfied in my assessment of her character.
Zander extended his hand to Violeta and pulled her to her feet. They walked toward the middle of the room on the balls of their feet, with a slow deliberate gait. Once they were in place, they released hands and backed away from one another. The training facility was silent and every eye was on the couple as Zander stepped toward Violeta in a graceful lunge. She parried his approach with an elegant, one-footed sidestep and a full turn. She placed her foot on his butt and deliberately pushed him away. Zander, however, didn’t lose his bal
ance, instead he used the forward momentum to step farther away from her and thus avoided a stab by her invisible sword. For 5 minutes the couple executed a perfectly matched demonstration of what artful fencing should be. They ended their match with the customary bows and a kiss for good measure.
Shaking my head, I turned my attention to Jordan.
“So, Jordan,” I began. “Do we have a plan? To attack Grigor and get Mom back, I mean.”
“We have a plan. Now we just have to execute it. But you might be staying home. Chloe is for sure.”
“I should be ready by then. I mean, except for me and fencing. And I didn’t go through all of that training for nothing!”
“Cheyenne, since we have no concrete proof that Grigor is holding our mother against her will, this isn't exactly a Council sanctioned mission. For all intents and purposes, we are planning to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Grigor has far more people than we do so we have to orchestrate this like a ballet.”
“Yeah, Grigor would be in heaven if he could defeat Efia’s descendants. Or, better yet, capture one. But we're better than he thinks.” Chloe had picked up my sword and was going through the moves that I had just learned. She was better than me by far and I began to wonder how long she had trained to be that good.
Lunch lasted about 30 minutes and I was forced to return to my rigorous training. After going through the motions and stretching, Violeta allowed me to return to my rooms to get cleaned up before dinner. Zander and Jordan were going to finalized our plans and present them to Efia and a select few Council Elders. I was still nervous about being in a room with so many Vampires so Chloe and Tabitha had been preparing me for the meeting.
“The first thing that you need to understand,” Tabitha began, “is that you are royalty regardless of the status of the Council Elders. They will bow to you, never the other way around.”
“Are there any Royals on the Council?”
“No. It would be a conflict of interest since Royals already have so much influence.”
“There are twelve Council Elders, twelve Senators and approximately 100 Vampire Representatives. Tonight we are hosting only three Elders, two Senators and twenty-five Reps. Each Vampire here tonight has pledged their allegiance and fealty to the St. Clairs.”
Chloe joined us at the large picture window. We had grown very close and I knew that she could see the weight of Tabitha’s words on me. With her arms around my waist, she squeezed just enough to push the breath that I was holding out of my lungs.
“Look, Chey” Chloe said, looking up at me. “I know this is a really big deal for you, but it is your life now. We have responsibilities to our subjects and the region in which we rule. The fortunate thing is that neither one of us is next in line to rule.”
We laughed at Chloe’s joke; the ice successfully broken. I still didn’t understand how all of the families became Royal in the first place, and the fact that the Stewards and Fare treated me like I was a Princess unnerved me.
“So, do you think the Council members will try to discourage our mission to rescue our mom?”
“No. Grigor has lived outside of the Council’s laws for too long. They know how much Efia hates Grigor and she has every right to.” Tabitha said.
“Why? Why does she hate him so much? I mean, aside from the obvious?” I still had questions about that.
Chapter 11
“Grigor and Efia are kind of related. She was Embraced shortly after she gave birth to her daughter. She wasn’t given a choice, but she had lost so much blood that her Sire desired her to live.”
“So, he saved her?”
“No, not personally. But his obsession with her bloodline made a choice necessary.”
“What type of choice? To be Embraced or not?”
“Chey, wow, it's not that simple. You see, Efia didn't want her descendants to be cattle and was considering death...for her and her child. Her Sire changed her mind and promised to help protect her descendants,” Tabitha was looking at me with a mixture or sorrow and strength. Hopefully the strength would rub off on me sometime in the near future.
“Let’s start over. Grigor is sick. He always has been and becoming a Vampire was a cruel joke played on him but it back fired.”
Grigor's story was more interesting than any book or movie I had ever heard of. He was the son of a minor nobleman in 14th century Europe. His family lived in and ruled a small village of Zarozje in what is now Serbia. Like most minor nobility, Grigor and his father, Vladimir, thought much more highly of themselves than was due their position. The people of the village hated them and revolted the year Grigor was born. Lord Vladimir Oleander, Grigor’s father, hired the best mercenaries money could buy and quickly put the rebels down.
One day, when Grigor was one year old, his mother took him out into the garden for a picnic lunch with some high society women. After only minutes in the sun, little Grigor’s skin began to redden and bubble. Lady Oleander was horrified and ashamed that she had caused her child to come to harm and immediately sent for the village physician. The examination took hours as little Grigor was poked and prodded within an inch of his life. He had burns everywhere the sun’s rays had touched his skin and the damage was almost irreparable.
For years, Lord Vladimir Oleander blamed his wife for the burns on his only son. That summer, a traveling medicine man came into town. He saw Grigor in the market place with the servants and wondered why the boy’s face was covered with a veil. When he was told it was due to a childhood accident, the medicine man asked if he might examine the boy himself. Lord Oleander invited the man to his residence and watched closely as he tested the boy’s blood.
Although it would remain nameless until the 1800s, the blood disease was known by many nomadic people. Porphyria, a rare disease, causes the inflicted to be sensitive to the sun and have tight, receding skin among other symptoms. Caused by genetic markers that effect the production of Heme in red blood cells, Porphyria is purely genetic. Lord Vladimir Oleander assumed that his son had inherited the disease and immediately accused his wife of infidelity, sentencing her to death. Once word spread of the nature of the disease, the villagers began to gossip. Since the symptoms of the disease were similar to the description of a monstrous predator to the East, the rumors began that Lady Oleander had been seduced and impregnated by a Vampire. Lord Vladimir Oleander was warned not to kill his wife and risk offending the monster, so Lady Oleander and her ladies were sent to live in the countryside.
As Grigor grew, so did the rumors about his biological father. Grigor used these stories to his advantage. He seldom ventured out during the day and never drank from clear containers, creating the illusion that he was drinking blood from his goblet. None of the villagers gave Grigor any trouble out of a respect that was born of fear. It was perfect for the arrogant son of a minor noble.
News spread eastward of a young Lord who was rumored to be the son of a blood sucking monster. There were so many stories in so many villages that it reached a small village in Bucharest by the time Grigor was 21 years old. This village was the home of the Council, the Vampiric governing body, and they were not very happy. Many centuries prior the Council had decided that the best way to ensure the safety of Vampires was to either convince people that they did not exist or to create circumstances in which you could easily prove you were not a Vampire.
In the 14th century it was hard to convince people that the things that go bump in the night weren’t real. Without electricity or any other modern convenience, people of that time had a lot of time to read, think and tell stories. So The Council began the tedious task of attaching false characteristics and attributes to the Vampire. One fallacy was the exaggerated sensitivity to the sun. Vampire skin, like anyone else, would burn if exposed to UV rays for any extended period of time, but the Council wove a tale of immediate combustion if the sun touched a Vampire. And, to further divide the monstrous image from the Vampire of reality, the Council promoted the thin-skin and long canine attributes
. Although Vampires do have slightly longer canines than humans, the monsters that the Council introduced had long extended canines that retracted at will.
The Council even produced examples of these monsters. One year while traveling, a young Vampire encountered a family infected with Porphyria with members who died from their disease and were left to bake in the sun. He carried the corpses back to the Council and the lie was born. Now, just as Vampires had seen many years of peace from persecution, this young Lord Oleander, afflicted with the Vampire disease, was drawing unwanted attention to them. He had employed a physician who made an ointment allowing the Lord to walk in the sunlight for short periods of time, thus dispelling a major part of the myths. He would have to be dealt with.
The Council sent their best warriors and a Vampire princess to the Oleander village. They had no trouble posing as a Lady with her escorts and quickly gained the attentions of the young Lord. Grigor was so arrogant that he summoned the princess to his residence and proceeded to boast about his rumored heritage in front of her guards. He even went as far as suggesting that the princess would insure the safety of her people by spending the night in his bed.
Insulted and infuriated, the princess attacked Grigor right there. She had almost torn his throat out when the elder Lord Vladimir Oleander came into the room. A Vampire warrior held him back while the others struggled to pull the princess off of his son. The princess waltzed over to the elder Lord with his son’s blood running down her chin and laughed. She told him that if his son wanted to act like a Vampire it was only fair that he live like one. Before the others could stop her, the princess had bit open the vein in her wrist and forced it into Grigor’s opened mouth.
About a week later, Grigor emerged from his residence a new man. Most of the burns to his skin were faded and he felt better than he ever had. His father had warned him not to speak of what happened to him for fear of death and Grigor agreed. He saw this as his chance for a better life. Grigor decided that he should travel the world before he took his father’s place as Lord of the village. He was gone for 10 years when he was stricken ill and forced to return.
Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) Page 10
