Violeta’s arms were pinned under my knees as I sat on her chest. Too angry to let fear rule me, I slapped her again and again. The third time I raised my hand I heard that familiar growl. This time it vibrated upward causing a surge of adrenaline through my body. My fight or flight kicked in and I had a decision to make. I was nowhere near stupid enough to think that I could outrun Violeta; I would have to stay and fight.
It seemed like time had slowed between the growl and my decision to fight and Violeta’s eyes changed from brown to black. I had read about the differences in Vampire’s eyes and knew I was in for the fight of my life. There were only a few chances I had to weaken her and I took it. Swinging my arm, closing my hand into a fist as it came down, I punched Violeta in the face. Just like in training, I quickly repeated this with both fists until my knuckles came away bloody and Violeta threw me off of her. She threw me so hard that I hit a nearby tree and slid to the ground and everything went black.
I couldn’t see very well when I finally opened my eyes. Someone was crouched in front of me but I could only make out a vague shadow against the blue sky. When I tried to move, however, the shadow growled and stopped me in my tracks. Hot breath was now on my neck and my life flashed before my eyes. This was how it was going to end; killed by the very person who was suppose to help me win.
As I tried to calm myself down, I recalled all of the hours of training, trying to remember anything that could help me right now. I could not do a round-house kick from my position on the ground and I didn’t think a quick right-hook would work. We had never covered the possibility that your trainer would try to eat you…I had no defense for that. I took a deep breath and held it, thinking that I could slow my heart down a bit. I held it until I heard footsteps and voices coming our way.
“You should have taken me out,” Violeta berated me.
“I couldn’t,” I said, through a new stream of tears. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can,” she said, and then she walked away.
“Chey? You okay?” Zander asked.
I looked up at him, trying to focus a little better. I knew that Solomon was at his side even though my vision was blurry and I became angry that they hadn’t come sooner. I struggled to my feet, shrugging off the hands that were trying to help me. Frustration and embarrassment fueled me as I used the tree to finally get to my feet.
I stood there looking at Violeta. Her eyes were brown again and she looked every bit the gorgeous spit-fire that she was. I searched her eyes for the love that I now knew was there. I searched for the slightest piece of evidence that she didn’t hate me and got nothing. She had put up her walls and commissioned the guards. She shook her head as if in disgust and turned away from me.
I didn’t ask for this; I didn’t want this.
I turned to Zander.
“You let Grigor’s mother into the compound?”
“It is not what you think. She is not like her son.”
“Like that she can be any better! So now we have a spy? How can all of you be so calm?”
“I am anything but calm, my dear Cheyenne.”
Isidora was slowly getting to her feet. She held her side with one hand as she limped forward. She stopped when she was a few feet in front of me, clearly not wanting to get within arm’s reach of me again. Tabitha was at my side, my only constant, and grabbed my hand as if I was going to need the support. This was a development that I was not expecting and there was nothing anyone could say that would make life okay again.
“Chey,” Tabitha said, “Isidora helped Violeta escape five years ago and she is Efia’s sire. She even has a mole inside Grigor’s compound.”
“Not any more. He has been discovered and his life has been forfeit.”
The perpetual smirk left her face for a split second, but long enough for me to see that she was truly sincere. I studied her face for a moment. She looked so familiar, as if I had known her my entire life. If she were just a lot younger she would be an identical match for…
The monster on the slave ship had my ankle in a grip so tight that I could not shake it. He pulled me down the ladder and onto the floor before releasing his hold. As he stood over me the smell of blood was almost palatable. I leaned over to the side and began to dry-heave until my body began to shake. I knew that I was going to die today and there was nothing I could do about it.
Just then I heard a whimper coming from a nook under the ladder. I looked in and saw the huge blue eyes of the young cabin maiden. She and I had done our best to take care of each other so far in this journey. She had kept the slavers entertained with jokes and dances when they began to show too much interest in me and I provided her with a warm place to sleep and find comfort. Now, neither one of us was in a position to help the other. I reached down and extended my hand for her and pulled her to me and we cried.
When I opened my eyes I was looking into the face of that little cabin maiden. Isidora was the girl on the slave ship; the girl in my recurring dreams about Efia’s life. And they had affection for one another. What the heck was going on?
“Who are you?” I asked. It was the only question that I could come up with.
“My name was Izzy then. Or at least that is who I appeared to be to others. You see, I am a mutation. My maker was an Elemental but my human bloodline carried the Cerebralis trait; capable of making people see what I want them to see. And I am also Efia’s sire. I am here to protect her descendants.”
I knew what she was going to say the second the words came out of her mouth. I felt as connected to her as I did to Efia and the sensation was unnerving to say the very least. I had refused to move from that spot until I had heard the entire story; so tired of being asked to sit down and relax. My life had been turned upside down and I was going to retain as much control over this particular situation as I could.
Isidora had been Embraced by a Vampire relative of Efia's, a member of the Vampire clan that Grigor and his father destroyed. As she returned from visiting a neighboring village she discovered the massacre of Efia’s people. Efia was only 7 years old and had been Isidora’s favorite; she found solace in her company and she had always planned to offer her the Embrace once she hit maturity. After the massacre, British slavers found Efia, her tribe’s sole survivor, and placed her on a ship for the New World. The two Oleanders gained passage by paying the slavers in gold and Isidora, using her Cereb attribute, appeared as Izzy, a 5 year old orphan girl, and then snuck aboard the slave ship while it was docked. She had no idea what she would do next, only that she was going to follow Efia wherever she went. As Izzy, Isidora played games that did not require the two to speak the same language and they were able to occupy their minds during the long days and nights through the Middle Passage.
One night, when they could see land on the horizon, Grigor and his father attacked and killed all of the crew members. Efia was down below but Izzy had seen it all. She recalled how the blood flowed out of the man’s mouth and onto the wooden deck. Izzy scrambled to the hatch that led below deck and hid behind the ladder. She was sure that she was safe until the pair rushed below deck and began to slaughter the slaves. But Izzy realized that the Grigor was not merely tearing their throats out like he did with the crew. He was drinking from their necks to the point of exsanguination. She was sickened by the memory of the massacre of her and Efia’s families and wanted revenge, but she knew that there were miles of ocean between her and any help. Her mind immediately went to her young friend and wondered if she would survive the trip. That is when she saw movement on the other side of the ship and realized that it was Efia. She was slowly moving away from the Vampire and made her way to the ladder.
Izzy wanted to call out to her but she was afraid that she would draw the men’s attention to both of them. She realized that Efia had no way of knowing that every crew member was dead. By the time Izzy got up the nerve to reach for her leg on the ladder, Grigor had already grabbed her and began dragging her back down.
Izzy began to cry. She
saw his friend’s face bounce off of a ladder rung that caused her bottom lip to split open. At the sight of blood, Grigor stopped pulling her leg and raised his head to sniff the air. Izzy remembered the look of ecstasy on the her son’s face and how it made her vow to punish him for his acts. When she looked back at Efia, she had her hand held out and she pulled Izzy into her lap and they both cried.
Grigor and his father tried to separate the two of them, but they held onto each other for dear life. It was curious to Izzy that they did not simply force them apart. These men had killed everyone on board save the two of them. Surely they could separate two young children. They continued to speak to the both of them in a language that Efia didn’t understand and Izzy pretended not to.
In the 4 months or so that they sailed, Izzy had been able to teach Efia some rudimentary English. She began with simple words like sun, moon and stars. But Izzy felt a sense of pride when she was able to teach her what a chair and pistol were. She was less prideful, however, when Efia asked her for the name for the shackles she was bound with.
Now they floated towards an unknown land with two Vampires trying to communicate with them. There were times when Izzy would respond to a phrase or two to encourage the two men to continue with open communications. They had also obviously picked up some words from the crew. They spent half of their time reading the captain’s books and the rest of the time staring at Efia like she was lunch. One afternoon, after spending the entire morning reading, the man took the two of them into the captain’s quarters and sat behind the big desk. He gestured for both of them to sit but they refused. Standing there, Izzy heard the first coherent English words leave the man’s mouth.
“I have a proposal for you,” he said slowly.
Izzy looked behind her and then back at the man. She wondered what her son could possibly have to offer them. They stared at each other for a long time before she found the nerve to speak.
“What kind of offer?”
“I need this girl alive and safe. I need her to marry and produce children. I need you to protect her until this day comes.”
Izzy’s mind was running wild. How could she protect Efia without the clan? She was just a young girl and had no guardians or money to her name. She looked at Grigor as if he had certainly lost his mind.
“I am just a girl, Sir, without a penny to my name. I can no better take care of my friend than I can myself.”
“I will take care of that,” was all he said before he stood and walked out of the cabin door.
Three nights later the slave ship crashed into a dock in the New Orleans harbor. It was just dusk and Izzy could see people running toward the ship. Grigor and his father stood on the deck, their long coats flapping in the wind. Grigor turned and gestured for Izzy and Efia to join them as they waited for the ship to be tied down and boarded. He placed his hand on Izzy’s shoulder in a familial way as he sent a warning glance toward Efia. The meaning was clear; play along or I kill the girl. Efia nodded her understanding and remained silent.
Lord Vladimir Oleander, had a satchel of jewels in addition to the ship’s ownership papers. He claimed that his ship was attacked by privateers who ‘pressed’ the crew into military service for the crown. The ship, he'd said, barely made it to shore and the lives of his son and the two children were all he could manage to save.
Being nothing more than fishermen, the welcoming party of New Orleans took what Lord Vladimir Oleander said as the gospel truth and aided him in acquiring the proper paper work for himself, his son and Izzy. Ownership paperwork was also drawn up for Efia.
The four of them spent the next few weeks securing land and making a suitable home befitting a Lord. Izzy, being the only one who had mastered the English language, quickly became the spokesperson for the group. She made sure that the Oleanders were given the best of every luxury. Believing that she could save Efia’s life if the Vampires were sated, Izzy set out to obtain suitable sources of nutrition. With the abundance of Africans to purchase, she believed that she had secured Efia’s life. She was wrong, however, because Grigor never seemed quite satisfied and always looked at Efia with hungry eyes.
After years of living in fear, Izzy went to the Lords one evening. She found them near the fire in the big house surrounded by servants, dead and alive. Thirst burned her throat but she did her best to hide her hunger. She simply sat in an elegant chair opposite the duo and waited to be acknowledged.
“Yes, my child. What is on your mind?” The Lord Vladimir said, paying more attention to the fire than the girl sitting next to him
“I want to know what you are? Why do you need the blood of so many?”
“My child, you are still so young but you have proven yourself to be trustworthy and deserving of an explanation. You see, we are Vampires.”
The Lord Vladimir Oleander recalled the birth and upbringing of his son and the incident that resulted in his becoming a Vampire. Izzy, having lived through all of these events, sat on the edge of her seat. She hadn't know the pain that her son suffered when his disease was exacerbated with his Embrace. He told how they searched for a cure for nearly a century before he encountered Efia’s people and the healing nature of their blood. He was unable to restrain his son during the first encounter. He realized that they needed to be able to replenish the blood and found a suitable source.
Efia was the last female with the blood that Grigor was dependent on for survival. Izzy realized that Efia and any of her potential offspring were to be kept as a food source. She had to get her to safety but was unsure if her life in America would be more secure as food for Grigor or a slave on another plantation. She decided that she was not the person to make this decision and set out to find Efia.
The conversation did not go well. Efia, still a young girl, was appalled and terrified. She immediately wanted to return to Africa until she remembered that every last member of her tribe had died at the hands of the Vampire who was now her master. She looked into Izzy’s eyes and begged to be saved.
The very next morning, Izzy rode into town with Efia and sold her to a plantation on the other side of the state. Her new mistress promised to care for her as if she was her very own. Efia, relieved to escape Grigor, was sad to leave her one and only friend behind. They embraced and cried until it was time to go.
Isidora recalled the pain of seeing Efia ride away with her new family, but she believed she had just saved her life. For years to follow, Isidora used her attributes to keep her son and husband from finding Efia. Her goal was to keep Efia safe until she could offer her the Embrace and the only way to insure that was to stay with the Oleanders.
One day while visiting a neighboring plantation, the Grigor was notified of the location of his former slave. He was pleased to hear that she had married and was pregnant. Having his mind set on getting Efia back, he changed each and every person on the plantation into a Vampire and devised a plan of attack.
He was so arrogant that he even included Izzy in the plan. Having created an illusion of growth, Isidora appeared to be a gorgeous young woman. When Grigor came to Embrace her she had to use her attributes to make him believe Lord Vladimir Oleander had done so.
With their army of loyal Vampires, both Grigor and his father traveled across Louisiana and attacked the plantation where Efia lived and ordered it burned to the ground. His followers were to kill everyone except for Efia as he went through every outbuilding in search of her. The smell of fire made it difficult to pinpoint exactly where she was located, but he continued on until he thought he saw her on the rooftop balcony of the big house. He rushed to the house only to find that her scent had gone in the other direction. He gave chase at a sedate pace, knowing that a pregnant girl could not outrun nor outwit a Vampire of his caliber. He followed her into the woods behind the house and lost her scent near the edge of a creek.
He knelt by the water, knowing that he had not miscalculated, and wondered what he would do next. He paced underneath the branches of a nearby tree, spooking a family of
owls in the process. The adult owls attacked him with their claws causing blood to drip from his head and arms onto the bushes at his feet. The sound of the owl’s attack drowned out the screams of the pregnant slave girl who was being splattered with his blood.
Cheyenne looked at Isidora now with new eyes. She was the one holding Efia while Grigor was standing above them bleeding from the owl assault. Izzy was protecting her once again from Grigor and his hunger. She was not a threat but a hero. No wonder she was allowed on the compound with no question.
“I had ingested just enough of his blood to make it impossible for me to remain human,” Efia said, walking up behind Isidora. She placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a nod.
“Isidora was forced to smuggle me to the edge of Grigor’s property and helped deliver my daughter, Sarai. She then continued to feed me her blood until I became an adult. The day that I turned 18, I wished to die instead of becoming a Vampire, but, by that time, Sarai was 5 years old and my only reason to live. Isidora Embraced me the same night. She sat with Sarai while I went through the transition. It took days because we were unaware of the exact dose to use, and at one point she thought that I would die.”
Isidora looked at Efia with the same look of motherly love that Efia had given me and Chloe. It felt as if we were interrupting a family moment and turned away. Zander grabbed Violeta’s hand and squeeze slightly as she nodded at something he whispered in her ear. Jordan and Tabitha were there as well. And Solomon, he was watching me as if he expected some transformation to happen.
“So,” I began, tentatively, “you also saved Violeta from Grigor. How?”
Isidora looked from me to Violeta, confirming permission to resume the story. I wasn’t sure what the deal was, but I liked the concept of other people not telling your business unless you okay it first. Violeta looked at me and her dark eyes revealed the pain that she tried so hard to hide. She squeezed Zander’s hand for comfort and nodded toward Isidora to continue.
Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) Page 21
