The Kingdom of the Nine; The Vampire Legacy IV

by Dawn Gray

  “Ooh, she's feisty, isn't she?” He walked over to me and grabbed a handful of my hair, then pulled my head back, exposing my neck. He didn't scare me, as I stood there, staring up at him. “She's defiant, too. Just look how she stares.” Auron's teeth became sharp as he snarled at me. “Eyes to the floor, wench.”

  I raised my hand and moved to slap him when another hand caught my wrist. I looked over at this new arrival, as Auron released me and stepped back. I couldn't believe it, as I looked into his green eyes. My eyes grew wide as Julian stepped back. His hair was much longer than it had been in the present, and he didn't wear it tied back. He looked at me, then over at Auron.

  “Leave her be.” He told the young man and dropped my wrist. “She's a guest.” He turned away from me and looked over at Larado. “What are you doing here? I thought we had discussed this. You're not supposed to know where I am.”

  “It doesn't matter if I know where you are or not, Julian.” Larado said stepping closer to me. “They're coming for you anyway.”

  “I have nothing to do with the Kingdom anymore.” He replied and sat in one of the large chairs in the corner, draping his left leg over the arm.

  “That isn't important to them.” He sighed. Julian laughed.

  “They can't kill me, Larado; I’ve hopped back and forth through time too much. This Godforsaken place has changed hundreds of times over, and they never know what time to look in.”

  “You know, it's your arrogance that going to get your thick skull bashed in by one of their clubs, can't you listen to reason?” Larado asked.

  “A prince, listen to reason? Please, Larado, you've been hanging around with strays for way too long.” Auron laughed, and then looked at me. I looked at him quickly, then crossed my arms and shook my head, as I looked back at Julian.

  “A prince?” I asked, quietly, which caught Larado's attention. He looked over at me and shook his head, then turned back to Julian.

  “I was one, in a different life, but I'm not a prince any longer, Jessa is pregnant, which takes me out of the way.” Julian replied. I stepped up beside Larado and looked at him.

  “Who's Jessa?” I questioned, quietly. Larado looked at me.

  “She's the mother of the future queen.” He replied.

  “The one who will have the prince that will lead us all to peace with the mortals.” I whispered to myself, looking down at the floor, as I remembered the prophecy in his books.

  “So, now you’re telling your prophecies to strays?” Auron spoke up. I looked up quickly, unaware that I had been that loud about it, and I looked at Julian, then Larado. “I'm surprised at you, man. I thought you would have had more class than that.”

  “Shut up, Auron!” Larado said, sternly, then grabbed my arm and lead me out of that part of the cavern. He turned, and then faced me, as his eyes slowly closed.

  “Why are you showing me this?” I asked him.

  “You needed to know.”

  “Know what? That Julian is a two-hundred-year-old vampire with the power to jump back and forth through time? That he is, was, or at some point will be the prince of the Kingdom that my own child is a part of?”

  “No, I brought you here so you could learn about other things.” He said, and rubbed his forehead. “Caitlyn, listen, you have access to knowledge that people would kill for. You know, now, of Julian's secret, which turns out to be Quinn's secret as well, although he is less concerned with things of the past, and you also know of the Queen and her mother.”

  “I don't know anything about her, except that at this moment in the past, she has been conceived.

  How useful is that information to me?”

  “I can be very useful.” Julian's voice broke into our conversation. I looked over at him as he stepped out of the shadows. He looked over at Larado and smiled. “She's of your bloodline, is she not?”

  “Yes, she is.” He said and looked down at me. “This changes everything.”

  “It changes nothing, Larado. It will be another seven centuries before she's born.” Julian smiled, and then looked down at me. “But, I can already tell that she's special.”

  “I am so sick of being special, can I just go home?” I asked, then turned and walked away. I heard footsteps approach me, then they stopped and others began. After a while, I turned and looked at who had followed me, and it turned out to be Julian. “In my time, to us you and your brother are only two hundred years old. In my time, people have died to protect you, and I've spent the last week trying to remember why. Now, I know why. You time jump, yet you change nothing to fix the future. You're a prince, one of nine, born to rule the Kingdom of the vampires. I find it very strange that you’re even involved in any part of the queen's conception.”

  I watched Julian look away from me, his lips turned into a thin line, showing his aggravation.

  “It's true then, what I feel, what I know about you and ‘Jessa’. You're her father, aren't you?” I questioned. Julian looked down at his feet, then back up at me as he crossed his arms. “You don't have to answer, Julian. I know the truth.”

  “Do you know her?” He whispered, leaning against the wall.

  “I know of her.” I replied. “I know of things that happen between you and her.”

  “What happens?” He asked, quietly. I shrugged.

  “I know that it's a love that is never consummated.” I replied and turned back to the tunnel ahead of me. “I know that this is the oddest question you’re probably ever going to hear, but what the hell were you thinking?”

  “Now or then?” He asked.

  “Either time?” I replied, then turned back to face him. “She could be your blood.”

  “But, on the other hand, there's the possibility that she's won't be. Her father, Jessa's husband, is a vampire also.” He replied.

  “Julian, please, I think I know what I'm talking about when I ask you these things.” I sighed. He stepped up to me and looked down into my eyes.

  “In the future, do you have this same fire in your eyes?” He asked. I smiled at him, and then stepped back. “There's something between us, isn't there?”

  “There's something between you and a lot of girls, Julian. Neither Ashley, nor I, are any different.” I replied, then turned and walked back towards Larado.

  “I beg to differ.” I heard Julian reply. “There is something much different about you.”

  I smiled as I closed my eyes and stepped into the darkness of the cave.

  16

  Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked around the room. Julian's strangely painted room was bright with sunlight, and I caught the movement of a shadow on the wall. Taking my time, I turned over on the bed and looked at Julian's back as he stared out the window.

  “The sun seems to like you.” I smiled and watched him turn to face me. Julian smiled and walked over towards me. He sat on the bed, took my hand, and held it tightly. “Seven centuries is a long time to wait for someone to appear again, isn't it?”

  “You have no idea.” Julian smiled, then leaned down and kissed me. “So, now you know it all.”

  “No, not all of it. There are things that you need to explain to me in a little more detail, than what I got from that little memory trip.” I replied.

  * * * * *

  “I happen to agree with that.” Ashley's voice interrupted me again. I turned away from Julian's eyes and looked over at Ashley. Her eyes were locked on Julian. “You're my father?”

  “No.” He said, softly. “I'm not.” He stepped away from the wall and walked over to lean against the chair in front of him. “It turned out that your father is Jessa's husband.”

  “Okay, then what about this whole thing about you being a prince?” She questioned.

  “That's self explanatory, isn't it?” Quinn asked. Ashley looked at him. “Julian and I were born two hundred years ago; we were the last in the line of princes born to that generation. Our power to jump is what classifies us as princes, not the order of our birth.”

  “So,
all that stuff about Victor is a lie?” She questioned.

  “No, it's still the truth. Victor is my father.” Quinn said and then looked at Julian. “And, Auron is Julian's.”

  “Auron?” Michael asked. “As in Klamara's Auron?”

  “Yes.” Julian replied and looked at the people who surrounded him, and then he looked at me and smiled. “You see, Auron was our mother's husband. He was immortal, blessed with the power to jump through time. He met our mother, and fell in love, so, I was conceived and that's when things happened with Victor, several years later, Quinn was born and neither of them knew that Quinn was Victor's biological son.”

  “So, you knew about the curse that Klamara had placed on Auron and his mother?” Ashley asked.

  “No, I didn't, not until after he had died in the fire.” Julian sighed then sat down in the chair. “Everything that we told you, about our parents dying, and how we went to Victor that was all true, it just didn't happen when we said it did. But what we possess is something that very few vampires can do, and unfortunately it comes with a price. Our blood is toxic, no human, no full mortal, can be changed by us, it would destroy them.”

  “After we were both changed, Julian decided that he wanted to venture out on his own, to try and find out some things, instead, he found Auron and Larado. They taught him how to harness his power, to use it, and he taught me but we had our limits, we couldn’t jump forward in time, couldn’t change future events to prevent deaths we also couldn’t prevent past events from taking place.” Quinn sighed, and held on to Lauren's hand. “My children wouldn’t have suffered if we could have stopped it.”

  “From the time he changed, Auron sought to find someone like Larado, who wasn't going to be born for another eleven hundred years. He found others that told him about the Kingdom and then he found Larado and the knowledge that the two of us were involved. It was then that he decided to find us.” Julian sighed. “But, this has very little to do with the prophecy that was about to come to a full boil that night.” I turned to look at him and he smiled. “It's almost finished; maybe you should just continue until it's done.”

  “That sounds fine, and then we can all get on with our lives.” I replied, as I turned and looked at the way the sun reflected off the waves in the ocean.

  * * * * *

  The sun was at its highest point when I stepped out of the house and lowered the sunglasses to block the light from my sensitive eyes. Slowly, I made my way down the path that led around the backyard. It followed the shoreline as it circled the property and was high enough, above the beach so you could see the people sunbathing, but they couldn't see you. That was when I caught sight of a body moving in and out of the tide, and stopped on the beach to watch for a moment.

  The short dark hair and wide shoulders told me that it could only be Nick as he swam, gracefully, moving as if the world had disappeared at the shoreline. I watched him for several minutes before I felt a person step up behind me, and I turned to look at Quinn, who was looking out at the clouds, and then he looked down at me and smiled.

  “You realize that if he catches you spying on him, he'll have quite a lot of not so very nice things to say to you.” I nodded and looked back at the man in the water. “Your face tells me that your curiosity is running away with you. Care to vent?”

  “Are there any ugly vampires in your world?” I questioned as I suddenly turned to face him. Quinn laughed. “I mean, are you guys like the Chippendales of the vampire race?”

  “You flatter us.” Quinn replied, and shook his head. “There are many different vampires, just like there are many different people; however, I suspect that wasn't quite what you were thinking about.”

  “There was something Larado said to me that's been bothering me.” I answered and put my hands in my pockets as I studied the grass near my shoes.

  “Larado?” Quinn asked. “Larado is dead; he has been for a long time. How could he possibly say something to you?”

  “It's a long story; maybe I'll explain it to you later, but what he said was that the last time Klamara came for me he was stopped by something or someone. In my memories, Julian was beside me and Klamara had reached out to flash whatever that strange thing is that comes from his hands, and I know that if it had hit me, I would be dead right now, but what stopped him, or who?” I looked up at him, as if to ask him if he possibly knew, but he shook his head and looked at me as if he were apologizing for not knowing

  “Have you asked Julian about it?” He questioned.

  “Neither of them wants to talk about it.” I sighed. “It's strange, but I think the two of them aren't the only two that know what went on that day.”

  “Well, I know, and so do Michael and David.” Quinn replied.

  “I knew you might, but, I believe that one other person was there who knows a bit more than he's saying.” I rubbed my eyes, as a sudden tiredness swept threw me.

  “And, who do you believe this person to be?”

  “Honestly, I think Creolas might know about it.” I turned towards him. “So, what brings you this way?” I asked him, and then watched him shrug. “Usually, you boys have a reason for doing things.”

  “Well, actually, Julian saw Creolas walking around the house, and was wondering where you were.” Quinn replied. I nodded and smiled at him, as I glanced, quickly, at Nick, who was still swimming, and then we both turned and walked back towards the house. He turned to me as he stopped near the door, and listened, and then he raised his eyebrows. “I can hear him; he's in the den talking to someone.”

  “Thanks.” I replied and waved as I turned and walked away from him. The den was only around the corner and the door was open just wide enough to let me see who Julian was talking too. It was Creolas, his red hair was always a dead give away, and it seemed that Julian was less afraid of this cousin than of Nick, even though I really had to wonder just how much power the brothers had, if Julian and Quinn were part of the previous Kingdom generation.

  I pressed against the wall, just beside the door, out of sight, so that I could listen to what they were talking about, and it turned out, it seemed to be about me.

  “You don't seem to be listening to me and that doesn't surprise me; no one thinks I know anything.” Creolas said, calmly.

  “I don't see why you care.” Julian whispered, sitting in the chair behind the desk. “Since she's been here, both times, you've done nothing but harm her.”

  “I haven't touched her this time.” Creolas growled. “You have to take her away from here, before sunset tonight.”

  “Again, why do you care?”

  “Klamara will kill her, he'll rip her apart. She is not strong enough to defeat him and you know it.” I peeked into the room and watched as Julian flipped through papers, trying to ignore him, but as Creolas leaned cross the desk to look into his eyes, Julian couldn't ignore the desperation that seemed to shine in his eyes, an emotion that I could see from where I stood. “Either you take her out of here, or I will.”

  “Touch her and I swear you'll never see the light of day again.” Julian whispered.

  “Where were you before?” Creolas asked, smirking at him, egging him on to go through with his threat. “You're going to lose her. Prince or not, there's nothing that you can do to stop him from taking her.”

  “Get out!” Julian said, sharply, and then stood up from the desk. “Get out of my house, and don't ever come back.”

  “You're making a very big mistake.” Creolas replied, his smile never leaving his face, as he moved closer to the door. I backed away, and hid around the corner as the red haired man left the room and began to walk passed me. I followed him up the stairway to his room, which was down into what was once the servant's quarters of the house. As he turned to go into his bedroom, he glanced back down the hallway towards me, a move that I hadn't anticipated, and stared at me for a long moment. “What are you doing?”

  “I need to ask you something.” I replied, moving closer to him. Creolas shook his head, rolled hi
s eyes, and gestured with his hand to go into his room. I slipped passed him and moved across the bare room to look out the window at the backyard, and the two gold rings that had already formed in the grass, then at the third faint ring that was beginning to appear beside them. Creolas stepped up beside me, facing me, as I continued to look out the window. “I don't remember much about last time he came for me.”

  “You should feel lucky.” Creolas smiled, and brushed his chest against my arm, which made me look up at him. “Most people don't survive him to even say that.”

  “In my memories, there's a figure that I can never make out. He moves towards the red smoke that surrounded Klamara and then he just disappears.” I sighed, looking back out the window. “I shouldn't have survived that attack, Creolas.” I told him, looking up at him quickly, into those red eyes, the ones that used to frighten me, but as I looked into them now, all I could see was the strange emotions that seemed to settle there. “Klamara had aimed for my heart, and I'm sure in the however many millennia he's been taking lives, he's never failed to hit his target.”

  “So?” Creolas asked, stepping away from me.

  “So.” I said, looking at him. “Why am I still alive today?”

  “Maybe, you're lucky.” He smiled.

  “Or, maybe someone interfered with his aim.” I replied and turned completely towards him. “Larado said that he takes people who know who and what they are and leaves the ones that know nothing until later on in life. I knew exactly what I was by then, so that means something or someone else happened.”

  “What are you getting at, Cait?” He asked, as he seemed to get a bit annoyed with me.

  “Was it you that interfered?” I questioned him. That was when I saw his eyes become dark, almost a normal color and he turned away from me.

  “Leave.” He whispered.

  “What?” I said, almost laughing.

  “I asked you to leave.” Creolas moved further away from me and looked out the window. “Next time, I won't be so pleasant about it.”

  “Why are you avoiding my question?” I asked.