B006XVUCOY EBOK

by Dawn Gray

  The Vampire Legacy II

  The Light, the Dark, the Heart

  Dawn Gray

  The Vampire Legacy II: The Light, the Dark, the Heart.

  By Dawn Gray

  Copyright 2011 Dawn Gray

  Smashwords Edition

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  1

  I watched below as children played in the street two stories below me. I smiled at this as a small girl ran around the make shift bases, trying not to be tagged or held, by the bigger kids who were playing against her, with her team mates cheering her on in the background. I stepped away from the window and let the heavy curtain fall back into place. As I turned, I looked at a middle-aged man who was sitting behind a desk scrolling through his computer screen.

  "What is it, Angel?" he asked me. Angel Browne, that was me, a young woman with dark hair and dark blue eyes, not much to look at in my opinion, but hey, I was talking about myself. Benny Fontagne was his name, and old friend of the family, with a shabby Brooklyn accent. I smiled at him and shook my head.

  "I haven't heard the laughter of children in a long time, Benny. It's good to hear it once in a while, ya know?" I asked him and wrapped my black coat around me. His "office" was a little cold for my taste.

  "Whatcha come here for, Angel?" he asked me as he saved the screen in front of him.

  "I need your help." I replied, he smiled and shrugged.

  "What's new?" he replied sarcastically.

  "I need your help to find my grandfather." I replied and he sat forward.

  "I didn't know that you had a grandfather, Mutt. I thought you were just dropped out of the sky." He laughed and puffed on the end of his cigar.

  "There's a catch, though." I replied and smiled at him. He liked catches; it made the job a lot more fun.

  "Yeah, I'm listening."

  "You might not find him on any record or under any social security number. He won't have a green card and probably won't have a driver's license under his name either."

  "This is just getting better and better. So, what is he? Back from the dead?"

  "Something like that." I laughed and looked at him seriously. "He's a vampire."

  Benny spit out the cigar and stood up in his chair. "He's a what? Oh, honey, you can't bring that shit in here. I'll have Isaac’s men all over the joint in two seconds." Benny panicked.

  "Relax, Isaac won't hurt you and no one will know that you’re looking up a vampire. He isn't registered under any of Isaac or Jacob's files, either."

  "So, what's this vamp's name, or does he not have one of those either?" Benny asked.

  "His name is Quinn La Rouge." I replied and watched his face, as it grew pale. "Ever heard of him?"

  "Yeah, people have been talking. Julian's his brother right?"

  "Yeah, but I don't think he goes under La Rouge though."

  "Nah, some other foreign name though, it don't matter anyhow. The last time the agency heard from Old Quinny there, he was living off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island, but that was oh, just a couple weeks ago. Some shmuck burnt down the mansion they were living in so, I'll have to check around to see if they've got any other residences, if not, I'll call the agency." he replied. I nodded and looked around, going back to my window. "Angel, it's going to take me a while. Why don't you go and cause some trouble for Isaac and come back around noon tomorrow?"

  "Yeah." I said and walked over to the door. "Sounds like a good plan to me." I nodded at him and walked out the door. I needed to find a place to crash until Benny found my grandfather for me.

  I had to leave New Jersey, too much had happened too fast to stay any longer. I walked down to the cemetery on Breakwood and made my way through the rows of stones before I stopped in front of a new grave. I looked at the name on the stone and the date. My mother had only been buried yesterday. Survived by her only living daughter, Angel. That's good. Keep reminding me that I was the last. Shit, I had to get out of there fast.

  My next stop was to an old club that I use to hang around in. It wasn’t open to the public, only certain people, me being one of them and I made my way down the long dark hallway to the back rooms where they kept the real liquor, not the watered down stuff that they gave the kids upstairs. I opened the door and had a look in the room. It was half-full of people, not enough to crowd, but enough to make me not want to be there anymore, until I felt a hand on my arm. I turned and looked at the blond-haired, blue eyed man that held my arm and I snatched it way.

  "What the hell are you doing here?" he whispered in my ear as he followed me to the table in the far corner of the room. I turned and looked at him. "Angel, this is dangerous."

  "Isaac, living for me is dangerous, this is just life." I said and sat down. He sat across from me and looked me in the eyes.

  "Look, I saved you once when your mom died, I don't think I can do it again. This place is crawling with hunters." he replied.

  "I'm not a vamp, Isaac. Chill out." I replied and ordered a soda from the waitress in a skimpy black skirt. "Look, the only time they even look at me is when there's a call out on my head. Right now, it's obvious that's not the case. I just want to have a soda, relax and wait here a little bit. Now, go away, you're bugging me."

  "You're a pain in my ass, Browne." Isaac smiled and ordered a drink himself and sat with me to drink it. "So, what are you waiting for?"

  "Just stuff." I replied. He looked at me and smiled like he didn't believe me. "I'm leaving town."

  "Good, it's about time." he responded and took a big gulp of what ever it was that he was drinking.

  "Isaac, I don't think we should be in contact anymore." I whispered to him. He looked at me suddenly and shook his head, but before he got a word out, I took his hand and held it. "Listen, it's coming down to the last and I'm it. If they even think there's something between us, then you'll be next and I don't want that. We need to be more discreet, or not at all."

  "Angel, we can't be discreet. We're supposed to be enemies and we're having drinks in a local hunter hang out." he told me. I looked at him as if I were dumb, and then took my hand away. "I don't want to argue with you and I don't want you to leave angry, but this is not going to work and you know it. If they put a call out on you, you know that I'll have to be there. That's how it works."

  "It works that way, because you made it that way, Isaac." I replied and sat sideways in the seat.

  "Are you looking for him?"

  "Looking for whom specifically?"

  "You know who."

  "Yeah, I know who, but I want to know if you know who."

  "Your...Quinn."

  "What if I am? Isaac, please, drop this, okay. I love you but sometimes you piss me off." I replied and leaned over the table, kissed him quickly on the lips, then got up and walked away, paying the waitress on the way by.

  Seconds became minutes and minutes turned to hours as I watched the sun go down from where I sat, high above the city on a twenty-seven story building. The city below seemed to be a little string of Christmas lights and all sorts of merry colors, but it didn't impress me. I usually spent most of my nights up on that building.

  When I decided to go back to the small, one-room apartment that I was living in for the time being. I packed my bag and rolled up my blanket, then crashed down on the futon bed that I had pulled out. The walls were bare and the only light I
had was from the bathroom, but that was enough for me, and I stared at the ceiling for a long time before I could even close my eyes and think about trying to sleep.

  When the dream did come, it seemed to start the same. All green and happy, full of laughter and roses, when it did the same thing that it always did. I began to fall, deep into the darkness and I landed, on bended knees, in a dark forest of some sort, being chased by something that I didn't quite understand. I ran and I tripped, happened all the time, and the thing was getting closer, but never made it quite close enough for me to see, because my body woke me up.

  I sat up, quickly and looked around then decided that I had enough sleep for one night. I grabbed my bag, and my blanket, checked for anything I had missed and left the room. I slipped the keys to the place under the door to the landlord's room, in an envelope with an address to where he could send the money for the security deposit, but he could keep the last month’s rent that had been included in the asking price.

  I tied my bag and my blanket to the back of my motorcycle and headed back downtown to the club scene where I might find one or two friends of mine that were still alive, maybe.

  I walked into the Black Club, as it was called, and the only dress code that they had was that you had to wear black, not that it was a problem for me. I found that I hid better at night if I wore just black, nothing to reflect or to give me away, therefore, the bouncer let me in, without any problems. I walked up, stood on the top balcony and looked over the crowd. I was in a corner, not many other places to go and not much room to get away, which I found out when someone pulled me away from the ledge and pushed me into the darkest spot of my little corner.

  I opened my eyes and stared at Isaac's dark blue ones as he held me up against the wall, both fists full of my shirt and his body pressed against mine. I stared at him as he looked from my lips to my eyes and back as he licked his own lips.

  "What are you doing?" I asked him.

  "Protecting you." he whispered back and leaned closer to me.

  "That doesn't mean you can seduce me, no matter what form you think of." I replied, grabbed the hair on the back of his head and put a hand on his cheek. "Let me go."

  His grip eased on my shirt and finally he just wrapped his arms around me, loosely and put his forehead against mine as I released his hair. His body started to sway with the music, bringing mine right along with his and I watched as he closed his eyes and his hands moved again. One rested in the middle of my back, up near my shoulders and the other held me firmly against him, just below my lower back. He moved his head and pressed his cheek against mine as our bodies moved together.

  "Isaac, we made a pact." I whispered to him as his lips kissed my bare neck. "We promised we wouldn’t do this to each other."

  "I'm not doing anything." he whispered and backed away from me, looking at my face. "I don't want to lose you."

  "Then let me go." I replied and watched him step back. "It won't be forever, and you know that."

  "Yeah, but it's already been too long." he said as he stepped further back.

  "Don't get that way on me, Isaac. We've been friends too long to do this now, especially now." I said lowly as I watched him disappear into the crowd, knowing that even though my voice was barely audible, he could hear me clearly.

  I walked out of the club and decided that the best place that I might be was just to wait in Benny's office. I stood by the window looking out on the town and waited calmly for the chubby little man to show up, but it was almost nine before he walked through the door. He looked at me as I sat in a chair twirling a pencil in my hand.

  "I thought you might be here this morning." He said and lit the cigar in his hand. He sat down behind his desk and started up his computer, and then looked at me again. "So, how did you get in?"

  "I have my ways." I replied, keeping a straight face. Really, I picked the lock.

  "Let me ask you a question." He said and started typing on his computer, either logging on to the internet, or breaking into the agency's files. "Can vampires really do that thing?"

  "What thing?" I asked.

  "You know; that thing that they do?" He said and twirled his finger in the air, as if I was supposed to know what he was talking about. "The whole mist thing."

  "Oh, that thing." I smiled at him, nodding as if I knew, then I grew quite serious. "No."

  "Are you sure, because I saw it in this movie once where..."

  "Benny." I said interrupting him. He looked at me quickly. "No, they can't do that mist thing."

  "Oh, well how about that other thing that they do." He asked and went about playing with his computer again. I smiled at him and knew that this one would be a chore to get out of him.

  "What other thing?"

  "The...ah...animal thing? What do they call it? Shape shifting thing?" He questioned.

  "No, they can't shape shift, where the hell do you get this stuff from?" I asked and laughed.

  "One last question." He smiled at me. I nodded and sat up. "What about that whole mind reading thing? I mean, they can do that, can't they?"

  "Yes, they can read minds, but anyone can do it if they got in touch with their sixth sense." I replied.

  "Coffins!" He shouted out. "Do they sleep in coffins?"

  "Only if they're really desperate for a place to sleep."

  "What about this whole cross thing, and the church, can you go in a church?"

  "I can go in a church; crosses don't hurt me if I look at them, drawing them on me with holy water is a different story." I said quickly and pulled up closer to the desk. "What's with all the twenty questions?"

  "Just passing time." He said and handed me the paper that he had been writing on while he was talking.

  "What's this?" I asked, trying to decipher his scribble.

  "It's an address to a mansion, just outside a small town in New York, just passed Syracuse. That's where both your uncle and your grandfather are.

  "Great, Benny! Thanks a lot." I said and stood up, then headed for the door.

  "Angel!" He hollered to me as I made my way down the stairway. I stopped and looked up at him as he leaned over the railing. "Be careful."

  "Thanks. I will." I replied and took off.

  New York, here I come.

  2

  Her breathing was labored and she tried all she could to quiet herself as she crouched behind the railings of the balcony. She looked down, with wide eyes, at the church stage as the three men dragged the woman in. She was kicking and screaming out obscenities that seemed to echo off the old church walls. She sat back when the Priest looked around, and then began to chant away, singing passages from the bible in Latin.

  Her blue eyes were closed tightly as she heard one of the men bring out a large box and pop the locks on it. She turned, watched the three men who held the woman, brought her up onto the alter and bound her arms and feet as if she were on a cross.

  Her pulse quickened as this woman began to scream in agony when the priest began to spray holy water on her. Her flesh began to bubble. The girl's eyes widened as she watched a man pull out a long wooden stake and mallet. He walked over to the priest, who stopped his praying over the woman only long enough to bless the stake in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and then he stepped back and let the other man step up to the altar.

  The girl's eyes began to water, as she tried to keep them from closing, feeling that she had to look at this no matter what. The man with the stake placed the oiled tip of it against the woman's chest, just above her heart, and as her screaming grew louder, and the priest's prayers also grew louder to be heard over the woman's cries, the man brought up the mallet and with one driving blow, brought it down on the top of the stake.

  It broke through her skin and the blood flew everywhere, even missing her, by only inches, but the man brought the mallet down again and sent the stake deeper into the woman's chest, finally piercing her heart. Her cries lessened and then died down, and the men decided to leave the room, a
ll with bowed heads, praying for forgiveness.

  She carefully made her way down the stairs towards the alter, her curiosity was overwhelming and the blood didn't seem to faze her twelve year old mind in the least. She stepped up to the alter, stepping in the crimson redness that was all over the floor and she reached out to touch the stake, when the woman's eyes popped open and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

  I sat up in the small bed. My skin glistened with sweat as I looked around the room. The rain outside seemed to stream down my window, but the knocking of the old tree against the house reminded me of my dream.

  I brushed my hair back from my face, tossed the covers, what was left of them, off from my legs and sat on the edge of the bed. This was going to be a long night. The clock only read one-thirty. I rubbed my face and stood up. I grabbed another nightshirt out of my top dresser drawer and walked into the bathroom where I turned on the shower and let the room steam up.

  I looked at myself in the mirror, at the dark bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, then pulled off my night shirt, which was drenched with sweat and stepped under the warm streams of water. I washed my hair and my skin and then just stood there letting the water come down on me.

  I was in there for about ten minutes when I opened my eyes and looked up. Someone was there, in my house, I could feel his presence. I stepped out, letting the shower continue to run and tucked a towel around me. I walked down the stairs, slowly and then flipped on the living room lights.

  My heart raced as I looked around the room, then I shut off the lights, and went back and finished my shower. I was in one of the hotel's bigger rooms and I wish that I could have just been in a tiny one with one window. My thoughts raced and I couldn't sleep anyway, not without the nightmares coming again, so, I sat and watched the info-commercials that were on that late at night.

  I watched them from where I hid behind a rather large tree. I could only assume that the man I was looking at, with his long black hair and green eyes, was Julian and the woman that stood by her car talking to him, was Ashley Wolf. She was leaving, that I could hear from where I stood, but she never said when she would be back.