Bleeding Love

by Ashley Andrews

  Xavier was the one who explained. “They're vampires, who instead of drinking blood, feed on the negative energy of vampires and humans alike.”

  Carter Stahl smiled. “I see you've been listening during History class,” he then said, proud of the fact that one of his students was very much aware of his kind's history.

  “So I don't need to drink blood?” asked the birthday girl, whose smile was as luminescent as her sparkling sequined mini-dress. She couldn't help but grin. She didn't need to drink blood! She wasn't a carnivore, and most especially, she wasn't a monster. Feeding off negative energy didn’t sound as bad as sucking blood.

  “Vampires aren't monsters, kiddo.” Carter Stahl chuckled, and in return, her daughter gaped at him.

  Adrienne had to remind herself that mind-reading was another ability of vampires, and apparently, her father had that special gift. “Please don't tell me you can read my thoughts too?” she asked, turning to face Xavier.

  Xavier was still dealing with the fact that Adrienne was such a special kind of vampire, the type that all vampires dreamed of being. He shook his head. He couldn't read her mind, and that was the truth. “I can only read the minds of humans,” was his somewhat morose reply.

  “But how come my father can read mine?”

  Xavier smiled, and then winced. All of a sudden he felt dead tired. He felt his limbs go numb, and right then and there, all he wanted to go was leave. He needed to feed. He needed time alone to rethink things—things about Adrienne. He sighed. “I told you a while ago that you were a princess. You are,” Xavier said. “Your father's a Vampire Regent, head of one of the five realms of the Vampire Kingdom.”

  She only took World History, not Vampire History or Politics, so to say the least; she still didn't get whatever point Xavier was trying to get across. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

  Xavier exhaled. He was too tired to explain to her what she needed to know, and besides, it was her fault he was currently feeling weak. She had drained his energy, but he couldn't just leave Carter Stahl's office. He needed to settle a few things with the Regent.

  “Vampire Regents are in effect, the kings of vampire kingdoms. As rulers their abilities surpass the skill levels of all their subjects, combined. Your father's extra-sensory perceptions are much greater than that of normal vampires, or even those of the noble class.”

  Adrienne nodded her head slowly in understanding. She kind of got the gist of what he was trying to say. It boiled down to one thing. “So basically, he's powerful?”

  Adrienne eyed her father. He didn't look like a monarch, or powerful for that matter, but that was probably because he looked like her father always did. He may be an influential creature to the vampire kind, but to Adrienne, he was just her father.

  “Very powerful. He can do things only a handful of vampires can do.”

  Adrienne let out a sharp gust of breath. This—everything—was definitely too much for her to process in a single night. It was stressing her to have to deal with her new reality. “Why are you telling me these things now? Why not before, like years before. Why wait until the middle of my eighteenth birthday party?”

  “It's the curse your mother put on you,” Her father's voice was steady and slow. “That's why you've been living like a human for the past eighteen years.”

  “Curse?” Adrienne asked, and suddenly she wanted to cry. “Mom never loved me?” One delicate tear rolled down her cheeks.

  Since Carter and Xavier were vampires, they very clearly saw the tear that rolled down one cheek. To them it was as if that single drop had been magnified and projected onto a screen. “She had to curse me?”

  “The curse she put on you was for your protection. She did it to protect you,” her father admonished.

  “Protect me from what?”

  Before Carter could answer his daughter's question, Brianna stepped in and asked if she could leave the room. “Everyone's probably looking for Adie, so I have to go, and, you know, make up excuses.”

  “Very well then,” said Adrienne's father, dismissing Adrienne's best friend. “And as I've told you countless times before, Brianna, thank you for all your help.”

  She saluted him. “Anytime, sir,” she replied, her voice respectful. She opened the door and left the room.

  “Do I have to go too?” Xavier asked, with his hands in the pockets of his dark-washed jeans. He’d propped himself against the wall, he needed the contact to keep upright.

  “Definitely not. You have to stay.” Adrienne's father replied.

  Xavier nodded at him before he walked to the side of the room opposite Adrienne. He didn't want to do anything anymore to irritate her further. Based on what he’d learned from his History classes, if one provoked a psychic vampire to do their worst, he or she could drain a person's or a vampire's energy until there was no feelings left, and this could result in death. He'd been living for only a few centuries. He was too young to die.

  Adrienne had been silent, ignoring the two men while she thought about things she’d learned tonight. Suddenly she spoke out, “Did Mom really kill herself?”

  Adrienne’s father and Xavier went still and quiet. She went very still, waiting, hoping that some of the questions that she’d had all her life would finally be answered.

  “She didn't kill herself, Adrienne,” Carter said, saying her daughter's name instead of 'kiddo' which was rare. It brought a small smile to her face. “The story is rather long and involved, but for tonight, I’ll give you a shorter version.

  “I'm all ears.”

  “So am I,” said Xavier, scooting down the wall, collapsing on the carpeted floor.

  Carter Stahl took a deep breath. He looked at the two teenagers that sat across from him, Xavier on the floor, Adrienne sitting on a chair. Their faces were so serious. All had been done to ensure the future of these two, the future of their race.

  “You two certainly know what happened on June 7, 1494, right?”

  Adrienne shook her head, her mouth in a pout. “You know I have no idea of Vampire History, dad.”

  Xavier laughed silently before saying, “You don't need to know our kind's past to know about the Treaty of Tordesillas, Adie.” His deep voice thrilled through her.

  “What does that have to do with mom?” She turned to look at her father.

  “I'm getting there, kiddo,” said Carter, chuckling at his daughter's impatience. “The Treaty basically divided the known civilized world into two parts, the East and the West. The lands in the East belonged to Portugal, and those in the West were owned by Spain. In the vampire realm the East fell under the ownership of the Kristofferson Dynasty.”

  “Sexy name,” Adrienne suddenly blurted out, unaware that her mouth was acting faster than her mind. “That would be a totally hot last name.”

  “I'm glad you think so,” Xavier interjected, smiling.

  Adrienne frowned at the tone in his voice, suddenly suspicious, she asked, “So, your name is Xavier. What is your last name?”

  Xavier's grin spread across his face. “I'm Xavier Kristofferson.”

  “Hell, no!” Adrienne gasped, covering her mouth with her hands in embarrassment.

  “Hell, yes,” was the other's teasing reply.

  “Can I continue now?” That was Adrienne's father. Even though he was amused with his daughter's and Xavier's biting and entertaining interaction with each other, Carter Stahl needed to finish the story as soon as possible. While vampires didn’t need to sleep, they did get tired, and he was tired. And his daughter had a party to finish.

  “Did you just say the Kristofferson Dynasty used to own half of the world?” Adrienne asked.

  Her father nodded in response. “They ruled half of the vampire world and the other half belonged to our dynasty, the Stahl dynasty. Many believed there was too much power in the hands of two monarchies, so some nobles and a lot of lower-class vampires decided to revolt, and a number of them teamed up with Vampire Hunters.”

  Xavier had heard thi
s story a million times before, but he enjoyed hearing the elder Stahl recite their family history. “Before your mother and I knew it, every single person who was against the two monarchies, had begun searching for you and for Xavier. The thought was that if they killed the only heirs to both thrones, there would no longer be a monarchy in place. Xavier’s parents, your mother, and I hid you, and did everything we could to keep you safe.”

  “What? Wait…wait, this was 1492 and you said that people were searching for Xavier and I? Dad, I just turned 18!”

  “This was a couple hundred years after 1492. The treaty was signed, the divisions in power made, and it took several centuries for the revolution to grow in strength and numbers. But the curse or spell that your mother put on you did a couple things. You were made to appear human, in fact in many ways you are human, not vampire. But you age much slower than a human, and your memories have been taken from you, time and time again so that what you know is remember is just that last few years. Kiddo, you may look and feel 18 in human years, but in vampire years you are several centuries old.”

  “So in order to protect me, the curse made me seem human? I’m several centuries old but I can’t remember anything from before. What about Xavier? Has he had his memories taken away too?” She was really struggling to understand, but it was so much to take in all at once.

  Adrienne's father shook his head. “We made you human, or near human, and over the years I’ve altered your memories. But Xavier has lived the life of a vampire throughout this time, and been carefully watched over.”

  “But why were we treated differently?”

  “Because Xavier is a male of our species. He must be able to protect himself, and now to help protect you. He has been trained to fight, and has explored all his powers and abilities, learning to use them to the fullest. Xavier has spent all the centuries he has lived, training to be the one of the greatest vampire warriors of all time. He has also learned almost all there is to know about vampire history and politics.”

  Adrienne studied the vampire sprawled on the floor. Even she could see that he was completely wiped out from her psychic draining. He didn’t look like one of the greatest vampire warriors of all time to her. She looked at her dad who was grinning at her and she remembered he could read her mind. Not something she wanted to think about right now. Eventually she was going to have to come up with a list of all the times she’d lied to him, or tried to sneak out, or…shit!

  Carter struggled not to laugh; he didn’t want to get off track. “So. During all this time that Xavier was becoming a warrior, I raised you as close to human as possible. I kept you hidden, and we moved every decade or so. Your mother died in order to provide the paranormal shield that gave you human attributes and kept you from aging. She didn’t kill herself; she offered her life, for yours. Do you understand the difference, Adrienne?”

  He waited for his daughter’s nod before he continued, “The spell your mother died to give you started to slowly slip away, and in the year 1990, you started to age again, and I knew the time had come to make a stand. To find us a place where you could grow to maturity and where when the time came, that others that we trust, other’s like Xavier, could be near to help protect you as you take your rightful place among our people.”

  The missing puzzle pieces were slowly starting to come together. She’d always thought she had a really active imagination, always picturing herself at different times, in different places. Places she had never visited were so clear in her mind. Well, maybe she had been there. Maybe these were memory flashes, things that had really occurred as part of her past, and not just an overactive imagination. She felt as if there was a veil over her memories, and that veil was slowly being lifted away. Now Adrienne could understand why her mother had put a spell on her, and that she had died to protect her. What she really wanted was even a single memory of her mother.

  “The only way to keep you safe from all harm that could come your way, your mother gave up her life. At this time she was considered the strongest living vampire. That legacy passes to you. When she died, the two vampire empires collapsed and evolved into the five we have today. Those empires include the American realm, which we rule, the European realm, which Xavier's family heads, the Asian realm, the African realm, and the Russian realm.”

  “So why am I only finding out about this now?” she asked.

  “As a human child, in a state of stasis or I don’t know…I think a better description is a state of non-growth, you didn’t need to know anything. To keep you safe, you had to stay human. But as your body matured to what in human physiology is the age of eighteen, your body and mind have transitioned from adolescence to adulthood.”

  “Why does that make a difference?” She just wasn’t getting why Xavier could know all this time but she couldn’t.

  “Vampires age very slowly. At two hundred years they are as a thirteen year old human. We wanted to give you time for your body and mind to aged. As an adult in both the vampire and the human world, you can help take care of yourself. You can learn the skills you need to survive, to make your own decisions. The reality is that the curse or spell was not intended to last forever, but to give you time to become an adult. Now you can live and survive without the help of the curse,” her father smiled at her.

  “So the curse is completely broken?” Adrienne asked. Her mouth formed into a very thin line. She didn't know what she thought about all of this. What the night’s revelations would mean to her life. She would need to learn a lot more about being a vampire before she could have an opinion. What really bothered her is that she knew she was a pretty shallow human being. She liked boys, she liked to party, she wanted to go to Mexico on Spring Break. She just knew this whole vampire princess, betrothed, and well…dad had said something about vampire hunters…was going to really interfere with her shallow human, but happy life.

  “The curse isn't completely broken.”

  She blinked. Excuse me. “What do you mean the curse isn’t completely broken?”

  “There are remnants of the spell that still remain. That will probably always remain. You retain many of your human characteristics. For instance unlike most vampires, you can still go in the sun without burning your skin or eyes. You can control the need to feed on negative energy, and you can use human food for sustenance. So basically, you're still human except that you have some powers. Some of the powers that you will have we know about, and some we may have to discover. Vampires can all see and hear things from miles away. We do this very easily, you may have to work at it and concentrate.”

  “Don't forget her super-strength,” Xavier said, laughing. “Obviously she isn’t going to have to think about using that power. Just a few sexual insinuations here and there, and you'll be able carry a pick-up truck with ease. But she might need to learn how to control that power. Can you imagine her hitting a tennis ball, now?”

  After he said that, he did the hottest thing; he winked at her. Xavier Kristofferson, the guy with the very hot last name winked at her, but she frowned. “What did I say about your sexually-related remarks?”

  He shook his head, not understanding what she meant, but she knew he was only pretending.

  “You don't remember? I said I didn't like them,” she finished, intending on rushing to his side in an attempt to surprise him. Instead she surprised herself. She went from her chair, to his side in the blink of an eye. With her eye’s opened wide in amazement, she turned to her father for answers, but Xavier beat her to it.

  “You're pretty slow for a vampire but extremely fast for a human,” he teased. “This is one of the first vampire powers we have to learn to control. You can’t do this in front of humans, obviously. But you won’t be as fast as a vampire, as that is another element of the curse.”

  “Curse or no curse,” Adrienne started, dashing around the room, a few papers on her father's desk flying away. She had to admit having super-speed was extremely fun since it made her feel really carefree and as if she could
out run any thing. She could run across forests and not have to worry about some beast catching her. She decided she was going to do that some time—run endlessly and be unstoppable.

  Suddenly she understood why all the vampires she read about in stories or watched in movies were arrogant and egocentric. After all, they had powers, the intellect, and the beauty humans could only dream of having. There were plenty of reasons that they thought they were great. And now Adrienne knew she was one of them, but she still loved her human side—the cursed side. “Curse or no curse, I am so happy I can still have total fun in Cabo!”

  “Spring Break is still months away, it's only October,” said her father, in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “And your point is?”

  “Before you start dreaming about the fun you'll have in Mexico, there are many things to learn. And you can’t tell anyone that you are a vampire. You can talk about this with me, with Brianna, and with Xavier. That is all.”

  Adrienne's stomach suddenly twisted in nervousness. She didn’t really like that. What about Ethan, or her other friends?

  “Eventually you will have to choose between remaining in the Day Class, or switching to the Night Class to learn more of your vampire side,” her father said.

  She didn’t have to think about that one. “I'd like to sta—”

  “Just think about it first,” her father said, interrupting her. “You have a week before I'll ask you again, so just wait and see how things go this week and think carefully about your choice.”

  Adrienne had already made a decision, but since her father gave her a week, she gladly took the seven days. She thought she’d probably learned all she wanted to know about vampires for the moment. She was on severe overload. She absolutely didn’t want to talk about Xavier and why they were betrothed. She wanted out. So she simply smiled before asking, “Now can I go?”

  “Not before I give you my birthday gift, kiddo.”

  Adrienne grinned when she saw her father open one of the drawers of his desk. He got a very tiny plastic bag from the mahogany table before he went around and stood in front of his daughter. Adrienne took the gift gladly and fished a contact container out of the bag.