7
Lucca
Ronan comes at me with the rage of a thousand soldiers. I barely have time to block his attacks as he pushes me off the tatami. My body is covered in sweat, and my arms and legs ache from the intense workout. I’m out of breath and out of shape. Damn it.
Lying on the bench, Saxon laughs. “And you thought you could take Boone the other night.”
“Fuck off.” I wipe the sweat from my forehead with the back of my arm and step inside the tatami again.
“Let’s take a break.” Ronan drops his blade.
“I don’t want a fucking break. Let’s keep going.”
“I’ve come close to removing your pretty head from your body twice. We’re taking a break.” His tone is final.
Clenching my jaw, I follow him to the bench not occupied by Saxon. Ronan sits down and wipes his face with a white towel, not that he really needs it. He barely broke a sweat.
I do the same, but instead of drying off, I lean forward and let my head drop between my shoulders. I’m dizzy, which means I need to feed soon. But the prospect of drinking blood from one of the humans employed by my uncle isn’t appealing. I’m still thinking about the sweet scent of that little thief. She awakened the deepest hunger in me. She gave me bloodlust, and now, I can’t stop obsessing about her. This is demented.
The door to the gym opens with a loud bang. I don’t need to look up to know my sister is the one marching across the room with the determination of a female vampire on a mission.
Fuck. What now?
“Who stole your Barbie doll, Manu?” Saxon asks.
“Bite me, asshole.” She stops in front of me with her hands on her hips.
“What?” I look up.
“You have to speak to Uncle.”
“Uh, in case you haven’t noticed, I haven’t seen the guy since I woke up from almost a hundred years of hibernation.”
“What? He hasn’t come to see you yet?” Her eyebrows arch, almost meeting her hairline.
“That’s what I just said. What’s the problem?”
Manu spares a fleeting glance in Ronan’s direction. My friend pretends he doesn’t see it, keeping his gaze forward.
Did something happen between them while I was sleeping?
“He wants my familiar to join the institute.”
Ronan grinds his teeth so hard that we all can hear it.
“You haven’t seen him in how long? Almost five hundred years? Is he even alive?”
“Yeah, he’s alive all right,” Saxon scoffs.
“He moved to Salem sixty years ago.” Manu crosses her arms and looks away.
“Okay. So, what’s the problem?”
“What’s the problem? What’s the problem?” she screams, gesturing widely with her arms. “There’s a reason I haven’t seen him all this time. I don’t know why Uncle is forcing him down my throat now.”
Ronan stands up abruptly. “You should have thought about that before you decided to acquire a familiar.”
He strides out of the room with tense shoulders, almost pulling the door off its hinges.
“What has gotten into him?” Saxon asks.
When Manu doesn’t answer, I continue, “If Uncle wants your familiar to join Bloodstone, there’s nothing you can do about it. He’s the king after all. His word is law.” The words are bitter in my mouth. I haven’t accepted his decision to coexist peacefully with Tatiana yet. I never will.
With a groan, Manu throws her hands up in the air. “This is so unfair.”
“Why are you whining about it?” Saxon interjects. “Familiars are great. They’re like your own personal assistant. I wish I had one.”
“You can have mine.” She pouts.
“You’re acting like a child,” I say. “Familiars are handy.”
She glowers. “Then why don’t you have one?”
Saxon replies before I can, “Because Lucca is such a beast that the Nightingales couldn’t find a single animal that liked him.”
When the Nightingales created us, they also bestowed upon us familiars, which were animals magically turned into human shifters. Once a familiar was linked to a vampire, their life forces were combined, allowing familiars to live as long as their vampire masters did. Like us, familiars bred and multiplied, and with time, the newer generations lost the ability to shift between forms, remaining stuck in their two-legged versions.
“Pot, meet kettle.” I get up.
The dizziness hasn’t passed, and this conversation is not helping. I sway on the spot, almost falling on my ass.
“Whoa, are you all right, buddy?” Saxon is by my side in the next second, holding me by the elbow.
Irritated, I step aside. “I’m fine.”
Manu narrows her eyes. “When was the last time you fed?”
“I had a few bags before training.”
“I’m talking fed from a human?”
“Can’t remember.” I veer for the exit.
“You haven’t fed since Havoc.” She follows me. “You need to eat, Lucca. Packed blood is not a replacement for the real deal.”
“I’ll eat after I shower.” I head for the stairs out of the basement.
The four of us live in a gothic mansion hidden deep in the woods near the town’s border. But that will change once we head to Bloodstone Institute, which is a much larger building nearby and not concealed from the rest of town.
Manu and my friends have already gone through their required rehabilitation training after they woke from hibernation, but we made a deal a long time ago to always stick together. That means they will endure the absurd program again for me.
Institutes were put in place when hibernation became a necessity. They have existed for almost five hundred years. Back in the old days, only Bluebloods attended, but with our dwindling numbers and the incorporation of the training of the Red Guard into the program, they’re no longer as elitist.
I expect to find the house empty and shrouded in darkness when I reach the ground floor, but there’s a fire going in the living room, bathing the area in orange light. On the grandfather chair near the fireplace, a lonely figure sits. My uncle, King Raphael.
Manu and Saxon stop next to me, but neither says a word. That’s the effect my uncle has on everyone.
“Lucca.” It’s all he says.
I glance briefly at Saxon and then at Manu, who has her gaze fixed on him. With a nod of his head, Saxon steers Manu up the grand staircase before she has the chance to ruin my first meeting with the king post-awakening. She can complain about her familiar later.
I walk over to the fireplace, bowing to my uncle before I take a seat on the couch facing the warm fire. It’s not even winter yet, but my uncle seems to be eternally cold.
“It’s good to see you awake, son.”
“It’s good to be back.”
We don’t speak for several beats, and during the loaded silence, I maintain my uncle’s stare. Few are able to do it.
“You aren’t happy about the truce,” he finally says.
“No.”
“You’ve been gone for a long time. A lot has changed.”
“It’s what I keep hearing, but so far, I haven’t seen enough evidence to justify a truce. I bumped into Boone last night. He’s still the same scum he used to be.”
“I know. I didn’t agree to peace because I believed Tatiana and her followers had changed. I did it to save our race from extinction.”
“You really believe the Nightingales will return if they think the war is over?” I snort.
“No.”
“What the hell? Then why are you doing this?”
He clamps his jaw tight and narrows his gaze. “I can’t tell you yet.”
I jump from the couch, propelled by the fury I’ve been trying to suppress since I found out about this idiotic truce. “That’s bullshit! I have the right to know why I can’t rip Boone’s heart out without facing execution.”
“Sit down,” he commands.
Flaring my
nostrils, I stare him down for a couple of seconds before obeying. I don’t know why I thought I could get a straight answer from him. The male wrote the book on evasion.
“Instead of wasting your time with demanding explanations, you should be focusing on breaking the curse.”
And just like that, he punctures my lungs with a steely knife. I never want to think about that. Ever.
“Why bother? It can’t be broken. The Nightingale queen made sure of that.”
“I didn’t raise you to be a whiny bitch.”
I wince at the remark. He only resorts to name-calling when he’s mad as hell.
“Even if I could control my hunger and not kill, I don’t see a plethora of Nightingales flying around. They’re gone, Uncle.”
“Not all of them, Lucca. You’re forgetting that the Nightingales liked to mingle with mortals before they left.”
“You’re talking about a descendant?”
He nods.
“Impossible. Even if I found one by chance, their blood would be too diluted. It wouldn’t work.”
Plus, I’d most likely drink the human dry, damning me forever.
“You’d rather not try then? I never pegged you for a coward.”
My hands ball into fists while I fight to keep the angry retort stuck in my throat.
“This is your last chance, Luc,” he continues in a softer tone. “If you go into hibernation again, you won’t wake up.”
Fuck. And don’t I know that.
8
Vivienne
I’ve been standing outside of Bloodstone Institute for over an hour, hiding under the shadows of an ancient oak tree across the dark road leading to its towering gates. There’s nothing here besides the school. Tall walls keep unwanted visitors out, and surrounding the property, a thick forest adds another level of spookiness to the place.
The merciless vise of dread wraps around me, sending chills down my back. This will be my home for the next three weeks—that is, if I’m not found out and killed beforehand.
Secured in my hand is the potion that will transform me into a vampire. I wanted to wait until the last minute to drink it. Now, I’m just wasting time. The howl of a wolf sounding in the distance tells me my time is up. The sun has set, and it’s getting late. I can’t forget there are other monsters roaming freely in this town.
I unscrew the bottle cap and drink the potion in one single gulp. It’s bitter as fuck, and it almost makes me gag. My stomach revolts, but I keep my mouth clamped shut. Throwing up is not an option. Bracing against the tree, I wait for the nausea to pass.
It takes a few minutes, but then a tingling sensation spreads through my body, freaking me out. Is this the spell at work? Frantically, I reach inside my bag and pull my cell phone out. What do I look like now?
I put on the camera and stare at a face that’s exactly the same as it was five minutes ago. I don’t know what I was expecting. Vampires look human until their eyes begin to glow and they reveal their fangs. I inspect my teeth, noticing the tips of sharper canines. It doesn’t matter; this won’t keep Lucca from recognizing me.
“What are you waiting for?” a male voice asks from behind me.
I yelp, dropping my phone. It’s the same gray-haired vampire who gave me the potion last night.
“What the hell!”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Then quit sneaking up on me.” I bend over to retrieve the device.
Once again, I don’t feel the terror that usually takes over me when I’m in the presence of a bloodsucker. This Blueblood is using his mojo on me again. Without fear, all that’s left is irritation.
“Answer me. What are you waiting for?”
“You said this potion would make me look like a vampire. Well, I still look like myself, so it obviously didn’t work.”
“It did work. You don’t feel human to me.”
“So you say. It doesn’t matter. Lucca will see right through the deception. He got a good look at me last night.”
“He won’t recognize you. Trust me.”
“Trust you? I don’t even know you.”
His eyes narrow. “What did Larsson say he was going to do to your brother if he didn’t get what he wanted?”
He had to remind me of that conversation. I had been doing an okay job, not thinking about Rikkon and the possibility of his imminent death. I have a bunch of conflicted emotions when it comes to the dumbass, but I obviously don’t want him to die.
This vampire, however, seems to know too much about my dealings with the dragon kingpin. What’s his game?
“I don’t want to repeat it.” I look at the dark building again.
“Time is ticking, Vivienne.”
There’s a gust of wind, and when I glance in his direction, he’s gone.
“Stupid-ass bloodsucker,” I mutter under my breath.
I fix the strap of my duffel bag, and with a steadying breath, I stride across the street. Suddenly, headlights illuminate my face, followed by the screeching of tires and a loud horn. I jump back, clutching at my chest as I stare at the black SUV that almost ran me over. I can’t see who is behind the wheel, thanks to the blinding lights, until the driver rolls his window down and sticks his head out.
“What the hell are you doing? Get the fuck out of the way.”
Oh my God. It’s Lucca. He’s the one driving, and now, he’s just glaring at me without an ounce of recognition on his face. I scramble to the curb and stare dumbly at his car as he drives past me and through the now-open gates of the institute.
I’ll be damned. The spell did work.
The gates begin to shut once more, so I run toward them, managing to slip through just before they close. I’m still breathing hard when two security guards wearing black suits materialize in front of me in a split second. Crap. They can move fast.
“This is private property.” One of them reaches for my shoulder.
I jump back. “Hey, I’m a student here.”
They trade a glance before the one who spoke first looks at me. “Name?”
“Vivienne Gale.”
Cold light illuminates his gaunt face when he glances down at his phone. “She’s on the list.”
His coworker pierces me with a stern stare. “Head to the administration office. And next time, don’t try to sneak in.”
“I won’t. Thanks.”
I hurry to the front of the building, hoping they can’t hear the sound of my heart beating like a drum. Unlike in fiction, vampires do have heartbeats, but does it go out of control like that whenever they’re nervous?
Trying to get out of the guards’ sight as fast as possible, I almost burst through the heavy front doors. But once I’m inside the building, I freeze. The high vaulted ceiling is well lit, and the interior isn’t dark or gloomy, but the place is already crawling with vampires. I can’t help the terror that grips me in a strong hold. I’m already feeling light-headed, and dark spots appear in my line of vision. I’m going to make a spectacle out of myself within seconds.
“Are you new too?” a female voice asks next to me.
“What?” I squeak, glancing at her.
She’s a petite brunette with big, round doe eyes and corkscrew curly hair reaching her shoulders. She also looks twelve.
“I’m new too. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.” She smiles at me, showing a hint of fangs. “I’m Cassandra, by the way, but everyone calls me Cassie. What’s your name?”
“Vivienne.”
She extends her hand, but instead of shaking it, I simply stare at it. Cassie’s friendly smile begins to wilt, making me feel bad for my inadequacy. I finally reach over.
“Nice to meet you,” I say.
A wash of relief shows on her face, and nothing bad happens to me after the handshake. Maybe I can do this after all.
We walk together to the administration office. It’s nearby, but in that short time span, she manages to tell me her entire life story. Her parents are from Boston and not
Bluebloods. Like the vast majority of vampires living outside of Salem, they have to work for humans and hope no one will discover their secret.
Cassie has been on the waitlist to attend Bloodstone for over fifty years. She hopes to become a Keeper and be employed by a Blueblood family. I have no idea what a Keeper is, but I can’t ask.
The positive side of her conversation monopoly is that I don’t have to answer any questions about myself. Things happened so fast that I didn’t have the chance to concoct a background story.
We wait in the administration office with five other students. They’re all regular vampires who have been waiting a long time to come here. The mysterious vampire helping me managed to get me a spot in less than twenty-four hours. He must be someone very important, which makes me leery of his motives.
“Vivienne Gale?” the vamp behind the counter calls.
I jump out of my chair and say, “Present,” like a dimwit, causing a ripple of giggles to spread in the waiting room. With my face in flames, I walk over to the counter, avoiding making eye contact with anyone on the way.
“I’m Vivienne Gale,” I say.
Without looking at me, she types away on her keyboard and then frowns at the computer screen. “That’s odd.”
“What is?”
She gives me a scrutinizing glance.
Shit. Does she suspect I’m not a vampire?
“You’re not a Blueblood, but you’ve been assigned a room in the Blueblood wing.”
Fuuuuck. The coin has finally dropped. Despite packing a bag with clothes and some personal items, I forgot I’d be boarding with vampires. Or maybe I was still in shock when I got ready to come here.
“Am I sharing that room?”
“Not the room, dear. The apartment. Bluebloods don’t share rooms.”
I exhale loudly, partially relieved. Sharing an apartment is definitely better than sharing a room. “Okay then.”
Furrowing her eyebrows, she says, “Don’t get too comfortable. This was most likely a mistake, and you will be reassigned once registration is closed.”
Dark Prince: A Vampire Paranormal Romance (Blueblood Vampires Book 1) Page 4
