Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1

by Elise Hennessy

  Recoiling from herself with a curse, her back ran into Melanie’s front. She startled away, her breath coming in short pants. “It’ll be okay, Violet. We’re going to figure this out,” she said, speaking gently.

  “Am I a vampire?” Her voice cracked with terror. She hadn’t known of their shadowy world mere days ago, and no part of her wanted to join them. Not with half-remembered nightmares of bloodshed and sadism resting behind her eyes every time she blinked.

  Melanie brought her wrist to her mouth, popping her skin with twin fangs. Wordlessly, she held the bleeding wound out to Violet, who watched two rivulets of blood run down her arm with revulsion.

  “No, I don’t think you are,” she said, wiping away the blood with a rough hotel towel as the punctures closed and healed on their own. “If you were a fledgling vampire, you wouldn’t be able to resist the smell of my blood. Our very youngest are always thirsty until their fangs grow in.”

  “Well, I am thirsty.” Violet looked at her toes, where even the veins over her feet were that strange gray.

  Taking a glass of water from her bedside, Melanie pressed its cool edge to Violet’s lips. At first, she was indignant about being fed water like an invalid, except she knew the moment she took the first few sips, she would’ve drained the glass and more in desperation to chase away her dry throat. “I don’t know what’s going on with you yet. But I will find out,” she promised. “I need you to think back for me. What happened after you parted ways with Alex in that forest? Did anyone feed you anything against your will?”

  Violet closed her eyes and tried to think back. She remembered Kim as a red-eyed demon, pushing away the deal she was cultivating with another vampire named William to instead torture her with evil magic. Those visions of death and gore hit her as she focused, drawing tears as she trembled. She looked around desperately, reminding herself that she was in a motel, not in those nightmares.

  “I-I don’t know.” Melanie held her as she wept, murmuring soothing encouragements.

  “No worries. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Violet was quite eager for a shower, turning the water up extra hot to scrub away the oily, dread-like feeling still clinging to her. She was reasonably sure that these people wanted to help her, especially Alex. The chilling touch of nightmares must be leading her astray, but she still had no intentions of abandoning her old life.

  That was, until she saw the news report. Alex, Melanie, and one other familiar-yet-not vampire sat in the cramped front room once she emerged from her shower, clean and changed into a set of Melanie’s clothes. They were more suited to her tall frame rather than Violet’s petite one, but they were better than a nightgown.

  She stood to the side, all the blood draining from her face as she realized the broadcast was about her. Her unflattering employee ID photo was on screen, showing her thirty pounds heavier and with exhausted bags under her eyes. For that alone, she could go crawl under a bed in mortification. But the contents of the news were worse, so much worse.

  Just as William had promised, she’d been framed for the murder of her coworkers. She shook her head in quiet denial, feeling like she was stuck in yet another nightmare. “This can’t be happening,” she said, backing away from the damning images on screen. The news didn’t show bodies, only the pen where they’d been found.

  Alex switched to another channel, standing. “Violet—”

  “No! I just…I need some air,” she said, backing away when he started approaching her. She undid the lock on the door and flung it open, running into the early-evening sunlight. She had to get away, she had to—stop.

  Every exposed inch of her skin screamed. The smell of burned flesh surrounded her as the merciless sun scorched down. She turned around in time to see Alex reach her, his skin smoking. He hefted her off her feet and back into the motel room with haste. Her face tingled unpleasantly, and she saw her arms were a lobster red as the burns set in.

  “Oh my god,” she said. Alex had splotches of pink over his skin, fading as she watched.

  “Seems you are a vampire too.” He supplied what she wouldn’t, couldn’t, say about herself. Melanie interrupted them with packs of ice quickly wrapped in towels. She pressed one to Violet’s cheek while Alex held two more to her arms.

  Her face burned further with shame as they spoke in low tones, coordinating like this was a routine injury they saw. At odds to their serious expressions was the other vampire, who watched from the couch and offered Violet a kind look. He was subtly handsome, more boyish than the others she’d met, being overweight and clean-shaven. He wore casual clothes and a halo of brown curls. “Hello there. We’ve spoken before. I’m Sam,” he said when he noticed her attention drifting away from the emergency intervention going on.

  “Yes. I…remember you,” she said. They’d spoken before her car was crashed. It was one of the only whole memories she had of that night’s ordeal. She’d knocked her head hard right afterward.

  “First rule of being a vampire, the sun’s not your friend. Takes some getting used to, I know.” His British accent was more pronounced than Alex’s, enunciating each syllable precisely. He had a voice for the radio, she thought, starting to relax as her burns were soothed as much as possible.

  “I don’t know how this is possible,” she said, glancing to Melanie. “Didn’t you just say you didn’t think I was…” she couldn’t bear to say it.

  “Seems I was mistaken,” she sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You have to come with us. Life is brutal for a vampiress on her own. We can teach you everything you need to know of your new life.”

  She set her jaw, discomfort prickling her skin like the pins-and-needles pain of the burn settling in. “I have a life I’m leaving behind then. A job and…” she drifted off, gazing to the television, which was playing a sitcom instead of the news. Despite herself, she knew that old life was over. She was married to that job, pouring her time and effort into it rather than friends or hobbies. “…and a cat. I have a cat.”

  “We can send someone to get the cat for you,” Alex promised. “I, for one, will not be shapeshifting for a long time. A real cat will be the only cat you see. Is there anyone you want to send a message to? Or that could shelter you for a while?”

  Violet thought to her old roommates and the scattering of friends she had. “I don’t think they’d ever believe what happened,” she admitted slowly. It came as a reality check for herself, too. She’d experienced something so extraordinary, no one but actual vampires would understand.

  “You’ve been through something truly traumatic. Please, let us take care of you for a while. We’ll get you back on your feet and to a stable, new life.” Alex rested a hand on her unburnt shoulder.

  There didn’t seem to be any other attractive options. She couldn’t go backward, so instead, she decided to step into the unknown. “Yes, all right. I’ll go with you.”

  Chapter 11

  Violet

  VIOLET FELT SHE’D made the right decision, mulling over it as she watched the world scroll by in the passenger’s side of a quiet car. Alex and Sam were in a separate car, leaving her and Melanie alone. Melanie winked as she explained she’d talked them into it, wanting some girl time. Violet had laughed uneasily.

  She half-remembered Melanie, that recollection growing sharper the longer she was alone with the sharp-featured woman. Vague memories of her taking down men twice her size danced behind her eyelids, showing them seizing their chests and dying on the spot with barely a glance from Melanie.

  “So, what did they show you about me?” Melanie asked as the miles flew by.

  “Hmm?”

  “I’m taking a guess from your silence that you think you know something about me. Is that true?” she asked, glancing at Violet out of the corner of her eye.

  “No. I just don’t want to talk,” she murmured.

  “You are a poor liar, my dear.” Melanie offered a smile, which softened her features and made her look almost normal, if preternatur
ally beautiful.

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said again.

  “I understand. I just… I hope you know they lied to you. About us,” she said. “We’re not bad people. There’s nothing to fear from any of us, but you are afraid. I just want to help.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Violet said to her window, finding it hard to look over at her. The reality of her situation pushed in. “I don’t want to be a vampire. I don’t know how that happened. My head’s full of half-truths.”

  “I was mortal-born too and none too pleased at first to be turned,” Melanie said, sounding distant. Though Violet’s interest was piqued, she changed the subject quickly. “Alex has never been saved by an outsider like this. This situation is new to us too.”

  “I imagine,” she murmured. He seemed so much larger than life to need the help of someone else.

  “I can answer any questions you have.”

  Violet considered quietly for long enough that she didn’t think she would answer at all. One question was nagging at her enough to ask. There was a dam of questions she worried would break the moment she started asking them. She started with an offhanded comment from Alex about Melanie. “What is the Gift? It sounds important.”

  “It certainly is. It’s the manifestation of a gentle soul, some would say,” Melanie said. “It’s the only blood ability I’ll ever have, but it is very powerful to make up for that. It’s used to quickly heal other vampires from life-threatening injuries. I am the coven’s strongest healer.”

  “Can it be used to harm?”

  The vampiress paused for a moment. “Only in the direst of circumstances. The Gift will leave forever if you abuse it too often.”

  “Have you done it before?” Her gorge rose as she saw it again, men dying with barely any effort exerted on Melanie’s part.

  “Only once, love. Collins and his Haven flunkies overran our headquarters in Massachusetts. I defended our wounded in the only way I could, blade and Gift alike.” Violet felt the daymare vision close in, the horror of the moment rippling under her skin. Bodies piling up, clutching their chests as their organs betrayed them. She made a sound like she was choking, finding it hard to make her lungs work.

  When she regained her senses, they were parked by the side of the road. Melanie was shining a flashlight into one of her eyes. “All good there? Can you tell me what happened?” Her face was creased with concern.

  “I… I saw you. Killing them,” she murmured, trembling hard. She took great gasps of breath, trying to calm her racing heart.

  “Oh. I’m sorry,” she said. She nodded in slow understanding and clasped Violet’s hand. “I would never do such a thing to you. I am a doctor and sworn to do no harm. Whatever Cox showed you, that isn’t me. I would venture everything you were shown is all distortions of the truth.”

  “You can’t prove it,” Violet said, finding it difficult to turn from Melanie’s earnest face. She believed it all the same, and that scared her. She didn’t know what was real anymore, not when a vampire could apparently reach inside her mind and plant memories like a foul gardener.

  “I sure can.” Melanie pulled out her phone and offering it over. “Search my name. Melanie Rainey. Read that first result.”

  Violet did as requested while Melanie drove them back onto the interstate. She read and reread the first result multiple times and then paged to the next. And the next. “You’re a surgeon. For humans?” she said.

  “And proud of it,” she smiled.

  “And you have a scholarship in your name. And Sam’s.” Her eyebrows raised from how long they’d funded it.

  “We like to see young minds joining the medical field,” she nodded.

  “And,” Violet added, reading it directly from the page, “you’ve never made a mistake in any of your surgeries. No manipulation?”

  “Not a drop.”

  “How were you going to hide how you won’t be living a normal person’s lifespan?” Someone would notice eventually that the flawless surgeon wasn’t aging or changing as the years passed.

  “The same thing we always do when the time comes. Change names, locations. There are so many hospitals in need of qualified people,” she said.

  Violet made an impressed sound, wondering how many times they’d had to do that.

  “Well? Do I still seem so bad?” she smiled.

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “Bit of cognitive dissonance then,” Melanie said. “You know, we could erase the whole ordeal you experienced and start your new life without that trauma.”

  “No!” Violet blurted. “I mean… that’s okay. I would rather remember everything. I… I like knowing my memories haven’t been tampered with. More than they already have.”

  “I understand. Better than you think, I would wager. Such things leave a hole in your memories. It usually doesn’t smooth out evenly.” Violet felt goosebumps at the idea of having something like that. She would never trust it. “Can you promise me something then?”

  “What?” she murmured uneasily.

  “You’ll give us all a chance to show you our real stripes,” Melanie said. “I would hate for you to think me a murderer when I’m quite the opposite. I imagine my blood family would feel the same way about what the Haveners showed you about them.”

  “I’ll try,” she said, though she hesitated. That oily dread was back, coating her throat and chest with uneasy ripples.

  “Any other questions?” Melanie offered.

  So many, she thought, and her uneasiness spurred her toward the most uncomfortable of them. “When will I need to drink blood?”

  Tapping her finger on the steering wheel, Melanie considered her answer. “The answer to that should’ve been right away. But you aren’t showing any signs of being a hungry fledgling, which, trust me, you would notice. The only thing giving you away as a vampire is your photosensitive skin.”

  “So, what’s wrong with me?” She frowned, looking down at the gray veins crisscrossing at her wrist.

  “Nothing’s wrong with you.” Melanie was firm rather than gentle about it, her serious expression saying she would shoot down any contradiction.

  She found herself appreciating that bit of bedside manner, searching for something else to talk about that didn’t have her skin crawling. She settled for something else readily apparent. “I hope this isn’t a personal question, but are you British too?”

  Melanie chuckled. “I was, yes. I practiced an American accent with Alex, and usually, I do better at keeping it. It helps that most of my patients are American.”

  “So, you’ve been a group for a while.”

  The other woman said, “If you call three hundred years ‘a while,’ then yes, we’ve known each other a while.” She glanced over to see Violet gaping and smiled wide enough to show fangs. “There are older vamps out there. We’re nothing too special.”

  “Like, how old?” she asked. Three hundred years was boggling to her. To think there were others who were even older…

  “One Ancient lives in New York, and she’s about… nine hundred. The years get fuzzy when you get that high,” Melanie said, chuckling as she took in Violet’s incredulous reaction from the corner of her eye. “To be fair, there’s only a handful of Ancients around. It’s hard to survive the attention of being the strongest around.”

  She explained the ranks of vampire-hood, Master, Elder, and Ancient, and how they related to blood abilities. Violet listened with fascination, finding it straightforward if surreal that all this information was completely secret. There were approximately eight bloodlines, with specific abilities inherited from sire to fledgling that developed over time.

  “Of course, there are some quirks to this. If a vampire is born from parents of two different bloodlines, their abilities mix or swap around, and that’s what gets passed on. So, almost no one can accurately predict what abilities they’ll manifest.”

  “Hold on, what? Vampires can be born that way?” Violet asked, putting her palms
up. She thought of vampires as undead, unchanging, allergic to garlic, and unable to see their reflections in a mirror.

  Melanie offered a shrug. “It might seem weird, but we’re basically humans that have been infected with a blood borne disease. It gives enhanced strength and reflexes, immortality, and a taste for blood, among other things. To simplify things for you, we lose no human functions. Vampire children are a hundred percent human until they come of age, which is when they turn.”

  “That’s crazy. So, I might’ve met a vampire child and not even known it?” She had a new appreciation for the quirky personalities she’d met in high school.

  “Possibly,” she said with a smile. “Alex was born a vampire, just so you know. He’s our coven master as the eldest and strongest of our group. Since you’re joining us, even for a little while, you should know how that works.”

  She shifted uncomfortably at the reminder that it was an us now. For all this talk of bloodlines, she had no idea who’d turned her into a vampire and thus no hints as to what abilities she was to inherit. “All right,” she sighed.

  “There are twelve covens that share New York City. The more mortals in one place, the higher a population of vampires it can support. I estimate that’s about ten thousand vampires concentrated in one city, which tends to cause conflict regardless of resources.”

  “But why?” Violet interrupted.

  “You know how mortals get competitive over money? Vampires are that way with power. Everyone wants to be top dog, especially the coven masters. That means coven warfare and assassinations at their very worst.” Violet made a sound of distress, and Melanie frowned. “Sorry, touchy subject. Just know that you’re in a stable coven. We have allies and enemies, but Alex can tell you more later.”

  To Violet’s relief, they steered the conversation away from talk of bloodshed. Melanie kept her talking all the way to the city, and she found herself grateful to have found a friend to relate to in the mess her life had become. She watched the city’s skyline on the horizon, amazed at the scope of the buildings. She’d never been anywhere so big and sprawling before. But now, for a time, it would be home.