Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1

by Elise Hennessy

  “Do you remember how you were turned?” Violet shook her head. “Hmm. Despite that, I can smell the magic upon you.” She leaned back in the chair, eyes darting back and forth as she considered.

  “Do you know something about me?” she asked hopefully. “Why I’m different? A vampire…but not?”

  The Ancient’s attention turned to Julian, to her disappointment, considering him instead. He raised a brow, full of chilly aggression on a short leash. “I have displayed poor manners. Let me introduce myself. You may know me as the Curator. We have met before.”

  Violet didn’t understand the connotations of the name, but it’d obviously woken something in him. His expression shaded, fists unclenching on the table. “I find it hard to trust someone claiming the title of an urban legend,” he scoffed, but underneath the bravado, Violet saw the fear making his hands shake.

  And if he was afraid, she realized this chance meeting was far more frightening than it appeared. “Why? I’ve helped you in the past, and I will help you again,” she said.

  “Who is the Curator?” Violet asked him privately.

  Without so much as a blink to indicate he’d heard her, he said, “The Boogeyman for vampires. Like I said, an urban legend. It’s said if you are a truly wicked, evil vampire, the Curator will come and quietly remove your existence. Alex claims he’s seen her once.”

  “But then she comes only for evil vampires. And we’re not evil,” she pointed out.

  His hand twitched in a cutting gesture. “Be that as it may, she’s a legend for a reason. She doesn’t just come have conversations with random vampires in their safe zones.”

  Violet nodded to herself with that logic. If this woman was who she said she was, she was a bad omen. “Remind me of the time you helped me. I’m getting old,” Julian said aloud.

  The Ancient’s lips turned up at the corners, just a hint of humor. “You think you are, but you have no idea. I was once close friends with your father before he turned his back on everything he stood for.”

  “You are certainly not endearing yourself to me,” he said, colder than his aura.

  She held up a hand. “You did not know him as I did. He was infected with a darkness that drove him from honor into depravity. And when I decided he’d fallen too far, a challenger arrived who’d come to the same conclusion.”

  His lips tightened. “Me?”

  Violet glanced between them, a sinking feeling in her chest. “Julian, did you—”

  “Don’t judge him, young lady. It was for the best, and he had help,” she said, patting her hand as she took in Violet’s distress. “Namely, myself. I helped stack the deck in his favor.”

  “How?” Julian slammed his palm on the table. “What did you do?”

  “You may recall being given water as a symbolic gesture before the fight. An elderly nun delivered it—that was me. I gave you a little something for speed and strength, a gift from those who deal in potions and magic.” His breathing grew heavier as she spoke. “So, you see, young man, we are on the same side of things. I need your trust now.”

  He shook his head in denial. “All this time—I thought I’d beaten him on my own merit.”

  “That’s not how our society works. As a vampire your senior, he would always be stronger than you without some help. But you did the world a favor.”

  “Excuse me, but maybe I’m missing something,” Violet said, almost timid to interrupt as Julian sat back, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What was his dad doing?”

  “Trying to conquer the known world,” she answered. “Murdering. Whoring.”

  “So, you took him out. Because that’s what you do, as Curator.” Violet summarized it aloud for her own sake, earning a nod from the older woman. She felt a twinge of pity for Julian, telling herself that she’d speak to him privately about this later. “So why are you here now?”

  “Because you’re in grave danger, my dear,” she sighed. “I don’t know why or how, but you’ve attracted the attention of the most malicious being in this world and the next.”

  Alarm thrilled up her arms in a wake of goosebumps. “W-what?”

  “You are unique. Your blood and eyes, silver. No blood hunger to speak of, right?” Violet nodded reluctantly. “Seemingly weak and slow for a fledgling vampire. Without any of the reflexes or instincts inherent in the vampires around you.”

  “That’s right,” she murmured. Alex had described her as a kitten when testing these very things, her reactions not as fast as he expected.

  “That’s because you are a Sorceress, my dear. Your strength lies in controlling magic, not in physical prowess. Only one person could’ve done this to you, and what we have to discover is the how and why.”

  Though the Ancient was serious, Violet sputtered a nervous laugh. “Magic? Me?”

  Somewhere in the mansion, she heard a door slam. Was someone finally noticing that they had an intruder? Surely Julian raised the alarm about it. “Mimic me and see for yourself,” the Ancient said, holding up her hands. She overlapped the back of her hands, fanning out all her fingers and stating two words that sounded like Latin.

  Violet thought it looked silly, but something thrilled up her spine, something like anticipation as she repeated the foreign words to herself. She repeated the hand gesture and the words, her skin tingling despite nothing happening.

  The Ancient smiled to herself, correcting her pronunciation. Violet echoed her, screaming as flames jumped to life on her fingertips as if they were candlesticks.

  Alex rushed into the room within the next moment, lips drawn back in a furious snarl. He stopped short, his gaze transfixed on Violet’s fingertips.

  “Meet the Curator,” Julian said, drawing a seat for him.

  Chapter 21

  Alex

  “BLOODY HELL,” ALEX muttered. His heart was still beating its way out of his chest from Violet’s scream.

  “Did you just say the Curator?” Sam asked behind him.

  Violet blew on her fingertips, putting the flames out one at a time. Alex went to her first, laying a hand on her shoulder and a kiss upon her cheek. “Are you all right?” he murmured.

  “I think so,” she whispered back. He stood behind her as Sam disappeared to gather the others that, to Alex’s fury, were not also in the room. “I have to tell you something.”

  Judging by what he’d walked into, he had no doubt. “Tell me after this,” he said.

  “Impeccable timing,” said the Ancient Julian had indicated, her prim voice laced with a hint of amusement. Some part of her was memorable, an itch he searched the confines of his mind to scratch.

  Alex had a vague memory two centuries in the past of a man who had deserved the tender mercy of disappearing and never coming back. His name had been Jacques Laurent, Cossette’s vampire sire, the one who’d permanently crippled her body to make her a permanent child in appearance for his own pleasures. The night he’d disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Alex had celebrated the Ancient’s fall and became a permanent believer that the Curator was a real, breathing person.

  He wasn’t sure if he’d really met the Curator or not in the past. His recollection of the woman before him was far more recent. “I’ve blocked mental communication outside of this room,” the Curator said, gesturing to Violet. “What passes between us needs to be secret for your own sake.”

  “That explains a lot,” Julian sighed. The first person to rush in was Armando, smelling distinctly of coffee. Alex waited with barely leashed patience as Sam came in with Nicholas and Luke, both looking chagrined when they saw the uninvited visitor. He was of half a mind to chew them out, but at the same time, they were dealing with someone who had power beyond their understanding.

  He loomed over Violet’s shoulder like a protective shadow. “I just left the most enlightening meeting with another surprise Ancient.”

  “Yes. Lucia.” She spoke her name with a bitter twist of her lips. “I imagine you were fed a kernel of truth and a whole bunch of lies.”<
br />
  “Undoubtedly,” he remarked dryly. “And now you’re going to tell me your version of events that doesn’t include you drowning a whole nation of vampires?”

  To her credit, she hardly blinked. Yes, he’d pegged her face. She was the same Gwendolyn Firetree that Lucia had shown a glimpse of right before the sinking of the island of Nyixa. “That part is included in my tale as well. It is perhaps the most unflattering of the deeds Lucia could share with you after all.”

  “So, you’re a murderer.” He focused squarely on her, aware that everyone but Sam was sharing looks and murmurs of alarm at how quickly he was escalating an issue like this with an Ancient.

  Gwendolyn seemed to sag with her age, both inward and not. Violet laced her hand through his, catching his attention for the split second he took over the atmosphere in the room. “She knows what I am, Alex. I really think we should hear her out.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Well, are you going to leave me hanging?”

  She crossed her hands a safe distance away from herself and uttered a Latin-sounding phrase. Her fingertips erupted into flames, each little fire dancing inches from her skin without any sign of pain from her. “I’m a Sorceress.”

  Lucia had claimed to be the only Sorceress, flaunting the power to bring a whole room of coven leaders to heel. His brow crinkled, helping her blow out these little flames as his friends looked on her with awe. “Congratulations. That’s incredible,” he said without much conviction, hesitating to meet Gwendolyn’s waiting gaze.

  There was obvious agenda here, and he didn’t like it. Had Violet discovered this on her own, he’d have thrown a whole-coven party in celebration. But add two unpredictable Ancients to the mix, and all he felt was a hollow fear for the woman he was fond of. “We have to hear her out,” he said to Sam.

  The curly-haired man flashed him a wary look. “She’s Lucia’s enemy. We can’t trust a word she says.”

  “Like we could trust Lucia?” They chuckled unhappily at that insight.

  Violet was still looking back at him, disappointment starting to shade her gaze. He spoke to her privately next. “It’s not that I’m not excited for you, love. We’re in the middle of political hot water. I’ll explain later.”

  She nodded, her lips twisting as she turned her attention back to Gwendolyn. Alex took a deep breath. “You have my lady’s trust and are obviously here for a reason. What do you want to share?”

  “As I was telling Violet, she is in grave danger, and that means we all are. Allow me to properly introduce myself and explain what Nyixa’s rising truly means for the world. Have you ever wondered where vampirism really came from?”

  Once Gwendolyn introduced herself by name, she launched into a tale similar to what Lucia had told him and Sam earlier. Without the magic to summon images, she described the same Fell monsters with her words instead, drawing nervous shudders from those listening. But at the end of this war of the past, she changed the course of her narration.

  “Lucia was our apothecary and a mortal, older than I appear. We thought she would be content with her mortal life when she struck a pact with the Fell Emperor. He gave her magic in return for his safety before he knew there would be no returning to the Fell Lands. One does not break a pact with a Fell, else they suffer a terrible curse. She wears a veil to hide what it’s done to her.”

  Alex had barely given a second thought to the veil, thinking it a quirk of being an Ancient. But he nodded slowly, taking all this new information with a grain of salt. Lucia had painted Gwendolyn as a bad person. Now, it would be her turn to do the same. “At first, things were great. My daughter married Adrius, and they became our first royal couple. Lucia and I served as advisors.”

  “This is very different,” Sam commented. “Which one do you believe more?”

  He chewed on the question as she went on, detailing the council who’d guided the nation of Nyixa, which was the royal couple, advisors, and Blood Princes, whom she named. “I’m not sure yet. However…she is rambling. Lucia planned out every word of her speech.”

  “Lucia plotted the perfect takeover for months, biding her time. You see, she’s blessed with future sight, and with enough time, she can see every angle of an event. She managed to make it look like the royal couple both died within hours of each other and ascended the throne while framing me for the whole thing,” Gwendolyn continued. “I lived in exile for years while she turned Nyixa into a modern nation by encouraging the spread of vampirism to everyone interested in immortality who would also bend their knees before her. I’m talking a population boom of thousands from a handful, making our modern bloodlines what they are.”

  Alex thought of Cossette, the only other person he knew who possessed the ability to glimpse the future. He frowned to himself. No wonder Lucia had known who he was and given him something tailor-made to what he wanted most. The box and letter were still tucked into the crook of his arm. He placed them on the table as the Ancient spoke.

  “This turned out to be catastrophic. We all inherited something less desirable from the Fell than their strength and immortal life. The moment a mortal becomes a vampire, they actually become a little bit Fell.” She paused there, glancing around them all in turn.

  “Is this true?” Violet asked, glancing up at him. She looked pale, her eyes wide in their sockets.

  “I haven’t heard of Fell before today,” he answered honestly, rubbing her shoulders to offer some comfort. “You would think we would know all of this if it were true.”

  “Besides Violet, you all are old enough to answer this. Think of the cruelest, most inhuman vampire you’ve met.” Gwendolyn gave them a moment. Alex thought of Jacques Laurent and how grateful he was that he was gone before he could hurt anyone else. “Did you think of an Ancient?”

  Nods and murmurs of ascent followed from the group. “As a vampire grows older, that bit of Fell within them grows like a tumor, sucking out everything good in them. They develop a hunger that grows out of control. For women. For children. For the flesh of babes. I’ve seen it all.” Her lips took on a grim twist as Violet gasped aloud.

  “It happens over time and disguises itself as power. What vampire doesn’t yearn to be a Master, an Elder, an Ancient? Now imagine that concentration of power being passed on in more pure forms by those who’d drank from Fell veins directly. The Blood Princes. The start of the bloodline.”

  “Were those people turned as stronger vampires?” It was Julian who interrupted, his cool gaze keen on her. He seemed enraptured by her tale, leaning in.

  “Yes. Early vampires did not have their power measured by years as you have it now.”

  Alex struggled to think of a world like that, where everyone was an Elder or Ancient upon setting into their power. When everyone’s special, no one is, he thought with a dry chuckle.

  “But they were also more quickly falling into their hungers. The Blood Princes and their earliest fledglings were all displaying signs of it within twenty years or so.” Now she frowned, troubled thoughts dancing behind a calm façade. “Lucia herself struggled with her curse, growing stronger. She invited me back to Nyixa to end my banishment in the hopes I could cure the depravity our race was quickly tipping towards.”

  Gwendolyn shook her head slowly. “I’m not proud of it, but I had no true fix, just a heart full of revenge. So yes, I did plunge Nyixa into the sea. Every courtier and high-level vampire was amassed for a wedding. I put them to sleep, as I did for Lucia and the Blood Princes.”

  “You put them to sleep?” Alex interrupted. “How?”

  “That is a more complicated question than you think. I will simply say I was friends with someone with the magic to do such a thing,” she said. He chewed his lip, finding her answer unsatisfying. “It was a potent sleep spell, meant to be a final mercy. The only one I did not give mercy to was Lucia. I meant for her to stay aware in her rest so she could feel herself drown.”

  Alex’s inner beast chose that moment to wake up. Yikes, it projected. It was otherwi
se calm, which surprised him compared to how it’d received Lucia.

  Yikes, indeed, he thought. Gwendolyn was lost in her past now, her fist raised and trembling in fury. “It was what she deserved for everything she did. More than I can simply recount. But I also didn’t want to kill her myself—which was a mistake. She used her awareness to cast one last spell, keeping herself and the rest of the vampire royalty alive in an airtight room until she recently woke. I presume she’s been aware this whole time, plotting every facet of the future where she was once again awake.

  “I only apologize for the necessity of so much death. Because of the sacrifice that night, vampire kind was not overrun with evil. My actions forced us to live in the shadows, where creatures of the night belong.” Alex winced at that dose of bitter truth, delivered without so much as a sprinkle of sugar. “Any questions?”

  “So, you really are the Curator?” Sam remarked. “You kill the old vampires who’ve lost their way.”

  She smiled to herself. “Something like that.”

  He combed a hand through his shaggy curls, blowing out a low breath. “That’s a hard job. I respect that.”

  “I echo that sentiment. Many would shy away from the necessity of your decisions.” Luke spoke up next, rewarding the elderly woman with a rare half-smile.

  “However, you have only shared backstory. I believe Violet might explode if you don’t come to modern day,” Alex remarked, feeling the tension in her shoulders, especially upon being named.

  Gwendolyn drew in a long breath, squaring her shoulders as if coming face-to-face with a new, vicious foe. “Modern day, yes. Lucia still lives, as do the other vampire royalty. Nyixa rising is a ticking time bomb. The time of hiding may be over. Vampires and their magic may be outed to mortals at any moment. If handled poorly, it will be war. And Lucia, aware all this time under the waves, is at least thirty moves ahead on the chessboard.” She shook her head slowly. “Modern day is a mess.”

  “Yes, but…” Violet said, gesturing to herself.

  “Sorry, dear. Getting ahead of myself.” She reached over, laying a hand over hers. “You’ve either been turned by exposure to Lucia’s blood or a remnant of the old Fell Emperor’s. Both of these things are under the complete control of Lucia. I am willing to teach you how to control and hone your new power. I can’t tell you why she’s changed you, but I must watch you very closely for any signs of corruption.”