Dream Walker: Blood Legacy Series Book 1

by Elise Hennessy

  Gwendolyn nodded gravely. “It’s the only way to protect everyone from her curse.”

  “And…you will try to take the rest of us,” he continued, watching her shoulders stiffen. Disappointment lit his gaze. “You judged us too corrupted before. Likely to go Fell Mad at any moment or to share that condition with anyone we gave blood to. That’s why you chose to let us drown.”

  Violet felt she could cut the air’s tension with a knife. “Times have changed, Jaromir. I do not intend to take you to the Vault.”

  “But Adrius? Neala?” he prompted. “Even Sirius?”

  “There is hope,” she said in a small voice. She turned to Violet, taking her hands. “You are the new light in my darkness. You see the Eye of Worlds before you? Lucia has disabled it somehow. It won’t budge from my magic, but I am no Sorceress. If you can get it to work again…”

  “We will drown,” Jaromir said sharply. His features were twisted in a scowl as he looked up at the monolithic object. “That’s how she’s left the island. She has outplayed us.”

  “Maybe if we can tether its magic to Violet…”

  “Stop. Both of you,” Alex snarled. “Don’t drag my… Don’t drag Violet into your plotting. She’s cast what, one spell?”

  “You don’t understand. I worry that if we don’t get it working again, there will be no crossing at the summer solstice. We have no other way of stopping Lucia,” Gwendolyn said grimly.

  He drew Violet away from her, baring his teeth as he recited names. Adrius and the Blood Princes they’d already met. “You don’t understand,” she repeated.

  “What? You’re not willing to kill her?” he aimed the question at Jaromir.

  “I’m a healer, sworn to do no harm,” he replied.

  “Just listen—”

  Alex shouted over her. “No, you bloody listen! Violet is not touching that damn thing! We’re not playing experiment to things we don’t understand.”

  “But—”

  “Alex.” Violet gave his shoulder a shake. She had a feeling they were missing some other important piece to this puzzle.

  Gwendolyn ended up shouting back, “Anyone who kills Lucia will also inherit her curse! They’ll go mad! Completely insane!” With him leaning away, she cleared her throat and continued in a calmer manner. “Lucia’s curse destroyed her personality. It made her a megalomaniac and caused her to stab everyone she ever cared for in the back. Do you wish for your fate to be the same?” Grudgingly, he shook his head. “Good. Then—”

  No one spoke over her this time. She stopped herself, watching shadows drift past them and coalesce into a man’s form. He loomed over her just like he had yesterday, but now by lantern light, they could all see him clearly. Adrius had quite apparently left his throne. Up close, she saw the resemblance between him and his brother, Sirius, down to the rage that twisted his expression under a black beard tied and braided with deeds of the past. He wore armor stained with shadows, the sword at his hip a relic from another time.

  “I came to see what all the shouting was about. Imagine my surprise to see you again.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  “You’re moving about. That’s good.” If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a tremble to Gwendolyn’s voice and manner.

  His dark eyes roved over their group. “I still need to feed. Don’t worry. I didn’t harm anyone.”

  A tense silence fell as they had a staring match. Gwendolyn wasn’t willing to let him intimidate her into leaving this time, but that left Violet waiting uneasily for some sort of violence to erupt. She backed away with Alex, and a pun came to mind. “The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar,” she whispered to him.

  “Not right now,” he whispered back, raising a brow at her.

  “It was tense.” She started laughing and found she could not stop. It was like a dam breaking, sweeping away thoughts of fairies and ancient feuds and the Eye of Worlds and how somehow, some way, she was involved in all of this. Both Ancients turned to her, Gwendolyn incredulous and Adrius’s lips twitching.

  “What did she say?” he asked Jaromir, who repeated the pun. With what felt like everyone staring, she wiped at her eyes and regained her breath.

  Then Adrius cracked a smile. His beard spread, and a little twinkle hit the dark depths of his eyes. “That’s a good one.”

  “You…like puns?” she asked. It was the most surreal moment of her life, watching the tension leave Ancient King Adrius for even those spare moments. All too quickly, reality stole that smile away, and his stern countenance returned.

  “Why are you back?” He turned back to Gwendolyn, his tone neutral once more. “Why won’t you leave?”

  “This young lady requires a tutor. Despite everything, you must realize it would behoove us to have a friendly Sorceress,” she replied evenly.

  His eyes narrowed. “Is this true, Jaromir?”

  Though Adrius didn’t turn to him, Violet did. The other Ancient slipped on a poker face immediately. “Yes. It’s perfectly logical we would want the young lady as versed as possible in magic.”

  “We could ask Neala to teach her…”

  “No. We can’t.” Jaromir spoke with the same firmness that Melanie did upon telling Violet that there was nothing wrong with her. A doctorly tone, she thought. Only summoned up by someone with a deep understanding of someone else’s experiences.

  Adrius inclined his head. “Then there is no one else.” Something passed between them privately, causing his expression to sour. A breeze caught his cloak as he turned pointedly away from them, moving on cat-silent feet despite the armor he wore.

  “King Adrius!” Violet called, ignoring Alex’s desperate motion for her not to draw more attention to them.

  Outside the halo of her lantern, the shadows were closing in around his form. Still, she saw his profile turn their way. “How do you say goodbye to boiling water?”

  He tilted his head. She didn’t hear a sigh or any annoyance in his tone, which was how she marked those who didn’t like her punster ways. “I’m not sure. How?”

  “It will be mist.” She only smiled wider as Alex and Gwendolyn groaned behind her, but her heart was in her throat for Adrius’s reaction.

  A flash of white showed a smile before the shadows whisked Adrius away.

  Chapter 26

  Alex

  ALEX FELT LIKE a mess by the time the group returned to their initial meeting spot in the former palace gardens. As Violet finally received her first lesson in magic, he dusted off a stone bench still intact and sat with Jaromir to watch.

  They did not talk for a while, leaving Alex to consider and brood. He was of a mind to leave after hearing how Gwendolyn wanted Violet to tap into the giant magical tool on the island. It seemed too dangerous.

  But Violet herself had not protested. She’d heard the plan and had encouraged the Ancient to continue her strange rant about planets and faeries. How could she believe a word of that? His high esteem of the Curator and all she’d done for vampire kind was quickly plummeting upon getting to know who the woman truly was and how her agenda affected him.

  Violet was a tool to one so Ancient, and it chafed to see it so plainly, standing next to her. By some strange happenstance, Violet was a Sorceress. Lucia had chosen her out of billions of women, to restore her while in the grasp of a hellscape. In doing so, Lucia had also chosen him as Violet’s lifemate. There was a plan here. And the fact he couldn’t clearly see what it was made it all the more dangerous.

  The half-filled vial of silver blood felt like it tripled in weight as he thought. He carried it on his person at all times, assuming it was of value to be stolen if any of these vampires had even a hint of its smell. He didn’t dare take it out with Jaromir seated beside him.

  Lucia’s direct gift was incredibly valuable.

  He should destroy it.

  Power was something most vampires would murder for. Why had Lucia given it to him in a bottle? Why not use it herself? he thought. He growled under his breath, k
nowing the trap of considering a future-seer’s plotting too closely without enough context. It would make him mad long before she pulled the strings together for her ultimate goal.

  And it could be months, years, before she called in the favor she’d done for them in saving Violet and giving him the rest of the silver blood.

  “What troubles you most?” Jaromir asked, his gaze fixed on Gwendolyn and Violet as the younger woman attempted to mimic a series of increasingly complicated gestures.

  “Where do I start?” He noticed Jaromir lean in. Even the soft-spoken Gifted man could be a politician. It hadn’t escaped his notice how closely he had stuck to Gwendolyn’s side once knowing that she was on the island. Even though he had offered an olive branch of forgiveness, the man was shrewd enough not to forget. Which meant any information shared could make it back to the other Blood Princes, or King Adrius if it pertained to Gwendolyn.

  So, he searched his mind for the most benign of his troubles. “I don’t know how anyone can live here anymore. When are you all leaving the island?”

  “Possibly never. Unless the mortals leave. We have kept them on the least interesting side of the island.”

  “You know there’s so much more out there? People and technology. It could be a fresh start for you.” He saw the mulish line drawing on the Blood Prince’s face. “We can remain a secret to mortals if they never find a hint of vampires here.”

  “Would that be so bad? We were never a secret in my time.”

  “Times change.”

  Jaromir grunted in agreement. “Sorry. That must be quite the understatement,” Alex added. He felt a twinge of sympathy for the daunting task of learning the culture of the time. At least with magic, language wasn’t an issue. “But if you’re going to be awake, it seems right that you all would try to fit in with how things are.”

  While Jaromir considered that, Violet made one of her gestures correctly. A patch of fresh grass grew in a circle around her, flushing vibrant green. She pumped her fist, looking to Alex to share in her victory. “Excuse me while I go pick my jaw off the ground,” he called once he’d recovered from his awe. He’d never met a vampire capable of making anything grow. Most of their powers centered on people, either affecting themselves or others.

  “Think I should do more?” She smiled at the thought, her silver gaze already taking in just how much space she’d have to fill. Her circle of greenery extended about a yard around her.

  “Great way to exhaust yourself. Let’s try another,” Gwendolyn butted in before he could encourage her, and he growled at the reminder that he wasn’t listened to here with the respect of an Elder coven master.

  Jaromir distracted him by finally voicing his thoughts. “I’m not sure there’s a place for us in your world.”

  Alex considered him along with the smoke Violet curled over her arm like a languid snake. It flowed through her fingers, only visible in silhouette in the eternal dark of the city around her lantern’s beacon.

  It wasn’t that the Blood Princes weren’t of this world. Their magic was the foundation of the vampire race. Each and every vampire was their legacy in blood. But the magic their awakening had brought with them…Lucia and Nyixa and whatever truth there was to the tale of fae, nephilim, and other worlds. That was what made his skin crawl.

  “I think everyone has that problem. You only have a place in the world if you make one for yourself,” he answered.

  The Blood Prince nodded, turning back to the training. Violet looked to be growing tired, her fingers fumbling the next few symbols. “Let’s stop for now,” Gwendolyn said. “The first spell in each element of magic is the hardest. I’m impressed you muscled through even two for your first lesson.”

  Standing straighter from the Ancient’s praise, Violet seemed to hold a new spark of vitality, like the glow after a particularly good workout. “I have so many questions,” she said. “You said there’s thirteen elements of magic? What are they?”

  Gwendolyn didn’t answer directly, instead cutting a portal midair with a gesture from her walking stick. “If you would follow me, I believe I can give you this knowledge in a more concrete form.” She gestured to the two men as well as she headed through.

  He was last to follow, eyeing the hole with trepidation. His inner beast paced restlessly at the back of his mind, uncomfortable with the unnatural nature of stepping into a rip of time and space. However, he wasn’t about to leave Violet alone. Once he mustered up his nerves, he saw they were still somewhere in Nyixa. The lantern was resting atop what appeared to be a lab table, illuminating the remnants of a room with vaulted ceilings and one incongruous sight that Gwendolyn headed for.

  A wooden cabinet, lacquered and gently battered. “Only the magical items have remained here.” Gwendolyn opened the cabinet to reveal it mostly barren save for a handful of glass vials full of unknown substances and a row of books. She drew the densest one and offered it to Violet.

  Alex drew up behind her, peering at the gilt title on a weathered leather cover. He opened his mouth to ask how she was expected to study something written in a language of swirls and dots that was hopelessly foreign when those figures shifted into English before his eyes. “A beginner’s guide, hmm,” he remarked.

  “This is very valuable and one-of-a-kind,” Gwendolyn said.

  Violet flipped the cover gingerly, drawing thick pages over until she found a table of contents. “Thank you,” she said, sounding humbled. “I’ll study this while we have time here.”

  “See that you do. I’ll come around once a day to help you unlock the other elements when I can,” Gwendolyn promised, laying a hand on her shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Until then.” Violet waved, while Alex inclined his head before turning his attention back to the table of contents.

  Broken down into fourteen chapters, it clearly labeled everything Sorceress magic could do, but his eyes skipped down to the last entry, titled “The Five Virtues,” which drew a confused grunt from him. “Do you think this is going to answer all your questions?”

  “Not even close,” Violet admitted. “I’m going to need to study this. What even is this? The first chapter is titled ‘Spring.’”

  “Shapeshifting.” Jaromir’s voice nearly startled him. So curious of the book, he’d forgotten the Blood Prince was still there, leaning against a lab table and watching them both with inscrutable maroon eyes. “I believe animal familiars are tied to it as well, but none of us have gotten that particular power.”

  “That’s a shame.” She gasped at the thought, leaning her head back to Alex. “I could tame you.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “What’s to say you haven’t already?”

  A joyful giggle escaped her lips. “We should study this together soon.”

  “Indeed. Study it very closely,” he said, his gaze meaningful on her.

  She cuddled back into him, the first to turn back to the book and reading out chapter titles to Jaromir for his help. “How about ‘Summer?’”

  “The element of fire. Autumn is earth, which includes botanicals and the ground itself. And Winter is weather and the element of water,” he said.

  “How do you know all this?” she asked, her brow furrowing.

  “Lucia was and is able to do all of this. Plus…the symbols adorn every magical item the fae have left behind. Take another look at the cover.”

  She closed the book, holding it to the light of her lantern. The gold filigree started to fill the bottom third of its leather with symbols. A crescent of thirteen symbols with a circle of five arranged like points of a star set in the middle. It looked like a tiny version of the Eye of Worlds or Grand Occultarus. “Fae, huh,” Alex said, casting a doubtful look toward him.

  “The magic unfolds before your eyes.” Jaromir gestured to the book.

  “Other worlds?” he said more incredulously.

  The Blood Prince chuckled. There was a sharp edge to it, something buried deep within him that hadn’t seen the light of co
nscious thought. “Some folks need to be slapped with the truth to see it.”

  “Are you calling me ignorant?” he frowned. Pot and kettle there, he thought, offended someone asleep for centuries would imply such a thing of him.

  “Never. Simply functioning within a set world view. Us old men get that way.” He offered a tense smile.

  Glancing between the two of them, Violet huffed a sigh. “Can we talk about magic without getting all snippy? Please?”

  Alex tried to muffle a frustrated growl. Not with her, just with…everything else. The book and its glimmering magical inscription were just one thing too many. “Perhaps I should escort you to your quarters,” Jaromir suggested. “Gwendolyn left us on the other side of the palace from them.”

  “Please do,” he said, glad to be gone from this place and its magically intact cabinet.

  Violet waited only a few paces from the room before she was asking questions again. She traced each symbol as Jaromir explained them. Alex listened with a frown. “The thirteen elements are connected into five sets, and usually, the seasons are depicted first. After them comes Day and Night, control over light and dark. Vampires borrow heavily from Night in particular.”

  “That makes sense,” she said.

  “Following that should be the magic that augments physical performance, which we all have a touch of. We call magic that improves strength or reflex Sword, while endurance, regeneration, and immortality come from Shield magic.” He glanced to Alex, whose eyebrows were raised.

  “I suppose you’re going to say that our psychic powers, glamors, and auras are also a school of fae magic,” he remarked.

  He smiled as if having been waiting for exactly that comment. “The next set starts with Mind, which covers all of that. It’s combined with Life, which is the Gift or anything to do with disease, and Metaphysical, covering dreams and portals.”

  “Self-explanatory,” he grunted. He picked out that his bloodline wasn’t as purely in one school of magic as he would expect. Spring covered his shapeshifting, Metaphysical, the dream walking, and someday, if he were lucky to make it there, as an Ancient, he could become a daywalker with Day magic, just as his father had been. He didn’t know how it was possible to be torn in three directions that way.