RBC06.50 - Marcella, Vampire Mage (21 page)

Quinn said, “Simon said the same thing this morning, and I assured him you were serious, all of you.”

Simon and Leo, El’s Watcher, came up the knoll with the horses.

“Time to head back,” I sighed, as I brushed off my hands and Quinn helped me up.

We mounted and began the walk down to the river. In the distance I could see the palace and noticed that an approaching caravan.

“That’s strange,” I said, as I pointed toward what I had seen, which made everyone look and agree with me.

We rode at a quicker pace than we had come. As we dismounted, we discovered a coach being unloaded, with servants rushing around moving trunks and carrying them and baskets full of goods into the palace. We handed the horses over to the grooms who were waiting for us.

“Who’s arrived?” I asked the one who was to take Nulla.

“The Baroness and her daughter,” he said.

“Which Baroness?” I asked.

“Why, your mother, Baroness Von Dracek,” he said looking at me as if I were a fool, which is exactly how I felt.

“Katrina, wait,” I heard Quinn say as I rushed to the Council chambers. I had to speak to Father, this was crazy.
My
mother
? How could this be? I had always assumed she must be dead, because of the pain that crossed Father’s face when her name was mentioned or that he had forbidden me to bring up or talk about her. But why had her existence been kept from me, where had she been? Then it hit me. And her
daughter
? Not only had I never seen my own mother, but it was a possibility that I had a sister too! Somebody had some explaining to do and right now! I was becoming more and more angry the closer I got to the rooms where I knew my father would be.

“Father, I need to talk to you,” I said as I burst through the door.

He was standing in front of his desk and turned to me as I entered.

“Ah, Katrina, what timing. I’d like you to meet someone.” Father gestured toward the front of the room directly in his line of sight but outside of mine.

I turned, and there smiling back at me face that resembled my own! Older yes, but the features we shared made us look remarkably alike. I let out a gasp and thought I was going to faint.
Compose yourself,
my mind told me.

“Come meet your mother, Katrina,” Father said, holding out his right arm to me. I put my left hand onto my chest hoping it could keep my heart from bursting out.

“Katrina this is the Baroness Elizabeth Von Dracek, your mother.”

I gazed into eyes the same hazel as my own. Her light brown hair was done up gracefully atop her head, and she wore a lovely green velvet dress, her cape and hat edged in what looked like fox. She smiled and started walking toward me. I suddenly felt sheer panic. I wanted to turn around and run. I was shaking, my palms were clammy, and my throat was suddenly dry. When she stood right in front of me, she threw her arms around me and started to cry.

“My little girl, my Katrina, I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment. Let me take a look at you. She’s lovely, Fredrik!”

“She looks like you, my dear.”

“There’s someone else for you to meet, Katrina. This is your sister, Katherine.”

I took one look at my newfound sister and gasped. My knees buckled, and the room turned black. . . .

As I started to come to, I was still groggy and not sure if I was dreaming or not, but I could hear Father’s voice. He sounded stern and anxious at the same time.

“I told you it was going to be too much of a shock for her, Elizabeth. You should have sent word that you were coming, so I could have prepared her.”

“And take the chance our enemies would find out before you did? And how was I to know you chose not to tell her what happened to me and that she had a twin sister?”

“Twin sister!”
I opened my eyes and tried to focus “
Oh, my head.”
I slapped the side of it with my left hand and let out a moan.

“She’s coming to,” Father said. “Go now; let me talk to her alone, please Elizabeth.”

I could hear footsteps across the wood floor and the door open and close. When I opened my eyes again, Father was sitting beside me, a worried look on his face.

“Katrina, are you all right?” he said patting my hand. “Katrina, I’m so sorry.”

He was looking down now shaking his head.

“Father, why didn’t you ever tell me? All these years I thought she was dead.”

“I never told you that,” he said sternly looking back at me.

“You never told me anything! What else was I supposed to think?” I said, closing my eyes again and rubbing my forehead.

“I thought I was protecting you and your mother. I told myself I would deal with my decision when the time came, and now the time has come.” He sighed, “You know I love you, don’t you?”

“Of course, Father, and I love you. Nothing is ever going to change that.”

“When you live as long as we do, it’s sometimes a long time to stay with one person, although of course some couples do. Over the years interests change. Elizabeth wanted to travel the world, and I wanted to save it. When clan wars broke out, I had to decide over and over, to either help or stay with her. The need for Peace always won, and your mother tired of watching me ride away. I chose to make sure we could live in peace and not be driven into hiding like so many other races. Your mother chose to go. Neither one of us could face losing you girls, so your mother and I reached a compromise. You stayed with me and Katherine went with her mother. Elizabeth found that there were many others who wanted no part of the life I and many others had chosen. So, they gathered together and formed their own clan and went secretly to an unknown location to seek sanctuary. Very few of us knew, and we have kept their secret all these years. After a while people just assumed, like you that they had died, and we just never told anyone anything different. Most of them wanted to start a completely new life with their own laws, and unless we found that anyone was putting our existence in danger, they were left in peace. But if, however, they were to ever violate our territories and our peace, they would have been dealt with swiftly. Remember last summer when I had to give help to the Gomon clan? That action turned out to be lead by some of the rebels coming out of hiding and trying to overthrow a peaceful territory.

As Father’s story unfolded, it dawned on me—Damien’s mother had also disappeared, maybe she had chosen sanctuary too.

“I didn’t know if your mother would ever come back again, and as no one was to go looking for them, it would be up to them to decide whether to come back or not. Does any of this make any sense to you, Katrina?”

“It’s just a lot to absorb, Father. What are their plans, do you know? Are they going to stay? And a twin sister is quite a shock you know. What does she think of all this?”

“Well, you’ll have to ask her. She’s known about you all along, and from what Elizabeth has told me in the short time we’ve had; Katherine was the reason that they came back. She wanted to get to know us; she wanted to be a part of our life. Your mother wants that too, whether she decides to stay in Germany or not.”

“But Father, this is an awkward time for all this, isn’t it? With all the families here, there are bound to be a lot of questions. So why now, after all this time?”

“Again, you will have to ask your sister. Elizabeth says that Katherine just felt an overwhelming need to come
now
, that’s all I know. Yes, for her to come here now, during Council’s special call and the change of leadership is high profile. There will be questions, but we’ll just have to take each situation as it presents itself. I hope you can forgive me for not telling you all this sooner.”

“You did what you thought was best for me, I know that.”

He gave me a hug and sighed with relief, patted my back and released me. Then he kissed my forehead.

“We still have a Council meeting this afternoon. Are you up to it?” he asked as he stood.

“I think so, if you could ask Sarah to bring a change of clothes, I’ll change here. I’m still a little shaky.”

“Of course. I’ll send for her right now.”

Then he turned and walked out of the room, nodding to Quinn as he came in.

“Kat, are you all right?” Quinn face reflected his concern as he came to my side.

“I guess so, considering I was blindsided with a Mother I thought was dead and with a sister I didn’t know I had. A
twin
sister at that,” I said as I tried to stand.

Quinn helped me, but my knees were still wobbly and I had to sit right back down.

“I feel so weak,” I said rubbing my head again.

Quinn walked over and locked the door. Then walked back to me, knife in his hand. As he got close he took the point of his knife and made a slice into the vein on his wrist. He could see the shock on my face.

“No time, Kat. Just drink.”

He lifted his wrist to my mouth; the smell of his warm blood combined with his human scent was intoxicating. By instinct I grasp his arm. As I drained blood from Quinn’s vein I felt not only a surge of energy but a feeling I now recognized as having had before. The feeling built until I was wildly aroused. This was nothing like when I had daydreamed of how it would feel to make love. I realized now that
this
is what it would feel like and my daydream paled by comparison. It took all my will power to force myself to stop. When I pulled back and came to my senses, I realized we were both breathing hard. Quinn looked away from me busily wrapping his wrist. This brought back a memory from home.

“You’ve done this for me before, haven’t you?” I said with shock.

“Yes,” he said sheepishly. “The other time you were in danger of going into dormancy; there was not a moment to waste. I know it’s forbidden, but both times it been necessary.”

I stood, renewed strength filling my body. I was amazed how quickly it had happened, and I could also see why it was forbidden. It was like a drug, and a vampire could get thoroughly addicted. I went over to him, put my arms around his neck and kissed him, exactly what I had wanted to do the last time. As we kissed I could tell he was as aroused as I was.

“I want to ask you something,” I said, feeling embarrassed. “How does feeding me like that make you feel?”

Now it was his turn to be embarrassed.

“Heavenly,” he replied looking down, his face turning red. “It’s very erotic. You?” he inquired still not looking up.

“The same.”

He kissed me again, and then we both jumped when we heard someone try to open the door, then knock.

“Katrina?” Sarah’s voice sounded worried.

I walked over and opened the door.

“Are you all right?”

“That’s the question of the hour. I’m better, thank you. Did you bring a change of clothes?”

“Of course, and combs and some fruit,” she said, sounding put out, clearing resenting the implication that she’d forget anything.

“Out with you, Mr. Quinn, I have a job to do. She’ll see you later,” Sarah said as she pushed him out the door. She had brought me a lovely but simple dress of yellow cotton. As she combed my hair she told me just what I had predicted, my mother and sister’s; arrival had touch off a round of rumor and gossip that would be unrivaled by any other council gathering. As I left the room, I was still feeling overwhelmed by the knowledge that this direct feeding had not been the first, by gut the wrenching emotion that it brought, and by all I had seen and been told regarding my sister and mother. Entering the hallway, I could hear the loud buzz of voices coming from the Council room.

“Well, here we go,”
I said to myself. I entered the Council chamber just as Father was calling the meeting to order.

“We are here today to finish the business of this special session, answer any questions you may have and hopefully solve any problems brought to this Council,” he stated with authority. “Let us finish any old business first.”

Then he went over new laws to be enacted, elections to be held in each territory, four council positions to be filled, and a list of minor and mundane subjects. As the hours passed, the chamber took on a restless, bored atmosphere, until the agenda came to the subject that everyone had thought the special session had been called for in the first place.

“Now let us discuss new business. We have consulted the Vikings on news of the New World; the Americas to be exact. They’re experts on the subject and they advise me that we should soon send an envoy of senior council members. This envoy will make a tour of cities already established there, to help us decide the most advantageous places to establish clans and in how best to infiltrate the ruling governments and upper classes just as we have in all the territories in which we reside today. It has, as you know, always been in our best interest to be well established before moving full force into any situation. This way we always know local and regional information ahead of time and can influence and take advantage of trends. It is imperative that we choose the correct locations, as well as the best positions in business, government, and society. We will send our envoy this very summer. We have been informed that the Americas have recently ended a four-year war, and we believe that this is a fine opportunity for us to begin to establish our presence there. The envoy’s survey of the situation should be complete by early next spring and will allow us to make final plans at that time. Are there any questions on this subject?”