The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises (11 page)

"You touched her like that?" He asked Quinn,
who suddenly became quite serious. He walked up to Quinn and looked
him in the eyes. "You were warned never to touch her, Quinn."

"You're not my master, Julian. I can do as I
please," Quinn said seriously. "Yes, I touched her like that, and
she liked it."

"What?" I moved closer to them. Julian looked
at me and I knew that he believed his brother. "Stop this, right
now. We don't need to fight amongst ourselves. We have things to
do."

"No, you have things to do," Julian said and
looked at the two of us. "I'm going back to France."

I watched him walk away, then I looked at
Quinn, and he turned and walked in the other direction. I had once
again made it worse than it was. I spent another hour on the beach
before I walked into the house and up to Julian's third floor
bedroom. I knocked on the door and didn't wait for an answer. I
walked in, slowly, and closed the door behind me, then stood there
in silence and watched Julian pack.

"You don't have to leave," I told him.

"Why not? Don't you want me out of the way,
so you can be with my brother?"

"It's not that way," I told him. He stopped
and turned to look at me.

"What way is it then?" He asked. "Please tell
me, Ash, because it certainly seems that way to me."

"I don't want your brother, Jules. I want you
and I want my son. And if this is how the rest of the time that I'm
here is going to be, don't bother packing, because I'm leaving." I
grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.

"What about your son?" Julian asked as I
turned my back to him.

"I'll find him myself," I told him and
started to walk out the door. I was halfway down the hallway when I
heard his voice again.

"You'll never find him," he said and this
made me stop. I turned and looked at him from where I stood. "Not
without us."

"And why not, because I'm a woman or because
I'm not like you?" I asked him. I walked closer to him and stood
right by him. "You don't think I can find my son because I'm just a
mortal and the people who have him are vampires. Let me guess; I
don't stand a chance."

"No, not really," he said and crossed his
arms. I looked at him angrily and slapped him across the face. He
looked at me, quite stunned and then he smiled. "You think that
hurt, don't you?"

"You know what, Julian, I don't care if it
did or didn't, because you’re just like the others. You think
you're the world, and if the rest of us don't revolve around you,
than we're just something for you to step on," I told him and
turned around again.

"This coming from the Queen of 'It's all
about me'." He laughed. I looked at him and smiled.

"Good-bye, Julian," I said and waved. "Go
back to the hole you crawled out of."

Before I could move again, he had me backed
up against the wall. Our noses were almost touching, and I could
see his fangs even from that distance. His eyes began to glow red
and his breathing began to race. I remained calm though, never
letting onto the fear that started to grow in my stomach.

"I could kill you," he whispered through
clenched teeth, letting his vampire side take him over.

"Go ahead," I replied, and moved my hair out
of the way, exposing my neck to him.

"You're pushing your luck, Ash," he told me
in a violent voice. I caught his eyes and made no expression, but
all I felt was emptiness. He looked away from my eyes to the skin
on my throat. He looked back at me then quickly lunged at my neck,
his teeth touching my skin. My body shivered from the feel of those
sharp points on the vulnerable skin of my neck.

"Do it Julian," I told him and raised a hand
to the back of his head, pressing gently to tell him that I was
serious. I felt them pierce my skin, but only the tip. The blood
started to flow even then, and I could almost feel the pain I had
experienced before, as they slowly went in deeper. I closed my
eyes, turned my head a little bit towards him and felt my cheek
touch his skin, and whispered in his ear softly. "Please. Do it
quickly,” I said quietly, as the tears started to flow, “because, I
would rather die than live without you."

He withdrew from my neck and then, slowly,
looked at me again. Our eyes met, and his eyes lightened as he
looked from my eyes down to my lips, then slowly moved towards me
and kissed me. He was gentle about it, making sure that he didn't
hurt me, but I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close to
me, then closed my eyes tightly, hoping that he wouldn't let me
go.

7

Julian looked at me as we sat on the bed in
his room facing each other, his face was flush and he had taken his
shirt off to cool down. He reached out and touched my face with his
fingers and then with the palm of his hand. He reached out, touched
my shoulder and neck with the other hand, and sighed as his fingers
glided over the spot where he had almost bit me, where Quinn had
actually done so. He looked me in the eyes and smiled a little.

"I was a fool for ever doubting your feelings
for me," he said softly. "I should have known better than to think
that you would be with him."

"It was an odd scene," I replied and smiled
back at him, leaning into the feel of his hand on my face. "I'm
sorry if I made you feel that way."

"You, Ash, you had nothing to do with this,"
Julian said quietly and put the other hand on my face. He leaned
towards me and kissed me gently on the lips, then on the cheek as
he made his way to my ear. "I love you. I always have and I always
will."

"I love you, too," I whispered back to him,
and he kissed me again. I felt the power rush into me from him,
energy so strong that I had nothing to do but give into it, and I
did willingly. We kissed for a long time, just lost in the energy
between us, but then someone knocked on the door, and didn't wait
for an answer.

Michael walked into the room and looked at
the two of us, laying on the bed; him with his shirt off and me
with mine almost totally unbuttoned. I closed my shirt as Julian
sat up, looking quite annoyed with the lack of privacy in the
house.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you to knock,
and wait for an answer?" Julian said in an angry tone.

"Yes. My mother also told me about not
talking to strangers and look where that got me, besides no one
ever listens to everything their mother says, do they?" Michael
said and smiled a smart-ass grin.

"What do you want, and it better be good?"
Julian asked, his patience growing thin.

"David is missing," Michael said and the
smile faded. "I haven't been able to find him since Ash threw him
against the wall."

"He's a big boy, Michael. He can take care of
himself," Julian replied, and stood up, moving towards Michael and
Michael moved towards the door. "If you're still worried, we'll
look for him in the morning," he told him and finally got him out
the door. "Good night, Michael," he said and closed the door.
Michael yelled good night through the door and we listened to him
walk down the hallway. Julian looked at me and smiled. "Where were
we?"

"Right here on the bed, half naked and
kissing I think," I replied to him. Julian walked over and lay down
on the bed next to me. "We lost the mood, didn't we?"

"I'm afraid so," Julian sighed. He pulled me
close to him. The two of us fell asleep together in his bed. It was
the best night’s sleep I’d had since my husband had disappeared. I
felt safe in his arms, as I had always felt before.

When I opened my eyes the next morning I was
staring up at Julian's canopy top and I noticed the odd painting of
several naked women kneeling at the feet of some naked man. I
laughed at this and Julian opened his eyes. I looked at him and
smiled.

"Is that supposed to be you?" I asked him.
Julian looked at the painting, smiled, and nodded. "You've got
quite a narcissistic view about yourself, don't you?"

"Delusions of grandeur." Julian smiled and
stretched, then pulled me close and hugged me. I felt him kiss my
neck and then stop.

"What's the matter?" I asked him. He touched
my neck, where the two marks were, and then he sat up and looked
away from me. I knew that he was angry with himself; I could feel
his emotion surging. I sat up myself and moved next to him, rubbing
his bare back with my hand as I touched his face with the other.
"It's all right, Julian, I'm not mad and I'm not afraid of you. I
don't love you any less."

"What if it happens again?" Julian asked and
sighed. "What if I can't control it next time and you really get
hurt? You have a tendency to strike sensitive nerves, what if the
next time I don't stop?"

"You will, Jules," I replied to him, trying
to reassure him. "I believe that you have the power to control your
nature."

"I haven't been able to yet." He sighed.

"You did last night," I pointed out. He
looked at me suddenly, with the knowledge that I was right, but
then he turned it around.

"No," he said and shook his head, "you
controlled it last night. I felt you."

"Julian, I don't have that power, though, I'd
like to think I do. I can't control how you feel, what you do," I
replied to him. He looked down at his feet and sighed.

"I want you," he said softly. I smiled and
then he looked at me with all the seriousness he could muster. "I
want you more now than ever, but I'm afraid of the emotions, of
what I might do to you. After the other night, it's obvious that
you have some deep hidden connection to our world, and what if
being together brings it out? Or, what if it hurts you?"

"Julian, I am about at my wits end trying to
hold back my feelings for you. I did it for eight years, eight
wasted years."

"They weren't wasted, Ash. Look at who you
met, what you did. You brought a life into this world. Jack is your
best accomplishment." Julian smiled at me.

"But, now I've lost him and I'm not sure if I
will ever get him back," I sighed and looked him in the eyes.
"Swear to me that you don't know who has him."

"WHAT?" He asked me and then shook his head.
"I would never take your son to get you back into my life,
Ash."

"I'm sorry I said that." I looked around at
the room we were in, his room, and I sighed. "I think I'm going to
go to my room for a while, to think a little bit and then I'll see
you at lunch time, okay?"

He smiled at me and nodded. I kissed him on
the forehead and walked out of the room, down the stairs and into
my quiet room in the far right corner of the house. I stood against
the wall and sighed. I was sad and the fact that I still didn't
know where Jack was worried me, but then I thought of the witch in
Salem and what she showed me that day.

I sat on the floor in my room and with a
piece of chalk drew a circle on the wood floor, as I drew it I
spoke to the spirits and asked it for guidance during this ritual.
As I stood in the middle of the circle I started at the top
northern point of the circle and drew a line down in the south-west
direction of the circle, up to the east, across to the west, down
to the southeast and back up to the north, creating a star with me
in the center. I placed candles of different colors at each of
these points and as I lit each one, I said what they represented,
starting with the East candle.

Purple. "For Strength."

Light red. "For love."

Blue. "For protection."

Off-white. "For peace of mind."

White. "For my son."

I closed my eyes and let the heat that I felt
burn deep in my mind and I envisioned my son close to me. In my
mind I followed a point of light, like riding on some fast moving
train heading for the end of the tunnel, the light grew brighter
and bigger. I felt Jack, I felt him very close to me and I held on
to that feeling as the heat and light took over. I opened my eyes
and I looked around the brightly lit room. Bars were in front of
me, brown wooden bars and, as I looked around, I saw toys, endless
stuffed bears, rocking horses, and little decals on the wall and I
knew I was in a child's room.

The door opened and I watched two men walk
in, two men that I knew quite well. David walked up to the crib
first and touched my head, and then I knew that I was seeing this
through Jack's eyes. The second man had disappeared when our son
was only a couple months old, my husband.

"She's growing stronger," David said as he
looked around the room. "Her heritage is coming out and you don't
have much time left."

"Nonsense, she's getting too old for it to
kick in now. She would have had to have taken blood from one of us
years ago to bring on the transformation," Jack said and David
grabbed his arm, turning him to face him.

"You underestimate your wife's desire for her
son, Jack," David said and released his arm. "I know firsthand how
far she has advanced and trust me; you don't stand a chance if you
wait any longer."

"Don't worry, David, old boy." Jack laughed.
"Everything is under control." He smiled, evilly. "Even my
wife."

The two of them left the room and I whispered
little prayers to the baby as he dosed off to sleep.

I watched the tunnel as if I was in reverse.
The light grew smaller and then I opened my eyes. I didn't move
from the center of the circle. I just sat there until the candles
burned out thinking about my son and about how David and Jack were
involved in this. I must have been sitting there long enough to
fall asleep, because when the pounding at my door started, I was
laying on the floor.

Quinn stood outside my door, when I finally
got up and answered it. He stepped back and looked at me, then
smiled.

"You're eyes are glowing," he said quietly. I
looked over at the mirror in my room.

"Yes, so they are." I smiled back. He seemed
to like the changes in me."What do you want, Quinn?"