The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises (4 page)

"And this is a bad thing?" I watched his
temper flare when I said this.

"Yes, damn it, it is. How can I protect you
when all I can think about is holding you? I want you. I want you
so bad that it's killing me inside, but I don't know if I can have
you. You're very young, but you're also very strong. This is not a
good idea." He sighed. I watched as his face turned soft and then
he rubbed his eyes.

"You didn't give me an answer." Suddenly, he
put his hands on his hips. "I'm going home."

"Ash!" He yelled after me as I walked away
from him. "Ashley, you little brat." I stopped only for a second
and then I walked on. "Okay, if you’re going to be that way then
we'll just finish talking about it in the morning over
breakfast."

I smiled to myself and continued to walk
home. As I rounded the corner, walking up my own driveway, I
noticed the four police cars that were parked in front of the
house. I watched the red and blue lights turn and then I walked up
and in through the front door.

"Mom, Dad?" I paused in the doorway. They
came running around the corner and hugged me. "What? What's
wrong?"

"Oh, honey, we thought we lost you. Where did
you go?"

"Yesterday, when I walking, it started to
rain and then I went to climb a bank, slipped, and hit my head. I
woke up only a little while ago. I came right home." They knew
little or nothing about Julian and I intended to keep it that
way.

The rest of the day went without incident.
The next morning, when I was supposed to be on the school bus
heading for school, I was sneaking around the side of Julian's
house. Michael met me at the back door and then told me that Julian
was still sleeping.

I made my way, as quietly as I could, to the
third floor, slowly opened the door to Julian's room, and looked
in. He was lying across the queen-sized bed, his head toward me,
naked as could be. I walked into the room, closer and closer to the
bed. He was lying on his stomach, so the only thing exposed was his
bare bottom. I reached out to touch his back, but I got as close as
about an inch away, and then the next moment I was laying on my
back on the bed with him towering over me again. I struggled to
catch my breath, and then realized that I could feel his bare skin
on my legs and where my shirt had been pulled up in the flip
over.

My face turned red and Julian then realized
why I had changed a different color. He slid down off the bed and I
turned my head away as he grabbed for the bathrobe on the floor
beside the bed.

"I didn't mean to scare you." He sat back
down next to me. I sat up, pulled my shirt down, and smiled. "I
really had the intention of being up when you got here."

"Don't worry about it, it happens all the
time." He checked me over and then I smiled. "Well, waking people
up seems to happen to me a lot, getting thrown down on the bed by a
naked man, though quite intoxicating, has never happened to me
before."

"So,” he pulled on his jean shorts under his
bathrobe then took it off and pulled on a tank top. "What would you
like for breakfast?"

"You." Of course, I had forgotten about my
mind when I whispered and he turned to look at me quite quickly.
"Sorry, it just slipped." I smiled and stood up from the bed. "How
about pancakes and then you can tell me about my parents."

"Ash." Julian's voice carried after me as I
walked out of his room and then down the stairs. When I reached the
bottom and stood in the parlor, waiting for him, he was right
behind me. "Ash, what did you mean by that?"

"My parents, you lied last night." The two of
us walked out to the small-enclosed patio. "You said that they were
at home and, granted, my parents are at home, but I want to know
about my biological ones."

"What makes you think that I know?" We sat at
the table with Quinn, Michael, and David.

"Well, let me think." I looked up at the sky.
"Your desperate need to protect me. From what, I don't know, but it
seems to have to do with my past. The fact that I can feel you when
you are near me, and sense your mood. The fact that I can read your
mind."

This statement made Quinn drop his fork and
almost spit out the eggs he had been eating. Michael glanced up
from the magazine on the table and David just giggled. Julian shook
his head.

"There's no way. That's impossible, Ash."

"Right now you’re thinking about when I could
have been doing this, picturing all the times that I knew what you
wanted to do next, say next. You’re trying to figure out how a
little ‘mortal’ like me could be able to read your mind."

He stood up quickly and started to walk away,
and then he turned around and came back. "It's not possible. Ash,
it's not."

"Tell me about my parents Julian or I'm sure
Quinn will."

"Your parents are Nancy and William Benson,
Ash. I swear to God that is all I know." His voice forceful.

"Then tell me what you're protecting me from.
Tell me why you’re so hell bent on keeping me safe," I
demanded.

"Because I love you!" He put his hands on the
table and leaned toward me. "Do I have to have any other
reason?"

I watched him walk away and then I sat down
at the table and stared in disbelief. Quinn got up and followed
after him, the other two didn't say anything. Curiosity had me two
steps behind as he disappeared down into the darkness of a
basement. I hid behind a tall stack of boxes when Quinn cornered
Julian in a dimly lit room.

"Are you insane?" Julian leaned on the wall
and glared at him. "You can't do this, Julian. It is too dangerous,
for both of you."

"Don't you think I know that?" Julian bumped
his head back and closed his eyes. "When Victor told me she was the
one, I wanted to kill him. She knew nothing of us."

"Knew, as in knows now?" Quinn questioned.
Julian nodded. "How could you tell her? This could ruin the whole
thing! Julian? I knew you were stupid but come on."

"I told her about us, okay. She knew anyway,
but she just wasn't sure. Two nights ago, she came running in from
outside, stood right in front of me and knew that I could read her
mind. She's not stupid either." Julian leered at his brother. "I
can't help how I feel, Quinn. She tugs at my heart. She drives me
crazy."

"She's important to us."

"She's important to Victor. She could care
less about anybody else but us. Quinn, she's just a girl." He
sighed.

"Yes, a girl that will become a Queen." Quinn
watched his brother walk to the back wall and stand facing it. "You
weren't supposed to meet yet."

"But we did Quinn."

"And you certainly weren't supposed to fall
in love with her." He laughed. Julian smiled.

"But, I did and that doesn't change anything.
She's not going to go for anything, Quinn. She's too smart."

"Then her parents will make sure that this
doesn't continue," Quinn argued.

"Why, what can they do to her?"

"Please, be careful with this, Julian. It's
not just her life you’re dealing with anymore. She knows of us, and
that is harmful to us."

"She won't tell."

"Make sure she doesn't." Quinn sighed and
smiled at his brother. "Remember her importance to us."

"I only know her of her importance to me and,
right now, keeping her from harm is all I care about." Julian
watched as his brother walked away.

Quinn moved past me as I tried my hardest to
try to shield myself from him. When I turned to observe Julian I
saw him walk in a circle, then turn and smash his fist through a
large wooden crate. I crept out of the shadows, as he was just
about to smash it again, but he suddenly seemed to feel me there
and regarded me, unclenched his fist and leaned on his arms against
the boxes.

"I swear I was telling the truth about your
parents, Ash."

"Queen of what, Jules?" He glanced away.
"Queen of what? Queen of you, of the vampires?"

"In due time, Ash. I can't tell you now." He
sighed. "But, please know that I love you and that nothing will
ever happen to you."

As he walked away, further into the dark
basement, I turned and moved back the way I had came, and then
started home. I could barely see as the tears built up in my
eyes.

3

Two nights had passed, I couldn't even think
about going to see him. My heart raced when I whispered his name,
but my mind shuddered at the thought that I might be hurting him by
my actions. I sat at the window in my bedroom; from there I could
see his house. It was dark and had been the last two nights, but I
felt him and the others. They were still there.

I wished him to come to me, wished with all
my heart, but then told him no, to stay home. It was about ten on
the second night that the doorbell rang and I listened to my
parents hustle about to answer it. I came down the stairs to the
landing that was just at the top of the first flight of stairs and
hid behind the wall. You could hear everything that was being said
in the living room from there.

I watched as some old woman, hunched over and
using a cane, walked in with the help of my father and a priest.
They made their way to the living room, where they all sat and, of
course, my mother offered them tea.

"No thank you, we need to get right to the
point. Your daughter is in danger." With this statement, I knew
they were talking about me. Kim and Grace wouldn't ever do anything
wrong. "She has met with the others."

"Others, what others?" My father voice
sounded as if he were in a state of panic.

"Her kind. We brought her to you because we
thought you would keep her safe from them. They have told her too
much already. If they continue to be together, your daughter and
this vampire, we will have to destroy them."

Destroy them? Destroy Julian? What the hell
were they talking about? Why was I not supposed to be near them,
why couldn't I be with him? However, the woman talked on about how
we should move so that I could forget about him. They discussed
hypnotism, how it might aid in forgetting. I swore right then that
I wouldn't ever forget Julian, if it killed me I wouldn't
forget.

She told them that I would soon find out all
of what they were trying to protect me from if I stayed here any
longer. I just cursed under my breath and wanted to yell that I
wish they would all just stop trying to protect me. She asked my
mother about her journals, the ones she kept when they were
preparing to take me from my real parents. My mother answered her,
telling her that they were safe, up in the attic in a secret hole
in the wall.

I had to know what the big secret was, and I
knew where the little spot she was talking about was. I had watched
her put the books in there, but never thought of them after that
moment. I walked quietly up the stairs and crept to the attic
staircase. I hated the attic, but I braved the darkness and felt my
way around. The light of the half moon window in the corner shone
directly onto the spot where my mother's journals were hiding.

I used the edge of an old dictionary to pry
open the board and looked in to see five dust-covered books sitting
in the small hole in the wall. I slowly pulled them out and dusted
off the cover. I wrapped them in a blanket and went back down to my
room, where I stuck them in my backpack. Tomorrow, I wouldn't be
going to the day camp my parents had signed me up for.

The next morning I went out to catch the bus.
I didn't talk to anyone, but as I stood at the bus stop, I felt him
close to me. I viewed him standing by the tree. He was taking a big
chance being here. My sisters told my mother everything that I did.
I walked over to him and smiled at his cheery face.

"We have to talk later," I told him. "I
promise I won't ask about my parents, but there is something that
we need to discuss."

"I've missed you, Ash," he said softly and
reached out to touch me. The two of us looked at my sisters, who
glared. His hand dropped to his side and he nodded to them. "What
do they have, staring problems?"

"Yes, and they will tell my mother that you
were here." I smiled.

"So, it's a free country." Julian
laughed.

"Not if my parents can help it." I replied.
Just then, the bus pulled up. "After camp, I'll be over. Wait for
me."

"I will." And he was gone.

I had escaped the halls of the community
center, where the day camp was, and ran to the library that was a
few blocks over. This is where I found a nice quiet spot and curled
up with the journals. I found out which one was the first one and
began to read.

March 15, 1975:

They visited us again today, told us that
the baby was due on the 21 of June. We're very excited, but then
again, this isn't going to be an easy task.

I read on from that date. It explained that I
was to be given up for adoption by my biological parents, but it
wasn't until I had already been born, that my new parents found out
anything about me. She said I was born with two sharp teeth, and
that my mother had died during childbirth, my father, on the way to
the hospital the day I was born. His car had been hit by a
train.

She writes on about how an elderly woman
stopped in when I was two days old and told her about my parents.
They weren't normal, and it was something that they were going to
have to take into consideration when they thought about keeping
me.

June 23, 1975:

She said that they were different, but the
explanation that she gave us went beyond different, but the priest
she brought with her made us believe.

She told us that Ashley's biological parents
were, well, I'll laugh at this later, but she said they were
vampires. Ashley's mother had become pregnant and that she had been
made a vampire in the seventh month of her pregnancy. Her husband
had been made one shortly before.