Candescent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) (11 page)

“What are you talking about Taj’? What’s going to happen?”

“I
don’t know
.” He hung his head, slithered back into the cave repeatedly saying that he was sorry. When he was gone, I remained standing, confused. Sylvarian looked after his father and cocked his head.          

“What was that all about?”

              Magnificent nudged him with his tail. “You know he’s been acting strange since he saw the pool. Then Mom left with Aura. He has been mumbling strange things ever since.”

              Sylvarian looked up in alarm, his eyes grew wide and he slithered to the hidden cave. Magnificent followed close behind. I looked to where a shape, a small dot appeared to be getting closer until it became visible as a dragon, a white dragon. Jasper. Everything in his path was destroyed and as he headed toward me, I looked for an escape. All around me was the frozen pool, except for the narrow path that remained between the charging dragon and me. I took my chance, headed for the path that would take me back to the City. I ran down this path, passed the dragon and he turned abruptly to follow me. This dragon chased me through the City, tried to grab me in his talons, when I saw the palace ahead and I ran inside.

              The interior of the palace had changed to a more elaborate arrangement. Silks and jewels covered the floor. As I marveled at the riches, I heard a voice coming from the couch. When I reached it, I saw Pete.

“What’s happened to me? What have I done to my brother?” he whispered. His body shook as though he seized and his eyes rolled to me as if seeking help.

“Pete?”

              His fingers curved against the back of the sofa as he pulled himself into an upright position. “I killed him…and I am a vampire now.” He looked at me and his face softened. “And I found you. I
found you
.” He reached up to touch my face and I could see his strength had returned. His pulse was quiet. He stood up and embraced me. “I knew something was wrong. I could
feel it
.”

              He reached down to put a hand on my stomach and neared my neck, breathing in my scent. As he healed the Ceremonial Wound on my neck, he laughed, slowly backed me to the stairs and carried me up to our room. He set me down on the bed in darkness, lit a candle, and looked down at me. In the soft light I could see this room had also changed, the whole palace did.

“Look at what happened to us.” He reached into his cape and pulled out a bottle of plumeberry juice. “Just look at what happened.”

              As he opened the bottle, one hand remained on my stomach and he shook his head.

“I killed my own brother and he’s not coming back. I’ve made a mistake. I would have been fine as a half-mortal. He had to find me thinking that if he didn’t bite me I’d be some monster, but being a half-mortal made me a monster. He bit me before he realized his mistake. My power was toxic to him and so was knowing the truth.” He paused to sip from the bottle and shook his head. “He saw the ring where I’d left it after he bit me, and as he twirled the ring around in his fingers he realized the Ceremony hadn’t been completed and he saw his fate...,” his voice trailed off and he moved the bottle so the juice rocked back and forth inside of it. “He ended up on the Bridge. The toxin would’ve thrown him over, but by then it was too late. There was nothing I could do.” He glanced up to catch my soulful expression. “And I’m sorry.”

              We remained in silence until he spoke up again. “I promise I will do something in his honor. I’ll have every creature notified and-,”

“Pete,” I shook my head, “please, I don’t want to talk about that anymore.” He was taken back by my comment but respectfully nodded his head.

“Then what do you want to talk about?”

“What about our Ceremonial Party?”

“You want one?”

“I want to invite everyone and show them how you’ve changed. I want them to see that I was wrong in committing the Ceremonial Trial against you.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best thing-,”

“But Caspian told me all about what you’ve done while I was away. He told me how you’ve changed and I want a party to show it. We can even say a little something about Fitzray too.”

              A slight smile appeared and he put the bottle down on the nightstand. “We have more to prepare for then just a party. Caspian told me so.”

“When did you speak with Caspian?”

“When Fitzray was on the Bridge he stabbed himself and I was able to retrieve him and bring him to Caspian, even though I knew he couldn’t be saved. I stayed by him until the toxin took him. Fitzray’s last dying breaths managed to tell Caspian to give you the ring he had dropped. Someone had found it and gave it to Caspian. When Caspian returned from seeing you, he told me about you and found that Fitzray was gone.”

              He moved to sit next to me and gathered me in his cape. Slowly he started up a new conversation. “What kind of party do you want it to be?”

“I want it to be a masquerade.”

“So no one can recognize each other?”

“That’s right.”

“When do you want it?”

“As soon as possible.”

“I don’t know how everyone will take seeing us back together…and Fitzray’s death.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I breathed, “I want everyone to know.”

“We’ll have it tomorrow then.”

“How could we tell everyone fast enough?”

“News travels fast, especially about a party, but I must warn you that people might already know about Fitzray…and about us too.”

“I still want a party.”

“I’ll start arrangements as soon as I get Jasper under control.”

“What happened to him?”

“I don’t have Mullein since he was killed by the wolves and now since I have Lucian’s heart, he’s drawn to me, but he’s confused. I’m not Lucian and I don’t have Lucian’s Dragon’s Soul so I’ll just have to win his heart. He’s been skulking around the palace and the City ever since I got Lucian’s heart, going after the innocent in hopes that I would come out to see him. He wants a Master again. I know he does since he’s been wild all this time.”

“What happened to Citrus?”

              He shrugged. “I haven’t seen her, but I’m not surprised. A dragon will usually leave when its Master is killed. They will wait until their Master becomes reincarnated or until they die themselves.”

“I’m glad Minx waited for me.”

              I saw Pete smile and he let out a quiet laugh. “Fitzray made him wait. He made that dragon wait from the moment you were killed until you came back and I have no idea how he could have told that dragon to stay after he was so young and so new from reincarnation. All of his knowledge and past experiences and memories retuned to him once he became ten and then he changed into the eighteen year old vampire he was before he was reincarnated.”

              He held me close and I felt his body shaking against me with anxiety, quietly rocking me to sleep until his whisper opened my eyes and he repeated something to me in a mumble, for I could not respond. “I miss my brother,” he had whispered. To him I turned my head, putting a hand to his distressed face trying to comfort him.

“Me too.” I whispered. With these words, the flame on the nightstand went out.

A
swarm of people piled into our palace all wearing masks, all looking fantastic. Pete was beside me to greet them all with me. The planning had gone fast, like he’d promised me, and I couldn’t believe all of the people that showed up. Each person had found someone else to dance with and as I watched them, people still entered.

Nearly a half hour of waiting and greeting and Pete had enough. He grabbed my hand and led me to the crowd to dance with me. As he took me in his arms, I could see the glitter in his eyes behind his mask.

“I’ve never had the pleasure to dance with you,” I said.

I was not sure if he could hear me over the music so I hoped he had read my mind. He responded by pressing the plastic lips of his mask to my head and then glided with me across the floor to the music. He danced with me, only talking to me with his dark eyes. For a moment, he swept me off my feet and then continued with me through the crowd. I saw pleasure in the eyes behind the masks of those around me.

People continued to come through the palace doors and saw us in the middle of our party. Taj’ and his sons had also come in to look around. Eventually there came a time when the doors finally closed and no one else could enter. The music gradually slowed to match the lazy steps of the creatures around us. Closing the doors meant keeping in the heat and I felt the energy level drop uneasily. The noise had lowered to mumbling and even some dancing stopped. Our party had strangely come to a slow and had a wary feel. Pete pulled me closer to talk with him and I tightened my grip on his shoulder, feeling he was tense and alert, but his face remained nonchalant and at ease.

“This is nice isn’t it?” he whispered to me. “The party is a bit quiet though.”

I looked at him convinced the low mumble was disturbing him too. I rested my head against him and watched the others dance. One pair moved slowly across from us, the one person looked in my direction, his eyes on me as he danced with his partner. Feeling paranoid, I looked away and when my curious eyes drifted back, the eyes behind the bright mask still stared at me. Now I closed my eyes against his shoulder wanting to drift off with the music and soft mumbling. The moment I looked up I was relieved, not seeing eyes staring in my direction. It was only when Pete swayed me that I caught the glimpse of the bright mask. There he was, still staring at me from behind another dancing couple.

“Pete, look behind you. There’s a guy that keeps looking at me.”

He didn’t look back to acknowledge the figure, he only smiled at me with his eyes. “Pay no attention my sweet.” Under my fingers, I could still feel the tension. He didn’t have to look, it didn’t matter. I knew he would always be looking out for me. I was sure he probably saw the stranger there the whole time.

“Can you at least turn me the other way so I won’t have to face him?”

He moved me around so we had switched places, but I could still see the mask from where I stood, where I thought I would have my back to him. Wherever I was, so was the stranger, who kept steady eye contact.

“I’m going to get something to drink.” I pulled myself away, cautiously letting myself walk over to the table covered in finger food and cups of sweet drinks. I poured myself some juice, still glancing behind me. I looked down at my cup when the low murmuring was silenced and I looked up to see the masked figure calling for attention. He paced along the last stair leading to the upper floors of the palace. Slowly he turned to face his audience and frowned.

“I would like to congratulate our Queen Chenille for she performed the Ceremony again, as many of you know who attended the Ceremonial Trial. As for her Eternal Mate, I stand here equally astonished as you, to announce that her new Mate is Pete. King Pete reigns again my fellow creatures,” he began. “He reigns after you patiently attended a trial and supported our Queen…the vampire we have exiled is here to stay - to rule. How can I stand here to accept this? Are you all not brutally ashamed for what has come of our planet? How can we stand here to support an idea and then see it disregarded? When one says one thing, how can another thing be done?  And here you are all supporting the whole thing - this whole idea that your say and your patience is not valued. How can you stand here to have him as your King again for all he’s done to her,” he paused to point at me, “and who has killed his brother again!”

The crowd started up, each immortal exchanging glances, each one turning to Pete.

“We don’t need to take this!” The immortal spat on the stair and dug his heel into the wood. “We are stronger together. We can take both of them down!”

Nervously I looked into the crowd for Pete and I found relief to see that he wasn’t moved at all, he almost appeared amused. The crowd was starting up and almost immediately I could see who took sides with this immortal over us. They threw down their masks to glare at anyone who disagreed with them. Though I felt reassured to know our friends would not turn on us and that many creatures favored Pete and did not see only what he had done in the past.

The immortal fueled the tense crowd until at last he too threw off his mask and ordered to attack. “Bring them to me and don’t let anyone get in your way!”

I dropped my glass and turned to find Pete, but he appeared behind me, starting to ward off the immortals. It wasn’t long before I was separated from Pete, now in the middle of chaos, immortals fighting each other and soon the werewolves took their form. Prusaious was one of them, still in her human form. She held a sword, one of our own that we used as decoration above the mantle. She used it against me. She managed to slice me across my stomach, but it was not long before Calvin appeared, trying to shove his way through the crowd to get to me. Prusaious would have finished me off if a wolf hadn’t stood in the line of fire for me and sliced her hand, causing her to drop the sword. Calvin grabbed the sword and threw it to the wolf who returned into the crowd. Calvin, once finding Prusaious his Mate, now found her as a traitor as soon as he had found out she was responsible behind my killing. He didn’t tell me this, but I could see this story light up in his eyes as he showed his compassion toward me and hatred toward her.

I felt him attend to my wound and I knew he could not help me. I looked desperately for Caspian, but I wasn’t even sure if he had come to the party. All I saw was Taj’ and his sons fleeing the palace. I now knew why Pearl and Aura had left. Taj’ had sent them away.
This
is what he knew what was going to happen and he knew I couldn’t have stopped it. Calvin attempted to heal me, but he didn’t have healing abilities and he couldn’t leave me to look for Caspian.

There were screams as fire made its way into the palace. Immortals called for their dragons and they in turn blew fire over the palace and scraped at the walls. More and more dragons came to tear down the palace and bury it under fire. Calvin helped me up and struggled to get through the panicking crowd that constantly glanced up, waiting for the roof to collapse down. The wolf that had saved me earlier met up with us and changed into the image of my father. With Calvin, he helped me out of the palace and would have gotten me to safety if Minx hadn’t swooped in and grabbed me from them. Before I could tell Minx to go back, I saw them run and I knew they would be a safe distance from the palace.

“Minx, you have to put me down.”

When he looked down at me, his grip became firm and his talon accidently pressed into my wound. He felt my pain instantly and headed to land.

“Where are we?”

My dragon looked around and flicked out his tongue. “We are in the woods that border the Frozen Waterfalls I think.”

“Pete better find us.” I looked from the corner of my eye to see my bloodstained clothes. Minx could see it too. Slowly he lifted my shirt with his talon to examine the wound as I looked away. He looked around and found a branch that he set fire to and burned my skin to stop the bleeding. When he was done, I watched as he bit off a layer of his scales on his shoulder, revealing a raw patch of skin.  With his strip of scales, he tied it around my stomach like a belt.

“Minx, what are you doing? Your skin-,”

“My scales will grow back in a couple of weeks Mistress, but you may not be healed by then and each minute you risk infection. My scales will offer you some protection for now until Pete comes.” Minx lied down beside me, keeping me close to the soft underside of his belly.

“How long will we wait?”

“Pete will come. We will wait for only a few hours. I cannot risk getting caught flying now. I know there’s still a war out there, probably heading toward the City, maybe to destroy it.”

“I know who’s behind this.”

“I don’t want to know Mistress. I don’t want you to think about it. I need you to rest. Pete will come and when he does, he’ll take you to be healed. You can think about it then, but not now. You don’t have enough strength.” He circled his body around me, folding his wings at his sides to create a tent from the gusty winds. He remained low to the ground, but remained alert and several times, he told me I should sleep. It wasn’t possible. I only became weaker with every minute that passed that Pete didn’t come.

It was before sunset when Minx finally stood and stretched. Pete still hadn’t come and he would have to risk a flight into the City to the hospital. He strangely appeared tense and smelled the air. The moment he turned his head to look into the woods a dragon launched at him, sending him sliding across the ground and breathing fire at his airborne enemy.

As the dragons fought, a figure appeared from the woods. He was the owner of this dragon. This was the figure behind the mask. It was the Prince of Light - Sebastian. He said nothing, but looked me over. He knew I was hurt.

“Get away from me,” I hissed, my hand pressed painfully to my stomach as though to shield it.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. How have you been? Having a good time with Pete?” My hand tightened to a fist. “You know it doesn’t have to be this way. You know you were never
obligated
to be his Eternal Mate. I thought you would like an option to start fresh, to have a new life. That’s what you wanted to begin with. That’s why you
came to me
. Don’t you want that? I mean, you’ve seen what has happened now that only several hundred immortals know that Pete is your Eternal Mate again. Can you imagine what would happen if all of Catastrophe knew?”

“This is your fault, this riot.”

“My fault?
My fault
. Why, I was just pointing out the obvious.”

I clutched my Dragon’s Soul and felt the ring on the chain beside it. “What do you want?”

“I want revenge. I did want you, but now I’ve realized the Ceremony was not a mistake. I’ve also realized that you are just as bad as him.”

“And how do
you
know it wasn’t a mistake?”

He laughed and smiled slyly. His eyes glanced over me quickly. “Well, isn’t it obvious?”

I had pulled Fitzray’s ring off my chain and once in my hand I threw it at his face as he laughed and it flew into his mouth, into his throat, to which he began to choke. I found myself staring as he fell to his knees, his hands clutching his throat as he struggled to breathe.

Minx broke free from the dragon that felt her Master’s pain and returned to me. I found myself questioning what I’d done as I watched the struggling, choking immortal. I felt myself being yanked to my feet and I was dragged onto a dragon’s back. I watched from a distance as Sebastian’s body became bright and blinding. As I looked away, I found myself cowering in Pete’s arms.

“What did he do Chenille?”

I looked up at him to see his face was bloody and his shirt was ripped, reveling the scar on his chest. 

“He laughed at me.”

              Pete closed his eyes and then looked ahead. “Minx will meet up with us later. I told him where we’re going. We will be in hiding for a while until we figure out a plan.”

“But I choked him and he fell to his knees in agony. Shouldn’t that mean it’s over?”

“No, he’s an immortal. It’s not over, at least not yet.” He clenched his jaw and his grip tightened around my arm. “It has just begun.”