Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel Book 1) (14 page)

I waited until the door latch clicked, signaling his exit. Then I transformed back into a vampyre and scampered to redress. I raised an eyebrow as we met in the hallway. “Where are we going?”

“Outside. I bet you can fly better with open space.”

“What if someone sees?”

Jesu bit his lip and glanced away. “We will go to the clearing in the woods. It is more important that you learn to handle your abilities than it is to keep them from the others.”

We made our way to the first wing. If the castle had a back door, Jesu never bothered to use it. I had gotten used to the pitch-black section of the corridor. Memorizing the turns, I was able to glide through it without Jesu’s help.

Outside, I followed Jesu through the forest to the small clearing where we’d gone the night before. The ground crunched beneath my feet, frozen at this late hour. The wind whipped my hair across my face and rustled the tree branches.

Jesu stood in the center of the clearing and faced me. “This is good,” he said as strands of jet black hair flapped against his powder blue complexion.

“It’s pretty windy out here,” I stated.

He grinned at the sky and held out his arms. The air stilled. He smiled at me. “I won’t let you blow away.”

Glancing up, I levitated to the highest tree branch and then transformed in the air. I landed clumsily on the wooden limb, some twenty feet above the ground. My clothes drifted away, landing somewhere below. Pine scent filled my nostrils and sap rubbed onto the fur on my belly. Bark and needles scratched the delicate underside of my wings as I carefully worked my way to the end of the branch and then leaped like a flying squirrel, stretching my wings wide. I glided easily through the air, riding the currents as I swooped toward Jesu.

The real challenge would be regaining height, while trying to turn around at the same time, before running into another tree. Beating my wings, I leaned slightly to the left while maneuvering my feet. It worked a little. I was able to loop around Jesu, but lost altitude fast. Seconds later, my belly scraped against the ground until I came to a stop.

Jesu scooped me into his warm, masculine hands. “Are you all right?”

The lightness of his voice told me he’d been laughing at my pathetic attempt to fly. I nodded my head. I wasn’t hurt, but I was cold from the condensation on the grass that had soaked into my fur when I crash-landed. Apparently even my nervous system shifted when I became an animal. I shivered in Jesu’s hands. He cradled me close to his chest, his body heat quickly warming me.

“Try again,” he coaxed.

I shook my head.

“Oh come on. You can do it.” He held me at arm’s length, opening his hands.

I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t transform either, not wanting to be naked in front of him. Sighing, I tried again.

Jalmari

Leena barged into my office. I addressed her without looking up.

“I am working.”

“Tell me something new,” she snapped.

I glanced at her without raising my head. Her pretty face was sour, her hands on her hips. I sighed loudly. “So, you are still angry with me.”

“Of course I am. How dare you leave me here,
alone
, and then take this attitude with me.”

“I do not have time for this, my love, and I will not have you shout at me.” I returned my attention to the stack of paperwork on my desk. She was quiet for a moment, but I knew the storm was just beginning.

“Jesu took the girl out yesterday night,” she started. I wished I didn’t care. She went on. “They were gone all day and only just returned a few hours ago.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I folded my hands over the papers, straightened my spine, and looked into her eyes. “You have my attention, dearest, now what is it you want?”

She scowled. “This is how you greet me after a trip away? So nice to see you again too,
master
.” She curtsied, bowing her head low.

Guilt ripped at my chest. “Get up.”

She did. “Why is it you only wish to speak with me when the topic is about
her
?”

I stood and floated to her side. “Forgive me, my queen. Work has been stressful.” I breathed in the scent of her hair while wrapping my arms around her tight waist. The truth was that I missed her very much, yet other more urgent matters persisted in my mind. I leaned in to kiss her, but she resisted, jerking her face away.

“I am not your queen. I am nothing but a lap dog to you.”

“You know that isn’t true. You will always be
my
queen. I’ve missed you very much.”

She huffed. “Me or my bed? Lately I can’t tell.”

A growl pushed past my throat. “I really can’t play games right now, Leena.”

“Humph!” She pushed away and strolled to the window behind my desk. She looked out at the forest, sadness apparent in her reflection.

I kept my voice low. “After all these years, it pains my heart to know you still question my devotion to you.”

She faced me. “How can I not question it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You still deny me your mind.”

I narrowed my eyes.
So it is about that.

“Damn it, Jalmari, what are you hiding from me? What is it you don’t want me to see?” She hugged herself as her gaze fell to the floor. “I know it’s about her.”

My fists clenched as strings tugged at my heart. “I wish you would trust me.”

“I wish you would say it
wasn’t
her.” She turned her back to me as she gazed out the window again. “I’m not stupid, Jalmari. I know you’ve grown tired of me.”

“Leena, please don’t start this right now. I have not grown tired of you.”

“Oh really? Tell me what I’m supposed to think, Jalmari. You’ve never denied me your mind before, not in two-thousand years, and then you bring her into our lives—”

“That’s not fair. I only brought her here because she was turning. What was I supposed to do, leave one of our own to die in an alley?”

“She’s not one of us!”

I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped as I realized the error of my words. I started over, forcing myself to speak calmly. “You’re right, she’s not. But until I know what she is, I cannot just toss her out. Believe me, I want nothing more than to rid our home of her, but I cannot. Not yet.”

“Why?”

I hesitated, not really sure what the answer to that question was myself. “I need to make sure she wasn’t created by a rebel group.” Lying made me feel lower than dirt. I didn’t deserve Leena, not when I could so easily keep her in the dark.

“Then let me help you,” she whined.

I was about to object, but paused to ponder the suggestion. “You
can
help me.”

Her emerald eyes brightened. “How?”

“You can listen to them.”

“What?”

“The girl, and Jesu, too. Find out what they know.”

“I know what you meant, but that’s not what I—”

“That’s all. I must be getting back to work now.” I gave her a quick kiss before returning to my desk, hoping she wouldn’t press me further.

“Ugh!” Her fists clenched as she flew out of the room.

I sighed. I hated giving her orders, but I would make it up to her in the morning. After a few minutes of trying, I found I could no longer concentrate on my tasks. My mind wandered. What was Jesu thinking, taking the girl out?

“
You should have stayed.”

I sighed at the unwelcome essence.
Go away.

“Do not take that tone with me.”

I don’t need this now.

“You are going to keep a closer eye on her, do you hear me?”

Silence, you.

“Ungrateful boy.”

Ignorant nuisance! You are going to cost me everything, starting with my beloved.

“She is only a companion.”

She is the love of my life!

“She is not fit to be queen.”

Because of you.

The voice laughed. “
Nay, that one could never have been queen and you know it. I gave you what you wanted.”

Bullshit! I never wanted to turn Leena into a vampire. I love her. I never wanted to steal her life and degrade her.

“Turning a human into a vampire is hardly degrading. Besides, you hadn’t the balls to watch her grow old and die. I did you a favor.”

Go to hell, old man.

The voice seethed, but recoiled to the back of my consciousness.

“
You will observe the girl. You will keep her in your sight at all times.”

Frustrated, I lifted my desk and threw it across the room. Papers flew everywhere as it crashed into a bookshelf and the wood splintered. Panting, I whispered. “Yes, master.”

A clatter came from my office window. I turned just as a small brown mammal fell from the glass pane.

A bat
?

My eyes narrowed. Bats weren’t common in Lapland, especially during the harsh weather. I went to the window and watched as the animal fluttered into the sky, circled around, and then fell.

My brother emerged from the forest, laughing as he rushed to the animal’s side. He carried a bundle of clothes in his hands and set them down near the bat. He turned away from the animal, and the bat morphed into a young woman.

Her
.

The phone rang on the floor, where it landed after I had destroyed my desk. I couldn’t answer it. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight below. My brother and the girl stood right outside, four stories below me. Neither of them noticed as I watched from behind the velvet curtains.

When she finished dressing, Jesu took her hand and led her quickly into the woods again. My brow furrowed as I cast out my senses, following them. They stopped at a clearing and then continued to exercise her powers, which were quite numerous. Bat-form, wolf-form, the ability to levitate, and the ability to phase. My breath caught each time she transformed her body. Though visibly weak and slow, her mixture of talents made my head spin with worry.

The phone continued to ring. My muscles tensed to move, to pick it up, but I couldn’t so much as glance at it. Though I was curious, it was the voice in my head which demanded that I wait by the window. He wanted to study the girl, but since he didn’t have eyes, he used mine.

Watching her shift and fly as Jesu directed, my first thought was how bad my brother was at teaching. When I’d taught Leena, I had her zipping through the forest as nothing more than a wisp by now. The girl seemed to refuse to phase her entire body, and she was slow and clumsy no matter what form she took. She was no match for an experienced vampyre. No threat to me… yet.

Her powers did not make sense. No clan I knew of could do all those things. Sure, the Stragoian could shift into a bat, and the Vyrkolakans could shift into a wolf, but no one could do both. I understood the voice’s fascination with her now. A Romani vampire, the first ever of her kind. Who knew what else she could do? Yet her mix of powers… what did that mean? Where was her sire, and how could she break the bonds of servitude to her maker?

“
Is it not obvious?”
The voice croaked to life as it watched the girl. “
She is not a vampire, she is a vampyre.”

How can that be?
I wondered.
The gypsies are human. Unless she has a vampyre parent… but if she did, surely she would have known before.

“The gypsies are my kin, boy, remember that. She’s had Ekimmuen blood deep within her veins all along. They all do.”

Was he implying the gypsies could have vampyre children?

“Why do you think I outlawed human offspring and denied even my own human kin? You ignorant boy, have I taught you nothing? This is why we hunt the gypsies, this right here, her. Can you imagine a world where both species rear each other? It is madness and it sickens me.”

I scoffed.
That’s humorous, coming from you.

“Silence. I want to see what else she can do.”

If her existence frets you, why don’t we just kill her while she is still weak?

“Do you not see her potential? She could be quite useful to us.”

She’ll kill you. She’ll kill me. Do you want to die? For certain this time?

“We do not know if she is really the girl from your brother’s vision,”
he argued.

Leena doesn’t lie to me.

“She is a woman, of course she lies. Do you not notice your precious companion feels threatened by the girl?”

If anything, Leena fears for my life, like you should.
I clenched my fists. The phone continued to ring. Why wouldn’t the person hang up?
Leave Leena out of this conversation
, I warned him
. What if the girl is the one destined to kill us?

“All the more reason to keep a close eye on her. It should be you teaching her how to be a vampyre, not that pathetic boy down there.”

Why would I teach her how to use her powers? So she can kill us faster?
And for that matter, why was Jesu teaching her? Did my brother want me to die? Surely he didn’t… did he?

The voice tsked me. “
You must earn her trust.”

I have no interest in caring for someone who will eventually turn against me.

“Suit yourself, but I am far from through with this diamond in the rough.”

I sighed aloud, unsurprised that he wanted to keep the girl around, yet still every bit as frustrated. As I peered down at the couple, laughing at some stupid stunt the girl did, one thing became evident. I would have to have a talk with my brother.