Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel Book 1) (32 page)

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Turn the page for an exclusive bonus chapter,
Jesu’s Revelation
- and a sneak peek of
Dark Liaison
, Book Two in the Ema Marx Series!

Exclusive  Bonus  Scene:

Jesu’s Revelation

I sat on the cool, damp ground with my legs out in front of me, and rested against the cavern wall, settling in for the day. Ema sat in the shadows across from me, hugging her knees to her chest. My sunglasses covered her eyes. They were large on her small frame and gave the impression of a young girl playing dress-up. She tilted her head toward the cave opening, her whole face scrunched into one big, angry scowl. I half expected her to hiss at the sunlight. I bit back the urge to laugh, and fished around my pants pocket for a smoke. Lighting up, I took a long drag, and then sighed.

“How do you do that?” she asked, her nose still creased in annoyance.

“Do what?”

“Keep your eyes open in the light. Doesn’t it bother you?”

I held the cigarette between my fingers and shook my head. “I am not using my eyes. I can see everything I need to see right now with my ears and my nose.”
Like the cute snark in your tone and the rose oil scent of your hair.
She was a fireball of a woman, prone to fits of emotion.

She pouted. “But, your eyes are open.”

“That does not mean I am using them. You could do it too, you just need practice.”

That earned me a frown as she lowered her chin to her knees. “Tell me something about yourself, Jesu.”

I took another drag then flicked the tip to remove the lingering ash. “What would you like to know?”

“Anything. We spend so much time together, yet I don’t know anything about you, except you’re Draugrian and you can manipulate the elements. What does that mean, anyway?”

“It is exactly what it sounds like,” I told her. “The earth, air, water, and fire are mine to control.”

“Can you make fire out of thin air?”

I chuckled at her innocent question, remembering how little she knew of our nature. “I cannot make anything out of thin air. I can only manipulate the elements already around me.”

She bit her lip, and my senses soared. I loved when a woman did that, and with Ema, it was a habit. I’d give anything to put my fangs where hers were now.

“To what degree can you manipulate them?”

I couldn’t help the upward inclination of my mouth as I thought about telling her. Would she be impressed, or terrified?

“I can swim through the earth as though it were liquid. I can hold fire in my hands, and create tornados with the flick of a finger. Of course, I am not as powerful as a vampyre.” I shrugged, not wanting to sound overly confident.

She tiled her chin. “Show me.”

I wasn’t expecting that. I thought about it a moment. If I wanted to impress her, this was my chance. “All right.”

I took my lighter and flicked it open, igniting the flame. She turned away from the light, opting to watch from the corner of her vision. I balanced the cigarette between my lips, then used my free hand to grab the flame, closing my fist around the fire, and plucking it from the lighter.

Her breath hitched as she faced me. I couldn’t help the close-lipped smile that curled the left side of my mouth as I pocketed the lighter and then turned my fist palm-up. I opened one finger at a time, revealing the tiny flame as it floated just above my palm.

“If I touch it,” she marveled, “will it burn me?”

“Of course it will,” I chuckled.

She laughed. “Yeah, I guess that was a dumb question, but it doesn’t burn you. Are you nonflammable?”

I shook my head. “Fire can burn right through me if I do not keep it under control. Look close, under the flame. It never really touches my skin.”

She scooted closer and my body reacted, hardening under my jeans.

Get a hold of yourself.

Easier said than done. The curiosity in her eyes sparkled as wisps of dark silk hair feathered lightly across the milk-white arch of her cheek bones. My hands ached to push the strands back and burry my fingers in her hair, but this wasn’t like other times. Ema wasn’t a moment of fun. She was so much more. More than I could begin to understand. I couldn’t mess up. I had to do right by her. I
wanted
to do right by her. I had not felt this way about a woman in over a century.

“How does it work?” she whispered.

“Same way your powers work, I suppose, through concentration. It’s like telekinesis, only limited to the elements. It took me a long time to learn to master fire. In the beginning I burned off at least half my body hair.” I was babbling. I never babbled. I chuckled nervously, hoping she didn’t notice.

“Do something with it,” she challenged. “Manipulate it.”

Her eagerness made me grin. “What would you like to see me do?”

“Can you make a fireball and throw it?”

“That is easy.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Let’s see it then.”

Grinning, I cupped the flame and moved both hands in a circular motion, adding just the right amount of oxygen to make it grow to the size of a baseball. I threw the fireball into the back of the shallow cave. The stone walls and stalagmites illuminated briefly as the ball passed them by and hit the back of the cave with a thunderous
crack!
Orange embers and black pebbles exploded around us.

Ema turned away, her shoulders curling forward. I may have overdone it. I lifted a hand to shade my gaze against the orange glow, trying to see her expression, but she pulled her knees to her chest and hid her face between them. Did the light bother her that much? I guess I was more used to it than I realized.

Way to go, Casanova.

“What other powers did the Draugerian have?” she asked, as though to fill the silence.

I took a puff while contemplating her question. I wasn’t going to spill the beans about the cat, but… could I trust her not to panic if I told her about my premonition? She needed to know eventually. It just seemed like too much too soon, though. I didn’t know how she would react.

I shook my head in answer. “That is all.”

“That’s
all
?” Her head popped up in disbelief. “You can’t fly, you can’t phase, you can’t do anything else?”

I chuckled and shrugged. “I would say manipulating the elements is pretty good. Besides, not all clans have extra powers. Some have nothing more than sensitive senses.”

“Must suck for them,” she said, before hiding her face between her knees again.

“They can be a bit envious, yes.” I wet my lips, mulling over an idea. Maybe, if I was careful how I articulated it, I could tell her a little bit more? “Actually, there is one other thing the Draugrians could do, maybe two.”

“I knew it,” she perked. “So let’s hear it.”

No going back now. “The Draugrian vampyres were psychic.”

“You mean they could predict the future?”

I nodded.

“Were they any good at it?”

I couldn’t help grinning as I recalled Mother’s talents. “Of course. Humans used to pay the Draugrian to tell them their future.”

She gave me a sidelong glance. “Weren’t they scared?”

I shook my head. “The Draugrian were a peaceful clan, the first and only clan to ever openly co-exist with humans. Some say they were too nice, unable to defend themselves, and now they are extinct because of it.”

“Except for you, right?”

“Yes.” Could she see where this was going? I chose my next words carefully. “But, even so, I am just a vampire, not a vampyre.”

She bit her lip and frowned. “I’m so sorry, Jesu. I can’t even fathom what it must be like to be the only vampire of your kind. But, can’t you just create more Draugrian vampires through bite?”

Okay, I wasn’t sure where that came from. She was so new and I wasn’t used to this—this being the role of teacher to a vampyre ignorant of her own kind.

“Technically, I could. Unfortunately, we have laws against creating clans of vampires. It would not be the same, anyway. Vampire powers are weak compared to vampyres, and each generation is weaker.” I paused to consider something, then chuckled. “We could probably bite our way back to human in less than ten generations.”

She frowned, probably not understanding the joke. “Does that mean you’re not psychic?”

Ah, there was the connection I was hoping for. Now, how to keep her on the correct line of thought without revealing too much? I didn’t want to frighten her. “My psychic abilities are… different from what they should be.”

“Different how?”

“Well,” I shifted my weight and glanced to the side, fishing for the right words. “The Draugrian vampyres could see the future any time they wished. Anyone’s future. However, what they predicted was not set in stone. Freewill changes the future constantly. What they really saw was the definite outcome of any decision. Change your mind about something, and the outcome changed as well. My psychic abilities, on the other hand, work the complete opposite way. I get premonitions that I have no control over. They come unannounced, like bad dreams.”

She shrugged. “At least they can be changed.”

“No.” I scrapped the cigarette butt against the ground and automatically lit a second one, trying in vain to organize my thoughts. “My premonitions
are
set in stone. Every single one has come true, no matter how hard anyone tries to avoid it.”

She waved at the plumes of smoke and scowled. “I wish you wouldn’t smoke. The smell is unbearable.”

Of course the smell would bother her, she’s on sensory overload.
I should have been more considerate. I turned away to blow my last puff out of her line of wind, and then put the cigarette out.

“Why do you smoke, anyway? It’s not like a vampire needs anything to make him look like a badass.”

I chuckled at her implication. “Yes, I suppose I am enough of a badass without them. I started smoking because it is a sneaky way to keep fire handy. I guess, over the years, it became a habit.”

She laughed, letting down a fraction of her carefully guarded walls just long enough to light up the room. My grin stretched wider.

“Well,” she said. “Knowing what I know now, I guess that is a justifiable reason. But, I’d rather you didn’t smoke around me. It’s not like we need to burn any more walls in this cave anyway.”

“All right,” I agreed. “No more smoking.”

“Thank you.” Smiling, she rested her head against her knees. The muted glow of the cooling embers cast rays of orange light to shimmer along her dark hair and halo her fair skin. If ever there was a time in history when angels were real, they must have looked like this; innocent and breathtaking, alight with heavenly fire. After all, the fact that Ema existed, and was here with me now, was nothing short of a miracle. Vampyres didn’t believe in any theology. Religion was a ludicrous idea when one lived as long as we did, but for Ema, I was ready to believe in anything.

“What are we supposed to do for food out here?” she murmured, her chin still rested against her knees.

“Nothing,” I admitted. “I did not bring any blood, and the animals have an advantage right now.”

“Then you better keep talking to me,” she warned.

I furrowed my brow. Her bloodlust was baffling. “Is it really that hard for you?”

“Yes. Is it really that surprising?”

“It is. You seem rather susceptible to it. Even more than most new vampires.”

“Aren’t all vampyres susceptible to blood?”

“No more than humans are to food. Forgive me if this offends you, but you seem to take to it like a drug.”

“It does feel like a drug. It gives me a high. I feel so alive and full of energy.”

I was afraid of that. “I think you might be part Upioran. Blood has strange effects on them as well.”

“Is that bad?”

“No. It just means you will have to work harder to control your urges. Much harder.”

She groaned. “Let’s not talk about me right now.”

I loved when she pouted. Most people looked like babies when they pout, but on her it was adorable. “Okay, what would you like to talk about then?”

“You. Tell me something personal about yourself.”

“Like?”

“Anything, Jesu. You’ve been alive for over two-thousand years, it can’t all be boring.”

She was back to moody. I understood. The shift from human to vampyre wasn’t an easy one. I kept my voice light, hoping to make her smile again. “Yes, but you asked for something personal.”

She was quiet for a moment then said, “Why is your skin blue?”

I glanced at my hands. “It isn’t.”

“Well, not literally, but you have pale-blue undertones, like you’re cold. Everyone else is just pale.”

Huh, I never noticed.

“I suppose it is also a Draugrian trait. My mother’s skin was the same color.”

“Tell me about your parents. What were they like? What’s it like being a kid born into a royal vampyre clan?”

Boy, that was a loaded question. I didn’t want to give her the wrong impression, but, to condense my upbringing in a nutshell? I ran my fingers through my hair and decided to answer honestly. “It was… pain.”