Indulgence (244 page)

“Go away,” I yelled. “I told you I wanted to be alone.”

Marlo didn’t listen and walked closer. “I thought you might
want someone to talk to.”

I stood, crossed my arms and stared at Marlo. What a good
sister she had been to me over these past few weeks. She took care of me in the
hospital, risking her own existence by surrounding herself with all of those
mortals. If she had slipped, taking just one life, her existence would have
been over. I couldn’t understand how she had so much self control to not lose
it. She also forewarned me about this life when her brother, Vincent, was
trying to convince me it was something grandiose. She ran after Vincent to
learn the truth after he transformed me and she took me under her wing. I felt
the need to repay her but couldn’t think of something to do or say to someone
who had been around for thousands of years.

I broke down in tears and wrapped my arms around Marlo.

“What has happened to me?” I moaned into her shoulder. “Just
a few weeks ago, life was normal. And now what?”

“I know, I know,” Marlo cooed in my ear. She pulled away
from me and wiped my tears with her jacket sleeve. My tears singed the fabric.

“You need to stop crying,” Marlo said as she grabbed my
chin. “Before you set me on fire!”

We both chuckled as I finished wiping my tears and tried to
compose myself.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Marlo asked.

“I don’t know what to talk about. I mean, I don’t even know
where to begin, Marlo. What happened? Why me? And where am I supposed to go
from here?”

“I don’t know why it happened to you, Allison. But look at
it this way, you are still here. Lucious didn’t win and you still have an
existence to fill.”

An existence to fill. No longer a life to live.

I scoffed. Her explanation wasn’t enough to satisfy me. I
wanted to know why my symptoms had come about and what I had done to bring this
upon me and why this had all happened now. These were questions I would
probably never know the answers to.

“The grass is always greener, isn’t it?” I whispered.

“What was that?”

“It’s something Matt used to always say to me when I told
him how frustrated I was in not finding my true calling. He would say ‘the
grass is always greener until you get to the other side.’ I can’t help but feel
that he was right. I feel that I somehow brought this upon me in my never
ending search to leave a mark on this world. A lot of good that did me. A lot
of good that did Matt.”

“You have left your mark on this world, Allison. You
destroyed Lucious. He’s gone. Forever! He can never, ever harm any other
descendants again. Think about how many people you saved. It’s one life
sacrificed to save so many.”

I let the words sink in. How many people – descendants –
were out there that didn’t know their bloodline dated back to Adam and Eve and
Noah and Cain’s other relatives? They didn’t know that they had been born with
targets on their backs. They didn’t know they had a mortal enemy whose sole
purpose was their demise. Yes, by transforming, I had somehow acquired enough
skill and strength that I was able to destroy their adversary and in doing so,
ensured my relatives, people that I had never met, could live out their lives
in peace.

I should have felt better about my situation, but I didn’t.
I was now part of the undead. I had no soul. I was a killer. There was nothing
glamorous about this existence. That boring, average life I complained about
only weeks ago…I wanted it back.

“I want Matt,” I stated.

Marlo let out a sigh. “We don’t know where Matthew is,” she
gently stated.

“We can look!”

“Where would we start?”

“I don’t know. Maybe one of Matt’s favorite places.”

“Do you really think Vincent would have been thoughtful
enough to place Matthew somewhere where he wanted to be? Some place where you
might look for him?”

Marlo had a good point. I picked up a baseball sized rock
and heaved it over the edge of the cliff. We both waited several seconds as it
descended into the darkness, finally clunking into the river.

“I have to say something that I don’t think you are going to
like,” Marlo said, breaking our silence. I had a hunch I knew what she was
about to say and she was right, I didn’t want to hear it.

“You need to give up on the idea of finding Matthew.”

The words stung worse than the venomous tears and worse than
any pain Lucious inflicted upon me. I dropped my head and turned away, as if
not seeing Marlo would make her words go away.

“You know I’m right, Allison.” Marlo’s voice was smooth and
gentle, sympathetic. “Even if you did find Matthew, what would you do? What
would you say?”

“I can try to make him remember me. Remember us,” I
desperately replied.

“Okay, and if by some miracle he did remember, how would you
explain…you? How would you explain who you are – what you are – today?”

I felt the tears well up again in my eyes. Marlo was
speaking the truth and I didn’t like it. My life with Matt was over. I would
never find him and if I did, I couldn’t reveal myself to him.

“He has a new life Allison, whether you like it or not. He
doesn’t remember you. Matthew doesn’t even know what happened to him. Just let
him live his life.”

I squeezed my eyes shut trying to trap the tears. The venom
stung my eyes.

“You’re right,” I whispered. “You are right.”

“It’s not about me being right.”

We stood there in silence and watched the sun dip behind the
ridge. Puffy clouds reflected the sun’s rays though the orange ball had
disappeared.

“Come on,” Marlo said. “Let’s go back to the castle.”

I stood there, frozen, peering down into the ridge below me.
The temptation to just fall over the edge was overwhelming but it wouldn’t
solve anything. Thoughts filled my head as to what I should do with my
existence from here.

“No,” I coolly replied.

“Allison…”

“I don’t want to go back to the castle.”

“Then where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know Marlo.” I replied. “I need to get away though.
Away from here.”

“All right,” Marlo replied looking confused. “Do you want to
go on vacation somewhere?”

“I don’t know where I want to go but I am going by myself.”

“But Allison, we talked about this…Matthew…”

“I’m not going to search for Matt. You’re right. I need to
leave him alone. That’s probably best. But I need to get away, clear my head,
figure out what I want to do with this...” I paused, “…existence. I need to
figure this out on my own.”

“But you are just an infant. You really shouldn’t be on your
own yet.”

“Listen, I have never been on my own. I lived with my
parents until I married Matt. My life has completely changed and for the first
time in thirty-two years, I am on my own. I want some time to myself.”

“But you need to learn how to hunt humans,” Marlo pleaded in
an attempt to change my mind. “Max must teach you that before you go anywhere
on your own.”

“Really?” I winked. “I’ll be fine,” I promised. “I think I
proved that with Lucious, didn’t I? If I could take him down I think I can
figure out how to kill a human.”

“True,” Marlo resigned. “It’s really not that difficult
considering what you’ve been through. But you do have to come back to the
castle for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“This,” Marlo said as she pulled a device from her jacket
pocket.

“A phone?”

“It’s not just any phone. It has all the information on it
you could ever need – all of our properties throughout the world, bank
accounts, hunting locations – you name it.”

“And why all that on a phone?”

“We’ve been around a few years. It gets kind of hard keeping
track of everything we’ve amassed. Come on! Felix is programming a phone for
you as we speak.” Marlo tucked the phone back into her pocket.

“Okay, I’ll come back for that but then I’m gone.”

“Fine,” Marlo said, obviously pleased that she convinced me
to not run off for the moment. “I’ll show you some of my favorite properties
and you can choose.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “But I need a few more minutes out
here alone if you don’t mind, just to clear my head a bit more.”

Marlo eyed me but resigned. “Okay, but don’t be long.”

I walked over to Marlo and hugged her. “Thank you for
everything.” I pulled away from her. “I promise I won’t be long.”

Marlo turned on her heels and was gone in a flash. I closed
my eyes and took in a deep breath. I heard her enter the castle. I turned my
hand over and looked at the black phone I had taken from Marlo’s pocket. It
would only be a matter of time before she realized I wasn’t returning to the
castle.

I didn’t grow up thinking that I wanted to be a writer. It
was a culmination of events in my personal life in 2009 that caused me to
rediscover my passion for creative writing. Ever since then, writing has been
my escape, my release, the one thing that has kept me sane and has given me
purpose.

Thank you for reading The Descendant. I hope you have
enjoyed the first book in the series. I’ve always enjoyed fictional tales that
were able to weave historical and biblical elements and that’s why I’ve chosen
to do that with this series. Quite honestly, this story is the vampire story
that I had always wanted to read, and since I never found it, I decided to
write it.

If you’ve read the book and enjoyed it, please consider
leaving a review on Goodreads, or wherever you
purchased the book. Reviews are a tremendous help to authors to help spread the
word about their books. The review can be as simple as a few sentences or as
long as you want it to be and you can paste the same review on each site. If
you do write a review, I thank you in advance for taking the time to do that.

If you’d like to connect with me, you can find me at
http://www.KelleyGrealis.com
. All of my
social media links are available on my website.

Kelley Grealis has loved all things vampire since she was a
kid. It was that fascination, combined with the need to know how the first
vampire was created, that compelled her to write the type of vampire novel she
had always wanted to read.

Kelley was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and continues
to live in the area with her husband and their two fur babies. She likes her
cars fast and motorcycles loud and is a craft beer snob. When she’s not
writing, she’s working at her day job, cruising in her convertible or enjoying
a beer at her favorite local brewery.

Connect with Kelley

Website:
www.kelleygrealis.com

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By
Laura Harner

Dedication

To every the day heroes who work to keep others safe.

Graeme fumbled for the phone in the dark. He hated
middle-of-the-night calls. He’d thought he’d escaped them when he’d traded his
Phoenix detective shield for the small-town sheriff’s badge, but a quick glance
at his clock showed it was two thirty-one in the morning, which meant someone
was probably dead.

“Kennedy,” he said, already turning on the light, ready to
write down the location of the scene.

“Sheriff, it’s Sally. Sorry to disturb your…sleep,” she
said.

He noticed the pause, knew she was fishing. She’d been
trying to dig into his personal life ever since he’d arrived and had made it
known she was available, if he was interested. He wasn’t.

“What is it, Sally?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral.

“Got a strange report of a domestic at the rest area. Tim is
just south of Flag, tied up with a motor vehicle accident. He’ll be there at
least another hour. There’s a fatality involved. You said to give you a call
before I called in Department of Public Safety. Do you want to check it out?
It’s probably just some kids. The caller hung up and didn’t leave many
details.”

“I’ve got it. Send what you’ve got to my unit. I’ll be on
the road in five.”

*****

Oh God. How could this be happening? Elizabeth wiped the
blood from her eye and examined the car, trying to figure out the safest way to
help.

The driver had saved her life, and now he was unconscious
with the front tires of his SUV hanging on the edge of the precipice. It was a
clear drop of a hundred feet to the red rocks below. She needed to make the
vehicle stable and then get out of there before anyone found her.

If she could prevent the SUV from rolling forward until he
regained consciousness or until help arrived, the stranger could get out. He
would be okay. He had to be.

She limped forward, carrying the biggest rock she could
lift, and lodged it in front of the rear tire. She returned again and again
until both rear tires were wedged tight.

Her head whipped around at the sharp snap of a twig behind
her. Then a soft, purely evil laugh sliced through the cold night air.

“Looks like you’re fresh out of Prince Charmings again,
Elizabeth. Funny how they all seem to disappear on you. I wonder why that is? I
think it’s fate. You’re mine, and no one else is allowed to have you. Not ever.
Come on now, Elizabeth. It’s time to go home. We can kiss and make up.”

There was nowhere to run. He would catch her, and this time
he would kill her. She was sure of it.

Movement from inside the SUV caught her attention. She
glanced down in time to see a strong hand raise a gun through the broken
window. In one smooth motion, the man aimed toward the brush and fired.