Legacy (Endlessly Book 2) (2 page)

“Oh love, be careful.” Verloren ran his thumb across my lip and showed me the blood. I ran my tongue over the spot and tasted blood. I tended to forget about my fangs. But the cut was already closing. I had inherited the rapid healing that went with being a vampire. As Verloren licked his thumb, I saw a spark in his eyes. He smiled at me in a way that made my pulse quicken. His heartbeat mimicked mine.

Contrary to popular belief, vampires do have heartbeats. They are alive and continue to live as long as their brain does not get damaged. All the myths of old school vampires were wrong, except the fact that we needed human blood to survive.

Verloren glanced at Jason in the rearview mirror. “We’ve been in
this car for over three hours. When will we get there?” He looked back at me and added silently:
I can hardly wait to be alone with you.

I covered my smile with my fingers.

Jason fumed and gave Verloren another dirty look in the rearview mirror. Verloren ignored him.

I like pissing him off,
Verloren thought.

Verloren Fagan, leave him be,
I thought
. He already hates us enough.

I
knew why Jason was being an ass. He had confessed his feelings and I had rebuffed him, citing feelings for Verloren I could not deny. While Jason had been imprisoned in Siberia, he had found a companion and asked Hania to resend his soul so he could be human with her. Before that could happen, the girl found out, learning the grim truth about his diet, habits, and past. She freaked, wanting nothing more to do with him. Hania used a spell to make her forget before sending her home.

That left Jason alone with his resentments. He hated what Verloren had done to me. He hated Verloren being with me. He hated my decision to become a vampire. The fact that I had willfully chosen to trick Verloren into giving me his bite didn’t sit well w
ith Jason. He felt certain Verloren must have done it for his own selfish reasons.

“Slow down
, Jason,” Hania said. “It’ll be right around this curve.”

I saw the turn
and the trees beyond. The same trees dominated this entire region. They towered high, allowing only a little sunlight, though they seemed welcoming enough to clouds and rain. Jason pulled the car off the road. The trees on either side leaned together forming a tunnel.

Through swipes of windshield wipers I saw a young, tall, thin African American girl coming from the woods. She wore a black raincoat and bright orange rain boots. She had her hands shoved deep into her pockets and her jeans were soaked. A moment later a shorter, wider, but similarly dressed Asian girl appeared behind her. Her waist-long hair hung out the front of her hood. It was as soaked as her jeans.

“Grotesques,” Verloren whispered to me.

“What?” I asked him.

“They’re incarnates, their shifts are grotesques. Protectors. You would call them gargoyles.”

I peered through the rain-splattered windshield: incarnates… reincarnated souls, b
ut not human. Once an incarnate found out what her soul was, she could shape shift into that identity. Before becoming a vampire hybrid I had only accomplished it once.

As they stood in the rain I could hear their excited thoughts. There’d been a big buzz about me. All the beings there were dy
ing to meet me. “So many people,” I whispered, chewing my lip. Jason and Hania released their seat belts and rummaged through the car for their belongings.

“Ash, you’re going to make yourself bleed again.” Verloren’s brow furrowed as he ran his finger over my lip.

“We’ve got a long walk to the shelter,” said Hania. He turned his weathered face to me. “Once we get there, you will be shown to your apartments. There you will be able to take a hot shower.” Hania looked at me apologetically. “The rain is cold. I know that slows you.”

I had kept the dragon’s trait of cold-bloodedness. It was still above freezing so as long as I kept moving I wasn’t in danger of going into involuntary hibernation.

Verloren handed Jason and me our waterproof backpacks. I wrapped clothes around my laptop and mp3 player to pad them and keep out moisture before shoving them into my bag. Jason checked the zippers on his bag. He was worried about his CDs and new cell phone.

I looked out the window at the two girls standing in the rain. They hadn’t moved an inch.

I buttoned my trench coat, pulled my wings tight to my back, and wrapped my tail around my thigh under my long skirt. What would they think when they saw what I had become? I’d learned shock and unkind thoughts in others often hit me like a slap in the face.

As we left the car Hania told Jason to leave the keys. I shivered, not wanting to abandon our one means of escape.

“Don’t worry,” said Verloren. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you… as if that were even possible.”

I gave him a nervous smile. I had yet to find anot
her creature stronger than I. The dragons we’d discovered in Siberia had equal strength, but were reluctant to use it. I hadn’t met many incarnates yet, but I could’ve easily taken those I’d encountered so far.

Verloren opened his door. I rushed across the seat to follow behind him, using him as a shield against these curious onlookers. The rain was an icy waterfall drenching me instantly. It took my breath away. I cowered behind Verloren. He followed behind Jason and Hania.

Lowering my head, I pulled on my backpack. My teeth chattered from cold and nervousness. Verloren reached back and I took his warm hand. He tried to pull me beside him, but I hung back. He stopped. Jason took Hania‘s arm and helped him toward the girls.

Verloren pulled on my arm again, determined to have me stand beside him. I was happier having him as my shield.

Please,
he begged. His hair was soaked and water dripped from the ends. Under that dark sky he didn’t need his sunglasses. His eyes made my insides melt.
I want them to see that the most beautiful girl in the world is with me,
he told me.

My cheeks pricked. I covered my mouth with my balled fist. It wasn’t hard for hi
m to make me smile. I felt warm even as I shivered in the rain. My only wish was to be alone with him.

Just a bit longer,
he thought with a smirk.

His body reacted to my thoughts. As he pulled me close I felt the hard lumps of the gun holster under his jacket.

The Asian girl stepped forward, smiling and bright-eyed. “Hania,” she acknowledged as she passed him.

Jason watched her body move. She stared at me curiously wondering if I would be nicer than my predecessors. She got in
the car, adjusted the seat, and drove back the way we’d come.

The other girl came forward. My cheeks tingled as I heard Jason’s erotic thoughts about her. She was nearly his height. Jason and Hania stood in front of Verloren and me. At that moment they both stepped aside. Verloren gripped me. I wrapped my arms around him, but recoiled from the cold sting of his gun.

The girl looked confident, but that only increased my fear. Meeting new people always made me nervous and meeting a bold person was worse. I had to warm up to people and I didn’t react well to forced conversation. I simply wasn’t the meetin’ greet type.

The girl stared directly at me. Under her hood she wore her hair in a faux hawk style. The hair in front was plastered to her forehead. Like the other girl, she smiled. Her shiny septum piercing contrasted with her dark sk
in. I felt as if I were staring and looked at the ground. She wanted to see what I looked like without the coat on. Did I really have wings? Would I fly with them at night, playing with other winged creatures in the light of a full moon?

Flying?
Suddenly I realized I’d dropped my wall.

The girl giggled. She nodded at me and her smile spread. She extended her hand. “Hi, my name’s Alexius Young, but you can call me Lex. Th
e girl I was with is Jenny Chi. We’ve heard so much about you. Are you ready to see your new home?”

I shook her hand. It felt warm even in the cold rain.

2 From Below

The cold did slow me down, but as long as I kept moving I was all right. The more I moved the less sluggish I was. The much older Hania was just as slow as I was. The two of us were holding everyone else back.

The rain ebbed
and it might’ve stopped altogether. I couldn’t be sure. What was falling by then might’ve been nothing more than water dripping off the leaves. The sky was still dark and the forest was fragrant with the scents of rotting wood and damp earth.

Holding Hania’s bicep Jason helped him along. Lex knew the way by heart. She led us through overgrown sword ferns and trees, swinging her machet
e to clear a path. As Hania walked he passed his hand over the stalks of the plants Lex had severed. I glanced back and realized the plants were regenerating.

Why are you making it grow back? Don’t you want people to find this place?
I asked Hania.

Yes,
he replied.
We want incarnates and vampires to find this place. Not humans. There are some people that hike in this forest off the trails. If they saw a path cleared, they would be tempted to follow it.

So how do the incarnates and va
mpires know how to get where we’re going?
I asked.

We usually require people to contact us in advance. We send someone to meet them. Like Lex met us. Or, if they are flyers, we have an aerial marker. Sometimes on supply runs, people bring back strays.

Lex was so excited it took all of her self-control to resist the urge to scoop us up and fly us there. She wanted to go faster. I knew that because the only two minds I could hear were hers and Jason’s. Jason’s mind was preoccupied with her.

From Lex’s mind I gathered that only eight people currently lived in the underground dwelling. She wanted new faces. Lex had a mental vault, much like min
e, with things tucked away she didn’t want me to see. I wondered if Hania had warned these people I would be able to see everything in their minds. Lex was curious about Jason. She didn’t hide that from me.

W
hat the heck,
I thought,
this might get Verloren and me back on Jason’s good side.
Then I aimed a thought only at Jason:
She likes you
.

He cringed, looked pissed, then finally covered a smile. I snorted while trying to stifle a giggle.

Verloren gave a confused grin.

Lex and Jason got the hots for each other,
I told him.

Verloren’s laugh echoed through the forest, startling Lex.

“Don’t tell him,” Jason complained out loud.

Lex and Hania glanced at Jason
, confused by his outburst. For the first time, I saw Jason blush. He clenched his jaw and complained to Hania: “She’s doing it again… that whole mind reading thing… she won’t stay out.” He dug in a pocket for a cigarette.

Hania smiled. “You’re never going to get used to her doing it are you?”

“No,” Jason muttered, lighting his cigarette.

“If you don’t want her in there, you need to learn to hold that wall in place.”

Lex cleared more brush for us. “So, Ashley, some of what we heard is true,” she said. “You can read minds. I heard that we would be able to read yours too. Is that true as well?”

“Yes and no,” I replied. “If you don’t block your thoughts I can read your mind and see all your memories. I can single out one person to hear my thoughts alone or make a whole group hear what I’m thinking.”

“And recently we‘ve found she can do conference calls,” Verloren added.

“What?” Lex asked. She laughed at the mental image as she swung her machete.

“She can open a portion of her mind,” Hania said. “In that way a group can communicate through her and talk to one another wordlessly. It allows others to be mind readers.”

“Interesting,” Lex replied.

“Normal traits for a dragon,” Hania said. “Each dragon has control over one of the four earthly elements. They replenish that power with sexual energy.”

I felt my cheeks tingle and prick.

“And what’s your element Ashley?” Lex asked. She stepped over a small fallen tree. She turned to help Hania over it.

“Fire,
” I said.

She smiled at me before we started walking again.

“You can fly?” I asked Lex.

“Yes, once I shift,
” Lex told me.

“Verloren called you a protector. What does that mean?” I asked her.

Lex chuckled. “I am a grotesque. So is Jenny, the girl that took your car, and Josh James, a guy you will meet. We were part of what the Quatre referred to as ‘The Guard’… a security team for the houses, spies, and bodyguards. Grotesques are usually chosen for this because of our ability to gain strength from evil thoughts. We absorb them, or maybe ‘take them away’ would be a better description. Everyone refers to us as protectors, because we protect others from evil. The more evil we absorb, the more… grotesque we get.” She looked at me, then, as she turned back to the path she added: “Ugly… the uglier we get. It distorts our bodies, faces, skin, and teeth in our shifted forms.”

“You probably haven’t been too busy lately, huh?” Verloren kidded her.

“No, and it’s been nice. The small, everyday, bad thoughts aren’t terrible. We absorb those gradually, hardly noticing it. But when incarnates like fairies visit… it can be a lot. You don’t see the damage until you shift. When your body is badly distorted shifting can be painful. As soon as the incarnate that is inflicting the evil leaves, the damage reverses. I mean… I’m never pretty in my shift but…” Lex shrugged her shoulders.

“Who is?” Jason finished her thought.

Lex looked at Jason and smiled. His cheeks flushed again as she turned to cut some brush around a fallen tree. She took Hania’s hand and helped him over. Lex looked at me after Hania had made it safely to the ground.

“Is your diet still the same as a vampire’s?” she asked with a hint of sadness.

I could see guilt in Verloren’s mind when I answered her. “Yes… the same as Verloren’s.”

As I answered her, I saw a flicker of images in Verloren’s mind. I looked at h
im, confused, as he shuddered. Then he focused on me.

A smile crept across his face.
Just another one of those premonitions,
he thought.

I glimpsed Hania’s worried face before he turned away. Lex glanced from Hania to me. When I tried to enter her mind again, she’d completely sealed it off.

Verloren had already been a born knowing before he became a vampire, giving him some abilities of both. He saw visions, mostly of the future, but some were from the past. He couldn’t recall doing that before he met me, nor was it from the vampire virus. That’s probably why I didn’t inherit it from his bite. Vampires forget many things. The theory is that new memories force out old ones. Because of that, Verloren couldn’t be sure if he had seen visions from outside time earlier in his life, or if this was entirely new. Up to then his premonitions were a pretty good indicator that something was going to happen.

I bit my lip, and listened to the squish of our wet shoes as we walked. I sealed up my mental wall while I thought it over. I delved deep into my brain. What was with the sudden interest in my diet? Hania had told me not to feed. Was it the connection with the blond werewolf? The instant my diet became a topic Lex blocked me. I wanted to know why. I didn’t want Verloren to worry, so I locked these thoughts away in the vault in the back of my mind.

I felt Verloren’s warm hand wrap around mine. His touch made my mind feel as though I had broken the surface of a pool. I gulped air. I’d immersed myself in my own thoughts, shutting out the world. This turned off sound, dampened my other senses, and left my body to move forward on nothing but instinct. Being that deep felt numbing. Hania called it daydreaming, but it was different than that.

My mental fog cleared and I saw Verloren. Sun peeked through high branches compelling him to put on his sunglasses. He smiled at me. My heart shuddered. Suddenly I was afraid of his visions and what they might portend. I stopped, grabbed his jacket, pulled him close and kissed him. He tried to control his breathing as he rested his forehead against mine.

His hands trembled as he pushed away. He smiled.
Always so eager.

We walked the rest of the way in silence. Finally Lex stopped by a tree. At first it looked like any other tree, but then I saw it was larger than the ones surrounding it. The roots spread far and the tree balanced on the tips. The base of it hovered several feet off the ground. We had passed quit
e a few trees that looked exactly like it. They all had muddy burrowed pits beneath. It gave the impression of small woodland creatures making their homes there.

A
s we neared the tree I saw the ground under the roots was missing. A gap in the roots revealed a hole wide enough for a person to pass through. Below that was darkness.

Lex faced us. “It’s not a far drop, maybe twenty feet. It won’t be bad for you guys to get in and out. Only the born knowing can’t jump it. I will take Hania down.”

She took off her coat and shirt and threw them down the hole. She wore a bikini top.

She is going to shift,
Verloren told me.

Jason’s mind raced over her athletic body. My cheeks pricked as I blocked out his perverted thoughts.

Lex shifted quickly, just as I’d seen Jason do it. If you blinked you would miss it. Seeing her, I understood what “grotesque” meant. Her human body was covered with leather-like skin. Her face appeared smashed in, and her skin darkened, casting her nose ring in a bright, almost comical light against her dark skin. Her face reminded me of Pogo, the Boston Terrier I’d had before all this started. The wings Lex sprouted were similar to mine, though smaller. Her talons protruded from the end of each bone, creating a segment. Her eyes were solid black.

As I looked at Lex’s face I thought about Pogo. I’d left him with a friend who’d thought he was just dog-sitting for a weekend. The dog-sitter had always seemed to love dogs—especially Pogo. I hoped that love was enough to make the situation work out. Pogo had been a hyper ball of fur, but I’d really liked having him around. I missed the patter of little paws.

As I probed Lex’s mind she growled: “Don’t worry, this is pretty mild. I’ve looked a lot worse.” I noticed her shy away from Jason. She didn’t want him to see her this way.

Lex folded her wings against her body, crouched, and plummeted into the hole. I heard the rush of wind and the faint thumping of her wings. Jason helped Hania. The old born knowing sat on his rear, getting his wet clo
ak muddy. He eased forward and slipped down the hole.

We all peered over the edge. With Hania in tow
, Lex descended. Jason squatted and squeezed his tall, muscular frame through the opening. He disappeared.

When Verloren and I approached, I looked down and saw Lex had already shifted. She was putting her coat on. Hania jerked a
short twig from out of his coat and muttered something in another language. Though there were no light fixtures, the room lit up. That’s when I realized Hania’s twig wasn’t a twig at all. It was a wand.

“Time to go down the rabbit hole,” said Verloren, slipping through the opening. I followed him.

We landed in a large concrete room with moss-covered walls. A doorway led to stairs going farther into the ground. A dim light shone at the bottom.

Lex approached the doorway with Jason and Hania following. Hania spoke aga
in in the strange language and jerked his tiny wand again. The room we were in went pitch-black as the stairs lit up. The light emanated from every surface.

Old, well-worn, and sturdy, the stairs had been carved out of stone. The lower we went the colder it got. It didn’t help that my clothes were soaking wet. As we reached a
thick steel door my teeth chattered. A small fixture shone from above the door lighting our way.

Hania sung the strange words and flicked the wand. All of the light in the stair
well died, except from the fixture.

Lex turned to us, pointing to a doorbell. “It’s simple.” She pushed it. Built into the frame of the door was a lens the size of a peephole accompanied by a speaker.

A man’s half-mocking voice crackled from the speaker. “Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”

“Let us in
, Cory,” Lex snapped.

“What’s the password?” He, and whoever was with him, snickered.

“Unlock the door now,” she growled, “or I’ll punch you in the throat when I get in.”

Several laughs came through the speaker, drawing chuckles from Jason and Verloren.

“Hey, you remembered the password…” More laughs erupted.

“Kids,” Hania mumbled.

We heard a loud click and Lex opened the door. We found a stark contrast to the concrete dungeon we had first entered. We stepped into a large mudroom where the air was much warmer than in the stairwell. The light burnt orange of the walls reflected off the brown and beige tiled floor. Coats hung on rows of hooks along the walls, with muddy shoes and boots neatly lined up under them. The door leading from the room stood ajar. Through the opening we heard the buzz of several conversations.