The Kingdom of the Nine; The Vampire Legacy IV (13 page)

As I sat there, on the floor, with this book
open on my lap, another prophecy came to me, but this one wasn't in
a book, it was in my head, but its words were unclear to me at that
point in time, the only thing that made me think that it was
important, was the fact that my inner voice, which was telling this
to me, wasn't my own, but a man's, one that I had heard before, but
had never known the physical person it belonged too.

“I thought I might find you here.” A voice
interrupted my thoughts and I looked up, quickly, at the shadow
that stood in the light from the door. I watched him lean his left
side against the doorsill, cross his legs at the ankles and his
arms across his chest, and I smiled when I heard his voice say to
me: “I hope you found what you were looking for.”

10

Julian stepped into the light of the small
room that I sat in and smiled down at me.

“These are his.” I whispered, touching the
book in my lap gently with the tips of my fingers. “These are
Larado's prophecies, aren't they?”

“Yes, and it seems they called you right to
them.” Julian knelt down on the floor beside me and looked at the
page that I had the book open to. “Have you found anything
interesting?”

“Several things.” I whispered and flipped the
page again, finding the one about a young woman, who was the barer
of a child that held vampire blood that was to battle evil with two
other people. “Okay, I've noticed something strange about all of
these that I've read.” I said and looked at Julian, who was just
sitting down on the floor. “There all a triangle, three sides, or
involving three people. With this first one, the one with the
Queen, it was her, her son, and someone who would be a protector,
battling whatever evil there is, the second one, the light, the
dark, and the heart, is obviously three people. It's all one big
threesome.”

Julian smiled. “You're the first to ever
figure that out so quickly. Larado believed that the power of three
people was the strongest because of the aspects of it. In religion
there's always the Father, the Son and, the Holy Ghost, the same
power of three that seems to be in Larado's Prophecies.”

“So, where am I?” I asked, looking up at him.
Julian looked at the wall, then back at me as if he hadn't heard
me.

“What do you mean?” He questioned. I smiled
and shook my head.

“The one about me, where is it?”

“What makes you think that there's one about
you?” He asked, innocently.

“Why am I here?” I inquired. “Why would I
come back to a house, after so many years, if not to fulfill a
prophecy that my ancestor dreamt up?”

“You're too smart for your own good.” He
whispered as the humor seemed to fade from his face.

“I know.” I smirked and flipped through the
pages of the book, and then I started to slow down as I moved
through the yellowed brittle pages of this strange novel, and it
was when I stopped on a page that held the symbol of three
connected rings of gold, each with a stone of a different color.
Blue, green and brown. I looked up at the fright in Julian's eyes
as we looked over this page and I nodded. “This is it, isn't it?”
This is the prophecy.”

“Yes.” He whispered and I could feel his eyes
watching me as I read through this interesting poem. I stopped and
looked up at him.

“Again, with the power of three?” I asked.
Julian nodded. I studied the page; images came to me. I looked at
the symbol at the top of the page as I said the words that were
stuck in my head, aloud. “An Earthly brown, a soul is found, as
skies are blue, whose powers are true, and seas are green, to fight
forces unseen. This doesn't make any sense.”

“What's the matter?” I looked up at him, at
the worry in his eyes, but I wasn't sure if he was worried about
what didn't make sense to me, or if he was worried that I had
figured it out.

“These people, they're us.” I whispered.

“I know, or at least, I know about you and
me.” He replied, lowering his gaze to the floor. “The blue and
green, they're our eye colors.”

“Yes, I know that, and I know who the brown
belongs too.”

“Who?”

“It doesn't matter now, but what does is that
there's a fourth person involved.” I whispered. Julian looked at
me, as if to tell me I were crazy, but I think the look in my eyes
told him that I knew exactly what I was talking about.

“But, he does everything in threes.”

“Not this time, there are clearly four people
involved.”

“Okay, where, because I've gone over this
thing hundreds of times before you came home.” he asked.

“Here!” I said, pointing to the words I had
just said aloud.

He shook his head and closed his eyes. “I
don't see it.”

“Julian, it's right there.” I sighed, and
then turned the book so that he could see it. “Listen, it tells you
who is involved, by the color of our eyes. You, me and our third,
but what looks like descriptions of us, is really telling me that
there is someone else. A soul is found, whose powers are true, to
fight forces unseen. We won't know who this person is until we
fight whatever evil spirit is out there.”

“We're not fighting anything.” He said,
sternly.

“Oh, come on, Jules; don't pull this stuff on
me now.” I sighed, rolling my eyes, as I closed the book, got up
and placed it back on the shelf.

“I'm just worried about your safety.” He
whispered. I leaned down, and kissed him on the forehead as he
looked up at me.

“I know you are, and I'm grateful for it, but
it's going to come true, whether or not you decide to fight.” I
replied and walked over to the door, and then I turned back to him.
“Are you still coming to check on me later?”

“In a little while.” Julian answered, looking
up at me. I smiled, nodded and left the room, quietly.

I never made it to see Julian come in the
room. My mind had been in such an overload the last few days that
as soon as I hit the pillow, it decided to shut down.

11

It was just after sunrise when I opened my
eyes and looked at Julian, who slept peacefully beside me, and then
I stretched out the sleepiness from my body, before I flipped the
covers off and got out of bed.

I dressed quickly, but quietly, in a long
black skirt, and a soft purple top, then slipped on a pair of
soft-soled shoes and left the room, leaving the door open a crack.
I could smell the coffee from the kitchen, and the scent of the
cinnamon buns that flowed from the oven, as I walked into the room.
Pamela, the head cook in the morning, handed me a cup of coffee and
told me that breakfast would be within the hour, and served in the
breakfast room, towards the front of the house.

I smiled, thanked her for the coffee, and
walked out of the room. As I strolled through the halls of this
house, I stopped in one of the small rooms that Julian used to
entertain potential clients for whatever business he was in at the
time, and I had learned that he had several occupations over the
last few decades. His latest was an advertising agency, which was
very successful.

As I stood, looking out the window in the
almost bare room, I felt a presence behind me, which made me turn
and look at the man in the doorway.

Nick stood there, droopy-eyes and calm, in a
pair of snug black jeans and a black T-shirt, with his hands in his
jeans pockets.

“I know, I shouldn't be wondering around
alone.” I said, softly, watching his expression, which didn't
change. “But, what can I say, I don't listen.”

“I didn't say anything.” He replied.

“But, you wanted too.” I smiled and moved
closer to him, setting the coffee cup down on an end table. Nick
rubbed his chin and came further into the room.

“What are you doing up so early?” I asked,
smiling. “I thought vampires were more of an afternoon
society.”

“Well, when the sun rises, so do I.” He
replied. I watched him study my face for a few moments, as he
stopped several feet from me, then he gave me a bit of a smile.
“You might as well ask whatever it is you’re going to.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked,
glancing away, then back at him.

“The question that's written all over your
face.” He said, quietly. “Ask it, before I choose not to
answer.”

“Fine.” I said, softly, and then thought a
moment about how to word it before I just decided to let it out.
“We're linked, you and I.”

“Yes, we are.” He replied.

“Julian told me that you gave me your blood
to save my life, but he didn't go into detail about why you felt
you had to do it, or why the link is there, after all this time.” I
walked over and sat down on one of the cushioned chairs in the room
and watched Nick stand there, his thoughtful, but hard, brown eyes
stared me down for a long moment before he cleared his throat.

“A link, like ours, is powerful. It won't
ever go away. We'll be linked for the rest of your mortal life.” He
whispered, loud enough so that I could hear it. “It will fade when
we're apart and grow strong again when we come together.”

“So, this is why I never felt fear around
you.” I asked. Nick nodded and looked towards the windows. “Exactly
what happened between us to make it this way?”

There was a short period of odd silence
between us before he began to speak.

“Julian had gone on a business trip, out of
the country. I guess he never expected you to come down, so, he
didn't feel the need to stay around.” I watched Nick's eyes cloud
over as he turned to look at me. “It was storming, as it did most
August nights, and the rain was heavy and cold. I was here with
Quinn, Michael, and David, standing in the sitting room, looking
out the windows, when I watched someone walk by. I had a strange
feeling it was you; just by the way you walked. So, I decided to
follow you to see where you were off to in such a hurry, and why
you were down here, alone, in the first place.

“You went out to the rocks, on the other side
of the beach, and, by the way you were acting, it was my belief
that you didn't know what you were doing.” He sat down on the chair
across from me, leaned forward and put his elbows on his legs as he
watched me. I put my head back against the chair and closed my
eyes, letting the sound of his voice fill my senses. “From where I
was standing, I could see everything, including the bruises and the
blood that was on your face. You were crying, mumbling on about
something, and then you screamed. It was something that made me
want to cover my ears and run from it, but I couldn't because I
could feel the pain you were in.

“My footing slipped, which made you turn from
the water towards me and I watched you look at me with such horror
on your face and in your eyes that I felt like killing the person
that did that to you, because I knew you couldn't really see me
from where you were standing.” I opened my eyes as Nick's voice
muffled a bit, and I watched him put his head down. I knew he had
no clue that I was looking at him. “You said a name that I didn't
recognize, and that I don't remember, then you started to scream at
the sky, with your eyes opened and your arms spread wide, and I
watched you with such fascination and it made me realize, in that
second, exactly what Julian was so attracted to. You held a power
in you that just radiated, but I was caught off guard, and as the
lightning struck so close to you, I watched you lose your
balance.”

He looked up suddenly and stared me right in
the eyes, but, then I noticed the strange distant look in his, as
if he weren't really seeing me right then. Slowly, his lids drifted
closed and his lips moved as the words started to flow, again.

“I watched, as if I were watching a movie, as
you fell off the rock you had been standing on, down to the ones
below it, and it took me only a second, but what felt like an
eternity, to move down by your side. You were bleeding, severely,
from the back of your head, and I knew at least some of your body
was broken, so, I made a choice, a quick one, without any thought
and I opened a vein in my arm and made you drink, because you
weren't dead, yet.” He opened his eyes and looked at me, directly
into my eyes and he sighed. “It took a few minutes for it to start
working, and by then I had managed to carry you most of the way
back to the house before the loss of blood started to affect me.
Quinn came out, with Michael not far behind, and he took you and
brought you in, while Mike helped me.”

“You told Julian that I was attacked. He said
that it was unusual for you to care about a person who didn't serve
some usefulness to you.” I whispered, keeping my voice low.

“This was true, then.” He replied and stood
up, crossing his arms as he paced the floor.

“Why me, then, why did I deserve so much
loyalty from you?” I asked. Nick looked at me as I slowly got out
of the chair.

“You embodied everything I ever wanted to
have in a woman, but could never have, and it was still that way
when I got here, because Julian had you, and Creolas wanted you,
too, which made it my responsibility to protect you, because, even
if I couldn't have you, you were still in very real danger from
other things.” He answered, honestly.

“What about Connie? What about now?” I asked.
He sighed and shook his head.

“While you were something I desired, she was
something I could have, and at first I was with her to be near you,
but then I started to love her, and it turned out that I wanted
her, just as much, if not more than you.” He replied and shook his
head. “Right now, I came back here to protect you, because my
brother had also returned. I hadn't realized the effect it would
have on me, feeling our link again, and I also didn't count on my
cousin being so much more protective.”

He smiled at me as I walked closer to him, a
genuine smile that made me smile back, but as I reached out and
touched his arm, a shock blasted threw my body and images flashed
through my mind. I suddenly felt strong arms around me holding me
up as I struggled to breathe.