The Vampire Legacy III; Familiar Souls (16 page)

“
Go upstairs, to the left.
Her room is the second door on the right.” Michael whispered.
Justin turned and looked at him, then, slowly, left the room.
Cristian looked at Michael and shook his head. Michael put a hand
up. “Before you say anything, hear me out.”

“
Michael, this is insane.”
Cristian snapped. “You know Justin.”

“
She’s right though.”
Michael replied.

“
About what?”

“
The darkness,” Michael
turned and looked at Cristian. “They need each other, Cris, and no
matter how much you or I disagree with them being together, there’s
something that ties them to one another. Something more powerful
than you or I or a span of two hundred years, and we’re not going
to stop them, no matter how hard we try.”

Chapter 9

His eyes were bright red and he was
coming closer to me. I could almost feel the hatred and anger that
flared off him.

"Death." He said sternly, although, his
mouth never moved. "Death is upon you, child, and nothing you or
your three men do can stop it."

I watched him, as he seemed to walk
around me. I stood motionless in one spot, unable to move any of my
limbs. He laughed as I struggled then stopped in front of me once
again.

"A child of magic and three vampires. I
would have never thought of that combination." He smiled and
touched my cheek. "You look like you want to say
something."

"Who are you?" I whispered. He smiled
and tipped my chin up with his fingers, to look into my eyes. "What
do you want from me?"

"Why, my dear child, I want nothing
more than to show you what you're up against." I looked at those
red lips and caught just a glimpse of his sharp teeth. "To show you
what your end will come in the form of."

"But, what are you?" I questioned,
again. He stepped back and I felt the motion return to my feet and
I physically turned with him as he walked around the empty room
again. "Who are you to me?"

"I would be nothing to you, but,
somewhat of a brother to your three friends. You see, their sire
was also mine." He smiled. I looked at his long black hair, which
fell in waves over his shoulders. He was dressed in black; which is
what I would expect him to be dressed in, but, he almost looked
good in it. He watched me look him over, his bright silver eyes
looking straight at my face and he stopped. "How old are you,
child?"

"Does it matter?" I asked him. He
crossed his arms and laughed. "If you're so sure you're going to
destroy me, does it matter if I live to see my next
birthday?"

"You're very confident for a mortal."
He smiled.

"It might be my down fall."

"Does anything scare you,
child?"

"Nothing rational scares me." I smiled
at him. "Of course, my life has been anything but." I stepped
closer to him. "Who are you?"

"Why?"

"So, when I have to explain this dream
to my friends, I know who I'm talking about." I smiled back. He
looked at me, oddly, then turned and walked into the
darkness.

I slowly brought myself to
consciousness and opened my eyes. It took me a few moments to focus
on the black shape that stood next to the window, in my room, but
once I did, it made me smile to realize who it was.

"Hey." I called out to him.

Justin turned, smiled as he looked at
me, then walked over and sat on the bed. "Hey, yourself." He
replied and touched my cheek. "Did you sleep well?"

"I had a very odd dream." I replied
then sat up and pushed my hair back from my face. I looked up at
him as he stared me down and I saw an emotion there that hadn't
really shown itself before. I had seen it briefly, when he let his
guard down, over the last nine months, but now, at this moment, it
was the only emotion on his face. "What is it, Justin?"

"You're very beautiful." He
whispered.

"Okay." I said, taken back a bit I
leaned forward and stared him in the eyes. "Thank you, but," he
looked at me oddly, "just what have you done with my Justin?" He
laughed and then looked at me, took my hand and played with my
fingers. "So, what made you change your mind?"

"What do you mean?" He questioned,
looking into my eyes. I smiled.

"What made you come here?" I asked
again.

"You." He replied. His smile faded and
I watched his eyes turn light brown. "I realized something tonight,
after you left." He touched my cheek and gave me a weak smile. "I
realized that I couldn't live without you, that the darkness came
back to me, the dark urges, the bloodlust, when I wasn't near you.
You were the light in my heart, the reason the darkness was fading,
and I thought of all this and came to only one
conclusion."

"And, what was that?" I asked and
laughed. "That I must be insane for waiting for you?"

"No." He said seriously. "That I love
you." This made me stop; I stopped smiling, stopped moving, I
almost stopped breathing, but struggled to keep that going. He
stroked my skin and leaned down to me, placing his forehead against
mine. "I love you more than anything in the last two hundred years.
How could I deny something that strong or try to deny it." He
smiled at this and closed his eyes. "I'm very sorry."

"You don't need to be, Justin." I
smiled and put my hand on the back of his neck. "You've been in my
life for the last nine months, loving me, being there for me, even
if you couldn't give into it."

"The other night, we parted on a bad
note." He whispered as his lips came closer to mine. "It wasn't a
one night thing, Sage, it's a forever thing."

He suddenly kissed me, hard and
passionately, on the lips. Fire raced through my body and I pulled
him closer to me. Justin sat back and breathed in
deeply.

"Maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea
to do this in your father's house." He said softly. I smiled at him
and kissed him quickly. "Then again, there's this problem with
kissing you. I'm not sure how much longer I could resist you before
I have to go with it."

"You're a strange man." I smiled at
him. I watched him back away, then, as he stood at the end of the
bed, looking at me, he smiled. "Don't disappear from this place
completely."

"I'm not going anywhere, Sage." He
replied and walked over to the door. I watched him turn, look at me
quickly, and then he left the room. I smiled to myself as I lay on
the bed.

My eyes drifted closed, but didn't want
to completely shut. They seemed to open moments afterward. I knew I
wasn't going to get any more sleep.

"Awe; that was awful sweet." An
unfamiliar voice whispered. I sat up, looked into a darkened corner
and watched a figure walked out. I pulled the covers up to me and
watched him.

"Who are you and what are you doing in
my room?" I asked this man quickly.

"My name is David Tarrot, and this use
to be my room." He smiled. I could see his vampire teeth as he
moved slowly over to me. "So, this would mean that anything in this
room would be mine."

He held me paralyzed on the bed and he
sat next to me. He reached out and grabbed the back of my head, his
hands tangling in my hair, and he brought me to him. I began to
tremble as I realized what he intended to do.

"Don't be frightened, Sage." He said
softly, as he looked over my face. He touched the tip of his nose
to mine and then touched my lips softly with his. "That is what he
called you, isn't it?" He asked against my lips. I couldn't move to
reply, feeling oddly aroused by the way he was talking, and his
lips being so close to mine. "This won't hurt much."

He moved from my mouth down to my neck
and I felt his teeth brush my skin. I closed my eyes, knowing that
I couldn't do anything about it. He pushed his teeth to my skin,
almost puncturing it, but then he stopped. I opened my eyes
quickly, as I heard him inhale deeply through his nose, as if he
were taking in my scent. His teeth left my skin, and he backed away
to look into my eyes.

He looked over my face, moving from my
eyes to my lips and back, and then he released me, stood up and
left the room in a hurry. I shook my head, not quite sure of what
had made him stop, but at the same time not caring. I lay down on
the bed, curled up in a ball and closed my eyes, as I hid under the
covers. I didn't sleep, after that. I knew, no matter what I tried,
that I wouldn't.

* * * * *

He watched her walk through the east
garden. The sun was up, the sky was blue, free of any clouds, and
as he looked at her, he couldn't help but wonder about her.
Something last night had stopped him in his tracks, keeping him
from feeding on her, but, even though Michael had explained to him,
after the fact, that she was part of him, there was still something
else there that seemed to have stopped him.

He stood at the window in the dining
room. It was a full twelve foot by five-foot window, and he stood
in the middle of it, looking out at her. She glanced up suddenly,
as she turned and looked right into his eyes, her blue ones staring
him down. David shook inside, as their eyes connected, and then he
turned and walked away.

David stopped at the doorway of the
sitting room, and looked at Julian, who was sitting on the couch,
and a young man with black hair, who was standing by the window
with his hands in his pockets.

"I don't know how to make them see that
I've changed." The man at the window sighed.

"It shouldn't matter to you what they
feel, Justin, only what she feels." Julian replied as he sat with
his eyes closed. "Besides, what do they know anyhow? You've been
apart for two centuries, people change."

"That doesn't seem to matter to
Cristian." Justin sighed. Julian shook his head, opened his eyes
and looked at Justin.

"Cristian has his own opinions,
nothing, no matter what you do or say, is going to change it,
Justin." He stood up and stretched then he turned and looked at
David. He lowered his arms and smiled. "David." Justin turned and
looked at the new arrival. "When did you get home?"

"Last night." David said softly and
looked at Justin, realizing that he was the one in Sage's room last
night. "I seemed to have arrived to a full house."

"Yes, you have, haven't you?" Julian
smiled and looked at Justin. "David, this is Justin Tudorian, one
of Michael's blood brothers. Justin, this is David Tarrot, our
missing resident." Justin nodded a hello and David replied with the
same, the Julian shook his head. "What brought you
home?"

"We can talk about that later, if you'd
like to continue your discussion." David replied. Justin shook his
head.

"It's quite all right." Justin spoke
up. "I've got someone to check on, excuse me."

David watched as Justin left the room
then he walked over and sat near Julian, who had sat back
down.

"So?" Julian asked. David shook his
head.

"It was a dream, I guess." David
sighed.

"A dream brought you home?"

"It was about Victor." He answered.
Julian sat back. "It gave me this awful feeling that he wasn't
dead, that, somehow, he was coming back."

"Ashley killed him, David; I don't
believe he's coming back." Julian assured him. David shook his
head. "Is there something else?"

"That girl." He said softly.

"Sage?" Julian asked. David nodded.
"What about her?"

"She was in my dreams." David said
softly and looked down at his feet. "I came home to get away from
the image of her in my mind, only to find her in my bed last
night."

"You were in her room?"

"Only because I thought that it was
unoccupied, and then, once I found out there was someone there, all
I did was sit and watch her." David said and stood up. He shook his
head and clenched his fists, and then he turned and looked at
Julian, from where he now stood by the windows. "I know that
Michael is her "father" and that she's emotionally involved with
Justin, but who is she?"

"Just a girl, I'm afraid." Michael's
voice interrupted them. Both of them turned and looked at Michael
and another dark haired man as they walked into the room. "David,
welcome home." Michael smiled. David smiled back. "This is my
brother, Cristian Kingston. Cris, this is David Tarrot, a good
friend of mine."

"Hello." Cristian said and bowed
slightly.

"Nice to meet you." David replied, and
then looked at Julian, who stood up and smiled.

"So, why is Sage the topic of
conversation?" Michael asked. David shook his head.

"I've seen her in dreams, Mike. I just
wanted to know why." David sighed. Michael looked at him
confused.

"David seems to think that Victor might
come back." Julian shrugged. Michael nodded. "And, that it has to
do with Sage."

"It's nothing really." David sighed,
suddenly feeling uneasy. "Excuse me." He said quickly and left the
room. Michael and Julian looked at each other then out the door
that David had gone through.