Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

I didn’t know what to do once he was gone. His question shocked me so much I ended up staring at the spot he disappeared from for about half an hour. Once I went inside, I finally came up with my excuse - I couldn’t go to dinner with him because I needed to feed. But for the next hour, I mentally beat myself up over becoming such a wimp when he made the offer aloud. What was wrong with me?

I honestly hadn’t expected a question like that, not from him.

I put away my books and sat down at the small table in the nook. I needed to think about things. With everything going on between Ms. Ingram and I, Finn and his bodyguards or friends – whatever they were - my friends, the club, and the vampires with heartbeats, my mind was so cramped that it was nearly impossible for me to function. There were too many distractions, and too many of my rules being broken. I needed to get my bearings.

I didn’t get much thinking done though; around seven one of my neighbors started making a huge ruckus. It was so loud, that I couldn’t concentrate on anything running around in my head, so I investigated the source of the distraction. But once I approached the larger cottage next to mine, the door in front hung slightly ajar. The keys were still in the lock, not usually a good sign.

I trained my ears listening for a particular sound. It took a few minutes before I heard it. The girl whimpered from upstairs. I didn’t know why she was crying, but I knew it wasn’t the good kind of crying. I flew into her home and leapt up the stairs, finding items knocked over and a broken vase near her bathroom door. It was open, though not all the way.

I peered inside and saw the man, assaulting her. I didn’t care what he was in that moment, just that he violated the girl’s personal space. All the pent up anger that I hadn’t gotten over with in gym unleashed itself in this space. I reached out and pulled the thing off her. She sunk to the ground immediately and curled into a ball, weak with shock. I yanked on the heavy body and dragged it out into her bedroom. I didn’t bother figuring out if he was alive or not, I only knew that I couldn’t let him continue what he was doing. I snapped the guy’s neck with one quick twist. Now that he didn’t struggle against me I let my fangs out and sunk in my teeth.

The rush of blood into my mouth felt like sweet honey flowing into my body. In what felt like hours but actually ended up lasting a few seconds, I fed off him, taking every ounce of blood from his arteries and veins. But once the fast flow slowed to a trickle, I considered gorging but stopped myself. It wouldn’t do for the girl to spot me draining the pockets of blood from his limbs, if she decided to leave the bathroom. I forced myself to stop, for her own mentality.

Once his blood had been drained, I left him on the floor feeling quite refreshed and went to attend to the girl. She cowered at the sight of me, but I had already made sure I wasn’t dripping blood from my mouth, and had hidden my sharp canines once more.

I reached out and touched her face, turning it towards mine. Our eyes locked and I used my compulsion.

“You came home someone broke in, and tried to hurt you. I arrived and he ran away,” I explained.

She nodded and repeated the sentences.

“I won’t harm you.”

“You won’t harm me,” her soft voice repeated.

I turned it off quickly and left her there for a moment. Her brain needed time to recover from the shock of the incident and the compulsion I had just used on her. Hopefully my reassuring sentences were enough that it cleared her mind on what actually occurred. Besides, while she coped, the body needed disposing of now that she was safer than before I found her. Her wrist bled, probably caused by the broken shards of the vase on the floor.

While I carried the man’s body down the stairs I noticed spots of blood on the carpet this time. I must’ve been so weak I hadn’t noticed it before. I took the body out into the darkness of the setting sun. A huge wall of stone separated the opposite lot behind us, it belonged to a restaurant of some kind and I didn’t bother paying attention to the particular kind of chain, but that didn’t hinder me. I jumped over the six foot wall with ease, while carrying the extra weight, especially now that I had more strength and power than I did earlier. After making sure no one was nearby, I stuffed the dead guy into its trash compactor.

Once I fixed the site and concealed all evidence that I might have visited the area, I returned back to the girl’s apartment, checking up on her progress. I was only gone for a minute or two. I wet a washrag with warm water, and wiped off her face and neck. Two small puncture wounds, which were barely noticeable, lay right below her left collarbone against her torn shirt. The crazed man nearly had torn into her flesh, aiming for her aortic valve. I didn’t think there would be a wound like it ever in my lifetime. The easiest sites for a blood donation usually came from the carotid artery, the brachial artery, or the femoral artery. Most vampires went for the carotid since the femoral could kill a person if not handled properly. Any other major blood vessels were usually off limits, as most vampires didn’t want the populace knowing about them, crazed or not. But this simple act of gnawing into her flesh disgusted me. Hopefully she wouldn’t ask where the bite marks came from. Already they healed, but the puncture wounds would be there forever, looking like surgical sutures.

Sylvia walked into the room as I finished patching up the cut on my neighbor’s wrist. Her sharp eyes scrutinized me at once, but they traveled quickly over to the invalid. “What happened here, Emily?”

At the mention of her name, the girl stirred from her hazy trance and looked up at our house matron. “I came home, and someone broke in. When Abigail arrived they ran away.”

I smiled kindly at her. “It’s Abelia,” I reminded. She was having trouble remembering my difficult name. I didn’t blame her. At least Krista and the others shortened it, but they too had difficulty remembering my primary name.

Emily nodded and sniffled. A few tears leaked out of her eyes, and she didn’t wipe them away when most girls did.

Sylvia’s searching eyes found the bandage I wrapped around her wrist and I flicked my gaze up, meeting hers. She only glanced briefly at me before staring back down at Emily. “You hurt your wrist.”

Her statement never distracted Emily from her trance. She answered what she thought was a question. “On the vase. He came at me, and I tried fighting back. I cut myself on the broken glass.”

“Do you need help cleaning up?” I asked her once I tucked the last piece of gauze into place.

She shook her head. “I’d like to be alone for a bit.”

Nodding, I took my leave. Sylvia followed me out. I gathered quickly that she didn’t want to leave the girl alone, that much was obvious in the way her body moved. Plus she didn’t believe the story we both fed her. If what Finn told me about Sylvia was true, she was only here because she smelled the blood and knew at once something had happened.

Her eyes bored into mine from the top of the thin rimmed glasses, which I figured were a disguise for her vampire eyesight now that I knew her secret. “It is a good thing you were here, to help her,” she added.

I caught more than one meaning in that statement especially since she spoke in an instructive tone rather than a sympathetic one as most people did in situations like this. I wondered if she knew about me, but didn’t care. I nodded and smiled sheepishly like there was nothing wrong. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

Syvlia surprised me by sighing and relaxing when I was sure she’d walk away with her nose turned up by my behavior. “I’ll make sure to check up on her. Don’t you have a date to get ready for?”

She knew about that? Before I could question the thought, she walked away, back to her office.

I retreated quickly, noticing I only had less than an hour to dress. I hastily jumped into the shower and welcomed the hot water. Dumping the body in the compactor had left this icky stench on me I couldn’t shake. Whatever the restaurant threw out was more disgusting than normal, which gave me another reason why I would never eat at that place much less visit. Besides the nasty food it threw out, the establishment itself looked like a roach motel. I hadn’t really paid it much attention while I busied myself with covering up the incident, but on the way back I noticed the differences between the two lots. It was no wonder a six foot cement wall separated the apartments.