Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

This was unbelievable. I should’ve run away by now, but I forced myself into staying because of him. He was getting too close to what I was, what I really was that is, and I didn’t want him to find out. It was dangerous, no I was dangerous.

It was bad enough that I had made connections in this city. If I were to leave now, there would be endless questions regarding my whereabouts and why I suddenly uprooted and fled from my supposed home. I wouldn’t have to worry about the safety of my friends from the vampires that built a life here now that I knew it was a much safer place than other villages. But all of my notions and fears, the way I reasoned with myself so that I wouldn’t part from this place no longer controlled me. I couldn’t leave what had become my home, yet I couldn’t remain here either. Every second I stayed I revealed more of my true nature and history, and it was that alone that put him into danger. I couldn’t fight what I was in the end no matter how hard I tried. There weren’t any other options available for me.

It was time to run.

I whipped out my duffel bag and started throwing clothes into it. I threw my toiletries in there as well, not bothering to segregate them for I didn’t have the time. Once it was somewhat packed I glanced at the keys and card lying on the surface of the desk. They were items connecting me to my life here.

No. I couldn’t think like that anymore if I was leaving. This wasn’t my home. Those things were not connected to me at all - they were just items. Getting the money out of the bank would be easy, however it was talking with Sylvia that left me utterly speechless. She would know that something was wrong, unless I used my compulsion on her.

I snatched the keys up, leaving my stuff where it was for now. Hopefully she’d understand why it was time that I left and not ask questions. If the worst happened, I would use my ability, though I didn’t want to.

I headed straight for the office. But when I approached the building, I noticed she wasn’t alone in the tiny room. The windows were open, and she was having a discussion with a boy. I didn’t recognize who it was until he spoke. My heart jumped wildly at the sound of his voice, but I hardened myself so I wouldn’t react to it.

I paused, undecided about what it was I was doing until he said something about me. Intrigued I crept forward and listened, momentarily forgetting about my escape.

“I don’t know what to do, Sylvia,” Finn sighed. “I can’t discuss this with my family so that’s why I came here. She’s different than the rest of us. I feel that she has ancient powers, ones that are impossible yet legendary. I’m having trouble hiding what she is to the others. I don’t think she even knows this herself. Every time I turn around there’s something new added to an endless list that I have to explain in some way. It’s like she doesn’t know that she’s revealing secrets that have been buried.”

“But why hide her at all?” Sylvia perked up at the end of his short monologue. As soon as she said that she dropped her chipper smile and shook her head at him. “I don’t see how I can help in this.”

Finn paced her floor. I overheard his footsteps, however light they were. “Earlier when she was at the house, she played the lullaby - though when my father asked her about it, she had no clue about the meaning behind the song. But that wasn’t the only odd thing that happened. Once we formed the bond between us, she licked her finger which had been completely saturated with my blood. I saw the look on her face. She actually enjoyed the taste and wasn’t as averted to it as she told me. I’m beginning to think my scent affects her in a way that her scent affects me. I wouldn’t dare taste her blood, but I’m beginning to wonder if I should. It goes against everything I was taught and raised with. The more she reveals these subtle qualities the more I’ve come to realize that she wasn’t quite created like the rest of the others. I don’t know what to do.”

So that was it. He had noticed about the blood on my finger, how I liked the taste of his blood. He was figuring this out way too quickly, and that thought frightened me, further cementing my thoughts that it was time I left.

Sylvia sighed, bringing my focus back to the present. “So you came to me.”

Finn’s eyes pleaded with her. “You know I cannot discuss this among my family. If they even knew there was something weird about her she’d be on the kill order.”

Sylvia didn’t respond right away. She was deep in thought, struggling with some issue. I figured she decided to confide in him what she was thinking in earnest about her hidden thoughts because she finally spoke, though it was barely above a whisper. “You know the burglar that she saved the girl from?”

Finn nodded, probably wondering why she brought up that particular subject at all.

Sylvia didn’t waste time in continuing. “It wasn’t a burglar. I didn’t tell you at the time because I didn’t want you to worry. I saw the body, hidden well in the trash compactor she stuffed it into. You should know that I’ve known what she is from the first day I let her rent the house.”

Finn’s eyes went wide.

Before he could object, she was speaking again. “The point is, it doesn’t bother me. She protects the occupants of this complex. She’s been protecting you, for some odd reason. You have to keep her identity a secret and pass off these subtle surprises as ignorance. It’s the only way for her to survive here.”

I had heard enough. They both knew and they were making me look like a fool by keeping me in the dark about their world. I shook my head and turned back around. My decision was made. I would just have to leave tonight. The more I stayed here, the more dangerous it got for them.

I fled quietly back to the cottage and ran up the stairs. I grabbed my bag, slung it over my shoulder, and ran back down only to come face to face with Finn.

He glanced at the bag and at my hair, which had come undone in the chaos. “Where are you going?”

I shook my head and pushed past him. “I should’ve done this a long time ago.” I pulled down a box of crackers for the road. If there was one thing I learned here, it was to keep food on my person so I retained the illusion of a human.

He grabbed my wrist and a jolt of electricity sizzled up my arm and down my spine. I nearly jumped from the minor shock, but it wasn’t his touch that made me whirl around, it was the way he held it - gently as though he didn’t want me to go. It was not a forceful grip he had on me.

His eyes found mine. “You cannot flee tonight. What would my family think? What about your friends?”

I shook my head and tried wrenching my arm from his grasp. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he let me go before it became a struggle. “You cannot keep me here,” I whispered. “I need to leave.”

“Abelia,” he pleaded with me. “I know you heard us talking. But you need to understand that I know nothing about you. Sylvia hasn’t told me anything that I haven’t already figured out on my own. She’s kept me in the dark and so have you, though I don’t know why. I want to know more about you, but you won’t let me in so that I can protect you from my family.”

I whirled on him, not clearly thinking straight since I overheard the conversation. I only knew one thing, that he didn’t see me as a threat. “No Finn, you don’t get it. You’re not the danger here, you never were.”

He threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know what more I have to do to make you see. If you go out there, so soon after telling them you’d be one of my protector’s they’ll see this as treason. You could have a death sentence on your head and be hunted by those of our kind that hunt.”

“And you think that I’m afraid of them?” I dropped my bag, and pushed up my sleeves. “Do you wish to see me fight? See me in action? I could destroy you in a matter of minutes and you’d never know what happened.”

He approached me. “But you won’t. It’s like with Ms. Ingram. When she attacked you, you didn’t hurt her. You’ve surrounded yourself with humans, and you won’t hurt them. I know you won’t hurt me, even though I’m a vampire.”

I crossed my arms. “I may not hurt you, but that doesn’t mean that others won’t be as restrained as I am.”

“Abelia.” He reached out and touched my shoulders.

I wanted to push him away, but I didn’t. A part of me wanted him to pull me close and wrap his arms around my body.

But what was I thinking? I was his enemy.

Instead, Finn’s eyes bored into mine. “Why won’t you let me in? Why do you keep covering up your past? I know that not all of what you’ve said is the complete truth, that you’re concealing a valuable piece of information from me. There are parts of your history that do not match that of a created vampire. There are things that you do that don’t match the habits of created vampires.”

I shivered involuntarily, but held his gaze.

“Are you afraid I’m going to run away? That I’ll hate what you are?”

I swallowed. I wanted to tell him yes, I feared that, but he could never know. None of them could ever know… I wouldn’t tell him. I couldn’t tell him.

I shook myself free and picked up the bag again.

He blocked my way out.

“Are you going to move or am I going to have to force you?” I said through clenched teeth.

He shook his head. “You need to stay.”

“For how long? Until you discover how dangerous I am? Or until it’s too late?” I cried.

“Just stay for another week. One week,” he breathed. “It’s all I ask of you.”

This was an accident waiting to happen. I closed my eyes, already defeated within my soul. This was not by his plea, but by my own convictions. I really wanted to stay, but I was forcing the decision to walk out of here for his own good. But he was right. I couldn’t leave suddenly, now. I needed a way out - a better plan, one that was more sensible.

I nodded, accepting his plea and feeling totally defeated. “One week. But I’m going to warn you. If your family discovers…” I trailed off. There was no way to tell him anything more about me without him learning the truth. I changed tactics. “If I become the threat, I will run.”

His mouth formed that perfect smile of his. And then he said it, in one of his cockiest voices ever spoken to me. “I don’t think you’ll ever be a threat to me.”

Whatever feelings I had for him at that moment, fizzled. I turned and headed back up the stairs. I left my bag on the bed and flipped on the shower. I hadn’t even shed my clothes when I felt his arms go around me. I stood there in the steam, completely in shock.

Something I had wanted and wished for several years and also in the past few days, had finally come to pass, and this simple action thrilled yet frightened me. This was why I needed to get away. My feelings for him were getting stronger, and if we ever developed a relationship it would only end badly.

“Thank you,” he whispered in my ear.

And just as soon as his arms were there, they were gone again. The warmth was gone. All throughout my shower I didn’t feel the heat of the water, though only the hot was turned on. But that didn’t matter much. The promise I had made to myself was broken. I told myself I’d never get involved, that I could run at any moment, and that no one would ever know the harsh truth. Even if the third hadn’t come true, it was only a matter of time at this rate.

I curled up in the corner of the tiled shower stall and cried.

How would they ever forgive me?