Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

I returned back to the school, right as soon as lunch started. But before I went to the cafeteria so I could brief Emery and Thalia on my plans for the evening, I headed to the office to explain my absence from earlier. But as it turned out, I only missed the assembly and nothing more, which the Principal wasn’t as put off by my disappearance as I thought she might be.

Mrs. Hawkins didn’t bat an eye at the fact that I had missed the school wide event. Somehow I knew this new revelation behind her sudden dismissal of my absence was caused by Finn. That meant that Emery told him where it was I had gone. She shooed me out of the office, and I reluctantly headed towards the cafeteria.

I walked in and quickly spotted him, sitting down on the opposite side of the room and not where he usually perched himself in the midst of all our classmates. He actually sat at my table, the one surrounded by my friends. Only Emery and Thalia weren’t seated with him, but seated separately in the middle of the room at their own table. I wondered why he would seat himself with my friends, especially after he pleaded with me to stay another week, knowing that I needed to break the ties with them if I was leaving. This behavior was totally uncharacteristic of him.

I strode in their direction, but paused at Emery and Thalia’s table for a quick word. Emery glanced up at me, giving me his all encompassing gaze that he suspected what I had been up to, but he didn’t really know the gist at all. I twitched my mouth at his expression.

“Why aren’t you two sitting with Finn?” I whispered.

Emery cocked his head. “He chose to go over there.”

“He didn’t invite us,” Thalia explained.

I rolled my eyes, of course he wouldn’t. “Then I’ll invite you. Come on, pull up a chair. If he’s adding himself to my table, so are you two.”

I made my way over to the empty seat that was reserved for me. Again the lunchroom went quiet in anticipation as Thalia and Emery followed me with their chairs in hand. I glanced sideways at Seth and his girlfriend, who was the more recent addition to our table, and asked for them to make room. They scooted around, and eventually we had room for two more chairs.

I took my seat and glanced at each of my friends’ faces. “I know you all met Finn the other night, but this is Thalia and Emery.” I pointed to each person in particular. “They’re Finn’s friends.”

Chatter broke out instantly. Across the table, Finn threw me a smirk.

Mallory nudged Thalia, who sat next to her. “Okay, so I’ve always wanted to ask, but never had the courage. Where did you get that gorgeous necklace? It looks like something that came from Tiffany’s but I wasn’t quite sure on the carat or the manufacturer.”

I smiled, satisfied with myself. I had no fashion sense - I had never needed it. It made me happy to know that she had someone other than Krista to talk to about clothing and jewelry. Whenever she launched into a topic about fashion, I usually focused on some other sound that would drown out their voices. I hated discussing trivial things like that when there were so many other serious topics that were important.

Emery took advantage of the distraction between his girlfriend and Mallory and whispered in my ear. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

Across the table, Finn’s eyes narrowed. Even with the chatter that filled the area around us including all of the other people that talked in the lunchroom amid the other random noises, he had heard what Emery asked me. I wondered if Emery had told Finn what exactly I’d been up to instead of giving him the gist, but the questioning look on his face told me otherwise.

Before I got a chance to clarify, Nathan caught my attention by waving at me and blurted out a question I wasn’t prepared for. “So how did you like the assembly? We all fell asleep.”

I shrugged. It must’ve been boring from the snickers my friends responded with. When I glanced at each of them in turn, Krista looked like she was holding in laughter. “I didn’t really pay attention.” It wasn’t a complete lie since I wasn’t present for it, but something told me I wouldn’t have heard it anyhow because my thoughts were focused elsewhere.

Seth peered over at me. “When we left Chemistry you were still in your seat. Did you join us later? I didn’t see you come in.”

Krista shook her head. “Yeah, come to think of it, I don’t recall you being there.”

“She was with me,” Finn interjected quickly before any more doubts on the subject could be organized.

All of my friends’ eyebrows raised into their hairlines. And then the chatter started anew, but on a completely different topic - the fact that we were an official couple.

“When did you start hooking up?”

“Awesome girl, no wonder he’s sitting here with us.”

“I saw it coming…”

I sighed heavily. This was what I was trying to avoid. I didn’t need another reason that tied me here. I needed to put distance between myself and the others so that I could flee here easily if I became a threat, which my odds increased every day I spent with them. But it seemed like Finn took the opportunity to attach me more to these people than I already was. He wasn’t just attaching me to my friends, but also to the world I now lived in.

Even as the others discussed the supposed relationship between us, Finn and I stared at each other. Neither of us said a word, but we communicated through our eyes. I glared at him, knowing he’d done this on purpose while he languidly stared back at me with pronounced humor in his eyes. He enjoyed this teasing and playfulness of the situation, even if not one word of what my friends spoke of was true.

Finally the bell rang, and the others grabbed their stuff headed for the door. They waved bye to me, but I didn’t notice. Once everyone else filed out of the room, I was left alone once more with Finn and his bodyguards.

“Are you trying to anchor me here?” I retorted at him as quickly as I could before he could say anything back.

His smirk widened into a smile. “I don’t see what the big deal is. You were anchored here the first day I noticed you.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes or shake my head and glare at him with pure fury. He was not making things easier for me.

Thank goodness Emery distracted me from the stare down. “So did you find what you were looking for?” he repeated.

This time Thalia glanced at me, wondering what was going on between us. Finn too looked intrigued.

I caught Emery’s eyes and lowered my voice, knowing that the other two would still hear me. “You didn’t tell them?”

He shook his head. “I’m giving you a chance to explain.”

Finn fiddled with his grape juice bottle. “What is he talking about Abelia?”

I really didn’t want to reveal this here and now, but I had no choice. “Ms. Ingram has found a link of your family marrying into the Cassian’s through old newspapers. She already knows of the Cassian Coven, being a vampire hunter and raised with the knowledge that you all were schooled in.”

Finn stopped moving the bottle between his fingers. He actually for once didn’t look relaxed. His body had stopped moving completely - only by his breath did I know he was still alive, otherwise he looked like a stone statue. “She knows,” he finally breathed after several minutes.

“She’s not quite there yet, she only suspects,” I interjected. “I’m trying to sway her from these thoughts, though it’s proving extremely difficult, but I think I found a solution.”

Emery leaned forward. “Tell him what she’s looking for.”

Thalia looked intrigued by this statement. Finn held no emotion. He instead met my eyes and understood everything at once, and though I knew I didn’t have to explain it for him, I’d have to explain it for Thalia.

I took in a breath and began. “She wants to fight and kill her own vampire. Even with as little training as she’s had, she will not survive. I promised her I would find her one she could fight, and find them I did.”

“Them?” Thalia questioned me, not missing the wording I used. “You found more than one? And where?”

Emery touched her arm. “I take it you went after one of the ones that we’re not allied with?”

I threw him a look. “If you mean the crazed and wild ones that no one will miss from society, then yes. I found a whole nest of the created,” I explained with ease.

Finn leaned forward suddenly, breaking his statue-like pose. “She cannot take on a whole nest by herself.”

“I’m well aware of that,” I snapped back.

“Then what are you going to do?”

I smiled. “It’s simple. I’m going to find one leaving the nest tonight, lure him into an alleyway so that she can have her shot. If she fails, she fails. If not, then we don’t have anything to fear. She wants her revenge. I believe if we satiate the part of her that hungers for the kills, she will back off. It’s either that or she’ll become too frightened by the thing she’ll give up the notion that she can kill one by herself. A true vampire hunter shows no mercy, and they don’t live among the human populace, which is why I’ve never come across one before. They segregate themselves away from their family and their society because they understand the implications that come from that choice as a career. If a hunter kills a mate you can be assured that the other mate will go after them and their entire family. It’s dangerous to be involved with anyone if you lead a lifestyle like that. Ms. Ingram doesn’t know the first thing about killing a vampire, but once she feels it for herself, I believe she’ll back off. There are consequences she can’t even dream of.”

I let that soak in for a while. Finn sighed and leant forward. “And what if she thirsts for more blood and comes after us?”

I met his eyes. “Then it’s simple. I will kill her.” I hated talking about her death so easily, but death was a part of my life. I had seen it, lived it, and witnessed it. Death was something I couldn’t escape. But even though she was a simple human with a possible family out there somewhere, it felt wrong talking about killing her. But I had made a promise, and I had warned her that if she got in my way I’d take her out.

Finn leaned back in his chair once more. “I guess then we need her to discover what it’s like to kill one of our kind. If not, we’ll go to plan B.”

It seemed plan B was the plan for me to kill her since no one suggested what plan B entailed. I hoped it wouldn’t go that far. “Alright. I’ll take care of it tonight.”

Emery frowned. “Tonight?”

I turned to him. From the look on his face, this plan moved forward far too early for him. “Yes, tonight. When else did you want me to do this? Next month?” Sarcasm dripped out of my mouth like drool. I didn’t normally use sarcasm, but I felt it appropriate in this case, plus I used it whenever I was frustrated or tired.

Emery rolled his eyes. “Do you need us?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be fine on my own. This won’t be the first time I’ve had to do this.”

Thalia went white. Her eyes widened slightly. “You mean you’ve helped out other vampire hunters?”

I shook my head. “It’s not that. I’ve been dealing with death my entire life. It won’t be the first time I’ve witnessed something like what’s about to happen.”

She recovered herself. “Sorry, I haven’t had the chance to battle anything and have it threaten my life or that of Finn’s. I know that I would attack them, but to hear you talk of it like it’s the most natural thing in the world bothers me.”

I slowly stood up. “Take it from me and don’t wish for that kind of adventure.”

Finn was beside me before I could blink. “Should I persuade Mrs. Hawkins for an explanation of your absences?”

This time I rolled my eyes. “You’re so buddy-buddy with her that she figures you’ll buy her a drink and then ask her out to dinner. She didn’t bat one eye at my absence from the assembly, of which I have no knowledge of discussing the topic with her before I left the school. I figured you had something to do with this.”

He grinned at me, but kept his lips closed. “I see you’re getting used to my antics.”

“That’s not an antic. That’s bribery and something else that I can’t quite put my finger on…oh yes, there it is, manipulation. It’s malicious.” I met his gaze and bored my eyes into his. “Stop using your powers like you own the village.”

“But I do own the village,” he retorted.

“Well then act like you don’t,” I snapped.

I stormed off to gym, arriving only for the last fifteen minutes of class. I didn’t dress out and complained of a stomach ache, but several kids gawked at me from the basketball court and I briefly caught jealousy mixed with envy written on their faces as they didn’t believe my excuse and looked to their own sense of intuition, which probably wasn’t a good thing.

Once I was free of the class, I wrote a quick note and left it on Ms. Ingram’s desk. She wasn’t in her room, but the message was both clear and vague at the same time. If anyone else saw it, they wouldn’t know the kind of deal we had discussed, but that didn’t matter much - she would know.