Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince

He stared at me for the longest time, absorbing my answer. When he finally spoke, it was a question I should’ve prepared myself for, but hadn’t.

“What is a Krusnik?”

He had dropped his hand from my wing and I found that I wanted him to touch me again. Somehow when our skin met in this form, I felt safe and strong, not fearful. Slowly I grew weary over what we were about to discuss. Some of the fear from earlier crept back in. That promise that I’d never tell him was about to be broken, shattered really. The sad truth was I wanted him to know about me though I expected him to start yelling, attacking, and possibly fleeing the area before it was all out. But I at least had to try.

“I feed off of the blood from other vampires.”

He frowned. When his face pouted like this it was awfully cute.

Instead of doting on his facial expressions I continued explaining. “I’ve been feeding off of your kind for centuries, never knowing there were born vampires until I met you. I only knew of the created.”

“But you’re a vampire. You drink blood…” he whispered, though never sounding fearful of me. It was like he tried justifying my blood drinking ability, however cannibalistic it sounded.

I walked around him and sat down on my bed. My wings brushed up against the comforter, and it felt odd. “I don’t drink from humans.”

His facial features twisted up into a makeshift pod of feelings ranging from misunderstanding to curiosity. I had never seen anything like it on a human or vampire. “But the wine and the grape drinks, you’ve tasted those. I witnessed you drain that whole bottle of wine at the club.”

Of course he would remember that. I sighed and retracted my fangs. When they receded, I felt my wings curl up into my back. “The blood of humans makes me feel dizzy and confused, which is why I don’t drink it. Besides, it usually tastes gross.”

Finn gasped in surprise. “Your wings…you can retract them just like your fangs?”

I raised my eyebrows. Again he asked about something that had nothing to do with my diet. Once the initial shock of the arrangement of his words wore off, I realized what he said.

“What?”

Before he could answer me though, I turned and faced the mirror once more. Sure enough, my wings had completely disappeared. I felt them curl up into my back but I never thought they’d disappear completely. I flipped my hand over, reached through the neck of my shirt, and rubbed my upper shoulder blade. There were slits there in my skin, but they didn’t hurt. It must’ve been the place where my wings were hidden when I needed to blend, where they lay dormant before tonight.

When I saw the things protruding from my back, I immediately thought that I would never be able to attend school or have friends or even go out in public again. Now those ideas vanished.

“You’ve never had wings before,” he breathed.

I snapped my head back to his face. He was in complete awe of my form still. But how did he know that?

“I was guessing,” he mumbled quickly. He must’ve seen the surprise in my expression.

My eyes shut. “No, I’ve never had wings before tonight. I’ve been alive for over three centuries, and never had wings.”

His fingers wrapped themselves around mine as he took my hand in his. His skin was soft and gentle against mine reminding me that he wanted to understand my past, but that was something I still didn’t want to share. “What happened to you?”

I opened my eyes and met his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“You never fully told me the story of your past,” he began. “I’ve been patient, hoping you would explain. There are so many things that you do, where I can tell you’re not from my generation. I’m not trying to push you away, but I’m sure that I can understand it now that I know what you are. Why won’t you let me in?”

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

His tense body relaxed. “Abelia, I knew long ago that you weren’t what my father or mother or anyone else thought you were. It is true that they think you’re protecting me, and I know you are. But I also know that I can protect you. I’m not going to run away and tell every single person in my clan what you are in order to protect myself. You’ve never showed any inclination to hurt me or jeopardize my life or Emery’s or Thalia’s. Even Atria and my parents are safe in your care, and though you’ve used your compulsion on my sister you didn’t do it out of malice. You know that you will never harm them and I know it too.”

A tear streaked out of my left eye. “I may not harm you, but I can always harm them. If they did anything to get in my way, or to discover what I was, that I am a danger, the threat I pose…if they started hunting me… Finn,” I pleaded with him. “I can’t stay here.”

He shook his head, telling me no. “Wherever you go, I’ll follow. You cannot cut me out of your life now, Abelia. I’ve created an oath with your blood which means I can find you if I feel threatened. And without you by my side, I will feel threatened. In case you haven’t realized it, those that attacked me weren’t just created vampires. Two were born vampires, from my clan. You may not have met them, but I knew them. Whatever happened to Jennifer, don’t hold it against her. They used her insane mind to get to me.”

Throughout his monologue I weighted the truth of his words. I hadn’t known I attacked and killed two born vampires. I was so focused on Finn’s safety and Ms. Ingram’s demise that I ignored all other facts. When he reminded me of the oath I had made with him, I realized now why I felt drawn to him. I would always be drawn to him, I would always wonder if he was safe. It was a part of the magic of the blood oath between us.

I sighed heavily. I hated having to do this, open myself up like this. No one was alive in this day to remember what really happened to me. I was the only one who held the horrible truth. My life had become a legend, a story told to vampires both young and old, a fable and myth. There was a chance he might not believe me because the truth had become so muddled over the years. I had done nothing to refute the claims, but then again I struggled with hiding what I was. But even as I prepared myself to tell the awful truth, I held my emotions in check because there was a chance he wouldn’t believe me. Honestly if I had been raised on the legend, I wouldn’t believe me either.

I swallowed back the bile that rose from the pit of my stomach. “Remember when I told you that my past was like Cassius’s Plight?”

He nodded.

It took a lot for me to get the words out, and throughout my struggle, he was patient. I hated reliving this. “It’s exactly that story, but with a rather drastic twist.”

He didn’t get it right away and I expected this. A confused expression smeared across his face looking even more confused than when I told him what I was. “Cassius’s Plight is nothing more than a legend, a fairy tale told to all vampires. It’s a myth and nothing more than a ‘keep your children in line’ kind of deal.”

I tried smiling, but I failed. To know that the story was morphed into a child’s bed time story horrified me. It was my story – mine, and not anybody else’s. “Contrary to popular belief it’s not a myth. Over time the words have been warped from use and disbelief, and I haven’t been around to refute them. It’s not completely unheard of when you go back and look at other tales.”

He chuckled. “But you aren’t Cassius. You didn’t die from heartache.”

“Cassius was never…” I couldn’t finish what I wanted to say. I met Finn’s playful gaze. “I am the girl that he loved.”

It took him a while to figure it out. I was sure he was running through that fairy tale of a story in his thoughts. Who knows what version he had been told? I recognized when got to the part about the girl, his eyes softened and he once again stared at me with wonder.

“They said you died,” he gasped.

“I did.” I owned up to it.

He didn’t believe me, and I expected this again because of my physical attributes. “But you have a heartbeat, just like us.”

I looked everywhere around the room, purposefully ignoring his gaze. My confession astounded him to know that I had survived that horrible fate that was told in the stories, but yet neither one of us would be able to explain how I did it, even when I was the one who went through the change. To this day I couldn’t remember all of my creation or how I came to be this way. But I knew the specifics and details of where the story changed into a false recount and passed on into legend. There was a reason why nearly every vampire knew the tale. There was a reason why it was told and morphed into a horror story of sorts. My creation was an abomination, and should’ve never happened.

His hand distracted my thoughts as his fingers touched my left cheek. I froze, because even though I knew I was feeling all this pull towards him because of the blood oath, his touch sent signals through my spine. It didn’t make any sense to me why his touch did that and not Emery’s or any of my other friends. What was it about him that made this situation different?

He brushed a lock of my platinum blond hair out of the way, so that I saw his eyes instead of hiding my face with the pale curtain. His finger made a loop and traveled down to my neck, right where the carotid artery was. He gently pressed into the side, feeling my strong pulse there.

“It’s impossible,” he whispered with awe.

I shrugged, dislodging his finger. As he dropped his hand once again I met his gaze. The words came easier than I thought they would. “I was sixteen when I met him. We were to be friends for several years. Tiberius, my baby half-brother, even liked him, and Tiberius was picky. He had a name that I had never heard of. But it was so beautiful to my young mind that I didn’t care if he was different and not like us. My parents hated my decision to marry him, because it went against the grain of society. As a result, they whisked me away to France before we could elope. I was heartbroken and thought I would never see him again.”

The room melted away and I was back in my sixteen year old body sitting at the piano while my baby brother played on the ground right beside me. The piece was directly in front me - a composition from an unknown artist that would eventually be titled Tiberius’ Lullaby. I stared at the parchment like it lay directly in front of me though it was all in my mind and continued my tale. “I missed him so much in the beginning that every night we were separated in that first year I played a waltz we shared a dance with at the ball where we met. That was how I remembered him. I taught Tiberius how to dance by that waltz, once he was old enough to learn. Every night for three years I did this, until he finally returned to me. But by the time he reappeared in my life, my father announced my arranged marriage to a duke by the name of Cassius. They had planned it in secret and set the date into stone before I could voice my opinions on the matter. The night before my wedding day, Noah appeared. He proposed that we run away together. I was older now, and could leave on my own. I had my inheritance, given to me by my mother a few years earlier when she succumbed to a disease. I didn’t want to leave Tiberius, so I told him where I was going. He was still very young at the time, which was probably why things turned out the way they did. I didn’t think about my actions then. I finally felt happy and free. But my world came crashing down soon after. The Duke found out about our plans, and he came after me.”

My old parlor swept away and soon I was back on the street, hidden in the shadows of an alley between two buildings made of white stone. A wooden cart was parked on the pavement, blocking the three of us from view. I swallowed back tears. “He twisted Noah’s neck when they fought. I knew he had died instantly. As Cassius approached me, his teeth had elongated somehow. His eyes were no longer the pale green of spring, but a ferocious yellow. He looked wild and primal, and I tried fighting back but he was so strong, much stronger than me.” I paused not wanting to express the next few memories.

“He bit into my neck. I can still feel my blood being drawn into his mouth against my will, feeling the pain and agony it caused me as I withered away in the arms of a man I abhorred, a man who supposedly loved me when I didn’t love him in return. Helplessly, I watched my world grow dim, completely horrified, knowing that I would die in this filthy street, alone and afraid. I tried hanging onto my life, even when I knew it was futile. When he dropped my body onto the ground, I didn’t feel it. It was like I had lost all of my senses, but my sight remained. It too eventually faded away. But right before I let the darkness take me, before my conscious mind fell asleep, something wet filled my mouth. I suddenly had this thirst I couldn’t explain. What I’ve come to realize about that moment is that all those years ago Cassius was a vampire – and he created me.”

The tears fell freely, but I didn’t feel them. My touch was numb from revealing the knowledge of my creation to him. This is what that night did to me whenever I relived it. I had been so broken and traumatized after the event in question. Every time I remembered a piece of that night, I couldn’t sleep for a week. “I awoke at his house, in his bed. Noah’s lifeless body lay beside me. He seemed peaceful, but Cassius kept a stake in his heart, claiming that the boy would never wake up from the slumber I wished he was in. I hated Cassius for what he did to me - what he did to Noah and me. I attacked him using the stake from Noah’s heart, and fought him. Once I plunged the stake into the Duke’s heart, I really thought I had killed the man. But I didn’t know then that it took more than a stake.

“I ran back over to Noah, and pulled him into my arms praying for a miracle, but he wouldn’t move. His neck was still twisted in a bad way, so I put it right. But he was gone. Noah wasn’t like me or Cassius, changed and different. Slowly I remembered how Cassius had turned me into this creature, and praying I wasn’t too late, I tried doing the same for Noah. I opened up a main artery and let my blood drip into his mouth, but it didn’t work. I let my blood flow into him for several minutes, an hour or two… but nothing. He never awoke.

“He died trying to protect me that night. And I couldn’t save him in the end. Cassius had won,” I cried. I waited for the tears to subside before I continued. “I passed out from blood loss, I don’t remember what happened the rest of that night, but when I awoke next, I had the thirst again. Though this time, the first person I drank from was Noah. I couldn’t control myself. I didn’t want to harm him further, even if he never awoke, but it was like my mind was wild and raw, like I had never had a conscious or a soul. After I drained his blood, I was still thirsty. I turned to get Cassius’ body, but he was not there. He had pulled out the stake at some point while I was unconscious and left. So I hunted him.

“I found him a year later. His daughter was being courted by my brother. Knowing what he was, a monster, I couldn’t have that. I isolated him and attacked when he thought he was safe. His daughter walked in while I took his blood, and in that moment she transformed and attacked me. I couldn’t let her live knowing the impact she had on my family. So I killed her as well and took her blood. After that my thirst was satiated for several months. I wandered most of Europe, but never really settled down. I was heartbroken and unaware of what I was.

“I returned home eventually, only telling Tiberius what had happened to me. I made him promise to never tell our father or anyone else what had occurred. He never saw the Duke’s family again because of what I did. My father eventually retreated for England. In about four months Tiberius departed, returning to my original home, and I followed him, making sure that he stayed safe. But it got more and more dangerous for me to remain near him. While he aged, I didn’t. And I couldn’t keep answering the endless questions surrounding my powers and abilities when I didn’t even know them myself. When he was twenty, I left England for good and never returned.”

The room I stood in, my room… was strangely back. It was dark outside, plus the only light came from a lamp on my desk across the room. But even in the near darkness, my eyes found Finn’s. “Until that day at your house, I had never known what had become of my brother. But it’s clear to me what has happened. Tiberius Stephen Cassian married, and one of his daughters married into your family, the Tierney’s.”

Finn sighed with this shared piece of knowledge, but it didn’t change the facts of the horrible things I had done since becoming a kruznik. I figured at this point he would run toward the mountains and retreat away from me. He should. There was violence in my past, and heartache. My life wasn’t a happy ending and it never had been. I even ran from my own past and hated myself for what I became.

But instead he surprised me, yet again. He didn’t look upon me with fear or hatred, and I knew he should. “Noah. That was his name?”

I nodded. I hadn’t really introduced my former love properly, but then how could I when I hadn’t even coped with his death?

“Noah Tierney, the famous writer and explorer?”

I frowned. I had never known Noah’s last name. “I didn’t know…” I sucked in a breath of air realizing what that meant. Tierney… was that really Noah’s last name? How come I hadn’t known? In fact I had never made it a point to find that out. First names were intimate four hundred years ago. It’s only recently that people have used first names in social circles. I should’ve known his last name, but somehow I didn’t. The fact never bothered me until now.

Finn’s smile spread across his face. “He would’ve never told you,” he answered my unspoken question. “It doesn’t bother me that you drank the blood of a created vampire or that of a born one. You were born from lust and arrogance, hatred and selfishness, and I believe that does something to you. If it were me, I’d want vengeance. Cassius wanted to own you, and you never let him, even after you were reborn.”

My mind reeled with the information. Noah Tierney…I had never known…

“Abelia Cassian,” he used my real full name. He reached out and pulled me close into a hug of some sort. His hands caressed my back, stroking the skin between the slits in my shirt from when my wings sliced through it.

Every time he caressed that part of me, I received electrical zigzags all throughout my skin. Noah’s touch never had that effect on me. But even then, I wasn’t what I was now. Despite being dead and alive for over three hundred years, I had never been held like this before, so it was a new experience.

“I always hoped you existed,” he whispered in my ear.