Malevolence - Legacy Series Book Two (The Legacy Series) (27 page)

           
We all gathered again, this time to listen to
Mylandra
and her Jamaican accent tell us about Allie and what the plan was.

           
“De vampire Pascale is a ruthless man; he’ll kill you if you look at him sideways.
 
I tried to stop him from turning that poor
gairl
Allie.
 
He had no care
bout
what I say.
 
I did everything to make her want to leave, but
dis
gairl
has mind of her own.
 
You might dink you have it figured out, but he is smart man. I can tell you doe, not all de vampires want to go public.
 
They dink it will be mass chaos and humans will go after
dem
and kill
dem
.
 
Pascale says no, he can fix it.
 
Dare is a big convention in Paris
dis
week.
 
Day are planning on controlling
dem
with dare eyes.
 
You know they can do
dat
?”
 
She had her finger wagging at me like mean old schoolteacher I saw in a movie once.

           
“Tell me more.” I said.

           
“They can make you do what they want, make you believe
dem
.
 
I seen it, it is no good.”
 
She shook her head back and forth, mumbling to herself every once in a while.
 
Her big retro afro was en-trend the way she wore it.
 
I bet she was no taller than five feet and her hair put her at about five seven.
 
At the museum she had on stilettos, she replaced them with a pair of Adidas.
 
“I
unnerstand
dat
Pascale will convince de politicians and dignitaries
dat
vampires are good and can help
wid
de prison population problems.
 
He tell
dem
dat
they only feed on
da
murderers and baby lovers.
 
He wants a press conference held and de important men will announce to the de world for
dem
.
 
You must stop it before it happens.
 
He don’t
wanna
live in secret, but my secret and your secret will scare de humans.
 
We all suffer if we are found out.”
 
She stopped to take a drink of her water.
 
“Allie don
wanna
leave Pascale, she dink she love him.
 
Maybe she do, I’m no judge.
 
He likes her yes, love her?
 
I
donno
.
 
He
wanna
kill
Dolinda
, I don’t know why, but he does.
 
You protect her, but none of you is safe.
 
I go now, he dinks I’m getting herbs for potions.”
 
She looked up and locked eyes with Rain.
 
Rain nodded her head yes and told
Mylandra
to meet her in the other room for a minute.

           
“I’m going to go find a place to curl up and sleep for a few hours.
 
I’ve had enough craziness I can handle today.
 
Mom, you should try to get some rest too. The energy from the run isn’t going to help if you don’t sleep.”
 
I kissed her on the cheek.
 
Oakley and I found an unoccupied room with a twin sized bed.
 
It would’ve been wall to wall bed if it were any bigger.
 
“You think they converted a closet into a bedroom?
 
I can’t believe how damn tired I am.”
 
I kicked off my shoes using each foot to pull the other shoe off.
 
Mom hated it when I did that.
 
She was always telling me I was going to ruin my shoes.
 
Screw the shoes.

           
“Holy cow; that is the smallest bed I’ve ever slept in, minus my crib.
 
Looks like we’ll be spooning.”
 
He grinned ear to ear.
 
“Not complaining, nope.
 
My lips are sealed, unless you’d like to press your pretty lips against them.
 
I’m all about that, sleep can wait.”
 
He lifted his eyebrows up and down, trying to be funny.

           
“Hmmm, sounds good…tomorrow.
 
Definitely tomorrow.
  
Rain-check please.”
 
I collapsed on the bed, taking note that it might be small, but it had a good mattress.
 
I fought to keep my eyes open until Oakley laid down next to me.

           
“I was beginning to think you’d never fall asleep love.
 
How’s my little
wolfy
doing?” Arien asked.

           
There I stood in middle of a rose garden.
 
The wrought iron fence that surrounded the garden was painted white and was taller than me.
 
Isles of roses in every color decorated the established garden.
 
“You!
 
Arien, why are you here?”
 
Apparently crazy will find you in the most unexpected places.
 
In a blink of an eye, he was next to me.
 
He took me into his arms and started swaying me back and forth.
 
“If you don’t want me to dream-vomit on you, I’d suggest you stop.
 
Arien, I don’t have the patience for you tonight, so tell me why you’re here.”

           
“Love, you’re so bossy.
 
Can’t a vampire want to spend time with you?
 
Do I always have to have a reason for being with you?”
 
He stepped back and folded his arms in front of him, pouting as he looked away.

           
“Nice.
 
Spit it out,” I said, mimicking his stance.
 
Why is it that vampires in books are either deceivingly beautiful and nice or beautiful and have an agenda.
 
I’ve never read about gruesome, big pored, low self-esteemed creatures of the night, and sadly Arien was worthy of book vampires.
 

           
He turned to face me and grinned, his fangs glistened with spittle.
 
“Oh, you know me so well Prudence.
 
Fine.
 
You wouldn’t know why there are werewolves arriving in Paris would you?”

           
“You wouldn’t know anything about a hit on my mother would you?”
 
I countered as venomous as possible.

           
“You have a strong attachment to parents don’t you?
 
Okay, stop looking like that.
 
I hate seeing sadness in your eyes; it makes me all mushy inside.”
 
He gave a dramatic pause, holding his hands over his heart.
 
“Yes, there have been talks about killing your precious little mother.
 
BUT, and yes, there is a but…rumor is that idea has been nixed.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I think she is in danger, but she isn’t the main target.
 
I guess you know that Pascale stole Allie from me.”

           
“Do you blame him?
 
I read her diary; you were using her to get info about my family.”

           
“No, I was using her to find out about the Great
Wolfy
. You’re too serious; you need to relax.
 
You
wanna
make out?”

           
I flung my arms up in exasperation.
 
“Hell no, I don’t want to make out.
 
You’re an ASS.”

           
“There we go again with the name calling.
 
If you knowing my reasons behind Allie will make you stop judging me, I’ll give you some insight.”
 
He took my hand and hooked it through his arm.
 
“Let’s walk, I love rose gardens.
 
Thank you for bringing me here, it always makes me feel warm and fuzzy when you share with me like this.”

           
I sighed in vexation.
 
Instead of fighting him, I walked with him.

           
“Allie was an easy target.
 
I’d been watching you for a while, knowing that if anyone would find the highness, it’d be you.
 
When you started hanging out with Abel, I thought it would be easy to get closer and see if you told her any secrets.
 
I can’t help it that I’m so damn charming and cute; I am a vampire after all.”
 
I smacked his arm.
 
“
Ow
, you’re so rough…I like it.”
 
He rubbed his arm as though it hurt.

           
“Keep going.”

           
“If you must know, without hashing it all out, I liked her.
 
I pitied her, which is why I bought her the gifts.
 
She is a good hearted person, and she loved living.
 
I was trying to make her hate me.
 
I brought Pascale into it, hoping he’d help her see that I’m an ass.
 
It backfired, okay!
 
He fell for her, and wanted her in his clutches.
 
I tried to stop it, I was too late.
 
I can’t undo what has been done.
 
If it makes anything any better, she hasn’t killed.
 
She has fed, which is all she needs.
 
Some of us get lost in the process and get drunk from the blood; the lust is too hard to fight.
 
Like my lust for you, I can’t fight it.
 
I want you like I’ve never wanted before.
 
You know that you’re my mortal enemy, but I can’t stop what I feel.
 
It has been too many moons ago for me to remember the last human that has made me want them.
 
Is it that you play hard to get?
 
Possibly.
  
I seek you out to warn you, because now that I’ve found you, I don’t want you to die.”

           
“You were in on the death of my father!”
 
I yelled.

           
“No I wasn’t.
 
It was the wolves all alone without vampire endorsement.
 
They thought if they could prove themselves to Pascale, he’d show mercy on them for their shortcomings.
 
I’ve told you before; I had nothing to do with his death.”

           
I shook my head back and forth, not knowing what to believe. “If what you say is true, you know who the wolves are.
 
Tell
me
.”

           
“They have been secured and are in Oklahoma.
 
When you are finished here in Paris, I planned on telling you and taking you to them,” Arien said.
 
We stopped in front of a red rosebush with gorgeous blooms.
 
He plucked one off and handed it to me.
 
His demeanor turned serious.
 
“I don’t want the humans to know about us.
 
I think it will be hard to live in a world of haters. Right now, we are business men, bakers, teachers, so many things.
 
Yes, like you, we have bad vampires that do bad things.
 
We aren’t all bad.
 
Pascale feels differently, and he is planning on coming out two days from now.”
 
He stepped away and took my hand; drawing it up to his mouth he kissed it.
 
“Good luck love.
 
You have company, I need to leave.”

           
Company?
 
What the hell is going on, when I’m awake there is company, I fall asleep there’s company.
 
Peace and quiet, damn…that’s all I want.

           
“What the hell was that all about?”
 
Abel asked.

           
“Abel!
 
You walked into my dream?
 
Awesome!”
 
We’d been trying for months to successfully dream walk together, to no avail.