Royal Blood (8 page)

He smiled at me and put his hands up. “I’ll keep my distance,” he chuckled.

Hearing his laugh sped my heart and sent chills over my body.

“
Focus, Chris.” His smile flattened.

“
Sorry,” I muttered.

I closed my eyes, not knowing what exactly to do. A moment later, I opened my eyes and Alex was staring at me expectantly.

“
Alex, I have no idea what I’m doing. I
feel stupid. I don’t even know what I did…
.
” I whined.

“
Just try, I don’t know, picturing yourself somewhere else in this room and want yourself to be there.”

“
Right, easy.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I imagined myself standing next to Alex. I felt like an idiot. I smiled to myself.

“
Hocus pocus!” I giggled, and opened my eyes. Alex was glaring at me.

“
Hilarious, Christina.”

“
I’m sorry, but I feel silly.”

“
Humor me, please. Just try.”

“
Okay, al
l
right, fine.”

I stared into Alex’s face. I imagined the face that used to be there—bright, smiling, happy, and me in his arms, his hands locked around my waist and mine around his neck,
my head resting on his chest. I sighed to myself, washed the thought from my mind, and closed my eyes to concentrate.

A moment later, he cleared his throat, interrupting my thoughts. I opened my eyes and my mouth fell open. My arms were around his neck and I was looking into his eyes. A huge grin spread across his face, while mine flushed bright red. He quickly wiped the smile off of his face and grabbed my arms to pry me off of him.

I untangled my legs from around his waist and stumbled backward. I was mortified. I opened my mouth to try to say something, but I couldn’t find the words, so I just spun around to avoid his eyes. I swear I heard him chuckle.

“
It’s fine, Chris. It’s progress. I’m surprised you already have the ability to do it at will. Most gifts take weeks or even months to achieve even
sporadic
success. You must be very gifted. Let’s try again.”

Oh great, as if I wasn’t embarrassed enough at trying to mount him the first time. “Just try to stay focused this time,” he said smugly.

I winced. He just had to rub it in. I walked to the other side of the room and refused to meet his gaze.

I learned quickly that it was literally a matter of picturing myself where I wanted to be and willing it to happen. I could close my eyes and I was there when I opened them. Even though I was terribly self conscious after my first, uh, mishap, I was having fun.

I’d never really thought of myself as “special” before. And okay, I’ll admit, this wasn’t exactly the way every girl dreamt of finding her niche, but hey, I’d take what I could get.

After a few hours, my hunger was becoming unbearable, but after earlier I couldn’t tell if it was my hunger, or my thirst.

I shuddered at the thought.

“
Alex, can we take a break? I’m starving.”

“
Yes of course. I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought about the fact that you must be starving.” His eyes lit up. “I’ll take you hunting!” he exclaimed and took my hand and pulled me toward the door. I tensed and pulled my hand away from him and backed away. He looked at me questioningly.

“
I,” I paused, “I don’t think I’m really ready for that, Alex. I am still human.”

He smiled reassuringly, “You’re right. I’m sorry, a little bit at a time. You have done amazingly well today. I’m proud of you.” I relaxed my shoulders a bit. “Two grilled cheeses?” he smiled exuberantly.

“
Make it three.”

He began to reach for my face, but quickly retracted his hand and stepped awkwardly around me and darted into the kitchen.

That night he took me out to “hone my skills” as he called it. We went out past Sellersburg to a very large wooded area where we had plenty of space and no distractions for miles.

Oddly enough, the first thing we started practicing was conditioning. Every night started thi
s way. We ran every night for fifteen
miles through all of the hills. We practiced my jumping
until he felt it was “adequate.”

My favorite part th
ough was when we worked on hand-
to
-
hand combat. I would never admit to him though that all of the times I got pinned down were not accidental.

It went this way for several weeks. I was amazed by my speed and strength and the intensity of which I could hear, see and smell everything from impossible distances. I was also impressed by how far I could jump. Now that I was aware of it all, it felt so natural, and
I wondered how I lived so long without discovering it all before. Alex said it was probably just because I never had a need for it. We spent hours out there every night, and I never got tired even once.

One morning as dawn approached (we had stayed out exceptionally late that night) Alex stopped to take a break.

“
This is my favorite part, you know.”

“
Favorite part of what?” I asked and sat beside him.

“
Twilight.” He stared out at the sky, glittering oranges and blues as the sun began to rise. “It’s the most beautiful thing to see through vampire eyes. It’s also the saddest part of my life though.”

“
Why?”

“
Until this very moment, I always had to watch it alone,” he smiled.

I turned my head away before he could
see the tears welling up in my eyes.

“
Will you answer a few questions for me, Alex?”

“
Anything.”

There were a million questions I actually wanted to ask him. Did he still love me? Did he ever love me? Why had he changed? I knew those questions were pointless though.

“
What were my parents like?”

“
Your mother,” he smiled, “was the most pure and kind human I have ever met—to her kind and ours both. See, your father had his hand in all aspects of the human world, politics, police, real estate—everything—through our human contacts. That is how he met her. She was beautiful, as an understatement, and he fell in love with her. He had never been in love before in all of his six hundred years.

“
It had never been before, a human and
a vampire, but as I said, your mother had a way to make people love her, so no one resisted.

“
Your father, I don’t think there will ever be another vampire king who loves his people more. He took such a pride in his work, making our world safe, and advancing us with the times and forging our world with the humans. It had never been done before. There was something about him that people respected and loved. He had been our longest lasting king in history because no one ever tried to overthrow him.”

“
How did he die?”

“
We don’t really know.” He frowned. “We just found him in his room one morning, drained. We still do not know who killed him. Calpurnia searched everyone but found no answers. She blames herself still. If she had been closer, maybe she could have heard…
.
”

“
You loved him.”

“
He loved me like a son, and I loved
him like a father as well, not just as my king. He chose me to protect you because I’m a day walker, but he once told me that he would never have let anyone else look after his heart.

“
He loved you, Christina. And he wanted me to help you when the time came for you to take the throne. It was his only wish upon his death. He told me that many times. He trusted Damascus, but he does not have Delano blood.” He got up and walked a few feet away. “Do you think about it, Chris?” He turned to me.

“
Of course I do.” I looked down at my hands, “It’s just, it’s not my life, you know? I’m not a princess, let alone material for a ruler of a world I don’t even really belong to.” I met Alex’s eyes. “I’m not what you guys think I am. I’m sorry.”

“
Well you know, just because you don’t want to be our queen doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of our world. I’m sure Father would love to see you again. And they could all help
me with your training. And I’m sure you have more questions,
right?” H
e was excited now. I couldn’t rain on his parade, so I smiled back and gave in, and back to Sangre Real we went.

Eight

I was gr
eeted again by Demitri and the g
uard members when we walked in.

“
Princess,” he smiled. “To what do we owe this great pleasure?”

“
Father, this is purely a social visit.”

Demitri smiled unsurprised, “Well we are honored, Princess. Please, come sit. Thirsty?”

My mouth fell open
,
and everyone laughed at my surprised expression. I looked at Alex
,
embarrassed.

“
Water,” he smiled.

“
Oh, um, yes. Thank you.”

Alex held out my chair for me. I sat down and again everyone followed.

“
Father,” Alex smiled hugely, “so it turns out the princess has quite the unique gift.”

“
She is a Delano.”

Alex winked at me and smiled a crooked little smile. “Show them, Chris.”

I smiled and nodded once. I straightened my face and looked into Demitri’s eyes and concentrated. He looked amused. I blinked my eyes and was sitting in
front of Demitri on the table with my legs crossed. In another blink of an eye, I was perched on his back with my teeth pressing gently on his neck, and then I was back in my seat before a full second had passed.

Alex laughed out loud. There was an equal look of fascination and awe on everyone’s faces, even Calpurnia’s. I bit my lip and giggled.

“
Fascinating,” Demitri breathed, “and so fine tuned already. How long has she been jumping?”

“
A few weeks,” Alex stated smugly.

Demitri’s face sparkled with excitement. “Truly an exquisite gift, Princess. It’s fitting for such an unusual birth.”

“
Birth?”

“
Mmm yes, a birth is what we call a vampire born to our world. One who is changed mid-human life we call a newborn.”

I sat fascinated and listened to the stories about this different world. Surprisingly, t
here we
re many more vampires than I ever would have thought living in big cities across the country. Most of them tend
ed
to stay in the big cities where their physical differen
ces we
re less likely to be noticed, but some of them venture to smaller cities where there are just less people to notice them in general.

I was amazed at how comfortable I felt around all of these strangers, these vampires. I told them about my human life, up to the point of finding out that I actually wasn’t of course, and they all seemed interested and asked question after question, though it wasn’t nearly as exciting as about learning about this place.

Full of excitement and animation, Alex told them about my “natural talent
,
” as he called it, with speed and strength and sensory awareness.

After a few hours, we had broken up
into smaller groups. Alex was with his father. Duncan and Nebula were in a corner somewhere holding hands and smiling at each other. I was with Calpurnia. I was utterly fascinated with her gift. She would ask me a question, smile, pick the answer out of my head, and reply before I could ever speak.

I silently asked her what powers the others have.

“
Well, Demitri can move things with his mind.”