The Kingdom of the Nine; The Vampire Legacy IV (4 page)

“He did threaten you, didn't he?” She asked.
“I warned you about him.”

“He said it wasn't him you saw.” I told her
softly. Connie looked at me, strangely, and then shook her head, as
if I hadn't made any sense. “He wasn't the one who visited
you.”

“What do you mean? That's impossible. I know
it was him, he looked just like you described him.” Connie
insisted.

“Are you sure? I mean, lots of guys look
alike.” I sighed. She shook her head, positive that he was who she
saw. An overpowering feeling of dread washed over me, because I had
never seen her so sure, and Julian almost begged for me to believe
that it wasn't him, and if this was the case, then who was he, and
was Connie in danger?”

I closed the journal, set it down on the
coffee table, and then got up and took a cup of tea from the
microwave. The small photo album, which I had kept out of the box,
lay on the kitchen counter and it took me only a moment to reach
over and open it to which ever picture it happen to go to. It
turned out to be the picture of the ocean from the wooden deck
where we had met for the second time.

I walked over to the couch looking at this
picture, and then placed it down in the table, picked up the
journal once again, and settled in to the sprawling letters before
me.

That night I lay half asleep in my bed,
staring at the wall. I couldn't think of anything else, except
Connie, who slept in the room next to mine, and her unexpected
visitor. In Laura's room, which was adjacent to mine, I could hear
the sounds of the wilderness music that she slept with, but in
Beth's room, diagonal to mine, there wasn't a peep. Finally
frustrated with the whole concept of sleeping, I threw the covers
from me and got up.

I rubbed my eyes and sighed, then got up and
walked down to the kitchen, thinking about Julian's words, about
how he knew where I lived, and how he watched me sleep. How could I
have been so gullible? Julian wasn't coming and he hadn't ever been
here, he wasn't a vampire, and wasn't just going to pop into my
house. He was probably just a figment of my imagination, well mine,
and Connie's, although he was a gorgeous one.

I shook my head and decided that maybe what I
needed was a glass of warm milk, which was said to help you sleep
at night, so I trotted over to the refrigerator, flipping on the
lights as I went by, and poured myself a glass of milk. After
drinking the milk, warmed in the microwave, rinsing out the cup,
and turning to shut off the lights, I noticed the person sitting on
my couch.

I thought of screaming, which would have
woken up the other three girls in the house, but as the now all too
familiar feelings came to me, I realized who it was. Slowly, I
walked over and stood in front of him.

“You weren't kidding.’ I said softly. I
watched his eyes glow red, and then fade to a light pink color,
before returning to the green ones that I had grown accustom to
seeing.

“I never kid.’ He replied. I flipped on the
light beside me, and looked at him, again. His green eyes showed
signs of sleepiness, but his face was how it had been every time I
had seen him, content. “I told you, I watch you sleep. I followed
you home that first time I saw you. You made me nuts.”

“Why?’ I asked him, laughing. He smiled, and
shook his head.

“You knew what I was, yet you were so
unafraid. You looked at me as if you could see right through me,
into my soul, into my past, yet you kept looking, as if I intrigued
you just as you did me.” He replied. I nodded, that was exactly it.
He “intrigued” me, tremendously. He leaned forward on the couch.
“Can I tell you my life? Can I trust you with it?” He asked me. I
looked at him, taken back by his words, and then I shrugged.

“I'm a writer, if it's good I might use it in
a book. I can't promise anything.” I replied to him honestly. He
nodded. “I might tell Beth about you, though I'm not sure she would
understand that I have a vampire for a friend.”

“You never know what your friends will
believe.” He smiled. I sat on the chair across from him and watched
him for a while.

“Who was the one who visited Connie?” I asked
him. He had grown suddenly quiet and I watched his face grow cold
and blank, but as he looked up at me, he said nothing. I nodded,
knowing that he honestly didn't know. “Can I tell you something or,
more to the point, can I ask you something?”

“What do you want to know?” He asked, sitting
forward. I leaned towards him, stared him in those green eyes of
his and licked my lips.

“Who am I?” I asked. It had been a legitimate
question, one that I had always asked myself, but I never really
knew the answer too. “Do you know?” I asked again, as he smiled and
reached out to me again.

Not quite sure if I wanted to be touched by
him, I stood and walked over to the table, where my fluffy black
cat was sitting. Julian sighed and I looked at him. “Why am I
afraid of you?”

“What you're afraid of, probably, I don't
know everything, is the realization that we're real. We exist
despite the myths.” He whispered. I watched him stand and walk over
to me. We stood a foot apart; my personal space with him seemed to
be shrinking. “You're afraid to admit to yourself that your
knowledge of us is true, that we can be touched, and felt, and
heard. You're afraid of the reality of this situation that vampires
exist, that I exist.”

“No.” I whispered and stepped back, as far as
I could go. He looked at me, and smiled. “I'm not afraid of that.
I'm not afraid of finding out you're real, I've always believed it.
I'm afraid of you, not the others because they're not standing in
my living room. When you reach out to touch me, it frightens
me.”

“Because, you know our nature. I won't bite
you.” He replied, then suddenly, grabbed my arm and brought me to
him. I put my hands against his chest, felt his heart beat at a
very slow pace, but it still beat. He wrapped his arms around my
waist and held me there.

My pulse jumped, my breathing grew heavy and
it took all of my effort to look up from the spot on his chest that
I had chosen, and looked up into those eyes of his. His face was
soft and understanding, as if saying it was okay if I wanted to
pull away. “Do you still fear me?”

I watched those deep red lips move and I
couldn't move. The heat between us seemed enormous, but my
roommate’s presence in the house never escaped my attention. Julian
leaned down towards me. His lips not more than an inch from mine.
Did I really want him to kiss me?

“You're more powerful than you think.” He
whispered. “You're a very special person to us. You hold our
history, in your head, locked up in the back. When you were young,
very young, you were bitten by a vampire. It triggered your
memories, your past dealings with us, to an extent and sent your
curiosity soaring.”

“How do you know all of this?” I asked him,
moving my fingers across the softness of his shirt, feeling the
muscles under it.

“I've been sent to protect you.” He
whispered, leaning closer to me. His lips brushed mine softly, and
then he backed away as if that little touch was too much to handle.
He let me go and stepped back. He looked over my clothing, which
was just a long tee shirt, and then he sighed, and said, very
softly: “it would be so easy.”

“What?” I asked him as he turned and walked
back over to the door, placed his hand on the door knob, and turned
it slowly. “Julian, what are you talking about?”

“You!” He whispered, looking back at me. “You
would be so easy to give into.” He smiled, softly, and stepped out
the door, closing it behind him without another word.

I looked back at my cat, which had jumped off
the counter and went upstairs. I watched that door for a moment
more, thinking that Julian might return, but he didn't.

I walked back upstairs and went back to bed,
though it didn't seem much easier to fall asleep. His words kept
going in my head, the ones about being bitten when I was younger,
which might explain the two small scars that appeared on my neck
one day. They were light now, barely noticeable, but still there.
They seemed to have appeared overnight and it really didn't answer
my question, but, as I found out, that would be answered very
shortly.

I put the journal down and looked up the
stairway. Damien was awake, and so was my curiosity. My mind was
made up, tomorrow I was going to Connecticut, and I was going to
put an end to this strange daydream I had gotten myself into.

2

Sitting behind the wheel of the car, staring
at the long stretch of road in front of me, I could do nothing but
sigh, loudly, and keep tapping on the steering wheel. I was edgy,
not sure if I really wanted to do this, but then again, was I ever
going to be sure. Julian might have been someone that I knew six
years ago, someone that I seemed to have loved, but was I really up
to seeing him again, after all this time, after all I had done with
my life.

I had read the remainder of the journal that
I had kept when I was younger, those summers that I had gone down
to the house, as I packed my bags this morning. It had occurred to
me that I had purposely not put anything really personal in them,
for the exact reason that it might be read, or worse, taken away,
so, there was little about what really went on with Julian and I to
tell me exactly how involved we really were.

Connie had stressed the need to be safe,
especially this morning when I had dropped my son off at her house,
but no matter what she said, nothing could stop me from finding out
the truth. I was going to see if this was real. I needed to, but
now, as I drove down the road, alone, heading for a place I
remembered little about, it struck me that I wasn't really prepared
for anything major. I had taken all of this in stride and never
really thought about what was going to happen to my life AFTER
this, but I remembered the desperation of words written in the last
entry of the journal and my need to figure out what exactly Julian
meant by the danger he had put me in.

It went repeatedly in my head and I remember
stopping at the kitchen counter, my coffee cup in hand, to read
what I had written.

Dear Diary:

Several weeks have passed and I have not yet
seen any sign of Julian, and although Connie still insists that the
man who comes often to see her is in fact, Julian, I have never
seen him. There is only one thing that seems to separate Connie's
description of him and what he actually looks like. Connie's young
man has a “mop of curly hair” on top of his head, and Julian has
straight black hair.

The darkness frightens me and I find that I
have to keep the light on for most of the night; I believe my
mother turns it off when she finds it on. I've had nasty dreams,
ones that I have never had before and most of them make almost no
sense to me, but they all have to do with vampires. I wish Julian
would come, maybe he could explain them to me...

This entry is the same day as the one written
above, sometime in the early morning hours. After many restless
nights, Julian has once again appeared, this time in my bedroom. I
opened my eyes and looked around the room after feeling the strange
presence enter. I noticed the man sitting in the corner, near the
head of the bed, hiding between the wall and the dresser. His head
was down, his knees were pulled up and he had his hair pulled back
in a ponytail, as he always did, but something was different.

He had his hands at the side of his head, and
slowly, as I turned over to stare at him; he lifted his head and
looked at me. I smiled at him, and got out of bed, then slowly
reached a hand down to him, which he took, and the two of us moved
to sit on the bed together.

He looked tired and sick, as he sat beside
me, holding my hand. I touched his cheek, lightly, with my fingers
and smiled at him.

“What is it, Julian?” I asked him. He leaned
forward and put his elbows on his knees, then folded his hands in
front of him. He looked at me, and shook his head. It was quite
obvious to me that there was something very wrong. “Julian?”

“I'm sorry.” He said, softly, and looked back
at his hands. “There's something important that I need to tell you,
something that is very important.”

“I'm listening.” I replied. He turned to face
me.

“You're in danger.” He said, quickly.

“I'm in danger?” I repeated, and watched him
nod. “From whom?”

“Others like me, vampires, who want you,
hurt.” He said and took my hands. Julian closed his eyes. “I have
to leave because of this, but I'll be back. Michael will watch
you.”

“Why, if I'm in so much danger, are you
leaving?” I asked him, knowing who Michael was, but not
understanding the need for his protection and not Julian's. He
kissed me, quickly, on the lips, backed away, and then kissed me
again. This kiss was not like the first, not a quick peck on the
lips, but drawn out, letting me feel every emotion you could
possibly feel from one person.

His lips were hot with passion, and as they
closed over mine, they sent chills down my spine. He wrapped his
arms around me, trying to fight the strong urge to let go. I did
the same, not knowing quite how to respond to this advance,
wrapping my arms around his waist, then moving one of my hands to
hold the back of his head. Slowly, he moved away, both of us
struggling to catch our breath, and he put his forehead against
mine then closed his eyes.

“It's too much.” He whispered then looked at
me. I sighed, feeling that Julian and I have always been special
together. He held the back of my head with his hand and looked into
my eyes.

“You're in danger because of me.” He said,
quietly. I looked at him, a bit shocked and confused, but I reached
out and put the palm of my hand against his cool cheek. He closed
his eyes and leaned into it. “I'm so sorry.”