The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises (18 page)

I tasted the blood on his lips, my blood, and
it made me hunger for more. He let me lick, kiss, and suck on his
skin, whichever way it had to be for me to get the blood off from
him. He closed his eyes now and let me suck on his neck, but I
didn't bite though. He slowly pushed me away and looked at me with
droopy eyes. I touched his hair and face and he looked at me,
almost drunkenly.

"We have to stop," he said is a whisper. I
smiled at him, knowing that I had broken whatever wall he had built
up years ago. Quinn showing some restraint was almost enough to
make me laugh, but I didn't feel like laughing right then, I felt
like giving in. "Ash, listen to me," he said and stared me in the
eyes. "Now is not the time."

"But, I want you," I told him softly. He put
a hand on my cheek. I smiled at him and he saw the sharp tips of my
teeth. "I want to taste you."

"God, you're making this so hard," he
whispered as he bent his head to the side, letting me get close to
his skin. I bit down softly, then harder to break the skin. It was
my first time doing that alone, without someone starting it, but
Quinn didn't seem to be hurt by it. When the blood began to flow,
he began to moan.

Suddenly, he pulled me away and looked at my
face. He wiped the blood from my chin and smiled at me. "Not too
much," he told me and touched my hair; his voice was calm and
quiet. "You're very good at that."

"Yeah, but I'm feeling quite funny from it,"
I told him. What I felt was drowsy and he picked me up out of the
water and brought me on shore. He carried me over to a blanket,
which I had seen him sitting on earlier that morning, and laid me
down on the blanket. I fell asleep shortly after he put me down.
When I opened my eyes, Lauren had joined him on the blanket and
they were talking.

"How do you feel?" She asked him. He smiled,
and then it faded. He had almost let his guard down and that wasn't
like him. "Does she make you feel warm?"

"You're very nosy for such a little girl,"
Quinn said playfully but didn't answer her question. "So, what
about you and Julian?"

"What about him?" Lauren asked.

"You two are rather close lately," Quinn
pointed out.

"You're both rather loud right now," I said
and sat up looking at them. "Gossip, gossip, gossip, that's all you
men do around here."

"We're just comparing notes," Quinn said
sarcastically. I laughed at him. "What?"

"Rookies," I replied and smiled at them. "The
whole lot of you, just rookies. With the exception of Lauren."

"You've got a bad attitude," he said and came
close to my face. I smirked at him and then stood up.

"You think that's bad, you haven't seen
anything yet," I replied and walked towards the house. As I walked
up towards the back door, I spotted someone out of the corner of my
eye. He looked like he was drunk, stumbling around, but I could
feel him and I knew that he was hurt. "David?"

I walked towards him and when I got close
enough, I could see the arrow sticking out of his side, from one
side to the other. I stepped down to him and he looked at me.

"What now, Ash?" He asked me and smiled as
the blood ran from his lips. "Are you going to kill me now, take me
when I'm wounded?"

I watched him sit awkwardly on the ground and
I knelt beside him, then I shook my head.

Michael
!

What
? He answered me as if I was
interrupting something.

Your friend, David, is out here with an
arrow in his side
.

I’ll be right out
.

"You're lucky that I'm nothing like Quinn," I
told him, as he looked at me weakly. "Michael's coming out to help
me get this thing out of you."

"Why would you help me, I lead you right into
a trap?" David asked softly.

"Hell, I knew what I was getting myself into
when I went with you. We all make our own choices, David; you just
picked a different choice to go with. I'm not going to hold that
against you, unless of course it gets me killed. Then I'm coming
after you," I said as I sat with him and looked at his wound.
Michael ran down the grass, with Julian right beside him and the
two boys helped him into the house.

I walked into the dining room and looked at
the table in front of me. There was something about it that didn't
seem right, and I smiled as looked at the dishes. The placement was
wrong, I thought to myself. This cup should be where that saucer
is.

My eyes lit up as the dishes started to move
to where I had wanted them. This was something new and interesting.
I lifted my hands and watched as the entire table settings came off
the table. Plates, flatware, glasses and goblets, napkins and
centerpieces were all floating in the air. I walked over as they
moved and stood in the middle of them, looking for strings. I
laughed when I saw none and moved out from the circle of glass.

My hands shook and so did the dishes, so I
thought I would play. I twirled my finger in a circle and watched
each plate and saucer spin on its own, and then I twirled my hand
and watched the whole thing began to spin in a circle. I felt
someone watching me with awe in their eyes, but it wasn't until she
gasped, quite loudly, that I turned and looked at Lauren. As soon
as my concentration was broken, then dishes all fell to the
floor.

I ducked and covered as glass shattered
around me, then I stood and looked at the mess that was on the
floor. I turned and looked at Lauren, who was smiling at me, but
then I saw Quinn and Julian run in behind her.

"Son of a bitch," Julian said looking at the
piles of glass on the floor. I looked at him, not used to him just
coming out and swearing, but then he looked at me and pointed.
"What the hell is this?"

"An accident," I replied and shrugged.

"Yeah, but how did it happen?" Quinn
questioned also. I looked at him, then pointed to the tablecloth
and looked back at him as it rose off the table and folded itself
neatly into a square. Quinn's eyes showed confusion while the rest
of his face continued to look the same, but Julian's mouth dropped
as he looked at the cloth, then at me. "Well, it's safe to say that
she has her powers now."

"Unbelievable," Julian said and stepped up
beside me, facing behind me. "When did this all start?"

"Just a few minutes ago," I replied as I
watched Quinn, my mind suddenly on what had happened between us
earlier in the water.

I don’t need to see this, Ash
,
Michael's voice interrupted my thoughts.

"Sorry," I said aloud and watched him walk
around the corner and stop to look at the mess on the floor.

"Well, it's time to make the house Ashley
proof," he said sarcastically. I smiled and then covered my eyes
and looked back at the mess.

Later on that afternoon, when everyone else
was sitting in the television room, I snuck up and knocked on
David's door. He yelled for me to come in. I stepped over the
threshold and looked at him. He was sitting on the bed with his
shirt off and a bandage wrapped around his torso, where the arrow
had been.

"What do you want?" He asked me

"Why are you so bitter to me? I didn't do
anything to you," I replied and stood at the end of his bed.
"Although, I should."

"Go ahead," he sneered. I crossed my arms and
shook my head.

"It's not worth it," I replied to him.
"Besides, who do you think told them to let you go in the first
place, Gandhi?"

"Why would you want me released?" He
questioned.

"Simple, you're going to help me get my son
back," I told him. "Or,” I said as he shook his head, "I’ll make
your life a living hell."

"How can you do that? You're just a mortal,"
he laughed. I leaned over the bed and put my hand on his left side,
pressing my fingers against his wound. His face grimaced and he
snarled at me. I smiled and my eyes started to glow red.

"This ‘mortal’ can tear you apart," I told
him in a whisper, then the door opened slowly and a maid peeked in.
"I'll come back later. Don't disappear."

I smiled at him as he stared at me as I
walked out the door. I knew that I had him thinking and that was a
good thing, but what was he thinking about was the question.

11

I got dressed around twelve and went out the
front door, heading for the carriage house. I had nothing
particular in mind when I pushed open the doors to the garage where
the boys’ cars all sat. There were three of them. Michael's Jaguar,
which was a bright red, an almost blood color, which explained
Michael's nature. Julian's Mustang, a nice dark blue, almost like
the night sky, this let you see his dark side. Finally, Quinn's
Porsche, its black shine seemed to reflect the moon perfectly. I
walked around this car, touching almost every curve of it. No
wonder Quinn found this car to fit his personality. It was black,
just like his darkness, very sleek and trim, like his body and
very, very powerful, just like him.

"You're not thinking of borrowing it again,
are you?" A voice asked me. I jumped, so caught up in the car that
I never felt his presence. I turned and smiled at Quinn.

"Actually, I was thinking about taking the
Jag this time. I'm sure Michael wouldn't mind," I replied and
leaned on the hood of his car. He stepped up to the open doorway
and leaned against the door with his shoulder.

"Going somewhere?" He asked me. I
shrugged.

"You know me, wherever the moment takes me,"
I replied without any intention of giving him a straight
answer.

"You're very uncooperative tonight," he
whispered to me.

"And, you're very nosy." I smiled back.

"I just want to make sure that you're safe."
I walked up to him and touched his chest lightly with my left
hand.

"Quinn, how can I not be safe? I have at
least one of you following me around at every second," I replied
and walked passed him.

"It's because we care."

"I know that," I said and turned back to him
when he turned around. "But, I need my time too," I replied. "I
need time to have a level head."

"You always do."

"No, I don't." I shook my head and rubbed my
eyes. "When you're around, my mind thinks of crazy stuff and all I
want to do is be held by you, which is not a bad thing, but when I
move away to try something else, Julian's there with his little bit
of wisdom to share. After that, it's Michael, who's with me almost
every second now that we're connected. I just need to be alone,
Quinn. I want to be alone."

"I understand that, but being alone at this
time of night could give that jackass husband of yours the
opportunity he needs to get you out of the way." Quinn sighed and
rubbed his neck. "If you want to be alone, why can't you do it
inside where you're safe?"

"I don't feel any safer inside that building
than I do out here in the darkness. Actually, that's not true. I
feel safer in the dark than I do in there. I always have," I told
him.

"If I leave you alone, will you promise not
to venture far?" He questioned.

"If I promise not to venture far, will you
leave me alone? I don't mean out of just my sight either. I mean
totally alone?"

"You know that I can't do that."

"Then, I can't promise anything."

"Why do you insist on being so stubborn?"

"Why do you boys insist that I am some sort
of relic that needs to be guarded?"

"You really know how to push my buttons," he
crossly said to me and I could hear the frustration in his
voice.

"Yeah, turns you on, doesn't it?" I said
sarcastically.

"Now, that wasn't very nice."

"I'm not in a nice mood."

"Can't we make a compromise?" He asked me and
walked closer.

"No!" I answered and he stopped in is tracks.
"I'm not being funny, Quinn. I'm being serious. I need my
space."

"You need space?" He asked and crossed his
arms, and then nodded as if he were trying to agree. "When you
don't need space anymore, come and get me."

With that, he started to walk away.

"Quinn?" I said after him, but he disappeared
into the darkness. "Men are so stubborn!"

I walked slowly up to David's door and
knocked. There was a faint answer from the other side and I walked
in. David looked at me and then back out the window.

"I thought you would be healed by now and
back on your way to Victor," I said and sat on the end of the
bed.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"I want to know where my son is David," I
told him and walked over to the window to stand beside him. "You
have only two choices, from what I see. You can either tell me
willingly, or I could have Quinn take it from you forcefully."

"I could get killed if Victor ever found out
I told you about him."

"No, no, David. You're thinking about this
the wrong way. Just think of how happy Victor will be when he finds
out that you lead a powerless mortal right to his doorsteps, why he
might just give you a promotion. He could imprison me, take my son,
raise hell on Earth and you could be standing next to him, right by
his side." I smiled at him and clapped my hands just to give him
the impression that this would be how it would end. "Then again,"
his smile faded, "how long you stand beside him depends exactly on
how long it takes me to rip out his ugly black heart and burn it on
a stake!"

"I knew you were going to say something like
that," David said and looked back out the window.

"Take a chance, David. Go for the gusto.
Besides, with all my nonexistent powers how long do you think I'll
last before he crushes me?" I smiled, laying it on thick. "I mean,
come on, it's just one little girl. Just small, petite, little me
against big, bad Victor."

"He lives out on Newport Island," David said
and looked up at me after a long moment of silence. I nodded, kind
of the way you would when someone had something less than important
to say.