The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises (2 page)

"Away."

"Away? That's it, that's all you’re going to
say is ‘AWAY’?" I glared angrily and snatched my hand away. I could
hear him following me. "First, you wait until the day before you
leave.
The day before
, Julian, and now all you can say is
‘AWAY’. You've got some balls. I’ll tell you that."

"Ash, come on. If I tell you, you could get
hurt." We stopped at my side door.

"Good-bye, Julian. Have a nice trip." I
slammed the door shut and leaned against it, then peeked out the
window as he walked away. I watched him disappear around the corner
onto the beach. I couldn't take it anymore. I threw the door open
and ran down to the beach.

"JULIAN!"

He stood on the beach and waited for me to
catch up to him. When I finally reached him I flung myself into his
arms and he hugged me tightly. We sat on the sand and wouldn't let
go.

"Don't go, don't leave me here alone." He
sighed and said nothing, just held me tightly. We sat there for
what seemed like forever before he lifted my head and smiled,
looking me deep in the eyes. "When will you be back?"

"Soon. I'm not sure when but, I will be
back."

I sat up and moved away from him. Julian
touched my shoulder, then moved closer and whispered in my ear.

"If you ever need me, if you ever need to see
me, just whisper my name and I'll be there. I promise, Ash."

"How can you promise me a thing like that,
Julian? You can’t even tell me where you’re going!" I stared deep
into his eyes again. "I need you, now. Does that change
anything?"

"I need you, Ash. That's why I have to leave.
To protect you."

"From what?" Standing up, I brushed off my
pants. "I think I need you right here to protect me. How is going
away going to protect me?"

"I'll tell you everything when I get back."
He stood up and grabbed me by my upper arms, not forcefully, but in
a way that almost said to me that I was his and that he would never
abandon me for any reason. "I'll be back soon Ash."

"Promise?"

He leaned down to me and kissed me softly on
the lips. "I promise."

Then, he was gone. I don't even remember him
leaving; he was just gone.

Winter dragged on forever, spring seemed to
last another two years, but the eight months that passed seemed to
change me for the better. I had grown up. I was thinner, more
developed, and I was a woman instead of a scrawny little girl with
a couple extra pounds to lose.

Julian kept his promise. Whenever I needed
him all I had to do was whisper his name. Quinn began to follow me.
He would watch protectively from the shadows and always be there if
the need was great. In the quietness of the night, his voice
whispered when his brother was silent, telling me stories of his
youth, strange happenings of his days, but he would never approach
in the light. I started to feel worried when he wasn’t there,
started to search for him in my thoughts but stopped quickly when
the emotions attached to Quinn quickly became overwhelming.

What was I doing? Was I attaching myself to
the younger brother as a replacement for the one that was missing?
I tried hard to leave it alone, but there was always Quinn’s voice
easing me into sleep at the end of each day. Things were about to
change when school let out and the summer months began.

The week of my sixteenth birthday, late in
the month of June, was the week Julian returned from his trip. I
felt him come into town and I knew when he was home. Our link to
each other seemed unbreakable and I ran up the beach to the old
house where he lived, hoping that he might be awake. The beach just
before his property had been fenced off and I had to go out to the
road and walk in. The sky had opened up and rain began to drizzle
down, making it necessary to pick up my pace.

The front of the house had a long oval loop
driveway that pulled up right to the front door of the three-story
house, with its dark green roof. The third floor was where the roof
slanted down. The second floor had three windows in the middle and
one single window on each of the sides, where the building expanded
forward. Off to the left side of the house, hidden by a large
evergreen was what I thought could only be the servant quarters, it
had the same three floors and the same green roof, but it was
pushed back so it was less obvious. The first floor windows and
doorway, which was a wide glass double door, were covered in lush
green vines, cut away just to let in the light.

Just as I approached the house, the door
opened and Julian stepped out. He walked a couple feet and then
stopped in front of me, staring as he had done so many other times.
His face was different from before, not features but attitude;
wherever he had gone it had changed him too. He licked his lips and
walked closer to me.

"You feel right, but you look so different."
His voice was soft. The heart in my chest ached and then began to
beat quickly. I smiled and crossed my arms.

"I feel right, Julian," I stated, not quite
understanding. As he grew closer, I started to understand, he felt
right to me, too. He took me by the arms, as he had done when he
left and I grabbed his shirt. "I feel right to you, Julian," I
started again, "because you feel right to me. I've grown up, but I
haven't changed."

"You're very beautiful." He kissed me
quickly. "Well, shall we go in?"

He said suddenly, speaking as if we had never
been apart. This eased my mind. He took my hand, led the way to the
door, and then swung them open like he was unveiling a masterpiece.
Suddenly a feeling of darkness stopped me at the door, and my
reluctance to follow made Julian, with his childlike face, turn and
walk back to me.

"What is it, Ash?"

"I'm sorry Julian, but this house. It scares
me." He leaned down, close to my ear, and whispered to me as his
warm breath brushed my neck.

"It scares me too." He took my hand and led
me into the lobby of the house. I glanced around at the high
ceilings, with its five low hanging chandeliers, the double door,
and large back windows that led to the back yard.

"Michael, David, and Quinn should be around
here somewhere. They wanted to see you when we got home," he yelled
to me. I turned toward his voice and followed his body as it
climbed the stairway to my left. Twelve steps to the platform, five
more steps to the next, five more steps to the left again to the
long, brightly lit hallway of the second floor.

Quinn was not the one I wanted to think of at
that moment. Although, I couldn’t help wondering, if he was gone
with them how did he spend the last months comforting me? I felt so
strange, so out of place, so terrified by this strange house. The
same feelings I had gotten from Quinn, although I had never been in
it.

I began to walk down the rest of the hallway.
I had gone passed only two bedroom doors, all were to my right,
before I came to another stairway on my left. Its bare white steps
seemed to unfold before me and, as I climbed the six steps up, into
the darkness of the third floor. I turned left and followed the
eight steps into its complete darkness.

I began to walk in that direction, stepping
in and out of what little light seemed to be coming from the
windows to my right. I stopped at the very last door on my left
side and turned the handle slowly. The door opened, without
creaking as I thought it would, and I looked inside.

Despite the looks of the hallway outside, as
I stepped into the room it appeared quite comfortable. It was
furnished with a large, four-poster bed of antique quality, with a
canopy and mesh drapes that hung down from each post to add
privacy. It had a large six-drawer dresser, a dark cherry colored
wood, with brass handles and a large oval shaped mirror on two
sturdy posts. The window, a bit larger compared to the ones in the
hallway, let in more light to see the beautiful artwork that
covered the walls, hand painted onto the wood itself. The window
was draped with a long black curtain that was pulled to each side
to let in the light. The curtains moved in the wind from the open
window.

I stood by the window and looked out over
what Julian had once called a small back yard. His small back yard
was about four-acres of land that stretched down to where it fell
off into the ocean. Also, five acres stretched to each side of the
house, all surrounded by the blue of the ocean.

"I was worried that you had gotten lost." I
heard Julian's soft voice as it came closer to me. He had the
quietest way of walking. I never knew that he was behind me, but I
never felt scared. "What are you doing up here?"

"I'm sorry." I turned to him as he stood by
the end of the bed. He stepped closer and touched the dark hair
that was on my shoulder. "I just seemed to be drawn here. It is
beautiful though, all these paintings. Do you know who did
these?"

"I did. This is my room," he replied softly.
He smiled at me and looked around at the room. "When I felt crowded
and didn't want to be near anyone I would come up here and paint. I
stayed up here for three weeks after we met. After you went home I
just painted the nights away because the day, when I got to see
you, never came fast enough."

I suddenly felt flush, as if his closeness
made me nervous, he sensed it and backed away. I reached out and
grabbed his hand.

"Ash, maybe we should go downstairs, the
others might be getting curious."

"Julian, please." I pulled him closer to me,
just by tugging his hand. I watched his face flush, as if he felt
the heat that I was feeling. "I've waited eight months just to hear
your voice again. The others can wait; all I want right now is
you."

"Ashley." His voice was like a desperate cry
for me to do something, move away, or come closer. He couldn't seem
to figure it out. His lips touched mine softly, and then he
suddenly pulled back. The look on his face, the way he glared at
me, told me that he was holding back. "We really should be getting
downstairs." The tone of his voice was demanding, but it seemed
that he was using his will power to make me go. I shook my head at
him and then smiled, the seriousness in his face faded quickly.
"What?"

"It's not going to work, Julian. Remember
what I told you when we met. I'm used to getting my way." I smiled
at him. He grabbed me, quickly, wrapped his strong arms around me
and kissed me hard on the lips. It wasn't a forceful kiss but it
was full of fire. When he backed away this time, he just looked at
me and then he walked away.

Confused and angry at the same time, I left
the house and began to walk the beach. It kept running through my
mind, the way he kissed me, and then how I knew what he was trying
to do and how he was doing it. I had gotten half way home then I
turned around and walked back. I walked right through those double
glass doors, listened for the sounds of the boys in the sitting
room, watching TV, and marched right in there.

Michael and David sat straight up and looked
at me as I stood directly in front of the television. Quinn smirked
at me, but the only one I had my eye on was Julian. He didn't move,
didn't move a muscle, he just stared with those green eyes.

Do I feel right to you now, Julian?
I
asked him with my mind, something I hadn't intended on trying at
first, but something just told me to try. He stared even harder
now, but the slack of his jaw told me that I indeed had been heard,
but he didn't answer. My patience grew thin and I was confused, so
my anger won out. "Damn it, answer me," I yelled forcefully.
Michael, David, and even Quinn looked at Julian, but there was
still no answer. "I know you heard me, Julian. I want to ..."

"Yes."

I watched the eyes of a boy I had met a year
ago, turn into the eyes of a man who had seen a lot more summers
than I could count. I inhaled and the tears began to flow. He stood
up and walked over to me, grabbed me by the upper arms as my knees
began to give out and held me with a sturdy grip.

"You have always felt right, even when we
first met on the beach. Before we spoke, when I looked into your
eyes, I knew you," he told me, teeth still clenched. He was trying
to hold in the emotion. I shook my head, closed my eyes, and let my
body slouch. He came to the floor with me as I knelt there, but he
wouldn't let me go.

I stared him in the eyes then reached up and
cupped his face in my hands. He closed his eyes and leaned into my
touch.

"Julian, what are you?” His eyes were full of
love, trust, and fear. "I'm not going to hurt you. I wouldn't ever
dream of it, but I have to know. Why do I know you? You swim in my
brain; you hold my heart like an iron clasp. I can't get you off my
mind, but then again, you can read it. You try to use your thoughts
to make me do things."

"And you resist them with every ounce of your
being," he whispered to me. "We're not so different, you and
I."

"You make me crazy." I let him go and looked
up at the ceiling then at him and the others. "How old are
you?"

"Well, Quinn's eighteen and David, here, he's
seventeen. I'll be eighteen in a month and Julian's ..." Michael
started. I looked at him and glared. He sat back down and I looked
at Julian again.

"You think this is going to freak me out,
don't you? You think I can't handle this," I said and looked at
him, dead in the eyes, and I stared until he looked away. When he
did, I turned his face back. "I know, Julian, I know you." I stood
up and looked down at him. "I know what you are, all of you. I know
because you feel right to me and you can't fool me forever. Trust
me."

I left. I couldn't take the stares anymore. I
ran out into the rain and ran for the beach, but I slipped. The
ground gave way under me, and I fell for what seemed like forever,
into the darkness, the total darkness of some kind of underground
cave. It was damp and musty and it smelled like dirt. I closed my
eyes, having hit my head on the way down, and then I don't remember
anything but darkness.