The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises (23 page)

Great
, I thought to myself,
look
what you got yourself into this time.

Up
! I heard the low voice in my mind
tell me. I smiled at Quinn's suggestion and looked over to the
sidewall next to me to my left. There was a trellis there, covered
in green vines, but with enough space for my small feet and hands
to use as a ladder. I climbed up, as Quinn had suggested, and stood
on top of the roof.

The part I stood on was a small two-foot wide
stretch of roofing that was flat, to let the chimney sweeps up
there safely to clean the chimneys, but the rest of the roof seemed
to be an eighty-degree angle on either side of me. I stepped away
from where I had climbed on, moving further from the approaching
men and I stood almost a quarter of the way across the roof.

I turned and looked at the three men as they
all finally came up onto the roof. I stood there facing them,
imagining what I must look like to them, a small mortal girl, pale,
dressed all in black, her dark hair and black coat blowing in the
breeze, standing, like an idiot, on the roof of a four-story
mansion.

They smiled at me as they stepped closer.
"Come on, little girl," one of them said to me, his voice raspy and
deep. "We won't hurt you."

"Yeah, I've heard that one before," I
replied, but what was I going to do, I was stuck on a roof with a
four-story drop on one end and three goons on the other.
If I
only had wings
, I thought to myself, and then it hit me. I
didn't have wings, however, I had gotten good at that levitation
thing.
Yeah, right,
jump off a building and become
fertilizer for the plants in the forest below when I land flat on
my head, good idea
.

Nevertheless, it had to be, it was my only
way out of this. I closed my eyes and asked whichever God or
Goddess was listening to give me the strength to make it through
this little adventure. I turned so that my back was to the men in
black, then I looked back at them quick and began to run. The roof
seemed to take forever to end, and when it did, it seemed almost
like the bottom of the world dropped out on me.

My arms waved as if I had no control over
them, and my legs moved about in all different directions. I was
falling too fast to land without breaking anything, like my neck,
and I had to slow down. I closed my eyes, as the ground continued
to fly up at me, and concentrated on braking, or at least landing
softly. My body slowed, the air seemed to become thick around my
skin, still thin enough to breathe, but like a thick Jell-O,
slowing me down to the point that I could almost control where I
landed, but the general direction I was going was down.

The ground finally met me and I landed softly
enough that I didn't fall over. My feet hit the ground, my knees
bent and my fingertips touched the ground so that I didn't fall
flat on my face. I looked a little like a track runner moments
before the beginning the race, before he took off. I crouched down
and looked over at the house; I was a ways from it. I had landed in
the woods on a soft piece of ground that seemed to have been put
there just for me.

I could have hid there all day, but I spotted
one of the bad guys up on the roof, looking over for me. I decided
that if I could see him, eventually, he would spot me, and so I
took off into the woods. I ducked behind a large tree and noticed
the small hole that its roots had made in the ground. It came up on
both side, and then a little around the front and was just deep
enough so that I could hide my body in it.

I curled up, threw my coat over my legs, and
then brushed some of the loose leaves over me as I lay down and
covered the rest of me with the black coat. I closed my eyes and
shielded myself from them, but I also keep my mind opened to spot
them ahead of time.

The day slowly faded away as I lay there, but
I had made no attempt to contact the others, which means that
Lauren could be still under the stairs, but I doubted that because
the others could read her mind.

The night rolled in silently and I finally
opened my mind to the others. I could hear Julian's mumbled
thoughts about where I could possibly be and Michael's quiet plea
for me to come home. Cleo's thoughts on Julian's true well being,
and how I must be such a burden on them, seemed to anger me.
Lauren's quiet mind told me that she was sleeping, probably right
beside Julian, on Cleo's perfect navy colored imported leather
sofa. It was Quinn's mind that seemed to hurt when I touched
it.

The feeling jolted me like an electric shock.
He was calm and cool, but the feeling seemed to pulsate in him
quite violently. I touched his thoughts, which were about the night
of passion that we had shared before this thing had gone this far
and felt exactly how he felt about me. I connected with his mind
and brought him to me, letting him know that I was fine and that I
hadn't wandered far. His thoughts smiled, but gave no indication
that he even wanted to tell the others.

I stood up, after letting him go, brushed off
the leaves and dirt and made my way up towards the house. I was
tired, probably from lack of blood, and as I got closer, I saw a
shape appear in front of me. I stepped back, ready to run as it
came closer. I blocked my presence, no need to let it know that I
was dangerous, but as he stepped into moonlight, not more than two
feet from me, I looked in to Quinn's dark eyes and smiled. His face
remained the same, unchanging, unwavering as he looked at me,
straight in the eyes.

Suddenly, as if he was a puppet and had no
real control over his movements, he took me by the upper arms and
pulled me to him, kissing me hard on the lips. Fire raged as the
pulsating got harder, faster, and almost unbearable. I pushed him
away and looked at his stunned face, then I touched his cheek with
the palm of my hand and brought him to me, kissing him softly and
slowly, harder with each kiss until I had worked back up to where
he had started. He put his hands on my hips as we broke away and
looked at my lips then looked me over.

"I thought I had lost you," he whispered to
me. I smiled at him and leaned against his body.

"It will take more than that to get rid of
me," I smiled and replied, stepping away from him. "Can we go back
now? I feel dirty and I want you to hold me."

He nodded then took my hand and we walked
back to the house. Quinn tucked me behind him as we walked in
through the hall and passed the sitting room. Julian and Michael
stood up, and then the others stood.

“Did you find her?" Julian asked. Quinn
nodded, reaching behind him and putting both hands on me.

"Is she all right?" Michael questioned.
Again, he nodded but didn't move. "Is she behind you?" For the
third time, Quinn nodded in response. "Are you taking her
upstairs?"

"Yes, she needs her rest," he replied.
Michael nodded and Julian sat down. Quinn looked at his brother.
"She's fine," he said and brought me upstairs. It never occurred to
me to ask him exactly why he had done that until we were up in his
room with the door shut and locked.

He had two rooms and a bathroom in his
‘suite’. He ducked into the bathroom and started to fill the tub
with water, and then he looked at me as I sat down on the edge of
the bed. I watched him move around quickly; gathering clothes, and
then he stopped and looked at me directly.

"Get undressed," he said to me, almost as an
order. I stood up and put my hands on my hips. I had already taken
off my coat and unbuttoned three of my shirt buttons when he looked
at me again. "Well?" He said in a tone that sounded like he was
asking me ‘why haven't you started’.

"Well what?" I asked him.

"I asked you to get undressed," he
replied.

"No, you tried to order me to get undressed
and I want to know what that was all about," I replied.

"What was what about?"

"The fact that you hid me behind your back
and rushed me up here to the room," I replied. He stopped and put
his hands on his hips.

"Ash, please," he begged me, telling me to
drop it. "Just get undressed."

"I'm not a peasant girl, Quinn; I won't do
what you say when you order me," I replied to him. He rushed at me
and grabbed me by the open part of my shirt. He snarled at me and
ripped my shirt open the rest of the way, then brought it down to
just above my elbows and pulled it tightly closed so that I
couldn't get away. He lowered his mouth to my neck and growled in
my ear. It was then that I noticed the violence in him, the anger
in his mind. "There was nothing that you could do."

"What?" He asked me, with a violent
voice.

"The men in black that were here earlier. You
couldn't have stopped them, there were too many," I told him,
thinking that this might be the left over violence from then.

"They might have hurt you," he growled
against my skin, but he didn't move his head. I felt his lips touch
me, closed my eyes and let the feeling flow through me. "Why do you
always put yourself in that sort of position?"

"I'm here, though. They didn't get me," I
replied to him and let my head fall back, exposing more of my neck.
"Do it, Quinn."

"Do what?"

“I want you too," I whispered softly. He
stood up and looked into my red eyes. "My veins are burning again
and the blood haze is so hard to get rid of sometimes. The anger
isn't as bad, but the need and the want are still there, and it's
for you."

"You need to feed," he told me and pulled the
shirt off the rest of the way, then, without me moving, he reached
behind me and unsnapped the black bra that I was wearing and let it
fall to the ground. I watched him reach over and touch the blue
button on the wall, then use the same hand to cup under my left
breast. He brought his lips down to my chest then came back up and
bit into my neck. I pushed at him with all my strength, but it
wasn't that it hurt, because it didn't anymore, it was the fact
that he was doing it at all.

I watched the door open, through the haze in
my eyes, as a maid walked in, leading a man that looked as though
he was under some sort of spell. She nodded at me then turned and
left the room. Quinn withdrew, and then looked at me, his lips and
fangs dripping with blood, then he waved to the man to come over
and the man obeyed.

Quinn stepped away from me and pulled the man
to me. I wrapped my arms around him, still looking at Quinn, and
bit into his neck. I watched as Quinn backed over to the wall and
stood there, one arm across his chest, the other bent so that he
was biting his own finger. He was watching me and I could feel the
arousal flowing off him.

The blood flowed quickly, too fast for me to
swallow, and it dribbled down my chin and over my skin. The man
grew weak and when his heart stopped, I dropped him on the floor.
Quinn reached over and pushed the button again, and then he walked
over to me and kissed me on the lips.

He reached down and unbuttoned my jeans, then
started to pull them off. His hands ran over my body, tracing the
curves with his hands as he pushed my jeans to the floor. When they
were totally off, Quinn laid me down on the bed and proceeded to
clean the blood off from my skin with his tongue. I heard the door
open and people rustling about the room to remove the dead man, but
Quinn didn't stop until there was no blood left.

Quinn scooped me up and brought me into the
bathroom. He set me down in the bathtub and then reached over and
shut the water off. I sank down into the hot water and closed my
eyes, enjoying the warmth. Later on, after I had slipped into bed
and covered myself up, Quinn lay down beside me and touched my
hair.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked me. I
looked at him, as he towered above me.

"Jack," I whispered. I looked away briefly
then looked back at him. "Victor."

"Are you afraid?" He questioned me. I nodded
slightly, and then touched his cheek. "Why? You grow more powerful
every day."

"But, what if it's not enough and what if my
son dies? What if I die?" I said softly. Quinn shook his head and
laughed.

"You're not going to die," he said to me.
"You can't."

"I'm just like you," I told him and shook my
head. "No one person is totally immortal."

"You'll be fine," he murmured as his lips
touched mine. "Trust me." His mouth closed over mine and his body
caressed mine. I was his, surrendering to the powerful surge that
flowed through our bodies, for the rest of the night.

14

Two weeks had passed, slowly. My powers grew
but nothing new came about. We spent most of our days at Cleo's
mansion, just hanging around, trying to keep a low profile. The day
of, ten hours before Victor's masquerade, I cornered Julian, who
had avoided me for quite a while.

"Julian?" I said softly to his back as he
looked out at the mountains. He wasn't wearing any shirt, so I
could see the muscles tighten up at the sound of my voice. He
didn't answer and he didn't turn around, but he straightened up as
soon as my hands touched his skin. "Julian?"

"Yes?" He said in a quiet voice, but he still
didn't face me.

"What's the matter?" I asked him. He shook
his head. "It's not that simple Jules, to shrug it off. I can read
your mind, remember?"

"Then, why ask me, if you can just find out
yourself," he snapped. I stepped away and then turned to leave, but
I heard him turn to look at me and I stopped, looked back, and
shook my head.

"I don't do that," I replied to him. He
crossed his arms over his bare chest and sighed, the anger on his
face confused me, because I wasn't sure if it was aimed at me or
someone else. I walked over and put my hands on his skin. "Will you
talk to me? We haven't been alone in so long."