Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (17 page)

I stopped laughing at
the irony that Violeta was from Transylvania when I saw the fate of
the Miklos clan. Having the attributes of physical strength and
agility, the Miklos Vampires are called Physice, pronounced Fizz E
ChA. I really hoped I wouldn’t be tested on this. Violeta and
her brother, Dominic, were the only survivors of an attack on the
Miklos royal compound. Caught unaware, mainly because no one had ever
dared attack such a physically powerful clan, most of the Miklos died
when every structure was set on fire. The twins were smuggled out of
the compound by their Stewards at the last minute. And, the pair was
forced to flee or perish with the rest of the clan. As I looked back
on my training sessions, I could see how her attributes would be
coveted by any Vampire clan. But, if the Castellanos did kill every
member of the clan to get the twins, then they were more brutal than
these books revealed.

With Violeta and Zander
set to marry, the future of the Miklos Family, and thus the Physice
Vampires, was hopeful. The Council also looked forward to Dominic
finding a partner amongst the attributed Vampires to secure the
family once more. It was rumored that Efia had wanted me or Chloe to
partner with Dominic so that our two families would gain an advantage
over the rest of the clans, but it didn’t appear to be the
case. She was just fine with the news that Dominic was traveling the
world in search of a suitable bride, regardless of her attributes.

I wondered if the
Council would have even let both Miklos Royals partner with the same
family. The potential for a monopoly of power was colossal. It was
hard to fathom what kind of attributes the children would have if
both of their parents had more than one. Also, the acceptance of
mixed attribute unions was just returning to the minds of Vampires.
After such a long and deadly civil war, the clans tended to keep to
themselves for their own protection. The Council had only recently
been able to renew betrothal negotiations without threat of
secession.

The Dewhurst family was
the head of the clan with the ability to perform a type of mind
control. Only a small percentage were able to read your mind but they
could place images and ideas there. These Vampires are called
Cerebralis due to the fact that they mess with your brain. I only
recently found out that Tabitha is a Dewhurst heir. She was captured
by Grigor before her maturation and when he called for ransom her
grandmother Matilda answered. Tabitha and her grandmother were
tortured by Grigor and his people for months until both of them were
near death. The Council was able to gather enough information to put
together a rescue team and Efia was one of the volunteers. She led
one of three teams into Grigor’s dungeons and freed the pair
before ultimately fighting Grigor himself. Efia barely escaped with
her life when Grigor turned the tables on her and was about to throw
her into the flames when Tabitha’s grandmother put fear into
his mind.

Once they were safely
at the St. Clair compound, Efia was the only high ranking official
present and strong enough to perform Tabitha’s Ritus Transitus
before she died from her injuries. The Ritus Transitus is the ritual
performed when a Natus, born Vampire, comes into maturity. Like the
Motus, a Vampire who has been changed from human, a Natus needs the
blood of another Vampire to complete the transition. With an
Elementarium performing the Ritus on a Cerebralis Natus, the
resulting Vampire could be amazing or disastrous.

As they waited to see
how a Cerebralis would evolve with the blood of another attribute in
her veins, news from the Council arrived. Tabitha’s great aunt,
the barren Dewhurst Queen, had set her up in the hopes that she and
her grandmother would die before her Ritus Transitus thus leaving the
position of heir open for appointment. The Council would not
interfere nor would they condone the interference of one clan to
another. It was written that each clan may govern in the way they saw
fit as long as the common laws concerning other Vampires were kept.
Efia was determined to interfere.

Matilda was still too
weak to go up against her aunt by herself and needed a strong ally.
Having the support of a queen of any stature was great but having the
Elementarium Queen on your side was a coup. Efia was one of the most
powerful Els, as they are called, in recorded history. Although most
of the Elementarium Vamps could only control Air, Efia had had some
success with all of the elements making her, and her blood
descendants, the most powerful Vampires alive.

When I asked about the
powers of the other clans and why controlling the elements was the
most powerful and not mind control or strength, Efia blew me a kiss
and the lights went out. I woke up 30 minutes later with a headache
and a bruised ego. It was that easy for her to deprive my brain of
just enough oxygen to knock me out but not enough to do any permanent
damage. Her control was amazing and I knew why the others were hoping
I would be able to gain control over my attributes quickly. Efia
could also control fire, water and Earth, but only in very limited
degrees. Pleasant tried to get her to train more but she was far too
worried about all of her blood descendants to concentrate on her own
attributes.

Efia went to visit the
Dewhurst Queen under the guise of bringing the news of her nieces’
escape. She was treated to a royal welcome with all of the pomp and
circumstance that went with it. Once seated at the Queen’s
right hand, Efia waited for Matilda to come forward. She was meant to
answer for her disobedience in trying to rescue Tabitha on her own
when the Queen had expressly forbid it. Before she could even execute
a respectful bow, the Queen ordered her execution on the spot. The
executioner never made it to his position, however, as Efia thickened
the air around him and forced him to the ground. Then, she then
turned on the Queen, held her off the ground with an invisible hand.
If she and Matilda had not shared blood hours before, Efia would have
succumbed to the Queen’s attempts to scare her away. Instead,
she looked toward her new friend, who was still weak from her ordeal
in Grigor’s dungeons, and snapped the Queen’s neck
instantly making Matilda the Dewhurst Queen.

The Council recorded
the event as self-defense since Efia had claimed she was Tabitha’s
guardian. That meant that Tabitha was to live with the St. Clairs and
that Matilda and Efia were not going to be put on trial for killing a
Queen. Since that day, the Dewhurst Queen felt like she was in Efia’s
debt. She defers to her in Council meetings and expects her clan to
yield to the St. Clairs. Efia, on the other hand, simply saw the
matter as helping save the life of her friend. The two monarchs were
as close as two powerful Vampires could be.

Vampire politics was so
complicated that it was simple. Just stay hidden and don’t kill
each other were about the most important laws they had. There were,
however, the traditions to consider. These traditions were centuries
old and nowhere near fading in significance. The most prominent
tradition was predicting the future and this attribute was almost as
much a curse as a gift. The Oraculum, the Oracles (or the Orcs as
Chloe calls them), are a strange clan. Their ability to see into the
future gave them power and prestige but the side effects of the
attribute were often times deadly. Since Oracles go into a
narcoleptic type trance when a vision comes to them, they can be a
danger to themselves and others if not careful.

I read that an Oracle
was passing for a knight at a human king’s table. He wanted to
win the hand of the princess and entered his name into the jousting
competition. He did very well, winning his first 4 matches. Right
before the 5th match, the princess leaned over the railing of the
royal viewing box to present him with her kerchief. She had yet to
present anyone with a token of favor, so the Vampire knight knew the
significance of her gesture. Filled with pride, he urged his horse
forward, lowering his lance as he approached. When he was a just a
few yards away, however, he had a seizure and blacked-out. When he
awoke he was in irons and being hauled to the gallows. His seizure
had been the precursor to a vision; a vision that told him that his
soul-mate would meet an untimely death at his hands. When he
discovered that his seizure had caused his lance to run through the
princess he wept and welcomed the hangman’s noose. He was
saved, however, when his three brothers, having had visions of his
demise, appeared under the cover of night to rescue him.

The Oracles were called
upon by the other four clans to offer insight and help them to gain
advantage over the others. Most of the time, due to the nature of
their attribute, the Oracle lived with the family or clan that they
were employed by and under 24-hour guard. I wondered if Efia had an
Oracle for our family. If so, had all of the events in my life been
predicted up to this point? Could one of them have foreseen my
childhood and allowed Efia to change it? I wasn’t sure if their
attribute worked that way or not but it was definitely something I
was going to look into.

As Efia’s
granddaughter I needed to be familiar with the royal families and
their attributes, so I began to write the names of the reigning
sovereign and the flower that was used as their icon. I knew that the
St. Clair flower was the Calla Lily, so I chalked that up as a win.
The others would have to wait because I was so sleepy from reading
about the different attributes and why they were special. I just
wanted to close my eyes for a few minutes and then I would start
again.

When I woke up we were
landing in Hong Kong for refueling. All of the books that I had been
reading were neatly stacked in the rear of the jet and someone had
put a soft blanket over me. Stiff and groggy, I was glad to hear that
we were more than halfway there. There was enough head room on the
jet for everyone to stand and stretch but we still disembarked and
walked around on the tarmac. Efia and Pleasant joined Solomon at the
far end of the runway to have a private conversation while everyone
else looked for souvenirs to purchase. I could see Chloe speaking
with a young Chinese boy about the hand painted sphere he was
selling. The boy spoke perfect English and, after a bit of haggling,
Chloe walked away with a victorious smile and a beautiful trinket.

Tabitha was hugged up
with Jordan and Zander was looking into Violeta’s eyes
lovingly. I was happy that my brothers had found true love and even
happier that it had been with families that could help us if we were
ever in need. Oracle or not, I had the feeling that we would need as
many powerful friends as we could get.

As if to confirm my
suspicions, Solomon turned and looked in our direction. As he did so,
I noticed a small Chinese woman in a crisp black suit. Her jet black
hair was streaked with silvery gray but she didn’t have one
wrinkle on her face. She was very animated in her exchange with Efia
and Pleasant, to the point of hysteria. I saw Solomon reach into his
jacket pocket before he touched the woman’s neck. She instantly
stopped talking and went limp, falling into Solomon’s arms.

“
Cheyenne,”
Chloe called from the jet, “come see the island.”

I had turned to look at
Chloe for just long enough for Solomon to disappear with the small
woman. Now, Efia and Pleasant were walking about towards our group,
still deep in conversation. I wondered what that was all about and
went to see what Chloe had wanted to show me.

I climbed into the jet
and walked over to the table where Chloe had an iPad hooked up. She
was on Google Earth and had keyed in the latitude and longitude of
the island. As the Earth spun around on the screen, the gravity of
the distance we had traveled hit me. We were on the other side of the
world and still heading farther away. The Earth on the screen stopped
spinning and began to zoom in. I could see India and Thailand and
then had to take a seat when the island came into view. It was so
green and surrounded by light blue waters. It looked so peaceful and
exotic that I couldn’t wait to get there.

Chapter 15

The next part of the
flight lasted 10 long but uneventful hours. We landed on a little
airstrip in Port Blair, India and I felt like kissing the ground.
Regardless of how luxurious my accommodations had been, 25 hours in a
plane was well past my limits of comfort. The small airstrip employed
several eager men and women who quickly helped the Stewards load our
belongings into three pristine yachts that were docked not far away.
The island had no place to land an aircraft, so the only way to reach
it was by sea. I wondered how long a 35 mile trip would take; I was
ready for a shower and a nap.

The island was
surrounded by a partially submerged coral reef which prevented large
ships from getting close while supplying the inhabitants access to
fresh fish daily. The interior of the island was a mystery, however,
due to the fact that the trees were so densely packed that the
satellite could not penetrate the forest canopy. There were also
stories of cannibals who would attack anyone in close proximity.
Chloe let me think the story came from the island’s connection
with Vampires but Tabitha clarified it for me. The original
inhabitants of the island were still present. The Fare and Stewards
had an understanding with them and for the last 150 years they had
lived together rather harmoniously.

As we sailed closer to
the island I could see the hazards from both the reef and the
natives. Monstrous waves were crashing into the rocks a few hundred
yards in front of our yacht and the men on the shore looked as if
they were preparing to shoot arrows at us. Before I could run below
deck for cover, Chloe stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. My eyes
followed her outstretched hand and we watched the shore as more
people came through the curtain of trees onto the beach. These people
were dressed in the same uniform that Solomon wore all of the time so
I assumed they were Stewards. As the natives noticed that the
Stewards were on the beach, they put their bows away and sat down to
watch our yachts maneuver the reef.