Authors: Cege Smith
“What is so funny?” she sniffed without looking at him.
“Truth be told, you ate no differently than a starving child. It has been days since your last decent meal. You have nothing to fear from having a healthy appetite.”
She thought about it. Grudgingly, she realized that it had been awhile since she could remember eating anything of real substance. She had been so concerned about seeing the rise of the dark being inside of her that she had jumped to blaming that for her seemingly illogical behavior.
She wanted desperately to believe him, if nothing else to make her feel human again. “Do you really think that was it?” she asked as she returned to the fire.
“Do you feel satiated?” he asked.
Angeline considered the question. Her stomach felt bloated and distended, and she was still feeling a bit nauseous from eating so fast.
“Yes,” she replied wondering where his question was leading.
Connor nodded. “Then you have nothing to fear. If I was to eat what you did, first it would not satisfy me in the slightest, and secondly I would be the one about to retch and not you.”
“What satisfies you?” Angeline asked even though she assumed the answer. She just didn’t know if there was more that the legends never mentioned.
“I will be satisfied for the duration of our journey to find Caspian. You don’t need to worry about my appetite,” Connor said. “You may have an hour to rest, Princess, and then we must be on our way.” Then he took a small book out of his pocket and began to read. The conversation was over.
Angeline grew warm when she remembered that Connor had feasted on her blood; a lot of it. Of course he wouldn’t be hungry again for a while. She wrapped herself up in his cloak and then lay back down on the ground. She was asleep before any further memories had time to surface.
The hour passed entirely too quickly. It seemed like she had just closed her eyes when she heard the whisper in her ear, “It’s time to go.”
Angeline sat up and stretched. She was eager to reach this strange vampire Caspian and hoped that Connor did indeed know where he was taking her. She brushed out his cloak and then went over to the stream to wash her face and tame the tangles in her hair. It was a full moon that night, and she became enthralled with its reflection in the gently moving water.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and she started. Then she caught a glimpse of two violet eyes peering back at her from the water’s surface. The eyes were attached to a gaunt, white face that was framed by streams of black hair. It was her reflection. She touched her cheek and felt the jawbone protruding through her skin. Then she realized that although Connor was behind her, there was no sign of his reflection in the water.
She turned and looked up at him. “I look frightful.” She tried to stay very matter-of-fact.
“The changes you are experiencing are physical as well as psychological,” he said.
“I can’t go home looking like this. Everyone will know that something is wrong with me,” she said.
“Once the change is complete, your physical appearance will be different, but you have to remember that many people have not seen you in three years. It will be much easier to explain,” he said. His face was expressionless.
“Well, what do you mean I will look different?” she demanded.
“Princess, the sooner we get you to Caspian, the sooner you will have your answers. For now, I think it best that we focus on the immediate problem at hand,” he said.
As much as Angeline wanted to stomp her feet and make him answer her, she knew that he was right, which made her all the angrier. She wanted to be the one with the cool head.
“Fine,” she said. She marched up to him and went to put her hands around his neck so that he could pick her up.
“No need for that.” He smiled.
“What do you mean?” Angeline was confused.
“I know that you won’t find many benefits with your current state, Princess, but this one may be of interest. I don’t need to carry you because there is no reason that you can’t keep up with me now,” Connor replied.
Angeline gaped at him. “You mean I can run faster than a horse too?” The thought was terrifying, and yet appealing at the same time. With this ability she could travel almost anywhere she wanted to in the kingdom in a matter of days.
“Try it out. Catch me,” Connor said as he turned and disappeared downstream.
Angeline had no idea what to do other than run after him, and his simple taunt had awakened the competitive Robart streak that she knew was practically a genetic requirement of her bloodline. As she dashed off in the direction that she thought he had gone, she felt that internal guidance system kick in.
She knew Connor’s signature and she sensed that he was in front of her. He was moving, but not as quickly as she had first thought. She picked up her pace, and felt that Connor was adjusting his as well. That frustrated her. Why wasn’t he giving it his all? Why was he holding back?
She pushed forward and felt her feet accelerate in a way that she never thought possible. Her feet barely seemed to skim the ground. She was weaving with ease through trees that had grown close to the stream’s bank, even though everything seemed like a blur moving past. She knew now that Connor wasn’t holding back. He was running at full pace, and breakneck as it was, she was keeping up. And the best part was, she was gaining on him.
She couldn’t believe it, but she was. For every two steps that Connor took, it was like she took three. The gap was getting increasingly smaller and smaller, until she could actually see the blur that was Connor weaving through the trees in front of her.
Angeline gave her body one more small kick of adrenaline, and suddenly she shot forward and collided with him. They both went flying forward in a tangle of limbs and landed on a soft padding of moss at the base of a tree that stretched so high above them that she couldn’t see the top.
She found herself sprawled on top of Connor with their legs intertwined. She flushed and started to apologize and pull away when she realized the quivering and heaving underneath her was Connor laughing. In fact, he was laughing so hard that she could see tears streaming out of the corners of his eyes.
“What?” she asked as she hit him in the chest and stood up to clean herself off. She noted his wince where her fist had connected.
“Ooph,” he complained. “I told you to catch me, not kill me.”
“You didn’t tell me the rules of the game,” Angeline sniffed. “But regardless, a Robart always plays to win.”
“I’ll remember that,” he said as he rolled over on his side and pushed himself slowly to his feet.
She was just about to ask how much further they had to go when she heard a loud clapping noise coming from across the stream. They both turned, and a small wizened man stepped out from behind a tree. He had a huge tuft of white hair on his head that matched the long beard extending from his chin, and he looked like he was well over a hundred years old. He continued clapping while staring at Angeline.
“Well done, young one. Well done!” he said. “You are a special one. I can feel it in my bones. Maybe you are even
the
One.”
Angeline looked from the man to Connor questioningly. After what seemed like an eternity, Connor sighed and then gestured to the other man.
“I believe we have found Caspian the Fallen,” he said. He turned to the other man. “I am Conner and this is Angeline.”
Angeline started to interrupt him. No one simply called her Angeline. She was Princess Angeline Mary Ellen Robart, Princess and Future Queen of Altera. But Connor shot her a warning look and she bit her lip.
Suddenly Caspian was no longer standing across the stream, but directly in front of her. She took a step back in alarm as he peered at her from under two heavy eyebrows.
“She’s newly bitten,” Caspian said, directing the question to Connor.
“Yes,” Connor replied.
“The change is still fresh. She hasn’t even gone through the final stage yet. What did you do, bungle the transformation?”
Angeline thought for sure if she let him, Caspian would be prying her mouth open to inspect her like one would inspect a horse. The tiny vampire made her uncomfortable, and there was no way she was going to let him touch her.
“I didn’t bungle anything,” Connor replied coolly. “She was bitten by a poisonous spider and asked my assistance in removing the venom. She died right before I was able to remove the last bit. It was never my intention to turn her into a vampire.”
Caspian paused and looked Connor over from head to toe, considering him. “You are Monroe’s whelp, aren’t you?”
Angeline saw Connor’s face flush and was alarmed to see that he looked angry. She wasn’t sure what the question was intended to get at other than confirming Connor’s vampire lineage, but he looked like he wanted to throttle Caspian’s neck.
“Monroe is my sire,” he said through clenched teeth.
Caspian didn’t seem to notice. “For Monroe’s whelp, you know better. You know the law. It’s death or transformation. There’s no crossbreeding.”
Crossbreeding? Was that what the vampires called what had happened to her? Angeline didn’t care for Caspian’s tone at all. Her bloodline was pure and royal. The mere idea of crossbreeding suggested that she was inferior, and that didn’t sit right with her at all.
“I found a woman in distress who needed my help. I wouldn’t impose my curse on anyone, even if she had been amenable to it. I did what I could to give her a chance.”
He wasn’t telling the story right at all. He had glossed over the fact that the only reason she was in this position was because he had spirited her away from her camp and had been holding her against her will.
She opened her mouth again and caught another warning look from Connor. Caspian seemed to be digesting this information and was looking at Connor thoughtfully.
“A curse, eh? I know your sire would not be pleased to hear you call it such,” Caspian said.
“He didn’t ask my permission. Plus, I’ve never hidden my feelings on the matter from him,” Connor said.
The whole exchange was confusing and a bit alarming. She didn’t know enough about Connor’s past. It sounded like this Monroe was an important person in the vampire coven, if he hunted exiled vampires. It was starting to make more sense why Connor had been given the task of bringing her back to the Master.
“Monroe’s glorious army is falling apart at the seams,” Caspian gurgled in obvious delight.
Army? The vampires were amassing an army?
It was becoming increasingly clear that whatever was going on out here in the Forgotten Lands had been allowed to go on far too long. Angeline had no idea why her father, or grandfather, or great-grandfather had been so careless. If Angeline didn’t so something, it might be possible that her kingdom would wake up one day at war with an enemy that most of people had forgotten ever existed.
She could feel the familiar anger welling inside of her again. Her father had been wrong to keep this from her. It was unfair that she had been born a girl instead of a boy. And on the eve of her Ascension it seemed the most unfair of all that she had been thrown into a situation where her very existence would be dangerous for anyone to be around her. She wanted to hit something. She wanted to hit something hard.
It was as the two vampires turned to look at her in unison that Angeline let loose a bloodcurdling screech of sheer frustration and rage. The only thing she could think about was getting away. She turned on her heel and plunged into the forest. She knew now that she was faster than Connor, and she didn’t have time to think about where she was going or what she was going to do when she got there. She just needed to get away.