The Vampire Legacy III; Familiar Souls (30 page)

"Do you really think this is going to
work?" He asked, watching her whisper to herself, she looked up at
him quickly.

"It has too." Sage answered, quietly
then knelt beside Justin. "If you see that something isn't right,
either with him or me; pull me away."

"I don't know, Sage." David said,
shyly, but she reached over and touched his face, which made him
close his eyes. "I just don't want to lose you, either one of
you."

"I know, and I promise to be as safe as
I can." She replied, and then looked down at the stone and the
stake that lay in front of her. "Well, here goes
nothing."

With those words, David watched her
place one hand on Justin's head and the other against his chest,
cuddling the weapons in between their two bodies, and then she
glanced one last time at David, before closing her eyes.

David sat in silence, waiting for
something to happen, some sort of sign that they were both coming
back.

* * * * *

When my eyes opened, I was once again
in the room where I had left Justin, but the girl had been moved
from his bed, which was now occupied by him. He turned over and
looked at me with his brown eyes. They seemed dark and menacing,
but still familiar.

"You came back." He smiled, which let
me see the sharp points of his vampire teeth, and then he sat up.
"I knew you would."

"I can stop this, Justin, if you let
me." I told him, trying not to give into the seductiveness of his
voice. He slid off the bed, wearing only the tight black pants that
he had worn before, and walked towards me, slowly. "You have to
face your darkness, and then kill it."

"What if I don't want too?" He asked,
laughing. "What if I like it this way?"

"Don't be stupid, Justin, you haven't
ever liked it this way and you never will." I answered. He reached
out and touched my hair, then grabbed the back of my head by a hand
full of it. I tried not to protest, not to give into the sudden
fear that I felt, but I couldn't help but shake at the immense
power he was letting off, and that's when I saw it, the dark mark
above his eye, one that Justin didn't have. "You're not
him."

He smiled a grim of pure evil. "You're
not as stupid as you look, either."

Just then, the door opened and another
man walked into, this one was Justin and he looked at the two of
us.

"Devon?" He questioned, and I turned
back to look at the face of this man, and even though, through my
eyes, his features were disorientated, I could tell he wasn't a
nice man. "What are you doing in here? Let her go!"

"So, now the fledgling becomes the
master?" Devon asked his voice was now deep, monster-like and
eerie. "This child says that she can help you. How?"

"She means with the transformation."
Justin said and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from him. "She's
delusional, someone I picked up off the street, for an after dinner
snack."

Devon smiled at us, nodding his head,
then he headed for the door, but before he left us, he turned and
looked directly into Justin's eyes.

"Keep an eye on this one, Justin." He
said. "Or, I might have to take her for myself."

With that, he left the room, closing
the door behind him.

I looked up at Justin, who let out a
loud sigh, and wrapped his arms around me. I could feel his heart
beating next to my ear and his face against my forehead.

"What are you doing back here so soon?"
Justin whispered.

"David and I found something that might
help you out of this whole thing." I replied, stepping back away
from him. Justin looked at the objects in my hands, the stone and
the stake that I had consecrated in the real world, and then he
looked back up at my face. "Listen, you have to kill your evil
side. He'll be just like you, a vampire and you have to stake him
through the heart, and place the rock on him when he
falls."

"Will he look just like me?" Justin
asked, pulling me closer to him. I shook my head; there was no way
that I could know this for sure. "It could be anyone."

"No, I think you'll recognize him when
you see him." Suddenly, the door to the room flew open and a black
object floated in. "I think we've found your man."

"Get out of here, Sage!" Justin yelled
to me as a force separated us. I tried hard to hold on to him, but
I couldn't.

Since my grip was slipping, I tossed
him the stake, which he caught, and dropped the stone on the floor
by his feet. It was then that I saw the object moving towards me.
Forced to the floor by the overpowering darkness, I blocked my face
with my hands, but caught Justin's movement out of the corner of my
eye, as he moved up behind the darkness.

"Sage, go!" He yelled,
which I barely heard over the loud noise that surrounded me. I
could almost see him raising the stake high above his head, and my
eyes widened as he brought it crashing down there the back of the
dark mass, into its heart, which exploded into a blinding blue
light. "
Sage!
"

My world had become nothing but light,
then sudden darkness as I tried to hold onto that voice, but I
slipped out of Justin's reality into a quiet blackness all my
own.

* * * * *

Justin sat up in bed, quickly, which
made David turn suddenly towards him from where he stood by the
window. Justin looked up at David, as he, slowly, brought his
breathing back down, and then he looked at the sleeping body beside
him on the bed. David walked over towards them, as he watched
Justin lean down, and put his ear next to her mouth.

"Justin?" David whispered. Justin
looked up at him and smiled, and then he gathered Sage in his arms
and held her. David sat on the floor beside the bed and breathed a
sigh of relief. "So, is it over?"

"Yeah, it's over," Justin Whispered,
and looked at his friend, "for now. We still have to face
Victor."

"Halloween is tomorrow night, are the
two of you going to be strong enough to face him?" Justin
shrugged.

"We don't have a choice." He whispered.
David got up and walked over to the door, then looked back at
Justin. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to let everyone know that
you’re awake." David smiled. "And, I figured that the two of you
needed some time alone."

Justin watched David walk out of the
room, shutting the door tightly behind him, then he looked down at
Sage's face and he smiled at how peaceful it looked. Her eyelids
fluttered, quickly, but it took her a few moments to open her eyes
wide enough to see the loving expression on Justin's face. Her eyes
began to water as she reached up and put a hand on his
cheek.

"I thought I'd lost you." She
whispered. Justin smiled, sweetly, and kissed the palm of her
hand.

"Never." He replied, leaning down to
kiss her. "You're stuck with me for the rest of your
life."

"Good." She smiled back. "I wouldn't
have it any other way."

Justin's lips touched hers softly,
letting the warmth of his body spread over her, bringing her more
and more out of the cool darkness. She could feel him close to her,
so close it was almost painful as the warmth became an overwhelming
heat and passion between them.

* * * * *

David closed his eyes as he smiled and
relaxed on the couch, the magazine he had been reading was laid out
across his lap. He could feel the two lovers upstairs, not the
physical, but the pure emotions that they let off and it eased
something in him.

A knock on the wall made David open his
eyes. Flush from the images that had been running through his
thoughts; David looked over at Julian, who stood in the
doorway.

"I'm guessing that everything is well?"
He smiled.

"So far, so good." David whispered then
sat up slowly. "What is it?" He asked, referring to the blankness
of Julian's expression.

"It's nothing to do with you or the two
of them." Julian replied his fake smile faded. "It's more
personal."

"Do you want to talk about
it?"

"No!" Julian answered, bluntly, shaking
his head. "I just wanted to make sure everyone else was all right."
Julian put his hands in his pants pockets and shrugged. "Well, I'll
let you relax."

David sat forwards, folding his hands
together, and sighed. There was something that Julian was holding
in and that bothered David, because Julian was a strength that they
all needed. He closed his eyes, letting the feelings of the other
two was over him and he prayed that they all had the strength to
make it through the next 48 hours.

* * * * *

I walked into the sitting room, bright
and early that next morning. It was Halloween, "Dooms Day", or
whatever, but as I stepped up to the window and looked out at the
rising sunlight, I felt only the peacefulness of a new day and I
stood there admiring the view for a long time before I heard the
footsteps of someone behind me.

I turned, slowly at first, then
quickly, when I noticed who it was. Lauren stood in the doorway,
smiling at me.

"I guess I'm not the only one who likes
to see the sunrise." She whispered, walking into the room, her
hands folded in front of her. It was then that I felt the oddness
of her presence. She must have noticed the change in my expression,
for she looked around her then back at me. "What is it? Do I have
something on my face?"

"You feel...different." I replied, then
shook my head and smiled. "I'm sorry, but that's the only way to
describe it to you."

"I feel different myself." She smiled
then stepped closer to me. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure, but why would you keep something
like this a secret? I mean, it must be something extremely big for
me to pick up on it." I shrugged.

"It is big, in fact the only one that
knows, well, besides me, is Quinn." Lauren's giddiness and overly
wide smile made me think about just what this secret maybe. I
looked down over her hands and noticed that the right one covered
the left, as if hiding something.

"Okay, this is probably going to kill
me, but, what the hell." I smiled and stepped closer. "What is
it?"

Lauren moved her hand and showed me the
diamond on her fingers. It was the same engagement ring that I had
seen plenty of times before, but there was something else to it. It
had another ring, made of pure gold that held it snuggly in place.
I remember seeing these types of rings after someone got
married.

"You got married?" I whispered, looking
up from the rings to her smiling eyes. Lauren nodded. "Secretly?"
Again, she nodded. "But, why not tell everyone?"

"There's another secret that brought us
to this one." Lauren danced in place, but that was all she gave me,
obviously wanting me to ask the questions.

"Lauren, just spit it out." I laughed,
watching her move in that one spot. She leaned in closely, smiling
as she came closer, then whispered softly in my ear.

"I'm pregnant." She answered and stood
back. I was in shock, and I could feel all the blood drain from my
face, which made her smile fade. "Sage?"

"I'm sorry, it's just a shock." I
smiled and hugged her, then back away and blinked a few times,
trying to let it sink in. "Do you mind me asking how? I mean, Quinn
is a vampire, right?"

"We've been seeing a specialist,
someone that knows of our, and I mean "our" as in Quinn's, kind, to
see how we could get pregnant and have the baby genetically linked
to Quinn and me, even though he couldn't produce the other half
that we needed." Lauren and I made our way outside and sat on lawn,
secluding ourselves from the rest of the house so no one else would
hear. "We found someone, after talking to Louis, Quinn's son when
he was mortal, that would be directly connected with Quinn, but
wasn't a vampire. He matched almost exactly, and with a little
genetic tampering on the doctor's part, was able to get the right
genetic code for the baby to be Quinn's and mine."

"How did he get this code?" I
questioned, curious because of my own connections with
Michael.

"By his blood." Lauren replied. “My
only thing though is that the dates of when I went in for the
procedure and the ultrasound dates don’t really correspond. We’re
happy, nonetheless.”

"Okay, this is good, but why haven't
you told anyone else but me?" Sage asked. "Isn't Ashley closer to
you?"

"Something's going on with Julian and
Ash, again." Lauren sighed. "You see, Jack, her son, is in some way
connected to Michael, like you are, but not quite as much, and she
feels that Michael should be a bit responsible for him."

"But, he's not Mike's biologically,
right?" Lauren shook her head. "I don't get it, what's the
deal?"

"Ashley, to put it plain and simple,
doesn't know what she wants." She looked at me and sighed. "Don't
get me wrong, I love her, but she has a hard time deciding between
Julian and the rest of the world."

"How so?"

"Well, when I found out about her and
the boys, it had always been Julian, but then she slept with Mike,
and then she went back to Julian. When her son was kidnapped, she
came here to get Julian to help her, but ended up ‘falling into
lust’, as she called it, with Quinn."