The Vampire Legacy III; Familiar Souls (6 page)

“
We’re only looking out
for you.” Taryn said, softly. I looked at her.

“
Did Cristian tell you
something?” I asked Taryn. I stepped closer to her and looked Taryn
in the eyes. “What is he saying to you?”

“
He’s just concerned with
your safety.” Taryn replied. I shook my head.

“
He doesn’t even know me.
What concerns would he have?” I inquired.

“
He thinks you might be in
danger from Justin. He wants you to stay away from him.”

“
Why? Justin hasn’t
threatened me in anyway, what would make Cristian think that he
would harm me?”

“
Okay, I’m lost.” Bobbie
said and stepped between Taryn, who was still sitting on the couch
and then at me as I backed away a little. “First, who’s Justin, and
second, who is he to Cristian?”

“
Justin is just a man who
I met in the woods the night of Brenda’s party and, somehow, Justin
and Cristian are related.” I replied. I looked quickly at Taryn and
then at Bobbie. “Listen, Bobbie, Justin doesn’t mean any
harm.”

“
How do you know?” Bobbie
asked. “What kind of feelings do you get from him?”

“
Yeah, tell us what you
meant when you said that you just got a strange feeling from Justin
the other night.” Taryn added. Bobbie shot a quick glance at her
and then looked at me, again

“
It’s true that I’ve
gotten some disturbing feelings from him, but that doesn’t mean
that he intends to harm me, it just means he’s dark.” I said and
shrugged. “I got the same feelings from Cristian when I met him,
the kind of ones that want to make you run and hide, but with
Justin it seemed so much more intense, and I decided to egg him
on.”

“
YOU WHAT?” Bobbie
yelled.

“
Look, he’s got this
strange notion that he’s a vampire. I thought it would be funny to
see what he did, so I egged him on by constantly asking his name
and told him that I’ve always wanted to be drained by a vampire.” I
walked over to the window and smiled at the street below, as a dark
figure walked away from the streetlight. “He kissed me then,
instead of hurting me and then he just walked away.”

“
You know, I don’t like to
be repetitive, but I think I’m going to ask one more time. Are you
insane?” Bobbie asked, quietly and calmly, and then walked over to
me slowly. “I think with your back ground, and your sense of
intuition that you would know danger when you felt it. Why, on
God’s green Earth, would you decide to play with that danger and
push your luck?”

“
Look, Bobbie, I can’t
tell you why this happened and I can’t think of an excuse to
justify it either.” I sighed, and then looked at both girls and
then back at my cousin. “And, I won’t stop it.”

“
If it’s true, if he’s a
vampire, and Sage, don’t think for one second that you don’t
believe in them, this could be life threatening.” Bobbie pointed at
me, and then touched my shoulder. “You should stop it now, before
it becomes, not only a danger to you, but to us as
well.”

“
On one condition.” I said
softly. Bobbie put her hands on her hips, listening. “She,” As I
pointed to Taryn, the blonde haired girl sat straight. “She stops
seeing Cristian, because I get the same feeling from
him.”

“
I don’t think so!” Taryn
said sternly. I shrugged.

“
Good, then it’s settled.”
I replied and walked away.

The night of the full
moon...

I sat by the fire, chanting some
unrecognizable language, as I drew in the sand, and waited for
whatever happened to be out that night to show up. I stood, walked
in a circle, clockwise, starting at the north point, around the
fire, whispering to myself. After, my third trip around, I stopped
at the northern point again and stood there, arms wide open, with
eyes close, until I felt it, the danger, and the darkness. Slowly,
not ending my chant, I opened my eyes and looked passed the fire,
at the young man who stood there, dressed in black once again, his
hands folded together, and arms down, in front of him. I bent down,
at the knees, grabbed at handful of dust and blew it into the fire,
turning it green.

“
Now, there’s a nifty
little trick.” His voice seemed to whisper in my ear. I looked at
him, watched as his mouth formed a smile, closed lipped, and I
smiled back.

“
Can you enter a witch’s
circle?” I asked him.

“
Have any crosses behind
your back?” He asked. I shook my head and looked at him, not moving
from my spot. “Holy water? Anything that might hurt me?”

“
I asked you to come
tonight, why would I bring something to hurt you with?” I
asked.

“
Just checking. You can’t
be too careful these days.” Justin said and stepped closer to the
circle. “Now let’s see if I remember how these things work.” He
reached out his hands and opened them slowly, as if parting a
curtain, then stepped through the imaginary doorway, turned, and
closed it neatly with his hands. If anyone had ever seen him, they
would have thought he was strange. “How was that?”

“
Are you a witch or
vampire?” I smiled at him, and then sat down on the spot where I
had just been standing. Justin walked over and sat a few feet away
from me with one leg, bent and tucked under him, the other raised
and bent at the knee. He rested his arm on the raised leg and
watched as I played with some string.

“
Are you binding me?” He
asked, looking at the small doll I held, dressed in black. I shook
my head. “Maybe you should, I could be dangerous.”

“
I’m binding Cristian.”
Justin looked at me quickly as I wrapped the string around the
Christian’s dolls waist. “From harming Taryn.”

“
Maybe you should do one
for me.” He said and slid a little closer to me.

“
Do you really think you
can hurt me?” I asked him. He smiled at me, and then nodded his
head. “Would you?” I watched him shake his head and look at the
fire. “Then there’s no real need, is there.”

“
Why did you ask me to
come here?” He asked me quickly. I looked at him and
shrugged.

“
How do you kill your
victims?” I asked back.

“
Why would you want to
know such a thing?”

“
Such things fascinate
me.”

“
You’re very morbid.” He
said and looked at me oddly.

“
Are you going to tell
me?” I questioned.

“
If you really want to
know.” He replied and watched me nod. He got up on his knees and
faced me. “First, I stare them down, make them succumb to my
charms.” He looked me in the eyes and smiled.

“
That’s a good one.” I
replied and waved him off.

“
If they don’t respond to
that, I get them into a trance.” Justin connected with my eyes and
I watched his turn red. I put down the doll and watched him come
closer. “They’re eyes do what yours are doing now, like a deer in
the headlights of an oncoming car.” He inched closer to me, with me
fully aware of his presence. I smiled as his lips curled back to
show his teeth. “They usually panic and try to run away, but some
stay and stare in wonder at something that isn’t supposed to be
real. I’ll move closer, like a cat sneaking up on its prey, and
then I pounce.”

With those words, he was suddenly on
top of me, pinning me to the ground beneath him. I lay, with my
eyes closed, my head to the side and my hands up against Justin’s
chest. I assumed he was looking at my face, my eyes tightly shut,
and my mouth slightly open, but there must have been innocence
there, one that wasn’t visible when I looked at him before. His own
face changed, his fangs shrunk, his eyes returned to the dark brown
they had been. As his eyes looked over my features, down my neck,
over my bare shoulders, he listened to the slow beat of my heart,
the fast pace of light breathing, and he leaned down to my
neck.

I breathed in sharply, as his cool lips
touched my hot skin, and I placed my hands on his sides, clutching
at his shirt. Justin didn’t want to move, but he couldn’t surrender
to me. He couldn’t move away as his lips trailed over my skin, down
over my shoulder and back up to my cheek.

I turned my head and looked at him. He
looked young and unsure about what he wanted. I looked at the
sudden softness of his face, his wide eye, and his slightly opened
lips, which he quickly moistened, and I moved my hand from his side
to his cheek, and then ran it behind his neck. He leaned down to me
and as our lips touched, the fire seemed to erupt.

A noise in the woods took his lips from
mine quickly, and I looked to my right as he hissed violently. I
watched Cristian, Taryn, and Bobbie walk out quietly. Justin moved,
suddenly standing, his fangs bared, his eyes red as fire, and
looked at Cristian, who held a stake in his hand, and Taryn, who
held a cross in hers.

Cristian came towards us, which made me
stand. He was about to lunge at Justin, when I stepped in front of
Justin, putting myself between the two men. Cristian snarled at me
as he moved to aim at Justin again.

“
NO!” I screamed and
raised my hand, quickly. Bobbie and Taryn watched the blue flame
ignite in front of me. Cristian stepped back as the flames rose,
and then reduced to almost nothing, but the light continued, as if
it were a collective energy, blocking Cristian from getting passed
it.

“
He’s dangerous, Sage!”
Bobbie said loudly.

“
He wasn’t hurting me.” I
said, defending him.

“
He hasn’t yet, but he
will.” Taryn replied and dropped the cross.

“
He won’t.” I argued.
Bobbie watched my hand drop, and then my body slumped. Justin
caught me before I hit the ground. He held me close to him and he
looked up at Cristian, the blue field still intact, but
fading.

“
Can’t you see what danger
that you have caused her.” Cristian yelled to him.

“
What was that?” Taryn
asked.

“
Her power, it surged
because of her emotions, but her body wasn’t use to the explosion.”
Bobbie said and kneeled down beside me looking right at Justin. “I
just want to check her.”

“
I’m not going to hurt
her.” He whispered. “Do what you must.”

Bobbie looked over me, patted me on the
face lightly and watched as I slowly come too. I breathed in
deeply, slowly opened my eyes, and looked around. I hadn’t been
totally out of it.

“
Michael?” I asked softly.
Justin looked at me quickly, then at Cristian, who had also heard
the name, and back at me, as I sat up and looked around.

“
That was the name.” Taryn
said softly taking Cristian’s hand.

I turned and looked at Justin, and then
reached out to touch his cheek, but he took my wrist and held it
gently. I looked into his eyes, at the fright that seemed to be
there, and then he looked away from me, towards the
others.

“
Maybe some other time.”
He whispered and smiled. “Your circle seems to have been
broken.”

“
This circle is open,
never broken.” I smiled back at him as he stood, pulling me up with
him. “Go if you must, stay if you wish.” I watched him step back,
the tips of our fingers still touching. “Hail and
farewell.”

“
Hail and farewell.” He
replied and disappeared into the woods. I turned and looked at
Bobbie, who smiled at me.

“
Are you feeling all
right?” Bobbie asked as the four of us headed back towards the
house. I stopped her and looked my cousin in the eyes. “What was
all that about?”

“
What?” I asked and
shrugged. “And, I feel fine thank you.”

“
Hail and farewell? Where
do you think you live, the fourteenth century?” Bobbie
laughed.

“
It’s a witch’s way of
saying good-bye.” I replied and the two of us walked to catch up
with Taryn and Cristian.

“
So, now you’re a
witch?”

“
He seems to think so.”
Bobbie looked at me quickly and we stopped once again. “He won’t
hurt me, Bobbie. If he was going too, he would have the other two
times we were together.”

“
Just don’t get involved
to quickly, Sage. Just like you told Taryn, there’s something not
right about him. He’s not as he seems.” Bobbie replied. I walked
back towards the edge of the woods, stopped and walked beside
Cristian.

“
So, would you like to
explain to me who and what you and Justin are?” I whispered.
Cristian’s dark eyes looked over my face as he put his hands on his
hips. I waved to Taryn and Bobbie, telling them to continue and
that we would catch up. Cristian shook his head.

“
He’s dangerous, Sage,
that’s all you should care about.” Cristian replied.

“
You’re just as dangerous,
Cristian.” I argued with him. He rubbed his forehead and shook his
head as he glanced at the moon. “Look, Kingston, I know what you
think and frankly, I don’t care how you feel about me or Justin for
that matter. All I know is this, you are not what you seem and that
puts Taryn in every bit as much trouble as it would with Justin and
me. You can level with me, or you can just pretend that the two of
us aren’t connected.”