The Vampires' Birthright (4 page)

I wanted to say something lighthearted and smartass to her, but Xuanxang spoke.

“The style is Ming, and the palace joined the modern world in 1781.” The mellowness of his voice easily reached where we stood despite the distance.

“Huh?”

Genuine surprise voiced by my vampire cousin, Chanson seemed more stunned than I was. Even the others were taken aback by Xuanxang’s words, alternating their confused looks from him to me.

“Txema wondered earlier about the architecture on display here, and I can confirm that the combination of period styles is like this throughout the entire palace complex,” he said. “For her benefit, nothing has changed since our last remodeling, except for upstairs in this building. We have a few rooms with modern conveniences. You should be happy to know that your bedchamber, Txema, was the first to get running water and electricity.”

An immediate wave of relief washed over me, and instead of the little boy leading me, I was practically ready to drag him up the stairs to the second level and race onto the third. The call of modern comfort was almost impossible to ignore. But the fact Xuanxang had likely read my earlier thoughts made me worry my assumptions of mental privacy were premature.

Our escorts were eager to lead us upstairs. We soon reached the second floor, where another marble floor awaited us. The little boy grew cautious, peering between a pair of fluted marble columns before rejoining the girl. The air was much colder on the second floor, which fueled my urgency to find warmth and the modern western comforts.

My servant child looked up at me with frightened eyes, and with good reason. I followed his gaze to the dragons that surrounded us. Their images covered the ceiling and arches above the wall of windows. I wasn’t always the most compassionate sister to my younger brothers, but something at that moment stirred within me—something linked to the young life I carried. I felt a personality foreign to mine urging me to have compassion for someone thrown into virtual slavery at such a young age. I don’t mind admitting that I was more than a little ashamed that these feelings should come to me externally.

I lightly squeezed his tiny hand, and nodded for him to lead the way again, hoping he understood that the images around us wouldn’t harm him. He nodded gratefully, although his eyes still darted around to every hidden corner and shadow and his breaths came in shallow bursts.

“He’s not the only one frightened. Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you to your bedchamber myself?” said Garvan, who flanked me on the left with his escort, who seemed unaffected by the garish scenery around her. Meanwhile, Garvan’s gorgeous eyes were on fire. At first, I mistook the deep longing emanating from them as the passionate attraction he and I shared, although never consummated, before my pregnancy. This was before I understood that my feelings toward them were largely a mix of pheromones and a subconscious longing that aids them in hunting their prey, you know―us humans. Knowing it didn’t mean I didn’t feel it anymore, I just recognized it now. Garvan though, he actually cared about me and I have come to feel like he is almost like a big brother to me, despite the knowledge that his desire is for a relationship that is a bit more romantic. “Just don’t frighten the boy any worse than he is right now, or we might end up in a room that lacks more than just heat and modern convenience.”

Garvan’s emerald eyes flashed brighter for an instant, adding playfulness to a devilish grin. For a moment, I think he wanted me then and there—despite my sacred status that Chanson had already declared to everyone when we first boarded Racco’s jet a few hours before. She had made it clear she could already sense the tiny human growing inside me and that the Relance du sang
had been successful. All physical contact with me beyond platonic was strictly off limits. But, as I wondered if this was what he struggled with, I noticed his gaze was focused on the same area that had fascinated Tyreen a short while earlier: my carotid artery.

“I guess the blood flasks weren’t near enough for any of you, huh?”

I’m sure this came out pretty harsh, and his mortified expression told me that he never expected this reaction from me. Warmth from my anger flushed my cheeks and I looked away, turning my attention toward the ceiling toward one particular dragon. Its fiery eyes glistened from inlaid jewels that in all likelihood were rubies. Rubies, I should say, at least the size of my hands, based on the ceiling’s twenty-foot height. The rest of the purple and gold serpent glistened, as well, and I marveled at the skilled artisanship that went into creating the image.

“I’m truly sorry, Txema.” He tentatively touched my shoulder to get me to return my gaze to him. “I swear to you that I’d never hurt you or the sacred child you carry.”

The look on his face seemed completely sincere. But honestly in the moment provided no assurance he wouldn’t drain my blood while I slept—even during the short siesta we had before our 3:00 a.m. date.

“Maybe that’s true,” I said, slowing while we approached the marble stairs leading to the third floor.

Our footsteps echoed eerily around us, giving the second floor a museum-like feel. Cold and sterile, the menacing teeth-bearing dragons made me think of the Tyrannosaurus skeletons I saw as a kid on a field trip to D.C.

“But, I know for a fact that you have drunk from my neck more than once during the past two weeks!” I said, finding it harder to control the fury in my tone. “You can’t deny it!”

“Yes, I have,” he finally said, softly, once we reached the stairs. The two children eyed us curiously, and I wondered if they understood any English. If not, Garvan’s and my body language along with his plaintive tone and my bitchiness were easily translatable. “Both times it was to save your life, and I never took more than what was necessary to knock you unconscious and out of harm’s way.”

His face held a pained expression and his lips trembled. Emotions—real and human. That alone convinced me that he’d come clean, although that nagging voice in the back of my head reminded me how they had lied to me before about Peter being dead. Despite the cold in that drafty place, I felt warmth spread inside my chest, I had to trust someone, and Garvan above all others had been there when I needed him. I felt I could relax once more in his presence. Exhaustion beckoned me… I needed whatever sleep I could get before our meeting.

Garvan noticed how tired I was. Without saying a word, he motioned for me to wrap my arm inside his as we followed our young guides up to the third floor. The décor was more modest. Other than the same marble pillars and archways, the ceiling and walls were barren of the imagery on the lower floors. Another glass wall faced the surrounding mountains barely illuminated by the dying moonlight.

A draft of warm air greeted us. It took a moment to detect a pair of vents on either side of a marble arch not far from the room I would be sharing with Garvan and Chanson. Our young escorts seemed just as pleased by the warmer environment and hurried to lead us to the massive wooden door that marked the chamber’s entrance.

“I do believe you are in luck, Txema,” said Garvan, while we waited for the little boy to insert a key into a rudimentary lock beneath the door’s handle. Meanwhile, the air around us continued to grow warmer. “It appears you will not turn blue or as pale as us after all!”

Our little servant boy looked up at me, his dimpled smile almost matching Garvan’s. Apparently, he understood my vampire companion’s jest. I couldn’t help chuckling, despite a rash of chills brought on by the combination of Garvan’s cool presence and the warm air cascading toward me from the heater vents.

“So, do you think Racco and his crew will join us here, and will they also be staying on the same floor as us?”

I should’ve waited for a more appropriate time to ask this question. Garvan and Racco had verbally sparred with each other on several occasions about which of them was the fittest suitor for my affections. That was before my Relance du sang with Peter. Since then, I’d not seen Racco in person, and Garvan had ceased to eye me wantonly. Instead, he treated me like all of the other vampires had treated me since the ceremony: like a delicate and fragile treasure. God forbid that one of them should sneeze in my presence, lest I shatter and crumble to dust!

Strict precautions were now in place to make sure nothing could cause a possible miscarriage. Even though consensual sex during a pregnancy was fine and dandy in the modern world, the rules were quite different for someone like me. Regardless, should the eventual horniness occur that I’d heard can be excruciating at times during a normal pregnancy, as things presently stood, I’d be left alone in terrible misery.

Garvan’s countenance grew dark, and he glowered at me as if he’d hoped I would never broach the subject of Racco and his whereabouts. But rather than answer, he pushed the heavy door open and motioned for me to step inside. Not exactly the Four Seasons, but the room was a hell of a lot cozier than I expected to find after experiencing the icebox downstairs. The floor was polished gray marble―similar to the hallways and main level―and the walls were paneled in teak with less ostentatious renderings of dragons.

The room was large, although not as immense as my recent quarters in le Chateau de Douleur. Yet, it was definitely large enough to not feel claustrophobic with two or three caskets sharing my space. A queen-sized bed faced a small television set added to the room well before the onset of the digital age. That was pretty much it as far as ‘modern’ conveniences, other than a small lamp and clock radio sitting on a nightstand next to the bed. But at least the room was warm and cozy, as more warm air poured into the chamber from two vents above the doorway and another above the bed.

Great, this should be a hell of a lot of fun.

While I was privately mourning the loss of my iPad, Garvan drew my attention to the bathroom, where a modern Jacuzzi tub and shower awaited me. The sink and commode were also fully modern, which made me wonder why our hosts hadn’t bothered to upgrade the meager entertainment options in the bedroom portion of my new home.

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness!” Garvan’s impishness lifted his countenance back to the warmth he normally exudes. Even his eyes were aglow again, and I felt he mostly had forgotten my mention of his immortal rival moments before. “Perhaps you’ll take up Zen while you’re here, and see that most of what you have paid attention to these past few years is largely empty, meaningless noise.”

“Perhaps… but a bored mind and empty hands can be the instruments of the Devil, too.” I offered my own wry smile while alternating my disappointed gaze between the obsolete TV and the clock radio. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“About what?”

“About Racco and his staff… when shall I expect their arrival?”

His smile faded as he studied my face, no doubt torn as to what to tell me, given my hopeful expression.

“Racco’s not coming, Txema. Right after we left the plane, he unloaded our luggage and our associates and he is already on his way back to France with his staff.”

“But, I thought—”

“You thought you could start where you left off three days ago, correct?” His tone remained gentle, but with enough force to emphasize his seriousness. “As if, like you, he’d be welcome here, in this cold place with even colder hosts?”

He didn’t need to spell it out for me. I had wondered the same thing as Xuanxang addressed us, along with the obvious strictness in dealing with the young servants who all appeared to be fully human. How would a group of free and happy human beings be welcome in such a place?

“So, I take it this was decided while we were still in the air?”

I hadn’t seen anything conspire between Chanson or anyone else from the time we left India’s airspace and when we landed on the runway. The decision had to have been made earlier.

“Yes… I heard Gustav and Racco discuss what needed to be done, right after we heard that so many of Huangtian Dadi’s vampire subjects had defected to Ralu’s… political platform,” he said. “It’s far too dangerous for his people to be here, since they can’t be offered the same protection as you.”

“This really sucks!” I couldn’t believe Racco had abandoned me, and did so completely. We never got a chance to talk following the previous night’s ceremony, or even after our last awkward exchange before that event. “So, I’m the only human being here from the western world?”

“At least for now.” His pained expression implied he had held out hope I wouldn’t miss Racco, and that I’d be content having only my vampire companions to interact with. “It’s still possible he’ll come back after you’ve given birth to your child and the current tensions throughout the world are lessened.”

“Like a typical guy,” I said under my breath, for the moment forgetting the handsome male vampire before me, or the fact his preternatural ears could easily discern my whispered scorn. “Nobody wants to hang out with the knocked-up chick.”

“That’s not true.” He leaned in closer and grasped my fingers with his hands. His touch was cool, although not as chilled as I expected. “I’ll be delighted to hang out with the ‘knocked-up chick’ anytime.”

He chuckled and squeezed my fingers.

“Yes, I’ll most certainly be
delighted
to do so, Txema!” he said, after I shook my head. His smile widened to the point his slender fangs showed. “No matter what happens, know that I will always be there for you. Always.”