The Ruby (The Hidden Gems Book 1)

by R. Getsee

  THE RUBY

  COVEY PUBLISHING, LLC

  Published by Covey Publishing, LLC

  PO Box 550219, Gastonia, NC 28055-0219

  Copyright © 2020 by R.M. Getsee

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the writer, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design Copyright © 2020 Covey Publishing, LLC

  Book Design by Covey Publishing, www.coveypublishing.com

  Copy Editing by Covey Publishing, LLC

  Printed in the United States of America.

  First Printing, 2020

  To Mom for always inspiring my creativity and for the many cups of tea during late night writing sessions.

  To Aoife for all the time we spend venting over great writing. I couldn't have asked for a better soul mate. May we be best friends for many future lifetimes.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Note from Publisher

  Also by R. M. Getsee

  About the Author

  Prologue

  In the beginning, there was the First. An all-powerful being who created the universe and all that lived in it. The universe was divided into separate planes of existence—the Earth, for the mortals and creatures He had created, and the heavens for Himself. As the beings on Earth grew old and died, He could only watch from afar while He remained unchanged.

  But as time passed, He grew lonely and, wanting companionship, He created the first beings to roam the heavens.

  Four strong, powerful, immortal entities, they were forged from the energy from the Earth, each one formed from a different mystical stone that became known as the stones of power—the ruby, the sapphire, the emerald, and the jet.

  These beings were referred to as the Ancients. Each stone created a different creature with special powers, and their vibrant colors reflected in each of the creatures’ personalities.

  The ruby stone created the Vampire, a passionate creature who craved life itself, drinking the blood of mortals to sustain itself. The sapphire created the Angel, calm and compassionate who healed and nurtured life and controlled storms to protect the Earth from harm.

  The emerald created the Fae, kind and mischievous, which nurtured all that grew on the Earth.

  And finally, there was the Jet.

  This created the most powerful of the Ancients and was referred to only by the name of the stone it was crafted from. It craved only power and was cold to all mortals, believing itself to be better than all, including the First.

  All the Ancients, though very different in every way, worked together, sharing their power with each other to maintain balance and harmony in the world, though they were forbidden to mix with those who lived on the mortal plane. The First feared that the power of the Ancients, if mixed with mortal blood, would be tainted by their desires and destroy the peace He had created.

  As centuries passed, the First grew ever fonder of the mortals, while the Jet, whose cold soul grew darker and more selfish with time, believing he was superior to all, had decided the First was no longer needed and struck him down.

  Gathering the power he had collected over time, he channeled it into the darkest energy that had spread in sparse amounts throughout the Earth, allowing it to infect him so he could poison the First light with his final blow.

  The shock of this act twisted his soul into something monstrous and evil, reflecting the hard black stone in which he was created from, and shook the very universe to its core, creating a new plane of existence.

  This was not peaceful like Heaven, nor was it life-giving like Earth. It was darkness and death, reflecting the monster that the Jet had become and was just as dark and twisted.

  In the final moments of His existence, the First cast the Jet into the plane he created, trapping him there. And with his final breath, he spoke a prophecy to the Ancients,

  “The evil has been cast to the hell he created but will not remain trapped there.

  He will rise again, and he will be more powerful than ever. He will not be stopped but for three beings, the very mortals he despises will be his downfall.

  Mortals infused with the powers of the stones I gifted you at your creation.

  They alone will rid the universe of his evil.”

  With his final words, He ceased to exist.

  Time passed, and the Ancients grew weary, for they did not have the knowledge of where the stones were hidden or how they would infuse a mortal with the power.

  Eventually, they gave up and fell to Earth to be with the humans they had been forbidden to mate with. They fathered children and created their own races. Their children had the powers of the Ancients who sired them, though diluted tenfold, and without the willpower of the Ancients their human desires corrupted them. They waged war on each other.

  After centuries apart, the Ancients gathered together once more. To stop the wars that had ravaged the Earth, they decided they would wipe the memories of their descendants, making them forget each races’ existence from the other’s mind, forcing them to live separated from each other and in secret to the mortals.

  They left one mortal with the knowledge of what had happened and with the prophecy, hoping he would tell his descendants and, eventually, discover how to do what they had failed to. With that, they dissipated from the Earth and spread their energy through the universe to heal it.

  What they never knew was that the First had seen all of this in a vision. He had wanted them to fall and mix their bloodlines with the mortals.

  The Ancients were the stones they had been created from and the power of the Ancients would grow in their descendants until finally, when the Jet started to break free of the chains which held him in his prison, the power of the stones would awaken in the chosen five, the most powerful of each of their races—the hidden gems.

  This is their story.

  1

  Alex

  I opened my eyes and groaned as a sharp throbbing pain reverberated through my skull. I sighed, trying to recall the weird dream I’d been having, but once again, all I could remember were distorted, blurred shapes and muffled voices.

  This had been happening for the past few months. I knew I had the same weird dream at least three times a week, but I could never remember the details when I woke up, and all they left me with was a killer headache if I tried to.

  I scrunched my face in concentration, trying to block out the dull ache that was sharpening in the back of my skull, but again, the results were the same.
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br />   Heaving a sigh, I threw back the heavy duvet. Yes, it was the end of summer in Arizona and the a/c was cranked to the max, but nothing beat the feeling of being snuggled up in a cold room. No matter how many times my mom complained, I was keeping that freaking duvet until I was dead.

  After an awkward moment where I had to untangle my legs from the blanket that had wrapped its way around them in my sleep, I could finally stand and shuffle toward the window. Reaching out slowly, I grabbed to the dark velvet fabric which blocked all light from the room and gave a gentle tug, flinching ever so slightly as the last rays of the evening crept through. Inching the same hand forward until it was resting in the golden rays, I tried to contain my shocked gasp as it stayed exactly how it was.

  “This is still so freaky!” I muttered, marveling as no matter how long I held still, my pale skin didn’t char—hell, it didn’t even get sunburnt.

  I don’t know why it still surprised me. I’ve been doing this same exercise every day for the past two months, ever since I figured out I was the first vampire in existence who didn’t burn in the sun.

  I shivered as the day I found out flew into my head. I’d just got home from a boarding school across the state and was so tired I’d dropped my bags and fallen asleep as soon as I sat on my bed. It was early when I woke in desperate need of a drink. It was dark, so I didn’t see the suitcases lying across the floor in time before—in true Alex fashion—I flew forward with nothing to catch my fall except the heavy drapery that followed my decent.

  The blinds had fallen away from the window and flooded my bedroom in bright, vampire-killing sunlight. I froze as the rays touched my skin, a scream caught in my throat as I waited to catch flame.

  It was lucky that no noise came out of my mouth because no one came in to check on me as I lay there. A small smile crooked my lips as I tried not to think too hard about one of my sisters running in and getting lit up like a sparkler.

  Not that they would check on me if they thought I was in trouble—more like use my death as a distraction to escape whatever had got me.

  Here I was two months later, still with no clue how it was possible, and not one of my family members knew about this new quirk yet. It was said that the more power a vampire had, the stronger they were against the sun. My dad was one of the most overpowered vamps in the country, and he still couldn’t face more than two minutes outside on the cloudiest day in winter without turning bright red and starting to sizzle. To think I had more of a tolerance to sunlight than he had was laughable, considering I was Void, which is to say, I didn’t have any powers.

  There was little truth about how vamps were portrayed in the media. Yes, unless chocked-full of power, we couldn’t stand the sunlight, but we only needed minimal amounts of blood to survive, and that was of the animal variety—human blood was just gross.

  We also needed to eat, drink, and sleep the recommended amount for a human, just with our affliction, it tended to be on the other side of the clock than humans. We tended to be quicker and stronger, healed slightly faster and aged a little slower than humans; our canines were sharper but only the normal amount of pointy and any sharp object to the heart would kill us, same as any human.

  But the biggest difference between actual vampires and what the human world considered to be vampires was that by the time they turn seventeen, every vamp had the ability to control at least one of the four elements. Everyone except Voids, that was.

  Yup, I was one of two hundred Voids in a population of around two hundred thousand vamps in America. At least, that was what I’d be classed as in about three hours. Today would be my first day at St. Vladimir’s Academy, one of the twelve schools all over the world that a vamp must attend for their last three years of school.

  Every first-year must take a test that unlocks their full powers and determines which element they have a connection, or an affinity, for. Those who are tested and deemed Void must take extra ‘human’ classes and are separated from other vamps—basically a polite way to segregate and cast out the Voids from their elitist society.

  Usually, once a vamp went through puberty, they could access the elements in small amounts, such as causing a light summer breeze or creating a little spark here or there, but, of course, I was the only person in my family who had never displayed a single ounce of power over the last seventeen years, while everyone in my family had pretty much figured out which element they would be able to control before they took their tests.

  I groaned as I checked the clock on my nightstand as the sun drooped behind the horizon. I’d been standing here for over thirty minutes as I drowned in my thoughts.

  Shaking myself off, I shuffled to the bathroom and cranked my shower to the hottest setting, shedding my ratty T-shirt and pajama shorts. I was not the type of girl to wear crap like silk negligee to bed—I was comfort over cuteness any day of the week.

  Kneading the back of my neck as my headache kicked up a notch, I stumbled forward, grabbing for the sink as a wave of nausea swept over me and the room spun, knocking over one of the expensive untouched crystal bottles of perfume my mother constantly buys me in another feat of signature Alex clumsiness.

  I turned in a lightning-fast movement, grabbing it before it could crash against the pristine white tiles, causing another flash of pain across my head, making my vision and stomach dance.

  My knuckles turned white as I gripped the counter, and I tasted copper blood, my teeth sinking into my tongue as images flicked past my tightly shut eyes.

  Red splattered across white lace, a crystal ball flying toward me, and a face so perfect Michelangelo could have carved it himself or been on the cover of GQ magazine.

  I dry heaved as the room stopped its precarious dance and my vision returned to normal, the pain in my head reducing to a dull thrum.

  I gasped for breath as I peered at my reflection. Same pale skin, though more ashen now, dark wavy hair, thick dark lashes surrounding bright green eyes, which seemed more pronounced due to the dark purple smudges which lay below, the product of too many nights spent tossing and turning in bed.

  My hands were shaking as I pried them off the counter. Whatever the hell that was, I felt like I’d just been hit by a truck—and looked like it, too.

  The last thing I needed right now was to be hallucinating, but as I stepped under the hot spray, I couldn’t shake the image of the guy—the dark hair which curled slightly at the ends, the sculpted jawline, sharp cheekbones, and the most captivatingly vivid blue eyes I had ever seen.

  Damn, sometimes my imagination is too good.

  Shaking my head, I tried to relax under the spray and let the tension ease from my shoulders, tried to let the water take with it the last vestiges of my headache.

  Half an hour later, I was dressed in black ripped jeans, a royal purple ribbed vest, black hoodie, and burgundy, soft leather Docs. I frowned as I tugged at my damp hair, which was tangling as it dried. I needed to get it cut soon; it was grazing my hips, and the weight was starting to annoy me.

  I looked as plain and indistinct as I could make myself. Good. I’d learned from experience that nothing good ever came from standing out in life. Despite most vampires seeming to have a need to peacock around by dressing in flashy—or in most vamp women’s case, slutty—clothes, usually with some form of black leather and anything to stand out, I had luckily skipped out on the narcissistic gene and preferred to remain in the shadows where nobody could bother me.

  Although, thanks to the lack of grace that usually goes with vampirism, I was far too clumsy—yet another joyful symptom of being a Void—to remain completely anonymous, and people usually guessed what I was, and that was when the mockery and humiliation began.

  I was trying hard to look on the bright side of things, but I was under no delusions my experience in this school would be any better than my old one. From kindergarten until we turn seventeen, vampires attend somewhat normal schooling, but as most display some form of power, the children of our race are kept together and
away from the human community so as to not run the risk of exposure due to lack of control of our speed and strength. No one wanted to have to explain how their ten-year-old could bench press the same weight as a fully grown man.

  And thanks to all the extra abilities, an extended life span, which meant most vamps came from old money and genes that prompted stunning beauty in most of our race; most vampires had a heightened sense of grandeur due to being hot and rich, which also meant pretty much everyone my age was a conceited asshole. This took the stereotypical high school mean girls and dumb jocks to a whole new level.

  There were very few people I knew who were actually decent, and even fewer of those who showed it.

  Checking my alarm clock again, I sighed. I still had over thirty minutes before anyone was up, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to make myself known as the nerd who got to school before it even opened. Not that I didn’t enjoy school, in fact, my grades were the only things that saved me from having to attend a human high school—which would have not only sucked for me, but would have also brought embarrassment on my whole family.

  Shaking myself out of my thoughts, I grabbed a random textbook and sank into my soft purple comforter tangled on my bed, groaning when I read the cover Introduction to Elemental Studies.

  Not like I needed it, but hell, on the off-chance I mustered a weak-ass infinity instead of coming up Void during the test today, I needed to up my game on the academic front. If I wasn’t placed in the human program, then I needed to work my ass off to graduate from Vlad’s. I was also far too lazy to get off my ass to get a different book, so I guess I was stuck with this one.