Blood Ties

by Lauryn Evans

  With all of my love,

  Alexander

  “Renata!”

  She heard footsteps headed her way in the corridor just outside the office. She slipped the little key into the front pocket of her blue jeans, and quickly left the hidden room, closing the disguised entrance behind her. A clicking noise sounded as the door locked back into place as if Alexander’s secret room had never existed.

  “Renata!” Veronica huffed as she hurried into the office, where Renata now sat at the desk.

  “What is it?” Renata stood, pushing herself up from the desk.

  “The magna…something’s happening to it. It’s…” Veronica’s black bob swayed as she exclaimed, “It’s changing.”

  FOUR

  Upon her arrival, Renata caught a flash of thinning black fur and skin, until there was no longer a beast inside the locked room, but a man.

  “When did this change begin?” Renata turned to Will, who had been standing guard with Veronica.

  “As soon as it started, V went to find you.” He said while Veronica nodded in agreement, her black bob swinging with the movement.

  Renata peered in through the small window in the door. She recognized this man, this young man, but she couldn’t place where she knew him from. Seeing this man, who only minutes ago was a magna, only confirmed that the elixir bottle in her jeans pocket was definitely involved in the attack. Whatever was in that vial, it was no doubt related to the magna attacks. Renata didn’t know how yet, but she was determined to find out before she hosted the mansion’s next party.

  The young man’s incredibly defined back muscles caught her eye, distracting her. She couldn’t help but stare.

  Why does the enemy have to be so handsome?

  Oh no. No, no, no. She refused to swoon. Especially over a vampire hunter, whose defined muscles showed his keen ability to kill her kind.

  “Get him some clothes,” Renata said to Will, who silently made eye contact with her before leaving the basement. She forced her attention on the floor in front of her, instead of looking at the rather attractive prisoner. When Renata executed her plan to catch a magna, she had been expecting to observe the animal’s behavior. She hadn’t expected the massive creature to shift into a man. A human man, for that matter.

  Renata refused to look inside again until Will arrived with clothes for him to wear.

  “Unlock the door,” she commanded, taking the clothes from him. Once Will had opened the door, Renata laid the pile of clothes on the floor in front of her.

  Will moved to lock the door, but Renata held out her palm, stopping him. “I’m going in there.”

  Will looked at her incredulously. “What?”

  “I’m going to talk to him.”

  “He could kill you.”

  “I won’t go down without a fight,” she said. “Besides, you still have the tranquilizer darts should anything happen.”

  “Fine,” Will surrendered, crossing his arms. “But I don’t like this.”

  Slowly, Renata pushed the door open, leaving only enough room for her narrow frame to fit through. She moved slowly towards the young man, the scent of the human blood flowing through his veins filling her nose. Renata noticed a black tattoo on the inside of his left wrist, a crest of some sort.

  “Hello,” she said to him, hiding her unease. “I just want to talk to you.”

  The young man stood, facing Renata dead on.

  She gasped.

  “You,” she choked. “You’re the young man from the party, the one who drank from the vial.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said coolly, his massive frame towering over Renata’s five foot six inches.

  “Spare me your lies,” she spat out in disgust. “I know what I saw.” She pulled the small glass vial out of her jeans pocket and held it up in front of him. “I know this means something to you. And, I know you are responsible for the attack that night.” She just didn’t know how yet.

  The young man’s long, jet black hair fell in front of his face, and his cold brown eyes stared her down, challenging her.

  Renata crossed her arms with a huff. She hated how the hot ones were always the most stubborn.

  Her temper flared. “We will be continuing this conversation later.”

  With the turn of her heel, she exited the room, telling Will to lock the door tightly once she left.

  ~

  Renata paced in the office. If he was a human who could somehow become a magna, then there had to be others like him. But this one, in particular, intrigued her. He made her feel a primal sense of attraction—of fascination.

  A feeling she hadn’t felt in years.

  No, no, no. That man was a vampire hunter who could become a magna at will for all she knew. He killed Lily and Emma. How dare she swoon about his looks? Hunters like him were incredibly dangerous. If all vampire hunters could disguise themselves as partygoers, armed with this strange liquid, they could be poised to attack at any moment. And Renata wouldn’t even know there was a threat to the House among their midst.

  Alexander’s diary.

  His letter said there were secrets vital to protecting the House. Maybe there was something in Alexander’s journal that could tell her about the young man and the vial.

  Renata opened the door to the hidden room and picked up Alexander’s leather-bound journal. The book’s pages were yellowed with age and smelled old.

  She opened the book to the first marked page which read:

  August 3rd, 1886

  I discovered a young man who had the Order’s mark on the inside of his wrist. He was working in a shop on the corner. I was unaware that members of the Order had arrived in America until this point.

  Renata skimmed the pages until one of the marked entries caught her eye. It read:

  January 28th, 1945

  I had a vision last night that the Order would capture one of my House members and use their blood to make the magna elixir. I cannot allow this to happen. However, if the vampire blood used to make such an elixir is poisoned, I’m sure it would take out a great deal of the Order’s hunters. This could buy the House some time, free from attacks, and, hopefully, delay the Order’s plans until the House can retaliate.

  January 30th, 1945

  I purchased a large supply of hemlock. I intend to take a small dose of this poison every day to build up the amount of poison in my blood. Then, when the time comes, the Order will capture me, and use my poisoned blood to make the elixir. Hunters who drink the poisoned elixir will die and will be unable to attack in their magna form. This will keep the House safe. For now. However, after my death, the House needs a strong leader. Renata is young now, but in time, I’m sure she will be the leader the House needs after I am gone. I am afraid there is no other way.

  May 22nd, 1945

  A vampire must lead the House. With me gone, Renata will be stronger as a vampire, and she will be better equipped to lead the House. I cannot bear to turn her myself. The process of turning is brutal, but it must be done. I will grow weak and sickly as a result of the poison. I will be unable to turn her myself. She would never forgive me if she knew, but I have contacted a rogue vampire and made a deal with him. He will turn Renata—

  She couldn’t believe what she was reading.

  —and make it appear to be an accident, in exchange for a sum of money. It makes my heart heavy to do this, but I must do what is best, what will protect Renata and the House. I have thought this out very carefully. The planning of my demise has had my attention for the past couple of days. Once I am dead, my accomplice from the inside will retrieve my body from the Order’s compound, and make it seem as if my death was merely the result of an attack.

  September 3rd, 1949

  Renata,

  If you are reading this, I assume you have found everything, and it means that you are the Mistress of the House. The following pages contain information that is essential for you to be aware of. Without this information, no member of the N
ewport House will ever be safe from magnas, or the organization that controls them, the Order of the Seven Blades.

  My son, Evander, founded the Order of the Seven Blades.

  Renata tore herself from Alexander’s sophisticated handwriting. Her mind reeled. All her life, she thought Alexander never had children of his own. How could she not have known he had a son?

  Taking a deep breath, Renata glued her eyes to the yellowed pages.

  Evander was a young man who had just returned home after experiencing the thrill of battle, full of pride. He was more than satisfied to have played an instrumental role in defeating our enemies. During the time he was gone, I’d been alone. My lovely wife, Aurora, died when Evander was young, and I did not remarry.

  While he was away at battle, I had been attacked in the streets by a man with black hair and piercing yellow eyes that etched themselves into my memory. I fought him off to the best of my ability but was left weakened. I survived but was turned as a result of the attack.

  Once I had turned, I began to have prophetic visions. I foresaw my son’s disgust and hatred for the creature I had become and saw his desire to end me. I do not remember much of the first couple weeks since I had been turned, but once I came to my senses, I hid away in my home until Evander returned.

  When he returned home, I did my best to hide my condition from him, but he saw through my attempts. Evander swore that he would save my soul from eternal damnation, that I had become an abomination, and the only way to save my soul was to destroy the vampirism in my body through death. I tried to plead with him, to no avail.

  Evander burned our home to the ground, trying to kill me. I fled from Rome that night, and I started a new life in a village in Calabria. There, I established my first mansion. I intended for it to be a place where vampires could live out their days in peace, but it seemed that that was not meant to be.

  The Order of The Seven Blades, led by my son, found me twenty-five years later. Evander had aged. He had a family of his own while I had not aged a day since I had last seen him. He had gained many followers, all of whom bore the mark of the Order on their wrist. My son and his followers laid waste to my mansion, killing all the vampires within it.

  Somehow, I managed to survive once more.

  Renata closed the journal and laid it on the table in front of her. She couldn’t continue to read. Not yet. Renata needed to process what she’d just read. She was twenty, and still human when he wrote this last entry.

  The Order of the Seven Blades was behind the magna attacks. They were the ones creating those beasts, using an elixir made out of vampire venom.

  No wonder magna venom was so deadly to vampires. It was made to kill them out of what made them strong, reverse engineered to be fatal to those from whence it came.

  Renata realized she didn’t know Alexander as well as she thought she did. She had no idea how old he was, that he even had a wife or a son, until now. A son that hated vampires enough to found an order of vampire hunters.

  An organization that, to this day, was probably still predominantly made up of his descendants.

  Her adoptive family.

  She was angry—angry that she’d been turned because of him. Angry because he had to be the one to sacrifice himself for the good of all. Angry that because he was dead, she had to be the Mistress of the House. He didn’t even give her a choice. Maybe if he’d asked, she’d have considered it, but the life of a vampire wasn’t one she would have chosen for herself. He knew so many years in advance that he was going to die. He planned everything, her turning, her becoming the Mistress of the House, everything, down to the notes, so she could find this journal and learn his secrets after he was gone.

  Renata slid the journal away with more force than she’d intended. Alexander claimed to love her, yet why couldn’t he have told her this himself? He lied by omission, keeping all of this, and the secrets she had yet to find, from everyone who relied on him.

  He left them to mourn him, shocked by his death, when he had known what was coming for years. Worst of all, he had made everything seem so simple. So normal. The precious normalcy she cherished from those days was just a facade, nothing more than an illusion.

  Maybe he didn’t know how to tell her. Or, she thought bitterly, maybe he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  And maybe, he wasn’t the perfect father she thought he was.

  Renata rose to her feet, rubbing the stress from her forehead. Alexander never acted without reason. He always put the House first.

  How could she be angry with him for that?

  She couldn’t help but feel guilty for her spout of anger. Shouldn’t she feel honored that he chose her to lead? How he went about turning her and how he didn’t tell her any of this was wrong.

  Despite his so-called faith in her, Alexander lied about everything.

  He lied about his family, about his son, about his death, about his plans to leave the House in her care when he was gone.

  She hated thinking it, but part of her didn’t know if she could ever forgive him for that. For any of it.

  It was no coincidence that the man in the basement had both the mark on his wrist and the vial of elixir that Alexander mentioned in his diary.

  The man in the basement had to be from the Order.

  Renata sighed. If she wanted information, she would have to get their guest to talk. And she couldn’t afford to be distracted.

  No matter how good-looking the enemy happened to be.

  FIVE

  The basement door slammed shut behind her.

  “I know about the Order of the Seven Blades. I want you to tell me how the elixir works, and if the Order plans to produce more.” Renata demanded.

  She was met with nothing but silence.

  “You don’t intend to make this any easier, do you?

  No answer.

  “Fine,” Renata huffed as she left the room.

  “Torture is the only thing that’s going to make him talk, Renata,” Will said, peering through the glass at the young man as he spoke.

  “No,” Renata said firmly. Her tone softened. “He already hates vampires enough to murder us. If we torture him, his hatred for our kind will only grow.”

  “You’re right,” Will admitted. “But, just how do you plan on getting him to talk?”

  “I’m going to show him that not all vampires are evil creatures, hopefully. Then, he’ll be more willing to talk.”

  I hope.

  Renata kept that last part to herself.

  Will snorted doubtfully. “Good luck getting him not to hate us.”

  Renata rolled her amber eyes. She found her way back into Alexander’s hidden room and opened his diary.

  Renata exhaled. Whether she liked it or not, she was going to uncover more of Alexander’s secrets.

  She turned the page to the next marked entry and began to read:

  November 21st, 2000

  I’ve recently established contact with an informant from inside the Order, named Laurentia Crowe. Her recent email contained some unsettling information. She said that the machine works by removing water, and other materials from the blood, leaving only the venom. She assured me the device would be unable to detect the poison in my blood, which is good news. Otherwise, all of this would be for nothing.

  She also disclosed that the elixir works immediately when drank by a hunter and only lasts for a couple of hours. She wished me the best of luck and told me she would protect Renata and the House to the best of her ability. She feels that the Order killing innocents is wrong, vampire or not.

  Laurentia told me this would be her last email to me. She is going to “lie low,” so her brother will remain unsuspicious of her and her husband’s disloyalty.

  Renata turned the page, only to find the remaining pages were empty. She read all the entries Alexander wanted her to read and the uncovered all the secrets he wanted her to know.

  If Renata found a way to contact Laurentia Crowe, perhaps she could help her th
e way she helped Alexander.

  Renata needed to talk to the young man. He could be her key to all of this. If he knew who Laurentia Crowe was, Renata could learn something—anything—she could use to seek out Alexander’s confidant.

  Even if the endeavor proved to be useless, she knew she had to try.

  She closed Alexander’s diary, slipping it into the desk drawer. She made her way into the basement and tilted her head towards the locked door, where their guest was staying.

  “I’ve come to speak with him.”

  Will pressed his lips together, his expression wary, but he unlocked the door for her. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

  Renata stepped inside, keeping her shoulders back. “Does the name Laurentia Crowe mean anything to you?”

  The young man stiffened. “My mother,” he said quietly, his voice smooth, like chocolate.

  Alexander’s spy is his mother?

  Could she have sent him with a message for Alexander? Maybe she didn’t know he had already moved forward with his plan, that he was already dead? No, this man, this hunter, attacked the party and murdered two of her own. If he were working with Laurentia, he wouldn’t have killed Lily and Emma. Laurentia Crowe was working with Alexander, not against him.

  Still, desperate to hear the answer, she asked anyway. “Did she send you?”

  The young man finally looked up at her, his captivating brown eyes ensnaring her. “My mother is dead.”

  Dead?

  The hope that Laurentia Crowe could help her was gone, vanished after he uttered those four words.

  “I’m sorry for your loss,” Renata told him softly.

  “How do you know her name?”

  Renata was silent. She couldn’t answer this question without revealing Alexander had been working with Laurentia Crowe, and she didn’t know if she could trust him. For all she knew, he’d run back to the Order the first chance he had and report back everything he’d learned.

  Still, she felt cruel keeping this from him. Laurentia Crowe was his mother, and Renata could see the pain lingering in his beautiful eyes.

  Pain, she knew all too well.

  “How do you know my mother’s name?” He asked her again, his chiseled jawline tense with anger.