Inhuman Heritage

by Sonnet O'Dell

  The Swan is small and I knew if fate was unkind, and it usually was, that now I was alone I would bump into Magnus. As fate would have it he appeared right then, right when I was alone and he saw me through the crowd. His hair was still the long blond mess it had always been but he was in a dark navy suit that fit his body so well and he was still so handsome. I swallowed hard trying not to let him know I’d seen him, but I couldn’t help but look his way again. He smiled at me. I felt cornered as he began to walk towards me. My pulse sped as I began to panic. What would I say to him? What would he say to me? We hadn’t parted on the best of terms. I told him that I never wanted to see him again, I’d refused his calls and Aram had refused him entrance to my apartment when he’d attempted to bring me flowers. I felt him grow closer and I took a step back watching as the candle on a stand ignited next to me. He smirked. Magnus remembered that as a sign of attraction but it could also be a sign of fear. Magnus’s smirk enlarged as he grew ever closer to me, the flame rose with each step because despite myself it was the stilted attraction between us that had my attention. I shook, because despite the fact that he was still as handsome as he had ever been, he had hurt me so very badly. I didn’t want him closer, I didn’t want him to touch me, his touch might make me scream.

  Cool flesh pressed around me as Aram appeared. He coiled his arm around me like a shield, holding me tight and drawing me into his body. Magnus stopped dead just a couple of feet away. Aram lifted my chin and smoothly planted a kiss on my lips. I closed my eyes, the caress of his mouth melted everything away. The noise of the crowd, my fear, the whole world became silent. This was the way kissing Aram had become, a perfect silent world.

  That was until the candle exploded. I pulled back from Aram to look at the mess behind us and to catch Magnus’s back as he stormed away. I caught his faint grumble for someone to clean up the candle. This time it was Aram I caught smirking.

  “You are so sweet pet,” he said licking his lips. “Wait here, I will see if Lance has returned with the transportation.” I smiled at him begrudgingly letting go of his hand as he turned to walk away from me. I stood there alone again and a girl in a red polo shirt that had Swan Theatre embroidered over the left breast bent down to my side to sweep up the candle pieces. I turned to look at her and offer my help. She glared at me for all she was worth. I was taken aback, what had I done to this girl to earn a glare like that? Then I recognized her, she was the girl who had tried to stop me going back into Magnus’s office once, the one I had been sure had a crush on him. I stared back at her.

  “What is your problem?” She glared at me even harder like I was either stupid or brave for challenging her glare. She kept her eyes averted from me as she spoke.

  “How could you break his heart like that? He’s been such a mess since you left him. How can you come here showing off your new boyfriend like this?”

  “Firstly,” I said glaring back at her, my stare twice as hard as hers making her cower back from me. “I do not have to explain myself to you. I don’t know you and you do not know me despite what you may think. And secondly, he should feel bloody awful after what he did to me, he’s the one who slept with someone else.”

  She looked at me stunned, mouth hanging open and a look on her face that said despite her female camaraderie for a scorned woman she still wanted to be on Magnus’s side. I felt anger boil in me and the top part of the candle that was still intact with the wick lit in the dustpan scorching her hand slightly. She yelped and dropped it all over the floor again smashing the dustpan down on the fire to put it out. I kept staring at her. How dare she try to judge me without any of the facts!

  Jareth was suddenly by my side sweeping his arm around my shoulders and he led me outside. Aribella came bustling out behind us looking perturbed at Jareth’s sudden limpet-like attachment to me. He held my hands in his.

  “Calm down, Cassandra, take a deep breath.”

  I looked into his cool eyes and closed mine taking a deep breath, in and out. I felt my power back down. I realized I’d been amping it up as if I was going into a fight. When I felt calmer and more myself I opened my eyes looking right into Jareth’s. I gave him a brief embarrassed smile.

  “I’m better now, thank you.”

  “Good. I needn’t remind you that this is an important night,” said Jareth blatantly reminding me anyway. I nodded solemnly. He let go of my hands turning to offer his arm to Aribella who was greatly pleased to have his attention again if the look on her face was anything to go by. Aram returned to my side and I took his hand squeezing it tight. He brushed a lock of hair away from my face and kissed the side of my head.

  “Come my Andra, we shall go, we shall dance and this night will get better and better.” I smiled slightly.

  “Is that a promise?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Aram, Jareth, Aribella and I rode back in the limo together. Sienna and the twins Tarquin and Vincent had gone on ahead to be there to greet guests as they arrived. I rested my hands in my lap, keeping my eyes on them raising them only to check to see if Jareth was still looking at me. Every time I checked, he was and it was beginning to bother me. I reached to Aram who was to my left and gripped his hand. He smiled at me pulling me closer to his side. I leaned up to whisper in his ear, it was a futile gesture in a car full of vampires but it was the illusion that I meant for it to be a private conversation.

  “Why is Jareth watching me?” Aram looked over to his brother who quickly turned his head to look at Aribella who was drumming her fingers looking entirely bored with the drive.

  “I can think of one very good reason,” he said with a leer looking over my body. I squeezed his hand harder and I swear he winced. “You do not see how you look, pet but if I must answer with the most likely thing to your mind, it would be that he is keeping track of your emotions.”

  “How?” I asked puzzled. Aram leaned in to whisper to me.

  “His talent, pet. He is a reader, you would call it empathy. He can feel what you are feeling and if he chose could make you feel how he wanted you to.” I made a little round ‘O’ with my mouth and rested my head on Aram’s shoulders. I thought I might have been happier if I hadn’t have known that. To know that someone else knew how I felt, especially when I was with Aram and he was, say, shirtless. My cheeks heated up as I thought about that and I looked from under my lashes to the other side of the limo, Jareth was looking again. Oh God, I hid my face in Aram’s shoulder. I wonder if Jareth had known that time I had checked out his butt which much like Aram’s was fantastic. I told my brain to shut the hell up and stop embarrassing me.

  Jareth shifted restless in his seat, he must have been uncomfortable with all the lusty vibes I’d started to give off. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself down and for the first time I could feel Jareth there, trying to help me. I had myself back under control when we pulled to a stop outside the club.

  Aribella and Jareth got out first smiling at and talking to the press that were gathered. Aram took my hand again and we followed suit, again assaulted by the bright bursts of flashbulbs and people shouting questions at us. Aram led me through the throng and into the club without answering a single one of them.

  Chapter Two

  Then came the dancing. I stood against a pillar that held up the mezzanine floor while Aram was charming a reporter from one of the national papers that had been invited to attend the party inside. I stood there watching the other dancers whirl around the floor. The vampires had gone for a proper dance, not a disco, classical ballroom music and so many of them–the Sovereign vampires–came from eras where they had learnt dancing as part of their education. Etiquette and manners were all proudly observed. I sighed and tilted my head back to admire the decorations that were lining the room along with the lines of male vampires in black tuxedo’s and the females in prom dresses ready to dance with any of the humans present at a moment’s notice. I could see Dusk at the corner of the dance floor; she wore a bright pink strappy dress that f
ell down her small body in a silken wave. The straps were desperately clinging to her shoulders and as she swayed with the music I could see that the dress had no back to it till it was right above the small of her back. She too was watching Aram with the reporter and I knew she wanted more than anything to dance with him instead of her. Aram was very popular and part of me felt proud that he was my boyfriend.

  Fingers crept across my neck making a shiver run over my skin and I turned to see Sienna leaning over me, a fangy smile on his face.

  “You know I don’t like it when you do that,” I chided him. Sienna liked to play with me. He had a power over cold, I’d seen him turn a ball of flame into pure ice and because I had an affinity with fire his power often irked me when he touched my skin. It was like having Jack Frost skate across my neck or walking through spider webs.

  “Such a beautiful flower should not be left to wither by a wall in the shade,” said Sienna taking my hand. “Dance with me.”

  “I’d rather not,” I said but Sienna did not take no as an answer. He swept an arm around my waist and pulled me away from where I had been resting.

  “I ask not for me,” he said with a wistful smile, “but Vincent is so intimidated by your beauty tonight that I must conduct you to him.”

  I laughed. Vincent was a very flirty, very naughty boy. I didn’t think for a minute that I could possibly intimidate him or that he would be afraid to come ask me to dance with him. I let Sienna whirl me out onto the dance floor and I took up a proper dancing posture with him. Aram had given me a couple of lessons so that I wouldn’t step on anyone’s feet. The vampires had been planning this party since the beginning of the year. There was a bill sitting under consideration in Parliament to grant vampires equal rights to humans and Sovereign vampire groups all across the country were holding events to encourage the bill to pass smoothly. No one knew what the Shadow clans thought as they had no real structure tending to be nomadic and the Brotherhood of Man were for the bill to a certain extent.

  “How are things between you and Aram progressing?” asked Sienna drawing my attention back to him. I smiled slyly at him.

  “You asking out of genuine interest or trying to see if there is anything more you can do to win his good favor.” I had become suspicious of Sienna a while ago. Aram had been in trouble and Sienna had hand wrapped a way for me to get him out of it. I had to become his Novia, his bride, although I still didn’t really understand what it entailed except that I had to have been seen visiting Aram at least once a week. Sienna didn’t answer, he just gave a broad smile and waited for the answer to his question.

  “We’re just fine, thank you.”

  “Is tonight the night?” He raised an eyebrow at me so I would catch his meaning. I smacked his shoulder with the heel of my hand.

  “That is frankly none of your business.”

  Sienna laughed, spinning me out and bringing me back into him. I looked him dead in the eyes and didn’t flinch when he licked a fang seductively. I decided to throw him off guard.

  “What is a vampire bride anyway?”

  Sienna’s eyes went wide but he quickly brought his face under control.

  “You didn’t ask before agreeing to it?” I shook my head and he huffed out a great sigh. “It depends on the case but more often than not it means that you are his human, no other vampire may make a move on you.”

  “Okay, I understand that but what is the end of it? Most brides end up married.”

  “Yes,” said Sienna and he seemed reluctant to tell me anymore. I jabbed him with my foot, he grumbled and could tell I was not going to let it go.

  “In most cases the bride ship ends when the bride becomes a vampire herself. They are usually together for a year then they may go their separate ways if they choose. Vampires with vampire relationships are tumultuous at best. You’d go from being his bride to his childe and you could not stay together.”

  “But I don’t want to be a vampire.”

  “Aram knows that. It is rarer but he may just choose to stay with you and support you till your human life is over though your loss will grieve him horribly.”

  The thought that Aram would watch me get old and die one day made me sad. Not for me but for him. It was natural for me, it was what I expected to happen one day but to know that he would be distressed when I was gone was an unbearable thought.

  “It is why bride taking but not turning is so rare because you get to know them so well and intimately, then have to let them go. Better to have them as a vampire and see them from time to time than to never see them again. You should consider it more carefully. I think you would make a wonderful vampire.”

  I shook my head at Sienna. I couldn’t imagine it, living as a vampire, living forever. It scared me more than the thought that this one life was all I got. What things would I do and see if I had all eternity? I couldn’t imagine giving up the sun either. I didn’t want to think too far ahead, you could never tell what tomorrow would bring and I liked taking each day, a day at a time. My business was only just getting off the ground. I’d become a Paranormal Investigator in December, had my first big case in January and several smaller less noteworthy cases since then. No case was too small when you needed the money to pay your bills and make sure you got to eat every night. I was hoping something big would come in again soon. Well not big—big meant media and police involvement, but something medium maybe, something I could handle on my own that would bring with it some fairly big payoff.

  More important to me, next week marked only a month to my twenty-second birthday and I was looking forward to both presents and getting out to do something special. I had talked with Virginia and together we had created a second locket, one that would stop the other world from taking me but that one only lasted a night at a time. I couldn’t work out why it fizzled out so quickly.

  I came back to the room when Sienna swung us to a stop in front of Vincent standing aside to let the younger man step in. Vincent wasn’t a bad dancer, he had nowhere near the skill of any of the vampires I had danced with but that was to be expected as Vincent was a mere human. He smelt surprisingly nice tonight; he had on thick sweet cologne that was very attractive. He didn’t smell like his usual cloud of smoke. I complimented him on the difference.

  “Yeah,” he said scratching at his head leaving me to lead us away from bumping into a middle aged couple that looked fairly important, “Sienna forbid me to smoke tonight because the smell is so unappealing. They’re all really trying to impress.”

  “Mmm I know, it’s because of the rights bill. Jareth has already warned me to stay calm.” Vincent raised an eyebrow at me attempting to spin me but failing. I laughed and held onto him a little tightly so that I didn’t fall over while I regained my footing. “I have a little bit of a temper.”

  “You’re passionate that’s all. Nothing wrong with that,” he said and gripped my butt through the skirt.

  I squealed and pushed away from him. I stormed away from him trying to fight the smile on my face. Vincent was incorrigible. I was walking back to the edge of the dance floor when I saw someone I had never thought to see again and not here.

  He was a squat little man with thick gold rings pushed down his sausage like fingers and he was in a small black suit puffing on a thick Cuban cigar. I had last seen him in the Soul Market-an underground market that dealt mainly in illegal items and black magic. He had seen me with Magnus and thought that I was for sale. I had been glad to prove him wrong. I was surprised that the police hadn’t found him there and arrested him. I started to walk towards him. He was talking to a blonde woman who was all boobs and a skimpy dress that was mostly red sparkles, I thought she must be his date. She laughed at something he said and I guessed that she wasn’t that bright either. There was a man stood behind him and it was him that gave me pause. He was tall, broad and built like a tank. The suit he wore strained around his biceps and his pulse made a tattoo on his neck throb. He looked up at me, his head was perfectly shaved, the skin smoot
h and his eyes were so dark they appeared to be almost completely black.

  I stopped where I was just looking at him; there was something about him that gave me the willies. Who was he? Was he the small guy’s bodyguard? If so who was the small guy that he needed a bodyguard? I decided it didn’t matter, I chose to ignore the bodyguard and head right for the small guy. A hand grabbed my arm and I was spun around to face Aram. His grip was tight on my arm and he looked a little put out, like he had raced over to me. I stared at his face incredulous.

  “I recognize him too pet, but leave him be. Please, I beg of you.”

  “But...” He pressed a finger to my lips and pulled on my arm to force me to come away from him. I felt a whisper of something at my back and turned as Aram began to move me to look behind me. The fingertips of the bodyguard were just inches away from my hair, he’d walked right up behind me and had been reaching to touch it. His hand was frozen in the air and even his boss-the small pudgy man Aram wouldn’t let me confront-looked puzzled at what he was doing. I let Aram pull me into his arms and he gave the man a warning look that would have frightened most people.

  A smile spread across his face and I can only describe it as deeply disturbing. That smile chilled me right down to my toes. He gave a little bow saying something low that I couldn’t hear, turned and walked back to his employer. I looked up at Aram whose vampire hearing didn’t miss much and asked him, “What did he say?”

  “That he could see you. I do not know what that means but I will not let you near him again tonight.” I shuddered. That man was going to be my new nightmare for a little while.

  Aram stayed with me for the rest of the night which I was thankful for. He only let me go when Jareth asked to dance with me but he hovered nervously while we did. When I didn’t feel like dancing we would sit or stand with his arms wrapped around me which was more than pleasant. He often interspersed our conversation with little kisses on my neck and shoulders that sped my pulse, so that by the time the evening was winding down I was about ready to jump him. I know Sienna had made me mad suggesting that tonight might be the night but I was really hoping it was going to be. Aram had been a gentleman waiting for me to recover from my previous experience and promised me when I was ready he would make our first time together so wonderful that I would soon forget there had been anything before it. I was waiting by the door that led back to the private quarters while Aram was with Jareth wishing the guests a good evening and closing up the front. They had a large bolt that went across the main doorway, day staff came in through a side door that had an electronic access pad. It kept anyone who might do the vampires harm from getting inside. The key number changed biweekly too, the club tended to have quite a high turnover rate. Aram and Jareth re-entered the main room that had seemingly emptied, it was one in the morning and I was like a greedy child wanting what I had been promised. I coughed gently and gave Aram my best come hither look. Jareth looked between his brother and me.