Blood Legacy (PULSE Vampire Series #6)

by Kailin Gow

  This was no dream, Kalina knew. Whatever she was seeing before her was no figment of her imagination, but the real Jaegar. Her Life’s Blood was beginning to prickle and burn just as it always did when Jaegar was around.

  “What are you doing here?” Kalina heard herself say. “Like this – in my dreams? What’s going on?”

  Jaegar stepped forward, taking her hands in his. “Because I know you need me,” said Jaegar. “I told myself I’d keep away, but when I sensed what happened to Justin, I knew you needed somebody else to come and comfort you. Believe me, Kalina, I too mourn for Justin. The moment I felt him die, well, it was like losing Aaron again.” He shuddered “I had to come and see you. I don’t want to disturb your peace – I have done my best to wish you and Stuart every happiness in the world. I don’t want to intrude upon that now. But I am ready to come to you as a friend, if you need me. To me, of course, you will always be so much more, but I will take whatever it is you grant me.” His eyes were haunted, so full of sadness. “I missed you, Kal.” He gathered her into his arms, folding her tightly into his chest.

  “But how are you here?” Kalina looked up into his face, feeling him smolder beneath that look of quiet intensity. “What’s going on? What are you doing here?”

  “You and I still have that bond, Kalina. We never lost it. I tried to shut it off for a while to protect you, to prevent you from seeing my pain. But now I know I cannot shut off our connection forever. I need you, just like you need me. And my powers have only grown stronger in the past few weeks. I’ve learned to dreamwalk, a skill only old and ancient vampires can know. Our telepathy now extends to dreams. I can enter yours. And you, if you wish, can enter mine.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “I missed you so much.”

  “I missed you too,” Kalina confessed with a sigh. “So much. When you left us in China, when I couldn’t find you – I was so afraid something had happened to you, or that you were so angry that you no longer wanted anything to do with me. Living without you has been like living with a giant hole in my heart.”

  “I just wanted you to know,” Jaegar reached out and touched her. “That you don’t have to mourn for him. Justin was like a brother to me in life – in death, too, he’ll be my brother. I’ll watch over him. I’ll take care of him. Help him to overcome his urges. Help him to become free of the bond his maker has over him.”

  “But how?” Kalina was about to ask, when a loud knock on the door sent her spinning into wakefulness. She sat up with a start, Stuart too leaping to his feet. Max had rushed in, her face grim. “It’s happening,” she said quickly. “He’s waking up. Hurry!”

  Kalina and Stuart leaped out of bed and rushed down the hall. There he was, just as Max had said. Justin was sitting straight up. Kalina gasped when she saw him. His skin was paler, as pale as death, with a haggard look at once beautiful and awful. His slender body had grown broader, stronger; his skin had smoothed over the first early signs of aging. The dark circles under his eyes – an occupational hazard of the medical profession – had vanished. Kalina didn’t even have to check his fangs. She knew, with a horrible sinking feeling, that Justin had turned. The Justin who sat before her was a vampire.

  “Kal?” Justin’s eyes widened when Kalina entered. “What’s going on? I don’t feel so good…” He put out a hand to steady himself on the bed. “But then again – I feel really good. I don’t understand…” He immediately jumped to his feet. Kal took an instinctive step back; Stuart stepped in between her and Justin, his stance protective.

  “Tell me how you feel,” Octavius said softly. “Go on, Justin.”

  “Did I get hit in the head?” Justin’s hands flew to his temple. “I feel like I was hit with a brick. My head is throbbing. Like…I hear something. This loud beating sound. Like the world’s loudest clock – tock, tock, tock. No, it’s not a clock at all. It’s like what you hear on a stethoscope…but louder. Like a heartbeat.” He looked around wildly, confused. “And what’s that smell? Something sweet…” He stepped up to Stuart. “You smell so good…” He looked Stuart up and down.

  And then it happened. His fangs flew from his lips, following quickly by a short, sharp yelp of surprise. And pain.

  “Justin!” Kalina cried.

  “Oh, no.” Justin’s eyes flew open even wider. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no….” His fingers went to his mouth, and he felt the two decisive prongs of fangs at the corners of his lips. “No…it can’t be.” He looked up at Octavius in horror. “Did you do this?” His voice exploded in rage.

  Octavius shook his head mutely.

  “Then I don’t understand…”

  Kalina stepped forward, putting a hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Molotov attacked you,” she said. “But first he drank from himself and then made you drink…he wanted to punish you, punish all of us…”

  “Molotov…turned me?” Justin looked so innocent, so pained. How could she bear to tell him the news?

  “Yes.” It was the hardest thing she’d ever had to say.

  “Then he’s my maker? He controls me?” Justin’s eyes began to water with bloody tears. “No, he can’t! He won’t! I won’t let him!”

  “Listen, Justin,” Stuart said calmly. “Don’t panic. We know what you’ve been through –we’ve all been there. We’ll help you. We’ll do what we can when you need us to help break Molotov’s bond with you. We brought vampire wine…”

  “You should have just staked me when you had the chance,” Justin moaned. “How could you keep me alive like this – a danger to everybody? A danger to my own sister?”

  Octavius looked grimly at Kalina. Almost, she wondered, as if he agreed.

  “Listen, if I do anything dangerous…you need to stake me.”

  And then she saw the stake in Octavius’ hand. “I’m sorry, Justin,” he said. “I can’t afford to wait that long!”

  “No!” Kalina cried, rushing forth to stop the blow Octavius was about to strike. The wood collided with her hand, bruising her. A small amount of blood appeared from a splinter-wound.

  And then Justin was sniffing the air, leaping upon her like a wild beast, his fangs making their way to her hand.

  “Don’t!” Immediately Max and Stuart were holding him back.

  “No…” Justin was moaning. “No – I want it. I need it!” Bloody tears streaked his cheeks. “But I can’t….I can’t do this. I want her…but you can’t let me hurt her! Just stake me now! Go on, Octavius, do it! If you do it before I’ve killed somebody, at least I have a chance…”

  “You’ll be able to control it,” said Stuart. “Vampire wine.”

  “I don’t want your damned wine!” Justin roared, in a voice that was not Justin’s at all, but the tone of a stranger. “I want her!” The expression on his face was hard and cruel – a voice Kalina did not recognize. It sent chills down her spine. “I want to hurt her…kill her…” Then Justin’s face relaxed – he was his old self again, shaking with terror. “Stop me,” he said in a small voice. “This thing inside of me, it’s taking over, it wants me. This voice in my head, Molotov’s voice, commanding me to kill her…make it stop!”

  “Molotov’s already waiting to use him against us,” said Octavius gravely. “I should have known.”

  “You fools!” Justin was roaring, opening his mouth wide and revealing his ever-growing fangs. “I want to kill – I will kill. Give me the girl! I want to suck her, to drain her dry, to make her…”

  “Justin, stop!” Kalina screamed. “Listen to me – it’s me! It’s Kalina!”

  “I…can’t…” once more it was the real Justin, the Justin she loved, her brother, trying to keep control as his whole body shook.

  “Molotov’s too strong,” said Octavius darkly. “He’ll never be able to resist. It’s too dangerous letting him live. He’s willing to die, Kalina – we cannot let him live like this. This vampire is not your brother.”

  “Please, don’t!”

  But Justin had broken free of Stuart and Max’s grasp, and had r
ushed over to Kalina.

  “I must do it now.” Octavius raised his stake, glimmering with the red light of its rubies. “I’m sorry, Kalina.”

  “No!”

  But it was not Kalina who pushed Justin out of the way, but Max. Her former silence gave way to a quiet intensity, like the slow smoldering of a coal flame. “Go,” she whispered to Justin, putting herself between him and Octavius. “Run!” Justin looked at her in bewilderment as Max picked him up, her strong arms easily overpowering the newly-turned vampire, and threw him out the window.

  They rushed to the window, watching Justin fall as Kalina had fell, only to watch his body break the fall with instinctive flight.

  “Go!” Max called. “Run!”

  And then Justin was gone – vanished into the night sky.

  Kalina was still shaking. She turned to Octavius, hurt and anger across her face. “How could you do that?” Her voice trembled. “Octavius, that was Justin.”

  “No,” said Octavius, shaking his head. “That wasn’t Justin at all. I’m sorry, Kalina – but Molotov controls him now. He’s no less dangerous than Molotov himself. He is programmed to go after you until one of you is killed. And while I do sympathize for your care for your brother, it is not you that I will let die before my eyes.”

  “But you saved him,” Kalina turned to her mother, feeling weak and dizzy. She sat down as the room became blurry all around us.

  “I have some Life’s Blood in Justin yet,” said Max. “From last time, when I saved him. While it has grown weaker as a result of Molotov’s influence, it is there nonetheless. And Justin will go to Molotov now. He will help to lead us there.”

  “We don’t want to go to Molotov!” Kalina cried. “We want to get as far away from that crazy…bastard as we can.”

  “Then how do you expect to break Molotov’s hold over your brother?” snapped Max. “Nothing is impossible in the world of the vampire, Kalina. Not even that. But without Molotov, we cannot break the bond. If we slay Molotov, Justin will still be a vampire, but at least he will be a vampire in control of himself. He will drink vampire wine. Stuart and I will work with him. Right now he is a danger, to himself as well as to you. And to save him, we must go into danger ourselves.”

  Chapter 13

  Max’s expression softened. She went over to Kalina, wrapping her spindly arms around Kalina’s slender dark shoulders. “Listen, my girl,” she said. “Don’t panic. Justin isn’t dead – if anything, he has a whole eternity in which to be saved. We can’t turn him back – neither one of us can love him in the way that love needs to operate to turn him – but we may be able to find another Carrier who can. Or even if he is a vampire, all is not lost. Look at Jaegar and Octavius – they were able to find happy enough lives as vampires.”

  Kalina looked up mournfully. She knew that, for all their pretended strength, neither Jaegar nor Octavius was really happy as a vampire. Max stroked Kalina’s hair. “Listen, I’ll be able to track Justin now. If he still has my Life’s Blood in me, it makes him special. It means he’ll have a better time tracking down the Carriers Mal hid – and I don’t doubt Molotov is aware of the fact. He’s probably using Justin right now to trace the Carriers. If we follow Justin’s trail, we may be able to find both him and the Carriers.”

  “You saved his life,” Kalina was still trying to process everything, to put everything together. “You did that for him!”

  “He is family,” said Max. “Your family – and so he is my family. He has my blood in him – I could not forget that. I have hope for him. These are confusing times for Carriers, Kalina. We do not know what the blood will do, what powers it will bring forth. Your blood is special; the blood of the younger Carriers may prove to be more special still. How can we give up hope when this blood may help us win the fight we have been waging for centuries?”

  “You said the love would only work if it were…you, know. Romantic.”

  “I believe so,” said Max. “After all, the links between blood and sex are strong with vampires – the one and the other cannot be separated. Your love for your brother may not be able to turn him.” She smiled. “But there are more Carriers in the world than you and I, Kalina. And your brother is a good man. He will find somebody one of these days, I have confidence of that.”

  Octavius interrupted them, clearing his throat as he put on his leather jacket, arranging his stakes in a belt around his waist. “Kalina,” he said softly. “I must go now. I believe I have a plan…”

  “You’re not going after Justin, are you?” Kalina’s eyes widened in fear. “Octavius, please say you’re not. Max thinks he could turn back – her Life’s Blood in him might be able to help him stay strong.”

  “I’ll see you again, Kalina,” Octavius said, evading the question. “I promise you that.”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “But where are you going?” She asked.

  “When I was the leader of the Consortium my duties were to find more Carriers. To match them to worthy vampires. To help arrange love-matches – love I could not participate in myself. I know how to sense out these things. I will go to Africa, to Australia, to continents we have not yet been to; I will seek out a Carrier who is willing to meet with your brother, perhaps to fall in love with him.”

  Kalina was speechless. She knew that Octavius’ instincts were to stake Justin as quickly as possible – nevertheless, he was willing to do as she wished.

  “You might not need to go that far,” said Max. “I felt something earlier today – there’s the smell of Life’s Blood in the air here. Don’t go too quickly.” She too began dressing, putting on her warmest furs. “I’ll show you where,” she said to Octavius.

  “You’re the boss,” Octavius bowed deeply to Max, giving Kalina a little sly wink as he did so. Kalina couldn’t help but smile. Even now, Octavius was trying to appease her.

  Max took hold of Kalina’s hands. “I’ll leave you with Stuart,” she said. “You’re in good hands here. He told me what happened with the two of you. You made the right choice, Kalina. You didn’t let your blood make that decision for you. I’m proud of you. Perhaps he is the wrong one. Or perhaps he is the right one – and you aren’t ready for any right ones yet. Whatever the reason, you should wait until you find yourself ready to choose.” She let a smile spread over her face. “You and I are alike, Kalina. I found myself in a similar position with your father. But in the end…”

  “Things worked out?”

  Max said nothing. Kalina wondered what had really happened to her father, a topic on which Max had always been so coy. But Stuart interrupted her before she could ask further.

  “Where are you going?” Kalina asked, noticing Stuart’s jacket.

  “I’m coming with you all,” said Stuart. “I know it’s risky – but I’m willing to risk my life. I’d rather die a noble human than live for centuries as a vampire. I’ve turned – and that turning was a miracle. But with this saved and blessed human life, I want to make the most of the time I have left: I want to do something good to make up for all the bad I have done.” He took Kalina’s hand. “I need to find these kids – and help you do it. Or else, what’s worth living for?”

  Kalina smiled right back at Stuart. How noble he was – how brave! Even now he was willing to risk his very humanity in order to do the right thing. His enormous piercing eyes stared into hers, and she could see the goodness in them. Stuart was special, she knew; Stuart had something that Octavius and Jaegar lacked. A true humanity. Stuart's nobility ran through him like blood – permeating all parts of him – transforming his beautiful but all-too-human frame into something more than human. Kalina knew that Stuart wouldn't be able to fight as he was once able to; this gift that she had given him was in that sense also a curse. Kalina sighed as she pressed his hands to her lips. She tasted the warm blush of his skin, and as her lips met his knuckles she had to force herself to look back up at him before the desire to sink her teeth into his flesh overtook her. Octavius’ blood was wearing off,
she knew, and as Life's Blood began to pulse once more through her veins Kalina began to feel that same old attraction she had felt towards Stuart – an attraction so strong that it even compelled her to put Justin's life in danger, to leave the dining room and take Stuart up to the suite, a desire that demanded instant satisfaction for the longing she felt all through her body.

  Stuart seemed to notice the change in her eyes. “What is it, my sweet?” he asked her softly. He knew, Kalina realized, he could tell how much she wanted him still. No, she told herself, it wasn't safe to remain alone with him – not for her, and not for Stuart either. If she was left alone with Stuart, she would either succumb to her desire to be with him or her desire to consume him, and neither of them would be of any help to Justin or the Carriers. Kalina swallowed down her hunger. If all this worked out, she told herself, if they survived and were able to save Justin and the Carriers, she'd need to find a cure for this savage hunger that overtook her at the slightest whiff of sweet blood. She wasn't a vampire, after all. So why was she starting to behave like one.