by Dima Zales
I shivered when I saw the fury on his face.
"They will suffer for what they've done," he promised. "I will see to it myself and it will happen at my own hand. You may be the one to ultimately defeat them, but I will make sure they suffer first. They stole years from us, and they tried to kill you. They will pay."
I looked into his eyes. "We have each other now."
"We have lost so much," he said. "All those years that we should have spent falling deeper in love and training together. We can never get those back. That was our childhood."
I wanted desperately to help him calm down. "But we have centuries ahead of us. A few years will seem like a blink of an eye two hundred years from now."
He smiled at me. "That will be better than anything that I've ever dreamed of, my love. I cannot wait for the day that we put the Morettis behind us and we can truly start our lives together. I will give you the best life that you could ever dream of. Anything that you want will be yours."
"Finding you is all that I could ask for," I said. "Tell me more about the time we spent as children."
"Those were the best three years of my life. I spent every possible minute with you from day one. As you grew, I taught you as much as you could learn from me. I played the games that you wanted to play. Everyone said that I was wrapped around your finger," he said, smiling.
"From what I can remember, that went both ways," I assured him. "One thing that is strong in each of my memories is that I completely adored you."
"I hope to be able to earn that back," he said.
"It never really went away. The first moment that I saw you before the dance, everything came back in a way that I didn't yet understand."
"You think that I'm trying to control you now though."
I frowned. I couldn't deny that. "I know you think you're protecting me, but I don't want to be protected. If I'm going to be a leader, then I need to learn and grow and figure things out on my own. I need you to trust me to figure things out. If we're in battle and I need it, then protect me. But for now I need some space to find my own way." I had no idea how desperately I would later regret those words.
He was silent, and I wished that I could read his thoughts.
"I hate acting like a rebellious teenager," I told him. "But I am royalty and I am destined for greatness. It only makes sense that I will go against being controlled or protected beyond necessary. That's why I reacted so strongly against the favoritism of Natalie, although I obviously didn't know it then."
"You have some good points," he said. "I don't think we've been giving you enough credit. Yes, you have been raised as a human, but that's not what you are. You are the Sonnast."
"Thank you."
"I should get you home, my princess. It's after midnight, and we both have school in the morning," he said. He picked up my hand and gave it a kiss.
I sat up in bed, drenched in sweat. I had just woken up from a dream about the crows chasing me.
In the dream, I was unable to run, and they were pecking me and tearing me apart.
When my breathing returned to normal, I felt a strange sensation pulsating through my body. It started at the bottom of my feet and made its way up, and when it got to my mouth I knew immediately that I needed more blood.
"I thought that draining the farmer was supposed to hold me off for a while," I muttered.
I waited a minute to see if it would pass. Maybe, just maybe, it had something to do with waking up from a bad dream.
Images of the blood from the volleyball game shot through my head, my mouth watered. Thoughts of gratifying a craving on that smelly farmer filled my body with a desire to get more right then.
I grabbed my phone and called Tanner's number.
"Hello?" he asked, sounding as if he was still asleep.
"Now," I ordered. "Meet me in that field right now."
"What? You're serious? That was fast."
"No small talk, get moving." I shut the phone off and grabbed some clothes.
Once dressed, I decided it would be faster if I just ran. I opened my window and decided to jump even though I was on the second level. I landed beautifully and ran to the field.
I was faster than any car, so I got there before Tanner and started pacing around the field, burning with the need for more blood.
"Have a little patience," Tanner said, laughing. "You look like a caged animal."
"Now's not the time to make fun of me," I glared at him. "What took you so long?"
"I'm just a mortal," he said. "Now let me explain to you how to do this so that you don't kill me."
"I have no intention of killing you," I informed him. "Unless you don't hurry up with your explanation."
"Your eyes are glowing red," he said with huge eyes of his own. "I want to make sure that you don't go overboard."
"Just make it quick."
"The best spot is right here on my neck," he said, pointing to the base of his neck. "The vein that you will hit will let out enough to satisfy you but not too much to put me in danger. Once you notice the flow begin to slow down, you must stop. I need to trust you to do that."
I nodded my head. "When it slows down, I stop. Got it." I could feel my teeth growing again.
He took a deep breath, smiled and asked, "Are you ready?"
"I sure am." I leaned in and bit down on the exact spot that he showed me.
The warm blood came into my mouth and tasted even better than it had with that nasty farmer. This was like fine cuisine compared to the other blood. It was even more filling too. When the flow started to slow down, I was able to stop. I had an intuition to lick the wound, and it healed before my eyes.
He stood there looking like he was in some kind of coma.
"Um, are you okay?" I asked.
He blinked a couple of times and said, "That was amazing. That felt even better than it ever did with Samantha. You must have some special super-venom or something."
"I come from a special line of vampires," I said, not wanting to tell him that I was going to be a leader of all vampires someday.
"We definitely have to do this again," he said. "I can't get over it."
I looked at him and felt some kind of pull. It was strong enough that I knew it had to be something significant, but I didn't know what it was.
"It was definitely something," I said.
"Do you feel satisfied?" he asked.
Why did he care? He got what he wanted. "Yeah, I do actually. It's strange, because I drained that other guy and only felt full at the very end."
He smiled. "I clearly have a better quality of blood."
I rolled my eyes. Did his arrogance know no end? He had a point though. If I had been used to Tanner's blood when I drank the farmer's, I probably would've spat it out.
"Be sure to give me a call next time," he said. "I'll be back in a flash."
I stared at him, surprised that I didn't want to leave. I wanted to smack myself. I reminded myself that he was a conceited football player who just wanted me to get him high.
"Sure," I said. I started running and was out of his sight before he could have blinked.
13
The sound of heavy rain hitting my window woke me up. It was Saturday, and I was glad to have no plans with anyone. I wasn't sure how it happened, but everyone seemed to have left me alone for the day. I needed a day to take everything in that had happened over the last week.
It had been the single craziest week of my life by a long shot. Just a week ago, I was just a teenager concerned with my parents favoring my sister and plotting my escape from this place. Suddenly, getting into an Ivy League school was very far from my mind.
I stretched and sat up, listening to the rain. I wondered what my birth parents were doing. I had been so concerned with everything happening to me that I had barely had the time to think about them. I had desperately wanted to know about my real family. I was glad that I would at least have a long time to make up for the time lost.
I went to my mi
rror and saw the face of an almost stranger. My hair was fuller and darker, and my skin was so clear that it looked airbrushed. It was also less tan than it had been. I knew that wasn't from the autumn weather. My features seemed to be changing as well, nothing so drastic that I didn't look like myself. I just looked like a much-improved version of myself.
My eyes had a red tint, and I had no doubt that I would be calling Tanner soon. My eyes changed color a lot depending on how I much I needed blood or not. They had turned a light brown color when I was satisfied with blood, and started turning dark brown and then red when blood was needed.
I had actually told people that I've been using colored contacts, because people were taking notice of the drastic color changes. Colored contacts seemed to fit well with my new image, because nobody questioned it.
I looked at my figure and wasn't surprised to see that had improved over the last week as well. I wasn't going to tell anyone that I had any type of surgery, but I suddenly had curves in all of the right spots, and had thinned out at the same time. I would have to have Brooke take my new measurements once we were speaking again.
I couldn't help but smile at all of these changes. I hated the burning desire for blood that made my body and head hurt so much that I'd blacked out that first day. But at least there were some fun perks that came with this transition period. I was beginning to enjoy the attention at school (and everywhere else I went) even though it had completely overwhelmed me at first.
I decided to take a shower so that I would be ready for whatever I decided to do for the day. As I got ready, I thought about how the past Saturday, I could barely put on mascara, but now I was able to make myself runway ready. I shook my head at how unbelievable my life had become in such a short period of time.
When I went downstairs for breakfast, I was surprised to see my dad in the kitchen. He always worked on Saturday mornings.
"Good morning, sunshine. What are you doing up so early?"
"I always get up earlier than Mom and Natalie on Saturdays," I told him. "What are you doing home?"
"Can't a dad stay home and enjoy his family on a Saturday?"
"Sure. But what are you doing home this morning?" I asked.
He laughed. "I know I never take a Saturday off, but I thought today would be a nice day to spend with my family. You don't have any plans do you?"
"No, but I was thinking of going for a run by the lake or maybe at the school. I need to stretch my legs."
"I would love to have lunch with all of my girls. Can you be back and ready to go to a restaurant before noon?" he asked.
"Yeah, I have plenty of time for that," I said, grabbing some cereal.
"You don't have to work at all today?" he asked.
"No, I quit because I have so much going on right now. Jennifer said that I can come back anytime, so if I need money for something it's not a big deal."
"I'm glad to hear that honey," he said, giving me a hug. "You've always worked so hard. You deserve a break."
I rolled my eyes, because he never did anything to stop me from spending all of my free time at work.
He gave me a look that only dads can give. "Honey, I've also always been extremely proud of your work ethic. You always do the right thing no matter what, and you work hard to earn what you have. That's why I've never tried to get in your way."
"I'm the son you never had."
He laughed so loud that I jumped. "That's one way to put it, Alexis. I don't think that those are male traits though. They are traits that make me proud of you."
I decided to go to the field to do my running because it was a secluded location, and I didn't want to worry about people watching me run so fast that they could barely see me. I also thought that if the running made my need for blood stronger, I would already be in a good location to call Tanner.
When I got there, I decided to practice going up and down the tree. I wasn't sure why but I felt like it was something that was important and would be needed some day. I wanted to be ready for whatever was coming my way, whether it was a battle against the Morettis or something else.
I practiced for about a half an hour and was very impressed with myself. I became quicker and more able to avoid the branches. I had gotten a few nicks and scratches the first several times, but by the end of my session, I was avoiding all of them completely.
I looked at one of the worst scratches that had bled pretty strongly and saw that it had disappeared! There was no sign that I had ever had any cut.
I could feel the beginning of my body burning. I knew exactly what that meant and wanted to see if I would be able to control it, even just a little. I would see how long I could go before calling Tanner. I began running around the field.
The running felt great, and I hoped that it would help lessen my need for blood. I ran and ran while enjoying the rush. There was no way that I would join the track team when I could run like this.
It was freedom.
Back at home, I thought about taking another shower but then realized that I hadn't even broken a sweat. I just needed to change my clothes and fix my hair. There were definite advantages to this new life.
"So where are we going?" I asked when I got downstairs. Everyone was waiting for me.
"I thought we'd try that restaurant that you guys went to for the dance," Dad said. "Does that sound good to you?"
"That's fine, if everyone wants to go there."
"Did you like it?" Mom asked.
"Yes, it was one of the best meals I've ever had." Even though the company might have had a lot to do with that.
When we got there, I noticed that the parking lot was full. "This must be a very popular restaurant. I wonder why we've never been here before as a family."
"It's pretty new," my mom replied.
When we walked, in my dad said, "Ferguson party."
We were lead to a different part of the restaurant and appeared to be going into a private room. When I went through the door, I was shocked to see so many people. Brooke, Steve, their parents Rachel and Charles, Amanda, several people that we had gone to homecoming with, some members of my CSI club, and even Cliff.
I looked at everyone in the room and back at my family, waiting for an explanation.
"Happy Birthday!" everyone shouted.
"What…?" I asked. I quickly thought about what date it was and couldn't believe it. It was my birthday, and I had completely forgotten. "I can't believe I forgot my birthday."
Everyone started laughing.
"That makes for the best surprise birthday party ever," my dad said proudly.
Once the shock wore off, I started talking with everyone and enjoying myself. I was proud of my being able to talk to everyone with such ease and not feeling uncomfortable with all of the attention.
I was glad to see that, at least for the duration of this party, Brooke was not mad at me. I wanted to be able to go back to the way it had been before. Assuming, of course, that they never again treated me like a criminal.
If I needed to, I would remind Brooke that her future queen would not take kindly to that again. I certainly didn't want to be a cruel leader, but I did want to know who was truly on my side and how people treated me during my transition period seemed like a very good indicator.
It seemed that everyone had a great time at the party, and I really enjoyed myself. It was nice to be able to celebrate my birthday with so many people who cared about me. It was also nice to see that my parents had put some effort into making me feel special for a change.
"Did you like your party?" my dad asked as we were driving home.
"Definitely. Thank you so much. I couldn't have asked for a better present."
"Even though you forgot about your birthday?" Natalie giggled.
I laughed. "That's true. Hey, where are we going? This isn't the way home."
"We have another surprise for you," my mom said.
"Another surprise? Honestly guys, the party was a good enough surprise. I don't need anything else
."
"You'll really like this," my dad said.
I started looking through the gifts that I had been given at my party. Brooke had given me a full set of makeup. Cliff had given me some gorgeous earrings that were the same color as the sapphires in my necklace. Steve and his parents had given me a book that looked like a novel, but I was sure probably wasn't. Amanda had gotten me some perfume that I had told her I loved months ago. Most of the rest of the gifts were other accessories that I could wear or use.
"We're here," my dad said, interrupting my thoughts.
I looked out the window. "What are we doing at a car dealership?"
"We want you to pick out a car," he said.
"You want me to pick out a car, a new car?"
"We would have surprised you like we did with Natalie, but your mom and I couldn't agree so we thought we'd let you choose between the two," he told me.
"She gets to pick hers out? No fair," Natalie exclaimed, but she was smiling.
We got out of the car, and my parents talked with a guy in a fancy suit, and then we walked around the building and he showed me two cars. They were both a brand new Lexus. One was a blue convertible and the other was a red sports car.
"I can't believe that I get to choose one of these," I squealed.
"Whichever one you want is yours," the suited man said.
I thought about it and decided on the convertible because I thought that would be fun. Somehow, it seemed to be the right choice.
"Let's go in and fill out the paperwork and get you your keys." We followed him inside, and while my parents filled out the paperwork, Natalie and I walked around the showroom looking at all of the cars.
They came back out, and the salesman handed me a pair of keys. "In about two weeks your personalized plate will arrive."
Personalized plate? I looked at my parents.
"Your Lexus is going to have the license plate 'Alexis.' A Lexus." Dad grinned. "How do you like that?"
I laughed. "That's awesome."