The room was a mix of both supernatural and human life congregating together, with only one side knowing the other side of the family as being different. This included my Aunty Libby and Uncle Frank, with my cousin Ella running riot in between everyone’s legs. Even to this day my Aunty Libby had no idea of what her sister had become or what life she had married into. This would have also included Ella too, had it not been for me sneaking into Jared’s fight club and her following me that night when I was sixteen.
Gods, but just looking at her now and she had been such a cute kid, and it was no surprise that she had turned into such a beauty, considering how beautiful her mother was. Jared Cerberus most certainly had his hands full there, that was for damn sure. Because he may have been King of the Hellbeasts, but there was no claiming her spirit and expecting to rule over it.
I took in the rest of the room and it looked as though everyone was there, minus the Hellbeast himself. But the rest of the Kings were there, looking as handsome and as striking as always. Along with the timeless beauty that was my Aunty Sophia and the mad beauty in Aunty Pip, who was dressed like a kid’s Bunny Rabbit. It also had a flap at her butt that whenever it popped open it showed a little naked bum, one that Adam continued to rebutton for her, making her giggle as she wiggled making the task difficult.
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of my family, all gathered to celebrate my birth, missing them now so much that I felt the empty pain of it in my chest. Which was why it was no wonder I could feel tears in my eyes, as I was obviously crying back at the Temple. It was just such a beautiful sight, and one that made me feel so loved it was like a rush of emotions had just hit me. A flash of visions of my very own, and each one making me feel blessed despite all my bitterness at being different.
Because each person there meant so much to me and just looking at the little baby in my mother’s arms, I knew just how lucky she was to have so many people who loved her. To have so many who were willing to lay down their lives in protecting her.
In fact, it made me feel ashamed that I had run from them all, knowing how worried they would be. I shouldn’t have done that. I should have handled it better. I should have stayed like Lucius had said. I should have shouted, I should have screamed and fought for my answers and reasons…I should have stayed and listened.
And right in that moment, I wanted to see my mother so badly that it hurt. Because one look in those stunning eyes of hers as she looked down at me and I knew that I must have been mistaken somehow. No-one could do that to someone they loved as much as my mother loved me.
But now was not the time for that vision.
No, first it was time to witness something else entirely.
Because there in the corner, watching all this, was the one man I had given my heart to, despite all the hurt he had caused. Hurt that just kept coming and in this moment, it was the root of it all. It was time for the truth he had been terrified of telling me. And who could blame him, when he had been the cause of my humanity, stealing away my birthright of an eternal life with those I loved.
A royal bloodline I had been entitled to receive.
But just the sight of him and I found myself gasping. He looked more formidable than I was used to seeing him. This then prompted the natural question to ask myself… Had I been the one to change him?
Because this way he seemed more edgy, as if at the ready for action, not some baby celebration. He wore dark jeans, a burgundy t-shirt and a leather biker jacket, as if he didn’t intend to stay long, just enough time to give his mandatory congratulations. It was clear he was uncomfortable being there and the tense fist of his gloved hand was making it obvious only to those like me who were taking the time to look closely. Me, and my mother, who looked up and sought him out in the crowded room. Then, when it was safe to do so, without making it obvious, she met his eyes as Lucius was now staring back at her and she smiled as he bowed his head in return.
In fact, he reminded me very much as he had that night. The one when I had foolishly entered his club believing it might have been the start of something new and exciting, seeing as even then I had been convinced we were meant to be together. That we were destined by the Fates and I was his Chosen One. I had believed this was something he would have recognised instantly, but how wrong I had been. Of course, since then I knew the truth. I knew that he had discovered me being his fated one long before I had. And now, I was about to discover why he’d fought against it for as long as he had.
I then watched as my mother reached up, kissed my father’s cheek and left him to continue his conversation with my Uncle Frank, telling him that she was going to put the baby down. Then she walked over to where Lucius was stood, a bottle of beer casually held in one hand, his gloved one tapping behind him on the dark panelled wall at his back. This was when my vision shifted, taking me closer to them both until I was stood next to what was obviously my crib.
“So, you’re a mother now,” Lucius said in an easy tone that looked forced to me. My mum laughed once as she placed my sleeping form down in the crib that was near where he stood.
“Yeah, although I think the usual response here is to offer congratulations.”
“Mazel Tov,” Lucius replied just as he touched the bottle of his beer to his lips and then took a swig.
“That would be great if I was Jewish and all, but hey, I guess I will take what I can get.” He winked at her in reply making her roll her eyes, telling me where I got that sassy response from.
“Shoot, I forgot her nappy bag, hey can you just watch her a sec,” my mum said making him frown instantly before snapping,
“Do I look like a fuc…”
“Hey, watch the language, buddy! Now all you have to do is coo at her if she wakes, it’s not saving the world, Luc!” my mum snapped after first smacking him on the arm to stop him from swearing, then she said,
“I have faith in you…oh, that’s her name by the way, in case you wondered… Amelia Faith Draven.” Lucius scoffed a laugh making my mum put her hands to her hips and said,
“What?”
“Nothing, now go get your shit bag,” he said making my mum huff before going to do just that. Then I watched as Lucius eyed me suspiciously. Even as he took another swig of his beer, his eyes watched me with a frown. Then I started to wake, and I couldn’t help but smirk at the same time Lucius did when the baby me burped.
“Cute,” he admitted on a laugh, making me smile as he actually decided to take more notice of me. He finished his bottle before putting it down on a side table and decided to come closer to me as I started fussing more.
“Who would name their kid ‘work’ in Latin? Although, with a father like Dom, then that’s exactly what it will be for you, kid, and having Faith won’t hurt either. Well, at least being cute will go a long way with this lot,” he said scoffing another laugh and I had to say I was shocked that this had been our first conversation.
“Shame you’re human, ‘cause not gonna lie, kid, that shit is gonna get harder when you’re older. If I were you, I would think about becoming a nun.” Lucius laughed at his own joke, meanwhile I nearly choked on the irony of it all! But then, it also meant that like everyone else, at this point he thought I was human, which made me have to question why, if I wasn’t?
But then I started squirming more and he shot me an irritated look before rolling his eyes and telling me,
“Aww, come on, kid, I wasn’t exactly made for this shit, you know. Can’t you just wait until your mother comes back or something?” I obviously wasn’t ready to do that and started crying more, making him turn to me and mutter,
“I’m a fucking Vampire King for Devil’s sake, not a fucking nanny!” But then I started trying to reach out for him and again the irony wasn’t lost on me.
“Alright, fine, you’ve got my attention, but I am not picking you up or any shit like that,” he said putting his gloved hand in my crib and I swear my mouth dropped open in utter shock as he started tickling my belly, making me gi
ggle and smile as I looked up at him.
“Well, it’s got to be said, you sure do have pretty eyes…even prettier than your mother’s but ssshh, don’t tell her I said that,” he said softly making my heart melt at just how sweet he was being to me as a baby. Even though admittedly, it was all a bit strange. But before I could dwell on this thought too long, something started to happen that made him frown down at me before muttering,
“What’s this?” I looked down to see what he was seeing and my eyes widened just the same. Because I had started glowing, with my skin looking as if it had just been dusted in the sunrays breaking through the clouds. Like a golden hue that illuminated my body and Lucius looked up, obviously about to tell someone. But then this was when my tiny baby hand suddenly reached up and grabbed his glove before tugging at it. His eyes went back to inside the crib and quickly they widened in shock as he discovered what else was different about me.
“No…no, no… it can’t…can’t be possible?” he questioned as he pulled his gloved fingers free of my tiny grasp and used one of them to open my mouth. My gummed little mouth started sucking on his leather clad finger as if he was trying to find something there. What had he been looking for…surely not…fangs?
Either way, he released a relieved sigh when he saw nothing, but then he looked up obviously wanting to tell my mother about my glowing skin, when suddenly he hissed in shock…and he wasn’t the only one, as I looked down to see that I had bitten him!
But not just that, I now had little fangs and had bitten him so hard with them that it had gone straight through his glove and into the hand he always kept hidden.
“Gods, no!” he hissed in fear, but it was too late!
The deed had been done as my glowing skin started to travel up my body and straight into his hand, one I now held to my mouth and was feeding from, as I was actually sucking at the infected blood on his hand. It only took seconds for two things to happen, one of which was him ripping his hand free of my hold and the second, was that for him to realise that it had been too late. Because the glow on my skin was soon gone, along with the fangs.
The baby me then burst into tears, screaming now in what sounded like baby agony, making Lucius stumble back a step before looking down at the black blood seeping from his hand and the tear in the leather.
“Lucius, what happened?” my mum said coming to pick me up, looking no different to how she had put me down, only now I was in tears.
“She started crying, he said in a tense tone after first fisting his hand and hiding the evidence of what had just happened by his side.
“Is that all? Well, yeah, she is probably just hungry,” my mum replied, as she cooed at me to calm down and walked back to where my dad was with me in her arms. My dad looked over with a brief moment of concern on his face.
However, Lucius turned his back on them both and after looking down at his hand once more in utter shock, he muttered a horrified,
“Yes, I think she was hungry.”
Chapter 7
Order of Forgiveness
I swear if I’d had my body with me, I would have fallen to the floor in utter shock. I just couldn’t believe it! I was so stunned, my mind was stuck on the jumble of questions and none of them felt as if they made any sense. Because it hadn’t been Lucius’ fault after all. No, he had merely wanted to protect me from the truth.
A truth that had meant only one thing…
This had all been my fault.
Alright, so I had been a baby at the time, but I had been the one to bite him! I had been the one to lose that part of my soul to him and he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to stop it…or fix it. I knew this when the next part of my vision began to come into focus and pretty soon it started to knit together twenty seven years of reasons why.
It started with Lucius in his office and he wasn’t alone. Adam was in there with him and in that particular moment in time, it quickly became obvious that he was trying to calm Lucius down.
“How the fuck did this fucking happen!?” he roared and grabbed the nearest thing to him, which happened to be a bottle of whisky, and threw it until it smashed into the wall opposite his desk.
“Luc, you need to calm down.”
“Calm down! Are you fucking shitting me? How the fuck can I calm down, I stole part of the girl’s soul for fuck sake!” Lucius roared again making Adam release a sigh before replying with an obvious statement,
“It was not as if you planned it.”
“Oh, so that makes it okay does it, when I go to Keira and tell her that the reason her child is fucking human and no doubt facing a lifetime of danger, a life, that I might add, will be considerably shorter now, that it’s okay because I didn’t fucking plan it!?” he snapped making Adam shrug his shoulders and say,
“No, I just wouldn’t say anything.” I sucked in a surprised breath. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That it was my Uncle Adam who was the one to advise this and I wasn’t the only one who looked shocked.
“What the fuck are you suggesting, Adam, that I don’t tell them at all!?” Lucius’ tone said it all. In return, Adam released a heavy sigh and rubbed a hand at the back of his neck in frustration before telling him,
“What good would telling them do, Luc?” Lucius growled low in reply but Adam ignored it and added,
“Think about it, it’s not like anything can be done right now and you would gain nothing by telling them, not when it would more than likely start another war between you and an ally, one that I will remind you, has only just been healed.” Luc scoffed at this and said,
“War or not, I accept what I did and if it causes a…”
“What she did, Luc… not you.” Adam interrupted but Lucius slashed an angry hand through the air before telling him,
“She is a fucking baby, she can hardly be held accountable here!”
“That may be so, but neither can you, for it is not as though you expected that to happen.” Adam pointed out and I had to agree with most of what he was saying. Okay, so keeping that type of thing from my parents was hard to accept as being the right thing to do, or condone, but his reasons for suggesting it were also hard to argue against. What I most definitely did agree with was that Lucius wasn’t at fault here, yet the way he blamed himself was heartbreaking to see.
“I doubt Dom would fucking see it like that when he is trying to kill me with his bare hands,” Lucius said dryly.
“Something we know he can’t do seeing as now it would not only kill his Chosen One but also his daughter.” Lucius hissed through his teeth as this thought only just came to him thanks to Adam thinking clearly.
“She is now linked to your life as much as Keira is, no doubt even more so and that is something no-one will be able to overlook, including Dom, should he ever find out.”
“Then you are right, there really would be no good to come from telling him…fuck!” Lucius admitted hissing the curse at the end more to himself.
“Not when it has taken this long for all the Kings to finally come together and work as one. For you and Dom both know the lengths it has taken in the past to even try and get it to this point. You can’t jeopardize that now…you know you can’t,” Adam said and it was easy to see why he was Lucius’ voice of reason and right hand man. The respect Lucius had for his honesty could be seen from across the room, despite his lingering anger.
One that erupted again.
“Gods in fucking Hell! How the fuck did this happen!?” Lucius asked now dragging a hand down his face before grabbing a glass of whisky that had survived and knocking it back in one.
“I am not exactly sure, seeing as everyone assumed she was merely born human.” I frowned at this and I wasn’t the only one as Lucius snapped,
“She was fucking human, Adam… even I saw that!”
“Then what happened?”
“I don’t fucking know! Just one second she was human, and then I touched her, and something started to happen. It was as if another side of her was suddenly be
ing called to the surface.”
“Your presence clearly triggered something.” Lucius growled at this assumption before snapping,
“Yes, but why!? I have nothing to do with the girl!” I flinched at the disdain in his voice, forcing myself to remember that at this point I would have been nothing but a new hindrance for him to deal with.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” Adam muttered, but Lucius naturally heard it and his tone said it all…he hadn’t liked it.
“And just what do you fucking mean by that?!” Adam released a sigh, one that no doubt silently asked for patience and told him,
“You’re the first Vampire of your kind, an entire race of beings all connected with you as their King, they each have your blood, Luc.”
“What’s your fucking point here, Adam?” he barked,
“She was not connected to you through blood, she wasn’t made. She was born that way and I don’t need to point out to you that not a single being can claim the same. Not a single one of us has been born into our vessel as a Vampire, Demon or Angel,” Adam said and Lucius was left digesting the words with a harsh, stern look upon his face. Then, once again, he was left with no other option than to listen further.
“Keira gave birth to three souls, two of which are being kept safe until their Chosen vessels come of age. But this child, Amelia, is different, she is the only one. Now we have to ask ourselves why…why was she born this way?” Lucius finally stopped pacing and deflated into a chair and the frustration of all these questions mounting up was easy to see was taking its toll on him.
Meanwhile, I was in utter shock at all that I was hearing.
I was the only one?
“I don’t know why, but I know that she was not only born a Vampire,” Lucius admitted, making Adam’s eyes widen before he raised a brow in question.
“What do you mean?” Lucius released a heavy sigh and again dragged a hand down his face before telling him,
Kingdoms Of Hell: Vampire Paranormal Romance (Transfusion Book 7) Page 6