by Sasha Pruett
Chapter Sixteen
He was certain the entire conversation had already been related, possibly word for word to his father. He was counting on it. It would only add to his credibility.
“I think it went well tonight. I took her on a ‘date’, then later I slipped into her room confessing my desire to escape my situation just as planned. She refused to let me leave until she was sure I was calmer and practically made me promise to continue seeing her. Not bad for a day’s work if I do say so myself.”
“Yes, this seems very promising. Is there anything I can do to assist you my son?”
Drakon sat stoically in front of his father in the same chair as the night before. “Only your permission to increase the amount of time I spend with her.”
“I would order you to if I thought it would help. By all means, spend every minute of the day with her if it brings about the end result we want.”
“Yes father. As I said before, this is your desire and I will do what you wish. I only want to proceed in a manner you approve of.” He put just enough edge into his voice as if to say, ‘I’m only doing this because it’s my duty’.
“You would make an excellent head of our clan Drakon.”
“Thank you, father. I think if you no longer need me I’ll take off for the night.”
“Certainly, my son. Enjoy your night.”
He rose to leave then turned as if he suddenly remembered something, “Oh father, if I may inquire; has there been any idea of how she was able to become pregnant in the first place? It may help for future reference.”
“Not as yet, but I’ll let you know if anything develops.” Drake waited for his son to leave before summoning Dr. Edme. He had questions he wanted answered and he wasn’t used to waiting.
In minutes the doctor was sitting right where Drakon had been, facing the master of the house. “Dr. Edme, how is the young mother to be doing?”
“She’s doing very well Sir Drake. Very strong and healthy indeed.”
“And the child? How is the child? Any sign of its potential?”
“The pregnancy and child are progressing perfectly. Though it’s still too early to know anything more.”
“And is there any progress on determining the reason behind the girl’s ability to conceive?”
“Nothing yet my lord, but I’m working on every sample I take around the clock.”
“What about the girl’s lineage, what of her parents?”
“That’s a little difficult to ascertain sir, she was adopted.”
“What’s that to us? You know those records are nothing to us. Get them and get me some answers!” Drake slammed his fist onto the desk, but Edme didn’t even flinch.
“I’ve already done that my lord. The girl was abandoned by unknown parents. She was dropped off anonymously at a church. There were no cameras to capture the drop off and no witnesses. There is no way of tracing her family.”
“Very well.” He wasn’t happy, but only so much could be done. “Go back to your work and keep me informed. I want regular updates even if there’s nothing to report. Don’t make me have to ask again. Do you understand me?”
Dr. Edme nodded and left.
Chapter Seventeen
Millie placed the breakfast tray on the table by the large bay window in the parlour and turned to leave without a word, but Calynn called her back. She was spinning the rose that had been left between her fingers. A small simple note read, ‘Thank you for listening- D.’ it was time to play ‘Dear Millie’. So many games, so little time.
“Millie?”
“Yes mistress?”
“Please stay a minute.”
She walked back into the room without a word, demurely waiting for her mistress like a good servant.
“Millie, you said you’ve been a servant for the family for about a hundred years correct?”
“Yes miss.”
“Could you tell me something… about Drakon?”
“What would you like to know miss?”
“Well, what kind of guy is he? You said he didn’t indulge in the sacrifices. Any idea why?”
“Well miss, he’s not like the others. He doesn’t enjoy the pleasures that his siblings do. I’ve always found him more reserved. Even somewhat melancholy I’d say, that is until he met you miss.”
“Me?” She acted surprised with the news. Fake news.
“Yes, mistress. Since he met you he’s been different. I’ve never seen him in all my days spend this much time at home, but now he’s always around. He’s less rigid and formal, even calling the young Master Maximilien, Max. He seems freer somehow, maybe even happy if I do say so.”
“Really?”
“Yes, miss it’s true. I’ve never seen him touch anyone out of kindness or emotion, but with you he’s offering you his arm, holding your hand and such. You seem to have some kind of power over Master Drakon.”
Calynn stared at the rose as if trying to process this latest information, then sniffed its full aroma. The girl was laying it on a bit thick, but she let it slide. “Thank you, Millie.”
Millie noticed a smile as she left her mistress to her musings, things must be going well.
Calynn was smiling alright, just enough to give Millie a show. That was smart of Drakon to send her the rose, it afforded her the perfect opportunity to start a confidence between them. Now if they could snow everyone else as easily.
Erzsébet joined her in the studio with Delphine that afternoon, regaling them both with her latest two-day adventure in party land. Calynn played her part just as she knew she should. It wasn’t as bad as she’d first anticipated, but it was while laughing at Lizzy’s tale of a bloody fight that a knot formed in her stomach and her skin grew cold and clammy. The ease at which she could simply dismiss someone else’s pain unnerved her.
She was more excited than usual to see Drakon standing at the door for their afternoon stroll. Fortunately, that played right into the scene and no doubt Sir Drake would be hearing about her enthusiasm for the man he’s destined to be her future husband. Drakon saw her stress and drew her closer than he had intended when he took her arm, “I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind skipping the gardens today, I have a surprise planned for you?”
“A surprise huh? Will I like it?” She hoped her voice didn’t shake.
“I hope so Calynn, I truly hope so.” As they made their way down the hall she was sure she could hear Erzsébet’s muffled laughter. True to his word Drakon led her almost straight into the woods to a small grove of apple trees full of ripe delicious fruit. He’d made them a small picnic of the fresh apples and other goodies he’d brought from the house, but at the moment none of that mattered. Something was wrong with Calynn. He folded his arms around her shaking body and held her until the tremors had stopped then helped her onto the blanket. Never once, taking his eyes off of her.
“What is it Calynn, what’s wrong? Did I do something? Did they?”
“No, no it’s not something anyone did, it’s me. Everything was fine, I was fine. That rose you sent this morning, genius by the way, got Millie talking and I think I played her pretty good. Then I go up to the studio and Erzsébet’s there and we’re getting along like we’ve known each other our entire lives, like we’re best friends or something and I’m laughing at whatever she’s gotten herself into this time and then it hits me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know where the role ends and I begin. I mean, for the most part with a few exceptions, Delphine, Lizzy, Max, even Ilse they’re all perfectly normal people that I’d be friends with any day of the week, but they’re not. They’re not even people. Not like me. Sure they’re treating me like one of them, but if it wasn’t for this baby I’d be nothing more than a snack. A plaything to have fun with then leave twitching in a ditch somewhere. I’m trying not to think about it like that… I know they’re your family, but…”
“Don’t!” His voice was stern and it startled her.
“What?”
“Yes, they seem like regular people and yes, they’re probably thinking of you as a friend, but Calynn don’t ever forget what they are capable of. What they are… what I am.” He couldn’t hold her gaze any longer. “It could very well save your life. Don’t trust anyone, not even me.”
She nodded and the silence stretched into uncomfortableness, “Thank you for covering me back there.”
“I told you I’ll always be there.” Another pause.
“So a picnic, this is nice.” Time for a change in subject.
“I was going for old fashioned romance.”
“I’d say you did good.”
“Only good.”
“Well, there’s room for improvement.” Her smile found its way back, but only barely.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“How’d things go with your father last night?”
“About like I’d expected. He’s anxious to hurry things along, but I think it would look funny even to him if I walked in and announced we were engaged, no matter how soon we want to get out of here.”
“Couldn’t you just manipulate my mind or something? That would be a lot simpler wouldn’t it?”
“It doesn’t work like that. The memory is a lot easier to sway especially if it’s something you don’t want to remember. You’re too strong of a person to influence in that way. Anyway, that would be easier for my father, not for you.”
“I don’t know; if I was nothing more than a zombie I wouldn’t care one way or another would I? Besides, the mind wipe worked before.”
“That’s not the Calynn I know. What happened to the girl that wanted to go down fighting?” He held out an apple with a serving of goading.
Calynn took a deep breath and looked all around her, “She got scared for a minute, but she’s back.”
“Good, because I need her here for the moment.”
“What’s wrong?” The juice from the apple ran down her chin, but she wiped it away with barely a thought.
“It’s no secret that my father is desperate to know how you could have conceived. It’s impossible for our kinds to mix in that way. I’m not just speaking rules and laws and such I mean it is physically impossible. Or it least it has been for thousands of years, up until now. He has Dr. Edme working on it night and day. They’ve looked at everything from your family line to testing every drop of blood they possess that’s ever been taken from you.”
“Good luck, I’m adopted.” She snored. Serves them right.
“I know. I’ve been doing my own research. I don’t trust my father to tell me everything, if anything at all and if it’s something that could put you in danger or change things I want to know about it first. I’ve removed the texts relating to our race’s history to a safe location in one of my cabins so that I can look into them without them falling into the wrong hands. My father is concentrating on you physically at the moment, but with Ilse’s knack for research coupled with her natural curiosity and Rais’ desire for power it could be dangerous having the histories around. At least until I could find something myself.”
“And did you… find something?”
“I believe so yes. It goes back nearly two thousand years to the origin of sterilizing the servants or slaves in our possession.”
“Sterilization! As in…? How… why…? That’s barbaric.”
“I didn’t say that I agree with it Calynn. It’s just something that has always been done to prevent offspring and attachments and such, at least that’s what I thought. It was even before my father’s time, but in the histories I’ve discovered that the real reason the slaves and servants were sterilized. Our kind found that certain traits that were unique to us were being passed down to the children of those exposed to our serum. The elders couldn’t have a human race that possessed our abilities, even limited ones. So the children were destroyed and sterilization was implemented.”
“What are you saying Drakon? It was the serum?”
“No that can’t be it. That serum has been administered for thousands of years without it affecting any human like this and the doses you were given are only traces. Minimal at best, it can’t be responsible. I believe the answer may lie in the generations before the mandatory sterilization, in your ancestry.”
The lightbulb went off as Calynn understood what Drakon was saying. “You think I might be a descendant of those that were passing on those genes, don’t you? That I might have some of your blood in me?”
Drakon nodded.
She wanted to collapse, good thing she was already sitting down.
“Have you told your father?”
“No, and for now I’m not going to, but I wanted you to know. I didn’t want it to be a shock when you found out.”
“Won’t the doctor discover it in my blood?”
“Eventually yes, it depends on how strong the genetic sequence is.”
“So, what does all this mean? What am I, some kind of mutant?”
Drakon scooted over to her and took her in his arms, “Not at all. You’re human, a very special human who turns out is even more special now. Come on let’s eat, I did go to the trouble of making you this wonderful picnic and you’ve only taken one bite so far.”
She had a lot on her mind, but the food helped. Finally, her curiosity got the better of her and she had to ask, “So Drakon, what exactly can you do? Your abilities? I know your hearing is super sharp and I’m guessing by the comments that you have the ability to travel very far very fast. Even more so than that day you caught me. Oh, and then there’s the memory wiping, but what else can you do?”
“Well, that depends. We’re not born wielding any powers or anything. We have to learn how to use them, how to develop them. It would be a bit of a headache for the parents if their children could do at birth what we can do in our adulthood. It also depends on the bloodline as well. I belong to one of the three main clans; our bloodline is one of the stronger ones so we have more abilities than most.”
“Which is?”
“For one, I have the ability to alter memories as well as my parents and siblings, but only about a third of our race can. We all have the ability run at great speeds, fast enough to cross bodies of water on foot. Our hearing is sharp enough to listen in on words whispered halfway across our house. We can see in the dark and at great distances, our strength is more than enough to make the world weight lifting champions look like sissies, and so on. Most of it focuses on the senses, to make us the ultimate hunter, but many of our abilities are limited to the hours between sundown and sunrise. They’re still strong, but greatly reduced during the day.”
“Okay, so if you’ve run to Spain for the night, you’d have to wait to come back until the next night?”
“You got it. In fact, had you gotten through the trees that first day we may have lost you.”
“But not for long. That dog creature of yours found me once. I have no doubt it would have been waiting for me on my door step when I finally made it back and you wouldn’t have been far behind. One of them follows us every time we set one foot outside and I’m willing to bet it’s not you that thing is following.”
“Ah yes, you figured that out huh?”
“I know your family wouldn’t want any loose strings. Either I returned with you or… well either way I didn’t stand a chance.”
“Look at it like this, you’re the only one I know of that sensed us and gave us a good run for our money.”
“If only I’d sensed that sooner. Neither of us would be in this mess and my parents wouldn’t be going out of their minds for the rest of their lives never knowing what happened to me.” She took a deep breath and pulled herself together. “Go down fighting; right?”
“That’s my girl. Now, what do you want to do tonight?”
“I figured you had something planned.”
“I do, but I still wanted to see if you had anything in mind. No reason why you can’t choose something you’d enjoy.”
“What I’d like to do is get out of here
for a while. Maybe sit and drink a cup of coffee and just watch the people go by. Or go down by the river where there’s that little waterfall and watch the squirrels run around. All those little things I miss, but that’s not going to happen so it’s best not to dwell. Besides it’s not forever, that’s what all this is about right?”
“You’ll be back doing all those things you love Calynn, I promise. One way or another you’ll have a life of your own again.”
“I’ll hold you to that you know.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”
Chapter Eighteen
The two decided on a private dinner and a movie, then after he took her back to her door he’d sneak back in for another not so secret meeting. They spent the night cuddling close, holding each other’s hands, being playful and shy all while attempting not to be caught by anyone. They felt silly at times, but you do what you’ve got to do; all the while he was putting a plan into action and by the time he was sitting in his father’s study reporting on his progress he’d worked the whole thing out.
“Father, I have a plan that should bring Calynn into a deeper state of affection and make her indebted to me at the same time.”
“By all means go on.”
“I would like your permission to take her off the estate one night. My breaking the rules and incurring the possible wrath of the head of the House of Drake just to give her a night of normalcy should solidify her trust in me and even intensify the feelings she’s developing for me.”
“Granted, I believe that would be very beneficial indeed. Tomorrow is fine.” Drake was willing to concede to almost anything if it would bring this to the end he desired and quickly.