The smell of spilled blood reaches my nose. I’m getting close to the thinnest part of the veil separating our worlds, so I conceal myself as I cross the invisible barrier.
I come up on a hill, and in the valley below, I see the troops of the two opposing Blueblood royal houses. Raphael’s and Tatiana’s forces. I don’t know why the war between them started, but it’s only getting bloodier and more destructive. My mother and the royals from other Nightingale realms are mostly displeased with how their creation is behaving. They won’t let it go on for much longer, and when they make a decision, it will be devastating.
Squinting my eyes, I search the battlefield, looking for the person who, despite not knowing me, gave me the courage to disobey my mother’s orders. Lucca Della Morte, King Raphael’s nephew. I have never been brave enough to reveal myself to him. But knowing that the Nightingale Royal Council is about to punish all vampires finally gave me the push I needed.
There can never be anything between us. The Nightingale Royal Council was clear when they created the first vampires. We’re forbidden to them. But they never said I couldn’t warn Lucca of what’s to come.
When I finally find him, my stomach drops through the earth. He’s on his back, and there are several arrows sticking out of his chest. I don’t see any of his friends nearby, but the enemy is coming for him. I become nothing but air and zoom across the distance, materializing in front of Lucca in the next second. The vampire soldier who was running toward him slows down when he sees me there. He’s not a Blueblood, but he knows what I am.
I raise my hands, and the ground beneath his feet vanishes. He disappears through the hole, and then I close the gap, burying him alive. When I turn around, Lucca is no longer lying still. He’s back on his feet, swinging his sword left and right, hacking at the enemy.
A rough hand clutches my arm, pivoting me around. “What the hell are you doing here, Vryenn?”
I pull my arm free from Rikkon’s grasp. “I came to warn King Raphael of what Mother is planning to do.”
“Liar. You came because you’re in love with the vampire prince.” My brother pierces me with his unyielding stare.
I clamp my jaw shut. There’s no point in denying it. Rikkon knows me too well.
“We have to go before Mother finds out you crossed the veil,” he continues.
“There are other Nightingales on this side. Why can’t I stay?”
“Because you’re Queen Maewe’s daughter. Your place is in Ellnesari.”
Rikkon’s image becomes distorted, and then I’m in a different place without him. I’m lying on my back, staring at a pitch-black sky. Lucca is with me. He’s drinking from me, but I don’t have any strength to say a word. I feel my life force ebb away. Darkness begins to pull me in again. Not much longer now.
“You will not defy me again, Vryenn! You’re a daughter of the House of Gael.”
“Mother, I beg you. Don’t do this. Not all vampires are bad. King Raphael and his followers are still trying to do the right thing. It’s Tatiana who has gone mad.”
“Silence! The decision has been made. We will seal the veil to the mortal lands and take our magic with it.”
“Then I’m not staying in Ellnesari.”
Thunder echoes not far from us. It’s the sound of my mother’s rage.
Her eyes are sparkling with fury as she walks closer to me. “Are you willing to turn your back on your own people to stay with those beasts?”
“If they’re beasts, you made them so,” I spit back.
She moves her arm brusquely, sending me flying across the throne room. I hit a crystal panel, shattering it to pieces. Little fragments puncture my skin, but they don’t draw blood. Shaking my head, I get back on my feet, keeping the glower aimed at her.
“Mother, please. Let’s all calm down.” Rikkon gets in between us.
“I’m calm and clearheaded. The one who is confused is your sister.”
“I’m not confused.” I raise my chin. “If you seal all the portals, I’m staying in the mortal lands.”
My mother’s face twists into an ugly mask of hatred. For the first time in my long existence, I’m taking a stand against her.
“If you stay behind, you will have nothing, no family name and no powers. You will live forever as a miserable human who can’t die.”
There’s a sudden dagger slowly piercing my chest. The pain is sharp and excruciating.
“You can’t take away her powers. She’ll go mad,” Rikkon interjects.
“It’s her choice.”
My stomach feels like lead, and the invisible dagger is now deep in my chest. Queen Maewe thinks I’m going to bend to her will, but I guess she’s underestimated me.
“I’d rather live for all eternity, powerless, than spend another minute in your presence.”
“Vryenn, no. Don’t do it,” Rikkon begs me.
“Silence! It’s obvious she has made her decision. Vryenn is hereby banished from Ellnesari. Forever.”
Rikkon’s cerulean-blue eyes become brighter as the tears gather in them. He glances at the queen—I refuse to call her my mother now—and then, in a surprising move, he stands next to me.
“If you banish Vryenn, then you have to banish me too.”
Lucca
Blood has memory, and I see it all. Vivienne is not only a Nightingale, she’s also Maewe’s heir. I live through her memories, shocked to discover she had been in my life before and I didn’t know.
I watch her struggle in the first decades of her banishment, having to move from town to town in order to hide the fact that she didn’t age. And Rikkon, the brother who is now a shell of the male he used to be, sticking by her side through it all. He, too, had been stripped of his powers, and slowly, he lost his mind.
If I thought the punishment the Nightingales bestowed upon my kind was harsh, it doesn’t compare to what Maewe did to her own children. Only a heartless creature would do that. They suffered when their mortal friends grew old and died. They spent years living as beggars.
Why didn’t they come to us? My uncle wouldn’t have turned his back on them.
In the end, Rikkon was the one who procured the charms. He convinced Vivi that it would be easier if they forgot who they were. He even changed their family name from Gael to Gale. It didn’t work. It only made it worse. It not only took away their memories of who they were, it also gave them messed up new ones.
I catch a glimpse of Vivienne’s first vampire attack. She wasn’t younger, as she believes, and it wasn’t her mother who sold her. The woman was a human trafficker. If Rikkon hadn’t gone berserk and killed the vampire, the worst would have happened.
And now, I’m killing her, thanks again to Maewe’s cruel games. My head is screaming at me to stop. My heart is bleeding, dying with each gulp of Vivienne’s blood I swallow. Her heartbeat is slowing down. She will die because, Nightingale or not, she can’t survive if I drink her dry.
I’m pulled again into one of her memories. She came to see me soon after I was cursed. I was mourning my mother’s death. I was beside myself. I called her kind the most atrocious things. I had so much hate in my heart. Now, I know why she never came to us for help.
She defied her mother; she left her entire world behind because she loved me. And this is how I’m repaying her? By letting her mother win again?
No! Maewe will not take Vivi from me too.
“No!” I scream from the top of my lungs, and it echoes in the dark forest.
I stop feeding.
My breathing is coming out in bursts, and my head is fuzzy, but one thing is glaring. The hunger is gone.
My heart stops beating for a second, and then it accelerates to a hundred.
Vivi.
Her eyes are closed, and her face is terribly pale. I pull her into my arms, pressing my ear against her chest, searching for a heartbeat. At first, there’s nothing.
She’s dead. I killed her.
Then how come I’m still here and not being dragged th
rough the pits of hell? No. This is a far worse punishment.
I curl my hands around her jacket, hugging her limp body tighter.
A thump. Then another one. I don’t dare to breathe. Her heart is beating softly, but it’s there.
“Vivi, my love.” I touch her cheek. “Wake up.”
Her eyelids twitch, and then she blinks her eyes open. “Lucca?”
I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. “It’s me, darling.”
“You’re alive,” she says in awe.
“Yeah. I am now.”
I crush my lips to hers, pouring every emotion swirling in my chest into that kiss. I give my all, and Vivienne does the same.
“Please don’t ever leave me again,” I breathe out.
“Are you crazy? I’ve been in love with you for centuries. Now that I have you, I’m not ever letting you go.”
“You remember then?”
“I think breaking your curse also broke the memory spell.”
I trace her face with the tips of my fingers, almost not daring to believe she’s real. “I love you.”
She closes her eyes, letting out a loud exhale. Two fat tears roll down her cheeks. “I’ve been waiting a long time to hear you say that.”
“You’d better get used to it because I won’t get tired of repeating it for all eternity.”
The sound of running feet breaks our tender moment. I jump to my feet, pulling Vivienne with me. I’m ready to dispatch any new threat to hell with fangs bared and claws out. But then I catch their scents.
Manu and Ronan appear in the clearing, reminding us that breaking the curse isn’t our only problem.
“Oh my God. You’re okay.” Manu reaches us first, stepping right over Boone’s corpse.
“You need to come with us right now,” Ronan says.
“What happened? Is it Rikkon?” Vivi asks.
“It’s your friend Vaughn,” Manu says with a hint of regret in her eyes. “He doesn’t have much time.”
40
Vivienne
Lucca needs to carry me all the way to where Vaughn is since I’m a powerless immortal and too slow. If Mom Dearest hadn’t taken away my powers, I could have turned into the wind and flown at the speed of light myself. But I don’t have time to dwell on bitterness now when my friend is lying in a pool of his own blood, dying before my eyes.
Aurora is crouched next to him, and a quick once-over doesn’t show any serious visible wounds on her, only a few scratches. Rikkon is leaning against a tree, clutching his arm, which has a makeshift bandage stained with blood. Other than that, I don’t see any other obvious injuries. It seems he and Aurora got lucky, not poor Vaughn though.
I drop next to him, taking his hand in mine, and try not to stare at the open gash on his abdomen or the guts spilling out of it.
“Vaughn, how are you holding up?” I ask.
“He’s not in pain anymore,” Aurora says. “At least that much I could do for him.”
He turns to me and smiles despite his cracked lips. “Vivi. You’re all right.”
“I’m fine, hon. And you will be too. The ambulance will be here at any minute.”
Two more people join us, Karl and Cheryl, running here as wolves and shifting just before they walk the final distance to us. Karl pushes his hair back, staring at Vaughn with a look of pure anguish that quickly morphs into anger.
“Oh my God.” Cheryl covers her mouth with her hands, tears already spilling down her cheeks.
I was trying to keep my own tears at bay, but I’m not that strong.
“Hey, why are you all crying? I’m gonna be fi—” He coughs up blood, and I can’t look anymore.
I stare at the bloodied ground, choking on a sob.
“One of you bloodsuckers, do something!” Cheryl yells.
“What do you want us to do, Cheryl?” Ronan asks, frustrated.
“Turn him.”
I glance at Lucca, knowing very well they don’t have that power anymore. Guilt flashes in his eyes even though he shouldn’t feel that way. It’s not his fault they lost the ability. It’s my mother’s.
“You have to try!” Cheryl insists.
“You don’t even know if Vaughn wants to be turned,” Rikkon interjects, openly glowering at her.
“Am I dying?” Vaughn asks.
“Yes,” Aurora replies. “I’m sorry.”
He closes his eyes for a second. “I’m not ready to go. I can’t leave my mom and my sisters behind. They need me.”
“I’ll do it.” Lucca steps forward.
“Luc.” Manu’s tone is reproaching. “You know that’s not possible anymore.”
“If anyone here has a chance of succeeding, it’s me,” he argues.
Aurora scooches out of the way, and Lucca takes her place. He bites his own wrist, slashing a vein open. Dark blood quickly pours out of the gash, dripping on Vaughn’s torn-up shirt.
“You need to drink this.” He places his wrist over Vaughn’s lips. “Take as much as you can.”
Vaughn can barely pull anything at first, but as Lucca’s blood enters his system, he begins to gain strength. He sucks harder and harder to the point that Lucca twists his face into a grimace. Vaughn’s appearance gradually begins to lose the gaunt mask of death, and the open wound in his abdomen begins to heal.
“Oh my God. I can’t believe this.” Manu’s jaw drops.
When Vaughn’s green eyes turn crimson, Lucca pulls away, pressing his arm against his chest. The silence is absolute. Even the forest seems to grow quieter. Everyone is staring at Vaughn. He sits up slowly, checking his abs and arms in complete awe. But suddenly, his body becomes tense. He peels his lips back, displaying his new set of fangs.
Lucca moves in a blur, pulling me away from Vaughn, while Ronan, Saxon, and Manu jump on him just as he is about to attack Aurora.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Bloodlust. All new vampires suffer through it.”
Vaughn hisses and thrashes on the ground, trying to break free. Aurora jumps to her feet. She’s clutching a stone in her hand now, and her eyes are doing the strange glowing thing.
“On the count of three, stay clear of Vaughn,” she warns.
“Are you crazy? We can’t let him go. He’ll attack you,” Saxon retorts.
“Let him go. I know what I’m doing. Ready? One, two, three. Now!”
At once, Saxon, Manu, and Ronan jump off Vaughn. He leaps onto his feet like a deranged animal, snarling and ready to make a meal out of someone. Aurora hits him square on his chest with a shining energy ball, sending him back onto the ground.
“Shit! What did you do to him?” Cheryl runs to check on our friend. “He’s out cold.”
“I had to get him out of commission. I might not have seen a recently turned vampire before, but I’ve read about them. They’re at their strongest during the first hours.”
“We could have held him,” Saxon complains.
“For how long? Besides, he needs to get blood into his system pronto and not from a live being. Do you see any blood bags lying around?” She opens her arms in a grand gesture.
Now that Vaughn has been subdued, the coin finally drops.
I turn in Lucca’s arms, capturing his gaze in mine. “You did it. You made a new vampire. What do you think that means?”
41
Lucca
No good deed goes unpunished. I broke the curse, saved Vivienne’s and her friend Vaughn’s lives, and all the fucking Bloodstone Council is concerned about is the repercussion of me killing Boone in self-defense. I’ve been standing under their scrutiny for over an hour, first recounting the events repeatedly until they were sure there were no holes in my story. And now, I have to endure them arguing about what to do with Vaughn. It’s already daytime, and I’m about to collapse from exhaustion.
Plus, Vivienne is waiting for me, and I’d much rather spend the day with her than with those three stooges in front of me. I suppose I should be grateful that Jacques is no longer allowe
d on the premises.
“Fine. We all agree we won’t disclose that Vaughn is a newly turned vampire for now,” Solomon says.
“That’s the wisest choice. We don’t want to give false hopes that vampires suddenly have the power to turn humans again and end up with a killing spree on our hands,” Morgan adds.
I have no arguments against that decision. Humans can only be turned if they’re on the brink of death. We haven’t been able to turn humans in so long, I’m sure there would be a surge in attempts.
Isadora meets my gaze. “You’d better not try to turn any other human, Lucca. It’s possible your ability was a one-time occurrence.”
“Trust me, I have no intention of making new vampires. Can I go now?”
There’s a three-way glance among Solomon, Morgan, and Isadora.
Then, Solomon replies, “Yes, you may return to your apartment, but don’t go anywhere outside of Bloodstone grounds. We all know Boone’s death was deserved and warranted, but Jacques won’t let it go without trying something.”
“I didn’t break the Accords. He can’t go after my uncle’s crown.”
“That doesn’t matter to Jacques,” Isadora replies.
“If he wants to restart a war, I’m more than ready for it.”
Morgan shakes her head. “You might be willing to return to the age of blood and ruin, but most of our kind is not. Remember that.”
I clamp my jaw shut, swallowing the angry retort on the tip of my tongue. I don’t want to waste another hour engaging in a pointless argument. There will be plenty of time for that in the future.
The institute is deserted at this hour. Every single vampire in residence is in their dorms or apartments. I head straight to Vivi’s, hoping Manu is not there or is at least in her bedroom. My wish is granted when I find the living room deserted. My heart begins to thump faster in giddy anticipation when I smell Vivienne’s unique scent and don’t go crazy with hunger. The curse is truly broken.
Dark Prince: A Vampire Paranormal Romance (Blueblood Vampires Book 1) Page 22