Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) (27 page)

“
Rillae,
shut up!” Ethan commanded around his pizza.

Maybe it would have
sounded more intimidating if the pizza hadn’t caused him to
lisp. Nicole was the first to start laughing, followed closely by me,
Chloe and Rillae. We laughed so hard that we were in tears. To be
fair, the boys had no idea how to handle us and were afraid of
stepping out of line.

After the laughter
subsided, I turned to Rillae and recounted the events that led me to
where we were. Each of the Fare listened intently to my story and
shook their heads when I finished. I wanted them to look at my entire
life and not just the ‘Royal Vampire’ part. It meant a
lot that they respect me for my character and not my station in this
new life of mine.

Chapter 20

We stayed up talking
until the wee hours of the morning brought Stewards to escort the
boys to different sleeping chambers. Had Chloe and I both been
Embraced at that point, the Stewards would have simply let them stay
due to the nutritional relationship that Fare have with their
patrons. I wasn’t sure if it was Efia who wanted to separate
Chloe and Landon last night, but everyone had seen the way that they
were looking at one another.

We learned that
Lucinda, a member of Landon’s family, was the product of a
pre-Embraced Vampire and her Fare. Their grandmother had been days
away from her Embrace when she was discovered to be with child. Her
Fare begged her not to lie about the child and that he would gladly
die for the love of both of them. The woman told her parents that she
was in love with her Fare and would follow him to the grave if they
killed him. That was how she came to be the matriarch of a Lower
Caste Fare family. They were one of very few Fare families with
Vampire ancestors and yet they were treated like the scourge of the
Earth.

Curiosity made me
wonder which Vampire family Lucinda was related to and if their blood
would be more potent than other Fare. The longer I thought about
Lucinda’s blood the more my mouth began to water. Just a few
short weeks away from my Embrace and I was acting more and more like
the Vampire Efia believed I would be. I had put my power on display,
even if it was in the defense of a Fare, and I was craving blood.

Closing my eyes in an
attempt to shake off the thirst and clear my head, I heard rather
than saw someone else enter the room. Chloe and I were lying on the
couch in front of the fireplace and our female Fare had curled up
together in an oversized reclining chair, leaving on recliner empty
until then. A pair of man's legs were rocking the chair in long
smooth motions. Slowly lifting my head, I found Solomon looking right
at me. He was supposed to be in the Steward quarters so his presence
here was ominous. My movement awoke the other sleeping girls and we
all waited for Solomon to speak.

“
What’s
wrong?” I prompted when he remained silent.

“
Efia
would like you to get ready to depart. Grigor has found and killed a
blood descendant.”

We all sat there and
let Solomon’s words sink in. Since Grigor discovered the
potency of our family’s blood was at its peak when we were 18,
he had stopped killing anyone much younger or older than that. The
younger descendants would simply be held until they ‘ripened’
and the older ones would be used for snack-food and breeding. The
reality that the dead descendant must have been close to my age hit
both me and Chloe at the same time. She had a stream of tears falling
down her face as her body shook with silent sobs. Her Fare, Nicole,
moved to hug her, but comfort was not what Chloe wanted; it was in
her eyes. Behind the sadness and the fear, Chloe was angry and wanted
revenge; a very potent and very dangerous combination.

With a slight nod of
acknowledgment, Solomon stood to leave. He called out to someone once
he reached the door and six female Stewards marched into the room.
Three of them began cleaning while the others started packing
suitcases that I hadn’t even remembered being unpacked. The
Stewards laid uniforms on the couch; two black and two red. They were
moving with such speed and proficiency that I wondered if they were
trained for military scale extractions.

We dressed quickly and
followed the Stewards to an open quad outside of our rooms. Lucinda
and Jeannette were already there with Ethan and Landon. I looked from
Jeannette to Ethan. Both of them had fair skin and large eyes that
looked familial. Jeannette glanced at me and smiled. When she smiled,
her face lit up and she looked even younger than before.

“
He’s
my cousin,” Jeannette stated simply, explaining to me the
reason they carried themselves in the same manner.

She was so happy that
her cousin had a good patron with a good family. I wondered why she
never told me who Ethan was. It is possible that either she or he
didn’t want me to show any favoritism. Well, it was neither
here nor there at that point. If we had to go up against Grigor
anytime soon, Ethan may very well have a dead patron.

Relief flowed through
me when my brothers walked into the quad. It looked as if the entire
Miklos clan was planning to depart the island. They stood just mere
feet from us, keeping neither a royally acceptable nor respectful
distance. The Council was very careful to discourage monopolies of
power, but the St. Clair and Miklos clans were blurring the lines
concerning political alliances.

Efia and Pleasant
arrived with a trail of political advisors and lobbyists. Efia was
speaking to a female Vampire who must have been of equally high
station because they were walking side by side instead of one in
front of the other. Royal Vampire families held each other in high
regard, though seldom spoke candidly in public so that was a rare
sight to behold. Every Fare and Steward stopped talking and lowered
their eyes. Even Tabitha, having come to stand by my side, had
lowered her eyes in reverence. The only person who was looking
directly at the two monarchs was me.

“
You
remember my granddaughter, Pleasant,” Efia was walking toward
us. “These are her direct descendants. My granddaughters,
Cheyenne and Chloe.”

The Vampire queen
looked at the two of us, clad in black military uniforms and gave us
a big toothy smile. She was a stout woman standing about 5’6”
with wavy blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. She wore a purple gown with
a jeweled collar and a crown atop her head. She was the epitome of
royalty and elegance.

“
So
nice to finally meet you.” Somehow, her greeting carried the
implied expectation that we would rid the Vampire world of an evil
menace. Like it was our destiny or some crap like that. Whatever the
case, the Queen seemed to believe that we were the answer to her
prayers and it made me anxious.

Chloe and I remained
silent but nodded and bowed out of respect. We kept the bow short as
we were not her subjects, but the queen smiled in surprise that we
would afford her any respect at all. Efia, also dressed in a black
military uniform, laughed at the queen’s shocked expression.

“
Will
you ever learn, Matilda Dewhurst? My descendants are not elitists!”
And with that, Efia picked up her own carry-on bag and walked off.

Tabitha walked over to
Matilda, bowed sharply and then threw her arms around the woman’s
neck. The hug was mutual as the Queen wrapped Tabitha in the tightest
embrace that I had seen in a long time. They stayed like that for a
very long time, each one nodding their heads as the other whispered
in their ears. I would have felt like I was invading their privacy
had there not been plenty of other people standing around.

“
That's
her grandmother,” Chloe whispered to me. “When Efia
rescued Tabitha from the dungeons, Matilda was not yet Queen. Efia
completed Tabitha’s Embrace to prevent her from dying from her
injuries. Even though Efia is Tabitha’s Sire, she is a Dewhurst
by bloodline.”

That explained why the
Queen was shocked by our bow. She believed that she owed Efia a debt
that could never be repaid. The queen loved Tabitha more than her own
life and for that she instantly gained the highest level of respect
from me.

The Stewards and Fare
had long since followed Efia and Pleasant toward our waiting
transportation. Tabitha and her queen grandmother were still embraced
when I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes. My stomach clenched
and a searing pain erupted in my throat. Wyatt and Matthias Robeson
had entered the quad and walked directly toward me. With every step
the pain in my throat increased and I was on my knees by the time
they came to a stop in front of me. Even though Wyatt had been
selected by a Castellano, if I bit him then the consequence would be
dire. Not only would I inherit him by default but the St. Clairs
would owe the Castellanos a debt.

But the thirst had me
and I lunged for Wyatt. Before I could reach him, however, Queen
Matilda stepped between us. She extended her hand, wrapped it around
Wyatt’s throat and lifted him off of the ground. Fear and
loathing flashed in Matthias’ eyes. He obviously had not
counted on there being any resistance to his plan.

“
Let
me see,” Queen Matilda said with a drawl. “If your
Electus is so eager to become a Royal Fare, I can make that happen
right now. How would you like to spend some time with my clan?”

From the look on
Wyatt’s face I presumed that spending time with the Dewhurst
Vampires was not ideal. I wondered what type of life their Fare lived
and how Tabitha felt about it. Wyatt’s feet were still dangling
two feet off of the ground when the Queen released her hold on his
neck. She turned her attention to Matthias and grinned.

“
Matthias,
I was told that Efia warned you last night so let this be your second
and final warning. Should you ever pull a stunt like this again, I
will personally assign a member of my clan to each and every Electus
your family produces. Is that clear?”

Matthias was nodding
his head so fast that I became nauseous just looking at him. He
grabbed Wyatt and dragged him from the quad as quickly as his stumpy
legs could take him. Once they were out of sight, my throat stopped
throbbing and the pain lessened.

My first impression of
her had been that of a proud and powerful monarch. I looked at the
Queen in an entirely new light then. As I accepted her extended hand,
I saw a grandmother who was protecting her granddaughter’s
friend. You gotta love the dichotomy of Vampires.

Queen Matilda helped me
stand and wiped the sweat off of my forehead with the edge of her
gown. Then she grabbed my chin and made me look directly into her
eyes before she spoke.

“
You
are going to be just fine. Remember that.”

And with that, she
walked away.

Efia was furious when
Tabitha told her of the Robeson incident. I quietly drank the cold
water that Rillae had offered me and tried to figure out why being my
Fare was so important to Wyatt. Had this been Ethan's lifelong dream;
to be Royal Vampire food. The politics of it all had my head spinning
and made me realize why my Vampire cousins took posts far from the
political center.

We arrived at the
underground dock to find our large white yacht being fueled and
readied for travel. Efia was standing on deck even though the waves
were splashing sea water into her face. I put my bag down and stood
next to her and we looked out over the horizon.

“
You
must know that I would never put you in danger if there was another
way.”

Efia studied my face
for some sense of comprehension. I understood that she would rather
go after Grigor herself. She owed him, after all. But it was not a
simple thing. Nor was it simple to ask your descendant to do it.
Spontaneously, I grabbed Efia’s hand and squeezed. Aside from
all of the brutality that she had endured in her long life, she was a
loving and caring grandmother and I'd grown to love her.

Leaving Efia with her
thoughts, I went below deck to join my siblings. They were standing
around a large table in a cabin near the rear of the yacht. Someone
had marked it with GPS coordinates. A quick look over Tabitha’s
shoulder revealed the area Jordan had highlighted was near Las Vegas.
We all stood there in a stunned silence as we saw a massive compound
with several guards patrolling the perimeter. It was going to take a
perfectly executed plan to get through that type of security and then
back out. Violeta and the Miklos clan looked confident. I just hoped
we were up to it.

Chapter 21

Never in my wildest
dreams could I imagine Violeta helpless or under anyone else’s
control. She seemed so strong and held together. But Zander was
serious about our talk. Once we arrived safely back at the compound,
he sat me down in the garden and looked off into the distance as he
began to talk about his true-love.

“
She
guards her heart, Cheyenne. She has to. The abuse she suffered at
Grigor’s hands was horrendous.”

“
Look,
Z, you don’t have to tell me this. I know that it's personal
and…”

“
Chey”,
he interrupted, running his hand over his face. “She asked me
to tell you. She doesn’t want you left in the dark about her.
She wants you to know the dangers and why.”

The dangers? My mind
raced back to the times where our sparring had seemed real. There
were several incidents when I had truly felt I was being hunted; like
prey. The first time I had convinced myself that the growling had
come from the dogs. Artemis and Apollo were often present in the gym,
so it was easy to assume. But then, one afternoon the twins refused
to cross the threshold with me. They simply turned and walked away.
That was the day that I had to stop pretending that Violeta was not
the source of the growl. The sound was in the lower register and was
not meant to be a warning or a call to a mate. This was similar to
the sound of hunger; like when your favorite meal arrives at your
table. If I had not been afraid of Violeta before then this would
have placed me firmly in the terrified column.