Heiress of Lies (9 page)

     He backed away. The door to the courtyard was right behind him. He whirled around and was out the door gasping for fresh air, and he heard his mother screaming for help. He could hear shouts coming from neighboring houses. Connor did the only thing he could: he ran.

     Three days later, exhausted, dirty, and starving, he found himself in a rundown pub on the long road that led east out of Brebackerin, begging for food and a place to stay in exchange for hard labor. His abrupt departure meant that he had not planned ahead for traveling, and he had nowhere to go. The few coins in his pocket that he had started with were already almost gone.

     He had considered himself fortunate to secure a place to rest in the stable with the horses. How quickly the mighty fell, but he knew that he would never forgive himself for what he had done to his father. He was lying in the hay feeling sorry for himself when he heard the door to the stable open. It was very dark in the barn with the lanterns extinguished, and whoever was entering was not carrying one.

     Connor would not have thought much of it, except he didn’t hear the usual sounds of someone stabling a horse. In fact, the only way he knew that anyone was even in the barn was that the door was still standing half open, letting light from the moon stream into the barn entrance. He didn’t move. His heartbeat was the only thing that he could hear. Then through the slats of the stall door, Connor could see the outline of a pair of boots appear. Men’s boots, but they made no sound.

     He watched as the boots turned to face the stall where he was resting and Connor froze. He could handle himself in a fight if it came to that, but there was something about the man’s approach that was unsettling. He decided to go on the offensive.

     “Already taken,” he called out. He was frustrated to hear the wobble in his voice. “Go find another one.”

     There was a slight shift and the boots disappeared. They were there and then they weren’t. Connor shifted closer to the slats and tried to use the light of the moon to locate where the man had gone.

    
And then an arm circled his throat and it was like being held in the grip of a big snake.

     “I think you’re lost. Lucky for me I’m very good at finding lost things,” the voice whispered in his ear. Then Connor felt the sharp pricks into the soft flesh at the crook of his neck and shoulder, and he started to scream.

     As Angeline opened her eyes, she felt like her whole body was on fire. The light burned her eyes. It seemed like all the colors she had ever known exploded in a kaleidoscope and she didn’t know where to look. She tried to raise her hand to block it out, but she could only lift it a few inches before it flopped back to her side. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind.

     Where was she? The last thing that she remembered was feeling like she was flying in the wind. Slowly images started to come back. She saw the huge spring moon floating just above the horizon of the tall grass. She could still feel the grass brushing her face as she moved through it, away from a circular clearing. And then it was there looking in her memory: a spider the size of a cat glaring at her with beady red eyes.

     Her eyes flew open and this time the light hurt less. She tested her fingers, and they seemed to be more cooperative than her arms. Her head was vertical but on its side, so her check was resting against something. It wasn’t hard. In fact, it was moving. Her fingers brushed buttons and soft fabric. She was lying against someone. Connor.

     Then her fingers were swept up into a soft grasp and pulled to rest against his chest. She could feel the beat of his heart. Her other senses were awakening as well, and that familiar musky smell filled her nostrils. She was lying against Connor, and now she could sense his arms encircling her body.

     The intimacy of the embrace unsettled her. But it wasn’t the fact that she was lying in a vampire’s embrace that was upsetting her; it was the realization that it felt so normal and natural that had her thoughts flying around in her mind. She knew that she should be trying to escape. She knew that she should at the very least be struggling against her captor and demanding that she be set free. But for some reason these thoughts melted away as soon as she thought of them. It was like there was another person inside her skin now who didn’t care anymore.

     “Princess?” Connor’s voice was soft but heavy with concern.

     She felt her body being shifted. Connor turned her so that she was sitting up, but he seemed to know that she was unsure that she could hold herself up. She felt a solid surface at her back, although it was hard and there were several sharp points that dug into her skin.

     Her eyes continued to adjust, and she finally started to see where they were. It looked like a place that resembled a cave, but it wasn’t. She looked up. She could see twinkling lights that gave the surface of the stone the appearance of the night sky. Then it was like the stone moved out several feel to form to a point that jutted out into a vast span of trees. For the first time since waking Angeline felt a shot of fear. Her mind was putting all the pieces together and she was afraid of the answer to the puzzle.

     “Are we in the Amaron?” she whispered.

     She saw the surprise in Connor’s eyes.

     He nodded. “Given your condition and the fact that I have been unable to ascertain if we are still being followed, I needed to make a quick decision of where to hide before the sun came up. I’ve camped here before.”

     “They say that Amaron is haunted by the souls that were killed by the vampires at the beginning of time. That the vampire king trapped their souls here to be a continual source of energy and life for the vampires. And that anyone who dares enter risks the wrath of those trapped and tortured souls,” Angeline said.

     “Where did you hear that?” Connor’s eyes narrowed.

     “What?” Angeline felt like she had cobwebs in her head. Then her eyes found the sparkles in the stone above her again and for some reason she found them fascinating. “What are those stones?” she asked. “I know the appearance and composition of every rock and sediment in Altera and I have never seen anything like it.”

     “Where did you hear that myth about the Amaron Forest?” Connor asked.

     Angeline dragged her eyes away from the sparkles and found Connor’s eyes. “Your eyes are lovely. They look just like emeralds,” she giggled.

     In her head it was like there was a war going on; there was the Angeline she had always been; shy, reserved, studious, and then this loose, drunken, mysterious Angeline who seemed unconcerned about anything.

     She watched Connor move closer and he gripped her shoulders. “Angeline, you’ve just been through something very traumatic. We need to talk about what happened.”

     Angeline rolled her eyes. “A poisonous spider bit me. An Arythmatonian Pillora, in fact. Just like your species, I didn’t know that those still existed. There are all sorts of surprises out here in the Forgotten Lands. Watch. Next thing we know we’ll run into a wolf brother.”

     “I think you should try to focus on what I’m going to tell you, Angeline. I know it’s difficult right now and that you are probably feeling very strange.”

     “I feel fine.” Angeline’s eyes caught sight of something in one of the trees across from the opening of the outcropping. If she squinted, she even thought that she could see it scurrying up the trunk of the tree. “Better than fine actually. I can’t believe it worked, but it did. I guess I should be saying thank you.”

     “You are feverish and bordering on delirium,” Connor said slowly. “That’s not uncommon at this stage.”

     Angeline frowned and she looked back at Connor. “What are you talking about? Stage of what?”

     Connor sighed heavily and his eyes slid to the ground. “I didn’t have time to tell you what the ramifications were of what you asked me to do if something went wrong. That’s why I don’t want your thanks. I’m sorry. The only thing I can say is that you are alive.”

     “Stage of what?” Angeline asked again. Her voice sounded thin and shrill to her ears as it bounced off the walls of their small enclosure, and she winced.

     “Your change.” Connor looked her squarely in the eye now. “You are becoming a wraith.”

     Angeline searched the vast database of knowledge in her mind. Even turning over all of the legends and myths that she had fed on as a kid, she couldn’t match that word with anything in her memory. But based on Connor’s face, becoming a wraith was definitely a bad thing. What had he done? What had she asked him to do?

     “I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t drink any blood. You took mine. Why would that mean I would change into anything? What else did you do to me?”

     “I did only as you asked,” Connor said slowly. “I did not feed you any of my blood so you are not turning into a vampire. But you know I’m right when I tell you that something is happening to you. I know that you can feel it.”

     Angeline said nothing. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being right. But she did feel different. The world around her seemed crisper and more real. Her senses were enhanced far beyond anything she knew possible. But what had her most frightened was that she could feel another presence in the space of her mind and it was laughing at her…and waiting. Waiting for Angeline to let her guard down.

     “You planned this all along, didn’t you? You and your vampire Master!” She was starting to panic. She was on the verge of ascending the throne; her birthright. Her father was dying. Her people needed her. And nowhere in that equation did becoming a…wraith, whatever that was, factor into it. Her perfectly planned life was shattering before her eyes.

     “You need to stay calm. I did not plan this for you. I had a mission. I was to bring you to my Master. Nothing more, nothing less. He will be less than pleased as well,” Connor said.

     “Your Master, your Master, your Master. I’ve heard enough about your Master! What about my king? What about my kingdom? I am the heir Princess and future Queen of Altera! You should be obeying MY commands, not some bastard vampire traitor who was banished to the edge of the abyss years ago!” Angeline lurched to her feet and snarled when Connor rose to help her.

     She forced her feet to move toward the light. She needed fresh air. She needed to think. Connor’s presence was suffocating. She stepped out into the tiny sliver of light that peeked through the canopy of trees overhead. She felt cold even though she knew that she was sweating. It was like she was split in half, each side warring against each other.

     She didn’t have to turn around to know that Connor had moved to just a few steps behind her. Even though he hadn’t made a sound she knew he was there because it felt like she had something inside her that was radiating out and picking up the moving objects around her. All she had to do was ping and if there was something there she got a message back.

     She was testing the perimeters of this heightened sense when it picked something up; it was small and moving fast under the thick vegetation growing at her feet. Her mind shut down and she responded completely by instinct. She shifted to her left and then her hands went underneath a tangle of thick ivy. Seconds later the thing that she sensed was in her hands and she closed over it tightly.

     She pulled it out. A small brown rabbit was struggling in her hands. She was just moving to twist its neck when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was the briefest touch, but it was enough to bring her back to her senses. Her fingers opened and the rabbit disappeared back into the underbrush.

     Angeline’s breath was coming in short gaps. It was like another person had taken over. One that was much darker than Angeline and who had a thirst for the kill.

     “What’s happening to me?” she cried out into the forest. It answered her with silence.

     Connor felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest when he saw her stricken face. Although he knew what a terrible position he had put her in, he wouldn’t take it back. Life as a wraith had the possibility of being manageable. It wouldn’t be easy, but it was certainly better than the alternative. Her life from this point forward was going to be a constant battle between being a human and being a monster. But he felt certain that if anyone could bend the demon inside to her will, it was the woman standing before him. Properly trained, if there even was such a thing, she could return to her previous life and no one would be the wiser. But in order to do that, she needed to learn how to control it. She needed a teacher. And Connor could think of only one person that would be qualified for the task.