Idris

Tendra returned with a legion of people. Amelia, humans, vampires, old and young, we all crowded the library. I was busy scouring through every book I could find, but I still heard the distinct sound of Tendra’s voice instructing everyone what we were looking for. She truly was meant to be queen.

I had no idea how many hours I was there. All I knew was that my stomach was cramping from hunger, and my eyes were blurry, but I refused to stop. Humans left to sleep, and still I continued on, as well as the other vampires who didn’t require rest.

Someone shoved a cup of blood in my hand, and I gulped it hastily, never taking my eyes off the stacks of books I was going through.

That hope that had been so warm was now cooling. We were through seventy-five percent of the library and we still hadn’t found the book. I began to panic a bit. What if it had been lost? What if my father had done something with it?

I looked up at one point to crack my neck to see Amelia emerge from between two stacks of shelves. The books she carried made me pause, and another memory flitted through. I didn’t grab this one in time, but at least I knew the source.

“Where did you get those?” I hadn’t realized I’d barked until Amelia jumped with a squeak and dropped the books she’d been carrying.

I forced myself to stay calm. “I’m sorry, there’s just something about those books…”

She pointed behind her. “There’s a weird shelf that’s sort of sectioned off behind another one. It’s hard to get through, but I can fit—”

I grabbed her hand and ran toward the back. When I realized Amelia couldn’t keep up, I scooped her into my arms. “Where?” I asked.

She pointed and we made a beeline for it. Sure enough, I now saw a sliver between two shelves. They were positioned catty-corner, but there was enough space for a small body to squeeze through to access another shelf that I could now spy through the small space.

“Amelia, you are brilliant for finding this,” I said, kneeling beside her, regretful that I frightened her. “I need you to step back now, behind me.”

She did. I placed two hands on one of the shelves and shoved. It fell to the ground with a thud and then I was able to step right up to a shelf that held the oldest books I’d seen yet. They’d been hidden for a reason, and I was pretty sure that reason was my father.

I ran my fingers over the spines, filing through my memory. My fingers became my father’s fingers, and when my index finger landed on a burgundy and gold spine with the words, “Prophecy of the Occulta,” I knew I’d found it. I yanked it out, pressed a smacking kiss to a grinning Amelia, and raced back to the main area of the library. All around me were haggard, tired vampires blinking at books. I didn’t say a word, just slapped the book down on a table and began to flip through the pages.

It was here. All here. The legend, accounts of past dhampirs with the veil, and diagrams. I ran my finger over a drawing of a body, settling over the depiction of two dots over the body’s heart. There was the mark of the veil—two distinct birth markings, maybe an inch apart on the skin, like the puncture bites of a vampire.

Celia had those. I knew because I knew her body better than my own. Athan’s presence was at my back, and I knew when he saw it, too, because he exhaled. “Go to her,” he said.

I was already on my way out of the library, the book clutched in my hand. I was in my bedroom in no time, and I registered that Tendra, Athan, and Amelia were inside with me. They shut the door to inquiring murmurs, so it was just the four of us, plus Celia’s body.

Celia looked the same, her full lips white, her eyes closed. Her beauty in death still took my breath away. I hated those bite marks on her neck more than anything. They were a constant reminder of what I’d done to her.

I pulled down the top of her shirt and spotted two marks right over her heart. “There,” I said to Athan, who stood by the bed. “That’s the mark of the veil.”

“I have those, too,” Amelia murmured. “What does it mean?”

“It means you cannot be turned,” I said, reading as quickly as I could, that fucking hope still burning bright in my chest. I flipped more pages until I reached the last chapter. “Dhampirs with the blood veil cannot be turned, and they can be drained with or without somnus, leading to their deaths.” I swallowed, my voice cracking as that hope began to wither. “However, some of those with the veil can be revived with the blood of a vampire who drank from them before. This is only based on legend, and isn’t known to be factually accurate, but it is believed if the skin is punctured over the bite marks, down to pierce the heart, and the blood of the vampire who drank from them is poured inside, the heart will beat again, if done within a day of death. They will, however, remain a dhampir.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I heard Athan said above me.

I lifted my head and stared at him, then back down at Celia’s body. “I have to do it. I have to try…” I swallowed, the thought of cutting into Celia’s flesh, even in death, making me want to hurl. “I need a small, strong knife. I have to slip it between her ribs to her heart.”

“Brother,” he said. “There still could be a chance she will turn, if we give it a few days…”

“She has the mark of the veil,” I snapped.

“The book even says it’s a legend,” Athan said. “If you try this, and it fails, she will not turn, not with a pierced heart.”

“I must,” I said. “I know it’s the only way. I just know it. And I’m the only one who can save her. My blood.”

Athan heaved a sigh and turned to Tendra. She gave him a nod. Amelia was sitting on the edge of the bed, her hand on Celia’s ankle.

“What do you think?” I forced myself to ask Amelia.

She slowly raised her eyes to me. “Do it,” she said.

Tendra had already left, and a moment later she returned, pressing a small knife into my hand. “Sharp and long. It’ll reach her heart, but small enough to go between her ribs.”

I gripped the handle, feeling the weight of the knife. I had to cut into Celia, rip her flesh, pierce her heart. I could do this. I placed the tip of the knife on the one mark, willing my hands to stop shaking. I kept my eyes open and whispered, “I love you,” just as I hit the hilt of the knife with the flat of my other hand.

The knife plunged into her, and I felt it nick a rib before coming to a rest. Her body moved with the force of the knife, but that was it. Nothing else. Amelia was crying, and Athan sat with his head bowed, Tendra at his back. I placed the knife over the other mark and did the same thing.

Celia lay below me, with two small holes over her heart. I slashed at my wrist, and as blood seeped out, I held it over the two small holes in her chest. The blood dripped from my body into hers, the sound of it dropping onto hers seeming to pound in my head. It splashed on her milk-white skin and slowly slid into the holes.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

I slashed my other wrist and held them both over her heart. I’d bleed myself fucking dry if I had to. When the blood wasn’t coming fast enough, I held the knife to my throat. Only Athan’s barked warning, “Brother!” stopped me. I met his eyes, and he held mine. “Give it time.”

I held my wrists over her heart and watched her face. Something happened then, something so small, I swore I imagined it. Movement behind her eyelids, like her eyes were moving.

“Celia,” I said on a whisper. “Come back to me.”

Her body jerked and I flexed my wrists, sending more blood pouring from my body into hers. Then I heard it. So low and slow, I could barely believe it, but then it was there.

Her heartbeat.

Celia

Fire. Pain. Heat. So much heat I could barely stand it. Why was I being burned from the inside? And what was that godawful pounding? It was everywhere, in my ears, echoing in my fingertips.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

Ba-bum.

With a gasp, I opened my eyes. I couldn’t see anything for a minute, only white, pure white like the snow. That pounding was still going on and with a start, I realized it was my heart. My heart was beating.

My vision cleared, just a bit to make out familiar features. That hair, the prominent brow, the nose and full lips, the ones that had closed around my neck and sucked out my blood with as much care as he could.

“Idris,” I whispered.

And like that, I was gathered into warm arms. He squeezed me tight, so tight, and tears wet my hair. “Celia. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Celia.”

My name, over and over again, he said my name on a chant. His hands smoothed my hair down my back and I clung to his shoulders, wondering what the hell happened. I’d died, hadn’t I? The last thing I remembered was cold. So, so cold. Then…nothing.

“Brother, you need to let her breathe,” came another voice. I recognized that, too. The Gregorie king.

Idris slowly loosened his arms. I looked into his face and wiped the wetness on his face with weak limbs. “Don’t cry.”

He searched my face. “You…remember me? Remember everything?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

He gripped my head. Hard. His sad eyes immediately glowed with determination. “I’ll never fail you again. I love you, Celia.”

If I’d had enough moisture in my body, I would have cried. But I didn’t think my tear ducts were working. “I love you, too.”

A hand landed on my shoulder, and Idris let go of me enough that I could turn my head to see Amelia sitting on the bed. She was whole and healthy with tears shining bright in her warm brown eyes. I held out my arms. “My sister.”

She launched herself at me, snuffling into my chest, getting tears and snot all over my shirt. “I missed you so much!” she wailed. “I mean, they were great to me here, but I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

As I hugged her, I asked Idris, “Where are we?”

“We brought you to the Gregorie mansion,” he said. “This is my room.”

I gazed around the room. The walls were a light gray, the floor a beautiful dark wood, and the bed I was on was massive, bigger than any bed I’d seen in my life, with four carved posts. The ceiling was at least eight feet, and shades were drawn over two windows on either side of the bed. A candle burned in the corner, something that smelled like vanilla, and I breathed deep, reveling in the fact that I could breathe.

I looked to Idris. “How did this happen? How…do I not have the veil?”

He pointed to a book lying on the table beside my bed. “Since we arrived, just about everyone in this mansion has been in the library researching the veil.” He ran his hands over my chest, where I had two small birthmarks over my heart. “This is the sign of the veil. Your sister has it, too.”

I pressed on the skin, and it was a little sensitive to the touch. “So what does that mean?”

He swallowed. “You can’t be turned and you also can’t be drained. Keno must not have known, or he didn’t think we’d be able to bring you back. I had to…cut into you. On each birthmark, down to pierce your heart, and I slit my wrists and drained my blood into you.”

I stared at his wrists, but they were healed. “You…you gave me your blood?”

“I was able to, since I fed from you.”

My skin was closed, so his blood must have healed my heart and my skin. Wow, vampire magic was weird.

Athan had picked up the book. “According to this, she was in a stasis state. She would have stayed that way for another twelve hours, then she would have died. Actually died.”

“You didn’t know this?” I asked Idris.

He shook his head. “Not until I read it in the book. I brought you back and was preparing to let you go, to bury you, when I remembered my father had told me once about the veil, and he had been holding a book.”

With my arm still wrapped around my sister, I lifted a hand to Idris’s face. “Thank you.”

“This wouldn’t have happened if I—”

“If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead on my bedroom floor from a Quellen knife,” I said. “Don’t forget that. And my father would still be dead by Keno’s hand.”

He gripped my wrist and pressed a kiss to my palm. “I’ll always protect you. And your sister.”

I smiled. “I know.”

A blonde woman walked in, holding a tray of food. Athan immediately took it from her, and she approached me carefully but confidently. The way Athan murmured to her told me who she was. The queen.

“Hi,” she said, her smile large and white. “I’m Tendra. As soon as I saw Idris had brought you back, I went to get you food.”

My stomach was roiling, but I knew I had to eat to keep my strength up. I felt so weak. Idris reached for a bowl of applesauce and held it for me as I dipped the spoon inside and brought the food to my mouth. “Thank you, Tendra,” I said in between bites. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“All bad, I’m sure, if it was Idris talking.” There was a teasing lilt to her voice, a sibling banter that warmed my heart, especially when I saw Idris roll his eyes with amusement.

“No, he loves you,” I said. And Idris stilled, as well as Athan. Tendra’s eyes widened. “I mean, as a sister,” I stammered to add. “He respects you and cares for you. It’s evident in how he talks about you.” Now I just felt stupid, and proceeded to stuff my mouth full of applesauce.

Tendra took another step toward the bed and laid a hand on Idris’s back. “Other than Athan, Idris means everything to me. When we heard about what happened at the warehouse, and that he’d been taken, I was out of my mind. Athan, too.”

“It wasn’t fun,” I said. I shoved the applesauce away, my appetite gone. “So what happened after I…you know.”

Idris summed it up quickly, explaining that they’d left Keno to burn after Athan and his soldiers had come to their rescue.

“I should have known Keno wouldn’t keep his word.”

“But your sacrifice bought us time,” Athan said. “If not, I don’t know if we would have made it on time.”

“So what happens now?” I asked, drawing Amelia closer to me. “For us.”

“You’re family now,” Tendra said brightly. “I mean, I guess you and I are kind of like sisters-in-law, which is great because I’d love to bitch about Gregorie stubbornness and their constant duty spiel.”

“Duty is—” Athan began, but Tendra flapped her hand like a mouth and he immediately cut himself short to glare at her. This was the king and queen, acting like an old married human couple, and I gaped.

Amelia noticed, too, because she straightened a bit in my arms. “If someone had done that to my father, he would have slit their throat,” she said quietly, and all the humor in the room fled. “I saw him do it. Humans, other vampires. I loved him, and at the time I thought that was the right way to lead. I’ve only been here for less than a day, but already I can see how your clan respects you. Loves you. And Tendra is…she’s wonderful.” Amelia blushed, and she looked like she was floundering for words.

“There are many ways to be a leader,” Athan said. “And while I wouldn’t particularly care for someone other than Tendra or Idris teasing me like that, I still wouldn’t harm them. That’s not how a king leads.” His gaze darted to Idris. “That’s one thing our father taught us, maybe if he didn’t even believe it himself.”

“I like it here,” Amelia said. “You are all nice, and there aren’t scary guards who try to touch me.”

Idris’s low growl filled the room.

Her little hand reached out and patted his knee. He instantly stopped. “I want you to be happy here, with us.”

Tendra had taken the book from Athan and was scanning the pages. “Um, so, there’s a thing here…” She glanced up at me and ran her tongue over the tip of her fangs.

“What is it?” Idris demanded, his body going tight beside mine.

“So she’s still human, yeah?”

We all nodded.

“So she can have kids.”

Idris squeezed my hand. “Get to the point, Tendra.”

“Her kids will be born as vampires,” she blurted out, staring at my stomach like I was going to shoot out a baby right then. “Um, enhanced vampire babies. Or so it says here. Again, it says it’s legend, but we just brought her back to life based on legend, so I’m gonna say that her giving birth to super-vampire babies isn’t out of the realm of possibility.” She glanced at the spine. “Who the hell wrote this anyway?”

Athan glanced at it, then his eyes drifted to Idris. “Asus’s vampire.”

“Who’s…Oh!” Tendra’s eyes widened.

“What, who?” I asked.

“The Elder, the same one who bit a human and created the line that would eventually lead to…” She pointed her thumbs at herself. “Me. Guy is no dummy.”

Idris’s voice was low. “She’s not having children unless she wants to. Up to her.”

I’d always wanted children. A family of my own. But not yet. For now, I’d enjoy my new family, the one I’d somehow managed to worm myself into, despite my heritage. “Sure, but let’s have a honeymoon period first. Can we do that?”

Idris tugged me to him, and pressed a kiss to my mouth. “We can do whatever you want.”

“Okay, well, how about I eat some more, then you eat, then everyone gives us some time alone.”

His face flushed, and a sly grin stretched his mouth. “Deal.”