Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 14

I waited for him patiently. I chosethe table, outside and away from the other patrons, where we could talk and notbe overheard by anyone with human ears. The terrace was up high, overlookingthe street. I never saw him arrive with the other people who milled aboutuncertainly. He was just all of a sudden there, standing among the mix ofpeople below me, appearing in the space with hardly any noise or motion.

He made his way indoors and up thestairs, wearing a blue long sleeved shirt over a pair of khaki pants. He drewout the chair across from me and sat down under the umbrella that shielded usboth from the November sun.

I drank my unsweetened tea slowlyand placed it back on the table. He flashed his ID to the waitress and shereturned with a bottle of some sort. It wasn’t grape juice, but some bloodridden drink that resembled tea. The idea that there was a blood flavored drinkhere bothered me. At this rate who here didn’t know what he was?

He pushed his sunglasses up andperched them on the top of his head, all the while gazing at me. “I didn’tthink you’d come.”

I pointedly looked away from him,and his gorgeous blue eyes. There were times where I thought he couldn’t bereal because he didn’t look like a normal kid. He sure didn’t act like iteither. This was one of those days. “I’m here aren’t I?”

He sighed and leaned back in hismetal chair, clearly appearing the way he always did, lazy and comfortable. “Iapologize again for the actions of my sister.”

My eyes flicked back to his. Ididn’t know he had a family, like a real family. It was odd to hear him say heeven had a sister, and that meant he had a mother and a father who were bothalive and vampires.

“Atria feels that she’s privilegedand doesn’t follow orders, especially mine. I didn’t think she’d be thereyesterday, though I think after what happened last night she won’t touch yourfriends again because of the scare you gave her.” He chuckled slightly, threwme a smirk and heaved a long drawn out sigh. “I didn’t know you could compelus.”

I froze in my thoughts. That was anodd thing to say. I could what? Compel them… vampires? I hadn’t known I hadpower like that. I knew that my power alone could stop them in their tracks,but my actual compulsion? I didn’t think I had turned it on at all last night,but only used a simple command that was followed because that usually worked.But he suggested actual full-fledged compulsion which was far more powerfulthan simple commands.

“Though, you knew our compulsionwouldn’t work on you beforehand.”

I realized what he was doing. Hewas trying to figure me out, verbally. He voiced his theories towards me,looking for confirmation. I nodded once because now that we both wondered aboutwhat it was I could do and what he could do, we were both studying each otherlike some sick weird and twisted science experiment. It was time to pack awaythe theories and voice our attentions aloud, otherwise we might end up in a warbetween the two of us and I didn’t want that when I had human friends involved.I somehow got the feeling he didn’t want that either. He may look fragile, buthe was strong and powerful in his clan.

“It’s never worked that way,” Ivoiced the truth aloud.

He leaned forward suddenly like hewanted to be closer, like he was fascinated by whatever concept of my beingformed in his mind. “What are you really?” he mused.

I averted my gaze from his andpurposefully didn’t answer the question. He was better off not knowing. By nowit was clear to him I was no ordinary vampire. Usually humans found out what Iwas first, and not the vampires. This whole situation was entirely differentand new, and I didn’t know how I should react. Knowing from what I knew abouthumans and their reactions, he should know as little as possible.

“You’ll never tell me will you?”

His question interrupted mythoughts. I didn’t have to respond, though. My answer needn’t be given aloudwhen his second question was more of a statement rather than an inquiry. Heknew I wouldn’t tell him anything about me willingly.

“Despite the fact that you do notknow about my world and yet have this incredible insight on the life ofvampires, I feel the need that I should let you in on other details that will be important later,” he stressed.

That had my attention. I met hisgaze once more. “Like what?”

“Like my family.”

I blinked several times. Why wouldI want to know something like that? How was his family any different than otherfamilies or vampires?

“My family owns the Red Curtain andsome of the other shops in the square as well. In fact, we own most of the cityand surrounding countryside, if you’re talking in land ownership.” His toneheld a slight sneer, but it was covered mostly in matter-of-fact cadences.

I resisted the urge to backfire,but not all of my agitation escaped my mind. What he stated was true now that Ihad time to think about it. I hated the idea that he was a part of the debacleat the club, but now I didn’t know how I truly felt about the fact that hisfamily owned more than land and properties than I could possibly imagine. Hehad tried warning me, and already he searched for where I resided, but therewere much bigger implications stated here than this simple fact. Did I live onhis territory? Did I hunt on his territory? How had this piece of informationescaped me?

I silently shook my head. Hisrevelation had my mind running around in circles as new questions formed andthey went unanswered leaving me to guess if what he said was a warning or if Iwas already too late and now receiving the penalty. “I sort of figured that outabout your family owning the Red Curtain.”

“We needed a place to be ourselves,yet remain inconspicuous. It’s quite a modern idea.” He had relaxed his bodyagain while I debated in my mind.

I snorted that time. “Spare me thedescription. We all know what that club really is.” Silence drifted between us.I pointedly met his gaze when he didn’t respond. “It’s a feeder club. Call itwhat you want, but you feed, you lie, and you allure. I stayed outside lastnight and listened to the conversations of the humans leaving theestablishment. None of whom ever visits there remembers anything but about howgood they felt. They don’t remember who they met or who they talked to, what theytalked about, what they did… the list is never ending. And yet they return,night after night, letting you guys use them and feed from them and do heavenknows what else, and they neverremember any of the experience.” I let that sink in before I continued. Heneeded to understand that I understood hisbreed more than he thought I did. “I’m only glad I rescued Nate beforethose two blonds completely drained him.”

“They would never do that,” heretorted much too quickly.

“They nearly did!” I snapped back. Myresponse may have been too loud. Several other couples who dined up hereglanced in our direction. I withdrew myself and controlled my tongue once more.We didn’t need any more outbursts.

He waited until the patron’sattentions focused elsewhere before continuing our discussion. “It doesn’tmatter. I apologized for my sister’s rash action. Where you are concerned, allyou need to know is that I don’t do those things. I never have.”

“Yet you still go there,” Iaccused. “You still participate, you allow it.”

His eyes moved away from me for thefirst time since he started staring at me. But when they met mine again theywere full of hurt and anger. “I haveto show my face to them. It’s required of my family. Once a week I have toattend and parade myself around that place and show them that I am alive. It isby my wish that I get to do half the things I want to. It is by their wish thatI can’t be completely isolated otherwise I would have my ultimate goal granted.But it’s not so simple. My life has never been that simple.”

I was a loner. I only knew how tosurvive on my own. I didn’t understand how he couldn’t just walk away when Icould. “So stop going,” I stressed. “I know you don’t do those awful things,but you still partake in the acts by putting up with that kind of behavior. Itdoesn’t matter if you got a few of them to back off and not partake of myfriend’s blood. Not all of them listened. They’ll still try to break the rules,just like those girls.”

“Atria,” he reminded me. “AndCelestia. Those are their names. My sister and our cousin.”

I shook my head. “Well my familynever acted like that.”

“And where are they now?” Thesecond the question left his mouth he regretted it.

I stood up quickly as the rageburned anew in me, and shook my head at him. How dare he… how dare he even think to ask me something likethat?

I was out of the balcony and intothe street before he could stop me. But I didn’t completely escape. A blacklimousine pulled up and the driver rolled down the window. I knew he was responsiblefor this before I saw him standing there. Finn stood behind me, having followedmy footsteps. I stopped, knowing I couldn’t move too quickly in view of thepublic. Escape was impossible at the moment.

“Sir, you’ve been called backhome,” the driver announced.

Finn didn’t mutter a thanks oranything grateful as the window rolled back up. But he did mumble, “Order’smore like it,” so quietly I barely heard it.

I turned back to him, making sure Ididn’t have tears streaking my face. He had hit a nerve. “What do you want?”

“I went about this the wrong way,and I’m sorry.”

He was apologizing? To me?

He slid his hands into his pocketsand squared his shoulders. “I don’t want us at odds with each other. I want usto be friends. But if you’re my friend, you have to know about my life. Whetherit comes off as arrogant or selfish as it is, you need to know I was raisedwith pride. It is a part of who I am, and a part of being a Tierney.”

The window cracked a bit. He cursedsoftly and bent down to the driver. “Go to the next street and wait for methere. I was out running errands.”

The man drove off.

I shook my head. “You have to go.”

He touched my shoulder and the actalone sent shivers down my spine. It wasn’t the creepy kind but the excitingelectrical zingers that make you pause and reflect on what just happened. Itwas also the kind that made me wish he would touch my skin more often, nomatter how much that revolted me.

“I’m wanted back home, but I don’twant our conversation to end here. Will you meet me before school tomorrow?”

I swallowed, not trusting myself tospeak. “Where?” I squeaked out, nearly spilling tears onto the sidewalk.

“In the parking lot, by my car.”

I sighed as he dropped his arm. Ihated that his touch made me feel things I didn’t want to feel, plus I didn’twant him knowing exactly how I felt about his touch and close proximity. Ididn’t want him thinking he had some power over me, if that’s what it was.“Alright. I’ll meet you.”

He smiled and for the first timesince I talked to him or spotted him at school he looked genuinely happy.“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.”

I watched him walk away from me,back down the sidewalk toward the limo that waited for his presence. As he gotinto the cab, the driver asked how his shopping went. The car pulled away and Iknew then it was time for me to head home. I took the bus back, not botheringto buy anything. Already I felt the drain on my strength and recognized thesigns that I needed to feed soon. Hopefully I could replace a guy with extra cashon him, like the last one. But I wasn’t stressed yet, and I didn’t needsustenance any time soon.

Ieagerly went back home, knowing that I’d see him come Monday morning. It wastime for rest, plus I needed to figure out why I felt the way I did when hisskin touched mine.