Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 18

I didn’t know what to do once hewas gone. His question shocked me so much I ended up staring at the spot hedisappeared from for about half an hour. Once I went inside, I finally came upwith my excuse - I couldn’t go to dinner with him because I needed to feed. Butfor the next hour, I mentally beat myself up over becoming such a wimp when hemade the offer aloud. What was wrong with me?

I honestly hadn’t expected aquestion like that, not from him.

I put away my books and sat down atthe small table in the nook. I needed to think about things. With everythinggoing on between Ms. Ingram and I, Finn and his bodyguards or friends –whatever they were - my friends, the club, and the vampires with heartbeats, mymind was so cramped that it was nearly impossible for me to function. Therewere too many distractions, and too many of my rules being broken. I needed toget my bearings.

I didn’t get much thinking donethough; around seven one of my neighbors started making a huge ruckus. It wasso loud, that I couldn’t concentrate on anything running around in my head, soI investigated the source of the distraction. But once I approached the largercottage next to mine, the door in front hung slightly ajar. The keys were stillin the lock, not usually a good sign.

I trained my ears listening for aparticular sound. It took a few minutes before I heard it. The girl whimperedfrom upstairs. I didn’t know why she was crying, but I knew it wasn’t the goodkind of crying. I flew into her home and leapt up the stairs, replaceing itemsknocked over and a broken vase near her bathroom door. It was open, though notall the way.

I peered inside and saw the man, assaultingher. I didn’t care what he was in that moment, just that he violated the girl’spersonal space. All the pent up anger that I hadn’t gotten over with in gymunleashed itself in this space. I reached out and pulled the thing off her. Shesunk to the ground immediately and curled into a ball, weak with shock. Iyanked on the heavy body and dragged it out into her bedroom. I didn’t botherfiguring out if he was alive or not, I only knew that I couldn’t let himcontinue what he was doing. I snapped the guy’s neck with one quick twist. Nowthat he didn’t struggle against me I let my fangs out and sunk in my teeth.

The rush of blood into my mouthfelt like sweet honey flowing into my body. In what felt like hours butactually ended up lasting a few seconds, I fed off him, taking every ounce ofblood from his arteries and veins. But once the fast flow slowed to a trickle,I considered gorging but stopped myself. It wouldn’t do for the girl to spot medraining the pockets of blood from his limbs, if she decided to leave thebathroom. I forced myself to stop, for her own mentality.

Once his blood had been drained, Ileft him on the floor feeling quite refreshed and went to attend to the girl.She cowered at the sight of me, but I had already made sure I wasn’t drippingblood from my mouth, and had hidden my sharp canines once more.

I reached out and touched her face,turning it towards mine. Our eyes locked and I used my compulsion.

“You came home someone broke in,and tried to hurt you. I arrived and he ran away,” I explained.

She nodded and repeated thesentences.

“I won’t harm you.”

“You won’t harm me,” her soft voicerepeated.

I turned it off quickly and lefther there for a moment. Her brain needed time to recover from the shock of theincident and the compulsion I had just used on her. Hopefully my reassuringsentences were enough that it cleared her mind on what actually occurred.Besides, while she coped, the body needed disposing of now that she was saferthan before I found her. Her wrist bled, probably caused by the broken shardsof the vase on the floor.

While I carried the man’s body downthe stairs I noticed spots of blood on the carpet this time. I must’ve been soweak I hadn’t noticed it before. I took the body out into the darkness of thesetting sun. A huge wall of stone separated the opposite lot behind us, itbelonged to a restaurant of some kind and I didn’t bother paying attention tothe particular kind of chain, but that didn’t hinder me. I jumped over the sixfoot wall with ease, while carrying the extra weight, especially now that I hadmore strength and power than I did earlier. After making sure no one was nearby,I stuffed the dead guy into its trash compactor.

Once I fixed the site and concealedall evidence that I might have visited the area, I returned back to the girl’sapartment, checking up on her progress. I was only gone for a minute or two. Iwet a washrag with warm water, and wiped off her face and neck. Two smallpuncture wounds, which were barely noticeable, lay right below her leftcollarbone against her torn shirt. The crazed man nearly had torn into herflesh, aiming for her aortic valve. I didn’t think there would be a wound likeit ever in my lifetime. The easiest sites for a blood donation usually camefrom the carotid artery, the brachial artery, or the femoral artery. Mostvampires went for the carotid since the femoral could kill a person if nothandled properly. Any other major blood vessels were usually off limits, asmost vampires didn’t want the populace knowing about them, crazed or not. Butthis simple act of gnawing into her flesh disgusted me. Hopefully she wouldn’task where the bite marks came from. Already they healed, but the puncturewounds would be there forever, looking like surgical sutures.

Sylvia walked into the room as I finishedpatching up the cut on my neighbor’s wrist. Her sharp eyes scrutinized me atonce, but they traveled quickly over to the invalid. “What happened here,Emily?”

At the mention of her name, thegirl stirred from her hazy trance and looked up at our house matron. “I camehome, and someone broke in. When Abigail arrived they ran away.”

I smiled kindly at her. “It’sAbelia,” I reminded. She was having trouble remembering my difficult name. Ididn’t blame her. At least Krista and the others shortened it, but they too haddifficulty remembering my primary name.

Emily nodded and sniffled. A fewtears leaked out of her eyes, and she didn’t wipe them away when most girlsdid.

Sylvia’s searching eyes found thebandage I wrapped around her wrist and I flicked my gaze up, meeting hers. Sheonly glanced briefly at me before staring back down at Emily. “You hurt yourwrist.”

Her statement never distractedEmily from her trance. She answered what she thought was a question. “On thevase. He came at me, and I tried fighting back. I cut myself on the brokenglass.”

“Do you need help cleaning up?” Iasked her once I tucked the last piece of gauze into place.

She shook her head. “I’d like to bealone for a bit.”

Nodding, I took my leave. Sylviafollowed me out. I gathered quickly that she didn’t want to leave the girlalone, that much was obvious in the way her body moved. Plus she didn’t believethe story we both fed her. If what Finn told me about Sylvia was true, she wasonly here because she smelled the blood and knew at once something hadhappened.

Her eyes bored into mine from thetop of the thin rimmed glasses, which I figured were a disguise for her vampireeyesight now that I knew her secret. “It is a good thing you were here, to helpher,” she added.

I caught more than one meaning inthat statement especially since she spoke in an instructive tone rather than asympathetic one as most people did in situations like this. I wondered if sheknew about me, but didn’t care. I nodded and smiled sheepishly like there wasnothing wrong. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

Syvlia surprised me by sighing andrelaxing when I was sure she’d walk away with her nose turned up by mybehavior. “I’ll make sure to check up on her. Don’t you have a date to getready for?”

She knew about that? Before I couldquestion the thought, she walked away, back to her office.

Iretreated quickly, noticing I only had less than an hour to dress. I hastilyjumped into the shower and welcomed the hot water. Dumping the body in thecompactor had left this icky stench on me I couldn’t shake. Whatever therestaurant threw out was more disgusting than normal, which gave me anotherreason why I would never eat at that place much less visit. Besides the nastyfood it threw out, the establishment itself looked like a roach motel. I hadn’treally paid it much attention while I busied myself with covering up theincident, but on the way back I noticed the differences between the two lots.It was no wonder a six foot cement wall separated the apartments.