Cassian Legacy: The Vampire Prince
Chapter 23

“Miss Harper?”

I snapped my eyes open.

Ms. Ingram stared down at me fromthe lab table I sat at. “I asked you a question.”

I glanced around the room, butthere were no other students present. I didn’t remember why she was talking tome. “Yes?”

She sighed. “Classes have beendismissed for an assembly. I figured you would go with the others, but youdon’t seem like yourself lately. Has something happened?”

Yes and no. I met her eyes butdidn’t tell her that. She was already a threat to Finn. If I started explainingmy life in detail I might as well as attack and kill her. I didn’t want to dothat, so I kept my mouth shut.

“I know that look. I’ve been theremyself.”

I doubted that.

She pulled up a stool and sat downon it. “When I was much younger, I met this boy. He was strong and handsome,and his muscles were fantastic,” she said dreamily. She cleared her expressionand continued. “I had no idea what he was, but when I found out that he waslike me, a hunter, I was thrilled. I had these daydreams of us hunting togetherand kissing once the hunt was over. But fate intervened and he was killedbefore we could have one date. I vowed my vengeance on vampires that day, notonly for his death, but for my future. I planned on spending my life with thatman, until his untimely demise. Even though I haven’t met the thing that killedhim, I’ll never give up searching.”

I frowned. I thought she wouldregale me with a tale that pertained more to my thoughts of having to make adifficult decision. How was what she stated similar to my own life? I wasn’tout for vengeance. “What does that story have to do with me?”

She smiled sweetly. “Take every dayas though it were your last. Seize the moment and go for it.”

The fact that she took that phraseto be the moral of her story unnerved me. She was wrong about so many things… Istayed where I was and didn’t respond.

When I didn’t move, her face grewworrisome. “Do you have something to tell me?”

I shook my head. I hadn’t done whatI promised her, which reminded me I still had some work to do on that subject.

“Well, I might have some knowledgethat will cheer you up.”

I arched an eyebrow. Great, whatnow? “What kind of information?”

“I talked with my cousin, she’s ahistorian. When I told her about my convictions regarding the Tierney family,she dug up some old periodicals dating back in the eighteen hundreds thatinvolve his family. There had been this huge scandal involving a pair oflovers. Supposedly, the family tried keeping it hushed up, but some informationleaked to the press. Now the odd thing is, they mentioned the last name of thebride. The bride was not a Tierney, but a Cassian.”

I thought I had told her to stopdigging into Finn’s ancestral heritage. Fear now crept up my spine, and Istruggled to maintain a straight face mostly because of the two familiesinvolved in the article.

“Now normally I wouldn’t beinterested in the names of these elopers, but the last name caught myattention. All vampire hunters learn the history of the Cassian Coven becauseit is where all vampires originate from. You see, newspapers and eventssupposedly reported the coven destroyed in the early 17th century.So this development certainly doesn’t make any sense to me because I thought itimpossible for the Cassian’s to still be alive. But if the Cassian’s didsurvive, and that story is true, then that means the Tierney’s are related tothem.”

I remained still and unmoving. Ididn’t like where she was headed with this. Already she knew more than I wantedher to.

Her eyes twinkled. “I have never met Mr.Finn’s parents in all these years of teaching him. That must mean his familyare vampires. It’s the only logical explanation as to why we’ve never met. Iwould know at once if they hadn’t aged in over four years.”

I shrugged trying to remainindifferent. She treaded on dangerous ground already. “Why do you think that?Is it because you believe they can’t go out in the sun? Because I’ve met themboth and they don’t turn into fried chicken upon contact with the sun’s rays. Ican assure you his parents are quite real and alive, with heartbeats.”

She smiled. “That’s exactly what Ithought, until you disproved my logic.”

I shook my head, enough with thegames. She needed to stop this nonsense, now, before she got hurt. “Like withthe holy water and the garlic, not everything is what it seems especially whenit comes to us. I told you before that you needed to keep your nose out of thesearching and leave the vampire hunting to me. Your training didn’t teach youanything important except how to die.”

She took my harsh words veryseriously, though she needed to hear them. Her eyes flashed with tiny lightningbolts. “I don’t understand why you would mock me now? You promised you wouldhelp me replace one that I can defeat.”

“And I will. You’re rushing this. Hunting is an art. And the Tierney’sare not what you’re suggesting they are. You need to leave them alone, and letme handle the vampires here. I promised you I would replace one that you couldfight, and I will. Give me time.”

She rose and went back to her desk.“I don’t believe that the Tierney’s are not a threat.”

I refrained from rolling my eyes.“Believe it or not, it’s the truth. Are you really going to try and hunt thembecause you believe in a scandal based off a newspaper dating back to theseventeen hundreds?”

Her shoulders slumped in defeat.“You’re right. I need concrete evidence. If what you say is true, and they arealive, I could get into serious trouble if I started attacking them based offof a whim.”

I relaxed slightly. “I wish I couldhelp you with this, but if you blindly go looking for trouble where there’snone to be found, I can’t help you. In fact, I’ll warn you. If you didn’tunderstand me before, you need to now. You will get hurt, and in the worst casescenario, you will die. Leave everything to me.” I grabbed my bag and stood up.

She caught my arm on the way outthe door. “I know you know where I can replace one, but you keep holding me back,away from the ones I can hunt. If you continue to do so, you might regret ouralliance.”

I shook off her touch anddisappeared down the hall. She had threatened me again, but this time I knew itwas coming. She was a problem, a serious one. She knew about Finn based off anewspaper written over three hundred years ago. Once Emery and Thalia found outabout this, I wouldn’t know how they’d react. Finn might go on vacation for awhile, taking his presence away from mine. But that wouldn’t make Ms. Ingramstop. If anything, it’d affirm the fact of what he was, alive or not. She’d stillbe hunting him here, or there, or in France or wherever else along with hisfamily. No matter how much I tried persuading her otherwise, she was dead seton ending one of their lives.

It was time that I replace one shecould hunt, to get her mind off Finn. I detoured away from the assembly,already clearly late, and left the school. Finn didn’t see me leave thebuilding, but Emery did. He caught up to me outside and stopped me before Icould get to the bus stop.

“What’s wrong?”

I shook my head - he must’ve seenmy upset expression that I was sure I had plastered on my face. “I need to takecare of something.” I side stepped him, but he blocked my way again.

“If Finn’s in trouble we need toknow. It is your job now to protect him.”

I sighed. “He’s not in trouble, notyet. But whatever you do, don’t let him stay alone with Ms. Ingram.”

He stood there flabbergasted on thesidewalk for a few minutes, probably because I didn’t explain further. “Shewould attack him?”

I shrugged. “Hopefully not, but I willhandle this. She’s itching to destroy a vampire. I need to go replace one she cankill.”

His hand touched my shoulder. Inoticed his touch didn’t have the same effect on me that Finn’s did. “She maynot come back from that.”

Imet his brown eyes already understanding what this would mean. “I know.” Iwalked away from him then. I knew the risks - she knew the risks. I was pastthe point of caring about her life now that she had discovered the truth aboutFinn. I had warned her earlier that if she got in my way I would destroy her.Now she was in my way.