Endlessly (20 page)

In just a few weeks both our lives have
changed completely. Ash has become something totally new, and that
has turned my world around. Two days ago the Quatre fell. Now there
is a new Quatre: Ash, and three dragons I’d never laid eyes on.
They don’t call themselves a “Quatre” and they’ve made no moves to
rule. There’s a question as to whether any one person or group
should govern our kind. A feeling grows that it might be best for
each of us to make our own decisions.

The idea that’s emerging is this:
Vampires and Incarnates now have free will to do as they please, as
long as it does not interfere with humans’ ability to live their
lives. We still hide among them, but now there is also refuge for
those who do not wish to live in the human world, and for those
vampires who do not wish to conceal what they are.

In the course of these advances I’ve
had personal bright spots as well. I was amazed to find Jason safe
and sound, jailed in a room deep in the mountain fortress. He was
locked up with some humans. Kale had planned to taunt me with the
plight of my imprisoned friend before killing both of
us.

I was surprised when Jason chose to
have his soul resent. Weeks of being holed up, and one captive girl
in particular, have given him sympathy for humans. We’ve only
talked briefly, but I’m happy to note that he’s still the same
rude, crude Jason. His old personality is no hindrance to his new
attitudes about humans. He can’t wait to get back to the States and
start a new life.

Yet I can’t help feeling something is
off with Jason. It’s like an itch that’s still there after you stop
scratching. I never could have imagined him wanting the life he now
aspires to, but life-threatening events can change us. This is what
he wants. It makes me sad to see him go.

Hania exposed all of the hiding places
of the previous Quatre and he’s opened them all to those who want
to live in them. In revealing these places, he’s also been
spreading the word about the ousting of the Quatre. He’s
encouraging vampires to live in these areas, so that they do not
have to hide what they are. Hania has offered incarnates refuge in
these same spots. They will be opened to help those who are looking
for answers.

Before he set out to do those things
Hania had told us of all the history leading up to the present
cataclysm. Hania met the first dragon to re-emerge, and to his
later regret, he told the other Quatre members that these
long-dormant beings were reawakening. Kale vowed that dragons would
not regain power. He put this vow into action by teaching Sara all
about dragons. These stories of ultimate power, and of immortality
free of the complications of the vampire virus, became an obsession
with the fairy child. She threw a tantrum, demanding that she get
her way with all dragons. She wanted their blood, and their
elements. As the blood strengthened her, Sara convinced Pedro and
Kale that once she had acquired all the elements, she would help
them do the same. Hania wasn’t so cooperative, but as Sara grew
stronger she threatened him, and found ways to force the
information out of him. He was the only one who saw clearly that
she intended to get control of the elements, then kill them all.
That would have been only the beginning of her reign of
terror.

For now we are still in Siberia, but
winters here are too cold for dragons. Ash has been talking with
Hania about a move back to the States. She’s fallen in love with an
underground dwelling near the Pacific in the Olympic National
Forest. It’s warm enough that she and her fellow dragons would be
able to go out year-round.

Perhaps that’s what she’s typing about
on her laptop.

I sit up at the edge of the bed. Ash
stops typing and removes her headphones. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean
to wake you. I was trying to be quiet.” She shivers and somehow
that makes the fire inside of me spark up in a blaze.

“I’ll never get used to that,” I mumble
sleepily.

She smiles. It’s the same smile I fell
for in a store in the Midwest just weeks ago. It seems like a
lifetime, and in some ways it is. I get up and go to her. As I sit
down next to her on the bench, she closes the laptop. She bites her
lip and looks worried.

I touch one of her fangs gently. “Don’t
bite too hard, love.”

She smiles and moves her wing, wrapping
it around me to draw me in closer. As our skin touches I pull the
blanket over my body. Her icy skin should stop the fire burning
through me but it only seems to intensify it. I wrap my arm around
her waist and look at the computer screen. “Who are you writing
to?”

“Hania. Trying to get all the loose
ends tied up before we leave here. So are you ready to go
back?”

“I’ll go wherever you go.” I kiss her
on the neck as she moves her hands across the laptop.

Shedding all worries, Ash lets a gasp
pass her lips as she turns her body toward me. My teeth graze the
skin under her jaw. She giggles and speaks breathlessly. “You would
think that you were the one with the power to seduce.”

I chuckle. “So I guess you are willing
to put up with me forever, huh?”

“Yes,” she whispers. She runs her hands
up my back and grips my hair. I could not fight her if I wanted to.
I’ve never encountered such strength.

I bite her neck softly for a quick
taste of blood, then pull away and kiss her on the mouth. Our
breaths come fast.

“You must be gentle,” I say, “so’s not
to break me.”

Watch for the
sequel

Legacy

http://www.authorcvhunt.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C. V. Hunt lives in a small town in
North West Ohio with her husband. She spends her spare time
reading, writing, watching horror films and enjoying a variety of
music.