Blood and Snow 12: Vampire Ever After? (2 page)

I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest. It wasn’t
his place to say anything. I wasn’t completely confident in my feelings for Christopher. After Dorian’s kiss—the love that had surrounded me, filled me—they made my feelings for Christopher seem trivial.

Fake, my inner voice clucked.

“Love is dense,” Abernathy continued.

I snorted. “That’s romantic.”

A laugh resounded in his throat. “What I mean is, real love is more than what you see, what you feel, in the moment.”

“Really
?” I said the word with thick sarcasm, but I was interested. It wasn’t like I’d ever had someone to talk to about love.

“
Certainly,” he said, with a wink. “Think about a lush forest, rich with all manner of foliage. A person could spend eons discovering its secrets, and still not find them all. It’s the same with love. True love, anyway.” He gave me a pointed look. “Deep, abiding love is discovering something new and wondrous about the other person, even after spending a lifetime together.”

“I like that,” I said, but it made
my mind wander back to Dorian, and our kiss. “What about true love’s kiss?” My face grew hot. I was embarrassed to be talking to a dragon about something that sounded so juvenile.

He laughed again,
and it sounded like thunder. “You want to know if you will become human again, if you receive it?”

I nodded, blinking back tears. Juvenile or not, it had been in my thoughts, and I craved an answer.

“Hmmm.” His
extended his wings, turned and looked at them. “Is that what you want? To become human—at least partially so—since you were never fully human to begin with.”

No, my inner voice shouted.

“It isn’t that.” I coughed, trying to work through my feelings. “It’s only,” I paused and forced myself to meet Abernathy’s gaze. “Pops, I mean Mr. Henry, said that if I kissed my true love, I would no longer be a…” I let my words trail off. It’d been so long, but I realized that when Pops told me about true love’s kiss, I’d still been a revenant. I hadn’t had any blood yet.

“Ah,” Abernathy smiled, and licked his teeth. “I understand.” He closed his eyes. “Adam is correct. In the very few times where a Chosen
human kissed her true love, instead of consuming his heart, she became human, once again. The Mark, and all of the magical nonsense was forgotten. But none of them ever had the power of seven magics.” He opened his eyes, catching me off guard with his stare. “For you, I don’t believe it’s possible.”

I sighed, realizing I
’d already known the answer.

“That’s what I figured.” I scanned the sky, searching among the brilliant stars for courage. 

Abernathy clicked his claws against each other. “Enough of that. What do you really need to discuss with me?”

“It’s—” I paused,
readjusting my inner turmoil. I hadn’t meant to bring that up. About the kiss. But I was glad I did. There was no going back to ordinary. Abernathy made that clear.

And why would you want to be ordinary anyway, my inner voice huffed.

Reaching a hand in my pocket, my fingers found the gem. Its smooth surface was slightly warm. I pulled it out, holding it up for Abernathy to see. The flecks of color glistened in the moonlight. “This,” I said timidly.

Abernathy
shook his mane. “Unexpected,” he said slowly, his voice filled with wonder. “Where did you get that?”

I explained how it formed on the altar from my blood.
And Dorian’s.

His voice so low I barely heard him, he
asked, “Did you show the Hunter?”

I shook my head. “No. Only you.”

“Good.” Twin wisps of smoke plumed from his nostrils.

“Well, what it is?” I asked
.

A
palpable current of energy churned the chilly air. A snap, like a fierce worry, rolled off the dragon. Whatever the gem was, it didn’t fill Abernathy with joy, that was for sure.

“
Between your fingers—that gem—it is the beginning and the end. I cannot tell you more. I will say this though. Keep it with you at all times. Understand?” He stood, and I had to tilt my head to see his face.

“I don’t. Why can’t you be more specific? Tell me what it is.” I stuck the gem back in my pocket. Afraid that having
it out in the open was somehow wrong. Dangerous, even.

“If I’m more specific, then it’s possibl
e others will know what you possess. Once the words have been spoken, they can’t be taken back.”

“Fine.” I tucked my hands in my back pockets.
If he wouldn’t be forthcoming on the gem, maybe he’d be more helpful with plans to save my mother. “What about my mom? How are we going to get her out of Mizu?”

He
lowered his head. “Quite simply, you aren’t.”

I started to protest, but he went on.

“You must confront the Vampire Queen, convince her she’s made a mistake, make her step down, and return magic to the other creatures. She must allow you to take over. When she is no longer ruler, you can release those in captivity. Once those two things are done, the balance of the seven magics should be restored.” He paused, as though deep in thought, and I waited. “Killing her won’t solve anything. You must try to make her see the harm she’s doing, make her let you rule.”

I
huffed. “Yeah, right. I’ll just show up in Sharra, and have a conversation with the Vampire Queen. She’ll be more than happy to step down, give back the magic she’s been collecting for more than six thousand years, and allow me to be queen.”

“Sarcasm is unbecoming,” Abernathy quipped.

“Stop kidding around. I need to save my mother, and then I can go after the Vampire Queen. So tell me all I need to know about Mizu Atlantica.” My bottom lip quivered at thoughts of what Devoran might be doing to her. “My mom… I can’t leave her there.”

Abernathy closed his eyes. “You know all you need to know of
Mizu. It was created to protect magical creatures from Sharra. Once you’ve dethroned her, and her magic is no longer viable, Mizu will cease to matter, and those within will be returned to this realm. Simple as that.”

I gasped. “You promised. You swore an oath.” I was sh
ocked. His words sounded like excuses, like what a lazy dragon might say.

He growled. It was soft, but menacing.
I wondered if I’d crossed a line.

“I think it’s time I tell you a secret,” he said.

“What secret?” I threw my hands in the air, exasperated. The conversation with Abernathy wasn’t going anything like I expected. I thought he would tell me about the black gem. I hoped it was a way to stop the Vampire Queen, or better yet, a way to restore balance to magic. I thought it was the answer to all my problems.

Instead
Abernathy made the gem out to be something sinister. I swallowed back a string of curse words that floated through my mind.

Abernathy let out a roar. Startled, I fell backward. My hands crunched against the hard, dead grass. A stream of fire went into the sky, and the air became thick with smoke and the
stench of sulfur. It stung my nose. I had to wonder if magic was keeping that from view. It seemed unlikely.

A golden shimmer surrounded the dragon, so he glowed. The light became so bright I had to look away.

After several seconds the light diminished. I coughed, and squinted, trying to see the dragon through all the smoke.

But he was gone.

Instead, a man came forward.

Chapter 3

“Kenmei,” I whispered
, bewildered. “What happened to Abernathy?”

“Take my hand,” he insisted.

I shook my head. “Where’s the dragon?” Had Kenmei killed him? Was everything the Vampire Queen said about him true? Was Kenmei evil?

“Shiryo-san, it’s me,” he said, and crouched so that we were level.
His eyes flashed, and the endlessness that was Kenmei’s vanished. Instead, his eyes glowed amber.

Abernathy’s eyes.

“That’s impossible.”

“Not impossible. Let me show you.” He held out his hand. Nervous I took it, and he pulled me to my feet.

“Does Pro—Adam Henry know?” I asked, searching his face, trying to see Abernathy in there. Even though the dragon was a hundred times my size,
I felt more at ease with him than I’d ever felt with Kenmei.

“You are the only person
I’ve ever revealed this secret to. Though I think the Vampire Queen suspects.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that?” And then I understood.
The Vampire Queen bit him, changed him. He was the first Hunter. She’d tasted his blood, probably more than once. “How could she not know?” I asked.

He smiled. “When she bit me I was in this form. And I stayed in this form for hundreds of years while I served her, until…” he trailed off. “May I take you somewhere?”

I had lots to do, but I was intrigued. “Sure,” I said.

“Thank you.” He squeezed my fingers. “Don’t let go.”

“Okay.”

Kenmei moved one hand in front of him.

Professor Pops’ mansion, and yard swirled before me, like a watercolor painting lost in the rain.

Kenmei and I were
on a dirt road. The sun hung high above, and off in the distance I saw a dragon circling in the air.

“Is that you?” I asked, still unsure it was true. Abernathy and Kenmei were the same.
That fact messed with my head. My mind ran through all of the different times I’d talked to the dragon (even with Silindra) and Kenmei. The strangest recollection was that Kenmei told me to talk to Abernathy. Which meant he was, in fact, sending me to talk to himself. I shook my head. Maybe the dragon was crazy.

“Yes,”
Kenmei answered, bringing me out of my thoughts. I watched his features soften. “Listen.”

I clamped down on another question, and
strained to hear what he wanted me to. Finally, I heard it. Singing. Like the song of a beautiful bird, but the voice was that of a girl.

As
one, Kenmei and I glided closer (it wasn’t walking or floating, it was like moving in super fast forward). We went off the road, and into an orchard. It was filled with apple trees. The scented blossoms made everything fragrant. I spotted a girl only a few feet away.

“Won’t she see us?” I asked, ready to hide behind a tree.

“No. This is one of my memories.” A hint of a smile danced on Kenmei’s lips. He was happy. I felt it flow off him.

“Who is she?” I took a step closer, mesmerized by her song.
She seemed so innocent, carefree. Her hair was long, and blond (the color of Abernathy’s mane). She wore a brown skirt, and a white shirt. The sleeves were long and poofed at the wrist. Her feet were bare. On one arm hung a basket.

She sang:

Carry me

Up to the clouds

Let me soar

I want to fly

Birds of all kinds fluttered around her, but they were silent. Even they seemed enamored by her voice.

If I had feathers

A tail too

I’d carry you

And you

And you

“Can’t you tell?” he asked, distracted. Then he answered, “That’s Aurora.”

“No,” I began, but regarded her more closely. She looked almost exactly like the girl in the Disney inspired pictures my stepmother used to keep in the house. “Wow,” I said.

“She’s exquisite, isn’t she?”

She was very pretty. “Yes,” I answered, keeping a step behind
Kenmei, as we moved nearer.

“Aurora is the reason I
took on a human form. It might seem odd, but I was a dragon in love with a human girl.”

“No way.”

Aurora plucked an apple from a tree, and placed it inside.

“Yes way, Shiryo-san.” His eyes sparkled, and radiated the love he felt for her.