Dark Heirloom (An Ema Marx Novel Book 1) (22 page)

“Oh? Then he told you he’s a shape-shifter too?” I hadn’t known for sure, but I went with the knowledge that Jesu would be too shy to spend so much time with the girl as himself.

Ema’s eyes darted around the room nervously. “N-no.”

“So, he
didn’t
tell you he shifts into a cat?”

“Wh-what?”

“Oh,” I snickered. “You didn’t know that the little cat you’ve been fondling all this time is really him?”

My lips curled as her eyes widened. Her arms went slack by her sides and she stared into the distance, as though considering the possibility for the first time.

I wondered how far I should push her. I could tell her about the vision. Would it be too much?

“You are being too coarse with her.”

I scoffed internally at the voice. Like
he
knew how to be anything other than coarse. Yet, whether I liked it or not, my demeanor changed. I softened my tone and relaxed my posture. I reached out and gently grazed her cheek with the tips of my fingers. “I’m sorry.”

No, I’m not
. I took pleasure in her humiliation.

She flinched and backed away, heading to the door. My mind panicked, and I struggled to find the right words. Nothing about this was fair for anyone.

“Ema, wait. I’m sorry. Please stay. I have so much more to tell you.” That came out wrong. I wasn’t trying to mock her.

She shook her head. “I’ve heard enough.”

I grabbed her wrist. “Wait.”

“No!” She phased her arm while pulling away from me. My hand fell through the black smoke. She glowered at me for a harsh moment, her expression stern and ice cold.

I opened my mouth, but found myself rendered speechless under her piercing gaze. With a final purse of her lips, she exited the room, slamming the door behind her.

I slumped against the edge of the bed, feeling worthless. I was just a tool, and not even a good one. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, and spoke aloud to my master. “Forgive me, Father, for I’ve said too much and spoiled your plan.”

“Nonsense. You did what you needed to, and took the first step by breaking the gypsy’s trust in your brother. It is only a matter of time before she comes to us.”

I nodded, my mind numb. I laid back in bed, smelling Leena’s familiar scent, and pondered the quickest way to convince the girl to be my bride—the quickest way to be rid of the demon within me. Let her deal with him. It’s her destiny anyway. Maybe, once he was inside her, I could find Leena and explain everything.

Ema would never agree, though. She hated me, and I hated her. Maybe feigning interest was the wrong way to go about the task. Maybe honesty was better. Not complete honestly, of course. For who would agree to bear a demon? Yet, perhaps, if I explained the need for a queen, if I explained why she was capable of such position, if it was a business proposal, and not a forced relationship, she may agree? She could have Jesu, or whoever she chose, I didn’t care. And I could have my Leena back. Ema and I would be together solely as a political agreement, and nothing more.

But, of course, Leena would not want to come back, even if she knew the truth. I couldn’t blame her. I would be wed to another woman. She would be reminded of that day in and day out, and she had said she didn’t want to sit by and watch. Of course she didn’t. It would cripple her. I couldn’t ask that of the woman I loved.

Besides, my father wanted Ema and me to have a child. Even if all else was strictly business, how could I ask Leena to agree to
that
? How would I convince Ema to agree? All that would take much, much longer than I’d prefer. If I had any chance of getting Leena back, action would have to be taken immediately. I had to get my father out
now
.

An idea brewed and then quickly took on the form of a plan. It just might work. A sensation like worms crawling through my brain sent chills down my spine as the demon inside me smiled.

Chapter 22

I ran down the rows of books in Jalmari’s library, frantically searching for the untitled black spine that held the Jack the Ripper articles. Spotting it, I grabbed ahold and yanked hard. The heavy book slid from my fingertips and fell against the marble floor, cover-side up.

I dropped to my knees, turned the book over, and flipped the pages until I found the article with the picture. I was so sure the young man standing in shadows was Jalmari, with the familiar dagger in tow. But, looking at it now, I really couldn’t tell.

The quality of the black and white photograph was so ancient, the article itself faded and frail. Studying the photograph, I realized how alike Jalmari’s and Jesu’s features were, especially when color was omitted.

My fingers trembled as I gently lifted the article from the corner pieces which held it in place. I skimmed through the text. When I reached the description of the ‘murderer caught at the scene,’
my heart skipped a beat. I read slowly while holding my breath.

The witness described the murderer as a tall man, standing at about six foot, in his early twenties, having very pale, almost blue complexion, green eyes, and black hair.

I read it again.
Blue complexion
. It couldn’t be.

I folded the article in half and slid it in my pants pocket. Leaving the book on the floor, I turned and ran to the kitchen of the first wing, phasing past doors and furniture. I called out Maria’s name until I could sense her approach.

She appeared with a glowing smile. “Good day, darling.”

I grumbled. “There’s nothing good about today.”

Her smile fell. “Whatever is the matter, dear?”

“Maria, is Raven… I mean… is the cat Jesu?”

A grin crept across Maria’s face. “What makes you think that, darling?”

I closed my eyes. “Please, just answer the question.” I swore, if one more vampyre tried to bend the truth, I was going to snap.

Maria’s smile grew from ear to ear. “Yes, darling, Jesu is the cat.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I whined. “I feel like such an idiot.”

Really, now that I thought about it, I should have known. I could shift into a bat and a wolf. Why wouldn’t Jesu be able to do the same? I blushed, thinking about all the times I had undressed in front of the cat, all the times I had snuggled up close to him and scratched his belly. Worse were the things I told him when I thought no one else could hear.

“Forgive me, dear, I meant no harm. I just wanted to help Jesu meet someone special.”

I shook my head. “Maria, where’s the dungeon?”

“The dungeon? Whatever do you want to go down there for?”

“Jalmari locked up Jesu.”

Her eyes widened and she frowned. Her fear was quickly replaced by annoyance as her brow furrowed.

“I swear, those boys…” She shrugged. “Brothers. Well, come along, I’ll show you.”

She led me to the majestic, marble ballroom where she stood directly in the center of the large, white marble heptagram design on the floor. She waved her hand, motioning for me to stand beside her.

“The dungeon is under the ballroom. The only way in—or out—is to phase.” She smiled, and then descended into the marble floor. I followed.

The air in the dungeon stood still, thick with dust. I squinted in the dimness. Even with vampyre vision, I strained to see. The dungeon wasn’t what I expected. The jail cells were made of hard, clear plastic instead of iron and cement. The design was quite modern, and looked like a regular county jail.

However, none of the cells had a door or a lock. I gulped as understanding dawned; the entire dungeon was designed to hold vampyres that couldn’t phase. Even if they managed to break out of the hard, plastic shell of their cells, they would be trapped by the thick walls of the castle’s foundation.

Maria gasped. “Oh, my word.” She moved to a cell in the far right corner. A shadow stirred within. I recognized Jesu’s voice the instant he spoke.

“Maria? Ema?”

I rushed to Maria’s side and stood before Jesu. He clung to the plastic bars with both hands, and stared at me with a look of longing and regret.

“Ema…”

I stared back, not sure how to say what I wanted.

Maria scolded. “What did you and Jalmari get into this time? Haven’t I told you to mind your brother?”

Jesu answered her without looking away from me. “It is a long story.”

Maria tsked him, and then reached a slender hand between the bars. I knew instantly what she was doing, and grabbed her wrist to stop her. “Wait. I’d like to speak with him first… privately, please.”

Maria studied me for a moment, and then nodded. She phased and flew through the ceiling, leaving us alone. I waited a moment while looking at Jesu. I opened my mouth to speak, but he interrupted me.

“Ema, are you all right?” He reached out and cradled my face with his hands.

I flinched out of reach. “Stop that, I’m fine. I wanted to ask you something. Jesu, is it true that you’re Raven?”

He winced and looked away.

I shook my head. “I know
you are. I just need to hear it from you.”

He bowed his head and whispered. “Yes. I am the cat, Raven.”

Humiliation boiled under my skin. “Show me.”

Hesitantly, he backed up and then began to shift. His body shrank while his ears moved from his temples, to the top of his head, and grew to a point. His fingers turned into tiny nubs as his nails lengthened into sharp claws. As he shrank smaller and smaller, his clothes fell into a heap around him. From his shirt, a wide-eyed Raven crawled out and sat before me.

“I see. Now shift back.”

Jesu-Raven glanced at the pile of clothes, and then shook his head.

My eyes narrowed. “You know how many times you’ve seen me undress when I thought you were just a stupid animal. Now shift back.”

He hesitated and then shifted, standing buck-naked with nothing more than clear plastic bars between us. For a long moment, he didn’t bother to cover up. I didn’t bother to look away, even though my pulse quickened at the sight of his lean body. It took an extra effort not to look below his waist, but he didn’t need to know that.

“I am sorry,” he breathed. I shrugged and turned away to give him some privacy while he redressed. “I never looked, though. I swear to you, I never looked when you changed clothes.”

“Save the apologies, Romeo, there’s more.” I waited until I heard him zip up his pants, and then faced him. “Are you Jack the Ripper?”

He pulled on his shirt, ran a hand through his long locks, and breathed out a loud sigh. “Yes, I guess I am.”

Anger surged though my veins as my heart dropped into my stomach. “You sick bastard, how could you?”

Jesu kept his gaze on the ground. “You do not understand. I did not want to hurt those women, but I had to. I had to fake interest in the job to stay in the group.”

“The elite vampire assassins group?”

“Yes.”

“And why the heck would you want to belong to a group of
assassins
?”

“So that I could find you before they did.” He looked straight at me, his eyes grave. His lips fell into a somber frown.

I shook my head. “How could you know about me in the 1900s? I wasn’t even born yet.”

He winced. “Actually, I joined the assassins in the 1200s.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why were you looking for me? How?”

He gripped the bars with both hands and pressed his forehead against them. “I tried to tell you. Remember when I said that Draugrian vampyres see the future?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“My father, the king, killed millions of people throughout history. He is not even really of royal blood. He killed another clan leader, the Ekimmuen leader, back in the days of ancient Babylon, and named himself their king. He created vast armies of vampires and used them to wipe out entire tribes of men, both human and vampyre. He demolished any clan or nation that refused to submit to him.

“As such, he had a lot of enemies. He married my mother for her psychic abilities. He forced her to predict the outcome of every decision he made so he could choose the option that got him what he wanted without getting caught by his enemies.

“My mother eventually helped plot the murder of my father, but she was caught by his guards. She was given the death sentence. The day before she was to be beheaded, I had a premonition. I saw you, battling against my father. I did not understand at the time. Why would I have premonitions about a dead man? So I snuck into the dungeon where my mother was being held and I spoke to her about it. She looked into my father’s future, a clear sign that he must still be alive; dead men do not have a future. She saw the same vision I did. She… she made me promise… she
ordered
me… to find you and keep you alive so that you could finish the job she started.”

“But, why me?”

Jesu shrugged. “I don’t know. I assume, because of what you are, you might be the only one who can stop him.”

“And what am I, exactly?”

Jesu sighed. “You are my father’s great granddaughter, by roughly twenty generations.”

“Wh-what?” I stammered. “We… we’re related?”

“Yes. You are my great half-niece. My father had many relations before and after he married. Some of those women were human. Many of them birthed him offspring. Of course, he ordered his human offspring to be put to death, but some, like me, got away and survived. These offspring married, had their own children, and so on, until a population of humans came about which all carried the vampyre gene. These people are now known as the Romani, and are your ancestors, Ema.”

I wet my lips and shook my head, completely dumbfounded. “But that’s insane. The Romani are just a race of misunderstood people.” I thought about what I knew of my heritage. It wasn’t much. I was only half-Romani, and I’d never lived in a Romani community the way my mother had when she was growing up.

“Think about it, Ema. None of the humans seem to know where the Romani race originated. They’re all over Europe, yet they have no starting point. It is because your ancestors lied about their vampyre origins. They had to, because they were being hunted. The Romani have always been outcasts, because they are not fully human, yet they also do not have enough Nephilm blood to be vampyric. That is, until you came along.”

My head spun. I placed my fingers against my temples. “So, you’re saying I
inherited
this?”

Jesu nodded. “Of course. It is the only way to be a vampyre. The real question is how the gene was triggered, to which, I am afraid, I have no idea.”

“The elite vampire assassins… they still hunt Romani… why?”

“My father’s law, remember? All vampyre-born humans have to be destroyed. When he realized what the Romani were, he ordered that they be hunted down and killed on sight.

“Ema, when my mother and I saw you in my vision, we saw you as a human. Other than that, I had no information to use. I had no idea what year, or where in the world I would find you. I tried on my own, at first, but when that didn’t work, I joined the assassins to travel with them and hunt down the Romani in hopes of finding you before they could.”

Jesu shook his head. “It was crazy. So many thousands of women in the world, over the span of nearly eight-hundred years. I gave up and left the group in 1925. Besides, there was never any news of my father coming back from the grave. I assumed he must have been really dead, and my premonition must have been false. But then, eight weeks ago, Jalmari walked into the castle with you in his arms. I nearly fainted.”

He laughed, and then shook his head again. “Jalmari, of all people. He should have killed you. Either way, I was extremely shocked to see you alive and, well,
here
.” He glanced at me and waited for a response, but I wasn’t sure what to make of this information.

I thought a moment. “Jesu, you knew about this the entire time. Why didn’t you tell
me?”

“I am sorry. I know I should have. I tried to a couple of times, but admittedly, not very hard. I did not know anything about you, who you were, or what you were like. I did not know how you would react. I also did not understand it completely myself. I was expecting you to be human, for one thing. And, like I said, I thought my father was dead, so I was confused as to why you would show up now.”

“Wait, are you implying he’s
not
dead?”

Jesu sighed. “Yes. I just found out he is still alive.”

I frowned. “When?”

“Not more than an hour ago, when Jalmari tossed me in here. He is the one who told me.”

“Wow. Shit. Wow.” That was all I could manage to say.

Jesu reached through the bars and took my hands. “Ema, my father is no ordinary man. Aside from the Nephilim, he is the most evil, unstable, and power-hungry creature in history. He’s killed more men, women, and children than any war or sickness. In fact, your generation knows my father as Satan.”