Mark of Betrayal (58 page)

“
So, Arthur knew about this child—even before he knew a Lilithian had been found?”

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I suspect so. But his notes on the deciphering of the prophecy differed. And it makes sense—all of it. There is no evidence that this child will kill Drake, Ara. I don't know where Morgaine got that information, but—”

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From Drake,” I said, and both the boys looked up. “She got it straight from him.”

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What makes you think that?”

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Arthur told me Drake was the one who told Morgaine about the prophecy. That's what made her go searching for parchments and scrolls.”

David stood up, his eyes narrowed. He walked slowly toward me but stopped and turned to look at Jason. “What do you know, brother? You know more than you’re letting on. What is it?”

Jason moistened his lips, looking from me to David.

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Drake told Morgaine what he wanted her to know,” I cut in. “To serve his own greater purpose. These scrolls you all get your information from could possibly have been forged by Drake to look like prophecy scrolls.”

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She’s right,” Jason said. “There was no signature on those scrolls. Every other prophecy held Vampirie’s seal. You know that.”

David nodded. “But I never questioned it.”

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Why?” I asked.

David's lip turned sharply on the corner. “All this began because you were kidnapped by Drake. I trusted Morgaine—she was willing to help me rescue you. I’d have believed anything she said.”

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And now the dust has settled,” Jason said, “it seems as though there are a few things coming into sharper focus.”

David frowned then, and as the same idea he obviously had sunk in to my head, my mouth dropped. “Is she the traitor?”

His hand came slowly up to his mouth. “It’s possible.”

I took a few steps back and let out a long, quiet breath, almost seeing it come past my lips in the colour of disbelief.

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Look, we don’t know for sure,” David said. “I mean, what motive would she have for getting you on the throne, for saving you? All of it.”

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Because, like you said, maybe this was never about the child. Maybe all this—” I motioned around the room. “Is for some other reason.”

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Yeah, but, what?” Jason said.

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I don't know. But we need to flush it out.”

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How?” I said.

They both scratched their cheekbones on one side.

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Is the child even possible?” I placed a flat hand across my belly.

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I don't know,” David said, looking at my hand. “Are you pregnant yet?”

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No.” I let my hand fall away. “I mean, I haven't had my period, but that’s probably the stress.”

David half smiled. “Maybe. Have you taken a pregnancy test?”

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No.”

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Maybe you should do that.”

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And what then?” I asked. “What if I am pregnant? What do we tell our people? The king is dead. They’ll demand to know whose baby it is.”

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Tell them it’s mine,” Jason piped up.

We both looked at him.

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Ara and I can just pretend to be together.”

David ran a hand over his hair. “Okay, that’s actually a good idea, but she’s not pregnant, Jason. I can smell her. She smells exactly the same as she always does.”

Jason nodded. “So, why not tell them she is anyway? Tell them it doesn’t change her body like it does a human. None of them would know. None of them were around when Lilith had children, right?”

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Except Arthur,” I said.

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No. He wasn't. He was alive, but he never came to Loslilian,” Jason said.

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How do you know?”

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Because we talked about it—talked about Lilith having children. He said he never saw the miracle occur, but was told stories of this childbearing vampire.”

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Okay, but, why would we lie—why would we tell them I'm pregnant?”

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To see what reaction it has.”

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Also, it would make Jason king by rights,” David said. “It would appease the distress of the people.”

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Yeah, but when I go to swear my oath, David and I can switch places,” Jason said.

I looked up at David with a smile. “Yes. You could become official.”

His eyes narrowed as if this idea suited him. “Come to think of it, feigning pregnancy would flush out Morgaine’s true motive as well—if she has one.”

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Yeah, especially if she doesn't really believe in this prophecy child,” I said, shrugging. “And who knows, if she is the traitor, it might change her allegiance.”

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Doubt it.”

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But on the bright side, Ara,” David said, reaching across to pull me into him. “With Jason here, I can come back more often and no one will question the scent.”

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Oh yeah.” Everything brightened, like the sun just shone down through the roof. “I didn't think of that.”

He kissed my forehead. “It was one of my very first thoughts.”

I snuggled into him and squeezed his ribs tight. “So, will you stay tonight?”

He shook his head against the top of mine. “I can't. When I got the call, I was in the middle of something.”

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What?”

He looked at Jason, sighing.

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Really?” Jason said.

David nodded.

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Well, tell her.”

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Tell me what?” I looked up at David.

His jaw went square, tight. “I'm not ready to tell you, Ara.”

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Please tell me. Or at least tell me what it’s about.”

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Your family,” Jason said. “Your bloodline.”

I stepped back a little so I could look at David without angling my neck. “What about it?”

He let the hesitation out through his open mouth in a hard breath. “I couldn’t get your dad’s DNA. I wanted to test it against yours, so I took some of Sam's.”

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And?”

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And…I gave it to a friend of mine who works in human medicine. She ran a DNA scan. I wanted her to run some other tests but she couldn't get permission for those kinds of investigations—”

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What kinds?”

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I wanted to know, not only if Sam was biologically related to you, through your father, but if he had odd cells, maybe proving if he was a half-blood or even of Lilithian descent.”

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What, like my dad might be Lilithian and not know it?”

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Perhaps. If Amara was his mother, then he would be Lilithian, surely. We just don't know how it works; we don't know why only females are born to Lilithians, but I wanted to find out. She couldn’t do those tests, but she did check the DNA.”

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And?”

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And…there is a distant ancestral connection.” He paused.

I frowned at him. “What does that mean?”

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It means that your father is not your father, Ara,” Jason said.

My heart sunk; David grabbed my arm.

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But he is related to your bloodline—just, perhaps not the Lilithian bloodline,” David said. “Maybe he was your real father’s cousin or uncle or something. I don't know. That wasn't discussed, but, my love?” He sat beside me where I fell onto Jason’s bed. “One fact was certain; Greg Thompson is not your real father.”

My hands shook, my eyes tearing to blindness. “Then my namesake—his mother. Was she…”

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I think Greg may have been adopted by Amara—and it’s possible she’s not the same Amara I saved.”

I nodded, biting my lip.

David delicately wrapped me up in his arms. “I'm sorry, Ara. I didn't want to tell you this.”

I nodded, wiping my face. “I…we both kind of knew it was a possibility. It’s just…I have no one now, David. My mum, who wasn’t really my mum, is dead, and now I don't have a dad, either.”

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You still have a dad, Ara.” He cradled my face against his quiet heart. “That man loves you and would give his own life for you. He is your dad whether that relation is biological or not.”

I sat up from him and looked at Jason for a second, who seemed as though he was fighting some great internal battle not to push David aside and hold me. “So, you need to trace his family tree, in order to find mine, right? If we were distantly related.”

David stiffened. “When I say distant, I mean, quite possibly, centuries of distance.”

I swallowed. “So, what are you doing about it then? Just…nothing?”

He shook his head. “I've traced back as far as I can go, but, I had an idea this morning. I remembered a book in Arthur’s study back home, and the name Greg came up, but the book was ancient. The only reason I even thought of it—connected it to you, was because it also mentioned something about grapevines.”

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Grapevines?”

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Yeah.” He kind of laughed. “It was a novel written by a very old vampire. The story followed a man named Greg. I don't recall the surname, but—”

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Thompson,” Jason said out of the blue. We looked up at him; he wandered over and sat beside me. “I remember it. It was Thompson.”

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Well, so…what does that mean? Was it a prophecy or just some fictional story, written by my dad, who is actually a vampire?”

David laughed. “Your dad’s not a vampire, Ara. He ages. I’ve seen it and I’ve heard his heartbeat—even read his mind. I can't read vampire minds, you know that.”

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Well, maybe he’s another breed?”

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I doubt it, but I'm looking into it. And this book, I don't remember the story—” David looked at Jason; Jason shrugged as if to say he didn't either, “—But I'm going in to Elysium to get it. I want to find out how many similarities there are.”

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Do you think, if this was Arthur’s book, maybe he knows something?”

David shook his head. “The book was of very little significance, Ara. I only thought of it because I was thinking about us and remembered when you first mentioned grapevines. It was an unassuming, unimportant thought that flittered past in a memory, and something just clicked. It probably has no relevance at all.”

I nodded. “Will you tell me? Like, if you find anything, will you tell me?”

He looked at Jason. “I will. I promise.”

I wrapped my arms around him again. “Thanks.”

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Don't mention it. Now—” He stood up, taking my hand, and pulled me into another hug. “I have to go. I need to sneak into Elysium at sunset.”

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Why?”

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Because that's when the guards change over. It’s the easiest time to get in.”

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Oh. Okay. So, why don't you take Quaid and Ryder with you—I'm really worried Arthur might be right about Drake trying to get his hands on a Pure Created, but Mike won't listen.”

David nodded, cupping a hand over my head and placing a soft kiss on my hair. “Okay. I’ll go sneak down to the barracks and see what the deal is.”

I squeezed him tighter. “Thanks, David.”

He squeezed back. “You take care, okay? I’ll hopefully have word back about this book before tomorrow.”

I nodded against his chest. “Okay.”

Jason stepped up, and David broke away from our embrace to hug his brother. “I'm glad you're alive, bro,” he said.

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Yeah.” Jason patted David's back. “Me too. And don't worry, I’ll watch over her for you.”

David nodded, studying me then Jason carefully. “The bind…it is broken now, right?”

I smiled. “Yeah. It is.”

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Okay. Just…”

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It’s fine, brother.” Jason reached across and clapped David on the shoulder. “I won't touch her. I swear.”

He nodded, satisfied, and leaned in to kiss my cheek softly before disappearing into thin air, leaving only a wispy breeze and the billowing curtain.

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Good thing this isn't Australia,” I said.

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Why?”

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Because he’d have a hard time getting in and out if there were flyscreens on all the windows.”

Jason laughed loudly.

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So, what were you thinking before?” I asked, remembering back to when David demanded he share his thoughts.

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Oh, um.” He looked at me, half smiling, kind of surprised as well. “I can't believe you picked up on that.”

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I pick up on everything,” I said, and sat down on his bed.

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Well—” He sat down, too. “David said Arthur’s notes differed to Morgaine’s deciphering of the prophecy—that he didn't seem to have scribed any possibility of a child that can cure vampirism.”

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So?”

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So, why does he want a child with you, on the premise that he wants to be free, if he doesn't believe the prophecy?”

All the blood drained from my face.

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Precisely,” Jason said, grinning. “Wanna know something else?”

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Sure, why not?”

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David had a flash of an image in his mind while we were talking; it was mostly just scribble, but I saw the dagger in there.”

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What, a picture of it, or the actual dagger?”

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Just a picture—done in charcoal. He knows what he’s looking for, but hasn't found it—and his not being here has something to do with it, so does his eagerness to be crowned.”