Royal Blood (11 page)

“
Three, two, one,” Calpurnia counted, and in perfect harmony everyone jumped off of the cliff into the sea of serpents waiting below. At the same instant, the crystals disappeared into thin air. A look of shock, surprise, fear, and anger washed over the many faces that waited below.

I stood in awe for a moment as I watched Demitri manipulate boulders and tree limbs and slammed them into, and even
through,
unsuspecting victims. Marius leapt building to building, setting ablaze groups of vampires. Amasia followed closely behind, finishing them off. I watched in awe as Duncan blinded a victim, and then ripped off
his prey’s appendages
and tossed
them
into the fires. Calpurnia danced around all who advanced on her as she read their thoughts, and Alex sped through the crowd, mangling bodies in fractions of a second.

It was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen. Like a perfectly choreographed
symphony playing a death waltz. As I watched them, I grew hungry. The terror inside of me evaporated, and I wanted them to die. All of them.

As Demitri was engaged in a fight, I eyed a vampire stalking behind him. My eyes tightened, and I jumped to the vampire and thrust my hand into his back. I grabbed the first thing I felt cold and wet in my hand and yanked it out. In my hand, a heart took its last beat as the host crumpled to the floor.

Demitri’s eyes met mine then darted behind me. I turned and met the gaze of a dozen ravenous vampires. I hissed and crouched to attack. Marius blew past me then, and the twelve faces suddenly turned morbid as the flames engulfed their bodies.

A few buildings away,
an image startled me. “Father
,” I breathed. I took a step forward. A few hundred feet in front of me stood my father. He was reaching one hand out toward me.

No, my father is dead
.

“
Alumit!” I screamed.

Laughter broke from his lips as he melted back to his normal self. I jumped to him and kicked him back as hard as my legs would go.

“
I’m going to enjoy this almost as much as I enjoyed killing your father.”

I jumped to him again and slid my left hand down his face and whispered in his ear, “Good luck.” With my right hand I ripped his eye from its socket.

“
You bitch!” he cried out in pain.

I darted behind him and spun him around and ripped out his other eye as he fell to the ground whining. I
picked up a rock and held it up.
“I hope you enjoy this,”
I said
and I broke each and every one of his extremities. Then I raised the rock once more above his face.

A single piercing cry broke through the ocean of screams and shreds of skin that had consumed the once peaceful night. Before I had even turned, I knew the mouth it had escaped from.

As I turned, I saw Damascus looking at me and his lips were pressed against Alex’s limp neck. He dropped Alex’s body to the floor and his black sinister eyes twitched and he smiled at me.

In this very moment, clarity washed over me. This man had killed my father. He had taken my throne. He deceived all of my family. And now he spilled the blood of the man I loved.

“
I’m going to kill you,” I hissed.

He wiped his mouth on his sleeve then spat down toward Alex’s lifeless body. I snarled and lunged. In a blink, I impacted his body, throwing him back as he simultaneously struck my chest.

I flipped backward, but when I landed,
he was already headed back in my direction. He was fast. But I was faster. I jumped behind him and he spun to me.

“
So eager to avenge a man that didn’t even love you.”

I jumped behind him again and thrust my hand into his shoulder and took his arm with me then jumped again before he could turn and strike me. His agony was deafening, yet music to my ears. The shrill scream quickly turned into laughter, “You will never win. My kind will never let a half breed
woman
,” he spat the word at me, “rule them.”

With invisible speed, I circled around Damascus’ body, my teeth pressed into his neck, then perched onto his back.

“
They don’t have a choice.” I jerked my arms up and leapt over his body into a crouch directly in front of him. His body fell to the ground behind me, and I dropped his head still oozing his remains next to his body.

I could feel and smell the blood drying
all over my body. My hair was matted to my face. I was only subconsciously aware of the fighting still going on around me. Fires were ablaze, stemming all over the city. Everything seemed in warped speed as I walked slowly toward Alex’s undisturbed body.

“
Alex,” I whispered and dropped to my knees beside him. I turned his body face up, but he did not move. I shook him, “Alex! Alex! Don’t you die on me! Not now! No! Stay with me! I love you, stay with me!” I bit into my wrist and let my blood flow freely into his mouth. Nothing happened. “Demitri!” I screamed as loudly as I could. In a second, he was by my side.

“
Alex,” he sighed. “Lillith,” he called in not much more than a whisper. She sped toward us and without a word, dropped to his other side and poured something into his mouth. She then put her hands over his wounds on his neck and arm.

I looked up at Demitri. “She is a healer. If he can be saved, she can do it.”

His breathing became shallow and labored and he opened his eyes. “Damascus?” he breathed.

“
He is dead,” I stated.

“
And the others are being finished off,” his father amended.

He looked into my eyes, “Christina.” I looked into his eyes and tears flowed effortlessly from my face. He put his hand to his chest and ripped open his shirt. Lying across his chest was a thin gold chain, holding a tiny gold baby ring. I cupped my hand over my mouth and sobs broke free from my chest. He took my hand from my face and laid it above his heart.

“
This heart, it beats for only you. My heart is yours. Silly girl to have ever believed the lies I said to you! I love you, Christina Marie Delano. Now go. Go be the woman you were born to be. It’s in your blood.” He flashed me his smile that had lit his face all those years and then lay his head back and
closed his eyes. Demitri picked Alex up and began to walk away with his body, while his heartbeat faded into the blackness.

Ep
ilogue

A million things seemed to happen at once after the battle. The next week no one had been able to rest between my taking the throne, meeting with different advisors, and strategizing the elimination of the surge that had begun taking place at my crowning. Damascus’ army may have been the biggest
threat to me, but it was not the only one.

After spending a solid month in Sangre Real, I decided it was time to go home and reunite with my mother. Even though Cali had been relaying messages to her for me, we had not spoken on the phone for many weeks.

“
Demitri and I will go with you, Queen Christina,” Calpurnia said.

I smiled. That was something I still hadn’t gotten used to even after a month of it.

“
I’m not allowed to go alone anymore, am I?” I sighed. Cali just smiled back at me. “Hey, I guess everyone needs their own death-dealing, fang-bearing, vampire posse these days right? I mean it is 2010,” I teased.

Even though things had changed so much in my life, I still couldn’t understand why I was so nervous to see the woman who had been my mother for the last twenty two years, even if she wasn’t technically my “mother”.

When I got to her house, I let myself in and sat down on the couch. She wasn’t in the room, so I decided to just sit and wait.

The house was the exact same as I remembered it from my childhood. Not much had changed except for minor things like a newer, bigger TV and a new bookcase. So many good memories I had in this world, such a different life from the one I would be leading for the rest of forever. Lazy Sundays were spent on this very couch, sipping hot chocolate. Wrapping paper was strewn on this floor at 6 a.m. every Christmas. There were so many things about my old life that I would miss once I said goodbye to this place.

“
Christina?!” Mom exclaimed.

I stood and she ran over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and cried.

“
I’m so sorry, Mom, for what I said before—”

“
No…. no, I’m sorry.” Tears were streaming down her face.

“
Sorry for what, Mom?”

“
Let me finish. I’m sorry for lying to you. I’m sorry for hurting you. I was supposed to always be there for you, and I thought you wouldn’t find out. I was supposed to protect you. Your mother never wanted you to find out. She wanted you to be normal. Happy. Safe. All I ever wanted was to do right by you and help you to become a beautiful grown woman. And I have always been so proud of you, so proud. I love you so much, Christina, and I will always think of you as my daughter. Please forgive me.”

I was crying now too.

“
You have nothing to be sorry for, Mom. You did everything right. You were an amazing mother, are,
are
an amazing mother. You always will be an amazing mother. I don’t blame you for anything. It was just all so…..complicated. You couldn’t have made it any easier. You were here for me, and that’s all I needed, and will always need.” I wrapped my arms around her neck. “I still
need my mother.”

“
You won’t be able to come back, will you?” she said. I frowned. “You were always a bad liar, you know.”

“
I don’t…. I don’t know, Mom.” I wanted so desperately to say yes. I didn’t want to leave my mother there like that. “I just don’t know if it’s safe. Do they know? Michael and the girls?”

“
No, no of course not. They believe you are my daughter.”

“
Hmmm. Well, maybe. I’ll figure something out. If we can still keep you safe, then I can come back. I just won’t put you in danger.”

We chatted for a few more hours. Crying here and there, laughing and smiling more often. I don’t think she ever believed I would make it back.

Eventually it was time for me to leave, so I said my goodbyes to my family and headed to the car. Cali and Demitri met me there and Cali wrapped her arms around me.

“
Do you need a minute?”

I smiled, “No, I’m okay. I’m ready to go home.”

Driving back towards Sangre Real brought a wave of emotions over me. This was the first time ever that I was driving
home
. The first time driving there without feeling totally uncertain of what I was driving toward, and not having to be afraid of it. Now, I was driving toward my future. I hoped I would make my mother and father proud.

I took a few extra moments walking around my church. Never before had I thought about the irony of having the entrance to our world being a church, a safe haven from those who are damned. Huh. It definitely was not a place any human would ever have expected that the cross between
fantasy and reality meet.

When I rounded the corner to the passage, I stopped dead in my tracks. Where there once was a picture of a man with light brown hair and blindingly bright blue eyes that laughed at me, something else was now present.

Me. Only… she was beautiful. The once boring, straight, light brown hair was flowing so perfectly around her face. Her skin glowed like a picture never could. The eyes were purely my father’s. The smile really struck me though. It was a smile I rarely saw in myself. It was confident. Brave. Proud even.

“
It’s how you look to us, Your Highness,” Calpurnia said, startling me.

I wish….. I wish Alex was
—

“
I know. We all do.”

Without another word, I walked silently toward Sangre Real. I took every
single step with my eyes closed. I listed to every sound, breathed in every scent of the forest, and tasted the air in every step.