The Heart's Ashes (84 page)

“
She’s my friend. You stay away from her.”

I rolled over
and sat up, looking at my hands; they just went straight through
those boys.

“
She likes me, David!”

David
? My mouth dropped as my eyes
focused on the boy standing in front of me—towering over the other
child who’d also come victim to a fall.

“
She doesn’t like you.” David pointed down at the other boy; I
looked across at him; their faces were exactly the same. “She told
me she’s just using you to get cookies from the kitchen, because
Chef likes you.”

“
No. She kissed me. She…she gave me her heart.” Jason reached
into his pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled piece of paper,
then held it up.

David snatched
it; his eyes narrowed as he looked at the heart-shaped cut-out.
“Dearest Jason,” he read. “You are a stinky poo, and I hate
you.”

“
It doesn’t say that.” Jason launched to his feet and shoved
David, who barely shuffled back.

“
I am writing you this note,” David continued, laughing, “to
tell you I like your brother more than you.”

As Jason
reached for it again, David held it above his head and bounced
around the field. “Give it back, David.” Jason jumped up,
stretching himself tall to grab the note, but David was too quick.
“Give it to me.”

“
No. Not unless you promise to stay away from her.”

“
Why?”

“
Because she doesn’t like you—she told me you’re the demon
child, asked me to keep you away.”

“
That’s not true,” Jason said, looking down at his feet, his
fists falling loose.

“
Promise to stay away from her, and you can have your
forged
note
back.”

“
It’s not forged.”

“
Promise.” David held the edges between his fingers and made a
small rip.

“
No!” Jason edged forward—his hand extended. “Please.
Don’t.”

“
Promise to stay away from her, then.”

“
Okay,” Jason said in earnest, stepping closer.

“
Promise.” David made another very small tear.

“
Okay. I—I promise.”

“
Good.” Just as Jason’s fingers touched the note, David drew
it away and ripped it in half.

“
No!”

“
Stay away from her.” David made confetti of the heart, then
sprinkled the remains in front of his brother’s feet. “She’s
mine!”

Jason, with
shaking fingers, dropped to his knees and picked each tiny square
up, holding them in his open palm. We both looked up at David as he
strolled away.

“
Oh, Jason.” I closed my eyes…

…
They opened again to Mike’s room, but the burn of pity in my
soul stayed hot in my blood.

“
Hey.”

I jumped to my
knees and smiled down at David. “Hey? You talked!”

“
Had to...” his voice came out crackly, “…say
something.”

“
You don’t sound like you. Are you okay, do you feel okay, can
I get you anything?”

With his chin
now separated from the infusion of skin that held it down a few
days ago, he shook his head. “Tell me…” he breathed through obvious
pain, “…something.”

“
Anything.”

“
How do you…” he coughed, rolling his face away for a second,
“…feel—about Jason?”

“
Jason?”

David waited.
I had no idea what he meant, and couldn’t really expect him to
elaborate considering how much agony those few words put him
through. “Did you…did you see my dream just now?”

His eyes
narrowed, confusion within.

“
Then, I don’t really know what you mean. Um.” I looked down
at my hands, splayed out on the sheets just beside his arm. “Do you
mean how do I feel about him hurting me, or about how Arthur said
Jason was actually doing it to save me?”

David
nodded.

“
Both?”

He nodded
again.

“
To be honest, David, I haven’t had time to think about it. I
mean, you should know—you’re always listening to my
head.”

He shook
his.

“
What?”

“
Can’t hear.”

“
What, at all now?”

He shook his
head again.

Can you
now?

David didn’t
move.

“
Is that…because I’m becoming stronger—my
vampirism?”

His eyes
warmed.

“
But I—I want you to hear my thoughts,” my voice quavered.
“I’ll miss it if you can’t.”

He reached
across and I softly wrapped my fingers around his—the fingers that
had been left untouched by flames. The healing had spread out
around that hand, more resembling a human than any other part of
his body.

“
Can you still hear Emily?” I asked.

His head moved
once in a nod.

So, it’s me,
not him.

“
Ara,” he whispered, “answer…question.”

Oh. Um. “I
don’t know how to feel about Jason, because…” My lip trembled.

“
Because?”

“
Because a part of me
does
feel sorry for him. A part of me
is
sad that he’s
dead—that
that
was his fate. But the common sense part of me is disgusted I
can feel that way.”

David’s eyes
glistened, liquid with restrained tears.

“
Are you sad? That’s he’s dead?” I asked.

He
swallowed.

“
It’s horrible—what happened to him—the way he died.” I stared
ahead.

David nodded,
scrunching a fist above his heart; his tight skin pulled over the
new flesh.

“
It hurts?” I asked. “In your heart?”

He nodded.

“
Is it true—about the blood oath?”

“
Unyielding,” David murmured, struggling to breathe as well as
speak. “Didn’t know he’d done that.”

“
It hurts you that he did?”

“
My fault,” he rasped, tapping his chest. “If I’d helped him
with the…with the…” he coughed, rolling up off his back a
little.

“
David, just rest.” I laid him back. “We can talk
later.”

“
No. Now.”

I held his
hand tight as he caught his breath, wheezing and gasping under an
external calm. “You okay?”

“
Better,” he said, swallowing whatever he’d coughed
up.

“
Do you need a drink?”

“
No.” His voice sounded clearer. “If I’d helped him with the
law, he wouldn’t have needed to join the Council.”

“
With the law? Do you mean the human-relations law—so he could
be with Emily?”

David
nodded.

“
I’m sorry, David.” I breathed out, shaking my head. “I’m
sorry this all happened.”

“
Not. More. Than. I,” the whisper came from his lips, sounding
like wind through a grater again.

“
Sleep.” I kissed the tip of his good finger. “We’ll talk
about it when you’re better.”

David was
given no choice; his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and the
loneliness of my constant isolation took hold of the room once
more.

“
Hey,
there’s
a face I haven’t seen for a while.” Eric grabbed me and spun
me onto his lap at the dining table.

“
Yeah, hi guys.” I rubbed my eyes and tried to tidy my hair a
little. “I didn’t think it was a good idea for this
scary-vampire-head to come out in the daylight.”

Mike and
Morgaine rolled their eyes, but at least Eric and Emily laughed—a
little. “How’s the man?” Eric asked.

“
He’s good. His hair’s growing back a little.”

“
Good.” Morgaine smiled. “Because we want our princess back.
We need to start creating this army, Amara. I have a thousand men
waiting to be bitten.”

“
A thousand?” I moaned. “Humans?”

Eric stiffened
under me.

“
Yeah. Why? What’s wrong?” Morgaine said, and we both looked
at Eric’s pale face.

“
Morg,” Eric said, “human blood burns Ara.”

“
It does?”

“
Yes.” I dropped my head into my hands. “This is gonna be
hard.”

Morgaine
looked at Mike who looked at Eric, then, they all looked at me.

“
It’s okay, Ara. We can find another way.” Mike reached across
the table and took my hand.

“
There
is
no
other way,” Morgaine said.

“
But, I’ve been extracting venom for the sword-tipping,” Mike
said, “can’t we just use that?”

“
Wait!” I jerked forward. “You’ve been extracting venom—from
yourself?”

“
Yes.” Mike looked down.

“
But. Why, Mike, it’s really painful?”

“
I’m fine, baby.”

“
It doesn’t matter, anyway,” Morgaine said. “You can’t create
a vampire of
any
sort with a syringe of venom—it doesn’t work that
way.”

“
Why?” I asked.

“
Try it—we don’t know. It just doesn’t.”

“
But biting them will?” I asked.

“
Yep.”

“
That’s it? Just a bite?”

“
Yes, Amara. What’s your point?” Morgaine asked.

“
How come Lilithians change so easily, yet turning a human to
a vampire is some great secret?”

“
We’re a different species. Lilithians are pure of heart and
soul. But vampires?” She shrugged at Eric. “They’re parasites. It’s
natures pest control, I guess.”

“
It’s nature’s way of keeping only the best in a small class.
We wouldn’t be special if there were thousands of us,” Eric said.
“Like there will be of your kind, once you’ve sunk your teeth into
the issue at hand, no pun intended.”

I sighed. “A
thousand is a big army, Morgaine. I can’t bite them all in one day.
I’ll need time.”

“
Well, then, with all due respect, Majesty, we need to get a
move on. Word has it Drake plans to attack while we’re weak. We
need to get to him first.”

“
He thinks I’m dead, doesn’t he? Why would he attack?” I stole
my hand from Mike’s and left it on the table.

“
This time, it’s not
you
he’s after. It’s
us
—the Lilithian people. We dared to
go against him, and now we have to pay. Plus, he wants Loslilian
manor back.”

“
Why?”

“
Because the forest surrounding it guards the stone of
truth.”

“
Guards
it?”

“
It’s said to be—” Mike cleared his throat.
“Enchanted.”

“
The forest?”

“
Yes.”

Why am I not surprised?
“Okay, so
what’s the plan—how do we evade attack?”

“
With an army. We’re already training them—we just need them
changed. They’ve been suited up, and—”

“
Suited up?” I interrupted Morgaine.

“
Yeah, uniforms.” Mike grinned, raising his brows a few
times.

“
They have uniforms?”

“
Have done for the last few thousand years,” Morgaine
said.

“
Cool. Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly. “Continue.”

“
So, the army awaits transformation; once that’s been
done—”

“
The real training begins.” Mike’s face lit with a wide, eager
grin.

“
What then? When they’re ready, what’d we do about
Drake?”

“
Well, the only thing we can do—turn his people against him
one by one, then invade La Château de la Mort, capture him and hold
him prisoner until the catalyst arrives.”

“
By catalyst, you mean my child?” I stiffened.

“
Yes.”

“
So, I have to have a baby sometime in the next year or so,
teach it to kill before it can walk, then, if I’ve done my job as
a
teen
mum, my
daughter will grow up without fear of death by the evil villain and
hopefully make her parents proud by becoming a big bad vampire
killer?” I looked around at all of them. “I’m not ready for a
baby.”

“
Amara. A baby is the least of your worries right now,”
Morgaine said. “We have to remove Drake from the World Council;
he’ll exterminate every one of us. You can’t just sit by and let
that happen—we have to fight.”

“
We will fight.” I leaned back against Eric; he placed his
hands over mine, on my belly. “I just don’t think it’s a very good
plan. I mean, is it only the child that can kill him? And when can
it do that? When will it be powerful enough?”

“
We don’t know.” Morgaine shook her head. “We can’t properly
interoperate the scrolls, because all the old world translators
were killed in the war on Lilith—and most of the scrolls were
destroyed when the vampires took over Loslilian.”

“
So, you don’t know what the prophecy truly speaks of? I may
not even be
meant
to have a child?”