Chương 26: An Increasingly Troublesome Family

I reached up to rub my eyes and immediately regretted it. My entire body felt heavy. I wasn't wounded, nor was I sore in any familiar way. It felt as though something had emptied me out, scraped away whatever remained, and left me sleeping at the bottom of a well. Even lifting my hand required more effort than I found reasonable. My eyes slowly opened. A soft voice murmured nearby, familiar enough to irritate me before I had even fully awakened. I turned my head and nearly frowned myself back into unconsciousness.

Celeste had wrapped herself around me completely. One arm rested across my waist, a leg was tangled with mine beneath the blanket, and her cheek was pressed against my shoulder. Silver hair covered both of us. Faint stains marked her clothing, and judging by the condition of the blankets and the lingering scent of dried blood, she had decided that if I was going to collapse dramatically, she would make it everyone else's problem. My first instinct was to throw her off the bed.

Then I noticed the dried tear tracks beneath her eyes and the way her hand clutched the blanket near my waist, even in sleep. She held it as though she feared I might disappear the moment she loosened her grip. The sight smothered most of my usual response before it could escape. What an irritating woman. When I tried to shift beneath her, I discovered another problem. I was almost entirely naked beneath the blanket. My body went still. What the hell?

I looked down at myself, surveyed the room, and then looked beneath the blanket again in case exhaustion had somehow confused me. My mind dragged itself through the mud of recent memory. Memories returned in broken pieces: Malcolm bleeding in my arms, Vera choosing to follow him, Vale dying in the courtyard, and my body finally giving out beneath me. That explained the missing clothing.

What remained of it had been soaked in blood and torn beyond saving, so someone had apparently stripped me before placing me in bed. How considerate of them, but why not put something on me after… Everyone involved was fortunate that I lacked the strength to begin strangling people. I lifted my head and examined the room more carefully. I had been returned to my chambers in the Stonehaven residence. The familiar canopy bed stood surrounded by heavy curtains, while a carved wardrobe occupied the opposite wall.

Black-and-violet furniture filled the room because Celeste had personally bullied several craftsmen into creating pieces that reflected what she called the dignity of House Vaust. A crow stood on top of the door. No, it wasn't a crow. At least, not a normal one. Its body appeared to have been sculpted from dark red crystal and fresh blood. Every feather gleamed with a faint, glasslike sheen, and crimson light burned within its eyes.

It watched me with a sharp intelligence I didn't appreciate from any creature standing inside my room without permission. The thing opened its beak and released a deafening caw. Celeste jerked awake as footsteps thundered through the corridor outside.

"Mother…" The word emerged as a broken whine. Celeste blinked up at me as though she couldn't trust what she was seeing, and her expression crumpled almost immediately.

"Why did you sleep for so long?" I narrowed my eyes.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"Ten days." Tears began spilling down her cheeks before she could stop them.

"Ten whole days… I thought you might never wake up." Ten days. I stared at her as the number settled into my mind. A tired sigh escaped me. I was still considering an appropriately cruel response when the door flew open. Adrian entered first, naturally. He always moved like a man expecting disaster and fully intending to meet it with a sword. The moment his eyes found me awake, some of the tension left his expression.

It wasn't much, because Adrian was not Celeste and seemed physically incapable of making a scene unless she was involved. Malcolm and Vera entered behind him. They had both… changed. Their transformation into vampires was obvious, but there was more to it than that. Their skin possessed the same unnatural vitality carried by the rest of my bloodline. Their eyes appeared brighter, and their movements had become smoother. Malcolm's bruises and torn flesh had vanished.

A faint stiffness remained in the way he carried himself, as though his body remembered dying and hadn't yet forgiven the experience. Vera had grown paler in a way that suited her. Her beauty had sharpened without becoming harsh, replacing mortal softness with something elegant and slightly unnerving. She watched me with relief, uncertainty, and something dangerously close to devotion. Celeste hadn't stopped speaking as I was deep in contemplation.

"You were cold at first, and then you were too warm, and then you weren't warm enough, and you still wouldn't wake up. Adrian said your heart was steady, but I thought perhaps it was some strange vampire state. Vera believed turning two people at once might have drained you, and Malcolm kept apologizing every few hours, and I told him that wasn't helping, but then you moved yesterday and still didn't wake up, so I thought perhaps…"

I placed my hand over Celeste's mouth and enjoyed the glorious silence that followed. Then I nodded toward Malcolm and Vera.

"Speak before she finds a way to continue." Celeste answered with an offended noise against my palm. Malcolm stepped forward and lowered himself to one knee beside the bed. Vera followed a moment later, kneeling beside him with such instinctive obedience that I blinked. That was interesting. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Thank you for saving my life, Mother," Malcolm said. I stared at him. The title sounded incredibly weird coming from him. It wasn't insulting, merely strange enough that my mind rejected it on principle. His head remained lowered with what appeared suspiciously close to reverence. That made the situation even stranger. Less than two weeks earlier, I had caught this man cheating in my casino and nearly choked him for it. Vera glanced at Malcolm before looking at me.

"I also wish to thank you, um… Mother." Somehow, the title sounded even stranger coming from Vera. I slowly removed my hand from Celeste's mouth and turned toward her, only to find her smiling through watery eyes with far too much satisfaction.

"I assume Celeste has been instructing both of you to call me that." Malcolm and Vera nodded together. I allowed my head to fall against the pillows.

"This girl will be the death of my patience." Celeste settled against my shoulder again, although she was more careful now that I was awake.

"It fits."

"It irritates me."

"Less than it used to."

"That doesn't mean I enjoy it." Vera looked embarrassed, while Malcolm appeared uncertain whether he should remain kneeling or apologize. Despite myself, a quiet laugh escaped me.

"You don't need to force the title. Celeste only began calling me Mother after discovering how thoroughly it annoyed me. By the time I stopped objecting, too many years had passed, and irritating me had already become one of her favorite pastimes. I have known her and Adrian for more than eighty years." Malcolm and Vera looked up sharply, their eyes widening with nearly identical disbelief.

"Eighty years?" Malcolm repeated.

"More than that," Adrian answered from the foot of the bed. Vera looked between the three of us.

"You all appear to be the same age."

"That tends to happen when time loses its authority over you." I said with a shrug. Silence settled over the room while they absorbed the weight of that truth. A faint smirk touched my lips.

"Welcome to an endless life. I hope neither of you regrets it."

"Never," Malcolm answered immediately. There was no hesitation in him. He turned toward Vera, and the expression on his face was so thoroughly foolish with love that I nearly rolled my eyes.

"Thank you for giving us this chance. Now I can remain beside Vera without fearing the years, her title, or the next royal bastard who decides she belongs to him." Vera was smiling with the same ridiculous devotion when I looked toward her. The sight was disgusting, predictable, and annoyingly sweet. I chose to ignore it before Celeste began crying over the romance of their situation.

"What powers did you receive? I can feel something different within both of you." That captured their attention immediately. Malcolm straightened.

"Mine appears to involve gravity." I raised an eyebrow.

"That sounds unpleasant for everyone around you." A genuine smile crossed his face.

"I believe it will be. I cannot control it properly yet, but I can make objects heavier and force pressure onto a person or a specific area. Earlier today, I cracked a chair because I became frustrated."

"Only a chair? How disappointing." Vera released a soft laugh. Malcolm rubbed the back of his neck.

"Adrian has been making me train outside so I do not collapse the flooring."

"As he should." Adrian nodded once.

"The power is strongest when concentrated. He can pin down one target more effectively than he can affect a large area, but it already has considerable range. The pressure is dangerous even without proper control." That was a great addition. The power was simple in principle and brutal in application. It could be useful in battle, interrogation, crowd control, or whenever someone needed to understand their proper place. I approved.

"What about you?" I asked Vera. Her posture shifted. Some of her embarrassment disappeared, replaced by uncertainty.

"Mine is different."

"Everything is different now. You will need to be more specific." Her gaze moved toward the red crow perched above the door. The creature released a low caw before hopping onto the wardrobe. It watched me as though deciding whether I deserved its attention.

"This is Vesper," Vera explained. The crow fluffed its crystal-edged feathers.

"I can summon her from my blood. I believe she is some form of familiar, although she appears to be a living construct made from crystallized blood." The bird and I studied one another, and I didn't care for the intelligence lurking behind its crimson gaze.

"She can fire shards of blood crystal," Vera explained.

"She can also divide herself into a large flock and attack from several directions at once. When she does, my hunger becomes much stronger."

"Vera calls it Murder of Crows," Celeste announced brightly. I slowly turned my head toward her.

"You named her technique while I was unconscious?" Vera flushed.

"I didn't know what else to call it, and Celeste suggested…"

"Of course she did." Celeste smiled without shame.

"The name suits it perfectly." I couldn't deny that. Malcolm looked faintly amused, while Adrian remained as unreadable as ever. Then again, he often appeared to be quietly tolerating everyone around him. Vera raised one hand.

"Vesper." The crow launched itself from the wardrobe. Rather than circling the room, its body blurred within a burst of red crystal dust and bloodlike light. Its shape stretched as it descended. Wings folded inward, its body lengthened, and feathers flowed together into something far more human. A woman landed lightly beside Vera. For several moments, even I could only watch. Her entire body was crimson. Smooth red skin gleamed like polished scarlet stone, and long hair spilled down her back like flowing blood.

Her eyes carried the same sharp crimson light as the crow's. Large feathered wings curved behind her shoulders, dark near the roots and brighter at the tips, where they caught the light like fresh blood beneath the sun. Her fingers ended in narrow claws, and the curious tilt of her head retained something unmistakably avian. She wasn't human, but neither was she merely a beast. She appeared to exist somewhere between a servant, a spirit, and a predator. I found her considerably more interesting in this form.

"She can take this shape as well," Vera explained carefully.

"I believe she fights better this way. If she is destroyed, I can summon her again, but doing so makes the thirst much worse."

"There is a backlash," Adrian added.

"We tested it." I stared at him.

"You tested the destruction of a newborn vampire's blood familiar while I was unconscious?"

"It was controlled." Celeste coughed delicately.

"It was mostly controlled." Vera winced.

"I didn't mean to panic. The first time Vesper shattered, I nearly bit Malcolm." Malcolm seemed entirely unbothered.

"You warned me first."

"You were bleeding at the time."

"That probably made matters worse."

"It certainly did." A soft laugh escaped me as I shook my head. Their arrangement was beginning to reveal itself. Malcolm wielded gravity, while Vera could summon a blood-crow familiar with multiple forms and an appetite tied directly to her own. Their abilities were useful, distinct, and dangerous. With time, both powers could grow vicious in the most satisfying ways. Vesper approached the bed and stopped just beyond my reach. She inclined her head in what looked suspiciously like acknowledgment.

"Can she speak?"

"Not yet," Vera answered.

"I can feel some of her thoughts, but they're mostly emotions. Hunger, curiosity, and a need to guard me."

"What does she think of me?" Vera hesitated. Celeste smiled much too quickly. That answered the question well enough.

"I dislike this bird already." Vesper's wings rustled. Red light flashed across her body as she returned to the shape of a crow and hopped onto Vera's shoulder with a proud caw. Malcolm smiled. Vera looked embarrassed, and Celeste laughed. Even Adrian, traitor that he was, appeared faintly entertained. I stared at all of them before releasing a slow breath and sinking deeper into the pillows. There were four of them now.

Adrian, Celeste, Malcolm, and Vera were all bound to me, and every one of them remained alive because of a choice I had made. They watched me as though I had returned from death rather than awakened from an extremely inconvenient sleep.

"You're all being very loud." Celeste immediately curled closer.

"That means you truly are fine."

"I didn't say that."

"You complained. That's close enough." I should have pushed her off the bed, dismissed everyone, demanded clothing, and restored some measure of order to the room. Instead, I looked at Malcolm and Vera once more. The bond between them was obvious in every glance and every small movement. Vera's hand rested close to Malcolm's arm, while the red crow perched between them like an omen that had somehow become part of the family. I closed my eyes for a moment.

"Whatever. You may remain for a little while." Celeste made a pleased sound beside me. Malcolm bowed his head again, and Vera offered me a soft smile. Vesper released another caw, apparently determined to express an opinion about my generosity. I opened one eye and pointed weakly toward the door.

"If that creature soils anything in this room, I will throw her through a wall." Vesper fluffed her crystal feathers and turned her head away with unmistakable disdain. Celeste immediately began laughing against my shoulder. Vera had summoned a bird with an attitude, and, wonderful as that was, it already fit perfectly into my increasingly troublesome family.