Tyren looked as surprised—if not more so—than the
rest of us. This was odd to me, because I had always assumed she knew who the
vampire heir was. Apparently, I was wrong.
She was the person I looked at, not the heir. I
could only guess at all the things going on in her head at that moment. Of all
the people fighting against the demons, the sudden discovery of the vampire
heir affected Tyren the most.
The vampire shook herself. “Let us get him and the
rest back to base before anything else happens.”
She shrugged. “Not much, actually. I must admit I
am slightly confused.”
I nodded. “Me, too. That rescue was way too easy.”
She arched an eyebrow at me.
“No, really, it was. I mean, you would think he
would have more guards on him, right?”
“The thought had occurred to me.”
“Well, what if they wanted us to rescue him?”
Tyren raised her eyebrows skeptically. “Why would
they want us to rescue him?”
“I don’t know.” I paused, then decided to voice my
thoughts. “Maybe he’s on their side.”
“If he was on their side, they would not have
risked severely injuring him.”
“Maybe they were trying to convince us. Anyway, if
he is the heir, don’t they need him to open the tomb?”
She paused, considering. After a few seconds, she
replied, “You are right.”
“Either way, it makes no sense.”
“Correct, but we are not going to throw him out
until we know for sure.”
“But you’ll be careful.”
She raised her eyebrows at me. “Me? Why are you so
concerned?”
“Well, let’s face the facts. You are the leader of
this operation. Quite frankly, if you fall, we’re in deep dog doo-doo. If the
demons kill you off, we might as well throw the towel in.”
Tyren smiled. “Thanks, Mikhail, but do not talk so.
If I die, you will move on without me.”
I shook my head, but dropped it. Moaning about how
we would never survive without her would not move her. She was under the
impression that this new idiot could take her place. Besides, that wasn’t my
real reason. I had grown fond of the icy little vampire.
n
Later, I perched on a chair next to the vampire
heir’s bed in the infirmary. We were taking turns sitting with him, making sure
he was okay. It was my turn. I was staring at him, thinking about how much I
didn’t like him.
He was tall and lean. His hair was dark and
thick—like Tyren’s, and he had the high cheekbones and angular face that most
vampires sported. Naturally, his teeth were sharp and pointy. I had also
checked his ears. They were pointed, meaning he was a “true” vampire.
I really hoped he wouldn’t wake up while I was
watching him. I might just stake him. I now knew that silver knives were so
much more effective than wooden stakes. Besides, I didn’t have a hammer handy.
As I was plotting his death, the vampire’s eyelids
fluttered. Crap. He was waking up. I thought about knocking him out again, but
he opened his eyes too quickly. They were a pale blue, and I stared—or glared,
rather—at them for a full minute before I said, “So, you’re awake.”
He blinked. “Yes, it would appear that I am.” His
voice was definitely British. Sitting up, he looked around. “Can you tell me
where we are?”
“No, not really.” Yeah, so I really should have
given the guy a chance.
He looked around, apparently hoping for a
friendlier face. “Um, where are we?”
“In the infirmary of the secret base of Tyren the
Great’s army.” I tilted my head at him, in what I imagined was a Tyren manner.
“Do you write that on your letters?”
“Don’t get any letters. I also don’t have a mum, so
she doesn’t get letters, either.” After he looked very confused, I realized the
boy who could fly had not flitted across J.M. Barrie’s imagination, yet.
“Um, aright.”
I squinted my eyes at him. “I don’t like you. I
think you’re here to do damage. I don’t know if you’re the heir or not, but I
don’t care. Watch your step, because I’ll be watching you.”
He looked very worried about my mental condition.
So, I decided to be nice. “I’ll go get someone who likes you.”
I slid off the chair and went to the door. Opening
it, I yelled, “Tyren, he’s awake!” I shut the door and returned to the chair.
“I’m M.C. and you may address me as such. Who are
you?”
“I’m Gordon. I take it you are a mage.”
“Yes. And you are a vampire. Look at me wrong, and
I’ll stake you.” I really should have tried to be nicer. I just have a problem
with pretending to like people when I don’t. Besides, if he was here to hurt
Tyren, Tatiana, Sai, or Julian, he was going down.
Sai entered, saving Gordon from further terror.
“Tyren is busy. She will attend when she can.”
Tatiana burst into the room. “I heard the new leech
was awake. I also heard that the new leech is the heir of the leech king.”
“Do you want to say leech one more time?” I asked
in annoyance.
“Yeesh, Mr. Tyren. Put some fun into your scowl.
What’s eating you?”
“Maybe he has fleas,” Gordon suggested. They both
laughed, making me want bang their heads together.
Sai clasped his hands inside his sleeves. “Tatiana,
show a little more dignity. M.C. does not have fleas. He has a legitimate
concern. I beg your pardon my friend, but we cannot be sure we can trust you,
yet.”
Gordon shrugged it off. “It is understandable. I
mean, I am the heir, but you have no proof I am not working with the demons.”
I hated the calm way he addressed this. I wanted to
smack him upside the face. Maybe even break his nose. Wipe that cool, collected
smile right off his face.
“I’m Tatiana. What’s your name?”
“Gordon Dragoni. I have heard of you, Lady Tatiana.
I can see why the heirship skipped your father in favor of you.”
Oh, no. He was not flirting with Tatiana. In all my
time there—which wasn’t much, but hey, give a guy a break—I had discovered that
there were two rules that you absolutely did not ever break. The first was
never to go against Tyren in anything. The second was that vampires never flirt
with werewolves and vice versa. Surely Tatiana would smack him upside the head.
“Hah, thanks, Gordon. My dad is actually far better
than me at everything.” She was completely oblivious. How had she missed that?
It was so obvious.
I wanted to say something, but Sai caught my eye.
He rolled his eyes and shook his head. Well, at least someone agreed with me.
The man interrupted Gordon’s second flirtatious
sentence. “Would you mind telling us how you were captured by the demon’s
minions?”
Gordon looked slightly confused for a second. Then,
he pulled his mind from flirt mode to story mode. “Well, a long time ago, I was
marked by this demon.” He pulled at his collar to show everyone the dragon mark
on his collarbone. “Well, I killed him, but other people heard about it. So, I
thought I would hide for a bit, until this all blew over. Well, I was minding
my own business when this patrol came across me. They knocked me out, and the
next thing I knew I was being questioned by this really pretty blonde girl. She
wanted to know all about you all—which I did not know, of course. Anyway, then
she tied me up with silver chains. Next thing I know, I am here, being creepily
glared at by this boy.”
Okay, I’m a man, alright? Not a kid. People always
seem to think I’m younger than I am. Yeesh.
I remained unfazed. “I have a question. If you
defeated this powerful demon, how come you couldn’t defeat this patrol?”
He looked shocked by this, as if someone would dare
to ask something like that. “No one’s perfect.”
“Where were you when you were captured?”
Everyone but Sai was surprised to hear Tyren’s
voice. I wondered how long she had been leaning against the door frame. I hoped
she had arrived after I was being immature.
“Well, hello. You must be the famous Tyren. You are
even more dazzling than they claim.”
“I’m gonna throw up,” I said.
Tyren arched her eyebrow at Gordon. I was so glad
she understood what he was doing. But instead of addressing it, she ignored it.
“You failed to answer my question.”
He sighed, slightly deflated. “Edinburgh , Scotland
“Beautiful country.”
“Not as beautiful as you.”
I really almost did throw up.
“Enough. Please act your age.”
I wanted to high-five Tyren. She was not putting up
with this crap. She was staying cool and collected. She was acting her
age—unlike Gordon and me.
Gordon seemed shocked that she did not take kindly
to his advances. He glanced at me, and I smirked. Bad idea. He got a knowing
look on his face. “Oh, I understand; you have feelings for the human creep.”
That, however, was a worse idea. Both females in
the room—feelings there or no—liked me and felt defensive of me. They would not
take that sitting down.
“M.C. is not just some human, and he’s not a creep!
He is the mage heir, and he could wallop your sorry vampire butt any day of the
week!”
“Gordon, I suggest that you show more respect to
Mikhail. He is a powerful mage, and he did save your life. Ungratefulness is
not looked kindly on.”
Sai just frowned disapprovingly, which was far
scarier than anyone else’s cries of indignation. I let everyone else speak for
me, for once feeling on top of the world. There was nothing like having
powerful friends that would stick up for you.
However, my friends’ defense of me made me an
instant enemy of the vampire heir. He glared at me from the infirmary bed. I
guessed that Gordon was used to people adoring him—being the vampire heir and
all. He was probably especially used to girls swooning at his feet. In his
eyes, I had set up camp before he was able to. In reality, of course, Tyren and
Tatiana were not your run of the mill females, and I was a friend that they
felt protective of.
“Well,” Tyren began, in a way I quickly recognized.
“No worries, Ty, we got this. You go deal with your
important stuff. Tati, Sai, and I can worry about the vampire heir.”
She smiled at me. “Thanks, M.C. I shall see you all
later. It was a pleasure meeting you, Gordon.” The vampire slipped out, her
cloak billowing around her.
Tatiana frowned at me. “Did you just call her
‘Tie?’”
“Yeah. Her name is spelled T-Y-R-E-N. I’m not going
to call her ‘Tear’ so I called her ‘Ty’ instead.”
“I’m surprised she let that by. She’s not a big fan
of the nicknames.”
I shrugged, trying not to smirk. Tatiana did not
understand that I was setting her, Tyren, and Sai up as my friends, not
Gordon’s. I was showing him how I was already established. Sai noticed, but for
some reason, he was tolerating it. Maybe he didn’t like Gordon either.
“Well, you call me ‘Tati,’ but Sai doesn’t have a
nickname.”
Well, actually, he did. I called him my “Oriental
Dr. Frankenstein” in my head, but I was not about to call him that out loud in
case he was offended. “You can’t really shorten ‘Sai,’” I pointed out.
“Yeah, it might sound like you were hissing or
talking about yourself.” She shrugged. “Well, what about Gordon?”
I shrugged. “I could call him ‘Gory,’ but it sounds
like I’m describing a battle.”
“You could call him ‘Don,’” Tatiana suggested. “But
that sounds too much like ‘dumb.’”
I stayed nonchalant. “Well, he is a vampire.”
Tatiana howled with laugher. She clapped me on the
back, nearly send me shooting off the chair and into Gordon’s lap. Sai shushed
us and shooed us out, saying that Gordon needed to rest.
Tadah! And there's Gordon, the vampire heir.
M.C. seems to think he's up to no good. What do you think?
Have a good week!
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