Always the Vampire

“He did not lose. He left Legrand at the mercy of his loyal followers and brought those who sided with Legrand to America.”


“Huh.” No wonder there had been such an odd vibe in the nest. I thought the other vamps had resented me because Normand had proclaimed me his daughter and princess of his realm. Seems they’d hated Normand long before that.

“So you understand now,” Lia was saying. “Your powers—all of them—are natural and normal.”

Sure, yeah, whatever, crossed my mind, but I wasn’t rude enough to speak the words aloud. Lia might be right about the natural and normal part, but I didn’t trust that embracing my powers wouldn’t destroy my soul.

“Up with you now, so I may assess your skills. First, I want you to fly over the cabin and back to me.”

“All right, but I have a little vertigo.”

“Then don’t look down.”

Easy for her to say. Sure I’d flown higher and farther, but not by much and not with an audience grading my performance. Still, off I went. I completed the circle and subsequently flew to the main road, but I looked down on the return run and dizziness hit. I lost altitude, coming in low over the trees. Lia made a moue of disappointment.

“You’ll need to work on distance flying,” she said, and I psychically saw her make a check minus on her mental list.

Her brows arched in surprise. “You read my thought?”

I shrugged. “An image that clear is hard to miss.”

“Only because you wanted a peek at your report card.”

“Okay, I’m busted. I wanted to know your opinion, so I looked.”

She gave a sharp nod. “Good, we can build on that. Now we’ll test your other vampire skills.”

For the next half an hour, Lia tested my vamp speed, sight, hearing, and sense of smell. I did wind sprints fast enough to make a running back weep with envy, spotted a bird’s nest through twenty feet of overgrown woodland, and heard a raccoon foraging from seventy feet away.

I tracked the animal by her scent with Lia trotting at my heels. I swear the limbs seemed to move out of her way, because her robe didn’t snag on a single twig. When the raccoon stopped, backing her hindquarters into a fallen pine tree near a stream, Lia soothed the agitated female coon with a word.

The next trial, though, was a stumper.

“All right,” she said in hushed tones. “The creature is calm now. Your turn to enthrall her.”

“Um, Lia, I don’t think that works on animals,” I whispered back.

“Of course it does. Did King Normand not teach you?”

“I must’ve skipped that class.”

“How is your ability to enthrall humans?”

“It sucks. I laugh every time I try it.”

She held my gaze. “You never saw enthrallment used for good, did you?”

I snorted softly. “In a nest of vampires? Not even close.”

“Then I take it Normand only demonstrated the death gaze.”

I gaped. “That’s a real thing?”

“I fear so. Legrand excelled at it. He even used it on other vampires.”

“Well, we can skip right over that trick.”

“No, we cannot. The death gaze is an extreme version of enthrallment and is related to your ability to drain life force. You need to know how to enthrall in order to send energy as well as take it. Now, when I lift my calm spell from the little mother, I want you to will the raccoon to be easy again. Ready?”

“Wait, no. She’s a mother?”

“Her kits are nearly six months old. Listen to them in the log.”

I tuned in and heard the scratching of claws.

“Lia, I’m not messing with a mother. Find me another animal or move on to the next test.”

“No, you need to prove to yourself that you won’t injure the creature. Think becalming instead enthralling. Now squat on your haunches, look at her, and assure her she and the kits are safe.”

I followed orders, and to my shock, I connected with the coon’s confusion and fear. She paced at the opening of the den, the instinct to protect her family strong. I sent her gentle thoughts, mentally told her that she was a wonderful mother with beautiful children and that I meant no harm. As I crooned to her in my head, she ceased pacing, stood on her hind legs, and made eye contact. A moment later she shambled away to hunt.

I rose slowly, in awe.

“There, now you understand. You did not compel her to leave her den, you only helped her understand it was safe to go about her business. You must remember that distinction. Manipulation isn’t necessarily destructive.”





“Sit in a circle on the grass,” Cosmil instructed a short time later. “Get close enough to comfortably hold hands. Left hand up, right hand down.”

Surrounded by four white candles in tall jars, Saber, Triton, and I folded to the ground cross-legged then closed ranks until our knees almost touched. We clasped hands, Triton on my left, Saber on my right, and looked up at Cosmil for further direction.

“The point of this exercise is to connect by channeling energy. You will be tuning into each other, so to speak.”