The Vampire Legacy; The New Queen Rises Read Online Free Page A

and taught him everything that I had learned on
my own over the six years.”
    “I had been alone." Julian stood up once
again and walked over to the fireplace. He stared at it, for a
moment, and then the logs in the stove burst into flames. "Quinn
was his protégée. His child and I was just a bastard."
    "You aren't, Julian, and you’re not a
monster."
    Suddenly, as if there had been no space
between us at all, Julian was on the bed, towering over me. I lay
back down on the bed and looked at his face. He knelt there, on his
hands and knees, his hair, as black as night, had come out of the
ponytail and it hung around his face. His eyes began to glow, first
silver, then red, a snarl formed on his face, and his teeth, his
canines, grew as sharp as knives. This all in a matter of seconds,
but I watched it as if it were in slow motion.
    "I am a monster, Ash. One of the worst there
is. I hunted, I killed, and I liked it. I've killed girls your
age." His breath quickened, as if the violence level had risen, but
I remained calm.
    I thought for sure he was trying to scare me.
Slowly, as I looked into those bright red eyes, I turned my head to
the side, moved my hair and exposed my neck. Out of the corner of
my eye, I watched his face. His eyes locked on the blood that
flowed through the veins there. He lowered his body, to let it rest
on mine, and then he grabbed my wrists, and held them. He moved
closer and I saw his jaw open, I watched those teeth come closer to
me and I closed my eyes.
    I waited for the pain to come, the moment
when his teeth punctured my skin. Instead what I got was two soft
lips caressing the skin on my neck, warm breath tingling my nerves,
and a low growl of what I thought was a cat in my ear. As the
kissing continued, I didn't resist. This was what I wanted, and
then I realized that he was who I wanted. I wasn't sixteen anymore.
I felt older. I felt as if my world finally made sense.
    Julian grabbed my chin and turned my face
toward his. The teeth had gone back to normal, and his eyes held
only traces of the anger that he had held before. He still was
breathing rather heavily, but when he locked onto my eyes, it
eased.
    "I'm not afraid, Julian." He let go of my
wrists and slowly glided his hand down my bare arm until he rested
his hand at my side, then he pushed himself up, so that he towered
over me again. "You would never hurt me."
    "You took a big risk, Ash. I could have
killed you." He gently ran his hand through my hair. He cupped the
back of my head with that hand and held me there. "I never know if
I can control my nature, especially when it comes to you. Don't
ever do that again!"
    I smiled at him, defiantly and turned my head
again; he whipped it back, leaned down and kissed me hard on the
lips again. Slowly, as he back away, I opened my eyes and looked at
him. He closed his eyes, for just a moment, sighed and sat up.
    "You push your luck, too far, sometimes Ash."
He sat at the edge of his bed with his back to me.
    "I test boundaries. I cross lines. I have
always been this way." He didn't look at me. I pulled my knees to
my chest and hugged my legs close to me. "My mother always hated me
for that. My father never could figure out why I was so different
from my sisters. My sisters could never understand why I had to be
so rebellious. I was the odd one, not like them. I'm not one of
them." I suddenly realized what I had said and how much sense it
now made. Sitting in this house with this young man, who had just
proven to me that he was a vampire, I realized why I felt the way I
did toward him.
    "I'm not one of them, am I?" Julian stiffened
at the question. "I'm something else and you know what, don't you.
Who am I, Julian? Who were my real parents?"
    He turned to me. On his face, I watched a lie
begin to form. I knew him too well now for him to lie to me, but he
tried anyway.
    "Your parents are at home, probably worried
sick that you didn't come home last night." He stood up. I,
suddenly, was on my