Di closed the book and handed it back to her assistant. That sounded more like a fortune cookie than my dad did. What did it all mean? Why would Di feel it necessary to tell me about it?
“It’s a fairy tale,” Xander said through clenched teeth. “Every supe is told about it when they are young as a precautionary tale. Nothing more.”
I searched my memories and didn’t remember hearing anything about an accursed child, whatever that meant, but that didn’t mean much considering my history. I was so confused.
“Oh, but it isn’t!” she exclaimed. “Bearing prophecies is a rare gift for casters to possess, but there have been none that have ever been disproven. Not a single one.”
“Yeah, but there are some that haven’t been proven either,” Xan shot back. “Hell, most of them were made and nothing ever happened because of them. The one you’re talking about? It’s almost 800 years old and nothing has ever come of it. Never.”
“783 years to be exact.” Irna spoke quietly from her corner, then shrunk back into the shadows when she realized she had said it out loud.
“That’s an interesting story, Di, but I’m tired.” I stood up and Xander jumped in line right beside me. “If you don’t mind, we’re heading upstairs now.”
Two vampires I didn’t know stepped in front of us, blocking our exit.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I questioned. The two vamps crossed their arms in front of them, cementing their positions and Di just smirked as usual.
“Prophecies are visions of the future given by magic. They are meant to come true. They’re meant to happen, but sometimes there needs to be a catalyst. I believe you are the accursed child, Emelia. And I will be the one to set us free. You are the one.”
Di’s eyes bled red and her fangs descended in her smiling mouth.
“What? You’re fucking crazy.”
Xander growled and began to half-change into his dragon, but his transformation was cut off when my grandfather, who was already half-changed, dug his claws into Xan’s arm. Xander’s eyes rolled back in his head as he passed out. Amos caught him and lowered him to the floor with a look of sorrow on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he told me. “It’s meant to be, Emelia. Don’t fight and it’ll be over soon, I promise.”
“You’re all insane.”
I whipped my head back around and lowered into a fighting position, my caster’s dagger forming in my right hand. I was alone, but I had every intention of getting Xan and me out of there.
One of the vampires in front of me lunged at me, his teeth bared and caught my arm as I swung the blade toward him. I quickly passed the dagger to my other hand and sunk the blade into the vamp’s neck. He let go of me and reached for the blade, pulling it out with a sickening slurp. Dark blood spilled out of the wound as I watched the wound close up on its own.
“You’re going to pay for that one, bitch,” he snarled and jumped at me again. Amos caught him by the neck and threw him across the room and turned to Di.
“You said she wouldn’t be harmed,” my grandfather told her.
I was grabbed by several hands and held in place. I tried to break free, but I wasn’t strong enough. I tried calling for my dragon, but I wasn’t able to reach her. It was as if she were asleep, I could feel her there but I couldn’t transform. I was in so much trouble and I didn’t understand why.
“And she won’t be, if she just plays nicely,” Di responded.
“Get off her you assholes!” Off to the side, Grayson was holding onto Camille and began dragging her from the room. She was fighting against him, but I knew she wouldn’t use any magic on him that would hurt. She loved him too much for it. “I’m sorry!” she cried. “Emelia!”
She was dragged out of the room and I truly felt alone. Xander was knocked out and my grandfather was in the group trying to harm me, all because of an ancient prophecy I didn’t understand.
“What do you want from me, Di?” I asked, anger and frustration seeping through my words. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
She trailed her fingers through the air. It was if they were dancing. “An accursed child of earth and fire. That’s you,” she said, “joined with blood on the darkest of nights will rule supreme.” Her fingers stopped their dance and her eyes locked on mine.
My mother cursed me and I was mixed, earth caster, and fire dragon.
It was a new moon. The darkest of nights.
But blood? She was a vampire. She thrived on blood. What did it all mean?
Then it hit me.
She was going to try and turn me. She wanted to make me part of all three supernatural races - caster, shifter, and vampire. That was impossible!
“No!” I began fighting against the people holding me down. “It’ll kill me! You know it! Please! Amos! Grandpa! Don’t let her do it!”
I screamed inward for my dragon, but she couldn’t surface. I called for my caster’s dagger, but it was still lying motionless on the floor in front of me, all while Di stalked me like a predator stalks her prey. She licked her fangs hungrily and grabbed a handful of hair at the base of my neck, wrenching my head to the side.
“I really hope you survive, Emelia. You’ll be glorious if you do.”
Her mouth stretched open wide and she sank her fangs into the side of my neck. I let out a piercing scream as pain unlike anything I had ever experienced shot through me. I thought those fifteen years of my mark adding to itself was bad. It was nothing. It was a cake walk compared to what it felt like to be drained by this vampire.
The pain began to lessen as all feeling in my body went away and I
