Becoming the Enigma, page 38
It occurred to Katey that perhaps he would be unbiased enough to know more about the war between the vampires and loups-garous than anyone else. It was clear he knew something and didn’t agree with whatever had caused it. He did look to be the eldest out of both races that she had seen besides John. In fact, he looked much older than the great alpha, boasting deeper lines in his forehead and around his eyes.
Katey leaned closer. “Do you know how the feud started?”
“Just how every feud starts,” Michael began, leaning back in his chair. “Close to four thousand years ago, a werewolf killed a vampire.”
Katey wanted to groan in disappointment. So, it was the loups-garous that started the feud.
“Of course, the werewolf didn’t know what he was doing,” Michael said with a shrug of his shoulders. “He was a new pup, and the vampire shouldn’t have been anywhere near that region in the first place because it was a restricted area for vampires.
“Back then, the two species lived in harmony, but had specific territory agreements and neither were to cross those boundary lines. There was only one place where both races co-existed and that was the city of Arnathia. The vamp was found dead on werewolf ground, so it was supposedly the vamp’s fault in the first place, but the whole dilemma centered around the identity of the vamp. He was a diplomat, an important political figure. He had great influence over a new territory agreement.
“The piece of land was discovered by the vampires, but rumor had it that the werewolves were going to be given an unequal share of the land in this new territory compared to the vampires and they weren’t happy with that. The conspiracy was that the werewolf knew perfectly well what he was doing, wasn’t alone, and they were the ones that crossed the lines to kidnap the vamp and murder him before the treaty could be agreed upon. They said the vamp was the one who made the proposal about the uneven distribution of the land.
“Of course, this is insanity because the treaty stated that both species would get an equal portion of land and the other werewolves on the council showed no hesitance to the pact in the first place. I, personally, think it was all a big misunderstanding fueled by distrust, and it was nothing more than an accident but, the only one who witnessed the murder was the werewolf that allegedly did it and he was too young to remember anything during his time in his wolf skin. Up to that point, tension had already been mounting between the two races and a break was inevitable.”
Michael saw her entranced expression and chuckled. “I’m sorry if this is a little long winded and confusing. After the accident, both sides took up their weapons and declared war against the other. All peaceful relations dissolved. A millennium of peace between the vampires and werewolves was shattered and both sides became vindictive to one another, claiming that they were in the right and the other was wrong and deserved death for their transgressions.
“When I was a young lad, I witnessed the horrors of the war. From what my father told me of the early days, the werewolves were simply on the defensive against the vampires, killing when needed and protecting their families. What tipped them over the edge was when the vamps systematically began killing off the female werewolves.”
Katey gasped and held out her hand for the old vampire to pause. “Wait! There were females?”
He nodded gravely. “Yes, there were. The vampires, in their search for retribution against the injustice done to them, completely wiped out the females and crippled the werewolf population. Now, as I’m sure you know, only the male gender of the species can be born as a werewolf, and no female can be changed because of their biology. When the werewolves lost their women, they fought back with just as much unforgiving fervor as the vampires did.”
Katey shook her head in disbelief. All this time, she had thought there had never been another female. The fact was that they had simply been killed off thousands of years ago and the knowledge of why had been lost, just as easily as the reason for why the feud started in the first place. She was not the first female loup-garou in history, but she was the first one for ages and a light of hope for their race.
“It’s a tragedy, pure and simple,” he said with a wave of his hand. “The world may have been a very different place with less conflict, murders, war, and chaos... It sickens me to think how both sides are completely opposed to making peace with one another and it’s been going on for so long.” Michael finished his speech and veiled his hand over his eyes.
Katey couldn’t believe there was such a long, drawn out history of loups-garous and vampires hating each other. “But what can be done to stop it? If both sides don’t want to even try to make peace, then how will the fighting ever stop?”
Michael looked up to Katey and stroked his beard. “The only way is for her to step forward and fulfill the prophecy.”
“What prophecy?”
Michael took a deep breath once more and closed his eyes. “Long ago, a prophecy was made concerning the unrest between the two species. The prophecy said that the product of the two species would come forward, incarnating the spirit of peace, and settle all disputes between werewolves and vampires and there would be armistice.”
Ancient civilizations, a pointless war, and age-old prophecy. Katey couldn’t believe that this was truly happening. It was like something out of a tropey novel.
“How do you know all this?”
A guarded smile crawled across his face. “I met the spirit centuries ago and she told me. She appeared to a few others and myself one night in Russia. She was beautiful. She was the spirit of a princess during the height of peace between the two species.”
Totally engrossed, Katey hardly realized she was on the edge of her seat. “So, this princess is the same thing as the spirit of peace?”
“Yes. She, herself, was a product of a vampire queen and a werewolf king of the old civilization. She was neither werewolf, nor vampire, but a half breed that shared the positive traits of both her parents. Prejudice raged among certain members of the council, and she was assassinated. They were afraid of her power and what she might become. Instead of it bringing about even more hatred, she became revered as a spirit of peace. One tradition was to welcome her spirit into the hall at the beginning of each council meeting and let her have influence over whatever decision they made.”
This went beyond culture, packs, and covens. This was an intricate history that had been lost except by those who somehow knew, like Lord Michael.
“But you said the one who would fulfill the prophecy is a ‘she’. How do you know it’s a girl?”
The vampire shifted in his chair and crossed his legs with a grunt. “About a century ago, there was hope that the prophecy would be fulfilled... My daughter, a vampire, fell in love with a werewolf... Such an affair would have been considered so unnatural, but it was fated love. They didn’t even know about the prophecy. I supported my daughter, knowing the union could result in peace for everyone. I arranged for their clandestine meetings, I covered for her when she was missing, all with the thought in my mind that my daughter and her lover could somehow bring this feud to an end...”
Katey waited as she watched Michael’s eyes glaze over. “But, what happened? You said she died. Something must have happened.”
“Something did happen… She conceived. We had to keep it a secret. I made arrangements for them to escape to the mountains in the states where they could hide until the child came of age to understand the responsibility and come forward to make peace... It was shortly after the child was born when it happened. It was a baby girl. A beautiful child, the most beautiful I’d ever seen... And I’m not just saying that because she is my granddaughter,” he said with a short chuckle.
“My blood servant at the time traveled with me, and a midwife to help her with the delivery. There were no complications. A perfect birth.” Michael smiled nostalgically. “I remember my granddaughter’s first laugh was like music. The child was neither werewolf nor vampire, I could tell. She was human, but she had a special spark in her.” His words echoed something all the loups-garous tried to tell her and her heartbeat quickened.
“I could sense that spark would sway one way or the other if she was bitten. Therefore, she could change into werewolf or vampire if she was bitten, regardless of her gender, and wouldn’t reject the change. It was a short while after she was born when my daughter and her husband were found. I had connections, but they couldn’t hold off the search for long. A band of assassins sent by the vampire council led the ambush upon their home in the mountains. They captured both my daughter and her husband and put them on trial for their transgression against the natural order of relations between vampires and werewolves. My daughter endured the sight of her lover being experimented on with the new invention of the liquid silver and she was burned alive in the sun.”
A moment of silence passed between them in reverence for his daughter and her lover for their bravery against insurmountable opposition. Even though it was many years ago, Katey could still sense the pain and sorrow within the old vampire. “What happened to the baby?” she asked, almost in a whisper.
Michael sighed heavily. “I was there when my daughter and her husband were taken. When I got word that the assassins were coming, I wanted to steal them away somewhere else so my family would be safe. But, my daughter refused to leave. Instead, she led me into a hidden cellar in their home and gave me the child. She made me promise to take care of her...” Michael blinked hard as her last words reverberated in his mind. He opened his eyes once more, keeping his stare steady upon the captivated Katey.
“Moments later, I heard the assassins storm in and take them away. I waited until it was close to sunrise before coming out of the cellar... I had no idea of what to do with a child. I was, and am still, too old to take care of one. I knew if I took the child back with me then questions would be raised and the child would be killed. I would have been, too, for treason against our race, just as my daughter was. They would have called the child an abomination. I couldn’t allow that.
“So, I took the child and gave her to my blood servant and the midwife. I gave instructions to take the child as far from any vampires as she could. I think she had relatives in the southern states and took her there to be cared for. That was the last I’ve seen of her… She would be eighteen now.” Michael smiled to himself, probably remembering his granddaughter with a bittersweet fondness. “She is the key to peace between the species... I only wish there was some way I could find her.”
“Haven’t you tried?”
Michael nodded. “Oh, yes. I tried many times, knowing that she would come of age soon. I could only find the grave of the midwife and blood servant. The reports said that they died in a car accident after they took my granddaughter and that an infant was found with them. My granddaughter was put into the foster care system, but the records are so confidential for the safety of the child that I couldn’t find anything useful.
“I don’t even know the child’s last name. My daughter named her Katherine, after her grandmother, but I have no idea if that name was kept when she was put into the foster care system since we had no documentation of her birth. There were thousands of Katherines in the southern states that matched her age, but unless I went to every single one, it was unlikely I would find her. Not only that, but I couldn’t be away from my duties as a vampire elder for long before they began asking questions. There were other ways I could find her, ways that only a vampire is capable of. I can track the essence of an individual almost across the country, but her essence has either been masked somehow, or she is no longer alive.”
Katey leaned back in her seat as her mind raced. Was it all coincidence?
“I’m sorry if I’ve bored you.”
“No, no,” she stammered. “Not at all. It’s fascinating to think that…” Katey debated on how much she could tell him. What would have been a surprise and what else did he know? If he knew that she wasn’t human, and if his story had anything remotely to do with her, she should have come clean about everything. But, there was still a bit of hesitance in her, as if she wanted to see how the rest of this was going to play out before showing all her cards. “I’ve wanted to know about the werewolf history for a while, so it’s interesting to learn.”
Michael nodded. “I just wanted to make sure you were going to be comfortable here for however long you will be staying with us. I didn’t intend to ramble as I did. Is there anything I can do for you?”
His voice sounded far away as her heart beat a little louder in her ears. She took a stuttered breath before opening her mouth. “Well, I’m not looking forward to tomorrow. My fiancé is down in the dungeon along with many of my friends and his pack. I don’t want to see them murdered.... Is there anything you can do to stop it?” Katey looked to the vampire lord with pleading eyes.
There were a million other things she could have asked, but they were not going to help her in freeing Logan and the others. The pressing issue at hand was to escape this castle and she knew that Michael was the one who could assist her.
“I’ve tried to convince Lord Yaverik that this whole affair was a bad idea, that those werewolves have family and friends that will catch onto what we’ve done. A massacre like this would surely spark another conflict that we don’t need. My compassionate tendency toward the werewolves is exactly why I am not in charge, as I once was a century ago. Yaverik, though a gentleman, is an adamant warmonger. He only laughed in my face and told me that a conflict is what he wants. There are many things about the way he runs this castle that unnerve me. His disregard for human lives, his blatant cruelness to the blood servants, all of it. It’s not the way I taught him, but I hold little sway as his mentor anymore.”
“Can’t you overrule him? You’re older.”
“No, he’s the head vampire lord of this castle now. I’m only secondary, despite my age. My daughter’s sin has crippled much of my influence in the covens and with the council. In this region, there is no one above him. We have a high council in Romania, but they’ve become so lazy and complacent that it wouldn’t matter if we told them about this or not.”
Katey’s head swam with the severity of the whole tragedy that they seemed to be stuck in the middle of. “Well, this sucks!” she exclaimed, feeling herself drown in the hopelessness of the situation.
“I concur.”
“Can you help me free them? There has to be some way!”
Michael grimaced. “I want to help, I really do. I did my best by petitioning them to have food and clothing. If it were completely up to Yaverik, those werewolves would be naked and ripping each other to shreds from starvation.”
Katey was thankful for Michael’s generosity. “I appreciate your effort, but we have to get them out... Do you have a key to the cells at all?”
The vampire lord shook his head. “Yaverik is the only one that has a key to the cell locks.”
“Is there any way you can steal the key?” Katey’s face twisted in desperation.
He turned pensive, his mind tracing through a plot. “I could but it would be very tricky.”
“Are you at least willing to help me?”
That was the key question. If Michael didn’t want to help, there was no amount of convincing that would make him agree to a plan. But if he did, if he wanted to save the loups-garous just as much as he said he did, then Katey might have found their ticket out of the castle.
Michael looked up into her eyes and he must have seen that Katey was completely and totally serious. She would do anything, up to sacrificing her own life if needed, to free the loups-garous. When one is given something to live for, they’re also given something to die for. He, of anyone in this castle, should have understood that concept. It’s what his daughter did.
He nodded. “Yes, I will... The best time would be just before sunrise. I’ll think on it and confer with you when I have a plan in mind.”
Chapter 25
Lord Michael stiffly lifted himself up from the chair. “I believe we will be missed downstairs soon.”
Katey, her head still spinning with everything the vampire told her, rose to follow him out, but stopped him just short of the door.
“How did you know what I was?”
He looked back to Katey with wise, warm eyes. “I don’t know what you are, but you certainly aren’t human.”
Katey tilted her head, silently requesting an explanation.
“I know you’re not human,” he said with a sly grin, “because you don’t smell like a human, you don’t smell like a vampire or a werewolf, yet you smell unique. Almost like you’re a species all your own that I can’t recognize. Don’t be alarmed though because no one else here has their senses as honed as well as mine. I’m sure no one can notice. I could probably reach into your memories and find out what you are, but if it were important, I’m sure you would tell me, yes?”
She blinked and looked away, glad that he chose to be discreet, but troubled that she had to lie to the one person who would have deserved to know the truth. She nodded.
They walked into the hallway, leaving the library. Even though their conversation was over, his words lingered with Katey the whole way back to the ballroom.
The irony of Katey looking like his daughter, his granddaughter being named Katherine, which was her full name, being from the South where his granddaughter was put up into the foster care system, her never knowing her real parents and above all, her being able to change into the first female loup-garou in centuries coincided so well with his story that it was borderline freaky.
Could Katey have been the one mentioned in the prophecy that would bring peace and order between the two species? Was the spirit within her the spirit of the half breed princess? All signs pointed to a “yes”, but Katey didn’t want to believe it. She was a nobody, an orphan that wasn’t anything special until Logan turned her. How could she be the fulfillment of some age-old prophecy?
