The Vampire Gift 2: Kingdom of(61)

“Yes?” Eleira breathes, her voice soft and low.

I find my throat suddenly constricted. I have to clear it before trying again. “When we watch over centuries…”

Eleira turns her body and looks at me. Her pupils have widened. There’s a flush in her cheeks.

She is so beautiful.

“Yes?” she presses. “What happens when you watch them?”

“I…”

My mind ceases to work. I’m lost in her amazing eyes. I start lowering my head, wanting to kiss her, needing to taste her lips.

Her eyes drift shut as she waits for my kiss.

We only get a half-second of contact when a loud crash from the library in the opposing room sounds. Eleira gasps and pulls away.

I curse inwardly.

“I’m all right, I’m okay!” Phillip calls, oblivious to what he’d interrupted.

I grind my teeth and share a sympathetic look with Eleira. Then we both go to check on my brother.

He’s lost somewhere beneath a huge pile of books that has just come tumbling down on top of him from a great shelf. Only his head pokes out, his glasses askew.

“Well, that explains the noise,” Eleira says, trying to stifle a giggle.

I cross my arms and stare. “Aren’t you supposed to be more fleet of foot,” I deadpan, “given that you’re a vampire?”

Phillip gives a cheeky grin.

“And why are you wearing glasses again?” I continue. “You’ve fed. Your vision should be perfect.”

“They contribute to my look,” Phillip says idealistically. “Besides, after wearing them so long, I feel naked without.” He taps the lenses. “I replaced prescription glass with regular.”

“Charming,” I rib. “You’re going to have to put all those books back, too.” Eleira and I walk over and help him up. “How’d you manage this disaster anyway?” I look at the railed ladder on the far side of the room. “I had that installed for a reason.”

“A book caught my eye on the top shelf.” Phillip glances up. “I didn’t have time to go for the ladder.”

“And look what happened when you decided to climb on your own. Did you get what you were searching for, at least?”

“Yes,” he tells me. “And Eleira—this book pertains to you.”

“Really?” she asks. “How?”

“I’ll show you.”

We return to my study. Phillip lays the book on the desk. It’s covered in dark, flaking leather. It looks old.

There’s no title. Nothing at all is imprinted on its front, back, or spine.

For a second, I get a sense of a menacing power held inside.

“Ready?” Phillip asks.

“It’s just a book,” I bluff. “There’s nothing to get ready for.”

Phillip gives me a stringent look, then opens the book to a page at random.

The pages are entirely blank.

“Well, that was anti-climactic,” I say.

“Just you wait,” Phillip says. “This particular book requires blood.”

“Blood?”

Phillip retrieves the goblet Eleira was drinking from. Her thirst has not abated one bit since the transformation.

“Yes,” he says. “Human blood.”

Carefully, he pours the tiniest trickle onto the spine.

The blood simply pools into the middle. Nothing happens otherwise.

“That’s it?” I ask. The only impressive thing—if you can call it that—is that the ancient pages don’t soak the liquid up.

“Eleira, be a dear and hold out your hand, would you?”

She reaches out and gives it to Phillip. He pulls out the tiniest needle and pricks her finger.

A drop of blood leaks out. Phillip turns her hand toward the book. Gravity beckons the drop down. It falls through the air.

The moment it hits the human blood, a loud hissing sounds.

All three of us step back.

I watch, fascinated, as the pool of blood starts to trickle into the pages on either side. It flows onto them and takes shape, forming delicate lines of an unknown script. Intricate pictures full of arcane symbols flourish beside the blood-red text.

The whole book comes alive with the infusion of Eleira’s blood.

“Only a witch can access the secrets hidden inside,” Phillip says in a low and spooky voice.

“Good thing we have Eleira.” I look at her, but her attention is fixed on the book.

Once all the blood has gone out the middle and seeped into the pages, Eleira brings one trembling hand out. She traces some of the symbols on the page.

“I recognize these,” she says in a bare whisper. “I’ve seen them before. These runes. Long, long ago, when I was a little girl.” She shudders and withdraws her hand. “I don’t like this.”