Chapter Ten: Forever

Chapter Ten: Forever

December 31st. 977 Years Later.

The occasional explorer that went for a stroll deep in the trees of the swamps and woods of New Orleans would always stop, puzzled at the sudden appearance of an iron gate. The gate curled around certain trees and proceeded in a straight line. Whoever was exploring the woods or swaps, depending on from which direction the explorer started out from, would always walk along the gate, touching the roughness of the iron until a regal sign was visible. The iron and copper sign was set to be at every one hundred yards and said the same thing.

The Lucai Manor

Circa 2023

Cameron Lucai

The legends of the Lucai family would swell and the explorer would turn around and go home, going over the legends of the pale, beautiful people who would only come out at night and seemed to live forever.

The gate surrounded the manor that once used to be in heart of New Orleans. It was moved to the deeply wooded area and guarded the mouth of the caves.

While the sun set, a young woman with gold skin walked to the balcony and squinted at the brightness of the sun. Her skin burned slightly but she didn’t move. This was the only time where she had the chance to remember daylight.

The girl’s dark hair glinted in the sunlight and she was joined by a beautiful blonde in a black, floor-length dress. The blonde

“You can almost remember what it was like,” Cameron murmured, watching through the sun through narrowed eyes and a dark curtain. Even covered the sun’s dying brilliance made her eyes hurt. The sky turned from blue to pink to purple and lastly to the black of night. It was almost nine when the sun finally went down.

Cameron smiled at the sky which was dotted with bright lights. Her vision was either very sensitive and couldn’t tolerate bright light or they had intensified because they were in the dark so much.

“Cam?” Lacey’s voice came from the doorway.

“I’m coming,” Cameron said and turned from the dark window to face her closest friend. Lacey had been a vampire for three days less than Cameron had been.

At was New Year’s Eve and like most of the relatively new vampires, like Cameron, Ivy, Lacey, Leon and a crowd of others were amazed at the fact that they had lived to see the turn of the millennia.

The concept of living a lifetime was puzzling enough, but to live for hundreds, thousands of years, was nearly unthinkable. It was an idea that Cameron had had to come to terms with during her reign. The blood in her veins stirred again.

Cameron hid the puzzlement this caused her.

She walked with Ivy and Lacey to the first level of the manor. It was huge, with ornate furnishings. The glass screen was lowered from the ceiling where a live feed from Chicago’s Millennium Park was switching from the city’s occupants, to the ball in the great amphitheatre that was waiting to fall to announce the new century.

Cameron grabbed a champagne flute filled with warm blood from a hovering plate that drifted by. The thin Plasma Glass screen switched to the celebration in England, where Zach was currently stationed. Ivy stared at the London skyline with a forlorn look on her face. She missed Zach.

Cameron patted her hand and moved through the crowd, smiling, laughing and chatting for nearly three hours.

When it was eleven fifty, Cameron frowned, her hand over her heart. The tension level in the room rose and only Lacey noticed the flushed, worried look on Cameron’s face.

Cameron’s heart skipped a beat and she gasped.

As the hour got closer to midnight, Bliss began to feel the same things as well. Her blood was getting warmer and began rushing through her veins.

“Nine!” The crowd shouted.

Cameron’s eyes closed and she took quick shallow breaths.

“Eight!”

Bliss swayed on her feet, her hand reaching out for support.

“Seven!”

Ivy swallowed and her blood began to boil.

“Six!”

Cameron’s knees weakened and she sagged against Lacey.

“Five!”

Bliss’s blood seemed to expand in her veins and she let out a tiny whimper.

“Four!”

Ivy heard the sound of Cameron and Bliss’s heart skipping like a rabbit’s before their hearts began to beat in sync.

“Three!”

The three women opened their bonds and felt the air around them change. Those who were near in proximity to the three women also felt their power escape their bodies and those who were older were beginning to feel the changes.

“Two!”

Cameron dropped to the ground like a rock; her breath coming wildly and her veins seemed to burst into agonizing fire.

“One!”

The cheering drowned out Cameron’s scream as her blood boiled and raged angrily in her veins. Cameron’s body began to shudder violently as a change tore through her body and then tore through her vampires, who dropped to their knees and gasped at the sudden power rush.

In the dawn of the new Millennium, Cameron Lucai, Queen of the Vampires opened her glowing, golden eyes. Her blood returned to normal and she felt hands on her face, voices asking if she was okay.

She wasn’t. She was better than fine.

She shared the sudden power rush until nearly all the vampires were ecstatic with it. She stared down her skin and saw that it was a darker shade of golden brown.

Could it be…? Cameron wondered.

Hours later, Cameron stood fearlessly in the balcony of the second floor east window watching the sky turn from its midnight blue, to a beautiful cyan color. The orb of light rose from the trees and Cameron stood, bathed in its light, her skin reflecting the rays as if she was a living crystal. Behind her, the vampires stared in awe at their glowing Queen.

Cameron lifted her face and felt the light warm her skin.

After nearly a century of never feeling the warmth, she welcomed it greedily.

She turned to face her vampires, who stood in the sun’s light. She seemed to be victorious and she addressed them all with the voice of a Queen.

“A new millennium begins.”

fin