I found myself traveling along many narrow side streets that eventually led me to a maze of colorful alleys. Blue, red, orange, yellow, and green houses, in no particular order, gave the place character. I had searched nearly every nook and cranny of the Caribbean islands for the female Prototype called Mirage. I wasn’t sure if I was finally in the right place. After a few nights of looking all over St. Maarten, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Anguilla, a fervent pull led me to Antigua. I didn’t have a system or a traveling plan. It felt like I was going in circles and I hadn’t covered all of the Caribbean yet.
I chose one of the narrow winding alleys of Antigua to continue my search. This place must’ve been where most people feared to walk alone at night; there wasn’t a single person in sight. I already had my drink of blood from one of the few thermoses I carried with me so my thirst wouldn’t get the best of me, but I was running low. I needed my full strength to be able to tap into Mirage and I was hoping this would be where I would find her.
As I walked, it seemed as if everyone, human or not, had already fled as I stalked in the complete darkness. The shimmer of the moon was the only light I had to see, but my night vision worked fine without it. I carefully headed down the cobbled street lined with bi-level, textured, multicolored houses with thick walls and columns along both sides of the narrow alley. As torn sheets blew in the broken windows from the wind, I wondered where everyone was. It was as if the people who lived there could sense, beforehand, that I was coming. They were hiding from me or maybe they were afraid of someone else.
I was set on finding Mirage no matter what.
As if she could read my mind, I heard her say, “Legend, you’re here.”
I halted because her voice was so clear and seemed as if she were right in front of me. My heart beat a little faster. I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline; I was in the right place.
“Where are you?”
I felt something pulling me in her direction as if there was some invisible magnetic force leading me.
“I’m far too weak to keep this up. . . Please hurry. You don’t have much time.”
“Keep talking to me,” I ordered as I moved up the alley, following her psychic trail.
“Hurry . . .”
“I’m doing my best . . .” I was anxious and ready to come face to face. I was drawing very near to her spirit. Though she was weak, our connection was growing stronger by the second. I continued to travel faster than a human eye could detect, trying to zero in on her exact location. “Hold tight.”
“I’m afraid.”
“Afraid of what?”
Straight ahead, farther down the long alley, was another abandoned white house with a perfectly painted blue door. It was the largest out of all the others and the tallest, at three levels high. I had a feeling that this might’ve been where she was. I went to one of the broken windows of the house, finding that our connection was the strongest it had ever been. As soon as I stepped foot into the house, I braced myself. It was like someone was breathing on the back of my neck. I turned around, but no one was there.
Caked-up dust covered all the shelves and nothing seemed to have been touched for years. I walked through a few cobwebs as I made my way to the staircase. I swatted them away and looked up the stairs. The house was too quiet. I tried to listen for any movement, but the only thing I could hear were rats running on the floors to hide and the sound of my footsteps going up the noisy, creaking staircase.
As soon as I went into what seemed to be the master bedroom, my breathing became dense. In the bed was a body, but I couldn’t tell if that’s what it really was, so I got closer.
I went to the bedside, looking down to get the first glimpse of whoever it was in the bed. My heart started beating in a wild rhythm as soon as I saw her dark-brown hair sprawled out on the pillow underneath her. She looked so delicate and fragile. She was indeed dying. When she fluttered her eyelashes to stare up at me, the dark circles around her eyes and her wrinkled skin let me know that she hadn’t had blood in a very long time. She looked like a breathing corpse.
Touching her temple lightly, I couldn’t feel her energy. She was moments from passing away. I had come in time.
I took out a thermos full of blood, took the top off, and put it up to her lips. She tightly kept her lips pursed together.
Through our telepathic connection, she said, “I need your blood. Only your blood will save me.” Her mouth didn’t move as she spoke to me. She was still using her mind to communicate.
Why did she need my blood? Was this some sort of setup?
Then, it dawned on me about what Azura had said before I left. I should’ve known better. She was a Prototype. She didn’t need average human blood to be revived. She needed royal vampire blood. The thought of her draining me dry came to mind, but for some reason, I trusted her. Without thinking twice, I held my wrist up to her mouth. She was far too weak to bite me, so I had to bite my own wrist. Blood oozed from me as I held it up to her mouth.
While she drank, the wrinkles in her skin started going away instantly. As she regained strength, she drank faster. I stroked her hair with my free hand.
“My brother Rain’s blood would’ve healed you quicker.”
She exhaled as she removed my wrist from her mouth. As if coming up from underwater, she took a deep breath. “His blood is too powerful. His blood can kill me.”
I held the open gash as it healed before my eyes. “How’d you end up like this?”
“An order for a hex was cast upon me . . . It’s a long story.”
“You had a little trouble with a Spellbinder?”
“Yes . . . I’d been in hiding for a full century now. A few months ago, a Spellbinder found me. I didn’t think of her as a threat, but she must’ve thought I was. I went to bed and woke up to find that I couldn’t move. It was nothing you can imagine. Now, I have to see if the spell has been broken.” She sat up and moved one leg over the edge of the bed. She smiled happily. “It’s all over with now. You saved me. Thank you, Legend.”
“You’re welcome, Mirage.”
“Please call me MiMi.”
“Okay, MiMi.”
I couldn’t help but notice that MiMi wasn’t just beautiful as her blue skin transformed into a light-golden brown before me. She was gorgeous. Her eyes were the color of lavender, much like the color of the lavender fields of France. I had never seen anyone of our kind with purple eyes, but they went beautifully with her creamy-looking, hazelnut-colored skin.
“I need to get back to Paris. It’s not safe here. . . I’m not sure how many Spellbinders are here. Usually when there’s one, there are a few others.”
“I’ll take you back to Paris with me. The King needs to speak with you anyway.”
“The King? Well, that sounds like music to my ears. He knows that I’m alive?”
“Yes, he does.”
She smiled widely. “At last, he has taken his seat on the throne. It’s been a long time coming.”
“Yes, Rain has finally accepted his birthright,” I replied proudly. “Our nephew, Ulysses, has grown into a man before our eyes. He’s also been given the title of the Divine One, so I guess you can say that we have a Divine Duo. He’s a Pureblood, born to my brother, Onyx, and his wife, Soleil.”
Her ears perked up as her smile faded. She hadn’t known about Ulysses and seemed very interested. “A Pureblood?”
“Yes.”
“If he’s Pureblood, then it isn’t possible for Rain to be the King. There can only be one Divine One, according to the Divination . . . one King.” She paused when she realized that she was saying something that we hadn’t taken into consideration. She quickly changed the subject, “You must take me back to Paris. I must meet both of them. What is the young prince doing to prepare himself?”
“Other than lying with countless mortals, night after night, he’s not doing much of anything.”
“I see. . .King Rain takes care of everything?”
“Yes.”
“That shall soon change.”
I frowned, trying to figure out what she was trying to imply. Was Ulysses supposed to be King while Rain was still living? What was the real reason for me coming to the Caribbean?
“Why’d you call me here?”
“There are a lot of things that you won’t understand yet. It isn’t time for you to know it all, but one of the reasons I called you here is because. . . you are to be my husband.”
I nearly choked on my own saliva. “Wait . . . What?”
“You’re Legend, aren’t you? The firstborn son of Valerie?”
I nodded. I had never heard the name Valerie before. Was that my mother’s name?
She continued, “You are to be my mate, my true love, my better half, and keeper of my soul. It has been arranged before you were born. I can only marry one from Allemand and Christione’s line. I’ve waited for this day.”
“My mother’s name was Valerie?”
I had no memory of her. Rain had been so lucky. He was given the opportunity to remember everything about her, including the way she looked. The rest of us could remember nothing about her.
“Yes . . . Her name was Valerie. You didn’t know that?”
“No. Look, I don’t understand all of this . . .” I ran my hand over my long dreads and sighed.
Everything she was telling me was so confusing. I really didn’t understand why she needed me. She was much older and much stronger than I could ever be. I wasn’t a weak man, but I wasn’t so sure about being the man she wanted me to be. She was speaking about something that seemed to be prearranged. Was this my destiny?
“Rain’s destiny was to save us from the Préfet and marry whom he has chosen. If another Pureblood prediction had been mentioned, you and your siblings would’ve never managed to escape with Selene and Mortimer. Where are they now? Are they in the Palace?”
I had never heard my godparents’ real names either.
“No, Rain banned them from the Kingdom for his reasons.”
“I see,” she said with her voice dropping in disappointment. She had paused for a moment before she said, “You know that you were never meant to marry that horrible mortal . . . right?”
Chantal wasn’t meant for me, but how did Mirage know any of this? If she was kept here in the Caribbean under some type of magic, how in the world did she know all of this?
As if she could read my thoughts and me, she eased out of the bed and stood in front of me. My blood was running through her and she had transformed from the corpse that had been lying there dying into a perfect-looking young goddess.
“Do not be afraid of me, Legend. It’s okay not to have all of the answers. It’s also okay to be leery, but I want you to trust me. Wouldn’t you like to spend the rest of your eternity with me?”
MiMi made me quiver on the inside, far before I came face to face with her. She was the most beautiful, compelling woman I had ever met. From the moment she subconsciously contacted me, I was drawn like a moth to an open flame.
She reached for me and eased into my arms. Suddenly, I felt a jolt of energy surge throughout my entire body. The slightest touch from her was electrifying. I was completely consumed by MiMi’s power. As her lips touched mine, her hands ran over my dreads.
I swallowed hard and said, “Let’s get out of here. I have to get you to the Château.”
With her hand in mine, we fled.