Brown Eyes

  Brandon Alston & Quinteria Ramey

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright 2011 Brandon Alston

  Prologue

  The thing about remembering through the eyes of another, particularly someone who cares about you, is that often times there’s a protective filter in place, shielding you from the bad parts.

  My time with Tristan has been a true to life fairytale, happiness to a degree that few will ever experience. It was the past that Tristan shared with me all those weeks ago—but it was a filtered past.

  I know this because I can remember for myself now. I can remember the nights I cried myself to sleep after reading some headline about a “missing child” being found dead with bite marks on his neck. I can remember sitting with Duncan when they informed him that his gentle, sweet daughter hadn’t died in that car wreck; rather, she’d been turned by some random vampire who’d happened to be nearby and couldn’t resist the smell of blood in the air.

  These moments stick out in my mind, clear and vivid. They are my fault. Those tragedies and countless others. Vampires exist solely because of me. While I enjoyed a blissful existence, the world was suffering.

  How do you begin to apologize to a thousand years of humanity?

  I don’t expect forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I can only say this: After coming to Earth as Merline, I’ve only ever gotten to be seventeen, and when you’re seventeen, love seems like the most important thing in the world. I know that’s insanely selfish, and I know that it’s little consolation to those who have been hurt because of my mistakes, but I hope it’s enough that you won’t hate me.

  If you’re reading this, then I’m no longer alive. I pray that I succeeded in what I was put here to do. To the family and friends I leave behind, I love you. To everyone else, again, I’m so very sorry. Please, don’t hate me.

  -Ana

  Day I

  You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

  -Albert Einstein

  Chapter One

  Visitor

  It was a familiar nightmare— or so I thought….

  “Open your eyes pretty one,” the voice spoke softly. My heart froze in my chest. “It couldn’t be… It’s not possible… I’m safe… I’m safe… I’m safe…”

  His fingertips moved across my face, and like before, I kept my eyes shut.

  “Let me see your eyes, pretty girl.”

  I shook my head.

  His hands moved down my face, until his fingers closed around my neck. “This can all be over if you simply show me those eyes of yours.”

  As my body began to tremble, I envisioned the scarred face and blood red eyes of my attacker. “He’s dead,” I told myself. “This is a dream. Having reassured of myself of this fact, I allowed my eyes to open. I was startled at who I found staring back at me.

  “Tristan?”

  “I’m sorry,” he replied, as tears slipped down his cheeks. “But I’ve realized something. I want to live, Ana. I can’t allow you to kill Daemon.”

  Before I could form a response, his hands began to tighten around my neck, squeezing until breathing became impossible. My vision blurred—his face, those eyes, slipping out of focus. Tristan was trying to kill me….

  My eyes snapped open.

  I was in my room, alone in my bed. A glance toward the glassed wall showed that Corinne was still perched near the edge of my balcony, still as any statue, as watchful as any two owls. The girl was a machine. And she was just one half of my bodyguard tandem. Outside my bedroom door, Amelie stood just as vigilant. Of the two, she was more likely to offer up a casual smile, but took her job every bit as serious as Corinne did.

  But even they couldn’t protect me from my dreams. Tristan’s attack had shaken me. It wasn’t so much the act of it that affected me—that I could dismiss as impossible. Tristan would never hurt me. But the reason he gave? That haunted me, even awake.

  As I stood up from my bed, Corinne’s head whipped around. I waved my hand to let her know that I was fine. She nodded, then returned her gaze to the grounds below. Beyond gardens and decorative hedges, a circle of burnt orange light peeked over the lake.

  I knew that she was still upset with me for sneaking away with Tristan last night. Her words still rang in my ears. “What good are bodyguards,” she’d asked, “if you are always running off by yourself?” Thankfully, she and Amelie had agreed not to blow my cover.

  The bathroom was my destination. Once inside, I splashed my face with a few handfuls of cold water and stared at myself in the mirror. “Get a grip, Ana.” Today was going to be difficult enough without adding imaginary worries.

  The girl in the mirror looked the same as she had when she arrived here ten weeks ago—if somewhat flustered. She was still a dainty little thing. Dark, almost black hair reached her shoulders, and her intensely grey eyes were sizing me up. A deceptive thing, that mirror; I was hardly the same person at all.

  Prior to that terrible night when my mother was attacked, I knew nothing of witches or their centuries old war against the vampires. I had no idea that I was an angel born into a human life, or that I’d been reincarnated more than half a dozen times to correct a mistake I’d made more than a millennia ago.

  That mistake being the creation of vampires. It was a mistake that had caused countless people an untold amount of heartache and suffering. Whenever I was reborn, I was supposed to seek out and destroy Daemon, the original vampire, thus breaking the spell that keeps every other vampire alive. And I would have. I was determined to. The only problem was that I fell in love with one of those vampires.

  His name was Tristan, and after helping him to restore the human side of his mind, I began to ignore my reasons for being reborn. To fulfill my purpose was to destroy the boy I loved more than anything else in the world. For this self-centered decision, the other angels struck me down at seventeen years of age. I got more chances to right my wrong, but I kept choosing Tristan.

  And I kept getting struck down.

  Finally, I was born into this life—my last chance to end the continuous threat vampires posed to the entire world. It was the only way I’d ever regain my spot in heaven. I had many companions among the angels in heaven and I had no doubt that it was those angels who’d attempted to shift the circumstances in favor of me making the right choice this time. For one, I hadn’t recognized Tristan first time I saw him on that bus in South Carolina. They’d also arranged for my memories of our past to be erased. A different boy was put in my path, a young warlock named Darren, who captured my heart. Even still, Tristan became a part of my life, and I could still feel those powerful emotions I had for him from lifetimes before. Obviously, this made things pretty complicated, but the time did come when I had to choose, and I’d stayed true to my current self and had chosen Darren.

  Unfortunately, I’d also managed to kill Tristan’s oldest friend during my stay here in Brighton. Aiden was the first vampire Daemon had ever turned and Daemon held a special affection for him. But Aiden had lost it; he’d attempted to kill Darren and then came after me. In defending myself, I’d ended his life. Daemon was furious, and had ordered his armies to punish me. To prepare me for this retaliation, the angel I’d partnered with since the beginning of time had granted me my memories and informed me that only two paths lay in front of me. “Either you will fail and watch Darren die, or you will succeed and see Tristan dead because of it.”

  No pressure there…

  Which leads me to now. Today I’ve got to stand up in front of the entire witching community of Brighton and tell them that because of me, an army of vampires was coming to destroy the safe haven they and their ancestors had called home for centuries. No way I was going back to sleep, it had been hard enough the last time, and I’d been exhausted. Tristan and I had spent the majority of the night celebrating our past. By connecting our minds, we could relive some of our most memorable times. Out of respect to Darren, I tried to skip over the intimate moments.

  I might as well get everyone up for this. Get it over with.

  No. I should give them a full night’s rest. Many of them had late nights too. Yesterday was my sixteenth birthday coronation. Thankfully, the witches and warlocks who’d made the trip to Brighton from out of town were back in their havens by now, most of them anyway, having caught late flights back to their respective countries. For the natives, this could be the last peaceful night many of them ever have in Brighton.

  I let out a sigh. Again, my fault.

  As I dried my face with a towel, a knock sounded on the bathroom door.

  When I opened it, I found Amelie and Corinne on the other side."Tim They looked nervous.

  “What’s wrong?”

  It was Corinne who spoke up. “There’s a vampire in the house. He’s requesting to speak with you. He said that you would know what it’s about.”

  Could it be Tristan? “Who?” I asked. “What did he say?”

  “He said something about… Daemon,” Amelie answered.

  The name sent a chill down my back. “Let’s go.”

  **********

  With Amelie right behind me, and Corinne just in front, we moved out of the room and down the staircase. Helena was waiting for me there.

  “Ana! What’s going on?” Helena was nearly hysterical as she ran to meet me at the bottom of the stairs. Her voice dropped low, nearly cracking as she spoke. “There’s a vampire in the ballroom for you.”

  “I know. They told me,” I replied. “Where’s my grandmother?”

  �
��She’s inside— your mother too. Ana, what’s happening?”

  I shook her off. “You’ll know soon enough.”

  Before she could get another word out, I’d rounded her and started for the door leading to the ballroom.

  “Ana?” she called, as I reached the door.

  I turned around to face her. She was eyeing me closely, as though she might be able to see past my face, that I was no longer just Ana. Maybe she could. No way I’d have blown her off like that a week ago. But now wasn’t the time for that conversation.

  I turned for the ballroom, pushing open the double doors without a moment’s hesitation.

  A dozen guardians stood just inside the entrance, flanking my mother and grandmother. Each of them turned to look at me as I stepped into the ballroom. While their eyes were trained on me, mine took in the lone figure at the center of the ballroom.

  He was seated, his legs crossed at the knee. His hair was tied into a short ponytail, and matched the color of the suit he wore—pitch black. He looked as though he were attending a funeral.

  “What do you want?” I called.

  Without looking up, the thin lips on his cruel face bent into a smile. “Finally, someone worth my time. I am here to ask your permission, princess.”

  “Permission? For what?”

  “To address your haven.”

  “You can address me,” I replied.

  “I can address your haven, or you can watch it be ransacked by vampires in a matter of minutes.”

  “You-you’re bluffing,” I replied. He had to be, London said that I had three days. I took that to mean that I had three days before the vampires attacked Brighton.

  “Am I?” he replied, finally looking up at me. He had cold, hateful eyes and sneered in my direction. “Do you think I would make this trip alone? Unless I had certain assurances?”

  He had a point. Even vampires feared death.

  “What is it you want to say? They won’t want to listen.”

  He smiled again. “They will if their heir tells them to. I’ll have your answer now. I won’t ask again.”

  From his pocket he removed a shimmering stone and placed onto the table in front of him. I recognized it. It was the same kind Surya had used to summon her army of vampires out from the cover of the surrounding woods and into plain sight. Could he really have an army camped outside the house? As my heart rate began to quicken, I stepped quickly into his mind.

  “Call an emergency council meeting,” I shouted to the others. “Immediately.”

  Chapter Two

  Ultimatum

  Once again, I was alone in my room with Corinne on the balcony and Amelie posted just outside my door. I kept expecting someone to come up: my mother, my grandmother, Helena… No one did. Surely, they’d noticed that the girl in the ballroom wasn’t exactly the Ana they were used to. But then, maybe that was the reason they were staying away.

  I felt myself becoming anxious as I waited alone, and I could feel my arms shaking. I had to find a way to kill Daemon, but how? There had to be a way to do it without getting the haven into a war that would only get innocent people hurt. I had enough blood on my hands, there wouldn’t be any more if I could help it.

  When my bedroom door opened, I found myself hoping that someone had finally come up to check on me, but it was just Amelie. “They’re ready for you,” she informed me.

  I nodded, and Amelie waved for Corinne to join us.

  The house was eerily quiet as we moved about; there were none of the usual maids or random visitors that normally stalked the halls at all hours. Not until we reached the main room of the mansion.

  Hundreds of witches and warlocks were gathered here, flooding over into adjacent rooms and hallways, many still in their night clothes. There were two completely different atmospheres coexisting at the moment. Most of the young people were smiling, joking around. The elders, on the other hand, appeared to be very concerned. If I had to guess, it was probably the early hour that alerted them to the fact that there was serious trouble afoot.

  It wasn’t until I was noticed that the shouting started. “What’s going on?” “What do you know?” Even the youngsters were paying attention now. I put my head down and followed Corinne through the crowded room. There wasn’t anything to tell. Yet.

  You could hear a pin drop inside the Council Room. Every eye was locked on the lanky vampire in the jet black suit seated at the front of the room. The Elder Witches, seated at the long table behind him, conversed amongst themselves.

  The vampire sat very still—still enough to actually be dead, his gaze straight ahead of him. That is, until I placed my first foot into the Council Room. At that point, he stood up, this simple act causing half the people in the room to suddenly become restless in their chairs.

  “It looks like we’re all here,” he announced. The smile he put on almost looked genuine.

  My grandmother shot me a glance from her Head of Council Chair and then addressed our guest. “Why are you here?”

  “Straight to the point, I see. Very well. Plainly put, I am here to declare war on your haven on behalf of Daemon, the Source—”

  Commotion broke out around the room. Our guest raised his hand for silence. He got it.

  “However, because Daemon is so fond of the witches under his control, he is willing to make a deal with you. He will settle for justice so far as this matter is concerned.”

  “Justice!” my grandmother scoffed. “What kind of justice?”

  The vampire’s eyes found me again. “One of our own was murdered here without just cause. He was very dear to Daemon, and his lordship feels that he will only obtain closure once he sees his killer punished.” He raised his hand and pointed in my direction. “Give us your murderous heir, and your haven will be spared. If you do not, by sunrise tomorrow, not one of you will be left alive.”

  This brought the people to their feet. They were shouting at the vampire, while he just smiled, his cold eyes still on me. Frightened or not, these were proud people who didn’t appreciate being threatened.

  It took several minutes for my grandmother to restore order to the Council Room. During which, the vampire began to chuckle. He was staring down a room full of angry witches and warlocks as though he were watching a play—one that amused him.

  “Do not let your foolish pride get your families killed,” he spoke loudly. Again, he’d hushed the room. “Do you truly believe you could succeed where your ancestors failed? Your generals, your warriors, they are all long dead, rotting away beneath the earth. Ours still live, still remember the thrill of war, that sweet aroma of witch’s blood spilt messily over their shirts. And they are eager… so eager. Tell me, what will you tell your children when the vampires arrive at your door? What words of comfort will you offer them as they watch your body’s life force being consumed in front of their very eyes?”

  Nothing moved as the vampire’s images lingered in the air. And nothing spoke, as their minds processed the truth of this hopeless fight. Not until Guardian Dent, Chris’s father, stood up from the crowd. He cast a sympathetic glance in my direction before speaking.

  “Fellow citizens, we have but one option,” he said, shaking his head. “We must give up our heir.”

  “We will do no such thing!” shouted my grandmother, rising to her feet as well. “This is how you repay my restoration of your family’s honor? I have promoted you to Chief Guardian—this despite your recent conduct—and this is what you suggest?”

  “What else would you have us do?” shouted a woman a couple rows behind the Chief Guardian. “Put our children in danger in order to protect yours?”

  “Cowards! Both of you!” shouted a man pointing back at them from the front row. More people stood up, each voicing their own opinions. The entire Council Meeting had again dissolved into chaos.

  I knew what I had to do. Giving myself up was either going to be incredibly smart or equally as dumb. Despite the very real chance that what I was planning might lead me to a face-to-face with Daemon, it was terribly risky. Still, it was the best option I had.

  I stepped into the aisle leading down to the floor and felt a hand pull me back by my shirt.

  It was Corinne. She was shaking her head.