Page 55 of Liberty
Chapter 22
OAK
After feelingLiberty suck on my finger, her tiny little fangs scraping against my already healing wound, I was nearly done. Completely lost about the fucking events and not caring about anything but having her do that for the rest of eternity. Not that I wanted her to do it necessarily, but deep down, I needed it; I needed this contact from her to continue for my survival.
It had been two days since the kitchen incident, and during those two days, Ellis and I spent every second we could manage digging into this library, trying to find something of fucking importance. Against Liberty’s wishes, I finally called Maggie, which was why all of us were gathered here in the library. Liberty was sitting as close to me as possible without sitting on my lap. Maggie shot me a knowing grin every time Liberty’s head turned.
I didn’t mind it. The feeling of ownership she had over us wasn’t something I predicted would go away. Over the past few days, with each time one of us got intimate with her, with each bit of blood we exchanged, with just having us in close proximity, the more it felt right.
“I will admit, when I talked to Oak on the phone, I hadn’t heard of such a thing happening before,” Maggie said as she leaned back on the love seat comfortably.
Sterling groaned and flung his head to rest on the back of his chair. “Of course not.”
Maggie’s throat cleared, “But then I asked around.”
We all stared at her, waiting for her to say more. Maggie was a good friend. Smart, intelligent, one of the best people I knew, but she had a fucking flair for suspense and drama that damn near always drove me crazy. When the weight of the room felt suffocating, Maggie continued, “I asked around. No one has heard of this happening before. But there was a rumor about some prophecies and legends found in a book ages ago.”
Prophecies seem like just our fucking luck. “Okay. And those would be?”
“The legends around this similar situation state that if a parent is turned before a child is born but already created, the DNA will alter. The child itself isn’t fully developed into a human, so the parent’s DNA within that child morphs. There have been no known cases that I could discover, so it’s nothing based on fact. Plus, I doubt you’ve ever even seen a half-human, half-vampire. I suspect that’s not fully possible.”
There was a heaviness in the room, and Liberty spoke first, “I need to clarify this really quickly, vampires can’t create babies, correct?”
“No,” Sterling, Ellis, and I all said at once, while Maggie snorted.
“That is why the existence is a rumor. Even if the change were possible in utero, the change would likely kill the baby before it had time to fully develop.”
“But what if it didn’t?” Ellis asked.
“Well, I don’t really know, to be honest. I couldn’t uncover any evidence that was solid; most of this is only rumors in the paranormal world.” She licked her lips. “A lot of rumors happen.”
Sterling stretched his legs in front of him and crossed them at his ankles before crossing his arms over his chest. “But what if?”
“What if what?”
He looked as if he was still working the situation out in his mind. “What if – When James found out Sarah was pregnant, was the exact day that he died and came back as a vampire? What if there was a chance that their baby was so early on into the process the change in DNA didn’t affect the baby, and she did, in fact, have a baby with vampire DNA?”
“It’s possible.” The more I thought about it, the more I knew that it was more than possible. It was a reality. “So, Liberty having that DNA in her system, what? Is a hybrid?”
“That’s what they say. If she’d never come in contact with you, she could have gone her whole life living as a human, but something you all did activated that part of her DNA. I mean, assuming it’s true.”
The three of us shared a look of guilt. I could think of many somethings that could have caused this downward spiral—nothing intentional, of course, but actions nonetheless that led us to this point. Ellis looked away first. “So then, what do we do?”
“Here’s the thing – the prophecy,” Maggie delivered her statement dramatically.
“Come again? The what?” Liberty asked.
“If the legend is true, then there is a prophecy attached. Well, I mean multiple. But one major one.”
“Meaning what?” Why couldn’t she just get to the fucking point already?
“If what we suspect is true, Liberty, then you aren’t just a hybrid.” Maggie rubbed her thighs, nervously.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, growing impatient.
Maggie didn’t bother looking at us, her eyes solely locked on Liberty. She swallowed hard. The words she was about to say carried a magnitude so great I could already feel the weight. “Liberty, if you really are the hybrid Vampire that rumors have hinted about for centuries, then you aren’t just destined to live out your days, accepting your fate and new life.”
“No?” Liberty asked nervously, and I wanted to scream. Of course not! Life wasn’t that fucking simple for us lately.
“No.” Maggie shook her head. “You’re the last piece needed to unite the paranormal world. You’re not a part of the paranormal world now, Liberty; you’re destined to rule it.”