Page 39 of The Diary of the Vam'pir Jacques

I refused to let this slide. Not only had Nathan made a fool of me, but also he had kept this hidden from the rest of us. I’m not sure which annoyed me the most, but I wanted to wipe that self-satisfied look off his face. Nathan shrugged.

“Yes, I did know about this ability, but I didn’t say anything until I understood it wasn’t a fluke.”

“Nathan!” Raymone admonished. “Any newfound skills, you’re meant to share.”

Nathan ducked his head, shamefaced.What an actor!Nathan and I both knew he was playing the others.

“Raymone, I intended to mention this, but I needed to confirm it wasn’t a one-time thing. Why bother sharing if not everyone can accomplish it? I held off on saying anything until I saw someone do it. Sorry,” Nathan explained, glancing up at Raymone, who melted.

Idiot, couldn’t he see that Nathan was playing with him?

“Don’t do it again,” Raymone ordered by way of letting the subject drop.

“Are you ready, Jacques?” Nathan asked, bending down to pick up the block.

“We’ll walk.”

Nathan nodded, still playing contrite.

Once out of earshot of the others, I attacked. “Just when did you plan on telling us, you little bastard?”

“Ah, come on, Jacques. What do you think?” The contriteness disappeared, replaced by sheer confidence.

“I think that I know you too well. Anything else that we should be told?” I asked.

“Not at the moment.”

“Sure?” I persisted.

“Absolutely.”

“Nathan, you are a stinking liar, but I’ll let it go for now.”

Nathan grinned. “That’s why I love you so much.”

“Pah, lift your end, you’re letting it drop.”

Annoyingly, I was one of the last to master the ability. Not the last, but one of them. Inka, to my pride, was one of the first. At least that soothed my wounded pride a little. I found I had trouble making myself move.

Eduardo assumed I was putting a barrier up, but in truth, it was my pride getting in the way. I was forcing myself too hard and when I let go of my fear of being the last, then I travelled as fast as the others. And so, another ability came forward. Vam’pirs had great strength and speed.

What more would we possess? We all wondered, but nothing materialised over the next few weeks, and so we concentrated on Mora.

All of us had transported enough blocks to create a city. We had to decide where to build. That took some time as arguments waged between us. Some wished for it to be built on the beach; others wanted it building in the forest. We didn’t agree, so in the end, we tossed for it. The beach won. I was wary of building straight on to the beach because if the Kaltons came over, we were in their direct line of sight if they decided to attack.

Li’zel was the one who resolved the problem. There was a stone plateau a short distance away from the beach. Li’zel suggested that we excavate it, like the coven, and build a pyramid over the top of it. The levels above could be workrooms and living quarters. We would also have a secret door.

Who’d locate the entrance among all these blocks?

Vam’piric safety would be guaranteed. And we would have the beauty of the beach and the sea. Then, we only had to agree the size of the building we needed. A great deal of planning went into this, and in the end, we designed one twice the size of the largest pyramid in Egypt.

There was plenty of space for each person to have their own workroom. And we used special lights to simulate moonlight to work in. However, we had gotten used to working with people and nobody wanted to be on their own, except those who already worked alone.

We started to clear the land for building as mutterings began to arise on Kaltos about our constant disappearances. This made us work even harder for fear our families were in danger. The smashing of the windows in the Coven one night provided proof of escalating emotions on Kaltos.

Taran had caught the culprits, and surprisingly, they were two of Gideo’s distant family. Their punishment resulted inaccusations of ongoing victimisation against the same families. An old woman in the market verbally abused my mother, and Curtan’s son, Anton, had his villa vandalised. This led to us building several outbuildings on Mora that we furnished with things from the Coven. This offered numerous guesthouses that stood ready if one of our families needed a quick escape. We would have offered to house them in the pyramid, but we thought that they might have been in danger from us. They wouldn’t have been, but you never knew.

The guest villas were outfitted with every comfort possible. We also built a high wall around them to protect from attack. Julia (in one of her rare moments) demanded that an escape tunnel be made in case the walls were over run.

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