The Hybrid Royal

The 18th Birthday

I'm dreaming. There is a woman screaming. It sounds as though she's in terrible pain. Everything is black. Then all of a sudden I am staring at a high vaulted ceiling. I am placed in one of the arms of the screaming woman and then a baby boy is placed in her other. Somehow I know this is my twin brother. Fraternal twins because we only hold some similar features and grew in separate sacks. I turn my attention back to the woman who is now sobbing and smiling. She has white blonde hair and piercing violet eyes. She places a kiss first on my head then the head of my brother. " My sweet Gwendolyn and Chandler" she says in the most soft mesmerizing voice.

" Gwen! Gwen!" I hear my Noni calling me from dreamland. I take one last look at the beautiful woman before I'm pulled out of sleep to Noni shaking my whole body. 

" Good morning Noni" I say with a smile. 

" It's time for breakfast my love" Noni replies. 

The smell of fresh waffles hits my nose. " I'm up!" I yell happily jumping out of bed and already heading towards the stairs. I hear Noni laughing behind me. As I reach the kitchen I see my twin brother Chandler and older brother Jake already stuffing their faces.

 " Better have saved some for me!" I declare hungrily. 

" Always baby sister" Jake replies messing up my hair. 

I give him a big hug and return the favor by tousling his hair. He jumps back and immediately starts putting his hair back into place.

" Are you ready for the big day today?" Chandler asks excitedly.

 " I am so ready to ascend" I reply briefly touching my scars. 

We are vampires and today is our 18th birthday. On our 18th birthdays we start ascending and become the vampires we were meant to be. Our bodies heal their old scars, we become stronger, and could possibly develop an ability or two. Really depends on your clan and bloodlines. Noni is our grandmother. Her and papa raised us after our parents were killed and then papa passed as well. Noni, Papa, and my mother are from the Blue Blood clan. The Blue Blood clan has most of the strongest most vicious warriors.  Our clan was set to protect one of the royals. The blood clan has many branches such as ours, the red blood clan, the silver blood clan, etc. Each has their own royal to protect. We will be returning to our clan once we ascend to train to protect our clans royals. It is unconventional but some families do take a break from their clans to raise their children. Luckily we are from a branch of the blood clan and are welcomed in almost any clan because of the warriors we raise. The other clans not from the blood clan feel safer with a few blood clan members around. For most of my life we have been with the North Star clan. They produce some of the most brilliant vampires and some record keepers. Noni and Papa always said they moved us here away from the violence so we could get a good education. It is a very rigorous program. While other clans mostly stick to their own history and don't venture far into others, we have had to learn everything about everybody. Humans, werewolves, all of the different clans, the mixed breeds (vampire/ werewolves, and even the magical beings.) If they wanted to get us the best education we definitely got it. I always found it all fascinating. The alliances and wars. Chandler on the other hand only really liked the parts about werewolves, vampires, and the mixed.  Jake did okay although he only really liked the part about our clan, the Blue Blood clan. He is three years older and when he ascended you could definitely tell he belonged to our clan. He got so much bigger and stronger that when he morphs into his vampire state he is enormous and clearly a warrior. Not only did he get strength, but as big as he is he can levitate. Which is a very sought after ability. 

" I wonder what abilities I'll get?" Chandler wondered out loud. 

" Don't worry bro! You will be just like me and get massive! Be the second best warrior," Jake chided him.

 " If I get to levitate that would be so awesome!" Chandler replied not even giving notice to his big brothers joking. 

" I just want my scars to heal and finally have our clans crest back," i say again touching my scars absent mindedly. 

You are born with your clans crest as a birthmark on your skin. Whenever our parents died there was also fire involved and mine and my twin brothers crest were burned off. Now I'm just left with ugly burn scars and other scars from fighting, but they should finally fully heal when we ascend. 

" Hey don't worry! We are going to look amazing after we ascend" Chandler chimes in trying to help.

 Noni had been at the counter listening to us chatter over breakfast. 

" There is NO doubt in my mind you will be the most beautiful girl" she adds.

 " Thank you Noni" I reply kissing her cheek. 

" Welp we have training! See you tonight at 8 for our ascension," Chandler says as him and Jake run out of the door.

 " My beauty you have no idea how beautiful and strong you are," Noni says staring at me. 

I slightly flinch because no one thinks I am beautiful. Between the scarred tissue from the fire and all of the scars from training I look like a monster.

 " Noni I had a dream last night that felt like a memory, but I didn't recognize the woman at all. It wasn't mom," I say changing the subject. 

" What did this woman look like maybe i can help," Noni replies leaning forward on her elbows with curious eyes. 

" She had white blonde hair. Almost silver looking. And purple eyes. She had my kind of nose and she was holding me and chandler as babies. Like newborn," I reply closing my eyes and envisioning her. 

" I may know hold on a second," noni says with a wink and scurries to the living room. When she returns she has an old photo album in her hands. She carefully opens it up to a page and slides it across the table at me. When I look at the picture its opened up to I gasp. It's the woman!! Dressed in royal clothes and standing beside my mom, Norah, and my father, Jacob.

 " That's her!" " but who is she?"

" That my dear, is the royal Miss Gweniviere. The royal our clan protected until the day came when we couldn't," noni said sadly. 

Almost exactly a hundred years ago my mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather were there trying to save Gweniviere but sadly she was lost. A dark magic royal wizard captured her and it took them three weeks to find her. When they finally found her apparently she was on her last breath. No one knows exactly why he took her, probably for a dark spell requiring royal vampire blood, but she lost the battle. Being her protectors is exactly what got my parents killed. Apparently the dark wizard Titus has been hunting down our clan ever since. 

" Well then it definitely couldn't have been a memory because that was almost a hundred years ago and we are only turning 18," I say confused. 

" You never know," Noni replies with a wink. 

" Are you saying we DID meet her," i ask even more confused.

 " There is a story I would like to share with you and Chandler tonight. But immediately after we have to go back to our clan. They have been waiting on us nearly a hundred years," Noni answers mysteriously and walks away. 

Okayyyyyy. That was weird. Maybe Gweniviere isn't really dead and has instead been in hiding so we did actually meet her at birth! Maybe since she's tied so closely to our clan I am already developing abilities like psychic and can see into the past in a way! Chandler hasn't started ascending but he is already getting bigger and stronger! 

Endless possibilities swarm my head. I can already tell we are about to be let in on a huge clan secret. I am a little sad we will have to leave all of a sudden, but I don't have any close friends. Everyone just whispers about me behind my back. The other female vampires here are more studious and not so much warriors, so they all are beautiful and don't have much scars. They instead will battle with their brains rather than brawn. I'm not the best warrior. I'm short and small framed. But I'm fast and only go for devastating blows. Even when my scars heal I won't be much to look at. Dark brown mousy hair, muddy brown eyes, not intimidating or incredibly beautiful at all. Hopefully my vampire will be beautiful at least. Or intimidating would be nice. The stronger your vampire self and blood line, the longer it takes to build up to your highest potential. The weaker bloodlines change just like that but they will never be better or stronger. I'm hoping since I'm a decent fighter with strong bloodlines that my vampire self will be incredible. 

"We will see tonight," i whisper to myself.

I hug Noni and she places a kiss on my forehead.

"Love you," I yell as I race out of the door for training.

There is only me and one other female in our training class. Like I said it's mostly the brilliant minds here so most , especially females, aren't training to be physically stronger. Sadie is the other female and she is from the Red Blood clan and absolutely stunning. I like her because she's nice but she mostly keeps to herself. She doesn't seem to care about looks or status. She's only ever concentrated on training. Maybe she's not concerned with looks because that is not a problem for her. She has black hair cut into an A line. She's about 5'6 and muscular. Definitely doesn't seem like a person you would want to mess with. She does have soft dark green eyes though. 

"Hey Sadie," I say as I take a place beside her.

" Hey Gwen," she offers a smile.

" Hey what's up Sadie? And Eww whose that beside you?" Asks Todd.

Todd is one of my tormentors. He is the most gorgeous guy here and despises me for some reason.

" What did you just say," demands Sadie raising an eyebrow.

" Just what's up," Todd replies trying to use his puppy dog eyes.

" If you're going to talk like that then don't ever talk to me again. You might think you're the moon goddess' gift to women, but you aren't s**t," Sadie replies clenching her fists.

Whoa, I've never had anyone but my brothers stand up for me. Unfortunately, I don't exactly fit in. I guess thinking back on it Sadie has never been around whenever others pick on me. Maybe i do have a friend outside of family.

" Whoa whoa whoa beautiful! Feisty huh? I like that. Although your choice in friends, I don't," Todd says side eyeing me like I'm a freak.

"She's about to ascend and all of those scars will be gone and then you'll be sorry! She's about to glow up, but you will still have a small package Todd. There's no fixing that!" Sadie responded and I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

" Whatever you will be begging to be all on this," Todd replied smugly turning away.

" We can all see the outline of your tiny d**k through those tight shorts Todd," Sadie yelled back and I almost fell to the ground laughing.

Todd stuck up his middle finger and walked away.

" What if he turns out to be your mate," I ask through my laughter.

" I would rather be alone forever!" Sadie declares also laughing.

" Thank you. You didn't have to stick up for me." I say suddenly shy.

" We are the two strongest females here. We have to look out for each other," she says shrugging it off.

" Well i don't know about you but I'm ready to kick Todd's ass now," I say running out onto the field.

Training was tiring and I never got matched against Todd. Good thing because I don't actually think I can beat him. They keep us paired against similar body types. I've got speed but not as much muscle as Todd. Time to shower and get on to my next class.

The rest of the day is filled with history, math, science, species identification, but my favorite class is advanced magic. We can't perform magic, but we can study the spells and learn to identify curses and such. Sometimes there are small things you can do to protect yourself. Such as wearing amulets or simply finding and destroying cursed items. I find it all very interesting and I like to be prepared for anything which I feel this class helps with. Our teacher is actually a witch, one of the few that work with the clan, named Ms. Tonda. She helps the clan with protection spells and such. She is very sweet although most witches are looked at like they are evil. She has been around for 200 years, but looks to be maybe 40ish. 

" I want you all to read in chapter 13 about the 13th curse. It's a doozy!" She exclaims while cackling. 

" Tomorrow we will go over it in class and I will take all of your questions then. Class dismissed," she says waving her hand towards the door and it swings open.

" Oh, Gwen may I have a word?"

"Of course Ms. Tonda," I reply watching everyone else scramble out the door.

"I heard it was your birthday so I won't expect you in class tomorrow. If you have any questions feel free to email them to me. I think you will find this curse very interesting," she says and then she swoops me up in a hug.

"Thank you," I reply almost feeling teary eyed.

Ms. Tonda has to be my favorite teacher and I think I'm her favorite student.

"See you Monday my dear," she calls out as I make my way out into the hallway.

"Thanks again," I call back.

I arrive home but no one else is there yet so I decide to take a little nap. I know tonight is going to require a lot of energy. As I flop onto my bed I wonder if I'll see Gweniviere in my dreams again. I start to recall her long flowing hair and the look of complete love in her violet eyes. My eyelids droop and sleep carries me away.

"Gwen! Get up!!"

I hear Jake's voice and before I can open my eyes he is picking me up and throwing me over his shoulder.

"What the hell Jake?!" I rage a little from being awaken so rudely.

"You're not going to want to miss this sleepy head," Jake laughs as he rushes downstairs.

It's finally almost 8 o clock and Chandler and I are sitting at the table as my grandmother comes out with the cake. 

" Happy birthday my precious dears," Noni shouts out excitedly. 

" Happy birthday baby bro and sis," Jake chimes in putting his hands on our shoulders. 

Me and Chandler look at each other and then blow out our candles in unison. Noni gives us each a huge slice and sits down. 

" Now before you ascend I have a story to tell you. Jake already knows as Papa told him on his 18th birthday." Noni says picking up her cup of tea.

 I look at her while shoveling cake into my mouth.

 " As you know 100 years ago our clan was to protect miss Gweniviere, the royal, but she was taken from us and died right as we reached her. But my dears, you don't know the whole story," she says softly starting to grin mysteriously. 

" Tell us Noni" I say excitedly.

 " This can never leave here," Noni says quietly and both Chandler and I nod in agreement. 

" What you don't know is that Gwenivieres fated mate was king Charles," Noni starts.

"Okay" says Chandler looking uninterested

But I gasp " King Charles the royal werewolf?!"

Immediately Chandler looks interested again

See it's not uncommon to have half breeds. They used to be killed by either the vampires or werewolves but both sides learned to accept them. But for two ROYALS of opposite species to be together?! Never heard of.

"Yes and they loved each other very much. But kept it a secret for obvious reasons. But then a child was conceived!"

I gasped again just absolutely shocked. "A royal half breed that would be able to command vampires and werewolves?! " I said slightly yelling

" Calm down dear"

" Anyways, right after that the wizard Titus used dark magic to steal Gweniviere. We thought it was to steal the child and raise the child darkly to control vampires and werewolves, but it was worse" Noni said solemnly

" This is getting good!" Chandler said.

I sighed disappointed in my half wit brother.

" You mean it's terrible," I said rolling my eyes.

" We didn't know of the true intentions until we found Gweniviere. It had only been three weeks but when we arrived at her bedside she was in labor. We were all prepared for a still birth but what happened next shocked us."

" Hey Noni I have to go out real quick. I'll be right back" Jake interrupted and I glared at him.

" Please go on Noni!" I pleaded.

"Not one, but two babies were born! We all turned to Gweniviere for answers. She told us as the others tried to stop the bleeding that Titus had actually implanted a set of twins in her. One was royal vampire and magic mixed, one was royal werewolf and magic mixed and he had had no idea she was already pregnant til they did a sonogram and discovered one twin had absorbed the other! Her and King Charles' baby was still there and growing just as rapidly as the twins with the dark magic in her womb!"

"Oh my god!" I shouted " but why a magical vampire and magical werewolf?!"

" Because the babies would be royal all around! Royal vampire, royal werewolf, and royal sorcerer. He could raise them to do his bidding and literally control everyone!"

"So what happened to the babies?!" I have to know!

" Well when one twin absorbed the other it became all three in one! The most powerful being of all time! Gwenivere and King Charles' child was born healthy as well. Gweniviere was fading away fast and begged her loyal guards to take both children into hiding because they were both her children and would be killed as soon as anyone knew. We have undying love and loyalty to miss Gweniviere and agreed. In order to properly hide them, even King Charles' child from him so his pack wouldn't overthrow him and kill the child. We knew a powerful wizard who put a spell on the children so they wouldn't ascend for a hundred years. See the evil wizard would be searching for them on their 18th birthday. But what if we prolonged the time so we could possibly take him out first?" Noni explained.

"That's why Titus has been killing our clan! Looking for the children!" I exclaimed.

By now Chandler looked as dumbfounded as I was.

"So they are about to ascend which is why we need to rejoin our clan asap! To finish our oath and protect them!" Chandler exclaimed.

"Wow I bet they will be the most powerful guys ever," I say imagining big strong men.

"Why do you assume they are both male," Noni asks with a glint in her eye.

"Whoa females?! Awesome! Bet they're hot," Chandler says with a grin.

Suddenly Noni's face changes.

"Come with me now!!!" She orders.

We get up confused and walk with her to the wall. She does some kind of wave with her hand and a door appears.

"Get in here! Don't make a sound or leave this room no matter what!!" She demands shoving us inside.

 Just before she shuts the door she shifts. I've never actually seen Noni's vampire but it is terrifying. At least 6 feet tall, huge razor sharp teeth, black soulless eyes, 3 foot talons. And immediately after we have no time to be confused because we are both doubled up in pain starting to ascend. My bones feel like they are being crushed, my heart feels like it's exploding, but we don't make a sound as now we hear noises in the house.