Seduction of a Princess

Chapter Twenty-Four

Hi all, I'll be quick about writing this message. Had supposed to upload sooner, I had trouble with the internets between my computers and I suspect that Terrance is wanting revenge, so I am continuously looking over my shoulder to make sure that--

Hey, what are you doing there? Why are you carrying that...--No!

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          She had gone to bed tired from crying, upset that Marc considered her to be a monster. When she’d doused the candle and found herself surrounded by darkness, it had taken her less than a minute to fall asleep. A sleep without dreams; a quiet emptiness calmed her mind as the night grew older.

           It wouldn’t last though. For at some point, well past midnight, she was woken up by a sudden clicking noise. Her sensitive ears twitched at the sound—next moment, light flooded into the room as the door swung open.

           June shot up, managing to stifle a growl. “What the—Terrance!”

           He barely looked up, as if he didn’t even notice her. He just shuffled into the room, completely unaware of his surroundings. June quickly grabbed her blanket and used it to cover her bare chest. When she’d been alone and upset, it had seemed like a good idea to undress, remove all those asphyxiating clothes, those smelly garments she’d been wearing for four days straight. She’d been reluctant to go back and ask Marc for the key to the chest with her belongings though, and had figured sleeping naked for a night, alone in a locked room, wouldn’t be a big deal.

           Big mistake.

           She blushed as Terrance entered the room, closing the door behind him. In his one hand, he carried the lock picks he’d used to open the lock, in the other a candle that seemed far too bright to June. Couldn’t it leave just a little more darkness in the room—save her from the shame when he would notice her clothes were lying on the floor in a corner, absolutely unreachable to her?

           It couldn’t. But he didn’t seem to notice. He didn’t make a crack at her, didn’t even smile or grin. He just stared blankly in front of him. Something about him was… off.

           “Terrance, are you alright?”

           It took him a second to understand the question. Slowly, he turned to face her, looking sore and beaten-up. His cheek now showed the mark of a bar fight, but not just his cheek; he had a black eye and there was a bleeding cut on his forehead and on his chin. His nose looked like it may have been broken.

           “God, Terrance! What happened to you?”

           “Would you believe it if I say it was a slight disagreement?”

           “No.”

           He sighed. “Must I explain?”

           “Yes,” she said, desperate to keep him distracted.

           “Okay.” He managed to reach the second bed, and after putting down the candle on the nightstand, he fell down on it. Staring straight up at the moving shadows on the ceiling, he muttered, “So I talked to your charming friend from the tavern—he insisted I come with him, see some friends of his. I refused, of course, but the Vampire Court doesn’t take ‘I’ll drop by later’ for an answer… One attacked.”

           “Attacked—wait, what?! A vampire attacked you?”

           He barely managed a smile, something that seemed to cause him even more pain. “One, yes, and I was lucky at that. They’re a pain to fight, you know. They…”—he winced as he tried to roll over to look at her—“they are dead beings come to life with bloodmagic, another demonic disease. And as they are dead, or rather ‘undead’, they feel far less pain than we living monsters do…”