The Vampire Princess: Balancing The Elements

9. The New Consort

Zariah's POV

"No," I said for the thousandth time. Literally the thousandth; I had been counting. "Father, I'm not doing this." I tried standing up to leave, but he glared at me and I sat back down. I wished the castle guards weren't there at that moment. Maybe if I actually called him by his fucking name, he would actually listen to me. I was sick of calling this disgusting man 'Father.' I'd been doing it for hours.  

"Sit down, Zariah," he demanded, "because you've held this off for far too long."

"I don't want to," I snapped back, "I'm fucking leaving."

"Sit your ass down!" he shouted, despite the fact that I hadn't stood up that time. "What's wrong with this one?" he asked, sighing in exasperation. 

"She's ugly," I told him simply. 

"You aren't speed dating!" He said, "looks mean nothing."

"Yes they do," I fired back, "I'm not going to arouse some ugly ass desperate whore."

"Language!" he chastised. 

"I'm 200 years old," I told him, rolling my eyes, "not five."

He glared at me again, "just pick someone. I don't have time for this."

I rolled my eyes again, turning back to face the front of the room. I knew I was testing his patience, but I didn't give two shits. He wasn't even my actual father. I knew he wouldn't actually do anything to me anyways; he's still trying to make me like him, and getting pissy at me and whipping me with werewolf fur ropes laced with holy water would do the opposite. The werewolf and holy water ropes were the specially reserved punishment for disobeying the king. 

"What about her, Zariah?" Viktor asked me, dragging me out of my thoughts. 

"No," I told him, turning my attention to the girl standing in front of us. "Too skinny." 1001, I thought to myself, continuing my count. 

This whole thing was stupid. Viktor was trying to get me to choose a new consort and I didn't want one. I still had the emergency stash of Topaz's blood and had plenty left to last me another four months or so; choosing a consort right now was unnecessary. "Why can I not just keep using the emergency stash?"

"Because that stash is supposed to be a last resort option in case your consort is unable to be fed from for whatever reason. It's not meant to be the main source; drinking old blood is unhealthy for us. You know this, Zariah."

"I feel fine, Father," I lied. I had actually been feeling really dizzy and exhausted lately, and had even thrown up a few times, but Viktor didn't need to know that. 

"You are choosing a consort, Zariah, and that is final."

Final my ass. I'll choose a consort when I'm damn well ready. I stayed quiet anyways, not really having anything else to do anyways. After everything Caspian had heard in my dreamscape, I was determined to avoid him. There were way too many hints about my vampirism mentioned and I wasn't willing to face him; he wasn't stupid. I could just drown my sorrows by insulting other people. That always made me feel better.  And there was also the upside of wasting Viktor's precious time.

The room we were in was set up as a sort of audition. Viktor and I were sitting at a table facing an empty space in front of us where possible consorts would stand for inspection. They had already been filtered by the staff at Coniux to match my preferences; female, pretty, young, and compatible with my personality. Now I just had to narrow it down to one out of about 2000. I was apparently a very highly desired consort; probably because I was a princess.