Palace In Flames

Love and Vampires (But Not Like Twilight)

A few hours later I looked out of my window to see a sleek black convertible limousine waiting outside. Instinctively I knew that it was meant for me. I headed out of the door before my parents could lecture me about my choice of clothes. Somehow I doubted that a t-shirt of my favourite band and my blackest jeans would be considered appropriate attire for any dress code in their minds. I opened the limousine door to find Lawrence sitting in one seat dressed in his usual extravagant tuxedo, and Kier sat beside him wearing almost exactly the same clothes as mine, but with a different band on his shirt. Kier grinned as he caught sight of me and Lawrence gave a quick disapproving glance at my choice of clothing. I sat in the seat adjacent to Kier, the side facing the road in front of us.

"Who's that?" I asked, nodding to our driver. Lawrence smiled.

"That's Drew. He's our usual chauffeur when we need to go out anywhere. He's not a natural conversationalist, in fact we barely get two words out of him at a time." I nodded in achknowledgement and turned to stare out of the window. In the reflection I could just about make out Kier pulling faces at me when his father wasn't looking in an attempt to make me laugh, but I was too deep in thought to respond. I wondered if Victoria had read the letter I'd written for her. I wondered how she'd react if she had. I didn't have time wonder anything else, as the limousine pulled into the gates of Lawrence's palace.

Elizabeth and Christina came out to greet us, but my heart sank as I realised there was no sign of Victoria. I couldn't help but think that the Cardinal had put two and two together and was minimising the risk of Victoria seeing me again. I looked over to Kier and he shook his head. He didn't know where she was either. I sighed sadly.

"Kier, your mother and I need to discuss what we shall be having for dinner. It will be a surprise for you, so you and your sisters must not disturb us. We shall summon you when we are ready." Kier and Elizabeth left, and I started to follow but Lawrence put his hand on my shoulder. "Christopher," he continued. "Christina and I have been talking, and we'd like to offer you a job here." I stared back at him in shock, but Christina stepped in to clarify.

"We don't mean as a servant or something." Her voice was soft, and caring, the sort of voice a mother should have. Immediately I envied Kier and Elizabeth. My mother's voice was harsh and aggressive. Christina continued. "Sweetheart, we've both seen how much Kier enjoys having you around, and I can see that Elizabeth has taken a liking to you too. So Lawrence has decided to offer you a job as a sort of playmate for them both. Effectively, instead of us inviting you to come and see them, you'll be getting paid for it. Lawrence is even offering you a residency here in the palace so you won't need to worry about travel. Would you please accept our offer? It'd mean so much, to all of us." I stood frozen in place, still unable to fully understand what was going on. Lawrence smiled and whispered in my ear.

"Just between the two of us, Christopher, I'm not just offering you this job so you can see your friend more often. Your parents told me about how they treat you in that house, and I was expected to agree with it. But it's not right. So the second thing this job offers you is an entirely new lease of life. You won't be treated as an employee here. You'll be treated like a member of my own family. Where you were seen as a waste of space living with your parents, here you will be an honourary prince. Does that sound appealing to you?" I nodded and looked at them both.

"Thank you, both of you. This... This really means a lot to me." Christina smiled warmly.

"You're welcome sweetheart. You'd better go and tell Kier and Elizabeth the good news."

I approached the bottom of the stairs, giving a smile to the hidden camera so that Elizabeth and Kier knew it was me. About halfway up I was met by someone completely unfamiliar to me. He was of around average height, with long black hair.

"Are you Master Lockley?" he asked.

"Y-yes," I stammered back in reply. "Who are you?"

"I'm Lucas, one of the Royles' servants. I was instructed to give this to you." He pulled a pink envelope out of his pocket. "Victoria wanted this to be given to you as a matter of urgency." My heart started pounding in my chest. Victoria had read my letter and replied already. I thanked Lucas and continued up the stairs. When I reached Kier's bedroom he opened the door with the widest grin I'd ever seen.

"We heard the whole conversation! I can't believe he did this!" He paused as he noticed the envelope in my hand. "What's that?" I beamed.

"I wrote Victoria a letter earlier, and this is her reply." Kier grimaced, and Elizabeth gave me a sympathetic look.

"I think you two need some guy time..." she said before leaving the room. Kier turned to me.

"I really doubt you're going to like what's in that envelope. I don't know what she wrote, but Lawrence wouldn't let you stay here if she was planning on leaving the Cardinal to be with you. You'd be better off admitting defeat now and trying to move on." I shook my head, refusing to accept that I'd lost. I opened the envelope and unfolded the paper nervously.

"Ashley, please cut off all ties to me. No matter what you say or think, doing this will be much better for the two of us. I'm sorry, but you're not the one I love, especially when I already have the love of my life by my side. The moment Lawrence introduced the Cardinal to me as my fiance I just knew that he was a fantastic man, who will love me and take extremely good care of me for the rest of my life. I know I will have a solid and happy future with him. You on the other hand. You're just a boy, with nothing more to offer than a simple fling that I'm certain won't last. I don't want a 'maybe' or a 'could be'. I want a 'will be'. I want certainty, and the Cardinal is the only man in the world who can give me that.

Any feelings that may have arisen between us, any emotions even similar to love. Compassion, tenderness, it doesn't exist anymore, if it ever did to begin with. What we had, if anything, is in the past, and I want a future that I can believe in. That being with the Cardinal and only the Cardinal. No matter how badly you may think of him, he will always be a bigger man than you will ever be, and he's the only man I will ever want or need in my life. The man I love most and always will is the Cardinal. Remember that and forget about me. I've already forgotten about you. Victoria."

It took me a while to process this. Kier took the letter out of my hands and winced sympathetically as he read it. His eyes scanned across the page, and they filled with suspicion. Finally he put his arm around my shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Ashley. This is... I've known her a long time, and this really isn't like her. She'd normally at least make an effort to phrase it as nicely as possible. But this just seems like she's being as malicious as possible. It really doesn't seem like her at all...." An idea started to form in my mind, but the pain in my chest stopped it from becoming coherent. Kier must have noticed my pain, because he pulled out a large bottle of familar blood-red liquid. "Liquid aspirin." He said humourlessly, pulling out two glasses. He filled them both up and handed one to me. We both drained the glasses and he quickly refilled them. I looked into his eyes.

"You said you know the feeling. Who was it? How did you get over her?" He looked back at me with resignation.

"I didn't Ashley. I'm still as in love with her as I was from the day I met her. It's gotten to the point where the pain is so strong that it's all I feel. You think you're hurt now? Try living with it for twenty years..." He suddenly stopped as if he'd said too much. I studied him cautiously.

"What the hell are you talking about Kier? Twenty years? If I'm living here then I have a right to know what's going on." Kier sighed.

"Ashley, you won't believe this. We're vampires. Every single one of us bar Victoria." I shook my head.

"I believe it alright. I'm not stupid Kier, all these killings and mutilated remains? It's blatantly obvious. It-" A strange smell wafting up from downstairs interrupted me. "You smell that? It smells like dessert. It smells really sweet, almost sickly." A look appeared in Kier's eyes that I hadn't seen before. He grabbed my arm and led me to the stairs.

"Ashley, I'll explain everything to you later, right now we need to get to that kitchen." We leapt down the stairs two at a time. We got to the wide-open kitchen door just in time to see Lawrence carefully pushing Christina's decapitated body into the blazing stove.