She was a queen—a queen of blood and flesh. Her crown made of gilded bones, her dress of dead flowers. She had tamed the monsters beneath her feet, she had taught them how to scream. The devils danced for her, those strange creatures wrapped with hate had fallen wildly and manically in love with her.
All hail the queen of death.
Queen of dark.
Queen of flesh.
****
He followed her like a hound on a scent.
It was her blood mixed with the scent of Clematis—rich and heavy, it was overwhelming. And the smell alone brought his Vampiric senses to an abrupt stand still. They've been raging ever since he broke into that Vesen's mind to gather the truth, Astaroth was right, and his smug smile made Dean want to rip him to shreds.
War. Between the Vesens and Vampyrs. A new war, as if the treaty were not enough to keep whatever shred of peace they'd managed to obtain over the last millennia. The Vesens wanted the Arkaine but that weather beaten spell book hadn't been seen in a thousand years, the last the Vampyr to have it was Zadimus and he vowed not to reveal its whereabouts even upon his death. The Arkaine became a myth, Vampyrs since then have just replicated its great power into the form of imitated spells, nothing like the destructive, vengeful power that the Vesens had.
And they were willing to go to war all over again to get it back.
Astaroth had already gained two of the lords to his side, the rest, including Dean, were reluctant. But truly, Astaroth would have to persuade Dean to campaign for the war considering the Flesh eater king had the largest undead army and largest well of resources. Would those stupid witches really begin a new war?
Dean bared his fangs in a curl of disgust, already pissed. He turned a corner, striding through the marble and glass hall. Her scent becoming pungent now.
He pushed open the dining doors and was about halfway in when he stopped.
The scent turned sour, there was something else in it, something that had become quite common, weariness. Tucked on a couch with a full glass of what Dean hoped to the father was wine, Rose stared at the rim of glass where her lips had skimmed as if contemplating to drink it. Lips twisted to the side in a glorious portrait of skepticism, but her face lifted when she heard his steps and their eyes locked.
And held.
Thalia's laugh, tangled with Rhazien's, disappeared from his ears as he heard in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
"You're late."
A ghost of a smile skimmed over his lips as he found his feet again and walked towards the couches, still holding her gaze. Utterly unflinchingly.
"Miss me?"
"No," she wrinkled her nose. "I don't like people who don't keep their promises."
"Did you hold me to any promises?"
She tightened her lips, eyes settling in on him as he stalked to the opposite couch.
"Fuck you."
He smiled, allowing the sound of her voice to echo just a little bit longer in his head.
"This telepathy thing might prove to be a problem, pet."
"And why do you say that?"
"I don't appreciate you using my own dark power to tell me to fuck off."
She was silent for a moment, still watching him. And then an image came into his head, slamming into the walls of his mind so hard he blinked. It was an image of her...or...a conjured image of her with both her middle fingers up.
"Get a fucking room," Rhazien whaled and then proceeded to make a gagging sound. Beside him, another Vampyr who went by the name Ekki, tossed back his wine and laughed. Dean, now hyperaware that he and Rose had just made an awkward scene, reached over Ekki's back and smacked Rhazien clean on his head.
The man choked.
"That's no way to speak to your damn king, you useless bastard," Dean grinned.
Thalia leaned back in her seat. "So kingly."
Again, as if he couldn't help it, Dean's gaze wandered over to Rose who was staring at the three of them with some kind of shock on her face.
"I hope they haven't scared the shit out of you yet," he said.
~
"I hope they haven't scared the shit out of you yet," he said.
He had just smacked that Vampyr—Rhazien she recalls—clean over the head. Playfully, grinning as he did so. She thought when he returned the laughter would subside and be replaced with cool, deadly malice but it wasn't. The air was still warm, buzzing with electricity, with...happiness? If these monsters can even feel such a thing. When Thalia told her there were people she wanted her to meet, she didn't know what to expect. But when they walked into the dining room and found two unearthly looking Vampyrs seated on the couches by the fireplace, all the breath got knocked out of her lungs. Vampiric beauty was astonishing, Thalia served as a prime example, Dean too with all his...beauty. But every time she thinks she'll get used to their looks, she gets shocked again.
The Vampyr who introduced himself as Rhazien was tall...as tall as Dean and he was two feet taller than Rose. (Vampyrs were extraordinary tall as well as Rose had gathered) Rhazien had unruly brown hair, his curls messy and wild but somehow lovely to look at and feather light. He was broad, chiseled in the face with a clean-cut beard. The other Vampyr, Ekki, however, was a few inches shorter. Long limbed but toned, if Rhazien was the muscle, Ekki was swift and agile, quick to notice things. His eyes darted everywhere, lingered on things for a little longer. In the light, the copper undertones of his toffee skin stood out the most. And unlike Rhazien's wild hair, Ekki's was tight curled and short.
Rhazien was Dean's advisor and army commander, Ekki a warrior, born and bred to kill from the slums of Attahelm as a bastard born. He was apparently a quarter Wite and the only reason he managed to claw his way from the gutter was because his mother begged Dean's father to send him to the army camps because she could not care for him herself.
Father knows what became of her or where his father was.
"Not yet," Rose said.
Rhazien flashed her a fanged smile and winked. "Something tells me she will scare the shit out of us."
"Throw her to the wolves and you will soon pity them," Thalia said.
You are the wolves, and you will receive no pity.
"Ekki offered to show me the library after my lesson tomorrow." Rose said, pulling the conversation to a different direction.
"The library?"
"You know the one you practically shut off and locked," Ekki answered. Rose did not fail to notice the pang of hurt that strutted over Dean and Thalia's faces. Though momentarily, it was palpable, drawing the atmosphere into a stilled silence. One that made Ekki regret speaking.
Rose put her wine glass down. "Why did you lock it up?"
Even Rhazien looked between them all but said nothing, as if already knowing the answer and choosing to keep his mouth shut.
"It serves no purpose. And it will serve little for you," Dean didn't look at her when he spoke, instead he looked past her. Straight past her head. "It's full of the old Vampyr tongue, only Vampyrs can understand."
"Aren't I half Vampyr?" she hadn't wrapped her head around it yet, what he had said a week ago at the Solstice ball. Half Vampyr but not half human, half something other and that was why she was here. But what was she? "Teach me." She wouldn't sit around and wait for her death, follow orders and obey their every command. And plus, she needed information. On their kind, on herself. She had been an outsider all her life and she needed to know why. Needed it so badly, it was almost painful.
Rhazien grinned. Ekki following suit. But they all looked to their king because it was his word against theirs and his order above their own.
Finally, Dean's steely gaze settled on her. Cold, icy. Full of hot fire. "And what, Rosalie, would you like to learn?"
"The Vampyr tongue. Your history, my divine sight—"
"Divine sight?"
"She has the sight Dean!" Thalia beamed. Dean did not look at all impressed, nor did he share his sister's enthusiasm. If anything he looked horrified. "This means she could be—"
"That's enough Thalia." The cold snap of Dean's voice sent a rumble of his ancient, festering power rolling through the entire castle. So violently Rose flinched, grabbed for Thalia's arm who in turn grabbed Rose's. The rumbling didn't stop, writhing shadows engulfed the entire dinning room as if it weren't dark enough already. It was the cold of the dark between the stars and a world forged before light or heat, a world that started and ended in a barren abyss. Rose's heart thundered, every instinct pushing to a new high.
And something else burned within her.
The dark that engulfed like the beginning and end triggered an instinct in her that tasted foreign. The instinct to chase the dark away with light. The urge within her so strong, she clenched her fingers. It was the same rise she felt that night on Solstice. A song to life, a song to goodness, a thing to eradicate the black. She wanted to tear into that light with talons and teeth and bring it forth, she wanted to explode like a newborn star.
She could be—could be what? What was she?
"Dean." Rhazien's tone, the speck of worry in his eyes.
Dean loosened a breath, and the rumble of power receded back into his dreadful well. Thalia still had her arms around Rose and Rose let her, Thalia seemed more than happy to leap between her and Dean's power if need be. The siblings stared at each other with cold, deaden looks.
"Enough," was all Dean managed to say. No apology to his sister for lashing out, no apology to Rose for scaring her. And she was scared, she was terrified. Every single goddamn day. And she hated it, the constant dread and fear that locked up her body and forced her into a stand still. "Meredith will teach you the Vampyr tongue."
Rose nodded once but she was furious under the façade of calmness.
"How was the meeting today with Astaroth?" Ekki asked.
Grateful for the conversation change, Dean relaxed slightly. "Not good."
Ekki raised an eyebrow, urging Dean for more information. Dean cast Thalia a glance and Thalia sighed, tugging Rose to her feet.
"This is the part where we get kicked out because they're about to talk about some top-secret Lord shit." Rose would love to hear about this top-secret lord shit if it meant using it to rip them to utter shreds. Entwined with Thalia, Rose hesitantly was escorted out. Glancing back several times to see Ekki and Rhazien wave their goodbyes and Dean's eyes following her like a hawk.
"By the way, Kara is coming to stay."
Thalia whirled, her red eyes bulging. "What."
"Balderik Saemos thought it would be beneficial if his daughter stayed with us."
"For how long?"
Silence.
"For how long Dean."
"Until the Rites have finished."
The look on Thalia's face was murderous, but she laughed. And It was a horrible, dreadful thing. "Mother would be widely disappointed in you If she knew you let that rat stay here."
She spun, pulling Rose with her. They hurried down the hall, Rose practically skidding to keep up with Thalia's long, lithe strides. When they were well out of earshot, Rose prodded.
"Who is Kara?"
"A fucking bitch, that's who she is. She's the daughter of some wealthy noble who is of 'such high influence and great power'. He just wants control over the Flesh eater throne and all of Dean's assets. And everyone knows that Dean's the most powerful lord. It makes him feared and dangerous."
"Is she really that horrible?"
"I'm three hundred years old, Rose, and I have seen baby Vampyrs behave better than she."
"And the Rites?"
"Every century, the High Arches order that a lord take a bride. It's some ancient custom. Lord Oberon has seven wives, he has a fetish for younger Vampyrs. It's gross. Suitors from all over Hel are paraded around each lord must take one. If they don't they're put to death."
Rose's throat closed, catching on. "So...Kara is—"
"Dean's suitor. I wish she weren't I'd rather burn myself at the stake than have her as a sister-in-law. Kara has already claimed Dean as hers, father save any other Vampyr who even so looks at him. The last Vampyr to even bed him was found incinerated."
Rose recoiled. "But...Dean's five hundred years old. If this happens every century, why doesn't he had wives?"
"This is his first Rite. Our parents—" Thalia balked as they reached Rose's door. Heavy lines drew on her forehead. "Most matches are done out of compatibility. Matches that will produce the strongest offspring. I know Vampyrs aren't meant to feel but sometimes I like to think that my parents had loved each other the same way humans love. As immortals our lives can only end through drastic measures, you see. Father and mother could hardly spend their time apart, and my mother's life span was not as long as my father's. Maybe it was the fear of being alone that drove them to do what they did."
"What did they do?"
Thalia smiled sadly. "Father declared Dean his successor. The next day we watched them burn at the stake, holding each other's hands."
"But—they're immortal? They could have lived a long, long life."
"Even Vampyrs need to die, Rose."
Byss and blood. Her parents burned themselves on the stake because they couldn't bare to be apart. It was perhaps the most lovesick human thing she had heard.
"I'm sorry," she breathed.
"Me too," she smiled. "Right, off to bed. Your lesson is in the morning. Afet and Alke will wake you up." Thalia grinned again and waved, strutting down the corridor to her rooms which were somewhere above. Sighing, Rose entered her cold, empty room. The room that liked to stare back at her sometimes.
Feeling nauseous and angry.
~
A soft knock rasped through the hardwood of Rose's door and she shot to her feet. It was slow, steady. Not Thalia, she seemed to enter her room unawares without making a single noise. Couldn't be Afet or Alke, the two twins—though silent as wraiths—already had a knocking pattern. That left one person.
"Come in," she slid off the bed, wrapping a silk robe around her.
When the door opened, a swath of shadows pooled onto the carpeted floor, stretching and pulling and spilling into the room. A mass of darkness entered, shrouded and concealed. Rose battled with standing her ground or taking a step back, she chose the former.
"Lose the shadows," she bit.
The shadows dissolved, and Dean stood half way into her room in a simple shirt and pants. His wings tucked in tight. He had a plate of cake in his hand. Cake? What is this a piece offering. He set it down on one of her many tables and swallowed. "I thought you might be hungry."
"Well you thought wrong."
"I was meant to ask if you are okay after—"
"Meaning to do something is completely different to actually doing it."
You're terrified of him, and with good reason. If he can lash out like that, what else could he do to you.
He pressed his lips together, fisting his fingers. "I wouldn't do anything to you."
"Don't patronise me." She stormed over to him and shoved him hard. Her anger was a thing with teeth and claws, devouring her whole. And that other thing that slumbered in her bit as it yanked on its leash. It ripped away her humanity, her morality—everything. She was tired and lost and so horribly afraid that every bone in her body wanted to shatter. "You don't get to play saviour and tormentor whenever you feel like it. So get out of my head and get out of my room!"
No matter how much she hit him and shoved him, he stayed put. Didn't back up a step, did not yield. Like a pillar built in stone. He took her anger like he had been expecting it and she wanted nothing more than for him to fight back.
"I won't fight you, Rose."
Hot tears started running. The roar in her head turned into a war drum.
"Rule one of humanity," she shoved him hard enough that he actually took a step back. "Humans do things out of the goodness of our heart not out of charity." When she slammed her hand over his heart, he caught it and held It there. His massive icy hand wrapped around her slender, pale one. Fingers brushing over her own. She could have broken right there.
She'd been holding onto a thread for so long. And his hand around her own...
Silently, Dean put his other hand on her own chest, right above her heart.
Thump, thump, thump.
Humanity, it was as fickle as love.
They stood there, so close the air between them turned warm. Hands on each other's hearts, him listening to the roar of her cursed heart and her finding comfort in the sheer silence of his own. "I think—" he tightened his grip on her hand. "I think you are terrifyingly wonderful and strange, and a thing that many do not know how to care for."
"And you think you know how to care for me?"
"I know I'm willing to try."
"What do you want from me? I'm not special, i'm not blessed. I'm not your Guinea pig, I'm not going to help you fulfil your ridiculous curiosity. Nor am I a thing to be owned or locked up. So stop with the charity, stop with playing saviour. There is nothing good in you. If you were good you would have let me go home by now, if you were good I wouldn't be locked in this prison of a castle. And I don't know if you've noticed but I hate you, all of you. There is nothing you can do that will make me any less inclined to drive a stake through your heart." The venom on her tongue made him flinch.
"I am not good," he said at last. "I am a monster, the worst of them all. I am your greatest nightmare. But you...you are good. And perhaps you are more special than you think you are." And in her head, so quiet it was as though it were a secret for the both of them, he said, this castle has been restless for centuries. And for the first time in years, it has found peace. Because of you. With that, he withdrew and started for the door.
"Eat the cake. I made it this morning."
The door slammed.
As if in answer, the eyes of her room turned to her and the walls sighed in unison.
What kind of plague was that man? It didn't matter, she had a plan, and she wouldn't be swayed. She already had one piece of the puzzle; she knew how to kill a Vampyr.
~*~
FAST CAST TIME
Rose Marie Hunter
Thalia Cadde
Dean Cadde
Ekki Zale
Rhazien Horne
Kara Saemos