Harvey and Amanda joined Arthur and I a few minutes later. Harvey put a giant insulated tote bag on the table beside the bed while Amanda hugged me tightly, kissing both my cheeks. I felt like a spoiled daughter when she fixed the overbed table and began putting a variety of foods, mostly liquids, in front of me.
"You should eat," she said, handing me a spoon, "you need to flush out all those toxins so you'll heal faster. Have the soup first while it's still warm. Well, go on, then." she looked around the room and fixed Arthur with a glare, "you could've at least brought flowers with you! The room looks so bare, she'll be depressed!" Then she strode out the door with purposeful steps, grumbling under her breath.
Harvey and Arthur didn't seem to notice anything weird, when Harvey saw me still holding the spoon midair with my brows shot up, he chuckled, "don't mind her, she turns into a grumpy grandmother when someone she cares about is hurt. She'll be back to her normal self in no time."
Okay, then. I took a spoonful of soup. It was warm and delicious and it made me want to cry. I didn't. I tuned in to Arthur and Harvey's conversation.
"We'll take the vow after she's done eating."
"She's right here." I said after swallowing the warm liquid. Harvey smiled at me, Arthur's arrogant eyes simply glanced my way before going back to the other vampire.
"Yes, it's better she takes it before meeting the witches and the fae."
I choked on the soup. "I have to meet them?"
"Yes," Arthur replied, "if you don't, they will think something is off."
I grimaced, taking a sip of water. "I'd really rather not."
"The sire is right," Harvey said, "the more you hide, the more they'll be interested in you. It is better to meet them right now and get it over with."
"I believe," Arthur said, "the fae envoys are all young members of the royal court."
I looked away. That didn't ease my mind at all. Arthur thought that because they're members of the court, they wouldn't recognize me. It was the opposite, I especially didn't want to meet anyone close to the court.
"And," he added when I kept quiet, "you don't look like your usual self, anyway."
I stared at him. He was right, the scars on my face and the fact that I had lost a lot of weight in the two weeks I was down meant I barely resembled my usual self. I perked up. He was right. They wouldn't recognize me.
I put down the spoon, my arm muscles were already shaking from the effort, and leaned back. "Alright then."
Amanda came back with a giant bouquet of daisies and baby breaths. Where in the world did she find that?
She put the flowers on the bedside table and insisted I drink at least the smoothie. Since it had a straw, I didn't need to hold the glass up for long.
"Do you have to do this now?" she asked Arthur, coming to stand beside me with a concerned expression, "she's not really in a state to lose more blood."
She was referring to the blood oath I had to swear to Arthur. Harvey put his arm around Amanda and smiled, "sweetheart, it's just a little scratch. He's not going to drain her dry."
"I know, I just..." Amanda sighed, "okay, fine."
Harvey whispered something in her ear, and she turned her face into his chest and hugged him tightly. I had a feeling there was more to her concern than what met the eye.
Arthur nodded at Harvey, and the couple walked out of the room. Removing the over bed table to the side, Arthur took a seat on the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight. He held his hand palm up.
"What?"
"Your hand," he said.
"Wait a second. What will I have to do when I swear my allegiance to you? I won't do anything that I feel is wrong."
"I know," Arthur said, "if you ever feel like an order I gave is wrong, tell me. We'll discuss it. I'm not a tyrant."
I narrowed my eyes. He sighed. "If I wanted blind obedience, I'd get a pack of dogs. You'll be working for me, you will not be a slave."
It was crazy, but I did believe him. Ever since I met him, he hadn't once acted like what I imagined an immortal of his age would. He treated the people around him with respect, and he actually cared about human lives to a certain extent. I could work with that.
Besides, Amanda was loyal to him, and I doubted she would be okay with it if he truly was a tyrant.
"Alright," I held out my hand. The bandaging covered half my palm. Arthur pulled a small dagger from the back of his pants and swiftly cut the bandage open enough to expose my life line.
As was the custom in the immortal world, the ritual of pledging loyalty by blood consisted of cutting across the life line; the line in the palm that stretched from between the thumb and forefinger down towards the inner wrist. A bloody handshake mixes the blood of both participating parties for a short moment as they speak the words of the pact.
Different situations require different words. Uncle Robert had made sure I knew all kinds of blood oaths and their pact words.
"Do you know the pact words?" he asked. I nodded. The pact words are established words in one language; the First Tongue. It had been the very first language spoken in our realm by the immortals. Some say it was a mix of demon and human tongue at the time.
Many immortals don't know the meaning of the pact words, they simply repeat them whenever they make a blood oath for one reason or another.
Given the truth of my blood, speaking the First Tongue came as naturally to me as breathing. It was an intrinseque knowledge that immortals of blood similar to mine were born with. I could speak it even before I learned English from uncle Robert.
Blood of my life, life of my blood. I swear my allegiance to you. To follow and respect you, to bear you and yours no harm and to observe your honor in presence and absence.
These were the traditional pact words. The ones I should speak.
Of course, I would make a few tweaks. There was no way I would give him so much power over me, but he didn't need to know that now.
Arthur's nails elongated to sharp claws, he made a small puncture in his palm then cut across mine.
"Would it be enough?" I asked him, the cut on his palm was substantially smaller than mine. The little droplets of blood coming out of it looked meager.
"It is." he replied as his big, warm hand swallowed mine in a handshake that mixed our bloods together.
Arthur's blood was blazing heat against mine, so much power. Power that made me want to snatch my hand back. It surrounded me like a heavy coat, pushing down on my lungs, making my vision hazy.
My goodness. If just a few droplets of his blood overwhelmed my senses this way, what would his full potential feel like? How could one live with so much power?
For a moment, I was too disoriented to speak, then I got myself together and uttered the pact words in the First Tongue.
"Blood of my life, life of my blood. I swear my allegiance to you so long as it doesn't harm me or mine, so long as it doesn't stand opposed to my own morality. "
Arthur's eyes filled with amusement. He could've taken his hand away from mine and annul the oath if he wanted to. But apparently, he was okay with my adjustments. Relieved, I continued speaking my own version of the pact words.
"To follow you in the path of righteousness and dissuade you of the path of evil. To respect you as you would respect me, to bear you and yours no harm and to observe your honor in presence and absence. So it shall be."
Maybe I shouldn't have let Arthur be aware of the fact that I understood the First tongue and could manipulate freely this way. It was another hint of my identity. But it was a small price to pay if I didn't want to give Arthur so much power over me.
Arthur smiled and spoke the words, "So it shall be."
The words poured on my ears from afar as his blood's power roared to an immeasurable extent, the heat of it spreading from my palm up the veins in my arms and straight into my heart. My magic throbbed.
My ears rang, and for a second my vision went black. Then Arthur's hand dropped mine and I felt his palm on the side of my head.
"Elle? Are you alright?"
Slowly, my vision cleared up and my senses were back to normal except for a slight fuzziness.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I looked at Arthur and sucked in a breath, "your eyes."
His eyes had turned pitch black, the irises and the whites. Staring at them was like being sucked into a dark hole. He blinked, "they'll be back to normal soon."
He removed his hand from my head, I continued staring at him. They were scary, and oddly beautiful.
"Why do they do that?"
"Blood oaths are not a negligible matter," he said, "and I misjudged the potency of your blood."
My blood's potency paled in comparison to his. "Do you let other vampires feed from you?" I asked before I could think. Vampires could feed from other immortals, too. But compared to humans, immortal blood was difficult to take in for young vampires. It was too potent.
He arched his brow. "no, I wouldn't want to kill anyone." With that statement, he rose from the bed and sat on the chair. "Rest, when you wake up you have to meet the witches and the fae."
As if invoking sleep made me recall how tired I felt, I yawned heartily and settled back on the pillows. The bed moved back to a horizontal position again without Arthur touching it. Handy. I wish I was telekinetic.
"Are you just going to sit there and watch me sleep?" I asked, my eyes growing heavy.
"Yes." he said, no sign of his eyes going back to normal.
"That's creepy. Go do something useful."
A smile filled with amusement as he leaned back on the chair, "I want to be here if any guests decide to drop in uninvited."
I barely heard his last words, sleep dragging me under with gentle hands. The last thing I recalled was the feeling of a new entity inside of me, something my magic kept circling in curiosity. A pull. A bond.
***
"Elle."
"Mhm," I mumbled, deep in a sound sleep. I hadn't slept this well since I was a kid.
"Elle, wake up."
"Go away."
A heavy sigh, a chuckle.
"I don't think she'll be waking up anytime soon," A familiar feminine voice said.
Another sigh then blissful silence. Finally.
The next second I was sitting up in bed with my eyes wide open and my hand gripping Arthur's wrist, who was leaning over me with a silver knife almost at my throat.
He smiled. "There, all awake."
I let go of his hand none too gently and glared at him. Asshole.
"Time to meet the guests, sweetheart." Amanda said, pushing my bed up. Charles was standing in the corner of the room, gloomy as ever with a hunter green t-shirt, black cargo pants and combat boots. His blonde hair stuffed into a black beanie.
A beanie...hmm. Since my hair could be a giveaway, a beanie was a good idea.
"Charles," I said in a sweet tone, smiling charmingly at him. He looked at me as if I was a crazy woman about to castrate him. Well, I guess my smile wasn't as charming asI thought. I had to work on that. "Can I borrow your beanie, pretty please?"
Charles looked at Arthur who had hidden the knife in his combat boots. He nodded, and Charles handed the beanie to Amanda who fixed it on my head, making sure it covered my hair completely. She then handed me a wet wipe to clean the dried blood in my palm.
"Amanda." Arthur said. Amanda nodded. "Alright, I'll let them in."
I sat up straighter, fished out the knife beneath my pillow and held it on my lap under the covers. Arthur stared but didn't say anything. He simply sat down on the chair and leaned back so it was standing on two legs. The epitome of nonchalance.
A couple of minutes later, Amanda walked in followed by six people. Three witches and three fae.
There was a noticeable change in the atmosphere of the room. Everyone was tense. Everyone except Arthur, that is. He was still sprawled on the precariously balanced chair, his arms crossed over his chest. Amanda came to stand by my side.
The fae were all male, rather lanky, dressed immaculately in three piece dark blue suits.
The witches, two males and one female, were dressed in button down white shirts and gray dress pants.
All six of them stared at me with matching frowns, trying to figure me out. Their senses were telling them that I was a normal human, a dull human with no trace of magic whatsoever. Two of the fae glanced at Arthur suspiciously. I stifled a laugh, they were thinking he was tricking them.
"This is the one?" One of the men asked, his tone one of obvious disbelief.
"Yes." Amanda said in a tone so cold, so unlike her that I had to look at her and see if she was really the one speaking.
The female witch cleared her throat. Her deep copper skin glowing under the hospital lights. Amber eyes smiled at me as she spoke in a soft tone, "Hello, I'm Sasha, from the international council of witchcraft. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"
"Sure." That didn't mean I would reply.
Her eyes flickered to the scars on the bottom part of my face and my neck, as did the rest of the men's. Good. So far, there was no indication anyone recognized my face. I made sure to keep my accent as american as possible.
Sacha, the witch, asked expected questions of who my parents were, my age, whether or not I knew I was fae before today, who raised me, what were my powers.
I kept my answers as brief and vague as possible. I didn't know who my parents were. I did know I was not human. I was raised by an immortal when I was a child. And so far the only powers I knew of was the blue fire.
One of the fae jumped in, his strawberry blonde hair perfectly coiffed back and his english accent so pronounced that I wondered if he was faking it. "The man who raised you, who is he?"
"Unfortunately," I said, "I haven't seen him since I was a kid."
"Why is that?"
"He died."
"How?"
I sighed. "There was an incident."
"An incident?"
I tried to keep my replies as honest as possible. I had a tendency to go overboard whenever I lied, and I couldn't always remember the details of the lies I've woven.
"Yes," I looked at Amanda for help, she was looking at me with raised brows and a barely suppressed smile, her eyes were telling me 'it's your pile of crap, you dig yourself out of it.' Well, glad one of us was amused. She wasn't going to be of any help.
"Yes, an incident," I continued, "when I was a kid, after which I couldn't remember much of the details of my life before the incident."
The six people frowned. One of the witches asked, "and so you can't remember the man who raised you?"
"Uh... sort of?" I said, "why are you so interested in the man who raised me?" There, if I asked questions then they wouldn't.
"We're just trying to know your origins," the female witch said, "immortals value their young. I don't understand why someone, especially a fae, would give up a child."
The fae looked down his nose at the witch who'd just spoken and said, "we don't give up our young. It must've been a misunderstanding."
"A misunderstanding?" the witch turned towards him. Good, argue with each other, forget about little ol' me. "A fae is found across the atlantic from your home, her powers and identity sealed with extremely advanced, and forbidden, spells. And you're saying it's a simple misunderstanding?"
"All births from twenty five years ago are accounted for," the fae stated arrogantly, "she must be the offspring of some rogue."
"Rogue?" one of the male witches scoffed, "there is such a thing as a rogue fae! Your royals make sure of that by tying all of you to them since birth. Some monarchy..."
The fae's eyes turned a glowing sky blue, "know your place, sorcerer."
The witch took a step towards the fae.
Arthur calmly brought his chair on all fours again. The sound of metal hitting the floor was so quiet, yet everyone in the room froze.
"Enough," he said in a bored tone and rose, "you've seen her and asked your questions. There's no more reason for you to be here."
The fae and the witches had all turned towards Arthur when he stood. One of the fae was brave enough to speak his mind.
"But, my lord, we haven't yet figured out who she is or-"
"You can do that on your own time, gentlemen." Arthur said pleasantly, "the lady is now one of my people. You've overstayed your welcome."
Charles straightened from the wall and uncrossed his arms, his expression neutral but threatening. How he managed that was beyond me. I should ask him to teach me.
The six people quickly read the signs, bowed deeply to Arthur, then filtered out of the door one after the other. The door didn't even make a sound when it closed.
I grinned, "that went well, right?"
Their reaction wasn't exactly what I expected. Charles looked as close as I've ever seen him to cracking up. Amanda facepalmed. Arthur simply shook his head and looked heavenward.
"What?" I frowned at them, then shrugged, "Well, I think it went much better than expected."
****
Two days. That was how long I could bear to stay in the hospital. By the time the evening of the second day rolled around, I was about to rip my hair out.
Amanda and Irene came by several times a day to check on me, but I was still bored out of my mind. I couldn't stay still anymore, looking at white walls and feeling the seconds dragging by at a tormenting pace.
"I'm leaving." I told the doctor as soon as she walked inside. She raised her brows.
"And you think you can walk on your own?" she asked, coming closer to examine me.
"Yes." I said confidently, though she and I both knew I was bluffing. My leg muscles were still too shaky, I could barely take a trip to the bathroom and back on my own.
She shook her head, "well, you didn't last long."
"What?" I frowned, "what do you mean?"
She smiled, "Sir Arthur said you'll be trying to leave in a couple of days."
I pursed my lips. Well, at least he knew me that much. "So? He ordered to keep me here?
"No, actually. He said to notify him. He'll be here to pick you up shortly."
Ugh. "I don't need him to pick me up." I grumbled.
"Don't be ridiculous, he'll have a vehicle. You can't walk for long without passing out."
I huffed out a breath. "He should be too busy to drive me around. Isn't he the boss around here."
"He is, which is why he's very peculiar about doing important things personally."
"Driving me around isn't important."
The doctor smiled, "I guess it is, to him."
Before I could ask her what she meant, a nurse walked in and they both started the delightful task of changing my bandages.
I took a peek at my arms and legs. The skin still hadn't closed fully around the muscle, but they no longer looked like a scene from a horror movie.
"Hmm, you're healing faster than expected," the doctor nodded, satisfied, "good. Take it easy for a few days. No overworking your muscles until they're fully healed. Light exercise is okay."
I perked up. The doctor gave me a pointed look, "Light exercise, Elle. No running around with a sword yet."
Since I wouldn't be touching a sword anytime soon, I nodded. One hour later, I had just pulled on sweats that the nurse had brought me when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." I called, out of breath from the simple task of putting on clothes.
Arthur walked in. With a wheelchair in front of him.
I glared at the chair.
"Who's that for?"
"You." He replied, "unless you'd prefer I carry you to the car. Which I will be delighted to do."
I spared the chair the force of my glare and aimed it at Arthur instead. He looked amused. That was not the effect I was going for.
I sat in a wheelchair.
The car in front of the infirmary was one of the same black SUVs Arthur owned. The evening air was chilly, but it felt refreshing against my skin after being enclosed inside for a long time.
Arthur took the chair back inside the infirmary, a two story building in the middle of the island.
"Where are we going?" I asked Arthur after he joined me in the car.
"Your cabin," he replied, "I assume you still want to stay on your own."
"You assume right."
His lips twitched, "good. Now that you have less secrets, the reason you wanted to stay on your own was because you lost control over the fire?"
I sighed, "yes, in my sleep. Nothing major, but you'll notice that the covers of my bed at your house are missing."
"I didn't notice. Thomas did." He started the car then turned in his seat to look at me, "and he only told me after you were kidnapped. Which is odd. Thomas doesn't keep things from me."
"Okay...?" I didn't know where he was going with this.
"You seem to have a... knack for winning people's loyalty."
I rolled my eyes, "yeah, right. Look at how Charles and Jesse are falling over their feet to win my favor."
"Exactly," he said, "why do you think they're annoyed at you?"
"Um... because they don't like outsiders? They don't trust me?" I said.
He shook his head, "they want to trust you. That's why. They're annoyed at themselves."
Whatever that meant...
He drove the car in silence for a few minutes. The forest outside was bathed in the colors of sunset, the sky no longer blue but a beautiful fusion of warm colors.
"What will I do?"
Arthur glanced at me, "what do you mean?"
"You know," I shifted uncomfortably, "as a person who now works for you. What will I have to do? On a daily basis."
"Right now, all you should do is recuperate."
"And after?"
His next words weren't at all what I expected. "What do you think about removing the sealing spell?"
I stared at his calm profile with wide eyes. "Why would I do that?"
I didn't know if removing the sealing spell would reveal the truth about my messed up birth. My late mother had cast the spell when I was first born, and uncle Robert hadn't been there to tell me if others could pick up on the uniqueness of my blood without the sealing spell to cloak me in humanity.
"We know you're fae," he said, "why would you want to keep your magic locked."
"It's not really locked."
"To control magic, you have to practice. And you can't access your magic at will, can you?"
"I don't have to control it." I said, trying to come up with solutions, "maybe if I purge once in a while before it accumulates, I won't lose control over it."
"Let's ignore the fact that purging would be an idiotic waste of high quality magic. Why have you never considered this solution before?"
"I'd never lost control over it before. Never. I didn't even know I could. Otherwise I would've considered purging it."
"No matter," he said, stopping the vehicle when the dirt road ended and the trees became dense. "You'll have to practice your magic whether you want to or not. I need to know what exactly you're capable of so I could use you effectively."
And here I thought he was concerned for my well being. Silly me. "Well, then, we have to find a solution to do that because I'm not removing the sealing spell."
"Stubborn." He turned off the engine and exited the car. I stuck my tongue at his back. Idiot.
The cool air outside felt like pin pricks and needles on my face. I looked at the warm car mournfully. With a sigh, I followed Arthur through the thick bushes. As expected, only a few minutes of walking had me gasping for breath like a dog in the desert. Arthur, surprisingly, didn't comment. He shortened his steps to match mine, which was irritating. I pushed myself as much as I could. Fortunately, the small cottage appeared before I passed out.
I couldn't even make it inside, I sat down on the doorstep while Arthur disappeared inside. My heart raced like I had just ran a marathon.
A soft blanket covered my shoulders from behind.
"Thank you." I murmured, wrapping the welcome weight tightly around me. Arthur put two bags next to me.
"What's this?" I asked, my hand reaching out without my conscious decision to unwrap the knives roll bag.
"You've lost your weapons," he said, "Irene and Amanda prepared these for you."
I glanced at the collection of daggers and long blades, feeling a little more like myself again. I loved those girls. With a grin, I started unwrapping the second bag.
"What's in here-"
My smile dimmed, I put the bag away, "I didn't have a sword. I don't need it."
"Are you sure? It's a good sword." Arthur crouched in front of me, took the sword out of its sheath and turned it this way and that. It was a good sword. The dull evening light glinted off its polished metal.
"I'm sure."
Arthur cocked his head and looked straight at me. I had the unsettling feeling that he could see right through me.
"It's a gift from me," he finally said.
Damn it. Immortals who'd lived for long had an odd relationship with gifts. And Arthur was ancient. Refusing his gift would be kin to insulting him.
No matter how much I would like to aggravate him, refusing the sword would make me ill mannered. Uncle Robert raised me better than that.
"Thank you," I said, hesitating a little too long to reach for the sword. My fingers brushed his. His skin was warm.
Closing my hand around the sword's handle felt like coming home. It felt right. The last time I'd held a sword was eleven years ago. It was not a memory I wanted to revive.
I tightened my grip on the sword when I felt my hand shake. I put the sword back to its sheath then wrapped the entire thing in the roll bag with the knives.
Arthur and I stood up.
"Did you find out anything about the humans who were helping the killer?" I asked.
"As soon as you disappeared, we captured the ones who were providing fresh blood for the fake anchor. Nothing special about them. Just normal humans greedy for magic powers." He shook his head, "this has to stop. Humans messing around with magic had always posed problems. But nothing of this magnitude."
"That will be difficult."
"It will be dealt with in time," he said, "we're going to Europe in two months' time."
I blinked at the abrupt change of subject. "What? Why?"
"The yearly intra-racial meeting."
"Why should I go?"
"I don't have to give you a reason. My order is enough."
I glared at him, opened my mouth to tell him where he should stick his order, but he continued. "However, I do believe going along will be of interest to you."
Europe. There was only one thing that would make me go there despite the risk of encountering someone who'd recognize me.
Knowing who ordered the hit on uncle Robert.
Martin Malone's last trail stopped in Ireland. I had to find out who, there, ordered uncle Robert killed.
Because that person was most likely the one responsible for the death of my mother, the reason why uncle Robert had to hide my existence even from my father.
"Where in Europe?" I asked.
"France."
Going to Europe was a great risk, but if it meant finding out the person behind the mess of my life, I was willing to take it. At least it wasn't in Ireland.
I looked at Arthur, held the weapons' bag to my chest and nodded.
"I'm going to Europe."
-------------------------------------End of Part I---------------------------------------------------------
Thoughts?
Do you like Arthur? Elle? what do you think will happen in Europe?
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Love,
Mia <3