A women in red hood is currently in a suspicious tavern in the depths of night. She made sure to hide her identity from these mercenaries to avoid detection from her rebellious schemes against her own kingdom.
She wanted to be queen. She was made to be one. All the training, all the lessons, was all for naught after his majesty Vincent Dracula found his mate.
"There 1000 gold coins inside this bag as partial payment. Just be ready when it's time to attack. Wait for a raven to send you a message and stay hidden for now." She said meticulously explaining the plan.
The mercenaries looked unimpressed with the amount if gold coins she presented.
"How come a noble vampire making a deal with a mercenary?"
Taken aback of his remarks, she did not expect them to be able to recognize her. She gathered her thoughts preventing her from panicking.
"I thought mongrels like you don't ask questions. Just take the damn coins and wait for my command." She snarled at them. However, this only made the mercenaries laugh hesterically.
But then the man who she was negotiating with, raise his hand and everyone went silent.
"As you wish... Lady Karla." He says as he grabs the sack of coins.
"Hmmp! I thought so. That's what you barbarians are good for. Killing. Once you do as I say you will have your own patch of land when I become queen. But if you end up failing me, I will feed you to the hounds myself." She threatens the unnerved mercenaries.
Karla got up and left the tavern leaving a bunch of irritated mercenaries to their own thoughts.
"Are you really taking her side in this war captain?" A man asked to their leader.
"Now who said we were taking her side."
"But you accepted her coins. Our codes says we mu-" The man wasn't able to finish his sentence when the leader raise his hand and stop him.
"He called me barbarian. That hurt me." The leader jestterly said making a stabbing motion to his heart. "The code does not apply to people like her." Suddenly his funny demeanor change into a completely different person. Everyone gulped as they saw their leader becoming more serious than ever.
...
Meanwhile...
"It is done father." Karla said to the man setting opposite to her.
"Did they recognize you?"
"Unfortunately they knew it was me from the start." Karla said showing a distasteful expression on her face. "Do we really need them? I can find more men to join our army father, Luther and his men cannot be trusted."
Karla tried to pursuade his father to keep Luther away from their plans.
"Luther is a skilled assassin Karla. We need him to our side before he has the chance to choose sides. His skills are a match with his majesty."
"How can we be sure that he won't betray us!" Karla was still not comfortable with Luther joining the rebellion.
"He's a man who lives by the rules. He already accepted the gold, so he will keep his end of the bargain. He is that type of man who would do anything for gold. You know that better than anyone Karla. After all, he choose money over you." The elder vampire said to her obviously fuming daughter after being reminded of her past fling.
Seeing that her daughter's eyes turned bloody crimson he laughs inside his head.
"Oh my foolish daughter... There's no need to fret. Soon you'll have all the man you want once you become queen." He said gently brushing her hands to her daughter's cheeks.
"Now how's that bitch? Did she get rid of the baby? With her pregnant everything is falling out of plan!" The elder said slightly screaming.
"I haven't heard from her yet. I'll check her today if she did." Karla said while she fixes her hair after being disheveled from wearing a hood.
"Good.".
...
It was now night and now Vincent and Stephen are now in bed tangled with each other. As Stephen laid rest and fast asleep Vincent was still busy on the piles of papers he needs to review and sign. Not only that a raven was just delivered containing a secret plot against the throne. He has now began to worry for his beloved as his safety becomes in danger when this war would start.
He massages his temples as a headache began rise preventing him from focusing on what he was reading. There was a lot on his mind. First the mystery behind the smuggled supernatural creatures, these includes several werewolves, elves and fairies. Vincent specially finds it confusing as to why they would smuggle werewolves. They have no value unlike elves who could sold up to an auction for a sex slave, and fairies for their pixxy dust that could make great fuel to any technology.
'Why werewolves...' Vincent asked himself the question.
The only thing he could think of was their blood. Apart from humans, werewolves blood is second best to human's blood. But food was not an issue to the vampire community. An ounce of blood is enough to last them for a month. There must be another reason.
The smuggled werewolves has already caused a strained on the werewolves. They are now threatened, and has now began to be weary of the vampires. This upcoming Gathering is the time when we need to settle these misunderstanding.
As Vincent was busy with his thoughts Stephen stirred on his sleep. He was mumbling something, and this has caught Vincent's attention. He quickly put away the papers and focus all his attention to his beloved.
Stephen groans and has said incoherent words that Vincent could not understand. He begins to worry and tried waking him up. He called out his name;
"My love... You're dreaming. Wake up."
There was no response apart from the groans and subtle twists here and there.
"Stephen... My love wake up!"
Vincent was now anxious since Stephen has become more aggressive on his sleep. He twists and turns until cold sweat were pouring on his face. By then Vincent tried his best to wake him up but to no avail.
"STEPHEN! WAKE UP!"
Suddenly Stephen's skin were illuminating a white light. This made Vincent confided and worried that there might be something wrong with his beloved. As he was about to again attempt to wake him up a huge wave of force along with a beaming light flashes causing Vincent to be slammed on the wall. He fell grunting upon impact. His was now bleeding on his arm from the cut that was caused from the broken shard of glasses of the window. Yet he paid no mind and instead hurriedly stood up and ran towards Stephen who was now back to his normal state. He was relieved that Stephen was unharmed however, he was still not fully at rest when he doesn't understand what has just occurred.
"STEPHEN! Wake up for me... Stephen!" Vincent screams as he shakes Stephen from his sleep. Slowly Stephen has showed signs of waking up and eventually opened his eyes only to see a worried expression of Vincent.
"V-Vincent... What's wrong?" He asked confused. But then his eyes traveled down to Vincent's bleeding arm and was shocked to see so much blood.
"YOUR BLEEDING!" He exclaimed.
"This is nothing, but more importantly-"
"What do you mean nothing! You need a doctor!" Stephen insisted to getting Vincent treated but Vincent was having non of that.
The commotion has caused a stir to the whole place and everyone was on guard as the Vincent's knights and Welter immediately went to their master's room worried that they were attacked from their sleep. Specially now that there was a secret letter of the uprising war.
"Your majesty!" They all said in unison as they slam the door open. They were shock to see the room in such a mess. Everything was broken. And their king was bleeding. Although Vincent could easily heal himself, they were still angry to the person responsible for his injury.
Bloodlust was coating the room and Stephen felt the ominous atmosphere and began to shake and buried himself to Vincent's arms. Vincent, although loving the connection, ordered them to leave the room. They were about to resist but bit their tongues back upon seeing the deadly glares of their king. They excuse themselves in a hurry and went outside guarding the door.
"It's okay now, my love. No need to be frightened." He says calmly to Stephen who was shaking like a leaf.
"What happened?" Stephen asked after separating himself from Vincent. Stephen was also shock upon seeing the room was a mess.
"I was about to ask you the same question. You suddenly released a huge wave of energy causing everything to fly in all directions. Are you saying you don't remember anything?" Vincent asked worried while clasping both Stephen's cheeks.
Stephen shakes his head in response.
"You were dreaming something my love... Can you remember anything from your dream?"
Stephen was silent for a moment...
"I was dreaming about a woman... She told me she was my mother."