UPDATE 5/5/12: THIS STORY IS GOING THROUGH MAJOR EDITING AND SHOULD NOT REFLECT MY WRITING POTENTIAL! x}
*** THE EDITED VERSION OF THIS IS "BLEEDING PRINCE" WHICH IS ON MY PROFILE.
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his book is dedicated to my original fans because without them I would not have had the courage to share my writing with ALL of you wonderful people. <3
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Then
King Brutus sat regally on his throne with a bored expression. A long, velvet cape spread along the backside of his chair, which he traditionally wore, as well as a golden crown with jewels that glistened in the sunlight. The crown had once been his father's; who was a good king but far too sympathetic towards the humans. Like every king before him, the court grew tired of his reluctance towards enslaving the human race and their dissimilarity in politics. Brutus had challenged the rest of his brother's for leadership once the old hag was slaughtered, won and was soon after appointed king of the vampires.
The king's hair resembled a ravens wings: black and smooth, cascading to the center of his back. Coal eyes lit red with hunger along his chiseled pale face. No creature crossed King Brutus, challenged him, or even looked at him funny. That is, unless they did not like their head attached to their neck. This vampire king was the harshest of the Fane royal family, the most feared and the best swordsman ever known. That being said, he was a savior to the vampires, the first to contribute to the extermination of vampire slayers--who had before been ignored by the vampire regime and the first who sought to enslave the humans. All of the years of battle, hardship and loss the king had withstood and had seen throughout his lifetime, it seemed only natural for the King's hear to be as frigged as a winter mornings frost.
As King Brutus stood, two stunning, identical vampire women with sharply carved cheek bones stepped from behind his throne, unfolded his cape, and carried it as King Brutus unhurriedly rose from his spot, arms outstretching towards his beloved court.
"My people," Brutus began in his baritone voice. The court all acknowledged him with a bow and polite murmurs. "Today is a day of exciting new beginnings. Worry not; I assure you tonight will be quite interesting. Perhaps you will enjoy it more than myself. As you all are more than informed, this is not a casual assembly. This is a trial. A trial that you all have been patiently waiting for--"
As he came forth to the edge of the court's front row, a small vampire girl giggled at the raven-haired king's endless red cape, ceasing his train of thought entirely.
Brutus jerked his head towards the annoying sound.
The girl stood next to her mother at the edge of the third row, nervously flashed him a fanged smile. The king paused as he noticed the tiny little person, gazing down at her with his disturbingly empty eyes. Children. He hated children.
"Do not interrupt me or I will feed you to the newborns," Brutus snapped, peeling back his lips in a threatening hiss.
The girls cheeks flushed. "I do apologize, Your Highness."
The king glared at her a few more moments before clasping his hands behind his back and pacing the room. Already the court was enthralled by King Brutus' presence. "I hereby declare this day the first necessary step towards a revolution," Brutus began with authority. "My people, vampires are born more dominate than the human's. We are bred to be warriors...leaders, yet we have fought separate wars in our own isolated conflicts and killed our own kind. We feed on a race that insists on caging us and jabbing on our limbs to understand our powerful strength. I encourage you all to stand by my words as I say our children and our children's children must come to realize the most important difference between the humans and themselves is that they are food and we are predators. That does not mean we cannot live amongst them. By isolating ourselves we segregate our people from our nourishment. By isolating ourselves we cannot learn from the humans' mistakes, generate a stronger military and permanently enslave them to our kind."
The court began to whisper amongst themselves.
"I am not saying we should overtake the humans. They are too clever for a abrupt attack. We have tried that before and it took years to wipe their small minds and start over." Brutus continued to meet the gazes of a few elder, more wiser vampire's in the crowd. "I am saying we should mimic their movements. We should momentarily hide our fangs until the moment is right, until those idiot humans are under our spell. Once we are in the upper rankings of their society and have control of their jobs and lives...respected....admired....then we will tear down the walls their society has created and rule the world."
The king clapped once and the doors of the courtroom burst open. Two chained prisoners with fabric around their eyes were dragged forth by sinewy looking vampire warriors, then placed at the feet of the king.
Indeed, this was no ordinary assembly. Normally the king executed innocent humans simply because he could. Sometimes they were his own people. But when they were individuals who had broken a law, he bathed in their blood. If the offender was a human, Brutus made sure their death was enjoyable for himself; slitting their throats and openly feasting on their delectable blood until they were sucked dry was his usual option. If the criminal was a vampire...well let's just say that there had been a time where Brutus had convinced a young vampire criminal to eat himself to death. The court had given Brutus extra creativity points for that one Others had been beaten with whips are strangled by nothing but the air around them. Again, no one under King Brutus' monarchy betrayed him unless they sought his throne or desired death.
One of the prisoners, the largest of the two who was clearly a male by his exposed privates, was forced to bow at the His Majesty when he blindly lashed out towards the crowd. The two vampire warriors smirked as they held the male prisoner down against the ground and whipped him continuously until he finally fell to his knees before Brutus. The other prisoner, who was a woman, had collapsed to the ground with a stillness that resembles a corpse. She was the one that the king was most fixated with.
And the one sentenced to death.
"What do you suppose we do to these treacherous individuals?" Brutus hypothetically asked the court room as his brow arched at the two filthy prisoners. "Of course, this is truly the moment we have all been waiting for this evening. The man and woman who earlier attempted to take my life and almost were successful." King Brutus ruffled up the male's hair. "Ah, but I am a quick one and this one gave himself up when I held the woman's neck at my mouth. Place her on the altar, men and allow me to chat with the other," he said with laughter.
"No!" The male prisoner's adrenaline kicked in. He lunged blindly towards the king, his chains dragging along the floor. With a speed that exceeded the understanding of the human mind, Brutus ripped the fabric from the male's eyes and swiftly kicked him in the jaw.
A crack echoed the room as the prisoner took the hard hit without the slightest outward noise. The swift act of punishment would have instantly separated a human's neck from its spine. Perhaps he would have felt at least some of it if the male had not been beaten senselessly for seven days straight and starved. A kick in the jaw was equivalent to a pinch for all he cared.
"Tonight I will demonstrate to you all what the effect of the human race could have on us all. There are risks involved, I'm afraid. But those are only for the weakest of us." As Brutus spoke the court, the male prisoner struggled to get back up on his feet, slamming his dislocated jaw back in place with his free hand.
"This is absurd and you are insane," the Male spoke up. He was young; possibly in his early twenties with a mop of curly chestnut hair that reached his shoulders. Dirt caked his skin along with dried blood from himself as well as the many warriors throughout the week whom the prisoner had outsmarted and ripped their heart out. He was no newborn vampire that could be pushed around. With his strong shoulders, intimidating height and lean physique, the vampire was a lethal weapon and thirsted for his next victory. In fact, the male, even weakened, could have easily taken the entire court if he was motivated enough.
But he was soft when it came to the humans, just like King Brutus' father.
The king stared challengingly into the young male prisoner's eyes as the prisoner automatically came to his feet. The male's eyes were a striking shade of blue and resembled a cat's. For a moment, even King Brutus was reminded that the vampire was an odd one. At a young age the male had shown signs of mindreading and telecommunication, two abilities of the vampire's that was considered rare and genetically passed on by the king himself. The third ability that the vampire had was the most avoided by the vampire: the power of an Empath. He could sense the emotion of any creature on the planet by a mere touch of his hand to their skin. The reason why he avoided that power was because during the process of touching another it sometimes proved to be difficult to contain his own emotions. Usually, vampires were natural's when it came to hiding their emotions. It was instinctual. But for this male, it was close to impossible when his hand came in contact with another.
Where most vampire's eyes shifted to a darker shade during transitioning, the young prisoner's eyes would grow a more prominent blue. A naturally born vampire kept their initial eye color until death.
The male trembled with anger as the warriors tied the female prisoner to the stone slab elevated in the middle of the room. Every vampire knew this was not only the court room but the execution room. He hadn't even felt himself move towards her until the two warriors at his side yanked him firmly by the chains. There was nothing more enjoyable to the vampire court than the sight of a human's dismay and so they tied her to the slab like a sacrifice.
That thoroughly disgusted the young male.
"I have been betrayed by a valuable player, my court. A face that you have all seen many times but will be prosecuted for an act that he has not dared to commit against me all of the years I have known him. Until he met this human over there, that is. Until he met that human, that over emotional, inferior thing." The king surprisingly held control in his voice as he spoke to the disrespectful young vampire, which was quickly lost as he turned his attention to the female on the stone slab. " I wondered, what altered this poor vampire's mind? I did not see any special qualities in her. In fact, I found it humorous that this vampire child had used a human to distract me."
That was when his control finally snapped.
The king disappeared and reappeared by the female on the slab of cold stone. "AND THEN I FOUND THIS ON THE HUMAN ACCOMPLICE!" Brutus roared, lifting the young woman's arm up in the air and exposing a tattoo along her wrist. "THE MARK OF A SLAYER!"
The court gasped as the female began to tremble in his grasp.
The male had betrayed hisrace and teamed up with a human. That was more than punishable by law...that was unheard of! But not just any human, a vampire slayer. The group of people that were highly trained and born with impeccable sight and hearing, bones made out of practical steel and the natural instinct to fight.
"I should kill you," Brutus said to the young vampire, dropping the female's arm like it was the most disgusting object he had ever touched and walking around the table to stand in front of the vampire. Within his eyes danced a fire so endless and dark that the young prisoner's skin began to perspire with fear that he would never show on his face. "I should rip your throat out and display it for all of our race to see. You are a disgrace to us. But if you admit what you have done to the court and perhaps I will spare you because your attempt on my life was so poorly planned."
"I can smell your wound from here," the vampire replied. "It has not healed because she was close. She might have missed but she gave you a scare, did she not? It was no mediocre job, I assure you. She is the best and when if you kill her she will not be the last."
"Do not try and bargain with me," Brutus hissed. "She is another slayer who has been given the help of a witch to avoid my power, and with the help of a traitor could get within reach of my heart." As Brutus stared at the prisoner in utter fury, the red flames of his hunger returned. Had the prisoner not been significantly taller than His Majesty, surely he would have been dragged into their everlasting empty depths.
"Perhaps I will not admit what I have done to the court because I have yet to do it correctly, Your Highness," the prisoner announced boldly to the court.00
When the prisoner refused to answer the king fumed. How dare this vampire not respect him in his own court! Now he was furious. Defiance. The vampire had now defied his king twice, the second time threatening him. A slow, cynical smile spread along the king's face. Brutus' massive fangs extended as he let out a loud, wet hiss in the prisoner's face. "I want to see you kill the female," he said, then, "I want to see you slowly drain this female, your lover, of every ounce of her blood. And then when you done, I know then you will remember your place."
The room went silent. They were lovers, too.
"I will die before I do such a thing," the Prisoner whispered.
"You will kill her," the King hissed.
All at once, the prisoner fell to his knees and a scream resounded from his throat that he had not known was in him. Pressure built inside his skull until his vision became blotchy and blood pounded in his ears. No, no. This was it. This was just what the prisoner feared would happen. He thought if he had challenged the king that the king would be too distracted by the vampire to even bother with the female. It was his only hope. But now that felt the presence of the vampire king inside his mind, and throughout his blood as he picked himself up and started towards the female, he knew her fate.
When the male's mouth went to the female's soft neck he tasted recent tears and his insides tightened. Her smell invaded his nostrils like no other scent, overpowering his other senses and paralyzing his thoughts. He had never fed from her. In all the years he had known her, the young vampire had never dared go near her neck. She was the best fighter he had ever seen but was still considered fragile to the male. A beautiful, fragile human that he had grown attached to. An escape from a world that the male truthfully did not want to be a part of.
As the male's fangs unleashed and slid easily into the human's throat, a burst of bright blue pigment engulfed his entire eye. Mine. His large hand fisted in her curly brown hair that was damp with sweat. No, no, no! The male was relatively young compared to the other vampires in the room. Her blood was luscious and velvety amongst his throat. He already didn't have as much control when it came to feeding. Brutus' manipulation on his mind was far too strong for his weak state. He was starved. Had this been the reason?
That was when he let his thumb touch the female's soft skin on her arm. He suppressed his own sob. She was afraid of him and he was drinking so fast that she was in pure agony. His two biggest fears were being exposed to him because of his damn curse.
As he drank deep he heard a voice speak his name. Valentine....
It was her. She knew that he could hear her words, yet he could not form a response. He was unable to break free of Brutus' hold and could not find the courage to tell her she was about to die.
"I love you." Her words echoed in Valentine's head and made his stomach fill with dread. That emotion from her was now the male's biggest fear because it had stunned him entirely. Silly as it was, he did not know what those words truly meant. They were exchanged between lovers, he knew that. They had been lovers...he had other lovers that had not said the same, though. When they had met, the female was on a hunt and had strayed off. When they found each other he knew that the woman was no match for his abilities nor his strength. Valentine only knew of war and blood until he met the female. Until the day that he spared her life and questioned her unbelievable skills in combat. Plus, she smelled really freaking good.
It had only occurred to him now that their partnership to defeat execute the king had not just been a mutual agreement. It had also been an excuse to see her as much as possible. To train with her. To go over their plan distract the king and end his unruliness amongst his kingdom, the unnecessary slaughters of the humans and future enslavement once and for all. She was against Valentine's policies just as much as he was. When the woman had asked him moments before the execution whether or not he would remain close to her, the male had grown silent. Was it his fault their plan had gone terribly wrong? The woman had sparred with wooden dummies multiple times and hit the target every single time.
Then Valentine realized: he did not want her to be like him. Up until now, he hadn't even given that a thought. Had she purposely missed the king's heart because she knew Valentine would not return her affection? The female still brought him joy. How did she not know that? She had made him feel different than any other person...but words weren't just words to the vampire. They made him think of his future and how vampires aged differently than humans. Some ceased age all together. How easily Human died was almost pathetically easy.
Her heartbeat was now barely audible and Valentine was clutching for its presence. Did it make him greedy that he wanted to keep the human alive? Deep down, he knew that the woman would be killed by him or the king. He would have preferred to kill her himself, almost like an owner putting down its own dog. No, she was no pet to the vampire. She was so much more....
Suddenly, Valentine had felt his mouth go dry with her delicious blood. There was only one heartbeat throbbing in his ears and that was his own. As he backed away from the lifeless hunter, there was a warm liquid that seeped from his eyes. Odd. He put his fingers to it and tasted it.
"Dispose of the human," the King ordered bitterly. Valentine could vaguely hear Brutus amongst the clamoring thoughts inside of his head. Feeding had left him with a surge of energy that sent his mind reeling and his balance shifting drastically. Adrenalin kicked in and his muscles clenched. Looking towards the lifeless hunter, Valentine felt something die within him along with the loss of the human. It was a sensation..a strange plague that executed like a ripple effect, spreading throughout his entire body, straightening his spine and that brought his eyebrows together in a frown. There was a pain in his chest that he could not reach, that had burrowed so deep it had latched onto his soul and began draining it like an unrelenting leech.
The male's blank stare came into focus as one of the warriors had touched his female. They were going to dispose of her body as if it was garbage. His female. Valentine's is nostrils flared, his lips peeled back from his fangs and a ferocious roar unleashed from his mouth. His hands were shaking violently. He blacked out for a fraction of a moment. Suddenly he held the warriors head in his hands that he had ripped clean from a body.
He turned to his father, the King of the Vampire's, who had satisfaction pooling within his dark set eyes.
I am a monster, Valentine Fane thought to himself.
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