"You shouldn’t have sent him," Lucid responded coolly. "He wasn’t to be down there, and you know that Viktor, you sent him to his death."
Viktor swung but Lucid dodged with easy of being on the battle field for centuries. "Tell me," Viktor ordered.
"Viktor, he died for what was tormenting my daughter, you don’t think I wouldn’t tell you if I though this wasn’t for the best. Just like your father, we both know this is for the best."
"The best for whom?" Viktor argued, "cause it wasn’t the best for Xavier."
"Guess we need to bring up the next in line to be your daylight guardian," Lucid said seeming bored with everything.
"Your callous!" I called, "how can you say such things with ease after our friend just died."
"Your friend, he was nothing but another weak human to me."
I shook my head, my entire body shaking with such fury at the man. How could Lucid say such things! A Daylight Guardian was dead in the wing of the castle, murdered by the Night Children. The very people he swore with his life to protect.
"What was it that Alana knows?" Griever demanded his red eyes flaring with anger. "What is tormenting her so much she can no longer function properly within our society."
"Doesn’t matter."
"She’s your daughter!" Griever bellowed with such anger it startled me, "how can you care so little about your own daughter!?"
"Because it is of the wishes of the king, you think I enjoy seeing my daughter like that?" Lucid said, though his voice was void of emotion. "I do what I do for the king. No questions asked."
"You’re a damned idiot then," Griever said, "but you know why. I just don’t understand why you won’t tell the prince."
"Because its of kings orders."
"But he does deserve to know," Arista spoke up finally as she stared at Lucid who only just now seemed to notice that she was there, he looked more than a little startled. "After all your sending his loved ones to death. A sentence payable to the king. How can you do that to your own royalty?"
"How do you-?"
"Know? Because the Soul Children have extensive knowledge of you and your kind. We do what we think right. And I think informing him is right. If you don’t do it," Arista looked at him with a cool composure, "I will."
"You won’t say a damned word," Lucid raised his sword.
I picked up one from the side of the trunk and hit his sword away quickly, since he wasn’t paying any attention to me it wasn’t difficult. I stood next to Arista. "I think it’s you who should shut up." I looked to Arista, as much as I envied her, and was angry with her for what she did to Griever, she seemed to be on our side, even if she had quite the funny way of showing it. She smiled lightly at me and I returned my gaze to Lucid, who was reaching for his sword, "don’t try it. I‘m carrying the heir, don‘t go and do something stupid."
Lucid stared me down hard, "you’re a dead woman anyways," he said before storming out.
It took a moment for me to calm from my tense state, the sword didn’t feel at home in my hand anymore. I looked to Arista, who was now frowning, and still looked like a goddess. "What did he mean by that?" I asked quietly.
"The Night Children, you mate during the Blood Moon, this is common knowledge." Arista started as she sat down in a chair.
Viktor took the one across from her seeming to be trying to calm himself down. He took the sword from my hand and set it on the trunk with the daylight symbol before pulling me onto his lap. His warm body holding to mine was a comfort he kissed me lightly in a quick motion, barely feeling the tingle of his lips on my cheek. Colleen, Griever and Markus stood listening intently.
"And during the next month, if the girl survives that is, she starts developing fast with the new life. The new child." Arista seemed a little uncomfortable now, "but the Night Children… when they are born they are, unnatural. I mean, they live yet only to develop what the Night Children are, which is basically dead."
"I feel very alive," Viktor said with a stupid grin taking away the seriousness of the moment.
"But your heart ceases to beat. We call that death," Arista continued. "The newborn is something… different, not wholly human, but not yet a Night Child either. So they hover in the in-between. They don’t have fangs but they need outrageous amounts of blood. They lack fangs but they drink it down like mothers breast milk."
"Are you saying…" I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"When you give birth to your son, which it will be a boy. It always is. Someone will cut your neck because the baby needs your blood and your newborn son will drink you dry." Arista said with a shudder.
I notice the door open and someone come in quietly, a young male. In light armour, a Daylight Guardian, "Seth," I breathe I knew him from training. He was strong, fast, and I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t closer to the top for this job than he was.
He looks to me, and nods in acknowledgement and comes into the room looking a little nervous, his longer blonde locks in waves and curls, his bright blue eyes seemed serious and had an edge I’d failed to see before. He looked like he’d grown a little taller since I’d last saw him. He bowed to the prince, "Viktor, I was sent to be your new Daylight Guardian."
"Seems to be a lucky position," Viktor mumbled as he rubbed his temples. "Arista, if we don’t cut Angelique, then what are the child’s odds."
"Death within minutes."
"Can’t we kill someone else?" As against killing unless necessary as I was I had thought on this myself.
"No, it has to be the mother, otherwise same effect to the child as poison."
Viktor froze his hand stopped rubbing his temples. I turned my body to face him and placed my hand lightly on his chest, "you mean… my father lied to me about my mother. He said she died in a raid by the Moon Children, not that I… killed her." Viktor shuddered under me, I huddled into his chest and he stopped with his internal war on himself and hugged me closely. "There must be something."
"Well…" Arista said looking distant. "I’m not sure how this whole birth thing is going to go anyways. I mean the child might just die inside you."
"Hey!" I yelled shocked, as much as I didn’t want to die I hoped she wasn’t implying I should kill my unborn child either.
"I’m just saying with you being what you are and Viktor being what he is."
"Human and Night Child, its how it works," I argued.
"So you really haven’t figured it out?" Arista said seeming bemused, "you’re a little slower then the rest." I glared at her so she continued, "your mother wasn’t what she seemed either, but in her credit to you, I don’t think she knew either."
"What are you talking about?"
"You’re a Soul Child you idiot." I stared blankly. That… explained a lot. How I ordered the blonde girl who had been ordering me, why my scent changed so subtly. "Then again I heard you were sealed, just like your mother."
"Sealed?"
"Yeah we didn’t want your grandmother using her powers, she was… one in a million. One of a kind. And a complete psychopath if you don’t mind me saying." Arista said, "she was the reason the Soul Children population went down but thousands. She was powerful and a little nuts. So the elders sealed her, and in extension her family as well. Your mother, and you were both sealed as well. But see… Soul Children have girls. We always do. We can turn men with our powers, they are always weaker than us, but we can only give birth to girls."
"So I have one genetic code saying to only give a male, while the other says to only give female."
"Yes," Arista answered simply, "you also have Soul Child and Night Child mating. Something that’s never been done. And we don’t need blood. You are a case of your own."
"So I could have a Night Child, or a Soul Child."
"Or the warring genetics could kill you from the inside out. Point is your Night Children elders don’t know what you are. Your friend Alana, doesn’t know what you are, but she does know that not telling you before you two mated will lead to your demise. She’s insane with grief and guilt. The berserker is keeping her much longer than it should."
"I could survive this," I said looking to Arista then to Viktor, "I’m not one that easily dies."
"When it comes to your new born infant, or your own life, which will you choose?" Arista asked with a knowing sparkle in her eye.
She knew what I would choose.
She knew I would choose my newborn over myself.
I didn’t answer and instead just huddled close to Viktor who kept me within his iron grasp. I would just have to wait and see what little life was growing inside of me. I’d just have to wait and see.