Chapter 7
The screech of the door alerted Rosaline of a visitor.
She looked up from her spot on the ground to barely see a woman, of slim build in a casual black dress which reached her knees with black heels, come walking in. She had dirty blonde hair that was in a pixie cut and dark blue eyes framed by thick eyelashes along with a petite nose, full lips and sun kissed skin.
Rosaline stood up and noticed how much taller the woman was than her. She looked down at the red heels she was suppose to wear and slid them on, surprised at how fitting they were. She looked back to the woman to see they were now close to the same height and looked her over again, trying to contemplate on whether she would be a threat towards her.
The girl came to a stop in front of her and lowered her head. Rosaline furrowed her eyebrows when the girl avoided eye-contact.
"Hello." She said as she raising her head slightly. "My name is Darcy but feel free to call me whatever you like if it pleases you. I have been assigned to lead you safely to my king so if you will please follow me I will take you to where he should be."
Her voice came out softly in a similar Romanian accent as the man. It wasn't hard to guess where she might be and she fought down the rage and hopelessness that tried to force their way to the surface. Instead she obediently, like the little pet the so called king wants, nodded her head and followed the lady through the cell door leaving the men who stayed put. She wanted to be as far away from that chamber as possible.
Once out they walked down a dark narrow hallway that had few lamps. They then entered through a door to come into a large dark room with lamps that lined down cells against the walls. She was a little nervous to walk down the aisle since she could clearly hear what sounded like criminals in the cells, the bars of the cells entrance seem to be the only open place so they had a good view of the two women walking. They were calling out to them with filthy things that she didn't want to hear. She was a little surprised when the docile looking Darcy strutted right down without breaking stride or flinching from the men's hands who tried to reach out and grab her. Unlike Rosaline who was a little ways behind and would yelp every time a hand got too close and she'd try to back away from it just for a hand on the other side to try and grab her.
They've reached the end and began walking up the stair's while she tried to get her heart to slow down.
They've reached the top of the stair's and through the door where she prayed for there to be actual light bulb's shining down on them but was disappointed to see the similar lit lanterns from downstairs.
"Um... Darcy? Why is it that the only light source there is are these lamp's?"
Darcy turned her head towards her, without raising her eyes, and gave her a small smile.
"I'm sorry miss but the King doesn't like the use of electricity. He likes to keep in touch with the olden day's."
"What? He looks like he is only 25! What does he know about the old days?"
She watched as the girl just bit her lip and shrugged before looking away. She rolled her eyes and left the subject alone.
"So..." She started, trying to make conversation. "What are you?"
"What am I?" Darcy asked in confusion with a hint of nervousness, not understanding what the girl was actually asking.
"Yes. Are you a maid, servant, slave, cook? Well I don't think you're a cook since you would be in the kitchen right now but you never know."
Darcy smiled at Rosaline's curiosity.
"I guess you can just say I'm a servant like everyone else."
"Everyone else?"
"Oh ...." Darcy stuttered. "I..I'm not the only one. My king has quite a bit of people working for him. It's needed for this is a very big home and hard to keep clean. And it is in us to serve the king's wish's and whoever else he need's for us to serve."
Rosaline stared at Darcy with a unreadable expression that had her shifting uncomfortably.
"Sounds more like a slave to me. Do you like being here?"
"Oh, yes." Darcy replied immediately. "I am treated kindly and have a nice warm bed and food. If I must say, for me and for everyone else, it's quite enough."
Rosaline looked over at Darcy like she was insane.
"You like slaving for a heartless Kin-"
"He's not heartless!" Darcy cut her off with narrowed eyes but quickly looked to the ground when Rosaline raised her eyebrows at her tone. "I'm sorry for my outburst, miss. It's just that the king has a connection to us all and it leaves us to automatically care for and stand up for him."
"Okay." Rosaline drawled the word out. "You are all brainwashed then." She muttered quietly under her breath.
Darcy didn't seem to hear or acted like she didn't and continued to walk.
Rosaline cleared her throat and walked in beside her.
"What about your family? Were you taken from them?"
"My mother and father were murdered. I'm an only child. I was left to fend for myself at the age of seven with no help. The king's men found me covered in filth and starving. They brought me to him and he got me cleaned up and fed then asked me if I would like to spend life here working for him where I would never have to go through what I did again. I had nowhere else to go and the castle was so welcoming that i agreed. I've never regretted it since and am forever in debt to my king who has saved my life without having to."
Darcy could remember it all like it was just yesterday. She could remember her parent's screaming at her to run when the rogues began to tear their home apart. She could remember them trying to attack her and her parent's protecting her, yelling for her to run again when she was frozen in shock and fear. A rogue rammed into her mother, digging it's claws into her side meaning to draw blood, and trying to bite into her neck and succeeding. She remembers her father running to her to save her and instead being drove into the ground by three other rogues and ripped apart. The blood colored the floor and splattered upon the walls. She could remember the tears running down her cheeks, the small choked sobs leaving her and the pain in her heart as she watched them destroy the only thing she knew and loved. She could also remember the rogue lifting it's head in her direction with a wicked gleam in it's eyes, blood dripping down its snout that she couldn't tell was her mother's or father's. She turned and ran in fear of being next. She was only seven but couldn't stop the guilt from not being able to do anything but watch. From not being able to at least yell out for help. Instead she just ran from the murdering of her only family.
Darcy wiped away the tear that escaped from the dam in her eyes which was ready to break free every time she thought of that day.
Rosaline cleared her throat again when it seemed that Darcy went into her own little world.
"I'm really sorry for your loss. I can't really say that I know exactly how you feel but I have lost a loved one. My father. I don't or really can't believe that he is dead because it would break me but he is gone and I don't know if I'll ever get to see him again."
Darcy looked to Rosaline and hesitantly brought her gaze to meet hers.
"I'm sorry."
Rosaline gave her a small smile and nodded in thanks.
They reached a set of huge door's with golden knobs and Darcy became serious, straightening up her posture.
"A word of warning, miss." Darcy said and turned towards her.
"Please, try not to upset the King. He can be a good man but has quite a temper and likes to go through with all of his threat's and promises."
Before Rosaline could open her mouth and reply Darcy had knocked on the door three time's and pushed it open to what looked like an old meeting room. There was a large table that looked like it belonged in the white house and looked like it could fit more than twenty people but seemed to have only around ten who were all dressed in business outfits and looking to the door at the newcomers. She couldn't stop the embarrassing blush from reaching her cheeks as they looked upon her revealed skin that the outfit offered.
"Ah," she heard someone comment and looked over to see a man, who resembled the one in the dungeon and was just as handsome, sitting at one end of the table. Her blush got darker as he looked her over and she couldn't help but cross her arms and step a little closer to Darcy to try and hide herself from the handsome man. "This must be your new pet. A beauty I see. What did you say she goes by again, son?"
She looked in the same direction the man was to see the guy who claimed himself king at the other end. He looked up from the paper's in front of him and glanced over at her, to which she quickly ducked her head to hide her red face, before he looked back down.
"She goes by Rose."
The other man smiled and looked back to her.
"Rose. How lovely. Come over, love, and you can sit by me." He patted the chair beside him and she nervously looked to Darcy who kept her gaze to the ground.
"She is my pet, father. She should stand beside me at all time's." The 'King' said with a glare over to the man he claimed as father.
Her eyes just about bulged from her head when she caught on to there father/son exchange. There was no way since he looked as if he could be the king's older brother. He only looked to be in his late twenties or thirty.
"There's no need for her to stand and wait until the meeting is over, Rhyvos, when she can just come over and sit with me. I would like to inspect her better anyways and I can not do so when she is all the way over there."
The 'king', or Rhyvos like the man called him, grunted and looked back to his paper's. The onlookers around the table who were watching the two men talk turned their gazes back to her and she had the sudden urge to run. Some looked to her curiously while other's had predatory looks that made her want to bolt.
She looked to the man who was looking at her expectantly and then looked back to Darcy who she felt was her safe blanket from them even if she doesn't know her well.
"You may leave now Darcy." The 'king' said without looking up.
Darcy bowed to them and turned away to head for the door. She gave Rosaline a quick glance before disappearing.
'There goes my blanket.' she thought as she turned back to the table. She bit her lip and made her way to the seat that the man held out for her and slowly sat herself down.
He gave her a smile and took a piece of her hair twirling it around his finger's. He raised it to his nose and inhaled, closing his eyes as he did so. When he opened them she could have sworn they were black before they went to their natural color. She heard him mutter something under his breath before he gave her another smile that showed all teeth. She felt her heart race as he leaned forward resting his elbow on the armrest and his chin in his hand.
"My name is Abellon. You can call me Abel if you like."
She didn't know what to say so she nodded her head and looked at the table, hoping he couldn't hear her heart beat. She could feel all of the stares and became agitated, playing with her finger's.
Abel looked to the girl and knew she was uncomfortable. He moved his gaze to the other's and narrowed his eyes on them. They quickly turned their heads and spoke amongst each other.
He looked back to her an grinned, knowing he was having an effect on her by the sound pounding from her chest.
"Is there any question's in which you would like for me to answer, love? My son down there likes to act as if he has something stuck up his arse so I am probably the best one to answer them."
Rosaline hesitantly gazed up at his face.
"Yes. I have some." She replied quietly looking back to the other's. Some looked looked to be talking to the person next to them but would still glance over, their head tilted slightly towards them as if they were listening to everything she and he said.
"How do you have a son who look's around the same age as you? That's just not possible."
Abellon let out a laugh.
"Well, there's a lot you don't know. Let's see." He tapped his chin with his index finger. "For starter's none of us are who we perceive to be. A good way to put it would be to say that we are wolf's in sheep's skin." He chuckled and the other's listening in laughed with him except for Rhyvos who let out what sounded like a growl but continued to write on the paper's.
She looked back to Abellon in confusion, not understanding what he meant.
He laid back in his chair and sat his arm on the back of hers, pulling it closer to his, and gave her a straight look.
"You might as well know everything since you will be here for the remaining of your time. To put it simple and just lay it out there, everyone here are wolf's. They are all the same furry creature's like you'd encounter from the wild. There are many of them alike all across the world except for me and my son down there. We are werewolf's, lycanthrope, in every sense of the word. The other's change into wolf's while we change into beast's of nature. I use-to reign as king over them all before I decided to hand down the title to Rhyvos. As all of our people age we stay the same. There is a certain age to where we stop aging that differs between us. It is always under the age of thirty however. I stopped when I reached twenty eight while Rhyv stopped when he reached twenty four. I'm not exactly sure why we are the only one's to be immortal. Well, except for if we found a mate. We have it in us to exchange something similar to venom from our bodies to our chosen mate that can make them into a wolf like the other's but also immortal as we are. For the other's it is sadly a fifty/fifty chance if they can turn their chosen mate into a wolf. But it's all quite extraordinary if I may say so myself."
Rosaline could only blink up at him with wide eyes of disbelief as he finished speaking. He tried to hold in his laughter at her comical expression.
She opened her mouth to say something but then shut it and shook her head up at him.
Was he trying to be funny? He might be hot but that doesn't mean she is going to let him have her looking like a fool.
"Do you think i'm stupid?" She finally asked him and narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe a word you just said."
She quickly stood from her seat and took step's away from him and the table. She looked around to see them all staring at her once again. Even Rhyvos who was now leaning back in his seat was looking over at her with a bored expression.
"Are you all crazy?"
"Sit down girl and know your place." Rhyvos growled losing the bored expression as he gave a feral growl that was so animalistic it had her backing up more in fear. She lifted her hands to her head and shook it again, looking between Rhyvos and Abellon.
"No. No! I want to go home! I don't care what the hell you people are on but I don't want any part of it. I want to leave, now!"
Abellon let out a sigh. It looked like Rose was going to need some proof. He sat up and began to push himself up out of the chair but stopped when he saw Rhyvos stand and make his way towards her while taking off his clothes.
"Rhyvos" he warned but his son ignored him.
She was frozen in fear, shaking from head to toe as she watched Rhyvos's skin ripple in a way that looked as if his bone's were shifting into place. Hair began to grow out of his revealed skin and his face became deformed. She blinked and there stood exactly what you would see in every scary werewolf movie. It was just what Abellon called it. A beast. Nothing of the King's body was left. Only a monster.
It stood on it's hind leg's and slammed it's front feet into the ground when it was only feet from her before letting out a ferocious roar.
Her sight went black and she felt herself fall.
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