I check my schedule I have on hand. It's just a little black notebook I use to write everything down. Yes, I have an amazing memory, but when you are Queen you have a higher responsibility and I can't afford to mess up when everything has a specific time and place. There's a meeting with the council in exactly thirty minutes. I sigh inwardly. The council only consists of vampires who were all alive when the incident happened. They are all older than me and Aaron, and often treat me as a child. I don't tolerate that treatment, though. They know that now.
The council has eight members, including myself. There used to be nine until someone disagreed with my idea and refused to support me. The remaining members are Ciara, who is oldest. She is five thousand and something years old. We look up to her for wisdom and knowledge. Then there is Leandro, three thousand seven hundred years old. Ashling Is closest to my age, at 164 years old. We have talked sometimes, she relates to my situation, as her parents were killed by humans too. She is by far the friendliest, even to me. The rest are Jareth, Orazio, Jesabelle, Aaron, and me, Lilith. Avianna, Aarons sister, was also alive in the Grim Time. but she was too young to remember much and wasn't interested in joining the council.
I go to the council room to see everyone already sitting down. I go to the front of the table, with Aaron and Ciara by my side. As old as Ciara is, she still looks like she is in her twenties. Her hair is in a messy bun and she has a sophisticated look. They all bow their heads as I enter. Sitting, I look at the clipboard in front of me. I often write down notes on the decisions made, or I forget everything.
"So, what concerns are needed to discuss?" I ask.
"Well, my Queen, we are running low on human blood," I look at Jareth who spoke.
"Low? How low is this?"
"As you know, we would find about 15 humans each week. They would supply us with one portion of blood each for that week. Now, while our population has been growing, we have only been finding seven humans a week at most." As he reaches the end of his sentence, his voice trails off.
"Seven? Our Hunters have been training hard to go out there and disguise themselves to not be seen and capture them easily."
"Yes, but, we think the humans are growing aware of their kind disappearing," Leandro mentions. "It's hard to spread out the takings without traveling too far from here."
"It's been predicted that in a few decades, we will be at three humans per week," Orazio informs us.
"How can we prevent this?" I look around to room for suggestions. This problem has never occurred before, I'm not sure what to do.
"We could lessen the portions," Ashling says quietly.
"No!" When I realize how loud my voice echoed, I lower my voice. "Human blood is what keeps us strong. We will grow weak." I explain. I can't lose any power, I can't become weak again. After what the humans did to us, the least they could do is sacrifice at least ten of their kind. I mean, there are billions of them. Ashling looks down at the table, disappointed that her suggestion had upset me.
"What if we spread out the humans that we have been draining of blood?" Aaron looks at me.
"Continue," I nod at him.
"Well, right now the humans are used three times before they are disposed of. If we can have them last longer, then we won't need as many."
"Good idea, young one." Ciara smiles at him. See, Ciara used to call me young one too. I guess once you are five thousand, everyone in this room seems like a child. But I don't tolerate being called a child, so she has stopped for me.
"Let's do this for a few weeks and record the outcome," I tell them. "Anything else?"
"Um, can I ask a question, Queen?" Jareth asks. I give him permission.
"You should ask the humans-" He starts. But I don't let him finish.
"Talk to the HUMANS? Are you insane?" I blurt. There is no reason to talk to those creatures. Aaron puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Let him explain," He tells me softly. I glare at Jareth for suggesting such a thing, but allow him to continue. He clears his throat.
"s-so, we ask them how they would be able to stay alive longer, what we could do to have them less weak. Because we don't know the human's strengths, as well as they, do," He finishes.
They don't have strengths, I say silently to myself. But his idea isn't too bad.
"I think Jareth's idea should be tested," Orazio looks over at Jareth and The others nod in agreement.
"Fine. I will be the one to speak with the humans. And I will make them tell the truth," I tell the council members. With that, the meeting ends and I wait as everyone leaves. Everyone but Aaron.
"I think you should wait until next week when the hunters come back with new humans. These ones are weak from blood loss, and that causes them to feel faint." He tells me.
"I guess," say. I'm not too thrilled about the task anyway. I'm rarely on the level where the humans are kept. Only when I wish to drink fresh blood, but if that is done too often, my followers will get angry at the unfairness. Normally, I wouldn't care about this, but a few decades ago there had been a... well, let's say some vampires had decided to go on strike. They hadn't liked how I was running Subterranean and had said that a child shouldn't be Queen. I had been furious, if the rebelling vampires had expanded their group, I might not have still been Queen. But I took care of them. I did what had to be done for the sake of my Followers.
if they had taken control, who knows what would have happened. After that, I had made sure my followers worship me, they are loyal to me, and me alone. I may be young, but I am strong. My portion of human blood is a touch larger than the rest of my followers, but they don't know this. The only reason I do it is to protect them. I protect them as if they are my children.
~
When my portion of blood arrives the next day, I pour part of it into a wine glass. it almost looks like an expensive red wine. I watch it swirl around, and take a sip. It's cold, the opposite of fresh. I make a face. I look over at a maid in the palace quickly scurrying by. I stop her. At first, she looks annoyed for being pulled over, until she realizes who I am. "O-oh, Queen Lilith! How may I help you?"
"Warm this up, please." I shove the glass into her hands.
"I would love to, Queen, but I'm-" I cut her off.
"You're what?" I look her in the eye and she cringes.
"N-nothing!" She leaves, walking slower to avoid a spill. Having blood warmed up is a touch better than having it cold, but it's still not fresh.
I decide that, before I go talking to the humans, I should do a little bit of research on them myself. I decide to go to our library, which isn't very big. I wait for the maid to return with my drink, and when she does, I make my way to the library. On my way there I run into Avianna, Aaron's little sister.
"Hey, Ava, I haven't seen you for over a decade." I sigh in my head. Avianna talks too much, even to me.
"O-oh, Hello, Lilith. I've been busy." Avianna smiles at me. Her hair is the same auburn color as her brothers. Hers is slightly wavy, and covering one eye. The eye that is visible has dark layers of makeup, like a smokey eye. Vampires don't need makeup, but Avianna is one of those people who use it anyway. I know why her hair is like that, covering her eye, although most think she is trying to be stylish. When the humans attacked us, She was almost killed, and an obsidian blade left a gash right over her eye. She hides it, but I know.
"I see." I'm not too keen on keeping this conversation going, but apparently, she is.
"I'm a teacher now, you know? I teach math and history lessons."
"I know." Avianna smiles at me, trying to be friendly. She has always been an optimist, and she is very cheerful. But around me, her mood often falters. Not that I mind. But one time I saw her talking to Aaron about something and her face and voice was as if her life was perfect. She was only three when it was the Grim Time, so she doesn't remember.
"I heard from Aaron about the humans? Are you communicating with them? That sounds cool, maybe one of them could come into my class for like a show and tell."
"First of all, Avianna, NO. Second, Don't talk about the humans to anyone, It's confidential to the council only. I'm going now." I walk past her into the direction of the library.
When I get there, there aren't many vampires. I see a little girl at one of the tables, she looks like she is doing research for school. Yes, there is an education center down here, as Avianna works there apparently. But vampires are fast learners, only four grades in school are necessary. After that, you are off to an apprenticeship for your future job. This girl looks about six. Her first year of school.
I pass her and head to the Human section. It's very small. I go through the books and find one labeled, Humans. Everything you need to know about the Merciless creatures. I pick It up and go to the table farthest from the girl. I flip through it and is has images of the humans, and information we have collected on them. Unfortunately, the girl gets up and walks over to my table and plops down in the seat in front of me.
The girl is scribbling on a piece of paper now. I clear my throat and she looks up.
"Hello," She whispers. She doesn't have that sense of fear yet, doesn't know what I could do to her.
"Hello. What are you working on?" I ask.
"History. It's about the big war with the humans." I sigh inwardly.
"I see. I guess you know part of my backstory, then." She looks up at me again and stares the way it's only polite for young children to do.
"You are the Queen!" She exclaims.
"I know that," I say. I look over at the page her book is on. The subtitle reads, They called us monsters? with a sketch of the humans holding weapons with Obsidian. Their expressions are angry, ruthless.
"You killed my daddy," She accuses.
"I've killed many, sweetheart. What was his name?" I don't look up from my book.
"Kurt. I spilled some of my blood portions, so he gave me his. That was the last time I saw him." she tells me. He hadn't mentioned that little detail to me. Not that it would have changed my mind.
"Hm. I remember Kurt," I tell her. "He stole from me."
"Why did you kill him?" I look up. Her small face looks sad, and her eyes look like she is about to cry.
"Because, I need power. Do you want me to tell you something?" She nods.
"To get power, you need fear. To get fear, you need to kill. Remember that."
"What about love?" Her wide green eyes stare up at me.
"Love, my dear, is the weakest of all. Without love, you have no weakness." I stand up and leave her to stare at me.
Hello, my amazing readers! Lilith will be talking to the humans soon, an important part that will be coming up in the next few chapters. I have school work that iv been working on so I probably won't be editing any of these chapters anytime soon, just to let you know. So if I've made a mistake there is no need to point it out. Please please don't be a silent reader and tell me what you think! Vote If you like it so far... and should I continue?
~Shanshan