Before I start this chapter, I want to ask; How do you like my new cover? The top part is Lilith's face and the bottom is a view of Subterranean, their underground city. Its a view from Lilith's palace. I did find these photos on google images, they are not mine. I don't want to say too much, so lets get on with the chapter! ~Shanshan
UPDATE- I changed the cover again more recently, but the question still appies.
That human has been on my mind all day. I never think about anyone that long. Maybe its just because he is human, and its something new. Thats it. But he talks to me like i'm an equal. Not like how you should talk to your queen. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Next time, I will be sure to remind him of who I am. Once I am on the higher floor, I decide to call a meeting with the council to discuss my new found information.
When its set up, I go to the council room early to wait. I look over at the wall, that has a plaque with the 10 rules of the Subterranean .
One; Do not disrespect your Queen
Two; do not harm other vampires unless in self defense.
three; Do not drink anymore human blood than your daily portion.
four; do not steal. from anyone, especially your queen.
five; Do not go Above without being permitted
six; If you see unusual activity, alert the council
seven; no possession of obsidian stone
eight; Do not talk negatively about your queen
Nine;Do not vandalize public property or property of others
Ten; follow your queen ONLY.
These rules help prevent any misbehaviour, And all the other rules fit under the first rule. Doing any of those would be considered disrespecting me. I hear the door and see Ciara come in. "Hello, Lilith." She nods her head respectfully and I nod back. Even I respect my elders, considering her age.
"What have you learned since our last meeting?" She asks.
"Wait until everyone else arrives, Ciara." I shuffle some papers that are on the table in front of me. Notes, and reminders.
"I mean your feelings. How did you feel when you saw the humans?" she fixes her hair into a bun. I
"Your not my psychiatrist, Ciara!" I snap. She blinks at me and falls silent. I do not wish to share any personal information with her, especially about the humans. Soon enough, the others pile in all at the same time.
Aaron sits next to me. Last time I saw him I sort of snapped, and he looks to see if i'm still angry.
"Okay, I have talked to the humans," I say.
"What did they say?" Jereth asks.
"Did they seem intelligent?" Orazio had a notebook out.
"Were they cruel and mean like the Grim Time?" Ashling looks curious.
"Stop asking so many questions, I will tell you." I clear my throat and tell them one of the humans talked to me and seemed to have information.
"Whats the human's name?" Leonardo asks.
"How should I know?" This information didn't seem relevant to the situation.
"You interacted with him, so I assumed that you asked him what his name was." He shrugs.
"Well you assumed wrong. I don't care what that humans name is." I snap.
"But then you will have to call him 'the human'" Aaron points out.
"So? Anyway, he said if we give the humans food, they will stay alive longer." They all start whispering and making notes.
"Where will we get the food?" Jereth asks.
"Leonardo, what is the map of the Above in our area?" Ciara asks. I wait as Leonardo pulls out a drawn layout of the Above. He passes it to her.
"There seems to be a farm area not too far west. We could go there?" She asks.
"Good idea. How much food do you think we should get?" I ask.
"Mabye enough portions to last the humans a week?" Ashling suggests. I nod my head in agreement. I never would have thought in a million years that we would be doing all this just to try and keep humans alive. But keeping us alive means keeping them alive, so Ill have to deal with it.
"On a different note, apparently there is a weak beam in Subterranean." Jessabeth tells me.
"Are the Miners working on fixing it?" At this point I just want this meeting to be over. Keeping the humans alive has been my main concern.
"Well yes, but-"
"Then I guess we don't have a problem, right Jessabeth?"
"R-right," She nods.
"Good. Is that it?" I look around the room, and when no one says anything, I stand up. "This meeting is now over, you are dismissed."
I watch as everyone leaves, and walk out with Aaron. "Do you need any help with anything, Lilith?" He looks over at me as we walk down the corridor.
"No. But I might go visit the humans again later today." I shrug.
"Why? Don't we already have the information we needed?" He asks, studying me.
"I-" I start, but then realize I don't know how to reply. "Why do you have to be so nosey all the time, Aaron?? Geez. He said he has more information to share with us." I snap. He steps back, surprised at my sudden outburst.
"Oh, okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, Lilith." He looks down. Thats something I like about Aaron, he might not always say the right things, but he always seems to feel bad when he has upset me.
"Good. See you later, then."
When I visit the humans, I walk past them all and go to the sixth stall, with the boy that told me all the information.
"I knew you would be back, Lily." He is sitting on the floor, and he looks tired.
"Do not call me Lily! I am Lilith. A Queen of darkness, not some stupid flower."
"I called you that just for the reason of seeing your reaction." He laughs. "And I was right, you would get mad." When I look at him closely, I notice that his skin tone is less flush as it was when I first saw him, he is more pale. And he has bags under his eyes.
"Why did your complexion change?" I ask.
"Mabye thats because we still haven't has any food. And could you at least get me a blanket?" He looks around the space we are standing in. "You've got some good hospitality here." He nods. "I mean, I tried talking to those dudes outside there but they're pretty miserable." He must mean the gaurds. They aren't permitted to talk to these creatures.
"You would like a blanket?" I ask. I don't know why, but I feel like helping this human. Wait, I know why. Its just because I want his blood to last longer. But he can't know this.
"You don't need that."
"Yeah, I do. and a pillow. Its cold down here. And wheres my phone? I had it in my pocket before you abducted me." He feels into the pockets of his jeans that are empty. We make sure that the humans do not have anything from the Above with them except their clothing. Anything else is taken away.
"Telephone? You have a telephone?" When we had lived Above, our house did have a telephone, I remember it still to this day. But we never used it often.
"Why do you say telephone? geez, grandma. But yes, I have a cell phone, that used to be in my pocket.
I give him a confused look. No one moved their telephones out of their home, and it would never fit in a pocket.
"Telephones don't fit in pockets, you stupid human." I almost laugh at how little he knows. But I don't.
"What? Of course it does. I have the iPhone 5s, which fits fine in my pocket nicely. If you had the iPhone 6 plus, however..."
"Wait. iPhone? Is it a telephone connected to an eye?" I wonder. What is he talking about? eye-phones... What nonsense is this?
"Your calling me a stupid human when you don't even know what an iPhone is? one of Apple's most well known products?" He is acting like I am the unknowledgeable one now. How can this be? Have the humans actually advanced? I didn't think it was possible, with how little they knew.
"You humans have weird names. Who is Apple? apple is a kind of fruit, right? I know that much." This boy is confusing me, and I don't like it.
"Hold on a second... How long did you say you have lived underground?"
"110 years, why?" I look at him and he face palms. He looks back at me and laughs.
"No wonder you are looking at me like i'm insane, You haven't even seen all the amazing inventions since, what, 1910?"
"1916, actually." I point out.
"Whatever. I really need to fill you in on everything." He pauses, and I hear a odd sound.
"What was that?" I ask. I look around and realize It came from him.
"Oh, my stomach. I'm starving, where is the food?" Oh. I don't want our food supply to starve, right?.
"I alerted the council of the situation, and they are working on it now. But, I will only supply the food if you behave." I tell him. I liked It better when we got to torture the humans, it served them right because of what their ancestors did to us. Now we are catering to them, starting to treat them better, and I don't like this change.
"Who's the council?" He asks.
"The people who help make decisions, and give me advice. They aren't as important as me, but all the vamps listen to them." I say, with as small of an explanation as possible
"Oh yeah, your still talking about all that vampire crap? I would rather believe that you are taking our blood trying to preform clones or something before I would believe that." He shakes his head.
"Would you like me to show you?" I raise a brow.
"Why not? Ive got nothing better to do, after all." He shrugs. I back out of the room, and then run behind him and touch his back. It took less than a second to run that distance. He turns around, but doesn't jump or anything.
"Impressive. But what makes you a vampire?"
I show my fangs, without smiling, and hiss. Hopefully I look menacing. But he is unfazed.
"But what if those are fake?" Is he annoying or what? how stubborn can someone be?
"Would you like me to bite you?"
I raise a brow.
"That depends. Would it be a love bite?" He smirks, satisfied with his comeback. But when he looks at my very unimpressed face, his smirk falters.
"No. It would be a bite that is slowly, painfully sucking the life out of your weak body, until your heart can't regenerate blood any faster and slowly will stop, your veins no longer receiving the blood they need to travel through your body; until there is no blood left. Your fingers will grow pale and blue, same with your feet, and it will travel up your arms and body until you are nothing but a shrivelled up corpse that is thrown into a disposal room with hundreds of other shrivelled up lifeless corpses."
He stares at me for the longest time, probably horrified. Then he blinks, and his face looks normal again.
"Well this just got dark and creepy." He steps back and looks down. Ha. did I just scare him? my goal has been reached! But as if he read my mind, he perks up again. Damn. "If you killed me now, you wouldn't have anymore of my blood left for your vampire tribe, right? I couldn't regenerate my blood if I was dead." He point out. How dare he always think of something to backfire what i say? How many more comebacks does he have for me, I wonder.
Then I get an idea. I use one of my long painted nails and draw a line across my arm, drawing blood.
"What the hell are you doing that for? You-" He raised his voice but stopped when he realized it was closing up, until nothing was there. He touches my arm, where the cut had been, fascinated.
"How did you do that?"
"I told you. I'm a Vampire. A very powerful and feared, vampire." I whisper the last word into his ear, and leave before he can start asking me a million questions. I'm about to leave when I remember something and turn around.
"Whats your name, human?" He looks up at me.
"Its Grayson. Grayson M. Barker."
Another authors note in the same chapter! I'm sorry, you don't have to read all this but I hope you do. Should I do a chapter in Grayson (The human's) Point of view? I'm thinking of doing it next week, but i'm not sure yet. Let me know what you're thinking in the comments! or if you have any other suggestions or opinions, I'd love to hear them! Thank you so much to those who are still reading my book, I appreciate it!
~Shanshan