Stephanie POV
This place was something out of period drama. I was in a huge castle surrounded by ladies in long dresses and men in button down coats with fancy hats. The whole atmosphere was surreal. I felt like I had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Aidan and Loki had gone mad and Rudolph's family had decided to kidnap me and take me to vampire lala-land. Shit. This is so messed up. I'm never going near boys again. They have brought me nothing but grief.
Luc marched me through the castle's great hall. All around us I could feel the other vampires watching me. I caught a glimpse of a few vampire directly looking at me, one old vampire lady had an expression of utter disgust as passed by. Another vampire pulled out a handkerchief and covered their nose as I walked past. Did I smell? I put deodorant on- I tried to do the thing when you try and sniff yourself without drawing attention to yourself.
"What business does he have bring that an abomination here." I heard one vampire whisper to another.
Luc immediately snapped his head in the direction of the whisper and glowered at a group of vampires. Confused I asked;
"What's their problem?"
"Don't worry about it." Luc shrugged.
How can I not worry about it? People might as well be laughing and pointing at me. There is no way I can just brush this off like it is nothing. So I asked Luc again,
"What is their problem Luc?"
Luc responded with an irritable exhalation and replied, "Nothing."
It was like trying to get blood out of a stone. We left the hall down a great corridor with high ceilings decorated with tapestries and suits of armour. The décor had a very medieval feel to it. At the end of the hall was a pair of great wooden doors guarded by a pair of vampires in uniforms. As Luc approached they bowed curtly and opened the doors into a great room with two thrones in the centre. There was a flurry of footsteps as a group of guards approached us. A voice in the middle ordered,
"Thanks, but that is enough you go back to what you were doing. I don't need to be guarded."
"Sophie," Luc sighed, "Do not be disobedient. Casper is doing this for your safety."
"I can't even see you, Luc." The voice replied.
"Your safety is number one."
"So are my orders. You and the guards can go and leave me and Stephanie to speak."
"But-"
"Don't sass me Luc."
"I'm way older than you little girl."
"But you are not the Queen so vamoouse."
Luc and the guards defeated headed out of the room, revealing to me the young lady who was speaking. Sophie was beautiful. She had brown hair and brown eyes, vibrant and rich. She was very pretty but had a strange earthy beauty. She smiled warmly at me,
"Sorry for everything. I know this is not what you wanted but please believe me when I say this is for your safety."
It was sweet of her to apologise but it was me who should be apologising. This mess was because of my actions and poor choices. Aidan wouldn't have attacked me if I hadn't of slept with that sleaze ball Rudolph.
"Aidan attacked me because he was provoked." I said.
"The danger was not from the werewolf. There is a powerful demonic force rising up and Mia has forseen your child as apart of this saga."
"Really?"
"Mia is an oracle, she sees the future. She foresaw your child being conceived."
"Couldn't she have warned me about Rudolph?"
"No,"
"I would have really appreciated that."
"Don't beat yourself up about it. All vampires have special gifts and Rudolph has the gift of sexual lure. You fell victim to his charms like many others."
"So how is my baby involved in all of this?"
"We do not know yet. But we will protect you and the child until it is safe to go home."
"Thanks, I guess?"
"Your friends will be joining you soon. Very soon the fight will begin." she said.
The vampires were very hospitable. They gave me a beautiful room located in a western turret, with my own bathroom and kitchen stocked with human food. Servants were available at any time of day and night to see to my needs. A pair of guards were also assigned as keepers to me. Their job was to make sure I did not run away- although honestly nowadays I don't have the energy to run. My room over looked the forest and the rest of the castle. It was very picturesque. I was allowed to explore any part of the castle except one of the old towers which had lost its roof and suffered a fire. There were also vast gardens to explore too. The vampires said they would like me stay here permanently after I had my baby. That way the child would be raised in the vampire community. I had no idea, but Rudolph was royalty, which means I'm carrying a royal baby. That's why I get VIP treatment. I should be happy now I'm away from school, my crazy boyfriends and ex-lovers but I'm not. Since being turned into an immortal I've never spent a long period of time alone. I've always been with Skyler, or Greg and co or with Aidan or a lover. But for the last hour I've been alone with myself with no distractions and I have thought about everything that has happened to me over the past months and suddenly it has dawned on me I am no longer Stephanie. Okay it sounds weird but before I turned into an immortal I was this lost shy girl crushed by depression and now I look at my present self and I think where has that girl gone? That girl wouldn't have flung herself at men, or mistreated Aidan, or knocked herself up. What happened to Stephanie? I don't recognize me any more and the more I think about it the more I don't like myself. All those things I did to those boys, all things I let them do to me- this isn't Stephanie. This is somebody else and I don't want this person to raise my child. I want to be a good mother. Looking out over the tree tops I could hear the wolves calling. Poor Aidan. I don't know why I did not love him. Maybe Stephanie would have loved him. Me, however, definitely not. Perching on the window sill I hugged my knees into my chest and watched the night. It was only half an hour later when a knock on my door disturb me from my spot by the window. Three servants entered with a tall familiar handsome man. When Loki had taken me to Italy he had introduced me to this man- or for use of a better word this immortal. Giacamo was a rich Italian aristocrat who had lived for many centuries despite looking like a guy in his early thirties. Bowing slightly he turned to me.
"I hope I'm not disturbing you." He said formally.
"No, no." I said jumping up revealing my belly bump, immediately my hands covered the swell.
Giacomo looked at the bump and whispered something in Italian that I did not understand. My cheeks flushed red and I felt ashamed. Giacomo reading my expression threw his hands up into the air;
"No, I'm not judging you- I'm only shocked to see how fast your pregnancy has progressed." He said apologetically.
"That's okay." I said awkwardly feeling slightly relieved.
There was a weird moment of silence that passed between us. Giacomo stared at me lost for words. Was this good or bad?
"Umm, so what brings you to these parts?" I said pleasantly.
"Bussiness. I spend much time in the vampire city."
"Thank you for dropping by, it's nice to see a familiar face."
"When I heard the vampires had captured you I came here straight away. Are they treating you alright?"
"So far so good."
"I want you to know that you can call me for anything."
I smiled and thanked him politely before the servants ushered him out the room explaining to him that I needed rest. Giacomo said he would be back to visit me again. As he left I had this sick feeling in my gut that Giacomo had come here about the promise I had made him. While we were in Italy I said that after Aidan and I had finished I would seek Giacomo out and the two of us would marry. We were both immortals and it made sense for us to marry so we would not be alone. But I had always imagined marrying him after Aidan died- not before. But circumstances had changed. Giacomo was hell of a lot more weathlier than Aidan- he was also more stable and responsible. I had to think of Dahlia now and not myself. Aidan did attack me- but I guess it was a crime of passion, he just found out that I was having fun behind his back. God I felt like such a hypocrite. One minute I'm telling Aidan I can't be with him because I want to have more fun and the next I'm thinking about settling down with Giacomo.
Rubbing my temples I got into bed. I need to think about this.
Skyler POV
The next day at work I had to do a lot of explaining. The whole town had woken up to the aftermath of a werewolf rampage but the newspapers blamed it on a motorcylce gang. Rayne had kicked Aidan out of town and warned him not to set foot in the town. A small part of me felt sorry for Aidan but a huge part was angry at him for hurting Stephanie. Even when emotions are running high violence is not an excuse. Rayne felt much the same way. He would have probably killed him if it hadn't been for that horrible monster thing. Luc and Mia had invited us to stay at the vampire castle and visit Stephanie in a few days time. They had even extended the invitation to Greg, Bea and Kai. Bea and Kai were really excited but Greg was really flat about the whole thing. He wanted to see Stephanie he just didn't want to see her in a vampire castle. Anything demonic, vampire or werewolf Greg did not like. Even so I don't think that would stop Greg from seeing Stephanie. He had already set up a baby fund donation pot so we could buy Stephanie and her baby a gift. We were worried about Stephanie but the vampires promised to take good care of her and if they didn't they would have to face Rayne.
After work I went back to my pokey little apartment. Rayne had swept up the glass from the sidewalk and called somebody to replace the window- another bill I didn't need. Stepping through the front door I yelled, "I'm home."
There was no reply.
Going into the kitchen I saw a note scribbled on the table,
'Meet me at the Wendell's Café.'
Was he taking me out to dinner? I couldn't help but smile to myself. I quickly changed into something more smart and ran out the door. The café in question was a French style bistro on the main street that turned into a wine bar at night. When I entered the bar it was filling up. Couples in dimly lit alcoves stare at each other while groups of friends chatted round the bar. Peering through the crowd I couldn't see Rayne. I noticed a group of guys stood at the far side of the bar staring at a large group of women on the other side of the bar. The men seemed angry and disappointed, they look up then look down staring at their twenty dollar glass of red. A ripple of girlish laughter radiated from the group.
"We can't compete with frickin' cocktail dude." One guy spat between gritted teeth.
Curiously I approached the bar and leaned over.
Oh my God.
Rayne was in a tight black shirt swinging a vodka bottle over his shoulder, smiling pleasantly at the girls. Rayne had got a job. My heart gave a sickening lurch as he causually flirted with the girls as they slipped him dollar notes. I didn't know what to say. I was speechless. Getting a job was fine but when I saw him doing that I felt like I was watching pole dance in front of some sleazily perverts. Feeling jealous and sick I took a few steps back and hit something soft and lumpy.
"Hello gorgeous." Alcohol fuelled breath wheezed over me. I turned to meet a girl's worse romantic nightmare. Fat, comb over, BO problem, fifty something old man/pervert. I flinched as the fat man grabbed my hand and introduced himself as, "Lionel Wendell, the owner of this establishment." he panted lifting my hand to his flabby puckered jowls. Repulsed I wanted to pull away but I was afraid to cause a scene. The lips collided against my skin like a dead oily fish sending waves of revulsion up my arm and through my body. There was a horrible sucking noise and then Lionel lifted his head and smiled at me. This was nasty. This was seriously nasty. Helplessly I looked over to Rayne who was making another cocktail. Lionel without warning flung his arm around me,
"Come on sugar let me show you a good time." Wendell hand skimmed over shoulders, down my back, and travelling dangerously south. Before his hand cupped my ass Rayne had hurled himself over the bar sending drinks flying over shocked customers. Wendell was like a rabbit caught in the headlights as Rayne placed himself in front of him. Wendell gulped. The whole bar had fallen silent. All eyes were on us. Pulling at Rayne sleeve I whispered quietly,
"Don't make a scene."
I wanted to leave but Rayne lifted a hand silencing me. Wendell looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Rayne expression lightened,
"Boss, this is my girlfriend and if you or any other man touch her I will kill you all. I;m a very jealous boyfriend. Now you and everyone is going to forget that this ever happened." Rayne smiled.
Everyone in the bar seemed to carry on chattering like nothing had happened. Wendell's face smiled warmly at Rayne,
"Has your shift finished?" He asked Rayne.
Rayne put his arm around me and I could see the crowd of girls faces drop as Rayne said,
"Yeah, I'm done for tonight. My girlfriend is here to pick me up." Rayne smiled at me.
"Very good son. I'll see you tomorrow." He smiled.
With that Rayne lead me out the bar. Out on the street I said,
"You got a job?"
"Yeah, I saw how you were struggling with bills and I wanted to help."
"How long have you been working?"
"Since 11am. I hate it but you won't allow me to get money and fast cars the 'easy' way."
"You mean the dishonest way." I said. Rayne had once brought home an expensive car after hypnotizing the sales man to give it too him for free.
"How's Stephanie?" Rayne asked changing the subject.
"Okay. We've got an invite to see her."
"Good, you'll get to meet Sophie."
Another jealous pang made me pull away from Rayne as we walked together. Rayne stopped aware of the sudden distance between us.
"You mean the Sophie you were protecting?" I said quietly.
Rayne stared at me- "Yes."
My eyes glazed over and I nodded and walked ahead of him. I knew I was just being silly but I couldn't help what I felt. Rayne caught up with me and grabbed my hand pulling me against his chest. Suddenly he was right there in my face.
"I helped Sophie to protect you. Without Sophie you will die and vice versa. If anything happened to me Sophie consort would protect you in order to protect Sophie- if that makes any sense."
His gray eyes pleaded with mine to believe him and I did. Kissing him lightly on the lips we walked home and went to bed.
Gwendolyn du Coudray POV
Loki was dead.
My consort was dead.
My father was dead.
Skyler and Queen Sophia had chosen to fight.
Heavily pregnant I was forced into hiding in the lower realms of Hell. The big boss was looking for me. If the Devil caught me and my son, we would be both destroyed. My plans had failed miserably but I had not completely given up hope. I did have allies and although they may not be as powerful as Rayne there were a great number of them. After my birth I would take my army up to the surface and wage war against Skyler and the vampire Queen Sophie. Then I would kill all their friends and all their family. I had already killed Sophie's mother and father. I had also killed Skyler's Grandmother. None of which gave me a sadistic thrill. All their murders were the result of strategic planning to get my son to where he belongs.