Grogginess pressed her body forcefully against the bed upon which she laid, her chest feeling weighed down by the heaviest of gravity.
Groaning, the girl rolled over and twisted her body, her arms gently plopping onto the other side of the bed which she was surprised to feel was empty. Still half asleep, her eyebrows threaded and she felt around the empty space of mattress and pillow some more, her eyelids feeling too glued shut to open.
Then she heard a shuffle come from somewhere in the room, so she paused, breath held and body stilled. She then felt something light plop onto her bed, followed by the sound of a zipper being zipped open, which prompted her to slowly blink her sedated eyes open, bringing her cold fingertips up and rubbing her eyes. She then took her hands away and opened her eyes fully, her vision focusing and revealing a black suitcase lying wide open on the edge of the bed, the tall and dark figure of the vampire who was supposed to have been taking up the space in the bed next to her standing over the suitcase.
Lazy eyes followed the vampire as she flashed across the room to her tall wardrobe, opening it and taking out some black articles of clothing. The morning air in the bedroom felt crisper and much chillier, inciting the girl to pull the duvet resting at her stomach up to her chin, curling her body into a fetus position under the warm and soft covers.
The vampire heard the rustling of the blankets as she crossed the room with her long legs, planting the clothing she had plucked from the closet into the suitcase. Yellow-green eyes, placid as they ever have been, glanced to the baby blue eyes peeking out from under the covers. "Good morning," she purred, folding a black sweater neatly and placing it in the corner of the suitcase. A pearly smile preceded her morning greeting, two sharp fangs distinct in it.
"What are you doing?" Lily mumbled from under the duvet that was now above her lip, glancing with her hooded eyes to the leather suitcase.
"We're going on a trip," Rose answered her, brunette tresses that were parted more to one side sifting over her shoulder and threatening to graze the suitcase she leaned over.
Blonde eyebrows threaded further, the information causing the girl to sit up a bit more alertly. "A trip?" She turned her eyes to the large wall of glass window, viewing the snowy mountains in all their looming majesty.
Rose sauntered back over to her wardrobe as she spoke, "We are going to visit a friend of mine that I think could give me the counsel that I need right now."
"You and Holden?" Lily questioned, rubbing her eyes again as her mouth broke into a wide yawn. She sat completely upright, reaching her arms into the air and feeling her spine stretch and crack.
The vampire smirked as her ears picked up on every bone and joint in the girl's body that cracked. "And you," she said, looking at her with a sly smile as she folded another article of clothing.
Lily froze, her messy and slightly matted blonde hair sticking up around her head like a crown as she deadpanned the vampire. "Me? I'm going?" she repeated, her fingers squeezing the edge of the duvet as delight overcame her.
Rose nodded a bit distractedly as she closed the suitcase and zipped it up. "I've packed you the clothes you will be needing, and the outfit you will wear today is on the vanity."
The girl glanced to the vanity and saw the white dress sitting on the vanity. It was a casual yet very pretty dress, and she glanced back to Rose to see she was wearing black slacks with a black blouse and leather blazer, a steel necklace swinging down her slightly exposed chest. Her chestnut hair was let down that day, resting below her shoulders neatly.
Feeling a bit too warm, Lily kicked her bare legs out from the duvet, dressed in only underwear and a white tank-top. "Is it safe to travel?" she questioned as she slipped her feet onto the cold hardwood floor.
"Yes." Rose walked to her nightstand and opened the top drawer, picking up a black pistol that sat in it. Lily, a bit shocked that there had been a gun in there the whole time, found it astonishing that Rose trusted the girl that much. She watched her stuff the gun between her back and her belt, her blazer concealing it perfectly. "Just in case we run into trouble," she said with a smirk that was a bit more unsettling than comforting.
✞
"Okay, would you rather fist fight with Satan or play a poker game with Thanatos?" Holden asked excitedly, leaning forward and looking at the girl with a half-intense, half-anticipatory smile.
"Obviously the second one. Why would I choose a fist fight over a poker game?" Lily asked incredulously. She was sat next to the Queen in the back of the limo-type car, two random guards sat on either side of them. Across them, on a seat facing them, was Holden sitting between two more guards. Holden and Lily had been going back and forth with their stupid little game, while Rose mostly stared at the window and mulled over the various troubles storming on her mental horizon; but she was growing more aggravated by the second.
"Because if you lose the poker game, you die, obviously. Thanatos is the god of death," Holden said matter-of-factedly, scoffing at her failure to realize that predicament.
"Well, if you play a fair poker game with just one person, you have a 50/50 chance of winning because you are both capable of playing it and adhering to the rules. But if you fist fight with Satan, who could probably use magic or fire or some shit that you aren't capable of, your chances of winning are obviously much less," the girl argued.
"If you fist fight with one other person, you also have a 50/50 chance of winning. Obviously in each situation you have an equal chance of winning."
"But poker is poker—it's just a card game. Physically fighting can include so many things."
"But it's just fist fighting, no magic or fire or anything."
"Well, I think I'd probably play the poker game because I could probably win using mental advantage rather than physical, considering I'm human."
"But if you lose the poker game, you are guaranteed to die. If you fist fight, you don't necessarily—"
"Dear God of all things, will you two fuck-pricks please shut the fuck up?!" Rose interrupted, her eyes flashing amber as she stared specifically at Holden. "I have spent 10 hours in this goddamn car listening to non-stop chatter."
"Did you just say fuck-prick?" Holden questioned with threaded eyebrows, his eyes glinting with playful amusement.
"Holden, I will literally behead you right here in this automobile," Rose threatened, and there was absolutely no trace of tomfoolery in her tone.
"Automobile?" Lily chirped, causing the vampire's head to snap to her. "Why don't you just call it a car?" She felt strange, herself, using the word "car," especially when she hadn't been in one in eight years.
Leaning her head back, Rose closed her eyes and let out a sigh of aggravation. "I might as well just kill myself."
"Oh, no, are we going to have to put you in a straight jacket?" Holden asked, inciting a stifled giggle from the human girl who could feel that Rose was truly aggravated.
Rose lowered her head back to him, her pupils constricted to the point that they were barely even visible, and there was not a single lingering shade of yellow-green in her eyes—only pure amber.
The smile that had previously been plastered on the guard's face quickly faded, his lips straightening as her nervously cleared his throat and leaned back as far away from the Queen as possible. "My apologies, Your Majesty," he quietly whispered, turning his anxious gaze to the window as he sat rigidly in his seat.
Lily, still smiling, glanced over to the vampire who sat tall next to her with her jaw clenched, creating a depression in the center of her cheek like she was sucking them in. Letting out a barely audible giggle, Lily reached up and planted a brief kiss to the decline in the vampire's cheek, watching as the brunette blinked in surprised. She turned towards her, her pupils dilating and irises returning to their color as they viewed the pretty blonde with rosy cheeks and incessant smile on her pink lips. Her scowl turning into a smile of its own, Rose placed her hand on the girl's thigh.
Placing her hand over the vampire's hand on her leg and holding it, Lily smiled wider to herself in satisfaction that she had so easily quelled the vampire's rage. Glancing out to the window herself, being utterly fascinated with all the new landscapes they were seeing, Lily leaned her shoulder against Rose's and snuggled next to her body, melting when she felt the vampire warm up like a heater after feeling her coldness.
After a couple hours of Holden pouting like a child and Lily dozing on the Queen's shoulder, they finally arrived to their destination.
The car bounced down a rather tumultuous dirt road in the middle of a mountain range, but eventually it broke out into a valley between two mountains where Lily craned her neck around the guard next to her and out the window, basically sitting in his lap as she noticed white sand and blue water on the other side of the mountains they were driving between.
Rose, of course, was too busy giving the evil eye to the guard who was trying his best to look normal and unbothered as the human girl, whose scent dripped the smell of sweet metallic blood, leaned completely over him. He nervously glanced to the Queen and gave something between a respectful nod and smile, his features tightened from both his thirst and his fear for his life. Deciding it was good enough that he was at least trying to be respectful, Rose huffed and turned to the other window, leaning over the other guard beside her to look at the beach they were approaching.
"I haven't been to a beach since I was very young!" Lily exclaimed, remembering the days that her parents would take her to Coney Island where she spent days licking ice cream cones, riding ferris wheels, and splashing in the sticky salt water to get the even stickier sand off her.
The beach that the car was approaching was not sunny and colorful and people-filled like Coney Island was. This beach was much calmer and more majestic, the color palette consisting of grey skies, deep blue sea, white sand, and the brown and green of the low-lying mountain range that separated the beach from acres of forest. It seemed to be hidden away, the very edge of the entire world where only a select few were given the gift of being able to view.
The dirt road faded into white sand and ended right where the mountain range stopped, and once the car came to a stop, Lily wasted no time in tumbling over the guard and whispering a soft, "Sorry," as she practically fell out of the door.
She felt so relieved once her feet touched the ground, and she took a moment to stretch her legs before she kicked off her sandals and carried them, running out onto the soft sand. She nearly moaned at the nostalgic feeling of the incredibly fine sand sifting between her toes.
Rose wanted to call after her, feeling the need to constantly keep the girl by her side and attached to her hip, but as she stepped out of the car she refrained from doing so and instead chose to watch the girl, clad in her white sundress, jog onto the beach barefoot with her sandals in hand and her blonde hair flowing behind her. The sound of her glorious laughter bounced off the mountains, dug into the sand, sprung back into the air, and landed right in the vampire's pleased ears. Her heart clenched in her chest.
Holden had the honorary service of carrying everyone's bags, as the guards were busy carrying their swords and keeping eye on all the surroundings, and of course the Queen nor her human girlfriend would ever be burdened with carrying bags. So, with Rose walking after Lily with watchful eyes, and the four guards following after her with matching watchful eyes, Holden straggled behind them with bags resting upon his shoulders and on his back and in his hands. He occasionally lost his balance and leaned threateningly far to his left, having to pause and balance himself before continuing forward. He whined as sand found its way into his nice shoes he regretted wearing.
As they emanated from between the mountains and walked deeper into the beach, Lily caught sight of a large house standing right against the face of the mountains. It was made of both bamboo and glass windows, a large platform of shallow steps leading up to the front door which was also glass. She could even see the separation between two stories inside the house, and through the glass which was glared by the light of the clouds she could vaguely see various shapes of furniture bulging up from the floor and bringing character to the house.
Then her eyes moved to a line of a few huts standing several meters in front of the house, their roofs thatched with dried palm leaves and their walls made of matching bamboo, obviously darkened by years of rain. These huts were pretty tiny, not even having floors or doors but instead just a hard floor of sand and an opening in the bamboo that one had to crouch to get under.
Across from this row of huts sat the ocean itself, the royal blue water lightening the closer it got to the sand, turning into white foam as it rose to the line that divided dark, wet sand from the dry sand. The sound of it pulling into shore sounded like whispers caressing the girl's ears, her entire frame turning towards the ocean. She grinned widely, her steps moving towards the water as she tried to spot the other edge of the water, but she couldn't. It seemed as if she had reached the end of the earth where there was nothing between the sky and the waters.
The cool breeze from the waves rolled up on the shore and traveled up the length of her body, fanning the wide end of her sundress up her thighs. She closed her eyes and deeply inhaled, enjoying the slightly humid but average temperature of the beach and the wind in her hair.
"Lily," called a familiar voice that suddenly reminded her she was not alone. She turned, her eyes connecting with Rose's that looked at her in a direct way, as if she had been watching her before she called her name. "Come on, let's go get settled in."
The vampire, her dark, voluminous hair being blown back and to the side by the wind, nodded her head in a certain direction, and Lily's eyes followed it to the big house that sat before the dark mountain range whose bottom was black and top was littered with green trees. Her eyes then fell to the huts in front of the large house, and she compared the probably luxurious inside of the mansion to the meagerness of the huts.
Rose paused in her steps when the girl did not move but instead stared at the huts. The wind had died down and allowed her to see the girl's face more clearly without her blonde hair going crazy in front of it, and she saw half a smile rise to her lips before she spoke.
"I'm tired of being inside all the time," Lily called to the vampire who stood a few yards away, her body prepared to walk up the sandy hill to the mansion. "Can we stay in one of these?"
The vampire looked to the thatched huts that stood shorter than she did, her lips nearly curling in disgust at the thought of sleeping on sand all night. Then she figured she could probably borrow a blanket from the friend she was visiting, and it would probably actually be quite romantic to sleep in front of the roaring waves with the girl.
So, turning her body towards the huts, she began walking towards them as she smiled at the girl. "Alright."
Holden finally caught up to them from behind, panting a bit as she doubled over from the bags on his back. "Take your bags, dear God." He halted right in front of the Queen who chuckled and took her and Lily's bag from him. The guard continued, "And I'll be sleeping inside tonight. No way I'm sleeping in a hut like a little old peasant." He immediately began trudging towards the house after his words, marching in the sand to keep it from getting inside his shoes any more.
"We will stay in one of the other huts as precaution, Your Majesty," one of the guards spoke up, nodding towards another guard before making their way towards the hut.
"That won't be necessary," the Queen argued, her voice causing them to immediately stop in their tracks.
The guard's eyebrows raised in respectful disbelief, his eyes flickering over to measure the distance between the house and the huts that looked a little uncomfortably far to him. But, afraid to question Her Majesty, he only looked back to her and asked, "Are you sure, Your Majesty?" in a polite tone.
"We will be just fine," the Queen assured him with a smile, watching him hesitantly take a bow before he led the other three guards towards the house after Holden. She then began walking back towards the huts, choosing one in the middle and crouching through the door. She plopped her bag down and let it lay against the inside of the bamboo walls, taking a glance around the little hut to be sure it looked sturdy enough. It did—and it also looked cozy enough, with just enough room for two people to curl up comfortably.
She brushed away the lasciviousness of her arising thoughts and stepped out of the hut, glancing to the girl whose eyes had returned to the ocean. Her hands wrapped around herself as she stared out at the choppy water whose deep blue was occasionally interrupted by rows of white sea foam.
The vampire walked up behind the girl silently, feeling her jump in surprise when she let her hands rest upon her hips. She nestled her chin onto the girl's shoulder, listening to her heart beat quicken and heat emanate from her cheeks. Glancing to the side of the girl's face, she could see the rise of a smile on the crescent of her cheekbones, the edge of her pink lips barely visible form the angle but obviously pointing upwards.
Her eyes lowered down the girl's feminine jaw and to her tender neck where the faded scars of the bite mark decorated her skin in two raised bumps. Through the scarred skin her eyes followed a blue vein that she could feel pulsate with the blood pumping though it. She did not thirst, no, but something in her twisted as she smelled her human blood, listened to it travel throughout her body, and thought about how it was the reason she was in such an unexpected predicament.
The type of blood that pumped through her heart and caused the vampire's fangs to buzz even though she controlled her thirst, simply because it was so sweet, was the reason her being mated to her was so incredulous. It was the reason that her rule was being questioned; it was the reason she was proposing something that the majority of her subjects found outrageous.
But she loved her. No matter the type of blood in her veins, no matter the color of her eyes or the dullness of her teeth, she loved her with all her might—and that was quite a lot. Plus, her predicament was the reason she was visiting her friend at that beach, so she pressed a quick kiss to the girl's neck and gently took her hand, whispering, "Come on."
Blushing softly, Lily let Rose lead her past the huts and towards the house. She eyed it curiously, imagining what it was like inside and who was the person who owned it. Then she noticed a glass door being opened, and out from it stepped a womanly figure dressed in a light grey dress. Her hair nearly matched it, and even from afar Lily could see that although this woman's hair was pure silver, her face showed no signs of old age.
As they stepped up the steps and grew closer, she was struck by this woman's beauty. And when they were right in front of her, she was shocked at how beautiful her eyes were. They were a light, tranquil gold, not fiery like William's but not quite dull. They were like a pastel yellow with hints of vivid honey floating in them. They looked calm and understanding, wise and observant. Everything about her seemed motherly, and Lily felt a sense of comfort in her presence.
"Queen Rose!" the woman exclaimed, her smile showing two dainty fangs as she opened her arms wide.
"Your Grace," Rose answered her more formally, letting go of Lily's hand so she could envelop the slightly shorter woman in a hug. The woman hugged the brunette tightly, her hands pressing flat open against her back as if she hadn't seen her in years and wouldn't see her for many more.
As Rose pulled away, the woman kept her hands on the Queen's elbows and looked her up and down. "How is it that every time I see you, you are even more beautiful than you were before?"
Rose smiled gracefully at her, holding her forearms and tilting her head as her yellow-green eyes glowed flecks of gold as if trying to match the woman's hue in an envious endeavor.
The woman's eyes then shifted to the girl who stood a bit behind the Queen, her hands folded in front of her as she looked between the two shyly. The woman's smile faded slightly, but the light in her eyes remained. "Is this her?" the woman asked quietly, glancing back to Rose with some sort of knowing, excited glance.
"Yes," Rose answered, pulling away from her and turning towards Lily. "This is Lily. Lily, this is my old friend Lady Landau. She basically raised me after my parents died."
"I was the only one who could corral her little beast self," the woman said with a laugh, some of her pinned-back silver hair leaving the main bundle and blowing across her face as the wind picked up. The sun, which had finally come out of the gathered clouds, was setting in the West, rays of golden orange casting across the vampire's face.
Lily bowed her head politely, bringing it back up to gently say, "Nice to meet you, Lady Landau."
Rose watched her carefully, being able to hear how fast her shy heart was beating.
"Well, let me get a good look at her, since you talk about her so often," Lady Landau said, causing Rose to smile sheepishly. The woman, who seemed older but did not look it, stepped forward, shocking the girl when she softly took her by the shoulders.
Lily looked up at the Lady nervously, her crystalline blue eyes meeting the tranquil gold ones that seemed to calm her somehow. The Lady smiled as she viewed the girl, from her messy golden hair, to her humanly blue eyes, pink cheeks and lips, and her small frame that stood even shorter than her. The Lady took note of how small she was, obviously very young as her features were still softened by youth. But she thought Lily was beautiful, and there was something in her blue eyes that intrigued her. There was something hiding behind them, something special that gnawed on her and made her want to know exactly what it was.
But, no matter how hard the Lady stared at the girl who looked back at her carefully, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She turned to Rose who had been also staring at the girl with a sparkling pride and adoration in her eyes. "She's a keeper, Rose."
The Queen smiled without removing her eyes from the blonde, her throat clenching as she swallowed down her swelling heart. "Believe me, I know."
Lady Landau watched as Lily's eyes flickered to Rose at her words, her irises filling with that same light with which Rose looked upon her. The Lady could feel it between them, a palpable love stronger than anything she had ever felt between two people.
Lady Landau was old and wise. She had seen many different types of people, human and vampire. She had been around several pairs of mates, even having been around humans and vampires who were mated with their opposite species. But never, in all her centuries of living, had she seen a connection so strong that it was nearly visible like Rose and Lily's.
Taking her hands away from the girl and folding them together, the Lady smiled as she felt elation fill her at the sight of Rose being looked at with such love—she had waited centuries to see it. Taking a deep breath as she felt like she was going to explode into a spectacular frenzy of energized light from how wide she was grinning, she turned to the side and motioned towards her open door. "Dinner is ready, you two."