Magnus stepped out of his cab and looked up at the giant mansion he is going to stay in. It was a classic looking mansion with a huge fountain in the centre of the front lawn. The walls were white and the domes and roofs were painted with royal blue. It was a beautiful mansion but not as magnificent as the infamous castle of Idris. That was another story that he was curious to find out.
He took out his luggage, paid the cab person, then walked inside the mansion. It was his friend Ragnor Fell's traditional mansion and he couldn't ask for any better place to stay in. Well, he does have his own Bane's mansion owned by his father Asmodeous Bane who is the top richest person of the world but because of his ego and sadistic nature, he didn't want anything related to him.
Magnus was a journalist in New York and was happy with the life he build for himself, but the whispers of the infamous castle of Idris was starting to spread all over the globe and being the top journalist in his company, he was sent to investigate about it to bring out the truth behind its superstitions.
"Magnus, my friend! Welcome to my castle!" Ragnor opened up his arms for his best friend. Magnus rolled his eyes then hugged his friend.
"Look at you, cabbage, enjoying all royal and luxurious lifestyle." Ragnor shook his head at the nickname then welcomed him in and showed him his room.
"Have some rest and freshen up, I'll see you at the dinner."
Magnus smiled, softly closed the door, then fell on the bed which was the softest and coziest bed he had ever slept on. He sighed as his body started to relax and his eyes became droopy because of all the travelling. Deciding to take a bath first, he stood up, picked out his pajamas, t-shirt, and towel then left for the bathroom.
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"Are you sure this is a normal dinner and not a feast, Ragnor?" Magnus' jaw was on the floor as he looked over at the dining table which was decorated with all kinds of food you could ask for. There were all kinds of fruits in the fruit basket, roasted chicken, chicken fried rice, spinach soup, mashed potatoes, arrabita pasta, fish fingers, vegetable salad, a large box of pizza, a bottle of coke and lastly a giant red velvet cake.
"Eat whatever you can, my friend. The left ones will be distributed to my house staff. I always ask them to make extra, whatever I eat, they eat the same."
"The great Ragnor Fell, always so kind and thoughtful!" Magnus chuckled and smiled as they walked towards the table and sat on their respective chairs. The dinner started with the soup and as soon as Magnus took a spoonful of it, he moaned at its delicious taste.
"Wow, I've never had a soup like this! It's amazing!"
"I know my staff is amazing at their work." Ragnor beamed but suddenly went all serious. "So, what exactly are you here for? I mean what is the work project that brought you here?"
Magnus cleared his throat. "It's about the infamous Lightwood castle I have to investigate about. Defame its superstitions-"
"Have you gone crazy, Magnus? That castle is cursed! Nobody came out of it alive!" Ragnor yelled.
Magnus sighed, he saw this coming. "And that's exactly I don't believe in. There's nothing called 'curse'. Everyone around the globe is whispering that the 100 years are over and it's time for the said prince of that castle to wake up. You know what, I'll go there tomorrow and check for myself. I'm pretty sure “I'll be the one”." Magnus air quotes the last part making Ragnor shook his head.
"Magnus, do you have a death wish? You don't live here, I do. And since the time this rumour has started to spread, many people have tried to get inside the castle to see the said immortal prince but nobody came out alive. No one knows what happens!"
"And that's exactly what I want to investigate about! Come on, Ragnor! Aren't you curious? Besides, what's the full story behind this sleeping beauty prince? Do you know?"
Ragnor sighed. "Unfortunately, I do!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Maryse, sweetheart, everything's going to be okay! Neither of us is infertile! We'll have our child. At some point, we will!" Robert soothed his wife and the queen of Idris, Maryse Lightwood.
"When Robert? Answer me, when? We keep trying but-"
"King, queen, there's someone here to visit you." Maryse and Robert exchanged a look then signalled at their servent to bring the person in.
"King Robert, Queen Maryse!" The person bowed. "I'm Imogen, a fortune teller, your highness. Today morning when I was looking at my fortune cards, it indicated that our kingdom will have a new prince. I came here to tell you the news and give you my congratulations."
Robert and Maryse's eyes teared up as they exchanged a look. Maryse placed her palm over her stomach and burst into tears.
"See, I told you!" Robert smiled and pecked his wife's forehead.
A year passed and Robert and Maryse got blessed with a beautiful baby boy whom they named Alexander Gideon Lightwood. He was a beautiful child. Robert was elated to finally have his boy in his arms that he decided to throw a grand party in their castle. He invited his whole kingdom so that they can welcome their new prince.
When they were throwing this party a group of thirteen powerful Indian transgenders were passing their town and were staying in their kingdom for a little duration, so he decided to invite them too. He discussed it with his family and friends and everyone agreed to it, but to their dismay, there were only twelve unique golden plates they decided to serve them in.
They knew that one of those transgender was cruel and spiteful and even looked down by her own group so they send their servant to invite the twelve of them, careful of not spreading the word to the thirteenth transgender.
When the day came, everyone was enjoying the grand celebration. The transgenders danced for the new prince and started giving him their powerful blessings. The blessings to be a beautiful man, to be kind and gentle, to have all the love he wishes to have, to have a caring nature but before the twelfth trans could give her blessings, the thirteenth cruel transgender stormed inside the castle, screaming king's and queen's names, who was completely enraged for not inviting her for the occasion they were known to bless for.
"Maryse and Robert Lightwood, you have made the biggest mistake by enraging a powerful Hijra (transgender)! When your son will turn eighteen, he will prick himself with a spindle and will die then and there!" She roared then left the castle.
"No!" Maryse screamed and fell on the floor, sobbing loudly as the crowd stood frozen in their place.
The twelfth trans looked at Maryse with a sympathetic look and put her palm over Alec's tiny forehead who was giggling in her arms. "Maryse Lightwood, you should know that our curse is more powerful than our blessings. I can not reverse Kajal's curse but I can soften it as I haven't blessed him yet. When he will prick himself he will not die, instead, he will fall in a deep sleep for the next hundred years and so shall all of you. After a hundred years, only a pure-hearted person with the soul of an angel will only able to wake him up."
Years passed by and when Alexander turned 18, the curse bestowed and every being present in that castle fell in deep sleep. On the day it happened, a hedge of different types of roses started growing around the castle and kept growing every year until nothing could be seen of the castle.
After that day many Prince and Princess tried to get inside the castle to see the sleeping beauty but death followed them as soon as they stepped at its gate, and so the legend of the castle of Idris was created.
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Magnus' eyes were widened to its fullest as he kept eating and listening to the story. "And everyone in Idris believes this? That it's a curse of a transgender? Seriously!?"
Ragnor put down his fork and sighed frustratingly. "Magnus, true or not but I'm not letting you go there!"
"Ragnor," Magnus said softly "look, I appreciate your concern but please have some faith in me. Nothing will happen to me and I'm sure there's no prince inside the castle, if he's there, I'm going to meet him tomorrow." He finished his dinner, stood up, and left for his room.
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It was eight in the morning when Magnus left the mansion to visit the castle. He wanted to be there as early as possible so that no one can know about his attempt. So after an hour, he was finally there, looking up at the giant which was thrice the size of Ragnor's mansion. It was completely white with hoards of varieties of roses creeping up and covering it fully. If he didn't know better, he would think it as a mountain of roses.
Taking a deep breath he slowly started walking towards the grand double door and when he successfully reached it, he put his hand over it and slowly opened it and to his shock, it did open without any problem unlike Ragnor warned him about the deaths which occurred while opening this same door.
As soon as he opened the door, he slowly walked in and noticed a big dining table where few people were sleeping who looked like they were around in their 40's. Gulping, he walked further, wondering if the legend of this place was actually true.
As he walked inside he noticed a door near the first hallway which was ajar. He didn't know why, but that room was calling out to him. He carefully walked towards it and opened it but gasped when he noticed what was inside.
There, in the centre of the room was a single bed whose bedposts had bunches of white and red roses creeping around it, densely packed together. Its bedframe had a name engraved on it, 'Prince Alexander Gideon Lightwood' and on that bed was a tall and handsome man, dressed in a royal robe sleeping peacefully on it.
Magnus' heart started racing as he kept walking towards that bed. He was here to prove that the said curse and superstitions were wrong but here he was, seeing everything in front of his eyes and was now in a dilemma as to what he should do.
As he reached the bed, he sat beside the said prince and traced his fingers over his face, removing the locks of soft raven black hair falling over his eyes. He was mesmerized by the beauty of that man that was calling out to him in some ways and he didn't understand that feeling. The man had a pale skin tone, paler than the natural pale if that's possible. His facial features were sharp and were clearly more than 6 feet in height.
Magnus slowly blinked as he kept adoring the man. He didn't know what got into him but he slowly leaned down and placed a soft kiss over his beautiful pink lips feeling the softness of it, but in that kiss he also felt a smile, leaning up he noticed the beautiful sapphire blue eyes looking at him adoringly. He was instantly captivated by those unique eyes. They were a unique shade of blue, a rare blue that you only witness in the depths of the ocean.
"Who are you?" Alexander asked and Magnus was instantly in love with his soft yet deep voice.
"A... I..." Magnus stuttered but suddenly he noticed that all the bunches of roses started disappearing, from the bed and from around the castle as well. The bugs that were sitting on the walls started flying and soon he noticed five people running inside the room.
"Oh my god! It happened!" The woman who was in her 40's exclaimed and started sobbing who was held by the man standing beside her. "A pure-hearted person with the soul of an angel, you came for my son. Promise me, I beg you, promise me that you'll love him with everything you have. Promise me that you won't leave my son, despite the flaws he has, despite-"
"Mother! At least let us know each other first. He might not even know anything about us." Alexander spoke up, cutting her mid-sentence to make sure she won't speak up something which the outside world didn't know about them.
"Right, we'll leave you guys alone." Maryse wiped her tears and dragged others with her as Magnus kept looking between them like a lost puppy.
"Thank you, for lifting the curse. What's your name?" Alexander asked softly.
"M.. Magnus. I... I can't believe this. It's true, I'm not dreaming. This whole curse thing. Were you actually asleep for a hundred years?"
"Yes, Magnus, it's true. But I want to know, which kingdom's prince are you?"
Magnus' cheeks became pink at his question. "Umm, prince and princess don't exist anymore. I'm a journalist."
Alec frowned at the word making Magnus smile at his adorable face. "You'll know, now that you woke up."
"Kay..." Alexander spoke as his unique blue eyes trailed towards Magnus' lips. "Can I... kiss you again?"
Magnus smiled and nodded then leaned in as Alexander leaned in too. Their lips met and both men felt like it was the best moment of their life. Alec trailed his tongue over Magnus' lower lip and Magnus opened up for the man, letting his tongue dance with his own, but soon he felt a metallic taste in his mouth and realised that it was blood. He broke their kiss and noticed that his lower lip was bleeding and the blood was trailing down towards his chin.
He brought his fingers towards his chin to wipe it off then looked at Alexander but gasped and sprinted backward, horrified with the sight. "What... what are you?"
There were fangs peeking through Alexander's lips which had blood dripping down from it and he was licking those clean, enjoying the taste of blood while smiling at Magnus. "What do you mean? I'm a vampire. You know that, right?"
Magnus' heartbeat quickened as he frantically looked around. "This is a dream, I'm dreaming! Vampires are myths! It's not real! I need to wake up! It's not real! Wake up, Bane!"
"Magnus, why are you talking like this? You.. you know about us Lightwoods, right?" He reached out his hand towards Magnus but the man leaped backward, looking at him with fear in his chocolate brown eyes. Few drops of tears escaped from his eyes as he looked at Magnus with sadness on his face.
Magnus' heart skipped a beat when he saw those tears falling on Alexander's face. He slowly crawled forward, reached out his hand, and wiped those tears off his beautiful face then slowly trailed his finger towards his fangs, feeling the sharp edges of it which accidentally pricked his finger. He winced and withdrew his hand as Alexander licked his lips seeing all the blood.
"But... the story I've heard, there's no mention about this... vampire thing." Magnus admitted.
"What do you know?" Magnus explained to him everything and by the end of it, Alexander was shaking his head in disbelief.
"Whoever had spread about the rumour clearly didn't want the world to know that we are vampires."
"Then, what's the true story? Because that's what not just Idris but the whole world knows. This place is known for what happened here." Magnus let him know.
"The truth," Alexander sighed audibly. "At that party, Kajal cursed us after Maya, the twelfth trans, blessed me. She never was left out. The curse activated at my eighteenth birthday, we all died, but those trans came back with a witch, a good witch who was a trans too. They didn't want us to suffer just because of a lunatic, so with that witch's magic we all were brought back to life, thus, we became vampires. But Kajal found out about what her former group did. She came back to Idris to curse us again.
When she found out that we were vampires, she cursed us again, stating that we'll be murdered by the people of our own kingdom, that they'll put a stake through our heart mercilessly, but unfortunately for her, the other trans were present there. They were so enraged by her that they killed Kajal by their and witch's combined powers. Then to keep us safe from our own people, they put us into a deep sleep and told us that we'll wake up after hundred years when a pure-hearted person with a soul of an angel will come for me. And you did!"
Magnus smiled, even though he was feeling overwhelmed with what he just learned. "So... this vampire thing is true? They exist?"
"All the legends are true, Magnus. Werewolves, vampires, witches, we all exist. I'm sure in these hundred years they would have found a way to live with you humans."
Magnus' jaw was on the floor listening to that. "I thought it was just in folklore and myths. Just stories."
Alexander smiled. "Folklore comes from believes that those creatures existed at some point. Nobody can create a creature with such details if they hadn't seen them with their naked eyes for at least once in their life."
"Point." Magnus said thoughtfully but noticed Alexander looking at his pricked finger as he kept licking his lips. He lifted his hand and noticed those blue eyes movements. Gulping, he placed his finger under his fangs making Alexander astonished.
"Magnus-"
"Isn't that a vampire's diet, blood?"
"But I haven't fed in years. I don't want to hurt you."
"Oh, come on my sleeping prince, it's just me. We are meant to be, right? If we wouldn't, you wouldn't have woken up. Besides, I don't know why, but I trust you."
Alexander smiled and rolled his eyes. He slowly and carefully pierced his fangs into his finger, sucking out the blood as he started drinking it. Magnus felt the pain but it wasn't bad and the horrifying yet adorable sight was doing something to him. He felt a connection with the vampire he never felt with any of his exes.
"Mmmhmm, more!" Alexander panted as he licked his fangs. Magnus didn't know what got into him but he lowered his jacket and tilted his head, exposing his neck. Alexander's eyes widened as he looked at the man with utter shock.
"Magnus, no! I can't!"
"Why? Isn't that how you vampires feed?"
"Yes, but as a couple, it's the most sacred thing to share. Feeding on our lover's blood means so much more than simple hunger. It's exchanged of promises, vows and so much more."
"Alexander, we already shared our first kiss and I'm feeling a connection with you. I do like you and trust you. So just go ahead and do it."
Alexander looked into those soft brown eyes and noticed the honesty in them. He smiled then carefully pierced his fangs into his throat, drawing out the blood and sucking on it as gently as he could. He kept sucking on Magnus' blood as he held him by his waist but a sudden loud squeal broke him out of his hunger.
"OMG! OMG! Mother! Father! They shared a neck bite! The human accepted us! Mother!" Others came running in and Maryse smacked her daughter on the head as they all tried to suppress their excitement.
"Izzy! Slow down! Sorry, Magnus, that's my sister, Isabelle. Oh, I didn't hurt you, right? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine Alexander." Magnus glanced between Alexander and his family and sighed. "Now since you all woke up from the curse, you people will need to blend in with our world. I'll help you all with it, but... it's going to be difficult."
Alexander smiled softly and touched their foreheads together. "I'm all for efforts! We all are."
"Then, welcome to my world, Alexander Gideon Lightwood!" Magnus smiled and locked their lips in a soft kiss.