Wards of Night

by E. M. Knight

  Just another way to make me uneasy.

  I smooth the back of my dress, turn around to sit—and freeze with a sudden gasp.

  The entire auditorium, which had been empty only a moment ago, is now teeming with vampires.

  I know what they are because of how absolutely still they stand. Not a single one of them stirs. They’re like wax statues. All their eyes are on me. They line the sides of the chamber, dressed in rich fabrics and luxurious outfits that range in style from centuries ago all the way up to modern day.

  And they’re all, each one, stunningly beautiful. Their figures are somehow enhanced compared to ordinary humans. The males have more power in their stance. The women have curves that are subtly more emphatic than usual. All the faces are striking, bold, aristocratic.

  April is the only one who stands out in the mass. She’s completely stiff and unmoving, but in a different way. Her eyes wander side-to-side, betraying her fear. Her poor peasant girl’s clothes don’t help the contrast.

  “How did they…” I begin.

  Morgan looks at me and smiles. “They’re waiting for you to sit, Princess.”

  In a daze, I lower myself onto the stool. As soon as I do, movement breaks out in the crowd. The vampires start talking, whispering to each other, just as I would expect in a regular assembly of so many people.

  So many ‘people?’ Is that the right phrase?

  But I don’t know what else I would call them. After all, they do look like people, enhanced, uplifted, extraordinarily beautiful people.

  Goosebumps wash over me.

  Morgan raises a hand. A silence immediately falls. Now the attention shifts away from me and to her.

  “You all know why you’ve been summoned,” she announces. “But your future sovereign here does not. This is Eleira,” she swirls a hand over me, “and though some of you may have heard of her arrival, it is the first time you can see her yourselves, see that she is real, and that—yes—–she is still human.”

  Hostile murmurs come from the mass. I grip the bottom of my seat so tightly my nails feel like they’re about to rip off.

  “Oh!” Morgan says suddenly. “I almost forgot. We are also blessed by the presence of one other human.” Her eyes fall on April. “Come up here, dear, won’t you?”

  I get a very, very bad feeling about this.

  April reluctantly climbs the steps. Morgan holds out her hand. April goes to one knee and kisses the ring on the Queen’s finger.

  “Good girl,” Morgan murmurs. “You know the proper protocols.” She draws her hand away and gestures dismissively to my side. “Now, take your place behind Eleira.”

  April walks to me and steps one foot back. I start to turn my head to her, but she quickly hisses, “No!”

  I snap my attention forward.

  “As you can see,” Morgan continues. “The two girls have developed a particular bond. Neither of them is to be touched by any vampire. You will spread the message amongst your peers who could not make it today. If any harm befalls Eleira or her hand-servant, well…” Morgan’s lips curl up in a cruel smile, “…whoever is responsible will have to answer to me. Is that understood?”

  The absolute silence that follows the warning is more ominous than any other reaction I could have envisioned.

  “Now then!” Morgan claps her hands. “We’ve got that out of the way, it’s time to turn our attention to the real matter that brought you here.”

  On her words, the far entrance doors heave open. Two vampires, both in chains, are dragged forth by a circle of guards.

  The murmurs pick up as the two prisoners come to a stop before us. The guards kick them to the floor.

  Both look… awful. Their skin is stretched so tight over their bones they might as well be skeletons. Their eyes are sunken and red. There’s not a trace of hair on either of them—it’s almost like it has all been burned away.

  I suck in a breath when I realize one of them is a woman. She’s so thin and wretched… only the contours of her eyes hint at her femininity.

  “You know the charges laid against you,” Morgan says, almost casually. “How do you plead?”

  “Innocent!” they call out in unison.

  Morgan looks at them and laughs. The assembled vampires take cue from her reaction. They start to laugh, cruelly, as well.

  The prisoners huddle down, defeated.

  Morgan calls for silence. “My son James saw both of you consorting with a band of humans the night before The Hunt. Do you deny the accusation?”

  “Yes!” The male vampire looks up. He holds his hands out pleadingly. “Patricia and I would never go against you. We owe you everything! Our lives, our powers. Please!”

  Morgan arches an eyebrow. “You would call my son a liar?”

  “No!” The man shakes his head. “No. Never. But the situation was not as it appeared. It —”

  “Enough.” Morgan cuts him off. “I won’t tolerate babbling. You, Jacob, are also accused of lying with a human. How do you plead?”

  Behind me, April makes an almost imperceptible gasp and takes one tiny step back. “Jacob,” she whispers.

  “That…” Jacob spreads his hands, “That…”

  Then his eyes fall on April, and he lets out a roar. “It’s her!” he screams. “She was the one I found with your son, she was the one who framed me, she —”

  He cuts off when one of the guards places a boot in his back. “You will show proper respect to your Queen, worm,” the guard growls.

  But Morgan seems amused by the new information. “Could it be…?” she murmurs. She beckons April closer. “Come here, dearest. Let me take a good look at you.”

  April shakes her head. “No,” she whimpers, oh so softly. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t.”

  “Now,” the Queen snaps.

  Shaking, trembling, April approaches her monarch.

  “You don’t need to be frightened,” Morgan assures her softly. “I just want to take a look at you.” She holds her hand out, palm up. “Let me see your wrist.”

  April swallows and extends her arm. The Queen catches it. Their eyes meet. The whole assembly is watching.

  Morgan pulls April’s sleeve back. The girl flinches. I see two fresh bite marks on her arm. And then, the most astounding thing happens;

  Morgan runs her hand over April’s wrist, and the marks disappear.

  The Queen surges up and holds April’s arm out. “There is nothing!” she announces. “You, Jacob, are a criminal and a liar.”

  “No, no, no,” he says. “It was her, it was the girl —”

  The guard kicks him again. “Silence, cur.”

  I look around the room, questions boiling in my mind. The Queen just protected April. Why?

  “It falls on me to pass sentence,” Morgan says. “I find both of the accused guilty, for the crimes described —”

  The two entrance doors crash open, cutting her off mid-sentence. Everyone’s head swings back.

  There, standing in the middle of the threshold, is Raul. He looks furious.

  “Oh,” Morgan’s eyebrows go up. “How kind of you to join us.”

  “I would have been here earlier, Mother,” he says. “If I had known you’d advanced the trial by six hours.”

  She feigns surprise. “You weren’t informed?”

  Raul walks forward. He glances at me once. That’s all the acknowledgement I get.

  “It’s fortunate I make a habit of keeping an eye on things,” he says. “When so many of our kind go missing from their regular places of activity, it’s obvious they’ve been summoned.”

  “I assure you it was not my intention to do this without you,” Morgan says sweetly. “I just wanted to show Eleira how we deliver justice in The Haven.”

  “Justice?” Raul laughs. He stops by the two prisoners. They flinch away, but he bends down and whispers something first in Patricia’s ear, then in Jacob’s. Cautiously relieved expressions blossom on their faces.

  Raul looks up and addresses
his mother. “You call this sham of a trial justice?”

  “Their guilt is doubtless,” Morgan says smoothly. “All evidence points to their fault in the crimes described.”

  “And where is the accuser?” Raul says. “Where is James, the one who brought about the charge?”

  Morgan hisses. “Everybody knows your brother is on an important diplomatic mission —”

  “And so the trial will be delayed until he returns, or you will simply throw out these ludicrous charges.” Raul stares right into the Queen’s eyes and speaks with authority I did not know he had. “Our citizens deserve fairness, and all the rights afforded to them as subjects of The Haven. I will not let you condemn these two without due process.”

  Morgan surges up. “You dare go against me?” she screams. “You dare –”

  “No,” Raul says. “All I dare is remind you of the laws governing our home and make sure that those laws are upheld equally for all.”

  I don’t know why, but I feel a sudden sense of admiration for Raul.

  “Gah!” Morgan hisses. She’s in a rage. “Out, out, get out, all of you!”

  The assembly of vampires stream out the door. In mere seconds we’re left with only Raul, the guards, and Jacob and Patricia for company.

  Morgan paces back and forth in front of her throne. Her brows are furrowed in anger. She looks extremely bitter.

  “That,” she tells her son, “was a grave miscalculation.”

  “No, Mother,” he replies. “The mistake was yours. If our coven saw justice distributed unfairly —”

  “Our coven knows that my word is law!” she screams.

  Raul’s eyes flash to me. “Not for much longer,” he murmurs.

  I swallow.

  They stare at each other for a tense moment. April cowers beyond sight. Patricia and Jacob remain still on the floor.

  I can’t take it anymore. I break the silence.

  “What’s going to happen to them?” I blurt out, looking at the two chained vampires.

  The Queen turns to me and acknowledges my comment. “Yes, Raul,” she says. “What is going to happen to them?”

  “They will return to custody until James comes back —”

  “Impossible,” his mother breaks in. “I will not have them brought back into the village where they can go stir more trouble. Unless…” she taps her lips, and her eyes focus on me. “Eleira can have them.”

  “What!” I gasp, at the same time as Raul says, “No!”

  “Why not?” Morgan sneers. “She will have to get used to being in the presence of our kind. If you are so sure of their innocence, why, you should have no problem leaving them near Eleira. Unless… you foresee other problems?”

  Raul looks at the two vampires on the ground. They’re still kneeling, unsure and hesitant. The guards make an impenetrable ring around them.

  Finally, he says, “I will stand for them.”

  “Don’t be a fool!” Morgan erupts. “They are of the lowest caste. Look how they tremble in your shadow!”

  “No, Mother,” he says softly. “It is you they are fearful of. You do not have their respect. You have their hatred.”

  She laughs. “What do I care if criminals detest me? I see no other way. I am the one who executes their sentence.”

  All of this bickering is going over my head. The last thing I want is to get entrenched in petty politics, especially as nothing more than a bystander. I need to retreat from this situation, to go back somewhere, to have time to think.

  “If you want a true succession,” Raul tells the Queen, “and if you want it done without rebellion, you will take to heart what your subjects think. Leave Jacob and Patricia with me, and I will ensure they do not trouble you.”

  Morgan casts him a filthy look. “Fine!” she says finally. “But I hope you know what you are doing.”

  And with that, she flies down the steps from the throne, beckons the guards to follow her, and leaves me and April alone with Raul and the two prisoners.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  RAUL

  I see her sitting there beside my Mother’s throne, and all I can think is how beautiful she is.

  It’s wreaking havoc with my brain. It’s not enough that her blood smells the way it does. No, she has to be stunningly beautiful, too.

  And the way she’s regarding me now, with a mix of fear and wonder — I hate it. I wish I could tell her the things she does to me. But I barely understand them myself.

  Besides, it’s not as if she’ll simply open up herself to me.

  So I shift focus to the two prisoners still kneeling on the floor. “You need to feed,” I tell them.

  “Yes!” Patricia gasps. “Yes, we’ve been deprived for so long…”

  Deprived and left in the sun, I think. That’s the only explanation for their current condition. Vampires can last weeks, maybe months, without a drop of blood. The cravings will take them, but they would not appear as these two do before me.

  My Mother’s methods of torture disgust me.

  “You know where the blood banks are,” I say. “I will grant you some of the supply from them.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Patricia exclaims.

  I grimace. “Don’t grovel.”

  She pulls back. “I’m sorry, I meant no disrespect —”

  “Save it,” I say. My main concern is separating Patricia and her husband from Eleira and April. They're in chains now, but if the bloodlust takes them and they try to go for the two girls — I will have no choice but to destroy them.

  After the whole scene I caused in my Mother’s court, I’m reticent to be responsible for that.

  “Come,” I say. The two of them stand. It’s pitiful, the state they’re in, but nothing can be done for it now.

  Eleira stands as we’re leaving. “Are you just going to leave us here?”

  “I’ll be back,” I promise, not looking over my shoulder. “As soon as I deal with these two.”

  Once outside of Mother’s castle, I grab both Jacob’s and Patricia’s chain. “How fast can you move?” I ask them.

  They look at each other. “Not very.”

  “Then I’m sorry for this,” I say, “but we have to be quick.”

  I start off with immense speed, dragging both of them behind me in the dirt.

  We reach my residence. They’re dirty and soiled and look worse than before.

  But they don’t complain about my method of transport.

  I let them in. “I’ll get somebody to bring you the blood I promised,” I say. “For now, stay inside, stay quiet, and do not be seen. There are those who would try to curry favor with my mother by going against me and ending your lives. Do you understand?”

  The two weakened vampires nod and mutter their gratitude.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I say. “We’re nowhere near to being out of the woods.”

  In fact, we’ve only just wandered in.

  ***

  The trek back to the castle takes longer than I would like. Vampires from the assembly try to speak to me about what transpired. I entertain the briefest of conversations, the whole time thinking only of the two girls I left in the throne room.

  When I return, I’m relieved to find Eleira and April both still there.

  They go still when they see me. Suspicion blooms in their eyes. I walk toward April first. “Go,” I tell her softly. “I need to speak to Eleira alone.”

  Eleira takes April’s hand. “Whatever you want to tell me, she can hear,” she says. “The Queen restored her memory. She knows who and where she is.”

  I frown. “Is that so?” I had no idea Mother would risk so much. For what? To make Eleira feel comfortable?

  April nods, defiant toward me. “She and I are in this together.”

  “You realize your little friendship will not last?” I demand of them. “Eleira, you’re set to become like me. April, you’re destined to remain human.”

  “She knows,” Eleira says. “Why would that change anything?�
��

  I scoff. “Do you really believe becoming a vampire won’t change you?” I step toward April. “I can resist her. But I’ve had centuries of experience. You think you won’t want to drain her of every last drop of her red, sweet, precious, life-giving human blood the moment the transformation hits?”

  Even speaking of feeding threatens my resolve not to touch April.

  I quickly change the subject and lower my voice. “But… there might be a way to delay it.”

  “What?” Eleira asks. At the same time, April exclaims, “Why!”

  “To give Eleira more time,” I say, focusing on the girl I feel so protective of. “You’ve been thrown into this headfirst. You’re not getting out. There is no escape from The Haven for you. But that does not mean I’m not willing to help you come to grips with who you are.”

  “I know who I am,” she says haughtily. The spark is back in her eyes.

  “Yes,” I say. “But you don’t know all that we expect from you.”

  “You expect me to be someone I’m not,” she tells me, straight-up. “Someone I never was.”

  “But someone you were born to be,” I say. My gaze goes around the empty chamber. “Don’t let Mother hear that doubt. We are in her domain. The walls have ears. You never know who might be listening.”

  Eleira takes a small step back. I can see her fright and the desperate way she’s trying to hide it.

  I have the insatiable urge to take her into my arms and give her comfort. But what would she do if I tried? She’d be repelled by me. How can I show her that, in spite of who I am, I am on her side in all this?

  At least, as much as I can hope to be.

  “We need to get out of the castle,” I take another look around. “I’ll bring you back to your chambers. You’re safest there.”

  I turn away and start to walk out but get the feeling they are not following. I look back. “Well?”

  “I don’t want to be locked up again,” Eleira says resolutely. “I want to see all parts of The Haven. I want to go into the village and meet the people.”

  I laugh. “I’m afraid that is an impossible request.”