“Would someone send my dear sister out to negotiate?” came a cackling voice across the radio, breaking the sound of static.
The sweat that had formed a fine layer of moisture across every inch of my body became cold and the chill slapped me, my arm hair standing on end, my eyes going wide as I recognized the nails-on-chalkboard voice of Queen Patricia. I reached out a tense hand and clamped down on Sebastian’s forearm, clutching frantically as I tried to keep conscious. I had tried to prepare myself for the very real possibility of meeting Queen Patricia again but I hadn’t thought of what the affect of seeing her again, let alone hearing her voice, would do to me.
Every inch of me wanted to hide, to run. Sebastian pulled me close and did his best to comfort me as Queen Victoria cleared her throat and picked up the radio attached to Sebastian’s shoulder. I held my breath, holding my feet fast where I stood, every ounce of my willpower keeping me from rushing out of the front door and running blindly down a blacked driveway into the night, full of blood thirsty monsters.
Queen Victoria clicked the radio after a moment and waited, the crackle of the static gone but the silence just as heavy. Sebastian did his best to hold me close, to calm me. It wasn’t until the second or third time he nudged my hand that I realized he was trying to give me something. I had been so focused on Victoria that I hadn’t noticed the small knife he was trying to slip into my hand. I clutched it, feeling a small amount of relief as I tried to push out of my mind what using it would mean, how close to the fight I would really be. I didn’t have time to dwell on it. No sooner had I put the knife away than the Queen decided to break her moments of silence.
“Speak your peace. There will be no meetings,” said Queen Victoria crisply into the radio.
“I demand that you immediately relinquish the throne to me, the rightful heir and ruler, at once,” said Queen Patricia, her smile audible with every syllable. She was enjoying this.
I watched Queen Victoria’s face turn from a calm control to an emphasized eye-roll at her sister’s demands.
“No,” said Queen Victoria flatly.
“It’s not yours. You didn’t earn it,” snapped the old Queen’s voice, bitterness blanketing her words, “It’s mine and you know it!”
“It’s true. I didn’t kill our father,” said Queen Victoria, “But Mother thought the throne suited me perfectly. You did, after all, flee,”
“She would have ended me,” said Patricia, “Mother hated that I was to inherit the throne,”
“You were never going to be the ruler. That’s why you killed our father,” accused Victoria.
“She never would have chosen you if she had known I had killed him,” said Patricia.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” said Victoria, pausing, “She did know,”
“That’s a lie,” said Patricia, “You would tarnish the memory of our beloved mother with such falsehoods! You lack honor, sister,”
“The rightful ruler is seated at the throne. You are a murderer and a coward and I’m ashamed to call you sister,” said Victoria.
“I told her you were a mistake. I wish Mother had listened to me,” snarled Patricia across the radio, “You were to be a playmate for me and nothing more. And you have robbed me of my birthright for 200,000 years!”
“You are dead to me,” responded Victoria, dropping the radio and walking towards the marble stairs with a stiff back and her head held high.
“You will burn in the flames of hell for eternity,” screamed Patricia through the crackling radio, the sound of her hatred and anger echoing throughout the halls of the castle that stood still, silent, like the vampires that listened on with disbelief. Queen Victoria was right - her sister was making this personal. Very personally.
CHAPTER NINE
It had been an hour since the last radio contact with any of the guards Sebastian had sent outside and the whole of the court waited in silence, with cramped seating. Everyone was waiting for something to happen, anything.
Queen Patricia had left us with terrifying last words. But as the minutes began to stretch into hours, the hundreds of vampires that still gathered in the common areas of the castle were getting restless.
“Maybe they’ve gone,” suggested Lydia.
Victoria didn’t acknowledge her suggestion but Sebastian did, giving her a judgmental and condescending look, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Maybe that’s what they want us to think,” I murmured.
“More than likely,” said Sebastian in a quiet voice, looking down at me where I sat on the hard marble floor.
“We need to do something soon,” said Queen Victoria, her brow furrowed and her lips twisted in dissatisfaction, “My sister has never been a patient person. It’s possible that she retreated to regroup. If that’s the case, we need to know so we can take advantage,”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Sebastian.
My ears perked and I sat up, as did many around the Queen, with the sound of action in the air, and hope.
“Send out three,” said Victoria, “Have them scout out Patricia’s men. Tell them not to engage if they can help it. We need to know what is happening,”
“If they have retreated then we should leave while we can,” said Lydia, hands clasped together and neck strained as she tried to persuade with her philosophy of living to fight another day.
“We won’t leave,” insisted the Queen, throwing a hand up to silence Lydia who backed away a few steps, “But if there is an opportunity to send for reinforcements, we will take it. We’re not completely lost. I still have a trick or two up my sleeve,”
“We’re at an advantage in the castle,” Sebastian explained to Lydia, and me, “This is a stronghold for us. We need very few to defend our position but if we get caught on the run, in the open…”
Sebastian didn’t have to spell it out. Even I knew the odds of us surviving if we were caught out in the garden in the middle of the night. It wasn’t as if there was anything nearby to really run towards to hide behind and survive the night. He was right which meant that Lydia was wrong, which surprised me. This was one instance where I had a gut feeling that her instinct to run would have been right. Perhaps Lydia would have found a way to survive but all of us in a group, we wouldn’t last long out there.
I watched as Sebastian signaled for three guards to go outside but they hesitated. I couldn’t blame them for their fear. Even once Sebastian explained that they were only doing reconnaissance, they still expressed silent hesitation. But the front door opened and out they went. The common areas of the castle remained silent, the echoes of heartbeats heard only in our own ears but in unison all the same.
I looked around me at the huddled masses of monsters and felt a streak of pity. As far as fables and legends, vampires were more human than I had ever realized. They had weaknesses and they didn’t want to die any more than anyone sitting beside them. I’m sure they were not often faced with moments of mortality, of real fear for their semi-immortal lives.
I could help but sympathize with them. I had known that feeling, the fear of pain, the terror when faced with the possibility of death. I may not have been in actual risk of dying but it didn’t make my feelings, my experiences, my fear and pain, any less real.
I looked away from the sea of fear that covered the floor of the castle, the faces looking for answers and clinging to hope beginning to eat at my heart. I wanted to shut it out. I looked out the window, completely dark as night had fallen hours ago. I could make out the faint outlines of the trees in the distance. I could see the light glow of the solar garden lights that followed the walking paths nearest the castle. I could see the moon when it peeked out from behind the black clouds covering the sky and hiding the star light. I focused on the darkness and tried to ignore the despair and fear that surrounded me. But watched it spark to life in the dark, before my eyes, and for a moment I thought I had caused it.
I slowly raised myself up off the floor and navigated the crowded marble floo
r until I reached the window, the window area that most had avoided sitting close to. I placed a hand up onto the glass window, placing my hand over the orange flame that had materialized out of the darkness. I could tell as soon as I had reached the window that a fire had been set. I dropped my hand and took a step back as I watched the flame that had flickered to life in the darkness began to race in a line through the garden, closer and closer to the castle.
“I’m not getting an answer,” I faintly heard Sebastian say as I kept my eyes on the racing flames that came closer by the second, as I backed away and continued to trip over vampires that were unaware. I couldn’t find my voice. But others had noticed. Others had gotten up and gone to the window to look and they were crowding the windows now, shouting out what they were seeing - unsure of what they were seeing all the same. I tore my eyes away from the windows as the vampires blocked my view. As I turned around, my eyes found vampires huddled around every castle window, shouts could be heard from all of them.
“They’ve set fires,” said Lydia, breathlessly as she raced from one of the far windows to where Sebastian and the Queen stood in the center of the marble landing surrounding the marble staircase.
“What do we do?” I asked Sebastian, still making my way from the window.
No sooner had the words left my lips, desperate and confused, worried through and through, than the gunfire had started. I turned to watch bullets shatter through the glass windows where the vampires have been huddled, viewing the fire as it streaked around the castle.
Everything happened in slow motion. I could see the shards of glass as they propelled toward me, through the bystanders that couldn’t get away from the window fast enough. The horror, as I watched body after body fall to the ground torn into pieces and ripped to shreds, consumed me, and it saved me. I was unable to move backwards towards safety as vampires raced in a panic to find safety. And I couldn’t move forward to help them due to my desire for self-preservation and my will to remain unharmed. I fell to my knees and watched as the explosion of bullets that ripped through the walls tore apart the vampires that had fallen victims of their own curiosity, all huddled around the windows.
The scene was the same at every window with bullets, blood, bodies stacked where they fell, and the dust from the plaster of the walls cloud the air only to have the moans and shrieks of pain rise up as a fire burst to life in dry debris. I stayed low on the ground, crawling and dragging myself around bodies that lay all around, crying for help, reaching out for a hand to hold. I tried to make my way to the bottom of the marble stairs where Sebastian and Queen Victoria still stood, completely unscathed. Very few others stood near them.
Looking around at the damage, the attack had been efficient. It had crippled us. It didn’t look like the bullets had killed any of the vampires but they were mangled and torn to pieces, pain overwhelming them and blood seeping in a steady flow across the marble throughout the castle. The blood snaked across the marble and I tried to move as quickly as I could, trying to avoid touching the crimson liquid as best I could. Tears streamed from my eyes as the amount of blood began to take shape. The lowest point of the castle was the bottom of the marble staircase and it had begun to fill with the blood of the fallen.
Recessed into the floor, much like a roman bath with the stairs surrounding all sides of this great gathering place, the blood trickled down into the place where Sebastian and the Queen stood. They did not flinch or waver. I stopped crawling at the edge of the three steps leading down to that landing area, watching as the blood trickled past me as though drawn to Queen Victoria. She held her head high, unflinching as the blood soaked into the hem of her dress and began to wick up the cloth. Slowly, the blood crawled up her dress and I felt my heart stop as I watched with horror.
I looked to the left of me and found a vampire, a man, with part of his face missing, his chest completely collapsed due to the damage from the bullet holes that had ripped through him. He was unable to breathe and I watched the blood stream out of every wound, falling down the marble steps as a water fountain fills a pond.
I looked up at Sebastian from where I crouched at the edge of the landing in shock, unable to speak, unable to process what had exploded into horror all around me. I looked at him, wishing I could cry out to him but at the same time terrified at his expression of anger, not horror, at what he saw. When his eyes finally met mine, I saw the softening around his eyes, the slight wrinkle I had come to look for. He made his way to where I was, next to a column that supported the grand staircase that curled high over head, and the upper level of the castle, and offered a hand to help me up.
“They’re trying to bleed us out,” said Sebastian, hitting the column roughly with his other hand, “And they’ve hit us hard,”
“The fire is getting closer,” pointed out Lydia as she stepped down into the landing that still filled with blood, now at least a few centimeters deep, “It’s beginning to circle. We should go. We should run for the trees and take our chances,”
“No,” said the Queen, “We will stand and fight. She is no match for us,”
“She just took out most of our army,” says Sebastian, “Retreating is not completely off the table at this point,”
“It’s not a battle,” said the Queen, “It’s the war. It’s the crown. We don’t run. We fight. Until our last breath,”
Sebastian nodded and Lydia threw her hands up into the air, disgusted and defeated. My own conclusion was that everyone had gone crazy. I stood, barely, with the help of Sebastian but I felt disoriented with that familiar feeling of death having grazed by me once more. Though I knew I couldn’t die, the fear was still there. I still felt very mortal, very fragile, and I didn’t want to look like the vampires in pieces, in pain, in agony, that lay all around. I blinked at Lydia as she grabbed my hand. I didn’t understand what she was doing at first but then it became clear. Lydia was trying to drag me towards the front door. I didn’t want to go out there. No one had come back though those doors and clearly Patricia and her men had the castle surrounded. But when I turned to reach out for Sebastian I found Queen Victoria grabbing hold of my hand firmly. Victoria did not have a soft grip. I cried out from the pain, certain that I wouldn’t die from it but still convinced it would bruise. Lydia pulled as hard as she could only to turn around and come face to face with Queen Victoria, a heat in Lydia’s eyes that could easily be homicidal intent.
“You stay and die if you want,” says Lydia, “I gave my word that I’d keep her safe and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Safe is not here. Safe is not with you,”
“I relieve you of your charge,” Queen Victoria said through gritted teeth.
“She’s the princess. She’s above your rule,” said Lydia with a glare, “She is not a pet anymore to be ordered around,”
I blinked hard as I stood in the middle of this, watching closely, too close for comfort. I couldn’t believe Lydia was defending me so vehemently.
“Is that what you think?” asks the Queen, “You think a princess is above being ruled? That if you became Princess you would finally be above my rule? Stupid girl. You understand nothing,”
I couldn’t believe Queen Victoria would care so much at my leaving either, considering I couldn’t die. It wasn’t as if I could every really be lost. The Queen gripped my arm almost to the point of breaking the bone. It wasn’t a grip of control. Victoria clung to me as if for dear life.
“I’m the secret weapon,” I whispered.
“One, yes,” said the Queen, nodding and letting go of my arm with a slowness that made me think that if I moved too suddenly she might leap on me as a fox leaps on a rabbit. Victoria studded my face, her eyes critical and her attention focused entirely on my expression.
“One?” I asked, watching Victoria’s lips pressed tightly together as I asked.
“She’s a person, not a thing,” growled Lydia.
The Queen swiped at Lydia and I reacted faster than I could think. I pushed Lydia out of the way and
stepped in front of the Queen’s strike, her nails slicing deep into the side of my face. I winced, looking down at the marble floor as I felt the splatter of blood flung down to splash against the cool marble already streaked with the blood of hundreds.
A steady trail of blood flowed out of the fresh wound on my face. As I raised my head to look at the Queen, her mouth hanging open in surprise, I could feel that slow trickle stop. I put a hand up to my face and felt the smear of warm blood on my cheek. I looked at the blood on my fingers as though I couldn’t comprehend how it had gotten there. I touched my cheek again and this time realized what had been missing this time. My skin was smooth. It was filthy with the streaks of fresh blood but the slashes the Queen had placed across my face were already healed. Lydia and the Queen both gaped at me. Even I was shocked at what had just happened.
“I will stay but you’ll keep your hands off my bodyguard. She’s no use to me injured,” I said with a snap.
Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) Page 12
