Royal Blood

by Kolina Topel

  She gasped when she saw the plans for them to lure me into the woods. That was where Damascus was waiting with over a dozen other vampires to make sure the job was done. A single tear rolled down our faces in synchronization when the memory of my father’s death flowed through our minds.

  “You were right, Princess. You were always right. He killed King Azariah.” Gasps came from every mouth that was present. “I’m so, so sorry. Please forgive me.” She fell to the ground at my feet.

  I bent down and gripped her face, “It’s not your fault. He tricked us all, Cali. That is his gift.”

  “His gift?” three voices said at the same time.

  “Yes. I saw it. Through Alumit’s memories. Damascus can cloud everyone’s thoughts, make you see, feel, and think whatever he wants you to. Alumit knew it. That’s why Calpurnia couldn’t hear him. He knew her gift too.” I looked back to her and picked her up. “Please don’t beat yourself up. You got here, didn’t you? I’m still alive.”

  “So what do we do?” Alex asked.

  “We fight,” I said.

  “But who is next in line? Who will take Damascus’ place?” Nebula said.

  “I will,” I smiled. The faces around me gazed at me questioningly, but I knew there was no other way.

  “Are you sure about that, Princess?” Demitri asked.

  “For years I have lived in a world where I didn’t belong, didn’t fit in. I was protected by people that I didn’t even know to keep my life—the one I was born to live in—a secret from me. No matter how I try to fight it, it’s in my blood, and I will not watch anyone else screw it up but me. Okay, that’s not quite what I meant, but you know what I mean.” I looked at Alex’s face and then to Demitri and the others. “It’s what my father wanted. I have never been able to give anything to him...and he has done so much for me. So, if you all will stand beside me and fight as you have fought beside him, I’ll do it.”

  Ten

  Even though I was surrounded by so many vampires willing to lay down their lives to restore me to my throne, I was scared. I watched as they deliberated and talked strategy, only half listening to what was being said.

  My eyes found and studied every single face surrounding me. These people I was just getting to know and love…would they die? Already, I’d started to care for them, and I wasn’t sure if I could survive the guilt. Death was by no means new to me. I’d been to my share of funerals, but that had been in an entirely different life. The circumstances couldn’t be any more different. Battling for reign over a kingdom—for my kingdom? When was the last time that happened?

  My eyes finally found and rested on Alex. He didn’t notice my gawking, or, if he did, he ignored it. The thought made my heart clench for a moment, but I took a deep breath and forced it away. I had to let it go.

  My mind had already accepted what he had done and why, but my heart wasn’t so hasty to forgive.

  I licked my lips and found myself imagining his unbelievably sweet taste. My heart began to hammer at memories, and before I could pull myself back down to earth, I was aware of Alex’s head turning to meet my gaze. Before I could react, there was a brief connection, and I was struck by how cold and flat his eyes were as they examined me.

  That splash of cold water had me fleeing from his stare. I quickly looked away and was surprised to see half a dozen pairs of eyes watching me intently. They all had some degree of concern on their faces, all but Calpurnia. I blinked and unconsciously took a step back, overwhelmed with the sudden attention.

  “Princess, are you alright?”

  I looked toward the source of the voice and found Demitri staring at me, worry etched into his forehead. I was in the middle of shaking my head when I realized why they were anxious. They’d heard my heart spike up abruptly. With the exception of Calpurnia, they probably thought I’d become scared from whatever they had said just said. What was that anyways? Damn it, I need to pay more attention. I walked forward again, resuming my original place.

  “I’m fine. Please continue.”

  Determined to pay attention this time, I waited for the spotlight to move away from me. It didn’t take but a few seconds for them to shift back to the original topic. I was glad. I still wasn’t used to being such an asset to so many people. After a lifetime of being simple and unimportant, the sudden attention was unnerving.

  “Our biggest advantage is that Damascus doesn’t know we are planning a coup. The more silent and subtle we can be, the better. Best case scenario, the shift of power will be virtually undetectable,” Duncan’s quiet but sure voice stretched through the entire room. From across the room, I saw Marius shaking his head.

  “Surprised or not, Damascus will not go silently. He’s waited too long for this. He’s drunk with power and dangerous. I do not doubt he will have to be ended. It’s the only way.”

  I looked back to Duncan, waiting for a response, but the room shifted to Nebula instead.

  “Perhaps not,” she disagreed. “If Damascus finds himself outnumbered so severely, even he would know it’s a lost cause.”

  “Have you forgotten what he can do?”

  “No, but—”

  “He’ll do whatever it takes to target Princess Christina and kill her. We cannot allow that to happen.”

  “Well, he also doesn’t know Nebula’s gift,” Marius chimed in.

  “How is that possible?” I asked.

  “She hasn’t had to use it in about three hundred years.”

  “We’d better go before we lose the element of surprise,” Demitri finally stated. “Damascus won’t know yet that we’ve left.”

  The drive there was tense. Alex and I were in one car and everyone else was split up in two more. There was so much to say, and yet I didn’t know where to start. What a change the day had made!

  This morning we were headed to the beach, and now we were headed to bring a war to the man who killed my vampire father and had tried to kill me. Easy, right?

  As hard as it was, the one thing I couldn’t say but thought about the most was how drastically everything had changed between Alex and me and how much I wanted my Alex back. I ached to have him love me again. To taste his kiss again. To just be us again. After today, I didn’t know if there would even be an “us” anymore. What we were going to do, this fight, who knew how it might end up. There was no surrender in this. People were going to die. People I knew and loved. People like Ale…… No.

  “No!” I shouted.

  “Chris?”

  “You can’t die. Do you understand me?” Tears were coming down my face now. “You don’t have to love me anymore and you don’t have to pretend, but you have to stay alive. I can’t lose you, not ever, not like that.” I couldn’t look at his face because I knew what I would see there. Nothing. Exactly what he felt for me now.

  Silent tears streamed down my face the rest of the car ride.

  * * *

  When we arrived at the church, everything turned all business. Demitri and Alex sat and talked for a few minutes, and then we all started in toward the city.

  I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what I was about to see—or any of us really.

  The city from my dreams was waiting below, but unlike in my dreams that showed me a dead and empty city, the rooftops were covered with vampires. Vampires with one agenda—to kill me. There were dozens of them. Dozens. Terror shrilled within me.

  “Princess,” Calpurnia came to my side, “you don’t have to fight with us. I can stay here with you.”

  “There’s just so many….” I gasped. “I can’t ask you to stay with me. You have to go with them. They need you.” And I can’t lose Alex. You have to stay with him, I added silently.

  She nodded and turned to Demitri. “It’s time.”

  “Nebula,” Demitri said.

  I turned to Calpurnia and she flashed me a wicked grin. I thought you never wanted me to see this, I thought. She winked, sunk back into her crouch, and bared her teeth to the awaiting surge.


  Nebula was behind Calpurnia with her back to us. She glanced over her shoulder and in one effortless and fluid movement, she spun ever so slowly toward us. She floated through us and stopped between Alex and me. At an agonizing pace, she raised her right arm level to her shoulder and flipped her hand, palm up.

  It looked like she was cupping something. She puckered her lips and blew out a gust of wind. What appeared to be diamonds flew from her hand down toward the city, like shards of crystals glittering in the moonlight, covering the earth below us.

  She pulled her lips back, exposing her teeth, and with a blink of an eye all hell broke loose. Screams broke out in a chorus of pain below. The tiny fragments were dancing their way through the bodies of the vampires that wanted to kill me, slicing their skin, and blood flowed freely on the rooftops.

  “Three, two, one,” Calpurnia counted, and in perfect harmony everyone jumped off of the cliff into the sea of serpents waiting below. At the same instant, the crystals disappeared into thin air. A look of shock, surprise, fear, and anger washed over the many faces that waited below.

  I stood in awe for a moment as I watched Demitri manipulate boulders and tree limbs and slammed them into, and even through, unsuspecting victims. Marius leapt building to building, setting ablaze groups of vampires. Amasia followed closely behind, finishing them off. I watched in awe as Duncan blinded a victim, and then ripped off his prey’s appendages and tossed them into the fires. Calpurnia danced around all who advanced on her as she read their thoughts, and Alex sped through the crowd, mangling bodies in fractions of a second.

  It was the most spectacular sight I had ever seen. Like a perfectly choreographed symphony playing a death waltz. As I watched them, I grew hungry. The terror inside of me evaporated, and I wanted them to die. All of them.

  As Demitri was engaged in a fight, I eyed a vampire stalking behind him. My eyes tightened, and I jumped to the vampire and thrust my hand into his back. I grabbed the first thing I felt cold and wet in my hand and yanked it out. In my hand, a heart took its last beat as the host crumpled to the floor.

  Demitri’s eyes met mine then darted behind me. I turned and met the gaze of a dozen ravenous vampires. I hissed and crouched to attack. Marius blew past me then, and the twelve faces suddenly turned morbid as the flames engulfed their bodies.

  A few buildings away, an image startled me. “Father,” I breathed. I took a step forward. A few hundred feet in front of me stood my father. He was reaching one hand out toward me.

  No, my father is dead.

  “Alumit!” I screamed.

  Laughter broke from his lips as he melted back to his normal self. I jumped to him and kicked him back as hard as my legs would go.

  “I’m going to enjoy this almost as much as I enjoyed killing your father.”

  I jumped to him again and slid my left hand down his face and whispered in his ear, “Good luck.” With my right hand I ripped his eye from its socket.

  “You bitch!” he cried out in pain.

  I darted behind him and spun him around and ripped out his other eye as he fell to the ground whining. I picked up a rock and held it up. “I hope you enjoy this,” I said and I broke each and every one of his extremities. Then I raised the rock once more above his face.

  A single piercing cry broke through the ocean of screams and shreds of skin that had consumed the once peaceful night. Before I had even turned, I knew the mouth it had escaped from.

  As I turned, I saw Damascus looking at me and his lips were pressed against Alex’s limp neck. He dropped Alex’s body to the floor and his black sinister eyes twitched and he smiled at me.

  In this very moment, clarity washed over me. This man had killed my father. He had taken my throne. He deceived all of my family. And now he spilled the blood of the man I loved.

  “I’m going to kill you,” I hissed.

  He wiped his mouth on his sleeve then spat down toward Alex’s lifeless body. I snarled and lunged. In a blink, I impacted his body, throwing him back as he simultaneously struck my chest.

  I flipped backward, but when I landed, he was already headed back in my direction. He was fast. But I was faster. I jumped behind him and he spun to me.

  “So eager to avenge a man that didn’t even love you.”

  I jumped behind him again and thrust my hand into his shoulder and took his arm with me then jumped again before he could turn and strike me. His agony was deafening, yet music to my ears. The shrill scream quickly turned into laughter, “You will never win. My kind will never let a half breed woman,” he spat the word at me, “rule them.”

  With invisible speed, I circled around Damascus’ body, my teeth pressed into his neck, then perched onto his back.

  “They don’t have a choice.” I jerked my arms up and leapt over his body into a crouch directly in front of him. His body fell to the ground behind me, and I dropped his head still oozing his remains next to his body.

  I could feel and smell the blood drying all over my body. My hair was matted to my face. I was only subconsciously aware of the fighting still going on around me. Fires were ablaze, stemming all over the city. Everything seemed in warped speed as I walked slowly toward Alex’s undisturbed body.

  “Alex,” I whispered and dropped to my knees beside him. I turned his body face up, but he did not move. I shook him, “Alex! Alex! Don’t you die on me! Not now! No! Stay with me! I love you, stay with me!” I bit into my wrist and let my blood flow freely into his mouth. Nothing happened. “Demitri!” I screamed as loudly as I could. In a second, he was by my side.

  “Alex,” he sighed. “Lillith,” he called in not much more than a whisper. She sped toward us and without a word, dropped to his other side and poured something into his mouth. She then put her hands over his wounds on his neck and arm.

  I looked up at Demitri. “She is a healer. If he can be saved, she can do it.”

  His breathing became shallow and labored and he opened his eyes. “Damascus?” he breathed.

  “He is dead,” I stated.

  “And the others are being finished off,” his father amended.

  He looked into my eyes, “Christina.” I looked into his eyes and tears flowed effortlessly from my face. He put his hand to his chest and ripped open his shirt. Lying across his chest was a thin gold chain, holding a tiny gold baby ring. I cupped my hand over my mouth and sobs broke free from my chest. He took my hand from my face and laid it above his heart.

  “This heart, it beats for only you. My heart is yours. Silly girl to have ever believed the lies I said to you! I love you, Christina Marie Delano. Now go. Go be the woman you were born to be. It’s in your blood.” He flashed me his smile that had lit his face all those years and then lay his head back and closed his eyes. Demitri picked Alex up and began to walk away with his body, while his heartbeat faded into the blackness.

  Epilogue

  A million things seemed to happen at once after the battle. The next week no one had been able to rest between my taking the throne, meeting with different advisors, and strategizing the elimination of the surge that had begun taking place at my crowning. Damascus’ army may have been the biggest threat to me, but it was not the only one.

  After spending a solid month in Sangre Real, I decided it was time to go home and reunite with my mother. Even though Cali had been relaying messages to her for me, we had not spoken on the phone for many weeks.

  “Demitri and I will go with you, Queen Christina,” Calpurnia said.

  I smiled. That was something I still hadn’t gotten used to even after a month of it.

  “I’m not allowed to go alone anymore, am I?” I sighed. Cali just smiled back at me. “Hey, I guess everyone needs their own death-dealing, fang-bearing, vampire posse these days right? I mean it is 2010,” I teased.

  Even though things had changed so much in my life, I still couldn’t understand why I was so nervous to see the woman who had been my mother for the last twenty two years, even if she wasn’t technically my “mot
her”.

  When I got to her house, I let myself in and sat down on the couch. She wasn’t in the room, so I decided to just sit and wait.

  The house was the exact same as I remembered it from my childhood. Not much had changed except for minor things like a newer, bigger TV and a new bookcase. So many good memories I had in this world, such a different life from the one I would be leading for the rest of forever. Lazy Sundays were spent on this very couch, sipping hot chocolate. Wrapping paper was strewn on this floor at 6 a.m. every Christmas. There were so many things about my old life that I would miss once I said goodbye to this place.