Monster Girl Defense Force

by Simon Archer

  A slow tension rose amongst the five of us, and I immediately regretted my words, but once again, my pride got the best of me. I held my ground, my jaw tight, and my chin lifted. Beside me, Rachel scoffed, and I looked at her in confusion.

  “If humans would get off their high horses and actually apply to such jobs, perhaps they would get hired.”

  That threw me for a loop. “Why would we apply for jobs that we know we won’t be hired for in the first place?” I countered, my voice a little too sharp.

  “We haven’t had a human applicant for the royal castle in years. They would rather die with their pride than work for the vampire who saved them,” Aerywin said. Her small voice was technical and, as I have grown to expect, without judgment.

  “That can’t be true,” I said in disbelief. “We are as desperate for jobs as everyone else. We are just not the favored species amongst the royals.”

  “The Queen has hired you, has she not?” Rachel’s impatient tone cut through my denial.

  I had nothing to say to that. There was no way of denying it. A pregnant silence ensued before the Queen spoke up again, her voice still tight from the restrained frustration.

  "Whatever our differences, just know you are not a prisoner here. You're free to do as you please, but for the sake of Constanta, it would be wise to continue with our plans. Anyway, let's eat."

  Just then, as if they had been waiting for the cue, a line of servants entered the room, carrying covered silver plate after covered silver plate. They placed them carefully in the middle of the table in front of us.

  My mouth watered as the waiters lifted the covers to reveal stuffed bird, roasted veggies, a pot of soup, a mix of grains, and buttered rolls. I had expected for there to be some sort of thanks or prayer before we would start eating, but Anix and Aerywin began digging in immediately.

  As I opened the pot of soup, I remembered who I was eating with. I looked at the two vampires at the table and saw that they only had bowls in front of them, and they watched me with silent amusement as I stared into the pot of soup, or more accurately, blood.

  Oh. Oh.

  I closed the lid, my stomach curling. “I think I’ll pass on the soup.”

  Another pause. Then, laughter. All four of the supernaturals threw their heads back and laughed, full-bellied and joyous laughs. The Queen, her second in command, and even the Doom Bringer exposed their fangs. I sat in shocked silence as their laughter died down. The Queen’s second in command was the first to speak.

  “You didn’t tell me he was so funny, Rozmarin,” Rachel said, a smile still lingering on her small, plump mouth as she ladled the bloody soup into her bowl.

  “I was as privy to the fact as you were,” the Queen responded, but I was still looking at Rachel in surprise. She had called the Queen by her name. Not Your Highness or Queen Rozmarin. Just Rozmarin. I had never heard anyone call the Queen by her first name, even when people referenced her on the streets.

  “What is it?” the Queen asked, having noticed my curious look, her face still light with amusement.

  I didn’t know how to point it out, nor did I want Rachel to be punished for the slip up if it indeed was one. Still, I decided to try, if only to clarify the established relationships amongst the group. I cleared my throat and, for some reason, warmth spread across my cheeks.

  “I… I just have never heard anyone call you by your first name, without the title.”

  That earned me another round of chuckles throughout the table. Rachel now sported a devilish grin.

  “She wishes I’d call her by her title,” she said, teasingly, then shook her head, her expression sobering. “We are all equals here. Rozmarin’s title is just that: a title. The duty of the council is to guide the Queen as she rules Constanta. We all have our roles to play, including yourself.”

  I let her words sink in for a moment, my vision of the council before me, molding and reshaping in my head.

  We are all equals here.

  We all have our roles to play here, including yourself.

  My gaze drifted towards the Queen’s, and a smile lit up my face for the first time since entering the room. It wasn’t the soft or blissful smile of a grateful thief or a wistful dreamer. It was all teeth. A grin with an edge, a secret. A challenge.

  “Does that mean I am allowed to call you Rozmarin?”

  10

  Rozmarin

  Something tugged inside my chest where my now-still heart once used to beat at the way Christoff said my name. A warm feeling flooded me, and I shoved it down hard, hiding it with a wicked grin.

  “Of course, my lord.” A small tilt of my head had his eyes widening and his jaw going slack in surprise, yet he recovered quickly. Perhaps this boy would be an asset to the council. He certainly had a very convincing game face.

  “Chris. My name is Christoff, but my family calls me Chris,” he said, his soft voice drifting towards my ears like a lute. My wicked grin softened as I filed away the little piece of information in my brain. Chris. Tanya had said it before, and even then, I thought it was the cutest damn name I’d ever heard, and now, I saw how fitting it was for the little thief.

  “Very well, Chris,” I said slowly, testing the name out on my tongue like a centuries-old fine wine.

  The rest of the dinner went by far better than expected. All three other members of the council took to Chris right away, most of all, Rachel. I had known, even before the two met, that Rachel would like the sharp-witted human. I had been a little worried about Aerywin’s shy and matter-of-fact nature clashing with the boy’s, but they spent a good chunk of the evening’s dinner raving about a particular author whom they were both big fans of. I tucked that little piece of information away as well, taking good care to catch every word that came from the boy’s… Chris’s mouth.

  Rachel shared the history of how she and I met, sparing Christoff the gory, depressing details. I looked away at the sympathy in his eyes when Rachel informed him of the state she’d found me in, and that of my family as well.

  “I had no idea vampires killed your family. That must have been… difficult,” Christoff said. I realized that there was something other than pity in his eyes as he spoke, and it took a moment for me to figure out what it was. Then it registered in my brain. It was respect, grudging but growing respect.

  The corner of my mouth tipped up in a self-deprecating smile as I held Chris’s gaze. “We have all been dealt with our own share of misery and hardships, my lord. Some more than others. The future lies with those who are brave enough to overcome them.”

  That night, in the wee hours of the morning, I found myself on the sixth floor, standing alone outside of Christoff’s room. I had relieved Adriana of her duties as thief babysitter after dinner, figuring that he no longer needed a guard, now that he was no longer a prisoner in the castle.

  I had no idea how I had gotten there or why, but the memory of the boy’s sweet scent had me twisting and turning in my sheets until I finally gave up and made my way to his door. Thanks to my supernatural sense of smell, I could detect his scent seeping out from under the door. The faint spice of cinnamon and roses filled my nose, and I inhaled deeply, an unfamiliar hunger fogging my thoughts.

  It wasn’t the hunger I had known and gained control of for well over a century. It wasn’t the fast, pounding need for blood that drummed in my head when I hadn’t drained a blood bag in a few days. No, this was a different hunger, deep, steady, and ever-growing.

  It scared the living hell out of me. I took one last deep breath of the intoxicating scent before tearing myself away from the door and slowly backing away from Chris’s room. As I sunk into the shadows with a promise to myself that I would not repeat the actions of tonight, I prayed that when I woke up in the morning, the odd yearning in my gut would be gone.

  It was not. Every night, when sleep refused to take me, whether it was the stresses of ruling a kingdom on the brink of another zombie invasion or just the thoughts of the man in the last room at the
end of the hall on the sixth floor, I showed up at his door every single night for three consecutive nights.

  The days were busy as always, filled with planning for an upcoming trip to the eastern kingdoms while Sahar kept Christoff busy in the alchemy lab. I noticed that the sorceress had taken a liking to him as well, but whether it was because of the boy’s mysterious destiny or because she genuinely liked Christoff, I wasn’t sure. I still had Adriana check in with him now and then, just to make sure he was adjusting well.

  On the final day before my trip, I headed to the alchemy lab before dawn, knowing that the head alchemist would already be there for me to inform her.

  “Sahar, Christoff will not be available for the day,” I told her.

  Before I could say more, the seer only gave me a secret smile and nodded her gold-rimmed head toward the exit. “Better awaken the boy, then. You both have much to accomplish today.”

  Trying to ignore Sahar’s cryptic words, I sent Adriana to awaken Christoff and request that he join me for breakfast in the Great Hall. I normally ate breakfast alone or with whoever of the council cared for the company in my room, but I decided that today, the council would eat together in the presence of my subjects.

  It was a political strategy of sorts to set a precedent and let it be known that Christoff was one of us. Though he had been mistaken in thinking that we intentionally refused to hire humans, there was no denying that Christoff was one of very few who worked for the crown, let alone lived in the castle. I needed it to be known to subjects everywhere, especially within the castle, that this human, and every human, was respected and protected. That the crown would welcome them as they were.

  But mostly, it was for Christoff’s benefit. While he seemed like the type to abhor such political power moves, I found it necessary to make his time at the castle feel safe and inclusive, especially while I was away. I needed the court to know not to mess with the newly freed human male, and that they needed to respect him the same as the rest of the council.

  A knock sounded at my bedroom door just as I finished closing the last pearl button of my dress.

  “Come in,” I called.

  The door opened, and the now-familiar scent of cinnamon and roses teased my nostrils. That newly familiar hunger clawed at my gut, and I stomped it down with a firm shake of my head. When I looked up, Adriana, and Christoff, standing closely behind the gargoyle, hovered at the door.

  “Ah, you’re awake,” I said as I threw my midnight blue dress shawl over my shoulders in one swift movement. The familiar weight of it soothed the vulnerability I felt whenever the human and I were in the same room.

  “Thanks to you,” Christoff mumbled, his voice still rough from sleep.

  I took a good look at him then, taking in his appearance and started a bit. I had expected him rumpled and messy due to the grumpy sleepiness in his tone, but I was very surprised to find reality to be quite the contrary.

  For the first time since he entered the castle, Christoff wore a suit. While that was shocking enough in itself, that wasn’t the real reason I started. The long-sleeved, midnight blue velvet and silver stitched suit looked like the perfect match to my own dress. The blue velvet showed off his muscles in all the right places, and the tight-fitting pants showed a bulge that had my mouth watering for a taste. He had gelled and smoothed down his light brown hair, and it accentuated his high cheekbones and regal forehead.

  I blinked once. Oops. I’d been staring.

  “My lord,” I said, my voice suddenly as rough as his had been, but instead of sleepiness, the source was something else entirely. “The colors of Constanta suit you.”

  He smirked slightly as he bowed his head and mumbled, “Thank you.”

  I cleared my throat and pasted a smile on my face, showing my fangs. He didn’t seem to take much notice of them, I noted gratefully. Sometimes, the sharp canines tended to… unnerve humans. Understandably, of course. I had used them as weapons to kill them in the past. Of course, we had better, more humane ways of collecting blood now, through donors and willing participants. The act of drinking blood from a person’s most vulnerable areas could be a highly pleasurable and even sexual experience.

  “Why do you look like you’re about to eat me?” Christoff’s hesitant tone cut through my increasingly disturbing thoughts.

  Oh, for the love of all that’s holy. Could I not be in the same room as the man without losing all sense of reality? “Just a little parched. Let’s eat.”

  We walked in silence down several flights of stairs before we reached the Great Hall on the second floor, Adriana trailing quietly behind us. I took a deep breath, already knowing what to expect, Christoff in the matching suit to my dress standing next to me.

  I opened the impressive double doors to the Great Hall. As I had predicted, all heads turned to face us. Servants and guests stopped in their tracks to witness the Queen’s entry, their eyes soaking in the scene before them, greedily. Christoff stiffened beside me, realizing that all eyes were on us. I reached over to grab his arm gently and linked mine through his, tilting up to speak so only he could hear. Power rippled down my spine and echoed throughout the room as I spoke.

  “Keep your head high. Meet the eyes of anyone who dares to meet yours and do not look away first. Don’t let them sense your fear. Do not stumble. Do not falter.”

  He looked at me then, really looked at me, and the room fell away. Every possible emotion flickered in his hazel eyes as they searched my own silver ones: surprise, fear, sadness, anger, pride. Finally, he landed on determination before turning to face the no-longer silent crowd. Whispers and muttering echoed throughout the Great Hall as the crowd took in the sight before them.

  A mere flare of my normally hidden wings was enough to quiet the rising murmur. Christoff hid his surprise at the sight of it well. Until now, I had kept my wings out of sight while he was around, despite the fact that he likely already knew I had them. I simply kept them hidden often. Not every vampire possessed the ability to transform, and mine was a very peculiar and rare gift that allowed me to bring them into or banish them from existence as I pleased. Rachel had no such ability.

  My gaze fell to the dais and the line of chairs, including my throne at the far end of the room below the stained glass windows. The rest of the Queen’s council had already taken their seats at the table that stretched across the raised floor. As we made our way down the aisle, people bowed and curtsied while sneaking curious glances at the human at my side. The tension and curiosity were so palpable, and I was glad to have Adriana at my back.

  Thankfully, we made it to the end of the room, up the steps, and behind the table without any issues. The entire council, including Christoff and me, now stood to face the crowd who also rose, facing the stage. I let out a long breath, slow and steady. Then, I raised my arms palms down and slowly lowered my hands from the tip of my head to my navel, until the entire room was seated, save for myself. Even Christoff had taken the cue and lowered himself to his seat.

  I had considered addressing the crowd before I’d even asked him to join us, but after a brief discussion with the council, we decided it best to keep the little thief’s uncertain destiny to ourselves. While most of the public weren’t blind to the rising numbers of zombies, I knew that most were unaware of the extent of the issue.

  The knowledge of some evils was best left to burden a select few. Likewise, the knowledge of potential hope was best kept with whom it would not provide false hope.

  So I stayed silent, my only vocal command, the order to commence the morning meal. A rising chatter slowly filled the tense silence in the Great Hall. Everyone at the Queen’s table’s shoulders relaxed a bit, and we began to eat, the food already set out before us.

  Once Christoff filled his plate to his desire beside me, I turned to face him, a silver goblet filled with crimson liquid hovering at my lips. “Do you find the food in the castle to your liking?”

  He turned to face me mid-bite at the sound of my voice. “It�
�s delicious,” he replied, mouth full.

  I took a sip from my goblet, the warm liquid soothing the growing ache in my throat. “I informed Sahar that you would not be doing tests today.”

  “Why?” Christoff startled, his eyes wide when he turned to me again. “What would you have me do instead?”

  I held his gaze, one corner of my mouth quirking up at the edge. “I have a few tasks I must accomplish today, and the rest of the council is busy. I would greatly appreciate your presence.”

  I braced myself for him to argue or make a snarky remark, but he just looked thoughtful for a moment as my request sunk in before his gaze focused on me again, and he offered me a small smile.

  “Okay.”

  An hour later, Christoff and I were being escorted by Adriana down the halls of the castle to his room, so he could freshen up before we left the grounds. It would be the first time he had left the castle since we captured him as a thief a week prior. We stopped just outside his door, the newly familiar scent that was Christoff wafting out from the room. The memory of the past three nights standing outside of his door ran through my head, and that same conflicted feeling rose in my chest once more. Part need, part obsession, and part… something else.

  “Adriana will escort you to the ground floor in half an hour where I will meet you,” I said, my voice soft, gentle. Foreign.

  Christoff’s mouth turned down into a small frown. “I don’t need an escort, you know. I wouldn’t run after I already promised to stay.”

  “I know,” I said. “The escort is more for your safety than a security precaution.”

  His frown didn’t waver. “I can take care of myself.”

  “I know.” The right side of my mouth quirked up. “Humor me.”

  Thankfully, he conceded, but not before he asked, “Why aren’t you constantly guarded? You’re the Queen, after all.” His hazel eyes were intense as he inspected my own for any sign that I was bluffing.