When I awoke, night had settled in. I must have been more drained than I thought. Opening my coffin, Ethan stood in his ceremonials. Unlike Mr. Blackgate, Ethan was not a walking grotesque. He was lovely. Full face, healthy weight, bright smile. He was mines and my mines only to catch before sunrise. That wouldn’t take long. We both wanted other things. I wanted to feed; he wanted the pain. A win-win situation. Helping me out of my coffin, he smelled of sweet fear. Touching his lips with the tips of my fingers, he did not move. His eyes did not follow my fingers, they remained on the spot just beyond my feet.
Kissing his cheek, I moved past him. The time for niceties were over, now the mind games would begin.
Helping me get dressed, Ethan advised me that The Headmaster had called to confirm I was home for The Hunting Games. “She sounded as if she was unsure where you were.” Dressed in my very own blood red dress, Ethan squeezed the strings in the back pulling the corset tighter around my waist as red lace pooled around my feet. This dress was new, which meant a new guest was here tonight. “I completely forgot about The Hunting Games. I went to visit Elloren’s parents.”
“Is that why your father said you smell like not human death?”
“Non, I think he picked up on the scent of Godric. Elloren’s parents smell very much like human death.”
“Qui est-ce ?”
“I’m not sure who Godric maybe yet. Once I know more, I will share.” Giving Ethan a little smile, I could see curiosity in his brown eyes.
“Who is the guest?” I asked him. Meeting my eyes in the floor length mirror, I saw a new fear. One I did nothing to earn. Slipping on the red lace gloves, I waited for him to answer. After another second of silence, he opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Once he finished pinning my curls in place, I gave myself a glance over. Dripped in lace and pearls all that was missing was my black lip.
Once my satin black lipstick covered my full lips, I placed my hand on Ethan’s face. “Remember mon animal de compagnie, I am your master. If I ask a question I expect an answer. I will take your silence as rebellion, and I will treat it as the threat I feel it to be.” Nodding his head, eyes to the floor Ethan remained still.
Removing my hand from his warm skin, I dismissed him.
A few minutes later I began making my way down the hall to the main ballroom, I could tell the guest were here. So many voices and scents. I could hear some prey out in the woods hiding. Some bathed in the mud to cover their scent. Some of them, the smart ones rubbed themselves against the servants combining their scents, so they could hide in the house. The servants never participated in the hunting. Someone had to clean the slaughter up once we were finished.
Standing at the landing of one of three grand staircases in this house, I made my descend. All eyes followed me, and all voices ceased to create sound. To my right stood my parents to my left stood Ethan and someone whose face I could not make out. Their mask was made of magic. Powerful magic, old magic, magic magic. Reaching the bottom of the staircase took too long for my personal taste. I wanted to turn left; however, muscle memory turned me right. My father held out his hand, taking it I bowed to honor him.
My père is the oldest thing in the house, he is Maker of the Underground. And to that everyone including my mother bowed. Rasing his glassed filled with blood, my father gave the same speech he has always given. “My friends, my family, my enemies. Tonight, we hunt those who have harmed us, those who wish to be like us, and those who fear us. Tonight, we pursue our darkest desires. We follow our most primal instinct. To hunt, to feed, to kill, to fuck, to be free.”
With that everyone clapped their hands and curled their lips around their glasses. Everyone except the person in the mask. Watching me, they gave me a little head nod. I do not nod at strangers. Instead, I turned my attention towards my mother who was making her way towards the staircase. I have known my mother all my life, and it always amazes me that her grace in the most confided dresses still shines through. “My dearest guest, please may I have your attentions? Merci. Tonight, is a special night. We have the honor of hunting with and welcoming him to our home and city.” My mother stretched out her hand towards magic mask and cloak guy. “Rejoignez moi, s'il vous plait.” With an invitation the man joined my mother on the staircase. Standing two steps below her, he kissed her hand.
“Please remove your cloak.” The man did as he was instructed. Within a second, I recognized the ash blonde hair that fell above his knees. “My forever young friends, may I introduce to you, Godric, The Conquer.” The entire house roared with applause. Even though everyone’s face besides my parents were hidden, I could see their faces as if they wore nothing at all. Sabrina and Iris eyes glossed over with lust. No doubt they would try to seduce him. But for some reason I knew it would fail.
After the applause Godric took a bow. Locating me in the crowd, he came to me. This did not go unnoticed by my parents, later they would have questions. And later my mother would assume this is who “I have met”.
“Hello St. Vincent.”
“Hello Sir Godric.” Laughing, he drew the attention of several guest. I could see the same question burning in their brains. “How do they know each other?” Vampires rarely associate with others outside of our kind. And once you have been alive for as many centuries as my father. Well let’s just say it’s hard to care about the perseveration of any other race. “You may call me Godric. Formalities are not wanted.”
“Not here, not in this setting.” Leaning to whisper in my ear he asked, “Why not?”
“Because, if you aren’t a “Sir” or “Madame or “Mistress” you are prey. Are you prey Godric?”
“I could be if the hunter is worthy. Are you worthy St. Vincent?” For a moment his frosted silver eyes lit up with amusement. Happy I could entertain him. “I still have one question left, may I ask it now?”
Cocking his head to the side, he replied. “You asked your three questions. The last being “May I call you on Monday night.” Turning to face him. I couldn’t believe he would hold that question against me.
“You can’t be serious Godric I had to go. I was attempting to be polite by asking. Unlike yourself who most likely charmed your way to getting my phone number and calling without asking.”
“Politeness in the wrong setting is rather dull. No charming was required from my part. Elloren was rather cooperative.” Rolling my eyes I needed to look anywhere but up and at him. Apparently, he did not feel the same. I could feel his gaze on me. Observing me, drinking in my movements. Shaking my head was my attempt at trying to keep Elloren’s mother words from repeating again. “You have captured the heart of a Victorian.”
“Was she rested when you spoke to her?” I asked attempting to alter the conversation.
“Non.” Sighing at his response, I realized Ethan was watching us from the second entrance into the room. Unfortunately, so did Godric.
“Who is he?” Pointing directly at Ethan, Godric smiled at him. Ethan too fearful of us both did not smile back. He simply looked down. “Shy?”
“Subservient.”
“To whom?”
“His master.”
“You own a slave?”
“He is not a slave. He may leave whenever he likes.” Placing a lock of his hair behind his ear, Godric starred at Ethan. “Are you connected to him physically?” Removing my eyes from Ethan back to Godric I watched his face. More than that, I watched him watch Ethan.
“Are you asking if I have sex with Ethan?”
“Oui”
“Oui” Though is face did not change, the elegance in is grace did. His classical jawline clinched. Momentarily. Sliding his eyes from Ethan, Godric looked down at me. “If I catch him, can I have you both?” Blinking at his question I would have stammered backwards if I could move. What did he mean both? Bisexual both, one at time both, or both at the same time both? “I..I..I..” I shut my mouth trapping all my I’s in the back of my throat. “I don’t know, if that’s in the rule book.”
With his elegant grace returned and a lean downwards. Godric whispered what would be the foundation of our future in my ear. “If you set the rules I will follow them.”
Unfazed by this entire conversation, he smiled at me. It was one of those smiles you knew would lead to something dangerous. But when an actual God gives you that smile you also knew the dangerous parts would come from you.
For a second I thought he was bowing to me, but it turned out he was bowing towards my mother. As he slipped out she slipped in. Too early to meet the parents officially I suppose.
“Godric Victorian, there is a reason he takes centuries to reappear.” My mother said from behind me. I did not miss the amusement/warning in her voice. Kissing the top of my head she whispered, “Are you ready to begin?” I could smell the fresh blood on her breath. It reminded me of my own hunger. Reminded me of the original reason I was here.
Turning to face her. Her hazel eyes glowed with desire for the chaos to come. My father once told me that my mother reminded him why he loved deadly things. I am convinced that when people picture becoming a vampire this is who they believe they will turn into. But my mother’s beauty could not be duplicated not even in her own daughter. “Alucard êtes-vous d'accord? When was the last time you feed?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“I am alright. I will feed plenty to make up for my lack of appetite.”
“Chérie, we feed when we are hungry not when we are depleted.”
“Can I ask you something after the games?” If I asked her now, there is a strong possibility that she would indeed hunt down the Blackgates and return with head trophies. They must stay alive until the real threat could be defeated.
“Anything.” Bowing to my mother I took her hand and raised it to my lips. She maybe my mother but tonight everyone including myself would show proper respect to The Sun Eater.
After gathering all the guest outside, thirty vampires and The Conquer stood under the year’s first blood moon. It was too bright for any other stars to shine. The bright red moon casted a red shadow over the forest. Everything seemed to be bathed in blood, a true foresight for what is to come. By morning Redrum lake would be true to its name.
The night was silent. All the humans found their graves while all the others like Ethan who are a little more than human found their hiding spots. This set of prey where different, I could barely smell them, let along track their scent. Taking a deeper breath, I tasted everything except fear. Where was the fear?
Looking around I could see every other vampire including my parents seemed a little confused. The air should be thick with fear, tears, and prayer. However, it was not. Nothing…The forest itself seemed frozen. Something is wrong, must be. Moving through the crowd faster than most vampires could see I stood in front of my father. The confusion had cleared from his face. It was replaced by thrill. My father… thrilled? Now I know something is wrong. Patting my face he said, “Godric, my chérie.”
“What did he do?”
“Even the playing field. Tell me what do you see?”
Searching pass my father, I searched for energies. Blue, red, green, white, black. Those are the standards. If anything was in the forest, I would see them. The forest lit up. I could see the humans moving around, but something contained their energies. There was a second skin around the energy. A barrier of some sort. That would explain, not being able to hear them, not being able to smell them. But not being able to sense them.. this is some powerful magic. Godric could do this?
He could blind my father like this? Or did my father simply allow himself to be blinded for the thrill of it all?
“I can see them just fine, but they are being protected by a barrier.” Laughing my father asked, “Can you see them without perfect vision?”
“Papa, that’s not how it works. I have no control over it. Yet. The Devil’s Amulets aka your old eyes have so many different layers. If one sight does not work, it switches to what does. There is nothing I cannot see, weather I want to or not.”
“Very well, for tonight try to enjoy.” A silent gust of wind was the only indication that my father went up. Flying high in the sky, making the red moon his backdrop. He explained that tonight’s hunt would be different. All except for me would have to truly hunt their prey. He said it’s like being human again. “As if he could remember all those moons ago.” I heard someone say. After the applause, my father came back down to earth. After kissing my mother, they disappeared. That was the signal for the hunt to begin.
Vampires went streaking into the night. A few stayed behind just in case any prey could be hiding in the house. I counted four of them hiding inside. But they weren’t just hiding, no they were chanting. If the barrier belonged to Godric, then what the fuck where they doing?
Without thinking I followed the sound of the chanting. It led me down to the cellar of our house. Only a few were allowed here. Down here housed my father’s original coffin. The one I needed to survive as child. Reaching the door, I felt a familiar presence. Elloren was here, she stood at the top of the staircase. Why was she here? When exactly did she arrive?
She was no stranger to The Hunting Games in fact in her earlier years she used it as therapy to exercise her own demons.
She must have attempted to follow me. However, everyone pauses at the top of the staircase. No lights guided you down the twists and turns of the staircase. There was nothing but cold stone and the creeping terror of my father demons. “Elloren, do you need help?” I called out.
“Alucard, thank goodness I thought something else was down there. Why is it so dark?”
“It’s meant for vampires not necromancers.”
“Will I die if I attempt to come down?”
“Likely.”
“Then come get me. I can hear the chanting too.”
In a half a second, I stood in front of Elloren. By now, she was comfortable with my ability to appear and disappear. She no longer screamed or even flinch. Thirteen years of friendship has conditioned her well enough to know when I am moving and when I am not. Conditioned her well enough to give out my number by memory.
In the low light coming from the hallway twenty feet away from the cellar’s staircase, she looked better than she has in the past days. The dark circles under her eyes were still visible even with the makeup though. But tonight, she wore her blue hair in two space buns decorated with red roses. Her dress was made up of sheer nude fabric also covered in red roses. The material didn’t cling to her body like my dress, instead it outlined it. She looked more like a fairy then a necromancer. “You look enchanting Elloren.”
“Merci Princess” Elloren took a step back bowing to me. Rolling my eyes I wanted to hurry her along, but I knew Elloren respected our traditions too much to ignore protocol. When our eyes met again, she nodded her head towards the cellar.
“Do you know what kind of chant it is?” Elloren, asked.
“No, but I do know they are not supposed to be down there.” Turning my back to her I used my telekinetic powers to pick her up. I quickly moved us both to the cellar doors. Once her feet were planted on the ground, Elloren grabbed my hand. “Do you think we should call for help, just in case?” I could hear the fear in her voice. It vibrated though the stone walls. “Not yet, especially if it’s easy to handle.” I heard Elloren swallow the next words she was about to say.
They landed on her already unsettled stomach. Taking a deep breathe as a cue to her that I was about to open the door, her grip on my hand tighten. I could feel her fear leaking through her fingertips, trying to pour into me.
“You do not have to come. Stay here.”
“No way, if you die and I was around your parents would kill me. Literally.” There was nothing I could say to that. My parents loved Elloren like their own daughter, but she was not their daughter and vampires are terribly unforgiving.
Pulling the iron doors open, the smell of witch magic slapped me so hard I almost gasped. At first there was nothing to see. Not suspicious, but the chanting ceased. Very suspicious. We moved deeper into the room. And by we, I meant I went deeper into the room pulling Elloren with me. The Holy Trinties had gotten to her. I saw their threat as no more than a threat. But to Elloren it was her childhood all over.
Once we moved to the center of the room, I felt Elloren take a deep beath. A million burning candles lit up the room. Once our feet landed on what I knew was a gold and royal purple Persian rug. I knew we stood in the center of the room. Elloren gasped at the sight of the space, however to me nothing seemed out of place. The stone walls in here were covered in royal purple silk. Above us hung one of the only human skull chandeliers in the world. Different sized skulls made up the three rows that hung from the base. The skulls weren’t collected from mindless killings, no. These past people hunted my people. They slaughtered them. Vampires have never been peaceful. However, we have never started wars either. For what reason? Whatever we required we took.
That was the problem, we took from them they took from us. We just happened to be better thieves. Silk may have aligned the walls, but thousands of spells covered the silk. Those spells served two purposes, to keep my father in, then later to keep me in. In the far-right corner, there was a very old coffin. One that someone would fully expect to find a mummy in. The wood did not decay. The cravings on it did not fade, and its memories still potent. The room smelled of no one but my father and the little girl version of me.
“Is this where you were when you went insane?” Rolling my eyes. I pulled my hand from Elloren’s. I wanted to inspect the coffin. Make sure no one was hiding inside. “I did not go insane. By body grew faster than my mind at one point. Made it hard to control myself.”
“So, they put you down here to do what?”
“To be contained and to hunt. The cellar is much bigger than this room. We came straight down the staircase, but the staircase does break off at certain points.” Inspecting the coffin, everything seemed alright. Opening it, the taste of my childhood danced on the tip of my tongue. Inside the coffin was not grand. More wood more markings no clues about who had been chanting in here.
Sighing I sat on top of the coffin. My red lace dressing pooling around my feet like a sea of nausea. Wait nausea? Looking up, I realized why I felt nausea. There was Elloren with a knife to her throat. I started to move but then the voice that belonged to the hand that was holding the knife spoke. “No, no vampire I wouldn’t move if I were you.”
“That’s why you are you and I am me.” Standing up. I heard the knife dig into Elloren’s skin. She didn’t scream. But panic ran freely in her eyes. This wasn’t the first time a knife as met the delicate skin if her throat.
“Don’t think about calling your fairies either. I can smell them before they make it to our side.” The face that belonged to the hand holding the knife was covered in a mask. Not a normal mask, one made from thick old magic. Magic that smelled of human death. Blackgate? Couldn’t be. They weren’t that stupid to invade my home. Non, not a BlackGate, but maybe that little psycho.
Opening my mouth to speak, the invader stopped me. “Don’t waste your time asking dumb questions. I will not tell you who I am or why I came. The only thing that matters is I did come and yes, I found what I was looking for. I found two things.”
“Elloren being one?”
“You do have vision.” Their voice was familiar, only because they sounded like everyone I knew. From The Headmaster to my own father. Fuck, they came prepared.
“Why Elloren?”
“Simple she doesn’t belong to you or here vampire. You stole her.”
“Non, I simply removed her from a situation she nor I wanted her to be in. She is free to leave at any moment.”
“Like Ethan?”
“Non and Oui. Ethan has never been in a position where he nor I did not like. He is a gift.”
“Pourquoi oui?”
“Yes, because he does belong to me.” Using ‘Devil’s Search” I quickly located Ethan. He needed to be safe. Had to be safe. He was indeed not safe. I found him speaking to Godric. Not only was he speaking to Godric, but his eyes were hooded, and his lips were a little parted. He was aroused. He is such a whore. But as long as he kept speaking with Godric, he should be safe. Please Godric, keep him safe.
“You found the things that you wanted why are you still here?” The masked invader only starred at me for a few seconds before whispering something in Elloren’s ear. With hesitation, she nodded her head in agreeance to whatever the demand was. In one smooth second, the invader slit Elloren’s throat. Before the first drop of blood could touch the collar of her dress, the invader was already through the cellar doors and up the stairs. I could have chased after them, but Elloren did something unexpected. She fell to the ground hyperventilating.
Bleeding out and gasping for air? Not a good combination. Removing her hands from her neck, I saw that the wound was nothing more than a shallow cut. But that was all that was required for the venom to take hold. I could see it spreading throughout her body like cracks in a windshield. Biting my own wrist, I instructed Elloren to drink. Regardless of how sexy the movies try to make blood drinking. It is not unless I am the one doing the drinking. Allowing anyone to drink my blood directly from the source was about as painful as sudden amputation. The body is too shocked to register the pain but once it catches up all hell breaks loose.
Elloren took deep drinks and with every pull I fought the urge to knock her off me. Mind against body. The irony of this happening in this room was not lost on me.
Once her bloodstream was cleared, I pulled her away from my wrist. Sitting back on her knees she wiped her mouth. Oddly enough her bloodstained mouth just made her costume look more authentic. Falling back on my bottom I nodded in her direction, “Are you okay?”
With a huge grin on her face she replied, “More than okay. I know who they are.”