When was the last time I saw the sun, Elysa wondered.

Storm clouds had followed her everywhere for years. Murky dreariness that hid the sun and kept her father safe from the great star’s judging glare. Even during the day that should have belonged to the living. Under her father’s power nature looked dead. The sand on the beach was grey and the ocean was a place where things went to drown and die.

Would all Garuccia look like this if her father got what he wanted? The viscount’s child born from her womb. A noble child who could marry a princess and put the royal house under her father’s thrall.

He had already taken a step closer to his plan bearing fruit. The party had been a success. For her father anyway. All those families of power congratulating her and the viscount for the marriage… and then meeting her father. One look into his crimson eyes and their thoughts were no longer their own. It was a plan that took time, but a vampire had all the time in the world. What was a decade or two to an undead?

“… how… did I get here?”

When Elysa had gone to the beach near the mansion, she had done the sole kindness to the viscount she could and taken him with her. Before meeting her father, the viscount had lived up to his reputation. Powerful and resolute. The Lionheart. The last hope of House Rossi.

Now he was just a lost and confused child.

“I thought we could both use time away from my father.” Elysa said.

The viscount fell on his knees and rubbed his head like he was trying cleanse his mind.

“… monster… he’s a monster. My head… something is wrong with my head. Sal… where’s Sal?”

Elysa bit her lip hard enough to draw blood.

“He’s… gone away. I… I’m sorry.” Elysa said and rubbed the mole under her eye: “Was he your brother? I heard rumors he was another Rossi bastard.”

“… no… he… saved my life… years ago… he… Sal? Where are you? I… advise me…”

The viscount’s cheek twitched while he fought a losing battle inside his own mind. Only Nuncio had ever battled so fiercely against their father’s power.

“… I… I think I did something terrible… I didn’t mean to…” The viscount mumbled before looking at her: “… I… I know you… you’re the girl… I am supposed to marry.”

“Yeah…”

“… help… me. I… I need to get away from here… I can feel… worms in my brain.”

Elysa kneeled next to the viscount and put her hand on his shoulder.

“I am sorry… but I can’t. If I do, my mother will suffer.”

There was a flash of green fire in the viscount’s eyes, but it was snuffed out. Light was always snuffed out in her father’s domain.

“… help me and… I will save your mother. I will… save you… will get you… anything you want…”

Elysa smiled sadly and allowed herself to dream for a moment.

“I guess I would like to go to university. To become a doctor.”

“… help me… and you have my permission to… go to university.”

Elysa sighed sadly.

“Your permission, huh?” Elysa said and looked at the mansion: “We should go back. It’s not safe for us to be out here for too long.”

The viscount looked like a scared kitten when he looked at his mansion… that was no longer his.

“… don’t make me go back there.” The viscount whispered.

For a moment she thought about taking the remaining car and trying their chances… but then Elysa looked at the mansion… and saw the silhouette of her father standing by the window. Looking at her. Looking at them.

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“I don’t want to go back there either.” Elysa said and took the viscount’s hand: “But it looks like neither of us is getting what we want.”

She held the viscount’s hand and led him back to the mansion like he was a feeble old man.

“You should get some sleep.” Elysa said.

After helping the viscount lie down on the couch and singing him to sleep, Elysa started wandering the hallways of the mansion that she would live in from now on. It felt like a home. A place of comfort and rest but… the rot was already setting in.

Hearing father argue over the phone put an end to her exploration.

“What do you mean you don’t know? How hard can it be to kill one gypsy? Look. I want that gypsy dead and that car back so get it done and… Yes. I suppose I will take my son back too. If you can find him. But the car comes first.”

Father had taken over the viscount’s study the same way the head of a conquering army would sit on the throne of a disposed king. As sign of his conquest father had taken down the banner of House Rossi and replaced it with a painting of himself. Rest of the decorations had been allowed to remain and the walls were lined with the heads of felled beasts but none of them looked more terrifying than the beast talking on the phone.

Whenever it was just the two of them, father didn’t bother with the glamour to make himself look human and she saw him the way he really was. Skin white as bone, eyes like two bloody wounds and talons black as charcoal. The sharp fangs meant for ripping and tearing flashed out when he spoke like a knife hidden in a killer’s sleeve.

“We made a deal. Do not make me regret it.” Father said and slammed down the phone: “Useless idiot.”

Standing by the door, Elysa cleared her throat.

“… is Nuncio in trouble?”

Father looked at her and his smile was affectionate… but behind the smile were the fangs.

“Getting buggered by that gypsy for all I know.” Father said and pushed himself off the chair.

Elysa had to suppress the urge to flee when father walked over to her. He hadn’t fed as much as he usually did, and his body radiated an unnatural chill. Wherever he went, he brought winter with him. The black talons ran through her hair and his thumb brushed the mole under her eye. As a girl it had made her tremble with revulsion, but she was wiser now. She had learned her lesson. Never show weakness.

“How do you like your future husband?” Father asked.

Elysa looked at the crumbled banner in the corner. The golden lion with a rose in its mouth lying on the ground. It looked like it was whimpering instead of roaring.

“You… chose well.”

“I know. His son or maybe grandson will be king one day. So, you better give him a son. A strong, healthy son. One fit to marry a princess. Our family has a lot riding on this, and it is time you did your part. A woman’s war is in the birthing bed. Do you understand?”

“… yes, father.” Elysa said.

“Good girl. No more getting uppity?”

“… I learned my lesson.”

“That you did, and I hated myself when you made me hurt you like that. You’re not going to make me hurt you again, are you?”

“… no, father.”

“Like I said, good girl.” Father said and patted her cheek: “Remember that I am doing this for you. Nuncio too.”

“… I will, father.”

“Good. Very good.” Father said before admiring the heads of beasts on the wall: “Five hundred years ago baron Karloff von Stradheim became a vampire and tried to take over Garuccia and The Wyrding by force. Like a fool. This is how you conquer a country. Not by violence but with a look and the right marriage. The best takeovers are ones where no one even knows it is happening.”

Elysa wondered if father would have been that smug had the long-dead vampire king stood before him at that moment. When she left… fled the study, she felt filthy. It was the kind of filth you could never wash away. The kind she always felt after sharing her father’s company.

Where are you, Nuncio, she thought.

She needed him now. More than ever. Her strong big brother. They had survived this long because they’d had each other. He couldn’t leave her now. Not when father had taken more of the world for himself. She could feel them. Father’s pawns lurking just out of sight. His bodyguards that followed him everywhere. Those miserable undead who had no will of their own. You would not have guessed it from a far, but the viscount’s mansion had turned into a prison.

And prisons always had inmates trying to escape.

While staring out of the window into the hopeless day with no sun, she could hear the creak of an opening door and saw one of the maids sneaking out. When she looked at her face, it felt like she was looking at herself from across time. During a time when she’d thought there was a way to escape. The girl must have thought it was safe to run during the day but the sun…

The sun was hidden behind dark clouds and the undead roamed the land still.

The girl didn’t even have time to scream when the ghouls surrounded her. They rose from the ground like cockroaches ready to feast on a corpse. The girl pulled out a cross with her trembling hands, but the ghouls paid it no heed and raised their talons and bared their fangs.

“Leave her alone!”

A power she though that had been snuffed out took over her and Elysa jumped out of the window. Her dress fluttered like wings behind her when she landed on the grass, and she walked over to the ghouls. They reeked of rotting meat and black magic that kept them moving. Had she been anyone else, they would have ripped her to shreds but even the ghouls recognized their master’s flesh and blood.

“Back off.” Elysa snarled and forced herself to meet the ghouls’ stares.

The ghouls did not back off and growled at her for daring to interrupt their meal.

So she slapped the closest one.

The ghoul’s flesh was soft and a simple slap from her tore its skin. Black liquid started flowing down its cheek and stained Elysa’s fingers. She should have been terrified but when that power took over her, standing up to those who would harm her, or others became more overwhelming than the fear of being hurt.

“I know you can understand me. Leave her alone. This one is not for you. Touch what belongs to my father, and you will never feed again. He will bury you and you will starve forever.”

The only thing a ghoul truly feared was going without blood and the though gave them pause. When they hesitated, Elysa grabbed the young maid’s hand and pulled her away. She led her back to the mansion and slammed the door shut in front of the ghouls faces.

“You’re not welcome here. Stay out.” Elysa said to the ghouls through the closed door.

When the door was shut, the maid… the girl… the child hugged her and started weeping. It was… shocking. Realizing just how young she was. Even since leaving Cobbler’s Hold, Elysa had been surrounded by servants and father had trained her to pay them no more heed than she would at furniture. But she was paying the girl heed now and she couldn’t have been older than fourteen. Fourteen… that was no age to die.

“Emilia?”

The head maid, a tall, formidable looking woman was walking towards them. In a strange way, she was the most imposing figure in the mansion that housed the Lionheart. Father had allowed her to keep running the mansion even after his takeover, but she didn’t seem to have any illusions about the fact that father would kill them all when they were no longer needed.

And yet, she kept her composure.

The young maid… Emilia ran to the head maid’s arms, and she held her like a mother would. Elysa and the head maid looked at each other over the crying girl and behind them… just past the closed door were the ravenous ghouls.

“Thank you.” The head maid said.

“It was nothing.” Elysa said and meant it.

They both knew that she had only delayed the inevitable. The maids would be given to the ghouls as payment when father had brought in his own people. Mathilde would almost certainly take over running this place soon.

“No.” The head maid said: “You…”

There was a bloodcurdling howl that came from the study that had the head maid hold the girl closer to her. Emilia buried her face in the head maid’s chest like she was trying to hide inside her.

“Father?!”

Elysa left the maids in the lobby when she ran upstairs to father’s study. When she pushed the door open, she found her father growling in pain and clawing at his chest like someone had ripped out his heart.