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| Jean-Marc catches Matthew & Hope |
A night that felt like forever.
A dawn that inched closer and still-- seemed distant.
Matthew and his sister Hope continued on their secret path into the walls and passages of Cyfrinach Castle hoping their visions would finally lead to Evie and Gabriel. But they were not alone.
As the Winterborn siblings quietly traversed these secret inner walls spaces that were narrow enough for them to walk through, a silent person walked behind them hiding in the shadows at every turn.
Then a new door finally appeared towards the end of this long path.
"We'll have to go in." Matthew whispered. "We've already walked so far, we have to start making our way upwards. The private rooms."
Hope nodded.
The follower knew better than them, and quickly made their way through yet another secret passage known only to someone who walked these passages on a regular basis, and when Matthew and Hope exited the passes and into the empty room back inside the main castle, they found themselves facing the child vampire Jean Marc. The follower.
Hope gasped in surprising at seeing such a young person standing in the center of the room that looked like an art gallery with even more paintings of past members of the vampire cult. She observed the young man, the child, his peach tone skin and healthy appearance. He smirked at her but still had a cold look to in his eyes.
"Hello." Matthew said, quietly closing the secret passage door. “Who might you be?”
"And how did you get in here?" Hope added noting she never saw someone come into the room and could tell Jean-Marc was out of breath as if he ran into the room.
"I live here. You don't." Jean Marc replied.
Matthew glanced at Hope, his expression saying this was going to be harder than it looked.
"We're looking for someone. A friend of ours. Perhaps you can tell us where she and her young son are. Her name is---" Matthew began before Jean Marc interrupted.
"I know who you're looking for. And she's looking for her child too. Everybody seems so lost." The young man said. "It's funny. I'm the only one who knows where he's going and what he's doing."
"We'd love to find them both. They're in a lot of danger here." Hope replied searching Jean Marc face to get a sense of what he was. She couldn't tell if he was a spirit or one of the creatures that lived in the castle.
"They are in danger." Jean Marc replied nonchalantly. "But you don't think you'll be able to save them, do you?"
"We have to." Matthew answered. "We're their only hope."
"I saw what you two did back in the foyer. I saw how the fire listened to you or ... or you listened to the fire. You did something, was it magic? Are you witches?" Jean Marc wondered.
"No, not witches. We're -- we belong to a people that share a connection to the world, to nature, to the elements. They speak to us. We speak to them. They help us find cures to illness, answers to our prayers. Gifts only our kind have." Hope explained.
"I have gifts too." Jean Marc replied proudly.
"Is that so? Like what?"
"Well, I'm 14 yet I'm not. I've live much longer than what I look and it's funny because no one can tell. At least the pretend not to tell."
Hope and Matthew looked at each other confused. "What do you mean?" Hope asked.
"I was created this way, like the others yet I was given a gift. Not everyone knows. Dominique says that if anyone were to know how special she made me they'd be jealous and they'd kill me. She was able to make me able to grow older. Like a real person. Every ten of your years, I grow a year old."
"140." Hope said. "You're 140 years old?"
"In your years, yes. And I can walk in light, that is the true gift." Jean Marc.
"We're Hope and Matthew." Matthew introduced. "Who are you?"
Jean Marc hesitated. The chaos of the day after Sinead's death made more stand-offish than usual. He wasn't even sure why he was talking to the strangers who had infiltrated their home but something about them told him they were kind and wouldn't hurt him. Like Evie. There was the problem, however, of how he was now aiding their entry into the castle without alerting anyone else. He was torn, tell on them and have them killed or befriend them and risk whatever the fall out of that would be.
"Jean Marc." He answered.
"Jean Marc, can you take us to Evie? And Gabriel?" Matthew asked.
"No one will ever let you leave this place; do you understand that? No matter how far I get you or how close I get you to Evie, they'll find you and you'll all be killed. She's done the unthinkable and -- they want her dead." The child vampire explained.
"What has she done?" Hope asked pensively.
"She's a murderer."
Matthew swallowed hard. He couldn't believe it. Not Evie. Evie would never hurt someone, kill them, intentionally. It wasn't in her nature, it wasn't in her DNA. Jean Marc must be mistaken.
"She did. At least I think she did." The child replied. "A woman who lives here fell from Evangeline's window and died. A stake, an iron rod from a fence, went straight through her heart."
"It sounds like an accident to me." Matthew replied.
Jean Marc giggled, "They'll never ever believe that, not if you paid them to."
"So then you know the danger. If we don't get to Evie quickly, the others will and they'll kill her and possible Gabriel. We can't let that happen, Jean Marc. We have to help." Hope said.
Jean Marc thought about it for a second and looked around the large gallery room with it's golden framed paintings and it's red painted walls. The storm continued to rage outside, cracking the sky with white hot lightening but the room remained relatively quiet thanks to the flanking towers that surrounded it.
The child vampire then looked up and the painting and wondered how many of these men and women would have taken the risk he was being resented by? How many of them would have helped save the child and his mother from certain death. He turned and saw a fire placed that was not lit. The black soot stained the walls like a thick black curtain. The boy went over and knelt down. He grabbed a box of matches and lit a fire and breathed on to it letting the flames flicker hotter and hotter up against his skin. He looked into the fire and remembered what he saw Hope and Matthew do in the foyer.
"I'll tell you where they are -- for a price." The child said.
Matthew and Hope once again shot each other looks. "And what is that?" Matthew asked.
"Show me the trick you did with the fire, and I'll take you to Gabriel. He's closer to where we are now."
"The trick with the fire? Show you?" Hope questioned.
"Yes, show me what you see when you strengthen the fire so that I can see too and then I'll take you to Gabriel."
Matthew wasn't sure he could summon it on his own. Hope was the stronger of the two, she was the one who could summon and then pass it to someone else it would have to be her. But Matthew didn't want to open her up to any sabotage or trickery from the smallest vampire in the court. And yet, she stepped up and agreed.
She began to hum her song. Matthew aided her by harmonizing with her the same song. The flames of the fire grew stronger and hotter. The began to lift from the heart heating the room like an oven. Jean Marc became transfixed by the heat. It started to choke, two hands of hell grabbing on to his thin neck and squeezing. It was a sensation Hope was already used to, it was disturbing and uncomfortable but short lived.
Then Jean Marc opened his eyes and saw the castle as if it were made of ice: transparent, invisible. He saw the others asleep in their crypts, this time not noticing someone was watching since it was one of their own, Jean Marc, doing the gazing. He saw everything all at once like it was projected onto a screen in front of him yet it was all in his mind fueled the by the light of the power flames that Hope's mind conjured to show her.
Jean Marc felt as if he were floating above his own body in the gallery room. He could see himself, Hope and Matthew. He could see the inner walls and then, to his shock, he saw Kildare approaching. Closer and closer the hitman came to entering the gallery room and discovering the three.
Jean Marc shook off Hope's control, and the flames grew small and back into the hearth.
"What is it?" Matthew said, as Hope unlatched herself telepathically, almost at a dizzying speed.
"COME!" Jean Marc said quickly. "You're not safe. COME!"
Jean Marc quickly rushed to the other side of the room where there was yet another secret passage. He slid it open and stepped aside waiting for the Winterborns.
"He wants us to follow." Matthew whispered.
"Do we trust him?" She asked, not knowing Kildare the man who tried to kill them not too long ago, was steps away from entering through the first secret passage they had just exited.
"I don't think we have a choice." Matthew answered.
The two quickly rushed over and went with Jean Marc who securely replaced the wall, then they disappeared back into the passages.
Kildare entered the Gallery room and saw the fire lit. But there was no one around.
****
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| Sebastian enters the Count’s layer |
The door to Alexandre's darkly lit room slowly opened. Arameed, still seated at the side of the dying count, quickly got up not expecting a visitor so late in the night and so close to dawn.
Dominique entered in her veiled shapely form of black lace and chiffon. But she wasn't alone.
"What is the meaning of this?" Arameed asked, surprised to see Sebastian with her. “How dare you bring in this man unannounced into this sacred room.”
"Calm yourself old man.” She growled. “There has been a disturbance, Arameed. We need to move things quicker than we expected." She said lifting her veil.
"What? What disturbance?"
Sebastian cleared his throat. "A death."
"One of the other's has been killed and I think we need to get things the way you said, on the balcony." She reminded him.
Arameed moved over to where Dominique was and pulled her away from Sebastian and to a quiet corner of the large room.
"We never spoke of having him here when we did this. Your ascension is yours and yours alone, it should not have anyone else here to witness it." Arameed said, his suspicious eye on Sebastian never lifting.
"Sebastian is to be mine." She answered. "Evangeline has no more power over his heart now that she's done what she's done."
"What has she done?" The mystic questioned.
"It seems Sinead made a stupid mistake and went to see our prisoner. They clearly did not get alone; Sinead was thrown from a window and impaled on one of the iron rods of the garden gate."
"Sinead is dead?" Arameed repeated in shock.
"Evangeline is on the run. But she wont last. Evan won't let her leave here alive."
As the two spoke quietly, Sebastian moved slowly over to the vampire Alexandre who was lying in his bed like an ancient stone figure with skin ashen and almost transparent. His body thin and emaciated slowly fading with the night. In contrast Sebastian, the tall, strong, healthy young man stared down at the creature dying in front of him not knowing his own son Gabriel was the key to turning it all around.
Sebastian wanted to cry, seeing the creature practically lifeless from some disease that he could not pinpoint. Was it a sickness? Old age? He wondered if years and years from now would this be his own future. Was he standing in front of a mirror watching his own fate come true?
"He's very ill." Dominique said suddenly from behind.
"From what?" Sebastian asked.
"Time." Dominique replied with a brow arched.
He turned to her, confused, and saw her standing with the golden sickle in her hand. The same sickle that was supposed to be used for Gabriel, but she was about to turn the tables and take matters into her own hands. Life, as everyone knew it, would change in just moments.
What should have been a ceremony of the mixling's lifeforce going into Count Alexandre and giving him every lasting life was now a ceremony of the end of his life and the true beginning of the reign of The Countess Doshall of Cyfrinach.
She would inherit it all. The land. The minions.
Most of all: The power.
Sebastian was watched as she went over to the other side so that now she and Sebastian were at the old vampire's left and right. Arameed at the foot of the bed with a small book in his hands.
"What is happening?" Sebastian asked innocently.
"The time has come." Arameed answered as a thunderclap shook the glass in the windows.
"I don't understand."
Arameed turned to his side where there was a large dressing table with several drawers along it's side. Sebastian noted the intricate carvings along the dresser's feet. Animal feet that did not match. The front feet were carved like lion feet while that back were clawlike but not an animal here could recognize.
Arameed removed the golden sickle from it's sheath and handed it to Dominique who replaced the veil over her face. She got closer to Alexandre and lifted the sickled slightly so it was now hanging over her father's body. A single shimmer of light slid across the sharp blade as Dominique took a deep breath that lifted her vail as she exhaled.
Sebastian, on the other side of the bed, watched with his eyes wide open unable to blink and unable to pull his face away from what he could tell was about to happen. His mind kept questioning his logic, he kept saying over and over in his mind that what that blade was doing so close to the dying vampire's flesh was not about to happen.
Arameed began reading from a book he kept in a pouch around his waist in a language Sebastian did not understand. The mystic's arm was stretched over Alexandre's feet and legs and Dominique began to repeat the words in the strange language. To Sebastian it went on like this for hours but was only minutes.
The rain on the window was unyielding. It beat on the glass like fists pounding on the front gate. The wind howled like wolves begging for a bite. Sebastian, his heart beating slow, his skin cold and clammy watched as Dominique lowered the sickle on to her father's bare neck and without a second thought.... she sliced.
The sickle blade cut the gray flesh like it was butter releasing a sound from Alexandre that seemed to come from an animal trapped in a vice. Inhuman. Then a gasp for air, as if the sound had been sucked up into a vortex and all that could be heard was a chocking on black blood that poured onto his chest and cascaded from his would to the sheets pooling in dark stains like oil in sand.
A similar sound, quieter though, came from Dominique. Her veil sucked up closed to her mouth as observed what she had done. She grabbed her throat and fell backwards onto a chair that was close by. She gasped, chocked, sweated. She tossed and turned in the chair. A tightening gripped her throat as if a noose had tightened around her neck and she were hanging on for dear life.
Arameed went to her, his hand over her forehead and chanting still, this time in a language Sebastian understood.
"For the time has come to pass the deathly torch to another. Give unto your whole body this generous gift slowly seeping into your soul Let the river of blackness guide you forth from hence and into the next generation and into the next. You shall lead. You shall devour. You shall empower. Let ye herein be witness to the new life of the new countess. Long may she live for us. Long may we live for her."
Sebastian stepped back too, shock all over his face. Alexandre's body became more and more sunken in as if imploding. He flicked his eyes open. Gray. Vacant. His body, withered, his limbs gnarled like the branches of a dead tree, began to decay and turn slowly into ash. The old count knew then his time was up. With one last look at his so called daughter, he spoke in a whisper that echoed into the night
"This end is not the end." Alexandre said in a whispery voice.
When the last of trace of what he was disappeared into the pile of ash that was his body, Dominique regained her breath.
"Long live the Countess Doshall." Arameed said again.
Sebastian, heart slowed to an almost stop. His eyes were transfixed on the new Countess as the title and power were now in her hands. And also, the deathly curse that had taken away Alexandre to what he was while in that bed. As she'd inherited his powers, she'd also inherited the need for the mixling's lifeforce to live on. But with her youth still rather intact, she had time and so did Gabriel.
She stood up from the chair. Week, though, from the powerful transition she had just undergone. Arameed bowed in her presence. Sebastian was too shocked too speak. Too revolted in the idea that she took her father's life unknowing that she had to, to gain his power and position. And in a way in her doing this she'd given Gabriel slightly longer to live.
"Bow in the presence of the countess, our new leader." Arameed said.
In a trans, Sebastian stood there, frozen.
"I SAID BOW!" Aremeed's voice growled.
Dominique stood silent.
Sebastian genuflected to the new Countess, he was almost robotic in his movements.
The new countess, now head of the Saints of Goodwick slowly made her way to Sebastian's side of the room. When their eyes met she lifted her veil. Sebastian thought he'd see a different face, something more evil, but no -- she was the same. She stared at him, he was locked in her eyes. He could sense her power like a perfume in the air, thick and lingering.
She grabbed his hands. "Marry us Arameed." She said without moving her eyes from Sebastian.
Arameed seemed shocked at her request, but when she finally turned back to him, she asked again her voice more stern.
Arameed sighed, this was not part of his place but he complied.
Sebastian and Dominique joined hands. The candles in the room that were no lit snapped into flame. The wind suddenly stopped. The rain too. And in minutes, it was all done.
"We are now together too." She whispered to her new husband,
"We are now together." He repeated in her total control.
Suddenly, two golden rings came around their ringers like liquid and became solid.
Locking in their marriage.
"And when the time comes," Dominique spoke agian, "you will hand me the mixling." She ordered.
"When the time comes, I will hand you the mixling." He repeated.
She inched closer and kissed him long on the lips, slipping her tongue in his mouth. He felt compelled to do the same. An erotic moment they shared as she slipped her hands into his pants to feel him. He winced with her grip, and when she removed her hand, a sleek film covered the palm of her hand... and she licked it off tasting him.
Her eyes, beguiled by his face, lingered long as his did on her. She took his hand and led him to a different room. It was smaller lit with the simple glow of candles that were everywhere. They flickered in the dark casting a shadow over the bed that Dominique now sat on. She removed the veil from her head and face completely, her long dark hair cascading along her shoulders. He began to unbutton his trousers. She helped.
He began to undress her too. Slowly. Then, skin to skin, they lay back. She felt every inch of his cool body on top of her. He felt hers too, as he nibbled on the small curves of her neck and shoulder as one of his hands made its way down her thigh and hers scratching down his back her slipped between her knees.
They made love there, in the candlelight. In the rejuvenated storm. Solidifying their twisted new marriage and ushering in a new generation of leadership within the vampire court.
****
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| Evie & Roman find Gabriel’s room |
As the dark wedding was consummated in the apartments of the Doshalls, Evie and Roman slipped through darker corridors and into rooms where little Gabriel had been hidden. Evie could smell the scent of her little boy, it was fresh linens and honey. A baby smell that lingered in every mother's heart.
The rooms for Gabriel were large. The main room was lit with light of a fireplace. A small sofa and chair sitting area looked as if it had never been used. A hallway that led to his bedroom had a small table with a candle lit.
Roman motioned for Evie to follow him, she did but somewhere between the living room and the bedroom of this area Evie got in front of Roman eager to find her sweet little boy.
As they entered the bedroom the moon covered by storm clouds had cast a blue gloom over it and Evie could tell Gabriel was gone.
"He's not here." She whispered to herself. "He's not here Roman!"
"There must be some mistake, I know this is where Sebastian brough him when he took him from your rooms. There's been no other place."
"There must be, he's not here and nothing of his is here either." Evie replied, her voice frantic.
"Its going to be alright, it'll be sunup soon and we'll have more time and space to find him." Roman explained.
"We don't have that much time. His life is in danger and now that they believe I killed Sinead they may not waste time hurting him. Roman, this is my child, I can't sit back and wait for the sun to rise." Evie replied.
"You're right. We'll find him. We'll have to make our way closer to where Dominique is. If Gabriel is anywhere, he's closer to her."
"You won't find him there." A voice said form the shadows.
Evie and Roman jumped, startled by the tiny voice. Roman stepped in front of Evie putting his arm out in front of her.
"Who's there?" Roman asked.
Evie pushed Roman's arm down and walked out in front of her cousin. "I know that voice." She said.
Jean Marc walked out darkness, yet again slipping through into the room where Gabriel was through a secret passage.
"What are you doing here?" She asked the young vampire.
"I have a secret." The 14 year old boy said. "And I think you may want to hear it."
"Jean Marc we don't have time to play games, you know what has happened. I need to know where Sebastian has taken Gabriel." Evie said appealing to the young one.
"Sebastian hasn't taken Gabriel. He's not with his father."
"How do you know this?" Roman asked.
"Because I took him."
Evie and Roman shot each other looks.
"Jean Marc, we need to know where he is. His life is in danger. Did you take him away to hurt him?" Roman asked.
"NO!" The boy shouted back. "I would never hurt him. I took him so that he would not be hurt. He's with friends who wanted to protect him. I've kept them all safe." He said.
"Do you remember when we talked about your mother and how you wished you had been with her instead of being here? With Dominique? The way she wanted to act as if she were your mother but then -- she didn't." Evie asked him.
Jean Marc nodded.
"Well, I am Gabriel's mother. And I am here to be with him. If you keep him from me and place him with people that may hurt him, you are doing to him what Dominique did to you. Please, help us Jean Marc. You could be the one person that saves us all from something very, very evil." Evie said, appealing the young vampire's heart.
Jean Marc stood and stared blankly at Evie as his mind remembered his own history:
***PARIS 1779***
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| Jean Marc remembers |
A young Jean Marc walked the streets of Paris. His little bare feet pitter-patter along the wet city cobble stone street. He is searching for food, his mother, sick in her bed unable to work. His father gone. He is the only person left of his family that can venture out — at six years old.
As he makes his way down Rue Villmonte, Jean-Marc sees other helpless children digging in garbage hoping to find a morsel of bread, old vegetables —something, anything, that they can eat to quell the snarling feeling in their tiny tummies. Jean Marc too feels the hunger pains in his own little belly, but he needs more than just for himself. His mother is dying. She need food to heal.
As he struggles amid the tangle of arms and legs of the other orphans in the slop of the city, a hand yanks little Jean-Marc out of the garbage. It's a beautiful woman dressed in the most glamorous of dresses the child has ever seen. Her hair tucked under a powdered wig with two tight curls peeking over her ears. Her skin is whiter and cleaner than anything Jean-Marc has ever seen.
Her lips are blood red and she seems to glow. In perfect French she ask if he is hungry.
Jean Marc is too shy and embarrassed by his dirty appearance to look her in the eye and reply so he stares down at his mud caked feed and see his little toes curl, he answers with a whimper "Oui, madame. J'ai faim. Ma mère aussi."
"Your mother is out of pain. She will no longer need you to help her." The woman replied in English.
The boy did not understand her. She could tell so she repeated in French.
The little boy's lip began to tremble. His eyes watered so much that a tear overflowed and dropped down his little cheek.
The beautiful woman wiped away the little wet stain and told him she'd protect him now. She'd give him what he needed. She'd give him so much life that he'd never ask for anything again. She'd be like a mother.
"Ma mère? Où est-elle?" the child asked.
The woman stood up from her position at eye level with the boy and reached for his hand.
“Vien.” She replied.
“Ma mère? Où est-elle?" He repeated as he grabbed the woman’s hand.
"Ici." She answered in French. Here is your mother.
But his life with his supposed new mother did not come without a cost.
The woman was Dominique Doshall. She took him away from Paris, bit him and with his youthful blood kept herself young all these ears. She gave him new life, indeed, but turned him into what she was, just as Alexandre had done to her. And like what Alexandre had done to Dominique, giving her this life where she'd age slowly in time but not like the rest of the world.
And if they’d play their cards right, found a mixling along the way, they could all live forever.
And there was one more thing. Dominique possessed the special ability to grant her victims the ability to walk in the light, so in turn for his obedience, his childlike essence that made her feel maternal, his care for her when she’d eventually need it, Dominique gave her supposed heir and adopted son Jean-Marc the ability to age slowly in his own body. Noy like mortals, and not like other vampires frozen in time, this is a gift given only to special creatures from a powerful few leader. Most importantly, he has the chance to see daylight like anyone else.
These gifts bestowed on Jean-Marc have him cling to Dominique who sees him only as a way to keep herself alive. And its worked all these years.
***PRESENT DAY***
Jean Marc thought about his life, and how difficult it had been losing his real parents and Dominique’s eventual firing of him. He suddenly recalled his loneliness at the hands of Dominique careless ways and how she never lived up to the title of mother like he had hoped.
He recalled how he found a ruby necklace once in Dominique’s possessions, one that belonged to his real mother — it was Jean Marc’s sign that Dominique had killed his real mother and taken him for herself. He didn't want this life for Gabriel too. He didn't want what happened to his own real mother happen to Evie.
"I will take you to Gabriel and the others." Jean Marc said.
"The others?" Roman asked.
"Friends. But you cannot ever leave this place with them unless you do one thing." The boy asked.
"Anything." Evie said.
Roman grabbed her arm knowing the vampire's of the court were masters of manipulation and agreeing to something on their terms so quickly was foolish.
"Anything -- depending on hurting someone else or... worse." Roman amended.
"I won't ask you to hurt anyone." Jean Marc replied. "I don't want anyone else hurt."
"Then what is it?" Evie asked.
"I ask that when you all leave, you take me with you. I want to be free of this place too." He asked.
"Can you?" She wondered. "The sun, it would kill you."
Roman shook his head and smiled "No, he can walk in light."
Evie was shocked to hear it. She never knew of it's possibility knowing Sebastian could not.
"Then we'll take you, yes." She agreed.
"Come." Jean Marc said, grabbing Evie's hand, as she grabbed Roman's and the three entered the secret passage in the walls of Gabriel's old room.
****
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| Arameed calls a meeting of the Saints |
With the change in leadership, Arameed called a late meeting within the walls of Cyfrinach. The creatures who were bound for their sleep before the sun appeared on the horizon, were summoned to the main ballroom where they found Arameed standing on the small stage instead of whom they believed it would: the revitalized Alexandre.
"I've summoned you all here with good news." Arameed said over murmurs of the crowd.
"Has the mortal woman been caught, the one that killed Sinead?" A female shouted.
"YES! Has she been taken care of?" A man added.
"No, no, Kildare still searches the grounds for her yet. She will not leave here alive, this an assure the court." Arameed added.
Evan, Sinead's brother made his way through the court that had assembled, many of them had already turned into their crypts after the shocking death of Sinead. He was angry. He was seething with disgust with the lack of urgency to find and kill his sister's alleged murderer.
"Then why call us here at all? You said you had good news and yet my sister's murderess remains free and alive. The only good news I want to hear is that you have her head on a plate!!”
The crowd roared with agreement.
“Calm! I plead calmness!” Arameed shouted.
“And where is our leader? Dominique won't even show her face and clearly the count remains on his death bed -- the mixling still alive as well. So what is it, old Arameed, what have you to tell us that is good if not what we want to hear?"
"I know you're angry Evan, but your hope for the quick death of Evangeline will have to wait because we have a new leader. There has been an ascension within our walls. The Count is dead! Long Live the Countess!"
The group assembled gasped in shock. They had not expected such a turn. Alexandre's demise was supposed to happen only if the mixling's life force did not work, and with his death they all were to die, having Dominique succeed her father only a patch on the problem. Yes, they had many years now to live but eventually Dominique too would have to deal with her aging lifeforce, and Gabriel was still key.
"What is the meaning of this? How is she now to lead us? Did she take the lifeforce from the mixling? Are we safe?" A woman asked.
"Tell us!" a male said.
"SPEAK!" Another male demanded.
Arameed lifted his arms up trying to calm the eager group of vampires. They were worried that they'd once again have to go through the trials and tribulations of living night to night hoping that when the time came for Dominique turn at the end of her reign that she would finally get to use the power of the mixing. This was a society that although functioning on a monarchal form, wanted only to live with one person leading them forever -- the change of their head was a nascence because the curse of the leader dying their 400th birthday only prolonged the danger of them all dying.
Specifically, because Dominique had no heir. Unless she chose someone to take over as Alexandre chose her, then the entire court's demise would be delayed as it was now. This was not what they wanted, delays were not the road they preferred to go down. They wanted ever-lasting-life.
"WE WANT THE MIXLINGS BLOOD!!!!!!!!" A male vampire shouted, the rest of court shouting in agreement. The child's blood inside their leader was the only way they'd live forever.
"You must be patient." Arameed said. "The countess' succession to Alexadre's throne has bought us time, much more time and I guarantee that this world is not over for us. She has every intention to continue where we are and who we are. But she has made her decision to rule in her father's name to and give us more time. This is a brave choice; we should be rejoicing!"
"Where is she?" Evan asked, his eyes dark with anger. "I want to see her --now."
"In her marital bed." Arameed said to once again the chock of the crowd.
"What marital bed? Whom has she married?" Evan asked.
"The American: Sebastian Lord."
The crowd gasped. An outsider.
"This is outrageous!!" Evan shouted. "Look what is happening to us! Look what she has done, she has taken this court and used it's powers for her own good meanwhile the rest of us wait until she decided when it's a good time to take from the mixling to save the rest of us. This marriage is heresy! This marriage to an outside her pure heresy!!!"
"HOW DARE YOU!" Arameed shot back. "You stand here and speak of our leader this way knowing the punishment? You see yourself as some kind of soldier of our kind but you've done nothing but make things worse. Shut your mouth before The Countess hears and shuts it for you."
"But Sinead's death, it must not go unpunished. She was one of us. Does the countess want this to be judged the way we all know it should be? The mortal woman must die for this crime." A vampire shouted.
"THE MORTAL WOMAN MUST DIE!!" cheered the crowd.
"And she will!!!" Arameed shouted over the vampires. "She will. But now that we've been given more time, thanks to our Countess' bravery in take over for the late Count Alexandre and entering into a marriage of much privilege she has forged a new path. This is what we must celebrate." Arameed shouted.
"Privilege? Only she comes from an area of privilege. My sister is dead. Her body now a vacant vessel that once held such a bright star. I will never forgive what has happened here and the abuse of our fellowship. Dominique needs to address us. She needs to address me!" Evan shouted angrily, spit spewing from his mouth.
The clock in the main hall with it's large face chimed 3 in the morning. The sun was two hours way.
"Tomorrow." Arameed said. "She'll come to you tomorrow Evan, this I promise you."
But there were already too many broken promises. Evan was not going to entertain any more pathetic attempts by Arameed or Dominique to quell his anger over his sister's alleged murder. He wanted justice and revenge and he would get it. He would get it before the day came and for this man, a man that had seen so much of his life and afterlife taken from him by allowing this vampire queen to take it from him and give him a lackluster existence through failed plans and broken promises was ready to take things into his own hands.
Arameed came over to Evan who grabbed a goblet that had a small trace of blood that had congealed. He stuck his finger inside and broke the dried bits and drank whatever would seep into his mouth.
"You should calm yourself." Arameed whispered to him as he went to leave. "And you shall address her now as The Countess, Your Grace, or Ma'am. The name Dominique shall never leave your togue again."
Evan snarled at the old mystic as he watched him slowly limp away with his robes dragging along the black and white tiled floor of the ballroom.
"Just you wait, old Arameed, just you wait." Evan said to himself in a low voice.
The day would come soon but Evan's anger would not reset to peace. He would not let this go. He would not allow the sense of betrayal he felt deep in his body vanish just because Dominique was now the head of the court. He felt she had turned her back on the court in favor of her own interests. She was safe now married to the man that was the father of the prophesized mixling. She was safe now in a high place of esteem while the rest of them had to wait again for another long 300 years. 300 more years of uncertainty, 300 more years of wishing for the one child to finally come.
Evan knew she was squandering this moment and that she was using it to link herself to Sebastian, a man that could easily be manipulated in his own naivety of the world they lived in.
Yes, the day would come but not for another 2 hours, and in the next 2 hours Evan would make sure not a soul left Castle Cyfrinach alive.
