As Aldrich’s entourage led us in, an ocean of eyes washed over us in a tidal wave, and there was a roar of applause. Despite our concerns, I was glad Aldrich was receiving the recognition he deserved. He seemed to perk up at the positive reception, flashing his women melting smile. Emily, Elias, and Benjamin stood up, but seemingly reluctantly. They applauded with blank expressions. I accidentally met Emily’s gaze and she glared at me, her perfect lips curled in disgust. They looked hateful, but not menacing. I took a deep breath. The King and Queen sat upon their thrones, watching us with a smile. The love the Queen had for her son overpowered any loathing she had for me; she seemed genuinely happy. The ballroom was glorious, unlike anything I had ever seen before. The floors were of glossy marble, sparkling like the white grand piano playing revelry music along with the orchestra. The thick velvet drapes were folded on the sides of the French windows, letting in the d
“What are you doing out here?” I demanded, trying to mask my weariness with annoyance. We had never been alone together before. She stepped closer, and now I could see the scars more clearly. They disrupted her features greatly, the result of scabs and the ghosts of deep marks. I didn’t feel even a shred of guilt. “I saw what you did,” she said, grinning a hideous smile. She now projected what was inside of her, so I deemed her new look as rather fitting, “you cursed that girl.” I glared at her. “Just like I cursed you? Yeah, I know.” “So you admit it,” she mused, prowling closer, her heels echoing against the corridor marble. She wore a black stress dusted in sparkles, elegant and gothic, her lipstick a blood red. Black diamond earrings dangled from her ears. “Why wouldn’t I take the pleasure of admitting I ruined your pretty little face?” I asked with sarcasm and acid dripping from my tone. She smirked. “You seem to forget your audience.”
Cathy I did not slap him, nor backhand him. That was too nice. I curled my fingers into a fist and smacked it across his face, making blunt force with his nose. Everyone gasped, some smiled, some laughed, some cried out. But mostly, they laughed. His face immediately reddened, matching the color of the liquid coming out of his nose. Emily could blackmail me all she wanted, but with Aldrich stationed by my side, I could do anything, and get away with it, too. I hoped Theo didn’t see that. I scanned for him in the crowd, and saw Danika covering his eyes. Alan was beside her, grinning like he just won a million dollars. “Every time you see your broken nose in the mirror, remember me,” I hissed at him before turning to walk away. The crowd watched me in delight before eventually dispersing back to its original knot. Some people applauded me on my trek through the room, others smiled at me like I was a new shiny toy. I had officially made my memo
Gasping, I turned to the origin of the noise: the sky. Pink sparks combusted in front of the clouds. Then orange. Then blue. Then gold. An array of dazzling colors exploded in bursting hued sparkles against the sky, as it was jewelry. Amazed, I started at the sky in both terror and half enchantment. Did they color-code bombs now? Aldrich’s laughter was almost louder than the sky. He watched me as I cowered away, and I turned on him with annoyance. “Why are you laughing at me? What is that?” “You’ve never seen fireworks before?” he asked in a tone that implied I should have very indeed known about them. I slapped his arm. “Don’t make fun of me!” I commanded, still slightly afraid. “No,” I whispered under my breath. “They are simply colorful explosives,” he informed me, chuckling. I frowned as worry washed over me. “So they are bombs?” “What?” he asked, laughing, “no! They are for celebration or display.” “Oh,” I said, blushing.
I screamed, the fireworks unable to mask the horror that escaped from deep inside my body. It came out sounding primal, like something was eating me alive. Aldrich had followed my gaze and immediately ran inside. The last detail I remembered was a pale Aldrich ordering the guards to watch me. I fell to my knees, traumatized at the demented sight. Was I having another nightmare? Was this all actually happening? Were fireworks merely a figment of my subconscious, and Alan getting hurt was another addition to my dreams of bleeding friends? Everything was occuring in split moments, each event happening within the length of a second. I forgot the color of things and the names of people. I forgot that people actually died in real life, that blood does not ooze but pour. The guards Aldrich commanded surrounded me with heavy concern. They lifted me from the ground, I think. I wasn’t sure what exactly happened after I saw the blood stains on the stone. “We must get
Cathy When we returned to the estate, I did not retreat to my bedroom, but the library. I would reach the entire grand library before I let Alan decompose and disappear forever. Besides Aldrich and Theo, he was the only thing that kept me stable, that made me feel normal. He was the only soul I had everything in common with; good enough to be loved by Aldrich, not good enough for any grand recognition or admiration. Always traveling within Aldrich’s shadow, people’s admiring gazes wandering over our shoulders. I instantly went to retrieve a book from the section of healing. I climbed up the ladder in a haste, and plucked out a textbook. I moved too quickly, losing my step and clumsily falling from the ladder a couple yards onto the floor. When I landed, I cried; not because the fall hurt, but because I imagined my friend falling more than ten times this, and what he must have felt. I hugged my knees to my chest and cried for a minute. But I only allowed mys
Clement. “Wha–what?” I sputtered, looking up at him. I had not seen him in years. His eyes glowed through the dark, and he looked like a dark lion that just found his prey. “Cathy?” he questioned, and when he confirmed it was me, his tone changed. “Ah, dear Cathy, what are you doing out here at such a time?” Clement was just as dark and alluring as usual. I had never grown accustomed to his aura of intelligence, sharp wit, and dark wisdom. He was the physical embodiment of magic, and he looked it as well. I stood up, hoping I didn’t appear too crazy. He probably thought I had become a mad woman, sprinting through the forest with branches in my hair, in a dirty, torn ball gown, with tears reddening my eyes. Now I really contemplated if it was a dream. Clement rarely passed through anymore. “Please,” was all I said, trembling. His expression morphed from amused pleasure to slightly horrified surprise. “What is the matter with you?” he demanded,
Nothing happened. I stood there for one moment. Then two, then three, then four. Five minutes turned into ten minutes, and soon, I was staring at a dead body with a film of blood over its chest for more than twenty minutes. Exhausted, I collapsed onto the floor next to his cot. I must have been too late; his organs had turned cold. Maybe I took longer than I thought I did, too delirious to notice. The shock invading my system must have forced me into a forced sleep. I slipped into unconsciousness, right through the cracks. My mental fingers dug into the consciousness to avoid falling through, but there was no use; I fell right through like liquid. “Hey, at least you tried. That’s all I care about,” Alan said to me as he adjusted Theo’s form, narrowing his eyes at the target. “Trying isn’t enough,” I insisted to him, outraged. He chuckled, rolling his eyes. He didn’t even bother to look at me. “You’re too hard on yourself. It’s either you sav
I froze. My hand gripped the door, and I was contemplating if I should run back inside the house and slam the door. The vampire would be on me before I could even get it all the way closed. I noticed it was morning, but the sun was not out. Shit. “Hello there,” the vampire drawled, blood seeping from his lips and glowing in his eyes. I stumbled back, my breath shortening. “I wouldn’t try to run if I were you.” I gulped, trying to figure out how to morph into my wolf form before the vampire could kill me. “I’m not as weak as you think I am,” I threatened, willing my hands to stop trembling. “I admire the delusion,” he chuckled, “you have no one to protect you now when you fail to make even a mark on me, little girl.” I looked around the empty field desperately. All the guards were in the emergency battle or dead. He was right that no one was here to protect me now. But that meant there was no one left to protect the estate, eith
The dread became heavy in my stomach the moment they left. I felt cold when Aldrich was gone. It was like losing the sun, the land becoming a snowy and desolate wasteland where nothing lives. The only rays of light came from Theo. He looked like the light in him was completely gone after the vampire attack. I hadn’t slept in two nights, but there were still things that needed to be done. I needed to tend to my son and make sure he was okay. The royal therapist and I sat in his bedroom, where three guards manned the door and outside the window. It probably didn’t help his fear, but we had to make sure what happened didn’t happen again. I sat with him on my lap, arms wrapped around him while I cradled him in a fluffy duvet. “I want daddy,” was the only thing he said, seemingly refusing to say anything else. On one hand, I was thrilled that he was referring to Aldrich as his daddy and that he felt safe with him around. He also liked to
Just as I felt my wolf teeth and claws ready to slip out and attack, I looked into the afraid, wide eyes of my sister. “Danika,” I gasped, pulling her against me in shock. I allowed my eyes to fall closed for a moment, breathing her in. “You’re okay.” She squeezed me reassuringly. “I’m okay, Cath. You think I’d let these weird looking fuckers lay a finger on me?” I laughed, pulling back to examine her. She had no wounds, not even a blonde hair out of place. “Let’s go show Alan you’re alive before he secretly has a heart attack.” She rolled her eyes before taking my hand. I weaved through the crowd again with her, wondering how she found me.“Where were you hiding?” I asked as we sidestepped a woman trying to console her crying child. “In the corridors,” she answered, shrugging nonchalantly. “If any vampires got in, I figured they wouldn’t vehemently be searching through hallways. But none got in—all the injured people are from the village.” “
Right as I turned my head up to look around, a plethora of pale and red-eyed faces were jumping upon us. Instinctively, I curled down around Theo, squeezing my eyes shut in feared shock. Aldrich acted quickly, shooting up to defend us. They came flying down from everywhere, as if they had been lurking in the trees. “Alan, take Theo and run back with Cathy until they’re inside,” he called before transforming into his notoriously murderous wolf. I startled at his swift transformation, one moment looking up at my handsome husband and the next seeing him with glowing eyes and bloodthirsty teeth. He immediately sank them into the nearest vampire’s throat and spit the decapitated head out into the trees. Theo saw all of it. Alan rushed over and fluidly picked him up. I couldn’t protect Theo as well as Alan could, and Aldrich wasn’t insulting me by instructing him to take him. “Cathy,” Alan urged with alarm, looking behind us, “run.” He didn’t have
I wasn’t sure if anyone tried to catch me, but I fell to my knees in the snow. My son was captured. Aldrich immediately came and scooped me off the ground. I was ashamed to display such weakness, for he had been seeing me at some of my lowest points recently, but when it came to Theo’s well-being I could easily melt into nothingness if it was threatened. “Cathy, maybe we should get you inside,” he said with some alarm, most likely concerned by whatever look I had on my face. “I’d rather die,” I immediately spat out, shaking my head violently, “Let’s go.” I used his arms as balance beams before digging my feet into the ground. There had to be more footsteps trailing to wherever my son and his captor went. Who knew if it was even a captor? He could have willingly gone with him. Theo had been targeted so many times throughout this experience, that I would not be surprised if he was coaxed right out of his bedroom window and scaled down the wall with
He didn’t say anything. The anger began to brew in his eyes like a storm from the west, but it never hit the east. Instead of letting it hit, he left the room. I stared at him before letting out a sigh. I supposed he was rather gracious for exiting rather than yelling at me in a state like this, for why wouldn’t he? I had basically sworn away our happily ever after. Instead of following him, I tossed aside the duvet before slipping out of bed to then cross the room to Theo’s door. He would be waiting for me to kiss him goodnight. I opened the door as quietly and tactfully as I could, making an effort not to wake him in case he fell asleep waiting. The moonlight drenched the room a little more than usual; the curtains were drawn. As I peeked into his room, I discovered the moonlight was shining onto an empty bed. “Oh, my god,” I sputtered, hurrying over to his bed. The sheets were void of any presence, wrinkled as if there was a body on it a me
“The last time I was honest with you, you stormed out of here saying you didn’t love me,” I declared acidicly through gritted teeth. “I did not say that,” he snapped back, matching my energy. “I said you were not acting like the woman I love.” I laughed humorlessly at that. “Well, maybe she does act like that. Do you not love me now?” There was a challenge in my voice, and I almost wanted to push him to the point of saying no. Aldrich looked at me with incredulous belief, his lips parting like he was offended by my words. “Of course I love you, you fool. How do you think I felt when the guards alerted me that you were unconscious?” I hesitated before simply shrugging. “Cathy,” he said, his nostrils flaring. He stormed up to the bed in a small fit of rage. “I thought they finally got to you,” his voice became gruff, like it was weakening, “I thought you were dead.” I stared at him wordlessly, not knowing what to say. “So many people ha
Once the sun was gone and the moon had returned, the mysterious healer returned to Emily and Elias’s residence like every night. “Everything is going according to plan,” the man informed the couple. They silently rejoiced at this, the mischief twinkling in Emily’s eyes. Elias looked at the ominous healer. “Tell us.” “The poison I concocted worked with ease,” he said with a predatory smile, “the staff is slowly dying off one by one. They soon fall dead within two hours.” Benjamin was present as well at the meeting. He provided no brains behind the operation, just willingness to do anything to get ahead. While of course, not knowing the two people he was working with were also working against him. “Perfect,” Elias smirked. “That estate will fall apart piece by piece.” “She is going to pay for what she has done,” Emily sneered. The mysterious healer seemed to be formerly proud of his plan, but uncomfortably shifted at that. *
Aldrich soon bounded into the room a couple moments after I did. I did not turn to look at him, too busy staring at the doctors with my arms crossed tightly. I was not afraid of the answers they had evident all over their faces, and I was even slightly agitated at the concern in their eyes. I wore the same nightgown for seven nights in a row, only leaving my bed to occasionally bathe, and had not eaten or drank much. I probably looked more like the corpses they have been examining rather than their hostess. “My lady,” our main doctor, Dr. Laurence, regarded me. His lips were set very tightly; he was not thrilled about the news either. “Have you come to a conclusion?” Aldrich inquired from behind me, the worry in his voice further irritating me. “I’m afraid we have,” Dr. Laurence answered, nodding curtly. He looked at us warily over his thick glasses. “We have deemed the victims’ causes of death as all poison.” “Poison?” We both echoed in unison. I glanced