Discworld and Member Articles
|
|
Written by Mynona
|
|
Friday, 26 August 2005 |
I have been walking these halls for 20 years now, approximately, I’ve still not figured out how to feel time as father and some of the other, older, vampires do. These halls that once appeared so foreign to me are now home and I can’t imagine being anywhere else for a longer period of time. Sure, I do like to go outside and explore the human world but I don’t crave it. I feel more comfortable here, with my own kind.
I have been walking these halls for 20 years now, approximately, I’ve still not figured out how to feel time as father and some of the other, older, vampires do. These halls that once appeared so foreign to me are now home and I can’t imagine being anywhere else for a longer period of time. Sure, I do like to go outside and explore the human world but I don’t crave it. I feel more comfortable here, with my own kind.
At the moment I’m heading down to the ‘pens’ where we keep humans for bleeding, a.k.a. food. It sounds more gruesome than it is, some of them are here by own free will, some of them have even written contracts with the vampires, letting themselves be bled in exchange for something, money in most cases. True, some of the people down there had been sentenced here for crimes against vampire-kind and those were the only ones that we were allowed to kill. Unfortunately people have better means to track people today than for 500 years ago, so we can’t just take whomever we want. Or at least, that’s the idea, some vampires go ‘rouge’ and do that anyways but they are always hunted down and killed. Without exceptions.
I like talking to some of the ‘cattle’ as we occasionally call them, the intelligent ones that aren’t here because they’ve got sexual fantasies involving blood-play. I stay far away from them, they are very creepy… says me, the bloodsucker. My current fascination was named Angelica Roxenwell, a twenty-something year old female with the tendency to giggle whenever I bit her. I wondered if she did that to the others too. Here I come, the big bad vampire! I will bite you dead! Ok. Giggle, giggle. I can’t stand people who giggles, it sounds so… funny is not the right word but it comes close. However, I wasn’t going down for food today, no, today was simply about company. Most of the vampires were a little too weary of my title, it made making real friends hard. Sure, I had Emilio and a select few others but sometimes you just need a new face.
As I reached the mighty double doors that led to the ‘pens’ one of the, you’ll never believe this, dark guards opened the doors and bowed as I passed, I dislike that. The pens were guarded so that no one could hurt anyone with a contract and to see to it that the humans were safe, and at the same time the guards kept them away from the rest of the coven so that no spies could get in. Father had a thing for huge blonds with blue eyes as personal guards, and thus I was stuck with them too. They were nice though, so I didn’t mind, and it really isn’t my place to complain about it. In the rest of the coven the guards were whatever they happened to be and it all worked out in the end.
“Alexis!” A shrill voice cut trough the pens’ common area. I had almost forgotten how piercing her voice was and how loudly she had a habit of speaking. It was not a favourable combination when the person you were talking with had superhuman hearing. She was also wearing pink, her favourite colour and the bane of my existence. Never trust a person who thinks that pink is great.
“Angelica. You are fine I hope?”
“Oh yes. Most people are nice to me here.” And what did she want me to say to that? Good for you? How bad? What? Luckily she continued. “I don’t understand why you keep insisting on wearing those green shirts! It’s so last year. I nice turquoise would suit you much better and really accentuate your eye-colour.” Ok, so maybe I lied, maybe I just did this to punish myself.
“I wear this because I have to Angelica, you know that.”
“It is a stupid custom!” Ah yes, says she who wears pink and giggles when people bit her.
“Your highness.” One of the guards had stepped inside and was now bowing, waiting patiently until I let him up; I did so with a wave of my hand.
“Yes?” Another custom, no calling the guards by name while they were on duty.
“Your father wishes to speak with you.” This was unexpected, though I couldn’t deny, neither did I want to, his summons.
“I’m sorry to cut this short Angelica.” The girl in question were gaping at me, er… it looked like I’d forgotten to tell her I was considered royalty. Bummer. “Are you coming?” I turned and asked the guard.”
“I’ll escort you to our Lord’s chambers, highness.” I smiled at him but at the same time I couldn’t help but to feel slightly unnerved, I really didn’t like all the titles, well most of the time. They were good for some things I conceded.
I went into my father’s study and kneeled, I had learnt that while wearing pants I was allowed to kneel, I was very grateful since I’ve still to get the hang of curtseying.
“My lord.”
“Alexis, please rise.” I did and looked at him. He was smiling. This was either good or very, *very* bad. For a second I wondered if it was cowardly to hope for the former. “In a few days we have an ambassador arriving from another sect. I want you to take your place at my side for this. Do you understand?” Oh god, I was going to screw this up, I just knew I was.
“Yes father I understand but…” I couldn’t finish but he seemed to know what I wanted to say anyways.
“You’ll do fine, Alexis, don’t worry. You’ve been trained for this for 20 years.” I was tempted to say Murphy but he wouldn’t have understood.
“If you say so.” I couldn’t help the little pleading tone that somehow had made it into my voice. “If I might ask, who’s coming? How many of them are they? For what purpose have they decided to come?”
“You shouldn’t worry, I wouldn’t ask this of you if you weren’t ready. I do not know exactly who’s coming, which annoys me to no end, but they are from the Gradeft sect and they are to be eight of them. They’ll stay at the 8th level.” Interesting, 8th level was pretty far down, he wasn’t sure about the guests. Or he possibly didn’t think very high of them. Gradeft wasn’t a very large coven.
“As for your question as to why, they never said. The messenger just said that they had an important thing to discuss with me, both as the Rector Lamia and as the High Prince of Camrille. I’m as curious as you are.” I looked at him long and hard. He gave in. “Ok, almost as curious as you are.” I hugged him. It had become a more and more frequent thing but it was in no way usual. It was good to have a father to hug, albeit I backed down and bowed after it was done, not really standard procedure.
“They will be here in five days, be prepared. Emilio will tell you about Gradeft. I will call on you again to finalise things and see how much you’ve learnt. Perhaps you’d like to have some new clothes made. You may leave.”
“Goodbye father.”
I had sent a guard after Emilio and was trying to look like I was in deep thought, while I was actually just waiting for time to pass. I heard the door to my rooms open.
“My lady” I turned around and he was kneeling. Help. The little voice in my head that usually told me stuff was running around making an awful racket.
“Emilio… please…”
“What do you want milady?”
“Please rise. Don’t…”
“I am merely behaving as your station entitle, please tell me what I’ve done to offend you so that I can correct it.” I yelled my scattered thoughts into order.
“Emilio, you are still my teacher and as such you are allowed to speak to me freely. You are also my friend, or at least I hope you are, and as such you are also allowed to speak to me freely. At least in private. Do you see anyone else?”
“You are right, as always, Alexis.” I looked at him, really looked.
“That’s not what it sounds like in class.”
“You need to get used to getting treated like that. It’s your right.” My momentarily good mood was gone again.
“I know, Emilio, I know. I can handle it; I just have no desire for you to debase yourself like that in front of me when we’re alone. Please don’t do that again. I don’t really like to see anyone do that to me, it creeps me out.” He smiled a sad little smile, light-years from his usual smile. “So… what do I need to know about Gradeft?” A really poor attempt at changing the topic but it worked… for now.
The following days were worse than cramming for tests, or what I remembered of it from before. No human teacher would watch as you had classes 24 hours a day. It was exhausting but eating more than normal made up for sleeplessness. Eating… well… I say eating but I mean feeding. They arrived exactly six days after I’d first heard of them and a guard called me to the main hall.
There was a now a smaller throne next to my father’s but on the right side, instead of a wife’s which would have been placed to the left. Father signalled for them to open the doors and let the visitors in. My eyes fell on the first one, the one that was supposedly the ambassador, and my heart nearly stopped. What was he doing here?
There in front of father and me was Yiorgos. And he had an heir ring. What in the whole world had happened to make this mess? His eyes had lingered a little longer on me than could be considered proper but it was my first public appearance as my father’s daughter after all. When all eight of the visitors had kneeled and hailed my father and me he gave a grand speech which welcomed them all and hoped that they’d have a nice time staying here. He appointed guards to them, and I noted they were probably as much for our protection as for their convenience. As soon as the group had disappeared beyond hearing range I signalled Emilio to follow me and quickly made my way to a smaller meeting room.
“What was that? How could he get to become heir? He knew I was here so why did he come? What is going on Emilio?” Emilio was facing me looking rather distraught. I was going to pester him with more questions when another voice stalled me.
“Yes Emilio, do tell. What is going on?” Oops. We never did tell father what had happened the first time I was outside. I blame Emilio. It was his thing to report not mine. And how the hell did I miss father joining us? Emilio had the same ‘deer in headlights’ look I felt I was wearing.
“Erm,” I decided to speak up, let Emilio thank me later. “When I first went outside we met some other vampires at a party and I was accosted by one of them. He tried to force me into coming with him, probably into bed, but I wouldn’t go. He got angry, possibly also because Emilio hadn’t told my full name and I refused it too, and, in the end, he attacked me. I told him who I was and he fainted. They came by the house later that evening and tried to fight us. Probably to save face. It didn’t work very well and we drove them away. The vampire who attacked me was Yiorgos.” The words ‘please, please don’t kill me’ were echoing trough my head.
“I see.” Did he? And what would he do about it? “To answer one of your questions Alexis, he’s become heir because he’s now the oldest of Victor Savage, High Prince of Gradeft’s childes. He’s a turned one. His older brother died somewhat luckily and left this Yiorgos heir. However I do not like the way that I get to know this 18 years after it happened.” His eyes flashed red, he was definitely not in a good mood. A vampires eyes only turn red if he/she’s angry or need to feed, though other strong emotions can trigger it too.
“I’m truly sorry, master.” Master… as my ‘sire’ in both flesh and vampirism he had the right to ‘master’. I seldom used it, though, he had so many other titles but this time I wanted to show him I truly was sorry. And that I expected punishment. Yikes. Emilio stayed silent.
“I understand that you didn’t tell me, a lot of other things happened at that time but you’ll still be punished… after the ambassador and his retinue has left.”
“Yes master.” “Yes my lord.” Oh, weren’t we obedient. Sarcasm has a way of getting me into trouble, I should probably practice not to do it, but then were would I find my fun?
“If I had known this I wouldn’t have allowed them to come without an apology. Though he was suitably corrected at the time. Fainting.” The last word was said with more than just a hint of disgust.
“In front of his childe no less, my lord.” An amused eyebrow rose.
“Yes, that was suitable. I guess that’s when you realised that Alexis had the same gift as me?” Both of us nodded. Talking in chorus doesn’t really work in real life.
“Tomorrow Yiorgos will talk to me about whatever it is he wants and you,” He looked at me. “will also be present. I do not care what he thinks of you and I hope that what has happened between the two of you won’t impair your judgement in this.”
“I don’t like him but I won’t let him get to me.”
“Good. I’ll send someone to fetch you when it’s time.” We both knew our dismissals by now.
I was once again sitting, facing Yiorgos. He looked a bit miffed, yes that’s right, not annoyed, miffed, at me being there but he couldn’t say anything.
“Greetings Rector Lamia.” Oh, so it was rector lamia business. Then I had no right sitting in but I was going to stay until father said anything else. “I bear a message from my High Prince, Victor Savage, to you.” No… you say? Yeah, right, no more sarcasm. Who was I kidding? “Our Sect has grown a lot in later years and we can no longer sustain ourselves on the hunting-ground which is ours. We therefore, most humbly, ask the Rector Lamia for a bit more so that our coven can prosper. We would also like, if possible, some breeding stock, with others in exchange of course, so that we can get more healthy offspring from our pens.” To that last word I had no idea what he was talking about. To me it sounded like horses, though when I heard the word ‘pen’ I realised that the Gradeft sect was keeping humans against their will. Slaves for food and breeding. This annoyed me even more than the pink shirt Angelica had worn earlier when I had visited her. I had come to terms with having to drink blood, to hurt someone, to stay alive was one thing. I’d even, after a long time, come to terms with the eventual killing, but keeping them like that was… well... barbaric.
“As your lord very well knows, we do not keep humans like that and we do not have any breeding stock.” Yiorgos looked scandalised. Go father. Hadn’t he, or at least his High Prince, looked into our coven’s policies when it came to feedings? Did we dare to let the people from Gradeft down into our pens? “However the hunting grounds are another question. Why have your coven grown so much that it cannot sustain itself any longer? As far as I know, you’ve got plenty of prey and I haven’t gotten word that you’ve turned a lot of people lately. Also, why didn’t you stop turning when you noticed a lack of suitable prey? As royals it’s in your best interests to keep your sect strong and coven hidden.” Father was berating him without making it look unnecessary. I could only hope that I would be that good one day. Though, father has many hundred years of experience.
“Our sect has grown because it had space and ability to do so, as to why. Well, for some reason many of our vampires has never bonded with another vampire and they’ve instead taken humans and turned them for that reason. Lately it has happened more times than we realised.” A ‘married’ vampire was bonded. Marriage was invented by the church and we, even if it’s not true, were considered evil. A bond is closer than marriage but mostly because of the time spent together, not some silly romantic idea of magic.
A bonded pair is exclusive and a divorce has yet to happen. Although a human pair might date for 2 years and be married for 20, a vampire pair would easily date for 20 to stay together for more than 200. Vampires have time so we use it. One night stands are, at least for me, unheard of. Though I wasn’t really going to ask father, he’s not really the sort for that kind of thing. Also, for me, there was the problem of most everyone being afraid of me or at least my father. That tends to put a crutch on any dreams of a romantic relationship. And the fact that there was one lesson Emilio hadn’t taught me ‘How to date, vampire style’.
My father and Emilio, and even I as I learnt about it, disliked bonding with humans for the reason that they never stood a chance. The humans were very rarely told what was going to happen and then they were stuck. It takes a certain type of person to be able to live, not merely exist, as a vampire and most people are unsuitable. Just turning and then bonding with never gave anyone a chance to evaluate the consequences. I was one to talk. I haven’t had a relationship since I came here. 20 years, that’s a lot of time being alone, relatively speaking.
“Although I dislike bonding like that, my personal preferences doesn’t matter. I’ll look into this and I’ll summon you when I have a proper answer. I hope you forgive the inconvenience but I cannot hold all the facts in my head.” My father was lying, I knew for a fact that he had every little detail memorised. He was up to something… I was hoping that he’d share. “My daughter, Alexis, will come with you now and show you around. You can ask anything of her but remember that she what she says is also what I say.” A promise and a threat. Father really knew how to split hairs.
Yiorgos led the way to their rooms, or he wanted to appear to since I knew where they were I didn’t particularly need leading. The group lived in five chambers connected to a hallway which led to a common room, a bath and to the corridor. When we arrived they were all seated in the common room, Yiorgos entered first I hung back to see how he interacted with the others.
“Welcome back! How did it go? Did he…” The rest was left unsaid because I entered, but also because of the abortive movement Yiorgos had made. Interesting, they were hiding something.
“This is Alexis, she’s to be our guide.” I was waiting for him to tell the exactly who I was but apparently that wasn’t going to happen. Did he hope that by not telling them one of them would screw up worse than he’d done that first time we met? I looked closer on the group, Yannis was absent, and by my calculations he shouldn’t have been old enough to be left alone yet but maybe he was better off in his own coven. Yiorgos was the only really dark-haired one. Three had brownish hair, three others were blond and one redhead. All of them beside Yiorgos had blue eyes.
“Hello Alexis, I’m Armand, eh… if you don’t mind could we go feed?” He was the youngest, the redhead, he was quite possibly younger than me. But if they brought him, why not Yannis?
“Of course Armand. Just follow me please and I’ll take you to the pens.” Emilio was waiting outside the door, I decided to invite him too, both as support and to have back up if something happened.
As I led them trough the doors of the pens I decided that I’d better warn them to behave now, rather than having something happen further on.
“Welcome to our pens, feel free to ask anyone in here for a feed, though if they say no accept that and walk away, they’ve probably been bleed recently. Do not take more than you need, and keep them on this side of healthy. And absolutely no killing. Any questions?” Me, the tour-guide. Soon I’d tell them not to feed the rhino and comment on their poor choice of clothes behind their backs.
“Alexis!” I almost groaned, almost. I really didn’t feel up to talking with Angelica, the pink wonder, now but it didn’t look like I had a choice. Angelica was never good at taking hints less subtle than say, a sledgehammer.
“Angelica, how are you?”
“I’m fine, though one of the new ones was rather messy with Robert earlier.” So her paleness wasn’t from bloodloss. I never quite understood what Angelica was doing here, she fainted at the sight of blood.
“Is he alright?” She never had a chance to answer, though, since one of the Gradeft vampires interrupted me.
“You don’t keep them locked up?” I’m afraid I looked at him as he’d grown another head.
“No, all humans are here by their own free will, that’s why you have to be careful.”
“I will.”
“Thank you.” I really had no idea what to answer but ‘thank you’ is never wrong. Well, yes it is if someone asks you ‘do you want to get your brain bashed in’ but that was the exception. No rule without exceptions. During my conversation most of the Gradefts had scattered in search for ‘prey’ but Armand had stayed close and so had Emilio.
“Weren’t you hungry?” The poor lad looked embarrassed.
“Erm, yes, but… well… you think you could help me? Not to feed but to pick one out? I’ve never done this before.” He hurried the explanation, though I did understand what wasn’t said. He didn’t know how to ask a willing human. I looked back at Angelica.
“Do you know who could help my friend here? He’s rather new to this.” Angelica was almost vibrating with anticipation.
“Well, Robert’s often good with the new ones but he’s been bled already, Cody has left. Perhaps Shawn? As far as I know he hasn’t been bled in a while and he’s nice.” She actually dragged Armand after her as she talked, I’d decided to tag along so that nothing happened to him. Some of the people down here had joined for the power and they knew how to use it. I did, however, wish one of those on Yiorgos. For a purely scientific cause, of course, I had after all promised father not to hold anything against him. In some dark place of my mind a big grin escaped.
In the end we found Shawn and Armand, though nervous and a bit embarrassed, made it out in one piece, with a tiny bit of help. With him sated we returned to the larger room.
“Aren’t you hungry Alexis? I know that you haven’t feed for several days.” Oh joy, the pink menace just couldn’t keep quiet.
“I don’t have to feed.” I knew I ought to and snapping was another of the signs of me being hungry, but damn it, I didn’t want to. Not with them watching anyways.
“You do too!” Why couldn’t she have been quiet? “You can bleed me, you’re nice.” Well if she offered. And feed I did, slowly, I do have some knowledge of what’s proper. And no one likes a vampire with bad table manners. Sitting with her on my lap, I wasn’t aware that was making such a sight but when I looked up Armand as well as Emilio was looking intently on me. Eeeep.
“I’ve never seen anyone feed before.” Well, that explained Armand but what about Emilio? And shouldn’t his sire have shown him, so that he’d know what to do? Perhaps the Gradeft customs were even further away from ours than I’d expected.
“Er…”
“You’re really beautiful.”
“Thank you.” See, another time where a simple ‘thank you’ fills up what could become an embarrassing silence. A scream tore trough the soothing murmur of voices. I was up and about in no time and headed to where I’d heard it. I just knew that it was caused by one of the Gradefts.
I was, unfortunately, right. Couldn’t they behave for a day? Did I really have to babysit them like this? And where did it come from? I arrived to see what should have been a bloodbath if the blood hadn’t been drunk. There was even an errant arm hanging over the back of a chair. Nice. Good for me that my complexion doesn’t do green.
“What are you doing?!?” I screamed at the top of my lungs and attacked. I was not going to stand and just look when someone was killing ‘my’ humans. Stupid suckers. Pun intended. Before I know it, which was strange, I had Yiorgos by the neck and slammed him into a convenient wall. I could hear the guards arriving.
“Get the injured ones to the infirmary and get everyone else back to their rooms. I’ll take care of these ones.”
“You can’t do this, you know, I didn’t hurt anyone.” He tried to argue his case as he hung by his neck but the words came out so strangled it was hard to understand him. I tore around, without releasing Yiorgos, and levelled a glare at the nearest human.
“Is that true?” The poor human looked at me apologetically before he nodded. “Then who did it?” He pointed out four of the other Gradeft vampires before he, rather hastily, left. Bummer for me. I let go of Yiorgos, though I did not believe that he was entirely innocent. I had a feeling he’d planned it and ordered the others to execute it. Two more guards arrived and they helped me put the four offenders in separate cells. I did not like the look on Yiorgos’ face when I left with the prisoners. He was up to something and I didn’t know what and not knowing annoyed me to no end. I decided to go straight to my father’s rooms, I knew he wasn’t going to be in his study, after I’d left the remaining four Gradeft vampires in their rooms. I had to report at once, I was the one who should have stopped it before it happened.
I knocked on the door, the guards on either side ignored me, though I have no doubt they’d stop me if I had been anyone else.
“Enter!” It was only slightly muffled from beyond the thick wooden door but superior hearing compensated very well. “Alexis, what happened?” It startled me for a second, did he know what happened, before I realised that me coming to see him indicated that there was something wrong.
“As requested by the Gradeft vampires I showed them to the pens. Well there the youngest of them, Armand, asked me to help him because he wasn’t comfortable asking anyone. I left with him to go to one of the smaller rooms but the ordinary guards stayed in the main room so I thought that they’d behave. As I returned to the main room I took a bite and talked to Armand while waiting for the rest to finish. I hear a scream and when I arrive to where it came from I saw that at least nine of our humans had been injured, I’m not sure how much but I know that I saw one arm lying away from its owner. Five of the Gradefts are present, among them Yiorgos though according to a witness he didn’t do anything, it was all done by the other four that are now behind lock and key.”
“One of the nurses came by and left just before you arrived, she said that all nine humans would live although one would lose his arm and another would never look pretty in a dress again. I do not like that this happened, we are supposed to keep our humans safe, but for this I will not hold you responsible. It was obviously planned but I can not yet see the reason behind it, and they would have done it one way or another.”
“Thank you. I can’t see why they want to antagonise someone who they want to deal with either.”
“Return to your duties, I don’t want them to be left alone at all.”
“I understand.”
The rest of the week I spent in constant companionship of the Gradeft vampires much to the enjoyment of Armand, and for some reason Yiorgos. Something really smelled off about this. The whole business was hard on me, constantly having to guard what I said and did while at the same time being nice and treating them as the guests they were. At the same time I was trying to figure out what they ‘really’ wanted, I didn’t buy their whole ‘we’ll ask the Rector Lamia for hunting ground’ ploy. And for some reason Emilio had become increasingly distant as of late, when I needed him the most. I wanted a shoulder to lean on and he’d coated it in ice. I was at wits end and still there was at least another week before the guests were planned to leave. Said guest were currently trying to drain our pens. They’d been in here almost every day since arrival and that abnormally often, even for a young vampire like Armand. I had told father and he’d ordered our guards to see to it that they were in tip to shape at all times. With all this tension something had to give, and soon, I just hoped it wasn’t going to be me.
“Alexis?” Now what did he want? He was kind of endearing and cute in a ‘younger brother’ kind of sense. I did, however, feel my patience wearing thin. It’s something wrong when a creature like him, like me, was that naïve.
“Yes Armand?”
“Who are you, really?” I looked at him, maybe he did have something beneath all that hair? But then again, it had taken him a week so maybe not.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because everyone does what you say and you’ve got one of those nifty rings that Yiorgos has.” I could see that the others were straining their ears trying to overhear. At the mention of a ring I startled, hadn’t the boy’s master thought him anything? On that notice, why wasn’t the boy wearing a ring? I looked around and saw that of the three lounging about, Yiorgos was currently in his room, only two had Gradeft’s stained copper ring. Something was very wrong. I couldn’t’ act on it because I was currently involved in a conversation.
“Maybe I’m no one and everyone else has been told to obey me because I’m supposed to act as your guide?”
“No, because they act like they really respect you, if you had been elevated like that they would act condensing or at least looked down on you.” Damn, I really didn’t want to have this conversation now. I was tired, annoyed and had to appear polite. Damn them all to hell with bells on.
“You’re right. My full name is Alexis Dracula, I’m my father’s heir.” Duh.
“Cool!” That was a reaction that I wasn’t expecting. The other three suddenly seemed weary of me and of the conversation. I was without words and I didn’t think that my otherwise trusty ‘thank you’ was appropriate at the moment. “Did you know you’d be his heir when he turned you? Do you have any blood-siblings? Do you have a mate?” I couldn’t help but to smile at his joy. Maybe I’d still be alive after this.
“Slow down a little, won’t you. I’ll have to answer one question before you ask another. Well,” I said and sat down next to him on the couch. “I’m a born vampire.” I could hear the indrawn breaths from the others and they were four now, Yiorgos has exited his room. “When I was awakened I did know who my father was but I didn’t know what role he played or how important he is. My father has turned two humans, one which is dead now and the other has moved from here to join another coven.” I’d tell him, them, this but not their names. They did not have the right to know. “But since I’m born instead of turned, I’m the heir even if he’s older than me. And if I did have a mate, don’t you think he’d have been around?”
“I didn’t know vampires could have children, I’ve only ever seen one kid-vampire and she was turned.” My mind screamed. What the hell was going on here? What was happening in Gradeft? Oopsie, Yiorgos had heard what Armand had said and he wasn’t happy. He was advancing looking furious. Armand had shrunk back against the couch as if trying to become one with it. I so did not want to deal with this now. A knock was heard. I didn’t run to the door… I was only walking very fast, there is a difference.
“The Rector Lamia wants to meet with the ambassador.” It was one of the blond guards. Showtime.
The guard showed us to one of the smaller chambers, it was kind of unnecessary to use the throne room when we there were just three of us. I ushered Yiorgos inside as I felt father’s presence draw near.
“Alexis?”
“Something has come to my attention Rector Lamia and I think you ought to know it too.” He showed me to an antechamber to the room in which Yiorgos waited.
“What happened?” I told him of what I had learnt, the absence of rings, the kid vampire, that the sires didn’t take care of their fledglings, that the young ones weren’t taught and all the other stuff. I could see his mood turn dark. As the Rector Lamia he was responsible for *all* vampires though he mostly dealt with intercoven relationships and politics. He did however, not take nicely to someone who abused his subjects like this. And I bet that the Gradefts wouldn’t get their expansion now, whatever he’d decided earlier.
“I’m glad you brought this to my attention but at the moment we have to deal with Yiorgos. Come.” Yiorgos looked caught somewhere between smugness and fear. He was wearing a typical ‘I know something you don’t’ face while at the same time fearing what I might or might not have said. I still wondered about the ‘thing’ that had happened in the pens, why had they done it? As we entered the room Yiorgos didn’t stand. He apparently thought himself above the Rector Lamia. Father was even less amused. Had he been in a better mood he’d probably asked forgiveness for keeping Yiorgos, however short the amount of time, but father wasn’t going to waste time on pleasantries.
“Have you decided anything yet?” Yiorgos was committing political suicide, I was contemplating giving him a sword and making him do a ritual seppuku just to hurry things along.
“Yes I have.” Father’s voice was smooth, soft like a lover’s caress, and it belied his real intentions. Father has a way, not only with words but with his voice also. He could modulate it and make a word mean a thousand things and make a thousand things mean nothing. I wanted to be like my father when I got older. He was cool, he was also very powerful, even for a vampire his age, and it made me fear that I’d never be good enough.
“You will not be granted more ground.” Yiorgos leapt out of his chair.
“What? Why?”
“Because all ground in the area is already taken by other sects who has a stronger claim on it than you do. I’ve also gone trough the papers and even if all Gradeft vampires had made two childes in the last ten years, your grounds should be enough.” Yiorgos paled a little but continued onwards, both in body and in speech.
“You are weak, I can’t understand why you’ve become the Rector Lamia, many other vampires are much stronger than you are.” I was very angry at him, on my father’s behalf. I’m not very good at defending myself but I always defend those near me. Though my father did nothing so I couldn’t either. “You didn’t dare to punish me for what happened in the pens so now you punish me by making me take a ‘no’ to my Prince. Really brave.” Father had passed from not amused into angry going on raging. I could feel his power pressing my mind and body, if he didn’t keep himself in check he could do some serious damage. Funnily enough, Yiorgos didn’t notice.
“I do not punish someone for the deed of another. I would never dream of being as petty as you suggest. You planned the ‘attack’ so that you could see how we would retaliate. And judging by your actions it isn’t I who is going for revenge.” Yiorgos was not a clever man, it took a while before his eyes landed on me and the proverbial light was lit. He attacked. Father’s power flared and slammed into him as a wave. It must have felt like hitting a brick wall. Unfortunately I was hit with the backslash. The world started to go grey around the edges but I saw Yiorgos kneeling in front of father, from this moment on he’d do whatever father said, to bad his mind was utterly destroyed. Father had used his power to break what little there was of Yiorgos. I fainted.
I woke up to Emilio hovering over my bed.
“You’re awake!” His voice was raised and my head started pounding worse than it already was.
“What happened?”
“Eh… the Lord used a little too much force when he subdued Yiorgos…” His voice tapered off, I could put the piece together myself now. Father really was strong, my head hurt like never before.
“Where is…” I couldn’t talk more but I thought he’d understand. He didn’t.
“Armand has gone home with the others, you’ve been out for nine days.” Stupid, he couldn't figure out such a simple thing? Usually it seemed as if he could read my mind. I shook my head slowly. It hurt like a bitch but it was better than talking.
“Yiorgos? He’s dead, he died when you fainted. HE” I could hear the capitulation. “was not amused.” I shook my head again, off all the times to go bone headed.
“Who…?” I glared at him, or as much as one can with a killer headache and stuffed into a fluffy bed. “Oh, HE didn’t think that you wanted to see him.” What was wrong with all the males in this place? I sighed.
“Look,” Shit, the word kind of echoed trough my head making strange resonances when it hit the different lobes. “I don’t care about Armand, and father made a mistake, I’m not angry with him. Please allow him in if he wants to come.”
“You don’t care about Armand… after all time you spent with him?”
“Idiot, was ordered too, he was a bit less stupid than the others. I wanted to spend time with you but you kept brushing me off.” He looked like I’d grown a second head. I did not feel up to having this conversation now. Emilio had been jealous… on Armand of all people. Go figure.
“You wanted to spend time with me?”
“I’m going to sleep.” I firmly told him. “When I wake up you’ll have talked to my father and you’ll have dropped the jealousy. Understood? Good, goodnight.” I didn’t wait for an answer, I fell asleep.
 |
|
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed