Lord Salazar of House Dracula couldn’t believe he was out in the lower town of Camelot in the middle of the night, watching over his kind equality of a child performing a blood magic ritual to increase her time in the Sunlight. He had been shocked to be approached by her at sunset with the Battle Mage Merlin at her side. Apparently, the vampiric child was Princess Isabelle of House Drake. That information alone was, he dare to say, tasty. He didn’t expect to have in his hands a Princess of the Realm, let alone a Princess of the Ruling Family of Camelot. It was an interesting turn of events. One he could use against the Princess.
However, he needed to make the young princess doesn’t blow herself up or anyone in the nearby buildings while she was tits deep in the magical ritual. His crimson eyes flickered over the exposed pale skin with bloody red patterns of runes. He saw the runes glowed slightly with magic. He smirked. His ears picked up a sound.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of gravel pushed together, rough and swiftly. The swooshing of a long skirt. An sharp intake of breath. The soft breeze of air moved above.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound of gravel echoed loudly in his ears as something skidded along it. The harsh exhale of someone breathing out. The sound of footsteps against the gravel then a sharp inhale of breath
Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
The scent of a young female, he inhaled sharply, filled his nose. She was still in her prime, but there was smell of tinted blood. He exhaled as a hunger filled him. He frowned. He knew he feed a couple days ago. He would need to feed again, soon. His eyes flickered to the vampiric child, kneeling at his feet, completing the stages of the ritual. She would need to, as well before she would be allowed to return any near the castle and her family. Even though, it would be amusing to see how that Warrior Queen would react to see one of her grandchild as an immortal child of the night, he did make a promise to the Magi.
His eyes flickered upward to see the young human female, peering over the edge of the building. Surprise reflected in her eyes. There was a hint of fear. He resisted the urge to smirk. There were times he enjoyed being a vampire. The scent of fear was mouthwatering and helped increase the sweetness of the blood.
Lord Salazar needed to keep that promise at all costs. The rumors he had been lately, had his nerves set on edge. These rumors should be rumors and nothing more if he didn’t know the truth already. The call already went out to gather up the old alliances and start to create new ones. It was apart of the reason why he had made the trip to Camelot. He didn’t think he would arrive during the transition of power between the old King and the unknown new King.
At first, the reason why he left the Crescent Island was simple. He needed to find himself a couple of heirs. He of course have married any of the willingly females of his kind, but he didn’t want to deal with the possible of courtship and the whole romance issue. After he had witness many females play that game with his males, he decided he might be better off, just looking for a couple boys and changed them before he would raise them to be his heirs. Just like his foster father did with him and his younger brother, Vlad.
That thought sent another frown across his face. Vlad. He hadn’t heard from his younger foster brother in a long time. He had heard rumors from the Outsiders that Vlad had rose to power, using a legend as a way to explain away his thirst for blood, and became a tyrant. He eventually was killed, but his legend lived on.
Salazar didn’t know if it had any truth to it or not. He would love figure out if those rumors are true or not. However, if the rumor had any truth about his legend living on, Salazar’s lips twitched into a smirk, that would have made Vlad tickle pink with amusement and pride. The Lord of the Crescent Island remembered Vlad saying while they may be vampires and will live for a very long time, it didn’t mean they were immortal and the only way they could do something like that was to make their mark on history.
He shook his head, trying to clear his head of the thoughts of his foster brother. Movement caught his eye and he saw the young female in her prime move away, apparently her interest in what was happening satisfied. He waited for a moment then turned his attention to the child at his feet, waiting for her to finish.
In the darkness of the alley way, Isabelle panted, harshly. Her fangs lengthened in hunger. Her crimson eyes glowed with power in dimmed light coming from the gas lamp on the nearby street. She knelt in the circle of blood, waiting for the ritual to finish. The runes engraved into her marble like skin lit up red as the magic took hold, stayed that way for what could be counted with human heart beats then faded away, leaving the alley way in darkness.
“Congratulations, child,” Salazar finally spoke in a low tone, “You didn’t blow yourself up or anyone else.”
“Th…tha…thank you,” The Princess replied before she let out a groan of hunger.
“Get dressed,” Salazar snapped. The longer they waited, the longer someone could walk at either end of the alley way and become a snack for the princess. He knew she would feed right now until she had a belly full of blood. She struggled to stand up and slowly grabbed the discarded dress nearby. “Hurry up, child.”
He heard the familiar thump, thump, thump of a heart beat coming closer. It didn’t take him long to figure out it was another patrol. The Knights and the military guardsmen were out thick in the wake of the King’s death and the impeding arrival of the Pope. There had been at least five patrols walked by already. It was almost a challenge to reach this alley shortly after midnight. Now, it would be the same to reach the forest where Isabelle could feed until her heart was content.
Isabelle paused in her movements, her eyes glued to the mouth of the alley. Salazar muttered a curse. He uncrossed his arms and threw his dark cloak around the half dressed female, pinning her arms to her sides, tightly. He scooped her up before he leaped to the roof top. His feet found the edge of the roof and he crunched before he jumped backwards. He soared in the air. His eyes flickered over the streets as a trio approaching the alley.
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It was a knight with two guards from the Fire Brigade. The Knight stopped at the mouth while the guards took up positions on each side of the alley. The Knight disappeared down the alley.
Salazar cursed himself. He didn’t clean up the blood they had used in the ritual and left as a circle on the floor of the alley. He remembered the way he didn’t like babysitting after vampiric children. He couldn’t control them like he could with the adults. The Vampiric adults were smart enough not to cross him while the children just didn’t know any better. They were always testing the boundaries they could cross before they get into trouble.
There was a cry of alarm. The guards looked at each other before they rushed after the Knight. The trio returned after a long minute and one of the guards ran toward the castle while the other one ran toward the outer wall, no doubt looking for another patrol. The Knight appeared, paled and looked on the verge of throwing up.
Salazar turned in the air with snort. He commented, softly, “Weakling” as he arched his legs in front of him and landed in another crunch before he repeated his actions of jumping, heading to the outer wall and to the Dead End Forest.
Tina panted as she landed on the stone pathway that severed as one of the town’s roads. She didn’t realized she was that out of shape. Before she dated her ex, that kind of exercise would have just raised her blood pressure and excited her. Now, she lend against the wall of the building she just jumped from its roof. She pressed her back against the cool bricks and expanded her rib cage as far as she could, sucking in all the oxygen she could get. She held it for a moment before she let it out slowly. She repeated the process a couple more times until she recovered. She didn’t need to be walking past the castle guards, out of breath and get questioned why she was out of breath when there was no reason for her to be out of breath. Her stomach rumbled. She placed a hand over it, thinking. She didn’t remember the last time she ate. She frowned. She needed to eat.
She took a deep breath and pushed away from the brick wall. She was about to walk out of the alley she had landed in when a cry rang out and she threw herself backwards, deeper into the alley. She waited as what she could only describe as an unit of guards with a couple knights ran by, heading into the lower part of the town. She frowned. She hoped everything was alright.
Her mind flashed back to the two figures in that darken alley with the scent of copper. She wondered if whatever cause the unit of guards and the knights to stir this late at night had to do with the two figures. Tina shook her head, clearing it of those thoughts. She was nearly back at the castle. She had to find food then her room.
She walked out of the alley and found herself near the fork where all of the major roads she had been able to spot merged into one, leading across a wooden bridge and into the castle grounds. She walked over the road and across the bridge. The guards standing at either side of the archway leading into the castle grounds didn’t stop her, but she did sensed their eyes on her as she entered the castle grounds and continued on her way.
Tina frowned as she tried to remember where she had seen the kitchens. She knew it was close to the back half of the castle. She glanced up at the statue in the middle of the court yard, wondering how long it took the stone-smith to crave that and how long did the king had to stand there, looking like that. She briefly wondered if there was any stories associated with this event. She smiled, softly. It was no doubt an amusing tale to hear. The stone man looked familiar, somehow.
A flicker of white caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She slowly turned her head and saw an outline of someone standing a doorway. The longer she stared at it, the more it became solid until it was like the figure was a pale person dressed in white. She resisted the urge to groan. Why couldn’t the dead just move on after their body expired?
The White Figure waved at her, urging her to come over to it. She didn’t want to, but she did used to be apart of the team representing the Spiritual World. A little voice at the back of her head argued that it was her duty to help the ghosts to move on before their souls disappeared forever into nothingness, that it didn’t matter if she was no long apart of that team or not. However, another voice added in, arguing that she had left that life behind and she had no reason to help the ghost out. She sighed, annoyed.
Knowing it was her duty since she really never did ‘retire’ from the team, Tina walked over to the white figure, but the white figure walked away from her. She paused, cocking her head to the side, watching the figure. The figure paused, and waved at her to continue to follow, waiting next to a doorway. She shrugged and followed the ghostly figure. The ghostly figure turned, revealing it was a male. That was the only feature that Tina was able identify. She frowned. Could the ghost be the King that recently died? She figured it could be, but a gut feeling inform her that wasn’t the case and the sense she had met this mysterious ghostly figure before nagged at her.
She paused briefly half way to the door as she sensed eyes upon her. She glanced around the courtyard, but she didn’t see anyone. She resisted the urge to glance upward at the higher levels. She shook her head. There would be very few people up at this hour. It was close to 4 in the morning.
Lord James Black rubbed his face as he walked over to the balcony. He opened the doors and stepped outside, allowing the cool air to wash over him. He shivered, slightly as goosebumps rose over his exposed torso. He yawned, adjusting his sleeping pants. He heard the door to the Black Suit shut in the distance. Apparently the servant for the Black House just left. He didn’t know if his cousin also requested a morning wake up call or not. She probably did, knowing her. She would spend the next few hours getting ready for the day, just like any other Black woman did.
He didn’t know why she would bother going to bed after the feast last night. He hadn’t come back until a hour ago from the feast. It was an unique night. One of the rumors spreading like wildfire was the infamous explosive General Genesis had starting his search for a wife, instead allowing his grandmother find him a wife. He chuckled at the thought Lady Freya finding Genesis a wife and blackmailing him into marriage. That would be sweet.
James sighed. His eyes roamed over the courtyard until he spotted a figure wearing a black cloak with a bright blue dress that swished back and forth from sight within the black cloak. He frowned. Why would a lady be arriving in the wee hours of the morning, he wondered.
From his vantage point, the only thing he could tell was the lady had red hair flowing down to her shoulders, but nothing else beyond that. The nearby fires reflected off her hair, giving the strands a fire like appearance. He frowned, trying to remember. He knew the White Hall House had one living daughter, Natasha, but there were rumors of another. However, in the events during the Kingless Kingdom, the eldest of Sir Bardock went missing along with her mother, Lady Annja.
This woman strolling across the Courtyard could pass as the daughter of Sir Bardock by her hair color alone. It strongly reminded him of the Fiery General. He watched her as she paused for a long moment then walked to her left, heading to the area he remembered where the kitchens lay. It was not long before she disappeared from his sight. He turned away, feeling a bit more awake then he did when he opened the doors, wondering if he would see her later that day around the castle.
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