Chapter 9: Back to the Wolves
1506 Words
Erevus couldn’t believe his fate. Out of all the people that lived in the city of Fildira, he had made the High Princess a vampire. Worse, he had made Torrin, the vampire hunter’s, betrothed a vampire. So many things could go wrong with that. Why would the odds be this against him?
He just stared at Isadora as she pleaded with her beautiful innocent brown eyes. But all Erevus thought was: what had he done?
How, in the course of the late morning and afternoon, he had found her more enchanting by the moment. His heart stirred in a way he didn’t think was possible again. He had wondered if, perhaps, his years of loneliness were coming to an end.
Instead, he just doomed Isadora and his entire kingdom by choosing to do the one thing forbidden of him by the Coven.
“Stay here, Isadora. Just give me a moment to figure this out. Please, stay here.”
Erevus exited his bedroom to find Stefen in the throne room. Erevus fell into his chair, resting his head against his knuckles.
“She didn’t take it well?”
“Her reaction was as expected. It was her revelation afterward.”
Stefen waited patiently for him to answer.
“She is the High Princess Isadora of Fildira.”
Stefen’s eyes widened in shock. He rightly swayed at the implications Erevus’s choice was to save her.
“You…”
“Yes, I turned someone with pure royal blood into a purebred vampire. That alone makes her lethal.”
“You can not hide this from the Coven. That isn’t something that will go unnoticed.”
“I know. And to complicate an already complicated situation, she can not stay here.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s betrothed to Torrin. He will come look for her and he’s a skilled hunter. Where would evidence lead him?”
Stefen staggered backwards. “Elithor.”
“Elithor.” Erevus confirmed.
“But we aren’t ready-“
“It would be another m******e. He would have Fildira’s army at his command.”
“But to send the High Princess back to the man whose obsession is to kill vampires…”
“I know. She would be killed and they would use her as their battle cry to end our people’s existence.”
“My King.”
“She has to go back. It could give us just a little more time to prepare before we end this war.”
“And the Coven?”
Erevus lifted his head. “They are not my worry right now. My biggest worry is how to keep Isadora’s abilities a secret from herself and Torrin until I can bring her back.”
“Another royal purebred now amongst us,” Stefen whispered.
Erevus looked away, still in disbelief over the fates. “We have a month before the Coven discovers her and before her abilities will be fully developed.” Erevus stood. “Let us hope she can fool Torrin for just as long.”
“You are sending her to be amongst wolves as a sheep dressed in wolf clothing.”
“I don’t believe that is how that analogy goes.”
“It does this time.”
Erevus made his way to the door. “She goes back tonight.”
It was still early afternoon, and he had much to explain to her before she left. But first, he went down the hallway and opened a steel door. The steps went lower, underneath the castle. It grew darker and colder, but neither element affected Erevus.
The room opened up to a large dungeon that was underground and pitch black. In the corner, was an unlocked door. He opened it.
The room was lit low with a fire, several jars aligned the walls and on the ground next to a bed. Rats hung dead from the ceiling.
A woman with old wiry white hair and completely black eyes watched him with her hand raised to pull off a dead rat. Her smile grew, showing off only a handful of teeth scattered across her upper and lower jaw.
“My King.” She spoke slow, drawing out her ending sounds. It reminded him of how a snake held out its ending hiss as if to whisper just how long their victims had before its death.
Erevus entered the room, taking in the smell of rotting rats and must.
“I need your assistance, Hildarith.”
Her eyes glistened like black marbles. “It doesn’t have anything to do with your new interest, doesn’t it?”
Erevus wasn’t surprised she already knew. “She needs to go back to the living and I need a way to protect her there.”
“Once one is dead, it is difficult for them to return. She will struggle to be a part of the world she used to know.”
“There is no choice in this matter.”
“Ah,” she lifted her finger, her deteriorating yellow nail the length of her finger curved towards him. “This choice will seal her fate.”
“Give me what you can do.”
“Blood and bones from the living, I will need.” She licked her lips with her black tongue.
Erevus went back into the dungeon to a cell. A man, whom Erevius found barely alive in the village that was massacred sat huddled in the corner. The man was short and sturdy with blond hair that curled around his ears.
Erevus opened the cell door. The man of around twenty looked up.
“Whose there?”
The Vampire king grabbed him by his arm and dragged him by his broken arm back towards the door.
The man cried out, swinging his other arm at Erevus, but it was fruitless.
He threw him into the room. The man scrambled to his hands and knees, tucking his broken arm underneath him close to his body.
“Your sacrifice, Hildarith.”
The soldier looked between Erevus and Hildarith with wide, fearful eyes.
“Please, please, don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything, I will help you against King Torrin.”
Erevus kicked him hard in the face, breaking several bones and causing his nose and mouth to bleed. He fell to the ground screaming in agony.
“You did enough to help King Torrin when you massacred an entire village. He left you… and now you’re mine. You will help me with your death.”
Tears streamed down the man’s face. “Please.” He choked out. “Please, I was-was just doing what my king said. Have mercy.”
Erevus boiled with anger. “Mercy! Mercy! You killed in daylight! How was that mercy?”
The man turned his face away sobbing. He knew his judgment had come and was at the hands of the Vampire King.
Hildarith said, “I need him breathing to get what you desire.”
Erevus grabbed the man by his shirt, lifting him to his feet. Before, the soldier had any time to react or fight, Erevus bit him in the neck, drinking and paralyzing him. His body went limp. His eyes stayed wide, mouth agape, fear frozen on his face.
Erevus kept him awake, just his body stayed frozen as he threw him on Hildarith’s table. A pleasure rippled through Erevus knowing that the soldier would feel every amount of pain, but could do nothing, say nothing. A small recompense for what his people had to endure being scorched and murdered in daylight.
Hildarith hummed an eerie song that resonated and echoed in her small room. Her bony fingers moved quickly as she worked.
She crushed the bones into dust, swirling them in a cast iron pot. Hildarith moved fluidily grabbing her unmarked jars and placing different ingredients into the pot. After pouring some blood into it, Hildarith pulled a necklace from a drawer and dipped it into the liquid. Red dripped off of it as she lifted it back up. The bloody ruby of the necklace glowed and brightened
She finished off the soldier who had long ago passed out from the pain. Erevus wouldn’t have been as kind, but the soldier had fulfilled his purpose.
Hildarith handed him the necklace.
“It will only last twenty-seven days. You know the rules.”
Erevus grabbed the necklace.
“This is for her.” Hildarith lifted a ceramic jar filled with blood. “She will need it before she leaves,” Hildarith paused, “In fact, she will need it sooner. You better go, My King, she is on the run.”
It was still daylight. The sun. Erevus grabbed the jar and sprinted from the room and up the stairs. He ran through the hallway to his bedroom.
The late afternoon sun moved away from the left window and that was the window that was broken. He needed to find her fast before she made it to the meadow and burned in the rays of the sun.
- Writer
