Queen of My Immortal Heart

Chapter 9: Nicole

Nicole awoke with a start. Where in the hell am I? She thought. The last thing she remembered, she was looking at the fear in her parents eyes as Mortimer and Lucard had traced her out of her home. Once they had arrived where ever they were, Mortimer had hit her over the head hard with the hilt of his sword and she’d fallen unconscious. Nicole tried to sit up, but couldn’t move. Her wrists burned as did her ankles. Then, she realized something very disturbing. By God, she was naked! Nicole’s head throbbed as she lifted it slightly to look around. She was on a smooth marble table in a dark cave. Her legs were spread and each ankle shackled to the table. Her wrists were shackled above her head. All with silver shackles, but a thick piece of silk had been placed between her skin and the shackles. These idiots meant to torture her! They weren’t going to just burn her, but they made it so there was no chance of her trying to break free either. Just then, she heard a metal door creak open, then slam shut. She looked to her right and saw a light coming down a set of stairs. She was in a cave below ground? “Welcome to my home, you majesty.” Lucard said politely, as he lit the braziers around the room. As each one flamed to life, the cave was slowly bathed in a eerie yellow glow that bounced off the sand colored walls. Were they inside one of the pyramids in Egypt? She thought to herself. “Exactly, your highness.” Lucard said, reading her thoughts. That irked Nicole. He didn’t deserve to read her thoughts. She tried hard to set up her mental blocks to keep him out. “You injure me, Nicoleta.” Lucard said, stepping forward to look down at her. “I welcome you into my home and you insult me?” He feigned a hurt expression. “Welcome me!?” Nicole shouted, her voice echoing off the walls of this huge empty chamber. “You have me shackled in silver to a table like some prisoner. Plus, I’m naked!” “And very beautiful, I might add.” Lucard interrupted, his washed out blue eyes roaming over her fully exposed body. Nicole wished with her entire being to cover herself from his vile gaze. No man alive, or undead, had ever seen her without clothing and he sure didn’t have a right to. “Why would you want to cover such a lovely body, Nicoleta?” Lucard asked, reading her thoughts again. She hissed at him, making him chuckle. “Put those pretty little fangs away, Nicoleta. They do not frighten me.” Lucard said, walking away from her over to a low metal table against the wall next to the stairs. “What do you want with me, Lucard?” Nicole asked sternly. “It’s all very simple, Nicoleta.” Lucard said calmly over his shoulder, not even bothering to turn around from whatever he was doing. From Nicole’s horizontal position, she could not see around him. “I want you dead.” he said simply. He whipped around to face her, resting against the table behind him and folding his arms. “Not just dead, though. I want to turn you to dust, throw the dust on a fire to burn, and throw the ashes into the sea to drown.” “Pretty violent, if you ask me.” Nicole said, calmly. “Yes, a death befitting a rotten little Queen like you. Women don’t rule Kingdoms, Nicoleta. Only big powerful men like myself should rule Kingdoms!” Lucard said, his voice dripping with hatred. “Then why have you waited so long to kill me, Lucard?” Nicole asked innocently. “Ah, my dear Nicoleta, I have another plan for you before I kill you.” Lucard replied, a wicked glem in his eye. Nicole was afraid of that. He wanted to torture her and her parents mercilessly before killing her. “Well, yes, that too Nicoleta.” Lucard said, once again reading her mind. She was really mad now and fought harder to block him from her mind. “However, that’s not all. I have been talking to the Witches of the eastern Chinese coven and they have given me some rather interesting information.” Not those old hags. The Witches of Eastern China were just as evil and vile as Lucard himself. Taking orders directly from Satan himself, they say. What could they have possibly come up with? “Glad you asked, Nicoleta.” Lucard said smiling and turned back to the table. Nicole slapped herself mentally. Her mind was becoming an open book to him. “You see, you were the last true vampire born of two true vampires. That was almost four hundred years ago. As you well know, every few centuries, a new true Immortal can be born of two other true Immortals.” “We all know this, Lucard. Get to the damn point!” Nicole snapped. “Tsk tsk, Nicoleta. Such language out of a Queen is just awful.” Lucard said, a touch of sarcasm in his tone. “My point being, my dear. You are next in line to give birth to the next true Immortal.” Lucard continued, looking over his shoulder as his words sank in. “Now, I couldn’t help but overhear that werewolf ask for your hand in marriage earlier tonight; very touching, by the way.” Lucard said, more sarcasm in his words. “So what?” Nicole asked, masking all the fear from her voice. Oh God, were Luke and her parents safe? “So, if he got you pregnant first, your child with him would be a child of good. One raised to take over the Kingdom and bring the downfall of my kind, so the Fates say. However, if you were to be impregnated by, oh say, Mortimer or myself, that child would be born pure evil and would overthrow you as Queen and wipe out the entire IAKM. However, you'll be dust after he's born anyway. Then the Cast Outs would rule all.” Nicole’s mouth dropped open. “NEVER!” she shouted at him, dust falling all around them as her voice echoed off the walls. “I thought you might say that, Nicoleta,” Lucard said quietly. “but you have to stop and think of the position you find yourself in. You are at my mercy.” Nicole began to struggle against her bonds. The shackles were bolted clear through the thick marble. As she struggled, she could hear Lucard chuckling at her useless attempt, enraging her even more. She struggled harder until the silk around one of her wrists slipped and the silver burned her inner wrist with a loud hiss. Nicole screamed and fell still. She wanted to cry as the hopelessness of her situation sank in, but she wouldn’t. Lucard didn’t deserve her tears. It was bad enough that he had heard her scream in pain. “Now now, your majesty. Look what all that fuss has caused. You burned your beautiful wrist.” Lucard said sweetly, making Nicole want to hurl. He took her burnt wrist and re-wrapped the silk cloth around it, careful not to touch the silver himself. “Nicoleta, there really is no point in fighting this. You are going to have Mortimer's child, seeing as I'm getting rather old to sire another child, and then we are going to kill you. There is nothing you can do about it, so you might as well give up.” Lucard said in a dispassionate, careless tone, then returned to the table again. This bastard found her as expendable as a plastic cup! After a few minutes, he came back with a cup of blood. “Fresh from the source, my dear.” Lucard said, pressing the cup to her lips. Nicole folded her lips back between her teeth and turned her face away from him. She despised drinking human blood. Ever since IAKM had been formed, her people had fed off animals instead of humans. Now a days, some used blood banks and synthetic blood. The Cast Outs, however, enjoyed torturing and killing humans. One of the many reasons why they all needed to die. “You should drink, Nicoleta. It’s all you’ll get here and you’ll need your strength for my son. He really is a very lusty man, so I've been told.” Lucard said, a twinkle in his eye. Mortimer was probably one of the Cast Outs that r***d women as he drank from them. Hurting them in all ways possible and stripping them of all dignity before killing them. Her fangs ached to extend and partake of the blood, but she still refused. She had eaten nothing since she’d first woke up earlier tonight before the ceremony. With getting ready, the ceremony itself, and reuniting with Luke in the library, she hadn’t had time to eat again. Nicole thought of Luke. Was he out looking for her right now? He would be scouring the Romanian countryside in search of her, but he would never find her. She was over 1500 miles away, deep inside one of the many pyramids in Egypt. He wouldn’t know to look for her here. No one would. “Have it your way, Nicoleta. I’ll have one of my mistresses come prepare you at sunset. Tomorrow evening, you will lay with Mortimer, whether you like it or not.” Nicole spit in his face. Lucard wiped it away and chuckled. “Oh yes, my son will have great fun taming your feisty little hide.” Lucard laughed as he walked up the long stairs out of sight. Nicole heard the big metal door creak open and slam shut again. The sound echoed in the empty chamber and in her heart. Nicole rested her head back on the cold marble. She tried to send out a telepathic message to Luke, not caring if Lucard heard or not. Luke, I’m in Egypt deep inside a pyramid. Please bring help fast before Mortimer r***s me. Please help me, my love. I love you, Luke! After she sent out the same message two more times, she took a deep breath and let her tears flow unchecked until she finally fell into her death sleep an hour later.