The Sacred Coven

Blood everywhere, lifeless bodies dangling from trees, limbs without bodies, blood-curdling screams of grief and the smell of death permeates the air. How many of them are ours I do not know, it’s difficult to tell what was a friend and what was foe at this moment. As I walk towards my father I realise something is amiss. His shoulders are hunched, and everyone standing near him stares at the bloodied ground, no one making eye contact. “How badly were the forces diminished, father?” I ask, “100 dead for our side, much more for the other” he replies quietly. “Why the long face then father? We have won the battle, we must regroup and train harder to defeat the leader if we can ever find out who it is” I say with conviction. My father is a very regal and gracious man, though man is not a word to describe him, Vampire, more precisely, and our bloodline is the Royal Bloodline, descendent from the first vampire. My mother’s bloodline is also an ancient royal line, but from the first turned vampire not from the first ever born vampire. My father, the King looks up into my eyes with such sorrow I gasp. I have never seen such sadness and pain from him, as he parts his lips and starts to speak I can feel my world crashing around me. “Adaline, your mother has been killed” he whispers. I don’t know what to do, my mother. No, it can’t be, she wasn’t meant to be here, she was meant to be at the palace, helping keep everyone occupied so they weren’t worrying about their mates. Am I dreaming? Is this real? I look around seeing if I can pick something out that may be fake, but everything looks so real. My father takes a step to the side and begins to uncover a body. The warm blonde hair starts to quiver in the slight breeze as he lifts his cloak that’s been placed on the body, he doesn’t need to go any farther I can smell her scent, I know that’s her hair. My beautiful mother had a large gaping wound in her chest and claw marks from her neck to her abdomen. Why? Oh, why? I don’t know how long I stood staring, numb, unable to move or speak. Before finally kneeling on the other side of my mother, Queen Katerina, was adored by any whom she had the acquaintance of. Tears fall from my chin and mix into the bloodied ground, she looks so peaceful. Her eyes are closed as if she is sleeping, they will never again show their beautiful emerald colour to the sun. I stayed and knelt there until elder Lucien, my father’s second in command came and helped me to my feet ready for the other elders to carry my mother back to the palace for her ritual of dying death. In other words what humans would call a funeral. The ritual of dying death for someone who lived as long and as high in the coven as my mother would be a long one, people all over the world would be able to come and see her, within this next week, before she turns to ash. As we head back to the palace I can’t help remembering how when I was little she used to chase me around the clearing we’ve just been in, playing sword fights, laughing and giggling, having tickle fights. And slowly walking back to the palace afterwards watching the wildlife of the forest and seeing who could catch a squirrel quicker before letting them go. Two Years Later. I check my appearance in the mirror, with my emerald eyes and almost white blonde hair, I’m easily distinguishable, as the Princess, only I don’t wear all the stupid dresses, currently I’m in my usual black leather trousers, my black corset with a blood red turtleneck underneath it. I look around for my favourite chunky heeled knee-high boots, as I fasten my sword around my waist. Ah the corner where I plopped them last night, I sit on the edge of the bed to put them on, today we have the pleasure of the Alpha King coming to forge an allegiance to put on a united front against the rogues. The rogues aren’t just werewolves this time though, the Rogue King has managed to get the rogue Vampires on his side too. That’s how they killed my mother, the Queen two years ago. My father has put all of his being into ensuring we are the strongest in defence and attack, since there have only been very small attacks on the werewolf packs and the covens over the last two years, we know something big must be coming. I head downstairs to meet with the warriors, I’ll be going with them to meet the Alpha King once he gets onto our territory. “Hey pretty lady” says Marius. I roll my eyes at him, “Nice to see you out of bed early for once Marius” I remark, “well when I get to see you in person and not my dreams, why wouldn’t I be out of bed early?” He smirks. I thump him on the arm as I walk past. “Right, you’ve already been made aware of which team you’ll be in and where you will be going, Ada, Duncan, Artemis, get your teams ready make sure everyone is equipped and head out” I say loudly. “My team, are we all ready? Have we got everything needed?” I ask, and murmurs of yes are answered. “Let’s head out then,” I say. About 40 miles south of the palace we are heading into the clearing to wait for the Alpha King, I stop and hold my hand up. Wait, I telepathically tell everyone. Something isn’t right, I can smell death, and the musky almost mould-like smell of rogues. They’re here, I slowly step into the clearing, and the moment I am fully exposed I hear an arrow and quickly sidestep it. I hear some of them shift into their wolves. I whisper knowing only our side will hear “Time to get dirty, go!” As I walk into the middle of the clearing I know they’ve surrounded us, there are at least 200 wolves and 100 vampires. I stand still and wait for them to make a move, they must think it’s just us, they don’t know we planned in case something like this was to occur, I hear a laugh. And I know in that instant it was him. My Uncle’s behind the vampires killing my mother because he wasn’t her mate, he waited a long time for his revenge and killed the wrong person. I bet he meant to kill my father. I stay still, waiting. All of a sudden they pounce and the battle has begun. I leave my sword for now, I’ll use my hands, ripping and pulling the enemies apart, is this the best they can do? I’ve trained with stronger foes. My Uncle stays in the shadows watching, I can see him in my peripheral, and when there aren’t many left I see him teleport out. I wait in case he is still in the vicinity, I can’t feel his presence anymore so he must have left.