The Fallen Star

Nova's POV

I awake in my chamber, my eyes throbbing from crying myself to sleep, a feeling I’ve come to know too well. I lay on the small cot looking at the red, rustic ceiling. The ceiling that I’ve memorized now, from every crease and chip in the heavy wood to the wet stains that ran their way in the corners of the room. It was going to be six years tomorrow since I have been held captive in this god forsaken place. I remember coming here like it was yesterday. 

-Flashback six years ago-

My legs burned; my eyes stung from the ash that covered almost every part of my olive-colored face. It was hard to breathe and my hands were covered in thick, sticky, red blood, that of my mothers. My legs gave out as I made it to the top of a hill not far from what used to be my home. My family. My pack. 

As I regained some energy, I sat up looking down the steep hill I had just topped. My mother, on her hands and knees, crawling slowly up the hill. She slipped and a low groan escaped her chest as she lay on her stomach.

“Mom!” I kept my voice low. “Please, you can make it!” I started to climb back down the hill, but she put her hand up to protest. 

I spoke quietly to her, encouraging her to make it the rest of the way up the hill. As she got closer to me, she finally let out a rough breath and fell to the ground onto her side. I tried to calm my breathing and my thoughts; I felt my pulse racing through my body. I sat, pulling my knees close to my chest and looked down at my mother. I could see it in her eyes, it washed over her face as clear as a blue sky, she was not going to make it. Realization rushed through my body, and I began to tremble. 

Her black hair was white from the ash, dark bruises clear under her eyes. Her once sparkly blue eyes, now fogged over. Her hand was pressed to her abdomen tightly, the soft white blouse she wore stained crimson. I slowly laid down next to her and placed my hand on her arm. Her usually warm skin was cold to the touch, I started to silently cry, only making my eyes burn more. 

Neither one of us said anything for some time, listening to the roars of the fire filling the air a few miles away. I stayed close to my mother, feeling her heartbeat made me feel better, even if it were skipping a few beats periodically. 

“My little star…” Her voice cracked and her cough was wet. “We need to…” She couldn’t finish, her breathing started to strain and worsen. 

We had to keep going, I know. My eyes caught the dark, black smoke coming from the direction we had. It was now high in the sky and the wind was beginning to whip as if it were grieving. Everything I have ever known, ever loved, was gone. My father, my brother, my best friend. I closed my eyes hard, trying to hold back the tears begging to fall.  

“Let’s go mom, we must make it to Evelyn’s. She will know how to make it better.” Make you better, I thought, but couldn’t bring myself to speak out loud. 

My mother nodded. I stood up, grabbing her free arm, wrapping it around my shoulder and we continued to walk deeper into the trees. 

I am twelve years old; my white and silver hair fell just above my hips and eyes as grey and striking as a lightning storm. Today had started out like any other, Jessie, my best friend since I could remember, and I were at school beginning our history class. Loud booms had echoed throughout the whole school, shaking the small building we sat in. The alarms started sounding all around us, loud and blaring, making my ears ring. 

Teachers were ushering kids from classrooms, and everyone was making their way down the hallways. Everyone was rushed out of the school building, Jessie and I started to jog our way back home, we were neighbors and kept close to each other. Once we could see our front doors, Jessie veered to the left and I opened the door making my way to our kitchen. My mother and father hung up the phone they were just speaking into. 

“Nova!” They both ran towards me and pulled me into their arms. 

“W-what’s going on?” My lungs felt tight, and my nerves began to rise. 

“We are leaving. Now.” My father, not entirely answering me more than he was just making a statement. His eyes were dark, and fear was clear on his face. My father was one of our Alphas most high ranked guards in our pack.  I have never seen my father this frightened. Just then my brother came running down the stairs with a duffel bag on each of his shoulders. 

I wasn’t given any time to go to my room or grab any of my belongings. My father pushed all of us through the front door and my breath stuck in my throat. 

Jessie was outside on her porch with her parents. Jessie was held against the front of their door by a tall, slender man. His hair was dark, and his eyes were void, his mouth opened to speak, and my stomach dropped as my eyes caught sight. Fangs. Before I could speak and call out to Jessie, who had tears streaming down her face, he let go of his grip on Jessie and with superhuman speed cracked both of Jessie’s parents’ necks. The sound of their bones shattering echoed in my ears. Her parents’ bodies slumped to their sides and my eyes then met the gaze of Jessies. I started to run towards her, about to scream and shout, but my father’s large hand was hard around my arm. 

“Nova! We can’t!” His voice is low and full of sorrow. 

I jerked and pulled, trying to break free of his grasp as my own tears began to overflood. No matter what I did my father was stronger. My stomach was hurting, but I turned, obeying my father and the four of us started our way towards the south end of town, away from the sea and towards the forest. It was beginning to get hard to see more than a few feet in front of us. The air was becoming black with smoke, houses were burning, and the smell was beginning to taste rotten. As we were running, screams were heard throughout the town, things were happening fast. Families were running, fighting, dying… I could see the shadows of the trees behind the smoke, we were almost there. 

My mother screamed, I turned with my father, and she was in the arms of another man. A vampire. He looked much like the other at Jessie’s home, but his eyes were red, almost as if full of blood. 

“Emilia!” My father roared next to me. 

In one split second my father took his wolf form with my brother following suit. The vampire hissed and threw my mother’s body crashing into one of the burning buildings, which made my father lunge for the vampire. I quickly ran to my mother’s side, her body leaned against a pile of debris from the crumbling house. As I reached closer to her, my stomach churned, the right side of her abdomen had been penetrated by one of the wooden rafters fallen from the house. My hands were shaking as I reached down to place my hand on her arm. She was breathing hard and pushed my hand away. She threw herself to the side and the wooden stake broke behind her back. She pushed herself off the ground and pushed me towards the forest to which we were running. 

“Go.” My mothers voice was hoarse and low. 

We quickly made our way to the first line of trees leading into the forest. As soon as we were out of sight, my mother slumped against one of the tree trunks, her breathing loud and hard. I slowly peeked around the tree, to find my brother's limp body in the hands of the vampire. A howl roared through the air, hitting me like a wall, my father mourned my brother's death. The pain heard through the howl made the hairs on my neck stand. My fathers clawed at the vampire, throwing him through the same house my mother hit. The vampire climbed from the embering house and was gone in an instant. At first I was relieved, only to have my breath catch as soon as I saw him behind my fathers wolf. 

“You stole from me!” The vampire hissed, my fathers jaw snapped at him, but the vampire had him onto his knees and his hands around my fathers head. 

My father shifted back to human form. “We stole nothing that wasn’t ours to begin with!” My father had no remorse in his voice. As my father spoke, his eyes met mine. “I love you, little star.” 

The vampire dismembered my father, I closed my eyes quickly, my breathing becoming more rapid. 

My mother and I have been walking for awhile now, my mother shaking heavily and collapsing to the ground, making me lose my step and fall to my knees. 

“I… can’t…” Her voice barely whispered.

“We have to, I can’t do this on my own.” I sobbed a little as she closed her eyes and sighed. 

“Little star, you must know…” Her voice caught, she took a few short breaths. “Your father and I found you, when you were just a little pup, no older than four years old. We found you while we were on one of our runs deep in the West Ridge forests. You didn’t speak for a year…” Tears were slowly falling off her cheeks. “I wish I could give you more information, who you were, where you came from, this was the only thing we found on you, but I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” 

She placed her hand on my cheek, her skin ice cold against mine. I clamped my hand over hers, pressing my cheek to her palm, holding tight to her hand. She used her other hand to reach into her pocket and pulled out a folded cloth. She reached her hand out and set the cloth on my leg. I slowly pulled my hands away from her, opening the cloth that was embroidered with my name, to reveal an amulet. The string was fringed and old looking, attached to the string was a fang, a canine fang. Yellowed and fragile looking. 

“We loved you like our own, you are smart and sweet. We wanted to wait until you were 18 to tell you, so that you could go and pursue what you wanted.” She coughed, spitting blood onto the ground. “Nova, you need to get to Evelyn, she will take you in and keep you safe. She knows of your past, she tried using her powers to find where you came from, but there is something blocking your memories.” Her voice is lowering as she talks. 

I couldn’t reply, my voice stuck in my throat. I was having a hard time comprehending what she was telling me. Her voice brought my attention back to her. 

“I love you, my sweet little star. Always have, always will.” Her faded eyes closed and her chest came to a rest. 

I screamed. It was the only thing my body allowed me to do. I could feel the rage building in my chest. I hugged my mothers lifeless body and sobbed into her cold chest. 

“I love you, too.” I sat with her in my arms, my

body frozen, for what felt like hours. 

The sun was starting to set, the cool wisp of the

wind blowing gently. I laid my mothers body onto the ground and placed her hands across her chest. As I was about to get up to find wood to build the pyre for her, twigs began to snap somewhere in the distance. I stopped breathing and looked behind a tree close by, my blood started to boil. The red eyed vampire stood a few yards away. The amulet in my hand turned hot, burning my palm, which made me gasp out a little. I quickly covered my mouth and dug a small hole, placing the amulet and embroidered cloth inside and covering it with the misplaced dirt. 

The man's feet shuffled swiftly behind me, slowly I started to crawl away, careful not to make another sound. I only stopped once the black, heavy boots were in front of my face. I looked up and found the red eyed vampire looking down at me. 

“Poor little mutt.” He hissed the words at me. I could hear the sarcasm in his voice. 

Before I could reply, footsteps were quick behind me, the last thing I felt was the throbbing pain in the back of my head. 

-Present time-

I felt my eyes burning from my tears, no matter how hard I tried to throw the memory away, it was burned into my mind. I lost everything. 

Knock knock. My heart stopped at the sudden thuds at the door. Was it time already? 

“Hey, mutt!” The man's voice was loud outside the door. 

I sighed, but didn’t reply. 

“Get your filthy ass up, you are late.” Now his

voice scratching at a chalkboard. 

I flinched, knowing what was coming. I slowly got up from the cot, cleaned up in the bathroom and dressed. I opened the door and the man was standing with a hard look on his face. He started walking swiftly down the hallway, I followed. His name is Victor, he is The Vampire Lords Royal Guard.

As we make our way to the throne room, we are welcomed into a spacious area. The floor a black marble that looks like a bottomless pit that held unwanted horrors. Ceilings high above the floor with an overly large crystal chandelier softly swaying in the middle of the room. The dark, cold walls were lined with statues that represented thousands of years of old Vampire Lords that have either fallen or resigned to the next heir. In the middle of the room, on raised platforms, was a throne. The red fabric seemed to move and swirl, making the fabric look like a canvas of blood. Red gems glistened and sparkled along the legs of the throne, shining ever so brightly even with the darkness of the room. In the throne sat a tall, masculine, red eyed vampire. 

Hair black as night, skin white as snow, eyes red as blood. Xavier. Next to him stood a slim female, brown dreadlocks that hung the length of her body to her knees, dressed in a dark green corset and layers of silky fabric that wrapped around her legs. She reeked of wolfsbane. 

“Siren has been waiting.” His voice made my blood hot with anger. I stood like a statue, not allowing his voice to reveal any weakness. I’ve been here long enough to know that no matter how much I beg or plead, I will not be leaving alive. 

“Here we are once again, mutt. When will you obey and give me what I desire? The sooner, the better.” He pauses slightly. “Unless you enjoy the pain. In that case I can bring you the pain you most desire.” His lips curled in a slight smirk. A small glint in his eyes made my bones shiver. 

I want nothing from this poor excuse of a man. I kept silent, waiting for his commands. He hissed under his breath. 

“Siren.” He held his hand up and waved her forward. 

Siren, the oath and bound witch steps towards the left, waiting for me to follow. I do. We made our way out of the throne room down a short hallway to a room I’ve come to know too well. The walls were black, cold, with no windows or light to be seen. A table with silver cuffs stood in the middle, with a table cluttered with unknown objects. I laid on the table, staring at the dark ceiling as Siren clasped the silver crested cuffs on my wrists and ankles. I used to cower at the pain they brought, burning my skin to the muscle, but enduring this for three straight months has made me bite down the pain. Showing no emotion has done better for me here than begging like a helpless child. 

Siren showed up three months ago, on my 18th birthday after she gave her life to him. Xavier acted as if it were a birthday present for me, but in reality he believed he could really get what he wanted from her. To use her against me, at first I was frightened, thinking she would get the information he’s wanted for so many years, but time and time again she has failed to penetrate my mind. Even if the pain of her probing my memories was terrible and excruciating, I was happy for whatever it was that did not allow her to read me like an open book. 

I lay quietly as she applied a thick layer of liquid to her arms and wrists off the table with her witch supplies. I try to concentrate on breathing, staring at the ceiling hard, hoping to see something or maybe to wake from a dream. Black. Just black was above me. Siren took her spot above my head, placing her soaked hands against my temples. 

Here we go again.

She began her chant, her voice quiet and low. I felt the heat from her hands starting to warm my head, waiting for them to get to the burning frenzy. I watched as her eyes rolled to the back of head, leaving only the whites visible, and her head shot back. 

I scream in pure agony.