A Curse of Fate

Chapter 3

Waking up the next morning to Max holding out a massive tray of breakfast food, from at least 40 different countries, some that may not still be here anymore. “I hope you hungry Dad went little nuts making breakfast.”He said with a massive grin, “There's still more downstairs. But I fended him off when he wanted to bring up the raw meats and fermented mare's milk.” We both shuddered, as both of those options were gross and appealing. Sitting on the tray to the side of the bed he slowly bent to kiss me, Such soft lips I thought as he kissed me first on the mouth then along my jawline to my neck. He paused on my carotid artery, my pulse hammered through my veins. Knowing he could feel it, I still tried to calm my pounding heart. “I have wished for this moment since the day I met you” he breathed onto my neck, I smiled at him, while wrapping my arms around him holding him close to me. This would have been a sweet romantic moment had he not started laughing to the point he fell on the floor and literally rolled around on it. “What?!” I all but yelled at Max after ten minutes of this, “You have to go horse shopping with dad.” Was all he could get out as he started all over again. Sighing I began to eat my breakfast and was wondering what lunacy I was now considered a family member to.

Apparently, horses were such a passion to the great lord impaler, that when the mere mention of horse and the acquiring of the new one caused a strange reaction from the feared former king, that would shock any mere mortal to their core in fear. As I learned from my dear beloved's reaction this morning my future father in Law further proved this point by making a grand entrance to the bedroom, wearing an apron that said King of the Kitchen in bright red letters on a pristine white background. And to further cause fear in my day would entail, he danced into the room like Snow White and began to pick out an outfit from the closet FOR ME. I stared at Max who didn’t even pretend to hide the joy he was experiencing from this moment, “You two are going to have so much fun today.” I glared at him and proceeded to whip a pillow at his head, which much to my annoyance he caught and held on to, laughing loudly.

After shooting my future father in law out of the room to get dressed in what he described as the perfect horse testing outfit. I began to realize that each item of clothing fit me perfectly, but I had not brought any with me, so I ended up wearing one of Max’s shirts to bed last night. “Max, did you get these for me?” I asked as I began the strange dance to get my socks on without sitting down. When I looked up, finished with my socks, I saw him lying on the bed staring at the ceiling, “Max?”, I began to walk slowly over to him from the wardrobe. He was crying on his, his tears streaking down the sides of his face onto the blanket. I crawled next to him and held his hand unsure of what to do, “My mom, she saw you coming and built this wing for us. She thought of everything that you would need, clothes, makeup, bathroom supplies.” He said as he closed his eyes, “ She even left you something that I need to give you.”. He got up from the bed and walked over to his side of the bed in the nightstand, slowly opening the drawer, taking out a black velvet bag. He carried it with such reverence and care, walking slower still, staring at the bag. He usually moves so fast, and full of life. How great is this pain that he feels?  My thoughts drifted away from me as he finally made his way to me, tears still falling from his eyes. “I know that this is not how you were raised or even pictured getting married, but I need you to understand that I will give you anything you want in this life no matter how long it is. My father and mother had a similar relationship to the one we have. Only it was much more violent and took less time for them to fall in love with each other.” he continued on with a sad smile pulling at the corners of his mouth “ So my father would give her a new ring every time they had a wedding ceremony, usually when they decided to have another child. Each time she would save the ring old ring for the child that was conceived when she received it. I am her third born, she made sure that each ring would be unique to that child, and for me the ring was very different from the others” Max opened the bag and poured into his hand, the ring fell into his waiting hand landing so that its surface faced me. It was beautiful, it had an oval-shaped face that was set with one large stone surrounded by smaller red ones that I assumed were rubies. The band itself was thick and wide, simple and strong, it made me feel like a warmth inside. I noticed on the back edge there was something engraved, I leaned in to examine it. Wrapping my hand around his to lift the ring, wanting to get a closer look at what was written on the inside of the band. “It's my names,” Max said knowing what I was doing before I could really do it, “ She knew my names before I earned or chose them. She did this for all of us, each ring would have the child's name engraved into it with a symbol attached at the end. Her way of showing her love for us and the love that we will have when we find our mates.” He said in a numb voice, as he lifted the ring to show me the symbol, it was a strange spiraling like design that looked almost like an ornate W with its unique pattern. “What does it mean?” I asked as I tore my eyes away from the ring to look at him, “It's the Celtic symbol for strength.” His smile began to lose its sadness. “She picked each symbol to give us an idea of why we would love the person, the quality that drew us to them.” Lifting the ring, he twisted my hand over to slide the ring onto my ring finger. “She was right, your strength drew me to you like a moth to a flame.” I couldn’t speak, I was so stunned that he would give me such a personal item, one that he treasured so much. He's sharing his mother with me, she knew I was coming does that mean she approved of me? Then everything went black.

“I am sorry for this being your first experience with magick or that this will be our only meeting but it was the only way.” My mind began to swim into focus, I saw a great fireplace in an ancient-looking kitchen. A woman stood stirring a pot at the fireplace, the fire roaring around it. “Come closer child I want to see you properly,” She said as she turned to face me, smiling. She was about my height and had a curvy figure that was draped in a dark purple dress with light purple floral embroidery on the bodice. A bandana wrapped around her head keeping her long brown hair from her face, it reached past her waist, flowing in loose curls. “You must be confused, but know that you are welcomed into this family by me and by Dracula.” Setting the large wooden spoon aside, she walked over to me and enveloped me in a warm hug. “Your Max’s mom aren’t you?” I asked, tears stinging my eyes, she had a strength that was well hidden by her plump frame. “Yes brave girl, I am the wife of the Great Impaler and  mother to Maximus the Protector.” She said with pride and joy glowing on her face, her amber eyes glowing with a mother's love. At the same height, she could look into my eyes easily and make me feel awkward and shy, “You have lived such a hard life, and for a time it will cause you more hurt still. But you need to know that my son loves you and you were made for each other. No matter what others may have forced you to believe, it is the right course.” She said as she held my face in her hands, they were warm from the fire. “You will make each other stronger, and you will grow to understand why the Order wanted you and where you are from.” I looked at her as the tears flowed freely down my face, “I wish you could be there with them. They miss you so much, the way they talk about you and remember you make me both happy and sad. Because I know that I’ll never meet you or that they don’t have them anymore.” I said fully sobbing into her shoulder now as she soothed me, rubbing my back and petting my hair. “Hush child you need not worry about this, my beloved family will find peace in sharing my memory and someday I will be reunited with them in the place of our ancestors.” She said with a voice that was both sure and sad. “You will be loved by your new family child and from the family that you should have had long ago.” The vision began to grow fuzzy around us, “ I have a final give to my dear daughter” She kissed my forehead, I felt a strange feathering sensation running over my skin from my forehead to my hands. “I give this blessing to you so that you will awaken the queen within yourself. She has been locked  up for too long, she will lead you to your kin.” She said as she pulled away her image growing blurry. “Tell them I love them, and will be watching over them, they will know more from the mark.” She was gone and I returned to blackness

I awoke to scream,“Elaina!!” Max was holding on to me shaking me, calling my name as his family gathered around us. My eyes flew open as I felt a burning sensation coating my skin everywhere I had felt the feathering from the blessing. I began to struggle, screaming as the pain kept growing, Max held me, panicking even more now that he knew I was in pain and he had no way to stop it. The Count was the closest to me, upon seeing the ring on my hand knew what was going on and began to give orders “Sophia get cold water and rags, Lila get her shirt off and pull back her hair, Ann get the burn salve your mother left in the basement” The girls ran off to their tasks. The count turned to his son's face calm “Hector you need to get your brother out of here so his sister can take care of her, I will need to speak with him.” Hector looked doubtfully at Max as he clutched me trying to calm me, every time he pressed into the areas on my arms or chest I would scream in pain. Hector and his father walked over to the bed, the count grabbing me and Hector grabbing Max. He fought like a demon to get back to me, clawing, punching, and kicking his brother, but Hector held fast. “You can’t help her, you were just causing her pain.” Hector cried as he wrapped his brother in a backward bear hug, “She is in good hands brother come with me.” Hector said his voice strained as he dragged Max from the room, Ann came in just after they left.

The Count told his daughters what would need to be done “ Use the rags and cold water to cool the markings, and once she is no longer in pain smear the salve on her skin and help her get dressed. This won’t hurt her for long.” Soon I felt my clothes being ripped away by strong hands and then heard the three gasp at the sight on my body. I was in too much pain to move or care about what I looked like, I just wanted the pain to stop. “Ok we need to get the cold on to her” Ann said as she laid the first cloth on my chest soon all my upper body was cold and going numb to the burning sensation. Lila murmured soothing things to me as they replaced each cloth with another that was prepped with the cold water. “It's ok, just relax take a deep breath, the worst is over now.” I felt her hand on my hair as she tried to keep me calm. “It's time for the salve, then she could see what her marks look like,” Sophia stated as I heard a jar open, followed by three sets of hands rubbing something onto my skin, the pain was now all but gone from my body. My body began to feel awake and alive with energy. Shouldn’t I feel exhausted, what is wrong with me? My concern mounted as my mind began to break through my shock from the pain. “What happened to me?” I asked as Lila and Sophia sat me up and Ann opened the bathroom door grabbing a bundle of cloth and clothes from the dresser as she went. When I wasn’t answered I looked up at Lila with pleading eyes, “We're going to show you then we’ll explain Ok?” She said the two moved me from the bed to the bathroom doorway in seconds. Ann had moved a chair in front of the full-length mirror at the end of the massive marble bathroom, the sisters had me in front of the mirror and propped up on the chair in holding me down when I tried to get up. “Look sister,” Ann said, turning my head to face the mirror, her face strategically neutral. 

I looked at my reflection and gasped, there were strange markings running from my forehead to my hands, across my chest, and down my ribs, not even my neck was spared along the sides of the markings connected on my collar bone. The marks were a strange mix of vine-like lines, spirals, and symbols that span multiple cultures. Tearing my eyes away from the marks I saw my new sister had similar ones showing on their faces and on their hands. But they were all different, Lila’s stated at her cheekbones, barely framing her eyes, and curved down her neck in strange geometric shapes, Sophias had none on her face but from her v neck dress, I saw that they totally covered her neck and chest straight through to her arms, even across her fingers. Ann’s was the most similar to mine, she had a single symbol on the center of her forehead just above her eyes, the rest of the markings appeared like flowers growing from a thin vine in a sporadic pattern to her hands. “You have been blessed by our mother, like us.” Sophia said as she laid her hand on my left shoulder, “It was her way of protecting us from magic attacks and to help us understand ours.” Lila said her hand curving around my right shoulder. Ann was the last to speak, her face showing no emotion now, “She did this to us because she knew what her blood contained and with her blessing, she is giving us a clue to your true family.” She moved behind me laying her hands over her sister's on my shoulders. You will find love with your new family. The Countess’s words came back to me as I looked at the reflection,  My new family. 

Once out of the bathroom my new sister's explained to me how to hide my markings, “You just imagine them swirling into a single spot where they can condense out of sight” Lila said as she showed me on her own pale body, she had stripped down to her bra to and showed me the single symbol. Her markings faded until they reached her left rib cage and a strange butterfly was all that remained of her marking, each sister showed me on their one body. Lila being the only one who needed to strip though, Ann’s was on her right bicep and Sophies was on her back. Now it was my turn, closing my eyes turning my thoughts inward I focused on my sternum below my breasts. I opened my eyes to see that all that was left of the marks on my arms was a light burn pattern that Ann had already begun wrapping a light bandage over them. Looking at my sternum I saw a single symbol left, it was a strange flower that was the size of my palm with vines peeking out around it. I touched it and felt an almost electric shock when I did. Lila laughed when I jumped “It's okay love, it's just the magick in your blood responding to the new markings. It stops in a day or two.” The three began to dress me and get my shoes on, apparently, even this was not going to stop me from going horse shopping with my future father-in-law. I groaned as the sister's laughed when they put knee-high leather boots on my legs.