Make Your Move Katherine

Better Than Last Time

Still Ju

He didn’t pick up. Should she be panicking now for she was a little bit when she read his message- like always for it meant the situation was serious- except for the coughing princess. See, she didn’t know what to take with her- the spell book…but which one? Or a medicine bag?

Would she need gauze and band-aid or a stet…like last time?

Why couldn’t he just text her, ‘Hey. Hope all is well.’ Or even a simple, ‘good morning’? Was that too much to ask the heavens? Okay…granted that her practice of arcane magic might have pissed them off a bit- a lot.

Ju dialed again and this time he picked up. “Where are you?”

“What’s the situation like?” she returned.

“What?” his voice was muffled a bit and she heard another voice, “She’s not waking up!”

Yeah, another time was when he wanted her to get to the queen’s place and Ju had gone to her chambers- only she wasn’t there and it took her a few minutes to figure out he meant her old place. It was the night the king had bitten her- Ju’s eyes widened when his words fully registered to her brain, for the sound of his voice in her ear had her brain like mush. The queen.

“Is she bleeding?” she asked calmly, not at all shaken for she knew no danger was there.

“Yes,” he sounded a bit away from the phone as if he was looking back and the phone had moved away from his mouth. He was in a panic… weird. In the time she had known him, he was always cold and aloof. But Ju wasn’t for she knew the queen was safe somehow.

The mage had to pretend to the queen to not know about the bite, even though she was the one that treated it. The king had asked Eric and her to keep it a secret for he did not want Nuwa to know. Yeah, his girlfriend.

Ju, couldn’t understand why when the king panicked that night, he had called Anthony. Why not a doctor? And why not her? Ju had come up with ‘his best friend’ explanation- like when you murdered someone and you call your best friend to either help you hide the body or calm you down till the cops arrived?

The room was clear of all staff except for one young-looking maid who was in the outer room, wringing her hands nervously when Ju had walked in with her bag.

“Is she okay?” the king asked as he sat on a single-seater that was next to the bed, fingers entwined, elbows on his thighs. Both the king and Anthony seem to be sick with regret- just as Oscar had been the last time. Ju shook her head; the king’s only concern was the phoenix. He did not care for the life it was hosted in and that thought worried her brain somewhat.

But no, she did not think that the king was the danger the other Mage, had cautioned her about. She stuck with her belief that he had to be the former king’s mage, Delun, to channel energy like that. Delun could not have meant King Oscar although Eric was certain of it, for he had confessed to her that he thought the king would harm the queen- “and not a simple kind of harm Ju but a not alive kind,” he had babbled out when they were alone.

She tried to convince him that the king won’t hurt the queen even though she didn’t believe it one hundred percent herself. But Eric did not know she had been there that night the king had bitten the queen the first time, nor he did tell her that the queen was bitten either. Eric just assumed she knew about it after they came back.

He still believed that her vision meant the king.

She was a bit off-guard at first for unlike the last time where he had just used his upper fangs mostly- this time he used both upper and lower. The delicate neck was bruised badly and might be longer for someone else to recover but something told her the queen was different. She could sense it, just as she could sense that she did not need to give her the pill that contained traces of the vampire’s DNA in it. “She’ll live- relax. It’s better than last time,” she tried to ease any alarm that might be there still.

See Ju knew from experience that people can be how thick-skinned that can be but when it came to their own loved ones, they were always different. And although she was quite certain that neither man loved the queen- well one was married to her but only to gain his power to protect his people and the other had blocked himself from ever loving anyone- she still tried to be caring.

She muttered a little healing chant and smiled when she saw the purple bruises fading. She did not want to disrupt the phoenix growth so she stopped, knowing the monster bird would take care of the rest.

“The fever will go, much quicker than the last time for I think she has residue from- ahem- last time,” she finished almost in a mumble when she saw the king glaring at her.

Ju was beginning to think that the queen was bigger than they all anticipated and not just a host for the firebird. A vampire’s bite would kill a human and the queen was very much human. See it wasn’t just the teeth, it is the venom that’s released- very much like a snake’s bite.

The last time, she had stayed the entire night to ensure the queen would survive, even though she had known she would for some reason. No- Oscar would not harm the queen, she could sense it again like the last time too. Then who could it be? Who were the queen’s enemies that surrounded her? It could mean anyone from neighboring villages to someone right here in the castle.

A cold chill ran up Ju’s spine- what if the enemy was not an actual enemy but a friend? What if Eric broke the law to protect the queen by hurting Oscar? Would it hurt the queen too? Ju was sure that some mumbo jumbo connected the king and queen, so what if harming one hurt the other too? The thought had been plaguing her since the mage Delun had occupied her mind. He had left some sort of mark on her- so that she felt stronger- more powerful.

“Anyone saw?” she mouthed soundlessly to Anthony, very professionally without blushing and the guard nodded. But he seemed to not be too concerned about it so Ju figured that the department was under the shield completely. Either that or they really trusted these guys. Oh well.

“But why did she faint again?” the King asked her now and Ju gave him a tight smile.

“Her body is maybe getting used to the venom. It may be the phoenix and not her. I think the fire is burning out your poison. “But why did you bite her again?”

The king turned away just as he had the last time without answering. Ju was frustrated. Here she had a stubborn king and on the other hand, she wanted to race out and find Eric and somehow get him to understand the king meant no threat to the queen- well threat yes but death no.

Anthony was quiet in a corner staring at the queen as she slept and Ju walked to the king kneeling on one knee in front of him. She did not take his hand as she normally would have, he been a regular person but in a soothing tone she said, “Your Majesty I need to know so I can understand what is happening with both of you.”

The king frowned and boxed his teeth as if fighting for control- was he? Did the vampire side start to take over? But she was wrong for the king mumbled, “I was angry. She made me so mad, I just wanted her to shut up.

“You mean you wanted her dead?” Ju went on with her calm voice although her insides were beginning to churn. Calm down she urged herself and relaxed. Oscar is very smart when it comes to reading people. He was a walking lie detector. While she would never betray her king, Ju still had doubts about the queen- like if Oscar would want them to save him instead of her when the merge happens. They were under the impression that since the longest vampire in history was the only one that came into his power ‘wifeless’ that he had killed the woman to gain his power or she had died from it.

Kat’s dilemma lied in whether she would allow the queen’s death to transpire or if she would try to save her. She could not in all her conscious let someone die. It went against all she believed in and stood for as a human and a mage. What if, in doing so the king was harmed? What then? Would ‘all she stood for’ save her from his wrath then?

‘He’s a vampire, he can hear your heartbeats and think you’re lying about something.’

“No- just to be quiet! She was shouting and… I just wanted her to stop,” he choked out.

“And was it the same the last time?”

“No- you said she had a protection over her, I was planning to get home to Nuwa but I wanted to tease her a bit.”

‘Ah, Nuwa again in everything.’                   

Then his other words sank in. Tease? Tease her a bit? Did the king actually see his wife as a play toy of some sort? How the heck does tease a bit end up into a full-blown vampire’s bite? Was he this way with Nuwa too when they did the hankie?

She doubted. Although the woman was comparable with the venom, still she would take days to heal.

Lately, he had been taking sips from his mistresses which is something he has not done before. They discovered that Oscar could smell the blood now and he knew who he could drink from and they would survive. But he had promised her that he would only quench his desire one time with each person if she could make them forget about it.

She knew he had spoken the truth for since then she never saw the same woman twice and Ju never forgot any of the faces. The only way he could is if he had been doing so without her aid of blurring their memory about what had transpired. The mage doubted that anyone would go through the trauma of having someone bite them and then draw blood too like that and have kept quiet about it. So many possibilities ...

The fact also remained that he had been coming often to get blood bags from her lab, however...exactly what was going on with him? 

Was the king losing grip with his human side?

“T- tease?” she stuttered. “What? Yes-no. I wanted to kiss her,” she heard the king say and Anthony’s eyes widened as she stared at him from where he stood, at the far side of the room, almost at the back.