Aurelia the Pink

Chapter 9: Blood-Thirsty Manor

- Aurelia (Ling) POV -

Within a split second, I spun around and jumped onto a moving shadow, ready to immobilise my potential assailant. I found myself grabbing onto a struggling panther which just fell from the top of a tree. I pinned it down as if my life depended on it. Before I could strike it with a fist, I heard almost human-like voice coming out of the panther: “Stop!” In shock, I swung my fist at it as hard as possible. It yelped in pain before morphing back to… Herald? But, how? I got up and c-ocked my head to the side before he sighed and sat up, rubbing the bruise I just inflicted on him.

“I was born without any magical powers. A witch casted a spell on me, causing me to be a shapeshifter. I can shift into any animal.” Herald explained briefly.

I stared at him in awe. That is so cool! Werewolves can only shift into a wolf. He could shift into anything. Soon, I was bombarding him with questions, from logical to ridiculous ones. He patiently answered every single one of them. He followed me because he was worried about me. Unlike werewolves, he did not have to strip to shift; his clothes shift along with him. Apparently it is because werewolves shift physically, with reshaping the bones and all, while he was shifting magically. Meaning to say, his body, with whatever is on him, disintegrates and form a different creature.

“One last question before we leave!” I pleaded with him. He raised his eyebrows at me, willing me to continue. “Why a panther?” I asked.

“Panthers are perfect stalkers. People generally do not notice us because they do not look up at trees.” He explained before I interrupted him with a fit of laughter. “You make a lousy panther then,” I replied, causing him to sulk dramatically. “The tree produced a lousy branch that gave way,” he retorted while grinning.

Afterwards, we were mock arguing about him joining my journey. While we were engrossed in our conversation, strong arms grabbed onto us and scented handkerchiefs were f-orced upon our face, covering our noses and mouths. The scent was extremely familiar, a musty smell with a striking bitter herbal base note. I always smell traces of it when I was assisting mum in performing general anaesthesia for patients who require surgery at the pack hospital. We were being drugged! I thrashed about but to no avail. Herald was also letting out muffled screams. There was no hope, we are out alone in the woods. Eventually, Herald’s scream was fading out as dark spots began appearing at the corner of my eyes. My limbs slackened and blackness engulfed me.

“Aurelia? Aurelia!” I was awakened by the soft but urgent cries of Herald. I groaned at my splitting headache. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying down in a huge birdcage alone. I scanned around the room and found Herald pacing around, trapped in another similar cage. Judging by the grand yet gloomy interior, plus the abundance of bats hanging from the ceiling, I assume that we are trapped in Blood Manor, the mansion housing vampires. So far, our room seems void of vampires. However, I do not know how long it will be before someone arrives. Just as I was pondering over my escape route, Herald shifted into a bee and flew through his cage right into mine. As soon as he shifted back, he whispered jokingly, “You were out for so long, I contemplated buzzing off without you.” I responded with a wry smile, “How will you buzz me out of this prison?” He suggested exiting the cage and shifting into a bat to camouflage with the crowd at the top of the ceiling. When there is a right opportunity, he will steal the keys and break us out of here. I was thankful for his presence here. If not for him, I would probably be locked here for ages.

Within no time, Herald was hanging off the ceilings, chilling with hundreds of his new critter friends. He was so good at blending in, I cannot tell him apart from every other bat. While waiting for our captor to return with the keys, I went towards the cage door. I spotted powdery substances coating the bars. Upon closer inspection, I found that the powder was Wolfsbane. Blood drained from my face when I realised that our missing pack members could possibly be captured and killed by these vampires. My jaw clenched as I tensed up in rage. My eyes glazed over. Suddenly, the ground started to rumble like as if my position was the hypocentre of an earthquake. Cracks were forming around the walls of the room. Herald began crying out to me from above, “Aurelia, is this done by you? You need to stop now. This is in no way part of our stealth mission!” Heeding his advice, I took deep breaths to calm myself down. Soon, the earthquake stopped. I will need to survive first in order to deal with these vampires later.

Indeed, the earthquake attracted my captors promptly. A pale looking young man ran into the room. When he locked eyes with me, he heaved a sigh of relief. However, after he saw Herald’s empty cage, he immediately ran out and shouted, “Sir Eliot! The green-eyed lad is missing!” From a distance, I heard some commotion. I strained my ears to hear a deep voice shouting, “Imbecile! Tell me at least the dragon is still there, or I will skin you alive.” The pale looking man replied fearfully, “Yes sir, I made sure she is still locked up in that cage.” Soon, I heard a blood curdling scream from him, followed by the unmistakeable sound of snapping bones. “This death was for your incompetence,” the s-adistic vampire by the name of Eliot declared. I gulped at his menacing act with shivers up my spine. Whoever our captors are, they know me and they are ruthless. We need to get out of here fast.

My anxiety faded a little when I saw an approaching bat hanged on my cage in front of me with a set of keys dangling from its mouth. The bat shifted. It was not Herald. She was a brunette with straight hair flowing down her shoulders, her flawless skin has a cool tone and she was endowed with plump, cherry lips. Although slender, she clearly does not look weak. Her whole demeanour was radiating regality. I stared into her scarlet red eyes as she unlocked my cage. She c-ocked her eyebrows at me, unfazed at Herald in his fighting stance right beside her. “We do not have all day if you both want to escape from my uncle alive,” she commented dryly. I narrowed my eyes at her, “Why help us? How do we know you are not colluding with your uncle?” She glared at me with an intensity that almost made me bare my neck in submission to her. She had the same aura I saw around Kang sometimes. She presented us with two choices: stay and die, or to follow her and have a fifty percent chance of living. We picked the latter. At the snap of her fingers, a cauldron of bats flew down to lift me up towards the beam of the ceiling. Herald himself shifted into a bat again and flew along with them. Before she joined us, she broke the lock off the cage door and left it on the floor, I assume to make Eliot believe I escaped on my own.

I was on all-fours balancing on the ceiling beam, following the mysterious lady’s lead, crawling inch by inch towards the main hall. Over there, I saw two striking vampires. One of them, Sir Eliot, was sitting on a grand metallic throne while the other was sitting on a smaller one. There were about tens of other vampires serving them and keeping their heads bowed in submission. “Father, why do we have to wait? We can kill her now and feast on her blood immediately,” the younger vampire asked Eliot. Curious of the answer, I eavesdrop on their conversation. “Son, we cannot break her skin as her dragon scales serves as a barrier even in her human form. Hilda is on her way. She has a special weapon to kill that dragon. Then, we can drink to our hearts content.” I shuddered at the thought of them sucking my blood. I continued to scurry forward, with hopes of escaping this wretched mansion as soon as possible. Once we reached the staircase, the lady motioned me to climb up slowly to the second floor instead. Soon, we found ourselves in her own room. After closing the doors, she shifted back and stretched her hands towards me for a handshake.

“Felicia, Duchess of Sangreshire, rightful heir of the Blood Manor.” I reciprocated before she continued, “We were peace-loving vamps. Posh and proper. We do not kill humans or supernaturals. Our food came from willing blood banks donated via a peace treaty. However, my uncle, Eliot, killed my parents and usurped the throne. He rules with fear and corruption. He convert innocent humans into vampire servants, he execute any vamps who defies him, and he capture and kill supernaturals for the power in their blood.”

As I got to hear about Eliot’s evil deeds, my blood boiled. My heart hurt for Felicia as well. No wonder she is strong. She survived through many hardships, and she is a natural-born vampire ruler. When I reached out to hug her, she shied away and told me that she do not need any pity. Herald and I took turns introducing ourselves. She interrupted us, “you both must be special for him to not kill you immediately. Aurelia, I understand it is because you are a dragon. Herald, what makes you so special?” she narrowed her eyes at him. For a moment, beads of perspiration appeared around his forehead. No-nonsense Felicia has that kind of effect on people. Before Herald answers, a roar resounded at the main hall. “She cannot be too far ahead. FIND HER!” Eliot boomed.

“That is our cue. They will be so busy searching the mansion, there will be no guards outside for now. Go!” Felicia gave us a sly smile. She pushed us towards her balcony and threw both of us down. My heart plummeted. I was about to die a painful death directly outside the mansion. I caught a glimpse of Herald shifting mid-air into an eagle before closing my eyes and anticipate my fall. Instead, I landed on a soft mattress hidden under a bed of flowers. I looked up to see Felicia winking at me before strolling back into her room. Herald shifted into a wolf and crouched to allow me to ride on him. I climbed up on him before he took off as fast as his paws could bring us. To prevent myself from slipping off, I wrapped my arms tightly around his furry neck. The wind whipped at my hair. After we put some distance between us and the mansion, some vampires spotted us. Adrenaline was pumping through our veins as we rush towards the sea. The vampires in pursuit were extremely agile; they were gaining in on us although we had a head-start. Herald began panting, but he continued to push forward. At the last stretch, Herald collapsed under me, too tired to continue. He instantly shifted back to human form. I pulled him along and dragged him as fast as I could. Finally, our feet were comforted by the crashing waves at the beach. We continued waddling into the water. I turned back to see the vampire servants stopped right around the perimeter of the beach. Somehow, they dare not go further. Relieved, I swam deeper into the ocean with Herald by my side. He had finally recuperated from the exhaustion. Once we reached a certain depth, Herald shifted into a whale and swallowed me whole. I was not expecting this.