The Curse He Didn't Fear Enough
2169 Words
Out came the command, sharp as steel from Caius’s lips.
"Hunt her."
Without delay, Voltaire sprang into motion.
Faster than thought, dark figures ripped through trees, soundless hunters slicing through brush at an unnatural momentum. Silence followed their trail like a second skin.
Yet her presence carried an unease, subtle but certain.
Human.
Definitely human.
Still, her smell slipped through clouds of burning sage, mashed leaves, its roots deep in forgotten rituals. Not gone — just shifted, like a shadow that moves when no one looks. Enough to make creatures older than stone hesitate, blink twice.
One breath hung between them before the chase resumed.
Then instinct returned.
The ruler had given his word.
Death waited for the girl. She could not escape it.
Each vampire there carried that sureness deep inside. It showed in their stillness, in the way they held themselves without doubt.
Caius held power over Voltaire — cold, ancient, unchallenged. Three eternal figures ruled together, but fear followed his name most sharply. Kingdoms crumbled while he watched, silent through centuries. When fire took cover, it did so under his quiet order. Time stretched long behind him, filled only with obedience; not once had anyone risen who could shake his rule.
Not witches.
Not wolves.
Not vampires.
Just not some scared kid lost among the trees near Forks.
He probably thought it too small a task for someone like him.
Just another day's work. Some stray vamps tucked close to Olympic land. That’s all it was.
Instead of calling soldiers, he might’ve chosen peace.
He showed up in person instead.
It clicked for him suddenly. The reason made sense at last.
It started when he stepped into those woods — unease curling under his skin without warning. A faint sweetness moved on the chill, not unlike a secret slipping straight into his blood.
He thought it was hunger for killing, back then.
This time felt unlike before.
Dangerously different.
Warmth curled through the air, pulling his breath low. Colors A bit deeper into vision, edged with light. A quiet pull opened in his chest, wide and waiting.
Footsteps sounded next, closing in from the rear.
Human footsteps.
Soft. Careless. Alive.
Caius stood still, ears tuned. Quiet filled the space around him while he stayed alert.
Anticipating.
Before his eyes ever caught sight of her, the flavor already danced on his tongue.
Foam filled his throat.
Every muscle locked, sudden fire racing under his skin.
Out of nowhere, there she was. A sudden shift in the light revealed her shape stepping forward.
A witch.
Young.
Golden-haired.
Light spills soft through leaves, almost too pretty to be true. Trees filter gold onto ground that seems to shimmer but stay still. The air holds a hush like mornings forget how loud they can get. The sun touches everything yet warms nothing here. What looks real slips just out of reach.
Her blue eyes grew wide right then, when his figure appeared. That moment stretched thin between them.
A flicker of fear crossed her features.
A sudden grip tightened around the box, held close as if weight alone could shield her.
Caius stopped thinking about the runaways altogether.
The world narrowed to her.
Her throat held a beating rhythm.
To the unseen trace winding under the green layers in her arms.
He felt it rip into him without warning. A raw hunger took hold. Sharp. Unrelenting. It tore at his insides like something alive.
Mine.
A voice appeared in the mind, uninvited. It simply showed up, not asked for, not expected.
After that, things fell apart because of her. She broke what was working.
Out of her mouth slipped a name that wasn’t his.
Softly.
Hopefully.
Like she’d confused his face with another person’s.
A fire lit up his chest. It burned fast, sharp, sudden.
A sharp taste spread across his tongue when the pressure built without warning. Crimson deepened in his gaze like smoke filling a room at dusk.
How dare she?
Who would have thought a sound could hide inside someone else’s past?
A wave crashed through his chest before the thought could catch up. Reason almost vanished beneath its weight.
Beneath the anger surfaced a deeper dread.
Fear.
Fear wasn’t about what she could do.
Fear crept in, watching her change him. What she did started to unravel something inside.
This wasn't normal.
A quiet shift ran through him, something unfamiliar tugging at corners he didn’t know existed.
For the first time, something hit right away.
Just like that, his attention snapped toward her, leaving all else behind. The second she came into view, nothing else mattered at all. Everything faded when his eyes landed on her. Right then, the world narrowed to just one person. Her presence shut out every distraction without effort.
It was enough to make her a threat.
The last breath slipped away. Life ended, just like that.
Immediately.
Then she ran.
Somehow, this only fueled his rage more.
Beneath her feet, twigs cracked while she tripped forward, clumsy and flesh-and-bone amid the creatures on her trail.
Who gave her the idea to run off like that? What made her turn away instead of staying put?
Who gave her permission to turn her eyes elsewhere?
Up among the branches, Caius moved without slowing, eyes locked on her form below. He stayed level with her, running through tangled limbs and shifting leaves, never stumbling. Each leap came smoothly as breath while she raced ahead unaware. Light flickered across his face as he matched her speed stride for silent stride. The forest floor rushed past beneath them both.
Panic often changed how prey looked. Ugliness followed fast when fear took hold.
Pathetic.
Desperate.
But not her.
Each time she looked back in fear, he found her even harder to resist.
Beneath his feet, movement among the rest of the group turned hesitant. They shifted without clear purpose.
Could this have been just a game?
Was it his own king he meant to hunt down himself?
Not a single person stepped forward. Stillness held everyone back.
That was before Victor snapped.
A sudden move came from the smallest vampire, his senses twisted by the trace of living blood hidden under herb-stained cloth.
Just before the attack began, Angelica felt his presence. He moved fast, but she knew already.
Her body jerked sideways, sharp and sudden.
A breath away, the claw scraped past her neck.
Bursting through her chest came instinct. Her arm shot forward, yet an unseen power struck the vampire — hurling him back until he cracked against a trunk.
A sudden snap split the tree's core when it hit. The thick base gave way without warning.
A hush slammed into the open space.
She leaned into a trunk, breathing ragged. A pause between steps kept her upright.
Her lungs burned.
Things got fuzzy around her eyes.
Bent low overhead, Caius perched on a heavy limb, still as stone, shaped like an old hunter frozen mid-stalk.
He spoke the word like it meant something sharp. Cold came through in how he shaped it.
A weight sat inside that one syllable. It decided everything without appeal.
Angelica swallowed hard.
"I didn't know who you were," she said quickly, her voice trembling despite her effort to stay calm. "I wasn't trying to interfere with anything."
No reaction.
Staring hard, those red eyes locked onto her. Not blinking. Just watching, sharp and cold.
Her voice was soft when she said those words.
Still nothing.
Stillness held his features in place.
Beautiful.
Emotionless.
Deadly.
Yet beneath the stillness of her face, something stirred inside.
Violence.
A quiet force held back by something unseen. Tension hums just beneath the surface, waiting.
Out of the rubble, the vampire pushed up onto one elbow. She had knocked him down hard moments before.
They moved closer, one step at a time.
Angelica understood then.
Here, forgiveness had no place.
A sharp heat rose in her ribs. What had been cold dread now burned behind her heart.
Then anger followed.
Fear held her tight, not the thought of ending. Yet living felt just as heavy.
Not here.
Not like this.
Some tasks remained unfinished. Curious thoughts lingered without replies. Words unspoken sat heavy inside her chest.
This creature, dressed in the features of someone she’d quietly adored — how many winters had passed since that quiet start? Her breath caught, not from fear alone.
Her error made him wish she would vanish. He could not let it go, though small the slip was. A quiet fury took root instead of forgiveness.
Unbelievable.
A surge of power shot forward as she pushed back against the closing vampires, then her legs carried her away once more.
Still moving fast, just a stumble really.
A shimmer of white light jumped at her skin, shaky but bright, building a thin wall. It just barely held off clutching fingers each time they came close.
If not for that, death would have come by now.
That image of the vampire head — she couldn’t shake it loose. It tugged at her thoughts again now.
Still moving.
Still alive.
Almost gagging, she remembered it all too well.
She ran harder.
A sharp ache burst in her fingers. Pain shot up through her palm.
She'd fallen.
Hard.
A sharp rock tore her hand the moment she touched it.
Just as her breath returned, a second vampire charged forward.
A sharp blade came loose from inside her coat as Angelica swung it backward without looking.
Out of nowhere, a scream tore loose across the sky.
The vampire recoiled.
Backward she crept through the soil, fingers trembling as they lifted the knife.
Blessed steel.
Still won’t stop them for good.
Still, just enough to give them pause.
Out of nowhere, the air caught the sharp trace of her blood. The clearing filled with it, slow but sure.
Everything changed.
Every vampire froze.
Fresh human blood burned through them, sharp and sudden.
For a moment, Caius froze mid-breath.
A sharp odor hit without warning. It struck like a shove in the dark.
And suddenly —
Understanding.
The herbs.
The confusion.
The unbearable obsession.
Buried deep underneath lay what really happened.
A sinker.
His singer.
A single life, somewhere out there, holds the kind of blood that might unravel his mind entirely.
Victor broke first.
A sudden move came from the young vampire, driven hard by impulse instead of thought as he closed in on Angelica.
Caius moved faster.
A sudden kick split the stillness with sharp force.
A crash swallowed Victor midair as splintered trunks snapped under his weight. Silence followed after he dropped without movement among broken wood.
Stillness took over right then.
Clear came the warning.
He was the one she stayed with. She never looked anywhere else.
Fog curled through the trees after the noise ended.
Softly, Caius let out a quiet laugh.
The sound sent ice through Angelica's spine.
Shoulders easing into motion, he moved closer — slow, unnerving. His steps carried a quiet that felt wrong.
Staring, he kept his gaze fixed on her face. Still watching, there was no look away. Not once did his eyes shift elsewhere. Locked onto her features, attention held tight.
He whispered those words softly. "My singer," came his quiet voice.
A hint of laughter touched his face.
"A witch."
That thought brought a quiet smile to his face.
Fingers curled tighter around the blade's hilt.
A thin red line crept over her cut hand. The wound seeped quietly beneath the skin’s edge.
Caius moved forward as if gliding through a grand hall, not stepping onto war-torn ground.
"You think you can resist me?" he asked softly.
That sound of his could pull you under. Like smoke through my fingers. Quietly, it held the room without trying.
Terrifying.
"I've never encountered a singer with magic before."
Another step closer.
"You're fascinating."
Angelica's heartbeat slowed.
Not from calm.
From realization.
A sudden click rang deep within her thoughts.
When Caius moved toward her wrist, his smile appeared —
She laughed.
Quietly.
A noise made him stop, just for a moment.
Blood dripped as Angelica raised her injured palm.
After that, still holding his gaze, she pushed the blade into her hand.
One line.
Then another.
A bloody cross.
Right away, new blood poured out.
A sharp smell burst into the space. Smoke curled around the edges of the room.
The vampires visibly struggled against the frenzy.
Forward he rushed, mind blank. A sudden move, no pause to decide.
Fingers clamped shut on her wrist, pressure rising till the bones seemed ready to splinter.
Her gaze met his without looking away.
And he froze.
A weight from long ago hit him hard.
Power.
Old and merciless.
Born of violence, shaped by hate. A spell sealed with veins and purpose.
Only when his gut finally shouted halt did he realize the moment had passed.
Softly did Angelica speak, her words hardly louder than silence.
Thunder cracked through the trees, sharp and sudden.
"I will be your ruin."
- Writer
