So Sacrifice Yourself, and Let Me Have What's Left

A searing pain ran through my head as I gained consciousness. I grumbled and groaned, moving against what felt like marble flooring, and heard chains rustling around me. I tried opening my eyes, but the pain in my head caused me to wince and keep them shut. I thought about nothing but Zacky as I tried to figure out where I could possibly be. I hoped Zacky was alright, hell, I hoped I was alright, wherever I was. I heard footsteps coming towards me, but the searing pain in my head only caused me to stay motionless as the footsteps stopped dangerously close to me.

“Yoo-hoo, wakie, wakie.” A voice sang. I felt something poking my head, and I cried quietly at the pain that was caused by it.

“Stop it, that’s where you fucking hit ‘er, you dumbass.” Another voice said, only it was slightly fainter than the other voice that felt like it was right next to me.

“No need to call me names.” the first voice said, and I could tell that he turned his attention to the second voice instead of at me. How could these people act so calm? I didn’t even know where I was. Who were these people?

I heard more footsteps and heard them stop almost as if they were inches away from my body. I felt a hand reach under my head, and I immediately winced at the pain, letting out a louder cry. “How hard did you hit ‘er?” the second voice asked with a slight sigh in his voice.

It was quiet for a while, and I was forced to ly wherever I was. I was afraid that if I woke up these people would kill me. If these were the same people who ambushed the party, and they were the ones who knocked me unconscious, I don’t think they would appreciate me coming back to reality. “…Hard enough.” The first voice spoke up hesitantly.

“Hard enough to give ‘er a concussion?” the second voice retorted. “Ah, yes, I can see it now, ‘Please, tell me Alion, how were you successfully able to kill The Forbidden One?’” he changed his voice to a slightly higher tone, almost as if he was a woman. “Ah, it was nothing, really.” He changed his voice to a lower tone, sounding more like the first voice. “I just hit her so hard I gave her a concussion and put her into a coma.” He used emphasis on the word ‘coma’. “And then I killed her while she was unconscious because I knew I would’ve gotten my ass kicked had she been awake.” He said some of his words a bit funny, and it sounded like he had a British accent. “Is that really how you want people to remember you, Alion?”

Everything got quiet again, and I could tell that someone was thinking about the answer. “N-no?” the first voice asked more than stated, almost as if he was afraid that was the wrong answer.

“Exactly.” The second voice stated. “Well then, might as well wake up the royal pain in the ass.” Something told me he was talking about me. “Candace.” He said my name almost as if it was a demand. “Wake up, darling.” Yeah, that was a sweet way to put it.

I tried opening my eyes, and thankfully I was able to. My vision was a bit blurry, and my eyes squinted at the bright light looking down at me, blocked by two black fuzzy figures looking down at me. Once my vision came into view, I saw that the two figures were men, and obviously the ones who were speaking before I ‘woke up’. They looked about the same: rugged faces, messy hair, tanned skin, huge bodies, and they were in the same gold and blue uniforms. My eyes widened. These were the men that ambushed the party. I sat up slightly, propping myself up with my arms, and stared in awe at the men in front of me. I hoped to God that they weren’t going to hurt me.

“Good mornin’, sunshine.” I looked to my right to see a man smiling evilly at me, and I knew that this had to be the owner of the first voice.

“It’s midnight, you idiot.” I looked to see a man standing up, his arms crossed, and rolling his eyes. If the one beside me was the first voice, then this had to be the second. He was slightly skinnier than the first one, and looked just a tad bit more intelligent, but I had an idea that I wasn’t far from the truth.

I had to say something, anything, to get some answers. I looked from one man to the other, my curled dark brown hair swaying as I did so. The worried look on my face caught their attention, and I knew it had something to do with how people see The Forbidden One. They expect me to be fearless, even though I once screamed when a fish ran past my ankle. I think Zacky started crying because he was laughing so hard when it happened. “Wh-where am I?” I tried to say, but my voice cracked in the process.

The two men looked at me, the first having a slight smirk on his face as his golden eyes pierced into my pair of green ones. “Why, my dear, you’re at the Council Manor.” He spoke. “Your uncle is the Elder, and he is very impressed that we found you. Who would’ve thought that The Forbidden One was hiding with good ol’ daddy the entire time?” he chuckled, looking up at the second man. He turned his attention back to me seconds later, the smirk wiped from his face. “Well, now that we’ve got you, I guess it’s time to see what we can do to, dare I say, pretty you up a bit.” He roughly grabbed my arm, squeezing it to the point that it was turning my arm blue, and lifted me to my feet.

I couldn’t hold in the cry as he aggressively grabbed my other arm, forcing my body to face him. They both stared at me in wonder, and I had to get some answers. I looked from one face to the other with worried eyes. “Where’s Zacky?” I demanded, trying to sound as intimidating as possible, although with my voice cracking I don’t think my plan worked as well.

The two men looked at each other with confused looks on their faces. The first one mouthed ‘Zacky?’ and the other shrugged. These had to be werewolves. Vampyres wouldn’t dare show emotions in front of their victims.

“The other Hybrid,” I answered for them, looking from one werewolf to the other.

“Oh, him.” the first one said, bending down to my eye-level, a dark smirk playing on his face. This frightened me. “He’s fine, just in the dungeon.” He said coldly. “He’s rooming with all of the most dangerous and bloodthirsty Lycan criminals, and God only knows what they’re doing to him.” he chuckled deeply.

The burning sensation began to run through my body, and I struggled against his grasp. The first one looked at his friend, and soon enough both men were holding me in a death grip. I managed to worm my way out of their grasp, but before I could make a run for it they grabbed me by my arms once more.

“Stop squirming, you little bitch!” the first one yelled, and I felt a sharp pain run across my cheek. I’ll admit, that slowed me down. I stared at the man in awe, wondering how he could ever hit me like it was no one’s business. Zacky wouldn’t have let that happen.

“Stop!” a loud voice boomed, shaking the ground all three of us stood on.

We all turned to see a man, dressed like the two werewolves, only with more medals running across his chest. He seemed to polish them quite regularly. He eyed the two men suspiciously. “The Lady demands to see her.” He gestured towards me. “Try not to kill her.” He seemed to have a British accent as well, which was strange. “Let her go, we mustn’t keep the Lady waiting.”

The men let go of me, and roughly pushed me forward. I snarled at them, and then smirked. I was starting to like my vampyre side. I turned to face the first man, cautiously walking towards him. He gave me a confused look, which was suddenly replaced by a look of pure agony as I kneed him in the crotch. “That’s what you get for hitting me.” I spat, turning on my heel to face the man that was waiting on the stairs that led into a very large and very black hallway.

The man had a small smirk playing on his face, looking at the man behind me in amusement. I could hear his muffled curses behind me, and I smirked, knowing he would think twice before he hit a Hybrid, much less The Forbidden One. “Follow me, Miss.” The man said, turning to walk down the hallway that he originally came from.

Hesitantly, I moved one foot in front of the other, reaching the large staircase where the man had previously been standing. I made sure to keep my balance, wouldn’t want The Forbidden One to make a fool out of herself by tripping on stairs, and eventually met the man in the hallway, not daring to take one look back at the two men. I shivered at the thoughts of what that man meant by ‘pretty me up’.

The man led me down a dark bleak hallway with no lights exposing the carving or handiwork. He only held a torch, which I had no idea where he got it from, which lit up only enough of the hallway to know where we were going. His pulled back brown hair was in a ponytail tied together with blue ribbon, and his tightened jaw showed that he was serious about everything he did. Serious as he was, he was but a man, and the majority of men including Lycans that I have met are almost like jelly when it comes to a defenseless little girl.

“Uh, excuse me, sir, would you mind telling me where exactly you’re taking me?” I tried to play the innocent girl look on my face, pouting my lower lip slightly, widening my eyes just right without looking crazy, and trying to sound as cute and adorable as possible. Although, no one can be so sure if The Forbidden One can pull off being innocent thanks to her fabulous reputation.

The man turned his neck a bit, but didn’t answer. Instead, he only shrugged, heaving his broad shoulders up and down as he looked ahead of him once more. “’Fraid I can’t tell you that, Miss.”

Fucking bastard.

I rolled my eyes, figuring it was best to just let this man take me wherever he intended. For a split second I hoped it was to the dungeon where Zacky was. I just wanted to be with him. He could make this better, he always could. I just wanted to be in his arms, with him whispering in my hair. It was at that moment that I realized that Zacky was my other half. Without having him beside me, I felt like a part of my heart was missing. I wanted him so badly right then. He seemed to be the only one who could ever make me fully understand what my meaning of life is. I wanted to make him happy, that seemed to be the only thing I could ever focus on. And now I didn’t know where he was, or if he was alright. I wrapped my arms around myself, thinking about him, hoping that in some parallel universe he could hear me.

Before I could blink I found myself in the grip of two men, one on either side of me. They weren’t the same men from before, thank God, but it was the man who called me, and an unfamiliar one. They didn’t even warn me, they wouldn’t even speak to me if I asked them what was going on, instead, they just led me through another hallway, only it was a bit more lit up than the other. It was decorated with blue walls and gold designs running across, filled with pictures and torches being held up from the wall as the three of us journeyed farther into it. There was a door at the end. It was a huge double door, which was carved with indentions sinking in certain parts, giving it decoration, as it was colored with a dark brown wooden color. I took a wild shot in the dark and guessed that I was being taken through that door.

One man grunted as he pulled the door open, having to use all of his might to do so. Everything past the door was pitch black except for a ray of light coming from the side of the door, where I couldn’t see what caused the light. I yelped as the men threw me through the door. I landed on my stomach, luckily for me my face didn’t come in contact with the ground. By the feel of it, the floor was probably made up of slick wood. I pulled myself up by the palms of my hands, my arms straining to hold myself up as my eyes trying to adjust to the blackness.

“Is that really the way to treat Royalty?” I jumped at the sudden unfamiliar voice booming from the darkness. I immediately got scared, not knowing where this voice came from, and why the two men that threw me in here just shrugged at the voice, closing the door as they left.

My eyes finally adjusted, and I could see that the light was shining from the moonlight from a window on the side of the room. Some rays were blocked, however, for a figure was standing by the window. The outline showed a woman, with her back to me, and from what I could tell she had pale orange curly hair running down her slender figure, stopping at her middle back. She looked to be wearing a flowing long-sleeved shirt, that didn’t hug her figure, with her pants the same kind of material and same design. I guessed that’s what she slept in. Her elbow was bent, along with the other, and I could tell she had crossed her arms across her waist. She was a tiny girl. Through the silk material of her clothes I could see a fuzzy silhouette of her body. Her arms were small and bony, and she had a small, tiny waist with hardly any hips, and her legs were scrawny and chickeny. She continued to have her back faced to me, and by the way she took a breath, I could tell she was about to speak.

“Candace.” Her voice didn’t sound as demanding as it did when she talked to the other werewolves. She sounded like she was going to break at any moment, like a child had hugged a porcelain doll too tight; with her voice being so soft it could almost be considered a whisper. “In Greek, it means Fire, and in Latin, it means Pure. Two very different meanings, and yet you show both through your personality. You have the determination and drive that most don’t, but when the time calls for it you can have a soft side, only showing love and compassion towards those who really need it. You fascinate me, because you act nothing like what the legend says. You had no idea of who you were, and somehow you have never come in contact with any other Lycans besides Devin and his children, and never have seen an Obyri. It’s amazing. No Hybrid has ever been able to say that, and you are the most important one.” She let a soft chuckle escape her lips at the last sentence.

I stared at the back of this woman, wondering how she knew all of these things. Who was she? Her hair looked oddly familiar, and I couldn’t think of where I had seen it before. It’s not so much that I had seen it, but more of that I’ve heard about it. Slowly, it came to me. She knew so much about me, she had the same red hair—only it was orange now, just like the story said—and she was tiny, but she used to be livelier, before my father took everything away from her. This had to be her. It was the only explanation.

“Abigail.” I whispered, my eyes looking at nothing but the back of my mother.

She nodded slowly, moving her feet to where she was now facing me. The story spoke of her glistening green eyes, which were now dull and lifeless, and they were aimed right at me. Her fair skin was deathly white, with a few orange freckles running across her cheeks and nose. She looked more like a vampyre than a werewolf, to be honest. Her blood was drained from her skin, which was sticking to her bones like wallpaper. Dark black circles ran around her eyes, and apparently she didn’t do anything about them. If I didn’t know the story, I’d think she was a few days before death.

“You know, it’s odd, because Candace was the name I picked for you.” her voice cracked a bit as she whispered. Her eyes ran down my body, taking a double take at the symbol on my right wrist. She smiled ever so slightly and looked back into my green eyes that I inherited from her. “It may sound strange hearing some old lady talking to you like I’ve known you all of your life, but it feels that way, my darling. I’ve watched you ever since you were taken away. I had my trustworthy guards follow you throughout your life, and tell me everything that you did that day.” She began to laugh quietly. “I remember when you walked up to one of them at the park when you were six and threw rocks at him.” she smiled at the memory.

Well, that explains why those creepy guys were watching me. I had just made a slingshot, and used that as my weapon when one of those guys got too close to me. I smiled, happy to know that Abigail actually did care about me, but it didn’t explain why she gave me up. What did she mean ‘when you were taken away’? “I was taken away from you?” I asked, managing to stand on my feet.

Abigail nodded, her smile disappearing. “I didn’t know you were The Forbidden One, so of course I had no idea of why everyone was staring at me oddly once I had given birth to you. My father started yelling at me, calling me a traitor, and then he took you away from me. I didn’t even get to name you, and I only held you for a matter of seconds. My mother explained it to me, but I was only fifteen, I didn’t understand anything she told me. All I knew was that they took my baby away from me.

“I cried for days, isolated myself in my room, wouldn’t talk, eat, I hardly ever slept, I would just sit in my bed, crying, wanting my child to be given back to me. I had only known you for a few seconds, but I knew that you were my child, my flesh and blood, and you were a part of me, so once my father took you away, I felt like my whole heart was taken as well. My brothers hated watching me cry, so that’s how they came up with the plan of getting some of the soldiers to watch you.

“It helped knowing that you were safe, and had a nice home, but then the soldiers told me how Cynthia and Devin neglected you once they had their own. I became furious, yelling at them to go get you so I could be with you once again. They decided that maybe if we explained your circumstances to my father, then maybe he would consider returning you to me. But then you moved, meaning the soldiers couldn’t just kidnap you, which was a bit strange to me, and so the crying began. I was scared for your life, because right when you moved I heard about how the Lycans and Obyri’s got wind of your whereabouts.

“But then, that Zacky boy came along.” Abigail smiled a bit, raising a brow at me. I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks. I could only imagine what my mother was going to say about my love I had with him. “He seemed like a good guy, and the fact that he was a Hybrid helped a bit with my approval of him.” she sounded a bit uncertain about Zacky, which only made me smile. She really did know how to act like a mother. “I knew he could help you, which made me happy, because I knew that if he told you who you were, then you would eventually meet me. I began to wait as patiently as I could, hoping that my dreams would come true.

“I heard about how the army was going to ambush a party where…Dracula, was supposed to be.” She choked a bit on saying my father’s name. I don’t blame her. If some dude just took my virginity and knocked me up with some crazy defected Hybrid kid, I probably would’ve done the same thing. “And then I heard them talking about how they caught you. I knew what they were going to do to you, and I couldn’t have that. And, well, here you are!” she smiled a bit, causing me to smile as well.

I couldn’t believe this. Here I was, in the Council Manor, right in front of my mother, the woman who sacrificed everything and didn’t even know it, for me. I’ve always wanted to meet her, just to know if she cared about me, and now I know. She loves me, and she actually had someone go out and watch me just to say that she was there for my entire life. I couldn’t help myself much longer. Royalty or not, she was my mom. I ran up to her and engulfed her in a hug, not caring if I broke any of her bones. It felt so good to hug my mother for the first time in my life, and for her to hug me back. Yeah, she didn’t hesitate at all to wrap her skinny arms around my waist. We were about the same height, and possibly size, so this was pretty much a Kodak moment.

“Candace!” I jumped at the sound of my name, knowing that voice all too well. I turned in my mother’s grasp to see Zacky standing in the doorway. He was panting heavily, like he had just run a mile, and had to place his hand on the door for support.

I looked at my mother, and she nodded with a smile. I jumped out of her grasp and literally tackled Zacky to the ground. I forgot how strong I was. Zacky chuckled, wrapping his arms tightly around my waist as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “How’d you get out?” I asked, looking down at the god that was my boyfriend. Zacky hesitated, looking at Abigail with a nervous look. “Zacky…?” I warned. He smiled awkwardly, and I rolled my eyes. “God, if you killed someone—”

“Oh, like you have any room to talk?” Zacky chuckled, kissing my forehead, then my nose, and gently placing his lips onto mine. He must’ve gotten the common sense that Abigail was my mother, so he only held the kiss for two seconds.

“I haven’t killed anyone.” I smirked, placing my hand on his pale cheek. He was sweating, and his breathing was still at a pant. His jacket was gone, and his shirt was torn, and surprisingly he wasn’t bleeding. Well, his lip was bleeding, but it always bleeds thanks to his lip rings. “Did they try to chase you?” I asked, completely forgetting that I was in a dress, a very short one, and that Zacky’s hand had moved to my thigh, and my guess was that he was purposely trying to push my dress up, and right in front of my mother? Horny bastard.

Zacky nodded, taking my hand with his free one, kissing my palm. It was strange for both of us to be separated for so long, so of course we’re going to be all touchy-feely. I hoped Abigail didn’t mind. “They saw me escaping, so I had to run up here. I heard some of the guards talking about how Abigail wanted to see you. Hi, by the way!” Zacky cheered, letting go of my hand to wave at my mother, who laughed and returned the gesture. Zacky then looked back at me to continue his story. “I just had to find you, I hated not being able to protect you.” he smirked, kissing my cheek. “I lost them where I think the kitchen is, so I guess the food distracted them.” even my mother laughed at that one.

“I’m just happy you’re safe.” I smiled, pulling him into a kiss. It scared me when I saw Zacky trying to get out of the Lycans grasps, and how they looked like they were going to kill him at any minute. And when the Lycans were talking about how he was in the dungeon with criminals, I worried about his life. But now I didn’t care, for he was right here beside me—or under me, if you want to be accurate—and we were together again.

“Now, Ace, as much as I love you attacking me, could you please get off of me?” Zacky pretended to gasp for air, only to have me slap his chest as I climbed off of him, hoping not to expose anything to him, not like he would mind. “Awh, you know I love you.” he whispered, kissing the tip of my nose.

“I can get a helicopter out here to take you back to Huntington Beach.” Abigail spoke up, causing Zacky and I to look at her as he helped me onto my feet. “My brother won’t mind letting The Forbidden One slip through his fingers with the right kind of persuasion from his little sister.” She laughed under her breath.

“Thanks so much.” I whispered, placing my arm around Zacky’s waist, only to have him drape his arm over my shoulders. He may have been a sweaty panting freak, but he somehow managed to smell oh so good.

Abigail smiled, nodding at both of us. “Candace, not only are you The Forbidden One, but you are also my daughter, and from now on, I will do anything I can to make sure you are safe.”