Love Comes In Many Dangerous Forms

Tristan came back and one by one he brought back each of the mutilated corpses. First was my father, then my mother and Hillary, and finally Colton’s body rested at my feet. I didn’t care about the other three, they could be sentenced to the fiery it of hell of all I cared. But when I looked down at my fiancée’s dead body, something chipped away at my moment of insanity as I bent down, my knees digging into the cold grainy sand. I gently traced his face with the back of my hand, and shivered as I felt the cold flesh beneath it. I stared intently on his face, not wanting to even send a glance to his mutilated abdomen. I ran the pads of my fingers under the dark circles under his closed lids. My long hair whipped through the air as another wave crashed against the shore, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the sun start to rise above the castle grounds casting the evil shadows as dawn broke. With my eyes never leaving his face, I leaned down and pressed my lips against the corner of his unmoving mouth and hesitated for a moment before finally rising off of my knees and left without another word not daring to give them a last glance.

***

(Zane’s P.O.V.)

I watched Cassiel. I could feel worry seep into my veins as she walked down the beach until she reached the edge of the forest where she disappeared. I turned my eyes to her brother who could have been passed as her twin, “Watch her for me, she’s not… right.”

He turned towards me with cold eyed and silently nodded, “I’ve noticed that.”

“I think she maybe on a suicide mission,” I stared back at him, my elbows sinking deeper into the wet sand.

“What makes you say that?” his eyes watched me with more concern now, there was a small dip between his eyebrows when he said this – just like Cassie’s did when she was upset.

“She told me that when… if she dies she wants to be buried with them after the council is done with her.”

“The council?” his eyes narrowed in confusion as he said the words.

I felt a bad taste seep into my mouth as I spoke, “The royals from each race have a place in the council – including Cassiel and I guess you are now a part of it too. Well, the vampires, witches and warlocks, fairies, merpeople, trolls, angels and demons all hate Cassiel ever since the day she was born; they blame her for what happened to their precious kingdoms. Athen told them about your family and Colton’s, and knowing how much they hate your sister, it won’t take them very long to get here.”

He lowered his head as he glanced towards the ground where his god forsaken family lie dead, “Were they as bad as everyone says they were?”

“They were worse,” was the only reply out of my mouth as I glared at the foul humans with no regret in my heart of what we were about to do.

He nodded and started to drag their limp bodies to the shore where I would throw them into the deepest pit closest to hell as possible.

***

(Cassiel’s P.O.V.)

I unhooked Aiden from the carriage and stood upright on the worn leather stirrup, swinging my free leg over the saddle before taking off into the forest. With the adrenaline seeping into my veins like a vaccine – everything was heightened. The sound of the soft mud imbedded with the old leaves moving underneath my black stallion’s hooves. I could feel his slight limp on his back lamed leg where three aged bullet wounds were imbedded into his stifle that would have been the death of him if I didn’t demand for him to be saved from the slaughter house. I could sense the quiet awaking eyes of the small creatures surround the darkness of the forest. But I could also feel his covetous eyes glaring murderously into the back of my head.

I urged Aiden to sprint faster throughout the large cluster of trees, the branches scrapping across my bare skin like thin pieces of leather. I took one last breath of the warm salty air, and smiled when I heard his voice whisper in my ear.

“Don’t do this, Cassie.”

I pulled Aiden to a stop right in front of the opened wrought iron gates, allowing this moment with my best friend. “I’m sorry, Michael. They’ll die if I don’t do this.”

“You promised me you wouldn’t give up,” he stated angrily as the once still air whipped around me.

“I’m not giving up, I’m protecting the innocent. I’m doing what I swore to do when I became princess.”

“And you’re not innocent?” he questioned.

“Absolutely not,” I shook my head with a bitter grin plastered on my face. “You of all people should know how many people died because of my existence.”

“Cassie-” he started but I cut him off.

“I’ll see you soon, Michael. I love you,” I nudged Aiden and he rode through the gates and they automatically closed and locked behind me, but I did not dare turn around.

I heard a soft growl and automatically knew who was behind me.

“Hey Zach,” I greeted with a tight smile.

“Where the hell did you go?” Zach hissed, his dark green eyes flashing in the morning sun.

“Oh, give me a break Zachary,” I sighed hoping off of Aiden, brushing his ebony mane out of his eyes gently.

He towered over me as he stood between me and the former war horse, but I kept my chin held high with my shoulder’s squared back, “Where were you?”

“Burring my family,” I replied, making sure the malice was clear in my voice. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I would like to put my horse away,” I tried to step around the vampire, but he wrapped his hand around my wrist in a tight grasp.

He pressed his lips against my ear and hissed, “If you ever leave these walls again, I’m not above locking you in your room.”

I turned to face him my eyes narrowed as I ripped my wrist out of his grip, “Why don’t you find another princess to lock up in your tower?”

I stepped lightly over the freshly cut grass that had a slight dusting of morning dew across the pointed blades. I wrapped my hand around Aiden’s reins, leading him to the white barn. I stepped over the slightly raised floor and locking the large door behind me, forgetting about the pissed off vampire standing outside. I glanced towards Tessa’s stable to see her eating out of her trough, watching me with curious eyes. Aiden nudged his soft nose against my bare back.

“Hey, baby boy,” I cooed softly turning my attention back to him, scratching behind his ear as he leaned his large head into my palm.

I pulled my arm away and unbuckled my worn leather saddle from his back and laid it over the railing of his stable. I took out a few of the broken sugar cubes from the bottom of the saddle bag after I removed the bridle from his mouth. I led him to his stable and shut the door quietly behind me, kissing the side of his head before I walked over to Tessa and gave her what was left of the small cubes in my hand.

I shut the barn door and locked it, and then pulled on the thick metal chain making sure that it was secure. I noticed out of the corner of my eyes that Zach’s figure still stood outside the barn, unmoving. I brushed him off, walking through the French doors, slamming them behind me.

“Cass?” Audrey stepped into the living room. “Are you okay?”

I nodded my head, a smile forming on my face at the sight of my best friend.

She looked at me warily, “Vera said you wanted me.”

“Yeah,” I chewed on the inside of my cheek; my smile was still plastered onto my face. And then an idea sprouted in my head. I knew I wasn’t able to get them back for what they did to me and my people, but I could give the one who tortured me the most a smack in the face, “I’m going to need to you make me look like Clara.”

Her head tilted to the side in confusion, “What?”

“I’ll explain later,” I promised her, my smile grew as I thought more of it. “Where is Elizabeth?”

As if hearing her name – which was probably true – she rounded the corner with a concerned expression set on her face. “Yes?”

“Is there dress of Clara’s that I could borrow in that room?” I tilted my head towards the direction of the library.

She nodded solemnly, like she knew exactly what the plan that I was conjuring up in my mind.

My smile grew, hoping the dress I had in mind was in one of the old rust covered trunks, “Is it gold and backless?”

Again, she nodded as her never aging face was raked with guilt making her look years older.

I took a deep breath glancing out the small individual windows of the French doors seeing the sun rising over the earth’s surface. I grasped onto Audrey’s arm and hurriedly led her upstairs towards my room and locked the door behind me. I turned towards her, her green eyes were still confused, “I’m going to take a shower, get everything set, you’re going to have to work fast and we’re going to need as much time available as possible.”

She immediately organized the metal curling rods and set them over the fire in the hearth. I gave her a weak reassuring smile, she would be okay – everyone would be okay.

Everyone would be better off without me.

That was the phrase that I kept chanting in my head as I stepped out of my tattered bloodstained night gown and turned the water on, not bothering to let the water heat up, and stepped inside the small glass room.

I tried to glance towards my feet where my family’s blood that was still caked onto my skin run down my body as the water washed away the remains of this nightmare, turned the tiled floor to a light pinkish color. I scrubbed away the coagulated blood and washed my hair, not wanting to waste precious minutes of the little time that I had left. The second the lather of soap and shampoo washed from my hair, I turned the water off and stepped into the cold open air.

I let the towel dip, not bothering to catch it as it fell into a shapeless heap onto the cold tilled floor. I took a deep breath, gathering up the courage to look at myself in the slightly fogged mirror. And I noticed how little my body had changed since they pulled me out of that cell. I had not gained any weight since then. I stared at my abdomen, turning different directions to see if another angle would make me look… healthier. But nothing could ever make me look ‘normal’. My skin was pulled across my ribcage; I ran my shaking fingers hesitantly across the surface, flinching slightly as I felt the subtle ridges below my newly created wound of the guard’s whip. My hand dipped down to the pit in my abdomen where my nonexistent stomach resided. My fingers trailed down to my hips where the bones were protruding. I frowned, never breaking eye contact with the girl in the mirror.

Had it really gotten that bad?

I heard Audrey knock at the door, and I grabbed a silk robe from the chrome hanger next to the glass door of the shower. Wrapping it around myself with my hair still dripping wet soaking everything it came in contact with, I unlocked the newly painted door opened with ease.

Audrey examined me, and gave a worried – yet lighthearted laugh, “You haven’t given me much to work with, Cass,” she waved her hand indicating the dark half-moons underneath my eyes and my dripping tangled knot that was my hair.

I gave her a meek look, “Sorry.”

She sighed dramatically, letting her head fall back, “Just sit.”

I obeyed immediately, and let her attack my nest to hair until it as combed without a single hair getting tangled with another. I gave her guidance with what to do with my face, until my face was a collage of soft pinks and golds. My hair, long since dry, was curled into soft waves with the curlers the rested in the metal casement above the roaring fire.

Audrey turned toward my bedroom door and let out a weary sigh. She got up from her kneeling position and walked towards the door; unlocking it and turned the knob letting the door fall free. Elizabeth stood at the opening with a neatly folded square of sparkling fabric wrapped in her arms.

The smile that was growing on my face fell when I saw two small streams of blood trailing down her angelic face.

I got up from the vanity stool and approached her, but then turned to Audrey, “Tristan should be back, would you help him into one of my father’s suits?”

She nodded, and before she left I saw a light blush covering her cheeks.

I frowned in confusion, but decided to let her pass anyway and directed my attention back to the crying woman standing in front of me.

Before I could speak, she opened her mouth and slur of nothings came out I only managed to understand, “I’m so sorry,” as she repeated it over and over again.

“Elizabeth,” I frowned, trying to console her. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t cause this.”

“A-Athen,” she sobbed, gipping onto Clara’s dress like a vise.

“I don’t blame him either,” I touched her shoulder lightly, “I have always been dealt a bad hand when comes to fate. Even if Athen didn’t go to Derik, my family or Blake would kill me or be in a freak accident because death is leeched onto me. This is not anyone’s fault.”

Her breathing evened out, and shakily nodded her head as she handed me the dress, “B-but this should never h-have happened to yo-you.”

I smiled down at the folded piece of fabric, “Everything was meant to happen for a reason, right?” my voice was layered in acceptance.

“Not this,” she opposed, almost pleadingly.

I just smiled up at her, “Would you help me into the dress?”

She nodded, wiping her tears away with the back of her hand as I shed the robe and stepped inside the dress. Elizabeth helped me slip my arms through the thin straps and adjusted the loose neck of the back of the dress and straightened the hem so it fanned out around me. I glanced towards the floor length mirror that was set across my room and stared at the woman in the mirror.

The dress clung to her figure until it flowed down at the base of her hips and created a neat circle surrounding her. As her chest rose with each breath her dress glistened in the firelight casting beams of light throughout the room. The dress was a work of art in itself, a sweetheart neckline with thin straps covering my scarred shoulders from the raven’s talons left their mark. I turned around so that I could view the back and smiled genuinely.

The dress scooped down to my lower back so that my scars for once were free. Fifty-three of the thousands of my beautiful scars survived throughout the years of my parent’s striving for me to be ‘perfect’. Most of my scars were angled downward making them appear as if they were feathers. My wings were curved along my shoulders and then dipped down all the way to my lower back, shrinking as the went farther down, and there was a They had faded over the years but I knew there want a chance of them disappearing no matter how many years passed by. The numbers ‘2247’ was written in neat bold black ink and was settled in between my shoulder blades that no matter how much angle venom was injected into my tattoo and theirs – it would always be their constant remind of the past they wanted to forget.

I saw Elizabeth retrieve something from her neck, and looked down at it with a soft expression and then her green eyes snapped towards me, holding out a thin gold chain with a beautiful charm of a dove in flight, “This was Clara’s, she never took it off for anything.”

Elizabeth walked behind me and was about to hook it around my neck before I stopped her. I twisted Colton’s ring from my left ring finger and handed it over to her. She smiled and nodded softly, slipping the diamond ring next to Clara’ lavaliere. She lifted my hair and slipped the thin chain of gold around my neck, and clipped the two ends together.

“You look just like her,” Elizabeth spoke in a hushed tone.

“Thank you,” I said looking back to the mirror on last time, before turning back to Elizabeth. “Would you walk down with me to the conference room?”

Her soft expression broke into a tormented one as she nodded silently.

I walked out of my bedroom, most likely for the last time, and never glanced back as I kept my chin held high, my shoulder’s back, and my spine curved perfectly – like any ‘proper’ lady. With each step I took, I whispered a name as quiet as the sound of the pads of my feet hit the carpeted floor, “Jimmy… Tristan… Vera… Shane… Zach… Carly… Colton… Elizabeth… Michael… Blaine… Zane… Clara… Athen… Juliana… Fredrick….” And I continued with every single person that resided in the small broken village on the outskirts of the castle walls.

These were the people that I did this for.

The people I would give my soul to.