Love Comes In Many Dangerous Forms

(Cassiel’s P.O.V.)

I walked down the corridors, keeping my head high and my posture perfect. Anthony and an unrecognizable guard waited for me at the end of the stair case. Anthony offered me his hand, but I refused him, walking past him without even a look of recognition. The front door was already opened, allowing the fresh spring air inside the castle’s foyer and I could see Derik’s carriage at the wrought iron gate. I took my last breath of freedom as the two guards followed me out the entryway.

My bare feet stepped onto the freshly cut grass that had a slight misting of the morning dew still clinging to the blades. It only took me a few short strides to reach the horse drawn carriage, and upon my appearance the door swung open with ease. I stepped onto the footstool attached to the bottom of the carriage and seated myself across from Derik.

The guard opened the carriage door, his free hand brushed my thigh; I shuddered as I flinched away from him.

“Easy, Anthony,” Derik cautioned. “You’ll have her soon enough.”

My stomach churned as he spoke those words; I wrapped my arms around myself and Anthony sat next to me. I stared out my window, watching my castle and village grow smaller as we rode through the forest. I took a deep breath once we passed the territory lines that were located on the bridge crossing the river. I felt someone grab my hand, I expected it to be Anthony, but when I looked down to my hand there was nothing to come in contact with. I sat there confused until the sound of glass shattering surrounded me and currents of wind stormed through the carriage.

“Liar,” an instantly recognizable voice chanted over and over again along with another word. “Guilty.”

“Michael,” I frowned as I realized that those words were not directed at me, but at his father.

This was the first time I had actually seen Derik fearful. Anthony and the other guard searched for the origin of the chaos.

“You know she wouldn’t hurt anyone, you’re only doing this because you want hide what you have done. You killed me, Derik,” Michael spat the last word like it was poison and as soon as those words were spoken, the wind calmed to a slight breeze and my hand was once again empty. But I could still feel him next to me, and that’s what got me through the rest of the carriage ride.

We had finally made it to what was my childhood home, where I would spend what time I had left. I looked around the once prosper village, most of it was burned to the ground with only a few unstable houses available. This was the only place where vampires were actually safe from becoming slaves, but I only saw maybe a dozen immortals. They were all dying of thirst and I knew they could sense my arrival, but one look from their king silenced them.

“The council has decided to keep you here for fourteen days, no more and no less,” Derik informed me as I hopped out of the carriage, stepping on the glass that had spilt out from the inside.

I nodded and he hooked my arm with his as we walked down the stone pathway. He opened the front door for me and gestured for me to enter. I hesitated for a moment, looking towards the old well with the broken bucket where I would hide my doll when I was a child. I then looked down the path we had just taken and I remembered having to go every few weeks to go into the village where I was nearly killed countless times. I met Michael, Zach and Vera here, people who meant the world to me. This was the place where I was born; this was the place where I belonged.

And I stepped over the threshold without a second thought.

Derik followed me immediately as the guards stayed back so no immortal entered the castle.

“Follow me, my dear,” Derik ordered, walking towards what I remembered to be the Simmer’s library.

Again, he opened the door for me, just like a gentleman would do; I walked inside the room I hadn’t been in for more than six years. Everything was the way I had left it the last time I cleaned this room, down to the exact books that were left on the end table. Derik walked over to where his favorite bottle of scotch laced blood resided and he poured what was left of the bottle to the rim of one of his crystal glasses.

“You know I didn’t kill anyone, not even Michael,” I stated, standing up straighter as his eyes landed on me.

“You were always intelligent, Cassiel,” he smiled at me. “And I do know that, you weren’t the one who murdered my only son, I was.”

I felt my throat start closing as I heard those words, “Why?”

“You know, first hand on many accounts, that when a vampire falls for someone that bond he has with her will never be broken no matter how young they are. My son had always had a fascination with the human slaves, but then you came along. You became his new… obsession, you could say, he wanted to know your schedule so he might get the chance to see you again, he didn’t want to know your number but your name, and he did whatever he could to get you the easier chores. I, of course, did not approve of him talking or even looking at you. I would send you to the village, hoping that maybe you wouldn’t come back and when you just wouldn’t die, I had to take matters into my own hands. I ordered the guards to beat you, gave you the most impossible chores, but you just wouldn’t give up and neither did he. Michael was furious with me and Amelia for torturing you and threatened to run away with you. That’s when things started to get out of hand. I would hear your conversations with him; he would talk about marrying you so you would be safe from harm, he had fallen for the spell that you didn’t even know you casted and so many more followed him as I could see at your castle.

“Blake Locke, as you may know, was more than obsessed with you, he had begged, bargained, and even threatened to get me to give you to him. But my deal with your brother forbade you from leaving your family; however, that didn’t mean I couldn’t use his obsession with you to my advantage. He made me a deal, if he could have you for one night he would kill my bewitched son for me. I accepted his offer, and I don’t regret it. But it didn’t end there.

“I’m sure Elizabeth Launer told you the pathetic tale of woe that was Clara and me. By the time you were incarcerated in the cells, Clara and Blaine were off in New York trying to have a family. They needed to pay for what she had done to me, so again, I made a deal with Blake to rape Clara. And when that wasn’t enough to destroy their ‘perfect’ marriage, and Clara was pregnant with their first child, I told Blake to kill them and he could have you to himself,” he confessed, drinking the last drop of scotch.

“That’s why you’re doing this,” I realized, “to cover up your ‘deals’ with the man who tortured me for six years and still is.”

“Correct, my dear,” he set his glass down where it was before.

All I could do was stand there; my mind couldn’t process the lengths Derik went through just so his son wouldn’t love a human and to get back at two innocent people who were the most deserving of happiness. Derik, I realized more than ever, was a monster, more than my parents, more than any of the council members, more than even Blake Locke.

“You may take her now,” Derik informed the being behind me.

I felt Anthony’s hand snake around my arm and he guided me down to the cells.

It was like I was thirteen all over again. Being woken up and dragged down the corridors with my sister screaming for them to stop. The echoing of the prison door slamming shut throughout the walls of the castle, along with the feeling of justice being served for the death of the prince. And Zach and Vera were trying endlessly to get to me as I was being tortured. But this time was different, I was alone.

My cell was the third one from the right, with a steel door that had no opening so that the only ones that could see me were the guards who tortured me. Anthony opened the door, and shoved me inside, just like I remembered him doing years ago. My eyes easily adjusted to the new lighting, a few torches were lit around the cramped cell. The same strange blinking red light was still located in the right corner, but I could see that it was attached to a camera. I frowned; Derik hated anything that was made by humans, why would he have camera in my cell?

“It’s a warning to all your friends,” Derik explained stepping into the cell with us. “I left them with all of my old tapes of you, including the one that would prove your innocence, but silly you signed a contract to the lake.”

“Please don’t,” I begged him. “They don’t need to see this.”

He reached out, cupping my face in his hands, “Yes, they do.”

I glared at him, my fingernails digging into the palms of my hands and spit in his face. He in return took one of the daggers off the wall with a smirk on his face.

“Let’s begin.”