Slave to Destiny

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Edmund was talking animatedly as he ate his lunch across the table from me. I grinned fondly at the child. Cole had took it upon himself to take Edmund to the lake the day before leaving me alone for the day. It didn’t bother me in the least. It left me time to catch up with my good friend Tina. “First we went swimming. Then we played with my sail boat. Then we went-” Edmund was cut off.

“Now Edmund you don’t want to bore her with our day,” Cole interrupted sending me a casual smile. I returned it with ease. Upon seeing the Night Mother things had become more relaxed. I had fallen back into my schedule without a problem. My punishment loomed in the back of my mind like an awful dream.

Edmund grinned at his cousin, before taking a large mouth full of his turkey sandwich. Evidently vampires could eat just like humans and wolves if they had a nice glass of blood with it. “The guests have begun to arrive,” Cole announced plopping down in the seat next to me.

“What are they coming for?” I asked curiously.

Cole frowned, he’d forgotten how little I knew of royal vampire customs. “It’s the winter solstice. We spend a week celebrating. Festivals during the day and grand parties at night. All of our nobles will come and reside in the castle for the few weeks prior in order to prepare.” I nodded taking in all the information.

“Hey Edmund,” I told the child, “Why don’t you go and change? You can pick your clothes today.” Edmund giggled, before darting out of the room towards his royal quarters.

“You called him Edmund,” Cole muttered his words devoid of emotion.

My mind had been so distracted the words had slipped so easily off of my tongue. “I’m sorry Master. It won’t happen again,” I whispered looking down at the floor. I was so clumsy with my words around Cole. So relaxed. It didn’t sit right with me knowing that it was in fact Cole’s fault I had been punished.

My eyes slowly wandered up as I saw Cole staring me down. His eyes were a pale blue, and he looked positively strained. “Don’t call me that,” he grumbled after a few long, excruciating minutes.

“What should I call you?” the words were out of my mouth before I even had a chance to stop them. What was with me and pushing the line when it came to Cole? Why was I being such an idiot?

“Cole,” he responded, before standing up strait. He evacuated the room relieving me of having to say anything else stupid. I was left in silence just sitting at the table confused. My wolf instincts craved to be free as always, but something else was inside of me. It lusted for me to wrap my arms around Cole’s neck and place my lips on his. I had never felt something so intense in my life, but for whatever reason I felt it for Cole. As much as it agonized me to realize it, I had become attached to yet another bloodsucker. All of these emotions were making me stupid.

Slowly I stood up and ambled out of the room towards the King’s Royal Quarters. Edmund was waiting for me with a large grin plastered across his face. “Let’s go,” I told him in the most optimistic tone I could muster in my current state. Hand in hand I walked the child down the stairs. As we past through corridors I was surprised to see decorations hanging up through out the castle in celebration of Christmas. It may have been a human holiday, but vampires and werewolves had long sense adopted it. Bright golden lights hung from all the arches in elegant designs.

Upon the last set of stairs I saw a man wearing a pinstripe suit. His thick rusty brown hair matched his blood red eyes. Someone had most certainly not been fed recently. Was he one of the visitors that Cole had mentioned?

Before I could piece together the situation he was walking towards us. “Your highness, it is such a pleasure to see you again,” the man bellowed in a jolly voice. If it weren’t for the bloody eyes I would almost define him as harmless. My wolf screamed otherwise.

Edmund looked confused so the man took it upon himself to elaborate. “You must have been to young to remember. My name is Gregory Smitten,” he explained sticking his hand out to the child.

The young King knew enough to shake the hand and reply in a childish voice, “I’m Edmund and this is Gabby.” If it had been under different circumstances I would giggle at his mistake. Royalty do not introduce themselves on first name basis and they most certainly do not mention the slave with them.

Gregory’s scarlet eyes traveled over to me. They glanced me up and down steadily, before landing on the collar around my neck. He grinned a devilish grin and said, “It is very nice to meet you Gabby. I am afraid I have many things to attend to. I must leave you your highness. Please enjoy your afternoon.” As he walked away I caught his eyes glancing back. My wolf was very defensive. It felt something was amiss with the friendly vampire.

“Come along Edmund,” I mumbled to him after a few moments of thought. Perhaps there was something off with Gregory, but what did it matter? It wasn’t like a noble vampire was going to seek me out inside a castle of hundreds of other people. Why would he do that?

Minutes later I had forgotten the scarlet eyes and found myself giggling along with Edmund as we began our intensive game of tag. He was a speedy demon, but I still managed to compete by outwitting him time and time again. Under the light of the moon, my Night Mother, we could play for hours. We could forget the world we lived in and all its churlish imperfections.