A Masquerade Moment

It was one of the nights I’d never forget. Everything happened back in 1892, when Lilith’s daughter, Faye ruled the North kingdom of the Underworld. I was her loyal guardian for more than seven hundred years and I stood by her side all the time. Queen Faye was the one who turned me and saved me from my miserable life. If it wasn’t for her, I would have died from starvation on the lonely roads of Greece. So, I would gladly give up my life to protect hers.

The sound of laughter reached my ears as I stood on the balcony overlooking the foyer. The laughter harmonized beautifully with the music coming from the string quartet and the swishing of the elaborate skirts of the ladies’ ball-gowns as I watched the queen taking a few deep breaths by my side.

“My queen?” She snapped out of her little trance and jerked her head around to see her king, Maximilian, by her side with a glass of punch failing to be anonymous, even with the masquerade mask on. “There you are!’’ He exclaimed as I moved my right hand to the left side of my chest and against my heart, as I lowered my head looking at the floor.

“We’ve only been here five minutes, my king.” She said to the king with a laugh.

“Details, details.” He dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “You should wear your mask, my love,’’ He added and she wore the porcelain mask. It was very beautiful, inlaid with just the right shade of gold designs to add contrast to her dark red dress, as well as black feathers around it.

The queen slipped it on with a smile and we stood there on the balcony a few more minutes, looking over the party the Queen of South, Faye’s twin sister, Felicia had invited us to. I glanced over at my queen and smiled, as her covered eyes were staring straight at a crowd of boys on the side of the dance floor over the rim of her delicate glass. I laughed. “Got your eyes on someone certain?” I smirked and showed her my white fangs while a smile hugged my face.

She shrugged and asked, “Have you?” She tore her attention away from the boys to look over at me. I didn’t answer. She already knew that there was one person I’d give anything to see right now. Unfortunately, he was also the one person I wasn’t able to see at that time. Or ever again, thanks to him being the new guardian for her sister, Queen Fernisia of the West. “Come on.” She pulled me by the arm and down the stairs, not even waiting for me to hold up my skirts a little so I wouldn’t trip.

“May I ask where we are going?’’ I asked my queen as she pulled my along to wherever she wanted to go.

“Don’t worry, Leticia! We are just going to feed from younger demons!” She smiled at me over her shoulder as she led me through the crowd of people. More like creatures if you thought they could transform to demons of the underworld. We finally stopped at the opposite side of the dance floor that the younger demons were on.

How typical my queen, I thought.

Let me have fun for a while and feed, then you can guard me again, my queen thought, replying to what I had said, after she had read my thoughts.

I sighed and tried not to frown too much or run back up the stairs to the balcony again. She crossed her arms and she smiled a little as she tried to straighten out my sleeves and rearranged one of the pearl-white pins in my hair. I was used to it. She always fussed over my appearance when we were invited to parties. “Don’t look now, but the incubus over there in the black and silver mask which matches yours perfectly, has been eyeing you since you got here. But don’t look now!”

“You should never lie my queen,” I rolled my eyes and turned around to the crowd of young male demons to see…a boy with a black and silver mask glancing over at me. “Oh!” I gasped and turned back around, my dress swishing as it tried to keep up with me, and my curly bangs blowing across my eyes. I brushed them out of the way. ‘’I don’t know him my queen, how could I feed on him and then leave him?’’

“Who knows? Isn’t that the whole point of the masquerade part?” She smiled and took a sip of her drink. “Now that you mention it, I don’t know who anyone here is. I know only you and that’s because we arrived here together. Everyone did a good job of being anonymous,” She frowned, ‘’And you should just feed, he looks like he’d be more than happy to let you feast on him.’’

“They did, didn’t they?” I murmured only half paying attention. I was sneaking looks at the demon out of the corner of my eye. Who was he?

“You’re not paying attention are you?”

“Not really, he’s got my attention now. And it’s your fault my queen, you’re the one who told me about him.” I raised my eyebrows and looked at her pointedly. She just shrugged, though. She wasn’t even annoyed.

“I think I’ll go feed on that young one,” She said with a smile as she raised an eyebrow and pointed at a young looking man with a dark blue mask on.

“And the king?” I asked putting my hands on my hips.

She looked like she sucked in a breath at my words but she still replied, “He will find someone to feed from as well.”

“Leticia!” She called loud enough, her eyes widening to something or someone behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the young demon walking across the dance floor towards me. She smiled at me and added, “Like I said, I’m going to feed. Have fun and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” She laughed quietly and walked away with her hands folded in front of her, smiling and nodding at people as they passed.

Before I knew it, she was gone, lost in the crowd of tuxedoed guys and dressed up ladies. Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and I jumped, turning around. The incubus was standing before me with his black and silver colored mask covering his face while his emerald green eyes shined.

“Leticia?” He asked. Um….

“Do I know you?” I asked as I set my drink down on the nearest table.

“I know you, isn’t that enough?” He asked smirking. His voice was smooth as silk. As if on cue, the string quartet started to play a waltz, fast and passionate. He held out his hand. “Dance with me?”

Incapable of speech, I took his hand and he led me onto the dance floor. We settled into a fast waltz along with the music, his hands on my waist and mine on his shoulders. I counted the steps in my head. One, two, three and again one, two, three. Something about this stranger intrigued me, and the last thing I needed was to trip or something because of the fast, furious speed.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked with a teasing smile on his lips.

“No. Should I?” I looked up at him. I knew his eyes were piercing into mine from behind that mask, and I wished I could see them.

“Not at this moment, no.” We seemed to guide effortlessly over the floor as we danced, the heavy weight of my skirts practically unnoticed.

“But you know who I am?” It was more of a statement that a question, actually. He shrugged, and pulled me closer to him, pressing our bodies together. “Well, how about you just show me who you are now?” I smiled at him and the fingers on one of my hands skimmed the skin of his face upward until they reached his mask. My index finger paused on the edge.

“Well then that would defeat the purpose of the masquerade part, wouldn’t it?” I placed my hand back on his shoulder as we continued to dance. We wordlessly kept dancing, twirling, and gliding across the room, happy in each other’s arms.

“My time’s almost up,” he said and leaned forward a little. I could feel his breath on my cheek, cool and minty. My breathing still shortened anyways as adrenaline pumped through my veins. He bends slightly and he kissed the nape of my neck. That was my cue to reach to his neck and lick the warm flesh before biting down with my fangs. The addictive feeling of my fangs piercing his warm skin sent shivers down my spine. The blood went down my throat filling me up.

You should stop Leticia, my queen’s voice come on my mind and I stepped away.

And then, just as the music ended with a long, loud note, he dipped me into a dip so low it wouldn’t even hurt if he dropped me and he veered to the side of my head to whisper something in my ear. “I must say, I’m quite taken by you, my sweet Leticia.” He pulled me back up as if I were light as a feather and he brought one of my hands to his lips, pressing it against them.

“Who are you?” I whispered softly, and he smiled secretively.

“That’s not important, but now that I’ve danced with you, I can die a happy man.” He joked dramatically with a hand over his heart. “But perhaps I’ll come visit you tomorrow. But just perhaps…” And then he was gone.

“Leticia!” Alicia ran onto the dance floor and pulled me by the arm to the stairs.

“What happened?” I asked her as we ran up to the stairs to the balcony and went to stand by the railing again. Or rather, she ran and my feet moved up the stairs, unbeknownst to me. I was still dumbfounded that I was thinking about this perfect stranger so much when I didn’t even know his name.

“I’m not entirely sure.” She admitted as stole a glass of punch off a platter being carried by a waiter passing by. I took a careful sip. This batch wasn’t spiked.

“What do you mean? How can you not be sure?” I frowned at her and adjusted my mask over my eyes.

“I don’t know. Most of the demons on the lower floors seem to be mad. They are moving around like mad wolves ready to pierce your skin with their nails and big teeth.’’ My eyes widened as I looked at Alicia, trying to take in what she had said.

‘’Is this a disease or something of that sort?’’ I asked, not knowing what to think.

‘’Kind of, but I wouldn’t be so sure about it. All of them have a strange design of black stripes on their foreheads. They seem like they are under magic spells; maybe a fucio or a menad did it,’’ She suggested thinking about it as well.

‘’Might be. Those demons always wanted to rule over the underworld. A masquerade ball would be the greatest place to try to do something like that by bringing havoc. Where’s the king?’’ I asked Alicia. Alicia was a red head vampire with dark brown eyes and she was the king’s guard.

‘’He’s with the queen. After both of them fed, they met and now they are together in the upper floors. Caius, the head of the guards is with them,’’ She explained and upon knowing the queen was with the king, I calmed down my worrisome heart.

‘’Then what are we doing here? Let’s move on to the upper floors where our king and queen are.’’ I said and Alicia nodded her head as we walked towards the stairs. Once we reached the higher floor, Alicia pointed to the right and I followed her, soon entering the room they were at.

The king was on the floor, blood covered his attire, and my queen was in a crying bloody mess over him holding his hand. I rushed to my queen’s side, without saying anything. I quickly grabbed her hand, rushing her to get out of here and as far away as we could. I had to get her out of here as soon as possible and away from harm’s hands. She pushed my hands away, trying to stay by her man’s side but we really had to go.

‘’Alicia, grab her from the left side and let’s go,’’ I yelled at Alicia who was frozen in front of the dead king while I held the queen’s right arm. ‘’Alicia,’’ I yelled again and she did as she was told. The queen was yelling at us, screaming, and hitting us, but we wouldn’t let her do as she pleased. Caius was nowhere in sight and that scared me. He was the strongest from us all, yet he wasn’t with the queen and the king. Where was he?

‘’My queen, where’s Caius?’’ I asked her and her eyes turned to a deep fiery red upon hearing his name.

‘’Never speak of his name again in front of me.’’ The Queen yelled with anger. ‘’He’s responsible for my husband’s death. He was together with a menad and he was the one who killed the king.’’ Upon hearing the queen’s explanations, rage filled my black little heart and my kind eyes. Even if I wasn’t as strong as he was, I’d rip his head off for doing this to my king. Leading my queen away from the palace along with Alicia, we ran with our vampire-speed to our palace which wasn’t that far away. Only fifteen minutes if we sped up.

‘’Where’s Queen Felicia? And King of South, Acakios?’’ I asked while we were on the run.

‘’I don’t know,’’ The queen said, trying to think of her twin sister’s well-being and her husband’s as well.

At the gates of the palace, no guards stood there…just dead bodies on the ground. I left the queen’s side only to check if they were still alive, but their hearts had no pulse. The two warlocks who guarded the palace and checked everyone who entered and who left were dead. Their corpses were laying there on the cold floor.

‘’Alicia, keep the queen protected at all costs,’’ I said looking at Alicia and then I turned my eyes to face my queen, Faye, ‘’You should stay behind me and Alicia will be right behind you.’’ I didn’t let the queen reply as my showed her how serious I was. She knew it was for her own good.

I opened the gates slowly, trying not to make nay sounds because we had no idea yet about what was going on in our palace. We ran towards the main gates with our bodies bend as much as we could and once we were in front of them, I pushed them and they opened. There was no need to ask from the queen to open them with her keys or powers.

Once we were inside, we closed the gates again. The smell of dead bodies was all over and along with it another strange smell. We passed the corridor of the first floor by walking silently. We walked up the stairs and into the room with all the knives and weapons we could use, as well as outfits for battle and for guards on duty.

‘’You should change as well my queen.’’ I said as I was getting dressed to males’ clothes which were tight around my body. I hid a few knives into my boots and to the right and left side of my bra, as well as butterfly knives behind my belt.

‘’You are right,’’ The queen replied. Alicia did the same and queen followed soon by grabbing the same kind of clothes and weapons. The queen dropped her mask on the floor and I took it putting it to the right side of my belly and under the black clothes. Once we were dressed into the black clothes and had all of our weapons hidden, we left the room to explore around for any survivors or someone who would be able to explain to us what exactly happened.

We looked all around but there was no one alive. All of them were dead…from the servants to the maids, just all. In the end, Alicia and I decided upon letting the queen rest in the king’s library and one of us would go and move the dead bodies out of the palace or at least to the basement. I left Alicia by the queen’s side to protect her and I started moving all the bodies to the basement and inside the dungeons. When I was finished, I returned to the library where the women waited for me to return.

‘’Done,’’ I said as I stepped inside and locked the door behind me.

‘’Do you mind casting a sealing spell?’’ I asked the queen and she nodded getting up from the armchair she was sitting on to do as I said. She raised her hands and touched the door, forcing some of her essence to seal the doors.

‘’Done.’’ She said as she went back to the armchair.

The sun would rise up soon and it was a good thing we were inside the palace. The windows were covered with hard curtains of deep red color with gold spirals to the sides. No sunlight came inside so there was no danger for me and Alicia to get burned or die from the sunlight. The queen had no problem since she could wake even amongst the humans in the sunlight.

‘’What are we going to do from now on?’’ Alicia asked and I didn’t reply as I kept thinking about the situation we were in.

‘’Once the sun hides, we’ll go to the Centre of the Kingdom and meet my mother, Lilith. She’ll tell us what to do and she’ll protect us.’’ Queen Faye stated and I nodded my head. There was nothing else we could do if we didn’t know who was causing all these. Was it just Caius and the menad? Or were there more? There was no answer to that question yet.

We kept talking about different scenarios about the situation we were in and the fact that the king was dead till the queen fell asleep and Alicia soon followed her in Morpheus’s arms. I took the queen’s mask out of under my clothes and touched the black feathers, thinking how beautiful my queen look that night and how much she was enjoying herself. She used to wear that very same mask to every masquerade party she was invited to because it was the king’s present to her. She must have dropped it without even thinking about it. It must have been because of the shock she went through. Her husband died tonight and that will be something she’ll never forget.

I didn’t even understand when I drifted off to sleep but when I did, I opened my eyes thanks to the queen’s loud screams for help. I got up quickly, focusing on her voice and ran towards the basement, not even caring about Alicia who looked kind of lost. In two minutes, I was in front of the queen who was getting drained off her blood by her very own servants.

‘’Get them off me,’’ The queen screamed and I started killing them as soon as I could by ripping off their heads and letting their lifeless bodies fall on the ground, creating small blood pools. ‘’Ah,’’ another loud scream was heard from my queen before I managed to kill every single one of them. She had already fallen on the ground and her clothes got covered in the blood of her servants. Her neck and arms were filled with bite marks and her face was paler than usual.

‘’Find my sister and save yourself,’’ These were the last words that left her mouth before her lips turned colder than ever. Death had started leaving his final touches on her.

Blood red tears spilled from my eyes and loud screams of pain left my throat. By the time Alicia reached me and stood beside me, she freaked out and the only thing she could have done was to caress my back as I held my queen’s lifeless body.

‘’I should have come here sooner,’’ Alicia said blaming herself, ‘’We might have saved her if I was here on time, instead of fearing the sun.’’ She was speaking nonsense. The sunlight would have turned her to ash, if she didn’t take enough time to heal and then get burned again.

When I finally stood on my own two feet, I took the cross my queen was wearing and wore it around my neck while I wished her spirit would protect me. The sun was already hiding again and as soon as I managed to walk outside, I stood with Alicia on top of the mountain looking straight ahead at the long road we had ahead of us till we reached the Centre Kingdom of the Underworld.

I took the mask out of again and touched the feathers for one last time before I let the wind take it away. ‘’I promise to kill every walking creature who brought misery to my queen and king,’’ I said to the winds as a couple blood red tears left my eyes. Loyalty was all I had left and no one would ever take that away from me. That was how my journey to Lilith’s palace started…with my mind set on revenge and Alicia’s company by my side.

Crimson loyalty seeps from my fangs, so they shouldn’t waste their un-precious time…yet they did, and I lost the one I treasured the most. Now they had to pay, and I was on my way to kill them all. Just a bit more and they would be dead, no matter whom they were.

]---x---

A whole year had passed and I still hadn’t learned why Caius killed my king or who helped him. We had a few leads though but first, we had to find Caius. We had to interrogate him and execute him for the king’s death. We also had to find who was behind it because the rest of the kingdoms could be in danger as well. We didn’t know what the murderers were after.

Alicia and I had travelled to all the rest kingdoms, spreading the word about what had happened to our kingdom and that we were looking for Caius. The Queen of All; Lilith, had already felt her daughter’s death and the whole kingdom of Centre had fallen into misery and sorrow. No one sang in the streets anymore and no one dared to smile in front of the grieving queen.

Faye’s twin sister was safe, her husband as well. The king took her faraway once he realized what was going on. For him, his wife’s life came first and he was right to act like that. Lilith had sheltered her children into her kingdom until the royal army managed to execute the ones that were acting like zombies and had no mind of their own. The dark witches and warlocks that were still alive had no idea how to break those spells of blood by the menads.

Lilith had let me keep my queen’s cross and I swore to her I would find the one that did this to her daughter and take revenge on them. The queen insisted to bring their heads to back to her.

‘’I will curse their petty souls to never be born again and to always suffer in the pits of Underworld. They will wish they had never been born to our world, to my world.’’ The fury and rage in her voice made me lower my head as I listened to her voice speaking. Queen Lilith’s black hair made her look like a raven and her eyes had turned completely black, even her pupils. The veins in her hands were black and vivid, fueling her rage even more for her murdered child.

‘’You have my word queen Lilith, I will bring you their heads no matter how long it takes me,’’ I was ready to cry, the tears were threatening to spill as the queen held my hands in hers while we sat in her study room.

‘’I trust you, Leticia. I know how much you loved Faye and where your loyalty belonged.’’ She reassured me, showing me she trusted me. ‘’Don’t cry now my child, you have a job to do and I expect great results from you.’’

I held my tears back, pushing the ones that had already spilled with my hands like a small child that their mother had scolded them, telling them to stop crying. I looked at the queen of all, nodding my head before standing on my feet again, leaving her in order to do the one task that had been given to me; find them all and kill them all.

Alicia had started working as my right hand in this quest under Lilith’s orders and it had been four years since our Queen and King had died. The Queen of All had taken over Queen Faye’s kingdom and was ruling it while her husband stayed to rule over Centre alone.

]---x---

On 1892, the Queen Lilith had arranged for another ball to take place in order to find a husband for her fifth child, Carina. Carina was going to rule over the kingdom the Queen of All was ruling for the time being. Carina was already sixteen years old and she could understand how hard it was being a queen and what her duties were.

The security was on a high level after what had happened to Queen Faye because even if it was years ago, we never found out for what purpose my queen and her King had to die. Lilith had commanded me to stay by Carina’s side along with Alicia and another bodyguard, Darius; a brown haired incubus with eyes like emeralds. His voice was strong and I thought I had heard of it somewhere before but I couldn’t remember.

As I stood beside Carina’s throne my mind drifted off to what I did a week ago. I had gotten a hold of a dagger that was spelled in order to kill everyone that came in contact with it. We just had to scratch that creature and it would die right away. It would explode, making the area around it quite messy with their blood. I’d love to do that to Caius and everyone who took a part in killing my beautiful and gracious queen.

‘’Nexus, Miss Leticia is ready to see you now,’’ Alicia told him as she beckoned him to my office. They walked past the gigantic windows that overlooked the busy street below while Nexus wondered how all those people down there were living their lives without knowing what exactly went on in this building.

Alicia who had been escorting him must have stood to the side and gestured towards the door and he grasped the handle, confidently pushing the door open.

‘’Nexus, why don’t you shut the door and have a seat?’’ I grinned at the guy standing in front of me. He did as he was told, closing the door and then settling onto the uncomfortable chair across the desk.

‘’Why have you summoned me?’’ Nexus asked even though he knew why he was here. I could read his mind crystal clear; there was no difficulty on that.

‘’You know why‘’ I said with a grin and his jovial appearance quickly melted away, leaving a stern, unsmiling countenance in its place. ‘’I have a mission for you. There is a man that needs to be executed before he can appear before the new queen of North.’’

He seemed to be expecting this, though it continued to irritate him. He stood up from the chair with his brown eyes glaring, and said, ‘’Miss Leticia, we had this conversation before. I refuse to be your hit man, no matter what. You need more than a hit man for the situation you are trying to handle, and even though I am sure there are many talented others mixed in this, I don’t want to risk my life. I have only but one.’’

He was turning to leave but stopped when I said, ‘’You'd best be sitting down Nexus because if you don't take this job, you will be on Lilith’s black list and we all know what that means, don’t we?’'
The young man froze and slowly turned around to face me. I was serious this time. Queen Lilith had given me permission to use those words on him. I really wasn't bluffing. Glowering all the while, Nexus sat back down on the uncomfortable chair making me grin, ‘’There, that’s a good boy. Now…’’

After discussing about what had to be discussed, Nexus left. The dagger was in my hands. Alicia was in all of this as well, but we had to act like nothing was out of the ordinary in front of the incubus guard because we had no idea who could come for the young princess, soon to be queen of the North.

The most challenging part about this job was doing it without anyone realizing who he was. Maybe if Nexus even tolerated killing people, he might have thought of this as a thrilling way to test his killing skills. However, he was already despising himself for being so easily persuaded murder, and he hadn't even done the deed yet.

‘’I can promise you a bright future if you do this for me, and the Queen of All will be pleased,’’ I had said to him in order to make him view things differently and to his advantage as well.

Even though gas lamps lit the streets and light came from the windows of the buildings, it was quite dark. It seemed like the Underworld was in a constant state of light, no matter how strange that might have been. The queen wanted to find out any information she could get her hands on, so her familiars were all over the kingdom. She was alert even while she slept. Her familiars did the trick.
Nexus eyes were sharp and he would have no problem completing his task. Besides, darkness was the perfect time to do this. As much as he despised the thought, there was no better setting than a dark alley for a murder.

There. He spotted his target exiting an old abandoned house. The man walked along the street, whistling merrily to himself. Nexus followed as quietly as he could and the demon never noticed. When they finally reached a streetlight that had gone out, Nexus made his move. He pulled the man into the nearest alley, covering his mouth and muttering a quick apology before slitting his throat. He did so quick that the dark serene was dead in barely one minute.

Before Nexus could give much thought to what he had just done, he took off running, not looking back at the fallen corpse. This would weigh on his conscience but as he kept running the thrill of killing someone and what he could gain out of it made him smile.

The next day Nexus visited my office again. He told me to close my eyes so he could show me. I closed my eyes and he came in front of me, he stood there with his fingers covering my eyes and I was able to see through his eyes what he was seeing last night. The dark serene was dead. It was the last serene known to be alive, so hopefully their race had ended. Now no one could go against Lilith’s powers, none other than the menad.

That was my task for the night, to keep Carina safe and kill the menad if she appeared at the ball. Carina’s mother had given me a knife made out of bones spelled by warlocks and witches as well, a powerful weapon even for the strongest of our kind. Still, I had a very powerful talisman, my queen’s cross along with a small vial that held Lilith’s blood; just a few drops, spelled to give me more strength for the upcoming war.

Alicia was by the other side of Carina’s throne and I handed her the dagger behind the throne so no one else could see. ‘’This is for any enemy you may encounter. I want you stuck on the princess like glue, do you hear my thoughts Alicia?’’ I thought and she replied ‘’yes’’ in her thoughts. Being vampires came in handy in situations like those; we had sort of an advantage.

The queen’s bodyguard was walking towards me and his mouth dropped once our eyes connected. I smiled a little, and Cedric grinned. Even while wearing his duty clothes that man was too handsome for his own good. I wasn’t going to admit that though.

‘’Can I talk to you for a moment?’’ Cedric asked I and I turned to the side looking Alicia directly into her eyes and she nodded her head knowing what I had on my mind.

We walked to the balcony, his hand in my mind looking like the couple we were supposed to be. We were acting for obvious reasons. I was wearing a black dress with long sleeves and a silver belt around the waist. My boots were hidden under the long dress and I was thankful for it. The bone knife was in one of my boots and another knife, sharper and ready to kill was in the other. Cedric was in his army clothing and acted as a guard while I was supposed to be just someone invited to this grand ball of Carina’s coming of age ceremony and marriage with the man she chose.

I turned my head to the side to look back at the princess and the eyes of everyone in the ballroom were on her. She was dressed in a tube top style dress, black colored around the chest area and as it flowed the black was mixed with white before it flared out with white lace and scattered black beads on it. It showed off her figure nicely. Her black hair was in a loose bun with curls framing her face giving her an angelic look. She didn’t look like the demoness she was. She was as beautiful as an angel, still holding her innocence and not hiding it. Alicia was talking with her while scanning everyone that wanted to approach her. Darius was there as well and he kind of seemed anxious over something. It must have been about princess’s safety, I had thought.

Once we were away from the crowd, Cedric turned to face me. ‘’Two menads are already here. One of them has the hand of death and the other will spill innocent blood and her own.’’ My eyes were wide, taking all the information in and thinking it over it carefully.

‘’One will spill innocent blood and her own blood?’’ That seemed wrong, why would she kill herself?

‘’Yes, the tarot cards of the elder witch said so,’’ Cedric explained and I nodded my head.

‘’So, one of them has the hand of death, do you know what that means? Is there something like an actual hand of death or are those just words of the elder witch?’’ I had never heard anything about it.

‘’Queen Lilith said it must have been the mallum. If you manage to get the mallum from them, then the elder witch knows what she can do. She’s already on the second floor, looking over the ball. Five guards are with her and the queen.’’ I nodded my head, knowing I had to get the mallum one way or another.

‘’So, what’s this mallum thing? What does it look like?’’ I asked, staring into his eyes full of wonder.

‘’The mallum is a black apple that you can hold with one hand, that’s why she said she had the hand of death after all. Now, we have to get it before a sacrifice has been made, otherwise the one behind all these will be the new ruler of the Underworld.’’ Cedric’s eyes turned black, filled with anger so much anger that he was biting his upper lip, such a turn on.

‘’Stop biting your lip, you know what it does to me.’’ I grinned and he smiled at me, putting his anger on the side. Suddenly he seemed skeptical about something and wondering what it was I asked, ‘’What’s wrong?’’

‘’The other one will spill innocent blood and her own, then he one who will do the sacrifice will be the one who doesn’t have the mallum in her hands.’’ He was right! Everything was falling into place now, even though it took us so much time. I wished the elder witch could have told us something sooner but her tarot cards couldn’t predict what wasn’t set in stone. Now we knew though, and that was going to work to our advantage. I knew they weren’t going to come alone though, others were working with the menads, like Caius and the one who wants to rule the Underworld.

‘’You have to protect the princess and get the mallum at all costs,’’ He said grabbing me by the shoulders and pressuring me with his words as he kept talking, ‘’I will find that sacrificing menad whore before she even has a chance of spilling a drop of blood. I’ll make sure of that.’’ He was serious, ready to put his life on the line to protect the kingdom and everyone else in the castle. ‘’Go now, I have to start looking for the apple before it’s too late.’’ Nodding my head to him, I turned and left, walking towards were the princess was, only to find her sweet-talking with Darius while Alicia was nowhere to be found.

‘’Where’s Alicia?’’ I yelled at Darius who jumped once he heard my angry voice over the music that had started playing.

‘’I don’t know. A guard came and told her she was summoned by Lilith.’’ Darius replied. I scanned everyone in the room, looking at everyone’s hands while ignoring the beautiful dresses that were dancing in the center of the room with their men. I look towards the stairs and walked a few steps away so I could look at the second floor where the witch and Lilith were supposed to be. The elder witch was there, her raven eyes at everyone from above while her white long hair fell half to each side of her face. Lilith was beside her as well, but Alicia wasn’t there. Something was wrong, there were two options. Darius was lying or someone had taken Alicia way.

I turned to ran toward the princess’s throne and I saw a young woman running towards her as well. Using my gift of speed, I was in front of her in two seconds. She was taken by surprise, taking a step back and I saw the black apple in her hands. I went behind her right away and took the mallum from her left hand, before I walked in front of her again. I held the mallum in my hands and she stared at it wide eyes before she realized it wasn’t in her hands anymore.

‘’Looking for this?’’ I said, showing her the apple. I smirked, jumping on her and throwing us both on the floor. The guards were yelling for everyone to evacuate the ball room while I let the apple on the floor and punched the menad on her face twice. I let my nails grow, connected my fingers and making my nails like two big sharp needles and with them I pulled her eyes out making her unable to use her magic on anyone.

She kicked me when I least expected it and took the apple, running towards Darius who held a knife, Alicia’s knife, to the princess’s neck. They were surrounded by guards but as they walked away holding the princess hostage, the menad whose eyes I seriously damaged cried furiously while yelling, ‘’No.’’

I looked up to the second floor seeing the elder witch who was smiling a golden smile. The other menad was already dead by her hands. ‘’You have nowhere to go. Your sister is dead, your men are all dead, all you have is the mallum and that unworthy incubus,’’ The elder witch yelled and for one moment the menad seemed to hesitate, and a fireball reached her hand making the mallum fall from her hands and I jumped in order to get it before it hit the floor. We didn’t want it to open now that the sacrifice had been made. Their men were all dead; they could be used as a sacrifice anytime. Another fireball came from the witch and made the menad turn to dust right in front of our eyes. She was nothing more that ash on the cold floor.

Lilith walked down the stairs and with a swift move of her right hand, the knife Darius held pressed to her daughter’s neck was now floating in air, pressed against his throat. ‘’You didn’t think twice before you pressed this against my daughter’s throat, did you? You will be delighted to know that your brother, Caius is already dead along with everyone else. You can go meet him…now!’’ Lilith yelled and made his black heart unable to beat. His eyes went wide before he left his final breath. Then, it dawned on me; Darius was Caius’s brother. That was why Darius seemed so familiar and his voice…I remembered.

‘’My queen,’’ Cedric said with his own knee on the floor like a knight.

‘’Thank you for everything Cedric, you don’t have to kneel.’’ The queen said and Cedric stood on his feet. ‘’Where’s my King?’’ She asked him, her face serious.

‘’He’s at the entrance of the castle. He killed everyone who was coming for the grand rite along with the army.’’

‘’Excellent!’’ The queen said satisfied.

‘’Where’s Alicia?’’ I asked, realizing I hadn’t seen her yet and I had no idea what had happened to her.

‘’Don’t worry, she fainted and I took her to the second floor. She’s resting in the chamber behind the elder witch.’’ Cedric answered and I felt relieved of a burden.

I smiled at him, saying ‘’Thanks.’’

After that the queen went to the mausoleum and cursed the souls of the enemies like she had said. Her king managed to get the answers he wanted from the enemies while he was torturing them and killing them slowly. The one behind everything was Caius because he was in love with Faye, my queen but she only had eyes for her king. He killed her king and his menad killed the queen he loved using mind control on her subjects.

I still kept the cross around my neck like I had done the last few years; it was something that would never change for as long as I lived. Even if I was ever buried or burned, my queen’s cross had already become a part of me. My loyalty for my queen was eternal, even after her death, so my new task was to protect her family in the name of Queen of the North, Faye.