Deadly Lovers (The Prussia Series) (15 page)

A steady trail of blood flowed out of the fresh wound on my face. As I raised my head to look at the Queen, her mouth hanging open in surprise, I could feel that slow trickle stop. I put a hand up to my face and felt the smear of warm blood on my cheek. I looked at the blood on my fingers as though I couldn’t comprehend how it had gotten there. I touched my cheek again and this time realized what had been missing this time. My skin was smooth. It was filthy with the streaks of fresh blood but the slashes the Queen had placed across my face were already healed. Lydia and the Queen both gaped at me. Even I was shocked at what had just happened.

“I will stay but you’ll keep your hands off my bodyguard. She’s no use to me injured,” I said with a snap.

The Queen straightened and looked past me towards Lydia, a hateful stare in her eyes. When I turned back to Lydia she still had a mortified look of shock on her face.

“You didn’t have to-” started Lydia.

“You should go,” I said.

“What?” asked Lydia.

“If you really don’t think we’ll make it out of here, I can’t put you in danger. It was a foolish thing to ask.” I said, “You should save yourself. I can’t die.”

Lydia was conflicted. I could tell she wanted to go.

“Just come with me,” said Lydia.

“What if I’m the weapon that wins or loses the war?” I asked.

“It’s not your war,” said Lydia as she turned away from me, waiting only to hear my answer.

“Just…” I paused, not sure if I could say the words at all.

Lydia looked over her shoulder at me and I found the words to continue, “If it all goes to shit, think about finding me. Make sure I’m not…stuck on a leash somewhere in a dark hole,” I said with a shrug, blood still on my face and hand.

Lydia didn’t say anything but there was a moment. I could tell in her eyes that she understood. I honestly believed we were more alike than I would have ever guessed. The only difference was no one followed her around and saved her. At least not anymore. My heart broke for her a little as I watched her walk towards the front door of the castle to leave. No sooner had my pity on her been spent than I was pulled back to reality with an explosion that catapulted the front door past me, missing me by only a few inches. I fell to the ground immediately and covered my head, hopeful that Lydia was alright.

When I looked up, I found a familiar face next to mine. It was Charlie. He was lying perfectly still looking at me, lying on his side. My heart skipped a beat as I waited for him to blink, to smile, to speak. But he didn’t. And I felt the coldness wrap around me so tight it was hard to breathe. This was war. And people were going to die. I looked for Lydia but didn’t see her anywhere. There was no way she could have made it through the door before it had exploded. To my right and left were bodies scattered, bleeding, motionless or moaning, more bodies than I could count.

Vampires in all black tactical gear began flooding through the front door of the castle that now lay splintered in pieces next to me. I rose slowly from the ground as I watched war flood through the door. Rapid bursts of gunfire went off outside of the castle in different locations as smoke from the garden began to crawl into the castle, through the windows and where there had once been a door.

No sooner had I gotten to my feet than one of the vampires squared off against me, opening his mouth, he growled. I didn’t doubt that he meant me harm. I pulled the small knife that Sebastian had given me and braced myself for what would come next.

Over a foot taller than me and with the physique of a warrior, the vampire sprang forward with his claws outstretched, to pounce on me. I took the small unsheathed knife and swung wildly at him, managing a small cut on his forearm. I breathed a sigh of relief as the vampire stopped in his tracks to look at the cut on his arm. When he looked back up I realized I had done more damage to my cause then to his arm. Before he had been a warrior in the midst of battle. I had made it personal by injuring him. By drawing first blood I had made him mad.

My attacker took one bounding step forward and effortlessly swatted the small knife out of my hand. I was now defenseless. I looked down at my empty hand and looked back up at the vampire to find him smiling. That didn’t bode well for me. I turned as quickly as I could to run the other way but his hands became immediately tangled in the back of my hair. No sooner had I sucked a sharp breath into my lungs than the vampire picked me up off of the ground, lifted me overhead, and threw me into the nearest wall.

I felt the crunch of my ribs as I hit the wall. When I landed on the marble floor I felt part of my spine fracture. It wasn’t the softest landing. I didn’t wait for the pain to abate. I struggled for each ragged breath as I crawled across the floor, trying to put distance between me and my attacker. That same stupid smile was on his face as he stalked towards me, oblivious to the fighting that went on around us.

I used one hand to brace my side and keep my ribs from moving too much as I used my other arm to pull me across the marble floor, streaked with ever widening streams of red. By the time he made his third footstep toward me the pain in my spine had completely disappeared. On his fourth step towards me, near enough to kick me, I no longer had sharp pains in my side with every breath. My ribs had healed. Not sure I should completely trust my sudden lack of pain, I got up from the ground slowly and kept a steady eye on the vampire that still stalked me as if I were prey.

I couldn’t help but smile as his smile faded into a look of confusion. It only lasted a moment but I enjoyed surprising him. I enjoyed being underestimated, though his face twisted to rage less than a second before he jumped at me again but this time I used the wall behind me to my advantage. Placing my back against the wall and using my entire body, I grabbed both of his arms and placed my feet against his chest. I couldn’t get away but he couldn’t really hurt me either.

I let a laugh slip out from between my lips as I watched him struggle. Saliva dripped off of his fangs and he growled at me. My smile quickly fell as he began to chomp wildly at my face and neck. I tried to move my head quickly every time he snapped out to bite me but he was fast. It was only a matter of time before he would bite me. My mind spinning, I tried to think of a way out. I tried to use leverage to kick him away from me. My back was firmly wedged against the wall and I used both of my feet to push hard against his chest.

He let out a low growl just before he tried again to bite me. This time he bit into some of my hair and I cried out in pain as he ripped it from my scalp. Only a dozen strands of hair but it was still very painful. I could see some of my scalp dangling from my hair still between his teeth. The angrier he got the stronger he got and I was starting to lose my grip on his wrists. I took a deep breath and used all of my strength to kick against his chest and try to push him away.

I had hoped that he would go sprawling backwards but he didn’t. Instead, he was able to push my legs closer to my chest. I was losing ground and soon he would be able to easily chomp into my throat. My breathing became rapid as I started to panic. Again, he tried to bite me but I moved my head to the side just in time. I was running out of luck and time.

Not having a better plan, I decided to go with the element of surprise. His face came closer to mine, attempting to bite into the flesh of my face. I dodged his bite at the very last minute, nearly failing to evade his attack. But instead of merely recoiling, I struck back. Cheek to cheek, I turned as quickly as I could and bit into his neck with all the strength I had.

His skin tasted bitter and rotten almost to the point of being acidic. I immediately tried to spit the taste of him out of my mouth but it had worked. He pulled away from me and I fell to the ground, unable to keep my leverage between him and the wall. I quickly scrambled to stand and put my hands up ready to throw punches, prepared for the vampire to attack me in a flash. But he didn’t. He stood there with his hand on his neck where I had bit him, in a dazed state, completely overcome with shock and disbelief. He pulled his hand away from his neck and looked at it, as though he expected his hand to be covered with blood. It wasn’t but I could see the raised red welts where my teeth had left a clear mark on his throat.

My mouth fell open in amazement as the red welts puffed and a white liquid began to ooze out of where I had bit him. It wasn’t blood. I didn’t know what it was. And he didn’t know either from his expression. He touched his hand to his neck again and this time, seeing the white liquid that appeared thick and sticky coating his hand, he looked at me with eyes full of a burning hatred.

I didn’t have time to react before he began punching me wildly without rhyme or reason. I covered my head as best I could as he landed blow after blow to my body and head. My arms were little protection, breaking and healing again, and again. I screamed in agony as each break hurt as much as the last, the pain becoming blinding. His screams of rage terrified me as I curled up into the fetal position on the ground, his feet taking to kicking me sharply at every point that wasn’t covered by my frail arms.

Every bit of air that wasn’t kicked out of me rushed out of my lips in the form of a scream. I didn’t breathe to live. I breathed to scream. I wasn’t sure if it made the pain less but I couldn’t have stopped screaming even if I had wanted to. The pain seethed through me, shredding every one of my senses and overloading me with pain too great for even rage. It consumed me as did my screams.

At last the kicking stopped and I felt the breaks snapping and popping, my bones finding the place where they were supposed to be with little thought to the continued pain that it caused. Not all healing was welcome. I stayed in the fetal position, hands over my head and knees tucked up to my chest. The pain ebbed away and my sight, my hearing, my breathing became steady again.

I heard the gentle sizzle before I saw it. Looking up, expecting to see the vampire catching his breath before beginning his onslaught anew, I watched the shape of the vampire disintegrate before my eyes. The ember that had always fascinated me had annihilated the vampire. And there stood Lydia, panting and out of breath, standing over the pile of ashes with a makeshift stake in her hand. The ornate detailing on the wood made me think she had re-purposed one of Queen Victoria’s fine tea chairs. And I couldn’t help but feel relieved. No one ever sat in those chairs. One had finally been put to good use. I looked up at Lydia, my eyes disbelieving and my brain too cluttered with thoughts of pain and avoidance of pain to really consider how Lydia had managed to survive the blast that had taken out the front door. Lydia offered her hand and I took it, hands clasped firmly for a second before she pulled me up from the floor.

“You are a terrible pupil,” Lydia said, still winded and covered in ash from head to foot.

“You’re a horrible bodyguard,” I retorted, surprised that we were actually kidding with each other with the amount of blood streaking the walls and decor, the shattered windows and the missing door, the bodies piling up higher than the furniture.

“Come on,” said Lydia, making a motion for me to follow her, “We need to head to the tomb,”

“What tomb?” I asked, confused and dazed.

But she didn’t give an answer. Lydia was already moving, making her way towards the grand staircase where I had last seen Victoria and Sebastian. I didn’t want to risk another encounter that I couldn’t bite my way out of so I followed right on Lydia’s heels. I looked around in shock as fighting continued in every corner of the common areas of the castle. But not all fights were fair. Our men were getting slaughtered. When we finally reached the grand staircase I was shocked to find Queen Victoria was fighting, as was Sebastian.

Three guards were attacking Sebastian and he was barely holding them off. Queen Victoria slashed her way through one soldier after another, viciously using her claws to rip entire chunks of their face off in one swipe. She cut through them like a knife through water. It didn’t seem to
faze her though Sebastian clearly struggled with every strike and blow.

“The fire is getting closer,” commented Queen Victoria as she shredded into another vampire that charged towards her.

“The trees aren’t close enough to catch,” said Sebastian, “we have enough clearance for a firebreak but…I didn’t figure suffocation… from the smoke. All of the humans will die,”

“All of the humans are already dead,” said a woman, her tone rich with amusement, “If they’re not already they soon will be,”

I turned to see who had spoken, knowing exactly who it had been but needed to see her with my own eyes. All I could see was smoke billowing in through the front door and the glow of fire that had surrounded the castle. Victoria had stopped in her tracks too, making short work of the last vampire and waiting, listening, for the voice to come again. But our silence was met only with more silence and the faintest sound of a woman’s laugh.

The guard that assisted Sebastian in his fight, finishing off the last vampire that was still combating him, had a look of terror in his face. The guard kept glancing between the smoke filled doorway of the castle and Queen Victoria, his feet antsy and ready to run. If he ran, he wouldn’t find anywhere to hide. I’m sure he knew that. I’m sure that’s why he still stood there, practically running in place with fear. But Victoria herself had a chilled look on her face, a tension that I had never seen before and I could only attribute it to a very veiled look of fear. I had never, in all the horrible things I had seen, witnessed Victoria afraid of something.

“Sister, is that you?” asked Victoria, and her voice gave her fear away with its unsteadiness.

“Ah…now she calls me sister,” said Patricia, stepping out from among the trees onto the steps in front of the castle where she could be seen. Laugh maniacally and walking slowly up the front steps of the castle, just as slowly as the other soldiers that flanked her, from out of the darkness. Patricia converged on the broken castle in a slow, horrible, procession.

“The tomb!” shouted Victoria as Lydia and I hurried towards them.

Lydia nodded and before I could protest Lydia had grabbed my wrist and began pulling me towards the side of the staircase, towards a giant tapestry. Using her free hand, Lydia grabbed a wad of the fabric and yanked the entire thing down, tossing it aside as though it were lighter than air. Revealed behind the tapestry was a door carved of marble. I couldn’t imagine being able to actually open it. I watched as Lydia touched a few places on the door and it began to slide open.

“We can only hold them off for a few seconds longer,” warned Sebastian, “Hurry!”

But we couldn’t hurry a marble door and it took time to open. Given how much the door probably weighed, I’m sure that a few seconds was extremely fast but when you had vicious bloodsuckers swiping at you left and right, a few seconds was an eternity. My hands shook as I waited, my eyes unable to tear away from the advance of the enemy into the castle walls. They even crawled through the broken windows, pouring in at every available entryway. My heart beat fast as I watched them come in. My stomach did somersaults. We were going into the tomb. The place that had only one exit.

The marble door revealed yet another door. This door, thankfully, was made of wood. Lydia quickly opened it and we began to descend down a set of marble steps into the darkness. At our backs, the echo of a warning from the Queen followed after us… “Don’t open
anything
,” Victoria screamed from where she fought. 

Even in the dark I could sense Lydia’s hesitation to go into this dark, cold place. It had definitely earned its name if this was the place the Queen called
the tomb
. It felt like the very place death would come to vacation.