Blood Queen

by David Horrocks

  Before another word could be shared between them, the golden doors to the throne room swung wide open, the heavy gilding slamming into the walls with a loud crash. Through the opening, a heavily armed entourage of Queen Marquette's rebels stormed in, led by the Lion Knight himself. The group fanned out on either side of the large pillars, quickly moving through the great hall with trained precision as more gunshots ricocheted somewhere else outside. They wasted no time in spanning the distance between the entrance and the base of the stairs, their guns all aimed towards the broken remnant of what had once been the dreaded Blood Queen.

  Sir Chevalier shouted something that Alice's brain failed to translate, while Katherine ignored the intruders and fixated on her as the object of her obsession. The rebels stopped down below, too afraid to approach in case the queen wasn't quite as frail as she appeared; the infamous stories of her wrath keeping them at bay at least for now.

  As Alice struggled to cope with what she presumed were her mentor's continuing mind games, she rushed over to where Sam's body had been dumped and carefully knelt down next to what she expected to be a decomposing corpse. To her surprise, there were no signs of decay; his scarred flesh untouched by the ravages of time. He was almost completely drained and trapped in a torpid state, but his spirit hadn't yet left his shell empty. For all intents and purposes, Samuel Mitchell was still alive, or at least as close to life as was possible.

  Ignoring the heated shouting behind her, Alice scooped Sam's fragile frame up in her arms and stood back up on weary legs. She turned away from Katherine and what was left of her throne, beginning the journey back down the steps as desperate cries fell on deaf ears. "Don't leave me with them, Alice! It's meant to be you! It was always meant to be you!"

  A row of awestruck faces were waiting to greet Alice as she reached the bottom of the stairs, the most familiar amongst them belonging to Philippe Chevalier and his brother, Vincent. Just behind them stood the dark skinned woman who had introduced herself as Rahna, a slight smile of relief crossing those wild features. Around them, a group of men dressed in the same types of suits as worn by Katherine's guards waited, each of them so strangely similar to the others that it was almost impossible to tell them apart. They all parted to make way for the girl who had defeated the Blood Queen, none of them quite believing what their eyes told them.

  The tormented cries of a broken monarch filled the room, her desperation clear for all to hear. "It has to be you, Alice! Please, end my torment! Alice, please!"

  Sir Chevalier bowed his head with respect, a surprising gesture that was mimicked by all others present. "It seems that we grossly underestimated your abilities, mademoiselle. You have our undying gratitude."

  Alice didn't care for their praise, looking down at the face of her friend as she blocked everyone else out. She was too tired to offer them any words of kindness; too fed up to be polite. All she could manage was to ignore them as she continued to make her way towards the entryway, blanking each and every one of them as if they weren't even there. They may as well not have been, as they had arrived far too late to be of any real assistance. The damage had already been done.

  "How rude…" The Lion Knight muttered, looking somewhat flabbergasted by her lack of acknowledgement.

  "Please don't leave me!" Katherine wailed from where she was still kneeling, seemingly unable to get to her feet after a brief, but painful struggle.

  As Phillipe and Vincent led their combined forces up to the throne, each and every one of them keeping their weapons drawn, Alice proceeded on through the golden archway that led back out to the main hallway. She wouldn't stop moving; wouldn't even look back until they were safely out of the palace and harm's way.

  Sam mumbled something, his body limp in Alice's arms as she carried him through it all. It was a welcome sound, one that let her know that even now he was still with her. She wouldn't give up on him, as he had never given up on her, using what she could spare of her own blood to resuscitate him. It lacked the same potency that it had once held, but she believed that it would be more than enough to bring him back to her. After all, they had somehow survived through everything that had been thrown at then, against all odds, and all they had left was each other.

  Upon exiting the grand hall, Alice could see the blood smeared hallways branching off in almost every direction, as all out war had descended upon the estate for the second time in recent history. She had seen such chaos before and was no longer fazed by it, the bloodshed that she had witnessed in recent years leaving her jaded and weary. It wasn't because she enjoyed the killing, far from it in fact; it just meant that she wouldn't shed a tear for every monster that was destroyed that night. If she spared a thought for them all, it would mean that she would weep until the end of time and quite honestly, she didn't have the strength for it. She would leave the mourning to those who knew the names and faces of those that died, concentrating on Sam and those few who she still held within her heart.

  Another two matching guards brushed past Alice, but she was left unperturbed by their presence as they pulled the large doors shut behind them. She could only just hear Katherine's final cry, a scream that pierced the air just before the bang of the heavy doorway silenced it. "Alice!!!" the woman pleaded desperately, but it was of no use. There was no turning back now, as the tyrannical reign of the Blood Queen was finally at an end.

  There was no doubt in Alice's mind that Katherine would be made to pay for her crimes, she just had no desire to be there to witness it. She had left her mentor for the other vampires whose hatred ran far deeper than her own; a death sentence in itself. Whoever decided to claim the kingdom afterwards, whether it be Renita, Morgana, or someone else entirely, she didn't care. She wanted nothing to do with that decision or whatever fallout came after it.

  Alice was done with Calgary. She was done with Alberta and the vampire hierarchy that vied for control. All she wanted to do was move somewhere far away, a quiet place in the country where both she and Sam could exist in peace. She wanted nothing to do with the cutthroat politics of a world that she never really understood, nor the creatures of the night who ruled those dark places in which she never felt like she belonged. She had to find a place where she could just be herself, or at least take the time to discover what she had become.

  Chapter Twenty-Six: A Sacrifice of Blood

  For Sam it was all going to end as it began; at the mercy of Katherine in death's embrace. The only difference was that this time he didn't want to die. His sacrifice wasn't something that he had taken lightly, nor was it something that he was doing for himself. It was a selfless act, born of his friendship and love for another; an act that would benefit him in no way, shape or form. If he had to die to save his friend, he would do it a thousand times over. After all, Alice had so much more to offer the world than he ever had, and a far greater potential for good, changing the world for the better in ways that he could only imagine. All that he had left in his wake was misery, a legacy of mistakes and countless failures that had led him to the final moments of his cruel unlife.

  Sam felt the bite and the blood being drawn from him, his essence draining out through the puncture wounds in his neck. And yet, something was different this time. He wasn't fading, nor was he growing weaker, the thin blood inside him soon replaced by something way more potent and far purer than he had ever known. It was as if he was transcending to a new plane of existence, one that far surpassed anything that he had ever felt or seen before.

  Sam had already been through hell on Earth. He had already experienced the endless pain and suffering that wracked both his body and mind on a nightly basis, leaving him numb to a world that had chewed him up and spat him out. So this time he hoped to God that there was something greater in store for him, perhaps some semblance of peace away from danger and the stress that accompanied it; somewhere far from the immortal monsters that stalked the night. After all, he had at least earned that much, hadn't he? Didn't he deserve to be given something more than table scrap
s and hand me downs?

  As if to answer all his questions, a woman's voice called out to Sam from somewhere beyond the grave. It was a familiar sound that he had longed to hear ever since the torturous moment in which it had been silenced; the alluring sound of a love long lost. "Sam… I've missed you so much."

  Christie's words had always soothed him, even when nothing else could, and he missed her now more than ever. He longed for her far more than the feeling of fresh air in his lungs, the steady beat of his heart and the warmth of the sun upon skin. He would give everything up all over again for another chance to be with her, but right now he would settle for just a brief glimpse of her bewitching face, the crystal blue of her eyes and that mischievous smile that made him feel as though he were alive. She had once been his entire world, and the saddest thing about it was that he never truly realised what he had until it was gone. The bond of their blood aside, Christie Reece was still everything that he desired, and he yearned to get back what had been taken from him.

  "What are you doing, Sam?" Christie's question seemed strange to him as his mind struggled to comprehend the situation; his thoughts muddled and confused.

  "I'm on my way to be with you." Sam replied, unsure as to where he actually was, but dead set on his chosen destination.

  Without a body to hold him back, Sam felt as light as a feather, and yet something weighed him down as if he were lined with lead. He soon realised that he knew exactly what the problem was, as even now he wasn't quite ready to let it all go. The time would eventually come for him to move on and leave the world behind, but he couldn't give up just yet. There was unfinished business for him to deal with, no matter how much he wanted to drop it all to find Christie. All he wanted to do was follow her voice wherever it went; he wanted to move out of the darkness and towards the light at the end of the tunnel. He wanted to do all that and so much more, but for now he had to fight for his survival.

  "It's okay, Sam." came a soft whisper that brought him warmth, even when surrounded by the chill of death. "I know it's not your time yet."

  Sam tried to reach out, but he couldn't find anything out there in the void; the negative space between the land of the living and whatever waited for him beyond. "I can't go on without you." The hurt that he felt poured from him with every word, his pain manifesting with each syllable as a new hunger rose from within. "I don't want to."

  "You have to." A delicate, but strong hand appeared from nowhere and grasped him tightly by the arm. With one swift motion, it yanked him backwards, pulling him away from the bright light of the cosmos and out into the murky black towards what he could only presume to be the way home.

  "Now get up!" the voice roared in Sam's ears, the pleasant, soothing sound replaced by that of a raging beast.

  The further that he was pulled away from the lucent glow of the afterlife, the more intense Sam's hunger became; rising up from somewhere deep inside. Without a word of warning, his direction suddenly changed, the hand dragging him upwards towards what he could only presume to be the surface of the stygian abyss in which he had been submerged.

  As Sam burst through the aqueous barrier into the open air beyond, the ripples he created formed waves of blood that in turn cascaded into tsunamis; the crimson tide crashing down around him with a terrifying, insatiable force that mirrored the voracious appetite of his curse.

  **********

  Alice held her wrist against Sam's mouth, the blood trickling out from a deep incision that she had made with her nail. He was still unconscious, but the beast inside of him sensed the gift that she was offering and drank of it willingly. His hands slowly moved up to her forearm, his fingers wrapping around her bare skin as he pressed the cut to his lips.

  As the feeding continued and the seconds turned into minutes, Sam's strength increased at a much faster rate than Alice had anticipated. His grip began to tighten as he squeezed harder and harder, but she didn't even try to resist, letting him drink freely; her concern for her friend overwriting any sense of danger or self preservation. They remained that way for a little while longer, interlocked in a parasitic embrace until she eventually felt too weak to let it continue.

  "That's enough, Sam." Alice murmured, feeling slightly woozy. She tried to pull back her arm, but he gripped it even tighter still. While she was gradually losing her strength, he was beginning to gain it, although he wasn't yet conscious enough to stop himself from taking too much.

  "Sam, stop. You've had enough." she said a little louder this time, the panic starting to set in as she realised exactly what was going on.

  Alice was sapped of her vitality and unable to break free, the desperation that she felt due to her own helplessness doing absolutely nothing to save her. Sam's eyes popped open, his pupils dilated as he continued to drain her dry. It may have been his body lying there, but his mind was somewhere else entirely, the ravenous beast in complete control of his every action.

  Alice knew that look all too well, having seen it many times before and having felt the hunger herself on far too many occasions to count. All she could do in this harrowing situation was fight against her friend, trying everything that she could to survive until he regained his faculties. If she was lucky, he would soon wake from his torpid slumber and cease his rabid gluttony. If not, she would die from the same dreadful fate that she had been trying to save him from.

  At the rate that Sam was feeding, Alice could sense that she didn't have long left and yelled a final command, knowing full well that begging to be released would achieve nothing. "I said stop!"

  Whether Sam had consumed enough blood to sate his beast, or whether he had simply managed to regain control, he suddenly released his grasp and allowed her to yank her arm free.

  "Alice, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Sam pleaded for forgiveness as he sat himself upright, his hands held out towards her as he tried to check if she was alright.

  "I know..." Alice replied feebly as she lightly pushed him away. "Really, it's okay." She knew that he was trying to help her, but she just needed a little space and didn't want to be touched right now. It would take a few minutes for her to regain her composure, her own hunger already stirring inside.

  Sam looked concerned for Alice's wellbeing, but was clearly confused about what was going on as he stared at her in shock. "What happened?" he asked in a slight daze before turning his head to peer around the room, the change in surroundings visibly catching him by surprise. "And where are we?"

  The room in which he found himself was dirty and reeked of smoke, the bed that he had been lying in both lumpy and extremely uncomfortable. Alice was perched on the edge next to the bedside table, the tan curtains behind her drawn closed. The tacky brown wallpaper and stained carpet were heavily dated, the stucco ceiling in desperate need of a new coat of paint. Even the door that led outside was peeling and damaged, the floor lamp adjacent to it buzzing loudly with electricity. It was an unpleasant place to say the least; far from the ideal place to wake up with a nasty shock.

  "The Whispering Pines Motel… I wanted to take you somewhere safer, but the dawn came too quickly." Alice replied, steadying herself as best she could. She was extremely pale now; whiter than white. Likely a result of being dead and the massive blood loss which she had only just sustained.

  "I see." There was a hint of recognition in Sam's eye as he nodded and rubbed the back of his neck, as if he too had been there before. "And Katherine?" he added, not fully aware that Alice needed a moment to recuperate, while he instead looked stronger now than he ever had.

  "Most likely dead..." Alice mumbled as she moved to prop herself against the headboard.

  Sam cocked an eyebrow, his gaze returning to his friend as he idly scratched at his forearm. "What do you mean 'most likely'?"

  The fatigued response took a few seconds to formulate, but it eventually came with an exhausted sigh. "She's in Queen Marquette's hands now."

  There was a short pause as Sam took the time to process the new information. Fortunately, Ali
ce enjoyed the peace and quiet that it offered, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back into the padded material of the headboard. It wasn't perfectly silent, with the storm still raging outside and a couple screaming at each other next door, but it was quiet enough for her to relax just a little. Heaven knows that she needed the break, the past year or so having been some of the most hectic parts of Alice's entire existence. Squeezing her eyelids shut, she tried to purge her thoughts of any negativity and concentrated on what the future held in store.

  Unfortunately, the silence didn't last as long as Alice would have liked as Sam chimed in with yet more questions. "So, is that really it? Is Katherine finally gone?" His flood of words were incessant and bothersome, but she understood that he was just trying to fill in the gaps. "What does that mean for us? What do we do now?"

  Alice kept her eyes closed, the room around her spinning as she slowly responded with the least amount of effort that she could afford. "Whatever we want to do, I suppose."

  "Right…" Sam said somewhat sceptically. It had been so long since they had any real choice that he was seemingly unsure about what that actually meant. In fact, they both were. Neither of them had taken a moment to really consider what they would do with themselves after Katherine was gone. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, it remained to be seen.

  In the relative quiet, Alice could hear her friend scratching at his skin, his nails raking the dead flesh of his scars. She wasn't sure what he was doing, but it sounded like he was battling against a persistent itch that refused to stay still. It didn't bother her too much at first, but after listening to it for another minute she decided to question him about it.