The golden doorway that led into the queen's chambers was truly a sight to behold. Towering figures were carved into the frame, standing still like silent sentinels and watching them as the group stepped over the threshold.
The room itself was almost a mirror copy of the royal court, except that it was rectangular in shape instead of circular. At the the far end of the decorated hall stood a smaller door that lead to the Queen Marquette's private quarters, and just in front of that was a replica throne.
Sat high upon her pedestal was the royal highness herself, but no guards were present and there was no sight nor sound of Sir Chevalier either. The fact that she sat there alone left Alice with a strong suspicion that nothing was as it seemed. The queen just rested there in her corseted dress, flawless curls framing the details of the white and gold mask beneath.
As Katherine began to address her rival and one time friend, Alice interrupted much to her mentor's annoyance.
“It’s not her.”
Ignoring Katherine's glare, Alice continued, looking around at the others in their group for support or confirmation.
“It's not the queen. Someone else has taken her place.”
As Katherine turned to study the woman who sat upon the throne, Morgana stepped forward, red robes still damp with water and leaving a trail behind her.
“The girl speaks the truth.”
Vincent stretched out clawed fingers as he sniffed the air.
“Something doesn't smell right.”
As if on queue the heavy doors behind them slammed shut, the bang echoing throughout the marble hall.
“It's a trap!” Vincent roared as he prepared himself for a fight.
Both him and Matty were up in arms, facing outwards as they stood in defense of their allies.
The imposter stood up from the throne, making their way down the red carpet of the steps that lead to the floor. She lifted her hands to her face to remove the mask, causing her form to flicker unnaturally, showing a brief glimpse of a dark haired woman with porcelain skin.
Another flicker and she changed again to reveal the true person beneath. It was someone who Alice instantly recognised, with her unforgettable pallid, grey skin and sunken red eyes. It was Antoinette Dupont, Queen Marquette's spymaster and her most devoted follower.
“You were expecting someone else?” She was grinning widely, showing rows of sharp teeth as she descended from the throne. “I knew of your plans before they were even put into motion.”
Katherine was outraged, having expected to face the queen herself after countless weeks and months of planning.
“So Renita still hides behind her lackeys. How dare she cower behind locked doors and still refuse to face me!”
Stopping just shy of the bottom step, Antoinette nearly hissed at Katherine with disgust.
“You are not worthy of laying eyes upon my queen!”
Katherine stood firm, directing her full attention at the spymaster as Morgana, Vincent and Matty fanned out behind her. Nadia stood at her maker's right hand and Alice tried to follow suit, but felt that she was in no way as imposing as the other five.
“Where is the coward?” Katherine demanded through gritted teeth.
Antoinette snorted her reply, not moving from her place in the shadow of the throne.
“Far away from the likes of you. You have no chance of catching up with her, and even if you did, Sir Chevalier would dispatch you easily enough.”
Katherine’s eyes thinned to slits as she frowned at the spymaster in disappointment, dismissing her with a wave of her hand.
“Then I have no further use for you… Shani!”
Without warning, the exotic assassin appeared behind Antoinette as if from thin air, her blade unsheathed as she moved in for the kill. However things didn't go quite as planned, as the spymaster sidestepped the thrust of the sword, turning to grab the unnerved assassin by the throat.
Before anyone else could react, Shani was tossed across the room like a rag doll and right into the rock solid surface of a marble pillar. From the look of it, it would take a little while for the stunned assassin to recover from the harsh impact.
In that very moment, all hell broke loose. A few dozen of Antoinette's spies dropped from hidden alcoves the ceiling, catching Katherine and her entourage by surprise. Neither Alice's powers, not Morgana's insight, or even Vincent's acute sense of smell had detected them until it was too late. They were set upon with whirling blades and all manner of deadly weaponry that would be at home within a museum.
Only teamwork would keep them alive now, which was worrying as most vampires had a habit of looking after themselves and themselves alone. However, it was impressive to see that in this particular situation, a group of immortals could put aside their differences in order to achieve the impossible. Antoinette and her spies had no chance of winning the battle. They were dead already, they just didn't know it yet.
Antoinette stood there gloating as her minions moved in. She seemed overly confident in a victory that had not yet been secured.
Matty was the first to react, moving to intercept the point of a spear that was aimed for Katherine's head. Instead of hitting it's target, it hit the tall soldier right in his shoulder, impaling flesh and scratching bone. He seemed to ignore the pain, purging it from his mind as he retaliated by striking back with the butt of his rifle. The reinforced stock, combined with his bolstered strength were enough to take down the first attacker, leaving their skull caved in from the brute force of his blow.
Katherine seemed to ignore the attackers, casually dodging their attacks with surprising ease or letting her allies deal with them as she made her way through the hall towards Antoinette who didn't even attempt to move away. It was as if she was waiting for Katherine to get to her, so they could duke it out between themselves. As far as they were concerned, they were the only two within the room and no one else there existed. By the end of the night only one of them would be left standing.
Shani had barely recovered when she was set upon by a handful of warriors. She may not have been operating at full strength, but that didn't stop her from fighting them off. Her movements were fluid and full of finesse as she singled each one out, cutting them down with unparalleled precision.
Vincent dove straight into a group of Antoinette's spies who had clustered together foolishly. He clawed his way through them as if they were nothing, causing the group to scatter in all directions, but it wasn't soon enough to save them from his savagery.
Using Vincent as a distraction, Morgana brushed her black, scraggly hair away from her skeletal face and pulled back her sleeves to reveal her unnaturally thin arms beneath, scarred with mystical runes that pulsated with a dull red light. She began to weave spells that were devastating once unleashed, moving her hands through the air to form ancient symbols.
Alice had never seen blood magic in use before, and she could never have imagined the carnage that it was capable of. A shower of crimson erupted from every orifice of an unsuspecting vampire who had only just turned to notice the witches attention set on him. It was over in a matter of seconds as his lifeless corpse dropped to the floor, still leaking from multiple locations.
The next one wasn't so lucky as Morgana appeared to draw out the process, directing the blood through the air and towards her open mouth as she gorged herself on their life force. Once she had her fill, she licked her lips clean as another body fell to the ground. It wasn’t long before she had moved on to her next unfortunate victim, and then the next.
Alice shuddered, but didn't have time to dwell on what she had seen, as one of the spies moved towards her with murderous intent. The hooded figure had seen her as the weak link and lunged with his rapier, hoping for a clean strike. He hadn't counted on Alice's quickened speed as she moved just enough to avoid the sword's point, dropping her gun to place her hands on each side of his head.
Focusing her powers, Alice filled the spies mind with horrific visions of things she had seen within the minds
of others. His will was weak in comparison to her own, causing him to collapse in terror as he scratched at his own face to release the evil from inside.
The hood that had shrouded the spies face fell back, revealing the innocent and terrified expression of a young man who couldn't have been more than a teenager when he was turned. Alice felt shame at what she had done to him, even though it had been in self defense. She knew that she had gone too far.
As she froze, watching the boy cower in front of her, Alice didn't know what to do next. Matty was right. She was out of her depth and wasn't meant for the harsh environment of the battlefield, even when it was within the elaborately designed halls of a palace like estate. All out war was going on around her and Alice just stood there, shellshocked as the sounds of combat now seemed so distant. The boy's face peered up at her, his eyes wide with fear and all she could do was whisper how sorry she was.
Delicate hands grabbed the boy’s head firmly from behind, twisting sharply until his neck snapped with a loud crack. Alice jumped back to attention as the life faded from his eyes and his body slumped to the marble. He had been put out of his misery, but it didn't make her feel any better for the trauma she had caused. Not everyone was capable of withstanding the sights that she had seen within the dark recesses of the minds of the undead.
Looking up from the body, Alice was faced with the serious look of Nadia Djorkaeff, her blue dress stained even more than before as she shook her vigorously by the arms.
“Snap out of it, girl!”
Alice shook her head, still feeling out of place as she made eye contact with the Russian vampire.
Nadia picked up the pistol that Alice had discarded, handing the weapon back to her as she berated her for dropping it.
“Stupid girl! Start shooting and don't stop until they're all dead!"
Taking the gun, Alice nodded blankly at her ally. A second later and Nadia had already turned to leap on to a man who was charging for Morgana, tearing at them with nothing more than her bare hands.
Alice gripped her weapon with both hands and aimed it towards another of Antoinette’s spies, gently squeezing the trigger. To her surprise, the bullet hit its mark and she pulled the trigger again. Another hit. She fired again and again. It was if she was no longer present in her own body and was watching from the sidelines as it went on autopilot.
Alice was a vampire and had been dead for a long time, but only now did she feel truly dead inside. She was empty of emotion as she kept on firing, working alongside her allies in their desperate attempt to survive.
**********
“If she loved you in return, would she really have left you to face this fate?”
Katherine loomed over Antoinette who now lay across the base of the steps beneath the throne. The spymaster’s arms were clutching at a gaping hole in her side, trying to stop her insides from falling out. She looked up at Katherine's face, sunken, red eyes defiant to the very end.
“My queen will come back for me. One day she will storm this city with all her righteous fury.”
Katherine lifted a bloodied dagger to her mouth, licking the blade's edge as she got a taste of Antoinette's vile essence. She laughed in a way that was more of a shriek of joy than conventional laughter.
The longer the war had gone on, the less Katherine had tried to hide the cruel personality that had been lurking behind her formerly pleasant exterior. It had all been a lie. Katherine Louviere was as heartless and devious as they come.
“Oh, I look forward to it, Ann. Until that time, I hope you enjoy Mr Fletcher’s infamous hospitality at St Mary's.”
Alice could tell by the sudden horrified look on Antoinette’s face that she had been expecting death, not to be carted off to the asylum. It was a fate much worse than the sweet release of death. Just keeping Antoinette away from the queen she was obsessed with would cause so much separation anxiety alone that she would wish that she had been killed.
Katherine gestured to Shani and Matty who were finishing off the last couple of Antoinette's spies.
“Get her out of my sight!”
They obeyed, Shani moving without hesitation to secure the prisoner and Matty pausing only to peer over at Alice with sad eyes.
Antoinette didn't try to struggle, and simply stared into space as if her mind had been destroyed by the prospect of her fate. It was upsetting really, that someone who had held such a high position in their society could end up as a quivering wretch such as this. Alice couldn't bear to watch her as she was dragged through the door, instead surveying her surroundings as she took in the result of their actions.
The queen’s chambers were a bloodbath, much worse than the room they had been in just a short while before. Alice did her best not to slip in crimson puddles as she tried to make her way over to a clearing between the pools of blood and body parts. She had already dropped her handgun again once the clip had been expended, and the dagger that she had plunged deep into the back of one poor soul was still imbedded there.
As soon as the fighting was over, Alice had reentered her own body and felt nothing more than disgust in herself. More so than she felt for anyone else, Katherine included. How did she get to this point? She had been nothing more than a tool for Katherine to use and she knew it. The woman had known all about her special powers before they'd even met, but she had just played along to a script written by her own hand. Katherine was the puppet master and Alice was her pretty little marionette, created for the entertainment of others.
Vincent approached Katherine who was also taking in the atmosphere, but in a way that left her feeling euphoric. She had the opposite reaction to Alice as she looked out over the blood caked tiles. She looked proud of her accomplishments and knew that she could now be crowned as the queen of Calgary.
Vincent bowed his head with respect and murmured.
“This isn't over. I'm going to hunt down my brother and his fallen queen. I will finish them myself.”
Katherine wasn't really paying attention, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.
“Yes, yes. Do as you like.”
As the bestial vampire strode out of the room with his usual predatory gait, Katherine looked up at her throne. She stared at it with wonder for a moment before taking the first step to ascend the stairs.
Once she reached the top and stood next to the extravagant piece of craftsmanship, Katherine ran a hand along its engravings. With a look of satisfaction spreading across her face, she turned back to the room and lowered herself into the chairs cold embrace. It felt natural for her, like a birthright of sorts. She was always meant to be a queen and had now finally achieved her dream after centuries of hard work and planning. Queen Katherine Louviere, the first of her name. She had to admit that it had a nice ring to it.
Observing the events unfold from her place near the edge of the hall, Alice had watched as Katherine seated herself upon the throne. She had to admit that her mentor looked like she belonged up there, but so had Renita Marquette. After all, you didn't have to be kind or polite to be royalty. There had been as many cruel kings and queens throughout history as beloved ones.
Nadia had already taken her place, standing to the side of her maker as an advisor and her closest ally. Morgana took her time to accept a place by Katherine's side, having once wanted the throne for herself, but she eventually stood there on the opposite side.
Alice presumed that Morgana would be first to betray the new queen, as she had a habit of it. However, Alice didn't particularly want to stick around to find out if she was right.
Katherine spoke loudly from her place upon high, her voice booming with new found authority.
“Allow our allies to pass through the gates, we still have much to do.”
Alice hadn't realised that the command was directed at her until the queen spoke again.
“Now, Ms Green. We don't have time for your daydreaming.”
Epilogue: On the road again.
It was a particularly clear night with not so much as
a cloud in sight. Fields stretched out into the darkness as far as the eye could see, with no sign of civilisation for miles around. Alice held on tight, her arms wrapped around Matty's waist as she rested her head against his back, hair blowing behind them in the wind.
Alice felt safe and secure there upon her perch, nestled between the leather seat and the man she loved without question. She couldn't remember ever feeling so content or happy, not since before her parents had died in the crash. The worries that had plagued her mind for years now seemed so far away. Matty was her rock as much as she was his. They kept each other strong, and when one felt weak the other would give them the support that they needed to get through. He would always be around when she needed him and she would repay him in kind.
The pair were cruising along at a steady pace down a one lane highway on Matty's motorcycle, out into the wilderness and the great beyond. The bright lights of Calgary were now but a distant memory, as they had made good time since their departure just a few hours before. Katherine and her newly claimed kingdom had been left in their dust and neither of them had a desire to ever return. It was just Alice, Matty and the open road, and she knew everything would work out with him by her side. Matty understood everything about her and no one could get between them. Not even Katherine would stand a chance, even with the full might of her expansive resources and blind followers to back her up.
Leaving Calgary felt like the end of an era, but it wasn't the end at all. It seemed that there was so much more was still in store for them and this journey was the beginning of something new. A brighter future. A new life together away from those who wanted to use them for their innate talents. They had the potential to live on forever, but would take each night as it came, helping each other stay in control as they fought against the ever present threat of the beast inside.
Looking back now, Alice could see the error of their ways. It's funny how hindsight helps you to see the mistakes that you had made and how it lets you find wisdom in things where there had previously been none. If only she had done things slightly differently.
The Beast Inside Page 27