“I’ll be back for you Jezebel,” Gabriel said as he led me away from the door.
“You didn’t hear that?” I asked, thinking I might have finally snapped.
“Hear what?” he asked curiously. “I only heard you say something to Jezebel, and she stopped crying.”
“Oh,” my voice trailed off.
“What was it?” he asked again.
“Nothing,” I lied. “It was just my imagination.” I still didn’t trust him, and now, I was starting to not trust myself.
We raced down the stairs, no longer trying to be cautious. We had no idea how much time we had left, but if I had to guess, I would’ve said not very much. We placed the torch back in its holster and bolted out the door, and found ourselves in the eerie hallway once again. Gabriel and I rushed to the giant double doors and pushed with all our might, but they didn’t even budge.
“We can’t waste our time trying to open it,” Gabriel said after our fifth attempt. “We should cut through the kitchen, no one uses it.”
I nodded in agreement and followed after Gabriel into another cutoff from the hallway. Soon enough, we were inside another golden lit room with an added smell of stale bread and wine. Dust covered brick stoves lined the walls on one end, while the other was dominated by wine barrels.
“Were you a drunk or something when you were alive?” I asked, unable to count the seemingly billions of wine barrels.
“Not exactly,” he answered. “We sold a lot of it, and a lot of people in my time called this castle heaven for the drunks.”
“I can see why,” I said as my eyes watered from the overbearingly sweet smells of many different varieties of wine.
Gabriel led me deeper into the kitchen, and the brick stoves were beginning to be replaced by even more stacks of wine barrels. He didn’t stop to admire what his kingdom used to be about, but when I looked at the labels, they all looked old. I couldn’t know for sure because I couldn’t read. We passed a few cellar doors where the faint smell of stale bread and rotten meat wafted out, but soon enough the kitchen turned into a wine cellar. The farther we went the darker it got.
Gabriel was just a black blob in front of me. It was hard to know if I was actually following him or about to walk into a stack of wine barrels. His footsteps echoed off the walls, which made it even more difficult to find him. So quickly enough, I ended up walking into a wine barrel I thought was the leech.
I scowled at myself for being an idiot and searched around frantically for my guide. The sound of a body hitting the floor and concealed screaming caught my ears. I didn’t hesitate to run after it. Through the maze of wine barrels I could faintly make out two figures wrestling. A faint glow of white skin told me one was Gabriel, and he was losing. Without thinking, I rushed to his aid. Before his attacker had realized I was there, I tackled him to the ground.
My eyes adjusted to the light revealing the attacker to me. Hair that was so black it rivaled the darkness fell over his brilliant blue eyes and cuts grazed his pale skin, but it didn’t take me more than a second to realize who it was.
“Vaze!” I cried as I grabbed him into a bear hug. I was relieved that I would finally have someone who was actually alive with me, and I hardly noticed my actions until he hugged back. I pulled away after three seconds of my brain processing what was happening.
“How did you escape?” I asked frantically.
“The guards thought the little girl would eat me—and thank God that she didn’t,” he said happily. “How did you get here?”
“Gabriel brought me,” I said while pointing to the confused vampire. Vaze stared at him in disbelief.
“Can I talk to you?” Vaze said to me without taking his eyes off Gabriel. “Alone?”
“Why?” I asked, but Vaze ignored it as he pulled me through the stacks of wine barrels until Gabriel was out of site.
“You let a vampire bring you all the way here alone?” he said in a concerned tone.
“Yeah, what’s the problem?” I asked.
“Did it ever occur to you that he could be leading you into a trap?” Vaze hissed hardly above a whisper.
“At first, yes, but I didn’t have any other choice!” I hissed back. “I had to save you guys.”
“I could have pulled that off just fine myself,” he said. “Plus he’s a vampire! You can’t trust him!”
“How do I know we can trust you?” Gabriel said while appearing silently behind me, making both Vaze and I jump. “You were under the queen’s spell, for all we know you’re still under it.”
“If I were under her spell, then how would I have recognized Scarlet?” Vaze snapped back.
“The queen has immense power, she could have already known about Scarlet,” Gabriel said.
“Stop it!” I interjected. “The more time you two fight like children the less time my brothers have! I don’t care if it is a trap. If they are in that throne room, get me there now!” Gabriel and Vaze exchanged hate-filled glares, but neither argued.
“Fine,” they both said.
Gabriel led us further into the wine cellar until we came upon a trap door in the wall. Gabriel held a finger to his lips and opened the ancient door. It opened quietly and faint orange light flooded the cellar, revealing the back of an enormous golden throne. We each scrambled through the door and hid behind it. I peeked behind the arm of the chair and saw something both relieving and gut wrenching.
My brothers were in the center of the giant regal room with the same blank stares from the spell in the forest. They were bound with thick ropes and were guarded by two vampires. A beautiful woman in a flamboyant red gown stalked them, but her concentration was on a proud looking couple. They stood straight with their chins lifted in a prideful rebellion and fearlessness. The woman held tightly on to her husband’s hand—both of their knuckles were white. Their pure white hair fell in shambles over their flawless skin. Despite this, they were truly a sight to behold, even more striking than most vampires. They looked young, but their eyes were old and glassy. The woman in red slinked to and fro in front of them gracefully, and almost playfully as well.
“This is your last chance, my children,” the woman said with a voice like a harp. “If you do not do as I say, you will die, and so will your son and daughter. You do not know these people, their lives are irrelevant to yours. All you have to do is kill them, and you may live however you please.”
“You have made my family into murderers,” the man said in a deep powerful voice. “We had no choice to take the lives that we took, but we will not kill the innocent. The eldest is hardly even a man. You ask us to kill children who have done no harm to us. Death would be a beautiful escape to this madness you try to subject us to!”
The woman walked over to the brave man. Her black waist-length hair flowed behind her.
“Oh dear, Darius,” she said while putting a hand on his face with a mocking expression of concern. “You are a fool.”
With one swift movement the woman swiped her hand across his neck like a dagger. The pride in the man’s eyes disappeared and was replaced with distant shock. Ruby red blood flowed out of the man’s neck as he fell to the ground. He was dead before he even made it to the floor. The woman who had stood beside him let out a heart breaking cry. Tears streamed from her black eyes as she threw herself on her dead husband. A guard tried to pry her away from the dead man. That was the last thing that guard would ever do.
Without warning the woman kicked his chin upwards, making a sickening wet snap. The guard fell to the ground, and she launched herself at the woman who killed her husband. The other woman stood smiling deviously and didn’t lift a hand to get out of the enraged vampire’s way. It was over in one move. I didn’t even see it.
One second the woman who lost her husband was about to have her hands around the murderer’s neck, and the next she was on the ground with a pool of blood. A small needle like dagger stuck out of her back, and she ceased to move.
“Poor Valencia,” the devil woman s
aid. “It was foolish to think that a weakling like you could end my life.”
My eyes trailed to Gabriel. Tears were flowing down his face and his breathing started to speed up as he clenched his teeth in an animal like snarl. His eyes were blazing with hate and his muscles were tensing. Before Vaze or I could stop him, he bolted from behind the throne towards the demon queen. The only thing we could do was chase after him. Gabriel lunged at the queen from behind, but the remaining guard tackled him. The queen looked at him with boredom.
“You are so naïve,” she said emotionlessly. “Now you’re going to die as well.” She drew her hand back and a needle like dagger appeared in her palm. At the moment, the queen still hadn’t noticed we were there. Vaze went straight for my brothers, but I decided to go hero. A fraction of a second before the queen brought her dagger down on Gabriel I set the floor on fire, separating them by walls of flames. The first thing that made me regret what I had done was the pain. It shot through me like before, but it was a million times worse. Again, it radiated from my stomach which I clutched tightly until the queen turned and glared at me.
“Well isn’t that courteous of you dear,” she laughed. “You came willingly. You have no idea how much time you’ve saved me looking for you. I’ll have to call off the search parties I sent out into the forest, but that can wait.”
I straightened up, and tried to ignore the pain, attempting to look just as fearless as the man that she killed, but it was difficult. Staring directly into her eyes, I immediately wished I hadn’t. Her eyes were stone cold, as if she was incapable of compassion. Her steely gaze bore into my mind, making my fear take heights I had never known. She snapped her eyes to Vaze. He had cut the bonds of the rope, and was desperately trying to make my brothers snap out of the trance.
“It looks like that little demon child has more strength than I thought,” she muttered angrily. “No matter, she will break eventually.”
She walked over to my brothers. Vaze got in front of them with his dagger drawn. She hardly took notice, except for swatting him aside like a fly, knocking Vaze unconscious. Vaze flew across the room and crashed into a suit of armor. The queen strode over to Al, and twisted his hair in her fingers.
“Why do you care about these pests?” she asked while twirling my brother’s hair. “They are not special like you or me. They are completely useless.”
“A monster like you wouldn’t understand,” I hissed. “You have no heart. You kill people without so much as a second thought.”
The queen pricked Darren’s neck with her nail. A thin dot of blood stained her white finger, but she quickly licked it off. I cringed. I really wanted to hit her, but surprisingly, I was smarter than that. I had to wait for the perfect opportunity, or it would be over very quickly.
“They are nothing more than food to me,” she admitted. “But you, on the other hand, are a bounty. If I kill you, I will be granted power beyond your imagination.” She made her way to Jake who, like the rest of my brothers, had a blank stare. She ran her hand across the red scar on his face.
“You do more harm than good, you know,” she purred with a venomous smile. “Just look at the damage you did to this beautiful boy. He would have been such a handsome treat if you hadn’t given him this scar. And even after you had done so, he still took care of you.” She struck a nerve.
“Shut your mouth,” I hissed under my breath.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” she asked playfully. The witch was treating it like a joke.
“I said shut your mouth, or I’ll shut it for you!” I yelled with rage. The queen laughed, and walked towards me.
“Show me what you can do,” she dared, dashing towards me as she drew two needle-like daggers.
I whipped out my own dagger, and braced for impact. She slashed at me and I blocked it, kicking her legs out from under her, and bringing my dagger down near her throat. She rolled away before it made contact, and jumped back to her feet, jabbing me in the gut with her elbow and knocking the wind out of me. But then she hesitated and I slashed at her stomach, creating a thin cut in her gown and making a bloodless wound. She retreated, but not in defeat. A sly smile hung on her face.
“You’re pretty good,” she said in congratulations. “But will you show the same skill with those close to you?”
As if on cue, my brothers rose to their feet. They each drew their daggers and ran to me. For a second I thought they were coming to help. It was a very short second. Jake got to me first and slashed at me with his dagger. I was so shocked I almost didn’t dodge it. Hardly a millisecond later Al tried to kick my face. I blocked his leg with my arm and was immediately attacked by Darren. He lashed out with his dagger. The blade came within a hair’s width of my nose. I dropped my dagger and punched him in the gut with my free hand. He didn’t show any pain. Seth came up behind me and tried to slit my throat. I got my arm between his arm and my neck, and knocked it away, freeing myself.
“What is the matter with you guys?” I pleaded, trying to get them to stop. They ignored me and continued to attack. They attacked again and again, and each time I blocked, dodged, and countered them. I was starting to lose my temper, and my energy. Al tried to tackle me to the ground. Before he made contact I jumped onto his back and kicked Jake across the face, who had been waiting to attack once Al got me down. Jake fell to the ground with a loud thud. I didn’t have to look twice to know he was out cold. I didn’t have the time to either. Darren came in charging from the side, giving me hardly any time to react. I punched as hard as I could, and caught his chin by the right side. He stopped and dropped to the ground just like Jake. Two down, two to go.
Seth tried to attack from behind again, but I was ready. I whipped around and my elbow made contact with his face. He fell to the ground unconscious like the rest. Little beads of golden light seeped through the black cloth that covered the stained-glass windows of the throne room. The queen hadn’t noticed, but I couldn’t give it more than a second’s glance. I was still fixated on fighting. Three down, one to go, but Al was nowhere in sight. I heard clapping from across the room.
“Very good,” The queen complimented sarcastically. “You managed to defeat them without killing anyone. If I were you I’d burn them to a crisp and be done with it, but I guess you and I have different views. That is why you will die tonight.” Al walked out from the shadows behind her with a blank stare on his face. The queen beckoned to him, and he came.
“I noticed that out of all of them, you refused to hurt this one the most,” she said while taking him under her arm.
“If you touch him, I swear I’ll kill you!” I said with my rage building once again.
“Whether or not he dies is all up to you my dear,” she said while drawing another of her needle-like daggers and putting it too close for comfort near his neck. “I’ll make you a deal.”
I didn’t respond.
“You try to kill me and he dies, followed by you and the rest of your brothers,” she said. “But, he can live along with the rest of your brothers on one small condition.”
“And what would that be?” I hissed.
“You kill yourself,” she said joyfully. My heart skipped a beat. No matter how much I wanted it to be a cruel joke I knew she was dead serious. And no matter how much my common sense was screaming for me to be smart for once, I knew I wasn’t going to be.
I picked my dagger up from the ground and looked at my unconscious brothers, convincing myself it wasn’t for nothing. I angled the point to my heart, and no matter how much I tried to look fearless, a small tear trickled down my face.
“Scarlet no!” Gabriel shouted while struggling to free himself from the guard that refused to let go. The queen smiled in triumph and her black eyes twinkled in delight.
I tried my best to ignore his pleas. My brothers were the only thing I had in life. If I chose to live and let them die I would be alone. If I chose to save them, I’d die. It was a no win situation. At least saving them would have given me some peace of
mind. I pulled back the dagger, to make the blow swifter. I at least wanted it to be quick. I held my breath, as if it would lessen the pain. As fast as I could, I plunged the dagger towards my heart.
Chapter Six
“Don’t do that Scarlet,” a voice echoed from above, causing me to stop a hairs width from my chest. All heads turned towards the covered stained glass windows that loomed over the golden throne to find Vaze lounging on the very top of the curtains. The smile on the queen’s face faded.
“You shouldn’t even be conscious!” she wined in disbelief. “I ordered my guard to kill you after I knocked you into the wall.”
“Yeah, I know,” Vaze answered. “He wasn’t a very impressive fighter. And honestly, you’re not very impressive either when it comes to brains. I’ve fought children with more intelligence than you. The only thing you’ve got is amazing power and speed, but you’re also cocky. When you were fighting Scarlet I had enough time to slip into the shadows. By the time the guard you sent arrived to kill me I was already hiding, so it was simple to subdue him. The rest of the time I spent flying silently up here, and honestly, curtains weren’t the best idea to block out the sun from the castle.”
With one swipe of his leg, Vaze kicked out the rungs that held the curtain to the ceiling. One by one, the curtains fell to the ground, letting the golden light of the sun flood into the room. The queen let out an inhuman screech that nearly my ears bleed. As the light touched her skin, it went from pure white to stony grey. She released my brother and clawed at her face. Her long black hair faded to silver and her flawless baby-like skin aged a million years before our eyes.
“Curse you!” She shrieked. “You devil! I will not accept this! I swear I’ll make you pay! I will have my revenge!”
“You’re going to have to get in line,” he replied.
The queen thrashed around as she aged before our eyes. Deep wrinkles appeared in seconds, and smoke began drifting off her skin. Her skin hung so loosely, her bone structure was plain to see. With one last pained cry, the vampire fell to the ground and turned to dust. The guard restraining Gabriel rose to his feet with a look of amazement on his face.
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