“Pete…I…Blood Ceremony? No. I don’t want a Blood Ceremony.”
“It is not your place to have a choice.”
“That’s not fair!” I shook my head and pushed him away.
“Trust me. I won’t hurt you. Close your eyes and trust me.”
I obeyed. My head became light, my body numb, as though I did not even exist. Just as my eyes closed, I knew my memories would diminish. He quickly gathered me in his arms and lulled my jerky head.
“Here,” he said placing his wrist before me.
I stared blankly at the deep scratch that ran down his arm, oozing black blood. He pressed his arm to my lips, but I turned sharply at the taste of the toxic, sour tasting blood. I coughed loudly and looked up at him.
“That is disgusting.”
“Continue,” he ordered and pressed his arm back to my lips again.
It was horrible, and I choked, but found my head was beginning to clear. Fragments of memory came to me and one thing became obvious – I did not love this vampire and I needed to go back to Catastrophe, my home.
With this in mind, I refused to continue with the Ceremony. I just knew it was not supposed to be like this. The Blood Ceremony confirmed a bond. What bond did I have with Pete?
“Continue,” he demanded once I refused yet again.
“Fitzray,” I whispered.
“What? What did you say?”
“Fitzray,” I whispered, “I know that name.”
Pete uttered a deep growl and tossed me off his lap, onto the floor.
“Don’t you dare say that name ever again,” he raged. “If you know what’s best for you.”
He stood up and looked down at me with an icy glare. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me to my feet and held me tightly in place.
“What will you do to me?”
“I will make you forget,” he laughed and tried to kiss me when I turned away.
“I don’t love you,” I spat.
“You don’t have to, but it can only help since there is no way you can escape me. Why do you think I created this planet?”
“So I will never go to Catastrophe again?”
“What for? You have a planet all for yourself.”
“But I have no past…no life.”
“Yes you do, but you have no need for it. You have started a new life.”
“You mean you have started a new life?”
He shook his head and frowned. “I have used far too much power for it to be considered that I would be starting a new life. I have used my power for both of us.”
“Well, I want my old life back.”
“It’s too late for that.”
* * * * *
“Ready the dragons! Take your positions! We’re going to fly over the Bridge!”
“I’ve heard that space is cold,” Pearl whined and held her beautiful fur coat tightly.
“That it is,” Taj’ said.
Lucian clutched his cape in one of his hands to prevent it from smacking against Jasper while the hard winds continued to blow. In his other hand, he held onto one of Jasper’s blue spikes that ran down his neck.
“Are you coming Taj’? We could use you.”
“I am afraid your dragons will not be able to carry me. You must go on and leave me here.”
“Nonsense, you won’t be a problem for our dragons.”
“If you are sure I won’t be any trouble-,”
“Not at all.”
The snake turned away as Lucian continued to shout his orders to the battalions.
“How will we find her on that planet? Do you know how long it might take,” someone began to protest.
“We will split up and look for her. The planet is smaller than Earth so it shouldn’t be that hard to find her.” Lucian said and quickly mounted his dragon, as the rest had done. “Now take your formations, let’s go!”
The vampires, now all on the backs of their assigned dragons all waited for his command.
“Fly over the Bridge!”
In the first row Lucian, Amelia, Caspian, Calvin, Pearl and the werewolf girl, Prusaious, braced themselves for takeoff. Next were the strongest of the vampires atop stalwart dragons. The dragons had very little space to get over the Bridge wall and many barely made it over. The dragons’ stomachs skimmed over the apex of the wall, resulting in great thrusts from their back talons to prevent themselves from crashing.
“Get behind me,” he yelled. The dragons flew behind him in formation.
Prusaious moved up near Lucian and smiled sweetly, keeping a firm grip on her dragon’s spikes. He glanced over at her and sighed.
“What do you want Pru?”
“Lucian, do you think this is such a good idea, the whole trip to this new planet? I mean, what if you get yourself killed?”
“Why are you worried about me?”
“I have known you for nearly five years now, as an ally of the vampires, and you are like a little brother to me. I had to look after you all those years. Why wouldn’t I be worried about you Lucian?”
Lucian shook his head and shifted uneasily on the rough surface of his dragon’s back.
“You have the highest risk of us all to be killed.” Prusaious continued. “I mean, you are more of a mortal than any vampire I have ever seen. Why, you are a mortal with fangs. You have absolutely no taste for blood nor do you know the vampire ways. Although you do have the compassion no mortal possesses, that will not make up for what you need to stand up against Pete. I just don’t think you are strong enough.”
“I am not going to stand up to him.”
“Oh?”
“I just have to take Chenille back to Catastrophe and avoid him.”
“What! You want to try to bring her to Catastrophe where Pete will find her, take her back again, and then hunt you down? You don’t stand a chance. He’ll kill you before you leave the planet!”
“He won’t kill me.”
“You are a mortal!”
“I’m not a mortal!”
“Oh sorry, a mortal with fangs,” she snapped, aggravated.
“I will save her.”
“Do you plan to take on Pete too? Because you shouldn’t expect your plan will work. He will find you and by all means he will have you dead.”
“I have the strongest vampires of Catastrophe and their dragons behind me. How can my plan fail?”
“That doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter that you have an army of immortal creatures! You don’t get it! He is so strong he can kill every single one of them without hesitation. He is not only the leader of the vampires, but that of the planet he has created and who knows what lurks there.”
“How does he have so much power?”
“He has killed his father and his brother who both possessed royal blood. If Chenille were to complete the Blood Ceremony with Fitzray, he would be back by now, reincarnated. And so I hope she has not completed any Ceremony with Pete.”
“But I thought Fitzray and Chenille already performed the Ceremony together.”
“They began to, but I heard that it wasn’t completed. Had they completed it, Fitzray would be back by now. He would be able to stand up to Pete. And that would leave Fitzray and Chenille as the leaders of Catastrophe.”
“I hope she hasn’t performed the Ceremony with Pete yet.”
“We will find out soon. The planet is coming into view.”
“Go back and tell the others to prepare for landing. I’m going to go ahead to check out this place.”
* * * * *
Chapter 12 - Unwelcome Company
Ilooked up into the sky, foggy with dark ash clouds. A white dot appeared on the horizon. One of Pete’s black dragons lifted off and flew towards the white object in the sky. Pete was asleep. It was late and feeling restless, I came to gaze at Earth and Catastrophe from afar. The dragon roared and came plunging down, as did the white object. It drew closer until it was clear in the sky and I ran from it, realizing it was about to crash. It was a dragon. A figure sat on
its back, commanding its every move.
Pete’s dragon suffered a bite from this huge white one and sliced its wing, causing them both to plunge down. The black dragon, paralyzed, simply fell and collided into the hard ground as the white one struggled to fly, barely glided down, and crashed as well. The figure flew off the dragon and collided into the ashy ground, sending up a cloud of smoke.
Is this an intruder? I thought, slowly making my way toward the figure.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
“No.” The figure said and sat up with some difficulty, one hand clutching his injured, bloody arm. The color of his blood was dark, a clear sign that he was of some royalty.
“Let me help you.” I tried to take his hand, but he quickly turned. “Let me help you,” I repeated.
“Who are…are you…Chenille East?”
“Yes, I am, now if you could just let me-,”
“Chenille? Chenille where are you? Get over here!” It was Pete.
The boy froze, sat as still as a statue. Even his breathing stilled. “Who are you? What is your name?” I whispered.
“I am…Lucian, Fitzray’s cousin.”
There is that name again.
“Chenille!”
“I can’t leave you here, you’re hurt.”
“Don’t worry about me, just go. Meet me here when Pete is asleep.”
“But your arm-,” I began.
“Go!”
Slowly I made my way over to Pete, resisting the urge to look over my shoulder at Lucian as I did so.
“Where were you? I heard a loud noise and-,”
“That was thunder, nothing to worry about.” I pushed him back through the doors of the palace.
“It didn’t sound like thunder, it sounded louder.”
“It was thunder.” I struggled to make my voice sound convincing.
He laughed quietly. “You look so shaken.”
“You look so disheartening.”
He smiled and pressed his lips to my neck. “Must I make you begin the Ceremony?”
I laughed. “You can’t make me drink your blood. It won’t happen.”
“How about Fitzray? How was his blood?”
“Who is Fitzray?”
“No one important,” he grumbled.
“Well, whoever he was, I’m sure his blood was delicious compared to yours.”
“Why you-,”
“I have no trust in you and I don’t want to drink your thick, acidic blood. That’s why I don’t like it. I don’t like you.”
“Of course you do. I am all you have.”
“That’s not true! And I would prove it to you if you took me to Catastrophe-,”
“I will never take you to Catastrophe. Everything you would ever need and want, I can give to you,” he spat.
“Well, I want to go to Catastrophe.”
“Except that.”
I crossed my arms impatiently. “I want to be left alone for the rest of the night.”
Just as I turned, his hand grabbed my arm.
“Why must you be so difficult,” he scorned. “I only do what I do out of love,” he chimed, practically mocking. I realized, remembered, that those were the last words my brother said before he was killed. “I do love you.”
I looked away in disgust from the vampire. A part of me wanted to echo his words, but another part of me would have pierced my heart if I had. His poison had control over me, which made me echo these words repeatedly without me realizing it. Each time I had said them, he kissed me and gave me the poison I craved, but in doing so, he lost more of his poison to control me. At the same time, he became more and more powerful from the sense of the fake love he was receiving from my words.
I broke away from his grip, this time refusing to echo his words. This was a first, the sense of my independence from him, and he growled loudly at my rebellion. My gaze focused elsewhere, to the stairs, and I made my way toward them.
“Come back.”
Tossing my head, I swaggered up the stairs. As I proceeded away from him, he angrily ran after me.
“You cannot disobey my wishes, Pete.”
“And you cannot disobey mine.”
Once I made it to the top of the stairs, I settled my feverish glare over him.
“I am Queen of the vampires. Not even you can overpower me.”
“Oh yes I can. Since I am King and you are mine, I can easily overpower you in every way.”
He prowled up the stairs like a tiger, like a beast, stalking prey. I dug the heel of my shoe into the hardwood floor and the stairs disintegrated, splitting beneath Pete’s feet. He plummeted down, now that the stairs were gone, and landed flat on his back.
“As I said, leave me be for the rest of the night,” I called down to him.
He yelled, but I knew he was not hurt. He probably had no more than a bruise. I walked quietly down the hall with a smirk and entered the master suite. Alone at last, I took a seat on the edge of the bed and marveled at the sight of the huge moon Clesta with its deep yellow-orange glow beside Catastrophe.
Is Lucian a threat to me? Should I trust him? How does he know my name?
An icy hand wrapped around my throat as the bed sagged from the weight of my Eternal Mate.
“I am sorry for the way I acted,” I said quietly, frightfully, hoping the grip around my throat would loosen.
“Don’t let it happen again.”
“Pete.”
“Hmm?” His hands moved to my shoulders, slowly wrapping around me.
“Are you tired?”
“No.”
I rubbed my eyes. “I am.”
“You should be. You destroyed the stairs.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No. I am not harmed from your childish mistakes.”
“Forgive me?”
“As always,” he said with a kiss.
I felt my head ease, my memory erase, but kept the thought of Lucian. I knew the loss of his poison would weaken him and soon cause him to fall asleep as if under anesthesia. To my relief, he fell asleep within a few short minutes. I made the slightest movements as I rose from the bed and walked out of the room. Even if he woke up, he would be too weak to chase after me.
I grabbed my cape on the way out and shrugged it on while the chilled air struck my face. I didn’t have to travel far when I saw Lucian and the white dragon. They were not alone.
A vampire with long red hair ran up to me and hugged me tightly. “Chenille, you’re ok.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Amelia…remember? Amelia?” She spoke to me as if I was a child, but I could see she knew me well.
“No, no I don’t.”
“What about Caspian?”
A vampire with striking blue eyes walked up to me. “I am Caspian. Do you remember me?”
I shook my head. I was also introduced to Calvin, Prusaious, Pearl, and Taj’.
“These are your friends,” Lucian said. He paused, an anxious glance shooting toward the palace. “Is Pete asleep?”
“Yes, he’s asleep.”
Friends. I bounced the word around in my head for a moment.
“Why are you here?”
“We have come to take you back to Catastrophe.”
“Really? You would really take me there?”
“We are going back tomorrow since everyone is tired from the long trip here.” Lucian replied, answering my question.
The large group of vampires separated into small groups where they formed circles around constructed fires. I sat next to Lucian and the snake, Taj’.
“Can you tell me…who Fitzray is?”
Lucian took a deep breath before he began. “Fitzray was my cousin. He loved you very much, believe it or not. He was killed by Pete.”
“You don’t remember him?” Taj’ asked, surprised.
“I don’t. I wish I could but my memory has faded.”
“How?”
“Poison, I have been poisoned.”
“Poisoned
by Pete?”
“Yes, the poison in his fangs is so wonderful. It’s so addicting that I can’t help myself, but I lose some of my memory as soon as it hits my lips.”
“We have to keep you away from him.”
“How did you get here? How did you find me?” I sat on Lucian’s lap and looked up at him as a child eager to hear a nursery rhyme. He did not seem bothered by it, so I remained where I was.
“We flew on the backs of dragons and I found you. I saw one of the black dragons and suspected there would be something there for it to protect. I was right. The beast nearly killed me.”
“Is that your dragon? The big white one?”
“Yes, that’s Jasper.”
“You know, we do have someone that has been waiting to see you,” Taj’ said, diverting my attention away from Lucian.
“Who?”
Taj’ slithered away and came back a few moments later. A dragon with icy blue scales stood next to him. A blue jay was perched on one of the dragon’s light brown horns. A smaller orange colored dragon was at his side.
“Who are you?”
“This is Minx,” Lucian said gesturing toward the blue dragon.
“Who is the bird?”
“Valiant,” the bird chimed and flew to my shoulder.
“We have found that Valiant is not a blue jay,” Amelia said. She paused for a moment to see if I was confused or if I had remembered what a blue jay was.
“What is he then?”
“He is a phoenix.”
“He doesn’t look like a phoenix.”
“You should see him in the morning, that’s when he changes. He is a blue jay a lot probably since he can’t mimic when he is a phoenix.”
“And this is an old friend of Fitzray’s.” Lucian added as he showed me the beautiful white bat that flew to him. “This is Charlene.”
The bat swelled up nearly twice her size and side- stepped from Lucian’s hand over to my shoulder to perch beside Valiant.
The smaller dragon clung to my cape and nuzzled me beneath my chin. I looked at its brilliant orange scales with its pink wings the color of a grapefruit. Its veins resembled the inside of an orange, thin and filled with sweetness.
“Who is this?”
“That is Citrus,” Minx said.
Opulent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) Page 7