Alone (Book 2): Lone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  “Please the desires of the others? You don’t let humans live?” I asked.

  “If they need to let loose, have a bit of fun, some hanky panky then she must abide by my rules and do that or she dies it’s simple”, he replied without a hint of remorse in his voice.

  “You’re a monster”, I hissed into his face.

  “No I’m King”, he hissed back brushing his lips over my cheek again as he moved to look me in the eye.

  That poor girl, I shuddered at the thought of what she must have gone through at the hands of these monsters and with her two sister’s permission. Why didn’t they stop this? Or did he have control over them too so that they wouldn’t shout out and question him, “You are a sick bastard not a King, a true King would never treat his people like crap”.

  He laughed into my face, his breath stroking my nose, I could smell a small hint of blood and I shuddered, “That’s not what the history books tell, most of the best Kings treated their people with an iron grip to keep them inline and that’s how I’m running my kingdom”.

  “And what about the humans, why don’t you let them live? They could play a part in a kingdom too”

  “Because there is no place left for them in the world, they are an extinct species, we are the new race now. We hunt and kill humans, we feed from their very flesh and bones and sacrifice them for our own need”, he told me.

  My hands started to shake, that explained the smell of blood on his breath and that also meant the meat he had put all out on the table for the feast was not a meat I could completely recognise as it had been human meat and I hadn’t seen it carved up like that before, Just bloody flesh in my hands. Blinking away the image I sighed, I knew I wasn’t perfect but the difference between me and them was I wouldn’t intentionally go out and hunt them. They had once all been human but now they were worse than monsters, they were demonic bastards that needed taking down a peg or two but before I could think of a plan as to how he said something else that hit a nerve, “And thanks to Albi we have just located a large group of humans not just a few miles from here, a day’s journey at most. Barden Park in Tonbridge and I’m going to enjoy tearing them limb from limb, I think you know the place, right?”

  Chapter 10 …

  That evening I sat with Kaley locked away in our own room, Christian had allowed me to move her into my room permanently and Kaley didn’t moan about it, it wasn’t until they were all gone and out of ear shot that she told me that she already knew about Albi but was shocked about the pregnant wife. Just then as she stood and brushed my shoulder I felt a spark, the image of the pregnant woman flooded my brain and I knew it too was flooding hers. Reeling back as she pulled away I said, “Your gift is so strange Kaley, I still don’t get how you have Telekinesis, especially since most of us are just…Monsters”.

  “You’re not a monster Stacie”.

  “No? Then what am I?” I asked.

  “A human who is lost, that’s all”.

  For a young teenage girl some of the things she said sounded too grown up for her years, “I’m not lost”, even though I knew saying it was a lie, mainly to me not to her.

  “Yes you are, but you will find your way, back to them”.

  I nodded, “Yeah, I hope so”. There was a small silence before I added, “But I can’t go back, not forever I mean. I will go and warn them and help them but then we have to go”.

  She bit her lip, “I could try and find someone else to take me”.

  I shook my head, “Who else can you trust? With Albi dead and most people being just as mucked up as the creatures how can I let you go without me? I’m the only person I trust to take you to where ever it is you need to go”.

  “You’re the only person I trust now too”.

  “Tell me about him”.

  “Who?”

  “Dale”.

  Her face looked like it wanted to break in two and she shook her head, “I don’t think I’m ready for that”.

  “I think you are”.

  “Why?” she said but with a bite to her voice.

  “Because you showed me him in your dreams”.

  “Oh”, her eyes focused on something on the floor to avoid looking at me.

  “I’m sorry”.

  “For what?” A lone tear dripped down her cheek.

  “For being the monster that was there when he died”.

  She looked up at me, “I knew when I first saw you that you weren’t a monster and I still believe that now. You’ve protected me even though you hardly know me, all you wanted was to protect the camp and give everyone a Christmas”.

  “And look where it got us”, I said motioning to the room around us.

  “Albi brought us here not you”.

  At the mention of his name my heart broke a little, I knew I hadn’t known him for long but he had promised us a better life, a family unit together in this un-family style world but like the rest of my family he too had been taken away. Yes all he wanted was to get Kaley where she needed to go but I could see it inside his eyes, in his soul, he wanted the best for all of us and he included me and Cain in that.

  “I will KILL Christian for this”, I said.

  Kaley stayed quiet.

  “I will kill him for taking Albi away from us, I will kill him for kidnapping us, I will kill him for killing other innocent human beings, I will kill him for treating that poor girl Lara like a human slave, I will kill him for threatening to harm my loved ones and friends at the camp…I WILL KILL HIM”, I said turning to look at one of the dresses that had been hung up on a hanger over the canopy of the four poster bed, “And I will play him at his own game to do it”.

  “How?”

  “We will pretend to be the perfect ladies in his court but not too perfect just in case he suspects but enough to make him think we have broken, that our souls have given up, then we escape and get out of here and warn the camp that these monsters are coming and together gather enough strength and fire power to take them out”, I suggested.

  “Can’t we just kill them here?” she asked.

  “There’s too many and this is their turf, they make the rules. We need common ground where we can attack and make our own rules”.

  “Do you think even with the others that we could have a chance?”

  I shrugged, “I have no idea but we have to try”.

  I really had no idea on this one, for years I had prided myself on the fact that I was strong, that I could win any fight and that I could take down an army of creatures in a heartbeat if I needed to but with these ones, the half human half creature breeds they were more of an obstacle, they didn’t think like normal creatures, they weren’t predictable but they weren’t as weak as normal humans either. What to do, what to do? Either way whatever we decided it had to somehow involve taking them out, or maybe we could evacuate the camp and leave but…Their scents, they would just follow their scents and find them.

  Kaley walked to the frosted window which looked out over the once lush gardens but now all that greeted her was snow, burning remains of normal humans and despair. I knew why she felt so lost, she had trusted Albi’s instincts that it was safe here at that these people would help her but he had been wrong, she had been wrong, she had chosen someone who hadn’t fit the bill. But Albi hadn’t been a nasty person, he just hadn’t realised how sick and deprived the people he thought he knew had become.

  “Do you think bullets and blades will stop them?” she asked, “That’s all the camp has other than me and you”.

  I sighed, bullets might slow them down but these were powerful monsters a mere bullet was not going to kill them, they needed to be pulled apart and burnt, “I’m not sure about leading them to the camp, maybe we should try something else”.

  “Like what? They already know where it is, so even if we don’t go there they still might just to get a reaction”, she told me, “It would be better for us to warn them than leave them like sitting ducks”.

  “Then we bide our time and leave”.


  The next few days were fairly quiet, the half breeds were busy getting supplies together for their outing to Monique’s camp but Christian wouldn’t leave until his wife had given birth, which was a blessing as it gave Kaley and me time to think of a plan.

  I had been sitting in the library with Kaley pretending to read but we were actually talking together through her gift when Christian arrived.

  “Ah Stacie and Miss Kaley so nice to see you wearing the dresses I requested”.

  Kaley faked a shy smile and whispered to me in my mind, “Asshole”.

  I had to hide my smile as I turned to him, “What do we owe the pleasure?”

  “I have an invitation for you both”, he said passing us both an envelope each, “I know it’s strange doing things like this…”

  As he spoke I opened my envelope and found a neatly written invitation to a winter ball, the dress code, Masquerade.

  “But I think it times like these a little pick me up is needed and what better way than to have a party”, he smiled, his charming eyes boring into mine.

  I looked away, “I have nothing to wear, I think I’ll give it a miss”, and I lifted my book back up and pretended to read.

  He stalked over to me and placed his hands either side of the chair but I didn’t raise my eyes to his, so he took to taking the book from my grasp and tearing it in two like it had been made purely of tissue paper, “Oh don’t worry I have a dress already picked out for you, you can’t miss this party as it’s actually in your honour”.

  “Why my honour?”

  “Because I am going to coronate you as my Queen”.

  “What about your wife?” I hissed.

  “She has given me an heir to the throne and indeed I do still love her but I need a power house, I need someone people will respect and fear not someone who they already know and love”.

  “Bit harsh and out of order don’t you think?” I questioned him.

  He smiled showing my all his white teeth, the smell of blood was thick on his breath and it made me reel from him but in my chair there was nowhere to go, “She agrees with me”.

  “I’m sure she does”, I breathed at him, I knew full well he would have used his mind control to persuade her and eventually to persuade the others.

  He stood up and backed away from the chair, “The ball is tomorrow night at 8pm sharp, I expect you both to be in the dresses that I will have delivered to your rooms”.

  And with that he left.

  Kaley looked at me, “So Queenie what’s the plan now?”

  “We use the ball as a means of escape”.

  “But how you’re the main guest”, she said.

  “We will find a way”.

  That night Christian came to my room, Kaley was asleep on the bed her eyes too tired to continue the book she had stolen from the library. His knock on the door I guess was not unexpected, I knew he would want to talk plans with me about the party, so when I opened it and he asked me to join him for a walk I agreed but not why he thought, I wanted to check out the castle grounds at night again as before I had been too preoccupied to look properly and I needed to make a route in my mind, to show Kaley so we might have a chance to escape.

  Sweeping through the grounds Christian kept his arm on mine the whole time, I cou1ld feel him like a small pressure at the back of my mind, he was trying his hardest to get in.

  “What is it you want to know?” I spun on the spot asking him, turning to him was a mistake as it meant we were so close to one another that it could have been mistaken for a winter romance by one of his insidious servants that might be spying out the windows.

  “How do you know I want to ask something?” he held humour in his voice like I know found he always did, like this was all just one big game to him, that it didn’t matter that he was messing with people’s lives.

  “I can feel it”.

  “What you can feel me in your head?”

  I nodded, “Yes”.

  A glimmer of hope etched over his features, I had to play him right, make him think that he was slowly breaking down my walls.

  “Maybe you are not so closed to me after all”, he brought his hand up to my cheek, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from swatting it away, “What I really want to know Stacie, is your story”.

  “My story?” I asked confused, why would he want to know that?

  “Yes, how you became you, how you ended here, how you and Kaley met?”

  So I lied, a little bit. I told him that I had been travelling around not staying anywhere for long that I stumbled across the shopping centre with Kaley and Albi inside it. I made sure to mention Albi a lot as I wanted to see his reaction to his and mine friendship but he remained emotionless say for a hint of that goddamn humour. I told him nothing about Monique and the camp, I didn’t want him to know that those people meant so much to me but I had that feeling he already knew.

  “That’s funny because Albi told me that you stopped at a camp, Barden Park, you know the camp we are going to hunt at in a few days”, he put a hand on my shoulder as if to try and sense my feelings.

  “Yes we did but we didn’t belong there”.

  “I see, so you left in search of us?”

  “Albi said you would help us to get Kaley to where she needs to go, why are you asking this if you already know the answers?” I hissed.

  “I want to know how much you will lie to protect your friends at the camp”, he smiled, “I want to know how loyal you are”.

  I growled at him, it was a rather animal angry snarl by the time he finished his next sentence, “I love how loyal you are Stacie but I’m afraid it won’t help you or your friends but I’m willing to take your loyalty for our camp, for our people and when you become my Queen tomorrow night I will make sure you will never leave this place again. And then we shall feast on the meat and blood of your loved ones, then you will kneel to me because I will be your King”.

  “You will never be my King”, I spat in his face.

  He simply smiled and wiped away my saliva, “Soon I won’t need your opinion because your mind will break and I will make it that I am your King”.

  The walk back to camp was silent, he no longer held onto my arm but stood behind and watched my every move, I made sure not to look to inconspicuous as I made my mental map. By the time we arrived back at the castle I was so fuelled by anger that as he bid me goodnight I drew out one set of my claws and slashed them all up the wall of the staircase, only to be greeted by his laughter.

  “Stacie, I have a plan”, Kaley said as I locked the door behind me by ramming the chair against it again.

  We sat on the bed as she went through an idea but she didn’t speak it to me she told me through my mind, I could see it was taking it out of her using her power like this but it would mean if Christian or any of them were listening they wouldn’t know. The plan was simple, wait until after the party tomorrow night, everyone would be drunk and full of merry cheer, then, when they all had gone to bed sneak out and go to each of their rooms and try to take them out in their sleep, simple but maybe a little stupid. If they were anything like me they might sense our presence but Kaley had sort of thought of that too, she said to go for the weaker ones, the ones that Christian had his presence over most of all.

  “But what if he can tell what we are doing through their minds?” I said more to me than to her.

  She shrugged.

  “Guess it’s just a chance we have to take”.

  “If they are drunk his control might be affected”.

  “How do you mean?” I asked.

  “The other night when I was drunk I had no control over the dream I showed you”.

  I looked away, I had told her but I had felt so invasive that she knew that I knew her worst nightmares.

  “My gift was off, weaker than normal, I lost full control maybe he will to?”

  “We will try it and if not, we will just run”.

  8pm the next night came too quickly for my
liking, Katherine had arrived at 7pm to help us both into our ridiculous dresses. Mine was, horrifyingly beautiful and it made my skin crawl when I saw myself in the mirror, Christian was almost making this like a second wedding for him. It was a cream colour which was quite close to white but I guess after being in storage the colour would become a little off, the top was corseted which went up over my shoulders but then showed off my cleavage. The top had a sort of front panel over my chest, it had golden embroidery and pearls sewn in for extra royal decoration. It was fitted in at the hips and then flared out with what felt like hundreds of petticoats underneath, with a matching panel of golden and pearl embroidery down the front middle section down to the floor. My hair had been tied back to look like one of the regal pictures that lined the many walls into a neat bun shape, a small delicate tiara like crown was placed over my hair along with some pearl drop earrings.

  Katherine done my make up to look minimal but regal and then set about placing a large diamond necklace around my neck. I looked pretty, beautiful even but this felt wrong, so wrong and ugly but all would be fine soon, especially once I turned the white gown into a blood red version.

  Kaley’s was a royal blue, its sleeves were longer and had golden material laced around the cuff, a small golden section decoration the top of the corset which too was adorned with pearls. It flared out down to the floor with a pearl beaded belt sewn on to where her hips sat. Her hair was left flowing down, long and glossy and for a moment my heart stopped in my chest, I had mostly only seen Kaley with her hair up but with it down and so perfected she reminded me so much of her, of Tanya, my sister, the one person I had been so desperate to save.