Bloodrose

by Cassidy Raindance

  I grabbed her chin with a quick and gentle hand, tilting her face up to me and into the light. Her eyes were closed and blood coated much of her face. I saw the slightest quiver of her eyelashes, the faintest heartbeat I had ever heard gave a hollow tap and I didn’t need anything else. I ripped away the bonds that held her and lifted her up out of the chair, moving as fast as I could.

  “What is it?” called the guard that had stood solemnly waiting to be reprimanded for what I had made him believe were absurd ideas.

  “She’s alive,” I called behind me as he began to follow, “She needs a human doctor,”

  “She is?” he seemed as disbelieving as I had been before.

  “How did you know? I didn’t even hear her heart so how did you know?” I asked.

  I stopped and turned to the guard in an instant, my curiosity in how he knew she could still be alive outweighing only a tiny bit my urgency in needing to get her to a doctor. The guard gaped at me for a moment, his brain slow to catch up with him as he watched me cradle Prussia in my arms and look intently into his face.

  “Her blood,” he finally exclaimed after a long few seconds, “I didn’t hear her heart either but I thought I could hear her blood moving still. Crazy, I know…and she didn’t smell like death. Everything else did but she didn’t,” his eyes were as dazzled, amazed and confused as mine certainly looked. It sounded good enough to me. I turned and began running to get Prussia to the car.

  Every quick step that landed I felt Prussia rustle more to life. After half a dozen steps I could hear her breathing return to a more steady breath. When I got her into the car I let the front passenger seat all the way back and tried to place her as gentle as possible. As I snapped a seat belt in front of her, just in case, then I felt it. I wouldn’t call it a flutter. If I would call it anything it would be anxiety.

  I felt an anxiety return to my chest with a flood of worries that made me smile. I wasn’t just happy; I cared for her enough to worry a thousand little things about her. I wanted Prussia. I wanted to watch her sleep, to keep her safe, and I counted the minutes until she would open her eyes and look upon my face and know that I came for her. I wanted her to know she could be safe with me, that I could keep her that way.

  I closed the passenger side door and ran around to the driver’s side and couldn’t believe my eyes when I started the car and heard her speak. She said it faintly and she struggled to say it but I had heard.

  “Take me home,” she said, again, “to Robert,” she added this time.

  Chapter 28

  I didn't know how I got into the car but I was alive and that I was thankful. My entire body hurt. Shifting in the seat made me groan in pain. Looking around I realized that I was in a car but had taken me a few seconds to realize whose.

  As soon as I realized that I close my eyes and wished that it was still just a bad dream. I wanted to go back to sleep and pretend like this had never happened. But I knew that I could never go back, there were things I had seen that could never be unseen. There were things that I knew now that I can never shake, that I will always know and will always be there in my mind – sinking in and becoming a piece of me.

  “Take me home,” I said to Sebastian, focused intently on getting the car going.

  For a moment I didn't think he had heard me but the look in his eyes said that he had and I had surprised him by even speaking. That didn’t make me feel good considering how much pain I felt. I knew just by the pain but his look confirmed how bad of shape I must have been. But one thing gave me hope.

  Before we had been attacked, Robert had said he loved me and I believed him. And I moment I was the happiest and if I could get that moment back I could put this all behind me. I had to find him. And I needed to know if we still had a future.

  “Take me home,” I said, again, “to Robert,” I added this time.

  I could tell that Sebastian was distraught. But I had no sympathy to spare for him. At this moment I could only look at him as a monster. I didn't care how distraught he was. I just wanted to find Robert and I wanted to put all of this insanity behind me. I didn't know where I could go or who I could trust but I needed to get as far away from these people as I possibly could, if you could even call them people.

  "Of course," said Sebastian, a sort of kindness to his growl.

  He didn't seem pleased about it. Maybe it is because I asked for Robert. But in this kind of pain, after having been through what I had been through, I think putting Sebastian's feelings aside and focusing on me was more than fair.

  The car purred to life as he turned the key in the ignition and within a few minutes we were parked outside my apartment building. I had barely had enough time to assess my injuries. I could tell that I was covered in blood and had bite marks that bordered into chew marks everywhere I looked. The pain I felt had become excruciating.

  I couldn't tell if I had stopped bleeding. The amount of blood terrified me. I could only imagine how much I actually had left. Even being conscience didn't seem possible. It looked like someone had dumped large buckets of blood over me.

  The most of it was dry and that added to my pain. Each time I shifted in the seat the mostly dry blood would peel away from the leather and send shooting pain through my body. And whatever blood I had left inside of me felt as if it were on fire and racing through my veins.

  My entire body screamed in pain almost to the point where I couldn't feel anything. Any more and I think my brain would just shut down, unable to process anymore. I tried to ignore the pain. I felt exhausted. I just wanted to sleep.

  Sebastian put the car in Park and came around to my door. Fear at being so close to a monster in sheep's clothing shook me. I didn't want him to touch me but I knew that I couldn't get out of the car on my own and I needed to get into my apartment. I had a pounding in my chest wondering if Robert had found his way back and was safe.

  I winced but I didn't object when Sebastian began to scoop me from the seat. I couldn't stifle my scream as all of my skin that touched the seat felt as though it had been ripped away all at once. The pain blinded me as it rushed my senses. My scream must have terrified Sebastian because he held me close and that made the pain worse.

  I felt tears streaming out of my eyes and down my cheeks onto his shirt. I had latched onto his shirt and my hands had balls of the soft fabric. He must've realized that by simply touching me caused me pain because he released his grip and held his arms out. For anyone else it would have been impossible to hold me in this position for more than a few seconds but he didn't even bat an eye.

  "What can I do?" Sebastian asked, concern on his face.

  "I need to lay down," I said, "Inside. The sofa,"

  I spoke with labored breathing. The burning sensation running through my veins became worse with every moment. Everything felt on fire. It hurt to touch anything at all. Just his breath too close on my skin was enough to aggravate the pain. I had never felt anything like this in my entire life. I felt as though I were dying, being burned alive from the inside out.

  I didn't need to say anything else. He ran as if I weighed nothing. Through the entrance of the apartment building, Sebastian ran and carried me up every flight of stairs to my floor. He was barely winded when we got to my door.

  It concerned me how fast and easily he could run. Just one more unnatural detail though not nearly as distressing as the detail that followed. He shifted the way he carried me into one arm and, while that on its own was amazing, what terrified me the most is when he reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. One key in particular fit perfectly into my apartment door lock.

  I glared at him. But I still let him help me into the apartment. With his hand under my elbow he helped me walk through the door. I pulled my elbow away from his grip and headed through the linoleum floored entry and kitchen area towards the sofa in the living room.

  There were no lights on in the apartment. It may be dark but I knew my home and exactly where everything was, or so I had thought. S
ebastian turned around to close the front door when I tripped on something in the way. I fell into something slippery and I fell hard. That was when Sebastian found the light switch and illuminated my situation for me.

  There I lay on the linoleum sprawled out and covered in a thick sludge. When Sebastian turned the light on it was immediately clear what I had tripped over, or rather whom. I knew that gaze best in my nightmares, even if it only kept me company when unconscious.

  His eyes were exactly the way I remembered them. They looked deep into mine and at the same time they didn't look at me at all. His blood had pooled around him and coagulated, sickening and thick, which is exactly what I had landed in. I couldn't hear anything and I kept trying to scream as I looked into those eyes. Each time I screamed and couldn't hear anything I tried to scream again harder, louder. My entire hope lay in front of me dead, without a doubt dead. This is exactly how I felt inside.

  Sebastian stood over me in an awkward stance. I don't think any shoes are built to hold traction in pools of blood. His shoes had no grip or traction. He tried to lift me up out of the blood and to calm me down. And while I couldn't hear hardly anything his reactions seem to suggest that I made plenty of noise.

  I could only hear again after Sebastian tried to cover my mouth. But even with my mouth covered and my hearing returned, I continued to stare at Robert – our eyes locked. I couldn’t feel the pain at all anymore. I’d gone numb. I couldn't feel and I didn't care. Maybe it was all for the best. Maybe I would be next.

  I kept eye contact with Robert even as Sebastian scooped me up and began carrying me out of my apartment. Sebastian had said something to me. I could hear the vibrations in his chest but I didn't look at him. I just kept looking at Robert. Those haunting eyes followed me all the way out of the apartment. And when we finally left I could still see them.

  I closed my eyes as we headed down the stairs. Wherever we were going, it didn't matter. Attacked in the park, kidnapped at Victoria's home, bodies dumped on my apartment floor, keys to my apartment floating around, I didn’t consider any place safe anymore so it certainly didn’t matter where we were going. It just didn't matter. And so I slept and dreamt of Robert’s eyes.

  Chapter 29

  “I’ll never leave your side again,” I told her once I had gotten her in the car, “I’ll always keep you safe. I swear it on my life,”

  “You’re not even alive, Sebastian,” Prussia spit the words at me, “are you?”

  She knew the answer. I could read it on her face and I hated that this is how she had come to know of us, of my kind.

  “You can’t even admit it,” she continued, her face a mixture of pain and anger, “You are a monster and I don’t want you by my side. I don’t want you near me at all, ever again! I want you out of my life forever!”

  She struck out at me and I let her hit me. It didn’t hurt physically. But it made me cringe on the inside. She searched my face for a response and apparently my lack of emotion hadn’t been what she’d been looking for.

  “You don’t even feel,” she shouted, “you’re not natural. Monster!”

  She began to sob. I couldn’t imagine what she had gone through in that room. I wasn’t sure what they had wanted with her besides having her as a meal with a side of entertainment. And if anyone knew the limits of pain that a vampyr could and would inflict upon a human…it had to be me. I had had low points in my existence as all vampyrs usually experienced. But we rarely stopped to think of how it felt as the human. I had focused on me, on our game, Lydia and me.

  I hadn’t realized I would come to care for anyone other than Lydia and here the one I cared for most hated me for what I am and not who I am. And she had good reason to hate and fear my kind. I hoped that in time she would see I could be different. I could love her the way she deserved.

  “I’ll never leave you,” I said quietly, “I’m sorry I let this happen to you,”

  And for whatever reason those words seemed to quiet her. Perhaps she didn’t think a monster could be apologetic. Or maybe she realized her anger shouldn’t have been directed entirely at me. Either way, she at least calmed and stopped yelling at me.

  I started the car after a moment. The body in her apartment might draw attention sooner rather than later since the smell would soon follow and we didn’t need to be anywhere near by.

  “Where are you taking me now?” asked Prussia.

  She stared off out the car window. I reached for her hand and my heart gave me a reprieving flutter for a moment as she looked at our hands together, clasped. And my heart sank just as fast as it had fluttered as her face turned to disgust and yanked it away from mine.

  “Somewhere safe,” I said.

  We didn’t speak during the drive which helped me focus on my thoughts and the road. I drove as quickly as I could. Though she seemed more alert, even if angry, she had still lost a lot of blood and needed to see a doctor. We had no way of knowing if she had been infected until her blood had been tested. We needed to see Tommy as soon as possible and to talk to the Queen about the next move. Clean sweep had been a success but a great deal of damage had been done. And Lydia still needed to be dealt with.

  When I pulled up to the house, Prussia let out a whimper.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  I made a motion to put a hand on her shoulder but pulled my hand back after remembering how she had pulled away from my hand before. I thought it better to give her some space after everything that had happened.

  “You brought me here before,” she said, “You really think this place is safe?”

  “No one would think to come and kidnap you from here,” I said, “…not a second time,”

  I realized that didn’t sound as assuring as I had meant it. And the track record for the guards in protecting Prussia had been continually lacking at best. This gave me all the more motivation to take it over myself once again. This time, to make sure our defenses were as good as or better than I had left them years ago when I had followed Lydia out into her banishment. I never should have left.

  “I’m not holding my breath,” said Prussia.

  I understood her skepticism. I would be too in her position. But looking at her face then I could see the night had taken a deep toll on her. Her eyes sunken in, her complexion a sickly dullness to them and the tone of her voice rang of defeat.

  I came around and collected her from the car as carefully as I could. She motioned as though she wanted to walk but after a few steps she faltered and began to collapse. I caught her as she began to fall and picked her up. I cradled her as I had before and carried her up the steps of the house. She closed her eyes as I reached the door and I knew that those few steps had just been too much.

  I could feel the faint moving of the air from her breath as the door opened for me. I walked in with Prussia in my arm, covered from matted head to tattered toe in blood. She looked more dead than alive and a sea of vampyrs parted from the entrance to the Queen’s ceremonial podium on the grand staircase.

  I walked slowly so as not to jostle Prussia and as each vampyr turned to stare. I could see that much had happened during my short mission to save Prussia. It looked as though the entire court had shown up in the middle of the night. To an unaccustomed visitor, the dress and mood of the room would appear a very formal wake for a dearly departed relative. It wasn’t.

  I passed some familiar faces and some not-so-familiar faces. All of them stared and parted to make way for me, and to murmur comments to their right and left at what I carried.

  I could hear the sound of voices in the heat of argument as I approached the Queen’s podium at the landing of the grand marble staircase that graced the center of the house. I knew one voice particularly well, and another I knew better than I wanted to admit anymore.

  “I cannot be tried for merely knowing a vampyr that brought harm to your pet,” slithered Lydia’s high pitched and aristocratic drawl now that she stood in front of an audience, as well as the Queen, “And whil
e I don’t know that vampyr outside of casual acquaintance the thought that she could be put to death when she had no way to know that your precious Prussia had the protection of the Queen...it’s preposterous!”

  “She knew very well as I had told her in your very presence,” I boomed at Lydia, standing in all her theatrical display of wounded and wronged dame on the steps much lower than the Queen on the platform, “And as I told her I would before, I killed her as I found her after she kidnapped Prussia from the Queen’s very room and tortured her in a warehouse. The exact location you told me I could find her, and I did,”

  Lydia gasped in shock and horror at what I said. I took several steps up the staircase to the platform and turned so that the court could see the damage done to Prussia, covered in injuries and blood.