Bloodrose

by Cassidy Raindance

  “So…” Sebastian shook his head, “She got Prussia when she attacked her in the park?”

  Tommy shook his head to indicate that wasn’t the case either and Sebastian’s face turned from confusion to frustration.

  “Prussia’s a vampyr on a cellular level,” I said, trying to put it in the simplest terms possible for Sebastian, “She was born a vampyr,”

  “How is that even possible?” asked Sebastian, “She’s a human. There must be some sort of mistake,”

  Tommy pointed to some chicken scratch on a page and some test tubes he had been mixing things in.

  “I ran the test again just now,” said Tommy, “There is no mistake. And she’s been healing herself. The blood she’s pushing out right now is infected. It’s the virus that was injected. It’s some how…incompatible and Prussia’s body is rejecting it,”

  “When can she see the doctor?” asked Sebastian, concern blanketing his demeanor, “So she can get better,”

  “She’s healing herself, somehow,” said Tommy, his face covered in amazement as he looked down at blood soaked Prussia laying on the chaise, “I can run more tests on the blood I’ve drawn but right now, she’s some sort of…a marvel.”

  “What do you mean, Tommy?” I asked, curious at the way he looked down at Prussia.

  “My Queen,” said Tommy, bowing his head slightly and grasping for the words to explain what he wanted to say, “She doesn’t need blood to live, she eats food. She is weak but heals herself from grave wounds. She’s warm blooded, she’s alive, she’s…a vampyr without the thirst or hunger. It’s like she’s-”

  “Thank you, Tommy,” I said, cutting him off, “You know not to speak of this of course,”

  “Yes, my Queen,” said Tommy, gathering his things as he had finished, “I’ll run more tests and report my findings to you as soon as I have them.”

  “Thank you,” I said, “You can let the good doctor know that his services won’t be needed this evening,”

  I could tell that Sebastian hadn’t liked that I had decided to send the doctor away.

  “You might want to still bandage her wounds,” said Tommy, unsure the comment would be welcome, “she’s healing faster than a human and her blood level is rebounding but her wounds are still healing much slower than Vampyrs would,”

  “Very well,” I said, giving the extent of Prussia’s wounds another glance, “You can tell him to come in after Sebastian has left, to see to her wounds,”

  “Yes, Your Majesty,” said Tommy, ducking out of the room and closing the door behind him.

  As soon as Tommy left, Sebastian sat near Prussia and held her hand gently.

  “I’m sorry that I didn’t warn you about the engagement,” I said, “But Lydia called the entire court together and we didn’t have much time. Ensuring Prussia’s safety amidst the court is paramount. It was the best we could pull together last minute,”

  I looked Prussia over more carefully now from where I stood behind where Sebastian sat on the floor. Her injuries were great. There were deep gouges of flesh missing. Whoever had done this had done a great deal of damage. She should have died. If she had been human, she would have.

  “Honestly, I’m relieved,” said Sebastian, “It gives me leave to be close to her all the time without much explanation,”

  I could see the wound that Lydia had left in him as he sat there, looking to see if Prussia would open her eyes at any moment. I knew that look all too well – captivated by someone but terrified to love again. It made me want to lash Lydia for 100 years at the pain she had caused my grandson.

  “And your feelings on the engagement itself?” I asked, walking around to sit in my chair, reclaimed from Sebastian’s previous outburst of defiance.

  I wanted to believe that Sebastian had spent enough time with Prussia to care, to develop something there, but there would be no telling what could happen over the course of engagement. It made me thankful for the time limits of our laws. Perhaps for once our laws would work in my family’s favor.

  “I think it’s a mockery of the court and a low blow just to strike out at Lydia,” said Sebastian, “engaging me to someone you would clearly never approve of. I think everyone will be waiting to see how quickly this engagement dissipates and I’m curious of how quickly that would be too. What are your plans?”

  Sebastian looked at me then with a cold look, a look of being used and not appreciating it one bit.

  “But I do approve,” I said, completely meaning every word.

  “You can’t be serious,” said Sebastian, “The court will never see this as anything more than a joke and will laugh when there is no wedding,”

  “So we shall have a wedding,” I said, smiling faintly at him.

  “You’re really serious about this,” said Sebastian, standing up with disbelief in his eyes, “Tell me, what makes you choose even a human over Lydia? Is she really so bad?”

  “Yes,” I stated dryly, “So bad and so much more,”

  I walked over to the small bar and poured myself a drink, one for Sebastian as well though I left it on the bar for him to fetch on his own. He walked the width of the room to claim the drink and took a long look at Prussia before draining the entire glass in one go.

  “You really want me to marry a human?” asked Sebastian.

  “I’ve already told you,” I said, “She’s a vampyr. And from the looks of things –she’s perfect,”

  I sloshed my drink around in my glass with an occasional sip as I looked at Prussia lying on the chaise, still covered in blood from head to foot. Prussia wasn’t just a vampyr and Tommy had been close to saying it too. I knew exactly what Prussia had turned out to be and it brought me back to over 80,000 years ago – memories I thought had been long forgotten.

  How Felicia had found this girl and somehow known had turned into only my second biggest mystery. Who had come right into my bedroom to snatch Prussia away and torture her, or even kill her, had become more interesting than anything I had dealt with in years. Once word got out that a human would marry my grandson and ascend the throne – perhaps the truth would come out of the woodwork sooner rather than later.

  “Why can’t we just tell everyone?” asked Sebastian, returned to Prussia’s side.

  He posed a valid question. My team of legal counsel had suggested the same thing. But my political advisors had weighed in with the right frame of mind. Knowledge, even the smallest kernel, is power in any and every situation.

  “As long as we can secure Prussia’s safety and place in the family without revealing everything, we will do so,” I told Sebastian, reverting to my naturally political tone of voice, “If we were to reveal the truth about Prussia there is no telling how the court and others, especially our enemies, would react,”

  “They were just going to eat her,” said Sebastian, moving a piece of blood dried and matted hair away from Prussia’s temple.

  It gave me pause that whoever had tried so hard to get to Prussia would simply dispatch her.

  “Did they say why?” I asked.

  “She said she just wanted a snack,” said Sebastian, looking up at me without a glimmer of real understanding, “but she fought like she had been trained, like she was one of us,”

  I nodded my head. I understood enough. Prussia had experienced a run of bad luck and politics. The real enemy lurked out there. Two attacks in one night couldn’t be coincidence. They were orchestrated – and that means someone still out there had been pulling the strings.

  “You were right to reinforce security,” I murmured, heading over to the window and looking out on the grounds, “we’re going to need it,”

  Chapter 31

  I spent days holed up in Victoria's house. I wasn't allowed to leave and Sebastian made sure that I didn't. If Sebastian wasn't there to make sure I stayed put he had guards posted outside my door at all times. I had my own gorgeous room but I still felt like a prisoner.

  Every day a doctor came to see if I was healing and everyday he said
the same thing. I’m healing up as nicely as to be expected considering my injuries. Tommy came every day too. As much as I hated everyone in the house Tommy actually made me smile. He always brought me a rose which made me feel better, gave me a little hope even that I could see the beauty in things again. I didn’t see much beauty in the world lately.

  Tommy confused me the most out of everybody. Tommy worked for the Vampyrs as though there wasn’t anything wrong with it. It made my skin crawl. And every day he comes in and takes samples of my blood. He says he checks my blood for signs of infection. But I don't believe him. Who really believes a human that works for Vampyrs? Perhaps I should've hated him most for not offering a way to escape.

  Between the Doctor, Tommy, and Sebastian, I had seen all of them at least once a day. The one person I hadn't seen had been Victoria or rather Queen Victoria now. My anxiety grew every day. I wanted a way out of this place and away from these monsters. No one would explain anything to me. Sure, I knew that I had been attacked, kidnapped, and tortured. But these are things I already knew because I was there. But I didn't know why all these things had happen to me. That's what I wanted to know. That's what I kept asking myself. Why all this happened to me - why me?

  I spent the mornings looking out the windows and watching as the guards patrolled outside. The door opened but I didn't look to see who had entered. There is a very short list of visitors. One of three people stood behind me and I didn't want to see any of them.

  “I brought you lunch,” said Sebastian.

  “Leave it on the bed,” I said.

  “You have to talk to me sometime,” said Sebastian, “We need to talk,”

  “Do you suddenly feel like telling me how it is you walked into my life?” I asked.

  I turned around then. I wanted to see his face; I wanted to know what he looked like when he told a lie. From where I stood, it looked like he just always lied.

  “I don't have all the answers, Prussia,” said Sebastian, “I just need you to trust me. I need you to understand that this is the safest place you could be,”

  “Right,” I said, sarcasm thick in my voice, “This is all for my safety. I forgot,”

  “I love you,” said Sebastian, his voice quiet with a surreal vulnerability, “I know you don’t believe me but I do. I love you,”

  “I hate you,” I whispered back with quivering lips, tears flooding my eyes.

  I looked at him, tears cascading one at a time down my face and letting him see all of the hate and pain. I wanted him to know I meant the words I said. I wanted him to realize that I wouldn’t forgive what had come to pass.

  “I’ll win your heart back,” said Sebastian, “I’ll prove I’m worthy of yours. I’ll spend eternity proving I’m worthy if you’ll let me. You can hate me as long as you want. Just let me love you,”

  “I’ll always hate you,” I said with clenched teeth, glaring at him.

  I couldn’t see though my tears. But I could see Robert’s face. And I knew that if Sebastian could save me he could have saved Robert. I knew it hadn’t been Sebastian that had killed him but he might as well have. He saved me and let Robert die. If he could have saved us both…maybe we could have run and I never would have been tortured.

  I thought back to Robert in those last minutes before his death. I wanted to believe he would have saved me instead of Sebastian from that dungeon. I pushed away how Robert had reacted in the park, running and leaving me. He had been just as terrified as I had been, as anyone would have been. I couldn’t blame him for running. He would have come back for me.

  “Victoria said she would like to speak with you today,” said Sebastian, softly, “Is that okay with you?”

  I tried to shake the thought of Robert out of my head but his eyes still, always, remained just in the back of my mind. The fact remained – Sebastian had saved me and let Robert die. And even if unfair – the world hadn’t been fair – I hated Sebastian for choosing me, saving me, for loving me.

  “Of course,” I said, “I don't want to anger the Queen,”

  I rolled my eyes at the thought of calling Victoria, sweet old woman, a Queen and looked back out the window. The sun shone bright and still I watched as they walked outside. They were everywhere. They were nothing like my nightmares as a child. They were much worse.

  “She should be in shortly,” said Sebastian, “I'll let her know that you need a little time to eat,”

  I nodded my head to let him know that I had heard him but I kept my eyes looking out the window. Food didn't really interest me. I didn't have a huge appetite after being a main course. The thought of food made me think of that meat locker with all of those people hung up on hooks. And when I wasn't thinking of them I thought of Robert. Someone had made an entire meal out of him right in front of my eyes and then dumped him in my living room. My own little horror story waiting for me back in my apartment.

  “Not hungry?” asked Victoria from behind me.

  I hadn't heard her come into the room. She could out stalk a cat. I didn’t want to turn around to face her but I also didn't want to piss off the Queen of my nightmares. She had never been unkind to me. That didn't mean I still trusted her. I knew what she was. There could be no denying it now.

  “I understand you have some questions,” said the Queen, “and I’d like to help answer as many as I can,”

  “But not all of them,” I said.

  “As many as I can,” repeated the Queen, “But I’d like to hear what happened from you first, from the beginning,”

  “It’s mostly a blur,” I said, sadness setting into my heart at the thought of recounting the events that had altered my life forever.

  “Tell me what you can,” the Queen said softly, “And I’ll try to fill in what I know,”

  We sat next to each other on the bed in the room and I recounted all off the events, the horrors, and even the mess with Lydia in my kitchen made it in there. Somehow, the Queen kept the same straight face the entire time, attentive and listening.

  We talked for hours and Victoria filled me in on many things, including Lydia’s past, the things I had missed while being tortured and the danger I had been placed in. It made me angrier the more I heard and made sense at the same time. It explained why Lydia hated me, why she felt threatened by me but it didn’t excuse her at all or what she had done – tampering with my life.

  “Why me?” I asked, brows furrowed, “Why did you push and push for me to date Sebastian? Did you just want to toy with my life too?”

  I didn’t hide my frustration and anger with her. The more she told me the more lies I realized had been told. And as horrible as Lydia had been it had only been perpetuated by Victoria herself, the Queen.

  “That story is a long one,” sighed Victoria, “But I promise you I never meant to toy with your life. I had been sent by a very dear friend to see after you, to keep you safe,”

  “You’ve done a bang up job,” I said with sarcasm, “I guess Sebastian coming in here and professing his bleeding heart love for me is your way of trying to keep me here as a happy prisoner,”

  “Profession of love?” asked the Queen.

  I didn’t completely trust the surprised look on her face but it made me wonder if she had been involved to perhaps a lesser degree.

  “His ‘eternal quest for my heart’ pitch,” I said, dripping with disbelief and mockery, “you’re going to sit here and tell me you didn’t put him up to it?”

  “Sebastian had instruction to follow you from a distance and form a friendship to get closer and ensure your safety,” said the Queen, “Any professions of love are completely his doing. Though I did say I would approve of your engagement if you chose to embrace it as more than a safety net for you, Prussia,”

  She placed her hand on top of mine and I thought to pull it back but thought better of it. I could go from plush bedroom prison to some sort of meat locker if I wasn’t careful – I had no idea what she would do if offended regularly. I pondered the idea of being married to Seb
astian after having wished for a wedding to Robert for so long. It made my face twist up in disgust. I wouldn’t just be marrying the man that let Robert die, I would be marrying a monster and I would become a monster, too, in many ways.

  “I would have to be a monster,” I said, realizing too late that I had just called the Queen a monster to her face.

  I didn’t apologize and I tried not to look ashamed of what I had said, as I knew it might hurt or offend the Queen, but it had been in my heart and I couldn’t back down from the truth of what I thought of him, of her, of all of them.

  “You’re already a monster,” said the Queen quietly with a small smile as though I had walked right into a joke.

  My eyes went wide with disbelief and I tried to rip my hand from hers but she clung to it, the smile still on her face.