Hey everyone, this is a fic I started not too long ago. I hope you guys like it. Worked hard on this. Hopefully I will want to keep up with this one. Might be difficult, since I got school and stuff coming up soon. Hope you like it

While your Lips Are Still Red
By: BG
Chapter 1

Sweet little words made for silence not talk.
Young heart for love not heartache….

When we're children, we believe that anything can happen. We believe that fairy tales are real and that destiny is a true thing. Every girl wished she could be a princess, but things aren't always what they seemed. Things are hard when you're a princess. Yeah, you live in luxury and such, with all the nice things, but everyone uses you like a chess piece on a large board.
Princesses are used to form alliances with other kingdoms. I'm no different from this. My father, the elf king, Arril, promised to the kings and princes of several different races. But after some time, he lost all hope. Either they betrayed my father, broke their promises to me, or were married to off princesses. For a while, I thought no one would want me…poor princess Caitlin of the Elvin Land…
My name is Caitlin, former Elf Princess, and now Vampire Queen. I am the daughter of King Arril and Queen Catriona. Before I received my husband's mark, I was beautiful even then. My hair was fire red, waist length, always neat and straight, usually crowned in flowers or leaves of different trees or blossoms. My skin, in tradition of all elves, was snow white. It almost looked like marble. Almost…now it does. My eyes were the fiercest blue, which set me apart. While other's eyes were yellow, mine were blue. Blue like the most beautiful aquamarines or Sea Stones. They were gorgeous. According to my husband, they still are. I used to dress in traditional Elvin garb, long dress robes made of silk. They were usually bright colors, or beautiful earth tones like gold, red, orange, or tan. The gold really made my hair stand out, according to my parents. I was a lovely, good child.
But then my mother died…and that's when the hunt for a suitor began. Father tried every human like creature, from werewolves to sorcerers, but nothing ever worked out. He was running out of options. Only one creature remained: The Vampire King: Daihmin. My father preferred him since he was a king, and vampires were just like Elves. They were both immortal and looked almost exactly alike except darker. The Ancients used to call them Dark Elves.
I wasn't too happy about the arranged marriage. I hated vampires. To me, they were nothing but long toothed, blood sucking fiends, cold and emotionless. I had heard many things about them, most of which were tales of battles with humans and werewolves. I heard that they took humans for their blood and just hunted poor werewolves for sport, and so the three races have been fighting since.
We elves tried not to get involved in the fighting, but the vampires were desperate. They needed allies. Father was desperate for an heir, so…it was quid pro quo, something for something. I felt betrayed and unwanted. Once again, I felt like a pawn.

I still remember the day of the wedding. Oddly enough, I didn't wear earth tones this time. I was permitted only to wear silver or white. I refused to wear the traditional wedding colors of white and black, so I chose silver. It was fitting for that day. Though it was a bright day, I felt a storm coming, in more ways than coming. The dress was nice, at least. It was a long dress, tight on my chest and waist, but flowing around my legs, showing them a little, since the front of it was slit. The chest part was encrusted with diamonds. It was sleeveless, showing my arms. It was one of the things I hated, other than the fact that it was low cut. I felt disgusting because of it. I was used to long sleeves that covered my arms and some of my hands. But not this time. The veil was nice at least. It was also long, but didn't do so well covering my face. I felt ashamed, but for the sake of my father, I had to do this and take it with pride. I was a princess, I was expected to.

I looked in the mirror and shuddered. Though I looked beautiful, I felt ugly and exposed…shamed. Tears stung my eyes, but I couldn't let them fall. I grabbed a nearby hairbrush and threw it at the mirror, shattering it. Seven years of bad luck…oh well…what was seven mere years when one had a whole lifetime of bad luck? An eternity of it…

"Caitlin!" my friend/maid of honor, Fiona, exclaimed in worry, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Everything is, Fiona! I'm marrying one of…one of…THEM! Those violent, long toothed, nameless no account, animal abusers!"
"I'm so sorry, Caitlin. If I could stop it I would, but you know how your father is about this, and the vampires need help in the war".
"This isn't our war, Fiona! It never was and never will be! I just want a way out of this".
Fiona shrugged. "Maybe something good can come of this"
"How?"
"Maybe he's handsome, charming. You never could know. And he's a king to top it all off. You're never gonna do better than that".

As much as I hated to admit it, maybe she was right. But still…I hated vampires. I wouldn't be pulled in by their violent ways. I couldn't. I closed my eyes and calmed down again. I breathed hard and the tears once stinging my eyes faded. I reached a hand out.

"My bouquet, please?" I asked, wanting to just get this over with.
"Yes my lady" A handmaid handed the bouquet to me.

I looked in the mirror again, taking in one last version of how I used to be. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. Not in front of them or my father. With that, I left my dressing room and went out to main corridor of the Fairy Church. Father thought that would make me happy, for I had always wanted to be married in this beautiful sanctuary. But not to this creature, this animal, this beast. The music began and two doormen opened the two large doors, showing me the sanctuary. I sighed.

"Let's do this…" I started walking, my stomach turning inside of me….

The room was decorated with silver and black, to compliment the colors of me and my groom. I didn't dare to look at him at first. But when I reached the altar, I had no choice. I was still looking down when he took my hand. But then I turned to face him.

To be honest, he was actually quite handsome. His hair was decently cut, and raven black. His skin was pale, like mine. He had a straight face, high cheek bones and pale red lips. What really caught my attention were his eyes. They were…purple. A deep violet. I had never seen that in vampires before. Perhaps it was a royal thing. I didn't know. I sighed and gave him a grave look. We both turned and faced the priest, who then began the ceremony.

"Princess Caitlin of the Elves, do you take King Daihmin of the Vampires, as your lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold, to cherish and protect, whether in sickness or health, for richer or poorer, as long as you both shall live?"

I wanted to vomit to be honest. But I held it back, took a deep breath and answered: "I do".

"As do I" the voice of Daihmin sounded, "I will take this lovely creature as my wife, to have and to hold, to cherish and protect, whether in sickness or health, for richer or poorer, as long as we both shall live" he smiled.

In that moment I wanted to kill him! He was about to seal the deal and as humans would say, it was going to suck. But first things first, we needed to exchange rings. My ring was actually quite lovely, seemingly made of blue light, but that's all it was, light inside a glass covering circling the ring. Light…a vampire's weakness. His ring was made of iron, or at least a very strong version of it. Liquid iron could kill an elf if consumed or injected. So now we had each other's weaknesses. Hm…I almost considered using the light ring on him right at that moment. Then, just before I could, his right arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me to his chest and kissed me deeply, as if to show off for his people. After a minute, he released me, grinning, showing his pearl white teeth. In that moment, I really wanted to kill him. He looked away from me and out to the crowd of vampires and elves.

"Well my people I wish we could stay, but we have some business to attend to" Daihmin looked at me, "Come my love" he kissed my hand, "we have business to tend to".

"So we do" I looked calm, but I dreaded it with all my soul. Crying inside, I followed him out like a lap dog, faking a smile, but saw Fiona and frowned for a brief second. She frowned back, knowing that this was going to be hell for me.

So how was that? I hope you guys liked it. I think this is the most detailed story I've ever written. So read and review and tell me what you think. See you soon.