Summary: When the child of an old friend vanishes, Kieran Valentine is swept up in another mystery as he tries to find himself as well. However, he finds much more than he expected. THE SEVENTH STORY
Hello, readers! If this is your first time reading a story in my series, then you may want to get caught up before you begin reading this. However, this is just a suggestion and not a requirement.
Also—I'd just like to say in advance that there will be Mpreg (male pregnancy) in this story. It will be a bit later on, but if this bothers you…well, I don't really know what to say except…sorry!
On to the story!
Three Black Roses
A Monster High fanfiction by Nova Caine
Prologue:
1,612 years earlier
The road was a smoky ribbon of moonlight, stretching over the brow of the hill as the people in the nearby village locked their doors for the night. When every door had been closed tightly and every candle had been smothered, a vampire woman peeked out from the heather. Her dirty blond hair hung from her head as she looked around and turned behind her.
"Rowena!" she whispered harshly. "The humans have locked themselves away. The market will be opening soon—hurry!"
Her sister, a smaller vampire with brown hair, emerged from the tangle of branches. "Calm yourself, Merrill. The market will still be open until sunrise!"
"I do realize that," Merrill frowned as she yanked her sister by the arm. "But you know how crowded it can be on days such as these. Now, do you have the pieces?"
Rowena reached into the pocket of her tunic and pulled out shiny, smooth pieces she'd collected from a destroyed ship. "I have 'em right here! How much do you think they are worth?"
"At least ten gold pieces! That should be enough to buy bread and our daily blood. Now, let us go!"
The sisters grabbed their carefully weaved wicker baskets and went on their way, trudging down the road in just their bare feet.
When they arrived at the Night market (a market created just for vampires), they discovered that the shopkeepers had just opened their stands and other vampires were slowly beginning to trickle in. As her sister went to look at scarves and tunics, Rowena ventured over to the exchange stand and dropped the broken pieces before the shop owner.
"How much will you give for these?" she asked eagerly, wringing her hands.
The owner picked up a piece and looked it over. After a few minutes, he concluded, "I'll give you about five gold for the whole set,"
"Five!?" Rowena exclaimed in outrage. "They are worth at least ten!"
Displeased, the owner simply shoved the tiny bag of gold in her direction. "Ungrateful strumpet! Take your gold or leave it! We all must stay alive, dear!"
With a huff, Rowena snatched the gold and stormed away.
She met up with her sister, and the two were able to purchase two small cups of blood and a loaf of bread that they split in half. This was a smaller amount than they were used to, but they were simply content with the fact that they purchased food after all.
As they sat upon some large stones nearby to eat their rations, a tomato rolled across the ground and stopped to rest right near the sisters' feet, gently nudging Merrill's ankle.
"Hello—what is this?" Merrill picked up the tomato and looked it over with a raised eyebrow. She looked up to see a vampire toddler standing a few feet away with a basket of tomatoes.
Rowena gasped at the sight of the child. "Ooh, a little one!" she got up and approached the child, kneeling down and looking into the red eyes of the somber little urchin. "Hello there! Where is your mother?"
At this moment, a shrill voice broke the quiet. "There you are!" the sisters looked up to see another vampire woman walking quickly but carefully as she was holding the hand of another child and had a mysterious looking bag draped across her shoulder. "Eris, dear, don't wander off again—and don't bruise my tomatoes!"
"Sonata!" Merrill exclaimed in surprise. "Whatever are you doing here? I thought you and Benjamin were living in the mountains!"
Sonata pulled gently on Eris' hand, ushering her closer. "Well, we were, but my dear Benjamin had some business to attend to," her golden eyes shifted to each sister, and a small smile worked its way to her lips. "Are your husbands not with you?"
Rowena nodded. "They are on a hunting trip in the Rose valley, and they will be bringing back food and lots of riches for us! Why?"
Sonata simply chuckled, gingerly removing the bag from her shoulder. "Well, I have a proposition for you, dears,"
Merrill quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, really? What have you got in that bag there?"
"Well, it could be a parrot from the East," Sonata held the bag close to her chest. "It could be a monkey from the Indies, but no," she opened the bag, revealing two newborn infants. "There are two—two vampire babes!"
Both sisters gasped in unison. "Babies!?" Rowena exclaimed, leaning in for a closer look. "Where did you get those? Are they yours?"
"Goodness, no!" Sonata shook her head. "After Eris and Dodilyne, I promised myself that I would have no more babes! They are too difficult, but—Dodilyne! Do not chew your nails!" she swatted the child's hand away from her teeth. "Oh, anyhow, I think you should take the babies,"
Merrill and Rowena exchanged nervous glances and fell silent. Finally, Merrill spoke up. "Where did you get them, Sonata?"
"Their dear mother died during childbirth," Sonata sighed, shaking her head. "And their heathen of a father ran for the forest after the fact! Poorest babes. And I understand that both of you have been barren for many years, so consider them a gift!" she handed them the bag. "They are a boy and a girl! Take them,"
With that, she gathered both her daughters and headed back towards the market, leaving the sisters with the orphaned infants.
Present day
Chapter one: School time
The clock's hands were moving painfully slow.
Valentine tapped his pencil nervously as the professor drawled on and on about the theories of medicine and stopped occasionally to blow his nose. Some of the other students had fallen asleep, and the harpy woman beside Valentine had become so bored with the lesson that was now downloading photographs of elephants on to her laptop (something she'd been doing for the past ten minutes).
As the professor was wrapping up the lesson, Valentine felt his iCoffin buzz. He waited until the professor had his back turned, and he quickly looked down to see the message. It was from Deuce.
"You almost done with classes?"
"That concludes the lesson!" the professor's voice boomed, startling Valentine terribly. "Read pages four hundred through four hundred and ten to read about theories of medicine! Dismissed!"
As the class filed out of the lecture hall, Valentine quickly texted back.
"I just finished. Are we still on for lunch today?"
Deuce responded almost instantly.
"We are, but I need to talk to you."
"What about?"
"I think it's better if I tell you when we meet up. Love you."
"love you, too"
Since all his classes ended at noon, Valentine had arranged to meet Deuce at a local café for lunch. They met up quite often and went on nice dates together, but nothing sexual had happened since a month earlier.
Valentine felt his face heat up as he remembered. They had been sitting in Valentine's car nearby the beach, looking out on the water, when things got a little 'frisky' in the back. Really frisky, actually, and Valentine had to quickly push the thought out of his mind.
He opened up his umbrella to protect him from the sun's rays as he walked to his car, his laptop and books clutched in his free hand.
Elsewhere, a group of children at Skelementary School filed into their cafeteria to begin their lunch. As they all arranged themselves into the lunch line, young Valentina wrinkled her nose at the baloney lying in what the lunch ladies called 'the meat chamber'.
"Eww, what's this?" Valentina gagged in disgust and waved it in the face of Icer Burns, her best friend. "Is this a cross-section of a dachshund?"
"Yuck!" Icer slapped the meat away. "Don't be gross!" he took the lunch meat and tossed it back in the chamber. There was a pause, and the two friends began to giggle.
"Don't hold up the line!" a lunch lady snapped suddenly, and the two quickly resumed their places.
After they'd gotten their lunch, they sat down at the table with the other children: Dodger, Anne Marie, and Tigerclaw. The five began to consume their lunch, chatting and making their usual jokes as they did so.
Everything was going fine, until Anne Marie accidently spilled her juice. "Uh oh!" she got up quickly. "I'll be right back—I have to get a napkin!"
As she headed for the napkins, the children carried on with their conversations. "How's your baby brother?" Icer asked Valentina. "My mom said he didn't feel well,"
"Charlie had colic," Valentina explained, sipping her milk. "My dad says that's when a baby's stomach hurts and they cry a lot, and he said that I had it once, too. Charlie's okay, now, because grandma took him to the doctor and they gave him special milk that makes him not cry so much,"
Before she could continue, Tigerclaw noticed something over by the napkin dispenser. "Oh, no!" he pointed to where he was looking, outraged. "Sarah and Victoria are picking on Anne Marie!"
Sarah and Victoria were the notorious school bullies. Sarah was a small but tough werecat, while Victoria was a tall, slender vampire. Neither of them liked Anne Marie, and they went out of their way to pick on her. Now, they'd cornered her by the napkins and were getting right in her face.
"Hey!" Valentina stood up and marched right over to the ghouls. "Leave my sister alone!"
The bullies turned to Valentina and snickered. Victoria took a step forward, placing her hands on her hips and leaning in Valentina's face. "Oh, yeah?" Victoria grinned, showing her white fangs. "And what are you gonna do, half and half?"
"I'm gonna," Valentina took a deep breath, trying to think of a threat. "I'm gonna punch you!" she said finally curling her hand into a fist. "I'll punch you so hard you'll end up on Mars!"
At this remark, Victoria and Sarah both erupted into laughter. "Mars!?" Sarah shrieked out a laugh. "I knew you were stupid, but that's just crazy!"
Tears began to well up in Valentina's eyes, and she looked away. Victoria noticed this and got her by the chin, turning her face towards hers. "What's wrong?" cooed Victoria, batting her eyelashes. "Are you sad? You gonna cry?" when Valentina stayed silent, Victoria pulled her hand away. "You know what I heard? I heard that your parents didn't even want you! That they were forced to have you! You shouldn't even be here,"
This was all Valentina could take, and she lashed out and punched Victoria straight in the nose. Victoria staggered backwards in alarm, touching her nose and seeing blood. "Why—you-you-!" she burst into tears, gathering napkins and pressing them to her face.
Sarah's mouth hung open as she glanced from Valentina to Victoria, and then back to Valentina. "I'm telling!" she announced finally, stalking away and alerting the lunch monitor.
Before Valentina could head back to her table, she and Victoria were both snatched up by the lunch monitor and whisked away to the principal's office.
Hello again, friends! So, here it is—the newest story! I hope you're enjoying it so far! It starts off kind of slow, but I can promise that it will get MUCH more interesting.
What do you think of it so far? Do you like it? Are you looking forward to the rest and are you ready to learn more? Let me know in your review!
Until next time, my monsters!