AN: This is my first Underworld fic. And sadly I own nothing. Not a thing. Nada. I don't know where this is going and its future will depend on how many people like it. cough REVIEW cough cough In the future, some concepts and unanswered questions from the book Underworld: Blood Enemy may come in. There might be a slight delay for the next chapter for I am off on vacation tomorrow. Please enjoy, and thx for reading!
XOX
Nancy
Ch.1- Prologue- Was She Always That Obvious?
1204- Castle Corvinus
A knock on the door startled the uneasy woman inside. She didn't deserve this. She never thought her good intentions would come to this. As the key clicked in the lock, she couldn't help but picture Sonja's death. Being burnt alive. The woman shuddered and knew it was going to be her fate too.
"Caedra! Come with me!" She recognized the voice instantly. The door creaked open revealing Markus, his face secreted by a hooded cloak. Where was that imbecile, Kraven?
She replaced her fear with a false confidence and arrogance. "I see you are doing Viktor's bidding now." Caedra treated him to her fiercest glare. "I thought you were a better man," she hissed. "Apparently, I was wrong."
Anger flared inside him. His eyes shone blue. "I am here to help you." Markus exhaled noisily and extended his arm to signal her to step outside. "You are lucky I am doing this."
"Why?" she questioned. "Why are you helping me?" Caedra scowled. Weren't the elders supposed to stick together? To rule as one?
Markus took her by the arm and led her down the hallway. "You know why I am helping you. You are not blind." He softened his glare.
The castle was quiet, yet a deafening sense of unease occupied every inch of the abandoned passage. The residents of Castle Corvinus were mourning but none of them dared say a word. Footsteps echoed through the regal quarters of the elders and their closest companions. The stone walls lay illuminated by the full moon. Booted feet clacked against the meticulously clean floor, scaring Caedra as she walked beside Markus, yet sending a jolt of excitement through her petite, curvaceous form. She turned her head in the direction of the noise, only to see a figure fleeting into the shadows of an archway.
"Markus." Her voice was barely a whisper. She poked him in the ribs after she didn't get a response. "Markus, there is someone following us."
Not breaking a stride, the elder answered. "I am aware of it, yes. Try to be inconspicuous. I truly doubt word of your deeds has reached all the ears of the coven."
Caedra rolled her eyes at him. Men. Always so impatient and condescending. Or at least Markus was.
The pair quietly made their way down the winding stairs. A window at the top of the stairwell bathed their path in pale moonlight. Caedra struggled to keep up with Markus in her elaborate skirts, praying they wouldn't catch on one of the narrow steps and send her tumbling down. "The stables are just to the left."
He pulled open the tall oak door. "Have you ridden before?" Markus stared down at Amelia's niece.
"Does it seem as if I have?" Caedra answered. "I embroider and sew. I do not ride and fight." She met his glare and smiled nervously. What was he expecting?
The elder growled and mounted his horse. "Get on behind me."
"No, it is improper." Caedra tucked a loose strand of obsidian hair behind her ear and looked towards the stable doors. Only two people would be coming through them. Only two people would be following them. Viktor's guards, leading her to the same fate as her unfortunate friend. Or her lover, Kraven, coming to save her from Viktor's wrath and the unwanted affections of Lord Markus.
"If you want to live, you will come with me," Markus stated calmly. "I am already risking too much by giving you this opportunity." He eyed the girl before him. "Your actions were foolish, Caedra, yet understandable. It was a commendable effort to try to help poor Sonja but Viktor is too powerful to be defied." The first vampire snarled at the mention of his fellow elder. He bent in Caedra's direction and offered her his hand from his favorite stallion, Arion. "Now come."
Her nervous hazel eyes locked with his confident grey ones. She took his hand and mounted behind him, praying that she wouldn't fall off and land in the putrid straw lining the stable. "Where are you taking me, milord?"
Ignoring her momentarily, he called out to one of the servants. "Open the gates." He reared his horse and pounded through the gates into the night. Markus tensed as Caedra tightly wrapped her arms around his waist, trying not to topple off the galloping Arion. "We are going to my family's personal estate in the north, Hádúrház. I am taking you far away from Viktor, from Ördögház, and from Castle Corvinus."
Caedra turned to take a final glance at Castle Corvinus. At the pace they were riding, it was hard to make out any of the shapes on the battlements. But one distinct figure caught her eye. The familiar shoulder length, raven hair. The orderly attire, not a wrinkle or tear. It was Kraven, it had to be. Her Kraven. "I will not see any harm come to you, Caedra." Markus interrupted her thoughts. "Viktor had no right to order you punished. As Amelia's niece and declared heir, you are just as royal as Sonja…was. With your rank, you are entitled to marry a man of position and wealth. As you may have noticed, I have always possessed an attraction-"
"The forest is beautiful this time of year. Is it not?" Caedra attempted to delay what was inevitable. She was not blind nor did she lack wits. Markus was a good man, but he wasn't the one she wanted. "The way the trees canopy the road is very charming. One would never guess there is castle occupying the clearing."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Kraven swore under his breath. Viktor couldn't do this. He just couldn't.
He silently crept down the hallway towards Caedra's quarters. The elder's servant had made up his mind. They would run away far from Viktor, Amelia, and Markus (like Caedra had suggested in the first place) and try to live as normally as possible. Sure, it was risky plan, but it was the only way. There would be no pompous royals to look down on them, on him. There would be no power struggle to get to a position high enough for them to be able to wed.
Hearing footfall behind him, coming closer, he flattened himself against one of doorways, hidden under an arch. He mouthed curses fluently when he recognized the cloak and stance of the man.
Damn.
Markus would get there first. Markus would be the one to take away the woman he loved.
Kraven wanted to rip the elder's throat out, but the sensible voice in the back of his mind warned him otherwise. He was no match for the legendary power of an elder, particularly the first vampire. And if he was seen away from his post, Viktor would have his head on a spike. His superior had been in a not-so-benevolent mood at the latest.
Biting down hard on his lower lip, he watched Markus knock on Caedra's door and usher her to his side. Green flames of jealousy were burning slowly at his better judgment. If the finding of Amelia's heir loving a low ranking servant didn't threaten Caedra's safety or reputation, Kraven would have taken her as his bride many months earlier. As much of a sob story that it was, he didn't care in the slightest about the affairs of Viktor's daughter, Caedra's dearest friend.
It was just typical of Caedra for her sense of righteousness and unyielding loyalty to her friends to outweigh her normally levelheaded ideas and actions. But really, Kraven wondered about her
sometimes. She defended her friends better than herself. When something troubled the woman, she would usually silently steam about it then explode when he came to talk to her. When something troubled her friends or sent them into trouble, Caedra would give them her best advice and agree with whatever foolish notions they wanted her too. Or she would take matters into her own hands, not even taking his advice on the subject. Which was precisely what she had done this time.
Caedra had batted eyelashes and flashed leg until she got what she wanted: admittance to the dungeons. She had wanted to free Sonja and her lycan lover Lumian (or whatever the hell his name was). And with her telltale clumsiness and rash judgment, she had gotten caught and Viktor had locked her in her quarters for two days now. She was a foolish girl, but she was his foolish girl.
Kraven watched as Markus lead Caedra down the passage and presumably towards the stables. Not being able to help himself, he began to follow them. He knew they could sense his heartbeat, and probably hear him despite his best attempts to be noiseless. After a distance, Caedra glanced behind her and prodded Markus with a finger. Kraven shook his head and hid under an arch for the second time. Was she always that obvious? He could faintly hear Markus' muffled reassurances to her and the green flames threatened to overcome him once again.
Kraven observed them hurry down the stairs and knew they were heading to the stables. He stood there a moment hoping that Markus would trip and plummet to his death, but then quickly hurried in the opposite direction: up. Even though he knew he was doing more harm than help to himself, he headed to the top of the battlements.
If he couldn't take her himself, it was the least he could do to make sure she got out safely. A command from below broke the hush, and a horse with two riders bolted into the darkness. Kraven growled. Markus and Caedra. The raven haired servant stared after them, envying the way his lover held on to Markus.
For a brief second, the figure he presumed to be Caedra turned her head in his direction. Helplessly, Kraven just stared back. Cursing once more, he turned his head away. The sinking feeling that enveloped him told him this would most likely be that last time he would see her.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
"Father?" Markus' voice was cold and eerily calm. Typically Markus. "I need your help."
The first immortal slammed his fist down on the oak desk. "I can clearly see that, coming here unmarried with a woman. The first time I see you in years and this is why you come? Always expecting me to right your wrongs, Markus. What did I teach you? Your mother will come out of her grave and beat you!"
Caedra sighed and pushed a rather annoying piece of hair out of her eyes. Again. The journey had not been kind to her. Glaring at the father and son a few feet in front of her, she attempted to brush the wrinkles and dirt from her best dress. If looks could kill, the Corvinus family would be dead. Dead and having suffered long torturous deaths.
"I have done nothing wrong. You've never helped me in the first place! And you've never righted any wrongs! How did you aid William, father? Hmm? Oh, I remember you left him to suffer at Viktor's hands." The vampire's eyes glowed blue for the second time that night.
Once more, Amelia's niece and heir sighed. Did they even know she was in the room? Caedra cleared her throat and glanced out the window behind Alexander. It would be dawn soon. "Excuse me, my um..lords, the sun is rising." She bit her lip and looked at Markus for reassurance. An age-old argument would have to be delayed for a moment. "Markus, did you hear me?"
He met her eyes and then glowered at his father. "I have brought my most precious possession here to be safe. If I did not take her from the castle, Viktor would have killed her by now." The elder took Caedra's hand in his. "I ask you, father, to keep the Lady Caedra safe until I return and we are able to wed. If you will not help us, you are placing an innocent woman in danger."
"I am not your possession, Markus." Caedra's eyes were now the ones radiating azure. "You cannot just leave and say you will come back later and marry me. I have feelings. I am a person not an object!"
"Oh, feisty." The vampires spun to glare at a grinning Alexander. "Haven't you wondered why my son has remained unmarried over the centuries?" He started to chuckle.
Her expression softened and she cautiously met her newly betrothed's eyes. "I have questioned it, and now I know the answer. Women are not belongings, milord."
"Pardon my manners, Caedra." Markus shifted awkwardly in his boots. "It is almost dawn, father. Light would be fatal to us if we are exposed to it."
Alexander smiled wickedly. "We must go to the library then. No light reaches those depths." He started out the door and into the hall. "You will leave tomorrow, Markus. Back to Castle Corvinus. The lady will stay at Hadúrház until you see it fit to return to her." As the three treaded down the dusty, stone passage, Alexander felt no further need to chastise his son and future daughter-in-law. Spending a day together in the musty, unused library would be a boring torture for Markus' bride and an unpleasantly awkward experience for Markus himself. The immortal couldn't help but laugh.