I sat up and yawned, fangs retracted, waking just after sunset as always. I sat in a huge bed, gothic style with its wrote-iron bed frame and black velvet curtains, drawn back. I stretched and kicked off the black silk bed sheets and fell out of bed. "Nice move there, Grace," I thought to myself. I stood up and stumbled over to my specially made mirror and stared at my reflection. Big, bright blue eyes, pale skin and the deep blue hair that fell to my waist. I'd dyed it when I turned thirteen, set on erasing my earlier childhood. My body developed quite nicely under the vampires' care, being properly nourished and dressed comfortably. I would be turning seventeen in a few months, and boy did I look it.
I finally finished getting ready and headed down stairs. The sound of Lady Servina, the current elder awake, shrieking about Hope, a lychan and my first friend, assaulted my ears. Apparently, she'd snuck out again from the sounds of it. Their self-proclaimed alpha, Raven, gave her the location of a secret hole in the vampire's death house and a way into the city and Hope used every chance she got. Only one problem though: She seemed to get caught almost every other time. I sighed, knowing Quintzie-Fluffles, A.K.A. Quintz, was going to have a field day. Quintz was Hope's slave mistress. I turned towards the ballroom; the place Servina always sent her to clean and knowing Hope, Anora Daniels, My slave and best friend, would be with her.
I wondered through the mansion until I came to the ballroom hearing Hope asking Anora if she came just to bother her. I'd slipped in to see her throwing a rag at her friend and laughed with them, only to scare the hell out of them. They both turned like two dear caught in the headlights, while Hope also fell to the ground, making me grin. I enjoyed scaring them, seeing as it was easy for me to do so. They both sighed in relief.
"Oh my gosh Exondria!" Anora said. "You scared the crap outta us! Would you please quit sneaking up on us like that, for goodness' sake!" I grinned and chuckled. Anora was thin, and had thigh-long black hair tipped in the same shade of blue I had. Her crystal blue eyes were rimmed in violet, creepy because it was all natural. Hope on the other hand, had light brown hair, long and slightly messy. Her blue eyes danced with relief.
"Sorry, sorry," I teased, helping Hope to her feet. Normally Anora wouldn't speak to me so informally, but they both knew of my being pro-lychan, so didn't stop themselves as long as no one else was around. Otherwise, I'd have to punish her, and I REALLY hated having to hurt her. After she dusted herself off, I asked, "Snuck out again?"
Hope snickered and said, "Is it that obvious?"
"Only when we can hear Servina's ranting throughout the entire mansion!" I said. Everyone laughed at this, knowing it was true. The pipes on the head Vamp were AMAZING when she was ticked.
"Hey, is it my fault she's got such a big mouth?" Hope joked. The only got us started again.
"Well, no, I guess she'll just have to stick to that being her own damn fault," Anora laughed. "So, what brings you here at the moment, Exondria?" Anora asked after we finally stopped laughing.
I shrugged. "Oh nothing. I just heard the yelling and figured you two would be in here," I answered honestly. Well, they were my closest and most trusted friends. I hesitated then asked my usual question of how it looked out in the city during the day. I never had an issue seeing it at night, but to see the sun again… I could only dream.
Hope smiled. "Nothing really special," she told me. "All I did was take a walk in the city and then sit on a rooftop to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful this evening, you guys. Although, as you can see, I kinda…lost track of the time." I smiled with a look of longing and envy, wanting to enjoy the sight again. Anora muttered something about it being obvious, causing Hope to stick her tongue out and send them both into giggling fits. It always amazed me how happy they stayed, even under those harsh living conditions. I always remembered how unhappy and sad I'd been when I was treated like they were by my father.
My smile dropped a bit, and I said, "Well, you still have to admit, it could've been much worse than what you got. I mean, this is, what? The third time this month you've been caught sneaking out?" It came out seriously, and I meant it to be. I was getting more and more worried, knowing my influence as Servina's favorite little girl would run thin pretty soon. Hope nodded at this.
Yeah, third. And I know, I got lucky this time around. Kurati must've made her really happy again this evening," Hope said in a false, high pitched loving voice. Kurati was Servina's lover, even though everyone knew about but shouldn't and the fact Servina was married to the sleeping Vamp Elder Draven Karavalis, the next to be awoken. We laughed harder this time at the joke.
Then the voice of Jessie, a friend and vampire called out from some other room, "Exondria? Can you come here for awhile? I've got something I wanna show you!" I quickly told them goodbye, telling Hope to stay out of trouble, and walked to the Entrance Foyer. I walked in and saw her trying hard not to laugh just yet. I looked at what she pointed at and I saw a sadly hilarious picture: she had a lychan, a MALE lychan mind you, dressed up in a pink tutu, pink fairy wings and to top it off, a shiny plastic princess tiara. I slapped a hand to my face and started giggling.
"What the hell!" I said, unable to hold back a laugh. "What did you do to him?" His face grew red and he glared at Jessie while she laughed with soft brown eyes I knew shouldn't have been so hard at the moment. His chocolate hair was pulled back in a ponytail and the tiara glinted. Still… the image HILARIOUS.
"Now," Jessie said through giggles. "Do what I told you to when Exondria came in!" He mumbled something, then did something that made me literally fall to the floor from laughing: He began prancing around the room, but it got better.
His face brick red, he squealed in a high-pitched voice, "I'm a pretty fairy princess! I'm a pretty fairy princess!" I grabbed my stomach because it hurt from laughing so hard. Jessie leaned up against the wall, and started tearing up she found it so funny. She finally waved her hand and gasped out "Stop! Stop!" to his obvious great relief. We finished up and stood up and caught our breath.
"I told you it was great!" she said. I shook my head and offered my arm, slipping my wallet out of my back pants' pocket with the other.
"No, you just said you wanted me to see something," I told her as she took it. I dropped it on the ground as we headed out of the room, chatting about nothing. After we passed a few doors and turned a few hallways, I faked realizing I dropped my wallet. "Go on ahead," I told her. "I'll see you later." She gave a short wave and I dashed back to the room.
BAM. I ran straight into someone coming around the second bend. I shook my head to stop the swimming sensation and saw the same slave from the other room holding his hand out to me, a worried look on his face.
"My apologies Mistress!" he said. "I hadn't meant to knock you down!" Thaaat's how I got down here… I thought grasping his hand. He freaked and thought I was going to order him whipped. Yeah, like THAT was gonna happen by my hand. He helped pull me up and continued to apologies.
"Easy! Easy!" I laughed. "You've got nothing to fear from me." He stopped like I put a gag on him. His head tilted a bit and confusion crossed his face.
"You're… you're not gonna order me whipped?" he said. Yup. I guessed right. I shook my head and smiled.
"Nope!" I told him happily. I held out my hand. "I'm Exondria." He looked at me, confused beyond belief. Oops. He wasn't one of the slaves who knew I was pro-lychan. He bowed instead of shaking my hand.
"Kaden, Mistress Exondria," he said. I shook my head.
"Well Kaden," I said, mocking seriousness, "I order you to call me just Exondria when no other vampire or lychan who doesn't know about the order. You can call me that around only three people: Your alpha Raven, Hope and Anora." I play scowled and put my hands on my hips for effect. He blinked at me.
"May I speak my mind "Exondria"?" he asked. I nodded my permission. "You're psychotic." I grinned and bowed.
"Why thank you!" He smiled. FINALLY. You have no idea the stress of trying to convince someone you're not gonna kill them or have them beaten.
"Ah!" He reached into his own tattered pocket and held out my wallet. "You dropped this Miss- Exondria," he told me. I took it from his hand, feeling the warmth from it being in his pocket. I felt a pang in my chest from envy again. I smiled anyway and slipped it back into my pocket. "Next time, don't make it obvious."
"Thank you Kaden," I said.
Here is chapter two! Sooo yeah…. ENJOY!