Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the series. Info about the French Revolution here are from Moonlight episode 12 The Mortal Cure.
I had fun twisting America and England's history here so don't sue please ^.^ Thanks for all those who reviewed and added this to alert/favorites. R&R Please
Chapter 2: Reminiscing And Facing Fate
It's been six years now since he left…they left me. I was planning to tell him the biggest secret of my life when he broke my heart. I guess I won't have that chance now. I will spend eternity alone and heartbroken after all. I sigh.
I didn't lie to him on most of the things we had talk about my life. Charles or Charlie Swan is my father of sorts, he is my sire. Renee was his wife, not mate, for a good century or so and they had a falling out twenty plus years ago. Charlie was from the royal family of England, he was a king and I am a distant relative. He has always treated me as a daughter so when my parents died when I was seventeen, he asked my permission to turn me and join the rank of the royal family. Having no family left, I agreed.
I am the first fledgling he turned so I am his heir. I only turned one person – after asking Charlie permission – I turned a sixteen year old girl name Dianne who was dying of a disease. During the course of three centuries, Charlie turned eight more. All of them have found a permanent mate within a decade of their vampire life. Charlie was disappointed; he had hoped one of my four brothers could have been my mate. He reminds me of Carlisle in that way and I guess him and I have the similarity that both of us are always the odd man out in the family when it comes to mates.
The English royal family has survived wars without suspicion from mortals of our existence. During the colonial times, Charlie decided that we should extend our rule to the New World. Since I am his heir, I was the first of our family that travelled here and established our community in various region of the U.S. It was in the beginning of the eighteenth century that the mortals were rebelling against England's rule so we decided to let them and see where it goes. Even if England looses, the win will only be viewed by mortals. And the colonies did win but nothing changed on the vampire ruling that I have already rooted here. In the end we rule two countries behind the mortals' backs.
It was in 1789 that a slight shift happened in our life. There are much more to the French Revolution than what is written in history books. The people discover the existence of vampires. To humans now it was the French Revolution, to my kind it was the biggest public vampire hunting ever to have happened in history. Many vampires faced death in the guillotine. I'm sure the over forty thousand people killed during the revolution are comforted by that thought. They tried execution by hanging but eventually realized that burning or decapitating was the only way to do it. Ultimately the guillotine was the method of choice during the reign of terror. A suspected vampire's finger was burned; if the finger blistered then he was mortal but if the finger immediately turned to ash they were staked and sent to the guillotine. It was vampire genocide.
The French royal are vampires too. King Louis the sixteenth and various members of his extended bloodline are all vampires. A cousin of King Louis the sixteenth sired seven noble siblings. They were in danger of facing the guillotine so they had created the compound from a local plant. The compound temporarily masked the characteristics of vampirisms. It allowed those who took it to pass the test. It also allows the user to age until mid 40s and when they stop using it they will return to how they were when they were originally turned.
The French royals had been careless and some of the vampires in their ruling seek refuge in England thus leading hunters in our midst.
When a handful of English vampires were slain in the south port leading to France, we took action. We desperately tried to prevent the same fate to befall us. My brothers and sisters with their mates were scattered all around England trying to supervise our regions. Unlike the French, we are close to our community and we stick to our laws to protect them. Since the French had been bogged down by problems, we pressured them even more. We demanded that they reign in their people from entering our country and leading hunters in. If they did not wish to comply, the English royal will take over their country, wipe out the rebels and start anew. Even though France was a larger country than England, we have more resources for a war not to mention my ruling in the U.S. They sent us samples of the compound and how to make them for temporarily compensation. Eventually they managed to reign in control and the revolution ended. It wasn't till 1692 that the French ticked us off again.
Salem Witch Trials wasn't as bad as the French revolution but it put a lot of pressure on me. Salem is my main city and some damn noble French foreigner vampire got careless and was accused of being a witch. I kept telling myself back then that at least he wasn't accused of being a vampire. There was a lot of pointing fingers during that time and many humans, particularly women died needlessly in behalf of my people. I guess it was fortunate that those vampires that were accused of being a witch was burned at the stake instead of hanged or else there would have been a huge problem. Since then the vampire French and England-America relationship had forever been strained. I am not racist but damnit I hate the French nobles and royals, I'm sure people can understand why.
Since the U.S. is too vast, I assigned trustworthy vampires who are over the four centuries to govern large cities in each state. They act as representatives. I asked Dianne to govern Houston, Texas. Three of my siblings are here in the U.S. under my command. Jonathan is in New York, N.Y. and Anna is in Philadelphia, P.A. which I assigned for them to govern. I assigned Lillian to Chicago, Illinois. I picked Phoenix in addition to Salem. Three of my brothers and two sisters with their mates are still in England today. Charlie temporarily handed the ruling to them since he wanted to try out living a human life fifteen or so years ago by means of the compound.
Renee had been given some samples of the compound since she didn't want to risk accidents when she cohorts with humans. Unfortunately for them, the ingredients for the compound are rare and we won't be able to make anymore. Charlie and Renee will resume being a vampire in a few years or less. I think Renee will turn Phil by that time since I don't think she wants him to act as a freshie for her.
Freshies are humans who let vampires feed off them without turning them into vampires or killing them. It could be a bonding experience for the human and both the vampire and human will find it sensual. Not all vampires have freshies because they are paid at a high price. Some consider them high end call girls/guys or escorts. I even have a few of them here in my house both women and men. I wasn't lying to Ed…him when I said I was a virgin and haven't had a romantic relationship. I never slept with any of my freshies even though they are very much willing. I only fed from them. That is until he left me that I finally succumb to my pets' wishes. The pleasure temporarily masks the pain he left me.
Seven years ago, I decided to live a human life with Renee but then a few months passed, she met Phil and married him. I didn't want to tamper the newlyweds so I went to Charlie to Forks. Even if I had known that I would get my heartbroken one year later, I would still have pursued that path. I cannot regret ever falling in love with my true mate even though he rejected me. Two months after he left, I decided to return to my duties. It would be a good distraction from all the pain.
Now here I am in Salem, Massachusetts the vampire main city in all my snarky and sardonic vampire glory. Once you hit the three century year mark, it does that to you. Well at least to vampires that have a lot on their plate so to say. Take Josef Kostan for example. He is a four hundred year old vampire that I assigned to govern L.A. and his attitudes match mine almost to a T. I miss poker nights with the young fellow and his friends.
But enough reminiscing, I have an appointment with a vampire P.I. friend from L.A. I might ask him to govern Phoenix for me despite him being only eighty five years old since watching over two cities is a pain in the ass. Mick St. John is one of the most morally vampire I have ever met so he'll be perfect for the job. He doesn't even feed from freshies; instead he gets bag blood from the morgue. God, I hate the taste of the chemical they put in those. I like my blood fresh from the vein.
So here I am going outside on a partly cloudy day pretending to smoke. I called the valet to bring my Bugatti Veyron Targa up front. Before stepping out of the sliding doors I took a whiff and got a glimpse of the near future and when I mean near I meant for the next ten minutes. Mick is just outside of the building sitting on a bench under the shade of a tree. Three floors up inside the building in front of this one, seven vampire different from my kind are attending a fashion shows are paying attention to the life below them and will notice me once I step out.
Them! What are they doing in my city?! This doesn't make sense. Why would they move here? Salem isn't overcast most of the year. I mean it's freaking November and the sun is out albeit it's cold and partly cloudy but still. I'll just have to keep monitoring them through the vampires who are under my jurisdiction that may run into them.
The royal families' minds are hard to penetrate, some minds stronger than others. That was the reason he couldn't read my thoughts and he got blurry thoughts from Charlie. Well Mick was turned by his ex wife who is one of the French royal siblings so I know Ed…he wouldn't be able to hear Mick's thoughts. What to do?
I step out of the door…time to test out fate.
End Chapter 2…TBC…
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