After nearly a year's hiatus, I've decided to take up writing once again! It seems that miracles do happen. Or the inspiration for a new story brings determination to finish an old one. I have to admit, I hit a sort of rut that I never really found the energy to pass. I think I retreated into classic romances to find a way to continue, which might be most evidently from Romeo and Juliet. Original, I know. However, I did write the beginning portion of this chapter a week after I posted the second one. Also, I'm not sure I'll be as knowledgeable about the series as I was when I first starting writing this (considering I haven't watched it since), though I'll try my best to be as accurate as possible.

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Sonja sat at her father's side, but she was not with him. She listened to the council members, but she didn't hear their words. Lucian. She'd grown quite fond of repeating the name in her head. Lucian…

It was forbidden. It was taboo. To speak of it would be a crime, but she assumed nothing wrong with thinking about it, about him. Her heart ached with ironic laughter, the girl able to catch any vampire in her net only desires to hunt a lycan. Lucian…

It had been a week since they'd met, and not one day passed without her expecting him to appear as suddenly as the first time, though a part of her knew he couldn't. As she woke each morning, she wanted to rise without looking at her torn blue dress, the disheveled fabric the only proof that he had even existed. His blood scorched the shredded hems, dried life on deathly blue.

"Sonja," a voice called to her, returning her attention to the room filled with shadows and ice blue stares, including the gaze of her father.

"Won't you share your thoughts on the matter?" he implored.

"I will honor your decision, father. I trust your wisdom exceeds that of my own."

Viktor tried to keep his expression solid as stone, though Sonja could detect the cracks. The curl in his lip that revealed pride in Sonja, and though he hated to be beaten, she surely was his daughter, able to play his games just as well as he could.

"Very well. Ten soldiers then, no more and no less."

Sonja heaved an internal sigh. The other council members nodded in agreement, hungrily trying to earn Viktor's favor and higher positions before he left for the next province. This castle had been the last in Markus' reign and required minimal attending. Viktor rose, signaling the end of the meeting. Each member bowed respectfully before leaving the room, though Sonja doubted their thoughts shared the expression.

"Sonja, won't you stay for a moment?" he asked, predicting her mind already ten steps out the door.

Sonja nodded, letting him take her hands in his, freezing her to the spot.

"Sonja, I'm leaving tomorrow."

She knew his words' meaning, but her face still conveyed confusion.

"You mean… alone?" she asked, her tone as lost as her expression.

"Sonja, I'm leaving you here to rule while I'm away. This will prepare you for the judgment."

The judgment. The council members deciding who would be better fit for the third position of coven leader. Sonja already knew it should be Amelia by traditional standards, though her father saw the potential her will possessed to uproot and change the foundations. He failed to recognize the danger.

Sonja looked away, only to have her father's hand guide her chin to make her eyes meet his. Weakness, however little of it.

"Please, darling, don't be sad. It will only be a little while, and you know I only act by what I think is best for you."

"I understand," she replied, trying to muster an earnest smile to mask her sadness.

Satisfied, Victor resumed his formal pose and expression.

"You'll become a strong leader, and obey the Covenant's laws while I'm away, I trust?"

"Of course, father."

"That's my darling girl," he replied, nearly letting his guard fall. He kissed her forehead and second the two customary parting kisses on her wrist before leaving her in the council room, his icy kisses almost melting on her flesh as he left.

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"Lucian. LUCIAN!"

The lycan's wide eyes met those of his agitated father's.

"Stand and bow your head!" Ambrus commanded. Lucian obeyed, though he let his eye wander to the departing carriage. The v-crest embroidered on the back identified this as Victor's caravan, and the trumpets blaring in Lucian's ears signaled his leave for the next province. Some unknown disappointment stirred in Lucian's chest while Sonja's face invaded his mind.

"Are you deaf, boy?" his father whispered angrily, vampire soldiers nearby staring at the pair, silver whips in their eager hands twitching slightly.

"I'm sorry, father," he sincerely apologized. He didn't fear the narrowly escaped whipping, though he knew they would torture his innocent father for merely being with an insolent lycan. It seemed that these days that there was decreasing compassion for the loyalty of lycans, and a growing taste for stretching their whips, testing the limits of the power given to them by birthright.

"I don't understand what could possibly be clouding your head to the point that you ignore your own father," Ambrus said, slipping a question into a statement.

"I, uh, it's just been the new moon. Affects everyone in some way or another."

Sonja was his new moon.

He often imagined seeing her again, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone. He wouldn't admit to having risked traveling the forbidden passages several times that week in hopes of seeing her, even if it were true. Even if he was planning on doing it again.

"Father, I'm not feeling well. I think I'll see you at home," he lied. His father agreed, but only in words. He worried for his son, though he feared investigating it.

Lucian figured this to be an opportune moment to travel down the forbidden corridors, a chance to help him accept what could never be. He cautiously moved through the halls and navigated to the armory where they had first met to say goodbye to a shadow already passed.

***

Sonja's thumb mindlessly circled the deep blue stone at the center of her pendant. She remembered the day her father had given her the pendant. The day her mother passed.

"A precious gift," he said, lifting the chain above her head like a glass crown before gently laying it on her shoulders, the chain embracing her neck, "for my most precious daughter."

She commented on his words being too cliché, though she knew there was no hiding the excitement on her face. She saw the faint glow beneath the surface of the stone's sharp blue stare, a promise of light in the depths of darkness. It captured little bits of her soul to wear as proud color around her neck.

The pendant didn't leave her neck until weeks later, when Jocelyn told her about her mother's fate on the other side of the country. Information her father had hidden from her for so long so he wouldn't have to accept her sorrowed face. But still, she loved him. She still loved that pendant, and what it represented.

And now, years from that childhood, her feelings hadn't changed. Letting her father's lies construct the world around her, however, would change. She knew she had to follow that glow that consumed her soul, deep within the jewel, to live in a world she could call her own. She silently apologized to her father as she left the room to find Lucian.

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Sonja escaped the entourage of guards her father had assigned to protect her while they were feeding on some of the new human servants given to the castle after a few serfs had come up short on that month's fees. She fled to the familiar corridor, courage burning in her inflamed heart and her determined eyes. She stopped before turning the final corner, holding her breath while promising herself in dead silence not to be disappointed with the more likely outcome. She couldn't have been happier to be wrong.

Sonja appeared before Lucian like a golden ghost, a welcome apparition, an angel, in the most ideal description. Could she truly be standing before him now? Her immediate smile was too warm to be a dream.

"I knew you'd come back. I can't explain why, but it makes me… happy," she confessed, turning her face to conceal the embarrassment and an invisible blush that would've danced on her face like a wildfire if she hadn't been born dead. His strong and lively presence was the clearest and brightest sign that life existed in her father's breathless walls.

Lucian opened his mouth to speak, but closed it instantly when he heard distant voices coming closer. Sonja hadn't wasted her time in the past week, and had planned for possible interruptions, almost hoping for it. With superhuman speed she grabbed his wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction, her gentle grip needing his trust. He followed obediently, as if faith in her had been imprinted on him long before.

At nearly matching pace, they drifted down the endless hallways, almost flying toward their destination. They stopped only for a door, larger and older than many other in the castle but yet so discreetly placed it could often go unnoticed. Tucked away so no stray rays of light could peer through its aged cracks, Sonja pushed the door open and revealed a small garden, her miniature Eden.

She led Lucian down a small path, the cobblestone weathered from storm and age. With her attentive care, the garden was spared all weeds and pests, only full blossoms and enchanting vines existed in her dreamscape. Lucian stared in wonder, feeling as if he had escaped his bondage and stepped into the most ancient fairytale, the most flawless fantasy.

"One of my most favorite presents," she remarked, pulling Lucian from his reverie. "He gave me this small spot of land for my twelfth birthday, a little over three years after my mother had gone. He planted a garden and built walls. This was his way of giving me a freedom and a prison, a view of it from my window."

Sonja pointed to the tower behind them, the third story a balcony and the face of her bedroom.

"We used to walk the path often together, when his work would become too tiresome and my youth too lonely… it's been ages since he's come, and for the longest time I've had no one to share it with," she explained, handing a small piece of her life and her heart to him.

"I could never have imagined a more perfect place, and had it existed, I could never asked for the right to see it," he answered while caressing a fragile exotic flower.

"That's why it's gift. It can't be claimed in its full glory, only shared," she replied, her happiness swelling as she had finally met someone who could appreciate this solace as she could.

"You think like God, but I am no Adam. I will never spoil this garden," he swore, spotting an empty plot in the corner. "But perhaps, you will let me add to it?"

She nodded in approval, her curiosity with this man growing. Lycans with this large a heart could not be the terrible beasts her father depicted them to be in his every description. She felt the desire to know more.

A light flashed in her room.

"Quickly! You must go! They'll be looking for me by now," she hastily instructed, though Lucian had taken the same sudden heed as Sonja had. He briskly headed for the wall and prepared to climb over it before she halted him, her hands quickly grabbing his arm.

"Flowers bloom fullest in the springtime… will you return with something for me soon?" she asked expectantly.

"Sooner than I will be gone, I promise you," she whispered in reply. Her heart elated, she released him as he propelled over the wall, ascending the world they both knew.

"Then I'll wait," she promised in return to his passed shadow. "I'll wait."

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What do you think? The garden scene might be a bit long, though I intended it to be more metaphorical than an important setting. I think it ended up as both. I'll try to speed the next chapter up, I'm not sure I want to write a 20 chapter story, but at this rate it might be. Yikes! Anyways, reviews and ratings are always appreciated!