Chapter 8- No Damsel in Distress
Athenodora's POV
I woke in the same dark, dusty room. The pain between my legs was no less excruciating then when I was crying myself to sleep. I had never cried, not even as a babe according to my brother.
I found pieces of rusted mirror on the floor, causing a memory to creep into my head. The vampire grabbing at my waist, tearing holes in my night gown. Forcefully kissing and nipping at my neck with his teeth before shoving me into the wall. The mirror shattering behind my back as he forced his body between my legs and lifted me up causing fragments of mirror to stab my back.
I saw the vampires forcing themselves in me, one at a time as the other watched, over and over. Remembering my own cries and screams made me shudder. I was covered in cuts, bites and bruises by the time they were done with me. Dry blood was still clinging to my skin and ripped night gown, if it could be called that, even now. My muscles ached and I felt sick to my stomach.
I grabbed the largest piece of mirror I could find and looked at myself in the reflection. I was weak, I was broken and I didn't like it. My name is Athenodora, I was named in honour of the goddess of wisdom, courage, law and justice.
I'm no weak child.
Caius' POV
Dimetri led us to Romania, to the destroyed castle that had once served as the lair for the Romanian coven, now in pieces with only two surviving members.
I should have known it was them, seeking revenge for our coven destroying theirs. I had no regrets over what had happened, their way of living wasn't right and they wouldn't listen to reason.
They lived as gods with mindless feeding tactics. If the world had been left to them, then vampire kind would starve.
I hoped with all the life left in me that Athenodora wouldn't end up like Didyme, Aro's sister and Marcus' mate. Although I knew the truth of her death, I couldn't go through that trauma. Not so soon after I had found her.
My train of thought was broken by a figure standing with her back towards us in the moonlight. She looked a lot like my Athenodora, she had; the same hair, a similar height. Only she was more mature.
Her mother Serapheena.
As she turned to face us, her pale blue eyes glowed like the moon in the night sky. Her face was streaked red from crying the blood tears of her kind. Many people see tears as a beautiful sign of emotion, with vampires not having the capability to do so due to being part of the living dead. The blood tears of Animorphytes was something else, a horror capable of preventing their beholder of movement.
"I know where she is. Her brother is getting to her. Please, take her away from here. Hide her from Henri." The women fell to the floor in front of me. I wanted so much to ignore her a rush to my mates side, but Serapheena knew about her kind and her husbands alliance. I didn't.
"Athenodora wouldn't approve of being taken away from you again." I knew that much at least, "Come with us, all four of you."
Aro whipped his head towards me, glaring at me.
"I would is I could but I would be endangering her further. She is much beloved by our people, I can't endanger her like that" She replied.
I cleaned her face with a silk handkerchief and together we waited in the moonlight for my beloveds rescue.
Athenodora's POV
I lay there in the darkness, my back against the cold hard floor. I gave some relief to my back, I couldn't heal it properly as fragments of mirror still impaled my skin. I felt my eyes slowly close once again, giving into the pain that affected the other areas of my body.
What seemed like only a few moments later, my eyes snapped open again. I heard a fight outside the door to the cell and I jolted myself upright.
I heard a key turn in the lock and saw a guard standing in the now open doorway. The guard then fell face first onto the floor with a loud thud and revealed my brother standing in his place, a bloody knife in his hand.
I wanted so badly to run to him, but all I could do was stare. The adrenaline that had suddenly propped me up had left my system and a haze took over.
"No Athenodora! Don't do that!" was all I heard as my body slumped back to the floor.
The next time I gained conscientiousness, I saw the night sky above me. My brother was running, with me in his arms, through a forest and into a clearing where he placed me onto the ground.
"We should be safe now, but you need to drink." He said.
My siblings and I all had a vial of vampire venom that hung around our necks on a chain, just for rare cases. I reached for mine to find it missing.
"Here." Bastien said, handing me his.
"I-I can't," I replied, shivering, "I-I-It's yours."
"And right now you need it more then I do, so drink." He told me.
I opened the vial and poured the silvery liquid into my mouth, as my siblings and I were only fledglings we didn't need much.
As the venom worked its way through my body, I felt my limbs freeing up. The pain ceased to exist as energy rushed energy. I smiled at my brother before I followed him back to everyone else, including the King.
"We must prevent a situation like this from happening again. I have ordered the immediate arrest of Henri should he ever again show his face on English soil. Furthermore, Caius, you and Athenodora shall be wed in haste and the lady turned full fledged."
With that, we all made our way back to England, in the cover of the night. I ran to my chamber, without slowing down for a second, and put on the finest gown I owned. I have never been one for wearing white, tradition or not, and I am a girl now ruined.
I slipped into a dress made of ice blue satin, trimmed with pearls and lace. My mother arrived just in time to lace the gown up and tie my blue ribbon around my wrist.
"Never forget, my little one. Never forget and never forgive."
It wasn't the usual thing to say before your daughter marries, but I am a fighter by birth and a women of justice by name. Henri will get what is coming for him, I could promise myself that.
In the great hall of the palace, no time was wasted. Caius said his vows, I said mine. We had our first kiss as husband and wife.
Then a cotton shawl was placed over my shoulders. I was ready to be turned, even though I am still just a young girl by my people's standards.
King Charles II edged closer towards me. My last memory of that night were of his fangs piercing my neck, the last thing I felt was the venom of a royal Animorphyte cursing through my veins. Tonight would be the last time I will ever feel pain.
I woke up in my new chamber with my husband lying by my side, cradling my previously lifeless body on his chest, one hand playing with my hair and the other intertwined with mine.
I have never felt so perfect and so at peace, the events of the past week a now distant memory locked on the vault of my mind.
I am Athenodora Volturi, and I am now no damsel in distress.
I am a survivor.
