Heir to the Throne of Roses

Trinity Blood

Ch.10 Close Your Eyes part 1&2

Note: I have been writing this story as often as possible but sometimes it's hard to keep up with my busy schedule. Part two begins after part one of this chapter, I simply added it to the end to have an accurate number of chapters shown on the summary, and maybe cuz I'm a little OCD. I did make changes to the original part one, so if you want, it would be better to read it over.

Thank you all for reading I get so ecstatic when I see I've been added or my views go up, you're all great! I also take fan service, so don't be afraid to ask, it's always fun to break away from the anime's dark clothes. There is nothing I can't wedge in somehow.

Ion turned his head on the pillow. It took all his ill power to force his body to roll over. The pain in his back still throbbed. The sun completely absent from the clouds. Closing his eyes, he attempted to lift his head. He was so beat he could not reach for his capsule canister. If he did not drink soon he would only fall into thirst. The girl had drained him of all energy. The most remote thought in his mind was Esther, and even farther behind, Abel.

Lulling over the sound of the maid's screams, he wasn't sure what his own name was. The last hours had been a blur. His cheeks bled with scratches. His chest was a maze of red and pink nail marks. The flesh burned and stung with every beat of his exhausted heart.

The limber body behind him draped a very pale leg over his waist. The blond boy, opening his eyes drunkly, did not respond to her touch. If he would have turned to her, he would have lost his breath. Her face had relaxed into its mock demon expression. The girl fought with her body, hair turning from black to red, the waves sliding down in ripples of color. In the small noble's fourth lumbar vertebrae, there bled black lacquer.

Miss Delphine trembled with the lust to finish him. She buried another poison purple nail into his back. The bones clocked and ground in their disks. The sick wetness of his soft tissue melting made her want to keep slicing him. The boy did not feel the puncture, but felt the effects of the poison. He was utterly intoxicated. Arching back weakly, he let out a tortured and distant moan of pain.

The tips of her nails sizzled on his flesh.

His eyes tunneled, all blurring into a blue swirl. Completely drugged, his mouth opened and his jaw popped in and out with strain.

Her breathing was wild, hissing through her teeth. In her erratic thirst her saintly camouflage fell, giving her away as the murderess she was born as. The sultry woman convulsed in a disturbing way. Her body had been tensing and straining to maintain her form, and was starving. If she killed him, she would gain no food. All though she enjoyed his slow poisoning, she was growing too thirsty to bask in it. It was time for her to feed.

Standing to her unstable knees, the tall body of the shape-shifter tore away from the sheets and not bothering to change form, opened the door and leapt out.

Ion's eyes were hazed, one closed and refusing to open. The boy felt his heart slow. The terrible thudding fluttered quickly and then stopped. Still awake but slowly losing himself, the loud thunder of his restarting heart gave his body a jolt for air. Paralyzed, he released all the air in his lungs in an attempt to scream. No sound escaped, only the mute cloud of heavy breath.

His eyes both opened now, spinning madly in their sockets. His legs kicked on their own, arms so tense he felt the muscles threaten to tear. The pain came all at once, toxins clawing at his innards. Then came a piercing headache. The grimace fell, his eyes motionless, all motion in his body ceasing like a falling bag of rocks. His chest being pressed down on by an invisible but definite death. Thirst could not save him now, life slowly escaping him.

A terrible death gargle ripped from his throat, one last breath before his body lost to the poison, and the small pale Ion lay bloodless and cold. His breath only came in once every minute, his heart frozen in ice, beating weakly every 30 seconds or so. In deep hibernation, he ran to escape his nightmares.

In Esther's room

Esther walked out of the steamy bathroom humming. Drying her fiery hair, she smiled at the thought of her and Abel's forbidden date.

The incense she burned was annoyingly strong now, so she licked her fingers and pinched it out. The tip of ash went out with a hiss and Esther, grimacing at the wet ashes under her finger nails, scurried back to the sink. Locking eyes with her self in the mirror, she judged whether she should stay and try to tame her wild hair, or simply walk out as is. Abel never mentioned anything about her hair being unruly, and he twirled it occasionally between his thin fingers. That was a good sign.

Still, she smoothed it with water over and over until the long wisps that strayed from her head were flattened and glossy.

They would rendezvous at the fountain in the gardens when the guards had moved to the other side of the grounds. There, she had her favorite and most trusted personal servant prepare a table near their sanctuary of roses. She imagined the weak candlelight now, bouncing off his silver pony tail. She wondered if he would do anything unusual with it, but then again, it was to long to work with in a manly way. The most he could do was let it down, or smooth it back. She giggled at the mental image of Abel's forehead. And those goofy glasses.

She couldn't stand the wait, she wondered what Abel was up to in his room. Thinking back to seeing him in a towel, her face blushed pink.

'should I take him into my room tonight?' she thought shyly. 'no, that's not ladylike.

'if he invites me in, I won't refuse, but I won't be the one to invite him.'

She schememed about her plans for the newly X-preist, a devilish grin on her face the entire time.

She tip toed to her closet and sat at the long bench facing the two parallel walls of clothes and shoes. Folding her arms, she scanned through her selection of simple dresses, but then again it was evening, so should she go all out? One dress caught the corner of her eye as she was looking for another. It almost called out her name. The dress was a cream white color, but not too white, more of a delicate whipped vanilla. Standing up, she pulled the dress against her body. The sides had long strings of fragmented mother of pearl and thin bows of matching blue and purple lace. The top had a slight dip, showing a healthy amount of her chest. Although she was not proud enough to display it in public, with Abel it would be fine. The bottom was just knee length, with a tail of ruffles that hung down almost to the floor. It was the perfect balance between flirty but elegant.

No doubt in her mind, this was definitely the dress!

Outside in the Palace Gardens

The sleek body of Miss Delphine slid around corners and hedges, making her way to the window she leapt out of. Her nightgown had been replaced with the much more form-fitting clothes of her victim. The black sequins sparkled in the moonlight. Humming 'Coma White' under her breath, she swung her hips as she walked.

In the distance she could see a red head bobbing in and out of the trees. The princess was out of bed? She stopped dead on the spot and a flash of opportunity glinted in her eyes.

'Is this my chance?' she thought. Pressing a long poison finger to her temple she pressed the transmitter under her skin. It clicked and static rung in her head. With a snap, the sound of her employer's voice greeted her clear as a bell.

"My my, this had better be important." He said eagerly.

"Sir, I seek clearance to activate the final part of my plan." She said in a hushed tone. She could not let her get away if she wasn't able to finish the human priest.

"I leave this all to your discretion. If you fail, you know who I will drink. Have a pleasant night Miss Lalaurie." The receiver clicked and the static came back on. She pressed the tiny transmitter twice and it beeped, turning off. This was finally it. If she could capture the princess for a second, she would have the perfect opportunity. But if she failed, her family would be murdered. It was impossible to imagine such a short conversation could ultimately leave her injured and alone. Her daughter was soy young...

Following close behind the princess, she waited until she was hidden behind another row of hedges. Crouching low to the ground ready to pounce like a lioness, she snarled.

"Oh!" she heard Esther say in surprise when her foot twisted out of her too-high princess bent down to fix them when the shape shifter seized her chance, leaping onto Esther's slim body and rolling under the hedge.

The girl kicked and scratched at her unknown attacker. The murderess clamped a hand over her mouth and nose. She felt the girl suck in the skin of her hand, unable to breathe. When she felt her kicking stop, she let go.

Esther gasped, before she could scream, her assaulter had her in the same choke again.

"I will stop once you do." She hissed. The thrashing princess immediately froze on her voice. A female with this much strength. 'Vampire!'

She stopped kicking, panting through her nose. Adrenaline icing over her face in cold sweat. Where were the guards when they were actually needed?

Tearing off scarps of her dress, Delphine slid it around her neck and stuffed it into her mouth. Tying her hands and feet, she picked up the pale, frightened girl and carried her roughly in through the gardens. The princess cried in pain when the strong Vampire threw her over her shoulder, landing hard on her stomach on her shoulders. She was as hard as if she had been welded from steel.

Delphine ducked under the garden hedges and jumped over benches. Once she saw the open window to Ion's guest room, she leapt in and closed it behind her, drawing the heavy curtain. Everything was as she had left it. At seeing the boy's torn body, Esther cried into the black fabric that scratched at her gums. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. All she could think was 'where's Abel?' she feared that the woman had him tied someplace too.

The black haired vampire set the girl down on the armchair and pulled a syringe out of her maid's uniform that was thrown on the floor. Laughing, she slipped off the protective case and shot a stream in the air. The girl's eyes bulged at the thin metal needle. Horror in her eyes she panted and screamed. The muffled sounds were not loud enough to be heard by anyone, and the vampire approached her slowly. Bending down, she licked her lips in Esther's face. The eyes of the vampire were so terrifying, that the princess fell limp, feeling she would faint.

Positioning the needle above the crook of her arm, the vampire inserted the tip slowly. Esther's eyes swam and hid in the back of her head. Without having to inject the thick purple fluid inside, the princess was already out cold.

Pulling the needle out of her skin, she let the tiny puncture bleed. What a disappointment, 'this was a new batch too'. She was curious to see how humans reacted to the potent poison. At least she wouldn't be up to make any noise.

Stepping over to the bed, she searched around in her bag for a canister connected to thin rubber tubing. At the end, a much thicker needle gleamed in the lamp light. Inside swished the concentrated blood of about 20 humans. The dosage was sufficient to bring the noble Ion back from his sleep.

As she inserted the needle into his arm, she thought about the effects of her amnesia poison. She had especially mixed it for Ion. She wondered how real the images that he was living felt. Minutes could be days in his dreams. Dreams where he would run from his death and Lily would save him. Dreams where they would have dinner together and laugh and dance. Stupid human comforts she knew the weak boy would believe. When he woke, he would love her with all his heart. With all the fabricated memories of them. Hiding the sleeping girl in the bathroom, she cleaned the rapidly healing body of the boy. His heart thumped violently, closing all slashes and sweating all poison.

Cleverly, she dressed him in the same clothes from that day. He hoped he would not question the red stains from earlier that afternoon. Walking outside in her maid dress, she sat the boy on a chair in the dark hall and tidied his hair. When he woke, which would be in a just a few minutes, she would make sure she knew where she was.

In Abel's room

Buttoning the dress shirt the butler had run out earlier to buy him, Abel prepared for his date with Esther. The tall man had prepared a much deeper confession for her than last night's. His glasses sat abandoned on the night stand and his hair was tied neatly back in a black ribbon. Tonight he would be a true gentleman and show her how much he cared about her, how much she meant to him.

Just a few short days ago, he could not bear return to her after leaving so suddenly. Afraid of being rejected he avoided the visit to Albion. Now though, he stood in front of the mirror fixing his hair for her. And she was probably doing the same for him.

It was only very rarely that the X-priest wore white, and he looked like a fading ghost. His silver hair shined in a halo around his ice blue eyes. His pale skin blending into the cream colored clothes.

He stood in front of the full length mirror, straightening his collar and pants. He had spent the longest he ever had showering and pampering in the manliest way possible. He smelled like cologne and soap. All was set for their midnight dinner. Tucking a blue rose he had picked from the garden into his chest pocket, he smiled.

'I wonder what she'll be wearing' he thought pleasantly.

Then, he decided not to wear the black ribbon tonight. The thin fabric was old and worn from the floors of caves and forests where he slept at times. With a smooth and ungloved hand, he picked out the tiny aggressor from his hair, letting it fall over his back. He looked down at it in though. Not only was he insecure about having his hair down this way, but he was also caught by his lack of body hair. Leon's hands were nothing like his. His seemed feminine, almost bald and skin scar-less and neat. The other father's hands were chaliced and had long black hairs on them.

Beating the thought out of his head he tried not to think about whether he was masculine enough or not. He was as slender as a pole since he could remember, not many chiseled features or a strong jaw. He was always the clumsy pushover. But Esther didn't seem to mind. Well, she had never brought anything up anyway. That gave him a sort of weak confidence.

Testing his breath on his hand, he was ready to leave for their date.

Stopping him was a slight knock at the door.

Blinking rapidly, he walked to open it with a puzzled look on his face.

"Ara?" he angled his head.

The small body of the red headed chambermaid greeted him with an innocent smile.

"Evening Master Abel."

Part II

"Lily?" his voice broke on the name. 'What is the chambermaid doing here at this hour?'

"I'm so flattered you remember my name! I regret being so rude to you earlier." The imposture of a maid bowed deeply and stepped forward, as if to make it clear she wanted the door opened further. Her eyes opened from her kitten smile to meet his with an intensity one does not find in the eyes of a maid who was simply apologizing. The deep emerald color took his breath away momentarily, before he remembered what he had to do as quickly as possible before their small window of time was eliminated.

Abel scratched a spot on his head and frowned. If the maid decided to go telling anyone he was dressed this way, Mary would surely suspect something. Pretending to be in his night shirt, he hid his tall body behind the door. Tipping over on one leg, he smiled shyly at her.

"Excuse me if I'm being rude Miss, but...what exactly are you here for?" he asked her diztyly.

"Oh! I'm terribly sorry for interupting my master in his chamber at this hour but I must speak to him about something."

Abel couldn't believe this was happening now. What could she possibly solve by talking to him, a total stranger? Outside in the hall, footsteps echoed closer. With a quick urgent and pleading look, the small maid clasped her hands and begged with her eyes. The man dropped his shoulders and bit his lip. If she was caught here at this hour it would be harmless, but if they peeked in they would surely see his outfit and ask questions. Abel guessed she could already smell his cologne, not exactly a quiet smell.

"Tsk" he looked at her painfully. Opening the door, he allowled the bouncing red head to enter his room. She clapped in success.

Not only was the the spitting image of Lilith, but she acted like his younger sister Seth. The sight of her bouncing took him way back to when they were on Mars. Shutting his eyes, he breathed in an offending smell. Coughing in his throat, he closed the door and turned to her. Shuffling his feet, he wanted but could not bring himself to ask her what it was he could help her with. He kicked himself for falling for her innocent trick. Now if they were caught, it would be ten times worse.

Catching his uneasiness, the girl tucked her long hair behind a thin ear and beamed at him. She had no shame in admitting, she couldn't wait to kill this man. Unfortunately for her, the plan was to make someone else do it, someone much closer. Though she was slightly aroused by the much handsomer specimen she was assigned to. The young boy had been a careless partner, selfish, a breakable toy. This one was not her taste, but radiated an energy she could pick up on. Although he was human, she sensed an incredible power. What a shame she could not break him as well. She waited for the moment to call her toy to her.

"Um, yes?" The awkward man finally blurted out. She had been staring at him with narrowed eyes for almost a full minute, and he was itching under her gaze.

Smiling, she took a slow, deliberate step towards him. Standing much too close, she parted her lips and whispered something he could just barely catch. Just as she expected, he leaned in to hear her. Catching his head in her hands she pushed him closer. Being the gentle giant he is, he let her hold his head to her mouth as she whispered something he recognized finally to be in a different language.

As planned the priest held his ear closer, trying to make out the words she was saying. The girl took her long and now pulsing purple nail and held it at his neck. Switching to English, she called a name he did not want to hear from this particular girl.

"Lilith..." she whispered, tempting him to break. His eyes went wide with shock.

The man tried to jump away from her face, but she had it locked in her grasp. The purple nail sinking into his skin, she felt him tense and gasp at the painfull burning.

Crying out, Abel gripped her thin hands tight enough to break any human bone. To his horror, they held his grip, pushing the poison fingers into his neck. He heard the girl snicker and scoff.

"You are weak, human." she said in a voice unfamiliar. He commanded his body to yell, but his voice was bending held by the monster at his neck. 'A Vampire who knows Lilith...who looks like Lilith...why would she attack me?'

Now he would surely try and attack her, then she would pretend to be injured and call Ion. It seemed like the perfect plan, if it weren't for the smell his blood gave off. She was still thirsty from the woman she attacked in town earlier. She couldn't help it. Her eyes flecked with red.

As the girl grew increasingly excited she abandoned the thought that loomed over her. All threats that her master made were temporarily forgotten. She was hopelessly thirsty, and now, she was burning to kill this man. She did not understand the plot of her orders. Why risk someone else killing them when she could end it here quicker?

She felt the scraping of her hard nail against his skull, now completely buried under his skin. The paralyzed man would die soon, now that he was poisoned this deeply. She flicked the flesh that surrounded his skull, bathing in the stream of blood that ran down his pure white suit and onto her face. It was arousing, she cackled madly. Her focus fading, streaks of black appeared in her hair.

Suddenly, a low snarl escaped the man who would be normally suffocating.

With a monstrous roar, the supposed human launched the Vampire across the room, slamming her into the wall. Two feet more and she would have been thrown out of the window.

Her head snapped back at him, now mumbling something under his breath. She watched with confused horror as the man's hair floated weightlessly in a halo of static. Her eyes threatened to pop out of her skull. Only a few feet away from th same terrifying beast that was her master, Cain. She slid to the ground weakly on her knees. This was not in her plans. Cain did not tell her anything about his powers, in fact he had lied. Saying he was human and easily conquered. Of course it would have been different if she knew what a monster he was, she would ever have accepted the job. She clutched her chest fearfully, thirst dissipating.

"Y-You!" she cried.

The man licked his purple lips. His hunger had been surfacing lately, and he enjoyed the sensation of his skin patching up where it had been so roughly torn by the young maid that cowered before him, frozen in fear.

"I?" taunted Abel. Testing a step, he saw the reaction it pulled from her. The girl slid back up the wall as if she was being rocketed from below. Her body slowly morphed back into it's birth shape. Not an innocent maid, but an image that angered him immensely. He looked down at her full hips and chest, pitch hair and eyes that had no end.

This vile woman posed as Lilith insulted him. He roared at her disrespect for the dead. Someone so unclean, posing as his sacred saint...it was sickening. He only knew one person who would do this, and he was determined to squeeze it out of her. He already felt cold at even thinking his name. If she said it, that would be final, he would end her life there, like cutting off a poison vine from the malignant creature his twin brother was.

Flashing in haste, he was at the woman's neck in the blink of an eye. Horrified, she kicked feebly like the Princess had, feeling trapped like a mouse in the paws of a massive and fierce cat. His movement was to fast for even her eyes. She attempted to morph out of his grip but failed, earning herself a gash on her stomach.

The Crusnik buried his nails into her stomach and up into her ribs, painfully grazing the bone with his advancing claws.

"Feel familiar?" he growled into her ear, waiting with an open jaw to bite into her. Just as she felt his cold fangs touch her neck she gathered all the air she could manage to carry and screamed at a bloodcurdling pitch. Breathless she tried to gasp in vain, air could not fit inside her along with his arm. She strained through her tears to see his face as it only crept closer. Pleading to a god she didn't believe in, she dug into her own palms that he would find her. This was not part of the plan, it was not worth the pain. She hoped doubtfully that Ion could be enough to save her.

Suddenly the door to the room burst open, flying off it's hinges and smashing into splinters. One of the wooden shards stabbed into Abel's right wing. Screams of the maids in the hall echoed through the marble. The gaurds could be heard stomping in from the gardens.

"ABEL!" Ion pounced on the tall Crusnik. Piercing his shoulder with his fingers, he yanked the arm holding onto 'Lily's' neck out of it's socket with a loud pop and tear. Abel turned calmly to meet his eyes. They were red and vicious, yet faintly drugged. Growling under his breath, he pushed the small noble off of him and using the blood flowing from the shape shifter, recovered his arm from the floor.

He didn't know what had goten into the boy, but now was not the time to ask any questions. Turning back to his victim he stared her down. "Who are you working for?" he gripped at something firm and slippery in her body. The woman choked and gasped but did not answer. She could hardly think anyway, she barely even heard him.

"Answer me!" he spat in her face. The girl groaned and convulsed. Grinding his teeth, Abel burst whatever he held in his hand and reached for the next closest organ.

The scream that escaped her was so vile and booming that Mary heard it from inside her office across the grounds.

"Did you hear that?" her assistant jumped out of her chair. The usually calm and collected woman stood up from her seat, knocking the chair back.

"Let's go!" she ordered. The gaurd sitting in the office with them gathered his weapons and jogged out behind them. The group hurrie thoguh the maze of doors and long halls, cursing the architect of the dsamned building. Mary stopped and looked around. She had lost the source of the noise.

"Do you think it was her majesty?" The assistant asked, hair a mess, coming loose from the run.

"No, well...I don't know. Does anyone hear it?" She told them to quiet down with her hands.

The gaurd and assistant shook their heads, trying to find it.

The scream tore through the palace again, this time softer, cut off suddenly, followed by the loudest silence the three had ever heard. A maid ran out of one of the near by doors covered in blood. She seemed in one peice, and so Mary let the breth she was holding go and caught her as she ran into her arms.

"Monster!" she said franticcally.

"Bennet!" she commanded and the guard saluted and ran in the direction the maid had come from.

Mary pulled the shaken woman off of her body and handed her to her assistant.

"This is too much for you. Stay here and remain alert. Don't let anyone in, or out." With that she did not even wait for a response and darted into the door after the guard.

Abel dropped the body of the shapeshifter on the ground. The woman landed with a wet thump, her organs splashing out in front of her. She curled into herself, breathless.

Abel debated wheter to kill her, or let her return to his brother to die at his hands. He chose the latter. His brother would be much crueler than he could ever be to a woman.

Drawing the blood on the floor to him, he drank until the nano-machines decided it was enough for now. Glaring down at the girl laying still, eyes wide but still alive, he gave her a playful kick. She hissed in pain and coughed out a stream of blood.

"Go run and tell your master, that he can send all the useless sacks of blood like you at me as he wants. I'm still hungry." His hair fell down and over his clean shoulders, white cloth stained and torn but skin pure and white.

Ion gasped from where he shivered crumpled on the floor. 'poor kid...' Abel thought, 'I wonder what got into him.'

The window that was closed and locked from the inside slid open neatly. Along with a gust of cold air, black tresses waved in. The body attached to it puffed out a cloud of smoke from his mouth and took his cigarillo in two fingers. Patting the ashes on the end out on the window frame, he calmly stepped down into the room.

Abel forze as he saw the man that killed Noel brush a few strands of black silk from his face.

"Magician" he choked out.

"Evening to you too Abel." he said toxicly.

Abel narrowed his eyes and jumped from the man to the open window to the girl. 'How the hell had he seen her?'

"Oh dear...this is no good. It seems you've failed Miss Lalaurie." He arched down to pick her up into his arms. "It's a shame your night isnt over yet." he smiled devilishly.

Pinching the cigarillo between his lips again, he gave a two finger salute to the Crusnik that almost defeated him, and jumped out of the window soundlessly.

Abel let him go. Tightening his fists, he cursed them all.

But the magician was right, her night wasn't over yet, and for that he almost thanked the man for taking her away. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Unfortunately, if he was able to retreive her so soon, they meant that they were close. He had done what he tried to avoid most, bringin the wolf to the door of the palace, to the feet of the Princess he wanted to protect more than anything else.

He threw his head back and combed the blood out of his hair.

'Close your eyes, Abel' he heard from within a memory, 'Close your eyes.'