Janine

16 years earlier

"Ugh" I cried out as I was thrown onto the cold cement floor. They had gotten me and I wasn't fighting against them. I had accepted my defeat and yet they still felt a need to be hostile. I had no idea what they were planning to do to me. For days they had kept me in a jail cell at the court.

I felt like an animal behind this cold metal bars. Today they had cuffed me and dragged me over to a new part of court I had never seen. We went through a long series of channels and tunnels until we reached what looked like some sort of medieval dungeon.

Julian grinned like the Cheshire cat the whole time and it bothered me to see he was enjoying this. At St. Dunkan's we had always been competing against each other and it was just a friendly competition for me. Now I see it meant much more then that to him. Every time I had beaten him was more reason for him to torture me now. The room had only a few people in it, at most eight including me. I was lifted from the floor and pushed into a stiff chair in the middle of the room.

My hands and feet were strapped to the arms and legs of the chair and a sort of collar strapped around my neck. I looked up; the room was dark with only one light bulb on a string to illuminate the room. The people around me were all staring at me making me feel uncomfortable.

"Is he here yet?" asked Julian sounding slightly annoyed.

"Not yet but he will be here soon" answered back another guardian standing by the door.

"I don't believe it, how do we know he's coming at all?" said Julian sounding angry.

"Because he's already here" said a new voice. I looked around the room until I saw a new person had joined us. He was dressed in a suit looking like he was going to a wedding. Everyone was silent and he smiled and looked at me. He walked towards me and bowed.

"Hello princess" he said.

"What?" I croaked out.

"You must know," he said looking smug. "By marring the last of the Mazur's you became the princess, but don't worry we will soon change that" he said coming to stand next to me.

"What are you going to do?" I asked trying to sound strong but it didn't exactly work.

"Its more what you are going to do for you first. You are going to sign these divorce papers and renounce your title as princess or else we are going to hurt your daughter," he said. I gasped.

"You have my daughter?" I asked.

"Yes princess we have your daughter and your husband and they can both go free now if you follow our orders." He said. I tried to hold back my tears. They had Abe and my daughter I had failed them. A lone tear slid down my cheek and the man wiped it away. "Now now princess no need to cry. If you sign the papers we will give your daughter to an academy where she can grow up and be a guardian just like you did when you where her age. She can grow up like a normal child and all you have to do is sign the papers and let her move on with her life." He said. His offer sounded good and I knew giving her to an academy would be better then whatever they had planned for her. To grow up in a jail cell or be shipped off to the bloodwhore's where she will grow up to be just like them. I knew what I should do and I was willing to do it but I still had one question.

"What about Abe? What happens to him?" I asked.

"Ibrahim's future rests in Tatiana's hands but as a royal I can promise no harm will come to him," he said. I had heard there was a new queen elected. I didn't know whom but I knew she was an Ivashkov and was a close friend of Abe growing up. I nodded and there released my right hand for me to sign and I did with a shaky hand. I knew this was for the best. Once I had finished they restrained my hand again.

"Excellent and now this is what I am going to do to you" he said and I felt the guardians arms wrap around me and force my head up to look straight into his eyes.

"Compulsion" I gasped out. His grin stretched even further onto his face and I closed my eyes. I squeezed them shut as tight as I could and that's when I felt it: pain. Pain so intense it felt as if it was frying my insides. This electrifying pain spread through out my body sending me into a shaking fit. Electric collar I eyes were forced open and I had no choice to look into his eyes. I couldn't make out the words he said but I felt hazy like in a dreamy state. My eyes slightly blurred over and I could feel myself feeling faint. The only words I made out were: "you will forget all love you felt for Abe and your child." "You will forget about ever being married." "You will forget about being royal and your child being royal" and you will forget ever having a-"… he was cut off by the door bursting open. Tatiana stormed in and I was awoken from the compulsion trance. I felt different but I couldn't describe how.

"What is happening in here?" she shouted in rage. Her eyes were wide and her stare was as if laser beams could shoot out.

"Routine compulsion your majesty" answered the man. "We have been told to compel her into forgetting." He said.

"Under who's orders?" she asked looking outraged.

"The councils." He answered.

"That's fully because I am the queen and I have not authorised any of this." She said.

"With all do respect your majesty. The council does not need your consent to have permission." He said.

"No but I must at least be present to watch the vote and sign off on the agreement," she said. "As I have not done either this is unacceptable."

"Your majesty we are already half done we can't take that back now," said the man.
"That is why you spirit users are dangerous. Thank god know one outside this court know about spirit or there could be serious consequences. What have you compelled her to forget so far?" she asked. The man looked at me and turned back to her and whispered in her ear. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "You have done enough damage. I am going to make compulsion illegal to stop this from happening. Compelling her to forget to love is inhuman almost as bad as strigoi compelling to freely give up out blood. Now free her and get her back into guardian training. When she is ready I will find her an assignment far away from here." With that she walked out of the room and the man turned back to me.

"You will forget everything that has happened to you in the last week." He said in a soothing voice and I nodded and closed my eyes drifting into a deep sleep.

When I woke up I was in a hospital I was told I had hit my head fighting against a strigoi and had slipped into a coma. I had amnesia and had forgotten everything that had happened in the last three years of my life. The queen had placed me into a guardian training rehab facility and in a few short months I was ready to get back into the field. They had given me a Szelzky lord to guard and I had taken it gratefully. Now I lived with him and protected them every day. The marks on my neck had almost tripled and I had become quite famous amongst the dhampir's. I felt stronger and braver but I had a feeling that something was missing. Everyday I would wake up feeling like a part of my soul was missing. The part where I actually feel and not just go through everyday doing without any emotion. Even today I feel like a mindless robot and I want something to be in my life but I don't know what.