The king did not look pleased. The way he glared down at Aline was if she were no more than a smudge of scum, staining the glory that surrounded it. But, maybe that's what all humans were to him, even the ones that willingly gave Vampires their blood, the ones that served his kingdom.
The girl that had promised not only me, but also Jace and Nick, that she wouldn't dare cross us, was now standing before us all as a liar. I had thought that she had potential, that maybe if I tried to do her a favor, then she'd try to return it, but, now, for some reason, she was going to do anything to assure my doom.
I was too afraid to move my eyes, afraid to look up and see how Jace was handling her betrayal, afraid that the king was considering that she was telling the truth.
Fear festered inside my stomach. Goosebumps covered every inch of my body. On the inside I was screaming.
A chilling voice, one that had the power to burn you right on the spot, rang out into the open, ceasing the uncomfortable silence. "How dare you!"
Aline looked shellshocked, certainly not expecting the response to be that. "Sir–my lor––my king!" she cried. "You have to believe me I––!"
"How dare you come here and make accusations against my son. Guards, seize her!" the king roared.
Not even a second later men from all angles of the vast ballroom charged towards the defenseless human, whose knees were shaking and looked like she was in danger of falling on her butt. Good. Only when the first set of hands latched onto her arm did she begin to struggle.
"No! MY KING! Please, listen to me––"
"Listen to you?" Jace's father scoffed cruelly. "Why would I listen to a worthless piece of filth such as yourself? You're nothing. You don't deserve to be listened to, much less looked at."
Aline thrashed against her binds, screaming like a baby teething. "I overheard them!" she wailed. "I did! Your two sons, they're working against you! They're the ones that aren't loyal! Not me!"
"SHUT UP!" the king bellowed. Aline fell quiet, momentarily going slack, the guards surrounding her the only ones keeping her upright. The frightening monster stormed down the first flight of stairs, leaving a gust of wind in his presence. When he reached the trembling traitor he towered over her, Aline's eyes wide and fearing. "Shut up, you worthless bitch! Shut up!"
"I-I-I'm telling the truth!" she pleaded.
A hand was raised in the air and came down across her cheek like a whip. The force was enough to make me feel her pain. "This is my palace. My throne. Mine. A human like you has no right to speak to me like that! I have given you life, I have given you a bed, a home, and this is how you repay me?"
His back was to me, but his face must've been truly horrendous, the poor girl taking his abuse slowly shrinking under the weight of his harsh words. I felt bad. Not only was he belittling her for being a human, but he was belittling all humans. Need I remind you, Mr. King-dude, without us, you wouldn't be alive right now. Whose blood is it that you drink? Ours.
"Humans," the king spat, "are only here because I allow it! They don't deserve the mercy that I show them. But there are a few of them that know their place...And you," he glanced down at her attire, "aren't one of them."
"No! I know my place! I swear!"
He ignored her. "However, because of this...joyous occasion, I'm feeling lenient...instead of beheading you or pulling out your heart, I'll drawl out your death; I'll make you a bloodslave––" Aline's face turned as white as a sheet. He stroked his chin as if to contemplate something and then he glanced to the left of him, where, sure enough, Sebastian was standing. "My boy, I recall you telling me that you're in need of one, am I not correct?"
Sebastian stepped forward, his strides long and graceful, almost as if he were gliding on water. "You are, father, but...may I suggest another solution to this?" he asked with a facade of hesitation, a smirk hiding behind a thin layer of his flesh.
The king nodded, with an expression to match his son's, I'm sure.
"Even I wouldn't want a bloodslave like her, so...Perhaps I could just finish her off right here. Right now."
Aline started to shake her head like mad. "NO! PLEASE! I'LL BE GOOD! PLEASE BELIEVE ME! PLEASE."
I wanted to turn away, but I couldn't. My eyes seemed to be glued on the gruesome scene before me and I watched it all: Sebastian ordering her forward, Aline trying to escape, him grabbing her around her waist, and then, finally, sinking his fangs into her neck and sucking mercilessly until she went slack in his arms and her cries of pain no longer filled the room.
Once Sebastian was finished with her, she was thrown to the ground like a rag doll and the guards scooped her up and they disappeared, leaving me in too much shock to even think about crying. It had all happened so fast that I had had no time to react.
I shuddered and let my head snap in the opposite direction.
Her screams still persisted inside my mind, echoing, growing louder and quieter and more frantic at the same time. I could still remember the last sound she'd made.
I should've done something.
I was a monster for doing nothing.
While she was getting killed, I had just watched.
"What's a party without a little drama?" the king laughed, his hands outstretched as he twisted his torso to eye each of his guests. He's laughing? While the Vampires were eager and beaming and cheering, their bloodslaves looked as miserable as I felt, their eyes downcast and their color drained. "Who's next!"
The rest of the plan played out smoother than I had thought it would. While Nick stayed with his father, examining each of the bloodslaves carefully, keeping the king occupied, Jace and I slipped right through the palace doors. Only when we reached the end of the quiet village was I able to breath again.
I saw firsthand how vile both the king and Sebastian could be. They were truly disconnected, oblivious to the pain that they undoubtedly caused every day. Did they have no remorse? No knowledge that the innocent people they were murdering had families that would forever be affected by their rash and careless decisions?
Aline had been a traitor, but no one deserves to die like she did.
A crushing thought had suddenly encompassed me: our cause, the Resistance, has never had a chance against the Vampires.
How could you kill an army of practically un-killable beings, that were twice as strong, three times as smart, and a million times more brutal?
You couldn't. And that was the simple truth.
Months ago, before my village had been destroyed, I had been living on hardly anything. There was a scarce amount of food, we had had no medical supplies for injuries, and our weapons consisted of handmade spears and bows and arrows.
My people were trying to fight for their lives against the Vampires, while at the same time they were slowly waisting away under the harsh conditions that they were forced to live in.
How was I going to fix this?
How were we ever going to live freely?
"Are you okay?" Jace asked me after a while, my looming woods in the distance a comforting sight, making my eyes sting slightly.
I had missed being outside so much. Missed being able to breath in the fresh air. Missed the breeze that made my skin tingle with liveliness.
"Yeah," I breathed, wrapping my arms around my torso in attempt to make myself feel smaller.
"I'm sorry that you had to witness what you did. I wish that I could've done something..."
"I know," I whispered, sending him a longing gaze. "Your family sucks."
"What an understatement that is," he laughed slightly. "After, um, my mother died, even if it was at my father's hand, he became more ruthless than he already was. Ironic, don't you think?"
"Very."
"Aline should've kept her mouth shut, like she'd promise us."
"Either way, she didn't deserve to die like that."
Silence.
It must've been an hour until either of us spoke again, but it was only to acknowledge the rain that was now sprinkling down on us. At first, it was just a soft drizzle, but, after a few minutes, the sky roared and expressed its anger, and the rain started to fall in buckets.
"Come on!" Jace shouted, grabbing my arm, starting in a job, and urging me towards the lines of trees growing closer and closer.
Running in a dress was a disaster, to say in the least. I must've tripped over the bottom layer a million times before even Jace couldn't stand the thing and he stopped our progress abruptly to face me. "Either I'm going to shred that thing by the handful, or you're going to take it off yourself!" he shouted.
Even if he was a Vampire, I doubted that he could see my expression between the rain and the lack of light, but that didn't stop me from worrying that he'd see how rosy my cheeks had gotten.
Underneath the dress I wore a skin-tight, white blouse and a pair of loose, black pants that hardly reached my knees. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that they weren't see through, though, but Jace was right and we couldn't afford to be held back by anything. "Help me!" I said, turning around so that he could undo the back of my dress.
I had expected him to unlace the corset, but, instead it came off in one hard tug. As soon as I was free from its restrictions, I let out a huge breath and leaned over, trying to familiarize myself without its death grip around my waist. As for the skirts, I simply tugged them down and stepped out of their demarcation.
I felt a thousand pounds lighter and, despite myself, I smiled.
"Much better," I sighed.
A comforting hand was placed on my back and I looked up, trying to make Jace out. "Ready?"
"Read as I'll ever be!"
We raced towards shelter, running side by side, enduring the same struggles. To be able to run again was absolute heaven. I felt as if I could run for years at a time and never get tired, but, after having been cooped up for so long, my stamina had decreased significantly. It was a bittersweet feeling to have my legs burn with exhaustion, to be in need of break that I wouldn't be getting any time soon, to have adrenaline pump through my veins like it once had.
Only when we crossed the boundary of the forest did our crazy fast pace come to a halt. I leaned over, resting my hands on my thighs, and took deep breaths. Jace, of course, acted as if he hadn't just sprinted for ten minutes straight. He looked ready for anything.
"You're fast," he told me. "It's hard to keep up with a Vampire, especially me."
I scoffed, still breathing hard, and straightened up. I knew that Jace had been holding back for my sake, but it'd still been incredibly difficult to match his strides. "If you weren't a Vampire, I'd kick your ass on any given day."
He laughed and then he reached up to rub his eyes, but stopped once he realized that his glasses were still in place. Very slowly, he removed his shades and peered down at the item in his hands, rain still falling considerably through the cover that the trees gave us.
Man was he attractive.
Of course, give Vampires all the hotness. Just forget about the humans.
"I don't need to wear these anymore," he murmured, more to himself than to me.
"Keep them," I said quickly. "You told me that they were comforting to have and...you never know."
Jace nodded and slipped them into the pocket of his pants.
"Are we going to have to wear these clothes until we find my village?" I asked, looking down at my attire in slight disgust. My shirt was now plastered to my body, more see through than it had been dry.
He chuckled. "Will––I mean Nick's going to catch up with us soon enough and he made it a mission to pack us some things––finding wearable clothes at the top of that list, right after grabbing some food for you."
"You and Nick," I said slowly, "are you guys going to...stay? With me?"
Jace smiled, and, without his glasses on, his face was literally breathtaking. "Even if we didn't want to stay with you––but we do––there wouldn't be any other option. As soon as my father discovers our absence, he'll know that we actually had conspired against him. You were his ticket, Clarissa, to gaining power, and...we made sure that he wouldn't get it."
"I'm sorry––"
"No. Don't be sorry. I helped you because I wanted to...because I needed to. And Nick...well, he's hated our father even before he killed our mom."
I sent him an appreciative smile. "I guess my father knew that he wasn't human, and, if he trusted Nick enough to live with us, then he'll love you, Jace."
"No human could ever love a Vampire."
"That's not true," I said, not missing a beat. "I...I–uh, there aren't a lot of Vampires like you, but I'm grateful that there are and that I was able to grow so close to you."
"And, you don't come across a human that's as stubborn, intriguing and brilliant as myself everyday."
"That means so much," I laughed.
"Yeah, well, it came from the heart."
"I think you and my brother are going to get along very nicely."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Jace, of course I am. I'm sure that once Hodge, the most anti-Vampire dude in my village, discovers that I'm alive and well because of you, he'll kiss every inch of your body."
Wait. That sounded very wrong.
Jace arched an eyebrow a smirked. "Looking forward to it."
"I, ehm, that's not what I meant."
"Oh, I know what you meant."
"God!" I exclaimed. "You're even more annoying than before."
Jace put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his side, and began to lead us further into the forest. "And you're not going to be able to get rid of me ever again."
"You're like an annoying nat, you know that?"
"I'm insulted."
"Good."
Suddenly a sharp pain ignited along my upper arm, where Jace's fingers were resting. "You just pinched me! That hurt!"
"Good," Jace said smugly.
Unable to help it, I laughed and stared up at him for a long time.
"Well well well, look what we have here."
I jolted awake and sprung into an upright position. Nick stood no less than a foot away, staring down at Jace, who was now wide awake as well, and me with amusement. I had fallen asleep, using Jace's chest as my pillow, with his arms secured tightly around me, and I had woken up in the same position.
"You two aren't very smart to have slept out in the open like this," Nick chided, still very much enjoying our-my discomfort.
"Hey," Jace said lazily. "Nice of you to show up."
Nick's eyes widened considerably. "You can see! Where the hell-how? Your glasses. Your eyes. You can see?"
"Yeah, pretty cool right?"
Jace's brother scoffed, "Leave it to you to make something as cool as this into yesterday's news."
"That's why I'm here."
Their banter reminded me of how Jonathan and I used to talk to each other and it was refreshing. Seeing the boys outside the palace was like seeing them in a different light; they were much more relaxed and much happier. Jace emitted a comforting semblance, one that made me feel more secure.
"I got you guys some clothes, and I picked up the dress that you guys disposed of in the middle of the road––which, by the way, could've easily helped them track you guys. So, you're welcome."
"See, and I knew that you'd disguise our footprints, because that's what you're good for."
A bundle of clothes was thrown at Jace's face. "Even for a Vampire that thing was heavy," Nick whined and then turned his attention on me. "I don't know how you wore that thing for as long as you did."
"Well I'm a girl, and therefore tougher and more tolerate to pain."
Both of the brothers scoffed, and, not even a second later, another bundle of clothing was thrown at my face.
"Sorry if they're big, but they were the smallest things that I could find," Nick told me as I stood up, taking a moment to collect myself.
"It's cool. And thanks."
I turned on my heel and walked a few strides before I was stopped. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Jace called.
"I'm not going to get changed in front of you two perverts."
"You'd be safer if you did," Nick argued.
They stood side by side in the same argumentative stance with matching expressions. Wow. It was like seeing double.
"It's not like I'm going to strip in front of the castle."
"How about you we turn our backs on you while you change," suggested Jace.
"I swear I won't look...more than once," Nick said, with a slight grin, earning a harsh slap to his chest that caused him to cry out.
"No thanks!" And, with that, I kept walking until I found a decent sized tree that I was able to hide behind. Once I was finished, I eyed the shirt, or dress, that was supposed to only cover my upper body that went past my knees. After much consideration, I kept on the pants that I had had on under my dress because they at least fit me, and I wouldn't have to worry about constantly trying to keep them up every step of the way.
I reached a hand up to undo the still-in-place bun that was imprisoning my hair, and, after a few minutes of raking my fingers through the tangles and knots, my red locks were resting comfortably along my back, wild and free, just how I liked it.
When I returned to where I'd left Jace and Nic, I was met by a chorus of laughter. "You guys are so immature," I huffed, placing my hands on my hips. "And it's your fault!" I yelled at Nick.
"Sorry, I couldn't exactly go upstairs to your room without drawing suspicion."
Jace let out a long sigh. "Do you think they know by now?"
"Oh yeah," Nick nodded, "They know. And we should be ten miles further than we are."
"Let's get a move on!" I cried, marching in the opposite direction of the kingdom, not even having to look behind me to know that Jace and Nick were right on my tail.
Finally! Another chapter's up.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter you'll get to meet Jonathan and Luke and possibly Simon and Isabelle(:
Sorry, but you'll have to wait for the edited version for a while because I have any time to do anything else tonight.
Until next time, peace.
