Chapter 34: An Unlikely Saviour.

+ LUCY +

A maddening sense of claustrophobia seized me as hands roamed on my limbs, trying to get me to stop struggling. Upon hearing the accusation, my first instinct had been to attempt to grab Nick's arm and bolt away from our captors, but all I had managed to do was reach out towards Nick's sleeve before my arm was roughly pulled behind my back CSI-style.

"Blind her and get her in the car already." A deep voice barked out, the same one which presented us with the accusation of committing treason.

Nick growled upon hearing these words, and I could see that his captors were having trouble controlling him too. "Don't you dare hurt her, or I swear I will kill every single one of you bastards!"

Our captors had carefully held us so that we never gazed directly in their faces, however upon hearing Nick's threats, one of them moved from behind us and came to stand directly in front of us. I had to supress a gasp as my eyes landed upon his face. He was pale and his skin looked flawlessly smooth, typical for a vampire. However, it was his platinum blond hair that came down to a good two inches down his shoulders and three large white lines that covered the right side of his face from his eyebrow to his chin that made him so distinguishable. Even Nick went still.

After a laboured pause as the vampire let us drink in his features and examined us in turn, he leaned down until his face was just a foot away from Nick's. He slowly reached his hand out and clasped Nick's between his large fingers. Compared to him, Nick looked like a little kid. It was a scary sight to behold because Nick was quite tall.

"I would honestly just love to see you try that, little boy. The Queen said she needed you alive, she never said anything about you needing all your limbs intact."

I tried hard to restrain the shudder that ran through me. His voice was barely a few decibels above a whisper as he threatened Nick. I would have rather had him shouting at us as it would have seemed much more mild.

Nick, however, seemed unfazed and bared his fanged teeth at him. "Nick..." I warned him. "Please, it's not worth it." He looked at me, desperation in his eyes.

"Good little boy. Listen to her, she's smarter than she looks," our captor returned, his words, laced with poison.

"Sadon," Liam uttered, trying to retain some control over the situation. "I understand that you have orders to carry out, but I beg you. A couple of hours are all we require, and then we'll personally come in front of the queen to answer for the accusation of treason. But for the sake of our old friendship, I ask you to let us go for now. You know that I'm a man of my word. We won't run."

"Piss on your word, Drake. It's worth less to me than the dirt stuck to my shoe. The queen wants them now and that's when she'll have them." the blond vampire returned. I bit my lip in desperation, tasting blood. I had to do something and quick.

"Us. She needs us, not him. We'll come with you but you have to let Liam go," I said.

Our mountainous captor laughed rowdily, as if I'd said the biggest joke of the century. "The human thinks she can speak to me. One more word and you'll lose your tongue, girl. You are nothing but a walking blood bank. If it were to me I'd kill the lot of you off, stupid human lovers."

"No, she has a point. We'll come with you but my father has no business with the Queen. We're being accused of treason, so take us." Nick spat at him.

"They do have a point, Sadon. The man is no use to us." Another one of our captors, whom I hadn't noticed, said reasonably. I glanced at the rest of the vampires, all clad in black. Five men and three women, armed to the teeth. They could kill me with deadly precision and I would only realise they'd done it when I was lying in a pool of my own blood.

Sadon considered for one moment before uttering a loud curse and slamming a fist on the hood of Liam's car, denting it. "Consider this as payment for what you did in 1954. Now go, and don't think that I won't kill you if I see you again." our captor drawled out before grabbing the kneeling Liam from the scruff of his jacket and pulled him up to his feet.

Liam gave us a dubious look that contained a thousand words. Uncertainty mingled with pain and desperation gleamed in his eyes. As he walked towards the car, Sadon ordered the rest of the guards to put us in different cars. Before I could even look at Nick for one last time, a black hood was pulled over my head, disorienting me completely. I was pushed forwards until a hand was placed on my head, lowering it down and my body met as obstacle which I assumed to be the open car. I was smoothly pushed inside the car and before I knew it they'd already shut the door. My hands frantically searched for the locks at once, put somebody grabbed both of them and put them behind my back. I felt something cold encircling my wrists and when I tried to push it away, I realised that my hands were tied. They'd handcuffed me.

"You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" a honeyed voice said. The owner of the voice was in close proximity to me, as I could hear him properly despite the fact that I was hooded. "I wouldn't keep up the attitude if I were you. Queen Natasha is not very fond of humans, I'm afraid."

Silence soon filled the car, and I was glad for it. I wanted a few minutes to myself, to figure out some sort of escape plan for Nick and myself. However, the more I thought, the more desperate I because I realised that there was no way for us to escape. Our captors were highly trained vampires who surely wouldn't let us slip out of their reach so easily. I groaned fruitlessly.

"Someone sounds frustrated. Your heart rate has just spiked up," the chatty vampire next to me said.

"Damn, you smell good." he said, his voice going much lower and velvety. I wanted to slap him badly. Suddenly I felt a hand caressing my clothed thigh, going upwards. "I wonder how you'd taste like..." he trailed on.

I smiled, as a plan formulated in my mind. "Do it. Taste me then." I said. I hoped it hadn't sounded too muffled but his response led me to believe that he'd heard me clearly enough.

"What? You want me to taste you?" he asked me quizzically.

"Yes," I tried to sound as sultry and inviting as I possibly could with a hood covering my face. "I know you want to."

"Laurent, shut up already and stop talking to her." a gruff interrupted us from the front of the car.

"But she's simply fascinating. The first blood bonded human consort in centuries and we have the pleasure of escorting her to the queen." Lauren almost whined.

"I don't get why it's such a pleasure to you. She's just a job, that's all. And don't think for one second that she wouldn't stick a stake through your heart if she had the chance. We'll see how fascinating you'd find her then. So shut up."

"But, come on, Ulric. Even someone as uncultured of you should appreciate the fact that we're in the presence of an entire species of her own. Not vampire, yet not completely human. It's simply marvellous." Lauren returned, peaking my interest. He seemed as if he knew something more than we did about the blood bond.

Not vampire, yet not completely human. My pressured mind could not let that go. An entire species of her own. I'd never felt more conflicted. My curiosity was burning unsaid questions at the back of my throat.

"You know what's going to be truly fascinating if you don't shut up? A wooden bullet between your eyes." the enraged vampire answered back.

And just like that, my plan was foiled. A couple mouthful of my blood was all it would have taken to disintegrate the vampire next to me, but it seemed like his comrade's warnings had affected him well enough because he didn't speak for the rest of the journey. And even if I had somehow managed to get him to drink from me, what would I do, handcuffed as I was? Stupid. I needed to start think my plans through.

It could have been hours or several minutes afterwards, but the car came to a smooth stop. Before I knew it, someone had grabbed me not too gently by my forearm and shoved me out of the car. My legs wobbled at the sudden action and I lost my balance. However, I did not fall to the ground, as someone was till holding me by my jacket, suspending me above the ground. My jacket hitched up, exposing my midriff and I shuddered at the sudden coolness of the crispy air meeting my skin.

My hood was pulled away roughly and I was dropped to the ground. I expected my eyes to hurt as they adjusted to the light, but they didn't, mainly because we were in pitch darkness.

"Get up." A gruff voice called out, the same one that had been at the front of the car. I bit my lip and did as I was bid, knowing that stirring up trouble now would be absolutely counterproductive.

My eyes tried to adjust to the darkness and search out for Nick, however all I could see were hazy silhouettes. I hated the feeling of being blind, of being so wholly dependent on my captor to walk. Finally, after many steps in the dark, a little white light appeared at the bottom of what seemed like a tunnel we were walking in. It was not enough to illuminate the place enough for me to see my surroundings completely, but at least I could make out the shape of my purple converse walking forwards. My eyes instantly stated scanning the place for Nick. Sure enough, he was on my right. We didn't even have time to make eye contact before my captor cranked my neck stiffly forwards.

A low growl emanated from Nick, and I could feel his anger flare through the bond. It was so strong that it almost felt as if it was my own. My muscles tensed and my hair stood up on ends, ready to rip out the heart of whoever tried to hurt us.

The more reasonable side of me, one that had chosen to stay silent for most of my life made an appearance then. Keep your cool. Help him. I knew that Nick's short temper was being pushed to its limit, but I had to calm him down before he could do anything foolish, and so I did what I could. I sent him calming emotions through the bond in an effort to soothe him. It worked, but tension still remained, thick and ineluctable.

Finally, the darkness was slowly melting away as light filtered through an open door. A warm yellowish light, nothing too bright because of vampires' sensitive eyesight, bathed the end of the tunnel. I held my breath as the room beyond came into view. Sitting on an ornamented black throne was one of the most regal people I'd ever seen.

Queen Tatiana.

There was no other word to describe her but unearthly. Beautiful would have been an insulting understatement. Her hair looked like woven gold, and tumbled down her left shoulder in an intricate braid. Her skin was flawless, the colour of the purest ivory, making the red dress she was wearing look almost sinful on her pristine body. I admit I was almost afraid to look at her in the eyes. Her very presence commanded respect, and I felt as if looking at her might be insolence on my part. When I did, I realised I wasn't very far off from the truth. Her icy blue eyes bore into mine, as if searching for any truths I was concealing deep within my very soul. They were absolutely mesmerising, but so cold and soulless that I had to look down.

"Nickolas Drake," she said finally, her gaze shifting on him. Her voice sounded overly velvet in my ears, a bit too sultry in my opinion, but I could not deny the fact that it held a certain allure that might have made most guys at my school pitch up a tent below just from hearing her speak. "And his human consort, Lucy Hamilton."

"My, my, you Drakes are a handful, aren't you? First your sister, and now this filthy bond. I wonder whether I'd been too merciful when I banished you from court, perhaps I should have simply killed you all. Maybe you should be thought a lesson. I wonder how your father and mother would feel if I sent them both your heads in a velvet box." This had not started well, at all.

"Be thankful for my logical nature. I must admit that I am a bit curious. What did you do to make him fall in love with you so badly that he bonded with you?" the queen asked. I knew that she was talking to me, but I was abashed. How could I answer that question. What should I say; one wrong word could mean our heads.

"Look up to me when I speak, human." Someone pulled my pointy tail down, making me look up and eliciting a growl from Nick.

"He is so protective of you. It's almost comical," the queen said in a singsong voice. Her blood red lips arched in a small cruel smile. "Answer me."

"I... I didn't do anything, your grace." I quickly added at the last moment, hoping that being polite would buy us some time. "We were childhood friends and we developed feelings for each other, I guess."

"Such a lovely little tale, don't you think?" she asked. A series of responses followed from a number of vampires siting around her. Only then I'd realised that she wasn't alone. She commanded the attention of the entire room so strongly that it wasn't hard to forget about anyone else.

"Tell me, Nicholas. What do you see in this human? Clearly you are not an unpleasant looking young vampire. Why did you choose a blood bag when you probably could have had any young pretty vampire maiden?" the queen asked. I ground my teeth at that, however made sure to keep my face composed and tried to keep my emotions in check as much as I possibly could for Nick's sake.

"I love her, your grace." Nick said. At this, I didn't care that the queen had ordered me to look up. I turned to my side to look at Nick and found him looking at me. His eyes showed a whirlpool of emotions. Sadness, anger, fear, but they were also so warm that I instantly felt better. In all honesty, I did not give a flying fuck if the queen thought I was nothing more than a blood bag as long as Nick looked at me like that.

"Sweet young love." the queen said, her voice softening for a moment, "I'm afraid that at my court it makes no difference. Your bond is dangerous and unnatural. An offspring of such bonds is unstable and a threat to our world. You broke a very ancient law, which is only punishable by death." My heart sank. My entire body went numb. Everything around me felt as if it was happening so fast. All I could do was look at Nick, and watch the desperation in his eyes. Nick became agitated and the Arkansas holding him increased, realising that he was ready to rip their precious queen to shreds for what she'd said.

The queen however remained impassive and cleared her throat. Nick was gagged and restrained and silence fell in the room. "However... someone has decided to speak in your favour, therefore before I give my verdict a trial will be held. You should both consider yourselves very lucky."

"You are most gracious, your grace. If I may ask, who has decided to speak in our favour?" I said once I regained my voice. It still came out sounding hoarse, especially in comparison to the queen's voice. The queen turned her head slightly to the right, and two men emerged from a concealed door.

"My love," one of them said before taking his place next to the queen. He placed a silky kiss on her temple, making her face light up in a brilliant smile before looking at me. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, not recognising the man. However, I did recognise the second and the sight of him almost made my heart stop.

My father.

XXX

I know. I haven't updated since September. I will not bore you, however I've started a new school, but the real reason why I haven't updated because I'm a lazy idiot. Please feel free to hate me, I know I do. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that! Thank you for bearing with my lazy self and this story, I hope this makes up for the wait! I'll try my best to update as soon as I possibly can though exams are coming up.