Chapter 3
"A Soulful Proposition"
When the dust cleared, everyone was still in the last stances they had. The sound of Roddy's scream had frightened even the toughest vampire. As soon as the Purebloods realized where the sound came from they dropped to the floor in reverence. Roddy sat in the middle of the rubble, not believing that her scream had done all of this.
"Roddy are you okay?" Trowa asked, the first one to speak which was a rarity for him. Roddy looked at him with a look he'd never seen before. It was confused and frightened, yet unmistakably livid. She had the look of evil in her eyes, and by the looks of what she'd done to the museum with just her voice; he didn't want to know what else she was capable of.
"Am I okay?" Roddy asked, her tone measured and low, anger seething in every word, "No, Trowa, I'm not okay. I'm pretty FUCKING FAR FROM OKAY!!!" the green-eyed man stepped back in shock and fear he didn't dare touch her, "First, I was attacked by this crazy bitch wearing all black calling me her queen and I defended myself with a sword, but I don't know how to fence. Second, this weird deep voiced blonde guy comes out of the shadows bringing his weird looking cronies with him that were trying to eat me. Then the rest of these crazy women come in and I find blood, but no dead bodies because they were disappearing. A Chinese man grabs my hand then turns around to find my boyfriend, whom I thought was a salesman, holding a gun to his head. His business partner is also fighting with a saber against those nasty looking things behind my boyfriend. Then this braided guy and his Japanese counterpart come flying through the glass roof. And don't let me forget that when I screamed a shockwave blew this place to shit!"
"But are you okay, love?" Trowa asked. Roddy bit her bottom lip in frustration, bringing blood from that sensitive area. She couldn't find anything to say to Trowa, so she just walked up to him and punched him in the stomach.
"Does that answer your question?" she said calmly, she felt much better now.
"My Queen." Hilde said from the ground, her head was bowed in respect as were all the rest of the guardians.
"Shut up and get up! I want to know what the hell is going on. Starting with you." Roddy pointed the knife's blade at Jinakel.
"We need to get out of here. I'm sure the police have been called." Sally said grabbing Roddy's hand.
"I'm not going anywhere." Roddy said pulling away.
"That's right, love, come on." Trowa grabbed her again and she pulled away pointing the knife at anyone who came near her.
"I said that I'm not going anywhere. I need answers or I'll scream again." She said, her eyes showing a fierce hazel.
"My name is Jinakel, I am a pureblood vampire. I was sent to protect you, my Queen Hadilah Badri. " Jinakel was extremely calm Roddy just stared at her like she was crazy.
"Are you crazy? Roddy is no Egyptian queen." Trowa said walking towards Jinakel.
"Who are you bang boy?" Sally asked, snarling at Trowa.
"I'm a vampire hunter and that's my partner Quatre." Trowa said. At hearing this Roddy gave Trowa a look of death. He'd lied to her.
"You're vampire hunters too, so are we." Duo said dropping his sword from Hilde's neck.
"So you are all Pureblood Guardians?" Heero asked glaring at Jinakel.
"Didn't I just say that?" she glared back.
"Hn."
"Okay, guardians of what?" Roddy asked.
"You my Queen." The Purebloods dropped to the floor again.
"Would you stop that?! I'm no one's queen." Roddy said, her frustration mounting again. The sword started to glow the beautiful gold it had earlier.
"But you are. You just don't realize it yet. You are the queen of Purebloods, a vampire Queen." Catherine said.
"Okay, this is sounding like an Anne Rice novel." Roddy said, finally sitting down in defeat.
"You think she's the queen of your little vampire cult?" Duo asked, looking at Hilde.
"Reverence you braided bastard!" Hilde said.
"When you touched the sword did you have visions of your death and your childhood?" Jina asked. Roddy looked at her in awe.
"How did you know?" Roddy said.
"Because you are Queen Badri. You look just like her. Tell me, do you remember this?" Jina handed Roddy a small, gold medallion encrusted with emeralds. Roddy couldn't believe it.
"I remember this. It was from my father Ramses he left it to me after his death. It's the Amulet of Ra, the sun god that watched over our dynasty. But how do I remember that? The vision is so clear and bold in my mind." Roddy said.
"Because you are my Queen. We will protect you." Jinakel said and lowered her body once more to the floor. Trowa looked at Roddy, as did all the other men.
"I think we all need to explain some things. Let's get out of here." Quatre said.
"Where will we go?" Roddy asked.
"To our place. We will be safe from others there." Sally said and they all hurried to the vamp's home.
****
"We have food now. It's for Wufei though." Hilde said smiling.
"You're not a vamp?" Duo looked at the Chinese man.
"No. I met these onnas yesterday and they convinced me of their righteousness. The whole story was told to me." Wufei replied to anyone who was listening.
"So, what is everyone's name?" Catherine asked looking at Quatre and winking. They all went around the room and introduced themselves.
"So, tell me about this Badri woman. I've never heard of her and I'm the expert in Egyptology." Roddy said, a bit calmer than she was in the museum.
"The stone that you hold is the Amulet of Ra. It is what made your family vampires. A Romanian Count filled it with his blood and gave it to your grandfather. Your grandparents both drank it and became Purebloods and had offspring, leading to you. Your father hated being a vampire and thought that if he stopped the evil bloodline with you that the race would slowly die out. So he betrothed you to a Roman General named Treize that forced you to change him. He started what we Purebloods call the Tainted, vampires who are tainted with human blood. You hated him and never slept with him. He killed you soon after your wedding, but you swore revenge on him and sent your soul into one of your guards that swore her life to protect you, me. Your purity was never lost on any of us, your name, Hadilah Badri, means Virgin's Destiny in your native tongue. Your destiny is to be reborn because you swore that you would spite Treize's kind and eradicate them…"
"From the face of the earth. By Ra I will have my revenge." Roddy finished the sentence, "so, you hold Hadilah Badri's, my, soul inside of you?"
"Well, not exactly. She gave me her blood. Treize only left her to bleed to death without checking to see if she was truly dead. She asked me to feed on her and I did. I took all of her blood. I've never fed on anything again, your soul keeps me filled and gives me the powers that other vamps don't have. Not even they can fly."
"But that other one can fly." Quatre said referring to Zechs.
"Marquise is using up Treize's strengths. He is not flying without help." Jina said, "Do you believe me?" Roddy stood, the golden sword still in hand steadying her shaky legs. Without warning Roddy fainted to the floor completely out of shock.
"Well, she took it better than we thought she would." Hilde said and helped the women put Roddy on the couch.
****
Zechs returned to the Dark Castle with the few remaining minions what weren't killed in this battle. His pride was hurt also, not understand how he'd managed to lose control of the ambush so quickly.
Treize was going to feed on him when he found out that he'd been that incompetent. This was one of the thousandth times that he'd lost to the Purebloods; where had those other people come from? What of the explosion when he was leaving the museum? Tonight had been too peculiar and Zechs had seen many strange things in his thousand years.
"Zechs!" a cry from the front of the castle broke his train of thought. Treize didn't sound too happy. Zechs knew that tone of voice from his previous encounters with his strict master. He counted the steps he took towards Treize's chambers.
"Yes Master?" Zechs bowed at the sight of his angry master.
"How many died tonight?" Treize asked, the shadows covering his face though his eyes glowed in the darkness.
"75 minions." Zechs responded.
"The Purebloods killed 75 of my minions? They are getting stronger." Treize said.
"Actually sire, there were more that just four of them."
"More?"
"Yes, of course the four cursed Purebloods were there, but there were also five men: two Asians, a blonde, a man with a braid, and a man with funny hair; I recognized them, they've hunted us before." Zechs replied.
"And that was all?" Treize queried.
"Yes… oh, no, there was a dark human cowering in an alcove, but she was just a mere mortal sire." Zechs said. This last comment caught Treize's ear. Treize removed himself from the shadows and stood completely in front of Zechs in the moonlight.
"A dark human you say? Hmmm. What did she look like?" Treize asked.
"She was black, but her skin was caramel colored not dark. Her eyes were hazel and her hair chocolate and thick. Namely, she was beautiful, an excellent feed if I do say so. Ah yes, and she was holding a golden sword." Zechs said.
"My Queen Badri, you have returned like you said you would. The Virgin Destiny has begun." Treize said to himself.
"Come again?" Zechs was extremely confused.
"No one knows this, Zechs, but I had a queen bride. She had the most beautiful life. I wanted to be a vampire so I forced her to turn me and killed her on our wedding night. That is why my kind is the Tainted because of my sins." Treize told Zechs the story.
"You were cursed?"
"Yes, but the best curse that I have ever known. I am omnipotent. Now, since you are so incompetent I'm glad that I've called for reinforcements. Lady?" Treize said the name like a whisper. A beautiful, dark-haired woman appeared from the shadows and Zechs instantly bowed in reverence.
"Please rise Zechs. It is so nice to see you again Treize." She smiled, baring her pearly white fangs.
"My beloved lady, I'm glad you came. You've heard the trouble that I'm in." Treize said.
"I couldn't leave you in your time of despair. I have truly brought my best minions and my best commander. Lucrezcia Noin and my bug Dorothy Catalonia." Lady stepped to reveal two kneeling figures behind her cloak. One was a vampire named Noin who was a commander of Lady's minions. The other figure was a Bug, a human that lives and works with the vampires in exchange for powers and one day becoming a Tainted, named Dorothy Catalonia. There were few Bugs; many of them were killed before they ever reached the esteem their master's wanted them to. Most vampires just used their Bugs and killed them.
"I'm glad to see you Noin." Zechs said walking and kneeling at Noin's side.
"Zechs, it's been one thousand years and two day." Noin said. The two once had a romance that never seemed to wane, no matter how far they were from one another.
"Lady, you will help me?" Treize said.
"Of course, that wretched Queen of yours threatened all of our kind. I will not go down without a fight." Lady smiled and bowed in front of Treize.
"My beloved Lady."
****
"So, what if I am this Queen Badri, or whatever her name is, what do I do?" Roddy asked, finally waking from her fainting spell earlier.
"Well, we'd have to change you. You'd have to take your blood." Jinakel said.
"But won't that kill me?" Roddy said.
"No. It's your blood after all. I am only the vessel." Jinakel said.
"And what happens if I don't?" Roddy asked, standing by the fireplace next to Trowa.
"Humanity will die. We are too few and too weak without our Queen. Pretty soon, the Tainted will have grown greater in mass and numbers. There is only so much that the Vampyre Hunters can do. We protect the queen because she would never take a human life, ever. The Tainted are for power and they want the queen so they can use her powers evilly." Jinakel said, standing in the middle of the whole group. Everyone listened intently as she laid out the fate of the world.
"So, this is one of those I'm the only one who can save the world, type things?" Roddy asked.
"Yes. You are our only hope for eradicating that evil." Jinakel said.
"Only me. Wow, I never thought that I'd ever be anything more than an Archaeologist." Roddy said sitting down on the couch.
"You are our Queen. Our precious Queen Badri." Jinakel said. There was a silence in the air so thick that everyone felt as if they were choking. Roddy looked unsure, but she trusted the Purebloods. They hadn't killed any of the humans in the room, yet she didn't want to be a vampire forever. All she really wanted from life was to run a museum gallery and to marry Trowa, whom she was upset with at the moment. She sighed and frowned inwardly, everyone hanging on the word that were to come from her mouth…
"Yes. I want my soul back." Roddy said, and the Guardians began to prepare her.