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Okay, everyone!  I didn't die, and here's your update. On another note, I won some more awards!  From the Spike Threw the Heart Awards (No, I'm not spelling it wrong!) Round Two, Best Angst Fic for my fic Never Forgotten, and Runner Up Best Short Fic for Falling.  Check those fics out and congratulate me!

Also, let's play Spot-ThePrincessBride-Reference.

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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

"When is the wedding date, William, Princess?" Penn asked politely, dabbing his face with a napkin.  A fine spread lay out on the table, from meat to cheese to wine; it was everything anyone could ask for.  Too bad Penn couldn't taste it; it was one of the few human things he actually missed.

"Midsummer," William replied easily, taking a sip from his goblet of red wine.  "In the Palace Courtyard.  Then there will be an imperial parade; the Princess and I shall be revealed to the people as the future king and queen."

Elizabeth's lips pursed into a tight smile.  "Oh, yes, Lord Penn, we're terribly excited.  Are you going o be in attendance?"

"Of course, dear Princess!  I have known William here for years; I would never miss his wedding!" Penn said jovially to Elizabeth.  He sighed quietly, hoping no one had noticed his artificiality.  Darla was never going to here the end of this, never.   He could see the princess was less than comfortable in William's presence, if the way she rolled her eyes after every statement was any indication.

He wanted to... smother William.  And then kick him in the side, repeatedly, to cause the most pain. Drain the Slayer and be done with her.  But no, Darla wouldn't like that.

He really hated this.

"The occupation of Galway is going well?" William questioned Penn.  Princess Elizabeth flinched and groaned so quietly, it was inaudible to human ears.  But Penn hadn't been human for a long time.

Oh, the drama.

"Quite well.  There haven't been any peasant uprisings in months," he replied easily.

He really hated this.

Elizabeth's insides were in agony, twisting, turning.  Something was wrong.  Definitely wrong.  There were vampires about, no question about it.  But where?  Intermittent patches of sunlight crisscrossed the Great Hall, the high windows allowing light to enter the room.  They couldn't be in here.

Could they?

Her stomach was growing worse with every second; her hands started to shake and she was looking very pale.  She had to find this thing, and soon.

Her eyes sought out the dark corners of the room, immediately searching for any movement.  A guard stood in the shadows by the door, unmoving and rigid from years of military training.

Or supernatural, preditorial grace.

She shivered.  Either way, it had do be dealt with, but not with William and Lord Penn in the room. 

Diversion time.

"Oh, William?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes, my dearest," William replied, a jovial grin on his face.  Please, though Elizabeth.  Really.  The least he could do was talk like a normal person.  Every time she heard his audience with the king, he spoke in a deep, commanding voice, with more than a hint of malice.  He sounded remarkably feminine whenever he was with Elizabeth.

"I'm absolutely parched; this wine will not do.  It's from last summer, when the grapes were unripe and the frost had ruined the crop.  Do you think you can alert the kitchen staff, and have them bring us another year?

William smiled a great smile, baring his white teeth like a hungry animal.

"Of course, my princess, I shall go right now, before they serve the meat.  I'll take care of this blunder, my sweet."

She could have sworn Penn rolled his eyes, and she was forced to stifle a giggle.

"Lord Penn, please excuse me for a few minutes.  You are my best nobleman.  Acquaint yourself with the Princess.  When we are crowned, you will be the Queen's champion."

He left the table on her menial task, one he easily could have given to the guard at the corner.  He wouldn't have gone unless he wanted to leave.  Oh well, no matter.  Elizabeth had it on good authority (Cordelia and Fred, of course) that he thought her idiotic and naïve.  He's one to talk, she thought bitterly.   It's not like she chose any of this.

He left the room, and Penn let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god," he grinned charmingly at Elizabeth, laughing easily, "I thought he'd never leave."

Elizabeth looked at Penn, startled by his candor.  Noblemen didn't just go insulting their future king… she smiled, deciding she liked this Penn. He wasn't afraid of William like everybody else.  She tucked this information away in the back of her mind, telling herself she must be focused on the task at hand.

Find. The. Vampire.

She shivered, eyeing the guard in the corner again.  He stood straight as an arrow, a sword in scabbard at his belt.  His tunic was long and green, marking him as one of the king's men.  She vaguely remembered him standing outside her father's chambers when she was younger.  Conrad? Connor? Yes, Connor.  He was young for a guard, with long shaggy hair that was no doubt used to cover his boyish face.

He couldn't be the vampire.  No, she had seen him in the sun just the other day.  Maybe it could have been someone else… maybe…

Okay, she thought, so maybe she was grasping at straws.

Suddenly, he moved out of the room, marching in a straight line as if he was under the strict watch of a commander.  He saluted Lord Penn with his hand and turned sharply, leaving the two alone.

The pain was still there.

She looked around the room, turning 360 degrees into a circle. 

Lord Penn had arisen from his seat, looking questioningly at her.  "Princess?  Is something the matter?  What do you look for, why do your eyes seek a figure who is not there?  Don't tell me you're waiting for William to come back, that you're a lovesick puppy hungry for his affections?  I shan't believe that."

She laughed.  It was a full laugh; it resonated throughout the great hall of stone, echoing against the walls, filling her body and relieving some of the pressure in her stomach.

"No, I suppose not," Elizabeth grinned, feeling more and more comfortable with Lord Penn every second.  He could be an ally, she mused; he could be useful in the future.

"William, well… he's a bastard, if you'll excuse my language Princess," he winked roguishly.

Elizabeth giggled.  This Penn was something she rarely got: honesty.

"Too much violence.  Too much blood.   He starts fights that can easily be avoided.  He mobilizes hundreds of men to fight and die for a cause that no one cares about.  No one is oppressing us.  But we fight.  We conquer. It's our way," he said, almost bitterly.  A glazed look overtook his eyes, and silence overwhelmed them. 

Suddenly, he snapped out of his trance, looking contrite. "My apologies, Princess, I mean not to speak so.  William is an honorable man.  He will make you a fine husband, and a fine king."


Elizabeth frowned.  What had produced such a change in the nobleman?  A minute before, he had called William a bastard, and she knew he had been envisioning what she had: William as king, the kingdom in utter ruin and desolation.

"We are people of action.  Lies to not becomes us," Elizabeth said dryly.

"Well spoken," Penn replied, with a small nod in her direction.

She turned around, the pain in her stomach still rampant.  She heard a growl from behind her, and Penn spoke.

"William shall be returning soon," he said softly, menacingly.

His tone had startled her, and Elizabeth turned to him, face filled with confusion.  His face had transformed; it was a grotesque mask, like the one on Darla's face.  High ridges protruded on his brow, sharp fangs replacing once blunt teeth.

"Yes, yes, it is I.  I am the vampire!" his yellow eyes blazed in insanity. "You looking for the vampire you felt around you.  Who would have thought it was your own fiancée's nobleman?  Your new friend Penn.  Spare me the drama and the shock," he said bitterly.

Elizabeth could not speak.  What an idiot she felt like… all this time, he stood beside her, waiting.

"However naïve you may be, you seem a decent woman.  I hate to kill you," he said, with an audible tinge of regret.

Before Elizabeth could respond, he reached out his arm to strike her.  On instinct, she turned, so the blow missed her by inches.

"You seemed a decent fellow.  I hate to die," she quipped, blocking another punch.

Penn smiled through his bared fangs. "Excellent.  A spirit.  Don't see much of that these days."

"No," she agreed, "Not much."

Penn kept trying to attack her, the Elizabeth held him off the best she could.  She was untrained, after all.  She thought she was doing pretty well for herself considering the circumstances.

"As much fun as this has been, Darla awaits. I need not kill you, Elizabeth.  That'd be a pity.  You're too much fun to… play with."  He reached into his pocket, taking out a wicked looking dagger.  With lightning speed, he struck out against her, rapidly cutting across her stomach.   Red blood seeped through her elegant gown.

"You ruined my dress," she said quietly, pure rage in her eyes, "I liked this dress.  You'll pay for that."

"You worry about your clothes, and not the poison I may have laced the dagger with?  You show your age."

Elizabeth looked stunned for a moment, but recovered quickly.  "You wouldn't. You need me.  I have the power in this relationship."

Penn looked impressed.  "Excellent show, Princess.  Intelligence as well…Hmm…" he pondered.  "Darla underestimated you.  We'll not be making the same mistake again.  But still, young Elizabeth, I am 608 years old, and I, I know many tricks."

He started chanting in an ancient tongue; Elizabeth thought it sounded like Latin.  He had closed his eyes and outstretched his arm in her direction, as through transferring his power into her.

"minuit! multus sanguis fluit! minuit!"

Invisible knives raced across Elizabeth skin, and tiny rivers of blood flowed down her arms, dripping into puddles on the floor.  She shrieked in pain, Penn's curse felt like her flesh was burning, burning and there was no water to put this fire out. She fell to the floor, whimpering in pain.

Penn took out a crystal vial, and with a systematic precision, he collected the Princess's life essence.  He looked the girl, who now had tears mixing in with her blood, and he whispered a counter-curse.

"quiescit. sanguis quiescit."

"Cant have you bleeding all over the floor of the Great Hall, can we now?"

He left the hall with a flourish, his long cloak billowing out behind him.

The blood stopped flowing; all traces of it seeped into her skin, leaving no visible reminder.  If not for the rip across the bodice of her gown, she looked untouched, otherwise perfectly normal.

She whimpered again, this time not in pain, but in shock.  She was alone in the great hall, and she wondered if anyone had heard her scream.

She crawled, debilitated, and tried to stand up on wobbly legs.

And she ran.

Fast.

William entered the hall some time later, "Flower?  Penn?" he questioned, his voice echoing against the walls of the large stone chamber. 

"Hello?"

**

END CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

A/N- Hi guys.  I'd like to say something, if only to stop the threatening emails. (actually j/k, I lurve threatening emails…)

This fic is not abandoned.

Got that?

Wanna hear it again?

This fic is not abandoned.

Let's bold it this time, and maybe italicize too.

This fic is not abandoned.

Now that we're square, I'd like to thank everyone for the enormous support and love I've been getting for tSaTS.  It is my epic, my baby, and I appreciate everything anyone's ever said or done to encourage me.

I have a life. A stressful one.  But I write to get away from that.  So, you will have a finished fic by the end of the summer, most definitely.  Hopefully by the beginning of the summer.

In February I was hospitalized for pneumonia, March, my computer crapped out and I could barely do anything, and in April, well, in April, I was just plain lazy.

With the end of BtVS and now the end of Angel, I find my loyalties wavering.  I will never give up on B/A, ever, but my reading habit's have been significantly less B/A than they have been in the past.  But don't worry, I will continue to write tSaTS and be a champion B/A-er.  Keep the dream alive.

In any case, approximately 71 days after the last update, you have a new installment.  Hopefully it's good and restores some of you faith back into me.

I apologize for The Princess Bride sacrilege.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed:

Lori- Of course dear Lori, I find your review first of all.  Thank you.

Sandy-eco- Thanks for your review/support.  I'll try to get those chapters out faster.

Kari- Thank you for reviewing, and for suggesting a summary.

Arabow- I hope the sharks didn't eat you. ;P I'm sorry I couldn't make Buffy hurl all over William, but I did leave him standing like an idiot, alone in the great hall, eh? Yeah, it's not the same, but it's the best I can do. *g*  Thanks.

Lady Moiraine-  Oh dear.  I fear I may have exaggerated the soon-ness of an Oceans update.  Silly me.  It's definitely not abandoned, but it will be put on hold for a while, probably until the summer.  If you want the Latin translation (all of this is according to my Latin instructor, but I don't really trust him because he's like 65 and on a lot of medication.  Hopefully it's right: "minuit! multus sanguis fluit! minuit!" should mean, "Bleed! Much blood flows! Bleed!" and "quiescit. sanguis quiescit." means, "Withdraw.  Stop the blood."  Ah, Penn was a first season villain on Angel, one of Angelus' first childes.  He was mean and supercool.  First showed up in the episode Somnambulist, and there was much flashbacking.  So no Angel for you?  Well, then you don't know of Gunn (Angel's friend in this, a part of Angel's team on the show), Connor (guard in this/Angel's son on the show), or Fred (Winifred, a servant here, a part of Angel's team on the show, now dead in recent episodes.)  Hopefully that clears up any confusion. :P  Thanks for reviewing!

Not telling-  Thanks for reviewing.  More Angel smoochies will come.  Does anybody know the Middle Ages age of consent? *wink wink*

AngelRose4-  Heh.  Well, it was probably less soon than you'd have liked. ;P  But thanks for reviewing!

Rachel- Thank you for your email, I love feedback like that- stuff  people actually took the time to look up my email address and write me.  Thank you thank you thank you.

Miss-ange-  Ah, the peer pressure.  Unfortunately in this case, I rarely cave to that kind of stuff.  But it probably would have been better if I had.  Damn that health class self-esteem crap.  In the future, threats are probably more effective.

Honey-B/Copper-B/Strawberries'n'Sugar/Girl With The Ever Changing Name-   Thank you.  It's your reviews/threats that get me off my ass and in front o the glowing computer screen at 3 in the morning.  I glad you finally registered; I read your stuff and it's great!

Thanks to all.

Reviewing is good for the soul.

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