Thankyou again to all my readers, especially Velfin and PIPER331. Fortune Zyne is now beginning to scare me a little with "Ugh, teenage love. Hurry up and explain it or else I shall spank you with oak paddles." But I appreciate it all the same, well here's the next chapter, my apologies for the slight delay in getting it out.
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A Lack Of Compassion
Areyah stood before Dracula her eye's blazing as he laughed at her compassion towards Nick.
"My Dear, he is worthless, a mangy human with very few manners yet you ask me to spare him, why? Is my daughter falling in love perhaps?" He sneered and she blushed as Nick listened to it all as the brides pulled him back, his face already bruised where is insolence had caused him a punishment. Areyah growled as the brides laughed mockingly and flew at Dracula her wings spread, fangs bared. She hit him forcefully knocking him backwards slashing his face in her anger. Surprise had put him at a slight disadvantage but he was stronger than her and threw her off him and she smashed into the wall near to the brides who hissed in dismay. Dracula landed next to her and forced her to her feet and she winced in pain as he pinned her against the wall.
"You are not invincible and I will kill you if you try that again," he let her fall to the floor and a small yelp escaped as the pain ripped through her body again, the brides let Nick go and helped her to her feet gently as her vampiric blood set about repairing her broken body. Nick looked at her before glaring at Dracula and sprinting over to him and Areyah gasped and ripped free from the grasp of the brides knocked him to the floor before he reached her father.
"No," she snarled viciously her hands on his shoulders as he lay on the floor,
"I can take my punishment but if you tried anything you'd be ripped to shreds," she stood up and helped him to his feet and the brides dragged him backwards and out of the room and Areyah turned to face the count once more.
"Where is he being taken?" she asked, the cuts on her face healing slowly.
"The dungeon, his cell will be, incidentally, next to where I keep the werewolves. Why do you love him Areyah?" he threw in the question as if it was no more personal than asking if it was raining.
"If the werewolves get him I will kill you, and I do not love him… it is merely nice to have some one my own age to talk to, who I have no secrets from and is still not repulsed by me." She lied looking away. He glanced at her and rolled his eyes walking up behind her, her wings shrank away and disappeared,
"The Beast And The Harlot. She's a dwelling place for demons. She's a cage for every unclean spirit, every filthy bird and makes us drink the poisoned wine to fornicating with our kings." He whispered in her ear and she wrenched away from him turning to face him.
"How dare you, I am no beast compared to you and definitely no harlot, perhaps you should look at your brides to fit that description?" Areyah snarled. He laughed in her face,
"But you are a dwelling place for demons, you are half vampire, and you drink poisoned wine, wine and blood, and I'm sure you'll soon end up fornicating with Nicholas…" he hissed the last bit and she had to resist striking him across the face.
"I doubt that highly, and even if I did, your little prediction is wrong, Nick is no king." She smiled triumphantly.
"Oh really? Look up his ancestral roots my child, you'll find them on the Valerious family tree…" Areyah's eyes widened in horror as realization dawned on her.
"He is related to you my dear, distantly, his Mother was a cousin of Anna, you and him are the only Valerious left, though he doesn't share the name, as you do, not a princess any more my dear but a Queen…. And perhaps that young man could be your king?" Areyah did not stay and the last bit she only heard in her mind as Dracula placed the thought there. She ran into her bedroom and slammed the door, sobbing at the injustice of life.
"Fuck his prediction, He can look closer to home if he thinks I'm going to end up as a prostitute, I hate him!" She screamed and punched the mirror on the wall watching as it smashed in furious satisfaction, screaming again she threw herself on her bed and sobbed her heart out.
Dracula smiled faintly as he heard her unearthly shrieks of pain and laughed quietly,
"Oh my dear, my little prediction will come true, even if I have to help it a long a little. I need some fun and some more Valerious to kill off will undoubtedly be the way forward." He walked into Areyah's room, finding her asleep, her face still streaked with tears. He tried to act that he felt nothing for her, but the protectiveness and pity still lingered after her outburst on the rain soaked balcony. He shivered, and rolled his eyes picking her up gently he teleported to the dungeons where Nick was sat, watching the werewolves in the next room with a wary eye. He looked up as Dracula entered but made no attempt to stand. Neither said a word as Dracula place his daughter next to the confused boy. He went to leave and Nick spoke.
"What is she here for? Can you show no compassion, Vampire? She is your own blood after all!" He exclaimed quietly and Dracula looked back over his shoulder for a second at the troubled sleeping face.
"If Van Helsing comes he will expect me to treat her as a Queen, best she is down here with you, look after her…" He nodded and slammed the door. Nick looked at her and quelled the stir of emotions that he felt. She shivered in her sleep, 'and no wonder' though Nick bitterly, her velvet dress was in tatters and even when it was undamaged Nick doubted that it kept out the cold. He lay down next to her and pulled her close, his coat had been taken away with all his weapons and his own body heat was all he could give her now, sighing he closed his eyes a drifted off into a fitful sleep.
