A Thousand Years
Chapter Fifteen: Sleeping Beauty
A/N: Waves arms around Aaah! No no no, you misunderstand! I'm not ending the fanfic, I just cut off the chapter there because I didn't know what else to write, but the story's not finished! Please do not fret! The story will go on! But thank you so much for all of your supportive words, everyone! Particularly SammyBlack, metal-mako-dragon, Yaoi Diva, DGA, HealerAriel, and Dark Fate. Thank you!
Finals are FINALLY over with... College finals suck, lemme tell ya, right up there with really long work days. So hopefully I'll be able to spend more time writing these stories and keeping all you people entertained!
AND! A big congrats to DuoPhreaks for winning the Turel's Gift contest, which will from here on be known as "Mind Storm"! A big thanks to everyone for participating! "Mental Intoxication" and "Doppleganger" were added to the contest. Doppleganger from HealerAriel was runner up, with Emerada's "Shadow Mind" in third. Perhaps the reason I didn't choose Doppleganger was for quite a silly reason... HealerAriel, please don't shoot me for this, but my perverted mind looks at Doppleganger and thinks Gangbanger. XD! And it would make me giggle every time I typed it, and I don't think Turel would appreciate it, so... Mind Storm it is! HUZZAH! Everyone who participated, have a cookie.
Kain, my brethren, and I stood atop the hill overlooking the flaming city of Avernus. All of the guards and warriors had been slain, and all that remained were those who did not seek to fight us. Kain's icy, moonlit eyes glowed as he surveyed his conquest, standing tall and proud like the leader he was. The wind played with the moon-kissed strands of bone white hair, armor and skin splattered with so much blood... Yet somehow, not a drop stained the pristine whiteness of his hair, as if such a blasphemy would have been unthinkable.
It was just as tempting now as it always was to reach out and run my fingers through those strands, to stroke them and nestle my face in them, to breathe in his unique scent and wrap it around me like an invisible blanket. And now, as it always was, I restrained myself and kept a neutral face, following his gaze slowly out across the land.
I was proud of our conquest... We all were proud. We'd proven that we were ready to take on the bigger cities, to handle their most powerful warriors. Kain had done well in our training, and had perfectly timed when we would be ready to fight.
My scars were gone as if they had never been there... With the blood of so many warriors to feed on, our own powers had grown tremendously, and I had been able to heal the very night after my torture. It had only taken us three days to bring Avernus to its knees. My heart swelled with the power I felt, but not so much to make me cocky and headstrong. My torture had taught us all a valuable lesson: We were powerful, but not all-powerful... Not yet.
Kain turned to us, regarding each of us in turn before giving a satisfied nod. "You have done all that I expected of you, and more. Keep it up, and we'll have this world at our feet in no time at all." His gaze turned to Turel, who looked especially proud of himself. "An interesting Gift you received. What are you going to call it?"
"Mind Storm," Turel replied with a smirk.
Kain gave a nod. "Fitting." He then regarded him with an uplifted brow sternly. "Have you tried using that little trick on any of your brothers yet?"
Turel frowned slightly before replying, "It doesn't seem to work on vampires. It works best on demons, but only temporarily on humans."
"It just gives vampires a big-ass fucking headache," Zephon grumbled, sending Turel a look. I now knew who Turel's guinea pig had been.
"It probably has to do with the level of intelligence the creature subjected to his Mind Storm has," Dumah suggested. "...Although I could very well be wrong, considering Zephon's IQ is somewhat lacking..." He trailed off on a teasing note, smirking.
"...OY! Take it back, Peabrain!" Zephon pounced toward Dumah, and the two of them took off on a merry chase through the woods, laughing and sending insults back and forth at each other. The rest of us stared after them, blinking.
"...I do believe he has a point," Kain spoke at length, "But it probably has to do more along the lines of mental power. A vampire's mind is far more able to withstand magical assault than a human's."
"But demons are capable of speech and coherent thoughts, and they are very powerful magically... Wouldn't they be better able to resist?"
Kain snorted. "Demons follow humans at their every beck and call. How intelligent can they possibly be?"
...Good point.
"Come, let us return to the clan where we may celebrate our victory." Kain walked past us to head back, gliding like a blood-stained ghost through the forest, and the rest of us followed suit.
The years passed by more quickly with each passing season, and with each year, the clan grew in size, expanding our chambers until we each had our own wing with several rooms for our own private use. Our bloodwine cellar had grown in size, the numbers of our donors increased. We even had personal maids now to clean up our chambers and make sure everything was in order, and guard dogs roaming the halls to make sure none disturbed us while we slept. They also made sure none of the maids attempted to leave, but our maids were pretty willing to comply with our wishes. None of them wanted to die.
But one night, theusual humdumof our lives was interrupted. I headed for the training chambers as I did every evening to meet Kain, but as I walked into the room, I was surprised to find that he was not there. Kain had always been the first to appear in the chambers every evening before every lesson. I thought at first I must have been early, so I prepared myself, beginning my stretches to loosen and awaken my drowsy muscles. But fifteen minutes later he still had not come... And after half an hour of waiting, I was beginning to grow worried.
Kain was a stickler for timeliness. Lateness was always punishable, and I could not imagine why he would not be here now without warning. I attemted to establish a mental link with him, to ask where he was, but my words echoed back to me as if they'd hit a wall... Which meant he was either asleep/unconscious, out of range, or had put up a mental barrier so as not to be disturbed.
I snapped out of my dark worry as Turel stepped into the room and stopped short, looking around the room before his dark gaze settled upon me. "...Where is Kain?" he asked gruffly, glancing back out the door as if he would walk in.
"I don't know," I replied slowly, worry now very evident in my tone. If Turel was here, two hours had passed, and it was his turn for training. "...He never showed up for my training."
Turel grunted slightly and tried to appear indifferent, but I knew he was worried by the news as much as I was. "Maybe he went out hunting?"
"He's never arrived after me for training, he's never been late." I stood up, sword in hand. "Something must definitely be wrong. I'll go check out Kain's chambers while you ask the maids if any of them have seen him leave the clan." Turel gave a nod and departed while I set out for Kain's wing.
I encountered one of the maids on the way to his chambers and stopped her. "Excuse me, Myria? Have you seen Kain at all this evening?"
The green-eyed brunette blinked down at me in confusion, for she knew our schedule as well as we did. Yes - down at me. The blasted woman was a full seven inches taller than me. It was a sort of running joke between us, where she'd prop her elbow on top of my head and lean on me, or accuse me of staring at her breasts because I was too proud to look up at her. As far as I knew, I was the only one that would joke around with the maids in this fashion, and they in turn were more relaxed around me.
"No, Raziel, I haven't... He didn't show up for training?" Her voice held a natural husky purr.
"No, he didn't... Thank you, Myria." She gave a nod as I continued on towards Kain's wing, and finally to his bedchambers. I could faintly hear his heartbeat within... But it was far slower than I'd ever heard it before, almost nonexistent. I quickly opened the door without knocking and slipped inside... I'd never seen more than a glimpse of the inside of his bedchambers before. They were massive... Nearly triple the size of my own bedchambers. A large four-poster wrought iron bed stood in the middle against the northern wall, the bedsheets black satin and chenille. Black velvet curtains hung around the bed, trimmed with gold and obscuring Kain's form within. Over the floor was a beautifully decorated red and gold rug. Beside the bed was a large black dresser with gold trim, and against one wall was a large desk piled high with papers, ink wells, and quills. On the other side of the bed was a night stand containing his personal items - his hair brush and the like.
Framing the desk were two large bookshelves that took up the rest of the space on that wall, nearly filled with books that looked to be written by Kain himself. On the opposite side of the room was a grand fireplace made of the rare red-veined black marble with gold trim. How in the blazes Kain managed to build a fireplace inside the mountain without having the smoke back up was beyond me... He must have carved out a place for the smoke to go without letting it attract attention. Beside the fireplace was a large red velvet chair, and decorating the walls all around were various weapons, where torches did not give light to the room. Beside the chair was a small table, probably meant for holding bloodwine. Finally, against the wall where I stood in the doorway, there were more bookshelves - but these were packed to the brim, and the books looked ancient... They must have been many thousands of years old.
Slowly, I approached the great bed and called out to Kain, but I received no response in return... No deeper breath, no quickening of heartbeat, no movement against the bedsheets. Reaching out, I slowly drew aside the thick velvet curtain to reveal Kain's sleeping form. I'd only beheld him sleeping once before, and he was even more breathtaking now than he was in my tomb. But now I had more time to admire his body at rest.
In wakefulness, he was a predator always moving with a liquid and deadly grace, always ready to pounce. In his sleeping state, he looked a fallen angel... A God carved out of alabaster and given life. Hair of the softest spider silk pooled in the black sheets beneath him, stark contrast to the darkness. His head was turned slightly in my direction, his aristocratic features softened to a state of peacefulness. His lips, usually stern and pressed thin, looked softer now, more kissable... His dark eyelashes softened the sharpness of his high cheekbones. His nude form was utter perfection, nothing but lean muscle - save for the long death scar down the middle of his stomach. The curve of his hipbones could be seen just above where the sheets obscured the rest of his body. His small nipples were barely a shade darker than his skin. One hand was drawn up near his face while the other draped over his stomach. I suddenly found myself leaning over his face, reaching out to touch his cheek...
At the contact with his soft skin, I yanked my hand back in surprise. He was cold as glacial ice, colder than the dead. Reaching down, I took hold of his shoulders and tried to shake him into wakefulness, but no matter how persistent I was, he would not wake... His extremely slow heartbeat and the barest rise and fall of his chest was all that told me he was still alive.
Panic rose like a sharp spike in my chest. Immediately I called out to my brothers to come to Kain's bedroom as swiftly as they could. Within moments I heard their swift footsteps as they all ran into the room... Every one of them stopping in their tracks at seeing me continue to try to shake Kain awake.
"...What the hell..." Zephon whispered, his eyes wide.
"He won't wake up," I looked to them, my eyes wide with worry. "...I can barely pick up his heartbeat and he's hardly breathing..."
Dumah was the first to step forward, walking briskly to my side and leaning over to inspect Kain. "...Do you think his bloodwine could have been poisoned?"
I reached over for the bottle of bloodwine sitting on the nightstand and uncorked it to sniff at the contents. "...It doesn't smell any different..."
"Some poisons don't leave behind any distinctive smell or taste," Dumah growled as he paced. The others gathered around the bed, looking at a loss. Soon I found all of their faces turned towards me... asking me what we should do.
Somehow, I knew what must be done. I found myself slipping into an authorative tone as if it were as natural as breathing. "Search the maid's chambers for anything they may have used to poison the bloodwine. Check the donor humans as well. Interrogate them, but do not bring them harm until we know whether or not poison is the reason behind Kain's comatose state. Melchiah and Zephon, I want the two of you to round up the humans. I repeat, I do not want them harmed if they are not at fault. Bring all of the humans to the main hall and isolate them there while we search. After the servant's quarters are checked, Dumah and I will be in charge of searching the humans personally. Dismissed."
As one, they all turned and headed for the door as if it were Kain's orders they were following rather than mine. I drew the curtains back over Kain's form and headed for the door, shutting it and whistling for the dogs. Two of the stocky wolf hounds padded up, wagging their tails. I rubbed their ears and pointed to Kain's door. "Guard Kain's door and bark if any human nears it. Do not let any human enter it." By the wagging of their tails I knew they understood, so I turned to follow after my brethren.
(Shields herself from the angry yells) I know, I'm sorry for the cliffie, but I wanted to get this chapter out soon to reassure my readers that this story isn't dead yet! I'll update soon!