Note: Thank you for 15,000 views, but what if I had said no new chapter until I saw 230 reviews? You guys would be fucked because you never review what you read. D: Excluding those who did review, of course. Still, I appreciated my readers, but I'd love to know you all at least exist and it's the not the site screwing with my story stats saying this story has one hundred more views than yesterday and still no more reviews. I know three reviewers did not rack up 400+ hits in one week. Come on, guys.
My point: Please review?
And enjoy the almost end to the tale. Forgive me for shortness. I didn't want to over-word this.
Chapter 29 – Revenge
I believe Taylor genuinely smiled when Luke and I told him that we wanted to go through with his plan for deception. Here stood a man who spent most of his vampire career hunting Courtney Vengeance; his victory was within grasp since he now held Luke and I on his fingertips. His own personal puppets of revenge.
The beginning of the night after Luke's consent was spent perfecting the plot and adding personal touches to make the plan of conceit and deception full-proof and believable. Taylor stressed, above all, how important it was for no error to be made. The fire in his coal eyes was blazing as he repeated the plan to our troop, which consisted of Luke, Taylor, myself, and Julie who was immediately ordered to round up a few other vampires under Taylor's apparent command for physical force. We knew our part, and Taylor his. I would later admit that Taylor's well crafted mind was absolutely brilliant in this plot. Now, however, I was only focused on the goal that needed to be accomplished, before it was too late. The rage within me was getting more and more difficult to control and mask during the day hours. Sometimes I accidentally broke handles from tea cups in the morning when think of Courtney, sometimes I stabbed the silver fork through the cheaper porcelain plates at dinner when thinking of her victims.
Luke was sent to beguile Courtney and 'join her ranks' by the mid of the following night. I was apprehensive all during the day because Lucas hadn't returned before dawn. I figured it was better he hadn't, because then we all knew that the first phase of our plot had been successful. Courtney had believed the act Luke put on for her. I could only imagine of what Luke's act consisted of. I told him myself, I wouldn't have limits, but it still made me feel uneasy to think about him seducing her. Hadn't I once dreamt (a/n: dreamt or dreamed?) a nightmare of that affair? Jealousy was put below me by the time the sun set and I prepared myself for the event that would inevitably come the night after this. The night after Lucas returned to Taylor and I and told us of his success.
"Courtney ordered me to come here and lure you to the royal cemetery, Allison... where she plans to kill you, I might add." My blond-haired man told me with licks of cynicism in his tone. Taylor was amused as he listened.
"Perfect. She thinks that you will take care of me while she takes care of Allison." Taylor was practically dripping in victory. The arrogant, dark-haired vampire was very sure of himself.
"Which I won't let happen." Luke added with a dark, promising tone. I felt comfort in that.
"Of course, Luke. By tomorrow night I'll have more numbers to guard the area that this, if you will, final showdown is taking place." The black-haired vampire turned to me and narrowed his eyes, "Allison, you must be successful in Courtney's execution. Naturally, your strength with your weapon of choice will not damaged Courtney, so Luke will assist you by draining her before you perform the execution. A vampire drained of blood becomes just as vulnerable as a human," he informed me. "Please, do not fail."
The last sentence he told me held a certain threat to it, but it was covered over by the desperate, very faint beg. I thought that I was hearing things; Taylor Halling definitely did not beg.
"I understand." I responded. The blatant storm of fire and wind within me continued. The closer I came to meeting Courtney in a duel, the more revenge became a necessity.
After the three of us discussed next part of the plot, Lucas had to take leave from me again. I wished for him to stay and be a comfort to me on the darkest of the nights, but the wish was lost to the cruel vanity of vengeance in my chest.
"Lucas," I voiced before he had a chance to turn and run out of the window on my balcony. The same way he'd came. "Please be careful." I let out, not wishing to say what I truly wanted.
"Please do not worry yourself." He replied, his arms circling around me. Tonight his touch was different. His eyes swam with guilt and his voice was sad and miserable.
I knew the answer to my question then.
I glanced into his eyes, and asked if he'd slept with Courtney by imagining what I thought it looked like with her and him together.
He only nodded once, then bowed his head in silent apology. I had told him that act was acceptable. I knew he only did what was necessary. By tomorrow Courtney would be gone. By tomorrow, what I felt tonight would no longer matter. I wouldn't let myself be hurt, I couldn't.
One more night... I told myself. Luke kissed my forehead, not once did he touch my precious lips, and I watched him disappear into the distance and darkness. An ominous wind took my hair as I followed after him to the stone rail, then watched the landscape below me sway with unrest. Every leaf and limb knew of what blood would be spilled.
One more night.
"I'm starving. Want to go to dinner with me?" Lucy asked. The sun was low in the sky, but not yet swallowed by the looming mountains. I took my gaze away from the window and acknowledged Lucy's question.
"Not tonight. I have somewhere to go in a few moments." I looked directly into her eyes and swallowed a nervous lump as I said this. She was confused for a moment, but realized after she recognized the funeral look in my eye.
"Oh my God, it's tonight?" A jolt came to her expressions. She already worried.
I slowly nodded my head, then smiled a smile that told her not to be too concerned. I didn't want this young, sweet, soon-to-be mother worrying over things she didn't have to trouble herself upon. I wanted her to live a long, happy life, nurturing the child within her womb that I already loved though I did not know him or her. "You look lovely tonight, Lucy. I'll see you in the morning?"
"You better, Ally! You better see me in the morning or else." She replied strongly. Her voice wanted to cry, she refused to let anymore tears fall.
"I love you. You're the greatest friend I could ever hope for." I told her. She embraced me tightly when I told her this, my good-bye, and I swear I felt two hearts beat within her.
Or perhaps it was my own heart within my chest, drumming so rapidly it gave the illusion of two.
Closer to dusk I saw her and Prime Minister Davidson speaking. She held a face of hesitation and anticipation as she spoke words to him. I didn't stick around long enough nor was I close enough to know of what they spoke of.
Before I traveled to the stables to find my prized black stallion, I found my oldest friend in the parlor of his wing of the palace.
This fateful night may very well be the last night that I had to see him. Taylor's plan was full-proof but no one was perfect. Anything could go wrong and anyone could die tonight when I rode out to the cemetery to confront the devil who'd caused so much grievance and terror. I couldn't leave Nicolas on the bad terms we grasped. It'd be cruel to leave him for a second time without a good-bye.
These passed two nights were the nights for being unfaithful in its purest levels. Anticipation, then declaration, resolution. Nicki and I hadn't spoken in days, it seemed, but I was going to make sure it wasn't in vain. Nicolas caught eye of me as I entered the parlor, he stood to greet me in the most formal, fondless of ways; I flung my arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips with a passion of a love that was meant for siblings seeking incest and fully justifying their actions with romance. Nicolas stumbled back and our lips fell apart, but after regaining footing his arms caught me and he claimed my lips again. Shock was evident in him, but he honestly didn't care the reason why. Finally our lips tore apart with an instinct to breath.
"Nicolas, you will know everything after this night, after I do what I must and I come back to this palace. I promise you this." I held his hands in mine as I proclaimed this. His dark brown eyes, wide and full of wonder, glanced over me and my irregular actions, stance, words... I was practically bowing to him as I promised these things.
"Al-alright." Was all he could manage for a reply. He didn't move an inch.
"Forgive me, but right now I must leave you in the dark again."
With this I took my leave. I sprinted down the staircases to the entrance and along the gravel path to the stables where I retrieved my horse.
The night had come.
The horse whinnied again as I let my attention stay in the darkening trees of the wood surrounding the base of the mountain. The sun had then been swallowed below the horizon, the colors of the portrait faded into grays and blues of the evening. I responded to the beast's sound of impatience and gave a whip at the reigns. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep." I recited quietly to myself. The feet of the beast trailed, along the cold ground and black path, toward the destination of a death. A death that only the ones who knew the future could tell, a death that would be my blood or blood bled over my hands.
The royal cemetery was only fitting for this death.
I sensed a presence in the shady trees as I approached the rusted, iron gates of the enclosed cemetery. As I enlightened Taylor Halling before, the royal resting place was once a fort, so the stone walls covered in thick, dark ivy and moss towered just high enough to keep the vandal kids out and the dead in. I dismounted my stallion and held tight at his reigns, he whined loudly with unrest.
"Shh, easy." I told the black beast.
The silent, serene tranquility of the night was disturbed with a sharp and sudden crack of nature's limb.
I gripped the hide of the reigns tighter and jerked my neck around. Suspense rolled through me, but it easily subsided. There was no way Courtney or Lucas was here already. Taylor and whoever he brought to help were the only ones filling the woods at the moment. I gathered up my courage and let the fiend of vengeance lick at my blood when suspense subsided.
I tied the stallion's reigns to a post next to the rusted iron gateway into the resting place. In the horse's saddle rested a fine sheathed blade I'd taken from the trophy room. It held no family or royal value, I would have been utilizing the blade of my father had it not been buried with my mother three years ago...
Tonight would be for her, mi madre. And for Daniel, and the angel he left behind. Tonight was for justice, for retribution, but most of all vengeance. Tonight would be the night that Courtney would rest within these cold stone walls of the royal cemetery where she belonged. Dead forever, a queen of my ancestors, long gone, in my past. My revenge that was ignited in her underground hell, that rose within me in flames and arson, would rest with her in her slumber, and after this night I would be able to return to normal, whatever normal was. After tonight, we would all refer to Courtney in the past tense.
The only matter now to discuss with death was if I made it out alive or not. I prayed for the prior, but it made no difference to me, truly. I drew the blade from it's sheath. With a metallic sound it glinted in the little moonlight that allowed me sight on this reckoning evening.
I saw a figure in it's reflection. Instantly, I whirled around and confronted the demon of the darkness, ready to kill.
Of course, only the pleasant white mask painted with a smirk of the dark haired vampire who'd thought of this entire plan received me. It was the first time I'd seen the man dressed in anything other than a fine suit; the vampire wore dark clothes he could afford to get a little blood on tonight. I relaxed, then in a quick blur the sword disappeared from my hand! I saw Taylor standing before me with it, then he tossed it aside.
"Hey!" I barked in pure irritation. "Taylor Halling..." I let his name slide from my tongue like venom as I narrowed my eyes toward him.
"Allison Lockett." He voiced my name like it were some sort of song.
"That is Reina Allison to you." I spat at him, thick on Spanish syllables. "Luke and Courtney are coming if they are not here already. I suggest you stop harassing me unless you want to be in the cross fire, accidentally, of course."
"They will both arrive momentarily. I have my forces guarding every inch of this cemetery, your boundaries are the walls. She will not escape this time, now that we have her contained in a confined area, but if we move in she will run, as always. I'm afraid that this is going to be up to you and Lucas, my dear. Anyway, I wanted to give you a gift."
I had known most of what he said, but I was rather surprised at the gift part. There was no time for this! "At a time like this, Taylor?"
He nodded and in one motion, pulled another long sword wrapped in its sheath from his black overcoat and bowed to present the weapon to me like any other servant. I was shocked as he went down on one knee, lowered this head, and held the sword out with his white palms raised, facing upward. I was even more shocked when I recognized the Catalan on the cover. 'David Anthony Lockett - La seva Majestat el Rei'
I reached out for the sword with a cool, steady hand. There was a nagging in the back of my mind to hurry. "How?" I asked when I grabbed the sheath and drew the gorgeous blade, perfectly sharpened and shined after so many years. "How do you have my father's sword? My mother was the last one in possession of this!" I was suddenly bitten with anger. Taylor stole from me as well? There's no time! My mind nagged again.
"I wish you the best of luck, your majesty." he said in strong Catalan. It was odd, to hear no tease or play in his tone when he voiced compliments. Perhaps he was being so nice because I was about to fulfill his dream. "I have faith in you." he bid, looking beyond me to the entrance to the cemetery, and then retreated into the darkness of the wood.
My horse whined in agitation again. I ignored every confused thought running through me concerning Taylor and the weapon in my hands and I only focused myself on Courtney and my rage for her. The storm within me had been building up to this point. I was ready.
With determined steps I turned and pushed my way through the old iron bars into the enclosed area of the cemetery. A fog of death rolled over the inside of the area. Gravestones swam in the dismal ocean of mist and darkness. I climbed over ghastly grave markers and around morbid mausoleums to the center of this scene of resting souls.
.x. Lucas
Courtney and I had formulated a plan and taken it into action, so she thinks. It was odd to play two roles at once; I had gone to Allison, told her of Courtney's plan and instructed her to meet me at the cemetery to take Courtney down, because that's exactly what Allison was going to do. Courtney, on the other hand, thought that I was meeting Allison there after 'hunting' to let her tear Allison apart. This brilliant plan was Taylor's work and he calculated for Courtney to conjure the exact plan she had, so really she was playing right into his hands this time. That man astonished me sometimes.
"Do I look like I'm dressed fit for a queen?" the devil with the angel's face asked, twirling around in the luxurious material. The ruffles danced just above the earthen floor beneath her toes. I didn't answer right away and came to her, taking my hand above her head and catching her wrist, so that she might have someone to spin her around. The dress continued to dance with the soft honeysuckle curls of her hair.
"You always look fit enough to be the queen." I replied at last, saying exactly what she wanted to hear. "Shall we go?" I asked the vampiress with bright yellow hair.
She nodded sweetly toward me, but she hesitated to follow when I led the way out.
"How do I know that when we go, I won't be the one to die?" I stopped as she asked this and turned toward her. My face was blank. I prayed to whatever God was above, 'do not give this wench a prophetic sixth sense now of all times!'
"Courtney, I promise, you are my entire world. I will do whatever I must do to prove this to you..." I paused, thought of a brilliant idea, then expressed it to her. "How about after I get rid of Halling, I kill Allison for you. You can watch me hurt her and break her down before your very eyes, how does that please you, my dear?"
She seemed to think for a moment, then she grinned and was very pleased with the idea. "Alright. I look forward to this, dearest Lucas." She brushed passed me with a vampire's grace and led the way.
Dearest Lucas was what Allison addressed me as in the letter she wrote to me after we made love for the first time. I would never forget that night. It was the night that I was finally freed from Courtney's unbreakable spell of infatuation. I became a free man that night; though I was now slaved to Allison, but in a way that I certainly wanted to be for the rest of the era.
"My love, this will be a night to remember."
.x. Allison
With cautious sapphire eyes I looked around my foggy surroundings all while trying my best to keep calm. A movement caught the corner of my eye and I darted around to see what it was. Next my voice caught in my throat as I saw the misty image of Courtney standing before me.
My heart skipped a beat and I froze, my insides churning, threatening to become mush if I dared blink and let her from my sight. For several seconds I stared at her image, and after my fear had settled, I laughed bitterly to myself.
I was looking at myself in a nearby mirror.
Louder I laughed at my reflection and then drew closer, wondering what a dusty mirror was doing in a place like this. It was aged and cracked in some places, attached to the tomb behind it; black spots grew in the corners, tearing at the perfect glass as dark vines clasped the item to the earth. I touched the surface, running my hand over the dust so I could get a clearer image of myself.
Humans were pathetic.
As I thought this I heard a dark laughter and a low mutter very close to me. I turned, ripping the sword from the cover and holding it to the ground, at first. The plan... stick to the plan, my mind badgered now. The small amount of moonlight glistened on the blade, across the letters of my heritage, then I jerked my head up to meet the soft padding of footsteps approaching rapidly. Two sets of legs came to a halt only feet from me; one was Lucas, windblown and bent over slightly with a certain carnal attribute, and the other was Courtney, standing perfectly straight with her arms crossed underneath her breasts. Her honeysuckle hair swayed luxuriously in the slight breeze, coving her deep blue eyes that threatened red.
I glared at Courtney before I looked to Luke. Cue my shock... My entire ridged body limped as I looked upon Luke and I felt all of the blood rush away from my face. Courtney made a sound of amusement.
"Lucas." she commanded simply, signaling to the sword in my hand in a way I hadn't seen her move, but she had.
In a split second, the cold metal of the blade was lost from my grasp. I heard a soft thunk only a couple yards away... not too far because I would need it in just a few moments. My head looked from the sword to Luke, suddenly standing in front of me with both of my wrists in a tight grip. I made a sound of surprise and denial and struggled against him.
"Luke? What are you doing, she's right there! Grab her!" I sounded hysteric, and I fought uselessly. Was I too dramatic for this act? No, I was being betrayed, and my family killer was right next to my love. I should sound hysteric.
He simply grinned in amusement before knocking me easily to the ground with a simple flick of his wrists. Toward the direction of the sword. He returned to Courtney's side like a loyal lap dog, a role I knew he despised with all his being. "Rules have changed, Allison." His tone, it was a teasing and a mocking on a level I'd never heard from him before, and very believable. "You couldn't have expected me to stay very long... though what we did share I'll savor with your blood as I drain you, little pet." His fangs revealed now with a silent hiss my human ears couldn't comprehend.
"How could you betray me like this, Luke?" I shot at him from the ground, ice in my eyes. His true icy eyes recognized my ability to make this believable. Courtney was perfectly fooled. She found this entire act of betrayal and hurt amusing.
Lucas smirked, chuckling at my accusation. Courtney slid forward, not in an immediate threatening way, and Luke reluctantly allowed her to pull me up cradle my form in her pale arms. It was falsely gentle.
"Yes, Luke. How could you? The poor girl is already going to die, why should she die knowing she was betrayed by her lover as well?" I was dropped to the ground again. "You're absolutely evil." she purred now. "The hurt in her eyes from a betrayed lover is much better than the plan I had to bury her alive." I could sense Luke flinch as she said this, though he didn't move and inch or lose his dark smirk.
That succubus, that's the only word I had to describe her as she reached out to Luke. And he, because I knew he would do whatever it took to lead Courtney on at this point, no matter how much it hurt me, received the willing Courtney into his arms and they shared a kiss.
There. That was the signal. Luke grabbed her around the waist and growled in the base of his throat, a sign of domination as the kiss grew. She didn't suspect... she didn't suspect a damn thing as she relished in their moment, eagerly returning Luke's gesture in order to put me in more pain. I moved from my place on the ground and reached out for the sword.
As soon as my body rustled the growth below me, Courtney pulled out of her moment with Luke and spun around in his arms to look at me. "Luke! Stop her!" she commanded as I picked up the sword and rose to my feet. There was a distraught look on her face as she glared at me... then there was utter surprise when Lucas didn't obey and instead, grabbed her limbs and secured her against him. He growled again, this time in the voice of the killer within. His eyes were red as he looked at me beyond Courtney's blonde hair. This was the cue, hurry up and do it!
Courtney saw her situation, how she'd been set up, and skipping over the part where she was angry, she turned her head back to Luke and begged for her life in innocent whispers. "Luke, why? Was I not good enough for you, my love?"
He thoroughly laughed, genuinely chuckled as she said these words to him. They might have worked in the past, but now... "Don't lie to me in your final moments, Courtney."
"Yes, you should have a little more dignity than to beg for your life." I chirped in unison. Using her own words against her. She turned back toward me and pure shock was echoed into her perfect, white cheeks. She was so beautiful, and so dead. "Murderer! It ends here, now." Luke's fangs sank into her neck with a violent hissing and the sound she made in response to this betrayal was horrifying. Her eyes were wide with shock, with pain; she jerked in his gasp but she wasn't strong enough to break away from him. I looked upon her as Luke weakened her, and no matter what form she took now, she wouldn't be able to stop me. The rage that had been building within me all along, threatening to consume me as it did Courtney in the past, was lit afire.
The horrible, twisted sensation of anger and hatred overtook me as Luke pulled away and held her steady, ready for me to execute... My mother, Daniel, Felicia, the boy, every other mortal that had been killed in cold blood, the hurt and burden the ones spared had to carry, all because of her... I thought of it all and I let the flames of this attribute consume me, overpower my body, and I directed all of it into one final blow.
"Wait-" she pleaded.
I couldn't hear it over my own scream and the metallic slicing of the sword through the air, and through her neck.
Even with the adrenaline and Luke weakening her, I didn't make a clean cut to completely sever her head. Every feeling of revenge for her had been building up since the moment of my mother's death. Calculate my entire family's pain over the years, the ridicule and undesirability the curse had added to my family name, every drop of blood shed by her beautiful hand and pretty face...
"I will leave the hatred for someone who can do something about this murderess, and they can channel their rage into her destruction." Lucy, my angel's words echoes into me and I drew the sword over my head again, and let it come down like the hammer of god, delivering me from this evil that was Courtney Vengeance. This was for Lucy, this was for me, and my family, for anyone who suffered and was going to suffer if she was left to live!
Again and again I sliced into her neck until her head of blood-soaked honeysuckle dropped to the ground with a soft thud.
Even then, I could not stop slicing my father's sword into what was left of her body. My vision turned red with the blood pumping behind my eyes; I screamed and screamed as I stabbed her through and through again and again. I couldn't stop, though she was long dead. The arm dropped to the ground, her chest was revealed and mutilated and still I couldn't stop!
After that, there was a slow-motion blur of events. Luke had dropped Courtney's corpse and came to bind me and take the sword from my grasp and stop my insane assault; Taylor and several other men with white faces rushed in to rid of any evidence of Courtney's body and make sure she was dead for good. A fire was lit and her remains was what burned that night. Stars twinkled in the sky as bright red, orange flames guided the beautiful demon into her final stage of death. She descended into hell to remain with Lilith and Lucifer, with Satan and Damian.
I was on the ground now, sitting in Luke's lap, rocking back and forth with his arms around me. I stared at the fire; it grew with a roar and the firelight glinted over my sapphire eyes as I watched for ages, it seemed, until the flame settled into a few glowing cinders. Somewhere in that cycle, I swore I heard my mirror image scream with the remorse of finally being defeated.
Or perhaps it was just my imagination.
I spit on the ashes when it was all said and done.