Chapter 6

There was a tense atmosphere, none of the guardians dared to speak, fearing not only the strange creatures, that they're forced to lead to the queen, but also Alberta's admonishing glare. The latter despite her perfect mask of composure was doubtful: she wasn't sure that she'd taken the right choice trusting the woman's words but she wouldn't forgive herself if there would have been a real attack in the near future, knowing that she could have done something.

Obviously none of the present understood this and even the youngest glared at her with accusing eyes. Rose wasn't the number one fan of the queen but even she wouldn't endanger her; if not for respect, for the dhampir's motto: they come first, the sentence that despite the new debates about defense methods against strigoi no one was able to put aside.

Michal found all of this ridiculous, it wasn't needed to read thoughts to understand that they were all terrified that harm would come to their precious queen, a queen that lay behind their protection letting thousands of damphirs die to protect her and other morois.

Just to prove his point the door that separates them from the queen is guarded by five guardians that as soon as they see unknown faces alarms speaking on the radio communicating the possible threat*. Alberta neared them trying to explain the situation and entered to expose it to the queen, making sure that the guardians don't let the unwanted guests in.

On the inside Alberta found herself facing not only the queen but also the entire royal council and their guardians, Tatiana was the first to speak "guardian Petrov, what leads you here alone? I thought you would bring the witnesses".
"That was the plan your highness but I was stopped from the news of an attack on the area north" she answered bringing chaos to the room, many were worried for the victims while others just for themselves. It was the queen who silenced them curious to know more, she knew that Alberta wouldn't be here if the threat was still pressing but her worried look tells her that there's more.

"When the guardians succeeded in isolating the threat I went to the prison for the usual questioning and I was surprised to hear the descriptions of the men that fought in the battle, they told me about an extraordinary force and speed and when I saw the witnesses there I'd the confirmation of my doubts. They were indeed the same creatures they met in the woods yesterday, I tried to communicate with them but they wanted to speak with you your highness".

"Don't tell me you were so reckless to bring them here" accused one of the queen's guardians and the others seemed to agree, she tried to defend herself: "I considered all the viable options and chose the one that seemed safer. Your highness, till now they didn't show any offensive behavior in spite of the countless opportunities, even when we caught them it was just their concession and they proved that getting rid of the restraining bars easily. They said their purpose was to speak with you to warn you of an impending threat, I'm not so naïve to think that this is the only thing they're after but I'm realistic enough to understand that they would have eventually stopped asking and started taking it violently".

The queen was doubtful, everyone suggested her to get away from here and go back to court immediately. She was contrary; despite her many defects she didn't like to leave something unfinished, especially if it would have endangered her people; in the end what was the point of talking with witnesses if she could talk directly with the creatures? Ensured by the presence of ten guardians in the room, finally she decide to risk and asked Alberta to let them in. When the door is opened again, everyone was in the same position, the strangers were followed by two guardians and Dimitri who insisted that he wanted to discover why they saved him and who exactly they are. No one cared about Rose's insistence who kept saying that she was in that forest as well and deserved to know exactly like the others, peeking inside before the doors were closed completely she could note that among the disproportionate number of guardians was also her mother, which obviously didn't help her join the room. The disappointment was painted in her face when a few minutes later Lissa found her sitting behind the door, hoping to hear something.

"Lissa what are you doing here?" Rose asked, looking at her friend's face flushed for the ride.
"I heard that they had been taken and were brought to the Queen, for some reason I'm not surprised to find you here."
"I'm certainly not surprised that I'm not inside, as if I haven't been slammed against a tree by her."
"Rose,calm down, you'll see that soon we will know all the details of what they're saying there, you know how quickly spreads the gossip."said Lissa trying to calm her friend with scarce results. "Tell me what happened." she went on then trying to distract her and get information at once, Rose began a detailed account from the meeting with the guardians in difficulty till the decision of Alberta to take them by the queen.

Meanwhile inside the room after the first few minutes, the time needed for guardians to position themselves strategically in order to intervene in case of attack, the man began with presentations: "I am honored to meet you, I'm Michal and she is my spouse Elizabeth, as it has surely already been reported, we are here to warn you of an imminent threat that you'll soon be forced to deal with and we propose an alliance that will bring benefits for both of us" the man spoke in a calm and friendly voice, giving full display of his diplomatic skills and everyone in the room was silent despite the doubtful looks of all.

"Before this I want to know more about you, show us we can trust you and then we can talk about the rest." was the reply of the queen.

"As you can see we are stronger and faster of your race, even faster than the average of strigoi. Of course, you may wonder what we are and where we come from so you can isolate the threat, in fact if you think about it doing a covenant with us would be all in your favor. However let's not digress, we are also vampires, a different species, older if you want, with many differences from your but what you care to know is that we are not alone and the others are not as peaceful as we are" this time is Elizabeth to answer glossing over the useful details to arrive instead where she need them to.
"Shortly in fact one of yours Russian's schools will be attacked by a handful of well trained men, we have this information thanks to spies on the equivalent of your court and we're available to give you more information in exchange of a deal" added Michal.

"We need an army to attack the base of our common enemies, we will give you information on how to kill them and you in exchange will provide soldiers: damphirs and morois to add to our resources" was Elizabeth proposal, the reactions were various: surprise from all the present guardians and concern and outrage by the council members, especially when was expressed the need of morois ready to fight.

Tatiana was surprised like the others but at the same time afraid of the chance that such a powerful enemy would attack her reign but despite the compelling argumentation of the two she found it hard to believe, she will never send her subjects to fight without knowing what, especially if morois' lives were at stake.

"Your argumentation is interesting but it lacks credibility, no one has ever heard of a different species of vampires; I don't doubt that you two are different but I don't believe a word you say" was her ultimate response.

"If what you need is proof we'll come back when you'll have them, till then it was a pleasure to meet you" said the man before turning around and leaving the room followed by his wife. This was what surprised most everyone, they expected them to continue the debate until they obtained what they wanted, queen Tatiana decided to refuse the offer also because she hoped to find out something else about them that would be forced to let slip some detail.

It's Dimitri, that has been silence for the entire time that understands first the reason of such early exit, he was looking outside the window to clear his thoughts when he notices that it was almost dawn right before seeing blurred trails run away.

"They're vulnerable to sunlight!" he exclaims out loud obtaining the attention of everyone that soon find the link, an inelegant smirk appears in Tatiana's face:it seems like they revealed us something eventually.

I'm so sorry for the delay but this was hard to translate, I've never been that good in third person and in the Italian version I'd used too many complicated word that I'd no idea how to translate. However I decided to do this in third person because I wanted to show something of everyone's thoughts without having to change POV every second. I hope that you like this format, I think I'll use it sometimes but if it sucked let me know so I'll find another way.

As always let me know what you think about it and sorry for any mistake, I try to revise it but I always skip something. If you find something wrong or that just doesn't sound right let me know and I'll correct it.
I don't know when I'll update, I suppose it depends on how many advanced words I wrote in the Italian version xD