The King and the Rose

by betrayedsuccubus

Dracula's castle has risen again, this time in the middle of New York City. When the owner of a magical bookshop is swept into the terrifying world of the vampire king, she is forced to confront both her past, and her future, while dealing with feelings that are very dangerous indeed. This is based on the Lords of Shadow games (with a little bit of the show thrown in).

9. Chapter 9

CH 9

Murder.

To bring Duke back, I have to become a murderer.

"You can't cheat death" Is what Nicholas said. No matter what, death would take a soul. The only way was to make a trade. A life for a life. It's the only way to save Duke. My hands tremble as I push back a strand of hair that's fallen into my face for the hundredth time. My eyes are swollen and sore from crying, making it hard to concentrate on what I'm doing. I have to just keep going though.

I shouldn't think about it. Just copy the symbols out of the book onto the floor. I draw another line, reaching from one side of the circle to the other. The circle is intricate, stars within circles, and symbols within stars, everything has to be perfect. The outer circle of runes is complete already. I've pulled the dragon scale out of the front of my dress and laid it on Duke. With my inexperience I'll need the extra magical power it will provide. I'm just finishing up the last bit of the innermost part of the circle. It's taken almost two hours to draw the whole thing, I'm down to my last nub of chalk and there's dust all over my hands and face. I'm praying Nicholas comes back soon. After a prolonged back and forth, he agreed to help me, to find me a life to trade for Duke. I owe him something in return... being his test subject. My "unique" abilities and ancestry are apparently something he thinks is worth studying.

I draw the last symbol and sit back on my heels. Wax is running down the candles, making little pools on the floor. Every so often one of the flames pops and sparks, other than that the room is silent as the grave. I try to breathe slowly. Concentrate, this is the most important thing you've ever done. If I mess this up I will have killed both of them, for nothing. I start slowly breathing in, calming my mind, the flames flicker low. As I exhale they leap high, throwing long shadows onto the walls, as if the darkness itself knows what I'm about to do and has come to watch.

The door slams open, and I hear something scraping across the stone. I don't wan't to look, I can't. I know what it is, but I can't, not yet.

"I hope you're serious about this." Nicholas's voice comes from behind me.

"I've never been more serious in my life." I reply. Still not turning around.

"Good." There's a thud behind me, of a body hitting the floor, and a whimper. I finally turn to see Nicholas standing over the body of a man. His tall figure is cast in sharp relief by the candles, making his eyes nothing but shadow. The man on the ground has his hands and feet tied, his clothes are ragged and stained with what I can only guess is blood and filth. There's a wad of cloth in his mouth. The part I can't look away from is the holes where his eyes should be. Gaping bloody sockets are left where his eyes once were. It looks like they were removed with a dull knife and I shudder inwardly.

"I rescued this one from Octavian. What you're doing to him is actually a kindness compared to what he would have endured." Nicholas says, gesturing to the man who has curled into the fetal position and is quietly shaking.

I don't ask, I don't want to know. "Help me put him in the circle." I say. Don't think, just act. Detach from what you're doing. Think about Duke. I lift his ankles and Nicholas takes his arms. We put him beside Duke in the circle. I breathe in... breathe out... then begin.

I take the small silver knife and flip it open. Running it over my palm I draw out a hot red line of blood. With a snap of my wrist I spray droplets over the circle, Duke, and the man. I kneel slowly between the two of them and begin reading the strange words from the book. Slowly chanting them under my breath. "Intero elest nast, veriho en vero," The hairs on my arms stand on end. "Maesher estunt nastretin, estunt veay mero." The scale on top of Duke starts to glow, and so do the chalk marks on the floor. "Estunt abe mestun nato, ado merunte elest." I continue to chant. A cold wind whips through the room and all the candles go out, leaving us in an eerie red light. "Melande nestunt esto." I grip the handle of the knife in my hand, feeling the blood run down between my fingers. The man is little more than a dark shape now. I squeeze the knife tighter using both hands, breathe in. I press the blade into his neck as hard as I can, drawing it across. He screams into the cloth and jerks away. I've got to do this. I shove him down with a knee to his chest, pushing the knife deeper. The blood flows out fast and hot with the beat of his heart. Drawn into the chalk lines it starts to form the circle the three of us are held inside. The blood is foaming at his neck. Burning tears are running down my cheeks and mixing with the blood on my hands.

He's going to die now. I've done it; I've killed a man. He's making a horrible gurgling sound like he's not getting air. "Exhunt estre manstal nestro vere." As I finish the incantation a sucking wind whips my hair across my face and begins to pull the energy from my body. The air is being pulled out of my lungs and I double over coughing and gasping. The man laying to my right exhales a final slow breath and finally slips beyond the veil. My limbs are becoming heavy and I'm having trouble sitting upright as the drain on my body continues. The dark hooded figure with the scythe materializes from the shadows and approaches us.

"Damn fool girl." he mutters.

I barely catch his words as the world tilts and I'm sliding towards the blood covered floor. As my head hits the floor I hear a rasping next to me, as Dukes lungs fill for the first time.

Waking up from passing out for the second time in a few hours is not nearly as easy or pleasant as the first time. The first thing I understand is that my whole body feels like it got run over by a truck. It feels like my bones are in little shards, all sticking into my flesh. The second and third things are the cold, and the hard surface I'm laying on. My right side is on the abrasive stone floor. I can't gather the energy to move though. Hours slip by as I lay on the floor, somewhere between waking and sleeping, or maybe waking and death, I don't know. I can hear Duke breathing beside me in the dark. I keep trying to move my head, my hands, anything; but my body is lead and I barely manage to curl my fingers. I fall back to sleep again.

When I finally wake up for real I'm so sore and stiff that I regret not dying. I shift to my back and immediately realize there is a warm furry mass that was pressed against my front.

"Duke" I croak hoarsely. A wheezing purr starts up beside me. Big fat tears run down my cheeks as I hug him to my chest. "Poor boy, my poor boy" his fur is soft as I run my hands through it. "I didn't mean for this to happen to you." Gathering him in my arms I struggle up and stumble to the couch in the dark, laying him blindly on it I fumble around the table for a candle, and matches. My fingers feel large and clumsy as I strike the match, fumbling, I drop it. "Fucking fuck." muttering I grab another and this time I'm able to light the candle. I pass the flame on, from one candle to ten, finally lighting the room enough to see. The view is a strange one. The circle is etched into the stone of the floor as clearly as if I had taken a chisel to it. There's no body, not even a drop of blood, except all over my clothes, and skin. The ground where I was, is completely clean though. I fill a glass of water. The water slides over my cracked lips and down my parched throat. I bring the half full glass over to the couch, to the mass that is Duke.

He's... changed. He's still recognizable, but twisted. The black fur along his shoulders and back has turned into long porcupine-like quills. He's much larger than his usual size, almost the size of a Rottweiler. As I look closer I notice his canine teeth have grown out of his mouth and now resemble those of a saber tooth tiger. Also on the elbows of his front legs he appears to have grown a series of scale-like protrusions. What's happened to my sweet Duke? I slide onto the couch next to him and gently lift his head onto my lap. Running my hands over his fur I smooth it down over the top of his head. Tipping his head up with my left hand, I dip my right index finger into the water and begin slowly giving him water by wetting his gums, drop by drop, trying to get him hydrated. My mom did this to a sparrow that was suffering from heatstroke when I was little, offering it small drops of water on its beak to help it recover. His gums are pale white, and his nose is dry, a sure sign he still isn't well. It's not that I expected him to come back perfect, but it seems like he's still on deaths door. I continue painstakingly wetting his gums until the glass is almost empty. His jaws are massive now, he might even be the size of a mountain lion. I lift one if his paws, its almost the size of my hand. Pressing on his pad I force his claws to extend. I've been on the receiving end of these claws in the past, once when I accidentally stepped on his tail.. Now, if he were to get me with these claws, he might kill me. I absentmindedly skritch behind his ears. I'm so glad to have my best friend back, even if the circumstances are less than ideal.

Over the course of the day I manage to shower and make some food for myself, despite my weakness and pain. Duke remains unconscious. I bring some blankets for us and fall asleep on the couch next to him, so I'll be there if he wakes up in the night. After two and a half days he finally stirs and opens his eyes. "Hi buddy. I'm here. It's ok." I rub his ears and a deep rumbling purr starts up. "You're such a good boy. I love you so much." He blinks his big green eyes slowly and looks up at me. "Are you thirsty? I've got some chicken broth for you. I'm gonna go heat it up ok?" I leave him on the couch, and heat up the broth on the stove top. We spend the rest of the day on the couch, he doesn't try to get up, but I manage to get him to eat some canned tuna.

All in all it takes Duke four days to get up. During that time I don't leave my rooms, and no one disturbs us. I'm mildly surprised, I had figured at least Lilli would have come by after the events of the ball, but maybe she's busy with her vampire lover. Nicholas stays away too, despite the fact I promised I would submit to his experiments. I'm honestly grateful for the peace and quiet. I don't think I could take much more of this insanity. Sitting quietly with Duke for these four days has given me time to think. All in all, there is only one thing I'm certain of: I hate Vlad Dracula. From the beginning he's done nothing but deceive and manipulate me for his own amusement. He's toyed with my emotions, drained my blood, and murdered my best friend; not to mention forcing me to dance in front of everyone. I'm done playing his games and getting all mushy when he flirts with me. No more. I'm quitting him cold turkey; and once Duke is well enough, we're getting out of here. Now that I have magic I know we can. If I can bring back the dead I can surely leave this castle.

Duke and I spend the time watching movies on my laptop. His favorite is Sweeney Todd, I like Nightmare on Elm Street. Although scary movies seem appropriate here, I eventually want something to lighten the mood and we switch over to stupid comedies. It feels like forever since I've laughed, or really relaxed at all. It seems like forever since I had any kind of a normal life.

The next day a knock on the door wakes me from yet another dream of unending shadowy corridors. I pull on a cardigan over my pajamas. Nicholas is waiting outside the door when I open it, rubbing my eyes.

"I'm glad to see you survived." he says, dour as ever.

"Nice to see you too Nicholas. I just woke up. How about you come in? I need to eat breakfast." I hold the door open wider, stifling a yawn.

"If you don't mind, I would like to begin testing today." He says, following me inside and positioning himself in one of the kitchen chairs. I start heating a frying pan for eggs, not looking at him.

"What kind of testing is this going to be?" I dread the answer, but it's worth it to have Duke back.

"Well, I'm not sure what I am looking for, or what I will find. So I'm going to start with the basics. Your vitals, your medical history, family history. Then we can move on to testing your magical aptitude and limits." He pulls out a notebook. "Do you know what magical abilities your grandmother had? Where she was born and who her father was?"

I turn to him, spatula in hand. " My grandma was a healer by trade, I think she was born in Virginia. I don't remember much about her, she died when I was very little. The man she had settled down with toward the end of her life wasn't my mother's father so I know almost nothing about my grandpa except his name was Johnathan Morris. Mom didn't use his last name, apparently she never even met him. Just like I didn't know my dad. The women in our family apparently aren't the marrying kind or something like that. 'Not happy to be tied down' was what my aunt used to say. She's from a different father, so I guess she's only my half aunt technically." He's writing quickly in his notebook.

"And do you know your family history farther back than that?" He interjects, pen flying across the paper.

"Um my great grandmother was named Janice, and supposedly she lived alone in the swamps of Louisiana or Florida with a pet alligator. My aunt has an old black and white photograph of grandma Janice and her alligator; Swamp Man. She looks exactly like you would think a swamp witch would look like. I don't know what magics she used though. My mom said that she could talk to the alligators and that she would sing to them." I crack a few eggs into the hot frying pan and pull out some bread for toast.

A low growl comes from the bedroom door. Duke seems to have noticed we have a visitor. At his new size the growl is quite intimidating. The quills stand up on his back and his long fangs are bared.

"Hello little friend" Nicholas says, bowing. "I'm glad to see you are alive as well."

Duke continues growling as he approaches the kitchen. His ears are pinned back and he's focused on Nicholas. He positions his body directly between us and sits down, staring directly at Nicholas, unblinkingly.

"He's very protective of you." he comments. "What about your health? Have you had any major illnesses?"

"I don't think so." I open a can of tuna for Duke and plop it out on a plate. "Oh, I did have my tonsils out when I was nine." He looks at me blankly. "My tonsils, in my throat, got infected so doctors removed them with surgery."

"Fascinating," He scribbles down "and is this a normal procedure now?"

"Yeah, a lot of kids have them out." I pull out some bread to toast and juice.

"Have you had any adverse side effects from this?"

"Not at all. It hurt for a week or so and then I was fine."

"The medical advancements humanity has made in the past hundred years are simply remarkable. They were using leaches and arsenic only a little while ago." The toaster dings, punctuating our conversation. I gather my food and sit down across from him at the small table.

"Your abilities were inherited, from your maternal line. As far as you know none of your male ancestors passed down magic?"

"No, I don't believe so. Most of the time they weren't even around to raise their children, so maybe they did but I don't know." I finish my breakfast in silence as he writes in his leather bound journal.

"Please get dressed and we will go to my laboratory." He snaps his notebook shut and stands.

I head to the bedroom, Duke padding behind me, and close the door.

I pull on a black pleated skirt, my old combat boots, a grey crop top, and my leather jacket. I run a brush through my hair a few times and tuck it behind my ears. I brush my teeth and wash my face quickly. Nicholas is still standing where I left him, unmoving.

"I'm ready now." I say, moving toward the door.

"Let me take us. It will be quicker." He extends a hand to me.

"I hate this" I grumble, but I do give him my hand. The swirling void pulls me into itself, the air is sucked from my lungs, but at least this time I am expecting it. The treads on my boots slam into the flagstone floor. I manage to steady myself without help this time. The room we've landed in is filled with medieval looking laboratory equipment, strange devices of intricate clockwork whir on tables next to slowly dripping tubing attached to beakers. Against the left wall are three rusty iron cages at least nine feet tall. All are empty but that doesn't make them any less ominous. The room is divided into two parts, the part we have landed in, and, up a half flight of stairs, what appears to be more of a study type area with a desk and notes pinned to the wall. Directly in front of us is a polished metal table like in a morgue. Disturbingly it has thick leather restraints attached. Above it is a huge reflective light, as well as equipment, both medical and arcane. Trays of sharp implements are lined up along the half wall in front of us.

"Please." He gestures towards the table. "I don't have many... willing subjects so I'm afraid it may not be the most comfortable but I assure you everything is clean."

I hoist myself up into a sitting position on the side of the table, the metal is cold under my legs. I gingerly swing my feet up and lay back onto the icy surface. I shiver involuntarily and it doesn't get past Nicholas's observant gaze.

"I apologize for the cold, I need the table bare though to make the readings correctly." He steps up to the table and for a second I'm worried he is going to use the restraints, but instead he takes my hand in his icy hand. "Just a finger prick." he holds a lancet and a glass slide. The jab is quick and relatively painless and he carefully places the slide on a small tray. He fiddles with something underneath the table. A feeling like static electricity seems to emanate upward, tickling my skin. Nicholas pulls down the large light and inserts a blue glass-like sphere about the size of a baseball into the space where a lightbulb would go. A crimson haze materializes around me, he fiddles with some dials on the lamp and the mist coalesces into a web of slowly flowing lines.

"What is this?" I move my fingers through the lines and they warp and twist like smoke.

"Please stay still." he frowns. "It's a way of visualizing your energy pattern and movements externally, I'm just getting a baseline now." He's writing in his notebook again. "Your pattern is strong but the flow is irregular. It's probable that your inexperience is the cause for this. You don't have a full grasp yet." He's more of muttering to himself at this point as he writes. "and what do you think about our king?"

Well that came out of nowhere, or he's been waiting to spring it on me this whole time.

"I hate him." I say bluntly. "He killed my best friend. He's a lying snake and he can go back to hell where he belongs." I stare up into the ceiling.

"I believe many have held that opinion throughout the ages, but none of them have gotten their wish." he begins to slowly turn a dial on the overhead apparatus. "Now this may be a bit uncomfortable but try to stay still please." A trio of electrodes begin to unfold from around the light.

"You sure? Because usually things that look like that aren't just a little uncomfortable" The table begins to vibrate gently under me.

"Well I don't actually know, comfort was never a factor when I designed it. Do let me know how it feels."

"You're not helping my confidence doctor." I tease. The air hums and crackles as the electrodes glow yellow. He seems to ignore my snark.

"This machine takes the place of you in triggering your magic in successively increasing intensity. Given that you don't know how to use your abilities this will be the best way to gauge them. I know it may be hard for you but try to stay still once we begin." There's a hint of condescension in his voice. He doesn't think I'm tough enough.

I tense my shoulders as he presses the button. The machine whirs and the feeling of pins and needles starts all over my body. It's not pleasant but its certainly not terrible.

"It just tingles a bit." I say as the red lines in the air pulse and jump. He reads some gauges and takes notes. Then turns the dial up. The pins and needles increase to an unpleasant prickling sensation. This goes on for what seems like forever. The dial keeps turning and the sensation has progressed into a stinging burning in every one of my nerve endings. I clench my jaw and try to disassociate from the pain.

"Just a few more Rose." His voice comes from over by the instruments. The pain ramps up again and I'm sure my knuckles are white at this point, my fingernails are digging into my palms but I try to stay as still as possible. I can see the light from the red lines glowing brightly behind my eyelids. I hear the dial click again and I involuntarily jump. The pain splits through my head and I can feel tears leaking out of the corners of my eyes. The scratching of the pen on paper is enormously loud.

"We're done" he says, and the whirring slows down. The pain fades rapidly but my body feels like lead. I feel another jab in my finger and open my eyes. Nicholas is already placing a second glass slide on the tray next to the first.

"Stay there for a little while." he stops me with a hand on my shoulder as I try to sit up. "The process is taxing and I don't want you to faint." He brings a folded white sheet over and places it hesitantly beneath my head. "How do you feel."

"Tired." I mumble. "It started of prickling, but it hurt a lot at the end." I close my eyes again.

"Rest for a moment. We can just talk now." I hear the scratching of a pencil on paper.

"Why do you want to know what I think of him?" I ask.

"Then at least I would know what one of you was thinking." He sighs. "I am not privy to all my master's machinations despite what some may think. He is intensely interested in you, but which reasons are pretense and which are real I cannot say. I would warn you though;" he places his hand on my shoulder and I open my eyes to look up at him, "be careful; you are dancing with the devil and you are likely to lose yourself." Pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket he holds it out to me. Frowning I take it in a shaky hand.

"For your nose." he clarifies, scribbling down another note. I dab at my nose and the handkerchief comes away bloody.

"Damn." I mutter and lay my head back down, holding the cloth tight against my nose.

"Why did he take over the city?" I close my eyes again.

"It was a bold move." he pauses for a few minutes. "Taking such a center of society was a statement of power. Secondly, a place with so many people provided a plethora of prey for us. In one swoop he has destabilized global commerce, killed almost a million people, and struck terror into the hearts of all of humanity. I doubt you have any communication with the outside, but the human world is scrambling to try to stop him. All the nearby land has been conquered, Philadelphia has become a center for evacuees, while Trenton has become a military hub along with New Haven. Your government is having trouble keeping up with an enemy that doesn't stop when shot in the chest. They've resorted to explosives to try to keep them from advancing. The Brotherhood is getting involved." He sighs.

"The Brotherhood?"

"A group of religious zealots trained in eliminating the forces of darkness. They have clashed with Dracula many times in the past." The scribbling sound of his pencil continues. "Apparently, they have decided that if we are working in the open, then so are they. They're now acting as advisors to the military, although I doubt either likes the other very much. As I said, The Brotherhood of Light are religious zealots, and I doubt the military will put stock in their holy water and prayers. It is necessary partnership."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." I mumble on the table.

"Exactly. How do you feel now?"

"Like I've had the flu. My body feels like lead, my muscles ache, and my head is pounding." Blinking I turn my head toward him, but remain still on the table. He's bent over a microscope like apparatus looking at one of the slides. "Did you learn anything?"

His eyes stay glued to the tubes. "Possibly. It will take some time to calculate all the results and draw conclusions. Many times science is not quick and conclusions are not immediate. I will be interested to know how long your symptoms persist, and if any more manifest."

Turning back to me and away from the microscope he grabs a small wooden box and brings it over to the side of the table. He turns on the apparatus generating the visual readout and the red web of lines appear around me again. He takes the pillow back from me and for the seconds he is in the energy field it jumps and spikes violently around his outstretched arm.

"I know you are new to this, but just do your best; I want you to try to regain some magic from this." He flips open the lid, revealing a red, palm sized scale refracting the light. "It should help you feel better." My heart skips, its just like the one I found; and now that it's out of the box, I do feel a slight pull towards it as well. Stretching out my hand I take it from his fingers. I bring it close in to my chest and fold my hands over it. The red lines turn into a swarm of angry bees around the scale, almost obscuring it. Shutting my eyes I try to focus, and a tingling feeling runs through my skin. It's a not unpleasant sensation and I try to lean into it. Warmth fills my chest and hands until I can't feel the scale anymore. I imagine embracing it and absorbing its magic. A warm humming fills my body, seeming to replace my lost magic. I feel much better now, my headache is almost gone, it's just kind of background noise. I open my eyes and reach to give him the scale back, but it's gone. I look over at Nicholas who is writing so fast that I can't believe his paper isn't smoking.

"Something wrong?" The red lines blur and fade as I sit up.

"No, just something very interesting, I had a hypothesis, but it seems that I didn't take it far enough." he never stops writing the whole time. I wait for a minute but he doesn't elaborate.

"And what was your hypothesis?" I prod, swinging my legs over the side of the table.

He finally stops writing and looks up. "I had thought that because of your ancestry you might be able to use the magic in that scale, but I had not expected it to be so... compatible. Did it feel easy to access the magic?"

"Um, I think so, I don't have any frame of reference, but it wasn't a struggle... and I feel quite a bit better."

Nicholas takes my hand and jabs my finger again with a lancet. I marvel again at how cold his touch is. "Last one" He promises. He motions me over to a chair next to the workbench and I gladly hop down off the table.

"My ancestry... How can I be a person, when you both are convinced I'm descended from a dragon?" Sinking down onto the chair I'm still not convinced.

"You are." He pauses. "I can only theorize, mind you, as to how you came about. Which is part of the reason we are doing these tests." He adopts the manner of a professor, about to give a lecture. "If you are unaware, dragons were known for many abilities, a gift for languages, their hoarding of treasure, but one lesser known one was shapeshifting. Now, not all of them had the inclination, or the talent for it, but Sirena appears to have had a great aptitude for changing her form."

"Maybe that's why I find it so easy to learn languages?" I run my finger over the carved arm wrests of the chair.

"I had hypothesized as much. Now, this is only conjecture, but from what I can piece together this is what happened: Sirena knew she was being hunted and the fate of her kin. She knew she couldn't evade Lord Dracula forever, but she refused to let her power fall into his hands. A conundrum to be sure. Here is where my theory starts. She figure out a way to thwart him, she would give all of her power to her offspring, and then have them taken far away and hidden. Dragons in human form have been recorded to interbreed with humans, most accounts were of the pairing of a male dragon, with a female human. Which would then give birth to human offspring, stronger, and more magically adept mind you, but in all appearances human. Now if the female was a dragon things seem to have been more complicated. Dragons lay eggs, and when the dragon would shift back into its true form, it seems the pregnancy would be lost. At least there are no records of such a birth."

"So she just got pregnant, lived as a human for nine months and had a human looking baby?"

"No, Even if Sirena had become pregnant by a human, and was able to stay in human form for the entire pregnancy she could not pass her power to it, because a half-breed offspring could never survive being given the power of a fully mature dragon."

"You're just confusing me more, so you're saying it was impossible for her to have children, there were no more male dragons, she couldn't have a baby, and give her powers to it?"

He taps his pencil on the notepad thoughtfully. "Have you ever heard of the term parthenogenesis?"

I shake my head, wondering where this is going.

"It is a term for virgin birth, the creation of a pregnancy without a male. It is rare, but can happen in some reptile and amphibian species. Such things have happened in some magical creatures as well. I believe Sirena, in a human form, with no more male dragons in existence, induced her own pregnancy by combining two egg cells, and in essence, gave birth to a clone of herself, one hundred percent dragon, but in a human form, nine months later. A baby that for nine months she had poured her power into. The first human dragon."

"I thought you explaining this would make it more believable, not less..."

He completely ignores my comment and continues.

"After maintaining a human form for nine straight months, and giving up her magic she was severely weakened, the state in which our Lord found her, but with no trace of the child. I only surmised what she must have done much much later, and how, only recently." He pauses for a minute. Looking into the microscope again. "It was only when I met you, and noted your striking resemblance to Sirena, that I began to think the heavy magical influence on her pregnancy had had some unintended consequences. You look a lot like your mother, don't you?"

"Um, yeah, but I don't see what that has to do with anything?"

Well, you see, I believe her intent to make a full blooded dragon child backfire, in magic the intent is very important. Each first child was a girl, who grew up, to have her own daughter, who was unknowingly a parthenogenesis clone. Obviously, there was some genetic variation, even with the parthenogenesis process, but this ensured all the firstborn daughters were full blooded dragons, like their mothers." He looks at me probingly.

"That sounds nuts, you know that sounds nuts right?" I cross my arms. "I had a dad, he just wasn't around."

"You thought you had a father, your mother wanted to have a child, so she assumed she had to have intercourse with a male, just because she did, does not mean he caused her pregnancy."

"No way. It's just too out there."

"But it is true my dear." The sultry voice wafts from the dark corner as the king of the vampires begins to solidify from the shadows.

"My lord." Nicholas bows his head but remains seated.

"Great." I groan. As if the tests weren't bad enough, now I also have to deal with the sexy jerk who killed my best friend. He seems to ignore my remark and strides down the stairs toward us.

"I assume the testing went well Nicholas?" He stands next to my chair towering over me.

"Yes my lord, Rose has been very cooperative and we are finished with testing for the day."

"Why don't I accompany you back then?" He offers his hand to me.

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

Sliding my fingers onto his I let him help me up. "Of course not." I mutter.