I tear the last throat out guarding the secret side entrance for royals, counting my kills as their wounds instead of the people that bear them to maintain any sanity I still have.
Earlier, we saw Princess Asta Psyren herself and her consort slip through. We were so close, I could smell them. The Princess' rancid Psyren scent, and the sweetness of her consort's blood in her wake. She smelled so damn good I almost want to spare her - almost. Thankfully, due to their hastiness and members of the Crimson Veil subconsciously masking our presence, they couldn't detect us. We could have easily slaughtered them for their crimes against our family, right then and there, as our retaliation.
But we'd rather set an example for the people.
I snap out of these thoughts once I hear the signal: The low, gentle call of a mourning dove. At that, we rush the castle, slipping silently through their caverns and corridors, unseen and unheard - very unlike how those barbarians blazed through our halls without respect or care just a few weeks prior.
Thus, in a similar fashion, we shall match their brutality toe to toe.
Hence why we were instructed to leave no survivors.
...
Lyra's P.O.V
I blush hard as she hooks her arm around mine, guiding me through the castle.
When we get to the ballroom it's so full of people, and everyone is staring at me...
Asta gets pulled away into the crowd by her father, leaving me alone on the stage; sitting there, I feel so out of place. I sigh and stand before a hand on my thigh stops me. It's Vesper's, and he leans over, whispering in my ear. "Tonight is the end. Grab Asta and leave as soon as you can. You need to hurry." At that, I notice Lysander Psyren - another one of Asta's brothers - stand and race to catch up with her and her father, while her other siblings remain and discuss in hushed but heated whispers.
I've never seen him like this. His hands are shaking, and his voice is quivering with fear. Witnessing such out-of-place emotions harbored by a typically cold and calculated individual immediately causes a lead ball of dread to form in my stomach. "W-what do you mean?" At that, suspicion joins in with my cocktail of new paranoid thoughts. "A-and why are you telling me this? I thought you hated me."
He shakes his head and whispers something in his partner's ear before they both stand and unsheathe their weapons at their hips. At that, he slips off into the crowd, casting one last desperate look in my direction as his siblings take upon the same defensive stance. I stand, alarmed and growing panicked in my confusion, gazing over the crowd and looking for Asta.
Before I could step forward, there was a scream, and all hell abruptly broke loose. Before I know it, guests who are supposed to be long-time personal and diplomatic friends are attacking each other without mercy, splattering blood on floors cleaned for the purpose of a peaceful gathering. "Asta! ASTA!" I jump down from the stage and crumple to the floor, slowly getting up and looking around at the chaos around me, vampires tearing each other to shreds, servants helping guests out of the front doors and quickly being relentlessly assaulted before I get grabbed by my arm and yanked into the crowd, pulled through the puddles of blood and bodies before I remove my arm away to see who's pulling me.
It's Orion, Asta's brother. "We need to go, now!"
I scream at him, anger raging through me. "NO! Not without Asta!" He growls and grabs my hand before I shove him away, making him slip on a puddle of blood and fall to the ground before a vampire quickly tops him, ripping out his throat with his teeth before his gaze slowly turns to me. His eyes seem to spark with regret for a split second when seeing me, before the look dims into resolute assurance. Orion's screams and subsequent gurgling fills my ears as I quickly look around for an exit, for Asta. Suddenly, I see the Artifact she fought so hard for held high in the air. I bolt for it, for her.
The vampire follows close behind, and I can essentially feel his breath hot with blood and viscera on my heels. He has super speed beyond my ability, so what is he doing? Is he playing with his prey, or was that look earlier more real than I thought? I see Asta holding the Roseshard Pendant high in the air, controlling the vampires around her as she spots me and runs towards me, throwing the dagger past my head and into the skull of the vampire chasing me. And, just like that, he falls to the ground, dead. His life, his aspirations, his dreams, gone as quickly as a wick burning out - just like so many of the people here today that only expected a fun and festive evening.
I quickly turn around and pull the dagger from his corpse, holding it as I back into the nearest wall, my back colliding with it before I raise the dagger, ready to strike. Asta reaches me the next moment, her hand grabbing my wrist, pulling me into her chest before I break down, sobbing hard, my body going limp in her arms. The horror unfolds around us. My thoughts numb to a buzz as she carries me and uses the vampires around us as shields. We make it to the familiarity of the hallways and, eventually, the staircase, the sound of madness slowly fading away, echoing down the empty corridors of the castle. Wondering where the rest of her family is, I whimper, "Shouldn't we leave?" And she breathes in response, "They're likely banking on that and probably have vampires ready to ambush us just outside if they infiltrated so easily. Taking siege of the castle is the best we can do until reinforcements come." She gulps hard, and I swear I can hear her whisper, "If they come."
We enter our room, and I stumble to the ground, sobbing hard. Asta comes to my side and gently picks me up, carrying me to the circle she laid in front of her couch; it looks like a circle of white powder. "I was gonna surprise you with this after the ball, but it looks like there won't be an after the ball."
I nod, slightly confused, "W-what are we doing?"
She sets me in the circle and sits down with me; I vaguely remember we are in the position of how Vesper turned his consort. "N-now?"
She nods as she pulls out the dagger from her tux pocket and a piece of paper with instructions, closing her eyes and speaking in a tongue foreign to me, "Hinc invoco potestatem meam ut me et socium meum in vampiricam regalem quam mereamur transformet."
She grabs my arm and presses the blade into my skin, looking at me for approval. I nod as the sharp, stinging pain sets in when she drags the dagger down my arm in a spiral motion as she recites the incantation once more and does the same to her arm. Both of the blood leaking out of our wounds slowly turns from a deep crimson to a bright green as the white circle around us shifts to match the hue. I feel my thoughts blur as they begin to merge with my partner's...
I hope she's okay... I'm going to try to make this as fast as possible.
She wraps our arms together, mixing our blood as I gasp at the intense sense of pleasure flooding my body. I feel sharp pains in my mouth before I reach up with my free hand and feel my fangs! As they slowly jut out, the pleasure overrides the pains of slowly being turned. The aching in my core gets worse and worse as my hunger for blood, for Asta, grows more and more, and a primitive growl resonates from deep in my person. Leaning forward, Asta can sense my thirst, and she nods, expression that of grim determination. That's all the permission I need before I lean forward and sink my teeth into her neck. Hearing her gasp and wrap around me, I bury my fangs as deep as they will go. She returns the favor and bites my neck in turn, both of us feeding from each other, exchanging blood and pleasure and pain, as the fiery hunger in the pit of my stomach starts to die down with her tangy, warm blood begins to fill my mouth and slip down my throat. At that, we finish the ritual - and my turning.
The loud banging at our door interrupts our brief moment of peace in the din. The wound on my arm slowly scars over and heals, and I pull off Asta's neck and lick her wounds, replicating how she has shown me how to heal the bite mark. I stand, my bright purple eyes staring at the door when it gets broken down; that's when I give into my feral instincts and dash forward, driving the Crystalline Dagger I had picked up directly into the first intruder's throat.
I don't remember much after that, aside from my strong urge to protect everything that has taken me in and made me anew. The castle, the Psyren family... Asta. And we will take back what it ours, and settle this once and for all.
Even if it kills me.
Comments (0)
See all