Emerald Knights Ch. 03

"But it seems that you have not fully accepted your wolf and I can sense the confusion that causes within you. So we are at an upper hand here, we know why you cannot seem to control your power or your urges." La M'ag raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"So what would I have to do?" Selena asked quietly, resigning to her fate.

"On the night of the Luna Lupus we must perform a ritual, a rather painful one I'm afraid, and strip you of the magic that binds you to the stone and give you to the wolf entirely. If you do not agree I must leave your fate to the Council."

"How long do I have?" Selena could not see herself with any man, let alone a wolf.

"Approximately three days."

"And what of my sister?" Where is she?" Selena screamed, standing from her seat in rage.

"Still shrouded in mystery. I do not know whether she is alive or whether she possesses an emerald. But if you need proof of the part I have played over these many years, look for yourself." He pulled open his robe to reveal an emerald around the same size as hers hanging on a thick golden chain.

La M'ag looked wordlessly at her for a moment before silently summoning Alexander back in just as Selena launched herself at him snarling. Before she reached the old mage, she hit an invisible barrier and crumpled to the floor.

Alexander rushed to her side and turned her to see her face but she made no movement aside from the shallow breaths she was taking.

"The truth has that effect on people sometimes. I suggest you take her to rest; there is a lot that she needs to process in the days to come."

With that the old man disappeared as did the Council room and they were back outside the wooden doors in his mansion. He picked her up off the blood-red carpet and took her to his chambers all the while wondering how things would all culminate, fear icing his veins as he realised that for the first time in centuries, he didn't have the slightest inkling.

By now, the bourbon had taken over and Lia was feeling more than just tipsy. The laughter bubbling up died immediately as she realised she was drunk in a strange city with an even stranger man who was now just a little too close for comfort.

She put her glass down on the bar, the liquid sloshing over the rims of the glass, and hopped clumsily off the barstool.

"I gotta go" She slurred and made her way to the door making sure not to look back in case those amber eyes drew her back in again.

"Lia, wait a minute" He called behind her but she lifted her middle finger and walked on through the masses.

She couldn't remember the last time she had been so enthralled by a man what little they had spoken had her intrigued. They had even danced briefly to a moody song, the crowded bar disappearing until all she saw was him. This elicited a few bad looks from Simone, who Lia had by now assumed was Damien's casual fuck. Stumbling slightly, she walked past the bouncers, saluting them with a snort.

She walked past the old man who had warned her before and exclaimed "Look, I made it out!"

"Ne'er said ya wouldna" The old man said with a wink.

She continued down the streets aimlessly wondering where she would sleep, trying to look out for a hotel that didn't look as seedy as it did cheap. After a while of walking and enjoying the warm night, she realised that she was lost. She looked back where she had come from and could no longer recognise a single thing. Shit, she thought and proceeded forward into night.

"Hey sugar, you lost?" She turned to see a handsome man of about thirty smiling at her.

"Umm, no I'm OK, just heading to a friend's house down there..."

"Down there would be a dead end" He chuckled and stepped closer to her. He doesn't smell bad, she thought briefly, but he feels scary. "Lemme help you out. I'll get you to where you need to go"

"No, no that's really alright. I'll find my way"

She backed off slowly but he kept on coming towards her. Right, she thought, enough niceties, time for flight. She stopped and as he got into her range swung her bag at him, hitting him round the head before cutting and running as fast as she could. She looked behind her and he was nowhere in sight but she continued running back into the city, back anywhere where there was civilisation.

Panting, she reached a corner of an alley and weaved in, seeing an old hotel sign but once she got to the door she noticed it was condemned, chained shut.

"Shit." She exclaimed out loud and turned to head back out when she saw a shadow at the end.

"Now that was just plain rude, but that's fine by me cause I can do rude too"

By now he had her cornered, and what had seemed like a pretty face moments before was twisted in a grimace unlike she had seen before. He had fangs. Oh my fucking God he has fangs. She screamed with all her might but he immediately clapped a hand over her mouth, twisting her head so that her neck was exposed.

"Mmm, ain't had redhead for a while" he chuckled to himself as he bent down towards her milky neck.

Shit, shit, shit. I cannot die like this, she panicked. She tried kicking him off but it only seemed to amuse him, and biting him just made him grip her throat and squeeze, crushing her windpipe and making her eyes water.

"Now would ya stop squirming?" He cocked his head and glared at her evilly. She felt fangs pierce her neck.

Suddenly she was transported back to Sugar, to the past and back to the asshole Ray and what he used to do to her; how he used to hold her down with his sweaty hands, stinking of booze and cigarettes. How he used to smack her about and how he had killed the only beautiful thing he gave her. How that one night she blacked out and woke up only to find his body slumped against their tattered sofa and his blood on her hands.

Suddenly her eyes went fiery green, static filled the air and she turned her green gaze at her assailant. Without a word she grabbed his head with both hands and holding his gaze and kissed him, in a manner of speaking. She breathed deep into him, green fire entering the vampire's body and he pulled back with a screech and clutching his chest. In a matter of second, he began burning from the inside out and in a blink of an eye he had exploded into ash. Lia, slumped to the dirty ground.

Little did she, nor her would-be assailant, know that Damien had witnessed everything, ready for the rescue that quickly became unnecessary. Suddenly he knew exactly who she was and that she was no damsel in distress, let alone a damsel at all. She would be his end. He picked her up from the ground and started back towards the inner city and to his car.

"It's time for a little road trip, Miss Baranov. Let's go meet your big sister." He said softly to the girl, brushing her hair away from her face.

She looked so soft, so innocent, it hurt him to even look at her but he knew that the innocence of her face bellied the pure potential power within her. Power, which could not only destroy him and all he held dear but the rest of the kingdoms as well.

One hand still around her he took out his phone. After just one ring there was a gruff answer.

"Yeah, Frank, it's me. Yeah I know it's fucking late but that's why I pay you so goddamn much. Look, just get the plane ready. I need to be in Gregoria yesterday".

Alexander paced his library, a million thoughts and none at all rushing through his mind. He growled in frustration and threw his glass of whiskey against the wall. It only provided momentary relief and so, resigned, he sat back down into his chair and contemplated finding a minion to pummel into submission.

"Not like you to waste good whiskey, old friend"

Alexander raised his blue gaze to Gabriel's and snorted. His fellow council member had a habit of showing up when he was least wanted.

"As if you could tell. In all these centuries of being a self-righteous ass how would you have found the time to appreciate whiskey. " Bitterness dripped from each word and Alexander could almost hear them land on the heavy carpet.

"Ah well, some of us like to maintain at least the semblance of control"

Gabriel sat down on the chair opposite Alexander's and steepled his fingers. After a long silent moment he reached for the decanter on the mahogany table and poured himself and Alexander a glass.

"So you spoke to L'Mag?" Gabriel asked, even though he very well knew the answer.

Alexander remained silent as he was reminded by so many conversations he had had with Gabriel in firelight, with dawn creeping in. The years had been kind to Gabriel but as an ancient vampire, schooled by the Arcanum and sculpted by the wars, Gabriel was anything but youthful. Like his brother he was handsome, amber-eyed, but where Damien was rough around the edges, Gabriel was sharp and clean. Gabriel's hair was darker and tended towards curling where Damien's framed his face like lover's hands. Everything about Gabriel was thought-out and careful, as if he calculated every movement where Damien acted with pure animal instinct. And while Alexander would willingly put his life in Damien's hands he never knew whether Gabriel would use his hands to aid or strangle him.

"And?"

"And what?" Alexander replied through gritted teeth.

"What are your thoughts on the matter? You are obviously vexed about something."

Gabriel had the unnatural talent of remaining calm even though, like now, the air crackled with anger and Alexander's eyes were rimmed red with it and perhaps hunger too. Gabriel was impassive, still as one of the grey gargoyles that famed his capital.

Alexander stood up and resumed his pacing. "I never thought that after years of freedom from Viktors reign that I would still have to be picking up the pieces, that I would still have to pay for the destruction he created."

"And what particular pieces are we talking about here, Alexander?"

"Don't play coy with me, Gabriel. We both know of whom we speak."

"Yes but if she is to be executed in a matter of days, what could possibly be the issue?" Gabriel asked with one auburn eyebrow raised. He took a sip of his whiskey, grimaced and placed the glass back on the table.

"Could it be that this girl is more than just an assassin to you? Perhaps there is an...attraction involved?" Gabriel suggested carefully.

Alexander growled and whirled around to face him. Gabriel spoke the truth but there was more, something more complicated weighing on his soul. And to hear truth from Gabriel required the kind of patience Alexander simply did not possess at the moment.

"I played a large role in slaughtering her entire family, taking away her birthright and allowing that whore to seat her skinny ass on her throne. Yes, I daresay there are some underlying feelings involved" He snarled.

"And?"

"And now I am reminded of how I was a slave for almost a century how I followed Viktor blindly and unfeelingly into our eventual destruction, all for politics and power."

"Yes, well, you forget that he did bind you to him. You had little say over what he did and with the curse..."

"Shut up." Alexander cut in. "You know not to speak of it."

Before either of them could utter another word, Valko stormed in. "My lords," He bowed his head briefly at Gabriel, out of courtesy rather than sincere respect.

"Damien is here. With the other Baranov girl."

Both council members shot out of the library and into the great hall where Damien stood, carrying a small red-head in his arms.

"Good evening Alexander, love what you've done with the place. Brother." Damien gave a sarcastic smile.

Selena stared at her sister sleeping soundly in the overly large bed, swaddled like a baby in rich, ox-blood sheets. She felt the urge to smooth a lock of hair from her pale forehead but every time she came close, there was an electric tingle that warned her against it. It seemed, at least superficially, that Helia possessed the same magical issue as she did. The emerald against her chest pulsed like a second heartbeat and she turned away to see the afternoon sky dipping behind shades. Soon the vampires would be awake and she would be subjected to further council bullshit, to Alexander and his dark gaze. Rubbing her arms and stealing herself, she closed her eyes and pulled whatever energy she could from the fading afternoon light and began whispering silently, conjuring a shroud around herself.

If St. Claudius had taught her anything it was the gift of stillness, of centreing herself so that she could feel every individual cell of her body vibrate with life, with power. She pushed away thoughts of the convent, of the grey stone walls, of the other girls crying in their sleep for mothers and fathers they had lost or never had. She pushed away her own tears, the shattered memories that haunted her night after night in the dank dormitories. Instead, she embraced her freedom, of travelling through the world, teaching herself the art of survival, of fighting tooth and nail across cities and gaining confidence in herself as she grew into a woman. Finally, she welcomed the anger, the hatred and vengeance that had fed her when she was hungry, that had steeled her bones after another bloody mess, that gave her breath when her lungs where punctured by broken ribs. She pulled, and strained and breathed in power. This was her birthright.

Final words said and Selena disappeared into herself and called to her guns as if singing a song. She heard their faint whistle, their angelic chiming. She hummed louder trying to locate them. This time they seemed sing back and she followed their song out of the room, passed the stairs and down the stairs...

"Who are you?"

Suddenly as if being slapped, Selena came out of herself and was faced with her beautiful younger sister's viridian eyes. Lost for words she simply sat as she was and stared.

"Where am I?" Lia was starting to panic and the air began to taste slightly metallic with energy. Selena knew she had to calm her down but was still paralysed by something akin to shock.

"Answer me!" Lia shouted and a window cracked, bringing Selena out of her stupor and up from the floor to look straight into her sisters eyes.

"I'm Selena, your sister, pleased to meet you."

"What? How?" Lia stumbled backwards and back onto the bed, her hand instinctively clutching her emerald. Selena took this as a cue and pulled hers from underneath her shirt.

"Look. I have one too"

Lia's eyes went to the necklace and stayed there. They were silent for a minute before she spoke again.

"Where have you been?"

"Lost. I never knew you were alive until now" Selena sat back onto the floor, trying to be less threatening.

"And...and our parents? What about them?" Lia's voice trembled as if she already knew the answer to her question before Selena slowly shook her head.

"I'll tell you everything," Selena said, suddenly standing up and trying to gather clothes for them to wear. Wearing oversized men's clothing was inconvenient for escape, especially with no shoes.

"We're gonna have to get out of here first."

"Where exactly is here?" Lia asked looking around their rather comfortable prison. She had never seen such opulence in her life. "Who lives here?"

Selena snorted as she rolled up her trousers. "Only the baddest vampire this side of Europa and we're in luck cause his best friends decided to come over for a sleepover."

"Va-vampire?" Lia turned to her sister in surprise. "Are you kidding?"

Selena stopped stuffing random usable objects into a pillowcase and looked up at her sister in surprise.

"Yes, vampires, creatures of the night, bloodsucking ass holes, general banes of my existence." Lia's face revealed everything and Selena sat back down, pillowcase and all plopping onto the floor.

"It seems like we're not going anywhere for a while. You better sit down for this" And thus, Selena began telling her little sister everything about the world hidden in shadows, shrouded in mystery and how they eventually they were going to die.