Valentine as well as Ty and Brenda proceeded to follow Cassias as he led them to a limousine he had called for them, assuring them that their stuff from the hotel would be delivered to the duke’s home before they arrived. Brenda opened her mind when she felt Valentine probe it to speak to her in silence Give off an air of being better than everyone else as we proceed to the dukes home, make him believe that you are royal as I have told Cassias you are. If he suspects that I am lying or that you are weak he will not hesitate to kill you. She mental swallowed hard not allowing her emotions to show outside her head and asked Are you really planning to turn me into a vampire Valentine? I don’t really want to live forever, or drink blood… He smiled a toothy grin in her head No was all he replied as they pulled into the gated driveway of the dukes home. It was a large house much like you would see in billion dollar homes magazine. The outside was white with what seemed like hundreds of windows covering it from top to bottom, each window with a light on inside the room it led to. Though no one could see anyone in the windows there was a sense that the house was full, possibly filled with untold amounts of vampires and their victims and mortal servants.
They pulled up to the large blood red door and a servant opened the door to the limousine bowing to each person who exited it and closed the door quietly behind them. Another servant greeted them at the door with yet more bowing taking Ty’s and Valentines coats. Gold and marble was everywhere in the greeting room, the tables and chairs were inlayed with gold, and trimmed with it as well. Blood red like the door the chairs were Victorian in style, as well as the tables, the many statues looked to be not just replicas of priceless artifacts but to be the real statues of Greek figures, men and woman alike. Brenda kept pace with Valentine and put on a face that told everyone they encountered to beware their royal blood. Of course servants were present, but many vampire and mortal security guards alike clad in black suits and sunglasses, keeping a close eye on the new-comers quietly feeding information to someone on the other side of their headsets.
Duke Samuel was in a luxurious waiting room not far off from the greeting room they had just passed through. He was standing in the middle of a sitting area filled with large plush couches and chairs when they entered the room. Immediately he walked over to them and bowed giving them the appropriate greetings “Welcome to my humble home Prince Valentine Wolstencroft, it is an honor to be in your presents as well as that of your husband Prince Ahti Wolstencroft, and to you young princess,” he grabbed Brenda’s hand “I am pleased to make your acquaintance belle jeune femme.”
The cool touch of his hands sent shivers down Brenda’s spine, and though she hid her discomfort with a curt nod of appreciation she knew that this was a man she did not want to cross, or trust any more then Valentine allowed him to be trusted. Valentine gave a single nod of courtesy “Nice to see you again Duke Samuel Gravenor of Indianapolis. We are honored to be guests in magnifique maison. Enough of the titles and pleasantries though, it is time to speak of what knowledge you may have of our current circumstances.”
At Valentines command Samuel led them to the seats and waited as first Valentine then Ty and finally Brenda took a seat before sitting himself “So far I know as much as any vampire knows with a few exceptions, you have recently become engaged to Prince Ahti after turning him, and that you appose your parents the king and queen in this war. As well I’ve heard that you are headed to the Council for a possible treaty. What I have been informed about your travels is that you have gained new gifts including the ability to be in the sunlight, and powerful ways to destroy whoever apposes you. As you can guess I have a great interest in all of the royal family and their doings as any loyal vampire might be, but I am also tired of this war and wish for it to end. I am much older then you, having been born just before the fall of Rome and though this war grows interesting everyday it becomes even more tedious as we fight to stay above ground and in hiding. I enjoy my luxuries as you can tell, and in no disrespect to you do I say this, but I do not enjoy the caves and caverns that most royal vampires dwell now a ‘days.”
Valentine smiled “I understand your discomfort of the royal dwellings; I myself dislike them as well. As to my reasons for going to see the Council that is my business and I do not see fit to share it with anyone other than my companions. Not that I am trying to be rude, I just think it best to keep some information to a select few, I also will not tell you how I come by my gifts or ow I perform them.” He knew the last statement gave away too much information, but he also knew that he could not take it back. Valentine scolded himself silently and waited for Samuel to reply.
Samuel knew he had to tread lightly and though he picked up on Valentines slip he knew better then to delve any further into that particular subject “As you wish your royal highness, I would also like to inform you that your father the king has called to all vampires to let him know of your whereabouts if we should see you, but I don’t think I will give him any information. I hold no disrespect for the king I just have my own agenda that would best be accomplished by siding with you. My subdominants will also keep quite as I have ordered them to be. As well I have to warn you that the king and two score of his personal hellhounds are on your trail and not far behind you. There is about a day between you and him but he will find you soon enough if you stay here too much longer. I cannot give you anymore assistance then that information and a room for the night or he might find out and kill me for assisting you. As it stands now he might kill me if he finds out you were ever in my home and that I did not try to detain you. I will handle that though should a need arise.”
Shocked at Samuel’s honesty about their situation Valentine collected his thought forming his next comment, before he could speak though Samuel continued “I would also like to know when you plan to turn the young proclaimed princess, if you wait too much longer someone might think you have betrayed our kind for theirs. I know that she is a witch and so does everyone else under my rule, and though I may threaten to kill them should they harm her they may take it upon themselves to do her harm.”
“Tonight,” Brenda said politely “he will be turning me tonight in preparation for our meeting with the Council. Prince Valentine put the matter of my turning aside until we were much closer to New York, but under the current circumstances he will be turning me this very night before we go to our rooms to sleep.”
Again Valentine was shocked at her announcement but agreed making sure not to show signs of surprise “I will need a witness to her turning if you could Duke Samuel.” And as he said this he listened as she out the plan to him in his mind of how they were to go about this particular task.
“An honor such as this is great your royal highness and I will accept with respect for both of you. Would you like to do it in here or the feeding room down the hall?” Samuel replied.
Ty was shocked but knew that there had to be a plan formed between Brenda and Valentine to make it all work out, as he sat there continuing to listen Valentine answered Samuel “The feeding room if you would show us the way, I would not want to get any stray blood on such beautiful furnishings.”
Leading them into a room down the hall Brenda entered after Valentine and Ty, she took in her surroundings. The walls were stone of some sort, covered in shackles and adorned with blood splattering. She swallowed hard, if they didn’t do this right she and her companions would be attacked. As she went to the center of the room where a stone table sat she made a personal note of the shackles attached to it. Sitting in the middle of the table and pulling down the collar of her dress she pulled her hair back out of the way as Valentine approached. His teeth seemed to glow white in the darkness of the room as he got closer. Brenda held back another gulp as his mouth was placed on her collarbone. He bit deeply and drank her blood as quickly as possible without letting a single drop fall to the table. As he drank she fainted and he gently laid her down on the table as he kept his mouth on the spot where his teeth had originally sunk in. When Brenda seemed to no longer have a
ny more blood in her for him to feed Valentine let her go placing her head softly on the table. Then he ripped away a piece of his wrist and placed it to her lips opening them and letting it flow into her. In moments the change became apparent, as her scent changed to that of death and her pale porcelain skin became much more like actual porcelain. Then her eyes flew open and instead of her muddy brown eyes she had brightly glowing crimson eyes of a vampire, and when she opened her mouth to speak everyone including the people and vampires that had gathered around the door to see what was transpiring could see her newly formed fangs.
“Thank you my prince,” was all she could say out of the weakness of just being turned.
“I am honored to have you among our people Princess Brenda,” Valentine replied helping her up as she sat there weak and powerful all at the same time.
Samuel stepped forward “I have blood if you wish to feed; I know that most that are turned become very hungry within moments of being turned.”
She bowed her head in thanks “That would be nice, I would prefer blood packets heated to normal human temperature delivered to my room, even though I am hungry I am tired and need to rest. I do hope that my room is close by because I do not believe I can make it too far without feinting again.”
Nodding his head at her wise choice Samuel pointed out the door past the others “Your room is just a short ways down the hall and the second door on the right; it is next to the young princes room. I will have Kyle here lead you to it and then fetch you some blood.”
Brenda was assisted by Ty and Valentine as Kyle showed them to her room, as the rest of the house her room was decorated lavishly though everything in the room had a different shade of red to it. As Kyle left the room bowing as he went and closing the door she sat up in the bed as if completely unhindered “I have to say Valentine your blood taste absolutely horrid!” She wiped her tongue off on her dress trying to remove the taste.
Valentine laughed “Ty seems to enjoy my bodily fluids.” and he winked at Ty who was now looking at the both of them wondering just how mad they were.
“Are you kidding me?!” Ty exclaimed “You just turned her into a vampire, her, a magic wielder, and a powerful one at that! Now what are we supposed to do? At least with her as a mortal the Council would see that we have compassion for their mortality! On top of that she now no longer has her mortality and is stuck living possibly forever if we somehow manage survive all this all the while feeding on other living things!”
Both Valentine and Brenda laughed amused at their friends exclamation at her transformation and before his eyes she reverted to her normal mortal looking self for a moment before returning to her vampire semblance “It was all a glamour, nothing but a spell I cast to make myself look and smell like a vampire, I am not actually a vampire smart one.” She walked over and knocked on his head jokingly as if to wake up his mind.
Ty was annoyed at not seeing it himself and relieved at knowing that her humanity was still intact “I cannot believe you two, you should have given me some sort of hint or clue as to what you planned. I almost jumped in down there and prevented it from happening, and I can just imagine how that would have gone over with the crowd that had gathered not to mention the Duke.”
Valentine chuckled again “I knew you would either catch on or wait until we were alone before speaking or acting out. You may not have been smart enough to see through the glamour but I knew you would be smart enough not to do anything too rash.”
Shaking his head at his friends and grinning himself Ty dismissed the conversation without another word. In the next moment there was a knock on the door before the servant Kyle entered with a silver try that held three packets of type O blood and three crystal chalices. He set it down on a table at the foot of the bed before bowing and exiting the room shutting the door behind him again. Valentine walked over and opened a packet and poured some in each chalice until the packet was empty. He drank his down they handed one to Ty to drink, when he reached for the third chalice he offered it to Brenda jokingly “Want to try some, it is quite delicious.” She gave him a disgusted glare and then smiled as he downed it in a single gulp.
Ty hesitated a moment at the thought of yet again drinking someone’s blood but Valentine reassured him “It was bought at a blood bank most likely, many high powered vampires use blood banks as their own personal grocery stores these days, though many vampires still prefer to drink blood directly from a living person.”
Drinking the blood in his chalice and holding out the glass as Valentine offered him more Ty indulged in the clean human blood as he drank more. The bloods taste was not intoxicating like Valentines was but it seemed much more nourishing then that of the homeless people he had fed on before. The packets of blood went quickly between the two of them and Brenda sat there watching them as they downed each glass with a slight look on her face of dislike towards their choice of food.
“If you two are done gorging on blood, I think we should get some sleep. We will have a busy day tomorrow and will need all the rest we can get.” She said when they were done.
Valentine stepped out the door and down the hall to find a servant to take the tray away before he and Ty went to their own room. Their room was clad in royal purple and gold, with a large bed but no couch for one of them to sleep on. Ty gave Valentine a look of discomfort as they closed the door behind them. He was still confused about his feelings about Valentine and did not want to be sleeping in the same room as him let alone the same bed. Biting his lip and ignoring his discomfort Ty walked over to the bed and sat down on the right side of it.
Valentine walked over to the left side of the bed and took off his shirt “If they see us not sleeping in the same bed they will become suspicious about us and we cannot afford that right now.”
Ty saw the truth in this even though he was uncomfortable with it “Can we at least keep our clothes on?”
Shaking his head Valentine continued to strip “That would be just as suspicious, but if you want I will sleep under the sheets while you sleep just under the blanket, that way it won’t be quite so awkward for either of us.” With that he had a grin on his face as became completely naked and laid under the blanket and sheets waiting for Ty to get into bed next to him.
“Sometimes,” Ty said while stripping off his own clothes with haste and climbing into the bed on top of the sheets but under the blanket still “you disgust me with your perverted sense of humor Valentine.”
Valentine laughed then shut off the light next to him before rolling over completely and getting comfortable “You know what they say about marriage don’t you?”
“No wise one why don’t you inform me.” Ty answered as dryly as he could manage.
“Once you’re married all the sex is gone in a relationship,” Valentine chuckled not seeing Ty roll over away from him rolling his eyes in annoyance but also smiling at his friends jest.
For quite a while after Valentine had fallen asleep Ty laid there trying to abolish the pictures that formed in his mind. He knew that they weren’t bad, just alien and he was unsure of their source. On top of these strange images that popped into his head he thought again of the road to come, and how they could best achieve their goals when they reached the Council.
Chapter: 11
Can you say mutt?