Mated Enemies

I know her strength, that if not for the chains she would try working her spells on me, which wouldn’t work of course, because although I know her strengths and weaknesses, no one can know mine.

“I’ll ask you again. Was it you?”

“Your uncle was weak; it didn’t take much to make him lose control. Just a few well placed words and a little bit of magic and he was easily manipulated. He believed too much in his own abilities.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think? Because the fae and vampyre clans have one common enemy, us. If we allow you to clasp hands then where would that leave us? We know only too well that we wouldn’t stand a chance, that you’d do everything to silence us once and for all. But instead of the great bond everyone hailed we brought great discord that has gone on for millennia.” She cackled again in great delight as if she didn’t sense her peril.

“With all of you at each other’s throats, filled with distrust, your eyes have no longer been focused on us have they, you are too busy fighting against each other to care about what we’ve been doing, as it should be.” I dropped her back on her feet and waited for her to stop gagging.

“But you failed this time, so why are you still here?” I’m waiting for her to tell me that she was here to take my wife’s life. Not that I needed justification but I believe in being fair. I want her to know exactly why she was going to die.

“All should’ve gone as planned this time. Had I not been careless I would’ve noticed the child and they’d both be dead by now.” Good enough!

“Bellaque!”

“Sire!” He came out of the shadows and she tried going through the wall to escape, her eyes wild and wide with fear.

“Go!”

“How many?”

“All of them.”

“What does that mean? Where is he going?” She kept a wary eye on my pet.

‘To annihilate your clan. Starting with you!” The words had barely left my mouth before he came flying through the air to strike.

I walked away to the sound of her screams that died before I reached the door. I felt him coming up behind me after devouring his snack. “Go hunt!” He bounded past me out the door as I turned down the long stone hallway to the other holding cell in the dungeon.

She was sitting huddled in a corner not chained but with nowhere to run. Her head came up and she got to her feet when she saw me enter the cell. She bowed her head in obeisance and curtsied “Your roy…”

“Forget it, I won’t accept a greeting from you.” There was a strong distaste in my mouth and I didn’t want to be here. It was taking everything in me not to end her with one blow, but that was too easy.

“I won’t go through your list of sins you know them better than anyone. I’m just here to give you your sentence.”

“After all these years you won’t give me a chance to speak in my defense?”

I turned my head in her direction even though it filled me with rage just to look at her. “You have none and I have no interest in anything you might have to say. For what you’ve done I should’ve taken your head ten times already. But I won’t do that, I’ll let you live.”

It was mean of me to do it this way, to give her that small glimmer of hope, which I saw had worked because her shoulders relaxed and maybe she forgot that I could read her thoughts or maybe she just couldn’t control herself.

“You’re wrong. I’m not doing this out of any lingering feelings I may have for you, there were never any. I could’ve gone my whole life and never given you a second thought, but you went too far when you endangered my woman and son.”

“Son?” I felt her pain at my words, like a knife to the heart. Good I should let you bleed out and revive you just to do it again.

“Yes, the one who defeated you, who protected his mother from you and that bitch you brought here to harm her.” Her legs gave out and she fell to the cold stone floor defeated, but the worst was yet to come. I wasn’t done with her by a long shot. It would take three lifetimes for me to be satisfied.

“What are you going to do with me then, if not kill me?” Her voice had lost all life, as if learning that Natalia was carrying my child was the last straw. I didn’t bother reading her thoughts again I wasn’t interested.

“Stand up!” She looked up at the tone in my voice and got to her feet standing close to the wall with her back pressed firmly against it. “Tell me, what is the worst thing I can do to you right now?” Her eyes widened and she recoiled as a slow smile spread across my face.