[IC] ~Bonsoir~

[Rogue Sloth]

Vail kept up alongside Victoria’s horse as she galloped from the manor past each barricade the Saints had erected to stop the Wynters. The animal’s long strides allowed it to cover ground quickly, but he managed not to fall behind. The task of matching a stallion’s gait would have been straining if he hadn’t had a taste of Lady Crest’s blood that day, but since he’d fed so recently, he wasn’t even out of breath by the time they finally slowed to a stop.

Halting beside her steed, he swept his gaze over the surrounding buildings to keep watch for any other vampires. According to the Saints’ information, the Wynters shouldn’t have gotten this far yet, but it never hurt to be cautious. Besides that, he wanted to make sure there were no bystanders from the other clans in London. They were going to be using Victoria’s blood as bait, so the entire plan could fall apart if she was attacked by someone who didn’t belong to the Wynter clan before their actual targets grew close enough to trap.

Fortunately, the only people that he could see and smell in the area were the humans in a nearby pub. The rest of the streets were clear, so he turned to Victoria and nodded at her announcement that she was going to draw her blood. As soon as she opened her neck and began to coat herself in the scarlet liquid that flowed out, he felt his heartbeat quicken, and he shivered. The scent was as powerful as ever, and despite having already fed that same day, he had to force himself to stand still while she combed her bloodstained fingers through her hair. If this didn’t make the Wynters lose their focus, nothing would.

“Nothing yet…” he murmured, dragging his wrist across the corner of his mouth where some of the excess saliva had escaped his mouth. He narrowed his eyes slightly, scanning the dark streets. His sense of smell alerted him faster than his vision, and he tensed at the odor of another vampire in the area—actually, more than one. The Wynters were close, and they were traveling in a group. In the next moment, he caught sight of a flicker of movement in a nearby alley. “Now!” he hollered, pivoting on his heel to run with her back toward the barricade, where the first wave of their Frankenstein army was waiting to fight.

--

Katherine had been in her bedroom when Mikael had entered the Hygrace manor. Unlike her husband, however, she had heeded Vail’s warning and prepared to defend her family by feeding on humans daily in the city. So, when she heard Peter’s scream, she ran downstairs as quickly as her legs would carry her and began ushering the other Hygraces to get ready to fight back. The scent of an unfamiliar vampire on their territory combined with the outcry of their leader was enough to rile up her nieces and nephews, and they all grabbed whatever makeshift weapons they could find to fend off the Wynter. To her dismay though, it wasn’t enough.

Despite their best efforts, Mikael cut down every Hygrace he came across, until the few that remained had no other choice but to flee the manor if they wanted to live. Katherine retreated to her bedroom upstairs, panicked but unwilling to run as long as Peter was still alive and breathing. She couldn’t leave him behind, and her loyalty led her to trap herself when the Wynter entered the room to finish her off. She stood with her back pressed against the wall and a fire iron in her hand as a last defense, bracing herself for the inevitable sting of the vampire’s silver-lined blade. But it didn’t come.

In the time between Mikael severing his leg and the minutes it took the Wynter to slaughter most of his family, Peter had made his way upstairs to look for a way to fight back as well. Using a cane to hold himself upright, he had hobbled toward his room, only to stop in the hallway when a faint scent had reached his nose: Crest blood. He had turned away from his door to go to Vail’s bedroom instead, where he had found the bottle of Victoria’s blood that sat untouched on the heir’s bedside table. There had been more than enough to give him the strength he needed to take Mikael on, whether he was crippled or not.

So, just as the Wynter had raised his sword to slay the Hygrace leader’s wife, Peter had lunged at him from behind, grappling for the blade with his fangs bared in a twisted snarl. They scrapped for a while, more evenly matched now that Lord Hygrace had taken the same drug as his opponent, but eventually, Peter managed to wrestle the brand away from Mikael and held it out warningly. “Get out of my territory,” he hissed, leaning against the post of his bed to stay upright. His cane had fallen to the floor when he’d first attacked the Wynter.

In spite of his less than ideal condition, there was a darkness in his eyes that told the other vampire that he would kill him without hesitation of he tried to continue the fight.

[Angel Vicky]

Mikael hissed and growled at Peter as he had him equally matched. He would need his clan as back up to finish him off. But he had taken enough of the Hygrace clan to leave with having done some damage to last a lifetime. So, he decided to quit while he was ahead. He was smart enough to know the best tactics. “This isn’t over Hygrace!” He snarled before he jumped clear out the window. He ran into the night.

---

Lord Spencer got the first sight of Lady Victoria turning on her horse to run away from him. The smell of her blood in the air made the Wynter clan go into a frenzy. All the could think about was sinking their teeth into her sweet neck and drinking their fill of more of the blood that coursed through their veins right now, giving them the feeling they had the strength of ten vampires.

Phillipe and his mistress galloped through the first barricade. As she rode under the bridge, the Saints heads popped up and fired upon the Wynter clan. They were too distracted to dodge their bullets and bolts. It impacted a few of them to slow them down. Victoria gained more sizeable gap between them as she le them straight to the next barricade where two suffered severed limbs, one was impaled through the heart with a silver bullet. There were less of them gaining on Victoria.

Her heart raced as she willed her horse to go faster still. Her long hair whipped behind her wildly. She made it to the third barricade where a volley of shots impaled five other vampires and slowed them to a near halt or ended them altogether. She glanced back momentarily, it looked like they were winning. However, before the fourth and final barrier at Crest Manor, Mikael leaped out of nowhere in front of the horse and slashed its neck. Phillipe neighed and stumbled as its blood spurted out everywhere. Victoria screamed as she felt the horse fall and she was flung from the saddle. She hit the ground. Hard.

She grit her teeth and looked up through her blood stained hair and saw her horse laying on the ground, lifeless. Tears formed in her eyes. “Phillipe!” Her beloved companion, she loved so much was now dead in its own pool of blood. Mikael stood in the middle of the street and stared Vail down with a dark grin. His fangs glinted in the light of the oil filled lamps.

“So. This is the mutt who stole Christopher’s bride? Hmph. He isn’t much to look at.” Mikael taunted as Spencer caught up to them. Mikael stood between Victoria and Vail’s escape to Crest Manor where more traps and Saints lay. Victoria’s heart raced and before anyone could retort Mikael’s comment, she took her crossbow from her back and fired it at his head. He caught it easily in his hand. The silver merely felt hot to the vampire instead of burning him completely. “I must say. Your blood is something God could not have created himself.”

[Rogue Sloth]

At first, it looked like the Saints’ plan was working. Vail and Victoria swept past the first few barricades with ease, leading their pursuers straight into the jaws of the waiting hunters at every checkpoint. The Wynters were too frenzied by the smell of her blood to comprehend the trap that they were willingly stepping into, and they were being picked off one by one the closer they got to the Crest manor. Occasionally, the Hygrace heir peeked back over his shoulder to see how many were left. The majority of the rival clan was still hot on their tail, but it was encouraging to see their numbers dwindle every time he checked up on them. The longer the hunt went on, the more confident he felt that the Order and the Moncourier clan were going to come out of this battle as victors. There was just one barricade left.

He turned around to look forward again after glancing at the Wynters one more time. The manor was just up ahead, so he hastened his pace alongside Victoria’s horse, eager to end it. However, in the next moment, his eyes widened as a new scent struck him suddenly. The smell was Wynter, but it wasn’t one of the vampires who had been following them thus far. It was a new individual who was somewhere up ahead. He swore under his breath and turned to warn Lady Crest that they needed to alter their course to avoid an ambush, but the enemy was faster. Much faster, in fact.

He inhaled sharply as a figure darted out from a nearby alley and dug a set of cat-like nails into the stallion’s neck, tearing clean through its flesh with one sweep. The beast crashed to the ground, and Vail skidded to a stop to avoid tripping over its body. His blood ran cold at the sound of Victoria’s scream, but fortunately, it seemed like she had just been surprised by the attack, not injured. Determined to protect her from the new threat, he rushed to her side and looked over his shoulder with a concerned frown. The vampires who hadn’t been taken down by the Saints were closing in on them quickly. They had to keep moving because he couldn’t take them all on by himself.

When the new arrival spoke up, Vail turned around again. He didn’t care at all what a Wynter thought of him. What caught his attention was the fact that the vampire was able to hold a silver crossbow bolt in his bare hand without cringing. He gawped incredulously at the sight. He’d never met any vampire who could handle the metal so effortlessly, and he couldn’t understand how this man seemed to be impervious to the arrow’s sting. For half a second, he wondered if this Wynter was part human like Victoria’s brother, but that option was ruled out quickly. He didn’t smell at all like a human. The vampire standing before them was a pure-blooded immortal.

He was wrenched from his thoughts when the Wynter spoke of Victoria’s blood. His skin prickled at the tone of the other vampire’s voice, and he narrowed his eyes. If not for Spencer’s presence nearby, he would have lunged at him to keep her safe. However, he couldn’t leave her side and put her at risk of being attacked by someone else while his back was turned.

Unless.

His eyes flicked down to the crossbow in her hands. She had been training since they’d first met, and she was wearing a full suit of silver armor, so perhaps she could handle her ex fiancé while he fended off the ambusher. The Wynter may have been able to tolerate an arrow, but he was feeling good with a fresh dose of Victoria’s blood in his system from that morning. At the very least, he could attempt to keep the other vampire distracted while she made a run for the castle.

“It wasn’t created for you,” he spat, hoping to draw the Wynter’s attention to him. He could smell Victoria’s blood on the rival’s breath, so he was aware that he’d drank some somehow, but the knowledge didn’t deter him. He casted one more furtive glance at the Crest heiress, praying that his hunch had been right and she could hold her own against one vampire without him, before he sprinted at the man he’d targeted.

[Angel Vicky]

James sniffed the air outside Crest Manor. "Something's wrong. She's stopped just a ways ahead." He could smell her blood in the air from miles away. A few of the Moncourier clan were patrolling outside the barriers to ward off any vampires that came out of hiding in search of Victoria's luscious blood scent.

Francois looked at Diana, she was visibly worried. He then turned to his son. "Go." James didn't wait a second longer as he and three others bolted into the night. Leaving Francois and Gerald to protect Lady Diana and the manor as the last stand.

---

"Capture the woman." Spencer ordered five of his men as Vail attacked Mikael. Victoria narrowed her eyes as they sprinted toward her in a blur. She fired another bolt, hoping to get one of them in the leg at least. But they were faster than she was used to.

She gasped as they were nearly upon her and she screamed just as one reached for her. Only to hear a roar of a man come from her left. James leapt out of the shadows and tackled the vampire to the ground. "Don't you dare touch my sister!" He growled as he laid into the vampire punch after punch. But he managed to throw James off in his powered up state.

Victoria scrambled to her feet to see Vail attacking Mikael, and the Moncourier clan attacking the others. It only left Spencer an Victoria staring each other down.

Mikael easily sideways stepped out of Vail's lunges. "I almost feel sorry for you." Mikael taunted Vail with a toothy grin. "What kind of vampire falls in love with his prey? Do you see cats taking up a mouse lover?" He slashed at his right arm. "You'd rather sacrifice your family for a human. I must say, some of them did put up a good fight." He cackled in order to make Vail emotional.

Victoria panted and looked around frantically. All of this was happening because of her. More Saints from the rear barricades were on their way but it would be game over if she were to be captured. Spencer walked toward the Lady Crest and she loaded another bolt and fired it at him. He caught it easily in his hand and snapped it in two. "Come now, my love. Stop all this nonsense, come back to me and we spare all their lives. It's that simple."

"I'm not yours!" She fired another bolt at his leg, which impaled him but he didn't even flinch as he removed it and his body healed instantaneously.

"Get to the manor!" James shouted as he was being choked by one of Spencer's men. He kicked up at him and threw him off him. Victoria heard his instruction and turned to run. It was their last chance to fight them off at the Crest mansion where more traps lay hidden but Victoria had to make it there on foot. She was no match for Spencer's speed, the other vampires grabbed at him to slow him down though. Spencer scrapped with one or two at a time.

Then a thundering of horses could be heard approaching. The cavalry had arrived. Saints were shooting silver bullets and bolts at the Wynters. Some were impaled in the head luckily. This gave Victoria a chance to escape. Mikael growled and turned to chase after Vail's lover and chose to ignore him now.

[Rogue Sloth]

Vail was learning quickly that it was difficult to fight with half of his focus on someone other than his opponent. It was like he had one arm tied behind his back. Although his desire to protect Victoria from danger fueled him more than his desire to keep himself safe, his head was filled with distracting thoughts such as keeping track of her wellbeing and wondering how on earth they were going to fend off so many Wynters at one time, especially when every single one of the other vampires seemed to have ingested some of her blood.

On an average day, he had determined that he was strong enough to hold his ground against up to three of his kind at once, but this was like trying to gain leverage on an uphill slope. He peeled his lips back in a frustrated snarl as the Wynter he’d attacked continued to dance out of the way of his every lunge and swing. He felt like he was moving in slow motion. Even compared to other vampires, he had quick reflexes. The Hygrace family was endowed with above average genes that had allowed them to rise up as the most powerful clan in England in the first place. However, he had no such advantage against this Wynter. The way the other immortal dodged his strikes so effortlessly made it seem like the Hygrace heir was no better than a child.

As his opponent began to taunt him, Vail attempted to ignore the comments. He knew the other vampire was just trying to throw him off even more than he already was by risking glances at Victoria to make sure she was still unharmed. Despite his best efforts though, he crumbled when the Wynter said that some of his family had put up a good fight. The remark made him falter, and he eyed him cagily, unsure if it had been a lie. He’d been too absorbed with the fight to pay any attention to the other man’s heartbeat, but he didn’t want to believe it. He hadn’t left his clan until that very morning, and everything had been peaceful until the moment he’d walked out the door.

It’s a bluff, he assured himself, refusing to give the Wynter the satisfaction of any petty retorts as he pounced again with his fangs bared hostilely. The Wynters have been focused on the Order. They haven’t had time to attack my family. With his confidence bolstered by his own reasoning, he fell on the Wynter with renewed fury, doing his best to hold him off while the Moncouriers and the Saints fought the rest of the enemy clan.

Over the cacophony of fighting, he heard Victoria’s brother shout at her to get to safety. There was a lapse in the Wynter’s forces, and he saw the Crest heiress run for the manor in the corner of his eye. In the same moment, he threw a blow at his opponent’s head to keep his attention fixed on him, then swore as he missed again. The other vampire was too fast.

As the Wynter took chase, Vail’s right hand flew to his belt. He already knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up, so instead, he drew his ace: his revolver. Taking the weapon in both hands, he aimed the barrel at the other vampire’s head and fired at, immediately following the shot by sprinting after him in case the trick didn’t work. With better eyesight than any human could hope to achieve and decades of practice behind him, he was an impeccable shot. The bullets he used weren’t made of silver though. They wouldn’t break any vampire’s skin, but they still hit hard enough to knock the wind out of one or even be jarring enough to cause one to stumble and fall. In this case, he had been hoping for the latter.

“Victoria, behind you!” he called out a warning as he raced to catch up to her. She was the one with the silver weapons, so if the bullet had successfully thrown the Wynter off balance, she could take the opportunity to kill him while he was down. If not, she wouldn’t be able to outrun him, so she needed to brace herself. Either way, he found it necessary to alert her to his presence, so she wouldn’t be taken by surprise before he was able to get close enough to protect her.

[Angel Vicky]

As soon as she heard Vail's warning, Victoria turned on her heel immediately. She spun around and grasped at her crossbow. She aimed it at the now stumbling Mikael, bleeding from his new bullet wounds. As if by instinct, she unloaded a silver bolt after silver bolt, one shot clean through his neck, creating a gaping hole. Blood splashed outward and Mikael growled. His eyes reddened as Victoria realised she had only made him angrier.

She turned to run. Spencer laid into her brother, shredding him and slowing him, preventing him from running to his sister to get her out of the vicinity. He cursed when he saw Mikael still tried to pursue her, even with his wounds. If she had her horse, she would be fast enough to get away but she was on foot. Mikael healed ten times more quickly than usual.

Gerald waited at the Crest Manor gate. He sat atop his black stallion. With teeth gritted, he growled. "Come on...where are you..." It had been way too long. He kicked the horse and it strode into a gallop. "Heyah!" He cried out to coax the horse to go faster.

Victoria ran as fast as she could. If Mikael could touch silver, there was no point wearing it. It was only slowing her down. She tore her gauntlets off and then pushed the breastplate over her head, she dropped it behind her to slow Mikael down. Which caused him to dodge it. Victoria heard the oncoming thunderous sound of hooves. Her heart quickened with hope when she saw Gerald appear. With shotgun in hand, he aimed it at Mikael and fired. Victoria ducked and rolled.

Mikael dodged the shotgun's first round but the second round impacted his abdomen. Fatefully, Victoria was now on the ground and he managed to close the gap between them. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and hauled her up off the floor. "ARGH!" She screamed out as his claws dug into her flesh and made her bleed. She kicked and squirmed but he was stronger than her by miles. Lady Crest had been caught. Gerald growled and dived off his horse and onto Mikael's back. "NO!!" He yelled as he protected his God daughter. Mikael threw Victoria across the street and her back smacked against a steel lamp post. She screamed out as bones cracked in her ribs. She held her torso in agony. She could not move but at least Gerald kept Mikael distracted long enough for Vail to get to her. But she was internally bleeding from her injuries. Blood seeped from her mouth and stained her pearly white teeth.

[Rogue Sloth]

Vail held his breath as the Wynter stumbled and Victoria turned around to shoot him. If she struck him in the heart, he would die on the spot. Unfortunately, she was still new enough with a crossbow—and likely still nerve wracked from being chased—that the bolt pierced the other vampire in the throat instead. A blow like that still would have slowed another of his kind down, but this Wynter just seemed to have been enraged by the arrow protruding from his neck. He only staggered for a moment before he moved to continue pursuing his target.

Straining to catch up, Vail reached out to grab hold of the other man’s jacket before he could take off again, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. He cursed as the Wynter slipped just beyond his fingertips. It felt impossible to keep up with him, and he wondered just how much of the Crest heiress’s blood he’d ingested. After all, he’d fed from her many times before, but he’d never experienced a rush of power like this vampire was now. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to keep up with him, he reluctantly fell behind in the hopes that Gerald would be of more help to Victoria from atop his horse than he currently was on the ground.

As he altered his goals, he arced his course to the right, attempting to take the Wynter by surprise by coming at him from a new direction. In doing so he also avoided the pieces of silver armor that Victoria had begun shedding from her body. When Gerald fired his shot gun, the Hygrace heir watched from a distance, hoping that the other vampire would drop to the ground, but he didn’t. In the chaos of the fight, the Wynter had managed to get his hands on the jewel he’d been after: Victoria.

Vail stared in horror as the vampire picked her up as if she was a trophy. He could smell the odor of her blood in the air as his sharpened nails broke her fair skin. Hastening his pace, he sprinted toward them as fast as he could to intervene, only change course one more time when the Wynter threw her at a lamppost like a ragdoll. While Gerald kept their enemy distracted, the Hygrace heir wasted no time sweeping her broken body into his arms and carrying her the rest of the way to the nearby manor. The armor that she hadn’t had time to remove burned his skin through the thin fabric of his coat, but he ignored it, determined to get her to safety while they still had a chance.

Swiftly, he rushed past the last line of Saints and Moncouriers waiting to fight the Wynters and threw open the front door. He didn’t bother taking her up to her room. He’d heard her bones break upon impact with the metal pole with which they’d collided. As soon as they were inside the foyer, he dropped to his knees and set her down on the marble floor, tearing at the remaining silver plates to get them off her lithe frame. With the obstructions out of the way, he pulled up her shirt just enough to take a look at the damage. The sight that greeted him made him blanch.

Beneath her fair skin, he could see dark splotches of color forming, a telltale sign of internal bleeding. Even though he wasn’t a trained doctor, he could tell some of her organs had ruptured. For a moment, he sat motionlessly, unsure what to do. To a vampire, an injury like this would be excruciating but survivable. He doubted a human would be able to recover at all though.

“Victoria, stay with me,” he murmured, taking her hand in his. Outside, he could hear the sounds of battle, and he knew they didn’t have much time. “I’m sorry. I should have stayed closer to you, and—” he started and then stopped with a shake of his head. As frustrated as he was with himself for making the wrong decision, he wasn’t sure it would have made a difference if he hadn’t left her side. The Wynter they’d faced was too strong. “I love you,” he finished instead, leaning down to press a kiss to her forehead as his heart felt like it was splintering inside his chest.

[Angel Vicky]

Victoria struggled to breathe as one of her ribs punctured her right lung upon breaking. She was lightheaded and in agonising pain to really focus on anything but the pain, but she was aware of Vail’s presence picking her up and the sensation of being carried whilst he ran. She tried to keep it together but all she could do was groan with each movement. As he set her down on the foyer floor, she screamed in agony until she lay still. Then he had to remove her leg plates, it hurt Vail and his lover to remove them.

She wheezed and looked up at Vail. “S-sorry…” She felt him take her hand in his and told her to stay with him. She gulped and nodded slowly, her energy was fast leaving her. She shook her head as he apologised to her. She squeezed his hand. She had no regrets. Vail did his best. Mikael was too strong for them. She could tell by his paler than usual face that her state wasn’t good. She felt her state was fatal. She was just sorry she couldn’t spend more time with him as much as they’d have liked to but at least they had loved one another in their short time together. As he declared that he loved her, she smiled weakly and croaked an “I love you too” back.

Diana could not stop weeping at their side. Jean-Claude took her aside. “If you want to turn her, the time is now. Drain her blood and replace it with yours.” He told Vail insistently. “Or I will do it for Diana and James and bring her into my clan.” He gave the Hygrace clan heir the choice.

Diana looked at Jean-Claude. “Turn my daughter into a vampire?” She asked him to which he nodded.

“It can be done and it has to be her choice.” Jean-Claude stated. Victoria nodded weakly, whilst she still could and coherently think. She wanted the chance to live again, to be with Vail. She wanted to have a life with him, become his wife and have a family.

Outside James roared and his rage took over, he could wield the silver weaponry without being burned and impale his enemies straight through the heart at close range without being killed by them. Gerald shot Mikael so many times, he could barely walk. He bolted back to his horse and mounted it and sounded the retreat back to the manor. When he arrived he saw Victoria on the floor and he knew then that she wasn’t going to make it. All colour had drained from her face. “My God….I was too late…” Gerald fell to his knees. “Alex. Forgive me. I could not protect your daughter.” He sobbed.

[Rogue Sloth]

It pained Vail to see the woman he loved in such agony, but he didn’t know how to take away her pain other than killing her to put her out of her misery. He couldn’t bring himself to do that. Perhaps it was selfish, but he wanted to be with her for as long as he was able to if she was going to die. Despite knowing that she would only be a part of his life for a fraction of the whole of it, he’d become irreversibly attached to Victoria. To watch the light fade from her blue eyes was something he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to endure for decades. He supposed that had been too much to ask for when an entire clan of vampires had decided to turn her into their prized pet.

Absorbed in his panic, he hadn’t noticed Diana or Jean-Claude approach. Only when the latter spoke did he tear his gaze away from the dying woman’s face. The elder vampire’s prompt to turn her was both tempting and forbidding at the same time. Since he and Victoria had first skimmed through the tome from his family’s archive, he’d perused the section on the turning ritual a little more thoroughly. The book had stated that humans below the age of twenty-five had the best odds of surviving because their bodies had yet to pass their peak condition, but it had also warned that those in poor health were not as likely to make it. After reading that, he worried that because of everything Lady Crest had been through recently, she wouldn’t be strong enough to handle it.

But there’s nothing left for her to lose now, he silently reminded himself, turning back to her again. If the ritual failed, he would be saddened by the knowledge that he’d been the one to snuff out her life in the end, but at least he could say that he’d tried everything he could to save her. Her weak nod assured him that this was what she wanted too. Whether it worked or not, it was worth trying if it meant she had even the slightest chance of making it through this battle alive. That was enough to convince him.

“I’ll do it,” he said decidedly, informing Jean-Claude which of them would be the one to turn her. The other vampire might have been more experienced, but he didn’t trust anyone else with Victoria’s life when she was in such a vulnerable state. To ensure that nothing went wrong, he would do it personally.

His eyes flicked briefly to Gerald, who had burst into the room at that moment, before he leaned over Victoria and touched one more kiss to her lips. As he did, he reached for one of the pieces of her armor that he’d tossed to the side, wincing at the silver’s unforgiving burn, and pressed the narrow edge into his wrist until it dug into his skin. His own dark blood welled up through the cut, and he collected it on two fingers which he then skimmed over her bottom lip, streaking it with scarlet. The tome had stated that all she needed was one drop, so he wanted to make sure he gave her that before he drank her blood in case he threw himself into a frenzy and forgot the other crucial step of the ritual.

With nothing left to do to postpone the bite, he inhaled slowly and lowered his mouth to her neck, stretching his jaws wide to sink his fangs into her flesh. There was no point in wasting time to prime her skin first, so he squeezed her hand instead as he buried his canines deep into her throat. This bite was different than the times he had fed from her previously. Before, he had lapped from shallow veins to avoid seriously injuring her, but now, he searched for a carotid artery to siphon every last drop of blood that flowed through her body, drinking with the intent to kill rather than quell a desire for a ‘small taste.’

[Angel Vicky]

Victoria started to wheeze even harder. Blood filled her punctured lung. She knew that being turned wasn’t going to be easy, if it did work. But she wasn’t ready to die yet. She wanted a second chance at living a full life. She had barely begun living. She didn’t want to die without having gotten married to the man of her dreams and adorned a beautiful white dress. She hadn’t had a chance to raise any children. There was every chance this was her last moments with Vail. She hoped that if she did die, that she would just slip away peacefully and awaken in another realm where she would reunite with her father.

Jean-Claude nodded at Vail’s answer. “Then drink quickly.” He instructed and took Diana out of the room, so she didn’t have to see her daughter being sucked dry by Vail. Diana couldn’t take it if her only daughter died so soon after her husband had. Victoria’s eyes flickered gently as Vail leaned down to kiss her lips, she barely registered his touch as her body began to numb over. She had lost the energy to speak, her mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts. Like would she ever wake in this world again? If she did, would she be in pain?

She then felt something wet and it tasted metallic. It was blood. Vail’s blood..? She licked her lips slowly, tasting it was very strange. She knew she had to swallow it in her mouth to absorb into her system, so she gulped and it trickled down into her stomach where the vampiric cells started to work their magic. She tensed, feeling the sharp puncture in her neck. She could feel Vail’s hand holding onto hers and squeeze it lightly. She quickly felt her body grow cold. She could not longer feel her fingers and toes at first, then she lost feeling in her arms and legs. She didn’t fight against her predation from her lover, she knew she was going to die quickly either way. She soon felt so dizzy she felt like she was floating. She became extremely tired and she closed her eyes. She felt as though she was drifting into a deep, deep sleep. And then…she was gone. At least the last person she saw was the man she fell in love with.

Gerald watched from his position, knelt on the floor. He gulped hard. “You need to get out of here. The Wynters will soon be here.” He stood and took his gun out, loading it with silver bullets. “I’ll stay behind and slow them down. There’s a carriage out back waiting.”

Jean-Claude came back in holding Diana’s hand. “We need to go now.”

James ran through the door and slammed it behind him, he panted hard. There was a thump at the door and scratching. “There’s more coming Father. We’re outnumbered.” He informed them and looked at Vail with a lifeless and pale Victoria in his arms. “No…did she….?” He asked with teeth gritted. “She didn’t make it. She had to be turned now if she has any sort of chance.” Jean-Claude led them to the back door through the kitchen and there it was, a big carriage with four black horses waiting to escape London.

[Rogue Sloth]

Vail had never felt anything like the surge of energy that coursed through his body as he drained Victoria’s blood. It turned out that his foresight to cut himself before he began feeding had been a smart idea, because as he drank from her neck, his predatory nature overtook him, and he lost sight of why he had bitten her in the first place. His grip tightened on her pale hand, and he buried his fangs as deeply as he could into her flesh. In the back of his mind, he realized why the Wynter they had been fighting had been so impossible to defeat. There was a power to Lady Crest’s blood that was like a strong steroid mixed with cocaine to one of his kind, and it flooded every fiber of his being with fire.

When he swallowed the last drop, he sat up on his heels and caught his breath. A slight tremor had seized his limbs, the byproduct of his excess energy, but the sensation that came with drinking all of Victoria’s blood was euphoric. It was a good thing that vampires had no appetite for the blood of their own species, because if she woke up with the same addicting liquid in her veins, he would have found it difficult not to bleed her dry again and again. He felt invincible after just doing it once.

With a flicker of a glance at Gerald, he slipped his arms underneath the dead woman’s body and lifted her up. She felt feather-light to him, though he couldn’t tell if that was because he’d siphoned all of her blood or because of the strength he’d gained from doing so. Perhaps it was both. Regardless, he held her close to his torso and followed Jean-Claude through the back door to the waiting carriage, keeping watch for any Wynters along the way. Now that Victoria had passed, there was nothing left for the other vampires to get from her, but he wouldn’t have put it past them to run silver through her heart out of spite. If there was even a sliver of a chance that she would wake up again, he was going to do everything in his power to keep her body safe from harm. He wasn’t ready to lose her for good.

Setting her down in the carriage with Diana and Jean-Claude, who sat in the middle to keep the widow from laying eyes on her daughter’s corpse, Vail remained outside the wagon as they took off for Scotland. There were still Wynters nearby. Some of them had even begun pursuing the vehicle to catch them before they could get away, so the Hygrace heir made it his personal mission to keep the other vampires from getting inside the cabin. It was shockingly easy for him too. With more than four liters of Victoria’s blood in his system, he felt like his enemies were moving in slow motion. Every sense and reflex was heightened, and any time one of his rivals managed to injure him, the wound healed almost instantaneously. At that moment, unless he was stabbed in the heart with silver, he was untouchable. It was an exhilarating feeling.

The other vampires seemed to realize it too. After he fought off a little less than a dozen of them, they began to back off, and he turned around to chase after the carriage, climbing into the seat beside the coachman as they fled from the fallen Crest manor.

--

Over the course of the following week, Vail remained busy. The effects of Victoria’s blood sacrifice lingered far longer than he had expected so, taking advantage of the temporary bolster, he returned to England after she had been safely spirited away to her relative’s home in Scotland. The words of the Wynter who had attacked him had stuck with him, and he wanted to make sure that his family was still alright. However, to his dismay, he’d come back to a manor devoid of anything but a few corpses that belonged to some of his cousins—and one lone thief from another clan who’d had the misfortune of taking the brunt of the vampire’s rage.

After that, he had left his home behind to search for survivors, whom he eventually found taking shelter in a farm on the outskirts of the city. The sight of them had been startling. Only a few of his cousins had survived the slaughter along with his parents, and they were all in poor shape. Worst of all was Peter. According to his mother, the leader of their clan had been permanently crippled by a Wynter named Mikael—most likely the same culprit who had broken Victoria’s body, he presumed—but even more destructive than the damage to his body had been the wound to his mind. The Hygrace patriarch was barely responsive. Even when Vail urged him to bring what was left of their clan to the safe house where he’d taken Victoria, Peter wouldn’t do anything but stare vacantly ahead and repeat that there was no point; that they were all going to die anyway. The Wynters were too strong, and he wasn’t capable enough to protect his family from them.

Seeing his father in such a state had been unnerving to Vail, but he knew that he couldn’t leave them in the barn. The Wynters would want to finish them off while they were still weak. So, breaking a tradition that had been founded thousands of years ago, he took charge of their diminished clan against Peter’s wishes and brought them all to Scotland. Unlike the last time he’d tried to lead them, the other vampires actually listened. They had been made homeless and feared for their lives, so they were quick to jump at the prospect of a place where they could go to escape the clan that had dethroned them, even if that meant allowing themselves to be led by him instead of Peter.

The journey back was slow but successful. Twice, they encountered Wynters prowling the city streets to kill any enemies they came across, but Vail dispatched them easily. The other vampires couldn’t stand up to him as long as he was still fueled by the effects of Lady Crest’s blood. He protected his clan effortlessly, preventing the Wynters from taking any more Hygrace lives and establishing himself as a trustworthy leader among his family. By the time they made it to the property in Scotland, he had grown comfortable directing his cousins and his mother, and they had accepted him as their patriarch as long as Peter was unfit to govern them.

After he’d helped the other Hygraces settle into a summer house on the edge of the estate, Vail spent each remaining day by Victoria’s side, waiting for her to wake up. Diana and Jean-Claude had set her up in her own room, with her cold body lying on a bed as if she was merely asleep. The Hygrace heir had pulled a chair up to the edge of the furniture and alternated between sitting there next to her and climbing onto the mattress to lay by her side. He found it surreal to see her like this. The lively woman he’d fallen in love with was now nothing more than a lifeless husk. He knew it had taken a toll on Diana as well. Sometimes, he heard the widow weeping, but he had yet to shed a tear, himself. As difficult as it was to envision her limp corpse coming back to life, he held out hope that the turning ritual would be a success and that he would see her again.

So, on the last day of her dance with death, he had laid down beside her body yet again with one arm draped over her torso, slumbering lightly while sunlight filtered in through the window. Since the battle, he’d reverted to a nocturnal rhythm, but even in his sleep, he refused to part from her. He guarded her body like a dragon guarded its hoard of gold, waiting with endless patience for her to stir.

And then the time finally came.

His hazel eyes fluttered open as he felt the thump of a single heartbeat in her chest.

[Angel Vicky]

The Wait Is Over

The journey had been long and arduous for Diana during her grief. She had lost her daughter either completely or to immortality and she would no longer be human anymore. However, she had gained a son. James had great influence on his father Jean-Claude. His son may have been an experiment and used Diana to gain a human vampire half breed heir, but James was special, unique, a valuable asset to the Moncourier clan. So when James demanded that he helped his mother and half-sister, Jean-Claude had no choice or James would have gone on alone to fight the Wynters. He could not afford to lose his son, therefore he agreed to go to Diana’s aid. He had not expected to feel anything for the widow. But his heart went out to her seeing her break over Victoria’s demise. He could empathise. He had realised what he’d taken from her. Thus, he was kinder to the Lady Crest upon the reunion. James was happy to see his parents get along. Diana was too hurt and melancholy to be angry at Jean-Claude for making her fall for him, getting her pregnant and then leaving her with their child.

Victoria’s thoughts were lost deep in the recesses of her mind. Endlessly dreaming about a world of peace, a world of nightmares, a world she could not escape of her own subconscious. One moment she was flying, the next she was drowning. One minute she was laying under a tree on a sunny day, shaded from the sunlight, the next she was running in the rain. Her brain tried to hold onto so many memories as her body replicated the vampire blood in her veins and arteries. It was a slow and steady process, one that took time to perfect. If successful, the wait was always worth it…

7 days later…

*Thump thump*

*Thump thump*

Victoria’s heart started to beat slowly and pump the newly replicated vampire blood throughout her weak and pale body. Her chest began to rise and fall as her lungs started to bring in oxygen to her areolas to absorb into her deoxygenated blood. It then started to supply her organs and tissue with much-needed oxygen. The vampire DNA repairing any internal decay that had already began as a result of no oxygen while the blood cells replicated themselves. All eight pints of it. Her body was weak and numb. After an hour, her cheeks flushed with a little colour but she remained paler than usual like a porcelain doll. Her fingers twitched as they lay at her side. Her eyelids began fluttering as her eyes moved under them. With one big deep breath, she gasped and her eyes suddenly snapped opened. Her eyes were a deeper purple rather than the greenly blue they used to be. To her it was like waking from a year long dream. Yet she thought she was still dreaming as she looked around. And her body felt strange, her senses even stranger. She could hear better, see better, smell better. That’s when she could smell him. Her Vail. She could hear his heartbeat before she even saw him. She turned her head slowly to face his direction. The rest of her body felt a little numb as she regained feeling her nervous system.

She opened her mouth to speak but no voice would yet come. It was a mere croak of a whisper, an attempt at speaking. But not having spoken for seven days, her throat had dried and her vocal chords along with it. She just felt relief that she saw Vail once again since she last closed her eyes. Was this real? She hoped it were…for if she were dead, then this would be a very cruel trick to play on her soul.

[Rogue Sloth]

Vail was awash with relief as he felt Victoria’s formerly motionless heart begin beating inside her once lifeless chest. The turning ritual had worked. She had survived. He wasn’t going to lose her just yet. Not wanting to smother her, he removed himself from the bed and sat down in the chair he’d dragged over to the side of it. The effects of her blood on his system had faded for the most part, but his senses were still heightened just enough that he could smell the new blood running through her veins. It was different than before, no longer human nor even appetizing to him in any way, but he supposed that was a good thing. After all, it meant there was no more reason for the Wynters to pursue her. They could never turn her into their slave again.

It took a while before she woke up. In the hour since the first beat of her heart, he stayed by her side without moving. At one point, his mother stopped by to check on them, seeking an update on the Crest heiress’s condition, but he ushered her off. There would be plenty of time for Victoria to be greeted by her family and his later, but he didn’t want her to be overwhelmed with a room full of people when she first woke up. Katherine had always been a gossip, so he decided not to tell her that the new vampire fledgling was stirring until she’d had a chance to orient herself to her surroundings.

At last, she gasped her first breath as an immortal, and he felt his own breath catch in his throat. His gaze had landed on her eyes the instant they’d opened, and he couldn’t help but stare. No longer were they the light blue color he remembered them to be. Now, they were a deep purple, unlike the irises of any human beings. It was a hue he’d only seen in a few vampires as well. Most of his kind shared the same spectrum of eye colors as mortals did, but there were a few who bore shades of red and purple and other “unnaturally” bright colors. He’d always found the latter dazzling, although he’d never envied those who were born that way. They often had a harder time blending in among humans than the vampires who, like him, looked human as long as they smiled without showing their teeth.

Nevertheless, the purple shade was dazzling against her porcelain skin, and he was transfixed by it until he saw her mouth open and close, as if she was trying to speak. The slight motion was all it took for his composure to leave him, and he hurriedly wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace, practically pouncing on her in his delight that she had come back to him. Her body felt cooler to him than it had been when she was human, lacking the higher temperature that mortals ran, but it was something that was familiar to him, since it was like his own.

“It worked…” he murmured mostly to himself, closing his eyes as he buried his face against her neck. For the first time, the urge to sink his fangs into her throat was completely gone. There was no ulterior motive that went with the gesture; he just wanted to be close to her. However, he remembered abruptly that he hadn’t wanted to smother her when she woke, so he pressed a swift kiss to her cold skin and pulled back to meet her mesmerizing purple gaze, smiling at her fondly, “Welcome back to the land of the living, my love.”

[Angel Vicky]

Victoria noted the relief in Vail’s eyes as they gazed down at her. He seemed to be mesmerised by something about her, she wondered what it was? It didn’t take long for him to pounce on her, he must have been waiting a long time for her to wake, worried that she’d never wake at all. Even though he was tightly squeezing her, she didn’t feel it as much as she would as a human. She didn’t feel stronger, since she was weak without fresh human blood in her system to sustain her. Vail didn’t feel as cold as usual either. Perhaps her temperature was now closer to his.

She smiled and sighed in relief as he buried his face into her neck and mentioned that it worked. She tentatively moved her weak arms up to wrap around his back gently. She hadn’t used her limbs in a week, they were still trying to recover their muscle loss. He also had no desire to bite her neck now, had his lust for her blood subsided? It was good that the Wynters won’t be able to use her blood again but somewhat sad that Vail no longer lusted for her blood that made her feel special to him. Yet it was not her blood he wanted, he wanted her. She smiled back at him warmly as he released her and welcomed her back with that smile of his. She gently reached up to stroke his cheek softly. She had missed his face whilst she slept.

“It….worked.” She managed to whisper coherently. Her eyes welled up with water. She was so happy she didn’t die, that she was now immortal and able to live a long life with Vail. She was no longer a human. Maybe she now had a chance to be accepted by his family. She leaned in toward him to plant her lips onto his delicately. She was going to be weak for a few days until her full vampiric strength came into effect. She let her soft lips linger on his for a few moments, just savouring this moment of reunion. Now she was his eternally, he had claimed her by turning her. She felt a stronger bond and attachment to him because it was his blood that brought her back to life. The feeling was…unconditional love.

The Lady Crest, a vampire. Her father would not be unhappy with the situation, it meant she was no longer their prey and her blood would no longer be sought after. She knew he would still love her as a vampire. She wasn’t going to be a threat to the Saints. She wanted to be one, help them fight the likes of the Wynters, the bad vampires who caused more harm than stayed hidden from society and tried not to be a bother. When Victoria released Vail from her tender kiss, she smiled brightly and her eyes seemed to light up the room. They sparkled in the dim light of the room. They held a hope and a fragile innocence behind them. “I love you.” She breathed and held onto his hands.

[Rogue Sloth]

As Victoria smiled back at him, it struck Vail for the first time that there were no more barriers between them. Now that she wasn’t human anymore, his father couldn’t use their differing races as a reason to keep them apart. Not that Peter had the mental capacity to try to separate them anymore. Ever since he’d found his family—or what remained of them—in the barn, the clan leader had been a shell of his former self. It seemed like he had taken the blame for the fact that a Wynter had massacred the Hygraces for the second time. Technically it was his fault that they hadn’t been prepared to defend themselves, but now his father was causing them new issues by not stepping up in a time when they needed him the most. As a result, he’d been leading the clan in the patriarch’s stead.

When she leaned up to meet his lips, he pressed into her fervently, making up for the lack of strength on her end of the kiss. From what he recalled in the tome he’d read, it was going to take some time before she regained her energy after veritably dying for a week. He could see that her fangs hadn’t developed yet either. Human blood would be the fastest way to help her recover, but since she didn’t have the tools she needed to hunt—nor the experience or the strength necessary to be successful—regular food and water would have to serve as a placeholder until she was capable of drinking from someone’s neck at all.

Parting from the kiss, he met her gaze again, delighted as always to hear her express her affection for him. “I love you too,” he reciprocated, then smiled again as he was struck with a thought. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you’re already starting to show some changes.” He reached up to caress her cheek gently with his fingers. “Your eyes look like amethyst… They’re beautiful.” He was unsure if she would like the color her irises had taken on or not, but he genuinely found them stunning. Besides, it wasn’t like she would ever be able to see them for herself. Now that she was a vampire, she would no longer have a reflection in the mirror.

In another part of the house, he could hear Lady Diana Crest shuffling about, performing some task or another as she went about her day. He had enjoyed being the first face Victoria saw when she awoke, but now that she was coherent enough to speak, he supposed he shouldn’t keep her all to himself much longer. Pulling back from her just slightly, he turned his head toward the door and called out, “Diana, bring water.” He presumed the widow would understand the purpose behind his request, since he had never asked her for water before, so he didn’t elaborate. Instead, he turned back to his formerly human lover and pressed another kiss to her forehead while he waited for her mother to oblige.

[Angel Vicky]

Victoria was taken aback by how passionate Vail returned her delicate kiss. He must of really missed her and was scared he was going to lose her. She beamed back when he reminded her that he loved her back. It was good to know she wasn’t just a temporary infatuation. As he pointed out her changes, she looked herself up and down. Her body hadn’t changed much. As he caressed her cheek, she closed her eyes softly for a moment and nuzzled against his hand, which no longer felt colder than her.

He told her that her eyes were like amethysts and beautiful. She blushed slightly. He seemed more mesmerised by her now, which she found flattering. “I like amethyst.” She smiled. But she really wanted to see them for herself. Alas, she could not, for her reflection was all bust lost. She could only take other people’s word for it. Perhaps she could ask for a painting of herself. She could also hear Diana shuffle about. She looked up and around, adjusting to her heightened senses. She felt like she was going to enjoy immortality and her other new gifts.

She heard Diana move even quicker as Vail asked for water. She then turned back to him and threw both arms around him in a tight embrace. “I can’t believe it worked.” She gasped. “I’m like you now…” She slowly let go of her lover and gazed at him with her purple orbs. “Do you think we can be together now? Without hiding it?” She asked. Then thinking to his family’s disapproval in the past, she wondered what had happened whilst she was asleep. “H-how are your parents and family? Did they…make it out alright?” She wondered if Peter and Katherine would accept her into their clan as one of their own now that Vail had turned her.

Diana burst in with a jug of water and a cup. “My darling! You’re awake!” She sobbed with joy. She set the items down on the table and rushed over to embrace her daughter so tightly it almost crushed Victoria’s frail state. “Thank the Heavens….”

“Mother!” Victoria was so happy to see her unharmed.

As Diana let go, she noticed her beautiful gem like eyes. “Being a vampire…becomes you.” She admitted and brushed a couple of brunette strands behind her ears. Although her hair was longer, thicker, glossier and somehow more golden as if the sun itself had kissed it. “Beautiful as always.” She turned to Vail. “Thank you for bringing her back to me. And you both have my blessing should you wish to get married.” She suddenly suggested as Victoria raised her eyebrows.

“Thank you, mother.” Victoria replied as Diana poured her some water into the china cup and handed it to her. Victoria took a large gulp as if her throat was so dry. It quenched her thirst for now and she handed the cup back to Diana. “How about the Saints? Did they survive? Are they here? What about Ray and Gerald?” She worried.

[Rogue Sloth]

The blush that appeared on Victoria’s cheeks when he complimented her eyes was endearing to Vail. He was glad that she seemed pleased with the change he pointed out to her rather than startled by it. After everything she had just been through, he hadn’t been sure how she would react. Then again, she had probably been expecting quite a few changes to occur since she had just been turned from a human into a vampire. Even though this one hadn’t been on the list, it wasn’t much different than her senses that had undoubtedly gotten stronger now that she was no longer mortal or the strength that would fill her lithe body as she recovered.

When she threw her arms around him, he returned the embrace, simply happy that there was life inside of her again. Looking at her corpse for a week had been difficult for him when he hadn’t been certain she would ever come back. “You are,” he mused with a smile, equally enthused that she was ‘like him’ now. As she pulled back to meet his gaze, he considered her question. “I do think so,” he nodded after a moment. The only person he’d needed to hide their relationship from had been his father, but Peter wouldn’t be an issue anymore. He had other problems with the clan leader that he still needed to deal with, but fighting with him about who he could be with wasn’t one of them.

Her question about his family made him shift his weight. He wasn’t quite sure how to answer her, and he didn’t want to dampen her good mood by telling her that more than half of the Hygrace clan had been killed by Mikael Wynter. Fortunately though, he was rescued from responding by Diana, who had burst into the room to see her daughter. Giving them space, he rose from his seat by the bed and stepped back while the elder Lady Crest hugged Victoria. If it was possible, she looked even more elated to see that she had survived the transformation than he was.

When Diana turned to him, Vail nodded wordlessly in reply to her gratitude. He knew she wasn’t entirely thrilled that her only daughter was now a vampire fledgling, but her joy at being able to reunite with Victoria seemed to outweigh her sadness about losing the young woman’s humanity. He assumed it would take her some time to get used to, so when she said that she would give them her blessing if they wanted to get married, he stared at her, taken aback. The statement felt abrupt, so it took him a moment to regain his composure before he managed to echo Victoria’s response and thank her as well.

Caught up in the uncertainty of whether or not the Crest heiress would even survive being turned, he hadn’t thought about marrying her in quite a while. Now that the subject had been brought up again, however, he realized that was something else they could do now that the barriers between them had been removed. It was a peculiar thought. Just a few months ago, he had believed he wouldn’t marry anyone unless his parents arranged for it. He’d never had the desire to seek out a life-long partner on his own. But now, looking at the woman who’d captured his heart, he wanted to wed her more than anything else. He only wondered if his family would be willing to attend the ceremony.

Stepping back over to sit at the foot of the bed now that Diana and Victoria had a chance to catch up, he turned to the widow as well when her daughter asked about the Saints. Though he’d been hoping to delay telling her about the battle until she’d recovered a little more, it seemed like that was going to be unavoidable because of all the questions she had. At least her mother was here to relay some of the news, so he didn’t have to bear the burden of filling her in on everything by himself.

[Angel Vicky]

Diana looked at Varia sadly. “I’m afraid they…didn’t make it here.” She revealed. “We were ambushed as we tried to escape the manor to the carriage...Gerald and Ray stayed behind to cover our escape. I’m not sure what happened to them as we sped away…we haven’t heard from the Saints since we arrived. But your brother is here, safe. Along with Jean-Claude.” Diana sighed as she explained to a disheartened Victoria.

“Oh….I see…well maybe they…survived?” Victoria looked at Diana, trying to keep hope alive in her eyes.

Diana stroked her hair. “Maybe, maybe….” She smiled softly as she inspected her lighter brown strands of hair. Then she looked into her daughter’s amethyst eyes. “You look more stunning…as a vampire.” She had to admit that it was becoming of her. Victoria smiled brighter and her fangs were slightly elongated as the blood in her veins slowly transformed her bone structure to produce stronger teeth. It took Diana back by surprise, she glanced up at Vail. “Well…I’ll leave you to rest and….get used to your new…gifts.” She felt rather uncomfortable and intimidated around those sharper teeth of hers and she wasn’t sure how lustful for blood she would be. “Can I get you anything love?”

“Just some water please.” Victoria asked of her mother, Diana nodded lightly and poured her a glass of water and handed it to her, which she gulped down the whole glass in no time. Diana kissed her on the head and took her leave, leaving Vail and Victoria alone once again. She looked visibly worried about the welfare of her comrades. She looked over at Vail hesitantly. She dreaded what news he brought of his family. She thought she had heard Mikael taunt him about his family before she was hurt. “Vail? Did something bad happen?” She asked him with a concerned tone and her eyebrows furrowed worriedly. She reached out with her hand toward him to gesture to come sit and hold her hand.

[Rogue Sloth]

When Victoria suggested hopefully that the Saints in question may have survived the attack, Vail averted his gaze as if the bookcase in the room was suddenly interesting. He didn’t share in her optimism. When they’d fled from the Crest manor, the Wynters had been furious that their blood source had been taken away from them. He had no doubt that the vampire clan would take out their wrath on anyone who was misfortunate enough to have been left behind. If Gerald or Ray had survived, it would have been a miracle, but since no one had heard from them in a week, he suspected they hadn’t been so lucky.

So, as Diana changed the subject, he was grateful. He also agreed with her sentiment that Victoria looked stunning as a vampire. She had already been striking as a human, but now her beautiful features had been enhanced by the immortal blood that flowed through her veins. Her porcelain skin was flawless, her hair more thick and silky, and the amethyst color that had taken over her irises made her stand out in a room. Unlike her mother, he even liked the way her fledgling fangs looked against the curve of her ruby lips. With her newfound features, she was mesmerizing by both human and vampire standards alike.

Once Diana had left the room, Vail stepped back over to Victoria’s bedside and sat down in his chair, taking her outstretched hand in his. In response to her query, he sighed and gently stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. He had wanted to wait until she recovered a bit more before he told her about all the events she’d missed while she had been turning, but if she wanted to know now, there was no point in hiding it. She was bound to find out about the fate of his family anyway.

“Your family’s estate wasn’t the only one that was attacked last week,” he revealed, studying her bright eyes as a way to detach emotionally while he relayed the news. “While we were luring the Wynters to the Crest manor, one of them—the man with the long, white hair—separated from the pack and murdered more than half of my clan. The attack caught them by surprise, so they were unprepared to defend themselves and many were killed. According to my mother, my father eventually managed to run the Wynter off, and those who survived fled London together. By the time I found them the next day, they were taking refuge on a farm outside the city.”

Adjusting his weight on his seat, he leaned forward to rest his arms on the edge of the mattress without letting go of her hand. “I brought them here, and they’re currently residing in the summer house. Physically, most of them are faring alright. My father was the one who came off the worst. The Wynter severed his left leg, so he’s been permanently crippled, and he seems to have lost the will to fight back… or even take care of himself for that matter.” He frowned as he thought on it. Since they had arrived in Scotland, Peter had yet to hunt to replenish his strength. He was living off solid food and water along with rabbit blood that was brought to him by his nephews about every other day. Without any nourishment from human beings in over a week, he had become lethargic and spent most of his time sleeping. None of the servants that worked at the estate could go near the summer house either because the mere scent of them would send the starving vampire into a rabid frenzy. He was equally as dangerous as he was sickly.

“My mother and I are still sorting out what to do from here, since it isn’t safe for any of us to return to England,” he finished, absentmindedly brushing a stray lock of hair behind Victoria’s ear.

[Angel Vicky]

Victoria felt Vail’s eyes shift away from her when she hoped the Saints were okay. It seemed he was the pessimist right now and her the optimist. She knew by that shift in his actions that it was bad news and she felt her heart drop a little. What had everyone gone through while she was asleep? She felt guilty for not being there for anyone. But it could not be helped since she was dying and had to be turned.

As Vail came to join her on the seat she smiled weakly at him, he appeared weary in his mental state rather than physical. His eye no longer shined as brightly when she looked into them. His heart was heavy with burden, she could see that and she squeezed his hand softly in return when he stroked hers with his thumb. As soon as he mentioned that her estate wasn’t the only one attacked, she knew it meant his. She knew the Hygrace and the Wynters were enemies in the past.

He searched her eyes for a way to cope with telling her what happened. Reliving it in one’s mind was cruel enough without having to openly recite it. Speaking of atrocities somehow made it seem more real…it dragged up those raw emotions having to go through the pain all over again. Her bright eyes widened even more to seem even brighter but she was in shock. A small gasp escaped her lips as he revealed more than half his clan was murdered. She felt her hands squeezing his all the more, showing that she was there for him in this difficult time. It was still heart wrenching to hear of his family’s tragedy. “Oh no…I am so sorry. If they weren’t after me in the first place, they’d never have attacked your family.” She felt guilty like it was her fault to begin with.

Thank god some of them managed to escape Mikael. The fact Vail escaped unscathed going up against him was nothing short of a miracle. As he leaned forward, she leaned a little more toward him in return. “They’re here?” She wondered why they came with them here. She couldn’t imagine his father wanting them to go with the Crests and Moncouriers. She furrowed her eyebrows as he stated his father was now permanently crippled. Could vampires even be permanently crippled? As Vail frowned, Victoria cupped his cheek gently and caressed his perfect skin, she still couldn’t believe he didn’t feel as cold. His father did not sound himself at all. It was all left to him and his mother.“How is Katherine doing?”She asked as he brushed her lock of hair behind her ear and leaned in to put her forehead against him. She couldn’t imagine his mother was fairing that well with such a heavy burden on her now. “And more importantly..how are you feeling my love?” She asked and nuzzled her nose against his affectionately. “It cannot be easy seeing your father this way.”