Chapter 5: An executioner for detestable betrothed
By Nina
I'm back at the castle. Alone and trying not to think about what did as I climb the stairs quickly, avoiding the curious looks of the court and asking the gods that no one imagine didn't spend the night at the castle.
Once again my father's Council is meeting. The peace between us is so fragile after our hunters have discovered Espunsas beyond Vesna's limits. I know that times of war will inevitably come.
Hecate and her procession roam the land of humans and hunt us. Vesna is one of the last portals of the gods to protect Pandora's Box. Your army of shadow creatures must remain trapped as was decided at the beginning of time when the world was divided among the gods.
The last seal must not be broken. They are creatures that must not be released. Our world is a mix of vampires, wolves and sorcerers. The oldest prophecies among my people speak of the birth of a mestizo who will lead the spectres of the goddess of the ways for the natural order of the world to be remade.
And if the father of us all, my father by blood cared about his only heiress, he would know that his choices displease me. I tried in every way. I struggled to contain my rebellious nature and attend to his whims. I know that important alliances between the seven provinces are still made through blood ties.
That last day made me see how much I was wrong. Looking for an eternity alongside an Aswang who doesn't love me and making sure that his heirs rule their lands seems to me too heavy a burden.
-Nina! By Hécate, Nina. Where did you go? You can't imagine the mess he created in the castle after Demitri decided to find her.
Demitri?
Before or after taking the unfortunate servant to bed? I shake my head in amazement. I smiled with some bitterness. doubt that my father noticed me. He always wanted a fibre heir. A male vampire to take over the Dasklovy family.
-My life still does not belong to Demitri. - I guarantee with all conviction without wanting to think about Boris.
The great Vlad Daskolvy is someone too busy to know about his daughter. doing his will not guarantee any paternal affection from him. Never did in those centuries. My presence on these walls represents only the failure of your most daring dreams.
-Mercy, Nina. Not today. Not after the baitals are complaining about the ekuminis again. The situation is already too tense here.
I face my mistress by smothering her bad mood. It's always like that. And when they are not?
-And when, Mira? When will Vlad have time to listen to my complaints? I don't want this marriage contract with Demitri.
They are old discussions as always. I also know that blood represents life for us; the existence of aswangs and manananggals haunt me in dreams. The way they hunt and feed ...
There has to be something more to justify our existence among the shadows. Eternity is so scary at times. To know that there will never be an end ... I want more than these walls or have to subject myself to a vampire because of duties.
-For everything more profane, I beg you, child. Don't challenge Demitri.
Demitri? My father's trusted vampire? Curse! My suitor was clinging to some human, satisfying the appetites of the meat among the cattle that my father keeps here for our food.
Gipsies may be hateful, but humans are dangerous. If they knew, they would suspect what we are ...
-Enough, Mira. Demitri was very busy yesterday and ...
My words stop in the air when I hear the noise at the door. He arrives with the usual fake smile on his face. Did anyone believe that there could be something between us?
It is an outrage even for someone I trust to invade my quarters without my permission. My sharp hand stops Mira's hand which undoes the ribbons of my dress. suddenly I don't like the thought of him seeing me naked again. Not after that day.
- I don't remember seeing you during the meal. - his voice is falsely pleasant.
How dare he?
The room is mine and Mira is my chambermaid. With what rights does he judge himself to give orders to my mistress like that?
I won't pay attention to Mirla's pleading looks this time. The blood still runs hot in my veins. Some vampires say that this happens when you find your soul mate. Imagining Demitri's hands on my body gives me chills.
I saw Demitri in front of me with the most cynical smile possible and his hands finish pulling on my dress as I watch the reflection in the mirror. In Vesna, we have no problem with our reflection not being reflected in the mirror. These are lands that limit the underworld.
I take a deep breath of thanks that Demitri is not able to read my thoughts and take a deep breath. I know with a certain vindictive pleasure what he will see in my body. I close my eyes, fighting the sensation of lust as I remember the Boris fangs in my breast as drink my blood, weakly.
-What is it? - His voice is filled with insane hatred.
That? Didn't you believe that you would stay here crying your betrayals? I'm young. Beautiful. I have the right to love and not be obliged to fulfil the duties that my position requires.
Our union is doomed to fail. It always has been. I just deluded myself and let things go when I allowed Demitri to enjoy my body. Pleasure? His touch is the coldest of those snow-covered lands. I never imagined that there was even the pleasure that they try to speak.
Even among humans, women serve only as commodities for their husbands with a duty to ensure healthy and living heirs. This is not what I want for my life.
-What do you think? I ask with as much pride as possible, knowing that even in his coldness this vampire likes to appreciate my nakedness.
The mid-breast mark seems to set my sensitive skin on fire. Why did I run away before Boris woke up and went back to this hell?
-Did you dare to lie with someone like a whore, some slut? - Demitri throws the insults out loud. - Did you have the audacity to allow them to drink of your blood?
I can fight and argue. A discussion will ensure that my body is not just an object to satisfy their desires. It never bothered me before.
-Maybe my inheritance and the lands I own are not so interesting to appease your honour, my lord?
Never, never has anyone challenged Demitri like that. It is the heat that invades me, protesting with all my energies that I do not accept the fate imposed on me. political alliances can be made in another way. I am not a commodity to be traded or bargained for.
I look up at him with all the sarcastic boldness I get, noticing his hand extended in a wide arc to slap me.
-It is a big difference of marks that you want to leave on my skin, without a doubt, because you are incapable ...
My insults remain in the air when I am pushed hard against the wall and groan in pain. Damn unhappy. I'm not just any maid. I am the Dasklovy heiress.
-You will not go ...- the words come hissing from his mouth.
This brings me an appeal of sadness that I cannot bear. I know won't be seeing him again. A stranger to our lands will not stay long in these parts if he has not yet performed at the castle in front of my father. This now seems unbearable. The feeling of loss ... The emptiness ... An eternity beside Demitri ... I can't imagine worse punishment in someone's death ...
"Hecate, have mercy, great goddess ..."
My plea comes from the bowels when his hand lets me go without blinking. My only answer is a sigh of relief.
Different directions can be decided in this war for power. Hecate has always been an ally of the lord of the underworld, but I do not believe that he will allow Pandora's box to be opened again to bring about our destruction. Not even Hope must have survived the Espunsas.
That he has already satisfied his carnal needs and does not want to claim my body. My horror is absurd at the thought of having Demitri in my body again being satisfied with a damn animal.
- Do you think I would leave marks on my chosen one? - his contempt is total. - Like it or not, your father decided our union. As soon as the leaders of the species come together at the next Council meeting, you will share your blood with me in front of everyone. Like it or not.
This haunts me now more than nightmares. didn't let me rest after the day of torrid caresses that took me to a world of sensations and pleasure in Boris' arms.
Is that what made me run? If Demitri knows or decides who my companion was during the day ...
-I had problems coming home because of the wolves. - explains asking for a miracle that my lie is convincing.- Winter is approaching. these beasts are trying to conquer and expand hunting territory with the arrival of winter.
Let him believe. May Demitri have more business to do with our newcomers' cousins who keep him busy.
It must have been a moment of insanity when I allowed him to touch me for the first time. Relationships between couples, in general, have some freedom even before marriage even between humans.
How can I have made so many mistakes and accepted my father's will?
It will not make my father look at me or realize my existence. It has always been this way since my birth when my mother died in childbirth. Sometimes I look at her portraits wondering if Vlad before that was another ... I can see the similarity between us in the features and the colour of her eyes ... The same eyes ... I think that is what keeps Vlad from me. See the shadow of a dead love because of me ...Only my hair is not the lovely colour of the sun's rays.
I have obligations among my people. Vesna keeps the most profane secrets of humanity. Since its creation, the women of our family have taken care of Pandora's Box. Their disobedience brought a curse on an entire offspring when we were attacked by spam.
What would it be like to live as a human, knowing that one day death beckons the final rest? Would it be the call to live more intensely? The taste of eternity doesn't appeal to me. Not when I am the forgotten daughter of our leader and he found the perfect way to guarantee my departure.
The seven provinces have been spread across the world since the holy war between us divided and demarcated boundaries. I cannot imagine my existence far from the Balkans.
-Arrange up! - Demitri growls furiously. - We have dinner visits with relatives who have reached beyond the ocean.
That means they're bringing the leaders of the species together for something serious that won't just be my union with this vampire.
-As well?
- Around the world, there is a collective fever of fear among humans after some relatives of our family decided to play with food.
This can mean war. Hunters are the only threat that concerns us besides wolves.
- The decision to separate us into seven provinces should take care that this does not happen. - I reply coldly.
We never take more than what is rightfully ours. We are the system's natural predators. Agile, dangerous and feared predators among gipsies. And the prophecies that run between them about the birth of a warrior ...
-Did not seem to calm much if tombs are desecrated and corpses impaled with metal or wooden stakes. Even those who have no resources are appealing for wooden stakes to ensure that the undead does not rise from their graves. The God they believe in ... Paganism has its days numbered ... It is man's nature to seek faith in something they believe to be superior ...
-And how does it afflict us? I ask, astonished.
I was never very religious. Eternity does that to us. When there is time for all eternity we end up leaving it for later ...
-They can raise an army against us, girl. An army that can walk in the sunlight to attack us when we are vulnerable.
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