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Ca.s.sandra Pov
Drowning in a sea of men would be the only way to describe Ca.s.sandra"s current state. She lay perfectly still as one of her men brushed her long red locks, another painted her toes and another her fingernails. It didn"t stop there; two more ma.s.saged various parts of her nude body. Good thing she recently purchased a ma.s.sive bed to fit her many servants.
The bedroom door opened and one of her ebony complexion men came in carrying a card or something. He was dressed the same way she required all her male only servants to dress. Black briefs and white bow tie only. Ca.s.sandra loved to look at their rock hard bodies. It was one of her three requirements to be in her employ. 1.) Always follow her orders. 2.) Have an amazing body and face. 3.) When in doubt refer to rule number one. If the human she chose did as she said and more then she rewarded them with immortality.
"A letter came for you mistress" the ebony man said. His name was Kellan. The only reason she even knew his name was because he"d been with her for almost two hundred years now. Much longer than any of her other servers. Ca.s.sandra never forced the men to stay but should they want to leave all they had to do was find a replacement of equal or greater value. This ensured she always had plenty of men around for her many needs.
"Out" she demanded. The servers attending to her immediately scurried from the plush bronze poster bed. Kellan shut the door behind them before having a seat next to his mistress as they call her. Ca.s.sandra stared Kellan with his bald head and bulging muscles, desire shooting to her core.
"This is for you mistress" Kellan voice was deep and husky no doubtingly feeling the same desire she was.
The best part of being in hype was only being able to feel the basics. Blood l.u.s.t, s.e.xual desires and sometimes anger. If you"re not experiencing one of the three, than you are just simple content. No happiness, no sadness, no guilt or longing. Hype was barely anything; a vampire stop b.u.t.ton, keeping out all the things that lead to pain. Which is why for the last three hundred years Ca.s.sandra chose to live her existence this way. To stop all the emotions.
Ca.s.sandra smoothly took the black envelope from him and flipped it over. The gold embroidered lettering had her fangs rip out of her mouth. It was simple words that spelled out her full name; Ca.s.sandra Le"Vinalli . There wasn"t a return address but it wasn"t necessary. She knew exactly where this came from; the king…
Not wasting a moment, she ripped into and scanned the inner contents. It was one card with the same gold fancy lettering and the king"s crown stamped on top in blood of course. The further she read on the angrier she became. By the end she ripped the card apart in hundreds of little pieces in a rage filled fit.
"What"s the matter? What"d it say?" Kellan asked concern etching his handsome face. Ca.s.sandra shot up from the bed and began pacing the soft white carpet.
"They"re executing him!" She shouted. Long red hair cascaded down her back. The locks moved in sync with her quick steps, swaying angrily.
"Who"s being executed mistress? And by whom?" Kellan asked confused. A mangled growl erupted from Ca.s.sandra as the anger took over.
"Marcos! The king is killing Marcos!" Ca.s.sandra screamed through her fangs. This didn"t make sense to her. Marcos wouldn"t have gone back to the blood castle only to get captured. He surely learned from his mistakes three hundred years ago. They all did; Marcos, Acacia and Ca.s.sandra were all severely punished by the king for their attempt to flee. It was half the reason Ca.s.sandra could only live in hype. The other have stemming from the betrayal of her mate; Maximus.
She quickly shook off any thoughts that would lead to her mate. Those thoughts lead to emotions and pain; a place she refused to visit. Instead she wondered how the king captured Marcos. And on what grounds did he have for execution?
Kellan standing in front of her cut off her movements and thoughts.
"What can I do to make you better Ca.s.sandra?" Kellan gently took her hand in his, eyes shining with an emotion she recognized but could not feel. Kellan was in love with her even though he knew it was a waste of time. Ca.s.sandra would no sooner burn alive than feel love again. The only man she loved destroyed her.
That"s when a new thought occurred to her.
There was only one person that could have aided in the capture of Marcos. And thinking back to her last conversation with Marcos she sent him right to the traitor; Maximus, her mate.
"Gather the men. Vampires only" she ordered Kellan removing her hand from his. Disappointment flared in his depths but he only nodded. "Tonight we"ll be making a little trip to the blood castle"
"Aren"t you banned from the kingdom?" Kellan asked curiously.
"Yes, but this execution I was specifically invited to and I know by who" Ca.s.sandra said walking towards her ma.s.sive closet.
Only one vampire basked in the misery of others and that was the spoiled rotten princess. Catalina also played a huge role in Ca.s.sandra"s downfall. And tonight she would give the princess exactly what she deserved. A slow painful death…
The execution was scheduled for midnight California time. That didn"t give her much time to fly from Paris and come up with a plan but Ca.s.sandra wasn"t worried about that now. Marcos was the last ally she really had from her time in the kingdom. If he were going to die, Ca.s.sandra was going to take someone down with him. Even if it turned out to be herself or her mate…
~~~~~
Ana Pov
I felt like I was burning alive...
The king had just shot a red blast of light into me. The force of it alone sent me spiraling across the room where my body forcibly crashed into the hard door. I lay on the ground gritting my teeth against the fiery pain. Ferox was a lot more powerful than I gave him credit for. I tried to reach for my own power but along with the heat, my body felt like it was being stabbed by thousands of pinp.r.i.c.ks. Similar to the feeling when your leg falls asleep times ten. Footsteps approached me as I withered on the ground in pain.
"Impressive. I figured you would be screaming in pain" Ferox taunted. I wanted to give him the finger, if only I could feel my hand. The only pain I actually felt this bad was when I died and turned.
"She"s strong, this one" a feminine voice said stepping next to the king. It was the woman in the black veil. So my guess was right and it is a woman but that still didn"t answer my question about its purpose. And why does she hide her face? Ferox noticed my eyes on her.
"Where are my manners? This lovely lady is Raven. The most powerful dark witch to ever exist I would say" Ferox stated c.o.c.kily. He was boasting now probably because he"d so easily taken me down. d.a.m.n! I"ll never make the mistake of not being prepared for him again. But then it occurred to me he had just given me some very useful information. The black veil woman was named Raven. She must be the dark witch casting the cloaking spell around the castle. If I manage to get out of here alive I"m sure her name will mean more to Jace than it does to me. My body continued to shake on the floor. With all my might I couldn"t stop it.
"Hmm I take it you haven"t heard of her. Oh well. After this you"ll never forget her" Ferox promised. I didn"t have to wonder long what he meant because Raven dropped to her knees next to me.
I tried to scoot away but my efforts were useless. Instead I focused on my kinetic powers. Trying hard to gather as much as I could. If she was going to kill I would at least get a blast in.
"Don"t worry dear, I only want to access some memories you don"t know you have. It should only hurt a bit at first" Raven may have spoken softy but her voice did little to ease my tension.
What I didn"t understand was what she meant by memories I had but didn"t know. She didn"t give me the chance to ask. Raven knelt behind me and clasped both her pale hands on the side of my head. The coldness countered the previous heat inside me but that wasn"t the worst part.
I could feel her…in my mind...
It felt invasive and unwelcomed. She was flipping through my memories like channels. Accept not in any sort of order. One glimpse was of me and Kim playing at the park as kids. The next was Simon and I as teenagers having a Star Wars movie night at his house. I remember that day; we play fought with brooms and broke his mother"s vase. She was p.i.s.sed and punished us both by making us clean the attic.
Suddenly I realized that Raven was seeing all this and I wanted to stop her. She was trying to move on to another memory; one of Jace. It was the first day of freshman year and he looked so handsome in his sky blue polo shirt...
I had to shut her out. The only thing I could think to do was build a door so to speak in front of the memory and slam it shut! It was hard but I was finally able to. Raven moved on to another but I shut her out again with more ease this time.
"Clever girl. But the memory I want is far deeper than you can block me from" Raven remarked pressing her hands harder.
The coldness was even colder now. I released a breath that came out in a white cloud. Raven was scanning through my memories so fast I could barely see which ones they were. If I couldn"t tell what I was seeing I was certain she couldn"t. Then she began to slow down, only the images she was viewing were of things I"d never seen before.
"A woman of power like your mother could do many things. For one she could allow her unborn child see though her eyes. You have many memories from your gestation that you don"t even realize." Raven explained pausing on one particular memory. I didn"t know what it was but I tried to block it. Whatever it may be I didn"t want her to see. But for some reason I couldn"t build the door. It kept slipping from my grasp the way water does through your fingertips.
"It"s useless you can"t block a memory you"re not consciously aware of" Raven replied to my failed attempts.
The image sharpen and cleared until a crystal clear view of Celeste was all I could see…
She looked just as beautiful and ethereal as she did the last time I saw her in the vortex. Celeste was standing in front of a mirror dressed in a long delicate lilac colored gown. The dress flowed lightly and gracefully around her, it looked too big but very elegant. Half of her long hair was pinned back and the remaining draped down her back in long thick waves.
Celeste had the type of beauty every one dreamed of. However I looked at her closely and I could see the deep sadness in her eyes. It was enough to make anyone"s heart clench. It hurt me just to see the pain there. Celeste slowly glided her hand down her stomach and stopped. That"s when I noticed the small b.u.mp there. She was pregnant…
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#Next chapter drops in few seconds