Characters:

Ailill (I): mage prince; Zedanei's son, Aidan's boyfriend/fiancee

Aidan: vampire prince

Densunus: Aidan's older brother, crown prince

Zedanei: mage king, Ailill's father

Aric and Sabia: the vampire king and queen, AKA Aidan and Densunus' parents

Blackout

It was going to be wonderful. Aidan had classes and I had some “princely duties” to take care of, but we’d have the rest of the day to ourselves. And then… and then…

I blew a sigh out through my teeth, fighting the urge to jump for joy, give an elated whoop, skip down the halls, or give any other blatant sign of ecstasy. There was a nervous, happy bubbling in my stomach.

I couldn’t wait.

Finally arriving at my father’s throne room, I opened the door and peered inside. “Father?” I called, quickly suppressing the squeaky sound of cheer in my voice.

King Zedanei glanced over at me; the markings on his face were grass-green today, with lots of thick, curly lines. “Come in,” he said, and I obeyed, opening the door and stepping forward.

“I’m supposed to help with negotiations today, aren’t I?” I asked, staring down at my feet. I didn’t know what I was expecting; today was just another day to him, after all.

“Happy birthday,” he said with a gentle smile as he turned toward me, his dark golden eyes shining.

I was shocked, staring dumbly back at him as he advanced. It wasn’t long before I felt strong, warm arms encircle me. The gasp that met my ears was my own, a sharp, surprised intake of breath. “Father?” I asked, my voice shaking dangerously.

“Heh heh,” he laughed, releasing me. There was an odd burning in the pit of my stomach and a buzzing in my brain. I stumbled backward, eyes wide. What felt like a cold, taloned hand was squeezing viciously at my heart, making my breaths come short and my heartbeats thump loudly in my ears. The uneven sounds seemed to almost be saying something, something that I had no desire to hear.

There was a mantra thrumming through my body, a desperate pumping in my blood: “Kill… destroy… kill them…”

“What’s going on?!” I screeched.

Father only laughed; the last thing I saw before I blacked out was the man’s vicious smirk and his shining molten-gold eyes.

(l)(o)(v)(e)

When I came to, my body was wet, my hands sticky and red. My head pounded as I slowly sat up, glancing around. I brought my hands up to my mouth, fighting the urge to retch.

There was blood everywhere—painting the walls, carpeting the floor; dripping slowly down fingers and running over gently sloping skin. It was them. Aidan’s parents, the vampire king and queen. And I… had I?

Father! Father made me do it. Why? Why would he make me do that?! How could this happen? What did I do…?

I heard a gasp, and immediately spun around. A tall boy with a blond ponytail stood in the doorway, his jaw slack and his eyes bulging in horror.

“You!” he cried, pointing wildly at me, the pitch of his voice spiking dangerously high. “How could you?! Was it all a ruse? Your love for Aidan—it was just a ploy to get close to us, so that you could kill them!” he accused.

In half a breath he had me on the ground, pinning me by my neck and squeezing so hard that I felt tears coming to my eyes. I gagged, trying to fight him off, but he was sitting on me and he weighed too much, especially when I became weak with lack of air.

“DENSUNUS!” came the screech from behind us. Densunus turned around to look at the boy standing behind him.

I was quickly released and I took in a gasping breath, staring at the boy who had just entered the room. Aidan. “Wh-what are you doing here?” I asked in surprise, my voice cracking unpleasantly.

Aidan’s blue-violet eyes were downcast. “Ailill… were you the one who did this—who killed them?”

“I… oh God, oh God, I think it might have been me… I did it, didn’t I? How could I do that? It’s their blood on my hands… Look at their blood on my hands!” I lurched forward, lifting my hands up to Aidan’s face so that he could peer at the dark red fluid on them. “Oh God, their blood is all over me!” I screamed, my vocal cords straining against the pitch of my voice.

“I don’t believe it,” Aidan said, his voice going cold with shock. “You couldn’t have done it, Ailill.”

“Father did something— he did something to me! I don’t know what it was but he did something and I just woke up a few minutes ago and there was blood on my hands oh my God there’s blood all over my hands…” I rambled, breathless.

Aidan stared sadly at me, dropping to the floor beside me and wrapping his arms around my shoulders. “It can’t have been you, Ailill. Zedanei—maybe he was controlling you. After all, he’s your sire…”

“How can you be so calm, Aidan? I just killed your parents— how could I have killed them? Am I just a bastard? How could I kill them they were like family to me how could I have done it?”

There were tears shining in his eyes. “Don’t worry about it,” he said softly, his hands clutching my arm. “It’s fine, Ailill.”

How could he be so strong? I’d just murdered his parents, and he wasn’t nearly as upset as I was! I did it how could I why would he why would he how could I have done it?

“It’s not your fault, love. It’s not your fault,” Aidan whispered. Gently he enfolded me in a soothing embrace, and I wanted nothing more than to stay in his arms for the rest of eternity. But I couldn’t. Things couldn’t remain the way they were, not after what I’d done…

Oh God how could I have I should burn in hell I will anyway for loving Aidan I’m damned I’m a murderer I’m beyond redemption oh God how could I have killed them?

Gritting my teeth, I pushed Aidan away. He stared at me, tears rolling down his cheeks and pain in his eyes. He seemed to sense the conclusion I’d reached, and lunged forward, grabbing me hard. His fingernails bit into my arm through my sleeve as he cried, begging me not to go.

“No, Ailill! Don’t go, dammit! Don’t leave me!” the blonde yelled, latching on to me and refusing to let go. He buried his face against my chest, sobbing as his harsh breaths whistled through his teeth.

“Please, Aidan… if I stay, I might be forced to hurt you.” I tried to reason with him, but I knew he wouldn’t hear anything I had to say on the matter.

“I don’t care! Dying by your hands is much preferable to living an empty life without you!” he cried forcefully, tightening his hold on me.

I gasped. “Aidan… it frightens me when you say things like that…” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his forehead and disentangling myself from him.

Aidan struggled to his feet. “Ailill… if you leave, this will all end!” he called, his voice a hoarse rasp.

The pain bit at my heart, but I couldn’t afford to stay. “I’m sorry,” I whispered brokenly, staring at my feet.

Aidan’s brows were furrowed, thin lines forming on his forehead. “Honestly, Ailill! How the hell do you think I got here? Your damn father brought me here, and he told me—he told me that if you went back home, he’d make you his slave! His fucking slave!”

I looked away sadly. “I already am. The corpses of your parents are proof enough for that.”

“Permanently!” Aidan screeched. “And then it wouldn’t fucking matter how hard you fought against him… at least here you have enough distance to fight off his influence! If he’s right there with you, you won’t stand a chance in hell!”

“You needn’t worry, Aidan. Before the day is through, the mages will have a new king… and when King Ailill reigns supreme, I will come back here… and then we can be together…” I said softly, willing myself to believe it as much as I was trying to make Aidan believe it.

“You’ve fucking lost it, haven’t you? You just won’t see sense, Ailill! Just stay, dammit— you don’t need to avenge my parents! Just stay here and we can forget about what Zedanei did! We can be happy, Ailill! We can still be happy together! It doesn’t matter what your father made you do!”

I reached down, putting a hand on his back and pulling him close. “Don’t worry, love. I’ll be back soon.” I traced the curves of his cheeks with a finger, doing my best to memorize them, to implant them in my eternal memory. I believed my words as little as Aidan did. I knew it was over, I knew I was being stupid, but oh God he made me kill them he might make me do it again he might make me hurt Aidan oh God I’d never forgive myself if I hurt him—

“No, you won’t,” Aidan murmured sadly—it took me a moment to figure out what he’d been replying to, I was so caught up in my thoughts. He put his arms around my waist, holding me as closely as he could.

We kissed then—the last kiss for what seemed like forever—and it was all desperate, wet mouths and colliding tongues and tears rolling down our cheeks. We both knew it was the last kiss, and in it was all our sorrows and upsets and pains, melded together in the searing meeting of our lips.

“Goodbye, love,” I whispered hotly into his ear. “I’ll be back soon, so put all those silly fears to rest.” I touched his face, gently wiping the tears from his eyes.

“You’re crying, too,” he remarked. “You know how this will end, Ailill. Please—I’m begging you—don’t go.” It was his last attempt to sway me, but he knew it would be unsuccessful, just as all the others had been.

There was nothing left to say. If I stayed any longer, I knew Aidan would convince me not to go. That couldn’t happen, the boiling of my blood told me. Zedanei couldn’t be allowed to do anything else—he had hurt enough people.

I had to remove him from power—I had to ignore my own bleeding heart and the tears that longed—no, yearned—to caress my cheeks.

“I’ll be back,” I told Densunus, leaving his brother to stand and finally crumple to the floor where I had left him, sobbing brokenly.

Densunus shook his head.

I took a ragged, sob-laden breath before disappearing in a heavy, black wave of smoke.

“This is the end, isn’t it?” Aidan asked quietly.

Densunus moved to comfort his sobbing brother, dropping to his knees beside him. “The end of the good things, yes—but we are far from the end.”

Aidan lurched forward, grasping tightly at his brother’s shirt as he wept.

“I am not yet ready to be King…” Densunus mumbled softly.

(l)(o)(v)(e)

“How could you, Father? HOW COULD YOU?!” I screeched, tackling my father to the ground.

He merely laughed, hateful mirth shining in his golden eyes.

Later I would be disturbed by how easily my fingers found his throat. “WHY, Father? Why would you make me do that?” The tears poured from my eyes, dripping down my face and landing on my father’s cheeks.

“A relationship with a vampire prince is dangerous, son… it could not be allowed to continue.”

“THAT’S it? You made me murder the vampire king and queen because you didn’t like the fact that Aidan and I are in love?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I just needed to sate my bloodlust.” He laughed again, and the sound made my ears burn and my head pound.

“Then why use me?! I promised Aidan I’d never hurt him—but look at me! The blood on my hands is his parents’! He was wailing when I left!”

“Oh, well. I guess you shouldn’t have done it, then,” he said, his voice taking on a lazy lilt.

“How could I have kept from—” I stared, but stopped with a gasp when Zedanei’s hand reached up to gently touch my face.

“Tears… don’t cry, son. Tears are not a thing to be wasted on spilled blood,” he said quietly, soothingly. I stared at him, at a loss for words as I felt the hot liquid building in the back of my throat and tears rolling down my cheeks. My chin trembled as he pushed me away, standing up and brushing the dust off his robes.

With an inhuman yell, I lunged forward, magic crackling at my fingertips. I grabbed him by the neck, not even sure of what I was doing. Everything past that was largely a blur.

When he hit the floor, there was blood dripping down his cheeks and over his throat. I knew that I had to make a choice. My whole body shook uncontrollably as I considered it—could I? There was no doubt in my mind that I should, but… I stared down at my hands, already soaked by my previous victims’ mingling blood…

I couldn’t do it; I thought of a million different ways I could kill Zedanei, but every one made my heart clench and my skin crawl. I clenched my fists; even after everything he’d done, I couldn’t kill him.

It didn’t make sense that I couldn’t—

He made me kill them he ruined everything it’s his fault life is Hell on Earth everything is ruined he broke the world I let him I did it I couldn’t stop him why couldn’t I stop him why couldn’t I stop myself?

—but if I couldn’t, at least I could stop him from doing it again.

The ancient sealing runes spilled dangerously slowly from my lips as I drew the symbols above the door. He would not be able to escape this sealed room, to be sure.

I dumped his body there, in the place that had once been the dungeon. In times long past it had been a torture chamber—but now, remodeled, it would serve as King Zedanei’s prison, a prison to hold him forever…

(l)(o)(v)(e)

“King Zedanei is gone… and while it pains my heart deeply, we must all carry on. As king, I, Ailill Cicero, will—” I broke off, feeling a horrible, shooting pain in my head.

“I will… dammit!” I cried, massaging my temple with my fingers and finding no relief.

I’m not as gone as you think, little one…

There were loud noises all around—probably the assembly, wondering what was going on. I gasped as I was finally pushed to the side, and a voice that was not my own spoke.

“I apologize; I’m still rather distraught over my father’s death… but time heals all wounds, yes? As king, I will be sure to carry on my father’s legacy. No longer will we, as superior beings, tolerate the attempts of other species to unseat us as the highest.”

Applause.

The voice that was not mine cleared its throat. “I wasn’t done yet, peons!” All noise ceased, and I felt the muscles of my face twist into a smirk. “Ahem. As you have recently observed, I have already begun to put my plans into motion—beginning, of course, with the deaths of King Aric and his wife.”

“Very soon we will all see the return of the mages to power, and all other species—the vampires, the werewolves, the demons, the elves—will fall at our feet.”

There seemed to be an underlying thought in my—no, our—mind. Prince Aidan will fall at our feet. And it will be your fault. When he submits to death…begs for death… it will be your fault.

Why? Why would you do that?

Because you’re too weak.

…Just because I’m weak?

Be my little marionette, Ailill… be my beloved little marionette.

“…Yes, sir.”