Nathaniel of Amberblood

I drifted through unconsciousness and into memories of my life before Silvertooth and Blackmoon.

A vague smiling face.

A soft voice telling me a secret that I couldn’t remember

Living with my old Nanny.

Baking cookies silently, sunlight streaming through the windows.

Losing my way coming back from the bakers.

Nanny finding me and scolding me.

Children asking me to play with them.

Nanny saying I must not.

Nanny coughing and sick.

I’m trying to care for her.

Nanny dying in her sleep.

Out on the street, hungry and cold.

Being taught the survival by a boy.

The boy’s black eyes, topaz hair, golden skin.

A creature of completely light.

Out alone one night and a rabid dog attacks.

The boy is there suddenly and kills the dog.

I’m crying in his arms.

He holds me for the rest of the night.

He stays for a year and a month.

He tells me he must leave me and go somewhere.

Suddenly he’s gone and I can’t find him.

I search for days and find nothing.

Some older boys mock my search.

Sudden roaring in my head and rage fills me.

Beating them with my bare hands until their black and blue.

I live, stealing to survive.

I’m alone for a long time.

Loneliness haunts my footsteps.

I visit my bridge.

I meet a very important man.

KNOCK! KNOCK

My mind jumps into consciousness in an instant. I’m out of the unfamiliar bed, standing in a foreign room. I stared at the door as it slowly opens and a figure came in.

A tall older man, blue eyes, silver hair and moustache. He looked straight at me when he came in. Wariness creeps through my bloodstream as I realize he hadn’t looked at the bed once, but knew where I was, immediately.

“Good, you’re awake. His Highness was a bit worried about when you’d come around.” He had a deep warm voice. It had a calming effect, but I shook it off.

“Where am I? Who are you and who is His Highness?” I demanded my hands clenched into fists, claws digging into my palms.

The man looked me over with mild surprise, “You have a very good recovery system. Other than one of my kind, I haven’t seen someone as quick to recover from such injuries. Your lucky nothing was broken.” The man placed a tray I hadn’t noticed down on the table.

“Where am I?” I asked again, my voice hard and my gaze locked on the stranger.

The man snorted as if I was being absurd, “You are in Amberblood, the capital of our species. You are effectively, my dear, in a vampire castle.” He let out a deeply disturbing chuckle.

I stared at the man, mind reeling.

“Are there really…vampires?” I whispered. The man stared at me like I was positively addled.

“Yes, along with witches, ghosts and werewolves. There might be others we haven’t found, of course.” He spoke matter-of-factly, but I swayed. My body was feeling strangely heavy and my mind suddenly sluggish.

“Of course.” The floor rushed up to meet me.

Something familiar recalled me to consciousness slowly. My mind was telling me that something was wrong, that there was something I needed to do or see. I climbed from the depths of sleep listlessly.

“…bring her here, Your Highness? She’s nothing but a common girl who probably slept with the wrong man and ended up beaten by his jealous wife! I strongly disapprove of this, Highness.” This was a new voice. Very nasally and whiney, I could imagine the man who had that voice easily.

“Yes, yes, Lord Beorn, I understand your objections. If she is but a simple peasant woman then wouldn’t that be all the better? I wish for her to stay and so she shall.” This voice was extremely familiar. Something called to me from the back of my memories, from days filled with pain, misery and hunger. It was a name.

“Nathaniel.” I was so surprised I said it out loud and opened my eyes.

I felt a slight breeze then a voice said in my ear, “Yes, monkey?”

I started and turned to stare that the black-eyed, golden-skinned boy who had taken me under his wing so many years before. Tears pricked my eyes and I threw my arms around his neck without thought. He would protect me like he had before! I felt him stiffen instantly and a gasp sound from somewhere across the room, then I was suddenly in the air.

I slammed into the wall and cracked my head against the wall with a white-hot burst of pain. The breath whooshed from my mouth and I gasped as my lungs found no air. A sudden hand closed over my throat and I frantically clawed at it, desperate for air. I had a strange sense of déjà vu.

“Do not lay your filthy peasant hand on the Prince!” Nasal-voice thundered in my ear. His voice didn’t sound nasally anymore. He also didn’t fit my mental description of him. He was tall and willowy, a hawk nose and cold impassive blue eyes. As my vision started going black, I wondered vaguely how he had enough strength to lift me.

The hand was wrenched away from my throat as suddenly as it appeared on it. I sucked in air frantically, doubled over against the wall, coughing.

“Do not ever touch her again, Beorn or I will have you whipped.” Nathaniel hissed in his face.

I was surprised to note, despite my coughing and sputtering, that Nathaniel was as tall as this man. I hadn’t remembered him being this tall. Maybe it was me who had grown, though.

“B-but, sir! She touched you! She threw her arms about you like a common street whore!”

Whore. I had been called that more than enough. Simmering rage burst to the surface and I punched the pleading man in the face. My blow gave a satisfying crunch and Beorn fell backwards, me on his chest.

My claws dug into the side of his neck and I snarled, bearing fangs, “I am not a whore! Call me that again and you’ll have more to fear than just puncture wounds.” I stared down into the no longer impassive eyes. I saw a quick flash of fear then hatred rose to take its place. I found I didn’t care.

Calmly, I disentangled my fingers from his neck and stood back as his eyes almost bugged out of their sockets.

“A-a werewolf! Highness, quickly, kill it before it goes on a rampage!” I turned to face Nathaniel, wary.

“Monkey,” he said sternly, in exactly the same voice as when he would reprimand me for not being quick enough to snatch a purse, “why are you attacking my vassal? You still haven’t learned how to control your temper. I thought I had taught you better.”

“But Nathaniel,” I whined then stopped thunderstruck. How had I suddenly shifted back into an eight year old when he used that tone? I shook my head, dazed, then turned back to him.

“Nathaniel, are you a vampire?” I didn’t look at him, confused and wary of another new situation I had suddenly been thrust into. This happened far too often.

He nodded and spoke, “I am the Vampire Prince, Nathaniel Amberblood of the Highblood Clan. There are more titles but they go on forever.”

“Were you a vampire when I was eight?” His face twitched slightly, although it had remained impassive since the beginning. Beorn looked between us sharply, wondering if we had some connection.

“Yes, I was born a vampire and shall remain one.’ He sighed and rubbed his eyes. The movement was an unexpectedly quick flash.

“Beorn, leave the room.” Beorn had since gotten up and stood slightly behind Nathaniel.

“But sir,” he said aghast, “what if she tries to attack you? If you were h-”

“Beorn, leave the room.”

The man grumbled but left the room, shutting the door rather loudly.

“When can I leave here?” I crossed my arms, feeling strangely vulnerable under the stare of someone I had always considered my hero. We were alone.

“You can’t,” My eyes jerked up to meet his incredulously, “you have to stay here for a year. That’s our custom. If you remain entertaining for an entire year you are let free, but…if your prove to be boring, you will be killed…” He didn’t look at me as he spoke.

“But, that’s barbaric! How can I possibly stay here for a year?! I have to get back to Bl-” I stopped abruptly. I couldn’t go back there. They didn’t want me anymore. They had beaten me!

The resolve that had kept me going for the last year suddenly drained from my body. It seemed I always lost what was most precious to me. First it was Mother and Nanny, then Nathaniel had left me.

That taught me not to care about other things and I didn’t for a long time. But then I found Silvertooth and Alexander. They were lost to me, too.

Now it was Blackmoon, John, Henry, Ferris, Edward, Matthew, Daneral, Fraysher and Brodie. I was also in jeopardy of losing my life for the hundredth time.

I was only fifteen. How much more loss and pain could I take?

Tears flowed silently down my face as I stared at Nathaniel. Sorrow filled my throat and choked me. I laid my fingers over the scar on my wrist and sobbed. I had lost everyone and now like a beacon stood another male figure who was a hero to me.

I had lost so much and I didn’t trust this person who would hurt me just like all the others. Better to just get myself killed now.

I threw myself at Nathaniel in a blink. He had been completely unsuspecting and my claws slashed a great gash across his cheek. My head darted forward to snap for his throat but his arm was in the way. My other hand came forward in a lightening slash that would have killed him, had it connected.

Out of the blue I was suddenly, suspended in the air. A huge man was holding me by the arms. His face was a mask of carnal rage. He hissed at me, huge fangs extending like a snakes. I struggled, terrified, but the man bit my hand and I felt a sudden fire going down into my veins. A bead of blood dripped down my wrist then my body healed the small puncture wounds.

Poison traveled up my arm and with it pain. I was dropped suddenly and curled into a ball. Oh, it hurt! It hurt so much. Why wouldn’t it stop hurting?

It built and built in my throat, while I gasped at the inferno moving into my shoulder and finally I screamed.

My pain exploded in a wave across the land. It reverberated over mountains and through the alien minds of every creature here. In one horrifying howl, my mental screams rose to a crescendo and crashed through thousands of minds, from the tiniest ant to the strange creatures moving about in the castle.

All around me the torment swirled in a cyclone. My hidden sorrow, the loss and now this new physical pain blanketed me at it’s center.

It continued to build until every grief and every hurt I had ever had mentally, physically, emotionally streamed forth in a collective wave that rose high then crashed through each animal like bone-crushing blow. The less strong screamed and fell, unconscious.

I dropped into the darkness around me thankfully.

Nathaniel staggered upright, tawny skin an unpleasant ashen colour and dark circles under his eyes. Giovanni picked himself up off the floor and stared at the girl. He turned to Nathaniel, pleading in his eyes, “Master, may I not kill it now? It is defenseless for the moment.”

Nathaniel pinched the bridge of his nose and glanced at the girl, curled tightly into a ball. She had grown so much but she was still the same little girl he had found seven years ago, curled up in the corner of an alleyway. She had been radiating waves of staggering pain that had everyone within a kilometer dizzy and depressed. Her power had grown to an incredible height despite the detriment of being a werewolf as well. And her eyes had been amazing. It had been a difficult task to hide them from Giovanni.

When he had found her, beaten and bloody he had acted without thought. He had thought he was taking in a simple cute cub when really it was a dangerous powerful wolf. One who had unbelievable potential power.

Still, she had shown just how deeply hurt she was, even if few could recognize her sudden display of mental power as a cry of anguish.

“No,” he answered quietly, “She cannot die. Even your poison will not kill her. Mayhap even I could not kill her.” Giovanni looked at him sharply but said nothing. Nathaniel walked over to the girl, Giovanni following in case she suddenly attacked. The Vampire Prince picked up the werewolf easily and laid her on the bed. She let out a low moan and flung her arm around his neck, still unconscious.

A sudden smell pierced his nose and he turned involuntary and licked off the droplet of blood on her wrist. He jerked back, surprised by his own action. “Hmmm….Giovanni?”

“Yes, Master?” The larger man watched his overlord carefully.

“I want her as one of my servants.” Giovanni looked stunned, but simply murmured his agreement.

Nathaniel stared at her for a moment longer before laying one finger on her forehead and closing his eyes, concentrating. A foreign scent wafted through the room and the Prince’s man was staggered.

Only the Prince’s bodyguards and younger sister wore the blood scent. It was effectively as strong as an oath of marriage. It meant unending trust and love.

And he had just given it to the werewolf who had tried to kill him.