A long drawn out sigh came from the other side of the wall. "Answer the question, Red. Are you alright?"
"I'm plastered like a Farrah Fawcett poster to an adolescent teenage boy's wall, what do you think?" I snapped irritably.
"I take it that means you are also chained?"
"I can't pull the wool over your eyes, Fang," I drawled, rolling my eyes even though I knew he couldn't see me. "Did you have a nice nap Rip Van Winkle?" I didn't even bother to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. I knew I shouldn't blame him for this, but since it was his idea to come to the Colony in the first place...I totally was.
"Fucking Nicolai," he grumbled. I could hear some muffled rattling as he cussed and moved around.
"Are you chained to the wall too?"
"No. I'm strapped down on some kind of stone table."
"Oh sure," I grunted. "You get the upgraded room...figures."
He laughed drily. "I hardly classify it as an upgrade."
"Yeah...well at least you get to lay down. I'm stuck in a yoga pose from hell." Not that I had any idea what I was talking about. I've taken a total of one yoga class in my life and I spent the entire hour praying I wouldn't fart as the instructor tried to turn my body into a pretzel. Whoever said yoga gives you inner peace, never did a pose where you are staring at your inner thighs. A sight I am reluctant to ever see again.
"Trust me...it's not all that comfortable for me either," he muttered.
"Oh! You poor baby. I'll just pop down and give room service a call to come fluff up your pillow...oh, wait! That's right...I can't because I'm chained to a damn wall!" I wiggled around clanging my chains until my headache couldn't take not one more rattle. Exhausted from my effort, I flopped my head back, wincing in pain when it connected with the wall. Great...just flipping great.
"I know you're upset, Red, but try to stay calm." His annoyingly composed voice came oozing from the stone wall and I glared at it.
"Calm? You want me to stay calm when I'm in a torture chamber straight out of The Game of Thrones?" I snorted. "Hey, I have a better idea. How about you ghost your sweet ass over here and GET ME DOWN!"
"You think I have a sweet ass?"
"Focus, Fang. We're in the bowels of the castle here. Forget your ass for a minute and get your Casper on."
"As much as I would like ghost over there and get you down, I can't," he said.
"Why not?"
Another heavy sigh floated through the grimy stones. "Because the chains and walls are reinforced with lead."
"And you're afraid of a little lead poisoning?"
"No...lead keeps vampires from being able to dissipate."
My stomach plummeted down to my toes. "Oh."
"I'm sorry, Melanie." The resignation in his voice made the fear I had been holding at bay start climbing up my spine.
Silence filled the chamber and I swear...I could hear the screams of prisoners past. Swallowing the terror clawing at me, I flicked my eyes around the room, looking for something...anything that would get us out of this. Preferably alive. Where's MacGyver when you needed him?
"What was Nico-lame talking about when he said you refused the throne?" I asked the emptiness to get my mind off our shitty situation.
"Nico-lame?" Soft laughter drifted across my cell. "Tell me you didn't call him that?"
I laughed nervously. "Of course not. What kind of idiot do you think I am?"
"You did...didn't you?"
"Maybe once or twice," I admitted, trying to shrug my shoulder.
"That explains our lovely accommodations," he said wryly.
"Might I remind you...you are laying down...I'm splayed out like a Mayan sacrifice," I growled. "Tell me why you refused that lovely effigy to very B-rated horror movie...throne. Are you the King of the vampires?"
"It's a long story, Red."
"I don't have anywhere to go at the moment, do you?" I jangled the chains attached to my wrist to emphasize exactly how much we weren't going anywhere unless he knew how to pull a Houdini.
"I don't even know where to begin," he sighed and by the sound of it, I imagined he turned his head away from my wall.
"The beginning always seems to work the best," I said encouragingly. See? I can be sweet and supportive even if I am strung up like a fish. "Don't you want to be King?"
"My father was King. I am not."
"Well...I don't know how things work in the vampire kingdom, but in the human world, that would make you a Prince and the next in line to wear the crown. What? Is it ugly or something?"
"Is what ugly?"
"The crown. Is it the Miss Universe type...a little too girly for your taste?"
He chuckled. "There's no crown, Red. It's a ring and I refuse to wear it."
"Why?"
"Why do you want to know?" I could sense his scowl.
"Give me a break here, Fang," I snapped. "My arms are getting longer by the second and pretty soon I'll be able to walk and drag my knuckles across the ground at the same time. Not a talent I ever wished to possess, by the way. I have a crystal clear view of the tools of torture Druilla is probably warming up to use as we speak. So...how about you cut me a little slack and tell me why the hell you don't proclaim to be King and save my pasty ass."
A long silence filled the void and for a moment, I thought he was going to ignore me.
"I'm not worthy." The voice was little more than a whisper and I had to strain to hear it.
"That's stupid," I argued.
Okay...so it wasn't much of an argument, but seriously? How can he think he wasn't worthy? I mean, I didn't know much about him, but from what I have observed, he was a pretty upstanding guy. Unless he picked his nose or kicked puppies when nobody was looking, I didn't see any reason why he couldn't be King. And really...does he own a mirror? He'd put Prince William to shame.
"Thank you for your vote of confidence, but it's true," he said bitterly. "I was betrothed to be mated. A young female from a Colony in England." His voice took a faraway tone and I realized, Fang was no longer with me, but back in time with her.
Yeah...I was jealous...so sue me. I'm strung up like piñata...I'm allowed.
"How long where you...um...mated?" I asked, trying to keep my voice light, though I was grinding my teeth at the thought of my Fang belonging to someone else.
"We never bonded. She was taken before the ceremony could take place." I heard a faint rustle of chain. "Aurora was the vampire Stoker kidnapped and tortured for information."
"The Dracula book guy?"
"Yes...but back then...it was more than just a tale to frighten children. It was a scientific manuscript outlining and describing vampires. How we lived, where we lived...it detailed every nuance of our species and what we are. Eventually, cumulating in a biological rendering of how our bodies differ from humans."
There was a long pause and for once, I didn't know what to say. There was only one way Stoker could have gotten that last bit of information for his book. He had dissected poor Aurora.
"If I couldn't protect her...how could I possibly be responsible for thousands when I couldn't save one life?" The distressed sound of his voice broke my heart.
"It wasn't your fault, Fang. Stoker is a humongous, gargantuan, monolithic asshole." Cold stole through my body as my eyes landed on the tool shed of agony in front of me. I had an inkling I was about to find out how Aurora felt if we didn't figure out how to get out of here and right now, my only plan was to get Drake to claim the throne. Which, judging by what he was telling me, wasn't turning out to be much of a plan.
"She was in my charge and I failed her."
"Unless you handed her over to Stoker, I highly doubt it." A little niggle of doubt trolled its way into my head. He was pretty Jonny on the spot to turn me into the Colony and now look at us. But, I brushed the thought away. Instead, I chose to believe he would have never brought me here if he had known what would happen. Though...I did tell him so...just saying.
"I might as well had," he grumbled. "My father had recently died in a skirmish between two warring Colonies. My mother, worried for the throne, decided it was time for me to take a Queen and reestablish authority and pushed to rush the bond of our betrothal." He sighed and must have moved because I could hear the rattle of chains. "She met a man on a train to London. An actor with a London theatre group," he spat the words.
"Stoker?"
"Yes." There was a long pause before he continued. "The best we can deduce is she fell for his charms and agreed to run away with him."
"You know...I'm no Sally Jesse Raphael, but it sounds like to me she's the one that bailed on you." What a slut! Of course, I didn't say that out loud, but inside...I was shouting it at the top of my lungs. "I don't see how you can blame yourself for your girlfriend running off with another man."
"I was supposed to have accompanied her on the trip."
Oh. Well...huh. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. "Why didn't you?"
"Because I..."
"Because he was with me," Druilla's voice echoed through the chamber breaking up our little impromptu therapy session.
She strolled into my line of vision looking like the White Witch from Narnia in her full length white fur coat, leather pants and bustier that she must have needed a shoehorn to get into judging by how squished her breasts were. Seriously...it was if someone plopped an ass on her chest. How she breathed in that getup, I couldn't even fathom a guess. I got short winded just looking at her.
"Didn't anyone tell you it's bad taste to wear white after Labor Day?" Quickly, I did a calculation in my head to make sure it was indeed after Labor Day. Ah-ha! It was...my snarkiness wins the point.
"But I'm not wearing all white," she purred. In a flourish that would have made Angelina Jolie proud, she whipped her coat aside and struck a pose with her leg.
A howling growl of pure rage burst out of my mouth. "You stole my shoes! You bitch!" I threw myself forward wanting to claw her eyes out, but the chains only slammed me back against the wall.
She laughed. "You have no need for them," she gave me a devilish smirk, "since you will soon be dead."
"Druilla! Leave her be," Fang warned from the other side of the wall.
"Of course, darling. I have no intention of hurting your little...friend."
She sized me up, her dark eyes roaming over me in that way women do. You know what I mean. It's a different look than what a man does. They check out your hair, your clothes, your make-up and if you happen to be wearing them at the time...your shoes. A man is pretty much more straightforward and a lot less technical with their perusals. They only check out your tits and then if they make it past your chest...maybe your face.
"What are you doing here?" Fang snarled.
"I've come to see you." She turned away from me and headed out of my sight, but not before she picked up a flogger with razor edges and stroked it like she was petting a cat. Her eyes firmly set on me the whole time.
My stomach hurled itself up my throat in revulsion. Both at the flogger and the sound of my heels clicking off on her hammer toed feet. I was going to need a whole lot of Lysol when I got them back. And trust me, I would get them back. Even if I had to haunt her from my grave.
"You've seen me, now leave," Fang's words where icy enough to cause frostbite.
"Oh darling, I can't leave you here. Please...please...apologize to Nicolai and put all this silliness to rest," she begged in that sickening voice of hers.
If I had wanted to claw her eyes out over the thievery of my shoes, I wanted to do ten times worse now. Even the thought of Fang being with her, made my skin crawl. I mean...I know he's a guy and most men are lead around by their "little brains" and all, but...ewwwwww.
"Unless you plan on growing a conscience, you can go back to being Nicolai's pet."
Ooooo...score one for Fang.
"Now, Drake. You know he means nothing to me," she cooed. "I have only ever loved you."
I made loud gagging sounds in my cell.
"Shut up you little witch!" she hissed.
"Sorry, I was choking on bullshit," I replied, keeping my tone light.
"She's right Druilla, you've never loved anything but power, so you might as well go curl up next to Nicolai. I am not King and even if I were...I would never make you my Queen." Fang's tone was flat and final.
"Poor, poor Drake. Still mourning the little strumpet who abandoned him at the altar." Druilla clucked her tongue. "Aurora deserved to die. She not only betrayed you, but all of us as well. Maybe if she had kept her legs closed long enough, she could have found the time to learn how to be a proper Queen to you, but alas, she didn't and now she's dead."
"You have no right to speak of her!" Fang roared.
"Why not? Because you keep her on a pedestal she does not deserve to be on?" Druilla laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls. "Come now...it's been how many years? Is it not time to get over it? Everyone but you knew what kind of female she was."
"At least she had a chance to be Queen," he jeered. "You never will."
Oh-snap! I would have done the Home Alone face if my arms weren't stretched permanently above my head.
"And what...you think that abomination over there can be Queen?" she shrieked.
"I never said that."
"You didn't have to. I can smell your desire for the redheaded witch," she said with disgust dripping off her tongue.
I sniffed the air, but all I got was a whiff of something disturbingly close to rotten eggs and I immediately regretted my decision.
"Leave her alone," he growled, thrashing his chains.
"No, darling," she sighed dramatically. "I disagree with Nicolai, she will not keep you in line. And I am no longer satisfied with being an Elder. I think it's time you stopped making bad choices. I've been waiting for you to rise up and become the King you were born to be, but I can see that's not going to happen unless I get rid of the garbage holding you back."
"Lay one finger on her and I will kill you Druilla," Fang threatened, his voice sounding stone-cold and soulless like the predator he was.
"No, you won't, darling. We have too much history and one day...you will thank me for this."
I could hear him rearing up and then falling back while he struggled against his bonds as the sound of my heels walked towards me.
Stalking over to my cell, she gave me a chilling smile. "I think me and your friend need to take a little stroll in the sunshine," she said softly, pulling a set of keys from her mink coat.
Will Mel ever get her shoes back?
Stay tuned for the next installment of FANGED to find out. Don't forget to come join the fun on my Facebook page K. M. Halandras for sneak peeks!
Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I have enjoyed writing it. If you liked it please give it a vote and comments are always appreciated. If you don't see any updates here...check out my other two stories Bending Steele or When Roses Collide.