Loving Madness

45. Traitors

Hell's Bells- AC/DC

Christian's lips form a hard line and I continue to search his mind. There is no ill will towards me directly, but he holds a deep resentment of Vampire, having seen many duels end with victories over Witches. There was really no other reason behind his hatred of Vampires, his mind was unoriginal and all he was used for was gathering information. He was a follower and chose to believe things without finding out if they were actually true or not. I relay everything to the others and authorize them to begin searching the others in the room.

There are sounds of protest, which even in the innocent, was expected. It was never comfortable to have your mind invaded against your will. Keeping Christian in his bonds, I drag him over to the table where Xavier lay sleeping peacefully. I freeze him in place and walk to the weapons room that is catty-corner to the throne. I find a knife, about six inches long, that is deadly sharp. I sheath it on my hip and shield the others from my thoughts, letting them concentrate. I begin to build all of my power to start an emergency broadcast into the minds of every supernatural being on the planet. Mason and Kurt look my way in confusion, sensing my power build up and I shake my head. Sebastian looks grim as if he already knows my intentions, even with the mind link cut off. His beautiful lips are scowling but he gives me a single nod.

Finally, all of the people in the room have been checked and Thomas, the pretty boy was restrained in the middle of the room. Siobhan explains to me that he knew about Christian's treachery and chose not to say anything. I immediately begin the broadcast and the blast of power almost knocks everyone off of their feet.

"Attention, my loyal subjects, and even my not-so-loyal subjects. I have found two traitors within my personal Guard. I am broadcasting to everyone to show the consequences of your actions. I also want to show you my mercy. The only other thing I want to say is to think about the information you are being fed, fact check it. If Christian here had done that, he wouldn't be losing his head today. He has put a curse on a fellow Guard that can only be broken with his blood. He was feeding information to other traitors." I step up behind him and force him to his knees. His shoulders were level with the table, making his neck perfectly in position.

I grab him by his hair and yank his head back. The knife in my pocket makes a distinct sound being pulled from its sheath. Christian begins to sob and tries to apologize, but the decision has been made. I run the blade quickly along his neck and blood covers Xavier's sleeping body. Slowly, his form begins to move and his eyes flutter open.

"Welcome back, Sir Xavier, thank you for your loyalty." I place a kiss on both of his cheeks and turn to deal with Thomas. I can see through Mason's eyes I am covered in blood. I find a slight guilt there and realize he is turned on. Sebastian is in awe and a little scared. Kurt, as usual, is adoring and sending me calming thoughts. I see an almost minute shrug of Mason's shoulders and continue to ignore him. "Thomas, you knew that Christian was a traitor?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." He bows his head in shame. I can see his mind is wracked with guilt. He genuinely didn't know why he hadn't told. He didn't think the situation was this serious. He had no malicious intent behind it, just simply hadn't thought about it. "I should have told you immediately when I suspected, I just wasn't aware how serious it was. Please have mercy."

"Get off your knees, Thomas." He stands slowly and looks at me tentatively. "There is no death penalty for being stupid. However, you will go through Guard training again and then you will be on probation for as long as Siobhan sees fit. Do you accept?" He nods quickly and I feel Mason's outrage. I turn around and address the broadcast one last time. "Anyone in any sort of traitorous situation has exactly one week from right now to come forward. In this time, no person who comes forward shall receive the death penalty." With that, I close off the broadcast.

Siobhan begins shouting orders and has Thomas moved to the holding cells until we can watch him closer. Everyone looks to me for confirmation.

"Lock it down! Siobhan is free to give everyone here orders. She knows my plan and will carry it out. Anyone not following orders will find themselves in a holding cell while everything is sorted. I want at least two people at every entrance, exit, or way out. Everyone on duty should stop by myself, Siobhan, Sebastian, or Mason and create a mind link. I want direct information." Shouts of confirmation echo throughout the room and everything begins to move like a well-oiled machine. "Siobhan, Mason, Sebastian, and Kurt, you are all coming with me. After all on duty and Grand Council members are linked, we are heading underground."

They look at me and nod, trusting my instincts. Something about the cavern Serena was in bugged me. I don't know why, but I just had a feeling. I trusted these feelings and knew we would find something there. I see how tense Kurt is and feel bad. He shouldn't be in the middle of all this, he isn't a warrior. I reach my hand up and rub calming circles in between his shoulder blades. My touch calms him, but he is still anxious. Mason is still raging off to my left, pissed at my decision to let Thomas live. I get where he is coming from, and I might live to regret that decision, but he didn't hurt anyone. I hear Xavier speak up behind me.

"Your Majesty," He sounds a little weak, but I know he is strong. "I would like to join your group. You saved my life and it would be my honor to give mine for you." I nod to him and offer him a warning.

"I know you want to prove yourself, you have already done that. If you would like to come, I cannot stop you, however, I cannot guarantee your safety." He bows his head to me and opens his mind to me, effectively linking us together. Soon, every soldier has been linked to one of us. It's an overwhelming feeling to have hundreds of people directly linked to your mind.

Mason is the most uncomfortable of all of us, but he knows it is necessary. He's avoiding me right now and ignoring my inquiries. Oh well, I don't have time for his moodiness. I will check in again later. Sebastian is feeding off of his anger and getting pissed off that he isn't respecting my decisions. I send them both a warning and both heads lower in guilt.

We begin making our way through the castle and the lower we go, the worse my feeling gets. Everyone around me continues to look at each other and I know they feel it too. There is something horrible down here and it seems to get colder as we continue to walk.

"Your Majesty, I don't think we need to go down there. We don't know what it is and we could always have an Other with the spirit walking gift check first. I have a horrible feeling." We stop and look at Xavier and there are nods all around.

"Great idea! Siobhan, actually, Xavier would you like to find someone willing to help?" I ask him, giving him an opportunity to step up. He is eager and one hundred percent loyal and I think about seeing if Siobhan would like a second in command. She seems a bit relieved that I didn't ask her to do it and I think she does need a second in command. She has way too many responsibilities and has no clue how to delegate. I would speak to her about it soon.

"Absolutely!" With that, all of us make a beeline away from the evil that awaited us. It felt like death. If it had Mason leaving without any prompting, we should all be very, very concerned.