The King's Queen |2|

|8.|

Chapter Eight▪︎ The King's Queen |2|

Dedicated to Temi_dire ♡ Thanks for voting!

Days passed and another moon was close. Those affected by it, such as werewolves, appreciated the power it gave them and expressed their gratitude through some sort of ritual. Dahlia on the other hand, was more scared of it than ever. After what happened at Creatura de Çita, she was afraid that her unique and specific bloodlust would affect her so much that she would kill more creatures than on the night of the full moon.

She tried to occupy her time by reading books about magic, but even that proved to be a bad decision when she found out how unnatural her magic was, if she could even call it that.

Every magic comes from something- there are creatures who have learned to channel power from Earth's core and atmosphere, and others who use magic derived from sacrifices.

Sacrifices must come from a matter which posseses magic.

A sacrifice is a ritual that transfers magic from one matter to another; most often doing damage to the giver and giving power to the recipient.

Dahlia didn't derive power from anything; she alredy ahad the power in her. She knew that the magic she uses is her own and that the magic Alexander gave her (through the ritual which she learned was a sacrifice) has disappeared along with the power of the bond they shared.

She had a theory that the magic they shared was mutual and that both of them could use it. She thought that maybe she could learn to somehow gain his physical strength, but that idea was tossed out of the window when she learned that vampires are what they are due to physical mutations and not the use of magic.

Flipping the page, she saw something interesting. It was lore about the goddess's servants, people like herself. People (or rather creatures) who the goddess saved from death and indebted to herself. The lore described them as lifeless creatures with no senses- creatures that blindly followed the goddess's will unknowingly.

But the goddess didn't do it without their agreement; the further she read, the more worried she got. The people were questioned if they would do it, and once the task was done, they were let go. All of them were permanently marked with a sigil and none of them were immortal (at least the book didn't mention any particular case).

Dahlia wasn't doing this for the goddess, someone else was using her newlyfound power as a means to kill people. She had no idea how someone could possess so much power and knowledge to be able to infiltrate her thoughts and know exactly what was going to be the next stage of her transformation.

It had to be a deity of some sorts. No other creature would be able to cover her skull with sigils so powerful and still enter her thought whenever it wanted.

The news she learned were both bad and good. She could finally go to her mate without having to kill anyone first, but she was certain that whatever was trying to control her wouldn't let go so easily.

She knew what she had to do.

***

Sneaking in wasn't necessary this time. She entered the castle without a cover. In less than a second, guards flanked her sides and lead her to the eleavator, without a word spoken between them. The vampires lurking in the lobby hadn't noticed her enter until the abrupt movement of the guards caught their eye. Dahlia was slightly alarmed by them as well and in turn accidentally released some of her uncontrolled power as a warning.

The moon was close to rising and she wasn't fully in control which lead her to multiple outbursts on her travels to the castle. She tried to use public transport, but it proved to be far too dangerous for the other passengers when she glared at a human baby who kept wailing and it fell unconscious, it's head slumping forward in an unnatural move. If her senses weren't heightened by the moon and she couldn't hear it's heartbeat, she would have mistaken it for dead.

The only other way she knew of was teleportation, but she was worried that she wouldn't arrive in her wanted destination but in a far away land like she had when escaping the castle last time, but it was her last choice. She created the portal with more than enough energy but still ended up in the lake next door. It was probably the most tortorous and memorable part of the castle which she couldn't get out of her head to this day.

She swam out and, as mentioned, entered the castle.

The dings and pings of the eleavator were familiarly stressful. A guard was with her and the scent of his blood and the loud heartbeat in such a small room drove her crazy, but she pushed through it.

The doors opened. In front of her was an empty hallway and a dusty unused office. She walked out of it only to witness a horrifying sight of spewed bodyparts and a hanged corpse in her former bedroom.

"What the hell happened here?" She asked the guards.

"I slipped by his guard, all thanks to you." Her mate smiled at her from the once hidden doorframe.

Rubies instead of his eyes alerted her of who she was really talking to.

"Of course it was you."

"Why do you look angry to see me? Aren't you supposed to be overwhelmed with happiness from seeing your mate?" He teased.

"You need to let him out, Thanatos." She warned as she signalled the guards to leave.

"Why would I? He keeps me away so I have to get out using force. I'm not wasting this, it's one of the few rare chances I have to see your beautiful face. Also, love the new glasses." He smiled at her as he approached slowly, picking up a glass of thickened blood.

"Drink up, Dahlia." He handed it to her. She knew that it was human blood so it didn't interest her, but the wrist holding the glass did.

"Stop. Leave, now. I need to speak to Alexander." She turned her head.

"What about?"

"Nothing for you to know."

"If it has anything to do with that 'goddess' you think is controlling you, trust me, I can be helpful."

"How did you know?" She took off her large sunglasses shielding innocent victims from her poisonous gaze.

"What is going on with your eyes?" He grasped her head and inspected  them closer. Her pupils seemed to completely dilate, already taking up her iris.

"I'm not sure, they've been like this since yesterday. It's a full moon, I'm guessing it has something to do with that."

"You're losing it aren't you?"

" I don't think so- at least not on normal days. But it has been weird lately. I was at a small town after I last visited, and I overheard some woman talking bad about me. It was like I snapped. I couldn't control myself, but then again I didn't really want to either. I was in sync with my body and my mind and I killed that woman. I tortured her and turned her to ash. After that I had to flee so I teleported away."

"Have you ever heard of the saying Don't disrespect the Queen ?"

"Of course."

"I think you have some sort of a complex developing in your mind as you develop into a crature more and more. It usually happens to alphas and betas in werewolf and other animal-shifter packs, but you are a new species. Perhaps you have that sort of a ranking status." He gulped down the blood.

"So I'm alpha."

"That exactly."