Queen of Darkness Queen of Darkness Hear her cry See her weep Watch her die Queen with an immortal soul Beware her anger Fear her foe Hear her heart beat Now hear it stop Hear her breathe in And never breathe out Queen of Darkness Child of fright Run and play and Rule the night CHRISTINE BENHAM Queen of Darkness Prologue �April!� the little girl�s voice rang through the air shattering the silence of the night. April rolled over in bed and glanced at her alarm clock. It was 3:00 in the morning, only twenty minutes of sleep. She rolled back over and closed her eyes expecting to hear her sister call again. April didn�t hear anything; no crying and no pitter-patter of feet in the hall and all the doors remained silent and closed. She pulled her covers off and got out of bed, her heart starting to race. �She�s fine� she repeated to herself silently as she tiptoed to her sister�s room. April turned the corner and saw her sister�s door was slightly opened, her heart skipped a beat and her breathing became ragged. She slowly approached the door; �Emily� she called softly. There was a sudden thud from inside the room, Daniel entered the doorway and screamed. There was a young man about 21 standing over her sister�s pasty white, unmoving body. Blood coated the man�s mouth and his black hair covered his eyes and contrasted with his pale skin. April stood there screaming when she was some how slammed into the wall; the last thing she saw before she passed out was those death black eyes staring viscously into hers. Chapter 1 April sat with Adrien in the dark garden, gazing at the stars, while silent tears cascaded down her cheeks. It had been exactly a year since Emily�s murder. It had been a very hard year and she could have never made it without Adrien, who had been her friend, supporter and boyfriend for the past 11 months. For some reason her sister�s murder was more present in her mind tonight then ever before, she hadn�t been able to remember too much after the two-day concussion she had when she was slammed against the wall at the scene of her sister�s murder. But tonight was different, for some reason these viscous, cold, black eyes kept lurking in her mind. April trembled involuntarily and Adrien pulled her closer to him. April rested her head on his shoulder while Adrien wiped the tears from her face. He held her there for a while letting her cry while rocking her gently. Adrien did not know why but when he was with April all of his sharp edges and hard mind melted away, why if Faunae ever saw him like this, if she knew his one weakness, both April and himself would be in grave danger. But what if he changed her, she could be strong and they could be together forever. She might not agree at first, but if they are changed unwillingly they are strong, and she already had a certain unusual strength in her aura even after the loss of her sister, Adrien shuddered at this last thought. I�ll tell her tonight, I�ll tell her what I am and I�ll change her. He stroked her hair and let her lay against him for a moment longer before placing his hands on April�s shoulders and effortlessly turning her to face him. �April, do you love me?� Adrien questioned �Adrien, of course I love you.� April replied, then, because of the serious look on his face she added �why?� � I love you April, and I need to know that you love and trust me.� �I do trust you, and I do love you.� April stated sincerely �I must tell you something and you must believe me and listen before you react, promise.� �I can�t if I don�t know what it is.� April stated bluntly �You said you trusted me,� Adrien reminded her. �Fine, I promise I will try not to react.� April agreed �I am not who or... what you think I am.� He paused �April, I am a vampire.� She opened her mouth to respond but Adrien continued �I am a shape shifting, mind powers, immortal, fanged, mind reading... blood feeding vampire.� �And you sleep in a coffin, the sun burns your skin, silver is poison to you, witch killer, werewolf friend, vampire.� April added sharing what she thought was a joke. �I�m not joking April.� Adrien insisted. � And by the way we are not friends with werewolves, we do not sleep in coffins, the sun dose not burn us and silver doesn�t harm us.� Oh my god I dating a psychopath, April thought. �No, not a psychopath, a vampire.� Adrien said calmly �Oh my god! How did you... you couldn�t have known I was thinking that.� �As I told you before, I can read your mind.� �If you claim you are a vampire, prove it.� April said a hint of skepticism in her voice. Within half a second he had her helpless in his arms which supported her back and exposed her neck. He lowered his head and slowly brushed his lips against her neck. �What are you going to do... bite me.� She mocked still thinking this was all a joke. �Tempting offer.� He whispered smiling, revealing the longest, sharpest teeth April had ever seen. He bent down and his fangs pierced her neck he licked the blood away and then pulled back quickly, his self-control breaking. April stood there shocked and then her hand rose to the cut on her neck as she heard the police man�s report on her sisters death in her mind �she died of blood loss and there was two strange bite marks on her neck.� She looked at Adrien who had let her go and was studying her closely. April looked up at him, as if for the first time, his skin was unusually fair, almost pale, his hair blacker than the night sky. Then her gaze drifted to his eyes, his death black eyes, the same eyes that had been lurking in a corner of her mind all night. Her mind flashed back to the image of the man that was standing over her sister�s dead body, and those cold, cruel, black eyes. Adrien watched as he saw recognition and anger slowly spread across her face and drenched her aura. �You killed her.� April whispered, drilling each word into the silent night air, her body shaking with anger. �April� Adrien said cautiously �You killed Emily!� April said loudly her anger growing steadily. �April, please� Adrien pleaded �You killed my sister!� April screamed Chapter 2 � April...� Adrien started to say before she launched herself at him. �I will kill you for what you have done to her...� April tried to throw punches at his face while Adrien effortlessly restrained her. �April...� Adrien repeated loosening his grip. �To me, to my family.� April took the moment to punch him in the face; both of them were shocked when his lip started to bleed. Only April was stunned when before her eyes his wound healed instantly. The tears came again as she lunged at Adrien one more time. �April stop now!� he roared catching her and gripping her arms tightly. �Listen. Stop! We both now I could kill you right now if I wanted to� Adrien reasoned. April fell limp knowing he was right and that she would have to hear him out. Seeing her calm down Adrien continued. �I love you April.� He paused �And I know you still love me. You can�t deny it.� April opened her mouth to protest but Adrien quickly silenced her. �I know that at this moment you want to me dead, but in time you will get over that. And don�t worry you will have lots of time... an eternity in fact.� �Explain yourself, monster.� April demanded �You are... or should I say, will be one of us.� Adrien answered slyly. �I don�t want to be one of you horrible creatures!� April screamed. �I really don�t care.� �I will never be one of you!� �The choice is not yours to make� Once again April heaved herself at him, but this time Adrien was ready. He grabbed her arm and twisted it around her back, making her unable to move. Adrien didn�t want to use his full vampire powers, incase he seriously hurt her. �It would never occur to you to be afraid, would it?� Adrien snarled. In response April spit at his feet. �Tisc, tisc no respect for your betters.� He mocked �You will never be better than me.� April hissed �Oh, but I am, and soon you will be better than all these helpless humans. You will be the hunter and not the pray. You will be powerful.� and with that Adrien pulled a knife from his belt and slid the blade across the base of his throat and pulled the struggling April towards him to drink. Adrien put the full force of his mind on hers and forced she drank. April tried to struggle but found all she could do was drink. The blood felt like fire being forced through her veins, her breathing became hard and ragged, her heart started to slow. Finally, April heard her heart stop as she took her last painful, ragged breath, as darkness claimed her vision and mind. Then she felt her blood stop flowing, her body screaming and aching. She clutched on to her last moment of life. Then April died. Adrien picked her up and held her in his arms, marveling at her beauty and strength. Knowing they could not stay here, using his mind, he brought them both to his house in the small city of Heathen. Heathen was a city only known to vampires, and their bloodmates: humans that our bounded by blood to a vampire and will not age as long as their vampire lives. The only other creatures that know about this town are the witches, more commonly known as vampire hunters. The most widely known and hunted was the Matua line, with Vivian Matua, her son Calico and her daughter Ceres. Their family had killed more vampires than any other entire witch line, and became even more relentless ever since the vampire Sacer killed one of them, in revenge for their murder of his beloved Allah. They never showed any emotion and never hesitated to kill, each witch in the Matua line was trained to see only, good and evil, black and white, even in a world with so many shades of gray. Adrien layed her down in a bed and pulled the covers up around her and went to sit in the corner of the room where he pulled the blackout curtains closed so she could sleep through the day undisturbed. Adrien watched her sleep for a few hours, until he could not protest to the burning bloodlust. He left to feed leaving April absolutely alone and utterly unprotected. Vampires, especially strong vamipres, have ways of knowing what is going on. Especially if they crave their opponent�s weakness, or a strong desire to kill whatever, or whoever, is getting in their way. Faunae and Fata were two such vampires. Sisters when they were mortals and sisters in their vampire life. Two medieval princesses and both very accustom to having their way, though their wants were very different. Faunae hated Adrien with every molecule in her body. He new her past and her weaknesses, therefore practically controlled her. Faunae was not a person that is easily controlled. Faunae knew the only way to break the control was finding Adrien�s weakness. Fata fancied herself deeply in love with Adrien. But he never loved her, she knew there was someone else he loved but Fata never knew who. Until Adrien made a mistake, a miscalculation, and somehow Fata and Faunae found out about Adrien�s precious April, his love and his one weakness. |