6.5 – King Velor

Warning: Historical TMI…

I made it! I was busy this week! («- excuse for taking just as long as the last chapter even though this one is a shorter)

The results of the last poll was: Smile appreciatively

It practically in the majority…

Zyla’s POV

“Come on Zyla!” Eliott called.

I decided to give Rehal an appreciative smile before quickly following Eliott. So quick that I didn’t get to see his reaction.

Exiting the room, Eliott and I were welcomed by a huge yawn from Blams.

“I only wanted to have you meet your father next week, to let you settle down, but he insisted on meeting you two now. At such a late hour.” She said as she yawned again. It’s nearly 1pm, why is she so tired?

Eliott and I exchanged a look. We were going to meet our father?

“Really?” Eliott asked.

“Yes, now come on, we’ll make this quick then we can all go to bed.” Blams said. Eliott frowned and was about to tell Blams what time it was, when I gently tugged his arm to stop him.

Blams led us to the room with the double doors that was inbetween Eliott and mine’s room. The entrance looked a lot fancier, I’m not surprised that this is the King and Queen’s bedroom.

Of all the things I imagined I would see when meeting my biological father, this wasn’t on the list. Even though I knew he was a vampire, and that vampires had the tendency to drink people’s blood, seeing him sucking on Arianne’s neck and actually hearing the blood being drunk made me want to run away.

When those two were done, Arianne wiped her neck with the back of her hand and left the room. She gave us a friendly smile as she walked by, but Eliott and I didn’t respond.

I took a long look at the man called my father. He had the same golden eyes and he looked a lot like Eliott. Or in this case it would be Eliott looking like him. He had an air around him that didn’t make me surprised at all that he’d slept around. And who knew, maybe he was still sleeping around. Blams seemed fine with it.

My eyes widened in surprise as our father suddenly rushed forwards with a big smile on his face and reached out to grab Eliott’s head inbetween his large hands.

“Hey!” Eliott exclaimed, pushing him away.

Still with the huge smile, he turned to me. Having learned his lesson he didn’t rush out to grab my face, I still took a step back though.

“Oh you both have the eyes!” He exclaimed. “It’s fantastic to meet you! I’m your father!”

Blams got up from her seat.

“He is also the king, King Velor.” She said, putting a warning tone in her voice. Velor ignored it.

“King shming. In this time, being the king of vampires means nothing. Sit down kids, I’ll tell you a story.”

Velor shut off the light and grabbed a flashlight. If he wasn’t drinking someone’s blood, he was rather entertaining.

“There was once a time…” He began as if he was telling a ghost story. “when this house was filled with vampires.”

“Everywhere you looked, everywhere you walked, there would be vampires of all kinds seeking sanctuary or wanting to prove themselves. They were loyal to the royal family until the day a pathetic peace treaty was signed with the fairies. Those snickering beings and the vampires had been fighting for centuries! The fairies had wished for world domination, and us vampires wished their death. Of course that was only the main war, we had thousands of little wards with the other supernaturals. Vampires were a force to be reckoned with then. The end of that war, but the hand of a few weak witches, cost the Royal family the loyalty of the vampires. That’s when I was born, in a time where the Gold family were considered cowards and traitors. It always maddened me that my father could’ve easily won back their loyalty, but he was and still is too much of a depressed coward.”

Blams coughed a warning.

“Continuing on, after the other vampires developed a cold indifference towards us and I was crowned king of a non-existent kingdom, the witches attacked us, after all the hard work they put into stopping our war with the fairies, it’s pretty ironic.”

“They assassinated my mother and not surprisingly my father became even more depressed. I was forced to take action, so naturally I attacked the witches using a nice little weapon I found. One that wiped them out of this town along with most of this town’s inhabitants…” Velor trailed off.

Connections were made in my brain. Could it be that this was the incident about 70 years ago that…

“Ah, I see the curiosity in your eyes.” Velor said to Eliott. “I didn’t know at the time that thing’s destructive power. Don’t bother asking, I’ve hidden it and killed anyone who found it.”

I repressed a shiver at how easily he’d said that.

I looked at Eliott, a little bit confused as to why Velor said that to Eliott specifically.

“At that point, the naturals got pretty much pissed of being the ‘accidental casualties’ and this town rebelled against the supernatural. We didn’t really want to kill of our food source, so this town became what it is today. Supernaturals can’t live a normal life here. Of course there’s always the odd ones that live here anyway.”

That confirms it. I just found out what the reason why Mincia and I couldn’t go to school like William.

I felt my anger towards my mother grow. It’s because of her we didn’t get to experience it, because she wanted to stay here.

“But now here comes the fun part for you two, my lovely wife and I have decided to change it back, to clean the supernaturals reputation.” Our father stated with the most serious face I’d seen him wear so far.

Changing it back? That meant supernaturals like me could have a real life in this town?

“Where do we come in?” Eliott asked.

“We don’t have the most objective view of naturals…” Blams replied.

“I just seem them as walking pints of blood.” Velor said.

“And you were both raised by naturals, you know more about how they think.” Blams continued.

“And I need someone to replace me some day. I don’t want to be king forever. Its unbelievably boring.”

“I don’t get it. If you wanted a successor you didn’t need to sleep around.” Eliott said, voicing my thoughts. “And if you wanted someone who knew what it was like to live with naturals…you have a wide variety of people to choose from.”

“Oh believe me we tried.” Velor said.

“But it’s incredibly hard for a vampire to conceive.” Blams completed his sentence.

“What? How come?” I inquired.

“There’s a specific time every month, a short window of a few hours for a female vampire to have the chance to be pregnant. On the other hand male vampires are very fertile…it’s impossible to predict when that window comes and it is very easy for it to pass by without anyone noticing. So by having your father…sleep with naturals…” I felt bad for Blams, but what she said when she first met us sort of made a little bit more sense now. Almost as soon as I realized I was pitying her, I started to pity myself. That also meant I would have trouble having children.

“It was like killing two birds with one stone.” Velor chipped it.

“And you were ok with this?” Eliott asked Blams.

“Obviously.” She replied.

“Why are there two of us then?” I asked. “Why did you sleep with both our mothers?” Afterall, if they only need one successor…

“Oh I slept with a lot more than just your two mothers.” The King replied.

Blams walked over and slapped in on the back. Velor stumbled a little in surprise, a smile on his face.

“A successor needs the golden eyes.” Blams said, properly answering my question.

“The golden-?” Eliott started.

(Now that is a scary face…)

“We weren’t declared the royal family through the democracy.” Velor stated with a smirk. He really liked making special effects with that flashlight. “These eyes are the hereditary trait that brought along the strength that makes us better than all those other vampires. I’m sure you’re quite knowledged with the different types of supernaturals? The vampires, fairies, witches and werewolves? If so I’m sure you’ve heard of the eye supernaturals? The truth seers, the white eyes, the clairvoyants, etc? They are all hybrids descended from vampires. We are the source of those powerful eyes. And the golden eyes hold a power of their own.” Velor finished in a silent voice, leaving the suspension fresh in the air.

A power of their own?

“Like what?” Eliott asked, cracking before I did.

Velor cast a sly glance to his left. “A power that…”

Our father closed his flashlight.

“Ah, but I can’t ruin the punch! But I can guarantee you’ll know it when you see it. Then we can all talk about it!” He said, giving us a smile.

I looked to my right in slight annoyance.

The lights were switched back on, and Eliott and I got up on our feet.

“For now, you know what you need to. If you’re willing, we’ll need your help to show the naturals in this town that they can trust us, so that kids like you two can go to school and live without restrictions.” It didn’t matter how many times she rephrased it, the moment Velor had told us what their current goal was, I wanted to help.

“Of course.” Eliott and I replied at the same time. Blams smiled at our response.

“Um…I was wondering…about the successor thing…” Eliott started to say.

“Oh yes, only one of you two can become the new ruler of the vampires once we’ve gotten this family back up and running. But you don’t need to worry about that.” Velor answered. That’s right one of us is going to be his successor… Eliott seems really interested.

Blams yawned loudly. “We’ve done enough talking, it’s bedtime.”

“But it’s noon.” I said a little cautiously.

“Vampires sleepy sleep during the day. You’ll be adapting yourself to that soon enough. Now woosh woosh children, mommy and daddy have things to do.” Velor said, making shooing gestures with his hands.

Rolling our eyes we left. For a king he didn’t act very mature.

“Woah, that was a lot to take in.” Eliott exclaimed the moment the door closed behind us.

“Yeah.”

“I never imagined we’d be so…important! Put aside the fact that we probably have hidden powers, one of us is going to be king or queen!” Eliott enthused. The idea wasn’t that interesting to me.

“Speaking of, when it comes down to it, you can be the King. I’d rather stay Princess.” I said. My brother’s (still weird) face lit up.

“Really? Thanks Zyla!” I smiled back, but for some reason I had a tiny nagging feeling that I would regret saying that.

***

Day 9

I’ve decided to keep a ‘diary’ on the computer in my room. Well, even though nobody is going to read this, my name is Zyla Whitelight (even if Blams is pressuring me to change it to Zyla Gold), and I’ve recently learned I’m a vampire Princess. Today is my ninth day as an ‘official’ princess. The story to how I got here is pretty long and I don’t really want to elaborate on that.

So far, life as a princess gives me a lot of free time, but if ever I feel lonely there are a lot of people here that can keep me company.

 

One of those people is, without a doubt, my brother Eliott. I only discovered recently that he was my half-brother, along with the fact that I’m a Princess. And if he’s my brother, it obviously means he’s a Prince.

Eliott and I have really big rooms compared to what we had before we came here, and on day 3 Blams told us we could ask for anything we wanted and they would buy it. Eliott chose a dartboard and I chose a computer. I spend most of my mornings in Eliott’s room. Well I say ‘mornings’, but they’re slowly feeling like ‘evenings’ to me.

 

This huge house is the Gold family’s (as in Blams, Velor, my grandpa, Diella, my uncle, Eliott and I), but there are other people who live here. Noticeably the naturals. I’ve seen three so far. Arianne, Alice and Simon, and so far Arianne is the one I like the most. It’s weird being around her sometimes, because I keep remembering how my father drank her blood, but when she’s not offering to feed me she makes a worthy chess opponent! A game I’d never played before I became Princess.

 

Another game I hadn’t played before, were video games. Rehal, one of the vampire warriors also living in the house, showed me his game console and since, we play against each other nearly every day. Rehal is really nice, he treats me with respect, but also like I’m his friend. He doesn’t show any excessive formalities like Alice and Arianne do.

 

On the other hand there are some people who don’t do either. While I write this, two names pop to mind; Kevil and Simon. I feel like I’m being a bit harsh putting Kevil in that category. Unless he’s hanging out with Rehal and teaching me more about vampires, he’s quiet and keeps to himself. He spends most of his time awake during the day drawing. I say during the day, because even though vampires are nocturnal (which in this household really just means we sleep from 9am to 4pm) I don’t ever since Rehal and Kevil in the house at night.

The only thing I don’t like about Kevil is his view on Arianne, Alice and Simon’s ‘status’. Slaves. And most of the vampires here, apart from Rehal, call them slaves too, but it’s the way he says it…Almost like he really means it. It’s hard to explain, but we can just conclude I don’t hang around him all that much.

 

I seem to have a blabbered away…My main goal with this diary is to record all the odd things I keep seeing. I have never been in a place that held so many mysteries before and I found another unsolved mystery today.

As I was heading downstairs to search for Rehal, I heard the front door open. Simon had come back (this is kind of sad on my part considering I never even noticed he left), and seconds after Blams had run over to him. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it was obvious Simon had gone out to do an errand for Blams.

 

Simon answered Blams’ question and she seemed ecstatic with the answer. She excitedly made him leave (might be the time to mention I noticed he was holding an object…) and before leaving to go somewhere else herself.

Apart from my apparent like of following him around, the reason I stalked him this time is because I felt out of the loop. Velor and Blams said they wanted our help to better the supernatural standing in this town, but they hadn’t involved neither Eliott or I in anything. Actually, they told us they wanted us to be a little more trained first.

 

This time I stayed farther away from Simon, and like Kevil had taught me (I’m not saying Kevil taught me that so I could use it this way!) I used my sense of smell to follow him. It really wasn’t hard, his blood smelled way too strong and I hadn’t drunk any plasma juice since that one time.

This time, I saw him go into a door I hadn’t tried yet.

 

I have to say, when I went through all those doors into these pointless rooms well…I really did wonder what the usefulness of these rooms was! I guess that could be yet another small mystery.

 

It was once I gone through the third door I found myself in a room with a staircase leading to the basement.

 

That staircase led to another of those pointless rooms.

 

There was only one door here, so it really wasn’t hard to guess where Simon had gone. Though, I have to say, I should’ve thought twice before going through the door. I should’ve at least made sure I was a little more subtle about it.

 

I have never seen a room as dirty as that one was. There was junk of all kinds scattered everywhere! I probably could’ve found anything in here.

 

Simon was in there too, playing with an alchemy set and by the looks of it he’d already made a good few potions. The only reason I knew what an alchemy set looked like was because grandpa talked about how he had one in his old house.

 

What created the conversation was a small explosion Simon made when he poured some liquid in the big container.

 

I hadn’t been able to help myself, I’d rushed forwards and…well let’s see how accurately I can rewrite the conversation.

Me: What are you doing? What is that?

I remember he nearly jumped a meter high in surprised.

Simon: What are YOU doing here?

Me: That’s not how you talk to the Princess.

It’s really only natural I replied that, whenever I bumped into my Aunt Diella she was determined to give me lessons about being a Princess. She’s drilled the importance of being respected, and well Simon is one of those people I’d really for him to be a bit nicer.

 

Simon: Oh so sorry your majesty.

It still makes me mad just remembering his mocking voice. Why does every conversation with him takes a wrong dive almost immediately?

 

Me: What were you making?

Simon: It’s none of your business.

Simon talks in such a cold and hating voice, and now I find myself wondering what his goal in this house is…Is he a donor as well? With blood that smells as good as his…

Me: I don’t see why it isn’t.

Simon: There are some things Princess’ don’t need to know.

He’s unbelievably condescending too. At that point, really more in frustration than anything else, I’d crosses my arms and glared at him.

It was kind of weird, but he…well I think…sighed in defeat.

Simon: I’m just following the Queen’s orders, don’t get all pissed. Now please leave so I can continue my work.

 

See? A comment like that tends to bring about questions, so naturally I went to see Blams to ask her about it. I guess for some weird reason I thought being a Princess meant I was privy to a lot of information.

When I asked Blams about it, she simply replied ‘you’re getting too caught up in being a Princess.’

***

It seems like every day I discover something new. Today I discovered we had a pool. Rehal, actually, suggested we go, and when he found out I didn’t even know it’s existence he insisted that we went.

So that’s one new thing today. The man floating on the pool is another.

I didn’t who he was at all, at first, but turns out that’s my uncle Kord. My father’s brother, Aunt Diella’s husband, and the man who was supposed to be crowned king, but turned it down. The reason I hadn’t met him till now was because he always hung out at the pool. And, well our meeting was him bidding me welcome to the family, me saying thank you, and that was it.

Rehal and I hang out every day. The first two days we just saw each other when he was training me, but when he decided not to train me on the third day so I didn’t exhaust myself before just hung out and chatted. From there we kept doing more and more things together, and now we’re chatting by the pool and he’s shirtless again. I have to keep my eyes from drifting or else I’ll start blushing and I don’t want to try to explain that.

I’ve never had a boyfriend before, but if I could I’d really want Rehal to be my boyfriend. He’s fantastic! He’s nice, he’s dreamy and when we hang out I really do feel like I’m the center of his attention.

Thing is, I have no idea how to let him know. I have no experience in this. I did watch a few romance movies…From what I remember; the best cutest romance was when one of the two initiated a spontaneous kiss! After that, it was a happy ending. Of course, movies aren’t the real thing, but it’s worth a try right?

Just thinking about kissing him, sent a slight blush to my cheeks.

I probably wouldn’t have the courage to do that. No I’ll stick to telling him I like him or something of the sort…when the right moment comes.

The right moment surprisingly came fifteen minutes later, when Rehal and I were cleaning up the towels and the pool material. We bumped into each other and the closeness I suddenly felt brought the idea of telling him I like him back to mind.

“Rehal?” I found myself saying his name without thinking.

“Yeah?”

I was at loss, what was the right thing to do right now to make my intentions clear? Or maybe this wasn’t the right time?

*breathes* Once again a chapter jam-packed with information! It’s crazy how much stuff i can put in one chapter…

Basement:

First floor:

Second floor:

Third floor:

Oh fun little pic that I happened to take…

Rehal had a little…um…not sure what he’s going through right now XD.

Alright the vote…and yes I know it’s about Rehal again, but hey Rehal is pretty much present in Zyla’s mind right now…

For the curious, here were the choices from the last poll, and the consequences on Zyla and Rehal’s Relationship;

Smile appreciatively led to what you’ve already learned

Tell him the look suits him, would have Rehal make the first move

Walk Past, would have meant it would’ve taken a little longer before Zyla decided she really liked Rehal

Tell him he should cover up, pretty much cutting off the romantic potentiel for a good while between those two…